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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…

Ray Bonneville
Easy Groove
Ray Bonneville’s latest album, Easy Gone, glides on a steady groove. “I really like the way it sounds with these…
Gregg Wright
King of the Rockin’ Blues
Gregg Wright is a force to be reckoned with. He took the top spot in the Southern California Blues Society’s…

1933 Gibson L-00
While most of the instruments featured in this space are high-end, often elaborately ornamented models that were expensive when new…

Carl Verheyen
On <em>Mustang Run</em> and Making a CD that Lasts
Fresh off a 42-show/13-country European tour with his own band, Supertramp guitarist and L.A. studio ace Carl Verheyen has just…

3Below
Live in Mérida
The members of 3Below mostly play in the bass clef. You may know names like fretless master Michael Manring (Michael…

Sonny Burgess
1929-2017
Sonny Burgess, one of the last of the great Sun Records stars, died August 18. He was 88 and had…
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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…
ARTISTS

Michael Schenker
Golden Guitar Jubilee
Incredibly, it’s been 50 years since Michael Schenker recorded his first guitar bit on a studio album – the Scorpions’…

Gene Simmons
Night Vision
Between stints on its lengthy End of the Road farewell tour, Kiss has been issuing an Off the Soundboard series…

Jeff Beck
Blow By Blow
What is jazz? What is rock? These questions perpetually confound and divide music experts and listeners. Similar spirited debates have…

Kay-Ta Matsuno’s fluid fingerstyle
Raised on classical, inspired by movie music Lovers of fingerstyle likely know the music of Kay-Ta Matsuno. For the uninitiated,…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Dickerson Standard Lap Steel
Though today they are viewed as little more than curious relics of a lost era, during the Great Depression, “mother…

The Gibson J-185
The J-185 is regarded by many players and collectors as the finest-sounding Gibson flat-top made after World War II. The…

Steve Evans’ Guitars & Cars Passion Project
Pretty Pairs
Steve Evans was just 12 years old in 1968, when he began to appreciate the sleek bodies of electric guitars…

Guild F-512
Iconic ’70s 12-String
Today, players typically equate the 12-string acoustic with Taylor and Martin. For its part, though, Guild’s F-512 remains one of…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Martin GPCE Inception Maple
Bold Beginning
Almost 100 years ago, Martin reinvented the flat-top box when it began delivering X-braced, square-shouldered, and oversized dreadnoughts. Now, the…

M-Tone Slipstream
Delicious Curves
M-Tone Slipstream Price: $2,600 Contact: www.m-tone.com When it comes to custom, hand-made guitars, many prefer an instrument that innately reveals…
Electro-Harmonix 45000 Multi-Track Recorder
Gettin’ Loopy!
Electro-Harmonix 45000 Multi-Track Recorder Price: $476.21 (street); $119.25 (foot controller) Info: www.ehx.com. Looping has a rich history, with roots tracing…

Echopark Clarence
Wayback Machine
Gabriel Currie’s Echopark Guitars have been played around the world by some of the music industry’s heaviest hitters. His is…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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And an Archtop Mystery
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Supergroup Alpha

Martin SC-13E Special Burst
Blueprint Blow-up
For nearly two centuries, Martin has been building acoustic instruments befitting the company’s august reputation. The slew of budget-friendly models…
The Guild Starfire Bass
In the mid ’60s, Guild took its knocks for making guitars that looked “inspired by” Gibson models. Fans of the…

The (Way) Back Beat: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody
Fretted cheesecake advertising through the years, Part Two
Last month, we began looking at some of the more entertaining fretted instrument advertising of the 20th century, in what…

Teisco Checkmate 30
Café Culture
In a world where the best riffs often come when one is lounging in the family room, sipping espresso and…











































