
From voltage conversion to capacitors, pentodes, and class A operation, we demystify the basics of tube-amp functionality.
Put your hand in front of an empty electric socket, and you won't get a shock— because electrons just don't fly through space, right? Well … they will under the right conditions—like inside a vacuum tube.
Here we're going to take a look at the inner workings of standard amplifier circuits—the tubes, transformers, resistors, and capacitors that work together to create the amazing tones that have powered countless songs for the past 60+ years. While this stuff may be daunting to some of you, take heart—this is century-old technology. The basic concepts really are not too difficult to grasp.
We'll discuss amplifier circuits by looking at my absolute favorite small amp, a 1960s Vox AC4. While it's small and simple, an AC4 actually is not the simplest guitar amp out there. Unlike Fender's earliest tweed Champs, the AC4 has a tone control and tremolo, which gives us a bit more to talk about.
But before we get started, let's make it clear that this article is not in any way encouraging or equipping you to open up the back of your amp and start poking around. Make no mistake: Amplifier circuits, even when unplugged, contain voltages that can kill you. And if you're an amp tech, please excuse any oversimplification in the discussion—this is a primer for general consumption, not a compendium of possible exceptions and anomalous phenomena.
The Vacuum Tube
First, let's talk about some basic principles of electricity. An electron—the heartbeat of electric energy—is a negatively charged subatomic particle. In a vacuum (i.e., in the absence of air and matter), an electron will, in fact, fly through space if attracted by a sufficient positive charge—because opposites attract. Experiments conducted well over a century ago demonstrated that electrons will not only fly through space, but they can also be controlled. Scientists showed that, in a vacuum, electrons flowing from a heated metal element—the cathode—and being pulled toward a positively charged element—the anode—can be deflected by a magnetic field.
Cathode vs. Fixed Bias
A Vox AC4, like many amps, is designed to make the power tube's cathode slightly positive—a state that is commonly referred to in the guitar universe as cathode biased. Other amps, instead, put a negative charge on the power tube's grid. That's called fixed bias, and it has a similar effect. Either method causes electrons to stay put on the cathode until needed.
Learn how to control that magnetic field accurately and, as RCA did, you can display an image of Felix the Cat on a phosphorescent surface at the far end of the tube. The tube used in that case was the cathode ray tube (aka CRT)—better known today as an old, pre-LCD/LED/plasma television.
In guitar amps, we're not that interested in displaying images with our tubes, but we're still very interested in controlling those electrons—and we can use a guitar to do it. Picture this: In the center of a tube's glass envelope is a cathode. It carries just a slight positive charge, and it's ready to release a gazillion electrons. It's especially ready if it's been heated. Surrounding the cathode is the anode—although in the guitar universe we typically call it the plate. The plate carries a high positive charge that's ready to pull those negative electrons toward it. To the highly positive plate, the cathode's slight positive charge still makes the cathode seem negative (we'll talk more about this slight positive charge later). If you place these two elements in a vacuum and power them up, electrons will fly relentlessly toward the plate. When you add a third element—the grid—between the two, you can control the flow of electrons. And when you position the grid close to the cathode and connect the grid to the relatively tiny voltages coming from your guitar pickups, something interesting happens: The tiny signal unleashes a flood of electrons, allowing them to fly freely to the plate. That rush of electrons from the cathode to the plate mirrors the signal from the guitar, amplifying its signal many times over.
Okay, so let's get back to that earlier mention of the slight positive charge. The reason we want the cathode to carry a slight positive charge is that it makes the grid, with no charge yet applied, seem negative. Voltages are relative. And while opposites attract, like charges repel. The apparently negative grid close to the cathode will keep those negatively charged electrons in place until the guitar signal is ready to swing the grid positive to release them.
One other useful electron-related fact to know is the difference between voltage and current. Think of current as the amount of water flowing through a pipe. More current means more water being delivered. Voltage, on the other hand, is like water pressure— it's the force behind that water. Increase the voltage (pressure) and you'll increase the current (amount of flow). A resistor acts like a constriction in the pipe, with more resistance being analogous to a tighter constriction. So it follows that placing a different resistor in a circuit will affect both the voltage and the current.
What actually goes on inside a guitar amplifier is obviously a bit more complex than just the flow of electrons in tubes, though. Next we'll do a quick overview of the additional parts involved, followed by more detailed, part-by-part descriptions.
The Voltages
The first and largest component in an amp circuit, aside from the speaker, is the power transformer. It supplies electricity to the circuit, converting AC voltage from the wall to proper AC voltages for the amp. AC (aka alternating current) is a sine wave of electricity—an alternating positive and negative voltage coming from our electric sockets at 120 volts, 60 sine waves a second in the U.S. (These operating voltages vary around the world. Standard voltage can be 100, 120, or 230 volts, at 50 or 60 cycles per second.)
AC4 Tubes
The AC4 uses four tubes—an EZ80 rectifier, an EF86 preamp tube, an EL84 power tube, and an ECC83 (12AX7)—to drive the tremolo circuit (which Vox calls a "vibrato" circuit.) The AC4 is designed to provide the plates of the latter three tubes with a different DC voltage that's appropriate for that tube.
The AC4's power transformer elevates the 120 AC volts to 250 volts AC, and then sends that voltage on to the rectifier tube, the first tube in the circuit. The rectifier tube's job is to convert AC voltage to DC (aka direct current—a steady positive voltage rather than a sine wave). The power transformer's other job is to supply low AC voltage to the filaments (the heaters) inside every tube in the amp—that's what gets the cathodes hot. The filaments in the AC4's tubes all work off of 6.3 volts.
Converting the power transformer's AC voltage to DC voltage coming from it isn't steady, it's more of a ripple. Filter capacitors—the large, cylindrically shaped components that come next in the circuit—help smooth out the ripples in the DC voltage. Filter capacitors are similar in construction to batteries in that they store a charge—a potentially lethal charge—even after the amp is unplugged. This is why you should never poke around inside an amp unless you've been trained to safely discharge the caps.
The high and relatively steady DC voltage dispensed by filter capacitors goes to the tube plates—the elements that need that high, positive, electron-attracting charge. The amount of voltage on a tube's plate is determined by the voltage coming off the filter caps, and also by resistors positioned along the DC line. With a high DC voltage, the plates are ready to start pulling electrons.
To the uninitiated, circuit schematics can look like a rat's nest of wires and components arranged in a way that saves space on paper—but that also needs to be mentally untangled in order to truly understand the circuit. Here is a 1960s Vox AC4 schematic, rearranged and color-coded to help you decipher what's going on. The original Vox numbering system for the resistors and capacitors (R1, R2, C1, C2, etc.) is included, in case you want to follow along using the original Vox schematic.
Note:AC and DC voltages can coexist on the same wire. In a guitar amp, the AC guitar signal is imposed on top of the high DC voltages. Fortunately, that AC signal can be separated: Capacitors in the circuit block DC voltages but allow the AC guitar signal to get through.
The Guitar Signal
We all know your guitar's signal comes from your pickups, but to understand the amplified signal, let's start at electrical ground. In practice, ground in a guitar amp means a connection to the chassis. (In the AC4 schematic, the ground connections look like upside-down Christmas trees.) Electrons flowing through a tube originate from ground. The cathodes of the EF86 and the EL84 each have a resistor attached to ground. This creates the small DC voltage on their cathodes to prevent the electrons from flowing. When the guitar signal reaches the grid, the electrons then flow. However, the cathode resistor alone would also affect electron flow when the guitar is played. A bypass capacitor is put in parallel with the resistor to increase gain and allow AC electrons to effortlessly get through. The electrons released by the guitar signal flow from ground to the EL86 cathode, then to the plate, through a .047μF signal capacitor, and through the volume potentiometer to the grid of the EL84. At the EL84, a similar electron flow takes place, but this time it's more powerful. Enough electrons will travel from the EL84's plate to the output transformer to drive the speaker.
Here we see a view of the AC4's chassis with the back panel removed (above), and with the chassis removed from the amp (below)—a design that makes it a bit of a chore to try out tubes from various manufacturers, both old and new stock.
The electrons don't stop at the output transformer, though. If you look at the schematic, you'll note that they pass through it and cycle back to ground. In a way, you can think of an amplifier as an electron circulator whose ultimate goal is to send electrons through the output transformer. Our job as guitarists is simply to get those electrons to do that in tune and with reasonable timing.
The “Vibrato Oscillator" Circuit
You're probably familiar with the mix up in terminology between "vibrato" and "tremolo." The 1960s Vox AC4 schematic used "vibrato" to refer to the oscillation in volume that is more commonly referred to as "tremolo." Because some of you may want to refer to the original AC4 schematic, we'll stick with the company's terminology here.
The AC4's ECC83 (12AX7) vibrato tube creates a low-frequency oscillation. That oscillating voltage is connected to the cathode of the EF86 tube, which affects the bias. Think of it as sending a very low-sound signal to the EF86's cathode—maybe 2–10 Hz (cycles per second). These frequencies are way too low for the human ear to detect, but they do affect electron flow in the EF86 from 2 to 10 times per second.
Components in More Detail
Now that we've got our quick overview of how an amp works out of the way, let's get into some more detailed descriptions, component by component.
Power transformer
The power transformer is the amp's larger transformer. It converts 120V wall voltage (240V in many countries) to a high AC voltage entering the rectifier (EZ80 in the case of the Vox AC4) tube. The transformer also supplies 6.3V AC to the filaments (heating elements) of the tubes. (Some rectifier tubes require 5V for the filaments, but not the AC4's EZ80 tube.)
Capacitors (aka caps)
Capacitors are shown in the schematic as two parallel lines perpendicular to the wiring. In some schematics, one of the lines may be curved. There are three types of capacitors in a guitar amp—filter, bypass, and signal—and their values are measured in microfarads, which are designated by the symbol μF.
Filter capacitors are large metal cylinders that, like batteries, hold a charge—even long after the amp has been unplugged. Unlike batteries for household items like flashlights and smoke detectors, they hold potentially lethal voltages. These are why you don't mess around inside your amp unless you know how to do so safely. The rectifier tube's purpose is to convert the AC voltage (a sine wave) into a constant DC voltage to power the tubes. The rectifier tube does a good but not perfect job. What emerges is actually a ripple-like DC voltage, so the filter capacitors help reduce the ripple by storing and releasing high voltages. Filter caps typically have values in the range of 8–50 μF, sometimes higher. The AC4 uses two 32 μF caps and one 8 μF cap. The two 32s are actually both inside one cylinder—i.e., they are a single component in the amp. The 8 μF cap is a separate component.
As previously mentioned, in an AC4 a resistor and a bypass capacitor are connected to the cathodes of the preamp tube and the power tube, wired in parallel—meaning, side-by-side. (In the AC4 schematic, the cathode is the lower element in the tube diagram.) Current flowing through a resistor causes a change in voltage. Cathode resistors are used to add DC voltage to the cathodes (2.7V for the EF86 and 8.5V for the EL84). The purpose is to make the cathode positive in relation to the grid. That cathode resistor, however, also resists the guitar signal's current flow. Hence, the parallel addition of a bypass capacitor. Since a capacitor will block DC but allow AC to freely pass through, the bypass cap does what its name implies—it allows the electrons needed for amplifying the guitar signal to bypass the resistor and flow freely through the cathode. In an AC4, the EF86 and EL84 bypass capacitors are both 25 μF. Larger values would let more bass through, while smaller values would reduce it.
Signal capacitors, meanwhile, are the small caps inside the amp, and they perform two critical functions. First, they block DC voltage while allowing AC voltages (like the guitar signal) to pass through. They also determine, according to their value, which guitar frequencies will pass through. In other words, signal caps define the tone of the amp. AC4 signal-cap values range from .1 μF–.001 μF. Smaller values (like the .001 μF cap on the AC4's tone control) allow only treble frequencies to pass through. Put another way, the tone control sends high frequencies to ground instead of letting them reach the power tube.
Resistors
These are the small, cylindrical components with color-coded stripes indicating their value. If you haven't already guessed by their name, they resist the flow of electricity. They are represented in the schematic as a peaks-and-valleys shape, like a seismograph reading or a few capital V's strung together. Higher values resist the flow more than lower values. In doing so, they decrease voltage as electrons try to travel through.
Resistance is measured in ohms, often using the symbol Ω. A "k" after a number indicates thousands (i.e., 220k Ω = 220,000 Ω). "M" or "meg" indicates millions. The lowest value seen in an AC4 is 150 Ω, while the highest is 10M Ω (10 million ohms). In addition to ohms, resistors have a wattage rating. Most resistors in amps are rated at 1/2 watt. Wattage needs to be higher if the resistor is in the power section. In an AC4, the 1k Ω resistor located between the first two filter caps is rated at 5 watts. (Note: some amps will use a component called a "choke" here rather than a resistor. A choke is an inductor that looks like a small transformer. Inductors don't like changes in current flow, which means they will help choke out some of the ripple we spoke about, reducing amp hum.)
Preamp Tubes
The first tube that your guitar pickups' signal will get to is the first preamp tube. In many amps, it's a 12AX7 (ECC83 in Brit parlance), but in the Vox AC4 it's an EF86. Remember the three elements inside a tube—the cathode, plate, and grid? The presence of those three elements define the tube as a triode tube. An EF86 adds two more elements, making it a pentode (from the Greek term "penta," meaning "five").
The two additional elements within a pentode are the screen and the suppressor. Like the grid, the screen and suppressor are wire wraps inside the tube, not continuous metal. This allows them to impose charges that affect the electrons while still allowing the majority of electrons to pass through. The presence of the cathode and plate within the tube makes the tube itself something of a capacitor. To reduce that unwanted capacitance, the screen is placed between the cathode and the plate, with a DC voltage applied. The suppressor is the wire wrap closest to the plate, and it is connected to the cathode. (In an EL84, this connection is made within the base of the tube.) Because the suppressor has large gaps in it, it has virtually no effect on electron flow from the cathode. Still, some electrons will hit the plate and bounce off. The suppressor sends the electrons from these "secondary emissions" back to the plate.
Power Tubes
Just as the guitar signal is amplified by the preamp tube, the signal from the preamp tube is amplified by the power tube. In an AC4, it's an EL84. The five elements in this pentode tube perform the same functions as the triode EF86's elements, only with greater current passing through.
Vibrato Oscillator
Besides preamp and power tubes, you'll see another tube in our AC4 and most other amps with a tremolo and/or reverb circuit. Often, as is the case with the AC4, it's a 12AX7 (ECC83).
Looking at the schematic, you'll notice something different about the 12AX7 relative to the EF86. It's a dual triode, meaning it has two separate triodes in a single tube. As used in the AC4 vibrato circuit, the two halves work closely together.
Unlike some other amps' tremolo circuits, which let you control the speed and intensity of the effect, the AC4's only offers a knob to govern speed. When the AC4's footswitch is open (i.e., when its internal contacts don't make a connection), the vibrato circuit is heard. It sends a voltage to the cathode of the EF86 preamp tube in pulses, while an array of capacitors and resistors along with the speed control determine the rate. Closing the footswitch sends the oscillation to ground, deactivating the vibrato effect.
The two halves of the 12AX7 are wired to invert the AC sine wave. Electron flow in the two halves works 180 degrees apart— completely opposite. There are three signal capacitors in the vibrato circuit, and each one offsets the sine wave 60 degrees. The vibrato speed control affects that offset. As mentioned, think of the vibrato circuit as outputting a low-frequency oscillation, 2–10 cycles per second—too low to hear as a sound, but affecting the EF86's cathode bias that many times a second.
If you look at the schematic, you'll see that the oscillation originates on the right side of the 12AX7, sending it to the grid on the left side. The cathode (pin 3) sends the oscillating voltage to the EF86. The result is a variation in the preamp tube's ability to allow electrons to flow, 2 to10 times per second.
Output Transformer
It may seem strange, but an amp's output transformer doesn't just provide power in any old way— it's critical to shaping the amp's sound. It does something interesting. Electrons flow through the power tubes' plates at high voltages but low current. The output transformer converts that to a low-voltage, highcurrent signal that will drive the speaker.
The high DC voltage on the tube side of the output transformer will not pass to the speaker side—the output transformer blocks DC. But it will transfer the AC guitar signal to the speaker side.
Output transformers are rated in impedance (i.e., in ohms) on the tube side, and resistance (in ohms matching the speaker) and watts on the speaker side. Impedance for an EL84 is approximately 5K Ω. The AC4's 8"speaker is rated at 3.2 Ω (basically 4 Ω). A single EL84 puts out 4 to 5 watts, so the speaker needs to be able to handle that (it shouldn't be a problem for most speakers—that wattage is pretty low).
The ground connection plays a big role in understanding the flow of electrons through the power tube and to the output transformer. This simplified schematic shows the basic circuit. The amplified guitar signal pulls electrons from ground, through the bypass capacitor to the EL84 tube, through the output transformer, and through the filter capacitor back to ground.
Class-A Operation
The designation of "class A" is often a topic of hot debate for some tube-amp enthusiasts. A guitar amp can run its tubes in class A, class AB, or class B. (Other classes exist, but not for audio applications.) Class A describes an amp in which a power tube conducts the entire sine wave of the guitar signal. Amps with two power tubes can divide that signal between the tubes, with one handling the "down" half of the guitar signal's sine wave and the other handling the "up" half. It's also referred to as "push-pull" operation. A perfect division between the halves is class B. In class AB operation—which is typical for many amps with two power tubes—each tube handles more than half, but not the full wave.
Any amp with a single power tube (aka "single-ended" amps) will always be class A—that single tube must handle the entire wave. That means our AC4 is class A, too. That said, amps with four power tubes typically pair two sets of class-AB-operating tubes, working much like a two-tube amp but adding power to each half of the sine wave. Similarly, amps with more than one power tube can still achieve single-ended, class-A operation by wiring two tubes in parallel. This allows them to essentially act as a single, more-powerful tube (the Gibson GA-8 is a good example of this).
Tube Diagrams
Note that the arrangement of elements in a tube diagram is schematic, not actual. In the EL84, for instance, the cathode sits in the center of the tube, with the filament located inside the cathode. The other elements (grid, screen, suppressor, and plate) surround the cathode, in that order.
The cathode and plate are made from bent metal. The grid, screen, and suppressor, however, are wrapped wires. That's how the electrons can travel almost unimpeded from the cathode to the plate—there's space between the wire wraps.
Dotted lines in the tube diagram for the grid, screen, and suppressor reflect the fact that these elements are wire wraps, not solid metal.
Let the Electrons Flow
Now that you know the fundamentals of a tube amplifier, take some time to study the amp schematic. (The AC4 schematic shown here has been redrawn, color-coded, and notated to help clarify the concepts.) It'll probably take several times of going over it to get things down, and you should always be very familiar with the schematic of any amp you're working on. Again, keep in mind that the voltages stored in amplifier capacitors are lethal. If you're not familiar with how to safely drain them of their charges, make sure you get a qualified amp technician to perform any mods or repairs.
If you'd like to start your journey toward being more proficient with amps, there are lots of great books and online sources that will help. Free PDFs of Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series, Module 6—Introduction to Electronic Emission , Tubes, and Power Supplies are available online. Jack Darr's Electric Guitar Amplifier Handbook, Norman Crowhurst's Basic Audio, and Morgan Jones' Valve Amplifiers are also great books to track down—or you can try to locate a vintage RCA Receiving Tube Manual. If not, then simply warm up those tubes, crank the volume, play a power chord, and listen to those electrons flow!
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Stevie Van Zandt with “Number One,” the ’80s reissue Stratocaster—with custom paisley pickguard from luthier Dave Petillo—that he’s been playing for the last quarter century or so.
With the E Street Band, he’s served as musical consigliere to Bruce Springsteen for most of his musical life. And although he stands next to the Boss onstage, guitar in hand, he’s remained mostly quiet about his work as a player—until now.
I’m stuck in Stevie Van Zandt’s elevator, and the New York City Fire Department has been summoned. It’s early March, and I am trapped on the top floor of a six-story office building in Greenwich Village. On the other side of this intransigent door is Van Zandt’s recording studio, his guitars, amps, and other instruments, his Wicked Cool Records offices, and his man cave. The latter is filled with so much day-glo baby boomer memorabilia that it’s like being dropped into a Milton Glaser-themed fantasy land—a bright, candy-colored chandelier swings into the room from the skylight.
There’s a life-size cameo of a go-go dancer in banana yellow; she’s frozen in mid hip shimmy. One wall displays rock posters and B-movie key art, anchored by a 3D rendering of Cream’s Disraeli Gearsalbum cover that swishes and undulates as you walk past it. Van Zandt’s shelves are stuffed with countless DVDs, from Louis Prima to the J. Geils Band performing on the German TV concert seriesRockpalast. There are three copies ofIggy and the Stooges: Live in Detroit. Videos of the great ’60s-music TV showcases, from Hullabaloo to Dean Martin’s The Hollywood Palace, sit here. Hundreds of books about rock ’n’ roll, from Greil Marcus’s entire output to Nicholas Schaffner’s seminal tome, The Beatles Forever, form a library in the next room.
But I haven’t seen this yet because the elevator is dead, and I am in it. Our trap is tiny, about 5' by 5'. A dolly filled with television production equipment is beside me. There’s a production assistant whom I’ve never met until this morning and another person who’s brand new to me, too, Geoff Sanoff. It turns out that he’s Van Zandt’s engineer—the guy who runs this studio. And as I’ll discover shortly, he’s also one of the several sentinels who watch over Stevie Van Zandt’s guitars.
There’s nothing to do now but wait for the NYFD, so Sanoff and I get acquainted. We discover we’re both from D.C. and know some of the same people in Washington’s music scene. We talk about gear. We talk about this television project. I’m here today assisting an old pal, director Erik Nelson, best known for producing Werner Herzog’s most popular documentaries, like Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Van Zandt has agreed to participate in a television pilot about the British Invasion. After about half an hour, the elevator doors suddenly slide open, and we’re rescued, standing face-to-face with three New York City firefighters.
As our camera team sets up the gear, Sanoff beckons me to a closet off the studio’s control room. I get the sense I am about to get a consolation prize for standing trapped in an elevator for the last 30 minutes. He pulls a guitar case off the shelf—it’s stenciled in paint with the words “Little Steven” on its top—snaps open the latches, and instantly I am face to face with Van Zandt’s well-worn 1957 Stratocaster. Sanoff hands it to me, and I’m suddenly holding what may as well be the thunderbolt of Zeus for an E Street Band fan. My jaw drops when he lets me plug it in so he can get some levels on his board, and the clean, snappy quack of the nearly 70-year-old pickups fills the studio. For decades, Springsteen nuts have enjoyed a legendary 1978 filmed performance of “Rosalita” from Phoenix, Arizona, that now lives on YouTube. This is the Stratocaster Van Zandt had slung over his shoulder that night. It’s the same guitar he wields in the famous No Nukes concert film shot at Madison Square Garden a year later, in 1979. My mind races. The British Invasion is all well and essential. But now I’m thinking about Van Zandt’s relationship with his guitars.
Stevie Van Zandt's Gear
Van Zandt’s guitar concierge Andy Babiuk helped him plunge deeper down the Rickenbacker rabbit hole. Currently, Van Zandt has six Rickenbackers backstage: two 6-strings and four 12-strings.
Guitars
- 1957 Fender Stratocaster (studio only)
- ’80s Fender ’57 Stratocaster reissue “Number One”
- Gretsch Tennessean
- 1955 Gibson Les Paul Custom “Black Beauty” (studio only)
- Rickenbacker Fab Gear 2024 Limited Edition ’60s Style 360 Model (candy apple green)
- Rickenbacker Fab Gear 2023 Limited Edition ’60s Style 360 Model (snowglo)
- Rickenbacker 2018 Limited Edition ’60s Style 360 Fab Gear (jetglo)
- Two Rickenbacker 1993Plus 12-strings (candy apple purple and SVZ blue)
- Rickenbacker 360/12C63 12-string (fireglo)
- Vox Teardrop (owned by Andy Babiuk)
Amps
- Two Vox AC30s
- Two Vox 2x12 cabinets
Effects
- Boss Space Echo
- Boss Tremolo
- Boss Rotary Ensemble
- Durham Electronics Sex Drive
- Durham Electronics Mucho Busto
- Durham Electronics Zia Drive
- Electro-Harmonix Satisfaction
- Ibanez Tube Screamer
- Voodoo Labs Ground Control Pro switcher
Strings and Picks
- D’Addario (.095–.44)
- D’Andrea Heavy
Van Zandt has reached a stage of reflection in his career. Besides the Grammy-nominated HBO film, Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple, which came out in 2024, he recently wrote and published his autobiography, Unrequited Infatuations (2021), a rollicking read in which he pulls no punches and makes clear he still strives to do meaningful things in music and life.
His laurels would weigh him down if they were actually wrapped around his neck. In the E Street Band, Van Zandt has participated in arguably the most incredible live group in rock ’n’ roll history. And don’t forget Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes or Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. He created both the Underground Garage and Outlaw Country radio channels on Sirius/XM. He started a music curriculum program called TeachRock that provides no-cost resources and other programs to schools across the country. Then there’s the politics. Via his 1985 record, Sun City, Van Zandt is credited with blasting many of the load-bearing bricks that brought the walls of South African apartheid tumbling into dust. He also acted in arguably the greatest television drama in American history, with his turn as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos.
Puzzlingly, Van Zandt’s autobiography lacks any detail on his relationship with the electric guitar. And Sanoff warns me that Van Zandt is “not a gearhead.” Instead he has an organization in place to keep his guitar life spinning like plates on the end of pointed sticks. Besides Sanoff, there are three others: Ben Newberry has been Van Zandt’s guitar tech since the beginning of 1982. Andy Babiuk, owner of Rochester, New York, guitar shop Fab Gear and author of essential collector reference books Beatles Gear and Rolling Stones Gear (the latter co-authored by Greg Prevost) functions as Van Zandt’s guitar concierge. Lastly, luthier Dave Petillo, based in Asbury Park, New Jersey, oversees all the maintenance and customization on Van Zandt’s axes.
“I took one lesson, and they start to teach you the notes. I don’t care about the notes.” —Stevie Van Zandt
I crawl onto Zoom with Van Zandt for a marathon session and come away from our 90 minutes with the sense that he is a man of dichotomies. Sure, he’s a guitar slinger, but he considers his biggest strengths to be as an arranger, producer, and songwriter. “I don’t feel that being a guitar player is my identity,” he tells me. “For 40 years, ever since I made my first solo record, I just have not felt that I express myself as a guitar player. I still enjoy it when I do it; I’m not ambivalent. When I play a solo, I am in all the way, and I play a solo like I would like to hear if I were in the audience. But the guitar part is really part of the song’s arrangement. And a great solo is a composed solo. Great solos are ones you can sing, like Jimi Hendrix’s solo in ‘All Along the Watchtower.’”
In his autobiography, Van Zandt mentions that his first guitar was an acoustic belonging to his grandfather. “I took one lesson, and they start to teach you the notes. I don’t care about the notes,” Van Zandt tells me. “The teacher said I had natural ability. I’m thinking, if I got natural ability, then what the fuck do I need you for? So I never went back. After that, I got my first electric, an Epiphone. It was about slowing down the records to figure out with my ear what they were doing. It was seeing live bands and standing in front of that guitar player and watching what they were doing. It was praying when a band went on TV that the cameraman would occasionally go to the right place and show what the guitar player was doing instead of putting the camera on the lead singer all the time. And I’m sure it was the same for everybody. There was no concept of rock ’n’ roll lessons. School of Rock wouldn’t exist for another 30 years. So, you had to go to school yourself.”
By the end of the 1960s, Van Zandt tells me he had made a conscious decision about what kind of player he wanted to be. “I realized that I really wasn’t that interested in becoming a virtuoso guitar player, per se. I was more interested in making sure I could play the guitar solo that would complement the song. I got more into the songs than the nature of musicianship.”
After the Beatles and the Stones broke the British Invasion wide open, bands like Cream and the Yardbirds most influenced him. “George Harrison would have that perfect 22-second guitar solo,” Van Zandt remembers. “Keith Richards. Dave Davies. Then, the harder stuff started coming. Jeff Beck in the Yardbirds. Eric Clapton with things like ‘White Room.’ But the songs stayed in a pop configuration, three minutes each or so. You’d have this cool guitar-based song with a 15-second, really amazing Jeff Beck solo in it. That’s what I liked. Later, the jam bands came, but I was not into that. My attention deficit disorder was not working for the longer solos,” he jokes. Watch a YouTube video of any recent E Street Band performance where Van Zandt solos, and the punch and impact of his approach and attack are apparent. At Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., last year, his solo on “Rosalita” was 13 powerful seconds.
Van Zandt and Bruce Springsteen’s relationship goes back to their earliest days on the Jersey shore. “Everybody had a different guitar; your guitar was your identity,” recalls Van Zandt. “At some point, a couple of years later, I remember Bruce calling me and asking me for my permission to switch to Telecaster. At that point, I was ready to switch to Stratocaster.”
Photo by Pamela Springsteen
Van Zandt left his Epiphone behind for his first Fender. “I started to notice that the guitar superstars at the time were playing Telecasters. Mike Bloomfield. Jeff Beck. Even Eric Clapton played one for a while,” he tells me. “I went down to Jack’s Music Shop in Red Bank, New Jersey, because he had the first Telecaster in our area and couldn’t sell it; it was just sitting there. I bought it for 90 bucks.”
In those days, and around those parts, players only had one guitar. Van Zandt recalls, “Everybody had a different guitar; your guitar was your identity. At some point, a couple of years later, I remember Bruce calling me and asking me for my permission to switch to Telecaster. At that point, I was ready to switch to Stratocaster, because Jimi Hendrix had come in and Jeff Beck had switched to a Strat. They all kind of went from Telecaster to Les Pauls. And then some of them went on to the Stratocaster. For me, the Les Paul was just too out of reach. It was too expensive, and it was just too heavy. So I said, I’m going to switch to a Stratocaster. It felt a little bit more versatile.”
Van Zandt still employs Stratocasters, and besides the 1957 I strummed, he was seen with several throughout the ’80s and ’90s. But for the last 20 or 25 years, Van Zandt has mainly wielded a black Fender ’57 Strat reissue from the ’80s with a maple fretboard and a gray pearloid pickguard. He still uses that Strat—dubbed “Number One”—but the pickguard has been switched to one sporting a purple paisley pattern that was custom-made by Dave Petillo.
Petillo comes from New Jersey luthier royalty and followed in the footsteps of his late father, Phil Petillo. At a young age, the elder Petillo became an apprentice to legendary New York builder John D’Angelico. Later, he sold Bruce Springsteen the iconic Fender Esquire that’s seen on the Born to Run album cover and maintained and modified that guitar and all of Bruce’s other axes until he passed away in 2010. Phil worked out of a studio in the basement of their home, not far from Asbury Park. Artists dropped in, and Petillo has childhood memories of playing pick-up basketball games in his backyard with members of the E Street Band. (He also recalls showing his Lincoln Logs to Johnny Cash and once mistaking Jerry Garcia for Santa Claus.)
“I was more interested in making sure I could play the guitar solo that would complement the song. I got more into the songs than the nature of musicianship.” —Stevie Van Zandt
“I’ve known Stevie Van Zandt my whole life,” says Petillo. “My dad used to work on his 1957 Strat. That guitar today has updated tuners, a bone nut, new string trees, and a refret that was done by Dad long ago. I think one volume pot may have been changed. But it still has the original pickups.” Petillo is responsible for a lot of the aesthetic flair seen on Van Zandt’s instruments. He continues, “Stevie is so much fun to work with. I love incorporating colors into things, and Stevie gets that. When you talk to a traditional Telecaster or Strat player, and you say, ‘I want to do a tulip paisley pickguard in neon blue-green,’ they’re like, ‘Holy cow, that’s too much!’ But for Stevie, it’s just natural. So I always text him with pickguard designs, asking him, ‘Which one do you like?’ And he calls me a wild man; he says, ‘I don’t have that many Strats to put them on!’ But I’ll go to Ben Newberry and say, ‘Ben, I made these pickguards; let’s get them on the guitar. And I’ll go backstage, and we’ll put them on. I just love that relationship; Stevie is down for it.”
Petillo takes care of the electronics on Van Zandt’s guitars. Almost all of the Strats are modified with an internal Alembic Stratoblaster preamp circuit, which Van Zandt can physically toggle on and off using a switch housed just above the input jack. Van Zandt tells me, “That came because I got annoyed with the whole pedal thing. I’m a performer onstage, and I’m integrated with the audience and I like the freedom to move. And if I’m across the stage and all of a sudden Bruce nods to me to take a solo, or there’s a bit in the song that requires a little bit of distortion, it’s just easier to have that; sometimes, I’ll need that extra little boost for a part I’m throwing in, and it’s convenient.”
In recent times, Van Zandt has branched out from the Stratocaster, which has a lot to do with Andy Babiuk's influence. The two met 20 years ago, and Babiuk’s band, the Chesterfield Kings, is on Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records. “He’d call me up and ask me things like, ‘What’s Brian Jones using on this song?’” explains Babiuk. “When I’d ask him why, he’d tell me, ‘Because I want to have that guitar.’ It’s a common thing for me to get calls and texts from him like that. And there’s something many people overlook that Stevie doesn’t advertise: He’s a ripping guitar player. People think of him as playing chords and singing backup for Bruce, but the guy rips. And not just on guitar, on multiple instruments.”
Van Zandt tells me he wanted to bring more 12-string to the E Street Band this tour, “just to kind of differentiate the tone.” He explains, “Nils is doing his thing, and Bruce is doing his thing, and I wanted to do more 12-string.” He laughs, “I went full Paul Kantner!” Babiuk helped Van Zandt plunge deeper down the Rickenbacker rabbit hole. Currently, Van Zandt has six Rickenbackers backstage: two 6-strings and four 12-strings. Each 12-string has a modified nut made by Petillo from ancient woolly mammoth tusk, and the D, A, and low E strings are inverted with their octave.
Van Zandt explains this to me: “I find that the strings ring better when the high ones are on top. I’m not sure if that’s how Roger McGuinn did it, but it works for me. I’m also playing a wider neck.”
Babiuk tells me about a unique Rick in Van Zandt’s rack of axes: “I know the guys at Rickenbacker well, and they did a run of 30 basses in candy apple purple for my shop. I showed one to Stevie, and purple is his color; he loves it. He asked me to get him a 12-string in the same color, and I told him, ‘They don’t do one-offs; they don’t have a custom shop,’ but it’s hard to say no to the guy! So I called Rickenbacker and talked them into it. I explained, ‘He’ll play it a lot on this upcoming tour.’ They made him a beautiful one with his OM logo.”
The purple one-off is a 1993Plus model and sports a 1 3/4" wide neck—1/8" wider than a normal Rickenbacker. Van Zandt loved it so much that he had Babiuk wrestle with Rickenbacker again to build another one in baby blue. Petillo has since outfitted them with paisley-festooned custom pickguards. When guitar tech Newberry shows me these unique axes backstage, I can see the input jack on the purple guitar is labeled with serial number 01001.“Some of my drive is based on gratitude,” says Van Zandt, “feeling like we are the luckiest guys in the luckiest generation ever.”
Photo by Rob DeMartin
Van Zandt also currently plays a white Vox Teardrop. That guitar is a prototype owned by Babiuk. “Stevie wanted a Teardrop,” Babiuk tells me, “but I explained that the vintage ones are hit and miss—the ones made in the U.K. were often better than the ones manufactured in Italy. Korg now owns Vox, and I have a new Teardrop prototype from them in my personal collection. When I showed it to him, he loved it and asked me to get him one. I had to tell him, ‘I can’t; it’s a prototype, there’s only one,’ and he asked me to sell him mine,” he chuckles. “I told him, ‘It’s my fucking personal guitar, it’s not for sale!’ So I ended up lending it to him for this tour, and I told him, ‘Remember, this is my guitar; don’t get too happy with it, okay?’
“He asked me why that particular guitar sounds and feels so good. Besides being a prototype built by only one guy, the single-coil pickups’ output is abnormally hot, and the neck feels like a nice ’60s Fender neck. Stevie’s obviously a dear friend of mine, and he can hold onto it for as long as he wants. I’m glad it’s getting played. It was just hanging in my office.”
Van Zandt tells me how Babiuk’s Vox Teardrop sums up everything he wants from his tone, and says, “It’s got a wonderfully clean, powerful sound. Like Brian Jones got on ‘The Last Time.’ That’s my whole thing; that’s the trick—trying to get the power without too much distortion. Bruce and Nils get plenty of distortion; I am trying to be the clean rhythm guitar all the time.”
If Van Zandt has a consigliere like Tony Soprano had Silvio Dante, that’s Newberry. Newberry has tech’d nearly every gig with Van Zandt since 1982. “Bruce shows move fast,” he tells me. “So when there’s a guitar change for Stevie, and there are many of them, I’m at the top of the stairs, and we switch quickly. There’s maybe one or two seconds, and if he needs to tell me something, I hear it. He’s Bruce’s musical director, so he may say something like, ‘Remind me tomorrow to go over the background vocals on “Ghosts,”’ or something like that. And I take notes during the show.”
“Everybody had a different guitar; your guitar was your identity. At some point, a couple of years later, I remember Bruce calling me and asking me for my permission to switch to a Telecaster.” —Stevie Van Zandt
When I ask Newberry how he defines Van Zandt’s relationship to the guitar, he doesn’t hesitate, snapping back, “It’s all in his head. His playing is encyclopedic, whether it’s Bruce or anything else. He may show up at soundcheck and start playing the Byrds, but it’s not ‘Tambourine Man,’ it’s something obscure like ‘Bells of Rhymney.’ People may not get it, but I’ve known him long enough to know what’s happening. He’s got everything already under his fingers. Everything.”
As such, Van Zandt says he never practices. “The only time I touch a guitar between tours is if I’m writing something or maybe arranging backing vocal harmonies on a production,” he tells me.
Before we say goodbye, I tell Van Zandt about my time stuck in his elevator, and his broad grin signals that I may not be the only one to have suffered that particular purgatory. When I ask him about the 1957 Stratocaster I got to play upon my release, he recalls: “Bruce Springsteen gave me that guitar. I’ve only ever had one guitar stolen in my life, and it was in the very early days of my joining the E Street Band. I only joined temporarily for what I thought would be about seven gigs, and in those two weeks or so, my Stratocaster was stolen. It was a 1957 or 1958. Bruce felt bad about that and replaced that lost guitar with this one. So I’ve had it a long, long time. Once that first one was stolen, I decided I would resist having a personal relationship with any one guitar. But that one being a gift from Bruce makes it special. I will never take it back on the road.”
After 50 years of rock ’n’ roll, if there is one word to sum up Stevie Van Zandt, it may be “restless”—an adjective you sense from reading his autobiography. He gets serious and tells me, “I’m always trying to catch up. The beginning of accomplishing something came quite late to me. I feel like I haven’t done nearly enough. What are we on this planet trying to do?” he asks rhetorically. “We’re trying to realize our potential and maybe leave this place one percent better for the next guy. And some of my drive is based on gratitude, feeling like we are the luckiest guys in the luckiest generation ever. That’s what I’m doing: I want to give something back. I feel an obligation.”
YouTube It
“Rosalita” is a perennial E Street Band showstopper. Here’s a close-up video from Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park last summer. Van Zandt’s brief but commanding guitar spotlight shines just past the 4:30 mark.
The latest multi-effect from Wampler is a dreamy if sometimes difficult-to-master delay/reverb combo.
Great, instantly useable reverb and delay tones. Impressive breadth of sounds in one box. Solid construction. Good value.
Controls and operation can feel confusing.
$299
Wampler Catacombs
wamplerpedals.com
“Modeling versus tube” might be the gear world title fight of the 2020s, but “LED menu versus none on multieffects” is a pretty riveting undercard. I have sympathies in both corners. The ocean-deep onscreen interface of theMeris Mercury X, for instance, was a bear to navigate, but it also yielded some of the most exciting and tweakable reverb I’ve ever heard. At the same time, I’ll always be partial to having every control I need at my fingertips, and every parameter a knob twirl away from just-right.In theory, the digitalWampler Catacombs fits into the second category, the one I prefer. It’s a super-loaded reverb and delay combo pedal, with seven delay algorithms and five reverb options that sound great. Though in practice, Catacombs sometimes turned out to be a bit more complicated to navigate than I expected.
Lost in the Catacombs
The Catacombs is one of those pedals that begs a dedicated read of the manual before you dive in. Wampler says that the interface enables users to “navigate effortlessly” without the use of onboard screens and menus. I was excited by this: Like I said, I don’t love getting lost down tiny LED display rabbit holes and would much rather have all I need at hand. The Catacombs technically satisfies that desire, but it also demonstrates tradeoffs involved with that design ethic. I’m alright with certain controls pulling double-duty, but when every single knob shares two functions, things can get hairy, and doing your preparation up front pays big dividends.
You have to press and hold the left footswitch for a second to access the alt controls (labeled in blue), including reverb selection on the main rotary knob. Though this doesn’t complicate matters too much when using a reverb or delay exclusively, it can be tricky when using a reverb and delay simultaneously. A few times, I scrambled to switch control modes to tame a super-loud runaway reverb or a self-oscillating delay, and the feeling of frantically spinning knobs with no impact because you’re not in the right control mode isn’t a good one. Additionally, you might not know where a given parameter is set because each knob is shared between the delay and reverb effect. The eight onboard preset slots take some of this guesswork away. And Catacombs would be a cinch in the studio once the control navigation becomes second-nature, but I got nervous thinking of trying to navigate any of these quirks during a set.
Entombed in Ambience
Catacombs’ operational challenges don’t take too much away from the whole experience because it sounds so great. Each of the six delay programs, and each of the five reverbs, were instantly useable and familiar. Side by side with my Walrus Fathom and EarthQuaker Avalanche Run, the plate, hall, and spring reverb modes held their own, and something about the pedal’s wet/dry mix made my playing feel especially alive, present, and cinematic at most settings. I was especially fond of the spring reverb with the decay maxed out—it was juicy and metallic in all the right ways.
The delay modules were just as satisfying. They include three algorithms for tape-style delays, two analog-style delays, and a single digital echo, and each mode offers a distinct texture and experience. The ability to quickly switch the effects from series to parallel offers fun and useful experimentation, letting you apply the reverb algorithm to just your dry signal, or to the repeats, too. I especially enjoyed sticking the plate reverb on my dry signal and leaving it off the delay, creating warped senses of space and continuity.
The Verdict
Though it sounds excellent, immersive, and inviting, I was flustered more than once while trying to bend Catacombs to my will. In some respects, I was reminded of a menu where you’re given three desirable options and have to pick just two. In this case, the options are affordability, sound quality, and user-friendliness. Catacombs is certainly reasonably priced and sounds excellent. But because it navigates a difficult middle path between skipping a cost-bumping digital menu and being more complex than more-straightforward, what-you-see-is-what-you-get units, you should make sure you’re comfortable with that compromise.
Martin Guitar unveils its 2025 NAMM Show lineup, featuring the limited-edition D-3 Millionth, Grand J-28E DN, Centennial Concert Uke, CEO-11, 00L Oliver, and D-Robert Goetzl 10.
These models join the refreshed Standard Series and Retro Plus guitars, showcasing Martin’s unwavering dedication to craftsmanship and creativity. Designed for musicians and collectors alike, they promise something truly extraordinary.
This special lineup of instruments will be on display at The 2025 NAMM Show in Anaheim, California, through Saturday, January 25, with more exciting releases to come.
For more information, please visit martinguitar.com.
D-3 MILLIONTH
The Martin D-3 Millionth is a breathtaking celebration of Martin Guitar’s rich legacy, craftsmanship, and the people behind it all. This limited-edition Dreadnought, marking the 3 millionth serialized Martin instrument, is a masterpiece in both sound and design that celebrates the “& Co.” in the company’s name.
Its top depicts a cross section of an American sycamore tree, featuring rings made of real sycamore and solid gold representing each year of the company’s growth, with diamonds marking major milestones in Martin’s 192-year history. The theme of “past, present, and future” is woven into every ornate detail, including its ebony headplate showcasing a diamond-filled Moravian star and an engraved 14-karat palladium pickguard, with rubies marking each of Martin’s three Nazareth-area factory locations since 1839.
On the back of the guitar, which is made of rare and coveted Brazilian rosewood, a beautiful sycamore tree of gold and pearl pays tribute to the countless employees who have left their fingerprints on the company’s legacy, from its early days in New York City to its longtime home in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
With only three of these guitars in existence—and only one for sale (serial number 3,000,002)—this awe-inspiring instrument is both a tribute to the workers who built the brand and a testament to the innovation that keeps Martin at the forefront of acoustic excellence.
D-300
Inspired by the D-3 Millionth, the top of this limited-edition Dreadnought also represents the cross section of an American sycamore tree, with rings made of real sycamore and silver representing each year of the company’s growth, and solid gold dots marking pivotal moments in Martin’s history.
Its Brazilian rosewood back features a sycamore tree made of abalone, symbolizing the countless employees who have left their mark, while rubies embedded in the inlaid ebony pickguard represent Martin’s three Nazareth-area factory locations since 1839.
With European flamed maple binding, Waverly gold tuners, and Liquidmetal® bridge pins with bezel-set emeralds, the D-300 is both a visual and sonic masterpiece, honoring Martin’s enduring commitment to quality, artistry, and the workers who built the brand.
Only 30 of these guitars are available for purchase.
GRAND J-28E DN
For the first time in over a century, Martin is thrilled to offer a one-of-a-kind double-neck instrument—the Grand J-28E DN. As a member of the popular Standard Series lineup, this all-new guitar combines Martin’s renowned quality and craftsmanship with modern innovation, featuring an acoustic-electric with a twelve and six-string neck, giving you the versatility to explore new sounds, tunings, and musical textures all on one guitar.
Its powerful Grand Jumbo body delivers a bold, resonant tone, with solid East Indian rosewood back and sides and a solid spruce top that ensures balance and clarity across all playing styles.
This double-neck guitar took years to perfect, and thanks to cutting-edge technology at Martin’s Nazareth factory, the Grand J-28E DN, featuring two compound dovetail neck joints and unique X bracing, is now available to the public. Both necks feature a smooth satin finish and ebony fingerboard, with the six-string neck offering a slightly slimmer profile at the nut. It also includes built-in custom Fishman® electronics, making it ready for the stage and studio.
With classic 28-style appointments and endless sonic possibilities, this guitar is a dream for players seeking an extraordinary instrument that’s anything but standard.
CENTENNIAL 1 CONCERT UKE
Celebrate a major milestone of Martin craftsmanship with the limited-edition Centennial 1 Concert Uke. This understated yet elegant ukulele honors 100 years of Martin producing concert-sized ukes, which have been cherished by players worldwide since 1925.
Crafted from solid sinker mahogany, reclaimed from the depths of Belizean rivers, this uke has a rich, warm tone and a striking grain that only nature could create. Its concert size offers a coveted balance, sitting between the smaller soprano and larger tenor, making it comfortable to play while delivering full, resonant sounds. The neck is also made from sinker mahogany paired with an East Indian rosewood fingerboard that stops at the body joint, a nod to vintage ukulele design that opens up more of the instrument’s top for increased resonance.
With only 91 instruments available, this vintage-inspired uke is a rare find for players and collectors alike. It even includes a commemorative paper label inside to mark this special milestone, featuring an image of the North Street factory where the first concert ukes were handcrafted 100 years ago.
CENTENNIAL CONCERT UKE
Only offered through 2025, this vintage-inspired ukulele also honors 100 years of Martin manufacturing concert-sized ukes.
Crafted in Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico, it's made from solid genuine mahogany, offering a blend of warmth and brightness with a punchy midrange that makes every note sing, while its select hardwood neck features an East Indian rosewood fingerboard that stops at the body joint. Coupled with spruce bracing, the design allows the body to resonate freely, resulting in a powerful, dynamic tonal response that honors the heritage of Martin’s original concert ukuleles.
Modern upgrades include Graph Tech RATIO® tuning machines, giving you the convenience and stability of a geared tuner while keeping the look and feel of a vintage friction peg. It also includes a commemorative paper label inside, featuring an image of the historic North Street factory, and is snugly housed in a softshell case.
The Centennial Concert Uke offers the chance to own a piece of Martin’s rich musical history, celebrating the world’s oldest surviving ukulele manufacturer.
CEO-11
The Martin CEO-11 is a striking, limited-edition acoustic-electric that blends artistry and craftsmanship in a way only Martin can. Designed by President and CEO Thomas Ripsam, this Grand Auditorium (M) model features a figured white oak multi-piece back and sides paired with an FSC®-certified European spruce top, offering a rich, dynamic sound that’s both powerful and warm.
The eye-catching New Horizons blue burst top and dark mahogany-colored sides create a look that’s as bold as the sound it creates. Unique inlays, including a custom Unalome symbol on the headplate, add a personal touch that speaks to finding your creative path.
With a two-piece flamed maple neck, European flamed maple binding, and scalloped spruce X bracing, the CEO-11 invites you to connect with your sound and express yourself fully. It’s equipped with Fishman Aura VT Blend electronics, custom-voiced to Thomas’ preference, ensuring that its tone stands out wherever you play.
The number 11, a “master number” that symbolizes intuition and creativity, aligned perfectly with the guitar’s artistic vision, acting as a subtle reminder of the journey every artist takes to find their true voice. Limited to only 1,111 models, the CEO-11 is built for players looking to make a statement—sonically and visually—while staying true to Martin’s legacy of unleashing the artist within. Each guitar includes a blue paper label signed and numbered by Thomas.
00L OLIVER
The Martin 00L Oliver is a stunning new model born from a unique collaboration between Martin Guitar and renowned artist Julie Heffernan. This limited-edition acoustic features Heffernan’s captivating oil painting “Self-Portrait as Arms and the Men,” beautifully reproduced on its FSC-certified solid spruce top.
Heffernan’s painting transforms the guitar into a canvas that tells a story every time you play it. Her surrealist landscape lays bare the conflict between nature and humankind's impact on the planet, and the result is something you can both showcase and play.
Beyond its eye-catching artwork, the 00L Oliver, named after Heffernan's son, is crafted with premium materials and appointments. With a sloped-shoulder Grand Concert body, its solid medium-flame koa satin back and sides bridge the gap between the rich tones of rosewood and the warm, resonant qualities of mahogany. Its FSC-certified satin spruce top also delivers balanced projection while underscoring Martin's commitment to sustainability.
With only 104 instruments available, the 00L Oliver is a harmonious blend of art and music, inspired by Heffernan’s visionary artwork and Martin’s legacy of excellence. Whether you're a collector, musician, or lover of fine art, this guitar promises to inspire creativity and unleash your inner artist.
D-ROBERT GOETZL 10
The D-Robert Goetzl 10 is a one-of-a-kind creation that lets both music and art take flight. Hand-painted by acclaimed artist Robert Goetzl, this stunning Martin Dreadnought features a vibrant hummingbird surrounded by bright, blooming flowers, bursting with color and life.
Just like a hummingbird, this guitar is light and agile, yet full of energy and vibrancy. The solid spruce top, adorned with Goetzl's artwork, ensures the guitar’s rich, resonant tone soars, while the solid East Indian rosewood back and sides provide deep bass and lush overtones.
Goetzl worked closely with Martin's expert craftspeople to bring his vision to life. “Not only are they making a beautiful body for me to work on, but once I hand it over, they help really make it special,” says Goetzl. From the hand-painted top to the final touches added by Martin’s team of artisans, this guitar is a true collaborative effort.
Complete with an abalone rosette, Waverly gold tuners, and a genuine mahogany neck, the D-Robert Goetzl 10 is a striking piece of playable art. Whether it’s perched on your wall or in your hands, this bird is ready to sing.
Across Frank Zappa’s monumental body of work, he injected rock-based music with compositional techniques straight out of the modern classical handbook, as well as groundbreaking studio trickery and a teenager’s wit. To match his untamable creativity, he famously demanded an unmatched level of musical dedication from his players, and his own guitar playing balanced that discipline with off-the-rails experimentation.
Across Frank Zappa’s monumental body of work, he injected rock-based music with compositional techniques straight out of the modern classical handbook, as well as groundbreaking studio trickery and a teenager’s wit. To match his untamable creativity, he famously demanded an unmatched level of musical dedication from his players, and his own guitar playing balanced that discipline with off-the-rails experimentation.
When considering Zappa’s legacy as a guitarist, we can’t separate it from his work as a composer, songwriter, producer, and all-around big personality. As a listener, you can love Zappa’s chamber music and simultaneously not be able to handle his lyrics; you can adore his guitar playing but prefer he keep his opinions to himself. Our list of favorite Zappa guitar-centric recordings covers a lot of musical ground but keeps it all about his playing.
Is Frank Zappa to blame for the sound of jam bands? When was Zappa’s best decade? And we’re looking at the connection between Zappa and Phish (who one of us calls “Zappa lite”). In a bonus segment, we’re playing “Did They Get It Right?” and examining the Grammys’ former category for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.