VAUGHN SKOW's blog

Guitar Players Have Much To Be Thankful For! (A Nerd with a guitar is COOL)

Guitar friends, as I pen this blog my family and I are preparing for Thanksgiving.  Okay, stop and re-read that last sentence.  Ya know what that is?  It's a freeking MIRACLE, that's what it is.  Me ... a family?  Wow.  Go back to middle-school and ask any one who knew me what they thought the chances were that I'd wind up with a melt-the-paint-off-the walls hot wife, a couple of kids, a nice house, and well ... a pretty darn good life.  NADA!  I was a mess on all angles; short with a chip on my shoulder, a bad attitude, zits, socially beyond awkward.  Me, married?  Nope, wasn't gonna happen.  But at age 13 everything changed; I got an electric guitar and amp and I learned how to play and sing some rock songs.  Yep, my cool switch

Is A Custom Shop Guitar Worth the Premium Price?

SPOILER ALERT!!  Yes.  Okay, now let's get on to the big question: WHY?!?

Vox Super Continental Organ - Software Can't replicate this Baaaby!

Hi gang, I know this is generally a GUITAR blog, but man, a classic rock tone monster like this just can't be ignored!

Rare, Cool Sleeper Guitars Part 2: The Danelectro Danoblaster Inuendo With Built-In Effects!

Howdy y'all!  This may be part two in a two part series ... but it's a radical departure from part one!  Last week we discussed a super cool and often overlooked vintage guitar, this week is different!  The center of attention this time around is a Korean made Danelectro with built-in multi-effects from the late 90's/early 2000's, and it really surprised the heck out of me.  I came upon one of these at a small guitar shop owned by a buddy, it had a kind of cool retro surf look (sparkles and all), I picked it up and was really surprised at how good it felt, but the real surprise was yet to come.  I expected the built-in effects to be totally cheese city, but they really were not.  I expected the pickups to suck and they really did not.  I

Rare, Cool Sleeper Guitars Part 1: The Gretsch Corvette, a Rare Vintage American Guitar at an affordable price!

Hi Gear Gang! I've been a guitar guy for decades, and I like to think I'm pretty darn well versed in most guitars that could be considered even fairly "main stream" ... but here recently  I've happened upon a couple models that were entirely new to me, and entirely COOL!  First, I'd like to draw your attention to the stupidly awesome Gretsch Corvette.  If, like me, this is a new guitar to you, you are in for a treat!  Now first off I will say that a pretty good history of this model has already been written, and so I will not duplicate that, instead, I'll simply point you here: http://gretschpages.com/guitars/corvettes/. 

All Stratocaster Pickups 25% off, and Strat Pickup Winner announcement!

Hello Fellow Tone Seekers!

It is our pleasure to announce this month’s winner of our Vaughn Skow Pickup give-away of 2017 … (drum-roll) … Brian Downing.   Brian will be receiving the Vaughn Skow Strat set of his choice.    Pickup giveaways will continue throughout 2017; to enter see: THIS BLOG.

Decoded: The HiLo-Tron and Goldfoil (Ry Cooder) Pickups

Over the past few years I've re-built hundreds of pickups; many are the well known Fender style single coils and Gibson style humbuckers.  However, I also work on and build a lot of lesser known models.  I'd like to talk about two of these, the Gretsch style HiLo Tron and the most famous of all "Goldfoils", the one in Ry Cooder's "Coodercaster".  Ya ready, let's dig in!

A Tribute To Wayne Whelan

The Rare And Wonderful BK Butler Mini Boogee / Matrix Tube Overdrive Pedal

Hi gang!  So this will be, for the most part a video blog.  I recently sold my stupidly rare Mini Boogee Pedal, but I made a little demo video before shipping her out.  These things are legendary!  There is lotsa chatter about these among serious players, but most folks have never even SEEN one in real life. 

A Salute To Megadeth Bassist and Co-Founder David Ellefson

So, as I pen this blog I'm sitting in a small coffee shop on "main street" in my hometown of Jackson Minnesota, which sits right on the Minnesota/Iowa line.  This is farm country plain & simple.  But something seems amiss; the background music playlist is an interesting mix of Metal spanning several decades ... yes, Metal, as in Heavy.  Then there's the clientele!  In a town barely large enough to warrant a dot on many maps, the folks sipping coffee around me are from South Dakota, Northern Minnesota, and strangely enough, my home of the past 30 years, Nashville TN.  Either 1) I've just slipped into the twilight zone, or 2) This ain't your ordinary small town mid-western coffee