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Esoterica Electrica: Too Many Boxes to Check
Gear Talk

Esoterica Electrica: Too Many Boxes to Check

We're living in a golden age of guitar building — too many shapes, too many specs, too many choices. Jol Dantzig on why endless options may be killing the joy of the purchase.

Coffee table scene featuring books, a guitar, cameras, and dried flowers in a vase.
Gear Talk

Esoterica Electrica: Why I Quit Making, and Playing, Guitars

After six decades of playing and building guitars nearly every day, Jol Dantzig stepped away—and rediscovered why he started in the first place.

Esoterica Electrica: Toad Takes the Rap
Esoterica Electrica

Esoterica Electrica: Toad Takes the Rap

A borrowed Sunbeam Alpine, a Vox AC100, a golf course caper, and a house party gone sideways.

Esoterica Electrica: What a Neck Joint Says About Your Guitar
Esoterica Electrica

Esoterica Electrica: What a Neck Joint Says About Your Guitar

For centuries, neck and body belonged together like a marriage—glued, permanent, born whole. Then Leo Fender turned the neck into a module held on by four screws. Jol Dantzig traces the divide, and the mythology that hardened around each side.

Esoterica Electrica: Aspiration has Entered the Chat
Esoterica Electrica

Esoterica Electrica: Aspiration has Entered the Chat

What guitarists are really buying when they buy a guitar—and why the pull is so hard to resist.

What Matters in Your Guitar’s Setup?
Esoterica Electrica

What Matters in Your Guitar’s Setup?

The way your guitar plays is a matter of personal taste, but here are some thoughts.

Can You (or Your Guitar) Make Something Out of Nothing?
Esoterica Electrica

Can You (or Your Guitar) Make Something Out of Nothing?

Musings on the impermanence of sound.

Close-up of stacked guitar amplifiers, featuring Ampeg and Marshall brands with textured covers.
Esoterica Electrica

Esoterica Electrica: The Geography of Your Favorite Gear

Where your favorite guitar or amp was produced used to mean something. Does it still?