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Rig Rundown: Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

“Cooder-casters,” boutique amps, classic Gibsons, and a healthy amount of pedals give fire to Isbell’s brand of Southern-bred rock.

In love with the Bristish-rock tones of yesterday, but the reliability of new amps, Vaden treks out with two combos—a Vox AC30 Hardwired and a 3rd Power British Dream.

Special thanks to Tech Michael Bethancourt for taking PG through the nuts and bolts.

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Kiesel Guitars has introduced their newest solid body electric guitar: the Kyber.

With its modern performance specs and competitive pricing, the Kyber is Kiesel's most forward-thinking design yet, engineered for comfort, quick playing, and precision with every note.

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Guitarist Sonny Sharrock was one of the most forward-thinking guitarists coming out of the ’60s, and his music stayed on the cutting edge throughout his long career.

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Belltone Guitars has partnered Brickhouse Toneworks to create a one-of-a-kind, truly noiseless Strat/Tele-tone pickup in a standard Filter’Tron size format: the Single-Bell pickup.

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Making a quiet, contemplative album allows Isbell to reflect on the material in a new way and to really explore the relationship between his guitar and voice, which he’d recently lost and reclaimed.

With his new album, the Americana hero faces the microphone alone—save for a 1940 Martin 0-17—and emerges with an album full of nuanced emotional touchstones framed by the gentle side of his virtuosic musicianship.

Imagine, just for a moment, that you’re a successful, internationally recognized singer, songwriter, and guitarist. (Nice dream, right?) You’ve been in the public eye nearly a quarter-century, and for all that time you’ve either been a band member or a band leader. Then one day you decide the time is right to step out on your own, for real. You write a bunch of new songs with the express intent of recording them solo—one voice and one acoustic guitar, performed simultaneously—and releasing the best of those recordings as your next album. No overdubs. No hiding behind other musicians. No hiding behind technology. For the first time, it’s all you and only you.

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