REVIEW: TC Electronic Hall Of Fame Reverb
Okay, we all know that TC Electronic makes incredible effects. Their 2290 delay is legendary. Their G System, G Major and G Force: legendary. Their Nova series of pedals: legendary. But the TonePrint series of pedals is a unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something that’s going to become legendary. Because TonePrint pedals allow you to dial in your own sounds, sure, but they also give you access to finely tweaked effects designed by some of the best ears in the biz, including Dream Theater’s John Petrucci, Steve Stevens, Paul Gilbert, Bumblefoot and many, many more. The Hall Of Fame Reverb is but one pedal in the series. The others are the FlashBack Delay, Corona Chorus, Shaker Vibrato, Vortex Flanger, and the new John Petrucci signature modulation station, the Dreamscape.
The Hall of Fame Reverb’s controls include rotary pots for FX Type, FX Level, Decay and Tone, as well as a toggle switch for Short or Long pre-delay times. There are stereo inputs and stereo outputs, a handy unscrewable battery compartment, 9vDC power supply jack, True Bypass stomper switch, and the same basic case shape as the company’s instant-classic PolyTune tuner pedal.
REVIEW: VHT Special 6 Ultra
The VHT Special 6 is a very fine little amp indeed, which I’ve reviewed before and developed quite an attachment to. Any time I see one I remember those glorious few weeks I that the Ultra 6 was kicking around the house, and I get all wistful and nostalgic. It’s a 6 watt, boutique-style hand wired amp rocking a single 12AX7 preamp tube and a 6V6 in the output stage. The control options are pretty limited: just a single tone pot, a volume control with a gain boost, and a low/high power switch. One of VHT’s goals with that amp is to make something simple to serve as a platform for modders to work their magic on its minimal circuit. And it worked. If you go online you’ll find all sorts of mods for the Special 6. Different speakers, upgraded caps, bright switches, gain mods… it’s a tinkerer’s dream.
But y’know who else wanted to tinker with the Special 6?
VHT.
Think of the VHT Special 6 Ultra as a factory-modded Special 6. Continue reading
REVIEW: PRS SE Bernie Marsden
Long before Whitesnake was a hairspray-squirting, chart-topping, glitzy pop-rock band they were a whiskey-swillin’, bar-room-fight-havin’ blues rock band. And some of their best blues rock was courtesy of one Bernie Marsden. This English guitar great has now been honoured with a PRS SE signature guitar and, as expected, it offers a slightly modern take on a classic vibe.
Marsden’s signature singlecut PRS SE looks at once familiar and exotic. It has a thick maple top with flame maple veneer in Vintage Sunburst finish, atop a deep mahogany body. The curves are very distinctively PRS, especially the treble side cutaway and the slightly square shoulder on the bass side, but the finish looks like it’s from another era. It’s perfectly applied, with no signs of paint bleed or rough buffing anywhere. Held up at an angle the clear coat is positively glassy.
REVIEW: Sherlock Amplifiers Fat Head
Dale Sherlock is a legendary figure in Australian amp building and the Fat Head is an icon – albeit a little-known-outside-of-Oz one. Sherlock’s popular mods and MIDI upgrades are killer ways to add extra functionality to an amp, but part of the charm of the Fat Head is that much of this utility, experience and knowledge is built right into the amp.
So what are we looking at here? Well the Fat Head is a four-channel, 50/100 watt monster which sends your sound on an all-analog journey through six tube stages for the two high-gin channels, four for the Edge channel and three for the clean, on through two or four power tubes, depending on mode. Those tubes can be 6L6 or EL34, or a pair of each – actually any octal-based power tube, for that matter.
The four channels are Clean, Edge, Rhythm and Lead, with Clean and Edge sharing one set of Bass, Mid and Treble controls and Rhythm and Lead sharing the other set (along with a Mid Scoop button). There are independent Gain and Volume controls for each channel, as well as a Bright switch for the Clean channel, plus three-way Tone switch and Gain button on the others. Front-panel channel switching is afforded via pushbuttons next to each of the Volume controls. Then there are two selectable Master Volume controls, two selectable Presence controls. and two Depth switches. The effects loop has adjustable Send and Return levels as well as a Series/Parallel switch and it can be selected for each channel via a front panel button. There’s also a Program button for saving your changes, and of course the standard Power and Standby switches.
Aside from the effects loop, MIDI In and Thru jacks, speaker jacks with 4/8/16 ohm impedance switch and effects loop, the back panel also features an additional input jack (especially handy for those who prefer to rack their heads), a Slave output with level control, and Sherlock’s Tube Management System (T.M.S). Part of the genius of the Fat Head is the way the T.M.S. handles power. Thanks to the BIAS REF. pots on the back, you can control the class of operation from Class AB to more Class A or even fully adjustable Simulclass, with any two tubes running Class AB and the others running Class A. Sherlock prefers JJ12AX7s for the preamp tubes and Svetlana winged C or JJ 6L6s and EL34s in the power stage.
REVIEW: Cusack Tap-A-Delay
Delay pedals come in all sorts of flavours – retro, modern, analog, digital – but sometimes you want a little bit of digital-style control over an analog-style tone, and this is where a lot of delay pedals fall flat. The true analog stuff is too unruly for the kind of fine control that digital can give you, while the digital stuff usually sounds too polite to really pass for analog. What to do, what to do? Well, the Cusack Tap-A-Delay might just have a solution for you.
This purple and green pedal offers up to 750ms of delay time. It features dials for level, mix, feedback, delay and an eight position modulation rotary control, while there are two three-position mini-toggle switches (Mode and Divide), two momentary-style footswitches (Tap Speed and Bypass) and two LEDs (Tempo and Status). You can connect other devices that accept an external tap control for other Cusack devices – it works as either an out or in, so somebody else can tap your delay – for example, maybe your drummer can keep a tap switch close by so they can deftly adjust the tempo of your delay. Or you can control the tap tempo of your singer’s own delay unit. Cool!
REVIEW: Fret King Esprit 5
Legendary guitar designer Trev Wilkinson’s Fret King brand is designed to offer ‘working vintage guitars’ built without compromise and without directly copying any one particular classic instrument. Even a cursory glance at the website of the Fret King line reveals a series of instruments that aren’t shy about owning up to their inspirations but which could never, ever be called simply copy guitars. It almost feels like any familiarity that you might perceive is there merely as a vague frame of reference rather than a ‘let’s just tweak this a bit and put it out’ design decision.
The Esprit 5 is slightly reminiscent of Gibson Firebird, sure, but it’s more of a “hey, that slightly reminds me of something.. what is it? Hmm…” kind of familiarity rather than an “Oh dude, I totally know what that is” kind of thing. And to be honest, I’ve been hoping to get my hands on one ever since I first saw the shape in Guitarist magazine a couple of years ago.
The body is made from three-piece mahogany with a raised 4″ centre section and two slightly smaller flanks, one of which holds the volume and tone controls, placed in line with the raised section in a nice little bit of visual design.
REVIEW: Jackson Ampworks Britain
Jackson Ampworks was founded by Brad Jackson in 2003. All the way up until 2009 the company was a one-man operation but after that point, with demand skyrocketing, a few extra hands were brought on board. Jackson Ampworks is still a small operation, but with increased production 11 capacity to get their lustworthy boutique amps onto more stages and into more studios than was previously possible.
The Britain amplifier is now in its third incarnation. It’s been redesigned with suggestions from users of the original Britain and Britain 2.0 amps but, as the company points out, 3.0 is ’18 pounds lighter than its original predecessor, 8″ more narrow and three times more powerful!’ But the differences aren’t only in the physical dimensions and the ability to push out extra volume: the amp now features a second channel as well as a footswitchable boost circuit, series effects loops for each channel, and selectable 12 Watt Class A, 25 Watt Class A or 50 Watt Class A/B operation.
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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 and The Brag. I started I Heart Guitar in 2008. I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18 (I'm 33 now). I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week) and a setup tech. I live in Melbourne, Australia. You can check out my guitar playing at Reverbnation or on YouTube.
You can email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com