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Question of the Month: What's the first—or hardest—guitar solo you ever learned?
Photo by Robert Cavuoto
Question & Obsession

Question of the Month: What's the first—or hardest—guitar solo you ever learned?

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Close-up of a light blue audio device showing input jack and toggle switch settings: TB, BF, BFM.
State of the Stomp

State of the Stomp: True Bypass vs. Buffered Bypass

Question of the Month: How Important Is an Effect Pedal’s Looks?
Question & Obsession

Question of the Month: How Important Is an Effect Pedal’s Looks?

Recent

Esoterica Electrica: Toad Takes the Rap
Esoterica Electrica

Esoterica Electrica: Toad Takes the Rap

A band performs onstage, featuring a singer with long hair and a brightly colored outfit.
The Gig Behind the Gig

The Gig Behind the Gig: The Incredible Shrinking Band

Five-piece touring bands are becoming three-piece bands running tracks. What’s being lost, what’s being built, and the technical skill every young musician needs to learn.

A glass jar filled with bills and coins, including a folded $10 and $2 note.
On Bass

On Bass: Know Your Worth

Pay scales in the music business are often treated like CIA secrets. But knowing the numbers—from bar gigs to legacy tours—is the first step to standing up for yourself.

White Fender Jaguar guitar with a tortoiseshell pickguard and maple neck on a carpeted surface.
Reader Guitar of the Month

Reader Guitar of the Month: The Incredible Shrinking, Tenor-Tuned Jaguar

A failed quest for a 5-string tenor Jaguar led our reader to a radical rethink of a Squier Mini Jazzmaster.

Vintage Vault: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Vintage Guitars at the Movies
Vintage Vault

Vintage Vault: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Vintage Guitars at the Movies

Our columnist takes a closer look at the gear featured in classic films.

Wizard of Odd: The Quirks of Vintage Guitars and New Puppies
Wizard of Odd

Wizard of Odd: The Quirks of Vintage Guitars and New Puppies

A 1960s Guyatone electric provides some insight on raising a new dog.

Three men hold electric guitars in a music studio, surrounded by tools and equipment.
Last Call

Last Call: Verifying the Vintage

Counterfeiters are getting terrifyingly good. Our columnist takes three of his vintage Les Pauls to a Nashville forensic lab to find out what he’s really sitting on.

Close-up of a black guitar effects pedal with various knobs on a light-colored guitar body.
On Bass

On Bass: Are You Playing With Your Ears or Your Eyes?

Why the gear that looks the part doesn’t always sound it—and how to stop letting a logo do your listening for you.

Esoterica Electrica: What a Neck Joint Says About Your Guitar
Esoterica Electrica

Esoterica Electrica: What a Neck Joint Says About Your Guitar

For centuries, neck and body belonged together like a marriage—glued, permanent, born whole. Then Leo Fender turned the neck into a module held on by four screws. Jol Dantzig traces the divide, and the mythology that hardened around each side.

Acoustic Soundboard: A New Technique From a Romanian Violinist
Acoustic Soundboard

Acoustic Soundboard: A New Technique From a Romanian Violinist

Guest contributor Brad Barr shares how a 1993 film on Roma music changed how he approaches the guitar.

Fender Twin Reverb guitar amplifier on a concrete surface with a wooden background.
On the Bench

On the Bench: A 1965 Fender Twin Reverb

This Twin came in as someone’s noisy “daily driver”—almost entirely original after 60 years of hard use. Here’s how a careful refurbish gets it stable for decades more, vintage tubes and all.