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MusicNomad is running a fun Valentine’s Day challenge for guitar players — and it’s a good one.
Has Your Guitar Been KISSed? 💋🎸 This Valentine’s Day, MusicNomad is asking one big question: Has your guitar been KISSed? Show your guitar some love with a KEEP IT SIMPLE,…
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“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guests Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen
Season 03 Episode 10 In Episode 3.10 of “Buy That Guitar,” host Ram Tuli is joined by Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen. Robb’s experience in the vintage market spans from…
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Pieces of a Prototype
Secrets of a Socal "Parts" Guitar
If you were a guitar – particularly one with a natural or translucent finish – your “fingerprint” would be the grain of the wood used to make your body. …

Guild F-512
Iconic ’70s 12-String
Today, players typically equate the 12-string acoustic with Taylor and Martin. For its part, though, Guild’s F-512 remains one of…

Heathkit TA-16 Starmaker
Basement Jams & Blown Speakers
1966 Heathkit TA-16 Starmaker Combo The days when a kid would break out the soldering iron and take on a…

Louie Shelton
Gold Coast Gigmeister
On August 16, 1966, the Beatle-esque guitar riff that opens “Last Train To Clarksville” crackled out of radios across America…

Newman Guitars Lake Placid Blue
Portrait in Blue
Excitement at the arrival of this offset beauty was dampened by the sad news that its creator had passed away…

Harvey Valdes
Switched-On Bach
Ever since Andrés Segovia elevated the nylon-string guitar to a serious classical instrument a century ago, players have been performing the…

Pigtail Music
Pigtail music makes ABR-style and wraparound bridges (in the U.S.) with vintage-style appearance and materials, but to tighter tolerances. Their…
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VG Q&A: Harmony History
And an Archtop Mystery
I recently received two guitars as gifts and am trying to learn more about them. The first is a Harmony I believe is from the early ’70s. Its serial number…
ARTISTS

Jake E. Lee
The Legend Returns
Jake E. Lee found fame replacing Randy Rhoads to co-write two of Ozzy Osborne’s most popular albums – Bark At…

Tony MacAlpine
Post-Modern Neo-Classical
If you’re going to play neo-classical guitar, nothing beats having a conservatory education. Guitarist Tony MacAlpine has that and is…

Joe Satriani
Capturing the Energy
Joe Satriani’s new album, What Happens Next, is a terrific back-to-basics effort with Satch in a trio format. Enlisting Red…

Johnny A.
Beck-Ola: Johnny Plays Jeff
The passing of Jeff Beck affected few people as much as it did Johnny Antonopoulos. “It had the same impact…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Beyond the Parlor
Part Two: Man and Machine
Ed. Note: In part two of his series on the guitar in 19-century America, Tim Brookes addresses the common belief that the guitar…

Gibson Trini Lopez
In the early 1960s, as Les Paul was leaving Gibson’s artist roster, the company recruited three of the most respected…

United Guitar Corporation
United They Stood…. A Jersey City Tale
The history of the United Guitar Corporation, which unfolded in Jersey City, just over the river from the glitter of…

A Guitar for Mr. Richards
The Saga of Ted Newman Jones
For anyone who visited the tiny workshop inhabited by guitar builder Ted Newman Jones in the 1970s and ’80s, two…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Friedman IR-X Dual Channel Preamp
Stack in the Box
Most guitar-electronics companies make a direct-recording preamp, many promising to provide ultimate distortion and overdrive via impulse responses (IR) or…

DiPinto Mach IV
Garage Days
There are times when a traditional Strat or Tele won’t scratch a particular itch, and you need a retro plank…

Ibanez RGA8
In the Deep End
Ibanez RGA-8 Price: $1,102.21 (approx. $800 street). Info: ibanez.com In the annals of cool, weird, and unusual guitars, they’re nothing…

Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor-II PRO
Archtop Ruler
In the early 1950s, the grand old luthiers like Epiphone and Gibson couldn’t believe there would ever be a market…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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Five Alternative Club Classic Amps of the ’50s
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Remembering a Heavy Hero

Steve Dawson
Channeling Sol Hoopii in “Singin’ the Blues” Steve Dawson used his unplugged Celtic Cross Weissenborn model lap steel and…

Have Guitar Will Travel – 041 Featuring Daniel Donato
The new episode of James Patrick Regan’s “Have Guitar Will Travel” podcast features wunderkind Daniel Donato, whose childhood appreciation for…

DNA Analogic Effects
Chemical Reaction
If you‘re a “first impressions mean a lot” kind of gearhead, DNA Analogic’s line of effects pedals may just win…

Jordan Boss Tone
Little Fuzz with the Big Buzz
In the august and revered Hall of Fame of Fuzz, the Jordan Boss Tone deserves a prominent pedestal. Perhaps it…












































