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Trending Now
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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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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FireBelly Amplifiers’ Tweed 1955SE, PR3512SE Price: $949 (Tweed 1955SE); $1,595 (PR3512SE) Contact: www.firebellyamps.com The quest for vintage tone continues, and while budgetary concerns might keep many guitarists from owning the real deal, the demand has created a market for affordable hand-built amplifiers with old-school sounds and specs. The father-and-son team of Steven and Scott Cohen […]
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VG Approved Gear
Dynamic Amplifiers 2040 Series
Tone to "Dy" For
Dynamic Amps 2040 series Price: $2,570 (VA Combo) David Carambula’s Dynamic 2040 series of amplifiers consists of three models: Vintage American (VA), Vintage British (VB), and the HG DynaLead. All use class AB single-channel design that can utilize a variety of output tubes, with output reduction, tube rectifier, tube-driven tremolo, spring reverb, welded-aluminum chassis, point-to-point […]
VG Approved Gear
Fender Player Jaguar
Updated Offset
Priced at entry level and built in Mexico, Fender’s Player Series provides affordable access to Fender’s most iconic solidbodies. The Player Jaguar updates a classic offset with a handful of modernizations. The Player Jaguar features 22 frets, a short 24″ scale length, and a floating vibrato – all in keeping with signature ’60s specs. The […]
VG Approved Gear
Guild Starfire I-12
Budget Jangle
Twelve-string electrics were ubiquitous in the swinging ’60s, popularized by bands like The Byrds, Beatles, Searchers, Turtles, Beau Brummels, and many others. Though they eventually fell out of fashion as heavier music took over, electric 12s never totally disappeared and were given new life by artists like Tom Petty, The Smiths, R.E.M., The Church, and […]
VG Approved Gear
Cimarron Guitars’ Model P
From the Parlor to the Stage
Cimarron Guitars has being making custom instruments since 1978 in the dry, mild climate of southwest Colorado. The company’s Model P guitar gets its name from its parlor-guitar-sized body (“parlor” guitars were popular in the late 19th/early 20th century, when small social events often occurred in parlors where music was played; the instruments typically were […]
Artists
Roger McGuinn
Head Byrd Looks Back
Few ’60s rockers have had the lasting influence of the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn, whose 12-string Rickenbacker “jangle pop” sound influenced the likes of Tom Petty and REM, and helped blaze the “country rock” trail later perfected by the Eagles, Poco, and others. McGuinn is still making a difference, as evidenced by his recent four-disc release, […]
Artists
Scott Sharrard
Destined for the Gig
Anyone who has seen the Gregg Allman Band in person or caught its new CD/DVD, Back to Macon, Ga, knows guitarist/musical director Scott Sharrard covers a lot of musical ground. Sharrard learned guitar with help from his father, who taught him a Jimmy Reed 12-bar blues rhythm (in the key of A) so dad could […]
Artists
1937 Martin 0-21
Martin is known for its orderly model-naming system, under which all guitars of a certain style from any particular year have the same materials, ornamentation, and other features, regardless of body size. A 1935 D-28, for example, would differ from a ’35 000-28 only in body size. Changes in specifications, such as the D-28’s change […]
Artists
Nancy Wilson
Fire in the Heart
In the early ’70s, women didn’t play rock guitar. Nor did they front bands. Nancy Wilson was an exception. Few guitarists present as memorable an onstage image as does Wilson brandishing her famous custom-color Fender Telecaster onstage with Heart, the band she co-founded with her sister, Ann, in 1974. One of the biggest bands of […]
Artists
Walter Trout
“Reborn” and Rockin’
After having his life saved by a liver transplant and releasing Battle Scars, an album that chronicled his health struggles, Walter Trout is back. To celebrate, he gathered friends including Joe Bonamassa, Warren Haynes, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd to record We’re All in This Together. How did the guest list develop for the album? Battle […]
Music
The Howlin’ Brothers
Like a long-lost radio show from the ’50s suddenly coming to life on your radio in the late nighttime hours, this hard-driving string trio summons forth the sounds of old-time bluegrass, vintage country, and roaring rockabilly. The Howlin’ Brothers have one foot tapping time in tradition, the other kicking down the doors. The howling here […]
Classic Instruments
Martin Style 000-28K
During the 1920s and ’30s, Martin made a considerable number of guitars with bodies constructed of Hawaiian Koa wood. The Hawaiian music craze was in full swing and the demand was strong for ukuleles and Hawaiian-style guitars played with a steel bar, as well as standard-style guitars constructed of Hawaiian Koa wood. The vast majority […]
Music
Styx
Crash of the Crown
BreaBreaking While 2017’s concept album The Mission embraced progressive rock, the new Styx album has even higher ambitions. Returning to their guitar/keyboard-fueled ’70s style, the band takes prog’s grandest elements and condenses them into punchy songs – no question, that classic Styx crunch is present. Tommy Shaw’s warm electric, bright acoustic rhythms, and distorted slide […]
Classic Instruments
One of Two of a Kind
Gibson’s L-3 Ganus Brothers Special
Making custom instruments has always been problematic for companies designed to manufacture in quantity. Though it had an unenforced policy against one-off projects, this guitar illustrates how the company did just that and demonstrates the struggle between accounting and public relations.
Artists
Nili Brosh
A Matter Of Perception
If you saw Tony MacAlpine on his early-2015 tour, you probably noticed a young woman accompanying him on a seven-string guitar. Berklee grad Nili Brosh effortlessly harmonized with MacAlpine, and when asked, played some wicked solos. She recently finished her second solo album, A Matter Of Perception, an inspiring work full of volcanic soloing, brutal […]
Artists
Bob Seger and the Borneo Band
Lakeview High School, St. Clair Shores, Michigan, April ’73
If you were a Detroit kid in the 1960s, it was impossible to cruise Woodward Avenue and not hear a Bob Seger song rattling someone’s dashboard speakers. Perhaps more than any other Detroit artist, Seger embodied the results of arc-welding the main Detroit musical legacies: electric urban blues, polished R&B, and primal, aggressive rock and […]
Classic Instruments
Classics: January 2023
Jay Mitzner’s ’53 Gibson Les Paul.
Overhearing his 13-year-old son noodling on a beginner guitar in his bedroom one day in 1958, it occurred to Murray Mitzner that the boy was not only passionate about the instrument, he was good on it. Looking to foster his skills, Murray put young Jay in lessons with local Brooklyn jazz guitarist Rector Bailey, who […]
VG Approved Gear
Airline ’59 Custom 1P and Epiphone ’61 Casino 50th Anniversary
Having a Rave-Up!
Fifteen years ago, you couldn’t give away some of the less-popular guitars from the ’60s, whether they were models with P-90s or cheapo imports from Japan and Germany. Today, however, they’re in hot demand, which explains a surge of reissues among these once-neglected planks. As evidence, we’ll look at the Airline ’59 Custom 1P and […]