Coma chameleon

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

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

THERE ARE VARYING degrees of guitar hero, but Carlos Santana is a name you’d expect to find near the top of any list. Like Jimi Hendrix, Brian May or Slash, Santana has transcended guitar music and pe

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 TRAPPINGS OF rock stardom have changed a great deal since the 1970s. The money and record sales ain’t what they used to be, the drug-fueled parties in Laurel Canyon have died out, and being on the

Guitarist Vernon Reid Guitar Early Nineties HamerChaparral CustomGW Cover Date April 1993 This interview May 2025 Photographer Kristine Larsen BY ANDREW DALY How did you come upon this guitar? I think