Benedetto brought a bevy of instruments to Montreal, including a 16" Sinfonietta as well as La Venezia, Bravo Elite, Bambino Elite and Andy Elite models.
Video Interview
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Mike Baranik uses exotic woods and innovative features to build guitars at his shop in California.
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Canadian Benoit Raby specializes in the art of classical and flamenco guitar making, but also makes a fretless instrument known as the oud.
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“The Black Cherry” by Montreal’s own Michael Greenfield, with inlay work by Larry Robinson, was also made for Jacques-André Dupont’s Red Guitar collection.
Video Interview
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Canadian Jeremy Clark of 52 Instrument Company displays his penchant for yellow cedar and Indian rosewood.
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French self-taught luthier Olivier Fanton d’Andon is known for his elegant designs and balanced tones.
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Galloup Guitars of Big Rapids, Michigan is a full service guitar facility where budding luthiers can learn the craft of guitar making. Custom guitars made at Galloup include small body guitars, baritones and everything inbetween.
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French luthier Christophe Grellier makes flat tops, archops and Weissenborns.
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Canadian Peter Hopkins is known for his modern interpretations of the archtop. Here is the “Red Tessa Nova” Jacques-Andre Dupont commissioned for the Red Archtop collection.
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Candian luthier Josh House specializes in steel string flat tops. This Piedmont (L-00) Pro has a Monkey Pod back and sides.
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Sigmund Johannessen is a Norwegian who immigrated to Canada. He specializes in hand-carved archtops.
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Canadian luthier Tony Karol builds custom guitars at his shop in Mississauga.
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Canadian Michael Kennedy is making guitars under the Indian Hill Guitar Company name. Kennedy completed a three-year apprenticeship with master luthier Sergei de Jonge.
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Kopo’s Fred Pons uses wood, carbon- and metal-based materials to create unique, ergonomic instruments, including these Malaga models.
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Lance Kragenbrink specializes in contemporary fingerstyle guitars, which he builds in his Vandercook Lake, MI, studio. This is his OM Fingerstylist.
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Canadian William “Grit” Laskin is the only instrument maker to have received Canada’s highest craft honor, the Saidye Bronfman Award For Excellence. Here is a close-up of Laskin’s “JATP 49,” his tribute to Oscar Peterson.
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In addition to building Gibson-style mandolins and D’Angelico replicas, Michael Lewis makes archtops of his own design. This one, “La Petite Rougette” is part of Jacques-André Dupont’s Red Guitar collection.
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Patrick Mailloux of Canada makes high-end classical and romantic guitars. This model has an Engelman Spruce top and cocobolo back and sides.
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Japanese luthier Michihiro Matsuda turned heads with his innovative designs. Matsuda studied under Ervin Somogyi and Frank Ford.
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New York’s Christian Mirabella is a top restorer of vintage archtops. His Trap Door guitar features sliding doors to alter the acoustic properties of the instrument.
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Edward Klein’s elliptical guitar project was supported by a grant from the Ontario Arts Council.
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Erich Soloman uses European spruce and European maple to build guitars one at a time in Epping, New Hampshire.
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Rolf Spuler is a Swiss-based luthier and engineer. He is shown here with his Paradis models, which are equipped with his proprietary undersaddle pickup system.
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Talk about a Sweet Rosette! (Sorry, couldn’t resist) US luthier Blair Sweet uses choice woods for a balanced acoustic tone. Rosette options include wood designs, bwb lam and abalone.
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Canadian Judy Threet specializes in small-bodied guitars which she adorns with creative and life-like inlays. Video Interview
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This instrument is the product of research on experimental classical guitars conducted by Florian Vorreiter in his Winnipeg workshop.
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Canadian Joseph Yanuziello doesn’t stop at traditional flat top guitars – he also makes resophonics, and various electric mandolins (including mandolas and mandocellos). This year he brought a bass, too.
Video Interview
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Gibson originally launched the EB-6 model with the intention of serving consumers looking for a “tic-tac” bass sound.
The Gibson EB-6 was announced in 1959 and came into the world in 1960, not with a dual-horn body but with that of an elegant ES-335. They looked stately, with a thin, semi-hollow body, f-holes, and a sunburst finish. Our pick for this Vintage Vault column is one such first-year model, in about as original condition as you’re able to find today. “Why?” you may be asking. Well, read on....
When the EB-6 was introduced, the Bass VI was still a glimmer in Leo Fender’s eye. The real competition were the Danelectro 6-string basses that seemed to have popped up out of nowhere and were suddenly being used on lots of hit records by the likes of Elvis, Patsy Cline, and other household names. Danos like the UB-2 (introduced in ’56), the Longhorn 4623 (’58), and the Shorthorn 3612 (’58) were the earliest attempts any company made at a 6-string bass in this style: not quite a standard electric bass, not quite a guitar, nor, for that matter, quite like a baritone guitar.
The only change this vintage EB-6 features is a replacement set of Kluson tuners.
Photo by Ken Lapworth
Gibson, Fender, and others during this era would in fact call these basses “baritone guitars,” to add to our confusion today. But these vintage “baritones” were all tuned one octave below a standard guitar, with scale lengths around 30", while most modern baritones are tuned B-to-B or A-to-A and have scale lengths between 26" and 30".)
At the time, those Danelectros were instrumental to what was called the “tic-tac” bass sound of Nashville records produced by Chet Atkins, or the “click-bass” tones made out west by producer Lee Hazlewood. Gibson wanted something for this market, and the EB-6 was born.
“When the EB-6 was introduced, the Bass VI was still a glimmer in Leo Fender’s eye.”
The 30.5" scale 1960 EB-6 has a single humbucking pickup, a volume knob, a tone knob, and a small, push-button “Tone Selector Switch” that engages a treble circuit for an instant tic-tac sound. (Without engaging that switch, you get a bass-heavy tone so deep that cowboy chords will sound like a muddy mess.)
The EB-6, for better or for worse, did not unseat the Danelectros, and a November 1959 price list from Gibson hints at why: The EB-6 retailed for $340, compared to Dano price tags that ranged from $85 to $150. Only a few dozen EB-6 basses were shipped in 1960, and only 67 total are known to have been built before Gibson changed the shape to the SG style in 1962.
Most players who come across an EB-6 today think it was a response to the Fender Bass VI, but the former actually beat the latter to the market by a full year.
Photo by Ken Lapworth
It’s sad that so few were built. Sure, it was a high-end model made to achieve the novelty tic-tac sound of cheaper instruments, but in its full-voiced glory, the EB-6 has a huge potential of tones. It would sound great in our contemporary guitar era where more players are exploring baritone ranges, and where so many people got back into the Bass VI after seeing the Beatles play one in the 2021 documentary, Get Back.
It’s sadder, still, how many original-era EB-6s have been parted out in the decades since. Remember earlier when I wrote that our Vintage Vaultpick was about as original as you could find? That’s because the model’s single humbucker is a PAF, its Kluson tuners are double-line, and its knobs are identical to those on Les Paul ’Bursts. So as people repaired broken ’Bursts, converted other LPs to ’Bursts, or otherwise sought to give other Gibsons a “Golden Era” sound and look ... they often stripped these forgotten EB-6 basses for parts.
This original EB-6 is up for sale now from Reverb seller Emerald City Guitars for a $16,950 asking price at the time of writing. The only thing that isn’t original about it is a replacement set of Kluson tuners, not because its originals were stolen but just to help preserve them. (They will be included in the case.)
With so few surviving 335-style EB-6 basses, Reverb doesn’t have a ton of sales data to compare prices to. Ten years ago, a lucky buyer found a nearly original 1960 EB-6 for about $7,000. But Emerald City’s $16,950 asking price is closer to more recent examples and asking prices.
Sources: Prices on Gibson Instruments, November 1, 1959, Tony Bacon’s “Danelectro’s UB-2 and the Early Days of 6-String Basses” Reverb News article, Gruhn’s Guide to Vintage Guitars, Tom Wheeler’s American Guitars: An Illustrated History, Reverb listings and Price Guide sales data.
Originally released in the 1980s, the Victory has long been a cult favorite among guitarists for its distinctive double cutaway design and excellent upper-fret access. These new models feature flexible electronics, enhanced body contours, improved weight and balance, and an Explorer headstock shape.
A Cult Classic Made Modern
The new Victory features refined body contours, improved weight and balance, and an updated headstock shape based on the popular Gibson Explorer.
Effortless Playing
With a fast-playing SlimTaper neck profile and ebony fretboard with a compound radius, the Victory delivers low action without fret buzz everywhere on the fretboard.
Flexible Electronics
The two 80s Tribute humbucker pickups are wired to push/pull master volume and tone controls for coil splitting and inner/outer coil selection when the coils are split.
For more information, please visit gibson.com.
Gibson Victory Figured Top Electric Guitar - Iguana Burst
Released in 1983, the Roland SDE-3000 rackmount delay was a staple for pro players of the era and remains revered for its rich analog/digital hybrid sound and distinctive modulation. BOSS reimagined this retro classic in 2023 with the acclaimed SDE-3000D and SDE-3000EVH, two wide-format pedals with stereo sound, advanced features, and expanded connectivity. The SDE-3 brings the authentic SDE-3000 vibe to a streamlined BOSS compact, enhanced with innovative creative tools for every musical style. The SDE-3 delivers evocative delay sounds that drip with warmth and musicality. The efficient panel provides the primary controls of its vintage benchmark—including delay time, feedback, and independent rate and depth knobs for the modulation—plus additional knobs for expanded sonic potential.
A wide range of tones are available, from basic mono delays and ’80s-style mod/delay combos to moody textures for ambient, chill, and lo-fi music. Along with reproducing the SDE-3000's original mono sound, the SDE-3 includes a powerful Offset knob to create interesting tones with two simultaneous delays. With one simple control, the user can instantly add a second delay to the primary delay. This provides a wealth of mono and stereo colors not available with other delay pedals, including unique doubled sounds and timed dual delays with tap tempo control. The versatile SDE-3 provides output configurations to suit any stage or studio scenario.
Two stereo modes include discrete left/right delays and a panning option for ultra-wide sounds that move across the stereo field. Dry and effect-only signals can be sent to two amps for wet/dry setups, and the direct sound can be muted for studio mixing and parallel effect rigs. The SDE-3 offers numerous control options to enhance live and studio performances. Tap tempo mode is available with a press and hold of the pedal switch, while the TRS MIDI input can be used to sync the delay time with clock signals from DAWs, pedals, and drum machines. Optional external footswitches provide on-demand access to tap tempo and a hold function for on-the-fly looping. Alternately, an expression pedal can be used to control the Level, Feedback, and Time knobs for delay mix adjustment, wild pitch effects, and dramatic self-oscillation.
The new BOSS SDE-3 Dual Delay Pedal will be available for purchase at authorized U.S. BOSS retailers in October for $219.99. To learn more, visit www.boss.info.