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Taylor® Guitars Kicks Off 2026 With Two Major Launches – The Next Generation Of Its Flagship Grand Auditorium Guitars And New Gold Label Square-Shoulder Dreadnoughts
Taylor upgrades its most iconic models, adding “Next Generation” features to its Grand Auditorium body shape while expanding its recently introduced Gold Label Collection with traditional, square-shoulder dreadnoughts EL CAJON,…
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Thomas Custom Guitars
Rarities from the Pacific Northwest
Certain makes and models of electric guitars are rightfully prized for their elegant physical designs and superior craftsmanship. Even better are those also revered for their playability and particularly rich…
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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…
Cort Z44
Single-Cut Shuffle
Cort Z44 Price: $569 list/under $400 street Contact: cortguitars.com Just about everywhere you look these days, manufacturers are devising new…

Knaggs Guitars’ Chesapeake Severn Tier 2 Trembuck
All-Genre Style
Knaggs Guitars’ Chesapeake Severn Tier 2 Trembuck Price: $ 5,600 (list)/$4,300 (street) Info: www.knaggsguitars.com. Maryland-based Knaggs Guitars was founded five…

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…

The Modulus Graphite Flight 6 Monocoque
High-/Low-Tech
In guitar history, irony is almost always the result of circumstances. The market changes overnight or someone makes a mistake…
Epiphone by Gibson Firebird 500
Race on
Gibson will forever be celebrated for its heritage of innovation, including guitars that didn’t look like the common perception of…
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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…
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…

Samantha Fish
Moving Faster
Barely over 30, Samantha Fish already has more than a decade’s worth of writing and performing in life’s rearview mirror.…

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

Duke Robillard’s Swingin’ R And B!
Blues/Jazz Great Jams on “Four Bills” Duke Robillard’s custom-made J.W. Murphy 17” archtop is the perfect accomplice for this…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

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

Late 1920s Gibson L-1 (Flattop)
Gibson "Florentine"
Because I don’t know what to call this Gibson guitar, I refer to it as a “Florentine,” for lack of…

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…

Fender Super Reverbs from 1963 and ’68
First and Last
Among the many distinct eras of vintage-amp production, Fender’s so-called “blackface” models are legendary. Made from late 1963 until ’67,…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Lively Drives
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Posh Squash
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Chet Powered!

JangleBox Acousticomp
Sweet Woodiness
Compression and sustain are the icing on most guitarist’s tonal palette. While many use such effects in service of electric…

Universal Audio Ruby, Woodrow & Dream
Model Of Perfection
With digital recording more popular than ever, audio designers are working to capture guitar tone directly, without miking an amp.…

Gurus Amps’ SexydriveMkII
Bellissimo!
Chalk up another score for Italian innovation. Chicco Bellini and his company, Gurus Amps, are among the top dogs in…

Eastwood Sidejack DLX 20th LTD
Horn Section
If you love twangy guitars from the ’60s, you know about Mosrites – the immortal slabs of The Ventures and…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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Revisiting Room 335
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Plus, a Pro’s List of Repair Glues
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Rising Tides

Judas Priest and Deep Purple
Metal-Morphosis
This 30th-anniversary reissue of Judas Priest’s 1986 album is above average, but not for the reason you might think. Turbo…
The Charvel Model 4
Certain guitar brands develop a mystique among aficionados – sometimes it’s even deserved! Somewhere on this continuum lie Charvel USA…

DAN ROSE AND HIS TASTY TAKE ON A CLASSIC
DAN ROSE AND HIS TASTY TAKE ON A CLASSIC! Dan Rose used his ’58 ES-175 (with a PAF at the…

Horray For Hollywood
The Guitars and Amps of Jersey Boys
Movies made in the 1950s and ’60s that included rock-and-roll music acts typically showed them performing in segments using their…












































