After years of painstaking research and design, we’re proud to introduce the Fender® Super-Sonic™ amplifier…The first Fender® all-tube amp to capture the highly desirable sparkly tones of the ’65 Vibrolux®, the thick tone of the ’66 Bassman®, and the smooth and creamy crunch of modern, high-gain amplifiers. Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

Fender’s new American Deluxe guitars debut in 2010, consisting of four Stratocaster® and two Telecaster® guitar models that bring the series singing and screaming into a new decade of tone, tradition and innovation.

The instruments are the American Deluxe Stratocaster, American Deluxe Stratocaster HSS, American Deluxe Stratocaster V Neck, American Deluxe Stratocaster Ash, American Deluxe Telecaster and American Deluxe Telecaster Ash. They differ from their predecessors of the previous incarnation of the American Deluxe series in three new and major ways: Read the rest of this entry »

Peavey proudly introduces the new PXD™ Vicious™ Series and the PXD Vicious Devin Townsend Signature Model, a 7-string baritone metal guitar designed to his demanding specifications.

“When Peavey and I decided to collaborate on this project, I knew that I wanted an instrument that could crush everything while maintaining a high level of quality and elegance,” said Townsend, the renowned producer and mastermind of The Devin Townsend Project and Strapping Young Lad. “This quest has redefined how I view the guitar. To have a company that knows how to get things done behind me with a metal axe like this is a real sense of power.” Read the rest of this entry »

As one of the heaviest metal men ever to burst out of Canada and North America, and a major force in Europe and Asia for many years, Jeff Waters is not only the hot guitarist at the center of the band Annihilator, he virtually is Annihilator. Ranked an impressive #3 in Joel McCiver’s 2009 book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists, Waters also lays down the band’s bass parts (hiring pros to cover touring duties), is the band’s chief producer, and covered lead vocal duties between 1994-97. In short, Waters, lives, breathes and eats metal—and when he really wants to rock, he straps on an Epiphone, namely the new Jeff Waters “Annihilation-V” signature model, a guitar primed for total destruction. Read the rest of this entry »

Known for his rhythmic genius, longtime Taylor player Dave Matthews is a man who needs little introduction to fans of popular music. As the lead singer, songwriter, and acoustic guitar savant of the Dave Matthews Band, Matthews’ deft ability to elicit intricate melodies from his Taylor 914ce has endeared his compositions to legions of fans around the world. To share his passion for playing and to capture his own signature style and tone, Taylor Guitars, in collaboration with Matthews, is releasing the Dave Matthews Signature Model (DMSM) guitar. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest incarnations of Fender’s acclaimed American Deluxe series bass guitar models are designed to deliver high-tech cutting-edge tone, tradition and innovation to the modern bassist.

All three instruments—the American Deluxe Precision Bass, American Deluxe Jazz Bass and American Deluxe Jazz Bass V—are conceived as tonally sophisticated modern iterations of these timeless instruments. All feature a wealth of groundbreaking advances, including powerful-yet-quiet new N3 Noiseless™ pickups, improved electronics that result in increased headroom and tighter low-end response, and an active/passive toggle switch and passive tone control (for passive mode). Read the rest of this entry »

BBE recently discontinued their BBE Freq Boost stompbox. The description BBE gives this pedal is: The Freq Boost is patterned after a rare Treble Booster of the mid-’60s that gave many famous players the ability to add sustain, fatten and overdrive their favorite guitar amplifier.

So for those of you that can’t read through this the BBE was a knock off of the units used by Page, May, Townsend, Gilmore and many others to overdrive their amps in the 60’s and 70’s. They were also used in conjunction with an overdrive or distortion box. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest incarnations of Fender’s famous Telecaster and Stratocaster models comprise the new American Special series—built “by the people, for the people” as value-laden “guitars for the times.” They are designed specifically to bring the full Fender experience of a terrific-sounding, smooth playing, rock-solidly-built U.S.-made Fender guitar to players everywhere.

The three instruments in the new series—the American Special Telecaster, American Special Stratocaster and American Special Stratocaster HSS—are highly-affordable U.S.-made Fender electric guitars that are within the reach of an entire spectrum of players. As such, they share many features with their cousins in the acclaimed Highway One™ and American Standard series. Read the rest of this entry »

New generation of groundbreaking practice and recording amp
includes presets and loops by top artists

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (Jan. 14, 2010) – Fender introduces the next step in the ongoing evolution of its acclaimed and highly successful G-DEC (Guitar Digital Entertainment Center) amp series, the G-DEC 3. Available in 30-watt and 15-watt versions, the G-DEC 3 series takes an exciting leap forward in technology and content in that the world’s top artists and session aces created many of its 100 presets and audio performance loops—delivering genre-accurate, non-generic audio. Read the rest of this entry »

The argument arises every once in a while that there are no new effects made for guitarists. Most argue that the new effects are reissues or slight modifications to the 5 or 6 staples we may have on the floor beneath us already.

Eventide has changed all of this by taking a step back and a leap forward in the arena of on floor guitar processing. The PitchFactor’s huge spectrum of sonic finishes for your guitar varies from subtle thickening of your tone to out of this world synthesizer effects.

The factory presets sound like a who’s who of Eventide users over the years. You can dial up some Jimmy Page or Frank Zappa instantly out of the box. Steve Vai’s sought after Eventide H3000 tones are not so subtly called “Wyld Stallions Solo” a little nod to Bill & Ted and VaiBallerina. The “Heavy Lead” presets also have a Vaiesque sound to them with the addition of a Boss DS-1 and some yanking on my tremelo bar. Read the rest of this entry »

For more than 35 years, AC/DC has represented the archetypal “big rock” guitar sound, setting the standards for countless bands to follow. In particular, Angus Young’s incendiary lead tone and mammoth rhythm crunch have inspired wave after wave of rock guitar heroes, and he has done it all on a Gibson SG Standard. The SG replaced the underappreciated Les Paul Standard in 1961, and while the Les Paul would surface later in the decade as a rock and blues classic, the new SG (originally named Les Paul/SG) was an instant hit in its own right. Its simple yet inspired ingredients of thin, all-mahogany body and neck and two Gibson humbucking pickups gave it a snappy attack with a muscular punch, and its slim, fast neck yielded unprecedented playability. Read the rest of this entry »

I have for most of my life been in one player guitar bands. I cannot say if has been by design or fate. Being the lone guitarist and having eclectic tastes in music I have relied on a diverse collection of guitars to paint a sonic spectrum of tone. One aspect of this spectrum is mixing acoustic and electric characteristics.

At one point I was using an ES 335 for this task. While the ES335 is a great guitar, it is not going to give you a pure acoustic guitar sound. The other drawback to the classic Gibson is the ES 335 is prone to feedback when pushed to the limits with gain. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s no question that Zakk Wylde is a one-of-a-kind performer and guitarist. As the lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and founding leader of Black Label Society, Zakk has torched many a stage with his unique style and performance. Winner of multiple “Most Valuable Guitarist” awards in the metal genre, Zakk combines pure speed shredding with the use of pinch harmonics and chickin’ pickin’ to create a wall of sound that’s second to none. And like Zakk, his new limited edition Epiphone “Graveyard Disciple” will also light up a stage. Read the rest of this entry »

The body of the Zoot Suit features a brand new body built with multiple birch wood laminate pieces (each one approximately .075” thick), each dyed with a different color then compressed and bonded together to form one solid block of wood. No paint is used. Each body is given two coats of satin nitrocellulose lacquer.

Average Weight
The average weight of a Zoot Suit body is 5.7 lbs, which is slightly heavier than normal but actually creates more balance, a solid feel, and brighter tones that prove compatible with the pickup configuration. Read the rest of this entry »

College Park-based Coil LLC has developed six patent-pending electronics to make that – and more – possible. Invented by electrical and computer engineering professor Bruce Jacob and students in his courses, the electronics, and a suite of four gorgeous guitars also designed by Jacob, will be demonstrated for the first time at the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland.

The guitars include technologies that enable musicians to wildly configure the sounds their instruments make, level volume among different sounds, actually change the sound of the guitar using cool new tone knobs, and boost sound to preserve its quality as it leaves the instrument. Read the rest of this entry »