Summary: One of the better synth guitars I’ve played to date. Great response time into the synth. Very well built and gorgeous looks. The one I played was a blue burst (not the one pictured).
Pros: Great looks and incredible acoustic sound, especially when plugged into an acoustic amp. Synth feature is VERY cool and the response is about the best I’ve played. Very light in weight – you could play this for hours and not get tired.
Cons: I was disappointed with the sustain, or lack thereof; especially in the top strings. Notes trailed off pretty quickly, no matter how hard I dug in and shook the strings. The driven sound of this guitar was a bit uninspiring, though the cleans are magnificent.
Price: ~$1900 direct
Specs: Visit site
Tone Bone Score: 4.5 – There’s a lot to like with this guitar, and if it weren’t for the lack of sustain and uninspiring drive sound, this would be a joy to play. In spite of my negatives, this is a very versatile instrument, and the mere fact that you have both guitar and synth going at the same time is simply awesome.
Several weeks ago, my good friend Dave shared with me that he had ordered a Carvin SH575 at the Carvin store while in Southern California on a trip. I had heard of this guitar from the Winter NAMM show, and was pretty excited about it. Dave finally got the guitar a couple of weeks ago, and let me borrow it so I could play around with it and do a review… so here it is! 🙂
Fit and Finish
Carvin makes some very pretty guitars, and this is no exception. A lot of care went into the details in building this instrument, and I have to say that I’m totally impressed with the build quality. The blue burst finish of the guitar I tested was quite magnificent, and everything down to the hardware was perfect.
Playability
Wow! I had never played a Carvin guitar before, and I have to say that I am incredibly impressed by how nice this guitar plays! The medium-jumbo frets are perfect, and moving around the neck is a real dream. Your fingers glide very easily over the strings (though I have to admit, I am NOT a fan of Elixir strings, which I think these come with stock). It’s no small wonder Steve Vai plays a Carvin. The SH575 is simply a dream to play, and this is really the saving grace of this guitar.
How It Sounds
I’m really conflicted in this area. Acoustically, this guitar rules. I love the acoustic sound of this guitar, especially when plugged into a good acoustic amp (Dave uses a Genz-Benz 150). But even plugged into my DAW from the synth unit, the acoustic tones were nothing short of amazing. Here’s an example:
In the clip above, I ran the 1/4″ out on the guitar into my pedalboard, and had the MIDI out go into the synth so I could have a nice background string pad to play over. Very neat! 🙂 In other words, I have two separate signals going into my DAW. As you can tell, the natural acoustic tone of the SH575 is gorgeous – it doesn’t sound like an acoustic plugged into an amp. It sounds like a big-body acoustic with a microphone in front of it! I love it!
In this next clip, I’m running only the MIDI out from the guitar into the synth, then into my DAW. I recorded two separate tracks: One for the guitar, then I overdubbed a “bamboo flute” patch over the guitar.
To play these parts individually, the volume knob is a combination volume knob with one volume “ring” around a central raised knob. The center knob controls the synth volume, while the outer ring controls the guitar volume. With the first clip, I had a mix of both guitar and synth. With this clip, for each individual part, I turned down the synth or the guitar to isolate the signal. Again, very cool.
In this final clip, I feature the guitar alone. I wanted to see how it sounded driven. The end result isn’t a bad sound at all, but I really had to work hard to get some sustain out of the guitar, and instead of just using the natural drive of my amp, I opted to run the guitar through my Tube Screamer and a touch of compression to add some sustain and give the signal some balls. Also, I played this clip with the neck pickup of the guitar, as the bridge pickup pretty much did nothing for me. Mixing the two was nice, but if this were my guitar, I’d lower the bridge pickup to reduce the treble just a tad. In any case, here’s the clip:
Overall Impressions
As I mentioned above, there’s a lot to like about this guitar from the synth access to the acoustic tones. I was thinking that perhaps a function of the lack of sustain might have to do with the Elixir strings that are put on at the factory. I’d probably string this guitar up with either pure nickel or nickel wound to get more resonance out of the strings. That might be the way to go to get a better electric guitar sound out of it. And as I mentioned, the electric guitar sound is not bad at all, and if I were to rate it just on tone, it would get really high marks. But the lack of sustain just kills me; truth be told, my Strat seems to have more inherent sustain than this guitar. Sad but true.
Don’t get me wrong. I like this guitar – a lot! I’d definitely use it for rhythm guitar and for acoustic simulation; and of course, for playing a synth along with it, which it is particularly great for.
I’ve talked about Guitar Affair before, announcing their arrival on the web a couple of months ago. After a few months of testing the service, Guitar Affair recently released a press release announcing the service’s general availability to the public. Folks, this is a VERY cool service in that it allows you to try out high-end mainstream and boutique guitars before you buy them. Or you can just use the service to rent these awesome guitars. Founded by Jim Basara of Guitar Jam Daily, the idea was to help guitarists have a chance to try high-end instruments to assist them in their evaluations, or be able to rent these high-end beauties for a time. The model is interesting because Guitar Affair really helps out business travelers who don’t want to lug a guitar while on trips, but still want to be able to play while away from home. In any case, here’s a copy of the press release:
An innovative online service that provides high-end guitars on a rental basis to customers in their homes or on business trips and vacations.
Dulles, Virginia (PRWEB) May 15, 2009 — Guitar Affair, an innovative online service that provides high-end guitars on a rental basis − shipped to wherever the customer happens to be − today announced general availability of its offering that has been in testing with select customers since January.
The new Guitar Affair service targets guitar enthusiasts who frequently travel for business as well as those who wish to demo limited availability guitars prior to purchasing them. Under the new program, customers can rent a variety of high-end and boutique guitars, and have them shipped to any location in the US; be it their residence, a hotel where they are residing for business, or a vacation location. In addition to well known guitars like Gibson and Fender Custom Shop guitars, Guitar Affair has struck dealer relationships with small and boutique manufacturers whose guitars are seldom seen in stores. For those who are trying a guitar prior to purchase, Guitar Affair rebates the rental fees when the customer elects to purchase a guitar. The new service allows guitar enthusiasts to enjoy high-end instruments wherever they are, and to demo boutique instruments that would often have to be purchased without trying them.
A new Guitar Affair customer recently related his experience with Guitar Affair, stating that “what I received was an exquisite instrument in mint condition, delivered quickly and with no question about its safety in shipping.” ‘It arrived humidity controlled with new strings, the best gig-bag I’ve ever seen and a strap so comfortable I’d like to make blankets out of it. I’m genuinely impressed and I suspect your other customers will be as well.’
‘This is a business that I sought for over 10 years, but could never find,’ states Guitar Affair owner and musician Jim Basara. ‘For over a decade, I managed small technology companies and was on the road constantly. Because of that travel, it was difficult to find time to practice and my playing suffered as a result. I always wanted to find a business that I could call to have a fine guitar waiting for me to get there, along with a headphone amp, cord, headphones and strap.’ This is essentially the business that Guitar Affair has launched, but with an added twist. Basara explains, “Especially in these economic times, it is incredibly challenging to drop $2,000 to $6,000 on a boutique instrument without having played one.” ‘You might have read about the Gigliotti that Joe Bonamassa plays, the Caleb Quaye signature guitar from Brazen, or that Saint Blues has released a line of hand-crafted USA made guitars, and you might hear people talking about how great they are. But pulling the trigger on a multi-thousand dollar order is still difficult because what people love about guitars is such a personal thing.’ With Guitar Affair, such a customer can demo one of their desired guitars in the privacy of their own home, on their own equipment, or try one during a business trip or vacation. ‘For some custom guitars, interested buyers can also get additional necks, each fretted differently with the most popular size fret wire, so that they can feel confident about their choice of neck profile and fret gauge.’
Manufacturers are also excited about the new Guitar Affair service. Brian Halley of St. Blues Guitar Workshop believes that Guitar Affair and its new business model is an invaluable partner for many reasons, most importantly it will allow the company to extend its reach for their new handcrafted Workshop Series guitars. ‘Although we are a brand with history going back 25 plus years, there are still players who will need to feel and hear the instrument prior to making a purchase. Guitar Affair allows interested players who may be on the fence about a brand they haven’t seen every day of their lives to try it for themselves in the comfort of their own home. Our target is the serious and committed player, and we know they take their investment in a new guitar seriously. Now in ’09, as the new St. Blues USA Workshop series guitars are available in very limited quantities, Guitar Affair allows us to reach out to these new St. Blues players by allowing them to play our high-end guitars wherever they want, at virtually no cost should they decide to purchase.’
The rental and demo service is currently available in the United States with plans to expand internationally in 2010.
About Guitar Affair
Founded in 2007, Guitar Affair offers high-end and boutique guitars on a rental basis to customers across the U.S. Using Guitar Affair’s online reservation system, customers can have a complete guitar package, including a top shelf guitar, headphone amp, headphones, cord, strap, and training DVD delivered to them while on business trips, vacations, or at home. Customers can also use the service to demo limited availability guitars before purchasing them, at which time rental fees are rebated.
Ahhh… the venerable SRV in a classic guitarists pose. I used to think that was just something rock stars did for publicity shots, and that the poses were contrived. But then as I’ve delved more and more deeply into improvisation, I’ve realized it’s not contrived at all. That kind of pose or expression is all part of what can be called “gettin’ in the zone.” The Zen masters call the “the zone” the state of satori, where thought and action are one; where your consciousness is at a height where whatever enters your mind you do. From the perspective of playing guitar, the awareness of what your body is actually doing is lost. Your focus is entirely on expressing the music you’re playing.
For instance, have you ever been playing one day and just get into the groove of a song, close your eyes, and just let your fingers do the talking? You’re completely aware of the song, but that’s pretty much all you’re aware of; and when you play, it’s pure expression. I had recently had this experience. I was playing on top of a simple chord progression in D, and the song came to a part where I had a rather long lead break. A few years ago, I would’ve been terrified to do play such a long solo, but I’ve really started to get comfortable with my playing to handle something like this. Luckily for me, it was not a fast song. 🙂 But in any case, after the first few bars, I got into this groove where I didn’t worry about technique nor worry about how I was playing a phrase. I just played. It was pure expression.
After the gig, a few people came up to me and said that when I was playing, I had this look of pure rapture on my face. I replied, “Really? I thought I was just playing. Gawd, I hope I didn’t look like a poser weenie…” One of the folks was a guitarist and told me that it was genuine. He said, “Dude, you were in your own world.” I just chuckled because I was totally unaware of my posture or body language. I was completely focused on playing. I was really in the zone.
I think a lot of my latest inspiration is that I now have gear that gives me the tone that I’ve been after for awhile, and while I realize that 90% of your tone comes from your hands, having gear that facilitates your playing just adds to your inspiration. For me, I’m playing what I believe to be the absolutely perfect amp in my Aracom VRX22. The cleans are absolutely spectacular on any guitar I play with it, and that clean channel is the most pedal-friendly channel I’ve ever played. The drive channel on that just sings and sustains beautifully. I know, I know… I rave about this amp a lot, but I’ve searched high and low for an amp like this, and now that I’ve found it, it’s like I’ve died and gone to heaven!
I’d be interested in hearing your “in the zone” experiences. Feel free to share ’em!
Wow! Goldie’s, my Saint Guitars Goldtop Messenger is really starting to take shape. In this next set of photos, Adam has cut and shaped the general profile for the Goldtop’s neck, and the neck is ready for final shaping. As the pictures progress, the neck curve is really becoming evident. As far as the neck profile is concerned, the radius at the nut is 12″. Adam typically uses a wide profile, but as my fingers are kind of short, playing up high on the neck can be difficult. So to compensate, Adam will gradually tapered the neck curve to be a flatter C near the body than at the nut. By the way, the wood here is rock maple.
Every time I see pictures of the progress of this guitar, I start to salivate in anticipation.
I suppose in a response to the VOX’s JamVOX, Line 6 recently released the JM4 Looper. This is one cool box. All the included recordings were done by actual session musicians, so you’re playing to real instruments. You can even record and store up to 24 minutes of loops, and with an SD card, you can store up to 2 GB extra of loops. I’ve used Line 6 gear in the past, and it’s top notch. Click here to check out the specs.
With a street price of $329.99, it’s not cheap, but you get A LOT of bang for the buck. I guess this is Line 6’s answer to the JamVOX, which is also very cool – and a bit more versatile with respect to being able to play all sorts of media. But the JM4 seems to concentrate on musical styles as opposed to just jamming to songs, and with their Endless JamTM technology, Line 6 has added a great twist on jamming. Here’s their explanation:
The Endless Jam Engine is a simple arrangement system that we developed to get great mileage out of the jam tracks. It breaks each jam track into sections, arranging everything between the intro and outro into an Endless Jam, creating jam tracks that can go on forever without getting boring or overly repetitive.
For an absolutely great demo of this pedal, I found a YouTube video of this excellent guitarist showing off the various styles of music included in this box. The dude’s a great guitarist to boot, and gives a fantastic demo of the JM4 Looper. Check it out!
Summary: The Direct Drive is a nice, fairly transparent overdrive that maintains your amp’s tone that can produce mild grit to over-the-top, searing gain that sustains for days.
Pros: As overdrive pedals go, this pedal sounds great, and with internal trim pots you can adjust the bass response and presence. This ain’t a Tube Screamer clone by any stretch of the imagination. Plus, it’s handmade and at a GREAT price!
Cons: A little noisy with single coils and P-90’s.
Price: $119 direct
Specs:
Volume, Tone and Drive knobs
Internal Trim Pots to adjust bass response and presence
Tone Bone Score: 4.75 – I really like this pedal! It’s fairly transparent and clear, and except for a bit of noise with my Strat and PRS SE II Soapbar, this OD delivers great tones at any volume!
If you read this blog with any regularity, you know I have a thing for overdrive pedals; especially in a small home studio like my own, a good overdrive pedal really helps get that drive tone when you have to play at bedroom levels. Unfortunately, not all drive pedals behave well at low volumes. I would have to say that a lot of my overdrive purchasing decisions have been driven (excuse the pun) by how well they perform in low volume situations like a home studio. I’ve played several drive pedals over the years, and while almost all sound great when an amp is pushing some serious air, there’s only a select few that perform well at much lower volumes. So I’m happy to say that the Barber Direct Drive falls into the latter camp!
Ease of Use
What could be more easy? Three knobs for Volume, Tone and Gain. Just dial in the amount you desire of each, and you’re off to the races. But the Direct Drive also provides a cool push-pull pot with the Tone knob that engages what Barber calls “Fat Harmonics” mode for what they call the “Expensive California” amp tone. It’s another way of getting more high-end sparkle and emphasis on overtones and harmonics; much like the Fulltone OCD that has it on all the time. But wait! There’s more! 🙂 Inside the box are internal trim pots for adjusting bass response and
How It Sounds
It’s certainly fatter sounding than a Tube Screamer, even though Barber claims in their manual that a certain knob setting is an “808 killer.” I tried the Direct Drive at that setting, and it’s close, but sorry, no cigar. But that’s not a bad thing! The Direct Drive has a very distinct personality and definitely a sound and voice all its own! I did mention in the Summary that it’s fairly transparent. It is, but nowhere near as transparent as the Creation Audio Labs Holy Fire which is just about the most transparent overdrive I’ve ever played! But again, that’s not a bad thing. The overdrive characteristics are a bit tighter than a Fulltone OCD and much more even EQ-wise than a Tube Screamer; like I said, it has its own voice.
Here’s a clip I recorded. The rhythm part features a Strat. The Direct Drive’s volume is at unity, tone is dead-center, and Drive is about 10 am to get just a tiny bit of overdrive. The solo employs my Prestige Heritage Elite. The box’s volume is still at unity, tone is about 1 pm, and the drive is set to dead-center. This produces a nice, smooth grind, and lots of sustain.
By the way, the cool thing about that clip is that it was recorded at bedroom level, with my ribbon mic about 2 inches from the grille cloth! For the pedal to create that drive sound at that level is amazing!
Overall Impressions
This is a real kick-ass pedal, and I do have to say that in low-volume situations, this has got to be one of the best sounding drive pedals I’ve played. I dig it! This is not a pedal I’d just at high gain, gig volume situations. It’s not that the tone is bad, but even though Barber has removed some of the compression characteristics in the later models (the old ones were pretty thick in comparison, apparently), it’s a bit too tight at high gain, especially when you need to punch through a mix. Besides at that volume level, I tend to stay away from my overdrive pedals altogether and just use my Creation Audio Labs Mk.4.23 booster (the best, most transparent booster on the planet, IMO) to slam my pre-amp tubes.
But for general overdrive duties, this is a great pedal. I actually love its fatter tone when playing in low-volume venues, and for a street price of $119, and being hand-wired to boot, this is a pedal that I don’t think I can ignore! Neither should you! 🙂
I know, I know… I’ve been singing the praises of this amp and cab for the last couple of months since I got them. But folks, what Jeff Aragaki of Aracom Amps has put together in the VRX22 is simply magic. I just can’t say enough about how much I love this amp. It doesn’t matter what guitar I plug into it, the VRX22 delivers the goods.
A New Option for the VRX22
I have the standard production model, the first in the series. In its stock mode, I wouldn’t change a thing. But I know there are some vintage gear and tube amp buffs out there that would frown upon the fact that the VRX series in stock configuration has a solid state rectifier. For me, it makes not a bit of difference; I just love the tone.
But for those that require a tube rectifier, Jeff also offers an option of a GZ34 or 5AR4 tube rectifier in place of the solid state rectifier. An A/B test didn’t reveal a tonal difference, but for the purists out there (and by no means do I mean this derisively), this is certainly an option, and a reason why you should consider this amp in your amp evaluations. And here’s another consideration: All Aracom Amps are hand-wired, and cost FAR LESS than equivalent amps. For instance, the VRX line in stock configuration costs $895! That’s unheard of in the boutique market!
Have a Cab, Will Travel
But on top of all that, the 1 X 12 mini-cab that Jeff custom built for me is simply magical as well. Jeff went against the common wisdom of not using a cube shape and porting and such, and built a simple cube shape with a width that exactly matches the width of the amp (about 19″ wide). Amazingly, this cabinet is incredibly resonant. The reason for this is that instead of using 3/4″ board, Jeff opted with 1/2″ board. This resonates a lot more with the speaker, and provides a bass response that adds depth to the output. Granted, I also have an absolutely kick-ass Jensen P12N Alnico speaker, but that cabinet even sounds good with just about any speaker you put in it. Like I said, amazing.
To further demonstrate the versatility of the VRX22 and the Aracom 1 X 12 mini-cab, I recorded a short blues clip using three different guitars, all running straight into the VRX22 with no effects. There are to overlapping rhythm parts panned left and right, and a solo in the middle. For the left pan, I used my gorgeous Prestige Heritage Elite (“Sugar”) plugged into the VRX22. For the right pan, I used my Strat (“Pearl”) plugged into my Fender Champ 600 and ran the speaker out into the 1 X 12 (I didn’t think the Champ could sound this good wow!). For the lead, I used “Sharkie,” my PRS SE II Soapbar with P-90’s in the bridge position straight into the VRX22.
Sorry for the slight mistake in the solo; or as my buddy Phil calls it, a “clam.” But overall, I was just amazed how good Sharkie sounded on that clip. I added a touch of reverb to that track, but made no modifications to the guitar signal at all. It was the guitar plugged straight into the amp.
As I’ve said in the past, I’m not affiliated at all with Aracom. I’m just a faithful customer, and just can’t sing the praises enough for the job Jeff has done!
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I dig writing this blog because I meet a lot of cool people; one of them is Phil Vickman of Fat Tone Guitars. I call him occasionally to hook him up with information on various gear manufacturers, and we end up talking about some kind of gear. Yesterday’s conversation ended with Phil mentioning that he just got the Eastwood Breadwinner in, and is really digging it! So I did a bit of poking around…
Since Eastwood Guitars opened their doors, they’ve created faithful reproductions of vintage guitars of yesteryear at a fraction of the cost of the actual vintage gear. That’s been their shtik from day one. Even though I have yet to purchase an Eastwood guitar, I have played a few, and the thing that I dig about that company is that their replicas aren’t of classic, mainstream guitars (can you say “Les Paul” and “Stratocaster”); rather, they’ve placed their focus on the more avant garde styles of vintage guitars.
Among them is their latest offering, the Breadwinner, introduced at the 2009 NAMM show. I’m usually not moved by avant garde guitar styles, but there’s something about this guitar that really speaks to me. The Breadwinner was originally produced by Ovation, and was their first foray into a solid body guitar. From what I’ve been able to glean about its history, this guitar’s shape was both for form and function, its ergonomic design shaped specifically for playing comfort. That’s totally cool!
This replica and update features some pretty cool things, among them switchable active/passive humbuckers, which give this guitar lots of tonal possibilities. The body is solid mahogany, with a bolt-on maple neck, and uses Gotoh hardware. Very nice.
For more information, check out the Eastwood Guitars web site! If you’re interested in buying the guitar, go to Fat Tone Guitars. Phil’s great to work with, and he’s really knowledgeable about the gear he carries!
Here’s a video demo of the guitar that I found. The guitar is played clean, and the sound quality of the demo is only okay, so I suggest you go to a local Eastwood dealer to see if you can play one of these bad boys…
In addition to drive pedals, I love low wattage, single-ended amps, and there are lots of ’em out there. For instance, one of my favorite amps is my Fender Champ 600. I use it in my studio, but also gig with it in small venues – to be clear, I have to hook it up to an external cab to get some volume.
Just recently, I discovered the Concord from ValveTrain Amplification. This is a little 5 Watt amp based on a classic Fender 5 Watt design (I believe this is what Valve Train specializes in). It is a single-ended amp with a single 12AX7 and a 6V6 power tube; pretty similar to a Fender Champ 600. However, there is a difference… a huge difference between the Concord and the Champ. The Concord is completely hand-wired. Not only that, this little hand-wired amp only costs $499 street!
That’s an incredible price, and something I definitely have to consider…
I’ve heard of some people buying this amp sight unseen, and not being satisfied with its overdrive tone. But make no mistake about an amp like this: The design was never made for tons of high-gain distortion. For instance, my Champ breaks up nicely when I have the amp open all the way, but it never gets over-the-top with the breakup. It’s just not meant to do that, and I suspect that it’s the same thing with the Concord. Furthermore, you just can’t expect to get that high-gain distortion with an 8″ speaker. 🙂
In addition to drive pedals, I love low wattage, single-ended amps, and there are lots of ’em out there. For instance, one of my favorite amps is my Fender Champ 600. I use it in my studio, but also gig with it in small venues – to be clear, I have to hook it up to an external cab to get some volume.
Guitar Gear 