Our long awaited 52nd mailed now. As always, we celebrate the world of fretted instrument culture like never before with interviews, photo essays and stories you won’t find anywhere else. Acoustic and electric instruments… legendary players and upstarts… we love them all.
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Remember when the 1% crowd didn’t just use their wealth to build rockets? John Thomas explores the celebrated blue guitar archtop collection curated by the late entrepreneur Scott Chinery. It was a bold project: Chinery commissioned about twenty of the best luthiers in the world to build the ultimate archtop guitar with the same blue finish. Builders such as Collings, Monteleone, Benedetto and Manzer accepted the commission and Chinery’s risk paid off: the completed collection was celebrated at the Met and was the subject of an illustrated book. Recently acquired by the non-profit Archtop Foundation, the collection miraculously remains intact and ready to inspire another generation of builders and gamers.
We’ve all heard Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer before. Throughout the pandemic, PNW-based writer and guitarist David Schmidt has been on a mission to nail it from start to finish. Schmidt documents his syncopated journey, the lessons (guitar and life) he learned along the way, and more.
Norman Blake has mythical status among bluegrass players. His tone, technique and guitar taste are second to none. Musician Bob Minner has spent countless hours with the reclusive musician and documents the collaboration that Pre-War Guitar Co. undertook to copy two instruments from Blake’s legendary collection. Attention Blakephiles: Bob will also be leading an in-depth Norman Blake workshop at our 2023 Fretboard Summit.
How did one of the white whales of vintage guitar collecting – the lost Lap Steel featured in one of John D’Angelico’s early print ads – end up on eBay for an incredibly low buy it now price? Writer/historian (and now keeper of said guitar) Lynn Wheelwright reveals. As it turned out, identifying the guitar – or what was left of it – was difficult enough. Restoring it to its former glory proved even more difficult.
Harrison Whitford is a musician of many talents: Phoebe Bridger’s guitarist, photo enthusiast and sought-after sideman. Friend and fellow musician Cameron Knowler interviews Whitford about his artistic side, his Flip Scipio-built electro (pictured) and more.
By day, Cincinnati resident Harry “Sparky” Sparks is an accomplished business architect. At night? He’s the luthier of choice for bluegrass insiders like Sam Bush and the late Tony Rice. How does one go about designing Home Depots by day and working the priceless Gibsons and Martins by night? Writer David McCarty finds out.
How do you make a new guitar design look old? To find out, Mark Finkelpearl interviews visionary electric guitar builder Dennis Fano about his new line of Novo guitars.
Kingsley Durant sits down with two of his favorite people – luthier Matt Artinger and guitarist Steve Kimock – to talk design, history and collaboration.
A conversation with musician Dom Flemons can take you anywhere: early banjo history, the blues, rock & roll, and everything in between. fj Publisher Jason Verlinde interviews Flemons about his brilliant new album, traveling fireand the unlikely electric guitar found throughout the project.
Martin guitar legend Dick Boak has been in the guitar business for decades and has seen it all. But he’s never seen an instrument quite like John Page’s Pantages guitar. Boak sits down with the former Fender Custom Shop builder to talk about this Art Deco-inspired electric guitar creation and all the incredible little details that go into it.
Plus Jake Eddy’s 1951 D-18 on the cover… and then some.
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