Vintage Guitar Amplifiers

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Legendary Luthier Rick Turner on Howe-Orme Guitars

I first started coming across Howe-Orme instruments when I was an apprentice guitar repairman in Boston in 1963. Their guitars have a tilting neck and a uniquely arched top that is bent in a cylindrical direction. The middle third of the top is raised and is bent in an arch. They sound incredible. They’re one of those weird branches of the guitar tree that just died off in the teens. Elias Howe started the company that wound up making and distributing the guitars. There were two men named...

Martins vs. Gibsons: The Evolution of American Acoustic Guitars

I started playing guitar when I was pretty young and bought my first guitar when I was 10 or 11. Like a lot of people of my generation, I was inspired to do so because of the folk revival, initially the more commercial parts of it like the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul & Mary. I later got interested in their influences, like Woody Guthrie and Doc Watson, and from there I got into early country music, bluegrass and country blues. When I was about 20, I got interested in buying, selling,...

Les Pauls, Strats, and Other Cult Guitars

I started out primarily as a collector and the business aspect of it evolved over time, almost by accident. I didn’t start out with the intention of being a vintage guitar dealer. As a college student, Mom and Dad were willing to buy me one good guitar, and a good guitar back then didn’t cost near as much as a good guitar today. Even if you wanted a vintage one, it was hard to spend over $300. There wasn’t much out there that would cost more. I made the wrong choice at first, which was...

Archtops, Hollowbodies, and Jimi's Legacy

I grew up in upstate New York in Rochester, and started playing guitar when I was about 10 years old. We had this place in Rochester; called the House of Guitars. It was this huge independent music store, I think it was the largest in the world at that time. Originally, they just sold used guitars, and the place kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It was literally an old house that they kept adding on to. When you walked in there, they always had their old guitars in their display...