Vintage fuzz

ThorpyFX’s latest stacks up the germanium transistors for full-fat vintage tone in a functional modern setting

IN 2001, ROBERT Keeley, a top-flight engineer out of Oklahoma City, founded Keeley Electronics. His goal was — and still is — simple, and he explains it like so: “If a player can become more expressiv

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

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

If guitars are actually getting better by the day, us modders will have nothing to improve. Is it the end of the line, wonders Dave Burrluck, when he gets a new guitar on the bench

The ever-active session legend on his love for cheap guitars, Roland gear, and modding his pickups