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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…
Sue Foley
Still Playing Pinky
Sue Foley’s Paisley-finished Telecaster is the one guitar to which she has remained true since her debut album, Young Girl…
Steve Carr
Twenty-Five Years of Tonemaking
In the mid ’90s, Steve Carr was a guitarist playing weekends and working weeknights as a waiter in a swank…
Yamaha THR10
Practice Perfection?
Yamaha THR10 Price: $299 Contact: usa.yamaha.com As a rule of thumb, practice amps are a compromise. Blissfully portable, they typically…
Walter Strauss
Right-Hand Man
West Coast fingerstylist Walter Strauss has a remarkable picking technique – powerful and surprisingly percussive – as heard on his…
John Sykes 1959-2024
Remembering a Heavy Hero
The guitar universe was rocked by John Sykes’ death from cancer, December 21 at age 65. Forty years ago, the…
Nioma Guitars
Rarities from a West Coast Music School
NIOMA musical instruments from the 1930s and ’40s – with their vaguely Hawaiian-looking name – have mystified vintage-guitar enthusiasts over…
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Rickenbacker’s Electric 12-Strings
Double-bound for Glory
George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacher founded Electro String in 1931 to manufacture what everyone would soon call “Rickenbacker” guitars. Success came early and their lap steels set standards of quality,…
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ARTISTS
Sue Foley
Still Playing Pinky
Sue Foley’s Paisley-finished Telecaster is the one guitar to which she has remained true since her debut album, Young Girl…
Have Guitar Will Travel 081 – G. Love
Host James Patrick Regan welcomes singer, rapper, and musician G. Love to episode 82 of “Have Guitar Will Travel.” They…
Fretprints: Pee Wee Crayton
Tiny Titan of Blues Guitar
Though he is today largely forgotten, blues aficionados recognize Pee Wee Crayton as a legend. “The little man with a…
Melodic, accessible – and shredtastic – it’s Lari Basilio!
Just for VG followers, a solo take on “Novo” Lari Basilio grabbed her signature Ibanez LB1 (dig the purple finish…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Epiphone “Bikini Logo” Amplifiers
Beach Party
Collectors know well the desirability of Epiphone guitars from the years after Gibson acquired the brand. Further off the radar,…
The Vox AC15
AMP-O-RAMA
The Vox AC30 grabbed most of the headlines for years, but many tonehounds have come to appreciate the sweet, juicy…
Sue Foley
Femme Flamenco
In a time when pop-music performers rely heavily on post-recording fix-ups and pre-recorded tracks onstage, it’s refreshing – even admirable…
Freddie King’s Gibson ES-345 Keeps on Playin’
Family Ties
Watching her baby boy become rapt whenever his grandma played country blues on her guitar, Ella May King had a…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Santa Cruz HT/13 Happy Traum
Fingerstyle Dream
In a career spanning more than 60 years, Happy Traum has been a fixture of the American folk scene, from…
Flying High Again
The Eastwood Airline ’59 3P
Long before the brazen, pointy electrics of the 1980s, Airline created a model with all kinds of modern angles and…
The KW Cabs ST-220T SSB
Who Woodn’t?
Like you, Kurt Wyberanec knows that good extension cabinets, like acoustic guitars, serve their player as resonant sound chambers. Those…
Rupert Neve Designs’ Portico 5017/ SE Electronics’ Voodoo VR1
Studio on the Go
Despite what some folks may tell you about the merits of “going direct” for guitar, nothing sounds better than a…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer
Classics: Tommy Castro’s ’66 Fender Stratocaster
Tommy Castro has never been much for sitting with a guitar teacher, preferring instead to rely on good ol’ time…
Pat Rush
Johnny, James, Et Al
If the name “Pat Rush” doesn’t immediately ring a bell, the names of people he’s played with – Muddy Waters,…
Jerry Miller
Back to Basics
Jerry Miller is back. For many he never left – especially admirers of his innovative playing with the legendary Moby…
Maintenance, Man
Basic Skills for Every Player
Acquiring and owning musical equipment is an expensive proposition. Used regularly, guitars and amps require maintenance that can lead to…
