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The Latest Breaking News from Phil Barker

"For a player who sits in the crossover between vintage tone and modern playability, it’s hard to imagine a guitar more perfectly suited": Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage '60s Stratocaster review

Fender introduces the American Ultra Luxe Vintage, aiming to bring the playability of the Ultra II line to a player who prefers the aesthetic and tone of a more traditional character

MusicRadar

“Some purists will find the mix of vintage and Ultra spec sacrilegious, but working players will have waited for a Tele exactly like this”: Fender Ultra Luxe Vintage ’60s Telecaster Custom review

Fender's new high-end range is lightly aged and heavily priced

Guitar World

“Three guitars with pretty much the same sonic range: which is best? Well, that could lead to quite a discussion”: PRS Special Semi-Hollow, S2 Special Semi-Hollow and SE Special Semi-Hollow review

Along with its 40th Anniversary specials, PRS is cranking out the new releases, including three-pickup Special Semi-Hollow models in the S2and SE line. We compare them with the Core version

Guitar World

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“With our in-house pickups, we’ve now got real control of how our guitars sound”: PJD Guitars founder Leigh Dovey on the evolution of the UK’s most exciting electric guitar brand

The return of one of our favourite PJD models and a decade and a half of UK guitar-making needs a bit of a celebration. We pop a cork with PJD’s founder, Leigh Dovey

Guitar World

“The Core preserves much of what made the original Expander such a useful tool”: Boss WAZA Tube Amp Expander Core review

The Boss Tube Amp Expander – can the full quart fit into a pint-size box?

Guitar World

“A Katana killer? The jury’s still out, but one thing’s for sure – this is a great addition to the ID range”: Blackstar ID:X 50 review

Blackstar is gunning for the Katana crown and has launched a new modeling amp that it thinks will be worthy of the title

Guitar World

“From the simplest reverb to complex shifting ambiences, there’s something here for everyone”: Electro-Harmonix Oceans Abyss review

Electro-Harmonix releases its most ambitious reverb pedal to date – and it goes way beyond ’verb to offer myriad sound-sculpting opportunities

Guitar World

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“It’s difficult to think of a synth bass sound that couldn't somehow be achieved here”: MXR MB301 Bass Synth Pedal review

Has MXR and Ian Martin Allison created the bass synth to end all bass synths?

Guitar World

“It’s the wide range of voices that impresses. Old or new, these are far from one-trick ponies”: PJD Carey Classic review

The York, UK-based guitar maker delivers the latest version of its Les Paul Junior/Tele mashup – with remarkable results

Guitar World

“Countless Zoso wannabes have tried to decipher Jimmy Page’s tone secrets”: Hands-on with the ultimate Led Zeppelin amps – Sundragon’s painstakingly accurate replicas of the guitar hero’s elusive backline

It’s not guaranteed that they’ll make you sound like Jimmy Page, but Sundragon’s fastidiously accurate replicas of two of his favorite amps may well get you close

Guitar World

"As a recording utility to help a part cut, or a way to get you a little closer to the QOTSA sound, it’s mission accomplished": Peavey Joshua Homme Decade Too review

In its 60th Anniversary year, Peavey updates its little amp gone by and shares Josh Homme's "secret weapon" with the rest of us

Guitar World

“If you’re out of practice, a rosewood guitar can be guaranteed to throw every imperfection into sharp relief”: How your acoustic’s back and sides affect your guitar tone

Let's explore the absolutely controversy-free subject of tonewoods and acoustic tone, and maybe solve this debate once and for all

Guitar World

“Every bit of that legendary sound is ready and waiting to be coaxed out of these amps”: Vox AC30X, AC15X and AC4 Hand-Wired review

Vox aims to take us back to the sound of its illustrious golden-era with this re-engineered family of Hand-Wired amplifiers. We listen in for that elusive and very classic AC30 tone

Guitar World

“You can take the back of this guitar off and the thing stays in tune as well as if it had the back on”: How L.R. Baggs reinvented the acoustic electric guitar

Delivering convincing amplified acoustic guitar tone is one of the hardest feats for guitar makers – but somehow L.R. Baggs cracked it. Lloyd Baggs shares its story of radical innovation

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“A real journeyman instrument that channels the Gibson classics yet ends up very much its own thing”: Knaggs Kenai Hollowbody Genie review

With a nod to Bowie style, this latest Knaggs Hollowbody creates one of the finest Kenais we’ve played over the past 15 years. TheGenie is truly out of the bottle!

Guitar World

“Makes you forget the fact that one of these will cost you a fifth of what you’d pay for something with the Murphy Lab moniker”: Epiphone Inspired By Gibson Custom 1962 ES-335 Reissue review

Ted McCarty’s finest creation gets the Epiphone ‘Inspired By’ treatment. Featuring Gibson USA Custombuckers, real rosewood fingerboard and top-notch hardware, expectations are high

MusicRadar

“What you’re getting here is a perfect melding of vintage sound with modern practicality”: Strymon EC-1 Single Head dTape Echo review

Strymon’s standalone emulation of an Echoplex offers ahost of adjustable parameters to tailor your sound

Guitar World

“The warm wash of top-class tone we experienced from both these guitars was impossible to resist”: Fenech VT Camphor Laurel Auditorium and VT Professional Blackwood Dread D78 review

An Australian brand with a burgeoning reputation down under steps into the limelight with a pair of hand-built acoustics that incorporate premium tonewoods and a sharp eye for design

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Guitar World

“There’s something here for all drive lovers. Bit of a game-changer, this one”: Crazy Tube Circuits Venus review

Crazy Tube Circuits takes on a classic tube overdrive pedal and makes it accessible and relevant for the modern ’board

MusicRadar

“A versatile overdrive and a high-quality octaver – two pedalboard mainstays in one box”: Darkglass Electronics Kaamos review

Darkglass and session ace Amos Heller team up to create something a little out of the ordinary

Guitar World

“These guitars really come across as a very boutique, artisan pair of instruments… Above all, they’re not just another copycat design”: Eastman Fullertone SC ’52 and DC ’62 review

Last year’s D’Ambrosio series guitars signified numerous firsts for Eastman, not least that they were US-made with boutique prices to match. These new FullerTones capture the magic at a fraction of the price

Guitar World

“If you think PRS just makes guitars for well-heeled doctors and dentists, you might have to change your opinion”: PRS SE NF 53 review

A new month, a new PRS. This time the USA NF 53 gets the affordable SE treatment

Guitar World

“An ultra-flexible way into the Tone King sound for a quarter of the price, and a fraction of the size and weight of the amp it’s based on”: Tone King Imperial Tri Tube Preamp review

Tone King's latest arrival miniaturises the celebrated Imperial amp, for the fly-rig crowd

Guitar World

“People hear surf guitar in our music, but I think that comes more from the fact Dick Dale was Greek – so Misirlou was a Greek tune”: Introducing LA LOM, the LA trio turning fiberglass guitars and psychedelia into a dance party of guitar instrumentals

This trio fuse the rhythms of Havana, Medellín and Lima with ’60s surf rock (even if that isn’t their intention). Guitarist ZacSokolow, bassist Jake Faulkner and drummer Nicholas Baker tell us how it all comes together

Guitar World

“One heck of a rock ’n’ roll vision that sounds glorious and has huge tonal flexibility. Oh, and it doesn’t look like a Fender!” Newman Honeycomb Senior review

It started with a five-string, now the UK-made Newman range has a fully formed six-string with dual swappable pickups and oh-so-’70s credentials

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