Month: July 2017

Photo by captain.orange / CC BY Ahh, the eternal comparison: P90 vs Humbuckers. From the late 1940s through the early 1950s, the P90 was the standard pickup for Gibson electric guitars. The reason for their popularity was that they were the hottest pickups the guitar world had ever seen, capable of putting out bolder, more powerful rock guitar sound, without the overly bright twang that some single-coil pickups produce. The humbucker, on the other hand, is known for one key thing: the design eliminates the 60-cycle hum that was a background presence in all single-coil tones. While they’re certainly capable of giving you powerful overdrive, they can also deliver louder clean tones than any previous pickup, giving them more versatility across a wider range of genres. There are a lot…

Epiphone has added a four-string to their Masterbilt Century series called the Masterbilt De Luxe Classic Acoustic/Electric Bass Guitar. It carries all the features of the Century line including a solid spruce top with traditional longitudinal bracing, an ebony fretboard, and five-piece maple/mahogany neck. Available in Vintage Sunburst and Vintage Natural finishes, the bass is... via no treble http://ift.tt/2vl3XaT

Def Leppard are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their seminal album Hysteria with the mini documentary, Step Inside: Hysteria at 30. This week, the band released the first part of the mini-documentary on YouTube. The documentary gives fans an inside look at the making of Hysteria, the band's commercial pinnacle and one of the best-selling rock albums of all time. Its release coincides with that of Hysteria (Remastered 2017), which comes out next Friday, August 4. This remastered anniversary edition of the album will be released in various formats via Bludgeon Riffola/Mercury, including the UMe-Super Deluxe Edition, the Deluxe Version, the 1 CD Vanilla version, 2-LP Black Vinyl version, & the limited edition 2-LP Colored Vinyl version. The reissue boasts B-sides and live tracks, and additionally the audio for "In…

Twenty-three years into his career, modern blues star Kenny Wayne Shepherd had a single overarching goal for his eighth studio album, Lay It On Down: “I wanted to make the best record I’ve ever made,” he says. “To do that, I had to get out of my comfort zone. I worked with a new producer, Marshall Altman, and I wrote with a bunch of people I’ve never worked with before. I put myself in situations where I had to react differently, and that made the whole thing pretty exciting.” Shepherd’s last solo album, 2014’s Goin’ Home, was an all-covers, all-blues affair, but Lay It On Down is comprised of all-original material that spans country (“Hard Lesson Learned”), horn-infused R&B (“Diamonds & Gold”) and rootsy rock and roll (“Baby Got Gone”).…

Serek Basses announced a new model at the Summer NAMM Show this year. The Midwestern 2 is a new version of the company’s flagship model with a few new refinements. It still retains many of the same features – a light-weight mahogany body, short scale, vintage profiled neck, and Hipshot hardware – but has a... via no treble http://ift.tt/2v7jvhN

Today’s Pedal Line Friday submission is from Max Van Mantgem. If you have a pedal line (doesn’t have to be in a board) for your rig, please email me a photo, bio, description of pedals and routing to pedalline@nulleffectsbay.com. Every Friday I’ll showcase a pedal line submission. Make sure you include any links to your band or music page. Pedal Line Friday – 7/28 – Max Van Mantgem Hi, I’m Matt, but a lot of people call me Max. So, I’m a hobby guitar player, at this stage in my life, so I’m not trying to promote anything other than great pedals. So, this is my latest board, and I think my best board. I currently own about 70 pedals, from nearly priceless vintage pieces to cheaply purchased pedals from…

I just stumbled upon this deal. It’s for the Mugig looper. I know nothing about Mugig, but know it’s a Chinese manufacturer of pedals. The Mugig Looper is a simple looper – similar to the Ditto. Similar in the sense that it’s a stacking looper with a level control. You can up to 15 minutes of loop time with unlimited overdubs. It’s definitely larger than the Ditto, but is in a standard sized enclosure – so not too big, but not tiny. Check out this video: Now, here is why I’m bringing this up today – it’s available for only $25 on Amazon. This includes FREE shipping as well.  $25 for a looper is crazy cheap. Right?!? If you have one, let me know what you think by commenting below.…

A couple of days ago I got an email about the band Celldweller and the recent pedal tower build for the guitarist / producer- Klayton.  I’ve seen plenty of racks with pedals into it, but this one obviously caught my eye. This truly is a tower with 5 trays of pedals and stacked on top Moogs. Wow. Digging further, I really though the set up was interesting. A great mix of modern digital pedals (Strymon) mixed with some oldies from DOD to Arion, etc. You can tell the purpose of this tower is to create epic soundscapes. Interesting combination of delays, verbs, fuzzes, etc. Check it out: Klayton (Celldweller) – Pedal Tower Here is the breakdown of pedals. Hopefully, we can fill in some of the unidentified pedals soon: The…

When first introduced, the model had gaudy Western-style appointments, like cows and cactuses on the fretboard,and a “G” brand on its body. Chet Atkins was not pleased. In the early part of 1954, Gretsch special representative Jimmie Webster convinced up-and-coming virtuoso guitarist Chet Atkins to sign on and endorse the company by having a signature guitar. Atkins, seeing Les Paul’s success with his own Gibson Les Paul Model, agreed to collaborate with Gretsch on a guitar eventually known as the Chet Atkins Hollowbody. The new instrument had a 22-fret neck with a 24 1/2” scale length, although a few early examples had only 21 frets. The body was 15 1/2” wide and 2 3/4” deep. The Atkins 6120’s original pickups had a twangy sound the guitar’s namesake didn’t favor, so…

Tweet Electro-Harmonix announces the introduction of a dual-output expression pedal featuring the company’s advanced polymer construction that yields roadworthy pedals with a significant weight savings. The Dual Expression Pedal’s dual-output design gives hands-free control of two devices from a single source. Each expression output has independent range and reverse plus a polarity switch for maximum compatibility with a wide range of gear. Two six foot TRS cables are included. via Electro-Harmonix Blog http://ift.tt/2v7kYoQ