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Posts Tagged ‘gear announcements’

New Gear: Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Blue

Posted in buying gear, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear find, guitar, guitar effects, guitar gear, guitar pedals, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, overdrive, pedals, Tone, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 8, 2009| 2 Comments »

Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Blue Image c/o Seymour Duncan

Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Blue Image c/o Seymour Duncan

Seymour Duncan is known for its outstanding pickups, and I’ve known they’ve made pedals for awhile, but haven’t really paid attention until they came out with the Twin Tube Blue (SFX-11). This is a very cool little preamp/overdrive box that sits – gain-wise – right in the middle between their Twin Tube Classic and their Twin Tube Mayhem.

Run by two 6111 mil-spec, USA Philips-Sylvania tubes, the Blue can get you some nice, pre-amp snap, to sweet, sustained gain. Here’s the description from the Seymour Duncan site:

Too often, inexpensive tube gear runs in “starved plate mode,” where the tubes function like clipping diodes and do not actually amplify. The Twin Tube Blue’s high-plate voltage and 100% vacuum tube signal path allows the tubes to operate at their fullest potential and provide maximum dynamic range. This means you get the most gain and all the smooth tone you expect from a high-quality tube preamp. Two channels provide versatility. Like all Seymour Duncan stompboxes, the Twin Tube Blue is true bypass and features a fully encapsulated toroidal transformer for quiet operation. Heavy duty steel chassis.

Sounds impressive, huh? Here’s a video:

At about $229 street, it’s a bit on the pricey side, but it sure sounds good. Check it out at Seymour Duncan!

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New Gear: TC Electronic Nova Repeater Delay

Posted in buying gear, delay, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear find, guitar, guitar effects, guitar gear, guitar pedals, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 8, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Imagine a TC Electronic pedal for under $200! That’s right! It’s the Nova Repeater Delay. It has the same great quality you expect from TC Electronic, but at a great price. As TC Electronic puts it, the Nova Repeater is a “no-frills-with-a-sound-that-kills” type of pedal. In other words, it doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles. You dial in your settings and play. The most useful feature I dig is the tap tempo you can do strumming your guitar! You hold down the tap tempo button, strum your guitar, and the pedal picks up the tempo you strum! Very cool! When you hold down the tap tempo to set your tempo via your guitar, the pedal shuts off the signal to your amp, so you can set your tempo practically noiselessly. The TC Electronic dudes are awesome! Here’s a video:

I’ve been wanting to get a simple delay pedal for awhile now, and this one looks very promising. However, TC Electronic announced this pedal on March 27, 2009, and it hasn’t hit the stores yet! Damn! I was going to lay down the $149 for this sight-unseen! Oh well, guess I’ll have to wait, or get the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret first… 🙂

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New Gear: VOX Tonelab ST

Posted in amps, Amps/Amplification, announcements, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear find, guitar, guitar effects, guitar gear, guitar pedals, Music, musicians, pedals, vox, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 7, 2009| Leave a Comment »

VOX Tonelab ST

VOX Tonelab ST

I got my first introduction to VOX Tonelab boards when I saw a dude playing one direct into his PA at a casino a couple of years back. I was amazed at how awesome it sounded, and completely changed my opinion of using models in a live situation. Since then, I’ve played with some of the Tonelab series boards and Valvetronix amps, and have generally been pleased with them. But with the Tonelab SE, I think I’m going to take a really good look at this new offering from Vox.

  • First off, it’s nice and compact. It’s their smallest footprint yet!
  • 50 Presets and 50 User programs.
  • 33 amps and a 11 cabinets – more than you’ll ever need to customize your sound.
  • I’ve always dug the fact that it has an on-board expression pedal to adjust a bunch of different parameters – but most of all, to use as a wah (the wah is actually pretty sweet on these units).
  • Finally, at $199 (street), there’s tons of value in this little unit!

For more information, check out the VOX Tonelabe page.

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Quick Review: Red Bear Trading Style C Super Thick Gypsy Jazz Pick

Posted in buying gear, GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar picks, guitar reviews, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, picks, plectrum, Red Bear Trading, Tone, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 5, 2009| 3 Comments »

Red Bear Style "C"

Red Bear Style "C"

Imagine a pick shaped like the one to the left, but at 4 mm thick! That’s the Super Thick Gypsy Jazz Pick!

A couple of weeks ago, I was having a conversation with Dave Skowron, maker of Red Bear Trading picks, and said, “You know Dave, I just dig this Gypsy Jazz thick pick that I just bought. But as you know, for electrics, I play with a V-Picks Snake because I love the 4.1 mm thickness.” As background, I had just purchased a standard GJ thickness to replace the Heavy that I gave to a friend so she could try it out. I continued, “Do you have anything that is even close to that thickness? I would love to have that kind of thickness for playing acoustic.”

Dave replied, “Yeah, I have a sheet of the Tortis material that is pretty close to that thickness at about 4 mm. I did something even thicker for a guy once.”

“No, no any thicker, Dave, and I think it would be too much. But if you have a 4 mm thick pick, I’m all over it!”

“Okay, I’ll make up a prototype and send it to you to evaluate.”

All I can say after playing with “the prototype” for a couple of days is I hope that pick goes out of prototype because it is an incredible pick! You know how I love the feel and sound of Tortis, especially on acoustic guitar. In fact, I love the sound of Tortis with acoustic guitar that I won’t play any other type of pick on my acoustic. On electric, I dig my V-Picks Snake for its speed, tone, and thickness. Put all that together in one pick, and what you’ve got is a “Super Pick!”

The thicker you go with picks, the deeper and richer the sound. It’s not that you lose the highs; you don’t. It’s just that the thicker picks also bring out the lows, so what you get in a nice, even tonal presentation. That’s why I dig thick picks! On top of that, there is something magical with the way a Tortis pick interacts with an acoustic guitar’s strings. With me at least, playing a Tortis pick on acoustic evokes a certain visceral feeling that makes me want to close my eyes and just soak up all the tonal goodness. Not only that, Tortis, being made of a natural material, just feels natural. It’s the perfect complement for playing acoustic guitar!

So what about this super-thick Gyspy Jazz gauge? OMG!!! I am in guitar-playing heaven with this pick! It has the thickness of my beloved V-Picks snake, but all the feel and tone that I’ve come to love with my Tortis picks! To just call it “awesome” would be a complete understatement.

I first played the “Super Thick” last Friday at a gig that was primarily acoustic guitar. It started with playing some dinner entertainment music before a re-enactment of Christ’s passion. I was playing my Ovation Celebrity directly into a Genz-Benz 100 Watt upright. When I struck the first chord of the opening song. I actually had to pause and let the chord just ring and hang in the air. It was quiet enough in the room where I was playing that I could hear my guitar, as the amp was there for simple sound reinforcement. I thought my original GJ as awesome at 2.3 mm. What this pick did to the natural tone of my guitar was otherwordly!

I spent most of the day yesterday playing guitar, much to the chagrin of my wife! It feels so incredible!

In any case, if you’re interested in getting one of these, contact Dave Skowron at Red Bear Trading. I’m sure he’ll make one for you. Mind you, this thickness of pick won’t be cheap, but it’ll be well worth the investment!

5 Tone Bones - Gear has stellar performance, value, and quality. This is definitely top of the class, best of breed, and it's a no-brainer to add this to your gear lineup! If I could go higher, I would with this rating. But this pick gets my highest rating!

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Gear Find: Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret

Posted in announcements, distortion, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear find, guitar, guitar effects, guitar gear, guitar pedals, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, overdrive, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 1, 2009| 5 Comments »

Catalinbread Dirty Little SecretI always love being able to get great tone at a bargain. It’s not that I’m cheap. I’ll pay top-dollar for great gear, but when potentially great gear comes at an incredibly affordable price, the Dawg’s ears perk up, and his nose starts sniffing around to see where he can play some gear.

Such was the case when I first came across this little pedal company located in Portland, Oregon called Catalinbread. I had run across the name on a couple of gear forums, but didn’t get a chance to check out their site until today when I read their press release in Harmony Central Effects News. After I read the press release, I had to check out Catalinbread’s site, and much to my pleasure, Catalinbread offers several, very cool pedals.

One thing that makes them stand apart is their diminutive size. As noted in ProGuitarShop’s Catalinbread company page, “One of the defining features of Catalinbread effects pedals is the size. Catalinbread pedals are half the size of your standard MXR. That’s right, take a Phase 90 and cut it in half vertically and you’ve got the basic size of Catalinbread’s pint-sized pedals.” But, as they say, size isn’t everything. Apparently Catalinbread’s pedals pack a lot of sonic punch.

The other thing that makes Catalinbread pedals stand apart is their price. Their most expensive pedal that I found was US$179.95. Several of their pedals are under US$120.00! Mind you, these are handmade pedals! That’s so awesome! Catalinbread is definitely taking the stand of selling gear at lower prices to get it into players’ hands. Creation Audio Labs does this with their awesome pedals, and Aracom Amps does it with their VRX line. This ain’t trivial stuff, either. This is great, handmade gear at a great price!

Can you keep a secret?

The Dirty Little Secret could be construed as another “amp in a box” pedal. But from what I’ve heard from sound clips, it’s far from that. Catalinbread claims to have built into the box amp-like touch sensitivity that accurately respond to your playing dynamics and volume input; so much so that you feel like you’re playing in front of an amp, and not through a pedal. But there are several videos on the DLS product page that bears this out. Check out that page here.

Of course, only a live test will reveal if that is true, but I’m intrigued enough to go try one out if I can. The only problem with that is there are none to be found. This pedal’s so scarce that you can’t even order one on the Catalinbread’s web site! I have a feeling they’re being sucked up as fast as the company can produce them. Even retailers who were hawking the pedals awhile ago have either removed their sale pages or replaced their “buy now” link with ‘Email us about ordering.”

Well… my brother lives up in Portland. Maybe I’ll have him look these guys up!

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Gear Find: J. Backlund Designs Guitars JBD 100

Posted in GAS, gear, gear find, guitar, guitar gear, guitarists, Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 24, 2009| 1 Comment »

J. Backlund Designs JBD-100

I know I’m dating myself, but I used to love watching “The Jetsons” when I was a kid. It gave me my first impressions of what the future might hold, like flying cars and floating burger drive-ins where you docked your car. Ah, those nostalgic memories of the 60’s…

Well, if there were to be a guitar on the Jetsons, I imagine that it would have to come from J. Backlund Designs. Talk about retro-modern mojo! The JDB-100 shown to the left just oozes that! What a gorgeous guitar, and from what I heard of the sound from the video below, it has a pretty aggressive tone that seems to fit with that retro-modern styling.

At first, I thought I’d hear something like Dick Dale doing some surf stuff, but the dude doing the review played pretty heavy stuff. I’d actually like to hear what it sounds like clean.

Anyhow, here are some specs:

  • Mahogany Neck and Body
  • Set-Neck Construction
  • Custom Inlays
  • Custom Double Action Two Way Truss Rod
  • Scale Length: 24.75
  • Hipshot Locking Keys
  • Hipshot Baby Grand Bridge
  • 7 Degree Tilt Back Headstock Angle
  • Custom Color Matched Lace Sensor Alumi-tone Pickups
  • N-Tune Built In Chromatic Tuner
  • All USA Components
  • Custom Triple Chrome Plated Pick Guard
  • Custom Snakeskin Case

A real cool feature of this guitar is the built-in tuner. When engaged, the signal to the amp is cut off, so you can tune quietly. Hmm… Imagine that! You could remove the tuner from your board, and replace it with another boutique pedal! <sinister chuckle>

For more information, check out the J. Backlund Designs site! They’ve got 4 models, and the funny thing is that the JBD-100 is probably their most conservative-looking guitar! But they’re all cool!

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Quick Review: Aracom VRX22 – I’m Lovin’ This Amp!!!

Posted in amplifiers, aracom amps, buying gear, GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar gear, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Aracom Amps VRX22 - First in the series

Aracom Amps VRX22 - First in the series

Just got my brand-spankin’-new Aracom VRX 22 amp, and I’m just lovin’ it! The blue tolex is absolutely gorgeous, and the amp sounds freakin’ fantastic through my 1 X 12 cabinet with a Jensen P12N speaker!

Yesterday, I wrote about how I was anticipating the delivery of my amp, and I have to tell you that there’s nothing like having the real thing sitting in front of you! I was so inspired after Jeff Aragaki dropped of the amp that I re-recorded the sound bite I originally created, to demonstrate just how good the amp sounds!

In the new clip, I recorded my Strat and Saint Guitars Benchmark through Channel 1 and panned the Strat to the left and the Benchmark to the right to isolate their individual clean sounds. Then I recorded the Benchmark wailing out of Channel 2, with the Volume at about 8, and the Master right in the middle. I closed up the back of the cabinet completely to get more bass response as well. Anyway, here’s the clip:

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Have you ever had a #1 of anything?

Posted in 6V6, amplifiers, amps, Amps/Amplification, announcements, aracom amps, buying gear, GAS, gear, guitar, guitar gear, guitarists, Guitars, VRX22, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 21, 2009| 4 Comments »

Aracom Amps VRX22 - First in the series

Aracom Amps VRX22 - First in the series

I’ve never had a #1 of anything in my life – or at least nothing of consequence – but this weekend, I’m taking delivery of the very first production amp in the Aracom VRX 22 line! That’s it to the left! OMG!!! I’m excited! This is a real special time for me. I’ve played all sorts of fantastic gear, but I’ve never played something so impactful on my music where I got the first unit! It’ll probably never happen again, but who cares? It’s happened once, and that’s all that matters.

I decided to go with the separate head and cab for more versatility (plus I could use the cab with other amps – like my Fender Champ, and as an extra speaker for my Hot Rod). This amp is just perfect, driven by a couple of 6V6 power tubes. Read the review I gave it previously! In a nutshell, when I had the pre-production unit, I just couldn’t stop playing it! I’d totally lose track of time! That’s the mark of a special piece of gear!

The cool thing about the cab is that it has removable slats so I can go from fully closed to get extra bass response to wide open. Jeff made this suggestion when we were talking about what I was looking for in an extension cabinet. A musician himself, he’s constantly thinking of how he’d use his amps in a live situation, and he made this suggestion to add tonal versatility to the cabinet because we were talking about closed back versus open back designs. So why not the best of both worlds?

Also, the speaker is a Jensen P12N Alnico. I tried this speaker out in a different amp that I was testing for Jeff, and just fell in love with it! It is a very dynamic speaker capable of handling a wide range of tones.

So how did I end up with the very first amp in the line? Easy. I tested the original prototype, and the final pre-production unit. When Jeff picked it up, he was going to bring over other amps for me to try out, but I told him that the VRX 22 was the one I wanted, and verbally placed my order.

This is a real special amp, and it is so versatile. It is capable of going from super chimey cleans to all-out snarling overdrive. Here are some sound samples from the Aracom site (sorry, no cleans in this set – I’ll record some and post them later):

Slight Grind (this one says it’s the combo, but it’s the head into a prototype cabinet – I know because I recorded the clip 🙂 )

The following clips were recorded with the head plugged into a 4 X 12 cabinet.

Slight grind with a slide:

Grinding Blues:

More grinding Blues:

Fully cranked in Channel 2! Volume and Master on 10!

While the clips all sound great, this amp live is absolutely gorgeous-sounding!

Oh, and by the way, the amp head only costs $895. But don’t be fooled by the price: The VRX (as well as all Aracom Amps) is completely handwired and uses a solid-state rectifier and voltage sag simulator, which accounts for the lower price. But who cares? It sounds freakin’ awesome. I gigged with both the prototype and the pre-production units, and I can attest to how great it sounds. And great sound at a price like this is simply amazing!

For more information on this amp, go to the Aracom Amps web site.

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Gear Announcement: BOSS ME-70

Posted in effect pedals, GAS, gear, guitar, guitar effects, guitar pedals, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I’ve personally had a mostly tepid response to BOSS’s multi-effects units. A buddy of mine has an ME-50, and he rarely uses it – though he has other interests besides guitar. But from what I’ve heard from it, it just never inspired me. But the ME-70 seems a bit more promising; the operative word here being “promising.” This new version packs 40 effects of what BOSS claims to be it’s “hottest” pedals. It doesn’t make me all hot and bothered, but it does pique my interest enough to go down to my local Guitar Center and try it out. It’s not a bad price of at $299, and for the solo gigs I play, having a nice, compact effects rig with some built-in amp models is definitely something to consider. But that said, the only REALLY promising multi-effects unit I’ve come across is the TC Electronic Nova System. But it’s also twice the price. Only a test will prove it out. In the meantime, check out the video from BOSS:

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Gear Alert! Aracom Amps to Release a New Model!!!

Posted in amplifiers, amps, Amps/Amplification, announcements, aracom amps, buying gear, GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, Tone, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 14, 2009| 1 Comment »

The Dawg always has his nose to the ground, trying to pick up the scent of new gear. And for the past few months with the economy in a deep recession, new gear has been tough to find; especially from the small-run manufacturers. Well, I just picked up the scent of a brand new amp from Aracom Amps, and despite the recommendations of its maker, Jeff Aragaki to wait until he updates his site, sorry Jeff, this alert just can’t wait!!! 🙂

The new amp is called the Vintage Rox Series, and is based upon his absolutely kick-ass RoxBox series, which is an EL84-based, 18 Watt head or combo. The Vintage Rox, or VRX, series on the other hand, uses the same chassis and layout as the RoxBox, but is 6V6-based, producing 22 Watts of output. Now you have a choice in low-wattage solutions from Aracom!

Time to come clean…

Okay, I’ll admit it: I didn’t just discover this amp. I was actually the primary tester for the amp (there are distinct advantages to being local to a manufacturer), and I have been literally waiting weeks and chomping at the bit to announce it. I’ve hinted at its existence in previous article, but couldn’t provide any details.

Why am I so excited? For lots of reasons. But I’ll name two. First, with this amp, I think Jeff has definitely hit the sweet spot for low-wattage amp solutions! With the RoxBox 18 and the VRX 22, players have a voicing choice that not many boutique builders offer. But even more special, both the RoxBox and VRX amps sell for significantly less; in many cases more than half as much as other boutique amps at the same or similar wattage.

Secondly, the tone this amp produces is freakin’ marvelous! So much so, that I’m taking delivery of the first production amp. When Jeff brought the first prototype to me several weeks ago as an “experiment” he was working on, my immediate feedback was that this was a special amp, and I couldn’t wait until he had a production model because that was the amp I wanted to get from him.

I’ll have a full review of the amp once I get some pictures from Jeff, but for now, start checking out the Aracom Amps site for the VRX 22 announcement. It should be up by tomorrow!

Folks, I haven’t been this excited about an amp since I reviewed the Reason SM25! It’s one special amp that really deserves your attention. Also, if you subscribe to Vintage Guitar mag, you should see a review of the Aracom Evolver there in the newest issue!

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