The Sad Tale of the Epiphone Company and Its Acoustic Guitars

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One of the greatest vintage guitar sob stories belongs to the Epiphone Company. Epiphone has a history of downturns and difficult situations, resulting in its ultimate purchase by the Chicago Musical Instrument Company, which also owned Gibson; the latter company eventually absorbed Epiphone completely. Epiphone’s vintage acoustic guitars, though, are among the most widely sought after, in many cases because of the company’s struggles. There are a few models in particular that you’re probably interested [...] Read more »

Marshall Amplification, Powered by the Stars

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What good is a vintage guitar collection without the perfect vintage amplifier? There’s no better in terms of star-studded history and excellent quality than Marshall Amplification. There have been so many stars using Marshall amplifiers that they’ve even named several of their amps after some of them. Plus, there are always the classics, because a vintage guitar really needs a vintage amp to sound just right. Marshall Amplification was founded in 1962 by drummer Jim [...] Read more »

Rickenbacker, Bass Guitars, and the Origins of Rock and Roll

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If you’re looking for a powerful and reliable vintage bass guitar, get yourself a Rickenbacker. The Rickenbacker International Corporation has a long and stellar history in music, and they are renowned for quality guitars. Once you’ve learned about the great history behind this musical instrument company, you’ll understand why getting a vintage bass guitar from them is a must-have for any serious collector. When you go back far enough, you see that the Rickenbacker International [...] Read more »

Power and Tech in Vox Amplifiers

When it comes to powerful amplifiers in the 1960′s, few names come to mind as readily as Vox. Vox is extremely well-known for their powerful and advanced amplifiers from that great decade. Vox used technology that was advanced for the 60′s, making user control more effective than any other amp available at the time. It is an extremely popular brand with star power behind its quality production, so you know it’s worth your time. Vox [...] Read more »

Silvertone Electric Guitars

When it comes to vintage electric guitars, Silvertone is renowned for both quality and value. The brand name for Sears’ musical instruments division for almost 60 years, Silvertone was extremely popular back in the day, especially with bands that were just starting out, because they produced great guitars for low prices. Now, with the Silvertone name retired, those same models are very popular with collectors of vintage electric guitars because of their increasing rarity. Guitars [...] Read more »

Hofner Basses and the Beatles

Hofner is a household name when it comes to bass guitars. There are few companies so widely known for one instrument, but Hofner is incredibly popular, both among collectors and bassists across the world, all for one simple reason: Paul McCartney. But let’s take a look at a little history, and figure out why Hofner deserved McCartney’s support and the subsequent fame it attained. Hofner’s bass guitars strongly resemble violins in appearance, and many people [...] Read more »