The Fairbanks Guitars founder talks about his journey from being a jazz trumpeter and guitarist with coffee-shop day jobs to becoming a master luthier.
The GM25 Guitar Master Stool isn’t just a seating solution; it’s an ergonomic design that doubles as a guitar stand and adds a touch of style to any space.
Adam Perlmutter November 3, 2024
Ask the Expert
Martin Keith is a luthier, repair and restoration expert, and working musician based in Woodstock, New York. He’s been answering your questions about guitars and gear for Acoustic Guitar since 2019.
I’m thinking about converting an instrument for lap-style playing. Will I be putting the guitar at risk if I raise the nut and saddle high enough to play it with
Budget guitars once had a bad reputation: inferior instruments made from laminated woods, with poor playability and even worse tone. But things have changed.
The small-bodied LS16 likely owes its fine sound to Yamaha’s Acoustic Resonance Enhancement (ARE) technology, a form of torrefaction that brings a warmer, darker tone color.
The Seagull Merlin is not a guitar. It’s what Seagull calls the “strummable dulcimer.” But it’s so charming and user-friendly that guitar players looking to expand their sound could easily fall in love with the Merlin’s bright, twangy voice.
After 27 years at the helm of America’s oldest and most storied guitar maker, Chris F. Martin IV has learned a thing or two about preserving a legacy. Unlike his father, C. F. Martin III, who headed the company through the disco era and resulting acoustic guitar market crash, Martin…
In late 2013, Keith Richards told the Wall Street Journal how he came up with the right textures for one of the Rolling Stones’ most famous riffs: the intro to “Street Fighting Man.” He’d been experimenting with open tunings, recording his ideas on the fly on an early Philips cassette…
For many American consumers, the words “made in China” elicit feelings ranging from skepticism to outright disdain. Given the rash of headlines in recent years documenting the darker side of Chinese manufacturing—from lead paint used on Chinese-made toys, to a string of suicides at an Apple computer plant in Shenzhen—that…
It might not dazzle with its looks, but this guitar’s excellent sound and playability make it a serious contender among much more expensive instruments.
This guitar has a low-end depth and looseness that makes it sound like a larger guitar, with super-low action and a relatively shallow, half-rounded neck.
With battery or external power options, powerful software effects, and a small footprint, this amp has a lot of potential for home practice sessions, in the studio, or even for a house concert or quiet gig.
Gibson's reintroduced J-35 is built in Bozeman, Montana, has all the sonic and aesthetic charm of its ancestor, and is once again priced competitively.
How do you choose which guitars to review? Our writers are guitar fanatics, just like you. They’re always on the lookout for new or updated offerings to recommend. We’re sometimes asked why we don’t publish negative or one-star reviews – there are so many great guitars being produced today that we’d rather share our balanced opinions on the instruments we do think you should consider.
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