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In 1961, Gibson replaced its Les Paul series with a new line of lightweight, ultrathin, all mahogany, double-cutaway solidbodies the SG (for solid guitar). Developed under the aegis of Ted McCarty and introduced as the “new Les Paul,” the SG heralded new directions and a new marketing emphasis for Gibson; trends exemplified only two years […]
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Win an accessory bundle with an Oxford Guitar Supply gift card, Music Nomad KEEP IT SIMPLE, SETUP (KISS)™ kit, Rocky Mountain Slides Co. Bear Claw Tri-picks, Firecracker Aluminum Slides and graphite picks, plus a Reverend back pack to put it all in valued at more than $450. Deadline is November 25, 2024. Complete the survey […]
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New Orleans Guitar Company Model 8 Price: $2,999 Contact: neworleansguitar.com For over a decade, the New Orleans Guitar Company has been producing handcrafted electrics with an attention to design and detail possible only in a small shop. The vision of sculptor/luthier Vincent Guidroz was most eloquently conveyed in his Voodoo Custom and JB Custom guitars, […]
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Artists
Have Guitar Will Travel 097 – Oliver Wood (the Wood Brothers)
In episode 97 of “Have Guitar Will Travel,” host James Patrick Regan speaks with Oliver Wood (of the Wood Brothers), who shares the story about how he and his brother, Chris, formed the band after moving from Atlanta to Nashville. Fans of non-traditional guitars, they used a ’50s Harmony Cremona and ’37 Gibson L-00 to […]
VG Approved Gear
Daredevil Pedals Atomic Cock
Green Monster
Daredevil Pedals’ Atomic Cock Price: $150 (list) Info: www.daredevilpedals.com. Despite the many clever take-aways one could derive from its name, the Atomic Cock is “just” an effects box offered by Daredevil Pedals. A variable fixed wah with adjustable gain, it offers more tonal options than a traditional wah while circumventing the tedious search for the […]
Classic Instruments
Ronnie Wood’s ’69 Hiwatt 100 DR103
1969 Hiwatt 100 (Model DR103 Preamp tubes: four ECC83 Output tubes: four EL34 Rectifier: solidstate Controls: Normal Vol, Brill Vol, Bass, Treble, Middle, Presence, Master Vol Speaker: four Fane 12s Output: In excess of 100 watts RMS. The written history of British guitar amplification tends to trace the rising importance of power and volume through […]
VG Approved Gear
The Cicognani SexyBoost2
Top-Tier Driver
Italy’s Cicognani Engineering makes amplifiers, pedals, and nifty accessories. With a client list that includes Robben Ford, Richard Fortus, and Kee Marcello, Cicognani is the real deal when it comes to effects technology. One example of their top-tier wares is the analog Cicognani SexyBoost2, which combines a transparent clean boost with a midrange boost and […]
Music
Jimi Hendrix Experience
Live in Maui
This 1970 performance was contrived for Rainbow Bridge, a hippie movie that flopped. The gig itself was faintly ridiculous, as a hundred or so fans trudged up Hawaii’s dormant Haleakalä volcano. There, the Experience played in such high winds that Mitch Mitchell had to later re-record his drums in a studio. Yet – and it’s […]
Music
Tonechaser – Understanding Edward: My 26-Year Journey with Edward Van Halen
Steve Rosen
Imagine having Edward Van Halen at your house, playing new Van Halen songs or listening to no-vocals cassettes of in-progress albums in EVH’s cigarette-smoke-filled car. How about jamming with the guitar icon? It all happened to veteran music journalist Steve Rosen. This intensely personal book isn’t an EVH biography, though it started that way. Rosen […]
VG Approved Gear
Awesome Musical Instruments T3 Pickup Switch Upgrade
Wicked Switch
Awesome Musical Instruments T3 Pickup Switch Upgrade Price: $149.99 (black or white three-ply); $164.99 (white pearloid); $169.99 (brown tortoiseshell) Info: www.awesome-guitars.com. When Leo Fender was designing the Strat back in the early ’50s, he equipped it with a surplus three-way pickup selector. Three pickups, three choices – simple and straightforward. Players ever since have tried to […]
Artists
Charlie Musselwhite
Charlie plays The Blues... On Guitar
In a career spanning 45 years, Charlie Musselwhite has taken the blues to places it’s never been – literally (playing every corner of the globe) and artistically (on his two dozen solo albums and backing such diverse artists as Tom Waits, INXS, Doc Watson, Bonnie Raitt, Eliades Ochoa, Eddie Vedder, the Blind Boys Of Alabama, […]
Classic Instruments
Fender Custom Shop Marks 30 Years
Dream Makers
In “official” terms, the Fender Custom Shop opened in 1987. But its story actually began February 1, 1985 – the day CBS announced the sale of Fender Musical Instruments to a group led by Bill Schultz, who’d served as President of the company for four years. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times the following day, […]
Artists
Mike Keneally
Uncommon Knowledge
For 35 years, Mike Keneally has been a go-to sideman for icons like Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani, as well as a noted solo artist deploying monster chops on guitar, keyboards, and vocals. Keneally has just released The Thing That Knowledge Can’t Eat, featuring guitar guests like Vai and Devin Townsend. This feels […]
Artists
Ted Greene Remembered
You know what happened: discretionary income for the first time and the rise of the indies with things that the majors laughed at. Just like Gibson laughing at Leo at the 1950 or ’51 NAMM show. But they got pretty scared by late ’51 and ’52 because Gibson was calling up Les and inviting him […]
Artists
Fretprints: Jeff Beck
The JBG: Birth of Heavy Metal?
The proverbial chicken-or-egg conundrum has an equivalent in the spirited debate over the Jeff Beck Group versus Led Zeppelin as progenitors of heavy metal. There’s a bit of truth in either. Heralded by many as the birth cry of metal, Truth was Beck’s first album as bandleader, and the 1968 release pre-dates Zep by several […]
Music
Paul “Mayo” Mayasich
Threads
The latest from guitarist Paul Mayasich and his band of buddies is an eclectic mix of American music. You get blues of all kinds, country, folk, and lots more – all of it laced with Mayasich’s biting electric guitar and acoustic slide. If big crunchy guitar is your idea of a good time, “High Time” […]
Classic Instruments
The “Last” Trainwreck?
Ken Fischer’s prolonged illness and subsequent death at the age of 61 remains one of the great tragedies of the guitar-amp world. Aside from the fact he was a good soul taken too soon, if this rare and genuine tube-amp guru had enjoyed better health and greater longevity, he would most likely have blessed the […]
Classic Instruments
Gibson’s 17″ Pre-War Electrics
ES-300 of 1940-’43
Among musicians and collectors, Gibson’s pre-World-War-II ES-300 may be less popular today than the ES-250, but in terms of sheer numbers, it was Gibson’s most popular 17″ pre-war electric, despite the adverse context of the early 1940s. Truth is, most of the more-prominent guitarists of the period continued to favor installing an old-style bar pickup […]
Classic Instruments
Gibson Marauder M-1
Every once in awhile, someone in Gibson R&D gets a brainstorm like, “I know! Why don’t we make a bolt-neck guitar!” So they do. And the result is almost always interesting – and almost always a commercial flop. Call it “Les Paul syndrome.” Guitar aficionados are the beneficiaries of both sides of this coin. Not […]
VG Approved Gear
Martin D-13E Ziricote
Contemporary Cannon
From the time the first self-branded models shipped from Nazareth, Pennsylvania, in the early 1930s, the Martin dreadnought has been one of the most recognizable guitars in American music. The big bluegrass cannon has undergone tweaking and tinkering, but today’s specimens carry on the dreadnought tradition. One newcomer is the D-13E Ziricote. From the made-in-Mexico […]