The purpose of this circuit found in a Popular Electronics from 1972 is to intensify certain frequencies of the guitar sound. The circuit is for low impedance magnetic pickups and the transistors can be replaced by more modern equivalents such as BC548, possibly with some alteration of the base polarization resistors. Power is supplied with a 9 V battery and consumption is very low. R15 must have values between 1k and 47k according to the desired gain to match the characteristics of the pickup.