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GALLERY: SXSW 2015

See performance shots of AWOLNATION, Courtney Barnett, Elder, Future Islands, Portugal. The Man, Nikki Lane, and more!

AWOLNATION live guitarist Dave Stewart worked his Fender American Standard Stratocaster HH during the band’s entire headlining set inside Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater while frontman and AWOL-creator Aaron Bruno focused on stage theatrics and singing.

2015 marks South by Southwest’s 28th year as a destination festival in Austin’s beautiful neighborhoods like South Congress, East Austin, and downtown along 5th and 6th Streets. Since its inception, SXSW has tried to serve all music fans with a healthy dose of underground and unsigned acts representing nearly every musical genre imaginable. This year was no different with over 2,200 acts that descended upon the Lone Star State’s capital for five days and nights. Premier Guitar had boots on the ground and here is a fraction of the guitar-centric highlights from the event.

With internally adjustable midrange boost and versatile Voice 2, these pickups are designed to capture the killer tones of 80s & 90s high performance Strats.

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Keith Urban's new tour fires up in May 2025 and will feature Chase Matthew, Alana Springsteen and Karley Scott Collins.

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Featuring updated circuits for maximum fidelity, intuitive controls, and true stereo capabilities, this pedal offers a rich chorus effect with tube-like overdrive.

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A mix of futuristic concepts and DeArmond single-coil pickups, the Musicraft Messenger’s neck was tuned to resonate at 440 Hz.

All photos courtesy ofthe SS Vintage Shop on Reverb.com

The idiosyncratic, Summer of Love-era Musicraft Messenger had a short-lived run and some unusual appointments, but still has some appreciators out there.

Funky, mysterious, and rare as hen’s teeth, the Musicraft Messenger is a far-out vintage guitar that emerged in the Summer of Love and, like so many heady ideas at the time, didn’t last too much longer.

The brainchild of Bert Casey and Arnold Curtis, Musicraft was a short-lived endeavor, beginning in San Francisco in 1967 and ending soon thereafter in Astoria, Oregon. Plans to expand their manufacturing in the new locale seemed to have fizzled out almost as soon as they started.

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