Buy the amp, not the pedal
If you're choosing between a boutique overdrive and a used tube combo at the same price, buy the combo every time. A good power section makes cheap pedals sound expensive; no pedal makes a bad amp sound good.
The Back Room
The conversation that happens after the shop closes: what we'd actually buy, what we'd avoid, and where the value hides.
The 90s Japanese sleeper market
Late-80s and 90s MIJ instruments were built to a standard nobody advertises now. The finishes are thinner, the fretwork is often better than modern equivalents twice the price, and the market still prices them as 'not American'.
Speakers are the cheapest tone change you're not making
A speaker swap alters more of your sound than most pedal purchases. Before you replace an amp you basically like, spend a fraction of that on a different driver and re-judge it.
Player-grade beats collector-grade
Refinished, repaired and route-modified vintage instruments sound identical to untouched ones and cost a fraction. Buy the guitar with a story unless you're buying an asset instead of an instrument.
If you only buy one thing this year
- EVH Wolfgang Special
If you want EVH-adjacent playability without a custom-shop invoice, this is the shortest route there.
- Fender Stratocaster
The one guitar that will never be the reason your tone isn't working.
- Gibson Les Paul Standard
Still the sound most people mean when they say 'electric guitar'.
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