Nearly a decade after the band’s farewell tour, Rush’s music continues to resonate with millions. But for guitarist Alex Lifeson, the journey doesn’t end there. With a flourishing side project called Envy Of None, and Lerxst – an amplifier, guitar an

The Baby Taylor delivers a true three-quarter-size dreadnought, with a scale length of 578mm (22.75 inches), and it can still project thanks to its solid top – spruce (pictured), mahogany or koa – and arched sapele back (laminated). Each variant of t

When we talk about echo, it might make you think of vintage effects, which may be dirty, distorted and lo-fi in character. In contrast, ‘delay’ started becoming the standard term when digital technology made it possible to manufacture cleaner and qui

Acoustic guitars don’t have the tone-tweakability of electric guitars, so your choice of strings is especially important. The good news is that advances in string-making technology have granted guitarists more choice than ever before. But that very d

Sometimes referred to as a ‘narrow waist jumbo’, the J-200 is the model that unites Roy Rogers with Elvis, Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, Noel Gallagher and countless others. Since the very first one was presented to Ra

Which is the greatest era of Strat in your personal opinion? Paul Waller: “For me, it’s early 60s. I think that’s when the Strat really started to come into its own. Putting the rosewood on there, slimming out the neck, and the pickups started gettin

I wanted to share a recent experience, which may help other readers. I was getting in a rut jamming along with songs and coming up with my own solos, it was then that I realised I was looking at the fretboard and going to my ‘safe areas’ with the sam

What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money? “My dad got me a piece of crap, and then I got a Hagstrom, which had much better action, but I didn’t like the pickup; it didn’t have the power of a humbucker because it had single-co

What’s this? Is Manson Guitar Works celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Gibson Les Paul Junior? No, clearly not, but that ‘Junior’ moniker is applied to many single-pickup guitars and that’s the proposition here. The new Manson Junior comes in th

It’s fair to say that the arrival of the Kemper Profiler amplifier in 2011 was a disruptive event in the digital amp modelling niche market. Up until that point, we’d been happy to take the software and hardware we’d been given by manufacturers and u

CONTACT Sound Affects WEB www.rosselectronics.com 1 Ross? Never heard of them… The brand had been defunct for a very long time and was never a massive presence in the UK. But now it’s back and available here. 2 Why the return now? Pedal aficionado

CONTACT: Westside Distribution PHONE: 0141 212 0087 WEB: www.martinguitar.com 1 This doesn’t sound like Martin’s traditional fare… That’s because it was never intended to be. With ecological concerns to the fore and a fearless attitude towards bucki

KNAGGS CHENA A £TBC Joe Knaggs knows a thing or two about building guitars, but he also knows about playing them, too. The Chena A model was born out of a suggestion by Knaggs artist Larry Mitchell that Knaggs should produce a guitar to suit Joe’s ja

There’s a lot of innovation happening at Furch HQ, as evidenced by this Violet Master’s Choice model. The Sitka spruce top has undergone Furch’s voicing treatment, the end result being a top that’s tuned to wring out every last drop of tonal richness

Playing acoustic guitar has come a long way since singer-songwriters perched themselves in front of a microphone on stage, hoping their manual dexterity and fingerpicking finesse would reach the audience via the sound engineer and an often inadequate

“When I was a young teenager, I loved the idea of playing guitar. At the same time, I was learning how to make things in school ’shop classes…” says Bob Taylor, co-founder of Taylor Guitars. “In my 11th grade high school woodshop class, I made my fir

There’s been a flurry of activity from Victory recently, with a new MKII version of The Kraken lunchbox head, designed in collaboration with Rabea Massaad. Just a few months later and here we are looking at another new ‘designed in collaboration with

The acoustic guitar remains one of the most popular instruments among singer-songwriters, as well as solo instrumentalists. Admittedly, this is probably in part due to it being so portable, but beyond such everyday practicalities, there is an endurin

We’ve been seeing more fuzz boxes released than any other kind of pedal lately, several with a claim to having special characteristics. The latest from Walrus Audio is no exception, but its special characteristic is plain for all to see: a valve lit

What Strat moment on a recording inspires you most? “Going back to my school years, hearing the intro and solo of The Crickets’ That’ll Be The Day on a jukebox was a revelation, and motivated me to try to copy this ‘new to us’ American style of rock

Tommy Emmanuel has been a working professional musician from the somewhat staggering age of six, when he toured his native Australia playing rhythm guitar in his family’s band, living on the road in their cars and rarely going to school. He was inspi

Imagine you are musician walking past a shop window in 1954. You stroll past, take a glance... and then stop dead in your tracks. Behind the glass is what seems to be a rocket ship, its sunburst finish glowing like polished amber. The guitars around

This black electro-cutaway is based on the stadium-filling acoustic used by Bon Jovi and Springsteen, and with solid spruce for the top and laminated sapele back and sides, it’s ready to be amplified by the TP-3G preamp, which sprinkles everything wi