Category: Cool Gear Alert

Cool Gear Alert: Kiesel Zeus Headless

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As many of you know, my current main guitar is a Kiesel Vader V7. I love that little thing! It’s very comfortable to play and sonically very flexible. Kiesel has now followed up the Vader design with the Zeus, a slightly Telecaster-esque outline which addresses my one complaint about the Vader: that sometimes the way I rest the guitar on my leg interferes with the tuners at the back. And it’s not just a Vader with a different outline: the Zeus is bolt-on whereas Vader is a neck-through guitar, so the sound will be a little different. It’s available in 6, 7 and 8-string standard and multiscale, or 4, 5 and 6-string bass. You can learn more about the Zeus here and in the video below.

New Gibson Neon Les Pauls Are The First Good Thing To Come Out Of 2017

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If you know me, you probably know that I love both vintage and modern guitar designs pretty much equally. Some days I love nothing more than playing my 50s-style Les Paul Traditional or my ’62 Reissue Strat. Other days I’m all about my headless Kiesel Vader or my Roadflare Red Ibanez RG550. Well Gibson have gone and combined two of my loves in the one guitar: a Les Paul Axcess with Floyd Rose and – gasp! – neon finishes! It’s available in Neon Green, Neon Yellow, Neon Blue, Neon Orange and Neon Pink. Personally my pick of the bunch is the Neon Green. Look at that thing. 

The bodies are Mahogany with a 2-piece Maple top, with a Mahogany neck and Richlite fingerboard. The neck is a Slim C-Shape, and the pickups are a 496R neck humbucker and a 498T in the bridge position, with push-pull pots for coil splitting. 

Pics below, more info here.

T-RackS 5 Looks Crazy Cool

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When the email about IK Multimedia T-RackS 5 hit my inbox, it dawned upon me that I’ve been using T-RackS for 18 years now. Whoa! If you haven’t tried it yet, a) what’s wrong with you and b) it’s an incredible suite of plugins for mastering, and I use it in all sorts of ways. Currently I’m using some of its EQ models to emulate particular mixing desk channels – my guitars go through a the model based on the Pultec® EQP-1A and a Black 76 Limiting Amplifier, then through my secret weapon: the Mic Room mic modeller, set for the same kind of mic I’m using but giving me access to the Proximity and Harmonics controls. Shh, don’t tell anyone.

T-RackS 5 has just been announced and it includes all the same great models but with a new improved audio engine, four new processors for a total of 38 high-quality modules on a flexible 16 processor series/parallel chain, a comprehensive broadcast ready professional metering tool section, a new completely redesigned, smart single-window GUI as well as an album assembly section with multi-format exporting function.

I’m particularly excited by the new Master Match module, which automatically matches the sound of your songs using up to three different source tracks as reference. 

Watch the video below and hit this link for more.

Dave Nassie Melts Faces Off With The Forza

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Damn Dave Nassie of Bleeding Through can play. If you’ve been lucky enough to catch him playing at the Seymour Duncan booth at NAMM you’d know what I mean, but this great video from Chicago Music Exchange certainly highlights Dave’s considerable skills on the ‘ol gee-tar. He’s demoing the new Seymour Duncan Forza overdrive, which is exclusive to CME. You can pick up yours here.

Pro Tone Pedals Mark Holcomb Haunted Delay

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Here’s Pro Tone Pedals’ Mark Holcomb Haunted Delay pedal for the Periphery guitarist and all-round nice dude. It’s designed to be an ambient style delay like an old-school vintage tape echo, offering delay times from 25 to 450milliseconds, with a repeat control that ranges from one repeat through to infinite feedback. There’s a mix control as well as a volume knob which gives you anything from unity gain to a 20dB boost, enough to kick things up for solos and stuff. Pro Tone has designed the Haunted delay was intentionally designed to work well with modern high gain amps as well as classics. Mark says “I’m extremely happy with how unique and versatile this pedal turned out, and it’s been an inspiration merely jamming on it as of late. The intention here was to create something truly trippy – a pedal versatile enough to handle the soundscape-y material I’m drawn to, while at the same time having a very streamlined interface, making it easy to use as a songwriting tool – which is its main use for me.” To order the pedal, visit protonepedals.com/markholcomb

 

 

 

Paul Gilbert Demos The DiMarzio PAF Master Pickups

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DiMarzio says:

“One variation that’s highly sought after by vintage PAF® players is a pickup that is quiet, bright, and very dynamic. The PAF® Master Bridge Model has all that combined with real rock and roll character. It reacts to playing, and sounds good when playing more than one note at the same time. Picked hard, it has a beautiful, snarly, thick, rockin’ tone. The PAF® Master Bridge Model: vintage just got better. Read More …

Cool Gear Alert: Pettyjohn PreDrive

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Man, this thing looks so cool! The PreDrive is a studio grade, dual foot-switchable guitar preamp designed to be the first pedal in your chain. Built in the USA with two discrete opamp chips and audiophile components throughout, the PreDrive will preserve every detail of any instrument plugged into it. Its preamp was designed to serve the unique needs of a matching impedances of magnetic pickups, and can be used as a preamp for almost any instrument outfitted with a magnetic pickup. With a full frequency range and a transformer coupled Direct Output you can capture great direct in tones in the studio, perfect for reamping, using virtual amps or even use the PreDrive in front of digital effects units to add extra dimension and clarity to your tone. More info on Pettyjohn here. Read More …