Giffin Vikta

Feelin’ Special

May 10, 2014 · Pete Prown

Giffin Vikta Price: $2,295 Contact: www.premierbuildersguild.com Roger Giffin is a guitarmaker to the stars, having built for Eric Clapton, Pete…

The Leilani Lap Steel and Amplifier

April 4, 2014 · Eric C. Shoaf

You can receive more great articles like this in our twice-monthly e-mail newsletter, Vintage Guitar Overdrive, FREE from your friends…

AmpRX BrownBox Voltage-Reduction Unit

AmpRX BrownBox Voltage-Reduction Unit

Vintage-Safe Voltage

January 22, 2016 · Zac Childs

AmpRX BrownBox Voltage-Reduction Unit Price: $269.00 (list) Contact: www.amprx.net Amplifier repairman and builder Patrick Geraghty was frustrated with the sound…

Jon Herington

October 4, 2016 · John Heidt

Jon Herington, best known for his current work as Steely Dan’s lead guitarist, put out one of the decades’ great…

The Ultimate Book of Blues Guitar Legends

The Ultimate Book of Blues Guitar Legends

August 13, 2025 · Bret Adams

  The blues is the foundation of nearly all American popular music, and this book by Vintage Guitar’s music editor…

Guild D-50 Standard

Rosewood Renaissance

August 28, 2024 · Michael Shirek

With a tradition going back more than 70 years, Guild Guitars was there from the beginning of rock and roll,…

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ARTISTS

Fretprints: Earl Hooker

Unsung Blues-Guitar Legend

December 6, 2022 · Wolf Marshall

Chicago, 1959. Ask any blues musician where to go, and the answer was likely, “Wherever Earl Hooker is playing.” Earl…

Rev Rock

Billy Gibbons Goes Solo

November 29, 2016 · Ward Meeker

“BFG ain’t anybody ’cept BFG,” proclaims ZZ Top co-founder/front man/face Billy Gibbons, discussing his first solo album, Perfectamundo. “What is…

Spencer Kirkpatrick

Spencer Kirkpatrick

Jammin’ Southern Hero

April 7, 2016 · Pete Prown

In the ’70s, Hydra was a Southern-rock band that owed more to the heavy British blues of Cream and Free…

Ceil Thompson and her self-made guitar

January 25, 2023 · Dan Erlewine

“Dan’s Guitar Rx”: VG’s Rock-and-Roll High School(er)! In 2022, Dan Erlewine’s “Guitar Rx” column walked readers through a class-project guitar…


CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Gibson Les Paul Special 3/4

January 18, 2010 · George Gruhn and Walter Carter

Gibson’s double-cutaway Les Paul Special 3/4 from 1959 is one of the rarest Les Pauls from the “golden era.” It’s…

Parsons/White StringBender

August 17, 2017 · Edward B. Driscoll Jr.

From the origins of country-rock to Jimmy Page, Metallica, and a slew of modern country-pickin’ wizards, the string bender lends…

Fender’s Tweed-to Tolex Transition

Best Face Forward

June 6, 2022 · Dave Hunter

Through its 75 years, Fender has been responsible for myriad leaps forward in the history of guitar-amplifier design and manufacture.…

Round-Up Range

Rolling on a Post-Pandemic Project

May 13, 2025 · Dan Erlewine

Five years ago, I started making a Tele-style guitar inspired by the Gretsch Roundup. When Covid hit, I was up…


NEWSWIRE

APPROVED GEAR

Walrus Audio’s R1 High Fidelity Reverb

Reams of Reverb

February 10, 2022 · Phil Feser

Many manufacturers claim “studio quality” reverb, but not all nail it. Walrus Audio’s R1 High Fidelity Reverb is the latest…

Tech 21’s Boost Series Pedals

The Way Up

December 6, 2013 · Max Prown

Tech 21 Boost Pedals Price: $149 each, street Contact: www.tech21nyc.com Tech 21’s new Boost Series of fuzz, overdrive, and distortion…

Shaw Audio Bass 130

Classic Tone for the Modern World

August 10, 2016 · Sean OBryan Smith

Tennessee amp builder Kevin Shaw loves restoring old cars – and creating fine-sounding amplifiers. His ToneRod SE and Fulltilt 18…

The Walrus Audio ACS1

Simple Simulation

July 3, 2022 · Phil Feser

From worship services and home-recording where volume is an issue to fly-in shows where a full rig is impossible, amp…

WHAT ELSE IS NEW

Maestro Ranger Overdrive and Invader Distortion

Evil Twins

August 10, 2023 · Michael Dregni

Maestro’s new all-analog overdrive and distortion pedals are like evil twins – two black-sheep siblings that differ in concept but…

A Tribute to Leslie West

Various artists

December 8, 2022 · Pete Prown

Here’s a much-deserved tribute to the Mountain guitarist who died in 2020, getting his due thanks to a procession of…

The Eastman SB55

Little Devil

May 6, 2022 · Michael Dregni

When re-creating a classic, it’s all too easy to feel hidebound to the original – especially if it’s an icon.…

Larry Coryell

1943-2017

March 27, 2019 · Vintage Guitar

Guitarist Larry Coryell died February 19 in New York City after performing the previous night at the Iridium. He was…

Alvin Youngblood Hart

Alvin Youngblood Hart

Electric Gutbucket

January 24, 2015 · Oscar Jordan

Alvin Youngblood Hart surfs the musical landscape of blues-based music to make his own great art. His influences range from…

Fretprints: Jack Wilkins

Farewell to a Modern Jazz Master

July 26, 2024 · Wolf Marshall

Jazz guitar recently lost one of the great ones. Jack Wilkins, champion of modern traditionalism (or is it traditional modernism?)…

Watkins Rapier 33

October 8, 2015 · Michael Wright

If you were an American teenager in the late 1950s or early ’60s, and you wanted to play the new…

Marty Friedman

Marty Friedman

En Fuego on Inferno!

November 12, 2014 · Oscar Jordan

As he gears up for a co-headlining tour with Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Gus G., Marty Friedman has 13 solo albums…

A Hero’s Gretsch 6117

March 16, 2022 · Willie G. Moseley

In the 1960s, the astronauts were bigger cultural icons than the Beatles. And no, that’s not the Colorado-based surf band…

The Steepwater Band

More Players, More Music

May 9, 2017 · Willie G. Moseley

The Steepwater Band, based in Chicago, has been a trio for most of its career, purveying guitar-based Americana. Guitarist Jeff…

Derek St. Holmes

Making Rock and Roll Cool Again

March 2, 2017 · Johnny Zapp

Derek St. Holmes has been in the rock and roll business since the early 1970s and is best known for…

Toy Caldwell Jim Summaria, http://www.jimsummariaphoto.com

Toy Caldwell

Marine and Marshall Tucker Guitarist Toy Caldwell

November 10, 2016 · Willie G. Moseley

One of the earliest VG interviews Willie G. Moseley did with a veteran “Southern rock” musician was a conversation with…

Gretsch Jet Firebird

One of the flashiest Jets in the Gretsch Company’s Air Force

December 31, 2013 · Jim Hilmar

Given the number of jet-related model monikers in Gretsch’s 1950s and ’60s catalogs, one might get the impression the company…

GA-20 blends R&B, Blues, Hendrix, and much more

December 21, 2022 · Vintage Guitar

VG Exclusive “Dry Run” GA-20 blends influences from Hendrix to the guitar Kings to East Coast Family cassettes. Here, Matt…

Yamaha Image

December 26, 2013 · Michael Wright

Some years back, an insurance company promoted itself as “the quiet company.” While they probably wouldn’t like to hear it,…

Cedric Burnside

Be Trying

August 11, 2022 · Dean L. Farley

One of 35 grandchildren of the late R.L. Burnside, Cedric grew up in the rundown Holly Springs, Mississippi, home that…

Gibson’s Budget Redux

The SB Series Guitars and Basses

March 2, 2017 · Willie G. Moseley

As the 1960s rolled into the ’70s, Gibson had established itself in the electric-bass market with front-line instruments such as…

Home Feature Image

Bohemian Boho Moonshine

In The Can

June 9, 2016 · Stephen Stone

Here at VG, we see all manner of guitars – those made out of steel, graphite, even animal shells. But…

Burns Steer Cutaway

The Burns Steer Cutaway

June 3, 2011 · Sean OBryan Smith

The story of the Burns Steer Cutaway begins in 1925 with the birth of the “British Leo Fender,” James Ormston…

GIBSON-F2-2-HOME-MAIN-BIG

1905 Gibson F-2

February 26, 2016 · George Gruhn

In the opinion of most American mandolinists, Gibson brought mandolin design to a level of perfection in 1922, with the…

Have Guitar Will Travel 079 – Tim Dugger, Ray Fulcher and Drew Castle

July 8, 2022 · James Patrick Regan

Host James Patrick Regan talks with Tim Dugger, Ray Fulcher and Drew Castle for episode 79 of “Have Guitar Will…

Jules Leyhe

Bottleneck Breakout

September 8, 2022 · Pete Prown

Forget everything you know about slide guitar. Jules Leyhe just upended the genre on Your First Rodeo, an instrumental set…

Jimi Hendrix

January 27, 2017 · Oscar Jordan

James Marshall Hendrix is undoubtedly the greatest rock guitarist who ever lived, and Experience Hendrix LLC is now releasing a…

Fender Player II Series Telecaster

Twang Banger

May 30, 2025 · Dave Hunter

As the world’s first mass-production solidbody electric guitar fast approaches its 75th birthday, Fender continues to offer variations on the…

Seymour Duncan SFX-07 Shape Shifter

Vintage Trem Sounds & Beyond

February 2, 2010 · Dan Forte

Seymour Duncan’s reputation when it comes to pickups (from dead-on vintage replicas to his own designs) has been well established…

Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton

Alt-Blues Summit

February 4, 2024 · Oscar Jordan

Blues is a language of many dialects, and when regionalisms collide, sparks fly. So it has been since Texas six-stringer…

The Vox AC30C2X and AC15C1

Brit-Rock Mojo in a Box

August 20, 2013 · Pete Prown

Fully appointed in classic Vox dress, the famed British amp maker’s new AC30C2X and AC15C1 both sport enough of that…

Eric Johnson

Acoustic Resonance

March 11, 2019 · Oscar Jordan

On Eric Johnson’s new – and first all-acoustic album – EJ, the guitarist takes a break from the intervallic inventions…

Tim Fitzgerald comps on a Wes solo

January 26, 2023 · Vintage Guitar

Jazz star interprets the work of a legend Tim Fitzgerald and his ’81 Gibson ES-175 go old-school with this display…