Junior genius

With a raft of recent high-spec reissue launches, is Epiphone now the home of affordable ‘vintage’ Gibsons? On paper, yes. But what about in the flesh?

Blackberry Smoke’s guitarist reveals his greatest guitar triumphs, the pitfalls and blessings of his Les Paul Junior addiction, and his outright disdain of “bad amps”

Five Stratocasters, all sunbursts and all different – so what is the best vintage if you’re craving a classic?

YOU COULDN’T MAKE it up. Take a trip to 1960, and sit at a table in Kalamazoo, Michigan. You work for Gibson and you’re looking at — or at least talking about — what will turn out to be the Holy Grail

1960 Gibson ES-335

From his early days in the repair shop to heading up one of the world’s leading pickup brands, the master pickup maker tells us how his problem-solving mindset led to him working with some of the biggest names in the biz, and why he humbly still seems himself as “crew”