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The Year in Gear 2019

The 60+ guitars, amps, pedals, basses, and accessories that stood out from the crowd and earned our coveted Premier Gear Award this year.

Breedlove Pursuit Concertina E


Designed in the U.S. and made in China, Breedlove’s Concertina E—a 12-fret, cedar-and-mahogany small-body flattop equipped with L.R. Baggs EAS electronics—proves we live in a time where real quality is available to cost-constrained players. It sounds balanced and dynamic, and has both the sensitivity to convey fingerstyle nuance and the headroom to accommodate forceful flatpicking. Even budget-minded pros would be thrilled by the potential of this parlor-inspired guitar.

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$499 street, breedlovemusic.com

Plus! December Premier Gear Award Winners!
Read the full reviews on the pages indicated below!

1. Peavey Invective.MH$699 street, peavey.com
2. Chase Bliss Dark World$349 street, chaseblissaudio.com
3. Comins CGS-16 $2,399 street, cominsguitars.com
4. Ernie Ball Music Man Short-Scale StingRay$1,999 street, music-man.com
5. EBS MicroBass 3$349 street, ebssweden.com


Bruce Springsteen: the last man standing.

Photo by Rob DeMartin

On Halloween, the pride of New Jersey rock ’n’ roll shook a Montreal arena with a show that lifted the veil between here and the everafter.

It might not seem like it, but Bruce Springsteen is going to die.

I know; it’s a weird thought. The guy is 75 years old, and still puts on three-hour-plus-long shows, without pauses or intermissions. His stamina and spirit put the millennial work-from-home class, whose backs hurt because we “slept weird” or “forgot to use our ergonomic keyboard,” to absolute shame. He leaps and bolts and howls and throws his Telecasters high in the air. No doubt it helps to have access to the best healthcare money can buy, but still, there’s no denying that he’s a specimen of human physical excellence. And yet, Bruce, like the rest of us, will pass from this plane.

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Paul Reed Smith shaping a guitar neck in his original Annapolis, Maryland garret shop.

Photo courtesy of PRS Guitars

You might not be aware of all the precision that goes into building a fine 6-string’s neck, but you can certainly feel it.

I do not consider my first “real” guitar the one where I only made the body. In my mind, an electric guitar maker makes necks with a body attached—not the other way around. (In the acoustic world, the body is a physics converter from hand motion to sound, but that’s a different article for a different month.) To me, the neck is deeply important because it’s the first thing you feel on a guitar to know if you even want to plug it in. As we say at PRS, the neck should feel like “home,” or like an old shirt that’s broken in and is so comfortable you can barely tell it’s on.

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Amythyst Kiah began learning guitar at the age of 13, then later attended a creative arts high school, where she found her people among all the “misfits and weirdos.”

Photo by Kevin King

The Americana singer-songwriter, known for supporting her vocals with intricate fingerpicking, found herself simplifying her process for her latest full-length, which, in turn, has led to more personal and artistic growth.

Folk singer-songwriter Amythyst Kiah is a formidable fingerstylist. When asked about her creative process, she explains how she’s come up playing a lot of solo shows—something that’s inspired her to bring out the orchestral range of the guitar for her own vocal accompaniment. Over the years, she’s taken her high school classical training and college old-time-string-band experience to evolve her fingerpicking skills, developing three-finger technique and other multi-dimensional patterns influenced by players like Mike Dawes. And for her latest full-length, Still + Bright, she’s only continued to grow in her musicianship, but by stepping back to square one: rhythm.

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Designed with versatility and innovation at its core, the St. James 100 features four channels and six modes, alongside a suite of cutting-edge connectivity options

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