A relentless seeker of tone, playability, and function, Allan Holdsworth has cycled through his share of guitars during his nearly 40-year career. Holdsworth’s quest isn’t one of hallowed boutique “unobtanium” or musty old pawnshop finds, however. No way, Jose.

 Holdsworth wants an instrument that facilitates his approach, which, if you’ve ever heard a single note the man has played, is one of the most frighteningly original and unique approaches on any instrument, much less the guitar. His left-hand legato style coupled with a pianistic right-hand attack that eschews strumming in any way, shape, or form, has taken the guitar to dizzying, decidedly inspirational, un-guitar heights.

 

From a Gibson SG on through to a variety of Super Strats, Holdsworth has certainly played more “traditional” instruments, but he officially split the trad world in the late ’80s with various...

Based on Jim Weider’s original design, the Big-T ($125 street) is designed to enhance the sound of your Tele’s neck-pickup setting.  Hand-wound by Lindy Fralin, the Big-T is highly specialized pickup that delivers a rich, beefy tone with clear, well-detailed highs, and enough output to balance well with hot bridge pickups. I installed one in a G&L ASAT Classic, and the Big-T proved more useful for rhythm and lead playing than other neck pickups I’ve tried in this guitar.

The 5E3 “narrow panel” Fender Deluxe is one of the most sought after vintage combos due to its proven performance as a blues/roots-rock amp par excellence. Victoria’s recreation of this 14-watt tweed classic is the model 20112 ($2,095 retail), which features the original-style circuit using two Russian made Tung-Sol 6V6GT power tubes. The cathode-biasing scheme also allows you to change tubes without having to readjust the bias (handy from a maintenance standpoint), and the other tubes are a NOS CBS-made 5Y3WGTA rectifier, a NOS GE 12AY7 in the preamp (an E-H Gold 12AY7 comes stock), and a TAD 12AX7 phase inverter.

 

The beautifully crafted combo shows superb attention to detail in all areas, including the tidy handwired circuit on a vintage-style fiber board, which sports high-grade Sprague Atom electrolytics, custom “orange drop” audio caps, and carbon-comp resistors....

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What do you do when your lifeblood amps are getting raves from major stars for their ability to cop that Big-D tone, but you just can’t bring them in at a price that appeals to the pockets of the greater mass of working players? Simplify, reconfigure, consolidate! And voila, Fuchs’s new Casino Series—four U.S.-made amps designed to snuggle up in the lower end of the boutique range, while still delivering two footswitchable channels and the Dumble-esque overdrive tones that are Fuchs’s bread and butter.

 

The Four Aces Combo( $1,495 street) and Full House-50 head ($1,795 street)  complete a lineup aimed at a range of power requirements. All four are built using the same single circuit board in the same aluminum chassis, and therefore have more in common than not. As a result, these two boast the same controls and features, differing only in their output tubes and variously sized transformers.

 

The preamp is derived from Fuchs’s flagship, the Overdrive Supreme, and offers a versatile range...

 

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