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The Year in Gear 2015

Our favorite guitars, basses, amps, effects, and accessories from the last 12 months.

Alvarez ADA 1965

Many of us associate Alvarez with fast playability, lively tones, and the crossroad where contemporary and classic meet. Little surprise, then, that this affordable dread honoring the company’s 50th anniversary embodies all those qualities. The fact it costs less than 500 bucks is the icing on the birthday cake.
$499 street
alvarezguitars.com

Click here to read the full review

In the years we’ve compiled our annual list of Premier Gear Award winners, we’ve probably never seen a list more eclectic than 2015’s. From high-gain monster amps and atmospheric reverbs to mini overdrives and wahs, 2015’s award winners covered all the bases.

As always, it was a joy to see how both big-time musical instrument industry players and little shops a step removed from the garage managed to haul in Premier Guitar’s prize for gear excellence. And if anyone’s counting, we’re pretty sure we also set a record for Premier Gear Award winners. So we hope you’re comfy—this list of primo gear may take some time to cover.

Xotic revamps a classic Vox-boost-in-a-box pedal, creating a new one in the process.

Smart, feature-packed update on a classic. Nice size and price.

Small boost knob.

$180

Xotic Effects AC Booster V2

xotic.us

4
4
4
4.5

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Nashville luthier and guitar tech Dave Johnson shows us the baker's dozen of tools he thinks any guitar picker requires to be a guitar fixer.

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Paul Reed Smith cradles one of his company’s Charcoal Phoenix limited-edition guitars in front of a PRS Sonzera amp.

The storied guitar builder reflects on his dozen months sharing his experience, knowledge, and perspective with PG’s readers.

Over the past year, I’ve written a series of articles in Premier Guitar going over some of my, and our industry’s, views of guitar making. You can find all of them all online (and for those reading this online, the articles are collected here). What I am going to attempt to do for this final piece is boil down each of these articles to a “sort of” conclusion. I have enjoyed the process of writing and editing each one. For the most part, it’s been a lot of fun. So:

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Kemper updated the entire product range introducing the all-new Kemper Profiler MK 2 Series. More Power. More Flexibility.

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