To take advantage of this fantastic offer, simply click SUBSCRIBE! Or call 1-800-844-1197 and mention code: JHLDY24 for a 1-year sub!
When she was seven years old, sibling rivalry spurred Blu DeTiger to get a bass so she could play along with her brother on his new drum kit. After honing her skills for several years at School of Rock, taking lessons, and playing in high-school bands, she also became a DJ on the New York […]
Read more
Nate Najar plays accessible jazz on a classical guitar and applies classical technique to match. This album showcases the music veteran playing a variety of tunes that range from Chopin’s “Prelude in E Minor (op.28 no.4),” Chick Corea’s “500 Miles High” and “Chick’s Tune,” as well as Jobim’s “Insensatez (How Insensitive)” and “O Morro Não […]
Read more
The history of Vox amplifiers’ evolution through the early/mid-’60s directly tracks with The Beatles’ increasing needs to be heard over the screams of fanatical audiences. Simultaneously, the arrival of the AC100 foretells a trend that would make the 100-Watter a must-have on large stages the world over. Even as the Vox AC30 was proving to […]
Ray Bonneville’s latest album, Easy Gone, glides on a steady groove. “I really like the way it sounds with these guys,” he said of drummer Geoff Arsenault and bassist Gurf Morlix. “Their groove is in the same family as my groove.” It took Bonneville years to feel where that groove should come from, but, he […]
Named by Flaming Lips guitarist Steven Drozd after composer Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle opera, Crucial Audio’s lavishly named Die Götterdämmerung Germanium Fuzz/Ring Modulator is a wild, wicked pedal. (Note the double pun of germanium and Ring Modulator.) Built in Delaware by pedalsmith Steve Kollander, this box, as its name suggests, features two effects in one […]
Music Man Game Changer Price: $2,275 (street) Contact: www.gamechanger.music-man.com Since the introduction of the electric guitar, builders have sought ways to increase the variety of tones that can be had from an instrument; in 1959, Gibson created the Varitone circuit for its ES-345, and in the decades since, virtually every company has attempted some means […]
The early ’80s were a unique time in the history of American electric guitars. Fender and Gibson were both owned by corporate interests – the former CBS, the latter the Norlin conglomerate – and both suffered product offerings that had quality issues and/or uninspiring designs. Guild, on the other hand, was still battling the (unfair) […]
“Have Guitar Will Travel” host James Patrick Regan speaks with multi-instrumentalist Phredley Brown, who’s not “just” the guitarist and music director for Bruno Mars, but also assistant music director for “American Idol.” Phredley talks about growing up with a piano-teacher mother (and minister father) in Detroit, playing drums in church, and how as a kid […]
In 1978, Gibson craftsman Wilbur Fuller produced the company’s first hand-carved, tuned-by-ear custom guitar. The instrument, which in a blind sound-off with some of the best instruments of its era, won the hearts of Gibson brass, ultimately became the Kalamazoo Award. Gruhn’s Guide to Vintage Guitars tells us that the Kalamazoo Award was a 17″ […]
Los Angeles, 1983. The rock community was a land devastated by the bombast of L.A. metal – Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Mötley Crue, Ratt, and their minions. Nothing, however, could prepare its jaded cognoscenti for the appearance of an unlikely Swedish emigre, 19-year-old Yngwie Malmsteen. Born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck in Stockholm on June […]
Tyler Morris Playing a Martin Style 2 1/2-17 Tyler Morris grabbed his 19th-century Martin Style 2 1/2-17 to play a medley of 20th-century licks. He also digs into the history of the instrument and notes its similarities to his modern Martin. Keep up with Tyler HERE!
Brazilian guitarist plays American funk Igor Prado, organist Raphael Wressnig, and their band bring all-American funk on the new album, “Groove & Good Times.” Here’s a jam from the track “No More Okey Doke,” with Igor on his modded ’90s Strat doing it oh so well! Stay ’til the end, where he digs into the […]
The year 1977 saw upheaval in rock and roll, from the death of Elvis Presley and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crash to the emergence of new music styles including disco, new wave, and punk rock. Propelled by simple, frenetic songs, punk renounced the self-indulgence of mainstream rock and put the world’s biggest bands on notice. At […]
The Martin D-45, offered from 1933 through 1942, is well-known as the Holy Grail of acoustic guitars. While players and collectors debate whether it’s the “best guitar ever made,” in terms of collectibility, it easily outdistances any other acoustic in the vintage market. Ironically, the D-45 was not the result of inspiration at Martin. In […]
Plenty of vintage amps have made it into these pages on their own merits. But when a hallowed creation also has a fun artist-related history – like this road-worn 1957 Fender Super Amp formerly owned by Dwight Twilley and used by his lead guitarist, Bill Pitcock, IV – It adds a dimension to the tale. […]
Unlike most amp builders who take up the challenge to create amplifiers that replicate the sounds of the 1960s, Winfield Thomas was actually wielding those sounds as a musician in the mid-’60s. Over the years since then, his amp designs have impressed. He’s created a line of hand-wired beauties utilizing circuit boards, Teflon wire, and […]
ZT Amplifiers put their name on the map four years ago with the compact Lunchbox solid-state amp. Now they continue along the road less traveled with the Extortion Expressive Distortion. For a departure from tonal convention the pedal features an analog overdrive that can be used on its own or enhanced with a digital signal […]
Gibson and Fender may be the longstanding heavyweight rivals of the electric guitar game, but they have one very important thing in common: they revolutionized the guitar industry. Fender took a monumental step with the introduction of the first commercially successful solidbody guitar in 1950. Gibson reacted by introducing the Gibson Les Paul Model solidbody. […]
