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Posts Tagged ‘gear find’

New Gear: StageTrix Pedal Fastener

Posted in buying gear, effect pedals, GAS, gear, gear announcements, gear find, gear reviews, guitar, guitar accessories, guitar effects, guitar gear reviews, guitar pedals, guitar reviews, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, new gear, pedalboard, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

stagetrix-pedalfastener

Click for full size view

I wrote about StageTrix Pedal Risers awhile ago, and how they elevate the back row of your board to make your pedals more accessible. I’ve been using them since, and they really are a godsend! I did mention that they already came with the fastener already installed, so all you have to do is place the riser.

I really like the fastener they’re using. For one, the material is thinner than most kinds you buy at a store, which means it shapes well to contours. Another thing – and more importantly, in fact – is that the glue StageTrix uses on the fastener can withstand up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s the best thing. We’ve all had the experience of getting velcro glue on our fingers. It’s a gooey mess! Well, that’s solved with the Pedal Fasteners.

For $9.95, you get a pack of three (click on the picture to get a full size view). You can install a fastener with the middle, or you can remove the middle part, and only use the fastener on the edge of  your pedal. Very cool stuff!

For more information, check out the StageTrix Products site!

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Gear Find: Pointless Picks

Posted in GAS, gear, gear find, guitar, guitar gear, guitar picks, guitarists, Guitars, new gear, picks, plectrum, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 21, 2009| 6 Comments »

Pointless Picks

I got a Twitter notification today of someone now following GuitarGear, so I checked Twitter to see who it was, and was intrigued by their website URL: http://www.pointlesspicks.com. Curious, I clicked on their link and was taken to their site. Sure enough, it was a product site dedicated to picks that were – as the name implies – pointless.

These are perfectly round picks, made of a polymer called Acetal. Acetal is a thermoplastic and apparently one of the stiffest and most durable plastics in the thermoplastic family. It has a variety of uses, and often competes with nylon for the same applications, according to the Plastics Web, such as the production of plectrums.

These picks are very interesting to me at first blush. As they’re round, there’s not a “wrong” way to hold them. And if you’re the type of player that almost always rounds off their points or plays with the fat end of a standard pick, then this pick may be appealing to you. It’s certainly a novel idea, and apparently they’ve got a lot of retailers selling them. They won a “Best in Show” at Summer NAMM last year, so obviously these picks made an impact on the judging panel.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many reviews of them, and the few that I found were pretty much copies from a single review, which was fairly short. I only found one video on YouTube that mentions Pointless Picks, and it wasn’t a review, though the guitar playing was pretty good, but you can’t see the dude using the pick!

Personally, I’m not sure how I feel about these. I love big fat picks, and these come in 1mm at their thickest. But if they’re really stiff, I may just like them. But it makes me wonder how to do fast alternate picking with them. I’m not a particularly fast player, but I hold my pick at about a 45 degree angle when I’m picking individual notes. It would seem to me that at that angle, the pick would just slide over the string. Maybe there’s some inherent friction…. Guess I’ll have to try them out to see what they’re like. But hey! Best in Show at NAMM is nothing to shake a stick at, so I’m game!

Anyway, for more information, check out the the Pointless Picks web site for more information.

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New Gear: Routed Pedal Risers from StageTrix Products!

Posted in effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear announcements, gear find, guitar, guitar effects, guitar pedals, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, new gear, pedalboard, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 18, 2009| 5 Comments »

stagetrix_riserOne of the things that completely pisses me off when I’m gigging is when I reach my foot out to activate a pedal in the back row of my board, and I end up also activating a pedal in the front row. Aiiiyeeee!!! This happened to me recently at a church gig. I was playing a nice, sweet, clean solo, and want to texture my sound a bit by adding some reverb.

To give some background, my reverb pedal (Hardwire RV-7) is the last pedal in my chain and it sits right above my Holy Fire overdrive. Instead of a toggle switch, the RV-7 has a switch plate, and the travel before it actually activates is enough so that I have to really point my toe so I don’t brush my Holy Fire’s knobs or accidentally activate it. Well, in this instance, I did both: I somehow completely dimed the overdrive knob AND activated the pedal. The next note I struck not only startled me, but also startled the prayerful assembly – enough so that some people actually squeaked! Yikes! No doubt, it was a bit embarrassing…

Then today, I got a Twitter alert that a new user called StageTrix was following me, so I went to Twitter to do an exchange follow, and on StageTrix’s site, I saw a Twitter reply from Premiere Guitar. Intrigued, I checked out their site, and was greeted with a solution to my problem: An 18-gauge steel pedal riser that you can use to prop up the second row of your board to make your back row of pedals more easily accessible! What a great freakin’ idea! It’s one of those ideas where you slap your forehead and say, “Now why didn’t I think of that?” 🙂

I had the opportunity to chat with one of the StageTrix guys a few minutes ago to discuss StageTrix’s invention. They’ve apparently been developing it for about a year and a half, and doing prototypes with various musicians. And their reason for building it? Exactly for what I was lamenting just above!

Here are some details from their site:

  • Raises the second row of pedals to the perfect height.
  • Front, back and side openings enable effective cable routing.
  • Premium 18-gauge steel.
  • Attaches to board via heavy duty hook-and-loop fastener on base, which holds firm up to 200°F.
  • Designed to withstand temperatures of up to 200F without melting, so leaving your pedal board in your vehicle on a summer day won’t result in a gooey mess with all the Velcro peeling off.
  • Works with most pedalboards. To be sure, check that you have an extra 1″ of clearance when case is closed. The vast majority do.

If you go to their site, they’re doing a promotion by putting several of these units up for bid on EBay, with a starting bid at a $1.00. These pedals list for $23.99 on their site, so it’s possible that if you get the winning bid, you could get one for significantly less…

Right now, they’re only available through StageTrix, but they should soon be available in stores. I will be getting a review unit within the next week or so, and will do a review.

Check out the StageTrix site now!

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KASHA Is At It Again!!!

Posted in announcements, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear announcements, gear find, guitar, guitar effects, guitar gear, guitar pedals, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, overdrive, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2009| 2 Comments »

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large-relay-1

How ’bout a completely different take on an overdrive pedal? Well KASHA is at it yet again, teaming up with Tone Box, Inc., with the brand-new Skull Crusher Drive! Utilizing KASHA’s RockMod technology, the Skull Crusher sports four voicings and a tone and gain knob. Plus with a 10db boost, you have 8 different analog overdrive possibilities in a single pedal!

Sounds hauntingly similar to the KASHA overdrive pedal I just tested last week. It is a bit different, as it has a Tone knob, which is different from the KASHA overdrive. But I can personally attest to the quality of the tone of the KASHA overdrive, so you can bet the Skull Crusher will have that same sweet tone itself!

BTW, my KASHA OD is in production and on its way. I got lucky, and will be getting one of the signed models with a handwritten serial number… Oh goody! Might be able to sell one of these for a grand in 30 years! HA!

In any case, I’ve never seen a pedal like the Skull Crusher before! This is a totally new approach to pedals, adding a visual as well as tonal touch to an effect. The pedal will be distributed by Tone Box, Inc. and will retail for $399.

As for the physical appearance of the box, each pedal is hand-sculpted stainless steel, and comes in four finishes: gun metal, stainless steel, aged and ancient. According to KASHA, there will also be 24K gold and Sterling Silver models as well. Damn! Imagine having a stomp box that’s worth more than your guitar! HAHAHAHAHA!!! I LOVE IT!

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Gear Find: Ark Amps

Posted in amplifiers, amplitube fender, amps, Amps/Amplification, announcements, GAS, gear, gear find, guitar, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, new gear, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 1, 2009| 4 Comments »

arkDid I ever say, “I love my job?” Well… GuitarGear.org isn’t exactly a job, but even it were, I’d still love it because I get to sniff around the Internet for different kinds of gear. Recently, through The Gear Page forums, I ran across this great amp company called Ark Amps. I had heard the name in passing but didn’t know much about them. Still don’t, but they make some gorgeous amps! The designs are really out of this world with incredible woodwork! And from what I can gather from the audio clips, these are nice-sounding amps as well.

To give you an idea of just how awesome these designs are check out these pictures! Talk about combining art with function! I’ve never seen amp cabinet designs like this – ever! Check ’em out for yourself at Ark Amps!

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New Gear: Kasha KA-ODP-A 4-Channel Overdrive Pedal

Posted in announcements, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear announcements, gear find, guitar, guitar effects, guitar gear, guitar pedals, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, new gear, overdrive, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 22, 2009| 4 Comments »


Kasha KA-ODP-A

Awhile ago, I was perusing a forum where one of the members mentioned in a reply that it’s a good time to be a guitarist. There’s so much varied gear out there that guitarists have all sorts of options to choose from. One area of guitar gear that certainly seems to get regular entries is the overdrive pedal.

The OD pedal is something of which I never tire. There are so many great ones out there – I just can’t get enough of ’em. One such pedal that has just recently caught my eye is the KA-ODP-A 4-Channel Overdrive Pedal from Kasha amps. This pedal promises to be something special. Check out its features:

– 4 channels with separate voicing and gain structure
– Analog design
– 10 dB clear boost
– True bypass switching
– Very low power consumption (3mA and runs on a single 9V battery)
– No tone change, only enhances sound
– Compact standard aluminum chassis (4 3/8″x2 1/4″ x 1 1/4″)
– AC power jack (uses standard Boss DC power supplies)
– High gloss mirror black powder coat
– Hand made in the USA
– Low noise
– Crystal Blue LED (high intensity)
– Weight: 1.5lb

Built By an Amp Builder

There’s something about gear that’s built by an amp builder, especially when it comes to pedals or other peripheral devices. Amp builders have an innate understanding of the electronics behind tone, and how peripheral devices interact with their amps. A great example of this is Jeff Aragaki from Aracom Amps and his brand-new attenuatore, the Power Rox PRX150-Pro. Jeff totally gets it with how an amp interacts with a speaker, and the Power Rox is a testament to that. The same may be said of the Kasha overdrive in front of an amp. I had a chance to speak with John (Kasha’s owner and builder) this afternoon about the pedal, and it was clear from our conversation that this guy really understands the interplay between effects and an amp – especially with respect to overdrive.

Kasha has been around awhile, having been building the famous ROCKMOD line of amps since the 80’s, so they know something about amps, and their tone is well-known. Guitarists such as George Lynch and Davey Johnstone (Elton John), and tons of session guitarists have been playing ROCKMODS for years. So when John decided to build an overdrive pedal, he didn’t want to model it off of traditional circuits, so he created his own. The result is the 4-Channel Kasha Overdrive.

What’s very intriguing about this pedal is that it doesn’t have an EQ. John designed the pedal in such a way that it preserves the tone going in and outputs it with some OD “flavor” as John puts it. The thinking is that you don’t need an EQ if you’re not doing anything to the EQ of the signal. Smart.

The Kasha overdrive is a lesson in simplicity, having only two knobs: An overdrive selection knob to choose from one of the four different overdrives, and a gain knob. Very simple. But it also sports a “Turbo” switch at the top which will add a 10db clean boost to slam your pre-amp tubes with even more gain. But despite all that, this thing operates on 3 milliamps and only requires a standard 9V power source! That is incredible! My beloved Holy Fire requires a special 48V power supply! So what John has created is definitely special.

I’m going to be trying this pedal out in the next coming weeks, and I’m excited! I’ll keep you posted!

For more information, go to the Kasha product page (scroll down to the end to see the overdrive)

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Gear Find: Sweetwood Guitar Company

Posted in custom guitars, GAS, gear, gear announcements, gear find, guitar, guitar gear, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, new gear, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Sweetwood Guitar Company Ever since I started this blog back in 2007, I’m always tickled by how I sometimes just stumble upon gear manufacturers. With Tone Freak Effects, I happened to do a search on “tone freaks” to see if there were any interesting site out there. I found Red Bear Trading picks at a local guitar shop, and bought a couple after trying them out as I was curious what a $20 pick would play like (it was wonderful, of course). In other cases like Saint Guitar Company, a visitor to GuitarGear.org happened to mention that he had just got one in a comment. I at first thought the comment was spam, but decided to do some research. I’m glad I did because I’m going to soon take delivery of my first custom Saint Guitar Company Goldtop Messenger!

A couple of days ago, I was viewing a video of Tonic Amps, and noticed a guitar that I had never seen before (click on the video link, and you’ll see it at about 1:50). It was gorgeous! Birdeye maple top, solid maple body and neck from a company I had never heard of before called Sweetwood Guitar Company. Of course, The Dawg rarely passes up the opportunity to sniff out new gear to activate his GAS, so I did a search and found the Sweetwood Guitars site. These are VERY NICE guitars! Very simple and straight-forward in their design, with a real vintage vibe going on.

Not wanting to stop at just looking at pictures, I went to the contact page, and was blown away! Sweetwood Guitars is local to me! In fact, they’re only about 15 minutes away from my house! Shit! I’m in trouble! 🙂 But it’s a good trouble!

Anyway, I gave Glenn, Sweetwood Guitars’ owner and luthier a call, and will soon be doing a test run on a couple of his guitars. When I called him, he was on the road traveling back up to the Silicon Valley from LA, where he has the finishes done, and he was bring back a bunch of guitars! I can’t wait to hook up with him and try out these beauties!

For more information, check out the Sweetwood Guitar Company web site!

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Gear Find: GeekMacDaddy Pedals

Posted in amplifiers, amps, announcements, booster, buying gear, clean boost, distortion, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear announcements, gear find, guitar, guitar effects, guitar gear, guitar pedals, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, new gear, overdrive, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 3, 2009| 2 Comments »

GeekMacDaddy British Ball Breaker

I had such a great evening tonight! Darin from Tonic Amps invited me over to his shop to try some amps through his excellent speaker cabinets (be on the lookout for a review in the next day or so). He has a very cool workshop that he also shares with “GeekMacDaddy,” who makes some absolutely KICK-ASS pedals! I got to try out a few of them tonight, and absolutely fell in love with the British Ball Breaker, which GeekMacDaddy touts as a classic Marshall Plexi in a box. He’s not kidding, either. This is a helluva pedal, with rich, thick, overdriven Marshall tone. Just set your amp on clean, crank the master volume, engage the British Ball Breaker, and you’ll be rewarded with gorgeous Marshall-esque overdrive!!! YOWEE!!!

You gotta check out these pedals! They just rock! In addition, GeekMacDaddy is just about to release another freakin’ fantastic pedal called the GeekDriver that is a totally awesome take on a drive pedal. It sounds awesome by itself, but this pedal was built to be stacked, providing the foundation tone, then driving another fuzz or overdrive pedal. Rockin’!!!

Damn! Two freakin’ awesome pedals that I will have to get – as if I need more! But hey! You know me and overdrive pedals! I just can’t get enough of them!

Here’s a great demo video of both the British Ball Breaker and the GeekDriver from PremierGuitar:

Notice that GeekMacDaddy’s playing through a Tonic Amp! Those amps just rock as well! However, I’m getting ahead of myself!

For more information, go to the GeekMacDaddy site!

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New Gear: Effectrode Tube Drive

Posted in distortion, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear announcements, gear find, guitar effects, guitar gear, guitar pedals, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, new gear, overdrive, pedals, tubes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 28, 2009| 2 Comments »


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Effectrode has long been known for its tube-driven effects such as the Tube Vibe. But they’ve just released a new overdrive pedal with three tubes that give you up to six gain stages of drive! OMG! Talk about saturation city! Note that this pedal ain’t cheap at $399, but if it delivers on what appears to be very promising features, I might be hard-pressed not to take a serious look at this pedal. It’ll be interesting what people say about this pedal.

Here’s the description of from the Effectrode site:


The Tube Drive, pure class-A tube overdrive pedal featuring three triode vacuum tubes for a total of six gain stages. The drive knob simultaneously controls the gain of all cascaded stages so that they progressively clip allowing the Tube Drive to respond empathically to your pick attack with a graceful breakup characteristic. At lower gain settings this pedal excels at producing authentic blues and mild break-up to add some “dirt” to playing whilst always sounding smooth and musical. Pushing the drive a little higher produces the classic 70’s overdriven tube amp tone and at even higher gains the sound becomes rich in harmonic content without masking the the natural sound of your guitar and amplifier. The Tube Drive allows you to effortlessly climb the gain curve to create sustaining, super-saturated lead tones, inspire you and power your solos beyond escape velocity, through the stratocastersphere soaring into high energy orbit!

Features

  • All Tube gain circuitry: 100% analog, class-A, clipping circuitry based on three cascaded tubes. No silicon in the signal path – guaranteed. This topology gives the Tube Drive fine control over a wide range of gain characteristics from mild breakup to creamy saturation.
  • Bax-Stack “active” tube tone control: The Tube Drive is the only overdrive with an active tube tone control. The Bax-Stack is a real treble boost (and cut) circuit with zero insertion loss, unlike passive tone stacks which can only remove frequency content (“tone-sucking”). The tone range is optimized to work over important frequencies essential for mellow jazz tones to some serious crunch.
  • Low-end coutour switch: Active low boost for a warmer, richer sound. Especially useful with single coil pickups to thicken the sound or when playing at low volumes to compensate for loudness.
  • Orange L.E.D.: Indicates when pedal is engaged.

Very cool! But even cooler are the sound samples. Check ’em out!!!

335 solo

Strat Solo

YYZ solo

Crunch

Saturation

Mild Breakup

Strat Drive

Crunch Too!

Red Barchetta

Sustain

Description and sound clips courtesy of Effectrode Pedals.

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Gear Find: Tonic Amps

Posted in amplifiers, amps, Amps/Amplification, announcements, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear announcements, gear find, guitar, guitar effects, guitar gear, guitar pedals, guitarists, Guitars, Music, musicians, new gear, pedals, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 28, 2009| 4 Comments »

Tonic Amps

As you know, the Dawg spends a lot of time sniffing around to find gear, but sometimes, manufacturers find me. Recently Tonic Amps contacted me, and I checked out their offerings. Tonic builds some nice reissue amps with their own twists, but they are also the North American distributor for Fane Speakers, the noted UK amp speaker manufacturer.

As you’d expect, if they sell speakers, Tonic probably builds cabs as well, and that is definitely the case. Darin (owner/builder of Tonic), has some very nice custom cabs in a variety of configurations and woods, all solid board cabinets: no pressed sawdust here, my friends. Tonic also offers custom cabs in a variety of hardwoods (though of course, you’re going to pay a premium for these, but hey! they’re available).

In any case, Premier Guitar has run a couple of videos that demonstrate Tonic Amps. You can check them out below:

From the 2009 New York Amp Show:

From the LA Amp Show:

These are some nice-sounding amps with some nice features! One thing that’s totally awesome for me is that Tonic Amps is literally ten minutes away from where I live! I can’t wait to try out Tonic’s amps and cabs!

Another cool thing is that Darin shares a shop with GeekMacDaddy, who makes a line of very cool pedals. Maybe I’ll get a chance to give ’em a whirl, in particular, his British Ball Breaker, which is touted as a Marshal stack-in-a-box. Yummy!

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