NEWS: Eastwood Breadwinner Tribute
Wow! I’ve heard rumours that Eastwood were hoping to reissue the Ovation Breadwinner, and it seems this is as close as they’re gonna get – the Breadwinner tribute guitar.
Here’s the press release.
Eastwood Guitars debuted the new Breadwinner tribute guitar at NAMM 2009 last month to much praise and excitement. The distinctive shape and unmistakable look of this classic model is a showstopper. It brings back memories of the most diverse cast of players like no other guitar, including David Cassidy, Glen Campbell, Robert Smith, Colin Newman, Wally Bryson, Steve Marriot, Tom Morello and Ace Frehley. We can’t imagine that crowd has anything else in common other than the weird and wonderful Breadwinner.
The Breadwinner is available in white or black with white pickguard. The unique form fitting solid mahogany body and 24 ¾” scale maple neck with rosewood fingerboard and 1 11/16″ nut, make this guitar one of the world’s most ergonomic designs with unsurpassed comfort and balance. The cutaway shape allows full access to the 24th fret. This is the first Eastwood model to feature Active Mini Humbuckers with a 3-way and an active on/off switch. The Breadwinner comes with a traditional custom hardtail or an optional Strat style tremolo bridge. To protect this six string 70s dream-machine, Eastwood has created a custom fit deluxe hardshell case, which will be included with the first 48 guitars (so order today).
“The Breadwinner has been one of the most requested models that fans have wanted us to recreate”, stated Mike Robinson, President of Eastwood Guitars, “and from the response at the NAMM show, it will become a very popular model for Eastwood”.
The Eastwood Breadwinner tribute guitar is in stock now and is shipping worldwide.
For more information, visit their web site at www.eastwoodguitars.com.
NAMM 2009: Airline ’59 Custom Series
Press release time:
Eastwood Guitars debuted their new AIRLINE® ’59 Custom Series guitars to rave reviews at NAMM 2009 earlier this month. The Airline ’59 Custom 2P and 3P are the first guitars in the new Airline Custom Series and have elevated the quality reputation of Eastwood Guitars to a whole new level.
The ’59 Custom guitars deliver many new features to the AIRLINE brand. These guitars feature a unique rubber binding which surrounds the entire body, and replicates the esthetics of the original Airline Res-O-Glas guitars. Additional cosmetic details include a striped pickguard, aluminum tone switch plate and available NOS Valco knobs. Both the ’59 Custom 2P and the ’59 Custom 3P guitars are fitted with the high output Airline Vintage Voiced Single Coil pickups. These models ship in the new Vintage Style Deluxe form-fit AIRLINE hardshell case with steel plate logo.
“It has been five years since I asked our engineering team for that rubber binding”, stated Mike Robinson, President of Eastwood Guitars, “and I can say it was definitely worth the wait. Over the past six years, our AIRLINE series has built a great reputation for playability and tone, but now we are setting a new standard in guitar esthetics with the new ’59 Custom Series”.
The Airline ’59 Custom 2P is available in red and the Airline ’59 Custom 3P comes equipped with a BIGSBY tremolo and is available in black or seafoam green. Both new models are in stock now and are shipping worldwide.
For more information, visit their web site at http://www.eastwoodguitars.com/.
NAMM 2009: Schecter 8-string
This just landed in my inbox… now THAT’S the stuff. Want!!!
Ibanez RG2228
NAMM 2009: Sparrow Von Drat
Despite my well-known geekiness for pointy shred axes and stuff, I’m not shy about admitting I love old-school axes with that Made In Japan, pawnshop-prize charm, and this is one of the charmiest I’ve seen in recent times. Sometimes you’ve just gotta put down that sleek Ibanez RG and pick up something that looks like it was drawn for a cartoon. Especially if it’s avocado green.
Sparrow Guitars is proud to have introduced the Von Drat surf guitar at the 2009 NAMM Show. The Von Drat is the newest addition to Sparrow’s family of retro guitars which includes the Big Daddy, Primitive, Rat Rod and Twangmaster models. The Von Drat debuted at the 2009 NAMM Show Hall D Booth #3394 in Anaheim, California from January 15-18th 2009 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
The Von Drat joins Sparrow’s Rat Rod and Twangmaster as available in the premium “Continental” line. Made in Vancouver, BC Canada, the Von Drat surf guitar features Burns Tri-Sonic pickups, Grover tuners, bone nut and Wilkinson tremolo. With an alder body, maple neck and rosewood fingerboard, the Von Drat is a 21-fret, 12″ radius, 25½” scale length guitar with the volume and tone top-hat knobs and three-way selector switch located at the lower bout for versatility and playability. The Von Drat is currently available in Tudor Black and Avocado Green, with custom pickguard.
The guitar is the namesake of Toronto, Canada-based surf outfit The Von Drats. The Von Drats were hired by Sparrow Guitars to play an event as part of the 2008 MIAC Show in Toronto, Canada and became instant favourites of Sparrow staff. From that meeting, Sparrow President Billy Bones began planning and designing what would become Sparrow’s Von Drat guitar.
For more information, visit their web site at www.sparrowguitars.com.
NAMM 2009: EMG gold and silver pickup covers
This year at NAMM EMG introduced gold and silver covers for their pickups. Previously the only time I’ve seen EMG pickups in anything other than black was on Kirk Hammett’s Les Paul. Other new goodies include a new line of pickups called the X Series, and an Alexi Laiho set which includes his favoured passive humbucker and a gain boost.
Team EMG is back from the 2009 NAMM Show and without a doubt we had a blast. The reaction to our new products was a resounding success. If you haven’t heard we are now offering high quality Chrome and Gold cover caps for our 81, 85 and 60 models which generated considerable excitement.
Besides featuring EMG’s new and existing product lineup, we had some very exciting artist appearances, scheduled and unscheduled, that were just icing on the cake and made our booth THE place to be. Some of the artists hanging out included Kerry King, Alexi Laiho, Steve Lukather, Sergio Vallin, Marcus Henderson and many many others.
Read more here.
NAMM 2009: Schecter Solo Classic
Now this, I like.
CLICK HERE to see more 2009 Schecters, or visit their website at www.schecterguitars.com
NAMM 2009: Electro-Harmonix Voice Box
I first read about this on the Twitter feed of GuitarToyBox.com, so make sure you go check out that very cool site.
Here’s the new Electro-Harmonix Voice Box, a combined harmonizer and vocoder. Want!!!
Take it away, press release:
The Voice Box packs a multi-functional vocal synth processor into a tough and compact chassis. Sing, and you’ll have a troupe of backup singers following you in perfect harmony. Or use the built-in vocoder to unleash classic synth-robot sounds. Diana Ross had the Supremes, Brian Wilson had the Beach Boys, Kraftwerk had The Robots. You have the Voice Box.
The harmony processor creates 2- to 4-part harmonies directly from your vocals, in the same key as your accompanying instrument. Studio-quality reverb lets you independently add depth to your dry and harmony vocals.
The focused 256-band articulate vocoder, designed by the same EMS genius who made vocoding famous, features adjustable harmonic enhancement and controllable formant shift.
Plug in your mic and your instrument, and let your new voice — or voices — be heard!
Harmonically matches any electric instrument you plug into it
Professional quality pitch shifting algorithm produces realistic harmonies
The Low & High Harmony independently produces two harmony notes: 3rd and 5th
9 accessible programmable presets
Natural GlissandoGender Bender knob allows for male/female formant modification
Built-In Mic Pre with Phantom Power & Gain Switch
Balanced XLR Line Output: Interface directly with any mixing board or A/D converter
US96DC-200BI power supply included
Read more at the Electro-Harmonix website.
While you’re there, check out this very interesting article about their Golden Throat talkbox.
CLICK HERE to see talk boxes on eBay.
CLICK HERE to buy the Danelectro Free Speech Talk Box from Musician’s Friend
CLICK HERE to buy the Dunlop Heil Talk Box from Music123
CLICK HERE to buy the Rocktron Banshee Talk Box from Music123
NAMM 2009: New from Schecter
Here are a bunch of new 2009 Schecters. Just click the images to see the full-sized versions. I especially like the ATX V-1, and it’s cool to see Seymour Duncan Blackout pickups rapidly finding their way into production guitars.
NAMM 2009: Vox Night Train
Recording guitarists and bedroom jammers alike have long known the glories of cranking the bejesus out of a low-watt valve amp. Evidently Vox knows this too, because this year they’re introducing the NT15H Night Train amp head, designed to capture that Vox sonic mojo without getting you evicted.
No only that: It also looks like a toaster.
Here’s the press release:
VOX Amplification has joined forces with legendary amp designer Tony Bruno to introduce the NT15H “Night Train,” a 15-Watt, all-tube guitar amplifier head offering both classic and new VOX tones in a compact, portable design. A collaboration between the VOX R&D team and Bruno, this all-tube head weighs less than 17 pounds and boasts an “armored box” design for stunning all-tube tone on the go.
A pair of EL84 tubes deliver 15 Watts of power, as two 12AX7 tubes drive the harmonically rich preamp stage to deliver clarity and definition, from chime-like cleans to warm overdrives. A toggle switch lets users select between Pentode or Triode tube operation. In Pentode mode, Night Train delivers a full 15 Watts. In the Triode mode, the power is cut to 7.5 Watts. The Triode mode also relaxes the tube power stage, providing a smoother, mellower tube character.
The Night Train’s appearance is as striking as its tone, with a mirrored chrome finish and signature VOX diamond design that not only ventilates the amplifier but provides a striking view of the all-tube circuit within. The front panel controls are clear and simple, offering traditional chicken head pointer knobs for Gain, Volume, Treble, Middle and Bass. The preamp section features a mode switch, offering both Bright and Thick options. The Bright mode produces an articulate tone that ranges from clean to crunch; the Thick setting bypasses the tone circuit to boost the gain and create a chunkier, heavier sound suited to higher gain applications. Legendary guitar amp builder Tony Bruno played an integral role in the voicing of this new amp.
Equipped with both 8-Ohm and 16-Ohm speaker jacks, the Night Train can be used with nearly any speaker cabinet.
The VOX NT15H “Night Train” 15-Watt Amplifier Head will be available in January 2009, with a U.S. MSRP of $800.00.
For more information, visit their web site at http://www.voxamps.co.uk/.
NAMM 2009: Racer X live video
One of the highlights for many at NAMM this year was the performance by Paul Gilbert as part of Ibanez’s celebration of his 20 years as an endorser. Paul’s old band, Racer X, played a bunch of songs, and here is ‘Frenzy.’ Enjoy!
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), Blunt, 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 Bandcamp or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com