Dark Horse Luthier for Jack White
and the Gretsch Custom Shop
Clapton’s Gathering of 20+ Axe Masters
12 GEAR REVIEWS
GUITARS FOR VETS
37 Picks from NAMM
and the NY Amp Show
Vox, Mesa/Boogie, Dunlop,
Re verend, Dynamic, Amptweaker,
Port City, Kala, Harden, Aracom
Helping PTSD Sufferers
Find Hope Through Music
THE BLACK KE YS
GUITAR FESTIVAL
Dan Auerbach Details
the Soulful New Album
and His Quirky Gear
PLUS
HOT NEW GEAR
MONTREAL GUITAR SHOW: Boutique Gear Extravaganza
PAUL GILBERT: Creeped Out By “Shred”
SONIC YOUTH, YEAHYEAH YEAHS, ANDRANGDA: OnFloutingTradition
SAND GUITARS: The Man Behind Chet Atkins’ Acoustic/Electric
www.premierguitar.com
Pictured: Parsons Guitars’new Diablo Antiguamodel
featuresanaged-coppertophand-etchedby Shawne Reeves.
$5.95 U.S.
UNSUN G HEROES OF ’60S ROCK
PRODUCT REVIEWS
Analog Man,Fryette,Bell Custom Guitars,
Rack Systems,SWR,Tech 21,Hanson,
Lovepedal,Grid 1,Recording King
11 Axemen Overshadowed by Hendrix, Page, and Beck
$5.95U.S.
A Broader Scope
For some time I had been growing tired of guitar magazines that catered primarily to teenage
metalheads and always had the usual suspects
on the cover. Don’t get me wrong—I love the
stuff too—but as a player (and a 40-year-old) I
wanted a publication that had a broader scope
of content. A few months ago I came across my
first issue of Premier Guitar and was happy to
read a guitar magazine cover to cover—a rarity
for me—that was informative yet diverse in its
offerings of columns, gear reviews, articles, and
online material. I quickly became a subscriber
and look forward to each month’s issue. More
power to you and keep up the great work!
Matthew S. Ablan
Charlotte, North Carolina
Thanks so much for your kind words, Matthew!
We’re glad you’ve found a new home for
all things guitar related. Rest assured that
we plan to not only keep it up, but to up
the ante considerably. Stay tuned online at
premierguitar.com and on our Facebook page
for your weekly fix of captivating, enlightening,
and thoroughly enjoyable guitar stuff!
Catastrophe Averted
No magazine has ever tried to contact me
asking for my [new] address—or really anything besides a renewal subscription. This is
another reason you guys at PG are awesome.
Seriously—great magazine, and great customer
service. I couldn’t be happier.
J. Denson
Kensington, Maryland
Whew! We’re just glad you didn’t miss
an issue—September kicked bootay. But
seriously, thanks for going out of your way
to express your appreciation, J.
LETTERS
“Long Live Paper” vs.
“Digital Rules”
Despite the free offering of your digital
magazine, I prefer the hard copy. There’s just
something about holding print in my hands
and being able to dog-ear pages, take it with
me on the subway, whatever. But your digital
version has saved me. I just took off for a
month on the road before the latest issue
hit my mailbox. I won’t have much time to
get out and track down the mag in the small
towns I’m visiting across the country, but no
worries—I’ve got everything I need online!
I’m still keeping (and happy to pay for) my
print subscription, but it’s good to know I’m
covered in situations when the hard copy
isn’t as readily available.
Dan Coplan
Los Angeles
I read the August edition of Premier Guitar,
my favorite magazine, using an iPad. The
presentation is excellent and I expect to keep
reading in this format. My favorite features
are the ability to easily read the magazine
cover to cover, including the ads, and the
index that allows me to jump to specific articles. This is a significant change, because my
habit has been to go to the newsstand and
buy the magazine while on enjoyable outings
to browse at Barnes & Noble. However, I
really should be paying for this. On the other
hand, the advertisers get the same exposure
as with the print version.
Today, we are in the early stages of web
distribution of magazines, and I am glad
that you are engaged in learning the les-
sons of this new distribution medium. I
think you should start charging for access
to the web version. I have always found
The Wall Street Journal’s approach—giving
some content at no charge and offering the
more substantial information to paid sub-
scribers—to be fair. However, WSJ and PG
differ in that PG is more a medium of deliv-
ering readers to advertisers, judging by the
large number of ads. I know you have hard
business decisions to make, and I wish you
all the best for a successful future.
In any case, PG is the only magazine I look forward to receiving. You do a great job with it.
Rudy Smith
via email
Thanks, Dan and Rudy. We totally get that
some people prefer a print mag that they
can take anywhere for an old-school analog
experience, but we also know new technologies offer amazing opportunities for blowing
guitar freaks’ minds—and in ways that none
of us can even completely comprehend at
the moment. We plan to be at the forefront
of this at every step along the way. As for
WSJ, we’ll leave bean counting to the bean
counters. We go to great effort to simply
focus on the gear, players, and know-how
that’s guaranteed to satiate your 6-string
addiction—regardless of whether it comes
from someone who buys an ad. That said,
we certainly appreciate the support of our
advertisers—and we’ll frankly admit that
perusing the ads is almost as much fun as
digging into the articles.
Corrections
Acoustic Editor Gayla Drake Paul mistakenly
inserted the name of the titular charac-
ter from the fiddle tune “Dusty Miller” in
place of author Buzzy Martin’s name in her
September review of Don’t Shoot! I’m the
Guitar Man. She wishes to extend heartfelt
apologies to Mr. Martin.
In the EMG profile in our September issue,
we mistakenly indicated that Hap Kuffner is
still part owner of Mandolin Brothers music
store in New York City. He left the company
in 1982. A picture of Jeff Babicz on page
138 also stated that he worked for EMG,
but he was employed by Steinberger at the
time. The Kirk Hammett photo caption on
page 139 incorrectly listed his pickup as an
EMG 85. It is an 81 model. We apologize
for these errors.
Keep those comments coming!
Please send your suggestions, gripes, comments, and good words directly to info@premierguitar.com.
You can also send snail mail to Premier Guitar, Three Research Center, Marion, IA 52302.
