Absorbing and exuding great vibes from his living room, Philip Sayce and his PRS Silver Sky (plugged into a ’68 Super Reverb) play “Lady Love Divine,” one of the fine tunes from his latest album, “The Wolves Are Coming.” Catch our interview with Philip in the April issue. Read Now!
Absorbing and exuding great vibes from his living room, Philip Sayce and his PRS Silver Sky (plugged into a ’68 Super Reverb) play “Lady Love Divine,” one of the fine tunes from his latest album, “The Wolves Are Coming.” Catch our interview with Philip in the April issue. Read Now!
Calling Steve Dawson a “roots” artist seems a disservice to a musician so eclectic and wildly talented. On Eyes Closed, Dreaming, he effortlessly mixes earthy rock and roll, soul, Hawaiian, country, and blues highlighted by dextrous slide and superior acoustic fingerpicking. When he’s not recording and touring, Dawson hosts a podcast called “Music Makers and […]
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One of the least un-derstood aspects of American guitar history is the role of musical instrument distributors. It’s one thing to be able to manufacture guitars, but quite another to get them to customers, especially in an era when your purchase was likely to be from a local store or teacher (excepting mail order). Enthusiasts […]
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Paul Reed Smith has for years experimented with Leo-inspired concepts, and his newest guitar, conceived in collaboration with rocker John Mayer, lands squarely in that traditional single-coil solidbody arena. But while the Silver Sky may resemble the venerable Fender archetype, it has Smith’s design fingerprints all over it. Sure, some of its specs are “familiar” […]
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Players love that single-coil sound but hate the noise and hum that generally come with them. For the most part, “noiseless” pickups, whether stacked coils, side-by-side coils, or other designs, have meant something of a compromise between tone and hum-free operation. The new Mojotone ’58 Quiet Coil Strat Pickups use traditional side-by-side coils with blade […]
Louis Electric Buster Price: $1,595. Info: louisamps.com Lou Rosano has been building amps in the Fender vein for more than 17 years. His first build wound up in the hands of the late Danny Gatton, and other greats who have played through his Louis Electric amps include Keith Richards, John Fogerty, Jorma Kaukonen, and Hubert […]
Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi have released the first of a four-album set called I Am The Moon. Comprised of 24 tracks, the songs feature musical input from their 12-piece ensemble with Trucks and Tedeschi front and center. It’s an ambitious project beginning with I. Crescent and continuing with release of II. Ascension, III. The […]
Headway EDB-2 Equalizer Direct Blend Preamp Price: $475 (retail)/$320 (street) Info: www.headwaymusicaudio.com. Designed in England and manufactured in Korea, the Headway EDB-2 is a 5.75″ x 3.75″ x 1.5″ box with a feature set that makes it ideal for acoustic guitarists who need an ultra-low-distortion connection to a PA or sound-reinforcement amplifier. The EDB-2 has […]
Everyone knows a good drummer joke. Or two. Drummers are indeed a special breed. Singular Sound’s BeatBuddy drum-machine pedal, however, is no joke. And as the first drum-machine-in-a-pedal designed for guitarists, it, too, is special. The BeatBuddy provides Charlie Watts in a box – along with Buddy Rich, Al Jackson, Jr., and John Bonham thrown […]
Blake Burkeholder, a repair expert in my shop, has always wanted a Gretsch. So, when he found a ’56 Duo-Jet fixer-upper at a reasonable price, he grabbed it. Like other old Gretsches that have passed through here, it had severe neck-joint issues – maybe the worst I’ve seen. But, Blake knew he could return it […]
In the weeks before they gathered to record a new album in the spring of 2021, guitar legend Slash, frontman/songwriter Myles Kennedy, and their cohorts in The Conspirators had to pull the reins on their rock-star lifestyles. In normal times, they’d have jumped on a jet in L.A. and been at Dave Cobb’s RCA Studio […]
Music fans were relaxing on Easter Sunday when word of Allan Holdsworth’s death began filtering about, bringing shock to the guitar community. For 45 years, Holdsworth had been one of the greatest improvisers in jazz-rock and the personification of the word “innovator.” In fact, earlier in the month his label released a 12-CD retrospective, aptly […]
“I wanted to make the type of album I would’ve liked to have heard when I was 13 – cool and greasy,” said ex-Blackhearts guitarist Ricky Byrd of his debut solo album, Lifer. Byrd worked with Joan Jett and her band from 1981 to ’91, while they amassed a string of hit records, most notably “I […]
Canadian guitarist Steve Hill is a flat-out rocker, smashing blues into rock and roll with terrifying force, as heard on his latest, Dear Illusion. Often playing as a genuine one-man band with foot-powered drums, Hill drapes his new music with horns, powerhouse vocals, and guitar solos steeped in the blues. Pickin’ and poppin’ strings with […]
Rybiski Cougar Price: $3,850 Info: www.rybskiguitars.com. Before moving to the United States, Rybski founder Slawomir Waclawik repaired and built upright basses and violins for top jazz and fusion players in his native Poland. With newfound digs in the States came a newfound focus on crafting cutting-edge basses and guitars alongside builder Benjamin Harrison. Though the […]
Since his debut at age 19, Graham Dechter has rekindled a post-war jazz sound, effortlessly swinging and always in the pocket. On his latest, Major Influences, he evokes iconic names like Pass, Ellis, Farlow, and Montgomery, employing a command of technique and melodic jazz with a dash of sweet blues. We caught up with him […]
Jonathan Wilson is having a very good year. His Gentle Spirit CD (Bella Union), a hippie-soul drenched 80 minutes of folk-psych-rock goodness, has earned international praise. He toured Europe throughout 2012 to widespread acclaim, including a stint opening for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, turned numerous heads with his performance at the Jerry Garcia 70th […]
On Eric Johnson’s new – and first all-acoustic album – EJ, the guitarist takes a break from the intervallic inventions of his electric work and finds greater depth in his artistry, stripping away the non-essentials and exploring the purity of acoustic performance. The compositions reveal an artist reaching for musical substance, humanity, and intimacy. On […]
Some guitars look great, while others sound or play great. With Reverends’ Rick Vito Soul Agent, you get all three in one package. With a chambered korina (white limba) body and solid-spruce top, our swank tester had a mint-hued finish Reverend calls Oceanside Green, with an asymmetrical pickguard, Art Deco bridge-pickup cover, Bigsby B-50 vibrato, […]
George Fullerton, whose decades-long association with Leo Fender earned the two early electric-guitar innovators a place in history, He died July 4, 2009 at the age of 86. He succumbed to heart failure at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, California, the Orange County town where he and Fender had began building stringed instruments in […]
MXR M87 Bass Comp and M234 Analog Chorus Price: $318 (M87 Bass Compressor), $170 (M234 Analog Chorus). Info: jimdunlop.com For decades, players in virtually every musical genre have been familiar with MXR pedals; the name connotes a solid road-warrior stompbox associated with great tones from ’70s through today. The Analog Chorus M234 is designed to […]
