NAMM 2009: More Mustaine gear – new Dean ‘Rust In Peace’ VMNT
The appeal of this one will pretty much be limited to hardcore Megadeth fans and Dave Mustaine himself, but you gotta give ‘em props for trying. Here’s Dave’s latest Dean VMNT, which will be officially released at NAMM in a couple of weeks. Dean are going nuts for these graphic finishes lately.
What do you think? Is anyone going to buy this guitar, or is it impossible to step on a stage with it without looking like you need a big blond wig and a bullet belt?
You can see more cool Dean 09 stuff at their website.
If you can’t wait until the official release to get your hands on a Megadeth graphic Dean, CLICK HERE to buy the Dean V Dave Mustaine United Abomination electric guitar from Musician’s Friend for $299. These are based on the budget VMNTX, so you could quite easily take the money you save and upgrade the pickups to a Seymour Duncan Livewire Dave Mustaine active pickup set for $189.95 and have a decent approximation of what Dave uses, for a fraction of the price.
NEWS: Dave Mustaine auctions signature Line 6 amp
You can see or bid on the amp HERE.
According to the listing…
Here is an auction many of you have been waiting for. This auction is for a Line 6 half stack used by Dave Mustaine of Megadeth. Both the cabinet and amp have been autographed by Dave in silver Sharpie. The amp is a model designed and made specifically for Dave, but was not mass produced. The Mustaine amp has the same power amp section as the HD147, a two DSP chips, a main processor, and 4 amp models (a Line 6 clean, a Dave signature heavy tone, a modified vision of the Dave signature heavy tone, and a Plexi tone). The cabinet is a 4 x 12 including a custom grill and metal handles.
This item was used extensively by Dave during the recording of “The System has Failed” and the subsequent tour. Megadeth’s tenth studio album,”The System has Failed”, was critically hailed as a brilliant return to form which Revolver described in a four-star review as “Megadeth’s most vengeful, poignant and musically complex offering since 1992′s Countdown To Extinction”. In creating this album Mustaine has taken all the greatest elements of successive Megadeth line ups, mixed them together and reinvigorated the sound with an injection of fresh Mustaine venom. The album debuted at #18 on U.S. Billboard charts.
This set up is a must-have for the guitar playing Droogie. IT IS LOUD! There are some wear marks on the equipment as it has been used and transported. Don’t miss out on this one..Good luck winning this awesome item Droogies.
This item comes with a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) signed by Dave Mustaine.
All items are signed with black sharpie. If you have any questions, please email.
I dunno if Line 6 amps will some day attain the same level of vintage fervour currently reserved for 60s Marshalls, but if that day comes, this one would be a pretty unique addition to some future, 50-years-from-now Line 6 collector. Line 6 aren’t exactly known for making custom amps, so this is pretty unique.
It would be interesting to plug into this amp and compare it to whatever Dave is about to release with Marshall at NAMM in a few weeks…
NEWS: DigiTech ships RP1000 Integrated Effects Switching System
In the case of the Boss GT-8, which I used for a while, you had to use all sorts of special cables and hum filters to get the amp’s preamp into the effects loop of the GT-8 so it could be moved within patches. The GT-8 was never designed to be used this way, it was just a happy accident. But it seems that since the RP1000 is designed specifically to do this sort of stuff, they’ve tackled all the impedance mismatches and ground hum problems. It also takes things further by including separate loops for your amp’s preamp and a stomp box.
My only beef is that there doesn’t appear to be a way to switch amp channels, which would somewhat limit the usefulness of this unit – it would be a shame to have all your settings and effects stored on individual buttons for your clean, rhythm and lead sounds, but have to step on a separate amp channel switch as well. I could be wrong, perhaps the Looper Switch jack can be used for this purpose, but if so it’s not very clearly spelled out on the website.
There’s also a smaller version, the RP500, which you can get for $299.95 at Musician’s Friend.
Here’s the press release. DigiTech, a leading manufacturer of guitar, bass, and vocal processors, and a Harman International company (NYSE-HAR), is shipping it’s newest, highly anticipated RP1000 Integrated Effects Switching System.
The RP1000 sets itself apart from traditional multi-effects products featuring switchable stompbox and external amplifier loops that allow the RP1000 to easily integrate with external gear. “Guitar players use different brands and pieces of gear to create their personal tone, the RP1000′s loops and transparency is the only piece of gear of its type and allows them to do just that. I personally use an assortment of external pedals and an amp that defines my tone. Everybody I know has a different taste in amps and pedals, the RP1000 allows them to use their current setup while offering them more tonal choices” says Jason Lamb, DigiTech Marketing Manager.
The RP1000 targets live guitar players with 14 metal switches that controls both program changes, effects on/off, stompbox loop in/out, bank up/down, and the built in 20 second looper. The RP1000 can be used in two different control modes to switch up to 10 presets (preset mode) or 5 presets and 5 effects on/off (pedalboard mode).
For the tone purists, the RP1000′s internal Amp/Cabinet Bypass switch removes the RP1000′s internal amplifiers and cabinet effects from the signal chain leaving only stompboxes and effects.
The RP1000 has over 160 internal stompboxes, effects, amps and cabinets for nearly unlimited tonal options, USB 2×2 audio streaming along with Cubase LE4 all at the US MSRP of $699.95
For more information, visit their web site at
http://www.digitech.com/.CLICK HERE to buy the RP1000 from Musician’s Friend for $US499.95.
CLICK HERE to buy the book Ultimate Gear Guides: Roland Boss GT-8 from Sheet Music Warehouse
NEWS: I Heart Guitar on Twitter
I’m still messing around with it, but I recently set up an I Heart Guitar account on Twitter. I’ve been reading some articles on how to best utilise Twitter with blogging (here’s a good one for you bloggers: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/12/how-to-use-twit.html) and hopefully I can figure out how to make it all work. Bear with me as I no doubt make dumbass mistakes for a few days.
The address is http://twitter.com/iheartguitar
NEWS: VHT changes name to Fryette
VHT Amplification, who have been cranking out killer amps like the Pitbull and the new Sig: X for more than 20 years, are changing their name to Fryette Amplification under Steven Fryette Design Inc, but the VHT name, resp will live on under the ownership of the company AXL, known for their Badwater guitars and cool little portable amps.
VHT has been huge this year with the success of the Sig:X amp, which Guitar Player raved about back in July. It’s good to know that despite the name change, the company will continue to produce the same amps, as well as new ones under the leadership of owner Steven Fryette.
Here’s the press release:
Effective January 1, 2009 VHT Amplification, Inc., will be known as Fryette Amplification, a division of Steven Fryette Design, Inc. Fryette Amplification will continue to manufacture all of the VHT models currently in production including the award winning Sig:X amplifier, Deliverance amplifiers and speaker cabinets, Pittbull Ultra-Lead amplifier, FatBottom speaker cabinets, Two/Fifty/Two and Two/Ninety/Two power amps and Valvulator I Buffer + Power Supply.
In making the name change, founder and CEO Steven Fryette states: “Much like a musician who finds his own voice, my more recent designs have really captured what I’ve been searching for ever since starting VHT 20 years ago. These designs represent my personal vision of how an amplifier can interact with a player in a truly musical way. We’ll be introducing the Memphis Series amplifiers at Winter NAMM and these new products exemplify the use of our patented technology, years of experience and commitment to quality all in an affordable format. For years I have thought about putting my name on a product and finally I feel comfortable enough to do just that.”
As Steven Fryette Design Inc., Fryette plans on continuing working with others as a design consultant in addition to building Fryette Amplifiers and accessories. “Earlier this year, I had consulted with AXL and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working with another manufacturer. In a surprise move, AXL offered to buy the trademarked VHT brand name and logo. They will now manufacture their own product under that name. The offer to buy was also an opportunity to rebrand the company under my name.” says Fryette. All of the original VHT intellectual property, patents, designs, and trade dress have been retained by Steven Fryette Design, Inc.
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), guitarworld.com, Tone Deaf, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Reverbnation or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com