It’s not often major manufacturers skip an iteration of a product entirely (imagine if Apple skipped the next iPhone?), but this is exactly what happened with the Mesa/Boogie Mark VII 1x12 Combo. You’ll notice that the Mark VI simply doesn’t exist, and that’s because Mesa spent so long developing it that they opted to skip version 6 and head straight for number 7. It’s also the first Mesa guitar amp to be released during the era of Gibson ownership, making it a standout for many reasons.

The Mark VII includes many nods to the storied history of Mesa amps, and it’s a far cry from the origins of hot-rodded Fender Princetons that gave Randall Smith the platform to start building his own amps. It’s got three channels, and each channel has three different modes, offering what’s essentially a highlight reel of Mesa amps over the years.

Channel 1, based on the classic modded Fender amps, offers a clean, fat, and crunch operation, paying homage to the roots of these classic tube amps. Channel 2 has fat, crunch, and MKVII modes for classic rock crunch. Channel 3 has the rare MKIIB mode, the first of the Mesa amps with a buffered effects loop, the holy grail IIC+ mode, and a MKIV option.

Each channel has the ability to switch in the onboard 5-band EQ section, so you can drastically or subtly alter the tone of your current channel at will. There are also power modes for each channel, with 90W, 45W, and 25W operation available. The EQ section features separate reverb controls for each channel, so you can drench your clean tone while keeping your high gains tight. The FX loop is also switchable per channel.

Moving to the back panel, it’s just as busy as the front with a myriad of options to select from. Each channel has its own option for selecting cabinet simulations, with seven for each channel available via a rotary knob. There’s a DI line output, headphone out, XLR direct out with CabClone impulse response, ground lift switch, and a USB output. Dual 8 and 4ohm speaker outputs sit alongside FX loop send and returns, with a MIDI input for the footswitch, and MIDI Thru/Out and separate MIDI in connectors.

In the preamp section, we have 5x Mesa 12AX7 tubes with 4x Mesa 6L6 tubes in the power amp section, although these can be swapped for EL84 tubes if you prefer. It’s got a 1x12 Celestion Custom 90 speaker, known as the ‘Black Shadow’, with a 50 oz ceramic magnet to help deliver the headroom needed to handle channel 3. The whole thing is housed in a marine-grade, Baltic birch cabinet.

Pulling it out of the box, the Mark VII 1x12 may be comparatively small, but it weighs an absolute ton. It takes quite some effort just to lift it out by the handle, and at nearly 60 lbs, this isn’t an amp you’ll enjoy lifting into the trunk of your car. All of the additional extras are packed into the back of the amp, so to get them out, I have to unscrew the panel. Alongside the footswitch, packed inside are four heavy-duty casters, which are a necessity to install thanks to the heavy weight of the amp.

The cabinet itself is reassuringly solid, with the Black Shadow speaker rear-mounted to the baffle in the center of the frame. The tubes drop down a good portion of the open part of the back panel, shielded by a black cage. On the opposite side, the gigantic transformer takes up a lot of real estate, and on my review model, there’s some leftover transformer varnish that’s dripped down and hasn't been wiped off.

Everything feels well applied on the front panel, with the innumerable knobs and switches reacting nicely to my inputs. The corners of the amp all feature robust protectors, and it includes a good-quality amp cover to keep it safe during travel. I took the Mesa to several recording sessions from home, and although the weight is really something, I don’t doubt its ruggedness when it comes to touring.

When I first switched it on to start dialing in some sounds, I have to admit to feeling a little bit overwhelmed with the options. With three channels that each have three different voices, three power modes, and their own 3-band EQs, it’s hard to know where to start. Thankfully, Mesa includes a handy setup laminate on the top of the amp that gives users a good starting point.

Essentially, what we have here are three different channels: clean, crunch, and lead. Of course, with three amp modes per channel, there’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the easiest way to break it down. Each channel has an individual EQ, so you can dial in very precise tones for each and switch between them. The reverb is also channel-specific, so you can crank it for the clean stuff, then pull it back for high gain, which is handy.

There’s also a footswitchable additional EQ, which you can sculpt via the sliders at the far end of the front panel. This might be just to change the tone of the core sound, or you can use it to boost certain frequencies. With 5 bands, it’s very flexible, although once you set it, it’s the same for every channel. The FX loop is also switchable for each channel so that you can bring your time-based effects in and out at the push of a button.

Moving to the back panel, there are some very useful options for using the amp at home. I start with the direct XLR out into my audio interface to record some direct tones. You can unplug the speaker here (make sure it’s fully unplugged), and the amp automatically engages the built-in reactive load so that silent recording is possible.

Each channel has a selection of 8 built-in cabinet IRs, and you can load your own into the amp too when connecting it via the USB slot to your laptop or PC. You can also use it in this way with headphones if you just want to practice silently; just remember to unplug the speaker, as the headphone out doesn’t defeat it automatically.

It feels like Mesa has really thought of any use case, making what is a very loud tube amp usable at home, in the studio, or onstage. The footswitch is excellent, giving you complete control over every aspect of the front panel, and the options for recording and silent practice make it probably the most flexible amp I’ve ever played. If you value simplicity, though, this definitely isn’t the amp for you.

I took the Mesa Mark VII Combo to my local recording studio for a bunch of sessions, and boy, is this thing capable. Using it as a clean pedal platform, the tones are very Fender-esque, and I didn’t need to do any tweaking to my pedalboard’s gain staging to get it sounding how I wanted. It took a multitude of pedals with ease, whether I was laying on phase-shifted distortion, modulated delays, or soaring shimmer reverbs.

I was also taken aback by the speaker's sound when played clean. There’s no boxiness at all, and it sounds incredibly full for what is a relatively small 1x12 combo amp. With the three power modes, you can get as much headroom as you like, and with the 90-watt mode, there’s a lot of clean headroom available. It also makes it usable at lower volumes, although the 25-watt mode is still deafeningly loud.

The built-in, tube-driven spring reverb is a really nice touch. It’s very similar to what you’d get on a vintage Fender amp, although to my ear the tail was a little smoother sounding. You can set it individually for each channel, so I used plenty of the clean sound but dialed it back for the rhythm and lead tones.

Moving to crunch tones, these are a bit rounder and smoother than your classic Plexi sounds, but it’s not a million miles away. For playing power-chord heavy rhythms with plenty of palm muting, it works great though, delivering a super satisfying rhythm tone that works great in a full band setup. It goes from a nice crunch all the way to a thrashy rhythm sound, so there’s plenty of flexibility just in this channel.

Moving to the high-gain channel, I’m greeted by a searing tone that works perfectly with a drop-tuned baritone guitar. It’s tight in the low end with plenty of midrange punch and a lovely smooth top. Here you can get a whole range of heavy guitar tones, whether it’s 80s-style lead sounds or chugging metal rhythms.

With it set to 90 watts and cranked, it makes more sound than any 1x12 combo has any right to, whilst still managing to sound controlled. When I used it this way in a recording session for a metal band, there were many a riff face in the control room as I chugged my way through some Meshuggah-inspired riffs.

There are no two ways about it, this is a guitar amp that is probably too expensive for a lot of guitar players. But when it’s capable of pretty much any guitar tone you can think of, the price suddenly doesn’t seem like such a huge barrier. If you want one tube amp that can genuinely do it all, then the Mesa/Boogie Mark VII 1x12 Combo is an investment you won’t regret.

The only real downside I found with it is the weight, which is really quite excessive. It’s a necessary evil due to the amount of electronic wizardry that’s packed into the unit, but it would definitely make me think twice about gigging it, even with the included heavy-duty casters attached.

It’s an inspired guitar amp, though. With such a plethora of tones at your fingertips, I found myself coming back to the Mesa again and again, despite having a couple of Fender and Orange tube amps at my disposal. The sheer flexibility of it enabled it to work just as well for some metal recordings I did as it worked on country guitar playing, and the option to use it silently at home sealed the deal.

Specifications

• Launch price: $3,849 | £3,999 | €4,137
• Type: Tube combo
• Origin: USA, UK-made speaker
• Output: 90 Watts RMS, switchable to 45 or 25W
• Speaker: 1x12 Celestion Custom 90
• Channels: 3
• Controls: Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence, Gain, Volume, 3x Reverb, plus extra modes and switchable Graphic EQ
• Connectivity: 1 x 1/4" input, 4 x 1/4" (4/8/16 ohm), 1 x 1/4" (line out), 1 x XLR (cabinet simulator), FX loop, 2 x 5-pin DIN (In, Out/Thru), 1 x Type B USB (IR loading), 1 x 1/4" headphones,
• Footswitch: 6-button footswitch included
• Weight: 58 lbs, 26.3 kg
• Dimensions: 18.25 x 18.75 x 11.5"
• Contact: Mesa/Boogie

Flatpicking queen Molly Tuttle epitomizes classic Americana artistry, so it’s a natural for her to put her fingerprint on a signature Martin — well actually, two Martins. The D-18 Molly Tuttle is her take on the all-American Dreadnought, while the D-X2E Molly Tuttle is made south of the border to deliver similar playability with far greater affordability. The raw ingredients are notably different, but both Martin Dreadnoughts share the same essential recipe and key specifications.

Tuttle is known to play a few guitar brands, but she’s been a true-blue Martin lover since she was a girl. She’s well aware of its history and what works for her approach. Molly went with mostly traditional specifications, and one that’s a bit of an outlier.

Her choice of a D-18 echoes the preference of a long line of acoustic icons from Hank Williams to Norman Blake, who praised the mahogany model on his iconic 1990 duet with Tony Rice, the “D-18 Song, (Thank You Mr. Martin).” Lots of bluegrassers favor mahogany back and sides for its articulate tonal nature. Tuttle’s D-18 features a throwback nut width measurement and an authentic 1941 neck profile with a Standard Taper. What’s particularly interesting about Tuttle’s D-18 is the rear-shifted scalloped bracing under its solid spruce top.

Rearward- Versus Forward-Shifted X-Bracing

Rearward-shifted X-bracing is designed to make the guitar sound even more articulate, and it goes against the grain to a degree. Forward-shifted X-bracing is designed to increase bass and resonance by moving the X closer to the sound hole, leaving more of the top to resonate more freely between it and the bridge. That’s the preference of players including Billy Strings who employed it on his signature D-28 that came out last year, and it has literally become standard at Martin as nearly all Standard Dreadnoughts since 2025 feature forward-shifted, GE-scalloped bracing. “GE” stands for Golden Era and refers to the period of approximately 1920 to 1942 when Martin meticulously shaved bracings down by hand to facilitate greater top flexibility. The D-18 Molly Tuttle features that GE-style scallop as well.

Molly and Billy’s Martins, Tonal Comparisons

So while the D-18 Molly Tuttle draws its inspiration from her own favorite 1943 D-18, its rear-shifted X brace is designed to tame bass boom while adding clarity and punch. That’s exactly the tonal hallmark of this guitar: it’s ultra-articulate and punchy. Note separation is exquisite, which makes sense for a guitar designed around her fabulous flatpicking skills.

Take a close look at her right-hand technique and notice how she alternates between plucking closer to and then further away from the neck at breakneck speed. Or check out her clawhammer approach, adapted from the banjo. You can see and hear why she’d appreciate that X brace being a bit further back towards the bridge and want a guitar with pinpoint tonal accuracy from note to note to match her own precision on the instrument.

And this is a Custom/Special Edition instrument with the kind of craftsmanship you’d expect from a guitar that costs significantly more than a Standard. It stands to reason that attention to detail, perhaps with a degree of hand-tuning factors into how Martin is able to make this D-18 sound so springy, airy and articulate while still having a nice low-end response.

It’s nowhere near as robust as, say, the D-28 Billy Strings with its forward shifted X-brace and hearty rosewood back and sides, but that’s clearly by design. Molly is going for a more refined tone compared to Billy’s burly tone. It’s kind of funny to make such a comparison, but they are essentially the current prince and princess of the bluegrass scene, and I suppose it’s rather natural for the boy to be a bit more rambunctious while the lady is graceful.

American Molly vs. Mexican Molly

It’s always a bit of a challenge to consider a guitar that costs 75 percent less in the same breath, and the greatest challenge for the manufacturer is clearly tone. The D-X2E Molly Tuttle has a standard X-brace, which makes sense for a guitar made of laminate, which is inherently brighter than solid wood.

Taken on its own, the D-X2E Molly Tuttle sounds pretty darn good. It delivers nice clarity and punch and decent low end that one can accentuate by plucking closer to the sound hole than the bridge. Side by side, the Mexican model is not in the same league as it’s American cousin, nor would I expect it to be.

That said, the D-X2E comes with a pickup while the D-18 version does not, and the D-X2E sounds big and bold when plugged into a nice acoustic amplifier, such as the Circa 74 used for these tests. The E1 pickup and preamp system with its onboard tuner tucked perfectly in the lip of the sound hole is super handy.

Playability

The D-18 Molly Tuttle and D-X2E Molly Tuttle are very playable guitars right out of the box with factory action, with the latter having lighter strings. You notice something as soon as you lay a hand in open position. Modern standard nut width is 1.75 inches, but many vintage Dreadnoughts measured 1.69 (1 11/16) inches. That’s the spec on both of Tuttle’s Martins, and I appreciate it. Being narrow at the nut helps a player get fingers on frets in ready fashion down in the longer fretted regions of the first few positions.

These necks are both built to 1941 profile specs with a Standard Taper, so the overall feel is quite similar. Both feel nice and chunky in hand, especially in lower positions. I seemed to feel more of a V shape, particularly on the D-18, further up the neck in higher positions.

No one in their right mind would ever hire me to play lead guitar in their bluegrass band, but I can muster up a few good licks with the right guitar in hand. The D-18 Molly Tuttle has such a bona fide classic Martin feel under the fingers that it’s easy to find yourself ripping off more than a few and taking them a bit further than you might otherwise do. I found that to be the case with the D-X2E too.

I’m mostly a fingerpicker that uses fake nails, but I was drawn to using a plectrum more often on these signature Molly Tuttle Martins. There’s something about having a high degree of tonal articulation that in turn makes you want to play more articulately. Both guitars pack plenty of projective power, and you truly get the most of that when you dig in with a serious pick.

Hey Good Lookin’

Let’s face it, lots of Martins look alike, but the D-18 Molly Tuttle is as unique as the player who picked it. I dig the vintage sunburst top with glossy finish, and her choice of Moon Phase inlays that practically appear to pop out from the fingerboard.

And in the aesthetics department, the D-X2E is in the same arena. From a distance, they appear quite similar. A closer look reveals subtle differences including a satin finish, and inlays made of faux mother of pearl and abalone instead of real seashells. Bottom line: both of Molly’s Martins look fabulous!

Major Tuttle fans and anyone after a super-sonic flatpicking D-18 tone shouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on the Molly Tuttle Signature. For those on a budget and/or want to plug in right out of the box, then the D-X2E serves those purposes and delivers a fine acoustic sound as well.

Either guitar is a strong value. Looking at the wider Martin Dreadnought range, the D-18 Custom shares the exact same price point of $4,199. From what I can tell, the D-18 Molly Tuttle is much more aesthetically interesting. I’ll be it plays a little easier as well, especially in the lower positions near that narrower nut. And the D-X2E Molly Tuttle delivers a lot of the same features and tone for about a quarter of the cash. Martin and Molly Tuttle have got a great thing going. Fans of both should be very happy with her new signature models.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT martinguitar.com

D-18 Molly Tuttle

PRICE $4,199 with molded hardshell case

NUT WIDTH 1 11/16", bone

NECK Mahogany, 1941 profile with Standard Taper, dovetail joint

FRETBOARD Ebony with Moon Phase mother-of-pearl inlays, 25.4" scale

FRETS 20

TUNERS Nickel open gear with oval knobs

BODY Solid mahogany back & sides, solid spruce top

BRIDGE Ebony with compensated bone saddle

ELECTRONICS None

FACTORY STRINGS Martin Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze Medium gauges .013—.056

WEIGHT 3.8 lbs (as tested)

BUILT USA

KUDOS Gorgeous aesthetics, ultra-articulate tone without being too top heavy, fine playability

CONCERNS Articulate tone is very revealing and therefore not for the faint of heart

D-X2E Molly Tuttle

PRICE $999 street with softshell case

NUT WIDTH 1 11/16", white Corian

NECK Select hardwood, 1941 profile with Standard Taper, mortise & tenon joint

FRETBOARD Ebony, 25.4" scale

FRETS 20

TUNERS Nickel open gear with oval knobs

BODY Figured mahogany high-pressure laminate back & sides, spruce top

BRIDGE Ebony with compensated white Tusq saddle

ELECTRONICS Martin E1 with volume and tone flywheel controls plus tuner on/off and phase buttons in upper lip of sound hole; tuner in lower lip

FACTORY STRINGS Martin Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 Light gauges .012—.054

WEIGHT 4.5 lbs (as tested)

BUILT Mexico

KUDOS Great playability, strong amplified tone, affordable

CONCERNS Acoustic tone is quite bright

Earlier this year, I spent time with SSL’s SSL 2+ MKII, an interface aimed at musicians and creators looking for professional-grade recording capabilities in a compact desktop format. Now Solid State Logic has introduced the SSL 1, a tidy little audio interface that occupies a different place in the company’s lineup.

Rather than expanding on the SSL 2+ MKII’s feature set, the SSL 1 strips the concept back to its essentials. Designed for beginners, mobile musicians, podcasters, streamers and content creators, it focuses on delivering SSL’s renowned audio quality in an even more affordable and portable package.

For users who don’t need multiple mic inputs, MIDI connectivity or advanced routing options, the SSL 1 presents a straightforward path into the SSL ecosystem. Fortunately, SSL has managed to simplify the experience without sacrificing the qualities that have made its interfaces so appealing.

At the heart of the SSL 1 is a 2-in/2-out design. You get one SSL microphone preamp with 48-volt phantom power alongside a second input that can handle either line-level sources or instruments such as electric guitar, keyboards and bass. It’s a configuration that will feel immediately familiar to solo musicians, singer-songwriters and content creators who rarely need to record more than one or two sources at a time.

The headline feature remains SSL’s Legacy 4K enhancement circuit, which emulates some of the character associated with the company’s legendary 4000 Series consoles. Engage the switch and recordings gain a subtle lift in presence and harmonic richness. It’s not a dramatic effect, but it can help vocals cut through a mix more effectively and add a touch of polish to DI guitar tracks.

More importantly, the SSL 1 sounds excellent even before the 4K circuit enters the equation. The microphone preamp is clean, quiet and detailed, capturing vocals and acoustic instruments with impressive clarity. The instrument input performs equally well, delivering the kind of solid low-end response and articulation guitarists expect when tracking directly into an interface.

SSL has also equipped the unit with 32-bit/192kHz conversion, ensuring the audio quality matches the standards found throughout the company’s current interface range. Monitoring is handled through a dedicated headphone output and balanced monitor outputs, while USB-C connectivity keeps setup simple whether you’re working from a desktop workstation, a laptop or a mobile recording rig. The SSL 1 runs on bus power when used with a computer and has a five-volt USB-C input for a phone charger or external power bank when you're recording with a phone or tablet.

Ease of use is one of the SSL 1’s greatest strengths. The front panel is uncluttered, the controls are intuitive and there’s very little standing between unboxing the interface and recording your first track. That simplicity makes it particularly attractive for newcomers who may find more feature-packed interfaces intimidating.

Build quality is on par with its SSL 2+ big brother. Despite its modest price, the SSL 1 feels reassuringly solid. The knobs have a smooth, substantial feel, the chassis inspires confidence and the overall design reflects the same attention to detail that has helped establish SSL’s reputation in professional studios around the world.

Of course, the streamlined design won’t suit everyone. Users who regularly record multiple microphones, work with external MIDI hardware or require extensive routing flexibility will eventually encounter the SSL 1’s limitations. But those users are not really the target audience.

Instead, the SSL 1 is aimed squarely at creators who value simplicity, portability and sound quality above all else. In that role, it excels.

Like the SSL 2+ MKII, the SSL 1 delivers the polished sound quality and thoughtful design that have become hallmarks of SSL’s interface range. The difference is that it does so with a singular focus on accessibility and ease of use. For beginners, mobile musicians and content creators looking for professional audio without unnecessary complexity, the SSL 1 is an easy recommendation.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT solidstatelogic.com

PRICE $159.99

CHANNELS Two

CONTROLS Channel 1: Gain control, Legacy 4K button, +48V phantom power and high-pass filter. Channel 2: Gain control, instrument/line button. Monitor control, monitor mix control

METERING Five-LED array per channel

ANALOG INPUTS XLR, 1/4” (instrument/line)

ANALOG OUTPUTS Two 1/4-inch TRS, 1/4” headphone

CONNECTIVITY USB 2.0 Type C connector, 5V power input on USB 2.0 Type C for external power

PERFORMANCE Up to 32-bit dynamic range, all major sample rates up to 192 kHz

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Mac OS 12 and higher | Class-Compliant, Plug-and-play. Windows 11, Windows 11 ARM. Requires ASIO/WDM driver (provided)

DIMENSIONS 7.6 × 5.1 × 0.25 inches

EXTRAS USB-C cable, free software and offers. Kensington Security Slot on back panel

PRO Detailed sound, SSL’s proprietary Legacy 4K feature,

CON None, but make sure the limited inputs meet your requirements

When Tom Bedell sold Breedlove and Bedell last year, it marked the end of an era that began in 2010, when his Two Old Hippies company purchased Breedlove as a sister brand to his namesake acoustic guitars. The brands’ new owners are Nashville-based Pete Mroz and Shannon Pollard, and their first mission is to re-establish Breedlove’s perception as a premier brand, rather than secondary to the Bedell line.

To kick things off, they’ve recast and retooled Breedlove’s entire production line, which is now divided into three series: Roots, Artisan and Collector. They’ve also nixed overseas production — every guitar is now designed and built in the U.S. in Bend, Oregon.

The Roots Series is the core line and features basic appointments. Artisan is the next tier up, while the Collector Series sits on the top shelf. Roots Series pricing is on par with core series from other premier American brands, and it goes up from there for the fancier series. I chose to review the RTC-SRe acoustic-electric because the Roots Series is what most players will be exploring. The Concert is a mid-sized acoustic, and it’s always been Breedlove’s bread-and-butter body style.

“Our Concert body has become iconic because it simply works for everyone,” Pollard says. “It’s comfortable, incredibly versatile, and delivers a balanced voice players love across genres. From fingerstyle to full-band strumming, it’s consistently one of our most popular shapes — and for good reason.”

The Roots Concert SRe on review represents the centerpiece of the Roots Series. It sports the tried-and-true combination of solid East Indian rosewood back and sides with a solid Sitka spruce top. The Honduran mahogany neck features a redesigned soft-C profile. An L.R. Baggs HiFi pickup and preamp system makes it ready to plug in and play onstage or in the studio. I played one at the NAMM Show launch and was intrigued by the new guitar, ownership and business strategy.

I had access to an Oregon Concert made entirely of myrtlewood circa 2018 for comparison, and the differences were plain to see, feel and hear. The most obvious update is the new Wave headstock shape. It’s less idiosyncratic and more balanced than the previous angular asymmetrical shape. In addition, the logo inlay features a script capital B, as on early Breedloves, rather than the full name.

The next thing I noticed was the feel, which is lighter, with apparently less binding and perhaps lighter bracing. The Oregon Concert seems more built like a tank, while the Roots Concert feels more boutique.

The new modern C neck profile feels very comfortable in hand, and is flush from the bottom to the top. I didn’t catch any sharp fret edges or any other distractions, and every note on each string rings true. Fingerpicking is a joy, as is playing with a plectrum, and the factory action is spot on. You can do whatever you want to do, and the notes and chords are right there for you.

In terms of its tone, the Roots RTC-SRe is rich and resonant. Although it’s not nearly as loud as the Oregon, it’s far more refined. There’s a fabulous sense of balance from low to high, with a welcome articulation amid the warmth. The sound is less fundamental and more complex. You hear the basic note, and then it blooms with overtones and nice sustain.

Each Breedlove is voiced by hand and comes with a certificate of authenticity that explains and expounds on the nomenclature: RTC means Roots Concert, SR stands for Sitka spruce top with East Indian rosewood back and sides, and the e indicates it has onboard electronics.

The interesting part is that the top has a frequency 174 Hz, the back is 218 Hz, and the fundamental frequency is 101 Hz. That means the resonant frequency of the top is in the neighborhood of an open G string. The resonant frequency of the back is slightly higher, which is normal since the back reflects the top sound, adding a bit of articulation.

The fundamental frequency — sometimes referred to as “main air” or “main Helmholtz resonance” — is the frequency at which the body of air inside the guitar resonates, primarily produced by the sound hole. 101 Hz is in the neighborhood between the low G and A on the sixth string, indicating a healthy low end, especially for a guitar with a mid-sized body.

Interestingly, the electronics system is an L.R. Baggs HiFi, which uses a pair of transducers that affix under the bridge plate rather than the more typical piezo under-saddle pickup. While the output isn’t as loud or punchy as an undersaddle, there’s no piezo quack and the sound is more akin to what you’d get from a microphone.

I’ve had a lot of experience with the HiFi, and I’d say it’s not ideal for a rock band situation but quite lovely playing solo in a coffee shop. I found the best tone by rolling off a bit of treble. Percussive players will love the HiFi’s responsiveness to slapping the strings and tapping on the guitar top.

The bottom line is that Breedlove is in good hands. This guitar’s appearance isn’t fancy, although the wood is gorgeous, and I appreciate how the pin-less African ebony bridge complements its classic aesthetic. Most importantly, this Roots Concert is the best-playing and -sounding guitar Breedlove has sent my way in more than a decade of acoustic reviews. I look forward to hearing other opinions and seeing what else is in store as all the new goodness rolls out “from seed to song” at Breedlove.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT breedloveguitars.com

PRICE $2,999 with deluxe hardshell case

NUT WIDTH 1.75", bone

NECK Honduran mahogany, bolt-on, soft C profile

FRETBOARD Ebony, small center dot inlays, 25.5" scale

FRETS 20

TUNERS Nickel

BODY Solid Indian rosewood back & sides, solid Sitka spruce top, natural finish with vintage toner gloss, black binding

BRIDGE Ebony, pinless

ELECTRONICS L.R. Baggs HiFi with volume and tone controls

FACTORY STRINGS Elixir PB Nanoweb Light

WEIGHT 4.6 lbs

BUILT USA

PRO Comfortable neck profile, warm yet articulate tone, fine craftsmanship, gorgeous wood

CON Pickup volume is quiet and perhaps a polarizing choice. Would be awesome to offer options

Based on high-dollar Gretsch models in the Falcon, Nashville and Synchromatic lines, the new Streamliner Hollow Body electric is designed to capture “that great Gretsch sound” at an eminently affordable price. It features a fully hollow arched body constructed of laminated maple with a width of 16 inches and a depth of 2 3/4 inches.

My review guitar arrived in a glossy Fairlane Blue sparkle finish that looks fantastic with the aged white binding, thick single-ply pickguard, matching cream pickup surrounds and quartet of cream “radio” knobs with inset gold tops.

True to form, the f-holes are smaller than the ones on many other Gretsch archtops, and the hardware consists of a Bigsby B60 vibrato tailpiece and a nickel-plated Adjusto-Matic bridge that sits atop a pinned laurel-wood base. Pickups are Gretsch’s own BT3S humbuckers with Alnico 2 magnets in the neck position and Alnico 5 magnets in the bridge position, both featuring 12 adjustable pole screws.

Carved to a Soft C shape that feels great in the hand, the Streamliner’s nato neck attaches at the 14th fret via a glued-in joint and sports white binding and a matching heel cap. The laurel fingerboard has a scale length of 24 3/4 inches and a radius of 12 inches and carries 22 lightly polished medium-jumbo frets and a set of pearloid “thumbprint” position markers.

Strings ride over a bone nut to a set of nickel-plated die-cast tuners on a bound headstock with a gloss black facing and gold Gretsch logo. This well-made guitar exudes classy coolness that immediately attracts attention and proved a lot of fun to play.

The Streamliner has a robust acoustic sound and good natural sustain, and it’s great that someone at the factory took the time to get the intonation right and the strings comfortably low with no fret buzz. The guitar tuned up easily and stayed in tune quite well once the strings and the Bigsby settled in enough to allow spirited whammy workouts.

Played through a selection of amps that included a PRS DGT 15, ’65 Deluxe Reverb reissue (hand-wired by Alessandro) and a reissue Vox AC10, the Streamliner delivered cool tones across the board. The use of Alnico 2 and 5 in these pickups optimizes them for their respective positions, overall providing great string-to-string clarity and plenty of bottom-end to facilitate everything from burnished jazz textures to rockabilly snarl to crushing rock grind.

The lower output neck unit sounded great for blues and roots rock, delivering warm, clear tones that didn’t become murky when the volume and/or tone controls were rolled down. Switching to the middle position which combines the brighter, louder bridge pickup, elicited more twang and bite—nice for country and rockabilly — and the bridge pickup by itself when pumped though a pedal or high-gain amp was perfect for bluesy metal in the Billy Duffy camp, delivering ripping archtop-electric muscle that can make a solidbody guitar sound thin by comparison.

That said, if you want skinnier, funkier tones for channeling Nile Rogers or Leo Nocentelli, just pull the master-volume knob and the guitar delivers single-coil sounds that sit beautifully in a track or with a band that has horns, keys, singers, percussion and other instrumentation.

The Streamliner Hollow Body is an inspiring guitar that plays well, is lightweight for its size and has the sonic flexibility to handle just about any style. It’s an impressive performer for the money and well worth a test drive if you’re looking to bring some Gretsch love into your life.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT gretschguitars.com

PRICE $649

NUT Bone, 1.6875" wide

NECK Nato, glued-in, Soft C profile, gloss finish

FINGERBOARD Laurel with aged white binding and black side dots, 24.75" scale, 12" radius, pearloid “thumbnail” inlays and bound headstock with gold Gretsch logo

FRETS 22 medium jumbo

TUNERS Nickel-plated die-cast

BODY Fully hollow arched maple construction with aged white binding, three-ply purfling and gloss finish

BRIDGE Nickel-plated Adjusto-Matic with pinned laurel wood base

TAILPIECE Bigsby B60

PICKUPS Broad’Tron BT3S humbuckers with Alnico 2 magnets (neck position) and Alnico 5 magnets (bridge position)

CONTROLS Master volume (with push-pull coil split), master tone and individually adjustable pickup volume controls. Vintage radio-style knobs and 3-way toggle switch

EXTRAS Single-ply cream pickguard (as tested) or three-ply tortoise color with gold “Gretsch” logo. Available in Fairlane Blue, Brandywine, Robusto Burst, Midnight Sapphire and Havana Burst

FACTORY STRINGS Nickel Plated Steel, .010-.046

WEIGHT 7.2 lbs (tested)

BUILT Indonesia

PRO Cool retro-style look. Classic big-body resonance and tone.

CON Gig bag not included. Corners on the nut are sharp.

The Fender Blues Junior IV is one of the most popular tube combo amplifiers the world has ever seen, positioning itself as a compact and easily transportable unit that boasts enough power for live playing and recording scenarios. Its fourth iteration, originally released in 2018, was about evolution, not revolution for Fender, looking to make incremental gains on predecessors, rather than reinventing the wheel.

The Blues Junior IV has always faced pretty stiff competition, namely from cross-Atlantic contemporary, the Vox AC15 – an amp that goes almost beat-for-beat with the Blues Junior in terms of specifications, and is one of only a handful of amplifiers in this category that can claim to come close to matching the pedigree of the Blues Junior.

Alongside the Vox, there are amps from Marshall (DSL and Origin series), Orange (the Rocker 15), and plenty of others that sit at comparable price points and have similar power. Despite all of this, the Blues Junior has regularly sat at the top of the pile in terms of sales figures in its class, regardless of the competition. It is the amp to beat.

The Blues Junior IV comes loaded with 15 watts of all-tube power courtesy of three 12AX7 preamp tubes and two EL84 power amp tubes. It puts this power down through a single channel, with a narrow set of controls: volume, treble, bass, middle, master volume, reverb, plus a FAT switch.

The reverb is a genuine spring tank, rather than the digital emulations that have become ever more common in small tube amplifiers due to space, reliability, and the quality of digital reverbs nowadays.

All of these sounds are projected through a 12” Celestion Type A speaker, a ceramic magnet design that boasts 50 watts (RMS) of power – more than enough for the Blues Junior – and is designed for "modern American" tones, with a punchy low end and articulate midrange, designed for achieving those classic Fender clean amp sounds.

My first impression when taking the amp out of the box was that it was a serious piece of kit. Some amps I have played over the past few years – even some that would position themselves as competitors to the Blues Junior – feel as though they are made to a price point, rather than to a specific standard, but this is not at all the case here.

The Tolex used feels suitably rugged, ready to take on any kind of environment, and I could find no noticeable areas where it was loose or sagging. If I had to nitpick, the fact you can see the joins where a couple of different pieces of Tolex panels have been used means it’s not as totally sleek as it could be, and in the back cavity there are a couple of areas where you can see the staples used to hold the vinyl down, but this is looking for faults and not something that anybody would notice unless actively hunting for issues.

The grille cloth is the classic Fender silver, with a tight weave that you are unlikely to pierce. It’s timeless, having first appeared on their amps in the late 60s, and it still holds up today. The same can be said of the aesthetic of the Blues Junior in general, and if you were to put an original Mk I Blues Junior next to the IV, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t be able to tell which one was which. Personally, I have no problem with this at all, and appreciate that Fender has found a functional and handsome design and stuck with it.

The steel-reinforced carry handle self-recesses down against the amp when not in use, but is easy to access when you do want to grab it. On handles like these on cheaper amps, I have found that the plastic coating around the handle can split over time as the material begins to become brittle with age, but this feels suitably durable, and there are no signs of a seam that could split after significant use.

The chicken-head style, pointed knobs are timeless, and have a solid travel to them. Comparing directly to those on my Vox AC4, which has almost identical-looking knobs, the Fender is fractionally firmer in operation, which I generally like, though not by any significant margin.

While it’s not strictly a budget amp, it sits towards the bottom of the tube amp market, so accessories aren’t necessarily something to be expected, which makes the addition of a footswitch as standard welcome. The footswitch itself is vintage-inspired, and it has a build that can take a serious stomping. I’m not a particularly small guy, and it dealt with my boots crashing down on it with no issues whatsoever.

The only potential negative is the shape, which is circular and not optimized for slotting onto a pedalboard. If this is something you’d like to do, there are a number of aftermarket switches that can be swapped in and are more pedalboard-friendly. There’s also no cover included as standard, but you can purchase one from Fender or find 3rd party option easily online.

While I haven’t had the opportunity to gig the Blues Junior IV, I’ve done my best to replicate the gigging experience by loading it in and out of the car and on short drives. I live around a number of country roads with potholes aplenty – the Blues Junior has not been treated to smooth rides. In my testing, it came out entirely unscathed and worked perfectly, which is not something I can say for other tube amplifiers I have used.

One of the first things that struck me upon the amp's arrival at my door was just how small it is. When I think of 1x12 combos, I tend to think of amps like the Blues Junior’s big brother, the Hot Rod Deluxe, or a Marshall DSL40 combo – both of which are significantly larger – and, maybe it’s purely down to the space in my home, but I absolutely loved having a compact amp.

When I wasn’t using it, it was easy to find space to stow it away, or a corner of a room that was actually improved by having this little amp positioned in it. It’s only 16 inches high, 18 inches wide, and between 9-10 inches deep, and comes in at around 30lbs/14kg, which means it is light enough to carry for most players, particularly if you’re just moving it around the home.

The Blues Junior IV is extremely simple, so if you’re expecting modern features, you’re definitely looking in the wrong place. The FAT switch is footswitchable, and I like that the labels face you as you approach the amp from the front, which was not the case on earlier iterations of the Blues Junior.

For home use it does edge towards being too loud, at least if you want to get it properly singing. I live in a semi-detached property with a young family next door, and I was acutely aware that pushing the master volume knob past the 3 or 4 mark would make their walls vibrate. If your home is detached, or you are lucky enough to have a sound-insulated home studio, you can probably make it work, but for those in apartments or with shared walls, I’d look at something like the Marshall DSL1CR or the Blackstar HT-1R.

While it would feel criminal to start lumbering it with things like a USB output or a headphone jack, an effects loop wouldn’t go amiss. The one thing I found it seriously lacked was switchable wattage, something many of its rivals have. 15W may not sound like a lot on paper but this is still a tube amp. For home use, switching it down to half, or 10% power, would be so useful, without negatively impacting the amp or spoiling its character at all.

To start with, I plugged in sans pedals to get the pure, natural tones of the Blues Junior IV. My immediate take was how instantly dynamic it feels to play, with an organic response to subtle changes in my playing. Dialling up the preamp volume, I can get a bit more dirt, but when I roll back my volume knob, things go from warm overdrive back to bright and clean.

On my Les Paul, which has a volume knob for each pickup, I found I could set the neck pickup volume to around halfway and get warm rhythm tones, and then switch to the bridge, on full volume, and have some crunchy lead tones ready to go. Unsurprisingly, with the pokey humbuckers in the Ibanez, the amp was even more grunty, and the natural tube breakup was particularly delightful.

When I used my Fulltone OCD overdrive pedal, it helped push that overdrive into cascading, harmonic distortion even on subtle settings. As I took things further down the dirt road, I wasn’t surprised to find that when I started stacking fuzzes, I quickly reached the ‘fart-out’ zone, where the amp struggled to cope with anything more. While stacking an EHX Big Muff and Dunlop Gypsy Fuzz isn’t really something I’d regularly do, it was more about pushing the limits of the Blues Junior IV, so I can’t hold that against it too much.

The ‘FAT’ switch, which is operated on top of the amp or via a foot switch, engages a boost in the midrange, which results in a more pronounced thick tone, ideal for soloing. It’s not quite like switching in a Tube Screamer-type pedal, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a noticeable and effective way to get a tone boost.

The integrated spring reverb in the amp is classic Fender, and just delightful. It has just the right amount of that trademark ‘drip’, and is a noticeable upgrade on the previous generation’s spring reverb, which had a slightly harsh quality. Personally, I prefer the voicing of the reverb on the IV versus the prior iterations. If you’re looking for cavernous ambience, that’s not quite what’s on offer here. It is more subtle, particularly between one and six on the knob, although it can go into a more swampy, drenched style as you go beyond this point.

Next, I used an MXR double team of a Carbon Copy analog delay pedal and an MXR M300 reverb pedal, with a Boss chorus pedal thrown in for good measure, to push the Junior IV into larger, more spacious tones. The Blues Junior held up well to this, particularly when playing with my Gold Foil-equipped Supro, though the inherently warm nature of the Carbon Copy did mean the amp felt a little dark, which I quickly remedied with a few EQ tweaks.

The lack of an effects loop means your time-based effects can get muddy when you start going for more overdriven sounds from the amp itself, as your entire signal chain is being subject to preamp gain. This went into shoegaze territory for me, which I rather liked. I can see this being more of a problem if you use a lot of overdrive/distortion pedals in tandem with ambient time-based effects, as things could get a little muddy when that kind of signal chain collides with a hot preamp section, though, for my style of playing, it really wasn’t a problem.

Having lived with the Blues Junior for a decent period, I still think it’s a great amp for anybody likely to find themselves regularly gigging, offering just the right combination of volume and transportability for the vast majority of shows. It’s also a simply phenomenal studio workhorse, taking up minimal space, but producing maximum tone at a very reasonable price.

In an ideal world, it would be a little bit lighter, but some extra weight is a tradeoff I am more than happy to make for the Celestion Type A Speaker, the spring reverb tank, and a robust wooden frame. While the Blues Junior is designed to be a simple, stripped-back, and authentic tube amp affair, I can’t help but feel that there are simply some things that the Blues Junior IV is falling behind on. Cab-emulated DIs and an effects loop are now staples in the modern era of small combo guitar amps, and the Junior IV shows its age here.

I’ve gone back and forth asking whether $789 is a reasonable asking price for the Blues Junior, particularly when you compare it to the likes of the Supro Delta King 12, which has similar features but comes in over $100 cheaper. Something like the Vox AC15 – an amp most definitely in the same class as the Blues Junior – is even more expensive. It’s not an insignificant investment, but in the context of modern tube amp prices, it’s worth it, and when compared to the competition, it’s competitively priced.

Guitar Player verdict: If you want classic Fender tube tones, the Blues Junior IV remains among the cheapest ways of achieving them. Some may wish for a few more mod-cons, but you have to respect that Fender has stayed true to the recipe that made the Blues Junior a fan favorite since its release. In a few years, maybe this will change, but right now, and as has been the case since it launched, the Blues Junior is best in class, even if that class has a lot of competition.

Specifications

• Price: $789.99 | £749.00 | €755
• Type: Combo
• Origin: Mexico
• Output: 15 Watts RMS
• Speaker: 1x12” Celestion A-Type speaker, 8 ohms
• Channels: 1
• Controls: Reverb, Master, Middle, Bass, Treble, Fat Switch, Volume
• Connectivity: 1x 1/4" Input
• Footswitch: 1-button footswitch (included)
• Weight: 31.5 lbs (14.3 kg)
• Dimensions: 457.2 x 406 x 249mm
• Contact: Fender

The Supro name may be synonymous with vintage guitar tone, but the company’s newest amplifier embraces cutting-edge technology. Its new Airwave is a tube-powered 1x12 combo equipped with onboard Two Notes cab-simulation.

Supro’s story stretches back nearly a century. The brand emerged in 1935 as the house line of Chicago manufacturer Valco, whose roots trace to the resonator-guitar pioneers National and Dobro in the 1920s—an era when amplification itself was still in its infancy and electric guitars were a still a few years away.

By the late 1960s, Supro amps were already part of blues-rock lore, heard in the hands of players like Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, as well as numerous Chicago blues greats. The new Airwave neatly closes that historical loop, pairing Supro’s vintage tube lineage with modern digital cabinet simulation.

Certainly, Supro isn’t the first to embed IRs in an otherwise tube-driven guitar amp. Suhr, Engl, Blackstar and others have all covered this ground in one way or another. But the company’s merging of the retro and modern comes across a bit differently.

Outwardly, the Airwave is a straightforward 1x12 combo with two 6V6GT output tubes and two 12AX7s in the preamp, for an output that Supro rates at 25 watts. Reverb and tremolo are both analog, with a genuine spring pan for the former. Controls following the single input include volume, treble, mids, bass, reverb, tremolo speed and depth, and master volume. There are also switches for boost and drive, each of which is foot-switchable, as are the reverb and tremolo.

It’s not until you reach the far-right end of the control panel that anything hints at 21st tech. There beneath a logo that reads “Two Notes DynIR Cab Simulation” sits a six-position rotary preset selector, a pushbutton group A/B switch, and a pushbutton pre/post switch that determines whether you send the amp’s signal to the IR processing before or after the output stage.

Round back is a knob for cab sim level and a USB-C input for connecting to a Mac or Windows computer to access the Two Notes Torpedo software for preset editing and loading (also available over Bluetooth to iOS or Android). Here too are stereo cab sim XLR outputs with a ground-lift switch; 1/4-inch TRS jacks for headphones; foot-switch jacks for reverb, tremolo, boost and drive; a speaker mute/on switch, and an eight-ohm extension-speaker output.

Keen readers will deduce that these features tell us the cab sim signal is processed in stereo, and also that it can be used through the XLR outs or headphones with the speaker muted for quite home playing or silent-stage gig situations. And it’s all squeezed into a stylish and portable combo measuring 20.5 by 18.5 by 9 inches and weighing 37 pounds.

Although it’s a relatively simple package, the Airwave provides everything you need to record the direct to your DAW or run the amp to front-of-house without a microphone either in mono or stereo. And you can do it while achieving the tones of almost any conceivable classic or modern speaker cab.

Onboard simulated speaker cabs are presented in two groups: Vintage and Modern. The former includes Super 1x8, Comet 1x10, Oahu 1x10, Modded Coronado 1x12, Dual Tone 1x12, and Thunderbolt 1x15; the latter offers Phil X ’64 Super 1x8, Amulet 1x10, Delegate 1x12, Keeley 1x12, Airwave 1x12, and Reissue Thunderbolt 1x15. Upon completing the product registration, the user can also download six further boutique Supro-based cabs.

As you can see, all of these offerings are IRs of Supro or Valco amp cabs, and all single-speaker cabs at that. I’ve used Two Notes IR technology on and off since the early 2010s and I’ve always felt one of the advantages of running a small combo into cab-sim processor was the ability to ram it through a classic Marshall 4x12 with pre-Rola Greenbacks, a Vox 2x12 with Alnico Blues, a Twin with JBLs, or whatever iconic (and possibly heavy) cab you’d love to be heard through but are unlikely to actually carry with you to the gig.

But that’s where the Torpedo Remote software comes in. Use it to load any other Two Notes or compatible third-party cabs you already own, and you’re there. Still, it might have been cool to have one or two 4x12s and 2x12s among the factory options for easy access.

Tested with a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson ES-335, the Airwave proved itself an able mid-sized combo in stand-alone mode, even before I added the Two Notes IRs. With boost and drive switched off, the amp’s clean and edge-of-breakup settings display that subtle marriage of grit and warmth that many players of Supro (and other vintage Valco) amps will recognize. It holds together surprisingly well in the low frequencies and up to pretty punchy volume level in the room.

These characteristics suit it beautifully to low-string twang from the Telecaster, which gets just the right be snarly and nasty with the boost engaged and the volume up beyond noon, yet it doesn’t fart out when introduced to the ES-335’s neck pickup, either.

Switch on Drive mode and a certain hairiness reveals itself, when pushed, which does indeed remind me of some snarly granularity of cranked Valco-made amps of the past, particularly those with the 6973 output tubes often used in place of the 6V6GTs found here.

Obviously the drive setting is affected greatly by where you set the amp’s volume control, but it enables a broad range of juicy lead tones, all of which lean vintage rather than modern, yet could easily apply to the latter in more alt- and indie-rock settings.

While boost and drive are handy bonus features, they might be tricky to apply even with the foot switch, considering both are pre-set and the increase in output-level they induce can’t be adjusted. Even so, they offer further ways to open up this combo and getting it screaming.

Reverb does what most will want from it, with well-balanced depth. The tremolo also sounds good and nails a certain breed of Valco’s off-balance wobble extremely well. The taper on the speed control will take some getting used to since it goes from the slower side of medium to all-out gallop through only about a 10 percent portion of its range around the two-thirty mark, but so it goes.

As it stands, the Supro Airwave offers pretty good value for the price. Add in the Two Notes IRs and the massive preset-editing capabilities of the Torpedo Remote software, however, and the combo’s versatility increases exponentially. The 12 factory presets and six further downloads offer impressive variation in sounds and responses. What’s more, the sound quality through stereo headphones straight into the amp or, for example, or studio monitors via the Universal Audio Apollo interface I also tested it through was excellent.

While the factory presets are set pretty dry, a significant amount of room or ambient reverb and stereo dimension can be dialed in via the Torpedo Remote app, where mic selections and placement and several other parameters can also be deeply edited. As mentioned above, I really enjoyed patching the Airwave through a couple of my favorite third-part 4x12 and 2x12 IRs from Ownhammer, and the ability to load any such changes into the Airwave’s banks and tap that kind of tone live opens up its potentially immensely.

All in all, Supro did a great job of cobbling the Airwave into a simple and portable package that still offers boatloads of versatility both for recording and live performance, on stages both big and small.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT Suprousa.com

PRICE $1,499 list

CHANNELS 1

CONTROLS Volume, Treb, Mids, Bass, Verb, Speed, Depth, Master, Preset selector; switches for Boost, Drive, Pre/Post, and preset Group A/B

POWER 25 watts

TUBES Three 12AX7s, two 6V6GTs

EXTRAS Cab Sim Level; a USB-C input, L and R Cab Sim XLR outputs with Ground Lift switch; ¼" Headphones jack, Verb/Trem Ftsw jack, Boost/Drive Ftsw jack, Speaker Mute/On switch,8-Ohm extension speaker output

SPEAKERS One 12" Celestion BD12

WEIGHT 37 lbs

MADE IN Indonesia

PRO A good-sounding tube combo in its own right, the Airwave’s versatility is greatly expanded by excellent-sounding Two Notes IRs.

CON Although the tremolo sounds good its speed can be finicky to dial in, and a 2x12 and 4x12 cab preset would have been nice.

Form and function come together on a finger. That’s the story of the intriguing LiquiSlide line, which offers an array of double-walled glass slides filled with different liquids in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. The idea is to get a groovy-looking slide that matches the color of your guitar, or hair, or whatever turns you on, as well as a real smooth tone and feel that helps inspire you to play better, to boot. The latest LiquiSlide is a Jules Leyhe signature model that features a textured inner grip coating and proprietary liquid filling that shines with golden glitter flakes. It’s simply too fun not to try.

Jules Leyhe is a rising guitar star based in the Bay Area who regularly performs “The Star-Spangled Banner” in his greasy slide style at various events, including Major League Baseball games and monster truck rallies at San Francisco’s Oracle Park and the Oakland Coliseum. He’s shared stages with an array of outstanding artists ranging from Buddy Guy to Little Feat, and Leyhe is always online schooling players about the glory of playing with glass via his educational YouTube channel.

I’ve worked with Jules for a decade in the Allmond Brothers tribute band and Spirit Hustler, watching him grow from a Berklee grad into a widely respected player and LiquiSlide’s first signature artist. Along the way, Leyhe has tried just about every slide imaginable, so the fact that he landed on the LiquiSlide says a lot about the quality coming from a brand that has only been on the market for about five years. The boutique company is gaining popularity via an increasingly impressive roster of users including Mike Campbell (Tom Petty), Chris Holt (Eagles), Josh Smith (Joe Bonamassa), Nashville legend Tom Bukovac, and the incomparable Johnny A.

Playing slide at a high level is a very specific skill that requires intense practice and focus. Most guitarists either don’t play slide or dabble in it. I’ve always been in the latter camp, leaving the slide to Leyhe, but when he hipped me to his LiquiSlide in a few different sizes, something clicked.

Looks

It starts with appearance. Traditional slides made of clear glass, bronze, or stainless steel are tried and true, but when you’ve got sparkling golden slides such as the Leyhe signatures sitting on your amp, it’s much more tempting to pick one up and put it on. I wound up trying a bunch of other LiquiSlides, too, and with some of my favorite deep purple and blue hues from which to pick and choose, it’s practically impossible to refuse. Put one in play on a gig and folks notice. People just dig the colors. Players want to know all about what the heck that is on your finger.

Original prototypes of the Leyhe signature were filled with Jägermeister, which was super fun, but like some of the other liquids that were tried, there were temperature-related issues that could break the glass if the environment got too hot or cold.

Leyhe chuckles, “When I found out Jägermeister was an option, I had to go for that, but they’ve literally found a better solution.”

Inventor and CEO Michael Flynn adds, “All of our slides now have our proprietary liquid that’s completely safe and natural. It does not contain rubbing alcohol or alcohol of any type and is not affected by weather extremes. You can use it anywhere, right out of the case.”

Feel and Tone

So, does having liquid inside the slide truly help? Well, I don’t know how much of this is psychosomatic, but I believe there’s a slight tidal-like ebb and flow to the feel during vibrato, which seemed to help me slow down and soak each note for the most mojo from each finger stroke. And there’s a longer version of that on extended glissandos, particularly when working a melody up and down a single string. You wind up wanting to play with a more exaggerated hand motion leading into and out of each note, which in turn informs a more “fluid” approach. Maybe I just like watching the little air bubble move around the domed top, which is captivating.

There’s definitely a weightiness that seems to reduce string rattle while helping to increase sustain as well as balance. Liquid is relatively heavy, so having that plus extra mass from the domed top compared to an open bottleneck style must factor into that sense of gravitas. Bottom line: The feel is fabulous while the tone is smooth and refined.

Flynn assures me I’m not tripping: “The liquid is not just a novelty. What it does is measurable and verifiable and is part of the patent. A liquid-filled glass guitar slide produces different tones compared to an empty one due to changes in the slide’s resonance and the way it interacts with the strings. The liquid alters the slide’s mass, density, and elasticity, which affects how it vibrates and transfers sound waves. This results in a distinct tonal quality with varying sustain and pitch. It also is part of the balanced weight.”

Size Matters

The whole LiquiSlide line, including the Leyhe models, comes in three sizes: Standard (max American ring size 13), Knuckle (max ring size 11.5), and Pinky (max ring size 8.5). Standard and Pinky are designed to go all the way to the base of the finger, while the Knuckle size is designed to stop at the second knuckle. Of course, finger sizes vary greatly, and LiquiSlides are individually hand-blown with about a five percent margin size tolerance. I tried a bunch, and there were some slight but noticeable differences between units of the same model size. I have small-to-medium fingers, and some of the Standards felt a bit loose on my ring finger, while others fit snugly.

A slide you think might work—or not work—on a particular finger might surprise you after all. The Knuckle size is kind of a wild card, as it can work on pretty much any finger. That one turned out to be my favorite, as its shorter length and tight fit focused on the top two knuckles made it feel like having a Porsche on my ring finger. The Leyhe model has a no-slip interior layer that helps keep it snug, regardless of the chosen digit. It’s not as pronounced as the dried paint drips inside Warren Haynes’ slide, but it reminded me of that a bit.

Leyhe says, “I requested a rough interior to help with the grip. I always use my pinkie for slide playing, and I use the Pinky size with my signature LiquiSlide.”

I know I should develop better slide chops using the pinkie to free up the first three fingers for fretting chords. While the Pinky model fit well, and there is a new Pinky XS size being rolled out across the line (not on the Leyhe model yet), I dug putting the shorter Knuckle model on the little finger. The only issue was it being too wide, so I put some tissue paper around the finger and that worked well. I’d love to try a Knuckle model with Pinky width, and that’s the kind of thing you can inquire about.

Behind the Glass

Flynn and his partner, Mathew Jenkins, are both industry veterans with copious retail experience working at the Music Gallery just north of Chicago in Highland Park, Illinois. They personally fill and seal each LiquiSlide by hand. They also handle all communications, so if you have an idea, simply contact them. I did, and they’re happy to help. The cats behind the glass are clearly real players having a blast with this venture. They’ve even got a glow-in-the-dark LiquiSlide that shows trails on a dark stage.

I’d recommend the Jules Leyhe Signature Slide as well as the entire LiquiSlide line to players of all stripes, from beginner to expert. Leyhe’s is a special edition with the fancy flaked interior and custom case, so it costs 15 bucks more than a typical LiquiSlide. Any LiquiSlide can be a fun way to dip your finger into the shallow side of the slide pool, or the thing that finally helps facilitate the leap into the deep end, all while looking as cool as a guitarfish.

SPECIFICATIONS

Jules Leyhe Signature

CONTACT theliquislide.com

PRICE $45 direct packed with a velvet bag inside a custom case

MATERIAL Borosilicate glass

FEATURES Double walled, filled with proprietary liquid and gold flakes, rounded tip, no-slip interior

SIZES Standard (max American ring size 13), Knuckle (max ring size 11.5), Pinky (max ring size 8.5)

BUILT U.S.A.

PRO Groovy golden flake color. Three sizes and no-slip interior. Fabulous feel, balance and sustain. Handmade with top-shelf glass

CON Durability is good, but this is liquid-filled glass, so be careful!

Known for its high-quality Japanese production for more than three decades, Gretsch has also diversified into several other quality-related pricing tiers in the 21st century, and the new Electromatic Premier Jet presents a striking new addition to the sub-$1,000 lineup. Part homage to the classics, part stripped-down redrawing of the blueprint, it’s a guitar likely to appeal to the Gretsch-ogling rockers out there while offering something for a broad range of budget-conscious players.

If the original Duo Jet on which the new model is roughly based was always regarded by some as “Gretsch’s Les Paul,” the Electromatic Premier Jet is arguably even more so. Although it passes for a solidbody visually, it uses a chambered mahogany body much like the company’s ’50s single-cut, albeit with a somewhat heavier, denser construction.

Tap the carved solid-maple top, for example, and there’s less of a clue to the open airspace within — and there’s a little more weight here than you’ll find with most older Duo-Jets, to further amplify the impression of solidity. Other minor changes — such as comfort-enhancing ribcage and thigh contours at the back of the body’s waist — also help to bring it into the modern age.

The glued-in neck is carved from solid mahogany with a bound ebony fingerboard, all laid out to a slight variation of the traditional Gretsch scale that comes in at 24.88 inches, with a width of 1.6875 inches (a.k.a. 1-11/16 inches) across the GraphTech NuBone nut. The 22 medium-jumbo frets are neatly crowned and well polished, and they partner with the medium-C neck profile to yield an easy playability.

Looks-wise, the neoclassical thumbnail fingerboard inlays, Falcon-like split-V headstock and three-ply body binding lend the whole affair an air of class, while the glow-in-the-dark Luminlay side-dot inlays aid visibility on a dark stage. The Onyx Storm finish on my review sample (a gloss black that reveals a fine-grained metalflake on closer inspection) is probably my favorite of the four options for the model and looks archetypally Gretsch, but with a modern twist.

The triangular control layout reflects one of Gretsch’s long-standing design points. Along with the single upper-bout selector switch, it nods to the earlier rendition of the Duo Jet. But the knobs here also conceal the versatile new wiring setup Gretsch has loaded into the Electromatic Premier Jet. They include a single master volume and two individual tone controls, with a push-pull switch on the former potentiometer to tap Gretsch’s Lumen Filter, and no-load pots on the latter.

The Lumen Filter achieves a brighter, spankier, more single-coil–like tone by running both pickups through a small capacitor — not entirely unlike the “strangle switch” on a Fender Jaguar, for example (and in no way related to the creepy mind-altering corporation in the TV series Severance) — rather than actually splitting the humbuckers’ coils. The no-load pots take the tone control and tone cap completely out of the circuit when rolled fully clockwise, where they click into a firm detent that lets you know you’ve hit home.

This setup governs a pair of Gretsch’s new Sphera Twin Six humbuckers, a standard-sized design that presents more chrome than the smaller Filter’Tron humbucker of old. Made with 12 individually adjustable pole pieces (six per coil) and Alnico VI magnets, they employ polysol-coated wire in the neck position and plain-enamel wire in the bridge to best tailor their performance to each.

Whether in the lap or on the strap, the Electromatic Premier Jet reveals ergonomics that are different from those of more traditional Gretsch guitars. I would dare say they’re more Gibson-like, with the adjustable wrap-tail bridge pitching the strings closer to the top of the body than the old-school floating-bridge options. The result is a guitar that you feel you are hugging closer than the Duo Jets of old, and which you perhaps feel confident hitting harder.

Tested through a 1964 Fender Bassman head with a 2x12 cabinet and a Matchless Spitfire 1x12 combo, the Electromatic Premier Jet proved itself a solid and versatile performer that punches well above its class. It delivers more power than the typical Filter’Tron-equipped guitar, certainly, but also a metallic bite and silvery clarity that still screams “Gretsch!” through both clean and overdriven amp settings.

Those who find modern Gibson-style humbuckers dark or muddy are likely to love these Sphera Twin Six units, which definitely push the amp when needed but present an appealing blend of girth and articulation overall, with a signature brightness that rarely sounds too harsh.

All of this enables the new model to excel in the country, Americana, roots-rock and rockabilly arenas, in which the seminal Duo Jet has traditionally performed well. But it also brings a stinging, searing tone to heavier rock genres. This is further enhanced by the added sustain of the solidly anchored wraparound bridge, which induces more ring and resonance than the more lightly strung trapeze-and-floating-bridge arrangements of yore.

Pop the Lumen Filter, though, and there’s even more snap and jangle via faux-single-coil tones that arguably sound more authentic than the usual coil-splitting. The detents for the tone controls’ no-load settings are a little stiff and might feel kind of “locked in” for those who reach for quick and subtle control changes, but the feature does what it should, letting the pickups’ full clarity shine through.

All in all, then, the new Electromatic Premier Jet is very impressive, and even more so when you factor in the price point. At first glance, I was planning to say something like, “…but you can’t expect ‘that great Gretsch sound’ with full-size humbuckers like these,” and yet it’s somehow there, to a degree at least.

From the choice of paint to the inlays to the binding, the guitar is well constructed and beautifully finished. Playability and functionality are great, and the Electromatic Premier Jet is likely to find its way into the hands of guitarists who could otherwise afford to spend significantly more.

Many players who gasped at the thought of picking a Chinese guitar two decades ago have long overcome their reservations, but this one is yet another testament to how far the country’s instrument manufacturers have come, and to Gretsch’s thoughtful design and guidance as well.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT Gretsch.com

PRICE $799 street

NUT GraphTech NuBone, 1 11/16" wide

NECK Mahogany, 24.88" scale length

FRETBOARD Ebony, 10"–14" compound radius

FRETS 22 medium-jumbo

TUNERS Gotoh locking

BODY Chambered mahogany with solid maple top

BRIDGE Locking adjustable wraparound

PICKUPS Two Sphera Twin Six Alnico VI humbuckers

CONTROLS Master volume with push-pull Lumen filter, two no-load Tone controls, three-way switch

FACTORY STRINGS D’Addario .010-.046

WEIGHT 8.4 lbs

BUILT (country of origin) China

PRO Well-built and cleverly designed, offering impressive sonic versatility and playability for the money.

CON The detents in the no-load tone pots take some getting used to for those making frequent control changes.

Long a sleeper in Fender’s original tweed amplifier lineup of the 1950s, the 5G9 Tremolux didn’t officially exist until a handful of players, collectors, and vintage-amp aficionados finally put the pieces together. No one, to my knowledge, has ever reported seeing this model of the 1x12 Tremolux combo from 1959–’60 with a “5G9” tube chart, although a schematic for the model exists. Perusing that diagram reveals that this circuit has quite a few significant differences from the 5E9-A Tremolux that preceded it.

And I should know, having owned two great original 5G9s in the past, both of which had 5E9-A tube charts pasted inside their finger-jointed solid-pine cabinets.

Its elusive nature aside, the 5G9 Tremolux was discovered in a big way several years ago, having been declared the “best-sounding tweed Fender” by many players (although that’s a subject guaranteed to drum up some debate).

So with prices for originals soaring, Ron Westwood of Cutthroat Audio decided to put his own passion for this late-era tweed wonder to work by creating the Fullerton 5G9 Tremolux combo.

For several years before segueing into hand-wired amp manufacturing, Cutthroat Audio specialized in high-end instrument, speaker and patch cables, and Westwood has taken a similar obsession with the minutiae of tone-enhancing components into this homage to the 5G9.

The Fullerton closely replicates all the essentials of the design while adding some conveniences for the contemporary player that nevertheless shouldn’t detract from the overall vintage vibe and performance. It’s all wrapped into a classic 18-watt, dual-6V6 combo that’s housed, in this case, in the option of a lightly aged lacquered tweed cabinet.

In addition to its stealth nature, the 5G9 Tremolux was something of an anomaly in Fender’s amp lineup, and one we can refer to variously as “the biggest small Fender tweed amp” or “the smallest big Fender tweed amp,” depending on how you slice it. The original iteration of 1955, the 5E9 Tremolux, was Fender’s first amp to carry tremolo and wasn’t far off from being a 5E3 Deluxe with the effect built in. In a few years, however, that would change dramatically.

The amp earned a larger cabinet first, moving into the same one used by the dual-6L6 Pro Amp. Next, the circuit was heavily updated to include many features seen in Fender’s larger amps.

While the 5G9 still has the simple dual-volume preamp with shared tone control of the tweed Deluxe, that was coupled to the same long-tailed-pair phase inverter and fixed-bias output stage used by the legendary 5F6-A Bassman, making the Tremolux Fender’s only 6V6-equipped amp of the ’50s to carry these features. It also used a stouter 5U4GB rectifier tube than the Deluxe’s relatively soft 5Y3.

And while the change of phase-inverter circuit robbed the 5G9 of the 5E3’s extra gain stage, the deletion gave the Tremolux a lot more clean headroom, which couples with the higher voltages to enable a tight low end and plenty of clean punching power.

In addition to adopting these traits, Cutthroat has added several of the clever twists seen in its Down Brownie and Francene combos previously reviewed in GP. While it includes the lower-gain 12AY7 in the Bright channel — a preamp tube that was original equipment in the vintage Tremolux — there’s also a higher-gain 12AX7 that can be swapped into the circuit via a push-pull switch on that channel’s volume control.

The generally redundant Normal channel has been revoiced with a Marshall JMP50 Lead spec–inspired circuit, and the otherwise unused half of the 12AY7 in V1 is tapped to add the extra gain stage the original 5G9 is otherwise missing, accessed via a push-pull on the tone control when you need extra grind. The popular tweak of jumpering the two channels together with a short cable is made easier thanks to a third push-pull on the Normal channel’s volume pot that internally couples Bright and Normal.

The amp’s namesake tremolo effect is of the bias-modulating variety, which acts on the output tubes’ bias point and is known for its lush, warm throb, given a slight revamp here to enable even slower speeds.

Cutthroat has added further modifications in the form of a post-phase-inverter master volume control (housed in the hole where the standby switch would go, with standby mode achieved via a three-way power switch); a three-position negative-feedback-loop switch that offers standard, less, and none, for three further degrees of gain; and a tube/solid-state rectifier switch.

Finally, there’s a switch to select four-, eight- or 16-ohm speaker output. Unlike the 5E3 Deluxe, the 5G9 requires re-biasing when output tubes are changed — something made more convenient with a bias pot on the underside of the chassis.

Removing the upper back panel reveals a meticulously hand-wired circuit using Jupiter yellow and “Red Astron” signal capacitors, carbon-comp resistors, and other high-end components. Custom-wound Heyboer power and output transformers and a Hammond choke populate the other side of the chassis, and the cabinet carries a 12-inch Weber Alnico 12A125 30-watt speaker, a reproduction of the original Jensen P12Q.

Tested with a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson ES-335 electric, the Fullerton 5G9 quickly reminded me of the originals I’d owned in the past, with a robust clean tone that takes some hammering before it starts to break up, and that rich, thick tweed sound that so beautifully complements single coils and lower-wind humbuckers alike.

With the master volume maxed (and therefore ostensibly out of the circuit), you have to push the Bright channel with the 12AY7 engaged pretty hard to elicit any breakup, but it’s tactile and dynamic when it comes. By then, the amp is reasonably loud for an 18-watter, although it shouldn’t be overpowering in venues of 100 seats or more.

For smaller rooms, or for more tolerable grind with the volume all the way up, the PPI master volume does a great job of taming the decibels without impeding the amp’s voice, and proves a fantastic addition as a result.

From here, of course, there are several other avenues of gain to tap — either individually or layered up — via the 12AX7 setting (a notable jump in volume and breakup, if not excessive), the extra gain stage on the tone control’s push-pull, the Marshall-voiced Normal channel, or indeed the two jumpered together with all of the above. Get the latter setting cooking and dial the master to taste, and there’s no end of singing, touch-sensitive overdrive to be had — plus endless fun along with it.

To my tastes, the tremolo functions best on cleaner, edge-of-breakup, or just-over-the-edge gain settings, where it’s sweetly rounded, rich, and atmospheric. It’s a great example of why so many players hail tube-driven bias-modulated trem as the crème de la crème of this effect. Applying it to heavier drive settings still yields some wild and evocative sounds, though, and boatloads of expression in the swamp-blues arena.

Add in the versatility of the negative-feedback switch and switchable rectifier, and there’s a deceptive number of voices lurking within this unassuming tweed combo. All in all, it greatly honors an underappreciated original that has only recently found the spotlight, and proves a toneful and portable combo that myriad players are likely to dig immensely.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT Cutthroataudio.com

PRICE $3,195 street

CHANNELS 2

CONTROLS Bright Volume, Normal Volume, Tone, Tremolo Speed and Depth, Master Volume; switches for 12AY7/12AX7 Ch1, channel jumpering, added gain stage

POWER 18 watts

TUBES One 12AY7, three 12AX7s, two 6V6GTs, one 5AU4GB rectifier

EXTRAS Footswitch for tremolo, solid-state/tube-rectified switch, three-way negative feedback switch, switch for 4/8/16Ω speaker output

SPEAKERS One 12" Weber Alnico 12A125

WEIGHT 35 lbs

MADE IN USA

PRO A great sounding homage to the originally last-iteration of the tweed Tremolux, with several clever mods increasing its versatility exponentially.

CON It comes at a high price, although not an unreasonable one for the quality of components and workmanship.

Venus Guitars arrives with a bold mission statement: electrics made "purpose-built from the ground up" for female players. That kind of pitch tends to trigger skepticism. Too many "designed for women" guitars have leaned on glitter and heart-shaped bodies while cutting corners on hardware, build and tone.

What Venus gets right is that the concept isn't cosmetic — it's physical.

The lighter-weight, 24-inch scale and comfort-carved body translate into something you notice immediately in your hands and on a strap, regardless of your gender. The shorter scale and reduced string tension are a genuine advantage for smaller hands and a real gift for players dealing with physical issues like arthritis who still want to bend freely and express vibrato with authority.

Most importantly, these guitars convert comfort into confidence and control — the kind of command that matters as much to a weekend warrior as it does to a touring pro.

Venus Revolution

The Revolution pairs a White Jabon body with a roasted maple bolt-on neck and Indian rosewood fingerboard. At five and a half pounds, my test guitar was a legitimately featherweight instrument, the kind that makes long rehearsals noticeably easier on the shoulder. It comes in Metallic White, Midnight Black (which is what I received) and Aura Pink Pearl, and ships with a deluxe padded gig bag.

The neck is a slim C with a painted finish that stays fast under the hand, and the compound 12–16-inch radius fingerboard feels natural for open-position work while it supports cleaner bends up the neck. The stainless-steel medium-jumbo frets were neatly executed — no sharp ends, no distracting high spots — and the model’s hardware is gig-friendly throughout. It consists of a fixed bridge, chrome locking tuners, dual humbuckers with coil-splitting, a three-way switch, and a one-volume/one-tone (push/pull) layout.

One genuinely clever feature is Venus’s quick-swap pickguard system. It includes four distinctly shaped pickguards in 18 color options, swappable in under 10 seconds. It's far more useful than the cute gimmick it might seem. The ability to change a guitar's visual identity without buying another instrument is a tangible advantage for 21st-century working players who are building a content library across shoots and live clips. The caveat is that replacement pickguards run $49.99, which feels steep for something designed to encourage frequent swapping.

Venus’s distinctive diagonal position marker layout is also worth noting. It’s easy to read at a glance onstage, and Elite models add Luminlay glow-in-the-dark side dots for impressive low-light visibility.

If you're arriving from full-scale Fenders or a hefty single-cut, the 24-inch scale and slimmer profile may take a few minutes to recalibrate. After about 20 minutes, it stopped feeling different and started feeling right. Position shifts got quicker, wide bends took less effort, and the whole guitar felt easier to command up and down the neck. The lower tension pays immediate dividends for expressive playing — one-and-a-half-step bends that require real effort on a standard-scale guitar feel almost effortless here.

Tonally, the Revolution punches well above its price point. Its core voice is everything you'd want from a dual-humbucker electric: focused, punchy and eager for gain, with coil-split options that add a leaner, more percussive snap for funk rhythms, indie-rock chime, and pop parts. Through a Marshall DSL100HR into a 4x12, the bridge pickup on the Classic Gain channel delivered immediate hot-rodded British drive with unmistakable '80s attitude.

I couldn't resist diving straight into Van Halen's version of "You Really Got Me." Flip to Ultra Gain and it'll move into modern metal territory. On a Fender Super-Sonic combo, the cleans were a genuine standout: full, rich and harmonically pleasing, with the bridge pickup staying clear rather than thinning out. For an $899 instrument, that range is impressive.

The Revolution is a legitimately strong all-around instrument, and an especially compelling one for players with smaller hands or a slighter build, or anyone managing hand fatigue. Its stable hardware, simple controls and wide tonal range cover rock, pop, metal and funk without breaking a sweat. Venus set out to build a guitar that fits more players more naturally, and the Revolution delivers on that promise.

Venus Revolution Elite "Dark Roast"

The Dark Roast takes the same ergonomic silhouette and pushes it upmarket: a USA-made roasted basswood body with a 5A figured maple cap, a figured roasted maple neck and a "Royal Black" torrefied purpleheart fingerboard. At six and a quarter pounds, it's still impressively light for a premium build. The slim, asymmetric C neck — slightly thicker on the bass side — wears a hand-rubbed oil finish that feels broken-in immediately. The compound 10–14-inch radius fingerboard is PLEK'd.

Hardware is appropriately premium: Hipshot locking tuners, a Hipshot U.S. Contour trem, a Switchcraft side jack and CTS pots. Pickups are a DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary set paired with a five-way Lead Mode switching arrangement. It’s a vintage-voiced foundation with expanded access to brighter, more focused tones when needed.

The DiMarzio PAF 36ths deliver exactly what you'd hope they would: vintage-inspired warmth and articulation that stays musical under gain, with enough clarity for layered chord work and enough push for lead lines that need to sing. Through the Marshall DSL100HR, clean bridge tones carried a glossy top end — plenty of sparkle — although the low end felt a touch looser and rounder than the Revolution's. That's not inherently a flaw: players who prefer a thicker foundation for big chords may actually gravitate toward it.

On Ultra Gain, the Elite clicked best at a classic hot-rod gain setting — the bridge pickup delivered high-octane sustain that made lead parts feel energized without getting harsh. The Fender Super-Sonic was an especially flattering partner. In the second pickup position via Lead Mode, the Elite produced a crisp, snappy clean that landed far closer to classic Fender-style spank than you'd expect from a dual-humbucker setup.

The Bottom Line

The Elite Dark Roast is the more premium and nuanced instrument, with a great trem, name-brand pickups, expanded switching, and boutique fit and finish, all in a featherweight package. But the real headline here is the Revolution. It's the guitar that kept surprising me. Through both the Marshall and the Fender, it consistently sounded bigger, more inspiring and more complete than anything in its price range has a right to. From convincing '80s rock snarl on Classic Gain to gorgeously usable cleans on the Super-Sonic, the Revolution delivers the goods at every turn. If Venus’s goal is to build guitars that invite you to play more — and play bolder — mission accomplished.

SPECIFICATIONS

Revolution

CONTACT venus-guitars.com

PRICE $899

NUT WIDTH 1.650", bone

NECK Roasted maple, slim C shape

FRETBOARD Indian rosewood, 24" scale, compound 12"–16" radius

FRETS 22 medium jumbo

TUNERS Chrome locking

BODY White Jabon

BRIDGE Fixed

PICKUPS Dual humbuckers with coil split

CONTROLS Volume, tone (push/pull), 3-way switch

FACTORY STRINGS D’Addario EXL 110 .010 - .046

WEIGHT 5.5 lb

BUILT Indonesia

EXTRAS Quick-swap pickguard, padded gig bag

Revolution Elite - Dark Roast

CONTACT venus-guitars.com

PRICE $2,749+

NUT WIDTH 1.650", synthetic bone (Nubone)

NECK Figured roasted maple, slim asymmetric C shape (thicker bass side)

FRETBOARD Royal Black (torrefied purpleheart), 24" scale, compound 10"–14" radius

FRETS 22 medium jumbo

TUNERS Hipshot locking

BODY Roasted basswood with figured maple cap

BRIDGE Hipshot US Contour Trem

PICKUPS DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary set

CONTROLS Volume, tone, 5-way Super Switch w/ "Lead Mode"

FACTORY STRINGS D’Addario NYXL .010 - .046

WEIGHT 6.25 lb

BUILT USA

EXTRAS Extra quick-swap pickguard included, Luminlay side dots, deluxe padded gig bag

Marshall’s DSL series, or Dual Super Lead to give it its Sunday name, has been around for the best part of two decades. Sitting somewhere between the affordable MG series and the more expensive UK-made JVM amplifiers, the DSL range has long been a popular choice for guitarists chasing authentic Marshall grit, complete with plenty of mid-range bite whilst not leaving your wallet sore.

Boasting not only the title of the smallest combo in the DSL range, but in Marshall’s entire catalog, the DSL1CR is a 1-watt, all-tube combo designed with home use in mind. It’s also the most affordable tube amp in Marshall’s lineup, making it an accessible entry point for players looking to get into tube amps without it hurting their bank account.

Marshall isn’t alone in this space. Its most obvious competitor is the Blackstar HT series, which also includes a 1-watt tube amp, the HT-1R. During my time working in a guitar store, the HT-1R was consistently one of the best sellers, and I demoed it more times than I can count, making it a natural point of comparison here.

The DSL1CR is equipped with two ECC83 preamp valves and an ECC82 power amp valve, paired with an 8-inch Celestion Eight 15 speaker. On paper, it shares some familiar DNA with larger Marshall designs. As someone who owns a Marshall 1987x Reissue head, which also runs ECC83s in the preamp, I was particularly interested in how that translates into a much smaller, home-friendly format.

When my long-suffering courier turned up with the parcel, there were no words of complaint about how heavy the box was, being used to many cumbersome boxes (and letting me know). This was a good sign in a home-friendly amplifier, as decent portability and dimensions are looked on more favorably, particularly with tube amps that typically weigh a tonne.

It’s compact as well as lightweight and much smaller than my Peavy Classic 30 I placed beside it. At 7.9kg, this isn’t a heavy tube amp. If you’re used to carrying something like an AC30 to gigs, it will feel featherweight.

For most of my testing, I had the DSL1CR on my desktop for ease of access to controls. It’s not quite in the traditional desktop amp dimensions, nor would I call it a mini amp, but certainly the right size for a practice amp. Although you’ll be unlikely to take it out of the house much, it feels very durable. It’s instantly recognizable as a Marshall, with the iconic gold panel and script logo.

Although only a little detail, the on/off switch provides a satisfying click each time you reach for it, whilst the control knobs are large enough for proper control. The white piping is a small but effective touch that gives Marshall vibes in its entirety. When added up altogether, it certainly looks the part.

Like any tube amp worth its salt, the DSL1CR is incredibly easy to use, and even easier to dial in a decent tone. Starting off with the Classic Gain channel, there’s simply a volume control, easy-peasy. The channel switch comes in the form of a button, and when pressed, a red light (red for danger) indicates you’re on the Ultra Gain channel, which has both volume and gain controls.

Both channels share a 3-band EQ, covering treble, middle, and bass. There’s also a global digital reverb that works across both channels, although it can’t be set independently. The tone shift switch reshapes the mids for a more scooped sound, and I found, works particularly well with the Ultra Gain channel.

Around the back reveals a few more modern options. There’s an FX loop and footswitch input, with the included footswitch letting you switch between channels on the fly. You also get a Softube emulated output, allowing you to plug straight into a computer for recording while still using the amp’s tone.

On that topic, there is absolutely zero lag when switching from one channel to another. Although you're not going to be gigging this Marshall, that’s a big positive if you ever plan on recording with it whilst switching between channels. The footswitch’s cable is also incredibly long, which allowed me to position the amp at a further distance than I usually would, whilst taking into account its dispersion.

Although 1 watt doesn’t sound like much, this is still a valve amp, and it can get surprisingly loud. That’s why the power reduction switch ended up being my (and my partner’s) favourite feature. Anyone who lives in an apartment will know the struggle, so when I was testing this at 8 pm, dropping it down to 0.1W meant I could play to my heart’s content without annoying anyone. Although the cleaner Classic Gain channel was less aggressive, anything past the 3 o’clock mark on either channel was just too much for home practice.

There’s also a 3.5mm aux input for playing along to backing tracks. It’s not something I used a great deal, but it’s a handy addition if you want to practice with backing tracks or play along to songs.

Out of habit, and perhaps reading habits, I plugged in my Fender Modern Player Starcaster and started from left to right. This guitar is equipped with a pair of The Creamery humbuckers and I was surprised at the warm, clean tone of the Classic Gain channel. I think letting the amp warm up was a good shout and it worked equally well with the single coils of my American Standard Stratocaster.

Hooking up my pedalboard, I opted to go into the front of the amp, instead of the FX loop and my MXR Carbon Copy delay alongside Walrus Audio Slo Reverb was getting plenty of ethereal tones. I was genuinely having a fun time getting lost on the clean side of the DSL1CR.

However, when it turned around midday, and my partner had vacated the building, I started to see what it could do when pushed. It started breaking up around the 4 or 5 mark with the volume, right to the edge of breakup, but when I dug in, there were plenty of creamy tube tones on display. Although I did hear my upstairs neighbors shuffling about after my third rendition of Ain’t Talking About Love – this amp is pretty darn loud – so I decided to switch over to the Ultra Gain Channel.

That may seem counterintuitive when trying to keep it down, but with a gain control, this channel can get very saturated at low volumes. Even more so when the 0.1W low power mode is on. I was having fun playing heavier riffs, and checked out the tone shift a bit more. This switch worked well on the Ultra Gain channel, scooping out the mid-range. It worked very well whilst I was messing around with Sum 41 riffs, but overall, I preferred the natural EQ of the amp; it sounded fuller to my ears.

Also, to my ears, there was a bit of a boxier tone, rather unsurprising considering this amplifier is exactly that, a little box. The 8-inch speaker struggled slightly with low-end, so I was constantly adjusting the bass knob for that added depth. Plus, when I kicked on my Earthquaker Devices Plumes overdrive pedal (which is cranked itself), the speaker did struggle with handling the low-end. However, there are a few compromises you have to make if you want an amplifier this size, and the DSL1CR has plenty of positives that convince me it’s worth it.

Lastly, although Marshall doesn’t state what the digital reverb is emulating, it's got hall characteristics to me. It doesn’t blow me away, but it does the job. Plus, it covers just a touch of ‘verb, to full on cascading waves of lushness, so breadth is certainly something it boasts.

Considering the DSL1CR has one pretty clear mission statement, to make tube tones achievable at home, it certainly earns a pass mark. Having not one, not two, but three genuinely usable tones, clean, overdriven, and distorted, in a tube amp this size and at this price point is a commendable achievement. For players who want tube amps or nothing, it’s a clear winner.

If, like me, you use a 50-watt Marshall head or any other valve amp for gigs, and don’t have something for home, this is a brilliant option. With an accompanying footswitch, FX loop, and emulated out, it blends classic tube simplicity with a few modern features that genuinely add value, without overwhelming you with options.

That said, the tone can sit slightly on the boxy side, with a noticeable lack of low-end. It’s not a deal breaker given the quality of tones on offer, but it may leave some players wanting a little more depth.

Guitar Player verdict: The DSL1CR nails its mission of delivering genuine tube tones at home, with impressive versatility and smart modern features. While the compact speaker brings a slightly boxy character and limited low-end, it remains a compelling option for players wanting an authentic Marshall feel without excessive volume or cost.

Specifications

• Price: £239/$399/€275
• Type: Tube combo amplifier
• Tubes: 2x ECC83, 1x ECC82
• Origin: Vietnam
• Output: 1W (with 0.1W reduction switch)
• Speaker: 1x8" Celestion Eight 15
• Channels: 2, Classic Gain and Ultra Gain
• Controls: Classic gain channel volume, channel select button, ultra gain channel volume and gain, tone shift switch, low power mode button, treble, middle, bass and reverb
• Connectivity: 1/4-inch input, FX loop, footswitch input, 3.5mm emulated out, 3.5mm audio input
• Footswitch: Yes, included
• Weight: 7.9kg/17lbs
• Dimensions: 360x340x215mm
• Contact: Marshall

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There are so many types of Strats, so what’s up with this one? Well, it’s integral to the launch of American Ultra Luxe Vintage, which stands on the shoulders of American Ultra II models and represents the pinnacle of Fender production.

These American creations come off the line in Corona, California. Ultra Luxe models feature top-shelf hardware such as stainless-steel frets and Pure Vintage pickups. The core collection pays homage to classic ’50s and ’60s Telecasters and Stratocasters, and then there’s this modern/classic HSS ’60s Strat that includes two ’61 Strat single-coils plus a Haymaker humbucker in the bridge position equipped with a coil tap. Fender aimed this electric guitar at traditional Stratocaster fans with a spirit for modern sonic adventure.

I remember becoming enthralled by the Plus and Plus Ultra Strats of the late ’80s that had Lace Sensor pickups, including a bridge humbucker on Ultra models, with Wilkinson tremolo systems and locking tuners. It was Fender adopting production according to the popularity of super Strats and based on modifications from pioneers such as Eddie Van Halen.

I remember the other guitarist in my first band got an Ultra, and I eventually picked up a used ’89 Strat Plus that I still play to this day. I figured it would be fun to compare it to the Ultra Luxe and put it through all the paces. I ended up bringing it out on many gigs over a period of a few months, including on a Jeff Beck tribute mini-tour in Northern California.

The HSS Ultra Luxe Vintage ’60s Strat comes in Fiesta Red and Sea Foam Green, the finish option offered on my sample. The color is darker and more toward teal than classic Surf Green, and it appears, in real life, like a photo seen through the Vivid Cool filter on an iPhone.

The aged Heirloom satin lacquer finish is muted, yet still very vibrant. You can see it from across a large venue, yet look closely, and it appears slightly cracked like a vintage guitar, otherwise known as “checking.” That unique finish, combined with the zebra humbucker in the bridge and rosewood fretboard, makes it look like the coolest modern/classic Strat I can imagine.

This review unit is a Vintage ’60s, and it truly does have that ’60s vibe and feel. I would have guessed that my ’89 is heavier, but it’s not. It’s literally just a different vintage with a fuller neck profile and a standard neck heel.

The Ultra Luxe features a tapered neck heel and an upper back body contour. When I showed that to ’60s Strat connoisseur Johnny A., he wasn’t stoked about the missing body mass, but I found that the recessed heel does make it a bit easier to navigate upward of the 17th fret. I actually found the whole neck easy to navigate, with an appreciation for the slim profile. If you prefer a thicker one, check out a Vintage ’50s model.

The guitar is slinky as funk. It’s the kind of guitar Ike Turner could make sing with stinging note bends and syncopated chicken-necking rhythms. String bendability is off the charts. It facilitates all sorts of high-wire tricks that don’t even come to mind on most guitars.

I wound up doing extensive finger stretches on the fretboard that don’t usually just happen, so I was curious if the scale length was short, but it’s a full 25.5 inches. I suppose the slim neck profile, compound radius and neck heel taper are responsible.

Playability out of the box is super easy, and I was surprised to discover the tremolo set up to float perfectly. When you pull up on the vibrato arm, the top three strings ascend in pitch by a half step from open on the first string, a whole step on the second and a step and a half on the third. The intro to Jeff Beck’s “People Get Ready” is a great test, and the Ultra Luxe passed with flying colors.

The guitar comes with .009-gauge strings, which makes playability very easy. I prefer a bit more tension, so I put on a set of .010s, which then messed up the precision balance of the two-point American Ultra synchronized tremolo.

To accommodate the increased tension, I followed the instructions of legendary tech Gary Brawer: Once you change the strings to heavier gauges, start by opening the back plate and adjusting the tension on the tremolo springs until you get that same relationship of upward mobility for the top strings described in the previous paragraph. Then make any necessary adjustments to the truss rod to get the string height right.

This tremolo system is impressive for being so simple. The headstock tuners lock, but it doesn’t have a fancy nut like the Wilkinson Roller Nut on my Strat Plus. And the bar simply pops into the slot with no threads. You end up with a bit of give, but it’s quite convenient. I always found that screw-in bars need a bit of plumber’s tape to get the connection perfectly snug. Doing the Jeff Beck tribute was the ultimate test of this tremolo system, because no player ever worked a floating trem with as much style and nuance as JB.

I found the Ultra Luxe tremolo to be sufficient for pretty much anything except intense Beck-isms. Lubing the nut helped quite a bit, but I was never able to get the system to stay perfectly in tune with heavy vibrato use the way I can on the Strat Plus, nor can you get that same warble from a quick upward snap of the bar when you have it perfectly snug. To reiterate, this tremolo is wonderful for doing all sorts of floating whammy moves — you just can’t go too crazy.

I appreciated the tones from these Pure Vintage ’61 Strat single-coils and the Haymaker humbucker. Coil tapping is rather accessible on the fly via an S-1 switch inside the volume knob, although my fake nails made that a bit of a challenge. I mostly tested tones through a two-channel 1983 Fender Super Champ combo at home and a 1966 Fender Pro onstage.

The bridge and middle position pickups sounded super open and balanced like classic single coils, yet with more power and very low noise. I wound up raising the neck pickup toward the strings for a bit more girth. And then there’s the Haymaker, which offers a serviceable single-coil sound with the coil tap engaged, or one that thickens up the tone in humbucker mode and pushes the output without being overbearing or losing its sting.

I almost always prefer a humbucker in the bridge position and was most happy in humbucker land here. I found pick squeal and fretboard harmonics happening so readily that they’d sometimes occur by surprise. Using the articulate Haymaker humbucker in combination with the middle pickup yields a lively thick-and-thin sound that’s kind of like J.J. Cale or Mark Knopfler, but ultimately a tone all its own.

I’ve dreamed of having a Strat like this since I was a kid. I still love my ’89 Strat Plus for what it does, but it’s so cool to have a more traditional ’60s-style Stratocaster that has all the necessary upgrades and modern functionality. You can play some of the more aggressive music that came in the wake of the ’60s, yet truly be able to cop those vintage tones on a bona fide, period-correct guitar hot rod.

I’d recommend the Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage ’60s Stratocaster HSS to players who truly want a ’60s-style instrument, especially the thinner neck profile, upgraded with modern features such as locking tuners and noiseless, flexible pickups.

Single-coil sounds sparkle, and the humbucker is super handy on a noisy stage. Pros will find it worthy onstage and in the studio. Beginners will dig its easy playability out of the box. Hobbyists will love how well it shows off hanging on the wall. It steals the limelight in the studio, hanging next to a bunch of other cool axes.

SPECIFICATIONS

American Ultra Luxe Vintage ’60s Stratocatser

CONTACT fender.com

PRICE $2,899 with hardshell case

NUT Graph Tech Tusq, 1.69" wide

NECK Quartersawn maple w/ Modern “D” shape, 25.5"scale

FRETBOARD Rosewood, 10"-14" compound radius, Luminlay side dots

FRETS 22 medium jumbo stainless steel with rolled edges

TUNERS Deluxe staggered cast/sealed

BODY Alder with Ultra Contours and Tapered Neck Heel

FINISH Aged Heirloom nitrocellulose lacquer

EXTRAS Available in Fiesta Red or Sea Foam Green (as tested)

BRIDGE Two-point Deluxe Synchronized Tremolo with pop-in arm, polished stainless steel block saddles, cold rolled steel block, and deluxe locking tuners

PICKUPS Two Fender Pure Vintage ’61 Strat single-coils plus a Haymaker humbucker in bridge with coil-tap

CONTROLS Volume (with coil-tap button) and two tone knobs (one designated for humbucker), 5-way blade pickup selector. S-1 switch on volume coil-splits humbucker

STRINGS Fender USA 250L Nickel Plated Steel gauges .009 - .042

WEIGHT 8.3 lbs. (as tested)

BUILT USA

PROS Fabulous marriage of vintage and modern features and tones. Very easy playability and upper register access. Great factory set up with floating tremolo. Striking color

CONS Upper back bevel may not appeal to those preferring a chunkier body. Just don’t go too crazy with the whammy or tremolo system can get caught a bit flat or sharp

Ever since establishing his former Tone King brand with the release of the first Imperial combo in 1993, Maryland-based amp designer and manufacturer Mark Bartel has done things somewhat differently. His distinct path was always obvious in both the retro looks of his creations and the original circuits, which cleverly blended versatile classic American and British voicings without directly copying anything that had gone before.

And while Tone King amps were always highly regarded for their quality, that aspect of his work has clicked up a notch over the past several years in the amps he now builds under the Bartel Amplifiers name. Like the Roseland, Starwood and Sugarland models before it, the new Swingland is based on a design so individual the word “original” barely covers it. Add the hand-wired circuit and artisan-grade cabinet, and it’s a creation entirely unto itself.

And beyond all that, the new model’s entire M.O. centers on it being what Bartel feels is the first low-wattage guitar amp with genuine high-wattage tone, feel and body—if not volume. More than two and a half years in development, he feels the Swingland is ideally suited to today’s lower-output environments, while keeping the response and dynamics of a tube amp front and center in what is otherwise a rapidly evolving amplification landscape. Let’s bring in its creator for his own summation of the objective at hand.

“A lot of customers for my three legacy models use them exclusively for playing at home or in the studio,” Bartel says. “These amps have an excellent master volume circuit but are ultimately designed to accommodate both home/studio use and live playing in clubs. The Swingland amp is designed specifically for studio/home use and has a more sophisticated architecture for greater control over the harmonic content and dynamics to better deliver the sound and feel of a cranked vintage amp, but at low volume.

“I realize it’s an unusual product in this market because, in spite of its low output power, it’s a proper master-built amp loaded with innovative design work and useful features. As a home player myself, this is my ideal amp. I can’t play loudly at home, but I don’t want to compromise on tone, features or quality. If anything, sound quality is even more important when playing at home, where you can hear everything more clearly. Based on conversations with customers over the years, it seems like this may be a popular view, but time will tell.”

Specs-wise, the Swingland puts out three watts RMS using one octal-based 6SN7 tube driving a custom-made output transformer by US company Lenco Electronics, into a single 12-inch Celestion Alnico Blue speaker. The use of this dual-triode — more commonly seen in the preamp positions of some amps from the ’50s — allows for a proper push-pull output stage.

That gets Bartel part way to the “big-amp feel” versus the single-ended configurations generally used in low-wattage amps in the Fender Champ and Vox AC4 mold. One 12AX7, two 12AT7s and one 12AU7 populate the rest of the preamp and reverb stages, with controls for preamp volume, midrange, tone, reverb mix, dwell, master volume and presence.

Readers might first notice that the midrange control signals something different, and in fact both that and the tone knob operate quite differently than on traditional amps. The former is neutral when set at noon and boosts midrange frequencies above that point, while cutting them below, with the degrees of boost and cut set to different response curves to best dial in classic amp voicings. The tone control does make things brighter when turned up and darker when turned down, but is designed as more of a “tilt EQ,” which reduces bass as treble is increased, and vice versa.

Augmenting these six top-panel knobs is a harmonic balance control on the back panel, a subtle but effective feature that fine-tunes the harmonic content of the overdriven part of the signal, taking it from bright and edgy to thick and creamy. Also round back is an enigmatic five-pin XLR jack labeled LOI (for Line Out Interface).

Still awaiting Bartel’s development of the devices that will partner with it (expected mid 2026), it’s intended to connect to three interfaces that will offer deluxe features that wouldn’t fit into the Swingland’s compact chassis. These include fully analog mic and cab simulation, an amp driver voiced to relay the Swingland’s output to a traditional guitar amp, and an unprocessed line out for use with third-party IRs.

Add it up, and it reinforces the uniqueness of the Swingland. But for all the original elements, Bartel tells us he likely put the most design effort into the core tone of the amplifier, and its overdrive content in particular.

“The overdrive stage required a lot of creative engineering and analysis, then final tuning by ear. It’s responsible for creating all of the harmonic and dynamic behavior that usually happens as a combined effort of the output tubes, phase inverter, and also a few prior stages in a conventional vintage amp. It’s far from a simple clipping circuit — it combines three concurrent strategies in a unique circuit architecture developed specifically for this model. I cycled through 27 different variations of this circuit architecture in the design process.”

Bartel is also famous for the intense effort he puts into cabinet design, and the Swingland’s 19 by 16 by 11–inch box is no exception. It took the maker a year and about a dozen test cabs to achieve a compact combo that sounded full and deep, and which avoided the congested or “boxy” sound so often heard in smaller combos. Ultimately, he says, “I found a way to make the cabinet create an intimate, focused presentation that also fills the room with sound and creates an oversized sonic image.”

The Swingland chassis are constructed by the other two members of Bartel’s three-person team, Mike York and Nate White, with Malory 150 signal caps, carbon comp and carbon film resistors and other quality components hand-wired across rugged turret strips. It will come as no surprise to those familiar with Bartel’s builds to hear it’s among the highest-level work I’ve encountered.

Tested with a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson ES-335 semihollow, the Swingland immediately lived up to every bit of Bartel’s premise for the design, and proved one of the most rewarding sub–10 watt amps I’ve ever played. From somewhat more quantifiable qualities such as its clarity and low noise floor, to more esoteric characteristics like the texture of its overdriven sounds and the fluidity of its transition into clipping, it’s simply a delectable performer through and through.

Despite the relatively simple control complement, the Swingland can be dialed through myriad shades of clean-to-scream that enable it to emulate many of the acknowledged classics. But what I really enjoyed was how it presented such a strong personality of its own. Mix and match the broad EQ range and versatile gain staging, and there’s likely a sound in here for any player short of the metal genres, with the edge-of-breakup demands of blues, classic rock and roots rock arguably being its forte.

And while it sounds great at lower master volume settings, I’d say it could keep up with many moderate drummers in a smaller club setting with the master maxed and the preamp volume relatively high.

Amid all that, this amp’s dynamics are off the charts. When set up for heavily overdriven sounds, it achieves a gradual and varied transition into overdrive like few amps I’ve played before, revealing nuances and shades all along the spectrum as you gradually roll up your electric guitar’s volume control. And while many amps will reveal a usable clean sound from a lower guitar-knob setting when maxed out for overdrive otherwise, it’s rarely as rich, full and convincing as that delivered by the Swingland in this scenario.

Increasing midrange also adds a little gain to the signal, or is at least perceived as such, as the core of the guitar’s frequency range punches harder, making this a doubly powerful control. And after all that, let’s not forget the reverb: Roomy and enveloping for a spring-based effect, it also tolerates maxing-out like few amps I’ve played, without odd oscillation or artifacts setting in.

All in all, then, a job well done from Bartel Amplifiers. And if it’s undoubtedly an expensive acquisition, the Swingland should also provide endless satisfaction and creative inspiration to those whose playing situations demand it.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT Bartelamps.com

PRICE $4,195 street

CHANNELS 1

CONTROLS Volume, midrange, tone; reverb mix and dwell; master volume, presence, harmonic balance

POWER 3 watts

TUBES One 12AX7, two 12AT7, one 12AU7, one 6SN7

EXTRAS Tube-driven spring reverb, 5-pin XLR for Line Out Interface (LOI)

SPEAKER 12" Celestion Alnico Blue

DIMENSIONS 19"x16"x11"

WEIGHT 32 lbs

MADE IN USA

KUDOS A cleverly designed and extremely well-built combo, offering surprising sonic versatility and engaging dynamics for its low-wattage output

CONCERNS It comes with a high price tag, but so it goes in this market these days

If you’ve always dreamed of cutting the cord but never wanted to deal with the inherent hassles prone to most sophisticated wireless systems, Fishman’s got a worthy plug-and-play digital design to consider. For the wireless wary to fully embrace, it would have to be stupidly simple, attainable, reliable and compatible with most active and passive instrument pickups. Enter the AirLock.

The concept could not be more straightforward. Plug the transmitter into your guitar, the receiver into your amp or first pedal, and play away.

The AirLock is Fishman’s first foray into the wireless field, and this move makes total sense. Fishman makes tons of pickups, and a proprietary wireless platform designed to deliver all sorts of signals to amplification is a logical next step. It’s kind of surprising this hasn’t come about before over Fishman’s more than three decades of operation, but also understandable as the company that started out making acoustic pickups has been busy conquering arenas from amps to electric pickups. It stands to reason that a Fishman wireless design would be aimed at the masses that simply want to connect.

I’m glad this review wound up in my hands because it was high time to reconsider going wireless. Like lots of players, I never wanted to deal with big battery packs or worry about signal quality or dropouts. Those concerns were clearly high on Fishman’s list of priorities as indicated right in the name: AirLock. The design looked super simple, so I inquired about a review unit. That took several months as the product has been back ordered since it was announced in summer of 2025. There’s clearly an eager audience for such a system. I couldn’t wait to try it out in front of one.

Talk about simplicity, I was able to achieve AirLock engagement without referring to any instructions.

The nifty product box that you’ll take on the gig has form-fitted compartments for the TX Transmitter and RX Receiver. The latter is slightly larger, but both are very conveniently sized and lightweight. Each fits perfectly in the palm of a hand and has an extendable/retractable 1/4" jack attached.

Open the zippered box like a suitcase, and the top half contains all the cords and connectors plus a quick start guide. It’s easy to charge both units simultaneously using the USB Y-cable into a wall charger (not included). An LED light on each unit turns from red to green when ready. The same happens during the pairing process, which happens automatically.

I plugged the transmitter and receiver into a Taylor guitar and amp, and just like that the cord was cut. The full-bodied tone of the acoustic came through loud and clear, and I started walking around the room feeling like Sir Roger Daltrey running along the beach in Tommy — “I’m free!”

I had a few gigs coming up and brought the AirLock along on an Allman Brothers tribute, a holiday party and a wedding. I was still flying blind, and that turned out fine, as there are only a couple of controls to consider. On the transmitter, you can select from three different Cable tones approximating a length of three, five or 10 meters. I found that interesting. Have we all finally adopted the metric system? Anyway, the tone kind of opens, loses bass and becomes more treble-y the longer the selected length, just like an actual cord. I prefer to keep mine as thick as possible on the lowest setting of three meters, or about nine feet.

There’s also an Interference switch with options for low, medium, and high depending on how much Wi-Fi is bouncing around a given room. From what I can tell, the main trade off as you increase the level of Interference resistance is a tiny increase in latency, but even on the highest setting I could play my fastest licks without feeling the tone noticeably lagging behind my fingers. I wasn’t sure what I was going to be dealing with, so I simply choose the middle setting and had no trouble getting a great sound wherever I went.

It was particularly fun on the holiday party gig because the guests were seated at long tables, and since the first set was all acoustic guitar with no vocals, I was free to stroll my merry way along the audience. I’m the bandleader in the Allmans tribute, so it was great to be able to get up close to each cat for cues. At the wedding, which was actually for the drummer in the Allmans tribute, I walked all around the venue, which was kind of like a rustic barn house, and once again had no issues getting a great tone wherever I roamed.

What I dig most about AirLock is its simplicity. It’s truly plug and play. But what surprises me most is how much I like using AirLock around the house. It’s awesome to audition loud electric guitar tones with the amp in the next room. AirLock works through the walls in my house unless I go into the kitchen, which apparently has more interference, as even on the highest Interference setting, the signal drops out there. AirLock goes into sleep mode to save battery if you don’t play for a while. So I wound up simply leaving it on all day around the house and “waking it up” every once in a while when I felt like playing.

I tried a variety of guitars, and the one I had a bit of a concern about the transmitter fitting was a Fender Stratocaster, as that unique input jack style running up the body means there’s no great way to maneuver the AirLock Transmitter very far out of the way of a flailing plucking hand. At the very furthest, it’s just far enough. I play freehand and do a lot of flailing, so if I can deal with it, everybody else should be on terra firma.

I haven’t had the opportunity to try AirLock in an obviously high radio or Wi-Fi interference situation such as a music festival, but according to the product literature, “AirLock operates on a license-free frequency of 2.4 GHz using 24-bit A/D/A digital audio conversion with a range of up to 150 feet.” It goes on to point out, “This is not some typical 2.4 Ghz radio design that makes you choose between Wi-Fi or wireless. Unmatched interference handling allows you to overcome dense Wi-Fi situations with incredibly low latency, yet still achieve audio quality as good or better than a standard instrument cable.”

I can attest to that, as I compared the AirLock to high-quality cables and found the signals comparable.

I also found the battery to last plenty of time to cover any of the gig situations. According to product literature, the internal battery lasts for about nine hours and is user replaceable, meaning you can replace just the battery kit rather than the whole apparatus after, say, four to five years of trouble-free operation. In the age of disposable everything, I appreciate this consideration.

Another cool application is using the AirLock to record directly to a computer using the USB-C on the Transmitter, which facilitates direct recording or streaming without the need for an interface. Fishman.com says, “This USB digital audio output is 24-bit, class-compliant, which means you don’t need no stinkin’ drivers.” I checked it out, and it works great. That’s very handy for recording to a laptop in the hotel after a gig.

Since I have a Universal Audio Apollo Twin X interface at home, I wound up using the AirLock wireless with the Transmitter plugged into the front guitar input jack, eliminating cable clutter and sounding as good or even better than a cord to my ears during tracking and when I A/B’d the recordings upon playback.

Kudos to Fishman for stepping up and delivering simple, reliable wireless signal processing designed specifically for guitar players. Cables suck! Being untethered feels fabulous and sounds great. I’ve often joked around at the end of a gig when I’m still winding cables after most everyone else has left that I’ll be doing this for eternity in hell. Now I’m in cordless heaven.

SPECIFICATIONS

PRO-AIR-GT1

CONTACT fishman.com

PRICE $319.95 street

CONFIGURATION 1/4" instrument set with Transmitter and Receiver

I/O AND CONTROLS TX TRANSMITTER 1/4" input, USB-C (charging), Bluetooth pairing, Interference (low, med, high), Cable Tone switch (3m, 5m, 10m) power on/off, LED indicators for pair and power

I/O AND CONTROLS RX RECEIVER 1/4" output, 9VDC in, USB-C (battery charge or record out), power on/off, Bluetooth pairing, LED indicators for pair and power

BATTERY Rechargeable internal Li-Po, user replaceable, 9-10 hours per full charge, 3 hours after 5-min charge

RADIO TECH RF channel diversity with automatic channelization and interference avoidance; operating frequency 2.4 GHz license-free (2402 – 2480 MHz, 80 channels)

OPERATING RANGE 120 feet spin range; 150 feet line-of-sight

INTERFERECE MITIGATION User-adjustable to overcome dense Wi-Fi environments

LATENCY 3.3ms/4.1ms/4.9ms depending on L/M/H Interference setting

AUDIO PERFORMANCE 118dB dynamic range

FREQUENCY RESPONSE 20Hz to 20kHz

DIGITAL AUDIO CONVERSION 24-bit A/D/A, 32-bit internal processing

BUILT U.S.A.

PRO Simple, reliable, rechargeable, flexible, attainable

CON No great to way to keep Transmitter fully out of the way on Strat-style inputs

Described as a “retro-refined take on a classic Gretsch design,” the Electromatic CVT is a hip-looking solidbody electric guitar that melds throwback styling with powerful tones tailored to suit modern players. With its double-cut mahogany body — which is comfortably rounded on the edges — solid wraparound bridge and pair of Twin Six humbuckers, this guitar is a rock machine par excellence.

It plays well thanks to a combination of a bolt-on C-shape mahogany neck that’s capped with a 24.6-inch-scale laurel-wood fingerboard sporting 22 lightly polished medium-jumbo frets, which are beveled on the tips and don’t feel prickly when you’re sliding along the neck.

My review sample was finished in Vintage White, which was nicely set off by a swooping tortoise-color pickguard that surrounds the neck pickup and the nickel-plated, flat-top control knobs, which are knurled on the sides to make them easy to grip.

The Electromatic CVT is a well-made guitar with no finish or binding flaws. It has a solid feel throughout and seems like it should cost more than it does. I initially brought it along on gigs as a spare in case a string broke on my PRS Dustie Waring signature model, but the Gretsch proved always perfect to strap on and rock out with, notwithstanding that it’s a budget axe compared to the U.S.-made PRS.

In terms of playability, the comfortable C-shape neck and 24.6-inch-scale fingerboard offer a great playing feel. The rounded neck joint makes it easy to rip to the high frets and the body’s sculpted cutaways provide plenty of access, while the contours on the front and back of the body allow the guitar to sling naturally against your body.

The factory setup on this test guitar was good, providing comfortably low action as well as tuneful intonation when chording in the higher and lower positions. The wraparound tailpiece is solidly anchored, and I think it contributes to the guitar’s sustaining sound.

The Twin Six pickups deliver tones that have a good balance of clarity and output. Perhaps a little stronger than a typical PAF pickup, they had plenty of push to drive my ’72 Marshall 50-watt into distortion, and they also sounded great with a PRS DGT 15 and a reissue Vox AC10.

I used the neck pickup a lot for rhythm and lead, switching to the middle position to broaden the sound and get a crisper tone, and the bridge setting for anything from country twang to hard rock. I found it easy to switch between the PRS and the Gretsch without feeling the guitars were too dissimilar. If anything, the CVT’s slightly shorter “G” scale made bending strings a bit easier too, which is something many players will appreciate.

The Electromatic CVT is a bang-for-buck champ that’s worth considering if you’re looking for an affordable Gretsch that performs above its price class. It’s a hip grab-and-go guitar that would be a great backup for your regular humbucker axe.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT gretschguitars.com

PRICE $419

NUT Graph Tech NuBone, 1.68" wide

NECK Bolt-on mahogany with Performance C shape and gloss finish

FINGERBOARD Laurel with aged while binding and black side dots, 24.6" scale, pearloid Neo-Classic “thumbnail” inlays and bound headstock with abalone Gretsch inlay

FRETS 22 medium jumbo

TUNERS Nickel-plated die-cast

BODY Mahogany with beveled contours and gloss finish

FINISH Available in Vintage White, Wychwood and Havana Burst

BRIDGE Wraparound with adjustable saddles, nickel plated

PICKUPS Twin Six humbuckers with Alnico 5 magnets

CONTROLS Volume, tone, 3-way toggle switch with nickel tip

FACTORY STRINGS Nickel Plated Steel, .010-.046

WEIGHT 7.6 lbs (tested)

BUILT China

PRO Cool retro-style look. Plays and sounds more upscale than its price implies.

CON Gig bag is not included

What is it?

The Gibson: Learn to Play Guitar app is the brand’s move into the crowded world of digital guitar tuition, taking on heavy hitters like Fender Play, Yousician, and Simply Guitar. Launched in 2021, Gibson’s online guitar lesson app isn’t necessarily a newbie, and over the years, it has aimed to merge its heritage as a guitar icon with the accessibility of modern app-based learning.

Like Simply Guitar and Yousician, Gibson has gone for a ‘gamified’ learning experience, taking much inspiration from the video game Guitar Hero, offering an interactive fretboard that tracks your playing in real time.

It’s designed to take players from day one through to advanced techniques, with a clear, structured ‘pathway’ layout that builds confidence step by step. Lessons are split into intuitive modules covering rhythm, melody, and genre-based playing, supported by an ever-expanding song library featuring well-known tracks across rock, blues, and pop.

A ‘Guides’ section offers deeper dives into specific techniques and styles, while handy built-in tools like a tuner, metronome, and a surprisingly capable digital amplifier round out the package.

Available on both iOS and Android, the app feels right at home on a smartphone or tablet. For this review, I used an iPhone 16 Pro Max and relied on the internal microphone to test its lesson tracking, real-time feedback, and overall usability from a beginner’s perspective. Having taught guitar myself, I was particularly interested to see how Gibson handled the fundamentals without the ability to answer direct questions, all while keeping learners on track and motivated.

Can Gibson’s Learn to Play Guitar really stand up to the competition and carve out its space in an already packed field? Let’s take a look.

Who is it for?

Being a tool primarily designed for newbies, the Gibson app is aimed at beginners and early intermediates; however, there are features that will still appeal to more seasoned players.

If you’re just starting your guitar journey, its structured pathway system provides clear, easy-to-follow steps that will help deliver real progress. Those returning to guitar after a long break will also find it a handy refresher, as will self-taught players looking to refine their technique or fill in gaps in their guitar knowledge.

The song library leans heavily toward rock, pop and blues, with a few forays into folk and classic metal. Players with a jazz or modern metal preference may find it a little limited for now, but Gibson has stated that new material is added regularly. There are also lessons taught by artists themselves, including Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner and Jared James Nichols, which adds an inspiring, behind-the-scenes feel.

Unexpectedly, there are also a few classical pieces in the library, tailored for nylon-string guitars. While they’re a nice inclusion, they do feel somewhat like an afterthought compared to the main focus on electric and acoustic material.

If you’re looking to build strong fundamentals, basic fretboard awareness in an engaging, video-game style-structured environment, this app is a perfect starting point. For more experienced players, the ‘Guides’ section is where the real value lies. These deep dives explore more nuanced topics, from practical scale application to stylistic breakdowns that offer tips on achieving tones and phrasing inspired by icons like Brian May and Jimi Hendrix.

Usability

The app feels premium from the moment you open it. Navigation is clean and intuitive, and Gibson’s design team clearly took cues from its heritage, as everything feels considered, uncluttered, and unmistakably ‘Gibson’. The slickness reflects Gibson’s recent website update, and the coherence across its digital landscape is pleasing.

Setting up is straightforward: you’re asked to calibrate your device’s microphone and choose your playing level before diving into lessons. Once you’ve made your selection, the onboarding lesson and introductory video are tailored to your level, and certain sections of the app are highlighted accordingly. For example, advanced players are shown the deeper ‘Guides’ section exploring different styles, scales, and exercises, while beginners are directed to tools like the built-in tuner.

From there, you’re let loose on the pathway curriculum. This isn’t necessarily a ‘tailored’ experience beyond onboarding, but you can only progress by completing each lesson step by step. Gibson is currently developing a more adaptive experience that evolves with the user, so it’s one to watch for future updates. However, for now, progression is largely self-directed.

During testing through lessons, the note tracking proved mostly reliable and accurate, with the app doing a commendable job of recognising single notes and simple chords. On more note-heavy playalongs, like the tremolo section in the introduction to Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, the tracking sometimes struggled when using an unplugged electric guitar.

In general, I think the Learn & Play app performs best with an acoustic guitar or an electric guitar connected via a smartphone interface such as an iRig, as the built-in microphone can sometimes miss softer notes or faster sections of heavy chord usage.

The animated fretboard system works well, offering a gamified learning experience without ever feeling childish. It certainly takes cues from Guitar Hero and it largely works in a similar fashion; a note will appear on the fretboard, and when you play the note in time, it will rate your playing.

Progressing through lessons earns you points that are automatically added to an online leaderboard, allowing you to compete against other players. It won’t appeal to everyone, but it’s a fun, motivating way to keep practice engaging.

The built-in tools – the tuner, metronome, and Amp & Jam feature – are genuinely useful, particularly the digital amp simulation. The amp can be activated while playing along with songs or lessons and does a fantastic job of adding realism to your tone. It only works with wired headphones, as Bluetooth introduces latency, but if you can access it, you’ll unlock a range of clean, crunch, heavy, and lead amp tones, plus a solid suite of effects, including phaser, flanger, and reverb.

Verdict

The Gibson Learn to Play Guitar app delivers a polished, thoughtfully designed experience that feels unmistakably Gibson. It’s one of the most visually cohesive and intuitive guitar learning platforms available right now, and its step-by-step pathway makes it especially accessible for beginners. Everything from the navigation to the built-in tools has been crafted with care, and it’s clear Gibson has taken its time to ensure the learning process feels guided rather than overwhelming.

The integration of real artists teaching their own material adds an extra layer of inspiration that few competitors can match. Hearing lessons directly from players like Richie Faulkner or Jared James Nichols bridges the gap between student and stage in a genuinely engaging way.

That said, intermediate and advanced players may find themselves running out of material fairly quickly. The core curriculum focuses on fundamentals, and while the ‘Guides’ section offers more advanced insights, it’s not enough to sustain long-term progression for experienced players. Also, while the song library covers classic rock and blues brilliantly, it lacks diversity across genres, and the microphone tracking can occasionally be inconsistent during faster passages.

Still, for its intended audience, fresh-faced guitarists, the Gibson Learn and Play App gets far more right than wrong. It makes learning feel structured, inspiring, and enjoyable, with enough polish to rival or even surpass the likes of Fender Play or Simply Guitar in presentation.

Guitar Player verdict: A slick, modern, and well-executed learning platform that feels every bit as premium as the Gibson brand upholds. It’s ideal for beginners looking for a guided start and intermediate players brushing up on fundamentals, but advanced players may want to look elsewhere for something more engaging and challenging.

Also try

Hands-on videos

What happens when you cross a Martin dreadnought with a 000 and infuse some historic Hawaiian guitar spirit? That’s essentially what Martin has on its hands in the form of the Martin O’ahu HG-28. Its novel HG (Hawaiian Guitar) body style is a trimmed-down, sloped-shouldered dreadnough made from solid flamed Hawaiian koa back and sides, capped off with a solid spruce top at 000 depth.

Is it a simply a novel crossover concept, or does it truly deliver a beautiful blend of Martin’s bread-and-butter body styles?

I was curious to find out. After all, the prospect of a more manageable dreadnought is appealing to a diminutive dude, and, while Martin offers short-scale LX models, a shallow full-scale model is intriguing.

I’ve never come across one before, but Chairman of the Board Chris Martin IV discovered a Gibson HG-20 from the late ’20s or early ’30s that helped inspire this new creation. He’s been on something of a vision quest to understand and celebrate the crucial role that the Hawaiian music craze from that era played in the development of the steel-string. We continue to cover it with great appreciation, and the HG-28 marks another significant step along that path.

The HG-28 now lies at the heart of Martin O’ahu family of instruments, along with the Custom K-1 Major Kealakai that was created in conjunction with Hawaiian master luthier and historian Kilin Reece. That large guitar pays tribute to legendary Hawaiian musician Major Kealakai and his groundbreaking custom Martin, made way back in 1916! The Kealakai paved the way for the venerable Martin dreadnought and practically all larger bodied steel-strings.

The pendulum swings the other way with the HG-28 toward the smaller designs of the original Hawaiian guitar era combined with the shape of the famous Martin dreadnought, which might never have come about without its Hawaiian influence.

Chris Martin IV says, “The HG-28 is something that should have been made back then and never was until now.”

The Martin O’ahu has a depth of four inches compared to four and 3/4 inches for a Standard Series dreadnought, and a scale length of 24.9 inches compared to 25.4 inches. The HG-28’s max width of 14 1/2 inches is a full inch less than a Standard dread and half an inch narrower than a 000 body. So, whereas the K-1 is essentially a deep-dish quad 0 or Martin M body style, you can think of the HG-28 as shallow-dish Martin dreadnought at 000 scale length with a bit of a trim around the hips, which ultimately makes it quite unique.

Martin signature artist Craig Thatcher says, “It’s not just a miniature edition of a dreadnought. It’s something completely different.”

I saw the first HG-28 prototype at the 2024 NAMM Show and asked for a review unit after one strum. I was immediately struck by how nimble it felt in hand, how cozy its body felt sitting on my lap, and its incredibly resonant tone. Production was slow to follow and the first one only became available very recently, so the HG-28 is still very fresh and packs way too much promise to let it slip between the cracks.

The HG-28 sounds vivacious. The warm, yet clear-and-present tone matches its aloha intention and snazzy aesthetic, a true beauty in classic Martin Style 28, framed with snappy herringbone trim. Notes seem to spring forth and bloom, and chords project with an open, airy quality. This instrument seems to welcome your playing and it practically rewards you for doing so. It takes precious little effort to generate ample string energy and activate its solid spruce top. Koa back and sides contribute heavily to its featherlight feel and nuanced sound.

The signature Martin sound is certainly represented, but this guitar has its own shade that’s more focused in the middle and upper range. A Standard D-28, for example, sounds like a cannon by comparison. I can totally appreciate that for certain circumstances, but there were plenty of times around the house and in the recording studio when this more dynamically sensitive instrument better served the situation. And then there’s the playability.

The HG-28 has a relaxed feel with über playability thanks to its smaller body and slightly short scale length. While it looks like a dreadnought because of the body shape, it probably has more in common with the triple-0 from a playability standpoint, and perhaps overall.

It’s hard to bend strings on a traditional Martin dreadnought, but it’s easy to bend them on the HG-28. It can do the classic bluegrass flatpicking thing and is actually much easier to play than even the signature Billy Strings, which is particularly fleet under the fingers for a D-28. The most surprising element of the HG-28’s playability is how fabulous it feels as a fingerpicker. That fingerpicking goodness is due in part to its full one and 3/4–inch width at the nut, so even though I would have guessed a narrower spec there’s plenty of finger space, but there’s more to that story.

To me, the hidden key is its accessibility. Since the whole body is scaled back a bit to be slightly smaller than a 000 — which is slightly smaller than the dreadnought from which the HG takes its shape — the angle of the dangle as you play is slightly different in every way. Your strum hand naturally ends up further over the sound hole toward the neck — kind of like on a 12-fret guitar, even though this one has 14 frets to the body.

Ultimately, you pluck and fingerpick from an extremely advantageous position. You naturally draw your whole upper body closer over the fretboard, making it feel easier to access the upper frets than on most noncutaway acoustics. Factor in a low-profile neck with a high-performance taper and the playability is off the charts. I can play passages with finesse on the HG-28 that are a struggle to execute at all on most other guitars.

And then there’s the toughest test — under a red-hot studio light. Options abound where I track at Lucky Recording Company, including many Martins. I didn’t believe that we truly needed another one when I took the HG-28 along for a session of Yosemite songs, but when I brought it to compare, there was no comparison, at least not for these particular songs. We put the other guitars right back on the rack as the Martin O’ahu delivered such a pristine, positively perfect tone on the mic and facilitated such ease of performance that it made two tunes in one night.

One was the most difficult fingerpicking track I’ve ever attempted, and the other the most delicate. That’s the highest honor I can mention. My heart was full of mahalo for having the HG-28 on hand that night, and now it’s difficult to imagine the recording arsenal without it. One might go for a larger guitar to fill the sonic spectrum playing solo acoustic guitar or a heartier sound in a band situation, but when there’s drum and bass, the engineer usually rolls off the low end of the acoustic anyway, so you might and well go for the best mid and top range possible.

I’d recommend this instrument to a wide variety of different players. If you dig the Martin dreadnought but feel it’s a bit big for your body or boomy in the bottom end, the HG-28 could be your best friend. If you love the playability of a triple-0 but want something with a bit more open presence and resonance, this koa creation could be just the ticket. And its relaxed feel is perfect for playing in Hawaiian “slack key” tunings such as “taro patch,” which mainlanders know as open G major or Keith Richards tuning.

If you want a campfire guitar that can do all of that in a travel-friendly package, the HG-28 fits the bill. That is if you’ve got the bucks for such a buy. It’s not cheap, but the Martin O’ahu HG-28 offers the holistic quality of a custom build made from exotic wood at a production guitar price point. So there’s great value as well in this heirloom-worthy instrument that will only sound much more profound and increase in value over the years. Hawaiian guitar enthusiasts will dig how this guitar connects the rich musical history of the islands with an eye toward the future. I can hardly wait to hear this baby in 2045!

If you’re a Martin aficionado who has already got all the staples, here’s something different that’s not too different when you think about it. This hybrid from a parallel universe makes a ton of sense. I’m shocked that such a peanut butter–and-jelly combination of dreadnought and triple-0 flavors hasn’t happened until now. Oh well — there’s no better time than the present to appreciate this modern Martin marvel.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT martinguitar.com

PRICE $3,599 with softshell case

NUT WIDTH 1.75", bone

NECK Select hardwood, GE modified low oval profile with high performance taper, dovetail joint

FRETBOARD Ebony with abalone inlays in Old Style 18, 24.9" scale

FRETS 20, 14 to body

TUNERS Nickel open gear with butterbean knobs

BODY Solid koa back & sides, solid spruce top

BRIDGE Ebony with compensated bone saddle

ELECTRONICS None

FACTORY STRINGS Martin Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze Light gauges .012—.054

WEIGHT 3.8 lbs (as tested)

BUILT USA

PRO Vivacious tone, fabulous playability, extremely comfortable, quite unique

CON Only that this Martin dreadnought/000 crossover falls into a crack instead of being recognized as a killer hybrid

Alongside the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, the Beatles and Jimmy Page, the guitar tone of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and the gear he used to produce it have been subjected to endless scrutiny over the decades, and even some obsession. That fanaticism drills right down to details like the speakers he used in his big WEM Starfinder 4x12 cabinets, which are purported to be Fane Crescendo 12A (and perhaps occasionally 12E) models. As a result, originals have become difficult to track down, and extremely pricey if and when you do find them.

Now Fane Acoustics of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, has addressed that demand with the release of its new Crescendo Anniversary Edition 12AE 12-inch speaker. I previously reviewed Fane’s Ascension line and liked it enough to give it an Editor’s Pick award. I likewise found plenty to praise in the Crescendo Anniversary Edition 12AE. It’s a powerful speaker designed to capture the best of the famed Crescendos of old, while being applicable to a wide range of musical styles otherwise.

For those unfamiliar with the originals — and they aren’t often seen in the wild — the Crescendo AE is a big, heavy framed speaker with an oversized ferrite (a.k.a. ceramic) magnet, much in the mold of some American JBL, EV and Altec speakers of the era, but made to an original British design. Constructed with a rugged die-cast aluminum frame, it carries a magnet weighing a whopping 74.08 ounces, and its pulp-paper cone wears a vented aluminum dust cap.

Put it all together and the full unit weighs around 17 pounds. The Crescendo 12AE is available in both eight- and 16-ohm versions (the former is tested here), and can handle 100 watts, turning that into some major volume thanks to a 100dB sensitivity rating (at 1W/1M).

According to Fane’s lead design engineer Fouad Abidi, “This isn’t a re-creation of the original, but rather a tribute to the legacy of Fane’s iconic Crescendo series. Inspired by the elusive tones of the legendary A and E models — famously debated as part of David Gilmour’s rig — we believe the AE blends the best characteristics of both into something new, yet rooted in history.”

While the “AE” in the model name stands for “Anniversary Edition,” it might also appear as a reminder of the two vintage designs blended to create this new speaker. That wouldn’t be an entirely accurate assessment, considering that Fane tells us the 12AE is “voiced to sit between the warmth of a vintage speaker and the punch of a modern driver,” rather than aiming to be a specs-and materials-perfect replica. For one thing, the latter is almost impossible to achieve in the real world, considering the materials available today (and lack-thereof, in some cases).

But it also might not make sense to simply re-create an identical ’70s-era Crescendo 12A, considering Fane clearly needs to sell to a broader market than that defined purely by Gilmour obsessives to make a product like this fly. Either way, it’s a promising new offering for players who need a powerful and high-power-handling speaker that’s also capable of warmth, richness and character when driven by lower-wattage amps or constrained control settings.

I tested the Crescendo 12AE in an open backed 1x12" extension cabinet made from Baltic birch plywood, hitting it with a ’64 Fender Bassman and a Mesa/Boogie Mark IIB 60W head, as well as a tweed Deluxe-style amp and a Vox AC15-style dual-EL84 head to hear its behavior with lower-powered sources. The electric guitars used were a Gibson ES-335 and a Fender Stratocaster, and overdrive pedas included a Wampler Tumnus Deluxe, a Tsakalis Six and a Keeley Noble Screamer.

Having thought I was a fan of lower-powered, vintage-voiced speakers for many years, I’ve discovered in the past decade or so that the right high-powered speaker can make any amp shine — but “right” is the key word, and the ones that aren’t a little sterile or hard-sounding when not pushed to the max are few and far between. Well, the Fane Crescendo 12AE is one of the good ones.

I was impressed with its balance, clarity and smoothness right out of the box, finding it translated both the 5E3 and the Vox-voiced 18-watters to a lush and full-throated performance even with the volume knobs up just a third of the way on each. The speaker’s stoutness also made for a bold presentation even at lower volumes, which could certainly help smaller amps like these cut it on bigger stages.

Presented with the Bassman cranked up a little higher, the Crescendo 12AE veritably roared with a sweet edge-of-break-up tone that avoided any obvious annoying humps or notches in the amp’s frequency range, and allowed the harmonic shimmer and early overdrive of the pushed 6L6s to shine in the mix, rather than disguising things with any audible speaker distortion.

With the Boogie, the lead channel presented a smooth, singing drive tone that felt right in the Crescendo 12AE’s wheelhouse, while the speaker also framed that amp’s under-appreciated clean tones in a lovely light. In addition, kicking in an overdrive pedal with any of these seemed to inspire a “bring it on!” from the Fane, its even-handed performance and resistance to any trebly spikes or woofy lows really making the most of each OD I tried with it.

It’s worth noting that I wasn’t able to A/B the new Crescendo 12AE against an original from the ’70s, although in broad terms I’d say it stood up well to my recollection of those I’ve played in the past — the passage of time and the many variables notwithstanding. Such an exercise might have been a bit futile anyway, considering the long break-in any such Fane is likely to have had after decades of pummeling in 100-watt stacks.

But I did compare it to several popular Celestion, Eminence, and Scumback speakers I had on hand at the time, and let’s just say I was quickly deciding that I wouldn’t mind carrying the extra weight of Fane to the next gig on the books.

Suffice it to say, this is a speaker that really impressed me, and which I found far more appealing and immediately usable in a range of gig and rehearsal settings than I do most speakers of this power rating. It’s heavy, sure, and it’s expensive, although still within range of many other high-powered units on both counts (and no more expensive than many top Alnico speakers today).

In any case, it’s one worth trying if you’re a compulsive Gilmour fan, sure, but also if you just like the idea of a rich, clear, characterful-sounding speaker that can handle a lot of power, and flatter your amp’s natural tones more than bend them in its own distortion-inflected brew.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT fane-acoustics.com

PRICES $275 U.S. from Avatar Speakersr; €275 EUR from Tube Amp Dr.; £232.80 GBP in the U.K. and rest of world direct from Fane

POWER HANDLING 100 watts

SENSITIVITY 100dB (1W/1M)

NOMINAL IMPEDANCE 8 Ohms (16 Ohms available)

FREQUENCY RANGE 75Hz – 5kHz

MAGNET MATERIAL Ferrite

MAGNET WEIGHT 74.08 oz

UNIT WEIGHT 17 lbs

MANUFACTURED U.K.

PRO A robustly built high-powered speaker that delivers a well-balanced yet characterful tones, even at lower volumes

CON It’s expensive, and might prove heavy for some rigs

Along with their many more complex, labyrinthine and occasionally dark and twisted effects pedals, EarthQuaker Devices not long ago unveiled a line of Utility Pedals that deliver simple routing, mixing and buffering functions at pocket-friendly prices. The latest addition, the Easy Listening pedal, retains the simplicity of the range while offering what I’d call a greater depth of purpose.

Despite having just a single (and unlabeled) volume knob and one input and output on its miniature 3.65 by 1.5 by 1.25–inch enclosure, the Easy Listening is an all-in-one analog amp simulator, designed to replicate the familiar tone of a 1965 Fender Deluxe combo, speaker and all.

EQD bills this little box as both the ideal late-night practice solution for electric guitar players and a dead-simple recording tool. You plug a guitar and any desired effects pedals in on one side, connect a set of headphones, or run D.I. to a recording interface into your DAW from the other, and Bob’s your uncle: You get rich, round, clear tone reminiscent of the most popular 1x12 combo of all time.

In discussing the impetus for the design, EQD founder, president and head designer Jamie Stillman told me, “My main goal was just to make a small and affordable analog headphone amp for our demo boards, but I’m personally not a huge fan of the do-it-all multi-effects and modeling amplifiers that some people have gravitated towards. Even the best modelers cannot replace the immediacy of an amplifier. There is always some element of space they try to impart on the signal.

“I’ve always felt that layering guitar parts with a modeling amplifier starts to sound hollow when the tracks stack up, like they are missing samples and the added ‘space’ is never quite aligned right. I’m not saying that Easy Listening is superior to these super computers, but I am saying that it has more of an immediate sound.

“It’s more-in-your-face, without the elements of an imagined space cluttering everything up. I’m also not a menu diver. Nothing drives me crazier than having to sit and dial up a bunch of parameters when all I’d rather be doing is playing guitar with what little free time I have.”

Keen-eyed readers will have already noted that the Easy Listening provides no means to EQ, gain stage or perform other sonic tweaking — and that’s the idea. It’s intended to replicate the sound of a black-panel Deluxe combo speaker and all, before the point of clipping, at its most universally appealing tone settings, with a single knob to govern the output volume.

That’s it. Connect headphones with a 1/4-inch stereo plug to the output and it sums both sides to the mono signal; or, connect a standard guitar cord to a single channel of your interface or a TRS cable with splitter at the other end to two multiple-mono channels for tracking to your DAW.

Obviously, capturing the tone of one of the world’s most desirable vintage combos in a pocket-sized box must have had its challenges. So did Stillman employ any complex analog-modeling algorithms or mystical tone-emulating techniques?

“Nope. I didn’t even use the schematic of the amp,” he tells GP with a laugh. “I just know that sound. I’ve been using that amp during development for years and I like the response it gives. I also use a Kemper with a model of the ’65 on my bench for headphone listening, so over the years I feel like I’ve learned what I do and don’t like about the models, too.

“I just tried to get as close as I could to the sound I am used to hearing while using as few parts as humanly possible so I could fit it in a small package and not take up a bunch of pedalboard real estate.”

I tested the Easy Listening with a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson Les Paul, using a selection of pedals between them, and found plenty of utility indeed in this simple headphone-jam and home-recording tool. The unit reacted well to a Wampler Tumnus Deluxe, an Ibanez TS10 Tube Screamer and an EQD Hoof fuzz, as well as a selection of reverb, delay and modulation pedals used in front of it, proving much the pedal equivalent of the “pedal platform” amp that has become popular in recent years.

It makes sense to have the gain preset to the shy side of clipping, since you’ll get that from anything you stack in front of it. While the overall EQ of the pedal is also very well-judged, however, I’d find something like a simple two- or three-way voicing switch handy, but add a little more high-end sparkle or low-end thump now and then. But that’s just a personal thing, and not so much a fault with the design, which is intentionally minimalist.

All in all, the Easy Listening easily justifies its name and is likely one of the most broadly appealing all-round “amp” tones I’d expect to encounter at this price. It’s also an extremely handy member of the toolbox by any measure. One might argue that it doesn’t sound exactly like a vintage ’65 Deluxe, but we might also reply “which ’65 Deluxe?” I’d say it’s close enough for rock and roll, and if the real thing, better reissues, and more complex digital modeling solutions arguably come closer, well, they all cost a lot more than $99.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT Earthquakerdevices.com

PRICE $99 street

CONTROLS Volume

FEATURES Input, headphone/DI output, center-negative 9V input (no space for internal battery)

SIZE 3.65"x1.5"x1.25"

ASSEMBLED USA

PRO An affordable, compact, and well-designed take on one of the most popular guitar-amp sounds of all time.

CON None as intended, although some simple form of basic voicing might be handy.

The S2 Special Semi-Hollow electric is a unique beast in the PRS menagerie. One of two new Specialty releases in the S2 line along with the S2 Studio, the Special Semi-Hollow is a real tweener, and having been one my whole life (Gen X, middle child, Libra) I’m intrigued for multiple reasons.

For starters, the whole S2 Series represents a middle ground between the flagship Core Series and the affordable SE Series built overseas. As the name suggests, the S2 Special Semi-Hollow also has a tweener body style. Its sleek double-cutaway emanates a solid vibe, yet the body is indeed chambered as evidenced by a single f-hole.

A unique triple-pickup configuration consists of two humbuckers plus a PRS Narrowfield, which is a sort of hummer/single hybrid, located smack dab in the middle. Equipped with a five-way blade selector and a pair of coil-tapping toggle switches, there are a whopping 12 pickup combinations at one’s fingertips for sonic adventuring. Also equipped with the PRS Patented Tremolo, it would seem no tone or microtone is beyond its sonic reach.

So is the S2 Special Semi-Hollow a jack of all trades and master of none, or a stringed Swiss Army knife capable of conquering practically any musical challenge in the hands of one who understands how to use its many tools?

The story starts with the build and pickups. For ages, players looking to maximize tone while minimizing cost have purchased more affordable bodies and upgraded particular elements, especially pickups. PRS mitigated that move a little over a decade ago with the introduction of the mid-priced S2 Series. It stands for “Stevensville 2,” as the guitars were manufactured on a second assembly line in Stevensville, Maryland, right alongside the flagship Core Series. S2 Hallmarks include a multipiece neck with scarfed construction (rather than a single piece), and a beveled maple top (rather than a fully arched top) with a subtler figure.

These days the S2 series is fully integrated into the same production line as PRS Core instruments, and beginning last year all S2 models feature American-made pickups and electronics. The S2 Special Semi-Hollow was recently introduced along with several other three-pickup models including the amazingly affordable SE Studio Standard, which received a five-star review from GP.

PRS COO Jack Higginbotham says, “The deep dive into our Narrowfield technology is obvious with this launch.” The PRS Narrowfield is essentially designed to deliver single-coil bite and punch along with the quiet power of a humbucker. The Narrowfield is physically svelte at about half the width of one of the 58/15 LT humbuckers it sits in-between on the S2 Special Semi-Hollow, and it adds extra intrigue to this modern electronic marvel. There are a dozen distinct pickup combinations, but interestingly, no way to isolate the Narrowfield on this guitar, as the middle position on the five-way selector combines the two outside humbuckers.

The Narrowfield’s situation on this S2 Special indicates its purpose to add extra nuance to the primary tones. It’s similar enough to work right alongside the humbuckers in the bass and treble positions, with their clear power and wide tonal breadth, yet the Narrowfield seems to have a more focused tone that works very well in combination with either one. It’s always complimentary and never overbearing, even when you split coils on in the bass or treble positions to enter distinctly S-style sonic territory.

It took me a while to get familiar with the whole setup and easy to forget what setting I was on during a jam, so here's a breakdown of pickup options along with a diagram:

Position 1 (switch down): Treble humbucker

Position 1 (switch up): Treble w/coil-tap

Position 2 (switch down) Treble + Narrowfield

Position 2 (switch up): Treble w/coil tap + Narrowfield

Position 3 (switches down): Treble humbucker + bass humbucker

Position 3 (switch 1 up): Treble w/coil-tap + bass humbucker

Position 3 (switch 2 up): Treble + bass w/coil-tap

Position 3 (switches up): Treble w/coil-tap + bass w/coil-tap

Position 4 (switch down) Narrowfield + bass humbucker

Position 4 (switch up): Narrowfield + bass humbucker w/coil-tap

Position 5 (switch down): Bass humbucker

Position 5 (switch up): Bass w/coil-tap

Considering how its carved maple top (generally bright sounding) and mahogany back (generally mellow sounding) add to the tonal equation — and factoring in how its semi-hollow body naturally adds air and depth while enhancing sustain — I think it’s obvious why the S2 Special can deliver such an array of dimensional, complex tones.

I mostly tested it through a 1983 Fender Super Champ. Designed by Paul Rivera as a sort-of Boogie killer for the era, it’s quite a versatile two-channel amp, capable of everything from classic Fender clean to girthy half-overdriven tones and searing leads. Between the PRS S2 Special Semi-Hollow and the Rivera-modded Fender, I was able to achieve pretty much any tone I could imagine. The bridge pickup cuts like a knife, while the same pickup placed in the neck position sounds downright balmy. My favorite sounds came from myriad combinations, which was no surprise.

Throw the five-way switch into position 3 and you get a great blend of humbucker tones right off the bat, thick and creamy with a bit of articulation and serious sustain. From there it’s interesting to experiment with coil tapping one, then the other, and then both humbuckers.

My favorite of those options is having the neck in full humbucker mode while adding just the coil-tap from the bridge pickup to reduce its bite to more of a soft edge. Positions 2 and 4 are endlessly fascinating as shaping these phasey tones using the Narrowfield in conjunction with a coil-tapped humbucker is like combining a hybrid with a different hybrid. All the laws you thought you understood about humbuckers and single coils kind of fly out the window and you simply go with the sonic flow that sounds and feels right for whatever you’re in the mood to create.

To make a cannabis comparison, it’s kind of like the indica verses sativa strain situation. In the old days, folks say that the former is heavier, and the latter is lighter, kind of like humbuckers and single-coils, but now we understand that there are so many variables in the cannabinoids and almost everything is a hybrid of some sort, so you throw the old rules out the window and find what works for you.

I found the S2 Special Semi-Hollow fabulous for playing everything from edgy classic rock to smooth blues à la J.J. Cale, and from percussive funk to silky jazz and clean pop. I appreciated being able to seek out and home in on them all in my own very customized way.

Playability on this instrument with its low factory action is almost too easy. If you know where to put your fingers, it practically plays itself. And the tremolo bar action is right there as well. You don’t have to fight it or finesse it much at all. It’s there if you want a little shake with your fries, and easy enough to leave on the side if you don’t. The trem floats ever so slightly, so you can pull up just enough to raise a note by a microtone, or up to a half step in the most extreme case, which is the open G string. Pull up all the way on that to achieve a G sharp.

The locking tuners function well, and the whole system stays pretty darn well in tune. It’s also worth noting that the bridge is small and perfectly machined to be a cozy-feeling part of the guitar rather than some added piece of hardware that feels somehow extra or bizarre.

The Pattern Regular neck profile is nice and full and round, yet feels comfortable in even my rather small hand. I dig the easy playability on the 22-fret set mahogany neck, but I would raise the action a bit or put on heavier strings, just to make it a bit more of a challenge under the fingers for a cat that also plays a lot of acoustic and is used to a bit more of a battle. The volume knob is smooth and perfectly positioned for swells, so you can ditch the volume pedal too. The only issue was a bit of scratchiness in the pot.

I wouldn’t change a single thing about the aesthetic of this gorgeous guitar. It might not be quite not as stunning as some of PRS’s famously fancy and vivid instruments, but this duskier design is plenty gorgeous. I love this unit in Faded Gray Black Purple Burst with maple wood grains visible and some blue hues in the ripples. Add in Classic Birds inlays on the rosewood fretboard and PRS Phase III nickel locking tuners with wing buttons on the signature shaped PRS headstock, and this is a true beauty from top to bottom.

I’d recommend the PRS S2 Special Semi-Hollow to any guitarist looking for a super-flexible instrument, rather than the player who’s totally dedicated to a particular sound or style. The options here are simply too good and too tempting. For the sophisticated player that wants it all—Strat-style slinkiness, the heartiness of a Les Paul, the open woodiness of a 335, along with the hallmarks that have made the PRS electric a modern classic over the past 40 years such as its refined tremolo, systematic reliability, easy playability and appealing appointments—the S2 Special Semi-Hollow is especially for you.

SPECIFICATIONS

PRS S2 Special Semi-Hollow

CONTACT prsguitars.com

PRICE $2,599 with gig bag

NUT PRS proprietary material, 1 21/32" wide

NECK Set mahogany, scarfed construction

FRETBOARD Rosewood, 25" scale, 10" radius, “Old School Birds” inlays

FRETS 22, 25" scale length

TUNERS PRS Phase III nickel locking with wing buttons

BODY Carved maple top, mahogany back

FINISH High-gloss nitro

EXTRAS Available in Faded Gray Black Purple Burst (as tested), Black Amber, Dark Cherry Sunburst, Faded Gray Black Blue Burst, Fire Red Burst, Lake Blue

BRIDGE PRS Patented Tremolo

PICKUPS PRS 58/15 LT humbuckers in the bridge and neck positions; PRS Narrowfield in the middle

CONTROLS Volume and tone knobs with 5-way blade pickup selector and two mini-toggle coil tap switches

STRINGS PRS Signature, .010–.046

WEIGHT 7.4 lbs (as tested)

BUILT USA

PROS Fantastic tonal flexibility. Outrageously easy playability. Dusky good looks. Smooth volume knob perfectly positioned for swells

CONS No way to isolate the Narrowfield pickup. A bit of a learning curve to master so many other pickup configuration options. Volume pot a little scratchy

My mind was blown a decade ago by the original ToneWoodAmp, the trailblazing device that sparked a resonance-based effects revolution in the acoustic-electric arena. The homegrown multi-effects unit, D.I. and iOS interface concocted and kickstarted from an Arizona garage influenced everything from Yamaha’s TransAcoustic to Lâg’s HyVibe series to Lava Music’s ME models. All put their own spin on advanced technology resulting in effects pumping through the sound hole.

Yet the ToneWoodAmp remains unique. Unlike all the others that come installed in their guitar or require permanent installation, the TWA allows players to use their favorite instruments. Mike Dawes, Andy McKee and this reviewer were early adopters and remain enthusiasts.

The eagerly anticipated ToneWoodAmp2 is now available, and it’s packed with a bevy of next-level updates that improve upon everything from sound and functionality to size and power. There’s even a free companion app, the ToneWoodAmp Remote for Apple and Android products.

Like its discontinued predecessor, the TWA2 magnetically attaches to practically any acoustic guitar and transforms the body into its own amplifier with effects. The TWA2 clamps onto the back magnetically once you’ve installed its magnetic X-Brace counterpart inside the instrument.

The TWA2 accepts the signal from practically any type of acoustic guitar pickup (except microphones). It digitally processes the signal with effects and uses an actuator, which is similar to a transducer in reverse, to vibrate the back of the guitar, generating effects that emanate through the sound hole.

The original TWA was downright transformational in my world, and the device still functions pretty well for having been used a ton. But it’s not quite as reliable as it once was and the technology has advanced, so I was itching to get my hands on the TWA2.

While the original ran on three AAA batteries, the TWA2 runs on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. While that might not be the sexiest feature to highlight, it may be the most important. The AAA batteries ran down quickly with frequent use, and clunky and a pain to manage — not to mention a constant expense.

The TWA2 is slightly lighter, significantly sleeker and sturdier than its predecessor, and its battery lasts about 10 hours per charge, saving a ton of cash over the long haul. I’d upgrade to the new unit for this reason alone, even if it does cost significantly more at first than it did years ago (what doesn’t?).

The most immediately noticeable sonic development is the new unit's sheer power and volume. You can hear it much better right out of the box. When the original TWA debuted, everyone was knocked out to hear effects, such as delay and reverb, emanating from the sound hole of an acoustic guitar. But unless you were in a rather quiet environment, they might not have been overtly noticeable. The effects from the TWA2 come blaring out by comparison and can be heard from much further away.

The programmable effects include delay, reverb, tremolo, chorus, flanger and vibrato. Variations abound. You can run up to four effects simultaneously (compared to one previously) and now there are parallel and serial routing options. Parallel offers greater individual control of each, while serial serves them up one into the other for greater effects interaction.

There are also new dynamic effects, including compression, which is super handy for increased sustain on an acoustic. Lead playing can approach David Gilmour territory, and fingerpicking becomes more pronounced.

The new unit is about the same size as an iPhone and about twice as deep. It fit nice and snugly on the back of a Taylor Grand Auditorium. One handy new physical attribute is the lift kit, a.k.a. LifKit, that pops out almost like a little kick stand and can accommodate for the curvature of most arch-back acoustics. I needed it on the 3/4-sized instrument I took to Burning Man, a KLOS Grand Cutaway Mini. If you use the TWA2 on multiple guitars, you can purchase extra X-Braces for each and simply swap the TWA2 from one onto another guitar.

The TWA2’s functionality is more intuitive than the original’s, but there’s also more underneath the hood. Without first checking the manual, I found my way around easily enough to get the basic effects going, but there are plenty of hidden functions that require the manual to understand.

In short, there are three main menus: Effects Editor, Output Editor and Settings, and the Home button toggles between them. Use the three number buttons next door to it to turn an effect or function on or off. Hold it to make parameter adjustments, and click the +/- toggles at far right to adjust values up or down. As before, the onboard display is text-based and contains four lines of visible text: a title, and three lines below indicating which effects are engaged and at what level.

For expanded programmability, the free ToneWoodAmp Remote app is a significant upgrade that offers a straightforward graphic display. While I wasn’t super enthusiastic about using my phone any more than I already do, the app truly does make a huge difference for editing parameters and saving presets.

After a simple download and pairing process, I found it was easy to embrace the app. Instead of going back and forth between playing and flipping the guitar over to adjust presets and parameters on the TWA2, I could simply set my phone next to me on the couch and find my favorite settings with it on the fly. Then I went deeper, and wow. Having tap tempo on the delay with options such as a dotted quarter note is powerful.

I used to spend lots of time getting the timing just right. Ditto with reverb types and tremolo rates. Tremolo even offers the option to choose between a sine wave or a triangular one, and the difference is clear to hear. I’ve never enjoyed the sound of effects on an acoustic guitar as much as I do with the ToneWoodAmp2. Its combination of organic sound with full digital sculpture is the best of both worlds. As it turns out, the Remote app is a game changer

And here's a hip tip! Guitars with ’90s-era preamp controls embedded in the top side are also great when using the ToneWoodAmp2. Having all those old-school sliders and dials right at your fingertips is handy for on-the-fly adjustments. I like to use the volume control on my old Taylor’s Fishman Prefix unit as the wet/dry mixer when playing acoustically, and on occasion I’ll even blend in some mic signal to produce amp-like feedback!

You can also use the TWA2 as a D.I. and send the signal to outside amplification, and the mixer on this v2 offers expanded stage tools, including a wet/dry mixer. The effects sound much more pronounced through amplification, so dial them back or decrease the wet signal for that application. The new EQ tools are powerful and make profound tonal differences, both acoustically and when amplified.

When using it as a D.I., the effects sound similar but come at the obvious sacrifice of the gloriously holistically tone resulting from organic interaction with the guitar. What’s so cool about the acoustic application is that you primarily hear the natural guitar tone, which is then enhanced by the processing. It’s almost like running a dry signal and mixing in a wet one signal except in this instance the former is truly pure acoustic guitar tone.

I’ve been eagerly anticipating a v2 of the ToneWoodAmp for years, and it does not disappoint! I’d recommend the TWA2 to any player interested in expanding their acoustic-electric horizons. It changes your entire relationship to the instrument in a most positive way.

The TWA2 inspires you to play more often but using less notes, giving the effects time to decay. All that adds up to increased creativity. I can honestly say that there are oodles of songs I never would have written, at least in that way, if it weren’t for the original TWA, including “WhiteOut” from my band Spirit Hustler's album.

It’s a fab studio tool too. We tried to re-create the ToneWoodAmp’s sound by recording a pure acoustic track and adding effects on later, but it wasn’t the same, so we simply cut it live with the TWA, using a mic on the sound hole. I took the TWA2 to Yosemite and it was an incredible addition to the campfire jam.

The coolest acoustic-electric guitar gadget of the past decade is now better than ever. I hope for increasingly fabulous incarnations in the future, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be good with the TWA2 until around 2035!

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT tonewoodamp.com

PRICE $310 street

CONTROLS Home/Back button, Page Up, Page Down, Mute, level up and down

EFFECTS Reverb (Hall, Plate and Room), Delay (five subdivisions), Modulation (Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Vibrato), Tremolo (Sine and Wave); up to four simultaneous effects can be routed parallel or series

FEATURES Feedback Assassin, Three-band EQ, compression, boost, wet-dry mixer, notch filters, phase inversion, adjustable gain, onboard presets, integrated LiftKit for fitting to curved back acoustics, left-handed mode

EXTRAS Companion app for iOS and Android,

CONNECTIONS 1/4" input, 1/4" output, Bluetooth for Remote app, USB-C (battery charge connection)

POWER Rechargeable lithium-ion battery lasts 10+ hours

SIZE 14.9 cm long x 7cm wide x 2.65 cm deep

WEIGHT 10oz

BUILT U.S.A.

PROS Fantastic upgrade to the best acoustic-electric accessory of the past decade. DSP effects sounds super natural coming through sound hole, while the app offers expanded control. Works with most acoustic-electric guitars, so you can use your favorites

CONS None, but note that strong magnets like the one that holds the TWA2 to your guitar may interfere with medical implants, credit cards, electronic devices, and recording media, including hard drives and tape electronic devices

Part of a new series that Fender refers to as classic electric guitars for modern players, the Player II Modified Telecaster on review here is designed for those who prefer such amenities as a wider radius neck, bigger frets and noise-free operation, all of which set it apart from Fender’s vintage-spec offerings available at different price points.

As with the Player II Modified Strat that we reviewed, the "modified" part really says it all. The Player II feels great in the hands thanks to its silky smooth maple neck with Modern C profile and rosewood fingerboard slotted for 22 evenly crowned and polished medium-jumbo frets. Strings load from the back through brass ferrules and glide over a nicely worked TUSC nut out to a set of Fender short-shaft locking tuner with a string tree keeping the E and B strings at the proper height.

The alder body is fitted with a Fender string-through-body bridge with satin-nickel-plated brass-block saddles and a pair of Fender Player II Noiseless Tele pickups. A three-way blade switch makes the usual neck/both/bridge selections where the signal is passed to the volume and tone controls, the latter featuring a push-pull switch that puts both pickups in series when in the “up” position.

This hip feature doesn’t change the stock look one bit but it produces a louder, meatier tone that sounds great with distortion, but also beefs up the clean tones in a nice way. And when you push the chrome-plated knob down you still get that classic Tele sound.

I used the Player II with a Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue (with hand-wired circuitry by Alessandro Amplifiers) and a PRS DGT-15 head through a Bogner 1x12 cab loaded with a Celestion Vintage 30. On gigs varying between rock and country covers to mostly original instrumental music, the Player II did it all so well.

The heftier response with the tone knob pulled made it perfect for rhythm and lead, and because the pickup selector is defeated in that mode (both pickups are always on) you can just rock out and not think about switching pickups because the balance is so good. This is cool too, because you can leave the selector in the bridge, neck or middle setting for an instant transition to a classic Tele tone.

The Player II is an inspiring guitar that feels great under the fingers and, like all Teles, is versatile and can handle pretty much anything you point it at. The “modified” control system is a real advantage for those who appreciate vintage-style Tele but can really use the more muscular, pickups-in-series tones this guitar delivers.

A classic guitar with modern attitude, the Player II Modified Telecaster offers excellent playability, a high-quality build and noise-free tones that can suit any application. Bottom line: This timeless design constantly improves as Fender continues to evolve and refine the venerable Telecaster. So get your hands on a Player II Modified Tele and give it an audition.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT fender.com

PRICE $1,049, gig-bag included

NUT TUSC, 1.650" wide

NECK Maple bolt-on, Modern C shape, satin-urethane finish

FINGERBOARD Rosewood, 25.5" scale, 9.5" radius, dot inlays. Also available with maple fingerboard

FRETS 22 medium jumbo

TUNERS Fender Deluxe short-shaft, die-cast locking

BODY Alder

FINISH Dusk, gloss polyester

BRIDGE String-through-body Tele with six adjustable block-brass saddles

PICKUPS Fender Player II Noiseless Tele single-coil (neck and bridge)

CONTROLS Volume with treble bleed, tone with push-pull series switch, three-way blade selector

EXTRAS Available in six colors: Dusk, Electric Blue, 3-Color Sunburst, Harvest Green Metallic, Olympic Pearl, Sunshine Yellow. Player II Modified Telecaster SH ($1,079) features a humbucker in the neck position and a push-pull coil-split pot

WEIGHT 8.8 lbs (as tested)

BUILT Ensenada, Mexico

PRO Excellent tones. Great playability. Push-pull tone pot puts the pickups in series for a beefier sound

CON None

There are plenty of two-channel digital audio interfaces on the market these days, and with good reason. They’re small, portable, and provide easy and affordable access to DAW recording and podcast production. I’ve recommended several units to friends and family over the years, but the options have all been so similar as to make one interface about as good a choice as any other.

The Solid State Logic 2+ MKII interface is different from the competition. It's packed with features that make it an ideal choice for collaborating with a partner, for recording and syncing MIDI and analog gear, and for sending signals to multiple monitors and outboard gear for further processing. It opened up recording opportunities I hadn't even thought of, and provided the solution for recording and automating expression inputs on my effect pedals.

For added convenience, it’s powered by your computer through a USB-C (2.0) port (a USB-C cable and USB-C to USB-A adapter are included), and it boasts one knob/button per function, making it a cinch to use.

And because it’s from SSL, the 2+ MKII includes the company’s Legacy 4K switch on each input. Inspired by the company’s SSL 4000 series consoles, Legacy 4K is a gentle top-end boost with a touch of pleasing harmonic distortion to give mixes the classic sound heard on countless recordings over nearly five decades.

INS AND OUTS

The SSL 2+ MKII has a nice, pro look, with its black-and-dark-grey enclosure and white graphics. It has a roughly nine-by-six-inch footprint, which is pretty standard, in an angled case that’s about 1.25 inches at the front, rising to 2.25 inches at the back.

The front edge of the unit has instrument inputs 1 and 2 and headphone outputs A and B. Around on the backside are a pair of Neutrik combo jack mic/line inputs, which can accept either 1/4-inch or XLR plugs. The back panel also has the USB-C port, a Kensington lock port to physically lock the device to a desk, and a pair of full-size five-pin MIDI in and out ports — a very welcome feature. Whereas other units feature MIDI mini jacks, which require an adaptor to connect standard MIDI cables, the full-size ports make connections a breeze.

The back is also where you’ll find the four outputs. While their obvious use is for connecting two sets of monitors, they can send audio signals from the SSL 2+ MKII to outboard gear (effects, an external mixer), making it easy to reprocess recorded tracks through your physical gear. In addition, the outputs are DC coupled, which means they can send control voltage (CV) signals from your DAW to outboard gear, such as synthesizers and effect pedals that accept CV signals (more on this below).

CONTROLS

The top of the unit has all the controls in a straightforward arrangement, with sections for channel inputs, on the left, and monitoring, on the right. Each of the two mic inputs has a +48-volt phantom power button for condenser and ribbon mics, along with a red LED that lights when the switch is active. Next to this is a Line button to select the line input source, and another button that engages a high-pass filter to roll off bottom end. Each of the latter two buttons also has its own green LED to indicate when the feature is active.

Below this is a five-segment VU meter, a gain knob and the Legacy 4K button to engage SSL’s classic top-end boost.

To the right of the channel inputs, the monitoring section includes a large monitor knob to set output levels for your monitors, two headphone volume controls — labeled A and B — and a mix knob to blend between the input signal and the DAW output, with zero latency. The mix knob has a stereo switch (with green LED) for stereo monitoring. In addition, headphone output B can take its source from outputs 1/2 or 3/4, allowing a separate headphone mix for a second artist. That’s a very nice touch that gives the 2+ MKII the edge if you typically record with another musician.

UNDER THE HOOD

Now for the things you can’t see. Inside, the 2+ MKII has a pair of SSL-designed microphone preamps that boast a huge gain range for a USB-powered interface. In addition, the interface has 32-bit/192 kHz AD/DA converters, allowing you to capture audio in remarkable detail.

Those features really showed their worth when I got down to recording and mixing. I tried out the 2+ MKII for a couple of weeks using a range of monitors, microphones, electric and acoustic guitars, and keyboards, including modular synthesizers. My initial impression is that doing mixes just felt easier and less complicated. Having a bus-powered unit eliminated the need for another AC jack and made it easy to pick up my laptop and the interface when I wanted to move to another room.

And at the risk of sounding lazy, the unit’s angled control panel was a nice ergonomic feature that let me make knob and button changes without having to so much as lift my arm from the desk.

ON TEST

The mic preamps offered plenty of power for every mic I tried, from condensers to ribbons, and the high-pass filter worked as expected for rolling off bass. Guitars and keyboards also worked well in their respective inputs, with more than enough gain on hand and no noise issues.

The same goes for the headphone preamps. The presence of two headphone jacks seemed like a good reason to invite a friend over for some jamming. My listening options included two sets of high-end Sennheiser HD 800 S, both of which require generous power to get full volume, and the 2+ MKII delivered results without any strain, allowing us to enjoy ourselves while not bothering anyone within listening range.

For all the great features onboard, the Legacy 4K mode is the most tantalizing part of the package, and it’s one I think most guitarists will be eager to try. The SSL 4000 Series consoles are known for imparting a uniquely sweet EQ boost that comes from the harmonic distortion produced by various components in its signal chain. It’s a slightly forward sound that gives instruments an extra bit of mojo.

In use, the Legacy 4K mode added a nice subtle sheen to everything I tried it on, including electric and acoustic guitars, vocals and keyboards. SSL says the 2+ MKII interface, like SSL’s others, shares components and topology with their large-format consoles, which is pretty remarkable for a desktop audio interface.

I was equally eager to use the outputs to send CV signals to my synths and pedals. Fortunately my main DAW, Ableton Live, can create CV signals from MIDI data and output them through a compatible device like the 2+ MKII. In addition to allowing me to use CV signals to control my old pre-MIDI analog synthesizers, the interface opened up new opportunities for sound design by letting me send CV signals to the expression jacks of various pedals.

For example, I used a low-frequency sine wave timed to the beat of my song to sweep selected controls on my Chase Bliss Mood looper and delay pedal. The advantage here is that, once a CV signal is recorded, it can be routed to any pedal and even re-used on another track. It’s a great way to experiment, and it frees you from having to re-perform expression pedal movements if you decide to re-record your track.

At the end of the day, the SSL 2+ MKII proved itself an excellent interface for both its sounds and features. I can think of no similar unit that offers as much at this price point, and obviously no other that includes SSL’s Legacy 4K feature. To make the deal even sweeter, it ships with SSL’s Production Pack bundle that includes software from Ableton, Antares, Celemony, IK Multimedia, and others, making it easy for newcomers to get started making tracks.

There's plenty here to please guitarists, not least of which is the Legacy 4K setting, but there’s no reason to overlook the numerous other treats here. Together, they can make creating music easier, friendlier and more fun, all while achieving studio-quality results.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT solidstatelogic.com

PRICE $299

CHANNELS Two

CONTROLS Gain control, Legacy 4K button, and switchable Mic/Line, +48V phantom power and high-pass filter per channel. Monitor control, monitor mix control with stereo button, headphone A and B volume, with channels 3/4 source button on B

METERING Five-LED array per channel

I/O Front: Two 1/4-inch instrument inputs. Back: USB-C port, five-pin MIDI input and output jacks, four balanced DC-coupled 1/4-inch outputs, two Neutrik combo jack mic/line inputs

CONNECTIVITY USB 2.0 Type C connector (Box includes Type C to C and Type C to A)

PERFORMANCE Up to 32-bit dynamic range, all major sample rates up to 192 kHz

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Mac OS 12 and above | Class-Compliant, Plug-and-play. Windows 10. Windows 11, Windows 11 ARM. Install included ASIO/WDM driver

DIMENSIONS 9.2 x 6.25 x 2.75 inches

EXTRAS USB-C cable, USB-C to USB-A adapter, free software and offers. Kensington Security Slot on back panel

PRO Detailed sound, SSL’s proprietary Legacy 4K feature, two independent headphone outputs with volume and mix control, plus four DC-coupled outputs for more monitoring, sound processing and voltage control options

CON None

A rethink on the original Archon that PRS Guitars introduced in 2013 and named after the Greek word for “ruler” or “lord,” the PRS Archon Classic features an all new circuit design with a Lead channel voiced for ’70s and ’80s rock tones, and a Clean channel that delivers pristine sounds as well as plenty of grind without the need for a boost or overdrive pedal.

Weighing in at 32 pounds and measuring 21.5 by 10 by 10 inches, the head features a birch-ply cabinet covered in black textured vinyl with black embossed-welt piping and a stitched, faux-leather handle. The black front panel has white graphics and carries independent volume, treble, middle, bass and master controls for the Clean and Lead channels along with shared (global) presence and depth controls. There are three mini toggle switches: one next to the input jack for selecting channels, and a bright switch for each channel.

Around back are five speaker jacks (two four ohm, two eight ohm and one 16 ohm), a tube-driven series effect loop and a DIN jack for the included single-button foot switch for channel selection. There are two bias test points for measuring power-tube bias voltage with a digital voltmeter (not included) and a screwdriver adjustable pot for setting the voltage as specified in the manual.

The amp develops 50 watts from two 6CA7 (EL34) power tubes and can also use 6L6GC tubes if you prefer. There are six JJ ECC83S (12AX7) tubes for the preamp stages and the phase inverter. The steel chassis houses a main PCB for the circuit components and the preamp tubes while the rear-panel jacks reside on a smaller sub-board. The ceramic sockets for the power tubes are mounted directly to the chassis for extra strength and better heat transfer.

I tested the Archon 50 Classic through a Bogner 1x12 semi-open-back cab loaded with a 12-inch Celestion Vintage 30 and an early ’70s Marshall 4x12. It delivered great tones with a variety of electric guitars, including a Buzz Feiten T-style, a PRS SE Studio Standard with a 58/15 LT “S” humbucker and two Narrowfield DD “S” pickups, and a vintage Gibson Les Paul Junior with a single P90.

The Archon Classic 50 is rich and ballsy sounding in the mids, which suits single-coils well, and the Clean channel’s abundant gain range allows you to get just the right amount of grind while keeping a backbone of crisp presence that makes everything shimmer with harmonic complexity.

I like how you can use the Clean channel for rhythm and lead playing by putting the volume knob at two o’clock or so and just roll up the guitar’s volume knob when you want more dirt. The whole premise of this channel is to allows you to get boosted tones without a pedal, and it does that very well.

I did use a Fulltone OCD distortion for a high-gain option, but it’s not really necessary because the Lead channel takes off in a JCM800 inspired direction and provides all the distortion needed for rock and metal. It also gives abundant control over the midrange, so it’s easy to dial in classic or retro-modern scooped-mid tones. Not all amps offer this much EQ power from a passive tone stack.

The Archon 50 is very dynamic and responds well to picking strength and guitar-volume settings. And it’s loud! There’s no power-reduction feature here, but the master volume controls let you throttle the amp way down without losing punch, and the presence and depth controls really help maintain low-end chunk and that Marshall-style “in your face” delivery when playing at lower levels.

I didn’t try the amp with 6L6 power tubes (which might be good if you want maximum headroom), but the ease of monitoring and adjusting the bias voltage is a real plus for players who want to able to try different tubes without having to take the amp to a shop for re-biasing.

I’ve had the pleasure of using the Archon 50 Classic for several weeks and it’s one of the most capable two-channel amps around. Used on live gigs covering everything from rock to world music to backing a singer-songwriter I was inspired by its sound and only needed to add reverb and delay from my UAFX pedals to get exact what was needed for different situations.

For all it offers, the Archon 50 Classic is a solid deal that keeps things simple and delivers great clean and overdriven tones. If that's your aim, it’s an amp to try.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT prsguitars.com

PRICE $1, 149

CHANNELS 2

CONTROLS Channel select switch. [Lead channel] volume, bright switch, treble, middle, bass, master. [Clean channel] volume, treble, middle bass, master. Global presence and depth controls

REAR PANEL Bias jacks and pot, five speaker jacks (2x4Ω, 2x8Ω, 1x16Ω), series effect loop, foot-switch jack

POWER 50 watts

TUBES Six JJ 12AX7s, two JJ 6CA7/6L6GC power tubes

EXTRAS Single-button foot switch for channel switching. Bias jacks and adjustment pot on the rear panel

WEIGHT 32.4 lbs (tested)

DIMENSIONS 21.5 x 10 x 10 (LxWxH)

BUILT Indonesia

PRO Excellent clean and overdriven tones. Plenty of power. Handy biasing feature makes tube swapping a breeze

CON No standby switch may be a concern for some

Colin Decker started down the road of amp making while working as a touring musician in the 1990s, where having the ability to repair amps on the road was a real plus. Over the next three decades years he says he took advantage of playing the many amps that recording studios had on offer and learning all he could about amplifiers — especially the tube-powered combos that captured his imagination and eventually inspired him to build amplifiers under his own name.

Hand built in Northern California, the Decker line currently consists of the Hummingbird 15, a compact and easy-to-carry 1x12 combo that’s inspired by iconic British and American combo amps from the ’50s and ’60s that embody what Colin calls the “three pillars of the Decker sound — punch, chime and bloom.” As such, it features a cathode-bias circuit with a complement of two JJ 12AX7s, two TAD Redbase 6V6 power tubes and a TAD GZ34 rectifier, all of which plug into chassis-mounted, rubber-isolated phenolic sockets. The circuit is hand-wired on tag strips using high-grade components that include carbon-comp resistors, Jupiter and Mallory capacitors and Sprague and F&T electrolytic caps.

Other details include Carling switches and jacks, Mercury Magnetics transformers and cloth insulation on the speaker lead, which is nice vintage touch. It’s all packed into a 16-gauge aluminum chassis with welded corner-seams that is topped with a polished steel faceplate carrying the volume, low and high controls and the on/off switch. There’s no standby function, which isn’t an issue because of the slow warm-up of the tube rectifier.

Measuring 22 by 18 by 10 inches (WxHxD), the finger-jointed cabinet is constructed of Eastern white pine, with a Baltic birch baffle and rear panel and pine/poplar interior bracing. My review sample was covered in red Valentine Tolex (one of four color options, along with Ice Cream, Indigo and Nonemore) and has a matching handle embossed with the company's name. The grille cloth is classic salt-and-pepper and highlighted with silver piping around the edges. Stainless-steel hardware is used throughout the build, with wood screws securing the lower rear cover and machine screws for all of the metal-to-wood attaching points.

The Hummingbird 15 I tested came with the stock Royal 12-inch ceramic-magnet 50-watt speaker which is based on a classic British design. For a $150 upcharge you can order it with a Jubilee 50, a Brit-voiced speaker that uses an Alnico magnet. Decker offers two other speakers: the Coronado 65, an American-style speaker for those who favor the vintage Oxford and Utah sound, and the Springfield 70, which is a replacement for the Jensen C12N and well suited for Fender blackface and silverface amps as well as players seeking to tighten up the response of their tweed amps.

I played the Hummingbird 15 using a Gibson 1963 Les Paul Junior, a Historic 1959 ’Burst, a PRS Dustie Waring and a Buzz Feiten T-style, and it delivered impressive tones with all of them. The amp sounds great clean, and it segues nicely into toothy distortion as the volume is cranked up. The low and high controls offer plenty range to accommodate single-coils or humbuckers, and I found that diming all three knobs yielded killer distortion tones from a Tele and a Les Paul alike when using the rear pickups.

The amp is very responsive to the touch, so adjusting your picking and/or riding the guitar volume knob is all it takes to morph between rhythm and lead when running straight into the amp. The Hummingbird churns out increasingly gutsy distortion as the volume is pushed past half-way, and I liked pairing it with a Fulltone tube tape echo to boost the guitar signal and enhance it all with juicy tape textures. It’s a cool setup for blues and rock, and for heavier grind I added a Fulltone OCD in tandem with a UAFX 2241 compressor pedal to take things into the soaring lead realm.

The Hummingbird 15 is plenty loud for gigs and has enough headroom to keep it all sounding tight and focused when you’re cranking. To my ears, it embodies much of what I like about low-watt tube combos — the rich clarity of a Fender Deluxe, the ballsiness of a Marshall 20 and the sparkle of a Vox AC15. The Hummingbird is a pricey affair, but if you subscribe to the less-is-more theory when it comes to guitar amps you’ll absolutely dig what it has to offer.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT decker-ampco.com

PRICE $3,249

CHANNELS 1

CONTROLS Volume, low, high

POWER 15 watts

TUBES Two 12AX7s, two 6V6s, GZ34 rectifier

EXTRAS Available colors include Indigo, Ice Cream, Nonemore Black and Valentine

SPEAKER 12” Royal Ceramic 50 8Ω, made by WGS. Also availed with Jubilee Alnico 50 for $150 extra

WEIGHT 37.3 lbs (as tested)

KUDOS Simple controls and a top-notch build yield a wide range of touch-responsive tones. Great for pedal users thanks to the abundant headroom

CONCERNS Minimal features, although that's a main point of its design

With its back-to-the future offset styling that echoes the ’90s-era Jackson Surfcaster, the LM-87 exudes a classic-cool vibe that Lee Malia of British rock band Bring Me the Horizon sought for his signature axe.

The LM-87 is an all-new model, however, as witnessed by its open-pore black satin finish and cream binding on a body made of okoume. It’s mated to a three-piece set neck with a contoured heel that literally guides your hand into the high positions. The 25.5 inch-scale amaranth fingerboard has a compound radius of 12 to 16 inches and carries 22 well-attended jumbo frets. The cream/black Shark-Eye block inlays are a crowning touch that exude a bit of ’50 nightclub flair.

In the hardware department, a Tune-o-matic–style bridge is paired with a top-loading stop tailpiece equipped with fine tuners. It’s a setup that provides good sustain and lets you easily make close tuning adjustments after pulling the strings to pitch with the locking tuners on the Gumby-esque headstock.

The pickups consist of Jackson’s LM-87 humbucker at the bridge and LM-87 P90 in the neck position. Riding in black plastic bezels with screws on either side to adjust height and tilt, these pickups stand out with their chrome housings with black bobbins. The P90 has adjustable chrome-plated pole pieces while the humbucker uses dual sets of poles with chrome hex-head adjusters.

Topped with retro-style skirted knobs, the volume and tone controls sit on a brushed aluminum panel adjacent to the three-ply pickguard. The volume pot is a push-pull type that splits the coils in the bridge and middle positions when pulled up. Interestingly, the dual-pickup setting sounds slimmer and a bit brighter in split-coil mode, as you’d expect, but the output stays quite strong compared to most guitars with coil-splitting functions.

I suspect it’s because the single-coil of the bridge pickup is being paired with the neck P90, which has its full output to overcome the volume loss while still delivering a single-coil sound. At any rate, I often didn’t realize the volume knob was in the up position when playing with an overdriven tone.

A three-way toggle with a chromed tip provides the usual pickup selections. Unfortunately, the switch is right in the path of your strumming hand. After constantly knocking it out of position, I was wishing they’d put it on the upper bout instead.

The LM-87 is well sorted for rock, as its bridge humbucker sounds massive through a high-gain amp or pedal. I used the LM-87 with a Matchless Chieftain 2x12 combo and a Fender Deluxe Reverb, using distortion pedals from Fulltone and Keeley, and it delivered the goods for lead and dirty rhythm and was totally controllable from the guitar’s volume knob.

The neck pickup also sounded great for clean playing, thanks to its bell-like clarity. Switching between it and the more open response of the dual-pickup setting (in either split or full-humbucker mode) made the guitar suitable for even jazzier styles, further highlighting its flexibility.

Jackson’s Pro Series Lee Malia LM-87 is offbeat in all the right ways and a wolf in sheep’s clothing with its Surfcaster, alt-rock vibe and potent pickups. It’s a sweet-playing guitar courtesy of the satiny C-shape neck and 22 jumbo frets, and it caters to those who care about being in tune by virtue of the easily tweakable tailpiece tuners.

As it stands, the Lee Malia M-87 is a great choice for anyone who wants a great-looking guitar that, despite its metal leanings, can handle anything you throw at it.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT jacksonguitars.com

PRICE $899, gig-bag included

NUT Black plastic,1.687" wide

NECK Okoume 3-piece set neck with graphite reinforcement and open-pore semi-gloss finish

FINGERBOARD Amaranth, 25.5" scale, 12" to 16" compound radius. Cream binding, black side dots and Shark-Eye block inlays

FRETS 22 jumbo

TUNERS Jackson-branded die-cast locking

BODY Okoume with cream binding

FINISH Black open pore semi-gloss

BRIDGE Jackson Tune-o-matic with anchored tailpiece and fine tuners

PICKUPS Jackson LM-87 humbucker (bridge), LM-87 P90 (neck)

CONTROLS Volume with push-pull coil-split, tone, three-way toggle with chrome tip

EXTRAS Three-ply (black/white/black) pickguard with brushed-aluminum control plate

WEIGHT 8.36 lbs (tested)

BUILT China

PRO Classic looks. Combines humbucker heft with potent single-coil tones. Fine tuners on tailpiece allow for precise tuning adjustments

CON The pickup selector is in the path of your strumming hand

Given the chance to check out Jackson Guitars’ most recent additions to its American Soloist series, the SL2 DX, I could hardly pass it up. After all, Jackson was first to embrace the high-velocity and fierce driving styles employed by electric guitarists in the early hard rock scene, and helped launch metal into the mainstream.

Even 40 years out from the small Charvel repair shop that started it all, the company has a black-nailed finger on the pulse of today's metal players and the style’s ever-growing number of subgenres.

As metal guitars go, its specs are spot-on: a Superstrat design with a familiar pair of well-respected Seymour Duncan pickups, 24 jumbo stainless-steel frets, and a three-piece maple neck with neck-through-body construction. In addition, my review model — the SL2 DX HT — features a Hipshot hardtail bridge; the SL2 DX version comes with a Floyd Rose 1500 Series double-locking tremolo bridge system.

The SL2 DX is actually the third iteration of the company’s popular American Series Soloist. It’s designed for metal, and its looks don’t lie. With Jackson’s iconic angular inline headstock, menacing Shark-Fin fret markers inlaid on the deep black ebony fretboard, stainless frets and a no-fuss satin Porsche Grey unbound finish, it's an enticing package that begs to be picked up and played. (The SL2 DX HT is also offered in Lemon Ice, Scorched Earth and Snow White finishes.)

Even before playing it, I was impressed by how the SL2 DX felt in my hands. The build is extremely solid, which is surprising when you realize that its shallow “D” shape has a heelless joint and offers unencumbered access to all 24 frets.

This is down to the combination of the three-piece maple neck, dual-action truss rod system, and an internal graphite neck reinforcement that allows for its ultra-friendly shape right up to the 24th fret. These are important, and possibly critical, features for metal players who play in dropped tunings. It also provides for an extremely low action (it came setup that way) that gives the fretboard a fast and silky feel, while it supports accurate muting and other techniques experienced metal players can really milk.

Playability in the upper registers of the neck is surprisingly easy thanks to the rolled ebony fingerboard and the neck's compound radius, which makes the fretboard slightly more flat at the upper frets. With the stock light strings and low action, the guitar felt effortless.

I played the SL2 DX pretty aggressively for several hours on day one, and the combination of the Hipshot 6 fixed bridge and Gotoh MG-t locking tuning machines kept it solidly in tune. Even after the guitar spent a night in the case and endured some travel, tuning was nearly spot on.

The SL2 DX has a Seymour Duncan JB TB-4 humbucker — known for its high output and a thunderous low end — in the bridge position, and a Seymour Duncan ‘59 SH-1N — equally famous for its sparkling treble and characteristic scooped mids — in the neck position. It’s a popular pickup combination that delivers both searing heavy and smooth clear tones.

While either pickup is a good fit for most heavy styles, the variety of tones offered by the five-position pickup switch is extraordinary.

You’ll find both a volume and a tone control on the SL2 DX models and you’ll likely want to use them both with all the additional tonal range you get from these pickups, especially compared to an active pickup configuration.

I tested the SL2 through my Fender digital rig using various emulations, and through a Mesa/Boogie Filmore50 amp with a Friedman BE-OD overdrive pedal. While a Mesa Triple Rectifier or Mark V might have been a better test of the guitar’s metal tones, I got the highly responsive and deep chugging I’d hoped for from the JB. I’ve heard others describe the pickup as “hot but not too hot,” which I would agree with. It’s compressed, but by carefully adjusting the guitar’s volume it was easy to get a reasonably clean tone out of it.

The 59 pickup is Seymour’s take on the classic Gibson P.A.F. humbucker. Notes are clear and well defined note, even with a healthy amount of distortion, and I got a beefy rhythm sound that kept its definition nicely. Melodies and single-note lines sounded sweet and clear, with a consistent, pleasant percussive attack. It sounded great clean, and just as good dirtied up a bit, making it a nice complement to the JB.

Positions two and four split the coils and open the door to a slew of other options that work great with chorus and various reverbs, along with lots of overdriven sounds. While these tonal choices may be of less interest to traditional metal enthusiasts, they do offer more opportunity to use this instrument in other musical contexts. Hard rockers will appreciate the fat tone and fast action, for sure.

There are many tonal variables here, so your mileage may differ, but I found lots of options for both clean and overdriven sounds, including some unexpected tones coming from a guitar built for metal and shredders. As metal has evolved away from in-your-face driving sounds to include more tonal variation — even some clean environmental passages — it would seem that this pickup combination might provide inspiration for creative metal players looking for new sonic territory to conquer.

Clearly built to handle the rigors of live performance in the metal arena and come back for more, the American Series Soloist SL2 DX is made from start to finish in Fender’s Corona, California factory. It is, as the company has promoted it, a premium guitar built for speed and metal, and it offers even more than you might expect from a modern high-performance axe.

However, to make it road ready, you’d be advised to get a hardshell case, as the light semi-rigid case it ships with offers only minimal protection and doesn’t seem to be a great fit around the lower bout.

Not just another fast guitar with the company’s trademark aggressive look, Jackson’s new SL2 DX’s impressive set of features, solid craftsmanship and thoughtful design put it right on track with the evolution of modern metal. More than worth a look, this guitar screams to be played.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT jacksonguitars.com

PRICE $2,399 gig bag included

NUT Graph Tech TUSQ XL, 1.6875" wide

NECK Jackson Speed Neck, three-piece maple with graphite reinforcement and dual-action truss rod with wheel adjustment

FINGERBOARD Ebony, 25.5" scale, 12" to 16” compound radius, bound edges with Luminlay side dots

FRETS 24 stainless steel jumbo

TUNERS Gotoh MG-T locking

BODY Alder with Jackson Soloist shape

FINISH Porsche Gray

BRIDGE Hipshot 6 (fixed .175)

PICKUPS HH Seymour Duncan: JB TB-4 bridge, ‘59 SH-1N neck

CONTROLS Volume, tone, five-position blade switch

STRINGS Nickel-plated steel, 009–.042

WEIGHT 7.6 to 8 lbs (depending on model)

BUILT USA

PROS Designed to play fast and hard, many tonal options, extremely stable tuning

CONS Case is lightweight and has a loose fit

It’s either totally crazy or completely understandable that the most unique electric guitar to come through in many moons is designed by a guy who runs one of the biggest acoustic operations in the world. Andy Powers is famous for redesigning and re-imagining pretty much everything happening at Taylor. But he loves electric guitar as well, and over in some secret Area 51 laboratory, the endlessly inquisitive luthier built an altogether different beast: the Powers Electric A-Type.

I first got wind of this development a couple of NAMM shows ago, but there were no Powers Electrics to be found anywhere around the Taylor booth. I hunted one down at the Two-Rock booth, where I dug its retro-future sensibility and tonality, from what I could hear in such a noisy environment. Powers and company let me know they were happy to keep it a boutique item until it organically grew from a hip side project into a bigger deal, and now that time has come.

I was completely stunned when the guitar arrived for review. I remembered it being cool, but not this cool! Without even plugging it in, I could see there was so much to take in on this eclectic instrument.

Aesthetically, the Powers Electric has the vibe of a pawnshop prize with modern mechanics and boutique amenities. It’s as if Powers jumped into Doc Brown’s DeLorean from Back to the Future, set the date for 1963, walked into a mom-and-pop guitar shop to pillage various pieces, and then jumped back to the present to combine them in a state-of-the-art contemporary workshop.

The are no f-holes, but the A-Type has a hollow body. It’s double-cutaway frame is slightly larger and deeper than a Strat, and it has a Danelectro or even a Supro kind of style. The Camtail vibrato tailpiece is essentially a newfangled Bigsby that appears as if it could have come from a Gretsch.

It’s got dual single-coil pickups kind of like, say, a vintage Gibson with P90s, but these pickups have their own distinctive flair. The neck would look right at home on an Ernie Ball/Music Man. And then there are all the boutique-y nuances, such as the blown-glass style caps on the volume and tone knobs, as well as the vibrato arm.

Finally, there’s the color scheme. It’s available in myriad vibrant hues that draw on bold classic car colors. I was attracted to Mint Green, Blue Lagoon and Viola Purple Metallic — the model shown here is in Silver Jade Mach 1 — but the review unit available was Aubergine, as seen in my demo video below, which is a shade of purple that’s pretty plum.

I tested this guitar in several settings, from the home studio to a funk gig at John Lee Hooker’s old Boom Boom Room to a ZZ Top tribute where it really knocked me out on “Cheap Sunglasses.” Playability is simply perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing. In fact, I’m kind of timid about even changing the strings because these are so on point.

The open-pore mahogany neck feels very much like an Ernie Ball/Music Man as well, and it plays slinky as hell. Something about the uncommon scale length of 24.875 inches and having only 21 frets equates to being able reach things on this guitar that are normally beyond my grasp. You wind up playing all sorts of chords and licks that were never apparent. It’s weird not to have at least 22 frets, but string bendability is off the charts, and when you combine that with the awesome action on the vibrato system, wild stuff ensues.

Powers Electric offers a top-loading hardtail option for the A-Type, but to me, having a whammy bar is half the fun of playing an electric guitar. The cool thing about this Camtail system is that when you’re not using the vibrato, it’s so locked down that it practically feels like a hardtail. There is zero string slag when performing traditional bends. The A-Type stays holistically in tune no matter what you do.

Now, I’m a floating trem kind of cat from the Jeff Beck school, so it took a minute to get used to the bar only going down rather than down and up. Then Taylor let me know that there’s a little screw you can remove to unlock the bar and make it float. That facilitates upward mobility to a reasonable degree for a Bigsby-style vibrato.

The main thing to keep in mind when utilizing that ability to momentarily raise notes and chords sharp is to remain conscious about ending with a quick downward push for a return to ground zero. Somehow, the advanced mechanical mojo of this system makes the platform feel solid even when it’s not technically locked down. Traditional string bends still sound true. What a godsend!

The Powers Electric emits a happening tone all its own. You can feel the lightweight A-Type body made of sustainable Urban Ash resonate against your body acoustically. You can even have a buddy play it and simply grab the headstock to feel the good vibrations resonating up through the neck.

It’s about twice as loud and vibrant as a typical solidbody before being plugged in, and it doesn’t disappoint through amplification. I played it through several different amps, from a powerful Rivera Knucklehead to a Fender Super Champ. In every scenario the Powers Electric delivered multiple killer tones.

Clean sounds are so percussive that much of the funky fingerstyle slap-and-pop stuff I normally reserve for acoustic playing becomes fair game on this electric. It’s so spanky! There’s a pristine high end that shines through on both pickups in all three toggle-switch positions, perhaps reflecting its solid maple top.

In the bridge position, this new Powers pickup creation cuts like a knife and stabs like an ice pick. In the neck position, it warms up nicely. The middle toggle-switch position offers a beautiful balance of both. That was ground zero for me, and I’d flip it forward or backward depending on the situation. Very practical.

These Powers pickups are kind of like low-noise, high-powered P90s, and when you add some gain, things get really interesting really quick. They won’t sound exactly like humbuckers, but they can sound thicker than your run-of-the-mill single-coils, due in no small part to the substantial hollow body.

Like a fine jazz box, notes will blossom if you give them time to do so. Playability is so sweet that it’s tempting to flail away, but when you slow down and let a note sustain, it will open up and bloom like a magnolia tree in springtime.

The tone control is unique and ultra-practical. Roll it back and that top shimmer goes away without changing the overall tone too drastically. I found it super useful for playing lead passages, especially when using high gain. When a lot of sizzle is being generated by pedals and tubes, you don’t need so much from the guitar, so it’s nice to be able to curtail it in one fell swoop of the control knob without having to worry about entering a tonal twilight zone.

Andy Powers is perhaps the most fascinating person in the musical instrument business because he’s a modern renaissance man. Andy is as interested in cars, skateboards, surfing and growing an organic fruit tree farm on his property as he is guitars. He’s as much a player and artist as he is a luthier, and while he obviously designs a lot of Taylor products to suit that huge brand, it’s clear that many of his creations are simply to satisfy his own cat-like curiosity.

Powers may have originally designed the A-Type to suit himself, but he wound up creating something that every single player I’ve presented it to finds fascinating. As for my editorial opinion, the Powers A-Type is my single favorite electric guitar I’ve tested in more than two decades at Guitar Player. In my 10th year serving as Frets editor focused on acoustics, it's fitting that my fave electric comes from a fellow acoustic aficionado.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT powerselectricguitars.com

PRICE $3,999 with groovy custom leather, Mad Men-approved gig bag inspired by classic Porsche seat upholstery

NUT Ebony, 1.7" width

NECK 1-piece mahogany, asymmetrical “Powers Electric carve” profile, glued-in

FRETBOARD Honduran rosewood, Italian acrylic “Twin Arch” inlays, 24.875" radius

FRETS 21, jumbo

TUNERS Enclosed chrome-plated

BODY Urban ash back with solid maple top, double-cutaway “trussed” hollowbody

BRIDGE High-carbon steel baseplate with Delrin saddle, machined aluminum Camtail vibrato tailpiece

PICKUPS Two Powers Electric PF42 single-coils

FACTORY STRINGS D’Addario XS Coated Nickel, gauges .010 - .046

CONTROLS Three-way pickup selector, volume and tone knobs

WEIGHT 6.4 lbs (as tested)

BUILT USA

PRO Outrageously inspirational, totally unique, an electric guitar with wonderfully percussive dynamic response and perfect playability

CON Not a single thing

Previous releases in Epiphone’s Inspire by Gibson Custom Series have received broadly favorable responses from reviewers and players alike, with some bordering on ecstatic declarations of “Gibson quality at Epi prices.”

So it’s no surprise the maker is capitalizing on the success by expanding the range. Newly unveiled are the 1959 Les Paul Standard, 1960 Les Paul Special Double Cut Reissue, 1962 ES-335 Reissue, 1964 SG Standard Reissue with Maestro Vibrola, and 1963 Firebird V with Maestro Vibrola Reissue in Polaris White, the latter three of which I got in-house for review.

As with the previous IBGC electric guitars, each represents a close collaboration between the Chinese-made Epiphone guitars and the luthiers of Gibson’s Nashville-based Custom department. The two-fold goal therein includes greater attention to vintage-correct details and the use of many of the same parts that feature on American-made Gibson guitars.

Each of these guitars, for example, has the same USA-made Custombucker or Firebird pickups used on their Custom counterparts, as well as CTS potentiometers, Switchcraft jacks and switches, Black Beauty paper-in-oil or Mallory tone caps, and other components you’ll find on top-flight, USA-made guitars.

Unsurprisingly, the IBGC guitars have to achieve some cost-savings somewhere. This is found in a slightly less-stringent adherence to period-correct materials, weights and grades of woods used, and overall fit and finish. That said, without dropping any major spoiler here, I’ve also found all of these elements to still be very satisfactory — certainly “good for the price” — and they’re mentioned here to fully round out the quality that can be expected in the $1,149 to $1,699 within which these three guitars reside.

Some of the austerity measures include the use of polyurethane finishes rather than nitrocellulose lacquer, bridge-mounting bushings rather than vintage posts-into-wood, and somewhat less precise metals and plastics formulations in some parts.

Upgraded in the new batch, however, are the rosewood fingerboards versus the Indian Laurel used previously, and the look and feel of all three guitars are outwardly impressive upon lifting from their respective included IBGC hardshell cases. All three were tested through a Marshall JTM45 reissue head and 2x12 cab, a tweed Deluxe-style 1x12 combo, and a Fractal FM9 modeler into Sennheiser headphones.

1962 ES-335 Reissue

The ES-335 likely needs no introduction, and this Epiphone IBGC 1962 ES-335 Reissue remains true to form in shape and overall construction. The semihollow body features laminated five-ply maple/poplar front, back and sides, with a solid maple center block and spruce bracing. It’s a little deeper than most vintage ’62s I’ve played, but it checks most of the right boxes.

The neck is the traditional one-piece mahogany construction, with a bound rosewood fingerboard, small-block inlays and the proper Gibson-shaped “open-book” headstock that the entire series wears. It’s carved to a SlimTaper profile, Gibson’s long-standing interpretation of a ’60s neck. While it has never been my favorite shape, and doesn’t feel quite like most genuine early ’60s examples I’ve played, this one is enhanced by nicely rounded (a.k.a. “rolled”) edges where the neck transitions across the fingerboard, which notably aids playing comfort. The 22 medium-jumbo frets are smooth and well dressed, if not as jeweler-precise as those of the high-end Gibson equivalents.

My test guitar arrived with the Vintage Burst stain, with Sixties Cherry is also available, and finished in a Vintage Gloss that seeks to replicate the lower sheen of a slightly aged guitar, without going full-on satin. The pickups are American-made Alnico III Custombuckers wired through CTS potentiometers with Black Beauty paper-in-oil tone caps, all presenting essentially the same signal path you’d find in a Gibson Custom ES-335.

One minor note involves some forward tilt in the neck-position pickup, which couldn’t be cured with a nudge or height adjustment. This is something that can be caused by the way the arched top of the body forms a steep decline into the neck joint and is often remedied in original ES models by mounting the pickup ring the reverse of the usual in this position, with the higher side up against the end of the fingerboard.

Plugged in, the Epiphone IBGC 1962 ES-335 Reissue captured a hefty dose of that classic Gibson ES warmth-with-bite, and ably displayed the broad sonic versatility for which the design is famous. There’s an edgy, granular texture within the humbucker-fueled tone of an ES-335 versus, for example, a Les Paul with the same electronics, and this Epi has it in abundance. Filtered through these Custombuckers, the guitar’s mid-budget-semi-acoustic construction delivers a little more depth and harmonic dimension, and the full package combines to make this a very capable ES at this price.

This foundation translates well to classic ES-335 character through both clean and overdriven tones, which contributes to the detail and crispness that enables a good semi-acoustic to nail everything from jazz to pop to country, or the thick yet articulate chewiness that makes for such and expressive blues or classic-rock instrument into some overdrive. If the Epiphone IBGC 1962 ES-335 doesn’t have quite the openness or sonic breadth of a good vintage ES, or to some extent a Gibson Custom version, it’s still a lot of semi-acoustic guitar for the price and worth checking out if you’re in the market.

1964 SG Standard with Maestro Vibrola

Of the myriad renditions of the SG Standard that Gibson and Epiphone haveproduced over the years, and Epiphone in their wake, the very first SG of all might be the most iconic, and most desired. Which is to say, the first SG proper, after the Les Paul Standard name used on the original, equipped with a clunky sideways vibrato, became simply the SG of 1963-’64, with simpler, more functional Maestro vibrato (or Vibrola, as officially called here).

After that, part-way through ’65, the SG and other Gibsons took on the slimmer 1 9/16" nut width, hardware moved from nickel-plated to chromed, pickups and other details changed… and that was that. It was precisely that model the Who's Pete Townshend favored onstage from 1968 into the early 1970s.

As such, the Epiphone IBGC 1964 SG Standard with Maestro Vibrola captures a major chunk of first-gen SG magic at an accessible price. The Epi IBGC version retains all the key aspects of the SG form, including the slim two-piece mahogany body with asymmetrical double-cut “horns,” glued-in mahogany neck with 22nd-fret neck/body joint for an easy reach right to the final medium-jumbo fret, bound rosewood fingerboard with the trapezoidal inlays the model ported over from its days as the Les Paul Standard, and the smaller pickguard that signaled the first few years of the design.

The Cherry Red finish in Vintage Gloss strikes a good midway point between the brighter cherry these guitars were born with and the mid-brown they often faded to. Like the ES-335 above, the SG Standard’s neck is carved to Gibson’s SlimTaper profile but with rolled fingerboard edges. It likewise carries the Alnico III Custombuckers that are standard for all PAF-pickup-sized guitars in the range, plus the CTS pots and Black Beauty paper-in-oil tone caps.

Also akin to all three guitars here, it has the Tune-o-matic bridge that’s a little wider in saddle-travel-width from back to front than the vintage-standard ABR-1, and which is also anchored to the body with stud bushings rather than the posts themselves, one of a handful of concessions to the offshore build process. It’s also a tad heavier than I would ideally like an SG to be.

Fit and finish are generally good, with just a few mild snags on the fret ends, but I’m somewhat more concerned by the high-E slot being cut a little too close to the edge of the nut, leading you to pull that string off the edge of the ’board occasionally while playing.

Otherwise, the construction is sleek and confidently “Gibson-like” throughout, and you’d likely not think twice about the pedigree without a good look at that headstock logo. The Maestro Vibrola functions smoothly, too, with decent return-to-pitch from this setup if you don’t overdo it (any tuning snags are likely down to the saddle and nut slots rather than the vibrato spring itself); and it certainly looks cool even if you never touch it.

Amped up, the IBGC 1964 SG Standard Reissue easily dials in the thick-but-cutting tones that have made the SG archetype so popular through the years. The thin body and high neck joint lend a brightness and snappiness that has always helped to define the SG voice.

But there’s also a weightier “thunk” in the mids than the ES delivers, for example, and good warmth and thickness that never folds over into muddiness through heavy overdrive. As ever with a competent SG, it’s kind of a no-brainer of a rock guitar, but lends itself well to gentler and more nuanced styles, too.

1963 Firebird V with Maestro Vibrola Reissue

This one is more of a color-and-features update than a fully new IBGC model, considering the 1963 Firebird V was available in Vintage Sunburst, Frost Blue, Ember Red,and Cherry Red as of last year. But it also features a genuine rosewood fingerboard now in place of the Indian Laurel of the recent past, and it’s such a cool and relatively authentic recreation of the reverse-body Firebird at this price that it’s worth a quick look. Plus, who doesn’t dig a reverse-body ’Bird in Polaris White finish?

Sketched out by automotive designer Ray Dietrich as Gibson’s shot across the bow at Fender’s offset-waist Jazzmaster and Jaguar — yet with “reversed” lines and proportions to avoid any appearance of direct copying — the Firebird of 1963–’64 was Gibson’s most complexly constructed solidbody guitar yet. The key to this is the through-body neck construction, made from a central core of nine plies of mahogany and walnut that extends from the tip of the headstock through the full length of the body, with slightly thinner mahogany “wings” attached to complete the proportions.

Epiphone bills the neck end of this as being carved to “a SlimTaper rounded C profile,” although here on the Firebird it’s significantly deeper at around .845 inches, compared to .820 inches, or slightly under, on the ES-335 and SG Standard.

Six-in-line banjo tuners avoid spoiling the lines of the reversed raptor headstock. The rest of the hardware and electronics follow the nod of the 1964 SG Standard above, other than in the Alnico V Firebird Mini Humbuckers, which I’ve found to be a major step up from the overly hot ceramic-magnet versions Gibson was using for several years up until the late 2010s or so.

One notable alteration from the original vintage setup involves the more traditional alignment of each pickup’s tone knob being placed behind its Volume knob as with Les Pauls, SGs, ES models and others, rather than below its respective volume knob as on the ’63–’64 Firebirds. With that said, this is likely a wise move intended to preempt any user confusion.

The IBGC Firebird V played well right out of the case, despite a smidge of fret-end sharpness, and even better after I dropped the bridge down slightly for a faster action. Once plugged in — much as was my impression of the Sunburst example a year ago.— I was flabbergasted by the hefty chunk of authentic reverse-body Firebird tone and feel available from this guitar.

Sure, the pickups are bright and cutting, and the bridge position can even be a little strident (taken care of with the Tone wound down to seven, which is most habitual Firebird players’ default setting anyway), but they’re far less so — and also richer and more dynamic — than the high-output ceramic units used for a few decades, and in fact match vintage ’60s Firebird Mini Humbuckers surprisingly well.

And hey, “bright and cutting” is what the ’Bird is all about. Through clean or edge-of-breakup amp settings it approximates Telecaster tones surprisingly well, and truly sizzles through heavier gain, with good articulation and expressive sustain aided by the through-body neck construction.

Having owned and played vintage reverse-body Firebirds and Gibson Custom renditions alike, maybe this IBGC model isn’t 100 percent there, to be fair, but it goes a long, long way down the road — further than many Firebirds Gibson itself made in the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s — and arguably negates the need to spend any more to achieve “that sound,” if you’re not a purist, or simply not willing to spend several times the money.

Conclusion

As we’ve seen with previous IBGC releases, the collaboration between Gibson Custom and Epiphone continues to a great working relationship between the strengths of the two brands, while establishing a very solid waypoint between Epiphone affordability and Gibson Custom quality in the process. Each of these guitars meets, and arguably exceeds, the overall quality and tone of some of the more budget-friendly, fully American–made Gibson models we’ve seen in the past (the Studio, Special and Faded lines come to mind), and the inclusion of the same pickups used on many Custom guitars pushed them over the top.

I’ve never been a fan of the SlimTaper profile myself. I find it a tad generic and flat-backed, and would prefer to see more authentic, rounded-C ’60s shapes used. But it’s still with us because plenty of players apparently dig it, so that shouldn’t stop anyone from checking out the latest great offerings from Epiphone’s IBGC series.

Inspired by Gibson Custom 1962 ES-335

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT epiphone.com

PRICE $1,149 street

NUT Graph Tech, 1.692" wide

NECK One-piece mahogany, 24.75" scale length, ’60s SlimTaper profile

FRETBOARD Rosewood, 12" radius

FRETS 22 medium-jumbo

TUNERS Epiphone Deluxe double-ring

BODY Semi-acoustic laminated 5-ply maple/poplar with solid maple center block

BRIDGE ABR-1 tune-o-matic and stopbar tailpiece

PICKUPS Two Gibson Custombuckers

CONTROLS Two volume controls, two tone controls with Black Beauty paper-in-oil capacitors, three-way selector switch

FACTORY STRINGS Epiphone .010-.046

WEIGHT 8.7 lbs

BUILT (country of origin) China

KUDOS A well-built and good-sounding ES-335 for the money, graced with some upmarket components.

CONCERNS Some forward tilt in the neck pickup’s mounting position. Lacks the sonic breadth of a vintage ES or Gibson Custom version

Inspired by Gibson Custom 1964 SG Standard with Maestro Vibrola

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT epiphone.com

PRICE $1,299 street

NUT Graph Tech, 1.692" wide

NECK Mahogany, 24.75" scale length, ’60s SlimTaper profile

FRETBOARD Indian laurel, 12" radius

FRETS 22 medium-jumbo

TUNERS Epiphone Deluxe double-ring

BODY Solid mahogany with 9-ply mahogany/walnut core

BRIDGE Tune-o-matic bridge with Maestro vibrola tailpiece

PICKUPS Two Gibson Custombuckers

CONTROLS Two volume controls, two tone controls with Black Beauty paper-in-oil capacitors, three-way selector switch

FACTORY STRINGS Epiphone .010-.046

WEIGHT 8.8 lbs

BUILT (country of origin) China

KUDOS An impressive take on the golden-age vintage SG Standard for the price

CONCERNS High-E string slot cut a little too close to the edge of the nut

Inspired by Gibson Custom 1963 Firebird V

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT epiphone.com

PRICE $1,699 street

NUT Graph Tech, 1.692" wide

NECK 9-ply mahogany/walnut, 24.75" scale length, ’60s SlimTaper profile

FRETBOARD Rosewood, 12" radius

FRETS 22 medium-jumbo

TUNERS Kluson “Banjo Style” Planetary

BODY Solid mahogany with 9-ply mahogany/walnut core

BRIDGE Tune-o-matic bridge with Maestro vibrola tailpiece

PICKUPS Two Gibson Firebird mini-humbuckers with Alnico V magnets

CONTROLS Two volume controls, two tone controls with Mallory tone caps, three-way selector switch

FACTORY STRINGS Epiphone .010-.046

WEIGHT 9.1 lbs

BUILT (country of origin) China

KUDOS A great take on the reverse-body Firebird V at an accessible price, with more vintage cred than many Gibson versions offered for a few decades

CONCERNS A few slightly sharp fret ends

Billy Strings is the hottest thing happening in the acoustic arena, and his signing with Martin for a pair of signature models is a huge deal. The D-28 Billy Strings is his take on arguably the most iconic American acoustic guitar of all time. The Mexican-made DX-2E promises similar String-iness while being far more accessible financially.

Martin introduced both at the 2025 NAMM Show, and even though the dire lack of humidity in Southern California during that wildfire-plagued time wreaked havoc on every guitar’s action, I could tell there was something special about the playability of this pair and didn’t hesitate to request both for a full review.

The Martin Dreadnought has ruled the bluegrass scene since the days of Billy’s prized 1940 D-28, and since Strings has ascended to rule said scene it’s high time he got his own signature line. While the materials and country of origin differ, the DX-2E Billy Strings shares the same key specifications as its American cousin.

Strings is a true Martin aficionado, and it’s well worth the while to consider Billy’s choices about what specs work best for working players right now. He notably chose to honor the D-28 rather than going with a D-18, which some bluegrassers favor for the strident tonal nature of mahogany back and sides. The D-28’s rosewood gives it a chunkier tone, which this reviewer appreciates, as one can always get a more strident tone by plucking closer to the bridge.

Nut width is the next interesting consideration. Strings went with 1 23/32 inches, which equates to about 1.72 inches. That’s slightly narrower than the modern standard 1.75 inches, and yet not quite as narrow as some dreads of yore that measured 1.69 inches at the nut. Another significant specification modification Strings made was a scale length of 25 inches. That’s another ’tweener spec falling in-between the Martin standard of 25.4 inches and the shorter scale of 24.75 found on some classic dreadnoughts such as the Gibson J-45.

Those specs contribute heavily to fantastic playability on both instruments. I’m no bluegrass boy, but even in my hands I found a few blue-chip licks falling easily under the fingers on this neck with a profile Martin describes as “modified low oval.”

Playing with a plectrum the notes seem to flow readily and rapidly. Action from the factory was more than satisfactory. Dig in, and the frets don’t splat out. Well, they did a bit when I employed an aggressive fingerstyle attack via acrylic nails on the DX-2E, which comes with light strings and plays almost as well (but understandably not quite as perfectly) as the D-28.

The nut being just slightly narrower than normal made it more comfortable for my relatively small hand on the fretboard, without becoming too cramped to accommodate for playing fingerstyle with my plucking hand when I felt like it. Having a slightly shorter scale length brings the frets a bit closer together, making barre chords, for example, easier to make and hold. It also makes string bending a bit easier.

But the scale length is not so short as to make the medium-gauge wires feel like rubber bands—there’s still plenty of snap on these Strings. It’s funny how these dreadnoughts somehow feel smaller than they are, and the reduced scale length is probably the reason why, or at least a significant factor.

The D-28’s tone is like a fastball down the middle. It’s exactly what you expect from a Martin Dreadnought with fantastic balance. It’s not overly boomy as some dreads can be, the top end is present but never brittle, and there’s a meaty middle range at the heart of the matter. The D-28 Billy Strings seems particularly punchy and focused in that range. It’s not particularly open sounding right out of the box, but I’ll bet it blossoms beautifully over time.

The DX-2E’s tone is essentially a lighter version of the D-28. Both have solid spruce tops, but instead of solid rosewood back and sides, the DX-2E has a veneer of high-pressure laminate Brazilian rosewood. The resulting tone is thinner, but HPL is actually more durable than solid wood, making it a great troubadour companion.

The DX-2E also comes equipped with electronics, which the D-28 notably does not. The system is a Martin E1, which consists of an undersaddle piezo pickup, and a preamp with volume and tone controls tucked under the upper lip of the sound hole. On the bottom of the unit lie two buttons, one for a phase flip and another that kicks on the tuner. It’s stealthily stashed inside the lower lip of the sound hole where the player can see it but the audience can’t. I felt the M1 system did a fine job of delivering a strong acoustic-electric tone while offering killer tuner convenience.

Which Billy Strings model is more aesthetically appealing is mostly a matter of taste. The D-28 has a look that honors its historic heritage. The aged-top toner and glossy finish as well as its herringbone trim give it a classy, time-honored appearance. The DX-2E mixes in elements that bring a more modern aesthetic, such as a natural top with practically no finish, and black rosette rings. The patterns in the Brazilian rosewood on the back of each DX-2E are unique. The one on this review unit is pretty cool, but some of them I’ve seen at the NAMM Show and online are quite stunning. It’s worth a visit to a Martin dealer for the ability to browse.

Which model is right for a particular player depends on purpose and budget. If you’ve got the green and are going for a natural acoustic tone, the D-28 is the clear winner. If you’re on a budget and/or want to plug in right out of the box, then the DX-2E is the better match.

I was surprised that the D-28 wasn’t even listed with an optional pickup choice, which is quite strange considering that Strings is famous not only for his blistering acoustic-electric live tone but also for employing a pedalboard full of effects. When I asked Martin luminary Fred Greene about it at the NAMM Show, his response was that for the D-28, Billy essentially wanted to keep it traditional.

Billy Strings is clearly a Martin lifer. He’s been playing a Martin Dreadnought since he was a kid admiring his father’s D-93, and he’s highly likely to be playing one well past the time when his own baby boy, River, who was born just last fall, has matured into a full-grown man. It’s easy to envision the D-28 Billy Strings becoming an heirloom acoustic to be passed down from one generation to the next.

And if you’re simply looking to get a quality instrument into the hands of a youngster or a beginner at any age who will appreciate the modifications Billy has made for optimal playability, then the DX-2E fits the bill perfectly. Having either of his signature models around the house will make it a musical haven —just like the Strings’ homestead— for years to come.

Martin D-28 Billy Strings

CONTACT martinguitar.com

PRICE $3,799 with hardshell case

NUT WIDTH 1.72", bone

NECK Mahogany, modified low oval profile, dovetail joint

FRETBOARD Ebony with abalone inlays (diamond and square), 25" scale

FRETS 20

TUNERS Nickel enclosed gear with butterbean knobs

BODY Solid East Indian rosewood back & sides, solid spruce top

BRIDGE Ebony with compensated bone saddle

ELECTRONICS None

FACTORY STRINGS Martin Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze Medium gauges .013—.056

WEIGHT 3.6 lbs (as tested)

BUILT USA

KUDOS Fantastic playability, punchy tone

CONCERNS No pickup option strange considering Strings’ affinity for plugging in and using effects. Neck may feel a bit small and fast for traditional D-28 fans

Martin DX-2E Billy Strings

DX-2E Billy Strings

CONTACT martinguitar.com

PRICE $899 street with custom hemp softshell case

NUT WIDTH 1.72", white corian

NECK Select hardwood, mortise & tenon joint

FRETBOARD Ebony, 25" scale

FRETS 20

TUNERS Nickel open gear with butterbean knobs

BODY Brazilian rosewood high pressure laminate back & sides, solid spruce top

BRIDGE Ebony with compensated white Tusq saddle

ELECTRONICS Martin E1 with volume and tone flywheel controls plus tuner on/off and phase buttons in upper lip of sound hole; tuner in lower lip

FACTORY STRINGS Martin Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 Light gauges .012—.054

WEIGHT 3.7 lbs (as tested)

BUILT Mexico

KUDOS Fantastic playability, strong amplified tone, superb value

CONCERNS Neck may feel a bit small and fast for traditional D-28 fans

The recently introduced SE Studio Standard brings the acclaimed Studio model (first introduced in 1988) into the SE series as a bolt-neck alternative to the fancier set-neck SE Studio. Categorized by PRS Guitars as “specialty models,” the two electric guitars differ in several ways. The Studio Standard on review here features a flat-top solid mahogany body with pickguard mounted pickups, while its pricier sibling has a carved flame-maple top over a mahogany back and pickups mounted into the body.

Decked out in Sage Green, my review guitar looks great with its white three-ply pickguard carrying the two Narrowfield DD “S” pickups, a chrome-covered 58/15 LT “S” bridge humbucker and clear knobs.with black skirts. The five-way blade switch and push-pull function on the tone control work in tandem to expand the range of this versatile guitar and the selections are as follows:

Position 1: Bridge humbucker (forward coil with tone pot up)

Position 2: Bridge humbucker and middle Narrowfield (forward coil of humbucker with tone pot up)

Position 3: Middle Narrowfield

Position 4: Middle and neck pickups

Position 5: Neck pickup

The range of sounds this guitar delivers is impressive, covering everything from pristine cleans to ballsy overdriven tones and all points in-between.

Played through a Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue (with circuitry by Alessandro and a GA-SC64 speaker), a PRS DG-15 and a new PRS Archon Classic, the Studio Standard sounded killer played straight into these amps or with added boost from an Xotic EP and distortion from a Fulltone OCD and UAFX Lion ’68 Super Lead pedals.

The PRS 58/15 LT “S” bridge humbucker is badass for grinding rock tones, and it blends beautifully with the Narrowfield DD “S” middle pickup in switch position 2 for a rich, chiming sound that’s very addictive.

With the tone knob pulled up, the sound is snarkier and more Strat-like. which sounded verdy cool through the Deluxe set clean. For jazzier sounds, the Studio Standard’s neck setting is warm, deep and nicely detailed, and the middle-plus-neck combination in position 4 is great if you want that phasey color with a beefier response that sounds awesome with distortion.

I also liked the middle pickup by itself for fat, singing lead tones in the Santana/Dickey Betts camp. Worth noting that the Narrowfields are dead quiet when used solo.

Playability-wise the Studio Standard rules. The Wide Thin neck — which has a depth of 13/16 inch at the first fret and 57/64 inch at the 12th fret — is comfortable and inviting. The 22 medium frets are evenly crowned and polished, and the rosewood fingerboard on our review guitar is smooth and nicely figured. The birds inlays are a classy touch although I did notice a little filler around them.

Combined with a factory setup that provides low action and tuneful intonation the acoustic sound is clear and resonant with a touch of reverb-like shimmer emanating from the springs in the trem.

Speaking of which, the PRS Patented Tremolo is simply perfect to infuse your playing with musically expressive vibrato bends. Adjusted to float, it responds to the lightest press on the bar yet returns to pitch reliably under aggressive whammy workouts.

The system is so well balanced and the proprietary synthetic nut mitigates any pinching when the strings move across it, so even though the tuners are non-locking it doesn’t cause any issues. You can also rest your hand on the bridge without feeling any sharp edges, which is totally in keeping with the ergonomics of this guitar and how everything has been optimized for comfort and playability.

The SE Studio Standard is an inspiring guitar and well deserving of a five-star review. Its great playability and range of tones make it one of the best choices around for working players who can appreciate being able to own a celebrated PRS specialty model for a price that’s mind-boggling, considering all the performance you’re getting here. Well done!

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT prsguitars.com

PRICE $849, gig bag included

NUT PRS proprietary material, 1 11/16" wide

NECK Maple, Wide Thin shape, bolt-on joint

FRETBOARD Rosewood, 25" scale, 10" radius, Birds inlays

FRETS 22

TUNERS PRS designed, 18:1

BODY Mahogany flat top with arm and belly carve

FINISH High-gloss polyurethane

EXTRAS Available in Pearl White, Sage Green and Silverstone Gray

BRIDGE PRS Patented Tremolo

PICKUPS PRS Narrowfield DD “S” (neck and middle), 58/15 LT “S” humbucker (bridge),

CONTROLS Volume, push-pull tone. 5-way blade selector

STRINGS PRS Classic, .010-.046

WEIGHT 7.46 lbs (tested)

PRO Excellent playability. Lightweight and toneful. Combination of two Narrowfield DD “S” pickups and a 58/15 LT “S” humbucker provides a wealth of sounds

CON The tone knob cab be hard to grip when pulling it up

The tube-fired creations of Christopher Benson of Portland, Oregon, started breaking onto the Northwest’s vibrant music scene in the early to mid 2010s and were already reaching a wider audience when I reviewed his Monarch amp and Tall Bird reverb in GP back in 2015. Since then, Benson has developed a reputation as one of the most-acclaimed small-shop, hand-wired builders of quality tube amps and effects units working today, and it’s been a lot of fun watching where this success has taken his designs.

In addition to introducing several well-received new amps in the intervening 10 years, Benson’s take on the tube-powered spring reverb unit has evolved exponentially. Where the original Tall Bird represented a twist on the external reverb units of the early ’60s from Fender and others, the Tall Bird + pushes the circuit design considerably further as a ground-up redrawing of the blueprint, with added tube-driven optical tremolo in two modes: Classic and Harmonic.

The front panel includes controls for dry, dwell, wet, size, depth and speed. The latter two apply to the tremolo, which is available in two modes via the Harmonic/Classic switch located above the jack for the two-button footswitch, included, which selects on/off for reverb and tremolo. The three knobs prior to those two govern the reverb, the less-familiar size control being a high-pass filter that offers traditional surfy drip sounds in its lower range and big hall-reverb tones higher up.

In addition to those five effects-related potentiometers, the one behind the dry knob is arguably the most unusual. In addition to determining how much unaffected signal is passed to the output along with the reverberated signal, it can push the output into overdrive when turned up past the “0” mark on the panel (straight up, which is approximately unity gain for the Tall Bird +). On the back panel, a Hi-Fidelity/Natural switch tames some of the inherent (if subtle) brightness inevitable from the tube-buffered circuit when set in the latter position.

Following Benson’s M.O., the circuit inside is entirely hand-wired using quality components. A three-pole adjustable oscillator drives the neon lamp responsible for the tremolo pulse, and the reverb comes courtesy of a long-spring tank. Three 12AX7 preamp tubes do much of the work, while an EL84 output tube drives the reverb transformer.

When asked about the interesting bonus function behind the dry knob, Benson told GP, “It was totally intentional. The dry control was designed to be clean until about three-quarters of the way up, which is above unity gain, allowing you to push an already distorted amp into saturation. Above that, the circuit of the TB+ begins to distort in a wide open, full frequency, tube-console kind of way.”

Another element of this new circuit that takes an otherwise simple effect even deeper is the duality of the tremolo’s ability to do the traditional amplitude-modulating pulse and a frequency-modulating harmonic vibrato.

“It’s something I’ve been chasing for a long time,” Benson revealed. “Fender famously had it in the early ’60s brown-face amps, and it’s a great effect, but I wanted to figure out how to make it more intense and consistent. I ended up using two LDRs [light-dependent resistors] to modulate the high and low frequencies separately, and there was a lot of experimentation and tweaking to find just the right distance from the neon lamp to get the results I was looking for. I think Leo would be proud of this iteration.”

One less-obvious, though still significant, factor about the new Tall Bird + circuitry is the total redesign Benson gave it to achieve a lower noise floor, which involved significant reworking of the power rails and incorporating a grounding scheme used in the hi-fi audio world to avoid ground loops.

I tested the Tall Bird + with a Telecaster and an ES-355 into the front end of a Voxy-voiced Carr Lincoln 1x12 combo and a Mesa/Boogie Mark IIB combo (it can also be used in an FX loop, but is optimal between guitar and amp). I discovered a world of retro-toned analog effects at the ready from a unit that is indeed impressively quiet. I’ve enjoyed stand-alone tube/spring reverbs in the past, from vintage and reissue Fenders to re-creations by contemporary builders, and it’s no stretch to say that the Tall Bird + offers the most flexibility and arguably some of the deepest sounds available from either effect — alone or combined — that I’ve heard in one of these units.

I’m perhaps most impressed with the fact that the Tall Bird + contains not only great spring reverb sounds in the realm of the classic among vintage amp or stand-alone offerings, but it also tips into studio-effect territory, producing lush, watery delays that have long been the province of golden-age recordings, and far less achievable in the live realm.

To this end, I found myself living on the space knob turned a couple places past noon for increased size and depth to the reverb — although the relatively thinner, more traditional sounds lower on the dial are also excellent — where the rich dimensionality of the effect really envelopes you.

And all of that without yet mentioning the harmonic optical tremolo… which is likewise superb. As simple an effect as it is in theory, and as excellent as many of the solid-state pedals on the market undoubtedly are, the Classic side here produces a warm, organic pulse that only great vintage tremolo-equipped amplifiers seem capable of delivering. There’s a wide range available from both the speed and depth controls, although as with many tremolo circuits I found the majority of the usable speed range bunched up within around noon to three o’clock on the dial. No big deal, such is the taper with many of these speed potentiometers.

Switching to Harmonic shifts the modulation to a phasey, pseudo-pitch-shifting burble that’s great for softer atmospheric adventures, while also great for mellow jazz or psychedelic rock, and a lot of fun in the process. In use, I found the effect of the Normal/Hi-Fidelity switch relatively subtle, but it should be useful for anyone driving much longer cable runs onstage or in the studio, and it’s another handy tone-tweaker either way.

Put the extremely flexible reverb and either breed of tremolo together and the Tall Bird + is a texturalist’s or sound sculptor’s delight. Anyone who needs to remain conscious of their gear expenditure will already have noted that this impressive new effects unit from Benson doesn’t come cheap, at just a notch shy of two grand, but a lot has gone into the design effort, component choice, and workmanship to go toward justifying the asking price. Otherwise, I don’t think I’ve elicited more rich and evocative reverb and tremolo from even the best vintage amps that carry them, and that’s saying something.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT bensonamps.com

PRICE $1,899 direct

CONTROLS Dry, Dwell, Wet, Size, Depth, Speed, Harmonic/Classic switch

CONNECTIONS Input, Output, ¼" TRS jack for two-button footswitch, included

TUBES 3x12AX7, 1xEL84

BUILT USA

KUDOS Lush, tube-driven analog reverb and dual-mode tremolo from an extremely well-built unit.

CONCERNS The ask price will stretch many gear budgets.

Fishman answered the call for more body response in 2020 with the Acoustic PowerTap Series, and that has ultimately led to a signature system developed in collaboration with English percussive fingerstylist Jon Gomm. This is exciting because it’s the first time that a standalone triple-element pickup system with the option of dual outputs has become commercially available from a major manufacturer.

Plenty of pros have such customized systems installed in their personal instruments, but the production versions of their signature models are often scaled back, both to save money and under the assumption that the public need all that goodness. To the credit of Gomm and Ibanez, both iterations of his signature model come equipped with his full custom Fishman system, and that was the only way one could get it until Fishman’s release of the new Jon Gomm Signature Series PowerTap Earth Pro.

It’s essentially a cross between Fishman’s dual-element PowerTap Earth and the dual-element Rare Earth Mic Blend. The common denominator is Fishman’s Rare Earth Magnetic Soundhole Pickup. Gomm’s signature system incorporates the Tap body sensor from the PowerTap Earth plus the microphone from the Rare Earth Mic Blend. On the triple-element Jon Gomm PowerTap Earth Pro, the Rare Earth magnetic pickup does the heavy lifting by capturing the strings while the microphone adds ambiance, and the body sensor captures the guitar top.

Element 1: Rare Earth

The Rare Earth pickup is an active humbucker with a neodymium magnet structure. I found it packs plenty of power into a small, lightweight bar that’s less obtrusive than many traditional sound hole models. I’m a big fan of Fishman’s balmy Blackstack passive humbucker, which is essentially their take on the classic Sunrise design, and while the Rare Earth doesn’t have quite such a smooth character, it sure does a hell of a job delivering power, balance and clarity while being far less bulky. It leaves nothing to be desired on the volume front, in fact my only wish is that it had a volume control that I could turn down to match some of the less powerful pickups in other instruments on a gig.

Element 2: Mini Mic

The second element is a little cardioid condenser microphone at the end of a gooseneck attached to the pickup. The idea is to bend it around until you find the best sound in your instrument. There’s no right or wrong way per say, other than to be careful as you experiment until finding the sweet spot on your instrument. The manual recommends parallel to the strings as a good starting point, and I found it a fine ending point as well.

Adjust the blend control at the bottom of the pickup to bring in the desired amount of mic signal. It adds a sense of air and space, which is welcome for a system built around a magnetic pickup that can sound a bit boxy on its own. A little switch on the pickup that controls a high-pass filter on the mic. In a great sound situation, especially when playing solo, you can flick it towards the floor and let lower frequencies flow freely. To reduce potential feedback in a band setting, it’s a good idea to flick it up upwards and let the pickup handle the lion’s share of the load.

Tap Into Element 3

The third element is the peppy Tap body sensor, which affixes to the bridgeplate. Tap adds a vivaciousness, dimensionality and depth. It’s excellent at capturing percussive taps on guitar top and can be used to bring some mic-like ambiance without as much feedback risk as a microphone. A separate blend flywheel in the lip of the sound hole controls the amount of Tap signal volume. A little goes a long way.

Making Connections

Installation must be handled by a pro, and there are a couple of options. The simplest is to only use the main output and send a summed signal via traditional mono cord to an acoustic amp, direct box or an unbalanced input on a P.A. mixer. Use both blend controls to find an appropriate balance. To separate signals for isolated individual processing, the second output jack must be installed. I had this done on a Taylor 816e Grand Symphony.

Moving in Stereo

To separate the Tap body sensor from the mag/mic signal, first turn the Tap’s blend control all the way off, taking it out of the main output jack, leaving it for the combination mag/mic signal. The Tap signal now feeds to the second output, which you can control via the amp/mixer/P.A. At this point, three signals flow into two outputs.

How About a 3-Way?

Take things to the next level by employing the included stereo adaptor on the main output jack. Now the pickup and mic signals are isolated via the tip and ring of the stereo cord. Feed those in two typical mono cords while the third cord handles the isolated Tap sensor signal from the secondary jack.

The PowerTap Earth Pro system provides a comprehensive acoustic-electric tone in all scenarios, but for the expansive, dynamic and nuanced tone of Jon Gomm, go for the three-headed monster! Using a little mixer to accommodate and process all three signals separately into a P.A. is empowering. Another way to go about it using common guitar gear is to send the mic and Tap signals to the dual inputs of an acoustic amplifier while sending the magnetic pickup signal to a tube amp. Turn the latter up enough to put a bit of hair on the tone and things get real interesting real quick. In my home office/studio, using the combination of a Circa ’74 acoustic amp and an ’83 Fender Super Champ brought the whole room to life.

Summed Up

The writing has been on the wall for years. Why should electric guitar players have so many pickup options on their instruments while acoustic players are supposed to be happy with just one? They deserve more options to deliver the distinctly different tones available on an acoustic guitar, especially when played percussively in a freehand style.

Fishman is taking a positive step in a progressive direction working with Jon Gomm. I appreciate the risk, understanding that to the average player, buying any new pickup system is a tough decision. The only way to truly hear how it sounds in your guitar is to go ahead and put it in there, and installing a triple-element, dual output system requires a larger leap of faith.

For Gomm fanatics and players that are interested in the pickup system but not so interested in a standalone unit requiring installation, the Ibanez JGM5 is a strong option. Introduced in 2022 as a more affordable version of the JGM10, you get Gomm’s signature Fishman pickup system that’s worth nearly $400 on its own installed in a jumbo grand auditorium cutaway with a stealthy black finish for $1,699. Ibanez sent one along for this review so I could hear Gomm’s Fishman system in its native habitat, and it was well worth it. The JGM5 plays and looks as hip as the multi-faceted pickup system makes it sound.

That said, I truly love seeing the Fishman Jon Gomm PowerTap Earth Pro hit the market as a standalone system that can be installed on any acoustic, as I believe it will lead to more demand for more such options. I personally hope that Fishman will combine its PowerTap Infinity with a Rare Earth Mic Blend. That would provide a tried-and-true piezo undersaddle pickup coupled with a Tap sensor plus a magnetic pickup couple with a mic. Those could be split into dual outputs with two summed signals that could then be split further into four separate signals, creating the ultimate comprehensive system. Until then, I can totally appreciate the Gomm system, and offer Kudos to Fishman for making it available to passionate acoustic tone hounds of all breeds.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT fishman.com

PRICE $379 street

CONTROLS Pickup/mic blend, mic voicing switch (bass boost), Tap blend

EXTRAS Stereo adapter

BATTERY 9V

BUILT China

KUDOS Three-dimensional tonal palette from triple-element system with flexible functionality

CONCERNS A volume knob on the pickup would be appreciated

The DigiTech Whammy family has a new member, and it’s a prodigious bundle of possibility. Like its predecessors that helped reinvent the sound of rock in the ‘90s via Jack White, Tom Morello and many other electric guitar visionaries, the HammerOn is capable of creating unprecedented tones, only available via electronic assistance. The HammerOn even has a dedicated Impossible Mode designed to facilitate fantastical intervallic feats that are simply unplayable physically.

The fundamental concept of the HammerOn stompbox is clearly indicated in the title. It facilitates precise pitch jumps as if you were hammering-on the fretboard with an extra hand, only using feet instead of fingers. But in fact, it’s a deep pedal that does much more.

The HammerOn’s primary controls are a pair of foot switches that raise or lower the pitch from a played note by chosen intervals. Unlike the original Whammy, which shifted a note with a keyboard-like portamento, these shifts happen precisely and instantaneously on the HammerOn, as the note leaps directly to the intervals assigned to the Pitch 1 and Pitch 2 foot switches.

The default shifts are up a 5th for Pitch 1 and up an octave for Pitch 2. Hit either while playing a note on a single string and it sounds as if you’d reached over with your plucking hand to hammer on either a 5th or an octave above. The Pitch 1 foot switch is dedicated to the hammer-on effect and it’s momentary, so the pitch shift holds until you let go, allowing you to toggle back and forth manually between the played note and the shifted one.

Do so with a chord, and it sounds as if a capo was placed above it by the given interval, like hammering on and off with as many as six fingers simultaneously. There are two global modes: Classic and Chords. Factory default is set to Chords, which doesn’t track single notes as well as Classic, but it’s much better for multiple notes.

The craziest element to the HammerOn pedal may be its practicality. DigiTech claims it offers seven pedals in one, and its Drop setting alone makes it worth keeping on your board in case you want to, say, drop the whole tuning a step or two without having to change axes, or raise the pitch of an entire chord structure without a capo. Add the insane amount of note shifting and sequencing available at your feet to incorporate on the fly, and it’s a potential game changer.

Engage the Trill button and the HammerOn will toggle back and forth automatically, like hitting the switch repeatedly at a selectable rate. Use the dry+ function to hear the played note coupled with the intervallic shift, like a double-stop. Add the Trill back and it toggles the sound of both notes back and forth.

It’s easy to select different intervals of pitch shifting. Hit and hold either pitch switch and turn the control knob to select from the intervallic options conveniently laid out in an upper and lower row. Let go to assign that interval to the selected switch, and you’ve got a new landscape of harmonic options at your feet.

You can always tell which interval is assigned to which pitch switch because one of the 16 intervallic LEDs will light each time you hit the switch. Including the root tone there are 27 options, as you can raise it chromatically up or down an octave, plus two bonus shifts that take the root pitch a whopping two octaves in either direction.

Pitch 2 foot switch functionality works in close conjunction with the Mode button, and there are three options. It starts out in Hammer-On Mode where it behaves just like Switch 1 as indicated by a purple light. Hit the button again and it turns red to indicate Impossible Mode. It’s a variant of Hammer-On mode that alternates between two pitches.

Now you can use multiple hits of the Pitch 2 switch to alternate between, say, up a perfect fourth and down a perfect 5th. Remember, Pitch 1 is still available to be set on, say, two octaves up. So things start getting rather “impossible” really quick as you’ve got three disparate notes to toggle between with your feet while your fingers are still available to play whatever comes to mind. Is it blown yet?

We’ve only scratched the surface of this fathoms deep pedal. Sequence Mode is the third option for the Pitch 2 foot switch, and there are three sequence varieties. A blue light indicates that you’re in Sequence Mode with the default setting of two notes per sequence, meaning you can assign two different pitches that will sound with each press of the switch before returning to the root tone on the third press.

Hit the Mode button again and a teal light indicates a three-note sequence. One more press and a green light indicates a five-note sequence. Yes, you can engage the Trill effect in Sequence mode to automate the process to sound as if you’ve hit the Pitch 2 foot switch multiple times in succession.

You can go absolutely nuts with this pedal! If you’re looking for a new way to create insane sounds, look no further than the DigiTech HammerOn. But this device can be used for way more than ear candy.

I got mine just as I was about to sub in on a funk gig for a jazzy cat that’s far more harmonically advanced than me. The HammerOn was perfect for providing a shortcut to some further “out” stuff than I would normally play, without ever having to venture into fretboard territory beyond my ability to navigate.

And then there’s the creativity factor, which is absolutely off the charts. During this review process as I walked through the functionality of the pedal, numerous ideas for riffs, licks and chord progressions popped up seemingly out of nowhere. There were chord progressions I’d never otherwise consider, riffs and licks that ventured off into extended ranges I wouldn’t have accessed, and then the truly impossible stuff, such as hammering on below a fretted note and then instantaneously shooting the moon two octaves above.

Sonically, the HammerOn sounds a lot like other members of the Whammy family with which we’ve become familiar. Is it always completely realistic? No, but that’s also part of the charm. You can enter the global Classic mode to get superior individual note tracking, but I understand why Chord mode is the default, because anything more than two or three tones shifted together sounds quite jumbled in Classic mode, whereas Chord mode can accommodate shifting a full barre chord.

Upward shifts tend to sound a bit better than lowered ones. The higher the range, the more Chipmunk-like the tone. Very high tones can sound almost like whistles, but I didn’t mind much for single notes because that’s part of the established Whammy-tone lexicon at this point, and the harp-like character of the “capoed” chords sounds charming in its own unique way as well.

The closer to the fretted note or especially the played chord, the more realistic the effected tone sounds. So if you simply want to drop a half step to play along with, say, Stevie Ray or EVH without having to retune, then yes, it’s remarkably authentic. It works on an acoustic-electric guitar as well, but the weird thing then is that you hear the unfettered acoustic sound from the guitar while you hear the dropped or raised tuning from the amp.

I haven’t had this much fun with a pedal since I can’t remember when. I dig the electronic nature of the far-out tones, and it was a gas to watch heads spin at the Boom Boom Room when I’d hit the HammerOn to leap into octave-up licks that seemed to pop in from another sonic dimension.

It also solved a few very practical problems such as facilitating dropped tunings without need of a second instrument on the gig, and making me sound like a more creative lead player than I truly am! One person said, “How did you make your guitar sing like that? It was like Peter Frampton or something!”

I’d enthusiastically recommend the DigiTech HammerOn to absolutely anyone out for sonic adventure. Kudos to DigiTech for further expanding the horizon of possibility.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT digitech.com

PRICE $279

CONTROLS Selector knob (pitch shift interval; trill speed), Dry+ button, Trill button, Mode button

FOOT SWITCHES Pitch 1, Pitch 2

I/O Standard ¼ " input and output, 9VDC jack (adapter included)

LEDs Dry/true bypass, interval indicators (1 row up and 1 row down): 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, Oct, 2 Oct; Dry+, Trill, Mode: Hammer On, Impossible, Sequence 2, 3, 5

EXTRAS True Bypass

POWER 9V 300mA

DIMENSIONS 5.12" x 3.57" x 1.84" (LxWxH)

WEIGHT 1.12 lbs

PRO Capable of awesome fantastical tones as well as many practical applications

CON None

The latest iteration of Fender’s evolved Strat for the hard-working modern player has arrived in the form of the Player II Modified Stratocaster, and it packs some thoughtful punches for the relatively accessible price. In what we might call a twofold advance of the long-running Player series from Fender’s Ensenada factory in Mexico, the Player II Modified takes it all a notch more hot-rodded from the standard Player II Stratocaster that was unveiled last July, adding a handful of features that seek to squeeze maximum versatility from the instrument without broadly changing the classic format.

All of which is to say, glimpsed from across the room this is still entirely recognizable as the instrument Leo & co. released way back in 1954. But on closer examination it’s definitely not your grandmother’s Stratocaster.

The most notable additions here when compared to the existing standard Player II include the three Player II Noiseless pickups in place of the Alnico V single-coils, block saddles in place of vintage-style bent-steel, a push-pull switch on the bridge pickup’s tone knob that adds the neck pickup to any switch position that doesn’t normally include it, and locking short post tuners in place of the vintage-look ClassicGear units.

Other less-obvious changes include the use of Fender’s Modern String Tree, a Tusq nut in place of synthetic bone, and a broadly different color palette. Dipping into the latter, our review sample comes in the appealingly deep and rich Harvest Green Metallic, done in gloss polyurethane over a solid alder body and complemented by a three-ply black pickguard and black plastics that hark back to some of the earlier Strat cosmetic alterations of the ’70s.

The one-piece maple neck (also offered with the sunburst-finished model, while rosewood is used for the model in black finish) is carved to Fender’s Modern-C profile, a universally appealing shape with a rounded feel and a medium depth. A fast-feeling satin polyurethane finish on the neck back partners with a gloss on the fingerboard and neck, while comfortably rolled fingerboard edges and 22 well-dressed medium-jumbo frets all ease the playing experience. Truss-rod adjustment access is at the headstock, another convenience that most modern Fenders outside the Vintage Reissue series have given us.

The guitar’s two-point vibrato (something Fender habitually calls a “tremolo”) represents another nod to modernity that’s also found on the standard Player II. Set up with a slight tip-up as Leo intended, it delivers smooth action and good return-to-pitch stability with moderate use, aided by the Tusq nut and locking tuners.

The three single-coil pickups in this SSS version of the Player II Modified Stratocaster were newly designed specifically for the model, aiming for traditional Strat tones with hum-free performance, just as the name implies. They’re wired through a five-way switch, a master volume control with treble-bleed network to maintain highs as you roll it down, one tone that acts on the neck and middle pickups together, and another tone which acts on the bridge pickup along (the latter that aforementioned “add-neck” push-pull switch).

The guitar arrived playing smoothly right out of its Fender gigbag, with an easy medium-low action and not a hint of a snaggy fret end in sight. It sustained well even played unplugged, with a full, balanced acoustic tone and decent volume for a solidbody electric.

Tested through a tweed Deluxe-style 1x12 combo, a Vox-ish 65amps London tube head and 2x12 cab, and a Fractal FM9 into headphones, the Player II Modified Stratocaster delivered archetypal Strat tones aplenty: bright, glassy, snappy and quacky… and did I already say “bright”? There’s a boatload of treble in these Player II Noiseless pickups—partnered by an admirable lack of hum — but hey, that’s what the tone controls are for.

With the tone knobs rolled down a little and the amps’ EQ dialed to suit, the Player II Modified Stratocaster revealed greater depths in its firm, bouncy lows and classically scooped midrange. It’s a sonic package well suited to sparkling cleans that excel at everything from surfy instrumentals to country twang to rock balladry, yet it all translates well into eviscerating lead tones through a cranked amp, or the Friedman Small Box and Thorpy Peacekeeper overdrives I tested it with.

Putting just a little hair on it, the Player II Modified Stratocaster delivers the kind of rootsy, rock and roll grind or trenchant blues that Fender’s dual-cutaway, three-pickup design has long excelled at. Given a lot of hair, it takes more easily to heavier rock than some, considering the lack of hum and eviscerating clarity in the delivery.

All in all, if you’re the kind of player who’s quick to modify a “standard” template to suit modern stylistic demands, yet eager for a hefty dose of traditional Strat magic, the new Player II Modified Stratocaster is worth checking out. It leans a little bright and spiky, but that can be dealt with, and playability, fit, finish, and function are all excellent for the price range.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT Fender.com

PRICE $999 street

NUT Tusq, 1.65" wide

NECK Maple, 25.5" scale length, Modern-C profile

FRETBOARD Maple, 9.5" radius

FRETS 22 medium-jumbo

TUNERS Fender Short Post locking tuners

BODY Solid alder

BRIDGE Two-point Synchronized Tremolo with block saddles and chamfered tremolo block

PICKUPS Three Fender Player II Noiseless single-coil pickups

CONTROLS Volume and two Tone controls, five-way switch, push-pull add-neck on bridge Tone

FACTORY STRINGS Fender USA 250LR Nickel Plated Steel .009–.046

WEIGHT 7.8 lbs

BUILT (country of origin) Mexico

KUDOS A versatile take on the traditional Stratocaster with handy built-in modifications to suit the modern player.

CONCERNS It leans toward a very bright delivery, but that can be tamed as needed.

To borrow from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, “What has solid-state ever done for us?” it gave the Beatles one of the most recognizable overdrive and distortion tones recorded in the late ’60s. Its source was the preamp in the transistor-driven Vox Conqueror amplifier of 1967 – ’69, which was used widely on Magical Mystery Tour and the White Album, thereby making all our lives a little richer.

It all comes to life in Aclam's new Go Rocky Go pedal, the company's latest Beatles gear–inspired pedal. In addition to being a respected Spanish guitar, pedal and accessory maker, Aclam numbers several Beatles obsessives among its personnel, hence the company's roster of effects pedals that include Dr. Robert, a replica of the iconic Vox UL730 amp used by the Beatles on Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's, and the Mocker, an expanded rendition of the UL730 series fuzz circuit.

The premise and execution of the Go Rocky Go pedal reads like something that could only emanate from a true passion project. The foundation of the circuit was designed as a faithful reproduction of the Brilliant Channel of Vox Conqueror serial number 2004, an amp from the same era as that used by the Beatles, which was acquired and faithfully restored by Aclam’s engineers.

In addition to its origins as Vox’s transistorized reproduction of the company’s world-striding signature sounds, the Conqueror preamp also included built-in distortion and M.R.B. (Mid Range Boost) effects, which have been included and even refined in the Go Rocky Go circuit to deliver a little more of everything. In total, the pedal offers four modes of boost/OD/distortion: Standard, Crunch, M.R.B. and Distortion.

Controls tasked with governing all of this include volume, attack-sustain (distortion content and character), distortion volume, the three-way M.R.B. switch that selects the frequency range, treble and bass. There are two foot switches, which between them can access all four modes or bypass the pedal, according to a short or long press (1.5 seconds) applied, or a stomp of both together to switch M.R.B. on or off, and all with totally silent switching. In addition, Crunch mode has its own internal trim pot to fine tune the gain to your preference.

Alongside their taste for esoteric pedal designs, the folks at Aclam are known for the quality of the boxes they put them in. While the case for the first limited release is designed to work with the company's unique Smart Track pedalboard anchoring system system, future editions feature a standard enclosure, as shown in the photos here, except for those shown in the main top image.

Regardless, the sound, specs and colorful finish remain the same. This pedal is housed in a rugged die-cast construction and decorated outside with a powder-coated homage to the distinctive paint job on George Harrison’s famous Rocky Fender Stratocaster, which he applied over the guitar’s original Sonic Blue finish. The unit runs on a standard center-negative power supply (not included) that delivers anything from nine to 18 volts, achieving higher headroom and greater output volume with the latter.

Tested with a Gibson ES-355 and a Fender Telecaster into a tweed Deluxe-style 1x12 combo and a Vox-ish 65amps London head and 2x12 cab, the Go Rocky Go quickly revealed a multifaceted sonic template as unique as its looks, and delivered a fast track to several classic tones of the late ’60s.

Guitarists are entirely familiar with the utility of solid-state effects pedals these days, yet most solid-state guitar amps — those in the traditional sense, rather than digital modelers — still get relatively little respect compared to their tube-driven contemporaries. It’s interesting, then, that this example of the former is designed to replicate some of the more compelling examples of the latter, and does it so well even when used into a contemporary tube amp, as most will likely be.

From gentle boost to mid-crunch to hairy fuzz-adjacent distortion — all EQ’d to taste — there’s a lot available in this box, and it’s understandable that it takes some playing-around to fully come to grips with it. But for a pedal that packs so much and costs a pretty penny to bring it to you, that seems fair enough, and it’s worth spending time getting to know it.

The veracity and broad range of the White Album and Magical Mystery Tour tones that revealed themselves at each twist of a knob or stomp of a switch (or two) blew me away. In the process, the pedal also revealed a plethora of inspiring gain-staging options that are well outside the familiar — which is to say, the sounds here have very little in common with the boost, overdrive, distortion and fuzz circuits that are so often replicated from one pedal to the next, ad infinitum.

The tones here run the gamut from blocky, hard-edged and bordering-on-harsh-bright to smooth and creamy, such as with distortion engaged and the attack-sustain knob well clockwise. In that respect, Go Rocky Go reminds us that the sounds that stand out in a mix aren’t always the familiar and comforting but often can be the new (or once new, in this case), different and attention grabbing.

As such, it’s also worth noting that the Go Rocky Go might not be one for the guitarist merely seeking a new shade of tube-like overdrive or the mere boosting of their own amp into clipping, as so many traditional ODs aim to do. Instead, it’s very much its own thing with a specific and focused agenda, and it achieves that very, very well. And — as a bonus — each pedal comes with a sticker depicting Harrison circa late 1967 and a pair of buttons.

In so doing, it takes us back to a time when a little English rock band decided that virtuous guitar tones didn’t all have to come from cranked Marshalls or searing Vox AC30s, and understood that an oddball of a solid-state interloper — a Vox amp marketed as the cutting edge of guitar tone and the next big thing — could generate sounds that would stand out perfectly in some of their more complex and ambitious mixes. It was cool stuff for the Beatles nearly 60 years ago, and might just be the creative nudge you need today.

CONTACT aclamguitars.com

PRICE $349 street

CONTROLS Volume, distortion volume, attack-sustain, 1-2-3 (Mid Range Boost), treble and bass. Internal trim pot for Crunch mode gain

EXTRAS Input and output, silent switching, LED indicator for each function, center-negative 9V-18V DC adaptor input

SIZE 5.4" x 3.4" x 2.2" (L x D x H)

ORIGIN Assembled in Spain

Positive Grid has become quite a force in guitar amplification over the past six years. Their innovative Spark smart amp debuted in early 2020 and brought a wealth of innovations to guitarists for home practice. Those included excellent stereo sound from a desktop amp, dozens of modeled amps and effects from Positive Grid’s award-winning BIAS FX line, Auto Chord Recognition to help you learn songs, and Smart Jam virtual jamming with drum and bass accompaniment. Spark did all this by working in tandem with the Spark app, which provides convenient access to the amp and effect settings, presets, chords and more, right on your phone.

Positive Grid has served up several iterations of Spark since then, including the smaller MINI Amp, the coat pocket–sized Spark Go, and Spark LIVE, a Guitar amp and PA all-in-one that's powerful enough for live performance. Last year, the original Spark got an overhaul with Spark 2, featuring a new speaker design, improved audio, a built-in looper, and AI features that let the Spark app serve up new preset options based on descriptions you give to it.

Now comes Spark Neo, which puts all those quality sounds, and nearly every one of those features, in a pair of wireless over-ear headphones that connect with the Spark app. The result is an immersive audio experience that delivers excellent clarity and detail you can’t get from headphones alone.

Neo includes a headphone set, as well as a wireless dongle that plugs into your electric or acoustic or bass and connects wirelessly to the headphones. The headphones are covered with the same textured tolex found on Spark’s amps, which has a pleasing, almost suede-like feel. The gold-tone metal fittings have an attractive satin finish, and generous pads for the ears and inside the top of the headband keep the phones comfortable to wear over long sessions. They look and feel well built, and while they’re not heavy, the headphone do have a bit of heft that tells me they can stand up to the wear and tear of daily use. The ear cups fold in, making them more compact for travel in a backpack or case.

• Order Spark Neo now for $199 with free shipping

The body of the dongle is roughly two and a half inches long. Its entire length with the 1/4 plug extended in about four inches, but the plug can be angled to position the dongle out of your way when it’s attached to your guitar. All in all, it’s an attractive package that, like the headphones, feels solid and durable.

The Neo headphones are designed to reproduce both guitar and bass frequencies. To that end, they feature full-range 40mm drivers, with specially designed acoustic chambers in the ear cups and passive tuning for precision frequency control and minimal distortion. While the phones aren’t noise cancelling, they do an excellent job of shutting out environmental noise thanks to the pads, damping materials, and other design elements. For added convenience, the outsides of the ear cups have controls for power, volume and preset selection on the right-side cup, and the wireless receiver on/off button on the left.

Both the phones and wireless dongle charge via USB-C (a braided USB-C cable is included). Expect about three and a half hours to get a full charge. Positive Grid says you can get roughly six hours of use on a full charge when using Neo with guitar, and eight hours use for music playback, all of which is consistent with my experience. In addition, Neo’s headset and dongle shut down when they don’t detect music for a length of time — a nice power-saving feature if you’re forgetful.

And should you forget to charge the dongle, don’t worry — you can connect your instrument directly to the headphones with a 1/4-inch cable and continue to use all of Spark’s features with the app.

Getting started with Neo was simple and intuitive: Plug the dongle into the guitar, connect it via Bluetooth to the headphones, launch the Spark app on your phone, select Neo from the main menu, and you’re done. Bluetooth connectivity was excellent, and I was up and running without a hitch.

I’ve used the entire Spark range over the years, during which time I’ve found several favorite presets and created many of my own. I’ve been impressed at how well these sounds remained consistent in nature regardless of the Spark device I’ve used, so I was particularly interested to see how they translate to headphones.

I’m happy to say the sounds I’ve grown familiar with hold up just fine over Neo, and if anything sound more detailed thanks to the immersive experience Neo offers. It was uncannily similar to wearing headphones while recording in a commercial studio, where extraneous noises — in particular environmental white noise — are tuned out. My general sense was that my guitars sounded more nuanced and professional, as if they had a bit of production polish applied to them.

At the same time there was the sense of the sound moving air. Far from being sterile or “dead,” the sound from my guitars — which included a Gibson ES-345, a Fender Jazzmaster and a Gibson J-160E — was alive and present. It’s all the more impressive when I suddenly remembered there was nothing between my guitar and Neo.

I didn’t have a bass on hand to test Neo with, but I did try it with several keyboards, including a Moog Grandmother synth. Bass patches on the synth sounded surprisingly deep, rich and articulate. I heard plenty of midrange punch and low-end thump, and while I expected a rather compressed sound from Neo’s drivers given the amount of energy that bass frequencies push out, there was actually a sense of roominess and air, as if the tones were coming from an amplifier’s speaker.

It seems worth adding here that, while the Spark line is intended for guitarists, there’s really no reason keyboard players can’t use it as well. Like my other Spark devices, Neo did an admirable job handling signals from a Hohner Clavinet, a Wurlitzer electric piano and a range of synths, provided that I kept an eye on my levels. Considering how underserved keyboardists are in the amp department, Spark is a bounty of sonic opportunities for them to explore.

In addition, Spark’s AI feature is a blast to explore, and it can come up with sounds I might not have discovered on my own. To use it, go the AI page in the Spark app and type in what you’re looking for. AI can work with standard phrases, such as “dirty electric blues fingerpicking,” or more fanciful descriptions like “jazz meets shoegaze.” The results were always right in the ballpark of what I was looking for. When I found something I wanted to keep, I could simply name it and save it as a preset.

While last year’s Spark 2 added a looper to the lineup’s feature set, Neo doesn’t have one. That was no great loss to me, but if it matters to you, it’s possible to plug your guitar into your favorite looper and then plug Neo’s dongle into its output. Likewise, Smart Jam isn’t offered due to the nature of Neo. Smart Jam works by listening to your playing via your phone’s microphone and creating a backing track in real time. Since audio in the Neo realm is confined to the headphones, there’s no signal for the phone to pick up. However, you can still use Quick Jam, which lets you play along to drum and bass tracks.

And lest I forget to mention it, Neo makes an excellent set of audio headphones as well. I frequently went straight from playing guitar with Neo to streaming music, and the quality was excellent.

What could make Neo better? A simple carrying case would be nice. I repurposed a case from another set of Bluetooth headphones when I took Neo on a trip, and it made me more comfortable about traveling with them. It’s a minor point though, and given Neo’s reasonable price tag it I can’t make too big a deal about it.

At the end of the day, Neo is an excellent addition to Spark’s lineup, bringing a more immersive experience to what is already a fun and inspiring line of amplifiers. Whether you crave privacy for your practice sessions, need to keep your volume down for roommates and neighbors, or simply prefer headphones over speakers, Neo’s detailed sound will put you closer to the music you make and give you the power to roam untethered and free while you’re doing it.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT positivegrid.com

PRICE $199

CONTROLS Headphones: . Dongle: on/off

EXTRAS Braided USB-C cable

POWER Full charge in 3.5 hours. Approximately 6 hours charge for guitar, 8 hours for music streaming

PRO Great sound, excellent build and comfortable fit. AI features are both fun and useful

CON No case

Guitarist, songwriter and producer Mike Campbell is known to have used several classic guitars throughout his career, but one of the best-recognized is the mutt that helped propel one his biggest early hits with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. To that end, the new Fender Stories Collection Mike Campbell “Red Dog” Telecaster faithfully recreates the heavily modified 1972 Tele Campbell acquired second-hand early in his career, which was quickly made legendary on the recording and video for the Heartbreakers’ 1979 hit “Refugee,” and slotted into his arsenal for regular rotation thereafter.

As befits Fender’s ongoing Stories Collection — which captures notable artist guitars with compelling backstories — the tale of the Red Dog Telecaster began when a former guitar student in Florida offered Campbell his 1972 Telecaster for sale. When he laid the instrument in his tutor’s hands, though, it was clearly a Tele that had already undergone extensive modification.

In addition to the added Bigsby and traditional single-coil bridge pickup, the guitar had full-size humbuckers in the neck and middle positions, and an added boost circuit activated by a push-button switch on the control plate, which became known as the “Destruct" circuit. Sold!

Appropriately, the chassis of the Red Dog Telecaster replicates the period-correct features of a ’72 Tele with Custom Color finish. It’s finished in Red Dog Red, a color that’s a cousin of Candy Apple Red. Woods include a body of solid alder and a one-piece maple neck with two string trees, ’70s-era “F” tuners, and the bold black logo of the period.

Having played so many of Fender’s recreations of pre-CBS Telecasters, I think it’s fun to see the effort that has gone into this one from a less-lauded time. The original Red Dog was clearly a fine guitar to grab Campbell’s attention in the first place, but the general decline of manufacturing quality through that decade makes many ’70s examples rather hit-or-miss. Given the fit and finish of this Stories Collection guitar, which are impressive at first assessment, it might be a better-made instrument than many originals of the day.

The medium-C neck carve feels accurate to the period, and the 7.25-inch fingerboard radius and 21 vintage-narrow frets round out the impression of authenticity in the feel. Overall, it’s a fast and easy player, with smoothly dressed frets and an appealing shape in the hand. And if more extreme string bending requires the occasional workaround on this tight vintage-correct radius, well, plenty of great players managed to live with it over the years, including Campbell himself.

It’s worth noting that the Fender Custom Shop offers a Limited Edition Masterbuilt version of the Red Dog that replicates the build and play wear of the original in even more painstaking detail, but this Stories Collection example boasts light checking and wear in the finish and hardware to give it the patina of age—something Fender calls its Heirloom nitrocellulose finish—and I feel it looks great as such.

The effort even goes as far as leaving out the low-E-string ferrule on the back of the body, long missing from Campbell’s Red Dog (the ferrules themselves are evidence that the original began life as a standard Telecaster, rather than a factory Bigsby model).

If there are any detracting points, I’d say the full guitar comes in a little heavy at just shy of nine pounds, but with the Bigsby tailpiece and pair of humbuckers being part of that, it tells us the basic chassis sits within a reasonable weight range for a ’70s Telecaster.

All three pickups are custom-designed for the guitar and carry a Mike Campbell Red Dog designation, including the traditional Telecaster single-coil in the bridge and the PAF-style humbuckers in the middle and neck positions. These reveal DC resistance readings of 10.24k ohms, 7.50k ohms and 7.15k ohms, respectively, indicating the bridge pickup is likely a Broadcaster-style wind.

They are wired through a five-way switch that gives the usual individual and combined selections, plus master volume and tone controls and the aforementioned push-push boost switch, which is essentially a pedal-style stomp switch.

The boost circuit and its requisite nine-volt battery are stored under the control plate within the cavity, which makes it a tight squeeze in that narrow space, but it all fits well enough. The circuit board carries two micro-potentiometers for adjustment of the boot’s gain and level, which are set to the ideal at the factory.

The Bigsby is a B5F, the “horseshoe” unit designated for Fender use, with the same rocker bridge used on Jazzmasters and Jaguars, mounted in a plate designed for converting standard Telecasters to Bigsby use. Fender “F” tuners with slotted posts, a chromed control plate with chromed/knurled knobs, aluminum strap buttons, and a three-ply white pickguard complete the package.

Tested through a tweed Deluxe-style 1x12 combo, a Vox-ish 65amps London head and 2x12 cab and a Fractal FM9 into headphones, the Red Dog Telecaster quickly revealed the power and versatility that clearly appealed to Mike Campbell in the first place.

On the bridge pickup, the guitar delivers pure traditional Tele twang and makes a great option for spikier leads and meaty single-note wound-string riffs alike. It’s still one of the greatest bridge-position tones in the electric guitar world, so whichever Dr. Frankenstein modded the Red Dog in the first place, they were wise to leave out the humbucker there.

As might be expected, the middle and neck positions usher in more power and warmth, while retaining plenty of clarity. As many other modders discovered over the years, adding a humbucker to a Telecaster’s rhythm position alleviates once and for all the underwhelming neck-pickup tone that so many such guitars experienced previously, and this is no exception.

It wouldn’t be quite right to say it’s “Gibsony,” considering the Fender-specific nuances that the alder body, maple neck, and 25.5-inch scale length bring to the table, but it gets you in that ballpark and proves great for singing rock and blues leads in particular.

Fun and a little surprising are the in-between positions, which aren’t quite as thin and quacky the in-between Strat tones implied by the two and four positions on a five-way switch, but are fuller and rounder, though still funky and scooped, and seem primed for more atmospheric effects-laden playing or softer balladry.

On top of it all the boost function is a fun bonus. Leaning toward a vintage fuzz, it’s thick and woolly without being overly dark, and cleans up well from the guitar’s volume control, too. There’s a slight dip and ramping-back-up of the guitar’s output when you switch it off again—presumably as the active circuit hands things back over to the passive signal chain—but I guess it’s something you’d get used to. And having played with adjusting the micro-pots for gain and level, I happily returned to the factory settings, which seem “just right” for this fuzzy preamp.

Finally, the Bigsby functions smoothly and excels at the evocative wobbles for which these things are famous. It has decent return-to-pitch after use provided you’re not too vigorous with your vibrato action, but some retuning will be inevitable between heavy handed songs. All in all, it's a powerful, versatile variation on the timeless Telecaster, and one with a vital back story to boot.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT Fender.com

PRICE $3,499 street

NUT Bone, 1.60" wide

NECK Maple, 25.5" scale length, medium “C” profile

FRETBOARD Maple, 7.25" radius

FRETS 21 vintage-gauge

TUNERS Fender “F” key

BODY Solid alder

BRIDGE Rocking offset-style bridge and Bigsby “F” vibrato

PICKUP Three Fender Red Dog pickups: a Tele single coil in the bridge position and vintage-style humbuckers in the middle and neck

CONTROLS Volume and tone controls, five-way switch, push-push boost switch

FACTORY STRINGS Fender USA 250LR Nickel Plated Steel .009–.046

WEIGHT 8.8 lbs

BUILT USA

KUDOS A fun tribute to Mike Campbell’s “Refugee” guitar, the Red Dog is a powerful and versatile modded-Tele in its own right.

CONCERNS The guitar’s a little heavy overall, and there’s a slight dip in output when switching off the boost.

There are some big surprises tucked inside Strymon’s compact new pedal, the EC-1 Single Head dTape Echo. For one thing, there’s the sound, which is a gorgeous emulation of a Cesar Díaz–modified Echoplex EP-2 tube tape delay.

For another, there are its features, which go well beyond what’s evident on the control panel. While the EC-1 appears to be a effect pedal with some standard ways to shape the sound, it features many useful under-the-hood options, including a second preamp emulation, a preamp boost, bypass and spillover modes, and much more. And best of all, you don’t need your smart phone to access them.

Before I continue, a disclaimer: I’m crazy for vintage delay, and tape delay in particular. There’s nothing like the spongy, organic sound of saturated tape delay, where the repeats become fuzzier and less distinct as the frequencies roll off with each repeat. On a good tube unit you can even push the preamp into distortion to add new tonal flavors, depending on the pickups on your electric guitar of choice.

Fortunately for us all, modern delay pedals have gotten extremely good at emulating tape and drum echo machines of long ago. I’ve had the good luck to own a few of those mechanical marvels, and the gap between the originals and their modern digital models has, for all intents and purposes, disappeared.

Some of my favorites modern emulation pedals include Boss’s digital re-creations of its vintage RE-201 tape delay/spring reverb unit and, more recently, the Dawner Prince Boonar Tube Deluxe, an uncanny emulation of the Binson Echorec 2 T7E electromechanical four-head magnetic-drum delay unit popularized by players like David Gilmour in Pink Floyd. I was likewise thoroughly impressed by Strymon’s Volante Magnetic Tape Delay (see Guitar Player May 2019), a beautifully streamlined pedal that puts tape delay, drum delay, spring reverb and a looper in one excellent-sounding and well-spec’ed pedal.

BACKGROUND

So it’s perhaps needless to say, but I was very curious to try out the EC-1. The EP-2 model on which it’s based was the second Echoplex design and the last to feature a tube preamp. It’s also the one favored by Andy Summers, who made it a major part of his tonal signature in the Police, which is reason enough to be intrigued.

As it turns out, the EC-1 has an interesting background of its own. It began to take shape when Strymon decided to create a single-head tape echo pedal based on the award-winning dTape algorithm at the heart of the company’s El Capistan dTape Echo stomp box.

To get things started, Strymon’s designers explored the preamp from a pristine vintage Echoplex EP-2. The machine not only looked great but sounded especially good, with a more balanced frequency response than the original. They soon found it had an unusual history, having been heavily modified by Cesar Dîaz, the late guitar tech behind the tone of players like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. Given their luck at nabbing such a marvelous example, the designers shifted the project’s focus to re-creating the sound of the magical Dîaz-modified EP-2.

Says Strymon CEO, Gregg Stock, “His mods created a single unit with the best attributes of both tube and solid-state Echoplexes, so we spent a bunch of time figuring out how to re-create its behavior.”

Pete Celi, Strymon co-founder and DSP maven, remarked that the sound was so clean and the performance so stable, “other nuances stood out more prominently — chief among them being some capstan-induced variations that help to widen the spectrum of the repeats.”

While I can’t vouch for the source unit, I can say the EC-1 sounds uncannily true to the character and vibe of a tube Echoplex. And to back up Pete Celi, it certainly has more finesse and detail than I’ve heard from examples I’ve owned.

CONTROLS

As you might expect from Strymon, the EC-1 comes with plenty of hands-on controls. There are the familiar dials for time (from 50ms to 1 second), repeats and mix, as well as two controls for tape age and mechanics. Tape age mimics the loss of fidelity that occurs over time as the tape ages, rolling off high frequencies as the knob is turned clockwise. Mechanics introduces sonic effects caused by physical wear and tear on the tape, including wrinkles, creases, splices and contamination from dirt and dust.

There’s also a three-position mini toggle for record level, and it’s here that some of that Echoplex magic begins. With settings for low, medium and high, the switch determines the gain and bias of the signal being recorded and the resulting sound of the repeats. Low allows the greatest headroom and results in the cleanest-sounding delays, while medium and high boost the signal and increase bias for more saturated-sounding repeats. It’s an excellent feature that really opens up the EC-1’s sonic range.

The foot switch does double duty as a bypass switch and as a means of entering Tap Tempo mode: Hold the switch down until the LED status light turns blue, then tap the switch to set the tempo. In Tap Tempo mode, the time knob determines the tap division: eighth-note triplets, eighth notes, dotted eighth notes and quarter notes.

INS AND OUTS

Around the pedal’s back end, you’ll find the individual single 1/4-inch input and output jacks. Both can be switched between mono and stereo operation by means of a switch above the jacks, although you’ll need TRS adaptors or cables for stereo.

Next up is a 1/4-inch expression/MIDI input jack. In addition to handling MIDI signals, the jack can be assigned to work in conjunction with an expression pedal, with a tap tempo switch, as a tap to call up one favorite preset you can store in the EC-1, or as a infinite hold, depending on how you set it up under the hood (more on this below).

There’s also a UCB-C jack for computer MIDI and firmware updates, and the nine-volt DC center-negative power input. The EC-1 doesn’t ship with a power adaptor, but I had no problem powering it from a DC pedal power supply with isolated outputs.

UNDER THE HOOD

As for those hidden features, you can access them with a press of the foot switch and a turn of a knob (or a power up), depending on what you’ve set out to do. The manual comes in handy here, although you’ll need to download it from strymon.net, as the box contains only a quick-start guide to the physical controls and I/Os.

Live Edit mode offers an optional preamp model that mimics the sonic character of the EP-2’s original tube preamp, and a preamp boost that works with either preamp setting. You can also defeat the preamp model altogether if you prefer. Power Up mode lets you choose the bypass mode for mono operation. By default, this is set to True Bypass when the rear I/O switch is set to mono, but it can be switched to Buffered Bypass to preserve high-frequency response through long signal chains.

Here too you can activate a Spillover Mode to allow the delays to spill into bypass or a new preset, as well as set how the mix knob works with the dry signal. In addition you can configure LED brightness as well as set the EXP/MIDI jack function and configure the EC-1 for external controls.

THE SOUND

There’s no mistaking the EC-1’s characteristic tape delay emulation, from its warmth and slightly blurry echoes to the reduced bandwidth of each successive repeat. I spent hours trying it with a Gibson ES-345 and a Fender Jazzmaster through a Fender ’65 Princeton Reverb with an Eminence Legend 1028K speaker, and achieved heavenly results for everything from clean slapback to vintage ‘70s rock and washed-out ambient shoegaze.

There’s an uncanny verisimilitude at work, not only in the sound but in the way some of the controls affect the sound. Moving the speed knob while playing results in the kind of tape-speed mayhem you get from the real deal, and it was easy to set the repeats to a barely controllable edge-of-feedback drone, one of my favorite things to do with a tape delay or tape emulation pedal. The EC-1 never spilled over into a feedback assault, unless I wanted it to.

The tape age and mechanics controls work brilliantly and are thoughtfully nuanced. There’s quite a bit of range on tap for both controls, making it possible to add everything from subtle warmth and grit to the glitched-out sounds of a tape loop in need of replacement.

But what really makes the EC-1 a winner for me is the three-position record level toggle. While I enjoyed the low setting for clean echoes, the medium and high settings are where the EC-1 shines, adding grit and harmonic bliss to the mix, and I spent most of my time with the switch in either of those two positions.

If a vintage tube Echoplex tape delay is your dream, or if you just want a great additional flavor of delay, the EC-1 is a pedal you’ll want to check out. It sounds like the real thing — only better. And you’ll appreciate that it gives you so much more than the original. The only things missing are the hassles of maintenance and repairs and the noise from the tape loop.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT strymon.net

PRICE $279

CONTROLS Time, mix, tape age, repeats and mechanics controls. Three-position record level mini toggle

I/O Input and output (both switchable between mono and stereo), expression/MIDI, USB-C, 9V power input

EXTRAS Two selectable tube-modeled preamp voices, tap tempo, multifunctional expression input, MIDI control, true-/buffered bypass modes, spillover modes, high-impedance, ultra-low noise discrete Class A JFET stereo input

POWER 9VDC, center negative, 250mA minimum (adaptor not included)

DIMENSIONS 4.5” x 2.7” x 2.2” (LxWxH)

WEIGHT 9.8 oz

BUILT U.S.A.

Born out of R&D performed in the early 2000’s by none other than Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers, Cleartone was officially founded in 2008 to manufacture strings using several newly developed techniques, including a patented coating treatment that’s different from those used by other manufacturers of coated strings.

According to Cleartone, “The strings were designed from the ground up using custom-built, state-of-the-art string winders, and feature Phil Everly's patented core-to-wrap ratios. Our machines are built to run at higher tensions, creating more string wraps and denser strings, which makes them last longer and provides added volume and tuning consistency.”

Furthermore, the coating, which is featured on all but one set tested here, is purportedly thinner and more durable, while less apparent to the touch, than that used on other coated strings.

Selecting from among several types that Cleartone currently manufactures, I tested the EQ Hybrid Metal and 80/20 sets for acoustic guitar, and the Nickel Plated Treated Strings (a.k.a. “Blue set”) and Everly B-52s sets for electric. All are manufactured in the USA at Cleartone’s factory in Bountiful, Utah, using high carbon-steel core wire made in New York and wrap wire made in Kentucky.

Nickel Plated Treated Strings for Electric

$13.99

Cleartone claims “36% louder and 48% more sustain… and up to 5x the lifespan” for this set of treated, nickel-plated electric guitar strings compared to standard nickel-plated strings. While the first two numbers are difficult to quantify in a listening test, they did bring noticeably more power and bloom to the 2017 Gibson Les Paul Traditional I put them on.

The biggest takeaway, though, is that I heard a livelier overall sound, with a more multidimensional voice that enhances a certain chewy texture to the harmonics. They’re also very balanced across the frequency spectrum, with nothing jumping forward that wasn’t there with the previous set of strings.

In addition, the playing feel is a tad smoother, yet without the squeaky “plasticiness” under the fingers of some other coated strings. All in all, as an avowed string snob, I found them appealing, with a lot to offer as an alternative to the usual suspects.

Everly B-52s Electric Strings

$11.99

The only untreated/uncoated set in this selection, the Everly B-52s are specially designed to increase the magnetic interaction between strings and pickups. “They’re a unique offering made from Alloy-52,” Cleartone tells GP, “a fusion of iron and nickel. This gives them a brighter, punchier tone that won’t dull, making them ultra-magnetic electric strings ideal for high-power guitarists.”

Being somewhat of a contrarian, however, and less versed in the implied high-power and heavy-metal arts, I thought it would be interesting to try the B-52s in a more retro-leaning setting to see what they could coax out of lower-output pickups — that is, a pair of TV Jones Classics (Filter’Tron replicas) on a 2010s Gretsch Duo Jet.

After recording the guitar with its previous and relatively fresh set of popular nickel-plated strings, I strung it up with the .010–.046 Cleartone set provided, played a while, then recorded similar riffs and progressions at the same settings.

If not dramatic as such, the change was certainly apparent. They were notably more “muscular” sounding — with a little more “oomph” in the attack, and to some extent the mids — while remaining quite well-balanced overall.

The B-52s also offered enhanced high-end sparkle but certainly weren’t shrill. At the other end, their lows were firm and tight. It all makes for a meaty twang from the Gretsch and a lively playing response overall.

EQ Hybrid Metal Acoustic Strings

$13.99

Another treated set, the EQ Hybrid Metal Acoustic Strings present an interesting approach to balancing string response from an acoustic guitar (hence the “EQ” moniker). The wraps of the low-E string are made from pure copper for its full bass response, the A and D wraps are phosphor-bronze “for its medium-low midrange fullness,” Cleartone says, and the G is 80/20 bronze to enhance midrange brightness. The unwrapped strings are traditional plain steel, and all received Cleartone’s patented treatment.

The hybrid-metals approach might at first seem an unusual one, but it’s not unprecedented: Telecaster players occasionally use components made from different materials for the three two-string saddles on the traditional bridge (often brass for the high E and B, steel for the G and D, and titanium for the A and low E) to achieve a satisfactory balance between the frequencies.

Loaded onto an Eastman E10SS — a sloped-shouldered dreadnought-style guitar with solid Adirondack spruce top and solid mahogany back and sides — the EQ set was perhaps most notable for what it didn’t deliver: any odd, unbalanced, or noticeably overbearing response from across the strings, despite the mixed metals. The overall effect was a full, even tone with plenty of new-string sparkle, but no brittle highs or boomy lows.

This set proved rich and full, detailed without ever sounding “hyped,” and very pleasant overall, while yielding a smooth feel under the fingers and no more (and arguably less) finger-squeak than traditional strings.

80/20 Acoustic Strings

$14.99

The 80/20 set for acoustic guitar features treated strings with bronze wraps made from 80 percent copper and 20 percent zinc. Cleartone declares a traditional acoustic response from these, yet with increased volume and sustain, and greater longevity as well thanks to the applied treatment process. I tested them on a 1996 Froggy Bottom H-12 flat-top, a 12-fret OO-sized fingerpicking specialist with solid Adirondack spruce top and solid Indian rosewood back and sides.

If the 80/20 set’s performance wasn’t dramatically different than a fresh set of traditional phosphor-bronze strings of the same gauge, they did seem notably livelier, well-balanced overall and slightly smoother to the touch. As a guitar with a 12-fret neck/body joint, the H-12 is surprisingly rich and full for its size, and it lost none of that girth with the Cleartones installed, arguably gaining a little more upper-midrange and high-end sizzle, and perhaps more composure in the bass.

Ultimately, this proved an appealing set that really brought out the most in the guitar, adding some zing and bite to fingerpicked parts without sacrificing fullness.

Conclusions

Although they were all different in their way, I was impressed with each of the four Cleartone sets I tested. Without getting too far into the weeds — and the particulars are detailed above — I felt each set arguably brought a little more liveliness and volume to their respective test subjects than other strings of the most comparable composition and gauge. As regards longevity, time will tell, but each remains bold and clear in the honeymoon phase and if that diminishes more quickly than expected, I’ll report back.

Overall, I’d say Cleartones are worth checking out, particularly for the company’s creative approach to designing different compositions for different needs, and for presenting several alternative choices in a market that — other than a handful of options — mainly toes the traditional line.

And although they cost more than traditional sets, they also cost less than coated sets from Elixir, Stringjoy and DR and may be less expensive in the long run given their extended life, while offering a smoother and more natural feel over other coated strings.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT cleartonestrings.com

PRICES $11.99 – $14.99 each

ORIGIN USA

PRO Creative strings designs addressing a range of needs, and offering increased volume and longevity.

CON Pricier than traditional un-treated strings.

Described as a guitar and mandolin, the Soprano TX is unique to Ellis Guitars, a Houston, Texas, builder of instruments and pickups (see review of the X Series pickup blending system in the September 2023 issue). The Soprano TX is a compact electric guitar that features a 16-inch scale cocobolo fingerboard — one quarter of which is fretless — sitting atop a bird's-eye-maple bolt-on neck.

The tuning is E to E but an octave higher than standard, so the Soprano sounds quite like a mandolin but doesn’t require you to learn Mando fingerings. With an overall length of just 26 1/2 inches, the lightweight Soprano is about as easy to carry in its soft case as a pool cue.

This is a sweet-looking guitar, with a contoured, single-cutaway body made of hard maple and a beautifully figured ambrosia maple cap. It creates a cool two-tone effect, and the top is bent for a comfy feel on your forearm. The satin-finished neck looks striking with the burl figuring and the black-chrome joint plate emblazoned with Ellis’ logo. The neck’s modern C carve feels good in the hand with its slender width that runs from 1.5 inches at the nut to 1.92 inches at the 12th fret.

It is like a mandolin neck, however, because the tight spacing between the polished frets requires adjusting your fingers accordingly. Because the last quarter of the fingerboard is fretless, it’s helpful that the pearl dots continue on to provide position reference when you’re fingering in that range.

The Soprano TX delivered a chiming acoustic sound with good sustain when plugged into my Fender Deluxe Reverb and Vox AC10 reissues. It was great for copping the sweet tones of a mandolin on country and rootsy Americana tunes, and was cool for lead playing as long as you don’t bend too aggressively, as it’s easy to break a string — particularly the high E due to the increased tension.

It’s a blast to riff on the low strings with some growling distortion from pedals, and the three-way toggle lets you savor the grind in warmer or brighter flavors by setting the switch (respectively) in the forward position to activate the pickup’s north coil or the rear setting to select the south coil. In louder situations, I liked the middle position, with both coils running in series for a hotter output and a fatter response. Ellis Guitars also installs any of its own custom-wound pickups in their instruments, which you can purchase separately under the Vitus Pickups name.

Ellis has hit on a familiar way to bring mandolin color into your sound in compact, easy-to-play and fun package that fits in well with other string instruments. Everything about the Soprano TX is happening, although the price of admission for this upscale model is steep. It’s definitely a custom build for those able to take the plunge and want a unique instrument that can be personalized to their heart’s content.

For the rest of us a base model is available for around $899 and features a Honduran mahogany body, neck and pickguard.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT ellisguitars.us

PRICE $3,299, gig bag included

NUT Black plastic,1.5" wide

NECK Bolt-on birdseye-maple burl. 1/4 fretless. Steel inserts. Carbon-fiber rods. Modern C shape

FINGERBOARD Cocobolo, 16 scale\, 12" radius

FRETS 15 medium

TUNERS Gotoh locking

BODY Hard maple with ambrosia maple top. Strap buttons included

FINISH Natural gloss

BRIDGE Top loader with three adjustable brass saddles

PICKUPS Vitus-Px with maple veneer insert

CONTROLS Volume, tone and three-way toggle (north coil only, both coils in series, south coil only

FACTORY STRINGS Zippy Slinky .007-.036

WEIGHT 4.58 lbs (tested)

BUILT USA

PRO Ultra compact. Sounds like a mandolin but plays like a standard guitar. Great build quality and nicely figured woods

CON None

Created for Diamond Rowe, co-founder and lead guitarist for Tetrarch, this new Jackson model is a stylish electric guitar that looks splendid in its Dark Rose finish and black hardware. The body is constructed of nyatoh, a Southeast Asian hardwood that’s an alternative to mahogany, and has a bound, arched-maple cap with a veneer of poplar burl.

The Monarkh features a gloss black set neck that’s made from three pieces of nato with graphite reinforcement to strengthen the joint and increase rigidity and sustain. The ebony fingerboard sitting atop carries 24 jumbo frets that are nicely worked and wear a bright polish that feels super smooth under the fingers. Single-ply white binding runs along the fretboard edges and the bound headstock is also faced with matching Dark Rose veneer. To maintain a clean look Luminlay side dots are the only markers on the fretboard. You have to use a flashlight to charge them and they produce a soft glow that stands out well and should last through a gig.

The feel of the neck is excellent and the factory setup yielded low action and solid intonation in all positions, a quality that is also due to the EverTune bridge, which uses a balancing system to maintain constant string tension regardless of how hard you play, the tuning or climate conditions. Rowe has been using EverTune since 2017 and has solid reasons for doing so.

“We play six-string guitars but the majority of our songs are drop tuned to A, which is pretty low on a six string,” she says. “That in itself can make tuning and staying in tune on a Tune-o-matic or standard bridge a nightmare.

“With the EverTune I have absolutely no problems, and I also play relatively light-gauge strings for that tuning.”

There was no literature with my test guitar explaining how to set up the EverTune bridge, so it’s a good thing there are videos on YouTube that show how to do it. Basically you start by pulling the strings to pitch with the headstock tuners, then you make the final tuning adjustments by turning a screw on each saddle with the included hex wrench. This is all done in what’s called “Zone 2”, where bending the strings has no effect on their pitch.

To enable string bending, the system has to be moved closer to Zone 3 by turning the headstock tuners until the pitch changes when you bend a string, and then you back the tuners off a bit. Do this for every string and EverTune will now respond like a standard guitar when you wiggle the strings. It can take a little effort to get the bending feel exactly how you want it but, as Rowe explains, it’s time well spent.

“I like to make sure that since I do play leads and solos that I dial in enough bend on each string so I can maintain the character of my playing and vibrato,” she says. “If I was just a straight rhythm player I’d probably limit how much bend there was just to make the tuning even more stable.”

Upon arrival, the Monarkh needed some tweaking to get it in tune and playing with a proper bending feel, but after making the adjustments it was playing great and only needed a few touch-ups on the saddle screws to get it totally dialed in. EverTune brings a feeling of invincibility because you can literally yank on the strings and they stay in tune. I could take the guitar to a gig and not touch the tuners, even if a string broke. Awesome!

Anyone interested in the Monarkh should check out EverTune and be sure they’re comfortable with the learning curve it presents. Otherwise, have your local guitar tech set it up for you. Either way, the great thing is that you can enjoy playing a guitar that sounds perfectly in tune and stays that way.

The Monarkh is a superb rock machine but it’s also a versatile guitar that could fit right in on a blues or country gig. The pickups are EMG active humbuckers with smoke-chrome covers that are powered by a nine-volt battery hidden under a hatch on the back.

These pickups differ in that the 81 in the bridge position uses ceramic magnets for more high-end emphasis, while the 85 in the neck slot uses Alnico 5 magnets for a smoother response. They both sound great clean or heavily overdriven, and I liked the ballsy mids and massive chunk the DR12MG dished out through various high-gain models on my Fender and Kemper digital rigs.

I never missed not having a tone knob either, as this guitar consistently delivered great sounds when switching between the neck, middle and bridge positions and just using the volume controls to go from clean to distorted textures. The EMGs are also quiet and mostly immune to hum, which is a nice aspect of their design.

If you’re looking for a guitar that can throw down for hard rock and metal the Diamond Rowe Monarkh totally gets it for a single-cutaway axe with two humbuckers. If you don’t need a trem and want a guitar that plays — and stays — solidly in tune, the Monarkh offers the best technology available with its EverTune F6 bridge.

Although the locking tuners make it easier to change strings, they aren’t even necessary here because EverTune self-adjusts to overcome tuning problems caused by aggressive playing, string breakage, temperature/humidity extremes and other things that could throw the tuning on a regular guitar. Bottom line, the Diamond Rowe Monarkh is a pro touring axe par excellence and deserving of five stars.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT jacksonguitars.com

PRICE $1,699, gig bag included

NUT Black plastic,1.650" wide

NECK Nato three-piece set neck with graphite reinforcement

FINGERBOARD Ebony, 25.5" scale, 12" radius, bound edges with Luminlay side dots

FRETS 24 jumbo

TUNERS Jackson-branded die-cast locking

BODY Nyatoh with bound maple cap and poplar burl-veneer top

FINISH Dark Rose gloss

BRIDGE EverTune F6

PICKUPS EMG active humbuckers: 85 neck, 81 bridge

CONTROLS Volume for each pickup, three-way toggle selector

STRING Nickel-plated steel, 010-.056

WEIGHT 8.46 lbs (tested)

BUILT Korea

PRO Excellent playability and sound. Rock-solid tuning stability via the EverTune bridge

CON None

Strymon’s BigSky Multi-Reverb pedal has been a staple in my setup since it debuted in late 2013, and for two very good reasons. First, it offers 12 studio-class reverb algorithms that run the gamut from classic to futuristic. Second, those reverbs still sound vibrant, realistic and fresh more than 10 years after BigSky became the gold standard for reverb pedals.

I recently reconsidered that second point for one reason: Strymon’s newly released BigSky MX pedal, which delivers new reverb machines, dual-reverb capability, full IR functionality and much more. Strymon didn’t just revise BigSky’s features for this new incarnation; they used the same kind of neural-tweaking techniques behind A.I. to create lifelike virtual spaces that respond to your playing.

That power comes via an 800MHz Tri-Core Arm processor (versus the BigSky’s 366MHz SIMD SHARC), with 32-bit floating-point processing that makes these reverbs drip and shimmer with uncanny depth and realism. If you’re looking for more natural-sounding and highly detailed ambience effects, as well as more extreme sonic adventures, BigSky MX has them.

WELCOME TO THE MACHINES

Like its predecessor, BigSky MX has 12 reverb engines. They include 10 found on the original pedal — Room, Hall, Plate, Spring, Bloom, Cloud, Chorale, Shimmer, Magneto and Nonlinear — plus two new offerings: Chamber and Impulse, the latter of which employs Impulse Responses (IRs).

In addition, Strymon created new algorithms for Spring, Plate, Hall, Room and Shimmer alongside the voices of the original pedal. Although the Swell and Reflections machines were deleted, the Swell feature can now be found in the Hall machine, while the psycho-acoustically accurate small-space Reflections machine seems unnecessary given the verisimilitude built into the MX.

The Impulse machine comes loaded with 22 impulse responses ranging from vintage and modern gear to acoustic spaces. You can add your own IRs of up to 10 seconds in length and edit them right in the pedal. As for the Chamber machine, it nicely fills a niche between Room and Hall settings. Chamber reverbs are larger than room reverbs and smaller than halls, making them perfect for those times when you want ambience that gets noticed but doesn’t overwhelm.

The Chamber engine in BigSky MX captures the right mix of warmth, focus and density to produce very useable and sophisticated-sounding settings. These have quickly become my go-to reverbs for playing and for mixes where I want to impart ambience that conveys intimacy or adds a splash of depth to my guitar or another instrument. The results sound professional and never crowd the mix.

DEEP DIG

Editing the MX presets is a breeze, thanks to the row of seven controls for decay, pre-delay, tone and modulation, the two user-assignable parameters per preset and the dry/wet mix knob. Going deeper into each preset is equally easy: Just press the Value button at the upper right to open the menu and dig into a host of parameters for every engine. Best of all, you can swap out engines for each preset with a spin of the Type dial to quickly audition other reverb machines.

And while we’re discussing parameters, the new stereo panning control is a useful addition that brings greater dimensions to the effects. Use it to place a reverb off-center or to situate two different reverbs wherever you’d like in the stereo field, whether for creative effect or to open more space in the mix.

Lest we forget among this wealth of new treats, the ability to use two reverbs in series or parallel is a powerful feature that opens up a host of sound design opportunities. For example, place Shimmer in series with a pre-delayed Chorale for a reverb that sings like a heavenly chorus. Or use Plate in parallel with the physics-defying Nonlinear reverb and pan them to opposite sides for a dramatically unusual panorama of sound. The stereo pan control really shines in these dual settings, opening the door to some wildly creative sound designs.

But perhaps the coolest thing of all is that all this power is available through the handful of controls on the pedals. No parameter is ever more than a couple of button presses away, with no smartphone apps or buggy Bluetooth connection to slow you down.

For greater convenience, Strymon offers the free Nixie 2 software librarian that lets you upload and download patches, load IRs and gain real-time control of parameters from your desktop. The process was intuitive to follow, and once my IRs were imported, they showed up in their own folder in the Impulse engine, where I was able to load and edit them. It couldn’t be easier.

Other noteworthy additions to the BigSky MX include an easy-to-read high-resolution OLED display, discrete Class A JFET preamps for clean tone and less sensitivity to long cable runs, DIN and TRS MIDI jacks (BigSky offers just DIN), USB-C, expression control, and a dedicated Infinite foot switch in place of the third preset foot switch included on the original BigSky.

MX FX

As for its sound, the 3-D realism is remarkable. Comparing my original BigSky to the BigSky MX… well, there is no comparison. The improved detail, sonic nuance and sense of being within an actual physical space is apparent, and the new presets do a good job of demonstrating what this box can do.

Some of my favorites include the Impulse engine’s 250 Long, Gate Reactor and Slinky presets, the Magneto machine’s Moody Bounce and SmartWhales settings, and the Chamber’s Sweet Neck, Pretty Chamber and Warm Chamber offerings.

Among the more extreme selections, I really like the Bloom machine’s Little Burst and Fellowtron (a cool Mellotron emulation), the Chorale engine’s Subtle Choir preset, and — for fun rhythmic playing — the Stutter Butr and ChoppedSprng presets in the Nonlinear offerings. In addition to the 100 factory presets, you can store 200 user presets, and all 300 presets can be overwritten.

The question for players who already own the BigSky will be “Do I need these improvements and new features?” You may not get the full benefit of them if you play onstage and not in the studio. But if you record or simply enjoy playing with the best gear you can afford, then it makes sense to consider upgrading.

For guitarists who are unsatisfied with their current reverb pedal. — or who find the reverb on their multieffects pedal too vanilla — the MX is a must-try contender that will satisfy your ambience requirements regardless of your musical style.

Granted, BigSky MX is not cheap, and players familiar with the original BigSky might miss that third preset foot switch and have no use for the Infinite switch that’s replaced it. Undoubtedly some players may find the original algorithms more to their liking or prefer their less-detailed sound.

But that’s how it goes with gear, and it’s why many guitarists today still use pedals of previous eras. For that matter I own plenty of reverb pedals and have no plans to part with them. They all do something very well or exclusively their own.

But with that said, BigSky MX will be replacing the BigSky as my go-to reverb pedal. I’ve heard nothing that covers all the bases with as much sonic diversity, flexible programming or pristine and detailed audio quality.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT strymon.net

PRICE $679

REVERB MACHINES Room, Hall, Plate, Spring, Bloom, Cloud, Chorale, Shimmer, Magneto, Nonlinear, Chamber and Impulse

CONTROLS Type, Value, decay, pre-delay, tone, mod, param 1, param 2, mix

FOOT SWITCHES Bank A, Bank B (press
A and B for Bank Down) and Infinite (press Bank B and Infinite for Bank Up)

I/O Left in, right in, left out, right out, USB-C, expression/MIDI in and out, power input

EXTRAS Free Nixie 2 librarian (Mac, PC)
to organize presets and load IRs

POWER 9 VDC (adapter not included)

DIMENSIONS 5” x 7” x 1.87” (DxWxH)

BUILT USA

PRO Remarkable 3-D reverbs, new algorithms with greater realism and depth, Impulse machine with ability to load user IRs

CON None, but the price may deter some users

“The most elusive amp ever made?” Well, yeah. It’s not hyperbole for Universal Audio to refer to the Dumble Overdrive Special as such, and even though they don’t ever use the D word for obvious legal reasons, there’s no question about the reference. The amp is practically unobtainable. And now that it's promised as an amp-emulation pedal you can buy for a few hundred bucks — what player wouldn’t be interested?

Of course, no pedal can ever truly be an amp, but on the other hand, no vintage tube amp can offer the convenience, programmability and affordability of a well-done modeler. For that matter, no company is crushing the modeler market quite like Universal Audio’s effects processing division, UAFX. Having significant experience with the unbelievable Dream ’65 Reverb Amp Fender Deluxe modeler and the ferocious Lion ’68 Super Lead Amp Marshall Plexi modeler, I’m finally drinking the digital Kool-Aid. If those amps can be cloned to such an intimate degree, perhaps anything is possible.

So, when UA and GP got together over breakfast at the NAMM Show in 2024 and UA captain Bill Putnam Jr. asked, “What amp would you like to see us to model next?” my immediate answer was, “Dumble.”

After all, those amps hold Holy Grail status, and very few guitarists will ever get a chance to play one, let alone buy one. In the wake of Alexander “Howard” Dumble’s passing in 2022, the already sky-high prices for his boutique beauties went right past the roof and on to the heavens. I remember Ben Harper telling me in 2008 that I would be wise to sell everything I own and pay the $25,000 for a Dumble that was for sale online at that time. I laughed it off as impossible, but as it turns out that would have been quite the investment. In 2022, Jason Isbell reportedly paid a whopping $175,000 for a 1995 Overdrive Special from producer Dennis Herring via Reverb.com!

When I mentioned Dumble at that NAMM conversation, my colleague at Guitar World, Paul Riario, laughed. “What would that sound like?" he asked. "Everybody knows what a Marshall sounds like, but every Dumble is different.” Speaking to UAFX sound designer James Santiago at this year’s NAMM Show, he echoed that sentiment, saying that some he’d played were magic, and some were duds for his playing style. When I spoke with Jackson Browne, he recalled commissioning Dumble to build another amp exactly like the one his lead players were always fighting over. But even Dumble himself couldn’t replicate it.

So there you go: The Overdrive Special is an enigma. But what if you weren’t trying to replicate one but rather a bevy of Dumble-esque tones ranging from ultra-crisp and clean to gritty bluesy breakup, and on through to the brink of sonic boom?

Enter the Enigmatic ’82 Overdrive Special Amp, potentially the Holy Grail of amp-emulation modelers.

Does it deliver? Hell yeah!

But what does it deliver?

Well, as the title suggests, it’s enigmatic, meaning mysterious or somewhat difficult to put your finger on. But when one does put fingers on the malleable and programmable Enigmatic, it quickly becomes apparent that this pedal can create a vast range of sounds from ultra-cool and clean to explosive.

Everything is at your fingertips via six knobs, a trio of three-position mini toggle switches and a pair of foot switches. The controls are so dynamic that you can completely change tonal characters in a variety of ways.

And once you get the gist of how to use the controls, many of which have alternative functions, there’s another ocean of possibilities accessible via the UAFX Control Mobile app (iOS and Android). The user can activate and manage factory and user presets, download artist sounds, edit amp tones or change foot switch functionality. Like the real deal, there’s a deep rabbit hole to go down. Also like the real deal, customization is inherent to the Enigmatic Overdrive Special Amp.

To my ears, the Enigmatic excels at at the most elusive tones that fall somewhere in the sweet spot between a glassy Fender and a dirty Marshall. You know how when you’ve got your perfect Fender tone dialed in that’s super clean when you play soft and then breaks up when you push it? Go a step or two beyond that to where single-note runs sound and feel as if there’s a steel girder supporting them, rather than the way they seem to fall away on the Fender. But not so much as to sound boxy, like the more square-wave kind of tone inherent to a Marshal plexi.

Part of the mythical nature of the hallowed D tone has to do with volume. I once asked Carlos Santana to describe the essence of Dumble magic, and I’ll never forget his reply. I’m paraphrasing, but he essentially said, “You know how when you turn a good tube amp way up loud, the notes start to sound like balloons filled all the way up, compared to the weak, half-empty sound when it’s turned down? Well, Dumble’s got full balloons at any volume.”

That’s a big part of the appeal here as well. Line-in to your favorite DAW in the office or bedroom on a home computer, and even at whisper volume to the outside world, you can dial in copious overdrive to get a searing sound like David Lindley’s lead on his most famous solo tune, “Mercury Blues.” It’s same kind of tone Ben Harper and Sonny Landreth adopted for their sizzling slide tones, sparkling with rich harmonic overtones.

How about live?

Yes, you can line-in to pretty much any decent sound system and get great tones at low volume onstage as well. But without a great monitor, it’s going to fall flat compared to the three-dimensionality of a real tube amp.

So, which FRFR (Full Range Flat Response) speaker cabinet does that well? I found that the Fender Tone Master F-12 does a great job of making any modeling amp pedal sound more like a real tube amp onstage. But you do have to turn it up past noon to start getting true dimensionality. Once you get to about three quarters of the way full, it truly starts to fill up those sonic balloons. There’s a bit of noise, especially at higher gain settings, but shoot, isn’t that a part of the true tube amp experience? When I asked UA’s James Santiago which FRFR he felt did the best job making his modeling amp pedals sound and feel like the real deal onstage, he agreed on the Fender Tone Master F-12.

When I asked Santiago if he was able to get his hands on any actual Dumbles for this sonic adventure, he confirmed that yes, indeed UAFX did get its hands on a few. Interestingly, some were models created during Dumble's early amp-making days in Santa Cruz, California, which is very near Universal Audio headquarters. Clearly UAFX extrapolated from there, listening intently to a range of famous Overdrive Special tones from SRV’s pristine clean to Robben Ford’s bold, breaking-bad blues, to the flamethrower tones of Lindley, Harper and Landreth.

Despite the pedal's depths of programmability, there is the issue of switching presets quickly and seamlessly onstage. The presets are on my phone, my hands are busy with the guitar, and besides, I use the phone for recording . Fortunately, you can easily toggle between current control settings in Live mode and a favorite preset via the left and right foot switches, respectively. Beyond that, I’m more of a set-it-and-forget-it type of player anyway, the type that would rather click on another pedal or three to flesh out a tonal range rather than trying to get absolutely everything out of a single unit.

I’m still finding and saving favorites on the Enigmatic, but I’ve discovered that while it’s tempting to go for pure fire, pulling back on the overdrive allows the unit to be pushed by other pedals that can work wonders as well, like a real tube amp. I got incredible results using another Dumble-style pedal, the Vertex SSS Double Preamp, as well as the UAFX 1176 Studio Compressor to send the Enigmatic from a more serene state into grittier, downright explosive stages. I placed the Enigmatic on my pedalboard between UAFX’s Dream ’65 Reverb and the Lion ’68 Super Lead. With the Dream set super clean, the Enigmatic searing, and the Lion roaring, it’s all I need with more delicious sonic flavors than I’d ever imagine right under my feet.

Ultimately, the UAFX Enigmatic ’82 Overdrive Special Amp is one of the most remarkable pedals I’ve ever encountered. It’s completely unique among amp emulations. Ben Harper agrees and says, “The pedal is scary good, and I haven’t met a guitar player yet who disagrees. Though Dumble adjacent, it also has sonic characteristics all its own.” Kudos to Universal Audio for doing the impossible—again.

SPECIFICATIONS

Enigmatic ’82 Overdrive Special Amp

CONTACT uaudio.com

PRICE $399 street

CONTROLS Volume (doubles as room reverb), overdrive (doubles as ratio), output, bass (doubles as deep/mid), middle (doubles as presence), treble (doubles as bright). Switches: Cab (GB25, D65, EV12); Alt (amp, store); Tone (rock, jazz, custom)

FOOT SWITCHES On/off, preset

I/O Stereo inputs and outputs, USB-C, Bluetooth pairing, 9VDC jack (adapter not included)

EXTRAS UAFX mobile app, 4-cable mode (Use with any amplifier that has an effects loop for switching between the amp’s preamp section and sounds in the pedal, with 4-Cable mode being one of the foot-switching options)

DIMENSIONS 5.55" x 3.62" x 2.56" (LxWxH)

WEIGHT 1.24 lbs

PRO Fabulous tube tones, real feel, deep versatility and functionality

CON High gain settings can get a bit noisy. Isolated 9V/400mA power adapter not included requires slightly more minimum voltage than common 9V/100-300mA

And now for something completely different… For anyone that’s ever appreciated the looks, playability, and plug-in-and-play ability of a Taylor yet yearned for a tone that’s a bit less bright on top and warmer in the mids with a bigger bottom end, read on because the Gold Label Collection is a complete re-imagining of the contemporary Taylor sound.

The San Diego-based manufacturer celebrated last year’s 50th anniversary with monthly limited editions and then culminated with new Legacy models to honor the roots of its iconic Bob Taylor designs (see our review of Legacy 514ce Grand Auditorium). Now Taylor is branching out more than ever. The Gold Label Collection is built to deliver the sound and style of a guitar from the classic pre-War era while maintaining qualities such as the holistically in-tune and harmonically balanced aspect of the modern V-class marvels created in this era under company captain Andy Powers.

He says, “I wanted to create an instrument that had a totally different type of sound than what Taylor is known for while retaining the kinds of attributes we love as a modern Taylor guitar.”

The novel body style is Taylor’s first-ever Super Auditorium, which is slightly larger than the flagship body style with rounder curves and no cutaway. This new design also marks the introduction of a new neck attachment system to customize your setup. It begins with a pair of 800 Series models, available in either Honduran rosewood or Hawaiian koa. Both feature torrefied Sitka spruce tops available either in either natural or sunburst finishes with street prices ranging from $4,499 for rosewood in natural to $4,999 for koa with sunburst. We were thrilled to get an advance of the Gold Label 814e SB ($4,699 street).

From an industry perspective, it’s interesting to see the big dogs try to take bites out of their competition in the marketplace while still retaining their core identity. At last year’s NAMM Show, Martin introduced the very Taylor-like GPCE Inception, while Taylor has explored uncharted territory with guitars such as the funky AD27e Flametop. Its major debut for ’22 was almost the antithesis of what we’d come to expect. The Gold Label 814e isn’t that radical, but it’s not like any Taylor I’ve ever experienced.

Part of the fun with this review was at first there was no documentation, and I was trying to size it up before having a conversation with Powers. Clearly, it was a little bigger than a Grand Auditorium and there was no cutaway or obvious electronics. The sunburst finish on its Sitka spruce top and the strikingly beautiful grain pattern in its solid Honduran rosewood back and sides are gorgeous, and the symmetrical shape makes its bodacious body appear quite sexy. The cut of its unique headstock crown slants backwards. To my eyes, the script logo and Continental inlay on the headstock appeared custom, as did the matching design engraved into the pickguard.

Powers confirmed that saying, “I created the logo and the central design specifically for this model, drawing on an old design from my pre-Taylor life. Starting from the headstock on down, this guitar needed to look different because the sound is different.”

It took one strum of a G cowboy chord to know that Powers had done something extra special to this Super Grand Auditorium. The tone was more voluptuous. I practically fell backwards laughing as I instinctively launched into a bit of Bob Seger’s “Night Moves.” The Gold Label 814e SB simply has that hearty wow factor that makes you want to strum something straightforward and revel in the resonation.

Powers confirms, “It only takes one chord to recognize this is not a subtle shift. The Gold Label is sort of a crossover amongst different acoustic designs.”

To my ears, it’s as if a Taylor Grand Auditorium got genetically spliced together with a Gibson J-45 for some balanced jangle, a Martin D-28 for a hearty kick, and perhaps even a Santa Cruz OM Grand for its practically custom-shop feel and nuanced tonal sensibility.

The more you try other approaches, such as delicate fingerpicking or hybrid chord-melody lines, the more you realize that the Gold Label 814e accommodates all of it. The guitar seems to give back every ounce of whatever you put into it plus a little lagniappe—an extra level of rich, sustaining overtones. So, exactly what is going on under the hood?

“The inside of this guitar features a revised V-Class bracing design to create this sound specifically. I adapted little pieces of the bracing architecture, pulling some influence derived from the fan-braced design of the classical guitar tradition. That creates a new sound with an altered overtone structure. The way that it hits you with this mid-range response and low-end richness is totally different than what we’ve done in past.”

Another significant development in the Gold Label design lies in the neck. It’s not so much about the profile, but you notice a unique feel and a resonance under your fingers. I immediately noticed that there was something about this setup that was low enough for easy playability, but also high enough to accommodate a more aggressive attack. Notes are true and bold, and you don’t have to worry about holding back. There’s no brittle top end or dreaded fret splat. That made me want to dig in and play some blues, with heavy note-bending a la B.B. King. On a fancy new Taylor, I don’t normally gravitate towards that kind of thing. So, what’s going on?

“The difference isn't so much in the shape,” Powers says. “The way the strings feel under your fingers feels a bit different because of the voicing and whatnot. But let me back up a little bit and describe it this way.

“For the first 25 years, Taylor used some hardware to attach the neck heel to the body, and then glued on the fretboard. That was a big improvement from a construction and serviceability standpoint over conventional designs like a tapered dovetail. Around year 25 we developed the Taylor neck, or sometimes called the NT neck, where the entire thing is ultra-precisely controllable to minute gradations of a degree. That was a big improvement. A neck reset without the glue and everything takes me about 20 minutes.

“This neck is the next step forward. It’s long tenon design with a deeper heel that can contribute a sound like a traditional acoustic guitar neck, but it’s fully adjustable via a single screw located at the end of the heel block, and there’s no glue. So, a neck reset on this guitar takes about 20 seconds. You never take the strings off. You never even have to retune the guitar. Simply turn the adjuster screw to dial in the string height after dialing in the neck relief with the truss rod.”

Another immediately noticeable departure on the Gold Label 814e SB is its lack of a Taylor Expression System 2 with the requisite holes for controls cut into the upper bout. Instead, it features an L.R. Baggs Element VTC system consisting of an undersaddle piezo with flywheel controls for volume and tone tucked away inside the sound hole.

“To me, this guitar was an acoustic experience first and foremost,” explains Powers. “So, it didn’t feel right to drill holes into it for electronic controls. Lloyd Baggs and his company have been good friends of ours for years and built some of the first pickup systems Bob Taylor ever put into his guitars. The Element VTC pickup matches the way a lot of players would want to use this guitar for a variety of styles on different stages, so it seemed like the right choice.”

I took the Gold Label 814e out on a couple of solo shows playing through a Universal Audio Max preamp and compressor pedal into an L.R. Baggs Synapse Personal P.A. I found the pickup provided a wonderfully full tone and feel echoing the guitar’s acoustic personality. I especially appreciated its tone when slack-tuned a bit to Drop D for tunes such as “Black Water” by the Doobie Brothers or to open G for some Stones. The Super Grand Auditorium body sounded devilishly deep and lush.

The Gold Label 814e SB Super Auditorium is the most remarkable Taylor I’ve reviewed in the near decade I’ve been doing this gig as Frets Acoustic Editor. It’s got the Taylor hallmarks of impeccable craftsmanship, superior playability, holistically in tune with dynamic response and prolonged sustain—plus a very welcome warmth, vibe and sense of sonic soul. Taylor took steps in this direction with the Grand Pacific body style, but as Powers says, “That was a high-fidelity form of an older guitar. It was designed to sound like a studio presentation of an older sound. For the Gold Label, I wanted the acoustic experience to take me someplace new, or perhaps revisit someplace that I used to be.”

I’d recommend the Taylor Gold Label 814e SB Super Auditorium to practically anyone looking for a top-tier acoustic experience. It delivers custom shop-like quality in a production guitar that’s perfect for the studio, the stage, or simply sitting around the back porch strumming on a sunny day. Taylor fans should love it, and I’ll bet that a lot of Taylor critics will embrace this model as well. I expect to see the Gold Label concept catch on and be applied to many more guitars across the Taylor range.

SPECIFICATIONS

Gold Label 814e SB

CONTACT taylorguitars.com

PRICE $4,699 street, deluxe hardshell case included

NUT WIDTH 1.75", white Tusq

NECK Mahogany, 25.5" scale

FRETBOARD West African ebony with Continental mother-of-pearl inlays

FRETS 20

TUNERS Gotoh 510, Antique Chrome with ebony buttons

BODY Solid Honduran rosewood back & sides, solid torrefied Sitka spruce top (fanned V-class bracing)

BRIDGE Honduran rosewood “Curve Wing” with compensated white Micarta saddle

ELECTRONICS L.R. Baggs Element VTC with sound hole-mounted volume and treble controls

POWER 9V battery pack

FACTORY STRINGS D’Addario XS Coated Phosphor Bronze Light gauges .012 - .053

WEIGHT 4.9 lbs. (as tested)

BUILT USA

KUDOS The richest tone Taylor has ever produced on an instrument with a stunning classic aesthetic and fine playability

CONCERNS None

Based on the original PRS Custom 24 that was introduced in 1985, the SE Custom Semi-Hollow Piezo takes things to a new level by delivering enhanced resonance courtesy of its semi-hollow construction. It also offers extended sonic range via a sextet of L.R. Baggs-designed piezo saddles that are incorporated into the PRS Patented Tremolo bridge.

In other regards, the guitar closely follows the traditional form by featuring a mahogany body and a flame-maple-veneer top, which looks ravishing in high-gloss Charcoal Burst over its trademark Shallow Violin carve. The neck has PRS’s ultra comfy Wide Thin shape and is constructed of multi-ply maple with a 25-inch scale rosewood fingerboard riding atop that’s trimmed in white binding and extending all the way around the maple-faced headstock. The neck feels super comfortable and the 24 well-dressed frets, polished nut and excellent factory setup provides low action as well as tuneful intonation in all positions.

The superbly engineered tremolo is a big part of the playing experience as well. Adjusted to float, it feels silky smooth and returns to pitch reliably under spirited workouts on the stainless-steel push-in bar. The molded trem is the same unit fitted to USA models, and it has no sharp edges or protruding screws to poke your hand when resting it on the brass saddles—which increase sustain and add nice color contrast to the polished nickel. Strings load from the back through the inertia block and run over a smooth bone nut out to a set of chromed PRS tuning machines.

The guitar has a rich, sustaining acoustic sound, and you can easily appreciate the sense of airiness that the F-hole contributes by putting your ear near it. Played through amps that included a Fender Deluxe Reverb, a PRS DGT-15 and a Vox AC15—as well as a Fishman SA220 acoustic rig and various PA systems—the Custom 24 Semi-Hollow Piezo proved massively enjoyable because of its wealth of sounds and how easily it goes in any direction you want.

The pickups are the popular PRS 85/15 “S” humbuckers, which are controlled by a three-way selector and master volume and tone pots—the latter activating a coil-tap when the knob is pulled, effectively providing slimmer, single-coil sounds to complement the girth of the uncovered pickups in full ’bucker mode. The 85/15s are very adept at delivering everything from crisp cleans to fat overdriven tones, and their modest output makes it easy to sweep between rhythm and lead by working the volume knob.

Everything is well balanced so switching between the throaty neck pickup to the stringy rear position to the harmonically rich dual-pickup pickups feels seamless—like you’re just playing with different shades of a great core tone. Whether you’re clean, moderately overdriven or fully gained-up through a distortion pedal or lead setting on a multi-channel amp, you can have a blast romping on the selector and not necessarily be thinking, “I have to be on this pickup for that sound.”

Pulling the tone control in any switch position unleashes the single-coil sheen, making the middle position sound super airy and detailed and eliciting more twanginess from the neck and bridge pickups. Fans of the Custom 24 have long appreciated how accommodating it is to players’ needs. The added flexibility of the piezo system takes things to a new level, as it can be used in conjunction with the magnetics to blend acoustic flavor into those sounds. It can also be used by itself to effectively turn the Custom 24 Semi-Hollow into an electro-acoustic guitar, which it does quite handily due to the Baggs’ clear, natural response and absence of harsh when hitting the strings aggressively. Note that the piezo system is active and requires a nine-volt battery that’s accessible from a spring-loaded hatch on the jack plate.

Having dual outputs give you the option of mixing the magnetic and piezo signals through a single amp or routing the magnetics to a combo or head and the piezo to an acoustic amp, PA system or recording interface. There are a lot of ways to enjoy the dual source experience and particularly in live situations it was great to be able to run the electric and acoustic signals through dedicated systems and have it all so easily controllable from the guitar.

The SE Custom Semi-Hollow Piezo is the answer for players who want one guitar that can cover just about anything. It’s a welcome addition to a model line that changed the world for guitarists decades ago and has been updated and improved ever since. There’s very little daylight nowadays between offshore-produced SE models and their Core siblings made in Stevensville, Maryland, so it comes as no surprise that the SE Custom 24 Semi-Hollow Piezo raises the performance bar for this icon of six-string artistry.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT prsguitars.com

PRICE $1,599, gig bag included

NUT PRS proprietary material, 1 11/16" wide

NECK Maple, Wide Thin shape, glued-in joint

FINGERBOARD Rosewood, 25" scale, 10" radius, Birds inlays

FRETS 24

TUNERS PRS designed, 18:1

BODY Mahogany semi-hollow construction with bound maple-veneer top

FINISH Charcoal Burst high-gloss polyurethane

EXTRAS Magnetic and mag/piezo outputs

BRIDGE PRS Patented Tremolo with L.R. Baggs designed piezo saddles

PICKUPS PRS 85/15 “S” humbuckers (neck and bridge), piezo pickups

CONTROLS Volume and tone (with push-pull coil-split), three-way blade selector, volume control for piezo

STRINGS PRS Classic, .009-.042

WEIGHT 7.26 lbs (as tested)

KUDO Outstanding build quality. Semi-hollow construction enhances resonance. Impressive tonal range from combination of humbucking and piezo pickups. Dual outputs offer flexible signal routing

CONCERNS None

This is a story of the tail wagging the dog, leading to a brand-new beast.

For decades, Lloyd Baggs and company had one primary goal: to create pickups that faithfully re-create the true sound of an acoustic guitar via amplification. Many feel that they do this as well as anyone. It means everything to have companies such as Martin and Santa Cruz Guitars offer their instruments with Baggs electronics.

Still, it’s understandable that after chasing such an elusive rabbit down its proverbial hole, Baggs, originally a luthier who built guitars for Jackson Browne and Ry Cooder, would eventually come to this revelation: “What if I started with the pickup and built the guitar around it?”

That’s the story of the Baggs AEG-1 Acoustic Electric Guitar, and it starts with the new HiFi Duet.

Like everything about this instrument, the pickup is unlike almost anything else. Rather than a typical piezo undersaddle transducer, the HiFi Duet features two bridge-plate sensors affixed to the underside of the bridge plate. They’re designed to deliver string vibration and body resonance without the dreaded “quack” inherent to most piezo pickups. That’s the HiFi part.

The second element in the Duet is a Baggs Silo microphone customized for the voice of the AEG-1. It’s engineered to perform as if it were outside the guitar, providing ambience with isolation and feedback resistance. Both feed into a single summed output. Controls include flywheels for volume, tone and mic/blend, plus a phase button, all integrated into the upper bout.

The AEG-1 comes in three styles. All have Indian rosewood backs, with the primary distinction based on three different top materials: Torrefied Sitka Spruce, Natural Engelmann Spruce, and Sunburst Sitka Spruce. I picked Sunburst, which appeared far more interesting and sophisticated. Apart from the Sunburst’s dusky appearance, the overall design aesthetic of the three is similar. Notable details include a heavily contoured dreadnought-ish cutaway body with a belly-button-like sound hole that’s filled in and surrounded by a ring that takes on the role of a rosette. A uniquely contoured headstock caps it off nicely. To my eyes, the natural-finish models appeared a bit plain Jane, but the Sunburst is as handsome in person as it appeared online.

My began my test of the AEG-1 by strumming it acoustically, right out of the box. The first thing that caught my attention was how “real” the neck feels. Bound with a cream-colored binding, it does not feel at all like some wimpy counterpart to a thinline body. Upon further investigation, I came to realize why Baggs had to re-imagine the whole concept of a thinlne body. Otherwise, there’s no way it would support such a hearty neck that feels as if it might have been plucked off a Martin. More on that in a minute.

The immediate point is fabulous playability all around, up and down. Everything from strumming cowboy chords with a pick to plucking fingerstyle licks felt fine on this unusual instrument. I even tuned down to D modal, which means the strings are significantly slackened, yet they remained plenty snappy on the AEG-1 with its notably long scale length of 25 5/8 inches. And while it’s not going to outgun a traditional acoustic in a campfire setting, the top vibrates so vigorously that you can feel it resonating against your body.

Baggs achieves this whole anomaly via another key component of the AEG-1’s unicorn thinline design. The sides and interior frame are made of composite poplar, which is essentially a fancy plywood. Yep, plywood! We’ll let Lloyd Baggs explain.

“I love the iconic midcentury plywood furniture of Charles and Ray Eames, and that of Eero Saarinen," he says. "Recognizing the strength and the beauty offered by what was then thought of as a lowly material, these designers elevated ply to luxury status. The ply of the AEG-1 is custom made in the U.S.A. of highly sustainable poplar and offers the same qualities that inspired the Eames’ and Saarinen to embrace this material. It is strong, lightweight and extremely stable, making it the perfect platform to support the resonant top and back of our guitar.”

That all starts to make more sense when you see an inside photo of the body. There are three distinct chambers, and a whole lot of structural support for the bolt-on neck. According to Baggs, instead of the extra neck support coming from overbuilding the top and back to compensate, the AEG‘s patent-pending neck support system frees the top and the back to be voiced independently for greater dynamic response. All I know is that you can truly feel it acoustically, and when amplified, the AEG-1 packs a significantly powerful punch. Simply strum a chord and — bam! That’s the sonic hallmark here. Mike Tyson could have used such a wallop in his recent debacle against Jake Paul."

I put the AEG-1 through paces in several different arenas, mainly playing through a Baggs Synapse Personal P.A. On a solo gig in a noisy brewery, I truly appreciated that powerful punchiness. This room had high ceilings and bad acoustics, which the AEG-1 did a solid job of penetrating. But what’s especially intriguing is how that punch is noticeably not piezo powered, so there's no quack in the attack. It’s more of a sweeping punchiness. There’s a gang of inherent low end on this boomer, so in that room I cut it back a bit, boosted the treble and included only about one quarter of the mic signal. I did encounter some feedback, but a quick push of the phase button eliminated it on the spot.

On a much quieter gig outdoors, in a lush winery patio setting, I was able to appreciate the subtle nuances the AEG-1 delivered during fingerpicking passages on intricate instrumentals. In both instances, I was running through a Fender Tone Master Pro processor, and I wound up creating a custom patch with very little processing for the AEG-1, simply because doesn’t need much. It’s as if the system has built-in compression to yield a tone that has the balls of an electric. At the same time, it sounds more like a “real” acoustic when amplified compared to other true acoustics with pickup systems installed. I suppose that’s the whole point. Baggs has done a ton of the legwork for you.

My only wish was to be able to add a third element, a magnetic pickup running on separate signal path, as I explain in this column. My main live instrument, a Martin CS-SC-2022, is customized to have a Baggs HiFi feeding body resonance into one output while a Baggs M1 passive magnetic set in the sound hole focuses on string tones. The filled-in sound hole on the AEG-1 makes putting a pickup in there impossible. (Hey Baggs, maybe include that on the next model, the AEG-2?)

The current slogan of “relentless innovation in acoustic amplification” is a succinct and accurate description of the modern era at L.R. Baggs. Feeling like they’d mastered the basic piezo pickup problem to the utmost in the form of the Element and in a dual system including a Tru Mic with the Anthem, they moved on to more advanced pickup technologies, such as the body-sensor transducers at the heart of the HIFi. The original earned an Editors’ Pick last year, and we’ll check out the Duet with its new Silo microphone that they sent along to put in a traditional acoustic for its own review soon.

It’s also worth remembering that 2021’s Voiceprint Acoustic D.I. was a breakthrough, harnessing the power of iOS for an incredibly customizable DI signal by utilizing Impulse Resonance mapping. So not only is the AEG-1 a first for Baggs in the guitar realm, but it’s also intriguing to track how the company applies its other breakthroughs in reverse, with the guitar built around them.

The name implies more models are to come, and I’m curious to see what Baggs comes up with next. I won’t bother with speculation, but the AEG-1 sure provides a solid platform for further innovation. Early reaction to the AEG-1 appears enthusiastic — Molly Tuttle has been using it regularly onstage, finding it particularly appropriate for her clawhammer technique — and it stands to reason that we’ll be seeing an AEG-2, then an AEG-3 and so on. Perhaps that will mean integration of other pickups and even some version of Voiceprint. Time will tell. For now, we can savor another excellent result from Baggs in the form of the AEG-1 Acoustic Electric Guitar.

SPECIFICATIONS

AEG-1 Sunburst

CONTACT lrbaggs.com

PRICE $1,599 with gig bag

NUT WIDTH 1.7", composite

NECK African mahogany, bolt-on

FRETBOARD Indian rosewood, 25.625" scale

FRETS 20

TUNERS Closed back

BODY Indian rosewood (back), Sitka spruce (top), composite poplar (side frame)

BRIDGE Indian rosewood with composite saddle

ELECTRONICS Custom Baggs HiFi Duet with HiFi pickups and Silo microphone

CONTROLS Volume, Mic Blend, Tone, phase button

POWER 9-volt battery

FACTORY STRINGS D’Addario XT Phosphor Bronze Light gauges .012 - 053

WEIGHT 6 lbs (as tested)

BUILT Designed in USA, crafted in Korea

KUDOS Hearty and punchy amplified tone from shapely, comfortable body with great playability

CONCERNS Would be great if an open sound hole could support a magnetic pickup as well

It’s been a long time coming. Five years ago, Martin invited GP to its headquarters in Nazareth, PA., for a sneak peep at the prototype for a revolutionary new concept. We’d never seen anything like the SC project, spearheaded by VP Fred Greene and lead designer Tim Teal. Featuring an asymmetrical “S” body shape and a cavernous cutaway with crazy upper-fret access courtesy of a patented new Sure Align linear dovetail neck joint at the 13th fret, the SC would come to redefine the state of the historic manufacturer’s acoustic-electric design.

While we were all immediately impressed handling the original SC-13E, especially considering it was priced in the affordable Road Series, one couldn’t help but dream about a Cadillac version. After my test drive I commented that if such a finicky acoustic aficionado as myself were to seriously consider replacing another go-to instrument in the arsenal, especially another Martin, it would most likely have to come from the same Nazareth factory made from all solid woods with top tier electronics. At long last, here we go.

Practical reasons dictated the timeline for getting a green light on the SC-18E and SC-28E. First, the public had to buy in to the original SC’s odd shape and low-profile velocity neck. Martin made it in the Mexican facility to meet a price point for the masses. Players eagerly embraced the S, leading to a whole range in the Road Series. (See my review of the fanciest, SC-13E Special Burst.)

Before committing to an American production model, Martin produced a very limited custom shop run of 300 in 2022. Skipping past the Cadillac and shooting straight for a Bentley, the lavish SC-2022-CS quickly sold out and became a collector’s item. That lit the green light for bringing SC machinery stateside, and we got a first glimpse of the SC-28E and SC-18E at the 2024 NAMM Show. Fully floored, we asked for review models, and now they have finally arrived.

These new SCs belong to the Standard Series in Martin’s most familiar styles, 18 and 28. The 18 equals solid mahogany back and sides with rather workman like appointments, while the 28 is made of solid rosewood back and sides with slightly fancier appointments. For example, the rosette on the 28 has more rings and there are a few more dots inlayed on the fretboard in mother of pearl, which is a bit more pronounced compared to the abalone on the 18. The white plastic top binding and bridge pins on the 28 are most distinctly different from the black binding on the 18. And the 28 has a groovy stipe down its back. Ultimately we’re talking classic Martin aesthetics, rather Spartan but classy cool in a traditional sense, which is particularly intriguing on such a non-traditional body shape. Both feature solid Sitka spruce tops and either Fishman Aura VT Blend or L.R. Baggs Anthem electronics, as tested here. The 18 costs about 500 bucks less.

Having 13 frets to any body is unique, but the SC is a true unicorn. Martin invented its linear dovetail neck joint so there’s nothing hindering your fretting hand from getting a vice grip to fully access the upper fretboard with no semblance of the classic “15th fret hump” that acts as a speed bump on most acoustics. And the shape of the neck is equally innovative. While the neck may be on the thin side overall for traditional Martin enthusiasts, as a buddy pointed out to me when he played the SC-28, I appreciate the low profile, and how it morphs as you navigate from the nut to the top. Its helical design facilitates a full feel in open position, balance for barre chords in the middle range, and a natural path for the thumb to traverse gravitating towards the treble side as one passes into cutaway territory and enters the fretboard equivalent of the penthouse suite where no notes are off limits. Anything and everything is possible in the penthouse suite!

The SC-28 is exactly what I’d hoped it would be. It’s got that wooly, chunky rosewood tone that also has a nice top presence. If you’re looking to make the biggest sound possible from a rather shallow body with a deep cutaway, this is the way. If you’re a singer songwriter looking for that full Martin sound but from an instrument that’s far easier to play than anything Martin has previously produced, this is the way as well. For just about anything from stretch chords to sweep licks, acoustic rock to jazz, the SC-28 is incredibly accommodating.

The SC-18 exceeded my expectations. Most aficionados have some preference between rosewood and mahogany, style 28 or style 18. I’m generally in camp 28. I wasn’t even going to ask for the 18 figuring it’s essentially similar with a slightly thinner sound, and for a guitar that’s already on the thin side physically…. I figured wrong. The SC-18E does have less chunk in the trunk, but man, it’s wonderfully resonate and spritely. I tend to prefer it for intense fingerstyle instrumentals, as it seems to have a quicker response. The satin finish on the neck felt super smooth on this review unit.

Both have that elusive Martin sound, even if it’s in a more contemporary context. And despite the being a sleek design, these Standards are no wussies—in fact they’re robust. My fingerstyle can get rather aggressive, and most guitars arriving with a factory setup simply can’t handle it. They’re too easy to play and splat out when I dig in. Not so with these Standard Series SCs. I was able to wail away all over the neck without worry, utilizing every iota of the fretboard. These are the first Martins I’ve reviewed with their new Luxe Kovar strings, which felt nice and snappy, silky smooth and strong. Martin also claims the new string design incorporates less tension, so perhaps that contributed to the way the guitars seemed to eat up whatever I threw at them.

Standard Series SCs come equipped with either L.R. Baggs Anthem or Fishman Aura VT Blend electronics, and our review units had the former. I’m glad they did because, well, I agree with what one of the cats who works the end of the production line at the Nazareth factory once told me. He believed that the Fishman cut through a band application well, which the beefier sound of the Baggs was better for solo or duo stuff when they guitar has more space in the mix. I took these out on a duo gig in Half Moon Bay at the Ritz Carlton, and the Anthem systems delivered lots of luxurious tones through an AER Tommy Emmanuel amp and a Bose P.A.

Onstage and studio experiences will always let you know exactly where you stand, both as a player and as commander in chief of your gear. How well you play and how well you sound are intricately linked. Find yourself in a particularly meaningful situation, be it an important gig or the white-hot pressure of playing to a click track when the studio light turns red, and there’s pretty much nothing that you wouldn’t do to play and sound just a bit better. All those licks you practiced in your bedroom become trickier standing up with the guitar’s body hanging on your own. Ditto for when the recorder starts rolling and the producer is hawking you through the studio glass. All those tones you had dialed perfectly in said bedroom become suddenly elusive amidst the mayhem of the band, the P.A., and the venue. Or the impossible quiet sitting in an isolation booth. These are the moments when having a Standard Serie SC feels like a lifeline. Suddenly, paying the extra money for an American-made instrument constructed from solid woods and featuring top-tier electronics feels worth every penny. This is the difference between being good enough and as professional as possible.

Having tried these new SCs as well as their predecessors in all these environments, this conclusion is drawn from a wealth of experience. If you’re truly serious about playing and sounding your best, in all circumstances but especially in the live arena, audition a Martin SC from the Standard Series. I’ll bet that if you’ve been considering an SC and there’s any way you can manage the payments, you’ll go for an SC-18E or SC-28E. For being simply the best performance acoustics that have come to this Frets acoustic editor’s attention in nearly a decade on the gig, Now I can’t wait to see a slightly fancier SC in the Modern Deluxe Series. Your move, Martin.

As a special treat, here are two videos demonstrating the powers of the Martin SC-18E and SC-28E. Guitar Player Frets editor Jimmy Leslie and Jules Leyhe — who both perform in the Allman Brothers tribute group the Allmond Brothers — play the ABB classic "Little Martha" and their original tune "Gratitude Raga" on Martin SC Standards.

SPECIFICATIONS

SC-18E

CONTACT martinguitar.com

PRICE $3,599 street with hardshell case

NUT WIDTH 1.75", bone

NECK Select hardwood, Sure Align linear dovetail neck joint

FRETBOARD Ebony, 25.4" scale

FRETS 20

TUNERS Nickel open gear with butterbean knobs

BODY Solid mahogany back & sides, solid Sitka spruce top

BRIDGE Ebony with compensated bone saddle

ELECTRONICS L.R.Baggs Anthem (as tested) or Fishman Aura VT Blend

FACTORY STRINGS Luxe by Martin Kovar Light nickel-cobalt .011—.052

WEIGHT 4.3 lbs (as tested)

BUILT USA

KUDOS Resonant, responsive acoustic and amplified tones from shapely sexy body with uber playability

CONCERNS Low profile velocity neck may feel a bit thin to traditional Martin players. Not available lefty

SC-28E

CONTACT martinguitar.com

PRICE $3,999 with hardshell case

NUT WIDTH 1.75", bone

NECK Select hardwood, Sure Align linear dovetail neck joint

FRETBOARD Ebony, 25.4" scale

FRETS 20

TUNERS Nickel open gear with butterbean knobs

BODY Solid East Indian rosewood back & sides, solid Sitka spruce top

BRIDGE Ebony with compensated bone saddle

ELECTRONICS L.R.Baggs Anthem (as tested) or Fishman Aura VT Blend

FACTORY STRINGS Luxe by Martin Kovar Light nickel-cobalt .011—.052

WEIGHT 4.4 lbs (as tested)

BUILT USA

KUDOS Hearty acoustic and amplified tone from shapely sexy body with uber playability

CONCERNS Low profile velocity neck may feel a bit thin to traditional Martin players. Not available lefty

While most effects manufacturers are busy making new or different flavors of familiar effects, Dawner Prince Electronics has carved out its own unique niche. In addition to building a selection of excellent-sounding stompboxes for a range of guitar-friendly effects, the Croatia-based company has created pedals that emulate rare electromechanical effects from a bygone age. Dawner’s Pulse pedal, for example, is an electronic re-creation of Gibson’s early 1970s Maestro Rover RO-1, a compact rotary speaker in a drum-shaped metal container. It’s a left-field choice — the Maestro Rover isn’t exactly well known — but that’s what makes it such a tantalizing choice. And take it from someone who own a Maestro Rover, the Pulse is an amazingly accurate emulation.

Given all that, I was especially keen to try out Dawner’s latest attempt at sonic resurrection, the Boonar Tube Deluxe. It’s a re-creation of the Binson Echorec 2 T7E, an electromechanical four-head delay unit from the 1960s and ‘70s that used a magnetic drum recorder rather than a tape loop. The Echorec 2 is perhaps best known among guitarists as the delay preferred by David Gilmour for much of his career with Pink Floyd.

Dawner Prince have tread in this territory before with their Boonar Multi-Head Drum Delay, a pedal that delivers a highly accurate emulation of the Binson. But the Boonar Tube Deluxe takes the concept much further in its design and control set. Among the changes are a revamped DSP engine for the magnetic drum emulation, a broader and well-chosen control set, a larger and easier to use control panel and — most significantly — the addition of a real subminiature military spec dual-triode vacuum tube in the preamp that feeds the delay circuit.

Before we dig into the features, it should be said that this is an impressive-looking pedal. It’s large — 7.28 by 4.72 by 2.12 inches — and weighs in at a hefty two pounds and six ounces. The glassy black control panel looks sleek and smart, and the sturdy metal chassis is painted in a vintage-looking metallic gold finish that recalls the Binson Echorec 2’s distinctive case. Vents on the front and side panels attest to the presence of a vacuum tube within, and the unit gets quite toasty after it’s been running for a while. Dawner Prince suggests letting the pedal warm up for at least half a minute to get the best results from the tube.

Add in the fact that the pedal is handmade in Croatia using NOS parts, and you have a boutique-quality effect pedal that delivers pro-level audio quality in a package designed for both stage and studio. Let’s take a look at what’s here.

MODES

The first thing to know is that the Boonar Tube Deluxe offers two modes: Repeats and Swell. Think of Repeat as your standard delay mode, with up to four playback heads available. Whereas the Benson Echorec 2 created echoes and multi-tap delays via a 12-position switch that selected playback heads singly or in combination, the Boonar gives you four buttons, each of which can be used to engage or disengage one of the pedal’s four virtual playback heads, for a total of 16 different combinations. These buttons are located on left of the control panel under the legend Playback Heads, and each lights up amber when engaged.

As for Swell, it lets you open a feedback loop from any of the four playback heads, creating a lush bed of shimming repeats that sound like a beautifully suffused cathedral reverb. This effect was present in the Echorec 2 T7E as well, but Dawner has gone a step further by adding a selectable feedback loop for each individual playback head, a feature offered on the later Binson Echorec P.E.603-T. The Swell effects’ four buttons are located under the Playback Heads buttons and likewise light up amber when engaged.

CONTROLS

The top of the unit contains the most relevant performance controls. Starting from the left, the input control governs how much of the vacuum tube preamp’s signal is fed to the record head. At low levels, it produces warm and wooly tones, but crank it higher and you’ll be treated to glorious saturated overdrive from the tube preamp. It’s here that the Boonar’s sonic signature takes shape, and the input control offers plenty of latitude to dial in the exact amount of warmth or crunch you desire.

Next up, the bass/treble control provides control over the delay signal’s tone. It’s subtle, similar to the Binson’s tone control. This is followed by the echo volume knob, which controls the level of the delay signal sent to the pedal’s output.

From here we have a pair of rather unique controls: Length of Swell and Drum Age. The Length of Swell control sets the number of repeats (or length of regeneration) for the heads that have feedback engaged. Similar to analog delays of all variety, turning this control clockwise produces warm, dense feedback as you reach its upper regions and can be driven into self-oscillation. As for Drum Age, it mimics the tone and response characteristics of the Echorec’s mechanical drum as it ages, from “new” (full counterclockwise) to “old” (full clockwise) and everything in between. Lower settings produce brighter and clearer repeats, while turning the dial clockwise rolls of high frequencies, creates blurrier repeats and induces subtle modulation as would be found in the original mechanical units as they age, due to wear on the mechanical parts.

It’s worth noting that the Length of Swell and Drum Age controls are interactive. At “newer” age settings, the Length of Swell control reaches self-oscillation earlier in its rotation because more high frequency content is present in the Drum Age control. Turning Drum Age clockwise rolls off the high end, allowing you to turn Length of Swell further clockwise without inducing feedback.

Finally, there’s a Drum Speed rotary encoder that increases delay from 950ms (on the fourth playback head) to 12ms (on the first) as you turn it clockwise. The knob is stepped, and each notch represents a change of 10ms. You can also press the knob while turning it for finer increments of 1ms.

LEVEL INDICATOR

Like the original Echorec 2 — and many tape recorders of its time — the Boonar uses an EM81 “Magic Eye” vacuum tube to show the level of the input signal. The tube’s “iris” expands and glows brighter as the input level increases, adding a vintage vibe that’s in keeping with its look.

OLED SCREEN

The OLED screen offers plenty of useful information, including delay speed in milliseconds, tap division (1/4, 1/8th, 1/8th-note triplet and 1/16th), preset number and preamp mode (more on this below).

It’s also here that you can dig into what’s packed under the hood. A trio of buttons to the right of the OLED screen let you access, change and save various parameters, including global settings such as True Bypass/Tube Buffer Bypass modes and MIDI channel; presets (you can save up to 16); tap-tempo subdivision and much more. Perhaps the most significant option in here has to do with the preamp mode, where you have a choice of Original and Modern. Original emulates the Binson’s lower output and darker tone, while Modern sounds brighter and more dynamic while being slightly louder.

FOOT SWITCHES

The Boonar Tube Deluxe has two foot switches. The left selects between Swell and Repeat modes, and an accompanying LED glows amber in the former. Additionally, this switch is can be used to load any presets you have saved.

The right foot switch turns the pedal on and off and can be used to call up your favorite preset. You can set the pedal for True Bypass or Tube Buffer Bypass in the global menu. Tube Buffer mode keeps the tube preamp engaged even when the pedal is turned off to retain that warm and dynamic Echorec tube tone. (See “Front Panel” below for additional switching options using the external input jack on the unit’s front panel.)

FRONT PANEL CONNECTIVITY

Along the unit’s front you’ll find the mono input and output jacks, and a wet out for processing the delay signal on its own. Next in line is an external input jack that accepts an expression pedal or the included Clicker remote foot switch. Use the Global Settings menu to determine the function of whichever you plug in here. Optional modes here include Expression Pedal, Tap Tempo Switch, Repeats/Swell Switch and Bypass Switch

The I/Os continue with a MIDI input (the Boonar accepts MIDI CC and Program Change messages, as well as MIDI clock) and a USB mini-B port for future firmware updates. Finally there’s the 12-volt DC 800ma center-negative power input for the included power supply.

IN USE

As you can tell, this is a fully spec’ed delay. In my experience, it’s easily the best Echorec emulation I’ve found. I own the original Boonar Multi-Head pedal and love it. I also have an Italian-made Guru Echosex 2 T7E tube delay pedal, a rather rare Echorec emulation that has been my studio go-to mainly due to its pro-level features and tube tone.

But I have to say the Boonar Tube Deluxe is a game changer. The updates to the DSP engine bring new realism to the effect. And then there’s that tube preamp. As the Boonar’s front end, it performs a good deal of the magic that makes every cascading echo sound alive and three dimensional. The fact that you can use it even when the effect is off is yet another of the pedal’s benefits.

But let’s not downplay the real advantages of the pedal’s large-format design. A pedal like the Boonar Tube Deluxe invites you to grab the knobs and start experimenting, and I jumped right in. One of my favorite tricks was to set the Drum Age full left to the “newest” setting and turn the Length of Swell control to the point of self oscillation. I’d then turn drum age clockwise to attenuate the high frequencies, until the feedback subsided but held steady as an almost violin-like drone. I could then capture the feedback in my looper and use it as a bed for new phrases and riffs. I got hours of pleasure experimenting this way and discovering the different textures that could be created with various settings of the pedal.

Let’s also not forget the new Boonar’s pair of preamp modes, Original and Modern, which deliver two completely different front-end responses. Add in the wealth of global options, switching, 16 onboard presets, advanced MIDI interfacing and bulletproof handbuilt quality, and the Boonar Tube Deluxe is easily the best Binson Echorec emulation available.

Production is limited due to its use of NOS parts, and Boonar Tube Deluxe units are being made available in batches rather than all at once. Given all this, it’s by no means inexpensive, but as premium boutique quality pedals go, it’s well within reason. If you play classic rock, rockabilly, blues, prog or any various flavors of ambient, you’ll find it a delightful addition to your arsenal, and one worth making a fair bit of room for on your pedalboard.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT dawnerprince.com

PRICE $1,199.95

CONTROLS Input control, bass/treble, echo volume, Length of Swell, Drum Age, Drum Speed, Playback Head buttons (4, illuminated), Back buttons (4, illuminated), Menu select (save), up and down navigation buttons

FOOT SWITCHES Swell/Repeats (Preset Load) with status LED (amber for Swell mode); On/Off (Favorite Select) with Status LED (amber for On)

I/O Input, output, wet out, external in for expression pedal or foot switch, USB mini-B port, MIDI In, 12V power in

DIMENSIONS 7.28” x 4.72” x 2.12” (LxWxH)

WEIGHT 2 lb 6 oz

EXTRAS 12-volt DC 800ma center-negative universal adapter, external Clicker switch and USB mini-B cable are included

BUILT Handbuilt in Croatia