America at the crossroads

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Fender’s Custom Shop had a precarious start in the mid-1980s, but the story of its formative years is full of big ideas, some bizarre instruments, and a queue of famous guitarists

Will we ever know the true story of this fabled guitar? For some it’s iconic, for others it was simply a cobbled together working tool for a master…

Nearly 40 years on from the Custom Shop’s inception, its creations are more ambitious than ever. Find out how the team walks the tightrope between ‘canon’ and ‘cannot’, and where its guitars are heading next

The month’s best guitar music – a hand-picked selection of the finest fretwork on wax

Mike Zaite explains how a background in electronics and a front-row seat to the British Invasion of the 1960s led to the formation of Dr Z Amplification – and why the sonics always lead the schematics