• Duke Robillard – Lowdown

    Duke Robillard – Lowdown

    Vintage Guitar is happy to offer the premier of the new music video by Grammy nominee Duke Robillard. “Lowdown” is the  first single from his upcoming album, Blast Off!, set…

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  • Super PickupGiveaway 2025

    Super PickupGiveaway 2025

    Win Big! 11 Sets! 11 Winners! Win a set of pickups from one of these sponsors: Deadline is March 15, 2026. Complete the survey below to enter giveaway. One entry…

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Gibson’s First Reissue Les Pauls

Gibson’s First Reissue Les Pauls

On the Road to ’59

January 28, 2016 · Michael A. Slubowski

Strings and Things Les Paul Many articles have been written about how guitarists and dealers in the mid/late 1970s and…

Budda’s Chakra and ZenMan Pedals

Zen and the Art of Tone Maintenance

April 14, 2014 · Pete Prown

Budda’s Chakra and ZenMan Pedals Price: $149.99 Contact: www.budda.com Best known in guitar circles as an admired amp builder, Budda…

Orange County Guitar Show 2017

January 26, 2017 · Vintage Guitar

[caption id="attachment_26910" align="alignright" width="1112"] Joe Bonamassa's Special Fender Strat Exhibit at the Orange County Guitar Show[/caption] [caption id="attachment_26919" align="alignright" width="300"]…

Fender Nile Rodgers Hitmaker Stratocaster

Good Times

March 9, 2023 · Oscar Jordan

Guitarists know Nile Rodgers as funkmaster general of Chic, but he looms even larger as a Grammy-winning producer whose skill…

Harden Muddy Waters

Mojo Working

August 13, 2025 · Pete Prown

Harden Engineering is a small Chicago shop that specializes in hand-made instruments in a variety of shapes and sizes and…

Carr Amplifiers’ Mercury V

Carolina Combo

April 16, 2019 · Ray Wuolo

Back in June 2003, Carr’s original eight-watt Mercury combo earned high praise in VG for its top-of-the-line components, attention to…

  • Carr Skylark Special 1×12

    Carr Skylark Special 1×12

    Take Flight

    Arriving a little more than 10 years after the original Skylark, Carr Amplifiers’ new Skylark Special adds versatility and enhanced tonal depths to squeeze a lot more into this diminutive…

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ARTISTS

Snarky Puppy’s Mark Lettieri

December 30, 2022 · Vintage Guitar

Empire Central: Funky homage to Dallas Snarky Puppy guitarist Mark Lettieri took a minute at soundcheck to use his PRS…

Monster Mike Welch

From Phenom To Blues Veteran

April 28, 2024 · Dan Forte

Twenty-seven years after his debut album at age 17, Monster Mike Welch delivers perhaps his best disc yet with Nothing…

Tomas Janzon

From Stockholm With Love

January 4, 2024 · Oscar Jordan

On Tomas Janzon’s Nomadic, the Stockholm transplant based in New York channels his inner Wes Montgomery to unveil fresh compositions…

Philip Sayce – Strat monster!

March 12, 2024 · Vintage Guitar

Post-SRV blues-rock wizard Godmonster beast on his (two) ’63 Fender Strats, Philip Sayce plays the one he calls Mother running…


CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Tommy Castro

Circling Back

December 12, 2025 · Ward Meeker

In a career spanning four decades, Tommy Castro has crafted a commendable catalog and built a devout following with his…

Classics: August 2021

Guild F-20 Troubadour and Dan Armstong Lucite

April 4, 2022 · Ward Meeker

John Wiley couldn’t have known it then, but when his parents rewarded two years of applying himself to guitar lessons…

Brian Setzer

What a Dude Does

August 17, 2024 · Bret Adams

You can’t keep an iconic rocker down. Brian Setzer’s The Devil Always Collects is his first album in more than…

 VG Q&A: Harmony History

And an Archtop Mystery

January 15, 2026 · Michael Wright

I recently received two guitars as gifts and am trying to learn more about them. The first is a Harmony…


NEWSWIRE

APPROVED GEAR

Eastwood RD Artist

RD Our Lips

July 9, 2018 · Pete Prown

Issued during Gibson’s infamous “Norlin era,” the original RD Artist has become surprisingly collectible over the years, thanks to its…

Friedman Plex

Mystique Maker

May 8, 2025 · Charlie Wilkins

Dave Friedman built his brand (and reputation) by making supercharged Marshall-inspired amps, and his latest hones in on one of…

Gibson Falcon 5

Timeless

December 23, 2024 · Charlie Wilkins

Drawing inspiration from its classic Skylark amplifiers of the 1950s and ’60s, Gibson is revisiting those beloved tones with the…

Valco FX Five-0

Garage Band

January 18, 2023 · Pete Prown

The Valco FX Five-0 was conceived as “Dick Dale in a box.” Offering overdrive, reverb, and tremolo – each with…

WHAT ELSE IS NEW

The Marshall Major

Force Commander

March 3, 2022 · Dave Hunter

Any player who shows up these days with a 200-watt guitar amp will elicit a hearty, “Are you out of…

Carvin 8-15-B

Mail-Order Prize

January 11, 2024 · Dave Hunter

In the days when the printed catalog was king, Carvin guitars and amplifiers often boasted a stature that outweighed their…

George Cummings

Remembering Mississippi and Dr. Hook

February 27, 2018 · Willie G. Moseley

George Cummings is best known as the original guitarist for Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. Born in Meridian, Mississippi,…

Justin Johnsoné

The Biscuit House

January 9, 2025 · Dan Forte

His online videos are hard to cruise past. There’s his wide stylistic range, but also the guitars he built out…

Kevin Comeau

Crowning Achievement

February 2, 2024 · Pete Prown

If you dig Rush, you may have heard of a duo from Canada that virtually channels the iconic trio. Known…

Blackberry Smoke

January 27, 2017 · Michael Dregni

The Atlanta band walks the line between blues, alt country, and Southern rock on their fifth studio album, getting lower…

Fender Player II Series Telecaster

Twang Banger

May 30, 2025 · Dave Hunter

As the world’s first mass-production solidbody electric guitar fast approaches its 75th birthday, Fender continues to offer variations on the…

Jim Kweskin

Never Too Late: Duets with my Friends

December 6, 2024 · Rich Kienzle

The Jim Kweskin Jug Band was among the most-influential acts of the ’60s folk revival. Its free-spirited mix of retro…

’66 Epiphone Casino

April 6, 2020 · George Gruhn

In the Epiphone line of the 1960s, the Casino occupied middle ground. In appearance as well as electronics it ranked…

PAISLEY_HOME-MAIN-BIG

Brad Paisley

Two Vital Guitars From the Collection of a Modern Superpicker

April 21, 2014 · Ward Meeker

Brad Paisley’s 2011 book, Diary of a Player: How My Musical Heroes Made a Guitar Man Out of Me, is…

“Boogie Mod” Dual Showman

January 2, 2026 · Dave Hunter

What do you do when the humble blackface Bandmaster you acquired sight-unseen turns out to harbor one of rock’s hottest…

Ana Popovic

Power

February 8, 2024 · Oscar Jordan

Blues-rock barnstormer Ana Popovic’s latest is about love, perseverance, strength, and survival. After rising victoriously from 14 cancer treatments in…

Brad Paisley

March 30, 2017 · Rick Allen

Pop music, modern country – what’s the difference anymore? For both, everything is bigger and splashier. Yet, nimbly as Brad…

Tyler Morris Features a Martin Style 2 1/2-17

October 16, 2023 · Vintage Guitar

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…

Steve Howell Fingerpicks “Stocking Feet Blues”

January 12, 2024 · Vintage Guitar

Solo acoustic homage to rural-blues great Steve Howell is a veteran of blues, rock, and jazz. Here, he fingerpicks a…

Taylor 814ce

Taylor 814ce

New Life at 40

October 28, 2015 · Stephen Stone

Taylor 814ce Price: $4,378 (list); $3,399 (street) Info: www.taylorguitars.com Of all the guitars in Taylor’s product line, the 814ce is…

J.D. Simo

Mind Control

December 8, 2022 · Oscar Jordan

The topic is psychedelic blues, and J.D. Simo is the man with the brown acid. Hypnotic wah, talking hollowbody guitars,…

Vox Real McCoy Chrome Wah Ltd and V846 Vintage Wah

Replica Treadles

May 8, 2025 · Oscar Jordan

Thanks to notable users ranging from Del Casher and Frank Zappa to Jimi Hendrix and Kirk Hammett, the “wah wah”…

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Live From the Ryman, Vol. 2

November 7, 2025 · Rich Kienzle

Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium is a special venue for Isbell & the 400 Unit. As their stature has grown beyond roots…

Elliot Easton

Star Board: Elliot Easton

November 25, 2015 · Ward Meeker

Elliot Easton’s “Pedalboard” Though Elliot Easton enjoys his loaded full-size Pedaltrain board, his new band, The Empty Hearts (with Clem…

Jesse Johnson

Jesse Johnson

Quad City Funk

March 24, 2016 · Oscar Jordan

In the early 1980s, Jesse Johnson traveled from Rock Island, Illinois, to Minneapolis and found fame with The Time and…

2023 March Issue on Spotify

March 8, 2023 · Vintage Guitar

This month we feature Jeff Beck, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Savoy Brown, Uriah Heap, King Crimson, The Yard Birds, The sons…

Mike Baggetta Brings the Morricone Sauce!

March 10, 2023 · Vintage Guitar

New Album Explores Styles with Keltner, Watt Check out Mike Baggetta and his Iris AB (serial number 46) playing the…

The Komet Constellation

January 4, 2016 · Dave Hunter

Amid the general run of vintage amps we have explored in this space, the occasional “modern classic” has proved itself…

Valco ‘Thunder stick’

April 5, 2010 · Nathaniel Riverhorse Nakadate

Put your gut money on a dark horse every so often, and you might find the rest of the regurgitating…

Carr Bloke

Carr Bloke

No Regular Fella

November 11, 2015 · Zac Childs

From early models such as the Carr Slant 6V and the Rambler to more recent offerings such as the Artemus…

Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley

Living in a Song

January 25, 2024 · Rich Kienzle

Resonator-guitar whiz Ickes and singer/guitarist Hensley blend traditional and outside elements, sometimes on bare-bones acoustic. On others, they create an…

Guy Pratt

Rickenbackers and a Resistance

January 3, 2024 · Willie G. Moseley

Guy Pratt has been the bass player for Pink Floyd since signing on for the tour to support 1987’s A…

Jim Campilongo

Sounds Abound

June 23, 2020 · John Heidt

I’ve always loved sounds. Even before I became a ‘Tele guy,’ I had a Les Paul and loved making car…