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Guitars

Deep twang is the thang in this accessibly priced, smooth playing, and well-built baritone.

Excellent playability. Lower register tones and lipstick pickups are a great match. Well built. Beautiful and stylish.

Tone might benefit from lower output pickups.

$569

Danelectro Longhorn Baritone
danelectro.com

4.5
4.5
4.5
5

Long-scale, 6-string Danelectros are among the great unheralded instruments in popular music. Consider Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman.” It’s pretty close to a perfect song—a Jimmy Webb melody for the ages, a string arrangement that tugs at the heart almost from the start. But what really stands out for a lot of listeners is the loping, economical guitar solo that is a strange personification of the humble, devoted narrator of the song. The solo, played by Glen Campbell himself, derived its unique tonality from a Danelectro 6-string bass—one borrowed from Carol Kaye no less. And in a tune brimming with highlights, that solo is one of the most memorable.

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When Louis Cato received this Univox LP-style as a gift in high school, it needed some major TLC. A few years later, it got some practical upgrades and now makes regular appearances with Cato on The Late Show.

Photo by Scott Kowalchyk

The self-described “utility knife” played drums with John Scofield and Marcus Miller and spent time in the studio with Q-Tip before landing on Stephen Colbert’s show as a multi-instrumentalist member of the house band. Now, he’s taken over as the show’s guitar-wielding bandleader and is making his mark.

It’s a classic old-school-show-biz move: Bring out the band, introduce them one by one, and build up the song to its explosive beginning. It’s fun, dramatic, audiences love it, and that’s how every The Late Show with Stephen Colbert taping starts.

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Kurt Ballou delivers hip throwback looks and riff-ready tones.

Compound fretboard radius. Great blended-pickup sounds. Good low-end clarity. Excellent build quality.

Expensive for a Korea-built instrument.

$1,749

God City Instruments The Constructivist
godcityinstruments.com

4.5
4.5
4
3.5


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A guitar designed to intuitively transition from acoustic to electric voices with the 3-way switch, or from clean to driven with a turn of the Blend Knob.

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A new made-in-Japan series inspires that blends aerodynamic lines, modern hardware, and custom-voiced pickups.

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