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Posts Tagged ‘gear announcements’

Gear Find: Marble Amps

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I was perusing The Gear Page today, and while in a thread, happened upon a post where a guy mentioned he had recently purchased an amp made by a company called Marble Amps. He said they specialized in Fender-style reproductions with tweed covering, all hand-wired for a reasonable price. He wasn’t kidding. He got a used head for $800! Oh well… we all can’t be that lucky.

However, I did a little digging and found their web site. Talk about oozing classic Fender mojo! They apparently have a US distributor, the Alternative Guitar and Amp Company in Southern California, but they don’t have any information on them (although I left them a message).

Very cool stuff!

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Now for something totally weird… but cool… The Guitar Resonator

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 12, 2010| 2 Comments »

No, I’m not talking about a resonator guitar. This is an effect. It essentially adds tons of sustain and feedback kind of like one of those Moog guitars, but in a pedal connected to a gooseneck stand that appears to have an optical scanning device attached to the end that “reads” your strings, then processes the vibrations. It’s interesting to say the least, and Uli Jon Roth apparently uses it.

That said, I like the idea of having something like this to get super-sustain and feedback, and totally get that you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to get at least part of what the Moog guitar does, but it’s another piece of equipment to lug around. Don’t know how I feel about that.

Don’t know how practical it is, but I’ve seen worse things.

Check out the Vibesware site for more information!

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Gear for a Cause: The Wampler Underdog

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Man, I love it when gear manufacturers build stuff for a cause! Wampler has just re-released their limited run Underdog Overdrive (only 100 were originally made) to help out a friend who has breast cancer, as she can’t pay her doctor bills and apparently can’t get any insurance. All the profits from this re-release are going to help this woman out. It’s great to see this type of generosity!

Here’s a transcript of the press release:


Wampler Pedals has recently re-released their popular “Underdog Overdrive” pedal. Only 100 of the pedals were built originally.

According to Brian Wampler, owner of Wampler Pedals, “A close friend of mine has breast cancer and has no insurance, no family, and the government will not pay any medical costs for her to get the treatment she needs. Now, I’m not rich by any means, but I had to do something to help her. My wife and I came up with the idea of creating a pink pedal that is rich, dynamic, and very tweakable, and donate ALL the profits to her. Out of that limited run, famed country artist Brad Paisley bought one and loved it. A number of guitarists saw the pedal on Brad’s pedalboard and asked me to build one more for them, so I decided to start building more to keep up with demand. We are still donating all the profits to my friend, Ivy East, who is struggling to pay the doctor bills to combat this terrible disease.”

And here’s a video demo of the pedal. Apparently this is one of Brad Paisley’s favorite overdrive pedals:

For more information, visit the Wampler Pedals site!

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New Overdrive and HAO!!!

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The HAO OD-16, that is…. 🙂

Godlyke Distribution, which represents several boutique pedal manufactures has just released the HAO OD-16 overdrive pedal. Oh yeah… yet another overdrive pedal. But who cares? As the dean of my college once told me, “There’s room in this world for people who are good,” and as far as guitar gear is concerned, there’s certainly room in this world for good gear, and the HAO OD-16 (pr. “how”), promises to be a pedal that will make gear freaks make room for this pedal on their boards.

Designed and built by HAO in Japan, the OD-16 is a very cool take on the traditional overdrive. It’s ostensibly a Tube Screamer type of overdrive, which might ellicit a “so what” kind of reaction. However, with it’s internal voltage doubling circuit that takes a standard 9V and boosts it internally to 16V (hence the numeric designation), what the engineers were after was more headroom, and much more drive. And baby, this thing delivers all sorts of drive! Check out this demo video:

I dig the fact that you can bypass the internal tone pot to get more “bite” out of the pedal, and of course, true bypass is always appreciated. 🙂 Don’t know about you, but that video is causing me some SERIOUS GAS!!! Oy-Vay!!! Great tones – even out of low-res audio from the vid! I think I need to install a lock on my back pocket.

For more information, check out the Godlyke web site!

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New Pedal Company: Handwired-Effects

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 1, 2010| 1 Comment »

I’ve known about Handwired-Effects for a few weeks now, but didn’t really talk about it too much because their site didn’t have much on it, and they only had a single pedal. But now that they’ve got a few, I felt it was time to talk about them. Handwired-Effects has pretty much come out of nowhere with their pedals. Their initial offering is pretty straight-forward: a chorus, an overdrive, and a limited run “preamp overdrive” custom made for Dario Lorina.

I know… New pedal companies are started all the time so what has piqued my interest in Handwire-Effects? It’s actually not their products but their location that made me raise my eyebrows. Most new pedals seem to come primarily out of the US and Japan. Handwired-Effects is based in Switzerland. In all my years of buying gear, I’ve never used a guitar product made in Switzerland. No, I’m not thinking that these pedals may be better because of the “Swiss watch” thing. 🙂 But it sure is interesting that it’s located there…

Unfortunately, they don’t have any clips of their products, save a poor-quality video of Dario Lorina playing the Dario Lorina custom box at NAMM. We’ll just have to wait and see…

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Here Come the OD’s! Catalinbread WIIO

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I dig the folks over at Catalinbread, and even though I haven’t gotten any of their gear – yet – I do like what they produce. Earlier this month, they released a second version of their WIIO overdrive pedal. Admittedly, I didn’t even know they had a first version, but it’s here.

From what I could gather about the WIIO, it’s supposed to be a Hiwatt in a box – very cool – and apparently, it is designed to be super-responsive to pick attack and volume knob levels; much like an amp. Here’s a demo video I found:

Sounds very nice indeed… 🙂


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New Gear: Prestige Guitars Classic

Posted in GAS, gear, gear announcements, gear find, guitar, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, new gear, prestige guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 18, 2010| 1 Comment »

As you may know, I own a Prestige Guitars axe – actually one they no longer have in their current model lineup (though they list it in their models area) – the Heritage Elite, which I call “Sugar” because she actually smells sweet in addition to sounding sweet. The Heritage Elite is a very ornate take on a Les Paul copy; a lot of people actually don’t like how busy all the decorations are, which might account for why it’s not on their current model lineup. But the tone and sustain are wonderful, so that guitar is a keeper for sure. But I suppose in an effort to be a bit more “true to form,” Prestige has come out with a new axe, called the “Classic,” that I am sure will turn heads.

The Classic is a very nice take on a classic Les Paul design. It features a AAA flame maple top, on a super-light, carved, mahogany body and mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard. As with the Heritage, it sports the classic Seymour Duncan 59/JB Neck/Bridge pickup combination, independent volume and tone knobs, and a 3-way selector switch. Not sure what the bridge is, but when I last spoke with Prestige, they were moving away from Gotoh Tone-o-matic to GraphTech. Sure looks like a Gotoh to me, but I’d have to see it up close to tell.

When I look at the picture, if it weren’t for the lower horn, I’d swear this was a Les Paul! I dig the mother of pearl inlays on the fretboard, and the graceful lines of the body; speaking of which, the back is contoured, so in addition to being light, it is apparently incredibly comfortable as well. Great combination!

Here are specs from the Prestige Site:

  • 24 3/4” scale length
  • 1 11/16” nut width
  • Carved mahogany, maple bound body
  • AAA Grade flame maple top
  • Mahogany neck
  • Bound rosewood fingerboard
  • Mother of pearl trapeze fingerboard inlay
  • Mother of pearl prestige logo & decal
  • Seymour Duncan SH1-59 (neck) SH4-JB (bridge) humbucker pickups
  • 2 Vol. / 2 Tone / 3-way toggle controls
  • Grover tuners
  • Tune-o-matic bridge & Stop Bar
  • All chrome hardware
  • Available in natural sunburst finish

And to top it of, here’s a Guitar World video demo of the Classic:

Even with the low quality video, you can hear how that guitar just sings. It has a sweet sound, but can also get really aggressive. That’s one of the reasons I love playing my Sugar, which is a great guitar. But I might just have to get me one of these classics to gig with… OMG! More GAS!!!!

For more information, check out the Prestige Guitars product page!

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Fewer New Overdrive Pedals? Pah! Here’s One from Wampler

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 10, 2010| 2 Comments »

A couple of months ago, I asked the question, “Where have all the overdrives gone?” in response to a trend that I was noticing that there seemed to be fewer new overdrives being released after a long period where new overdrives from different pedal manufacturers were coming out every week. I guess they were waiting for NAMM to come because “They’re BAAAAACK!”

The latest to arrive on the scene is actually a re-issue from Wampler pedals: The Limited Edition Pinnacle(2) reissue. Wampler is an effects company I’ve known about for a long time, but have never actually played or owned one – even though I’ve always been impressed with their tone. In any case here’s Wampler’s explanation for coming out with the re-issue:

The original Pinnacle(2) evolved into the pinnacle over the span of a couple of years. During that time, we’ve had a ton of customers ask us about coming back out with the original version which had a stomp-switchable gain boost. While the current pinnacle and the original pinnacle 2 were 95% the same circuit-wise, some felt that there was a certain ‘magic’ to it. Since we’ve had so many requests for it, we decided to come out with a limited version of it complete with the gain boost stomp switch. We are only building a small number of these so unfortunately when it’s gone – it’s gone. At this time, it is only available on this website.

So how does it sound? Well, it can do quite a bit, actually. But it is really known for its ability to cop a great “brown sound” tone. Here’s a great video that demonstrates this (this dude can cop EVH pretty good):

I find it amazing that the amp he used was a software amp. AmpliTube has really come a LONG way!

As Wampler mentions, there are only going to be a limited run of these pedals. But here’s the real winner for me: This pedal is only $179.00! I need to tie down my hand so it doesn’t reach for my wallet!!! 🙂 It’s definitely worth a look!

I really don’t know why I love overdrive sounds so much. I guess that there’s something really primitive inside me that loves that growling tone. Who knows? Who cares? I love ’em!!!

For more information, go the Wampler Pedals site!

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New Gear from NAMM: T-Rex Tonebug Distortion Pedal

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Oo-la-la! T-Rex will soon be releasing a new distortion pedal called the Tonebug Distortion. Not much info on it yet, but it is supposed to lay on tons of gain. I was fortunate enough to see a video from the folks at GearWire that quickly demonstrates what this pedal can do.

Admittedly, I’ve preferred overdrives over distortion boxes, but I’m really liking the tone from this puppy! Don’t know if I’d shell out $399 for it, though. But T-Rex pedals are premium pedals, so that’s not a surprising price.

For more information, check out the T-Rex site!

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A Different Approach: Eminence Flux Density Modulation Speakers

Posted in attenuator, gear, gear announcements, gear find, guitar, guitar attenuators, guitar gear, guitar speakers, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, new gear, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 8, 2010| 2 Comments »

or… Doc Brown in Back to the Future saying, “I finally invented something that works!” Speaking in reference to the Flux Capacitor. Nah, it’s nothing of the sort, but it is by no means less cool. The Flux Density Modulation Speakers are a new approach to attenuation where the attenuation happens right at the speaker! Giving you up to -9 dB attenuation, while keeping your tone, that is what I call cool, and something I must check out! You know me, I’m an attenuator fan, and something like this has me absolutely GAS-ing! From what I could tell from the videos below, the tone is really preserved. Now, mind you that -9 dB of attenuation won’t get you down to conversation levels, but it’ll sure provide enough attenuation to take the bite off the volume. If you need to go lower, hell! Get an Aracom attenuator, and get it down REAL LOW! Check out the NAMM vids!

and from GuitarWorld…

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