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The Year in Gear 2018

Step inside Premier Guitar’s magical, miraculous time machine and revisit the gear that stood head and shoulders above the rest as Premier Gear Award winners in 2018.

Source Audio Ventris

The engineers at Source Audio are obsessive about chasing down tone details. But they’re not too busy pursuing the clanging mechanical overtones of vintage spring reverbs to have fun. So in Ventris, you get a reverb that can deliver the classic sounds when you need them, yet help you fashion more deviant reverb tones when you want to get weird.

$399
sourceaudio.net

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The legendary Dobro player talks about how to get session work, working with Allison Kraus, and the “baton pass” involved in recording great songs.

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Listen to the new track from Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, and Steve Vai's G3 Reunion Live.

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Orangewood Juniper Live Acoustic Guitar Demo
- YouTube

PG contributor Zach Wish demos Orangewood's Juniper Live, an all-new parlor model developed with a rubber-lined saddle. The Juniper Live is built for a clean muted tone, modern functionality, and stage-ready performance.

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After decades of 250 road dates a year, Tab Benoit has earned a reputation for high-energy performances at clubs and festivals around the world.

Photo by Brad Elligood

After a 14-year break in making solo recordings, the Louisiana guitar hero returns to the bayou and re-emerges with a new album, the rock, soul, and Cajun-flavoredI Hear Thunder.

The words “honesty” and “authenticity” recur often during conversation with Tab Benoit, the Houma, Louisiana-born blues vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter. They are the driving factors in the projects he chooses, and in his playing, singing, and compositions. Despite being acclaimed as a blues-guitar hero since his ’80s days as a teen prodigy playing at Tabby Thomas’ legendary, downhome Blues Box club in Baton Rouge, Benoit shuns the notion of stardom. Indeed, one might also add simplicity and consistency as other qualities he values, reflected in the roughly 250 shows a year he’s performed with his hard-driving trio for over two decades, except for the Covid shutdown.

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