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GALLERY: Gear of the Month 2012

See all 12 unique instruments featured as Gear of the Month in 2012.

"The guitarуs controls include a 3-way pickup selector, a tone and volume knob for each pickup, and a master volume. The Starcaster shown here has a natural finishяother choices available were black, blonde, tobacco sunburst, walnut, and white. This particular Fender model was the only non-Telecaster model to feature the Seth Lover-designed Wide Range humbuckers. These pickupsяoriginally used from у71пу79 in Telecaster Deluxes, Thinlines, and Customsяare described as having a fat, distinctive tone with a little more detail and clarity than the famous PAF pickups Lover designed for Gibson. While Fender didnуt lure away too many ES purists with the short-lived Starcasterяthe guitar was only manufactured from 1976п1980яit did eventually find favor with indie guitarists like Radioheadуs Jonny Greenwood, Phishуs Trey Anastasio (who plays a custom Langeudoc designed after the Starcaster), The Killersу Dave Keuning (who uses one in the bandуs videos for рFor Reasons Unknownс and рHumanс), and Arctic Monkeysу Jamie Cook (who rocks one during the video for рCrying Lightningс). "

Making a quiet, contemplative album allows Isbell to reflect on the material in a new way and to really explore the relationship between his guitar and voice, which he’d recently lost and reclaimed.

With his new album, the Americana hero faces the microphone alone—save for a 1940 Martin 0-17—and emerges with an album full of nuanced emotional touchstones framed by the gentle side of his virtuosic musicianship.

Imagine, just for a moment, that you’re a successful, internationally recognized singer, songwriter, and guitarist. (Nice dream, right?) You’ve been in the public eye nearly a quarter-century, and for all that time you’ve either been a band member or a band leader. Then one day you decide the time is right to step out on your own, for real. You write a bunch of new songs with the express intent of recording them solo—one voice and one acoustic guitar, performed simultaneously—and releasing the best of those recordings as your next album. No overdubs. No hiding behind other musicians. No hiding behind technology. For the first time, it’s all you and only you.

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Xotic revamps a classic Vox-boost-in-a-box pedal, creating a new one in the process.

Smart, feature-packed update on a classic. Nice size and price.

Small boost knob.

$180

Xotic Effects AC Booster V2

xotic.us

4
4
4
4.5

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Nashville luthier and guitar tech Dave Johnson shows us the baker's dozen of tools he thinks any guitar picker requires to be a guitar fixer.

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Paul Reed Smith cradles one of his company’s Charcoal Phoenix limited-edition guitars in front of a PRS Sonzera amp.

The storied guitar builder reflects on his dozen months sharing his experience, knowledge, and perspective with PG’s readers.

Over the past year, I’ve written a series of articles in Premier Guitar going over some of my, and our industry’s, views of guitar making. You can find all of them all online (and for those reading this online, the articles are collected here). What I am going to attempt to do for this final piece is boil down each of these articles to a “sort of” conclusion. I have enjoyed the process of writing and editing each one. For the most part, it’s been a lot of fun. So:

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