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Gear of the Year 2017

Another year, another dazzling parade of pedals, guitars, amps, modelers, and accessories that made our noggins spin.

Milkman Pint

True class-A amps usually have just one output tube, but the 10-watt, 1x12 Milkman Pint deploys two 6V6s in parallel, essentially treating them as a single tube for increased output. The Pint’s workmanship is faultless, its lightly overdriven tones have complexity, the tremolo and ’verb are to die for, and its beguiling clean tones make it ideal for refined jazz and fingerstyle guitarists playing in intimate venues.

$2,499 street
milkmansound.com

Click here to read the full review

This year’s Premier Gear Award winners are, as usual, an eclectic set—full of old-school vintage homage, leading-edge digital developments, and imaginative meetings of those worlds. Dig in and dig it as we revisit the gear that fired the enthusiasm and wonder of our editors and contributors in 2017.

See and hear Taylor’s Legacy Collection guitars played by his successor, Andy Powers.

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The Billy Idol guitarist rides his Knaggs into Nashville.

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Rick Derringer plays the Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1973—the year of “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo.”

Photo courtesy of Carl Lender/Wikipedia Commons

The guitarist and high-profile producer, whose career began with the ’60s garage-rock band the McCoys and included a historic run with Johnny and Edgar Winter, and, more recently, Ringo Starr, leaves behind a deep catalog.

Prolific American guitarist and producer Rick Derringer passed away on Monday, May 26, in Ormond Beach, Florida, at the age of 77. In the 1970s, with Edgar and Johnny Winter, and as a hit-making solo artist, he was a flamboyant stage presence whose biting tone and fluent classic-rock soloing made him a guitar-culture icon. An official cause of death has not been announced, but he suffered from heart ailments and had recently undergone a triple bypass.

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Cort Guitars announces a new multi-scale, seven string guitar in the KX507 series – the KX507MS Pale Moon. The addition to the beloved series shows Cort’s efforts to continue elevating their position in the marketplace. The guitar is now available online and in local retail stores.

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