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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. …
Edgar Winter
Tribute to “Brother Johnny”
Edgar Winter describes making Brother Johnny in tribute to his late brother, blues-rock guitar icon Johnny Winter, as “one of…
LA LOM
The Los Angeles League of Musicians
It’s Latin, it’s surfy, it’s twangy – okay, what the heck is it? LA LOM is an instrumental trio that…
Martin 0-28K
The exotic figuration of Hawaiian koa wood on this Martin 0-28K from 1923 has a visual appeal that matched the…
The Wampler Catacombs
Shimmer Box
In the pedal market, the category of reverbs and delays is straight fire these days. Wampler has jumped in with…
Full Dozen, Semi-Hollow
12 Variations on a Classic Design
To complement our February 2016 issue survey of the semi-hollow electric guitar, we tested 12 examples of the form as…
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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…
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ARTISTS
Neil LeVang
Six Strings Behind — and Beyond — Champagne Music
Neil LeVang was about to get a lecture. Days earlier, the A-list studio guitarist’s new boss, Lawrence Welk, had golfed…
Allan Holdsworth
1946-2017, Lion of Legato
Music fans were relaxing on Easter Sunday when word of Allan Holdsworth’s death began filtering about, bringing shock to the…
John Abercrombie
1944-2017
After a lengthy illness, jazz guitarist John Abercrombie died August 22 at a hospital outside Peekskill, New York. He was…
Micki Free
Feel and Tone
He was the real-life team member on the infamous Charlie Murphy/Prince basketball game parodied on “Chappelle’s Show,” but Grammy…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Cole Eclipse Pro Special
Straight-from-the-catalog instruments are fun – and reassuring – because you know exactly what you’ve got. But there’s another kind of…
Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 4
Shadows and Light
In Beat-era England, before The Beatles, one band reigned supreme – The Shadows. Starting as Cliff Richard’s backing group, this…
Small Screen, Big Pickin’
Crew Strives to Keep it Real on “Nashville”
It’s not often that prime-time network television captures an audience of working class, professional musicians. In 1968, players watched Elvis…
Bruce and Butter
It would be an understatement to say that REO Speedwagon bassist Bruce Hall and his 1965 Fender Jazz Bass, dubbed…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Danelectro ’66
Alluring Curves
The new Danelectro ’66 brings together several threads of retro-dom in one hip package. Visually, this Danny brings to mind…
Fret-King Esprit III
Déjà Vu, Again
What do you get when you cross a Gibson Explorer with a Fender offset and Firebird vibe? The answer is…
The MXR Custom Badass ’78 Distortion
Company Hot Rod
Dunlop Custom Badass ’78 Distortion Price: $79 Info: jimdunlop.com Custom Badass is a new division of MXR that offers the…
The Carvin LB70
Höfner Hybrid
When a Carvin instrument has been featured in this space over the years, it was a either a doubleneck or…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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Five Alternative Club Classic Amps of the ’50s
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Remembering a Heavy Hero
The Doobie Brothers
Road Rules
If you’re making a list of beloved bands with a long string of hook-heavy hits, the Doobie Brothers will surely…
New Lease on Life
The Sound of Rock Gets a Brush-Up
If restoring dusty, neglected old tube amps built more than half a century ago isn’t challenging enough, restoring amps with…
Christopher Thorn
Alt-Rocker/Studio Guru
Best known as half of the guitar tandem in the ’90s alternative-rock band Blind Melon (that’s his rhythm on “No…
Adrian Smith
Different Scales
Guitarists usually spend years learning their scales, but Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith enjoys scales of the aquatic kind. In his…
