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GALLERY: John Porter's Guitar Collection

Porter muses over the highlights of his vast collection used on records by everyone from B.B. King to Eric Clapton to the Smiths.

"Purchased from guitarist Jimmy Rip, this Tele has toured with Tom Verlaine and appeared on Mick Jagger's solo records. But it's also been played on an unknown blues record by Lucky Peterson," brags Porter of one of his favorite guitar records. "That record is called Double Dealing and there is some absolutely killing guitar on that record."

This is perhaps the most rare Iwase guitar: one volume, one tone, and a quality adjustable bridge, plus a raised pickguard and some beautiful shading on the burst.

A 6-string found in the workshop of the late luthier Yukichi Iwase may be the only one of these small, nearly full-scale guitars. Our columnist tells the story.

I’ve been thinking a lot about snowflakes lately. We are getting some snowy weather up my way, but there’s a few other items rattling around in my mind. Like, I just got a car for my daughter (thanks to those who bought guitars from me recently), and it’s so freakin’ cool. I bought her a Mini Cooper, and this thing is so rad! I was doing research on these models, and each one is sorta different as far as colors, racing stripes, wheels, etc. Her friends say she has a ā€œmain characterā€ car, but you’ll probably have to ask a teenager whatthat means.

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In this episode of 100 Guitarists, we’re talking all things surf rock, from reverb to tremolo picking and much more. And while ā€œMisirlouā€ is undisputedly his most influential work, maybe Dale’s best records didn’t come until a few decades later.

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Tetrarch, from left: Ryan Lerner, Diamond Rowe, Josh Fore, and Ruben Limas.

Photo by Guillermo Briceno

The heavy quartet, led by shredders Diamond Rowe and Josh Fore, returns with a second full-length that advances the nu-metal revival.

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Analog modulation guided by a digital brain willing to get weird.

Fun, fluid operation. Capable of vintage-thick textures at heavier gain settings. High headroom for accommodating other effects.

MIDI required to access more than one preset—which you’ll probably long for, given the breadth of voices.

$369

Kernom Elipse

kernom.com

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If you love modulation—and lots of it—you can eat up a lot of pedalboard space fast. Modulation effects can be super-idiosyncratic and specialized, which leads to keeping many around, particularly if you favor the analog domain. TheKernom Elipse multi-modulator is pretty big and, at a glance, might not seem the best solution for real estate scarcity. Yet the Elipse is only about 1 1/4" wider than two standard-sized Boss pedals side by side. And by combining an analog signal path with digital control, it makes impressive, efficient use of its size—stuffing fine-sounding harmonic tremolo, phaser, rotary-style, chorus, vibrato, flanger, and Uni-Vibe-style effects into a single hefty enclosure. Many of the effects can also be blended and morphed into one another using a rotary control aptly called ā€œmood.ā€ The Elipse, most certainly, has many of those.

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