The Wizard Amplifiers room might be my winner for best tone of the show – the tone was something else altogether and the best part is these amps are made by my Canadian brethren. Wizard was showing their Vintage Classic and Modern Classic Amplifiers and three different 4 x 12 cab styles (straight, slant and tweed covered). Steve Segal from Wizard Amps ran through a demo of the Modern Classic (see the video) and gave me the rundown on Wizard Amps:

Satellite Amplifiers has a simple design philosophy – no gimmicks.  The amps are all handmade in San Diego, CA and carry an impressive list of artists who swear by them including: Social Distortion, The Supersuckers, The Descendents, and The Mighty Mighty Boss Tones to name a few. The concept is – you plug your guitar in and adjust the volume till your happy or your face has melted.

The Jaguar Amps room was yet another highlight at this years Amp Show. Jaguar was showing they very solid line up and introduced me to a new model - The Jaguar 7.

My first stop on my tour of the 2009 LA Amp Show was the 65 Amps room. Last year I had made the mistake of hitting this room toward the end of my day, and it was packed! So this year I decided to play it safe and see what they were up to right when the clock struck 10 a.m.

Loni Specter, the man who put the whole show together, was in fine spirits when I met up with him upon my arrival at the Airtel Plaza Hotel. I’m not sure how Loni gets away with making so much noise in the hotel. I can only guess that he has bought out the whole place. Can you imagine how a regular Joe, with no interest in guitars at all would feel if they were next door to one of these rooms full of amps on 10? Yet, somehow Loni pulls it off, and the show goes off without a hitch.

I live in a flat in San Francisco. For most that statement means nothing more than he may or may not eat a lot of sourdough bread. But for those of you who have had the chance to visit San Francisco (don’t call it ‘Frisco!) you’ll have noted that real estate here is at a premium and we apartment dwellers are packed together like sardines.

I first met Mr. Willie Carter when I took a tour of the Santa Cruz Guitar Company in August of last year. Willie was kind enough to arrange for my visit and made the whole experience an absolute pleasure. It had been about six month since I had last heard from Willie when an email arrived in my inbox. As it turns out Willie had started a new guitar company and wanted to see if I was interested it checking out what they were up to – how could I say no?

When I found out I was going to be in Chicago for some other business (read: day job) I decided that it would be a golden opportunity to check out a shop I had heard a lot about, but had not yet seen in the fles. Like many of you, I have seen the two page ads for the Chicago Music Exchange in Vintage Guitar Magazine and had always been curious to check it out to see what all it was all about. With a four plus hour flight and making my way though the crazy Chicago drivers (really Chicago, what’s up with the driving?) I found my way to the Mecca of Guitars that is the…

I should probably note from the outset here that I am not as unbiased or objective on the subject of The White Stripes as a reviewer really ought to be. After all, is it even possible to think ill of a band if you learned to play guitar listening to their records?

The telecaster, it is a landmark of epic proportions. It holds the distinction of putting the solid body guitar on the map (other solid body guitars have been created, but none took hold like the Tele).