NAMM 2012: Jarrell Monte Pittman MPS signature guitar
Madonna guitarist Monte Pittman will be rocking his signature Jarrell MPS guitar at the Superbowl this Sunday. I had the opportunity to check this axe out at NAMM and it’s pretty impressive. There are plenty of tonal options, between the Seymour Duncan P-Rail, STk-S7 Vintage Hot Stack and Dime Bucker pickups and custom wiring, and the guitar has a really wide natural dynamic range. It’s capable of humbucker, P-90 and single coil tones and a bunch of ‘in between’ sounds that I’ve never quite heard from any other guitar. It plays really nicely, and they look very cool. What more do you need?
Here’s some info from Jarrell:
NAMM 2012: LTD Buz-7 Buz McGrath signature model
Unearth’s Buz McGrath always had some of the freaking coolest custom Ibanez models. So many of us screamed bloody heresy when he switched to ESP. It’s not that ESP guitars are bad or anything – c’mon, they’re amazing – it’s just that Buz’s ideas always worked so well with Ibanii. Would his ideas translate over to the ESP aesthetic? Well get a load of this:
Ooooh yeah. That’s the LTD Buz-7 right there, my friend. I especially like the subtly angled trem cavity (it’s really like that, yeah? It’s not an optical illusion?), the black bound maple fretboard, the Snow White Sunburst finish and the reverse headstock. Other features: neck-through-body construction, maple neck, alder body, 25.5″ scale, Xtra Thin Flat neck contour, 24 extra jumbo frets, EMG 707 active pickups, Grover tuners, Floyd Rose 1000 series bridge. More info here.
NAMM 2012: Black Veil Brides signature BC Rich models
Black Veil Brides guitarists Jake Pittz and Jinxx both have new BC Rich guitars and they’re both pretty freaking cool! I checked them out at NAMM 2012 and was most impressed. These two axes tap into the essential sig guitar criteria of being attractive to people who aren’t fans of the band as much as to those who are (BVB inlays notwithstanding, but even then they look kind of cool).
NAMM 2012: Vivian Campbell launches Buddy Blaze Shredder VC 25th anniversary model
Yesterday Vivian Campbell stopped by for a signing to launch his Buddy Blaze Shredder VC 25th Anniversary model, based on the Shredder he used in his Whitesnake days. That’s the original on top in the pic above, and the new version below. Only 25 will be made, with Seymour Duncan pickups including a Full Shred humbucker which will be signed by Seymour Duncan himself. A Titanium Floyd Rose is an option. Buddy’s about to relaunch his website but you can hit up his social media links for more info or to get your hands on one.
NAMM 2012: Buddy Blaze 7-strings
Buddy Blaze owns NAMM this year. Not only is he introducing the 25th Anniversary Vivian Campbell Shredder on Saturday (posted about earlier today here), he’s also introducing his first ever 7-string model. Check it out! Premium poplar body, Floyd Rose, 24 frets with incredible upper fret access, single volume knob and 3-way pickup selector, and it plays like a dream. Buddy has two prototypes on show at NAMM: a blue one with ebony fretboard and DiMarzio Crunch Lab and LiquiFire pickups, and an orange one with a maple fretboard and DiMarzio Blazes – although he has DMT Blazebucker pickups with Alnico 8 humbuckers available too. Dig those cool heptagonal inlays! Get to NAMM and check them out if you can. The blue one rocks my socks off. I’ll have more from the Blaze booth in the coming days including – good lord – the actual original shredder Vivian Campbell used in the 80s!
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