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The Latest Breaking News from Phil Barker

“It may be a cliché, but let’s say it anyway: Jimi Hendrix didn’t do too badly with CBS Fenders”: Fender’s CBS era is often associated with the company losing its reputation for quality – but is that view still justified?

Fender’s CBS era is often boiled down to an equation of ‘corporate drive for profit and quantity = lowering of build standards,’ but like many things in life, it's not so simple

Guitar World

“Some might say a guitar at this kind of price point has no business resonating so well”: Harley Benton ST-80FR MN review

Harley Benton pays homage to the golden age of shred with this single-pickup and Floyd Rose-equipped firecracker

MusicRadar

"A Bluesbreaker and a King of Tone walk into a bar… and I went home with both of them": Warm Audio Throne of Tone pedal review

Could this be the finest drive and boost pedal of the year?

Guitar World

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“Scoring especially highly for its superb ergonomics”: Sterling By Music Man Kaizen 7 review

Progressive guitar icon Tosin Abasi's dramatic Music Man custom seven-string, re-imagined for those with lighter wallets

Guitar World

“It’s a vintage Les Paul with a different shape. I wanted to have my own recipe”: Meet the Tributo, the Italian super-guitar that turns the ’59 Les Paul formula on its head

Based on the home of Italian supercars comes a super-electric with serious boutique pedigree. The inspiration is obvious. The upgrades less so, and it could be the acme of vintage-inspired design. Luthier Nicolas Giordano explains his process

Guitar World

“While it doesn’t reinvent Fender’s decades-old designs, this Stratocaster is not only crisply made but really hard to put down”: Fender American Professional Classic Stratocaster review

Replacing the out-going Performer model, is Fender’s American Professional Classic Stratocaster the perfect vintage/modern hybrid?

Guitar World

“At this upper mid-range price point, it's hard to think of a guitar to rival it”: Strandberg Boden N2 Standard review

The second model in the progressive Swedish company's new Boden N2 series more than holds its own

Guitar World

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"It becomes very hard to put this guitar down": Strandberg Boden N2 Standard review

The next generation of the Swedish firm's headless guitar design has arrived; is this the guitar to finally convince the cynics to try one out?

MusicRadar

“John Lennon’s 12-string has a similar trebly edge to it… this guitar passes the ‘Fab Four’ test”: Framus Hootenanny 12-string and 6-string review

John Lennon famously used a Framus 12-string acoustic with the Beatles, and 60 years later the company has reissued the model in all its fab finery – and it comes with a little help from a friend!

Guitar World

“The guy in the support band was playing a Jazz Bass. We agreed to swap instruments… That guy was Ian Hunter who went on to form Mott the Hoople”: Leo Lyons on the bass that appeared at Woodstock, has been played by Hendrix, and is on three UFO classics

The Ten Years After bassist’s 1962 Fender Jazz Bass is one of the coolest four-strings you will ever see, with buckle rash on the back that any Fender Master Builder would kill to recreate

Guitar World

“The pickups on that old Univox were amazing. It really makes you wonder about the Japanese guitars produced backthen. They weren’t so bad at all”: How Vintage’s REVO range breathed new life into the oddball electric

Just back from a long stint in China where he oversees the design and production of Vintage guitars, Alan Entwistle delves into what makes REVO that little bit different

Guitar World

“Considerably less money than going down even the light-relic route in the Fender Custom Shop”: Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage ’50s Telecaster and ’60s Strat HSS review

This latest wave of Fender’s American Ultra models continues to cater for the modern player but with an old-looking vintagevibe. We just can’t escape the past!

Guitar World

“The scrutiny we were under lent itself to the atmosphere of the record. We really had to come out swinging”: Jake Kiszka and Chris Turpin on conjuring old-school guitar magic for Mirador’s debut – and the difference between US and UK guitar players

The Greta Van Fleet x Ida Mae collab is a 21st-century exercise in rock classicism, bringing the ancient and the modern together, using high volume to bind, and to relieve some of the pressure, too

Guitar World

“You get emails saying they’d like to try a guitar and you think, ‘It’s not going to be THAT Audley Freed, is it?… Then the penny drops”: How Ivison Guitars became Britain’s hottest high-end brand

With new staff, in-house pickups and the continuing success of the Dakota, there’s plenty to discuss. We grab Neil Ivison for a quick chat

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“There isn’t a bad sound in the RT-2, and this thing has real mojo”: Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble pedal review

Boss attempts to take everything that made the RT-20 great, and shrink it to a third of its size

Guitar World

“Proof that semi-hollows can rock as hard as the clichés, even if they are bedecked with gold”: Gretsch Professional Broadkaster LX review

The Broadkaster is back on the air, this time with a number of modernized features to make this a contemporary, high-performance semi-hollow rocker

Guitar World

“Something a little different, with vibey anddiverse sounds for not a lot of money”: Vintage REVO Galactica and Astrostar review

Revisiting guitars of yesteryear, the REVO models continue to move Vintage away from slavish repros to inspired retro champions for not a lot of money. Let’s hop in that time machine and take a look

Guitar World

“It might not be to all tastes, but its retro charm and sonic potential are compelling indeed”: Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster Bass review

Squier reissues an oddity from Fender's bass archives, complete with a Wide Range humbucker – is this its time?

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Guitar World

“When you strip it down tothe essentials, I believe it mostly comes down to the wood and the strings”: Why do some guitars sustain better than others? It’s complicated

With some help from Banker Guitars’ Matt Hughes and SonoTone Strings’ PK Pandy, we unpack the mysteries of sustain – and why it differs from resonance and volume

Guitar World

“The first thing that springs to mind is the value for money when compared with their Gibson forebears”: Epiphone Pre-War SJ-200 Rosewood Reissue, 1960 Hummingbird Reissue and 1963 Dove Reissue review

Following on from the superb Epiphone Inspired By Gibson Custom instruments that wowed us, we look at have three from asextet of new historic reissues. Expectations are high...

Guitar World

“I started out on a Baby Taylor, but I coveted Martins because that’s what all my favorite guitar players had”: Molly Tuttle on her new kick-ass band, her jaw-dropping custom Martin – and why she’s taking her sound beyond bluegrass

With a diverse new album full of amazing playing, there are changes afoot for the Grammy Award-winning acoustic-guitar virtuoso as she takesafew steps away fromher bluegrass roots

MusicRadar

"They may be the spiritual successor to Sony’s Scheps-approved mixing cans, but they tread their own path": Sony MDR-M1 review

Sony’s new studio cans nod to the legendary MDR-7506, swapping forensic mids for balance you can wear all day

Guitar World

“Though this 15W combo is technically advertised as a practice amp, it can churn out some serious sonic damage”: EVH 5150 Iconic Series 15-watt 1x10 Combo review

This may be the smallest amp in the Iconic series, but it sure packs plenty of firepower

Guitar World

“A very clever original design, albeit one that could easily have come out of the Gibson factory in the early ’60s. That’s not easy to do”: Ivison Dakota Standard review

Used by big names such as Richard Fortus and Audley Freed, and made in the UK, Ivisonguitars recall the lost art of the ‘goldenera’ but in very original dress

Guitar World

“It might be a slightly different hue, sonically speaking, but the build and sound quality is all there”: Taylor Builder's Edition 514ce Kona Burst review

We take a look at the new Builder’s Edition 514ce to examine its upgrades and refinements. A worthy alternative? Let’s take a look

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