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Jussi Jaakonaho’s beguiling “Beauty Box”

Soak it in as Jussi Jaakonaho and his 1970 Gibson SG Standard jam on ”Beauty Box” through a late-’60s Gibson Falcon amp with tremolo and spring reverb. He creates the loop with a TC Electronic Ditto and you’ll hear touches of a Square Wave BD Sadist Fuzz. Catch our review of his new album, ”Build,” in the May issue. Read Now!

Richard Tozzoli: Underscore Overlord

Richard Tozzoli walks us through a guitar overdub session for Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week ’24,”  featuring drummer Omar Hakim and the Budapest Orchest*ra. Recorded by Justin Guipp and Paul Antonell at Clubhouse Studios through the vintage Neve console, he used a Mesa Boogie MK IV head and an Orange 4×12. His orchestrated approach to guitar has him using a Gibson Custom Shop Flying V (with E tuned to low C), his black Les Paul Custom, chambered ’58 reissue with DiMarzios, and an ESP LTD Deluxe with EMGs. A long-time TV composer with credits on more than 1,800 series in 40-plus countries, he’s featured in the the May issue. Read Now!

Bex Marshall’s Saucy Reso Jam

Enjoy Bex Marshall and her Ozark 3515BTE Custom Cutaway resonator delivering superbly on an exclusive rendition of the title track from her latest album, “Fortuna.” Catch our review in the May issue. Read Now!

Jussi Jaakonaho’s beguiling “Beauty Box”

Soak it in as Jussi Jaakonaho and his 1970 Gibson SG Standard jam on ”Beauty Box” through a late-’60s Gibson Falcon amp with tremolo and spring reverb. He creates the loop with a TC Electronic Ditto and you’ll hear touches of a Square Wave BD Sadist Fuzz. Catch our review of his new album, ”Build,” in the May issue. Read Now!

Richard Tozzoli: Underscore Overlord

Richard Tozzoli walks us through a guitar overdub session for Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week ’24,”  featuring drummer Omar Hakim and the Budapest Orchest*ra. Recorded by Justin Guipp and Paul Antonell at Clubhouse Studios through the vintage Neve console, he used a Mesa Boogie MK IV head and an Orange 4×12. His orchestrated approach to guitar has him using a Gibson Custom Shop Flying V (with E tuned to low C), his black Les Paul Custom, chambered ’58 reissue with DiMarzios, and an ESP LTD Deluxe with EMGs. A long-time TV composer with credits on more than 1,800 series in 40-plus countries, he’s featured in the the May issue. Read Now!

Bex Marshall’s Saucy Reso Jam

Enjoy Bex Marshall and her Ozark 3515BTE Custom Cutaway resonator delivering superbly on an exclusive rendition of the title track from her latest album, “Fortuna.” Catch our review in the May issue. Read Now!

Music

Flamin’ Groovies

Live 1971 San Francisco

Flamin’ Groovies are best known for the ’76 power-pop gem “Shake Some Action,” but this show – recorded five years earlier at the final Fillmore West concerts – couldn’t be more different. It’s blunt three-chord rock, somewhere between the Seeds, MC5, and the Rolling Stones. The live tape’s audio fidelity is lo-fi and raw, but […]

by Pete Prown
Classic Instruments

The Gibson ES-5

Instrument Profile

Gibson, like all American guitarmakers, had to shut down electric guitar production for three years during World War II. But when production resumed in 1946, Gibson made up for the lost time with a flurry of innovations. The culmination of this effort was the be-all, end-all of electric guitar design in 1949 – the ES-5. […]

George Gruhn and Walter Carter
Music

Roy Orbison & Friends

Black & White Night 30

The year 1987 saw Roy Orbison in the midst of a triumphant resurgence. His ’60s recording “In Dreams” was featured in the hit film Blue Velvet. He joined Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne in the Traveling Wilburys. And that September, he taped the Cinemax special A Black & White Night at Hollywood’s […]

Artists

Duke Levine

Bonnie’s New Guitar Man

After 29 years on the road, Bonnie Raitt guitarist George Marinelli decided to take a break. Stepping into the role will be Boston native Duke Levine. The youngest of five, Levine had older brothers with Stones and Beatles records along with Paul Butterfield albums featuring Michael Bloomfield on guitar. One brother, Rick, had a band […]

Music

Daniel de Visé

King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King

Sixty years, 90 countries, 15,000 concerts – and that tally doesn’t include B.B. King’s early years of juke joints, radio broadcasts, and street-corner serenades. Over the years, Riley “Blues Boy” King became the best known of bluesmen. Leave it to his erstwhile valet and chauffeur, Bobby “Blue” Bland, to crown him simply as “The Man.” […]

Classic Instruments

Fender Precision Bass Elite II

On a Tangent In Its Time

Precision Bass has been offered in a myriad of models in its 50 years of existense, including a number of “reissues.” One of the more intriguing variants was the Elite II, which was introduced in mid-1983, and disappeared when Fender was purchased from CBS in early ’85. While subsequent variants of Precision models would have […]

Waterloo WL-14
VG Approved Gear

Waterloo WL-14

Modern Johnson

Waterloo WL-14 Price: $2,100, $1,890 (street) Contact: www.collingsguitars.com or www.waterlooguitars.com Robert Johnson slid into a photo booth, dangling a cigarette from his lips and holding a flat-top guitar. What brand was he smoking? Who knows? But scholars think he was holding a Gibson-made Kalamazoo KG-14. And acoustic blues guitarists want to know what Mr. Johnson […]

ToneTron Feature Home
VG Approved Gear

ToneTron’s Billy-Rocker

Best Amp You've Never Heard of

ToneTron’s Billy-Rocker Price: $1,200 Info: www.tonetroamps.com. On a quiet residential street in Minneapolis lives a mad scientist. Erstwhile rockabilly guitarist Jeffrey Falla is the brains behind ToneTron. And from his laboratory come some of the best-sounding amps you’ve never heard of. Falla began modifying and building amps as a ’70s teen, launching his custom-build ToneTrons […]

Music

Kiss

Destroyer 45

Following their Alive! breakout, Kiss hired producer to the superstars Bob Ezrin and cut what became their first platinum album, expanded here into a four CD/Blu-Ray box. The 1976 LP also launched the band’s overtly commercial era, mixing hard rock, bubblegum, and ballads for the growing Kiss Army of teens and tweens. Destroyer 45 opens […]

Artists

Southern Boogie from Chickasaw Mudd Puppies

Band jams on acoustic “Flatcar” take “The South is a complex and nuanced place,” says Ben Reynolds of his native Georgia. Geography and Southern bands have for decades influenced his work in Chickasaw Mudd Puppies. Here, with help from dobroist William Tonks and bassist Rob Keller, he offers an unplugged taste of “Flatcar,” from their […]

The Coulter Company
Classic Instruments

The Coulter Company

More Rarities from the Pacific Northwest

The eye-catching and technologically innovative stringed instruments created by Frank Evans Coulter in the early 20th century are so exceedingly scarce that few guitar enthusiasts have laid eyes on one. Indeed, their rarity is conveyed by one simple fact – only a couple dozen Coulter instruments – including an Hawaiian-style guitar, a tenor guitar, a […]

Artists

Glenn Phillips

Cult-Guitar Icon

For more than 40 years, Glenn Phillips has been an underground hero of the guitar. His solo albums, unusual choices of gear, radical effects usage, and wild live shows broke the mold of guitar heroics. Phillips’ At the Rainbow, taped live in London in 1977, has just been released, and it’s a brilliant document of […]

Music

Check This Action: Kathy Valentine: HoF Bassist

In the highly recommended documentary, 2020’s The Go-Go’s, Police drummer Stewart Copeland is incredulous to learn that the band had yet to be inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “What the f**k? They’re not?” Well, not until the following year. On March 6, 1982, the Go-Go’s became the first self-contained, all-female band […]

Artists

Ana Popovic

Memphis via Belgrade

Ana Popovic was but a toddler when she started to absorb major musical mojo through her father’s love of the blues, classic rock, and most importantly, thanks to the rec-room jams he would stage with buddies. By the time she was 14, the Serbia-born-and-raised Popovic was taking private lessons on classical guitar, but, “After a […]

Artists

Marty Friedman

Wall of Shred

Between playing on Cacophony’s landmark 1987 shred album, Speed Metal Symphony, and Megadeth’s 1990 classic, Rust in Peace, Marty Friedman introduced the world to his solo work with the 1988 disc Dragon’s Kiss. In the nearly three decades since, he has rarely taken a break, and never rested on his laurels. Since exiting Megadeth in […]

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Classic Instruments

Fender Custom Colors in the 1960s

Misty Lakes, Foamy Shores

In the 1950s, America’s fascination with the automobile was running at a fever pitch. The booming economy of the country’s post-war years pushed the car from a purpose-built means of transportation to the center of family and social life. As a result, automakers started to offer their wares in ever-better dress. Beyond plush interiors and […]

Artists

Ron Bosse

Unison Groove

While Boston-based guitarist Ron Bosse was inspired to begin his six-string journey while listening to classic rock, he became a jazz player and has been active for decades. “The first instrument I learned was saxophone, in fourth grade,” he recently recalled to VG. “When I got to high school, I joined the jazz band as […]

Artists

Paul Gilbert

One-Man Electrical Jam

Paul Gilbert’s 16th solo album, Werewolves of Portland, is an ambitious DIY project where he plays all the instruments. From The Beatles to Pat Travers to Brian May, Gilbert’s fretboard imagination runs the gamut. As he continues to move beyond his shredtastic origins, Gilbert is embracing a positive outlook, a sense of humor, and his […]

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