Musical Instruments Reviews

Best Guitar Pickups

Many agree that the one component of a guitar that has the biggest impact on your tone is the pickups. While neck and body wood, electronics and even strings can affect the sound, no other aspect of the guitar will so dr...

Best Electric Guitar

Electric guitarists are a highly-opinionated bunch. The question of "Best Electric Guitar" is one that surely elicits a different answer from each person you ask. That said, if you are in the market for a new e...

Best Guitar Strings

Strings matter. They affect your performance and tone, yet are often a low priority when it comes to attention to detail. Part of the reason may be that guitarists feel overwhelmed when it comes to making a choice, which...

Best Acoustic Electric Guitar

While there are plenty of folks out there who prefer to go 100% acoustic, a high percentage of players prefer to have some kind of pickup in their instrument. In fact, I’d say that percentage is increasing every da...

Best Bass Guitar

It's now common knowledge that the Fender Precision, the first commercially successful electric bass guitar, debuted in 1951. What’s not so well known is that the bass guitar itself had been around for several ...

Best Guitar Multi-Effects Processor

Winner: Boss GT-100 Amp Effects Processor
This list, “Best Guitar Multi-Effects Processor”, is comprised of five serious machines. Forget what you thought you knew about digital guitar processing,...

Best Portable PA System

Winner: Allen & Heath ZED-14FX / Harbinger APS15 PA System
A "PA" or public address system, is normally composed of an amplifier, mixer, and then a relatively light passive loudspeaker or two. While much can be...

Best Bass Pickups

The pickup system is the heart of your electric bass—and if it’s not working the way you want, it can be swapped out for something that does. Pickups consist primarily of a copper wire coil and a magnet. Simp...

Best Guitar Combo Amplifier

Yeah yeah yeah... stacks are great, but they lack charm. When you were in your first basement band, dripping in sweat and overly-written concept rock songs, you were playing through a combo, not a stack (and if you had a...

Best Bass Amp Head

The head is the amplifier stage of a guitar or bass amp system. Bass heads can be rated anywhere from 100W to 2500W—maybe more—and run the gamut from budget imports to handmade masterpieces. Bass heads lend t...

Best Bass Pedals

The electric bass guitar has allowed bassists to step out of the rhythm section in ways that were once unimaginable, and effects pedals have contributed heavily to this development. After all, it wasn’t so long ago...

Best 5 String Bass Guitar

The idea of adding a low B to a string bass goes back more than two centuries. Though it never totally caught on, it never totally went away either. Five-string uprights have shown up from time to time over the years, bu...

Best Digital Modeling Guitar Amp

The story of Bob Dylan's performance at the 1965 Newport Jazz Festival is legendary. In many ways, the initial arrival of digital modeling amplifiers met a similar fate. Since then, this marriage of cherished analog ...

Best Monitor Speakers under $500

Winner: Yamaha HS50M Active Studio Monitor (70 Watts, 1x5 in.)
Monitor speakers these days can range quite drastically in terms of price and quality. Also known as reference or studio monitors, these speakers are ideal...

Best Guitar Volume Pedal

Winner: Jim Dunlop DVP1 Volume Pedal
The volume pedal is the unsung hero of the great guitar rig. Most dismiss this tool as simply something you reach for when the club owner tells you to...