Open Your Mind to Multi-Scale Guitars and Basses

The first time I saw a multiscale instrument in a guitar shop it was a Chapman 4 string bass, a signature model for someone I did not know. Since I didn't care if it was a signature model (and still don't - that's typically just an ego tax) I though I would give it a go. I played it for about fifteen minutes in the store, the first ten really just getting my head around things. Then it clicked when I stopped caring about which way the frets pointed and discovered how comfortable fan fret instruments can be. Unfortunately this particular instrument had some serious build quality and sound quality issues and I moved on.

But the concept stuck with me. When I decided I wanted to go beyond six strings for guitar, I started looking at eight string instruments, not because I wanted to Djent, whatever that is, but because I liked the idea of drone notes like you get on an old style harp guitar and I also liked the idea of extended tonal runs. I tried a few and then took a chance and ordered a Strandberg Boden Metal online. The only stores that had them were at least six hours and one province away. So confirming that I could return it at my shipping cost if I hated it, I bought it. Some player friends asked if I was getting into Metal or Djent because I got the metal model. I discovered that there is nothing particularly metal about this eight string other than metal players seem to have been more open to deep bass sounds from a guitar. So, no metal for me. It's not my thing.

The Boden is very easy to play. The body is very light and perfectly contoured for playing sitting or standing. The Fluence pickups give lots of very clean variety and it works well through pedals or into a clean or dirty amp. What is most pleasing to sixty year old hands with a bit of arthritis is the complete lack of pain after playing for an hour or so.

Here you can see the multi scale impact at the neck body joint. It is more evident closer to the nut

So when I decided I wanted another five string bass to go with my Fender Precision 5 String, I started looking for a multi-scale bass and found one from Ibanez. I bought it online from a shop in Ottawa because they had stock and the instrument was on sale. It's my second Ibanez, my first being a mid-seventies Artistwood Doubleneck like the one owned and played by John McLaughlin, although I learned that some twenty years after finding the guitar and adding it to my rack.

Just like the Strandberg, the Ibanez bass is very comfortable to play for an extended period and after I changed to flat wounds, I find myself able to get the tones that I like and without any pain or cramping.

There is a perception that multi scale only really matters if you are going to tune down and thereby reduce tension on the bass strings which in turn leads to them flapping about. This makes perfect sense from a physics perspective, but I can honestly say that I have ever tuned down a bass string, except once or twice on my EVH Wolfgang which has a D-Tuner. 

I do keep a Strat in E Flat but that's a different thing entirely. I like the E Flat for the same reason I like Baritone guitars. They sound different and encourage me to try different things.

My recommendation to look more seriously at multi scale really comes entirely from a comfort and fluidity basis. My hands are much older, larger and less dexterous than Strandberg artist Sarah Longfield, whose work I appreciate, so it's not about hand size. Everyone that I have met with a negative opinion about the 8 string Strandberg neck design admitted to never having touched one. They just didn't like the idea. Then again, they did not like the idea of multi scale and had not tried that either.

Whether you call it multi scale (because the scale length is different for each string) or fan fret is just verbiage. If you get a chance, try one out but give yourself at least 15 minutes to settle in. You may find it's something that makes a lot of sense for you.

Until next time, peace

The Humbucker Secret

Ok, I really didn't know that this was a secret but apparently it is.

You get the greatest range of tones, and dynamics when your humbuckers aren't nailed at 10.

The caveat of course is that you want to hear everything which probably means you aren't playing death metal or running your signal through a chain of Metal Zones or whatever. If you like that sort of thing, go for it, but the secret won't matter to you.

No matter what kind of amp that I plug humbuckers into, I set the amp volume with the volume pots on the guitar no higher than 8. Some guitars have better volume pots than others so your mileage may vary as it will depending on how hot the pickups are. The hotter the pickup, the more you might want to dial the volume down for maximum tonal range and complex overtones. For example, on my 335 with Lollar Imperials or the 355 with Bare Knuckle Stormy Mondays, setting the volume knobs at about 8 really deliver incredible range. I have an older MusicMan AXIS Sport with really hot pickups and for that I roll the volume off between 6 and 7 if I want the maximum tonality.

The body wood also matters and while I know that there are folks who say that body wood does not contribute to tone in an electric guitar, all I can say is you're doing it wrong. Since you don't have a lot of room to wander in the wood, we spend little time on it here.

With single coils, the output is typically less strong and so you probably will not find this secret makes much of a difference, but if you have stacked singles or noise reducing singles, there's another magnet in there somewhere and the secret may fit for you. I have an old Fender Eric Clapton "Blackie" with Lace Sensors and it is one of those guitars where rolling off the guitar volume and lifting the amp a bit does make a difference. Mind you, those Lace Sensors and the rest of the electrics are headed for the bin now that I have received a new set of pickups mounted in a scratchplate with new electronics from Tim Mills at Bare Knuckle.

Back to your humbucker equipped guitar. If you want to see if you can get more out of the instrument you have, there's no harm in trying out this little secret. The worst thing that can happen is that you don't hear a difference. My experience with good pickups into a nice tube amp or into a Kemper then into the DI, I do hear a difference to the positive.

Review : BOSS RC-10R Looper

Loopers. Some folks, like the amazing Peter Honore, propose that a Looper should be one of the first pedals that any player gets. When you see and hear what Danish Pete can accomplish with a looper, you may agree. I have also seen how KT Tunstall uses loopers to do most of the pieces to Black Horse and the Cherry Tree on her own via skilled use of loopers on her rig.

If you have ever watched the videos from Norm's Rare Guitars, you have seen Michael Lemmo use a TC Electronics Ditto looper on many of the demos. And we are seeing more and more effects come with a looper and even an announcement from TC Electronics of a new version coming of the so common Ditto.

So why then would you spend more money on a looper from Boss?

The answer for me was to have a backing drummer available to jam against, in the tempo and style of my choice. Certainly I could go buy and download backing tracks and I will do that from time to time, but since getting the RC-10R, practice time is more fun and more inclined to encourage me to experiment. It's also a lot more fun than a metronome.

It's easiest to think of this as two devices. Think high end very powerful looper pedal and a very capable drum machine. The drum machine side has over 280 built in rhythm styles with intros, outros and transitions to choose from. You control the tempo and the style. It's like a Roland drum machine without the programming. Indeed it sounds as good and is faster to use than my Roland TR-8, and is a much better drummer than I am myself. There are also 16 different drum kits to choose from.

It's easy to create loops, add to them, layer over them and if you mess up to back up. Do take the time to read the docs to get up to speed quickly.

You can also update the device from your computer and also download the free Boss Tone Studio for RC-10R from the Boss site. Tone Studio is available for Windows and macOS computers.

Describing a looper in text is pretty tough, so I will provide you with two YouTube links that I highly recommend. Both feature Mr. Peter Honore of Anderton's Music. I am not sponsored in any way by Mr. Honore or Anderton's Music, I simply find these to be excellent practical demonstrations of the RC-10R by a true professional.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5j3_2y_C34

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SkUTsbv9d0

I also like that I can set the RC-10R to sound best when going to a guitar amp or to a full range sound system. There is also full MIDI support using the smaller ⅛ style plugs. BOSS does sell converters from the small connectors to the larger multi pin MIDI connectors if you require such things.

While it could look a bit complicated, particularly compared to one button loopers, the power and flexibility here is pretty amazing. If you want to practice or jam alone to something more flexible than a metronome and without having to figure out how to bring backing tracks into your game, this may be the perfect solution for you. And if maybe your timing on loop starts and stops is far from perfect, there is functionality in the box that helps there too. Sure helped me.

Review : Line 6 HX Effects

While it may seem that multi-effects units are on the wane, that may be an exaggeration. The big name multi-effects units are commonly discussed in the topics of amplifier modeling and profiling. However, if you don't need modelling or profiling, but do want a giant drum of high quality effects options along with incredible ease of use, there are very credible options available. I recently added one to my range of tools, the HX Effects from Line 6.

This unit has all the same effects options as the powerful Helix Floor and Helix LT devices, without a built in expression pedal or any amplifier simulations. That brings the price down substantially and if you shop you can often find it at the same price as the less powerful Line 6 HX Stomp.

Regular readers know of my tendency to go for individual pedals and often those from less known makers, so why consider a multi effects unit from as big a name as Line 6, which is owned by the even bigger Yamaha?

While Line 6 is owned by Yamaha, in my opinion they still have some of the agility found in a smaller company. There's also the fact that for many musicians, the sounds delivered by Line 6 effects are perfectly effective. Remember that these are the same effects as found in Helix used by many professional musicians. 

I find the HX Effects quite easy to set up to suit and easy to make changes if you want to switch one of the effects for another one. You can also use it just like a traditional pedal board and can also control the routing of your effects. In my use case, the HX Effects serves as the board for a Koch Multitone and the flexibility to have some of the effects in front of the amp and others live in the amp's effects loop if I wish brings me the kind of flexibility that I desire. 

Unlike the big Helix, I still need a guitar amp and that is likely true for a lot of us. We have guitars and amps that we already own and like, but just want a compact pedal setup for gigs and easy travel. For me, tear down is just unplugging cables and the expression pedal that I have connected to the HX Effects. No power supplies, no patch cables, and the thing is light enough to go in a backpack. And, if you run all your effects in front of the amp, then cabling is super simple as well.

The other difference I see compared to some other alternatives is build quality. The box itself is tough and the foot switches feel the same as the switches on the full size Helix. This device can be used at home or even in the bedroom for practice but is tough enough to hold up on stage. I find it very quiet and that it works well with a variety of different pickups and guitars which is nicely flexible.

As you can see on the rear of the unit, the connections are well labeled and you can control the unit via MIDI if you wish. There is also a USB connection to manage firmware.

While a lot of folks use it as a giant stomp box collection (I do) there is also the ability to run the unit in preset mode which allows you to group effects together into a preset for easy large scale changes. The CPU in the box is powerful enough to run up to 9 effects at the same time. You can also load IRs into the device if you'd like.

The unit comes with a cheat sheet and I have to say it gets you started but if you don't download the full manual and spend time with it, you are missing out. This is a very powerful device with a ton of capability that could go unused without spending time in the documentation. Consider yourself warned.

Tone is very subjective, but I am going to give Line 6 a lot of credit in their delivery of effects simulation. In addition to the Helix effects which are typically mono/stereo (the whole box is stereo capable with independent right and left channels), there are what Line 6 calls Legacy effects, which are the effects from older dedicated Line 6 pedals such as their now very desirable delay device. 

For my use cases, I found the Minotaur to be very Klon like, certainly close to the original just remember to adjust the settings as the initial start of the Minotaur is more harsh than a lot of people would set their Klon. The LA Studio Comp is a wonderful emulation of the fabulous Teletronix LA 2A. The Vermin Dist is very much like my old ProCo RAT and the Courtesan Flanger is reminiscent of the EH Deluxe Electric Mistress without the excessive noise. I also was pleasantly surprised that the Elephant Man delay sounds like my memory of my long since dead EH Deluxe Memory Man. Finally while I am not a Tube Screamer guy, the emulated TS is pretty accurate although my preference is the Valve Driver option that is really a wonderful clone of the old Chandler Tube Driver.

If you don't care for any of my faves, that's cool because there are over 100 effects built in. You can tweak with the knobs or even with your feet via the switches if you are so dexterous.

Could you buy nine individual effects, the power supply, the cabling and the board for less than the HX Effects? Not likely if you were going for better sounding pedals, and then you would have only nine decent pedals without the option for 91 alternatives.

For a lot of players, the HX Effects could very well be the right answer. Perhaps even for you. Consider your personal use cases and when you can head into your preferred guitar store, audition the HX Effects against individual pedals. It might be precisely what you are looking for.

Review : Cali76 STACKED Edition from Origin Effects

What could be better than one compressor? Two compressors! Specifically two compressors that are joined together in the same box. Especially when they are the modern equivalents of UREI 1176 class studio processors.

Now I understand that a compressor may not be on the top of your must have list, but you might be amazed by what a difference a really great compressor can make in your tone.

For a lot of folks, the word compressor brings to mind the classic Ross style guitar pedals, or the many alternatives using a similar circuit design. You also hear the term "chicken picken'" in relation to compressors. This naming has been known to drive away players who don't play "country". That's too bad because a good compressor can help any tone.

The Cali76 Stacked Edition is based on a very different circuit, the same model as the famous UREI 1776 studio rack compressor. It's very different from a classic "squishy" compressor. The tone is different, richer, wider and while all compressors reduce dynamic range to some extent, the Cali76 family have none of that squishiness. Some compressors also introduce some unpleasant boost effects. Not this one. While you can dial in a small amount of boost, this is not a boost pedal

What it is, is two compressors that work independently and where you have the ability to control how much of the first compressed signal hits the second compressor. I have heard compressors described as "overdrive for your clean tone". I presume that by this the person saying so is describing the increased sustain that can come from a decent overdrive. A good compressor can certainly do that for your clean tone, but the non-squish kind can also benefit an overdriven tone. I am not a user of distortion or fuzz and they introduce so much compression themselves, I cannot comment on the need for a compressor for those playing through such devices.

What I like about the Cali76 Stacked Edition is that I can set each compressor to do what I want. I will typically set the first compressor to increase sustain and increase fullness. This is my always on option. I can then use the second compressor to further increase sustain with some more compression of the dynamic range or just let it control peaks in the signal, typically associated with variations in pick attack and where on the string I hit in relation to the pickup poles.

There is no one size fits all setting. Different guitars and different pickups deliver different responses. When you see the Cali76 Stacked Edition as two devices, it gets a lot simpler to understand and use.

The Cali 76 Stacked Edition requires a power supply that is not included. There is no battery option and for my use cases, that does not matter to me. My unit is on the split board for my AC30 with the Cali76 Stacked Edition, a Frost Giant Treble Booster and ThorpFX Dane into the front of the amp, with the delays and chorus effects in the effects loop. As I often use single coil pickups through this amp, I use a TC Electronics Sentry to control noise. I like the Sentry because the one pedal works both in front of the amp and in the effects loop.

Playing a Strat, a Tele or a Rickenbacker through the Cali76 Stacked Edition into the AC30 is a wonder of chime and sustain, and I will use the compressor even when pushing the signal with the treble booster or the Dane and am very happy with the tonal results.

This is a boutique pedal and if you want to get one, I heartily recommend going to ElectricMojoGuitars to get yours.

Let’s Talk About Pedal Power

If you are, as I am, somewhat of a pedal geek, you know that getting the right power to your pedals is a real thing.

For those of us who may be inclined to use pedals that are more demanding than the commonplace units that don't need more than 9V or 100mA there are lots of inexpensive options out there. Yet when we read up on power supplies a couple of things come up very quickly. The first thing is that each power tap is fully isolated. Why we would care is simply noise. Some pedals are noisy. Some are really noisy. You don't want that transitioning to being electrically noisy down your chain. Even with good inexpensive chain supplies like the well respected OneSpot devices isolation can be a problem.

In my case, I have purchased a number of pedals that cannot get by with 100mA. Some have different power connections or flip the centre negative to centre positive and this starts to mean a plethora of wall warts. To be candid, I have found that some of these wall warts are not really well shielded and become little noise antennae all on their own.

What really struck me was the price jump from non-isolated to non-branded may be isolated supplies to name brand isolated supplies. Talk to a pro tech and they are using Voodoo Labs or Strymon power supplies. The rationale is proven reliability, flexible voltages, support for diverse connections and the ability to drive more amps to demanding pedals.

I am a fan of boutique stuff, or higher end kit, such as Strymon for example. Many of their products come with wall wart supplies because they are demanding of amperage. Some devices also sound better if you can feed them more power.

I was planning on buying a Strymon power system when I learned from my friend Charles of ElectricMojo Guitars about CIOKS. 

I have had nothing but good success with Charles so I went with a DC7 unit. The connectors on the block are RCA style connectors so not the more standard DC power sleeves. The cables come with the unit, in a variety of lengths and with reversed polarity and ⅛ inch options. The greatest thing about the DC7 is that each output is selectable for one of 9, 12, 15 or 18 volts with plenty of mA available in every case. I have been very successful with the CIOKS except where I screwed up and used the wrong cable with a Diamond Halo Chorus and fried the voltage regulator. Diamond has excellent service and the repair was cheaper than what it cost me to ship the unit to them.

I mounted the CIOKS DC7 to the underside of a PedalTrain board. This particular board is for DI recording use and headphone practice only. Even with a full load of Strymon effects (it is an all Strymon board - except the Tuner) there is no problem and things sound fabulous.

When I started moving away from the OneSpot stuff, my first step was to one of the Donner units available on Amazon. Says that they are fully isolated, but I found that they were randomly glitchy. Promised LEDs worked only some of the time and I would get weird things. As I maintain a number of boards for different amps, the Donners were an inexpensive solution, but are proving to be suboptimal.

The other problem that I have run into, is my love of pedals in general. 7 or 8 power ports aren't enough, so either I needed multiple blocks or the ability to extend.

The DC7 has a 24V extender port to which you can connect other CIOKS products designed to be power extenders. The CIOKS 8 is such a product. It is powered from the DC7 and gives you an additional 8 fully switchable and fully isolated ports.

CIOKS 8

Even for a geek like me, this is enough. I also find the full isolation helpful as some of my boards are split with some of the pedals in front of the amp and others in the effects loop. Where I have encountered strangeness in the past with other supplies, no such thing is so with the CIOKS stuff.

CIOKS was founded in Denmark in 1991 by Poul Cioks. They are one of those small, highly focused manufacturers that do what they do extremely well and don't try to be everything to everyone. The boxes themselves are really tough and nice and compact. For the stage performer, they have the durability you would need and for the recording artist, they are perfectly silent.

I've tried more power supplies than I want to admit. For my use cases, with boutique pedals with different power demands, and wanting something reliable that was going to last and that would do what it says it would do while having lots of power availability, the CIOKS family is perfect.

If you want to buy a CIOKS, I will always recommend ordering from ElectricMojoGuitars

Thanks for reading and we will speak again soon.

Review : Revival Drive Compact by Origin Effects

As guitarists the correct answer for how many overdrives we have seems to be at least one more than what we already have. I count myself in this space. I've not thus far been much enamoured of distortion and fuzz pedals but overdrives are an issue for me, and while I sometimes find other reviews to be JAFO content, I have to say that the Origin Effects Revival Drive Compact does not fit in that bucket.

The Compact is a smaller version of the double sized and nearly double priced full unit.

The full size Revival drive

You'll notice that the Compact has half the functions of the full size leaving out the Silicon Rectifier side. This was ok with me and why I chose the Compact model.

The controls are incredibly simple, and Origin provides some suggested settings in their documentation to get you started for different configurations.

My test environment is a very lean board (tuner, Revival Drive, Keeley Delay) into the front of a Fender '65 Twin Reverb Reissue. I love the Twins enormous power and tendency to stay clean at all volume levels. Twin users know that at full pop, a Twin will blow you through a wall, so I tend to play it with the volume relatively low. Using the Revival Drive gives me a lot of tone control without having to have the amp too loud not that it would overdrive much anyway.

I have tested the unit with single coils from an SRV Strat which has the Texas Specials pickups, an Eric Johnson Strat, a rosewood Telecaster from the 80s, a Gretsch White Penguin 59VS and a Les Paul 57 Black Beauty. Obviously I need to alter the settings on the Revival Drive for these different guitars, but in every case I have been successful quickly in getting an overdrive tone that I like without having to resort to black magic in the guitar settings. If I could say that about all the other overdrives that I have owned and tried, I would have a smaller number of them.

My Revival Drive Compact came from my good friends at Electric Mojo Guitars. They are my primary dealer for boutique stuff and my provider for my other Origin Systems gear. I find Charles to be both knowledgeable and helpful with excellent pricing and very fast delivery. Origin Effects kit is not found in many stores, partly because they are a small company and also frankly because the price points are well over better known overdrives and the buyer market is fairly vertical.

However, if you are tone hound and are looking for an overdrive that really kills it, but that is also versatile enough that it's not a one trick pony and that plays nicely with other amps (I have used it with an AC30, Marshall 2555, PRS Dallas, Kock Multitone and Blackstar Club 40). I even tried into the front of the tiny Yamaha THR30 II. All good sounds, although I admit a preference for valve (tube) amps.

If you can handle the cost of acquisition, this pedal is the finest that I have found for this kind of task.

Review : Dawner Prince Boonar

There are a few products in the market that aspire to bring the sound of vintage Binson Echorec delays to the pedal marketplace. I have already looked at the Catalinbread offering and have not yet found the opportunity to test out the Strymon Volante in depth. The Volante is more than just an Echorec delay, and more than what I wanted specifically. Charles at Electric Mojo Guitars recommended the Dawner Prince Boonar Mk II.

He has never steered me wrong. In fact, his company is where I go for boutique pedals because, frankly, he has them and knows his stuff.

Dawner-Prince is out of Croatia. Origin should not matter, but while we see lots of pedals from Japan, the US, the UK and even Canada, I was not aware of a high end Croation builder. Now I know better.

The Boonar is a recreation of a Binson Echorec in a pedal. It is very small and does this one job with great aplomb. If you are a fan of the work of David Gilmour, you know the sound of the Echorec. It's not a tape delay, it is a rotating magnetic drum with four equally spaced playback heads. What makes the Echorec special is that you can activate any combination of the playback heads, and the four simple buttons on the Boonar make this a complete treat. This was one of my complaints with the Catalinbread. I also note, that in my opinion, the Boonar just sounds better. It is more expensive to be sure, but for glassy clean tones with just the right magnetic drum delay, there is nothing else that I have tried in depth like this device.

You might be wondering what all the fuss is about a device designed to sound like a drum based echo device with four fixed playback heads that first showed up in the late 50s. Partly it is the idea of renewing a vintage sound, partly it’s the desire to emulate the sounds of artists that we like, and partly it’s the reality that a genuine Echorec sounds like nothing else.

The Boonar does a great job of being an Echorec.  There are four “playback heads”, buttons really that you can turn off or on.  The delay between heads is always consistent, whatever delay you set, is the same separation between heads.  Whichever heads you activate, create echoes that are governed by the global settings, so you can get repeat patterns really not available on a different type device and certainly not with the high level of simplicity.

The controls are powerful but still simple to use. There is documentation included, but I really liked that I could plug the device in and get good sounds without having to traverse the docs.

Across the top you have a volume knob, to control, you know, the volume. Next up is a tone control, handy because the nature of a drum is that it can lose a bit of high end. You have more control with this. Then there is a level indicator because the Boonar has a preamp and you will probably want to know when it is clipping. Then there is the Swell knob which controls the modulation of the echos. Finally there is the Drum speed, basically a control on the rotation speed of the virtual drum. Think of this as the delay control. Each of the playback heads is an illuminated push button. Push to turn the playback head on or off. Simple as can be. There are two foot switches, the left most used to configure your swell or repeats setting and the right one to turn the effect on or off. There's a small knob on the top that lets you set the age of the drum. This gives you some very nice textural control, similar to the wow and flutter controls on the better tape echo simulators. On the right side is a small control to allow you to manipulate the input impedance to better match the pickups in use from 100 kOhm to 1 mOhm.

Power requirements are 9V minimum, but you can use a supply up to 15v. The input power is converted internally to 24v.

I have tried several different Echorec effects. In my opinion, the Boonar kills all the others. Yes it is more expensive and worth every cent. I live in Canada and sourced my Boonar from Electric Mojo Guitars, the company that I use for all my boutique pedals. I highly recommend them.

Review : Yamaha THR 30II Wireless Amplifier

Yamaha calls the THR series the "third amp", and I have to agree. It's not your gigging amp and it probably is not your studio amp. The product is designed to look decent in any home location, is unobtrusive and is built to deliver good tone at low volume.

I have had mine for a couple of months. I put it in my Living room as a place to play when on a short break from work, or before dinner with minimal setup. I made a mistake in this regard, as I wanted to play at louder volume in these periods in a room that was a bit too big for the amp. This is my opinion of course, so let it be said that your mileage may vary.

Things changed when I put my Helix and a pair of FRFR speakers in the living room and moved the THR 30II to my bedroom specifically for playing at low volume. I do not sleep through the night and am up at least twice a night for at least half an hour each time. Since making the THR II 30 available for this use case, I have changed my mind about the amp entirely.

The THR 30II is a digital amplifier. The series II family combines the three different colour offerings of the series I into a single amp. This is awesome as the series I always felt to me like a bit of pocket picking.

Yamaha touts the unit has having fifteen guitar amp models, three base amp models, three mic models to use with acoustics and a perfectly flat model for use with anything else.

The amp has three amp families, Modern, Classic and Boutique. Each family has a variety of default tone presets available by rotary switch. You use the same switch to access the bass and acoustic models. Yamaha does not document which amps each setting is modelling. GRRR. The Reference manual, which you have to download contains some hints, but clarity would be good.

The 30II Wireless is the top of the family lineup. It is rated at 30 watts output, has bluetooth connectivity to the excellent smartphone app, has line outs for recording to your interface, as well as USB direct outs. The unit includes a rechargeable LiION battery, ideal for playing where there is no AC power. The sound which comes from Yamaha's audio division called Extended Stereo Technology produces amazingly good sound from the very small drivers needed in a package this size. If you recall the old Apple HiFi, it's about that size, and delivers a very similar tonal range, which in my opinion, is excellent. The Wireless includes a built in Line6 receiver. Yamaha owns Line6 and the built-in effects are from the Line6 pantheon.

My only complaint is with the availability or more correctly, inavailability of the matching and optional Line6 transmitter. Apparently there are issues and my six week wait is going to be another six weeks or so.

The built in presets are what I would consider average starting places. I cannot say that I liked any of them out of the box. They do make a decent place to start and the iOS version of the app makes editing them a breeze and offers more functional variability than the on device knobs, particularly when it comes to effects. For example, the app let's me have delay and reverb at the same time, whereas with the knob it is one or the other. I confess that since I got the unit paired to my smartphone, I have only rarely touched the knobs on the unit at all.

There is a built in tuner that uses the same display as the battery gauge which is quite handy, although I would prefer that it be on the front panel instead of the top as when placed on a shelf as shown in much of the marketing material, the tuner is very hard to see. It's not a particularly sophisticated tuner but does the job. For greater ease of use, drop $25 on a Snark and move on.

Top deck of the THR 30II Wireless

In addition to the amp models, you also have cabinet simulations available. These include:

[table id=1 /]

I have to confess that I find Yamaha's reticence to say what cabinets they are trying to emulate annoying. I understand that doing so might cost them some money or require legal paperwork but they could do a better job of naming that would make the mental alignment easier. Line6 does this reasonably well and Yamaha owns Line6

In addition to the amp and cabinet modelling there are built in effects from the Line 6 pantheon. To gain access to all of them, you need to be using the THR Remote app on your smart device. The compressor and noise gate are only available this way. The Gate works fine, the Compressor is ok, but regular readers know that I am a compressor dork and this one is VERY basic. No 1176 here. Modulation effects include Chorus, Flanger, Phaser and Tremolo. They sound decent, although not high end and are more than adequate for the use case that the THR 30II is designed for. The onboard Echo offers up to 100ms of delay and tap tempo, plus basic EQ for the delay signal as well as a mix control. I found that setting it to a slapback level very effective to give some spacing in a small room. The reverb has four options (two via the knobs) including Spring, Room, Hall and Plate. Not studio grade reverbs, but more than sufficient for the use cases.

In addition to the user configurable options and five user memory positions, the THR II includes a number of factory presets. These presets are not just amp models, but configurations of amp and cabinet models along with effects configurations. They vary from very good to whatever, entirely dependent on your own preferences.

Screenshot from the Mac THR II Remote app, in this case showing the preset called EarlyVH

While I have used the amp mostly for electrics, I recently did a full bring back to life on an old Yamaha APX5 nylon string. I plugged it in and found a couple of settings that worked very well for it. I then tried my old Gibson Hummingbird that has a Fishman saddle pickup installed and it too sounded really nice. The Hummingbird is punchy unamplified so I would not do this at 2am while the family is asleep. I also have an ESP LTD 6 string bass. While I initially did not love this bass, I did a full set up on it on the afternoon of Christmas day and that made the necessary changes to make it a pleasure to play. Plugging it into the THR 30II Wireless sounded great, although I had to make my own preset for it as none of the factory ones delivered the tone that I wanted. In fairness, those presets were probably built for a four string bass, not the extended range of the six string. In reading the documentation, by using the Special amp model and some tweaking, the unit is purported to be a good choice for low volume practice with extended range guitars. I have not played my Strandberg 8 string through it, but I certainly will be.

And that, I think is the point. If you use the THR II family as I think intended by the engineers and less so by some of the marketing statements, you are likely to be very happy with the unit. In my first use situation, it was the wrong tool. Where it sits now, on a small table in my bedroom, it is tremendous. 

Quick Look : Fender Tone Master Amplifiers

When it comes to that classic California clean sound, with near endless headroom, many players look to the classic Fender blackface Twin Reverb or blackface Deluxe Reverb. I will not get into the differences between a blackface and a silver face because it's Christmas time and I don't want to be starting any fights.

I love my Fender Twin Reverb. It sounds great. It sounds great right where it is, because moving it is an effort. The thing is heavy. The combination of the case, the Jensen speakers, and those power transformers all add weight. While players have been kicking these things around for decades, I do worry about damage to the spring tank or the tubes.

But what if, you could get an amp that a) costs less b) looks near identical to the original and that c) sounds damn close to the original? Would that be worth your time to look? For a reasonable player, the answer is yes.

Now, I've already heard the whinging about how the Tone Masters don't sound like a "real" amp because they don't have tubes and "tube warmth". The Tone Master is not identical to a Fender blackface tube amplifier, but it is very very close and unless you are A/Bing two amps side by side in a proper studio setting, I would challenge anyone to pass a blindfold test and identify which is which while specifically stating why that is so.

Thus, consideration of a Tone Master requires a certain openness of mind as well as the acceptance that it will cost less, be lighter and not have tubes or a spring tank. Perhaps it is the tone that might matter more to you.

Love those tilt back legs

Unlike other digital modelling amps, the Tone Master amps do only one model. The amp that they are trying to sound like. Thus a Tone Master Deluxe Reverb is designed to sound as close as possible to a Fender Deluxe Reverb. It does so through some excellent engineering using solid state technology, some quite incredible digital modelling and innovative approaches.

Instead of being 22 watt tube amp, it is a 100 watt D class power amp with a digital preamp. That doesn't mean it is louder. It is the reality that tube amps of a given power rating can be a LOT louder than a solid state amp with the same power rating. Power is not volume.

If you've ever played a Fender tube amp, and have cranked it to get that wonderful tone, you've also noticed that they are really, really loud. Nice for you, not so much for family, neighbours and potentially the local constabulary. The Tone Masters have selectable output controls that, in my opinion, do a very fine job of giving you the tone of a cranked amp at much lower volumes. Take into account the science of Fletcher-Munson and you will understand why lower volumes do sound different from higher volumes, and also understand that Fender has tried to address this as they reduce output. Perfect? No, but still really really good.

If I turn my Twin Reverb all the way up, the volume is untenable. If I turn up the Tone Master Twin Reverb all the way up, it's too loud, but then I can turn down the output via the rotary switch on the back while retaining the tone and reducing the volume. Bedroom players, and players who must live with other people and neighbours rejoice!

I think that Fender have done a good job on the digital reverb implementation as well. It's not a spring tank, but play this amp in your local club and you could very well forget it's not real springs. That's the point. Get the sound you want, without crippling back pain, increased reliability and more flexibility. 

Back of the Tone Master Twin Reverb

Do you record? Awesome, because both Tone Masters have DI out for recording to your computer. There is therefore of course, Impulse Response speaker emulation built in with a choice of cab sims. The amp is also firmware upgradeable by USB connection. 

The speaker or speakers in the Twin are still Jensens. Instead of the old style, these are the new N-12K Neodymium design. This makes them lighter without compromising response and they couple very nicely to the Class D power amp.

The front panels are identical to reissue Deluxe Reverbs and Twin Reverbs. In fact, if you do not notice the small Tone Master plate on the grill cloth, you might not even realize that the new amps are Tone Masters. Fender is not hiding anything, but they have done a lovely job on the vintage look.

Yes Tone Masters are not sixties blackface Fenders. They are new. If you want a sixties feel blackface, you can still buy the reissues from Fender. You will pay more. You will have more to carry in terms of weight, and for that cost and extra weight, you may find the new indistinguishable from the reissue.

I've had opportunity to play through both Tone Masters. I am very impressed. Why not go to your proper guitar store and give them a try for yourself instead of just believing what someone else says? How bad could that be?

Cheers and play on.

Review : Martin RETRO Monel Strings

While I await the delivery of the Curt Mangan strings I wrote about recently, I was in my local guitar store The Arts Music Store, which is a very dangerous practice in my case and saw on sale a Martin D-35. I know this guitar reasonably well. It has been in the acoustic room for some time and as consequence, suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous test players. Meaning, she has a few life marks on her. Does this affect the tone? Not to me, but the strings on it, D'Addario somethings had reached the level of dead. As happens there was a bit of corrosion on the frets, and the guitar has been handled a lot. I have always wanted a D-35, but not so much as to pay full pop for one. I am also not so disciplined as to put all my guitar dollars away until Black Friday sales events. 

I told the Manager, that I was interested in the guitar and he agreed to let me try it out for a couple of days and if I was not happy could return it. I thanked him and they put it in a loaner case and also told me that they could have it restrung. Since I am rather picky, I asked to do that myself, since I knew I wanted to check the neck, and do a basic setup as well as polish the frets as well as clean and oil the fingerboard. I enjoy this kind of work, so with some Tony Rice playing in the background, got out my maintenance table and kit and went to work.

The strings that I selected were the Martin Retro Acoustic Monel series 12-54. They stretched in nicely and tuned up quickly and have held tune very well. As these are Monel wrapped steel (Nickel/Copper alloy) they are silver coloured instead of bronze coloured. As I mentioned in another post, Monel strings sound different than regular 80/2 or Phosphor Bronze strings. They are also naturally corrosion resistant, which is an important thing for me.

I have to admit, that initially I was not enthused. The D35 didn't have that powerful bottom end or upper midrange punch that I was used to with rosewood bodied, spruce topped bodies. The grain on the top is very widely spaced, suggesting Adirondack versus the documented Sitka spruce and there is plenty of top movement ability. As I sat and played however, I started to notice tones that I had never really heard before. The Monel strings reduce the impact of pick attack (I only fingerpick or use thick V-Picks) and are very neutral sounding. As a consequence, I hear a wider tonal palette, with more delicacy than I have in more traditional string choices. After several hours, I am looking forward to getting the Mangan strings that I ordered for my Gibson L4C arch top.

I am told that Monel strings handle amplification well. The D35 has no built in pickup, although if I buy it, I will install one at some point. The L4C has a Kent Armstrong pickup mounted to the end of the neck that I installed some years ago and once restrung, I will try that out through my acoustic amp rig.

The Monel strings feel different to the traditional strings as well. The high E and B are plain steel, but the rest are Monel wound strings. The guitar is not as loud as with the strings that were on it, but there is more clarity in the quieter tones. It took a bit of getting used to, but I am very impressed by these strings. I am not habitually a fan of Martin strings, but these are different. I do notice that my other acoustics, strung more traditionally, are louder and boomier. We will see what transpires, but I may end up transitioning my larger body acoustics to this different string structure. You might consider trying a set yourself.

Have a great day and keep on playing.

First Look : Universal Audio OX

It doesn't look all that high tech. In fact, it looks kind of retro. Which has nothing to do whatsoever with what it does. 

The OX Amp Top Box from Universal Audio is different things to different use cases. In this first look, the only thing that I will talk about is the use case to hear your amps the way that they were meant to be heard, without the involvement of angry neighbours or the local constabulary.

I ordered mine on Black Friday because I did not want the demo unit, which was missing its power supply. It arrived last week. I am very glad for having the opportunity to save money on the device, because, no kidding, inexpensive it is not.

I unpacked the unit and followed the simple instructions to connect to my Marshall Silver Jubilee 100w head and single 4x12 slant front cabinet. There are a zillion iterations of SJ reissues, mine has the basket weave front. In the 12+ years that I have owned it, it was never turned up past about 5.5 and even then that was for less than 10 seconds. It sounded glorious in the room. It sounded glorious the next street over. And therein lay the challenge. To get the amp working, it had to be turned up, and turning it up made it, in my environs, unusable to get its best tone.

I realized right away that the device did not come with a speaker cable to connect it to the head, so I had to run out to the local music store to buy one. I bought a few, because that's how things go for me. Connecting the unit up properly, I turned it on, along with the amp, leaving the amp in Standby. I had just had new 52 Vintage pickups installed in a MIJ 52 Tele so plugged that in. I turned the OX right down and strummed a chord. Nothing. 

The rear panel is very simple. You would have to work to mess things up

Figuring I messed something up, I redid all the wiring, disconnected the G Major from the effects loop and tried again. Nothing. So I turned the OX up and lo and behold there was a sound. A very quiet sound. At this point, it occurred to me that the amp was set to it's typical volume between 1 and 2. With the OX on 4, I turned the amp up to 6 and there was tone!. So I turned it up to 8 and it was again, glorious. I could feel the air moving out of the cab, there was that visceral gut feel that you only get standing near a really powerful amp that is being pushed a bit.

I was in the clean channel and it was amazing, the Tele ringing like a bell. I mucked about with settings on the amp volume and gain, the Tele volume control and the OX until I was hearing what I think I remember a Tele sounded like through a Marshall at volume while still clean. I turned everything off and reconnected the G Major to get some nice delay going and to ensure that it wasn't going to be a tone soak. I found that I had to turn the output on the G Major up to match the out of loop levels and once that was done, the sound was again wonderful. 

Stomp the foot switch to the high gain channel and hello world, that sounded like it should, with creamy overdrive but none of the shrieking pain that you sometimes get with a bridge pickup in a Tele through an overdrive pedal. Just wonderful tone. Go to the neck, and there was that expected smooth overdrive. The OX / amp combination respond beautifully to manipulation of the guitar's volume and tone.

I then switched out to an ES-Les Paul. Yes, that is the sound of a Les Paul through both a clean and a driven channel. It is an ES, that up until now, I've not been in love with. It was great having to move away from the amp because Mister Feedback showed up with his entire family when I was too close. Full Marshall tone, without the cops and the people with the torches and the pitchforks.

I have tried other vendor's tools to reduce the volume of high output amps. None of them come close to the clarity and tone of the OX. 

Of course there is an entire different side to the OX, that being it's ability to provide cabinet and microphone simulations to the signal for connection to your DAW. It's USB and is very straightforward. There are lots of cabinet and mic choices with the latest software upgrade, that other reviews complained took a long time to arrive. They're here now.

I connected my Mac to the OX's built in WiFi and followed the instructions to connect it to my internal WiFi. It made the change and it just worked. The OX identified that there was a further update available so I clicked go ahead and all went very smoothly indeed. The OX app on the Mac and the iPad is for the recording side only, not for the load management portion. The app layout is lovely and very intuitive, so I will be back with a different look at the recording interface.

Thanks for reading

Review : Fender Jimmy Page Dragon Telecaster

Let me be clear right off the bat, I am not reviewing the 5 digit priced Custom Shop version, I am reviewing my own made in Mexico Fender Jimmy Page Dragon Telecaster.

When I was looking for the artwork for this article, I thought to go to the Fender website as they would have artwork for their guitars. Maybe the guitar is already no longer being built, because the only Jimmy Page Telecaster returned by a search is the Mirror version. Then again, Fender's website is not the most usable one out there. Fortunately I was able to grab all manner of Fender artwork from Long & McQuade's excellent web store.

At it's core this is a Fender Mexico product. What that means is that it is a very well put together instrument that plays well and sounds great, with a price premium for the Jimmy Page "signature" on the headstock and the Dragon artwork. It's not really his signature, that's only on the Custom Shop version, but as I own an original Jimmy Page Les Paul, I can verify that the signature looks like Pagey's.

This guitar comes with pickups specified as Jimmy Page 59 Custom Teles. I do not know what that means in real life, but it does sound good, and when you add in some pedal power, Communication Breakdown sounds like it is supposed to. But you and I know that you can make a regular Telecaster sound right if you have access to an old Tonebender, or a decent clone thereof and the right valve amp. Despite the moniker, you will not be nor play like Jimmy Page, but there is a bit of a rush that comes from playing the Dragon. 

The artwork is well done with bright vibrant colours aligned with Page's original that he used poster paints on. The pick guard is not identical to the original of course, but will likely last longer and has the right look. You can string either through the body or through the top-loading bridge, your choice.

As is consistent with most Fender products right out of the factory, the stock strings are crap, so plan on an immediate replacement if you are not fond of pain or bleeding. This isn't just Fender of course, Gibson factory strings are perhaps even more horrible. Fortunately good strings are not expensive and my Dragon was refitted near immediately with Ernie Ball Paradigm Electrics, a string that I really like. I did not go with my normal set, staying with the gauge that came on the guitar which I believe to be 10-46s. That's what's on it now anyway.

It's got a classic Telecaster sound, with a bit more bite due to the hotter pickups. It's a bit more brittle than either my '67 Custom Shop or my 60th Anniversary which purports to be like a '51 but it sounds good nonetheless, just different. These are not top of line pots or guts but are not marked for immediate replacement. It's a good Mex Tele with a cool paint job. The rosewood fingerboard takes away some of the brittleness I would expect combining these pickups with an all maple board.

The neck is a custom oval C shape as preferred by Mr. Page and is finished with nitrocellulose lacquer. It feels good and has the expected 7.25 inch radius. The body is Ash and the topcoat is polyurethane. I would prefer nitro but it is what it is. The guitar includes a vintage style hardshell case.

Setup out of the box was decent, with no major tweaks required other than the near immediate string change. Unlike the more expensive nitro coated white blonde Mirror version, the Dragon didn't come with all manner of case candy so I went with a simple white strap and use a set of red Fender strap lock washer rings to hold it in place.

I like it. It's fun to play, sounds good, and has a really cool vibe. I find it similar but punchier to a 50's Tele that I have had for about 20 years out of Fender Japan (which is a real compliment). I would say that both the 60th and the '67 Custom Shop are better instruments with better body tone and overall playability. That said, it's a reasonably priced (sort-of) limited access piece. Mine is out of the case and in a rack so it gets played. Some might want one as a closet queen, but I expect that the Custom Shop versions will spend more time down that path. I own other Fender products out of the Ensenada Mexico factory and have found every one of them to be a well built instrument, a couple of them better than a Corona built Eric Clapton signature. Don't let the fact that this is a Mex built guitar get in the way of owning one if it appeals to you.

Review : YOMI from Frost Giant Electronics

Treble Boosters. You hear about these critters. You hear that if you like Brian May or Tony Iommi or Rory Gallagher or Ritchie Blackmore or Eric Clapton, you MUST have one.

Sure you can go online and search for an original Dallas Rangemaster for hundreds of dollars. Or you can get a new build of one from The British Pedal Company and my buddy Charles at electricmojoguitars.com. Or you could do what I did and take the advice of my friend Chris Spano at The Arts Music Store and hunt yourself down a YOMI from Frost Giant Electronics.

Chris told me about the YOMI when he asked that I do a review of The Mountain. I had been asking about fuzz and while there are folks who say that The Mountain, which is based on the ProCo RAT is not a fuzz, Dan Steinhardt over at That Pedal Show says that it is a fuzz. Be that as it may, Chris mentioned that Frost Giant did their own treble booster and that he grabbed the only one that came through the door and it never saw space on the retail counter. I checked and not only were there none in stock, the unit did not appear on the website. I went over to Frost Giant and their site said out of stock. Ru ro Shaggy. Over to Reverb and I found that the nice people at Axe and You Shall Receive (cool name huh?) in Brantford Ontario had two in stock.

Mine arrived quickly and while the version on the Frost Giant web site is black on light blue, I was fortunate to get one of the limited edition red on gold models as seen in the top image.

Documentation is like most Frost Giant Electronics products, meaning that it is non-existent. The YOMI has a knob marked Boost, an on/off stomp switch and a three way toggle that offers three different EQ options.

I was already set up for independent pedal tests with my silver Marshall 2550 into a silver 4x12. I had configured the clean channel to be super clean, even with hot pickups, and the ultra gain channel to sound like an overdriven Marshall, with Marshall style harmonic distortion but not fuzzy. I had the simple Marshall channel switcher on the floor and the YOMI on a stool in front of me to simplify tweaking. I ran direct from the guitar into the brand new Peterson StroboStomp tuner (review is coming on it), then to the YOMI and to the Marshall. The TC Electronics G Major that lives in the effects loop was completely bypassed. I checked the tone with an without the tuner and could hear no difference. All cables were Ernie Balls. About as generic as possible.

The first guitar that I used was my old Explorer. It's not a Korina body (sob) but it is solid mahogany and has nice heft. Like my Flying V, I find the factory pickups are a bit hotter than those in my Les Pauls and thought, hey why not. The Explorer sounds lovely clean, much as you would expect. Kicking in the YOMI in the clean channel and adjusting the boost brings a really nice bright distortion. Clicking through the three EQ settings you work with a three different levels of bass cut. I liked the top setting best which had the least cut. Definitely very playable and nice rich distortion. Wrong pickups for the Queen sound. Kick in the Marshall ultra gain channel without the YOMI and ah yes, there is Mr. Marshall. But add the YOMI and WOW! There's the sustain for days that was missing and while it sounds initially like you have lost some low end, I realized that I was getting a much more open top end than without the YOMI and pleasant feedback was readily available.

I love the sound. I will try a noise gate between the YOMI and the amp when I get around to it to isolate some of the other guitar noises when I am in glorius feedback territory, but I am not suggesting that this is necessary. You do want to play loud, which sounds wonderful but probably not your best choice at 2 in the morning. I was lighting things up between 4pm and 6pm so if I was annoying the neighbours, they had the good grace not to say anything.

I next moved on to my SG. It's a cherry model in the '63 style, albeit this '63 model as advertised from Gibson came from the time when Gibson couldn't remember that real '63s had the small headstock. So it has the large headstock. It's also got relatively low output humbuckers and while I have had it a long time, it's not a guitar that I go to very often. I had tried it with the Frost Giant SOMA (different review) and hated the sound. With the YOMI set to the top EQ and boost around 1 o'clock in the ultra gain channel it was quite nice. Not as quick to go to feedback as the Explorer but I expected that. Still going to change those pickups and I suspect that at the time, Gibson was using gum wrappers for caps and toilet roll for pots. There's no such thing as a vintage Gibson from the 70's or 80's that did not come out of the Custom Shop. But I digress...

Third guitar for the test was my red Suhr Strat, or as it is correctly known, the Suhr Standard Plus. This is a SSH configuration using Suhr's proven SSCII hum cancellation circuit. Mine is a rich red, a colour no longer listed. Which is good for me because it's freaking lovely. I love Suhr guitars, they are just so perfect right out of the box. I have this one and a custom shop Modern that my friend Andrew Lai down at Cosmo Music got built for me about ten years ago. Anyhow, the Suhr sounds great on its own, and although it is a humbucker in the bridge position, does not get all thickened up. I found it a bit too bright with the YOMI into the clean channel, but into the ultra gain channel on the Marshall with the Boost backed off and the EQ switch in the middle position it was really singing with any of the pickup configurations. I have found some pedals only work well with humbuckers while others only work well with single coils. Good to know that the YOMI handles single coils very well.

Obviously there is a lot more to do with the pedal. I want to put it into the pedal rig for my AC30 and try pushing P90s or P100s through it or one of the PRS guitars with the coils tapped. I've got a couple of very old CE bolt neck models that have the old five way rotary switch that sound awesome.

I had seen Mick and Dan on That Pedal Show covering treble boosters and while they did not cover the YOMI, I thought it was interesting that Mick concluded that if you run into a Marshall stack, a treble booster should be on your board. Brian May uses the Red Special into AC30s, and Tony Iommi played SGs into Laneys. BTW did you know that Mr. Laney was in a band before building amps? It was called the Band of Joy and included two other fellows who became rather famous, a Mr. Robert Plant and a Mr. John Bonham.

Thanks for reading and until next time, play on!

Review : A Bass for Everyone, the Sire Marcus Miller V7

Playing the bass is a great pleasure for me.  There exists this illusion that bass is just a backbone instrument not given to proficient soloing or being a lead instrument.  To those who may still buy into this fallacy, I offer you James Jamerson, Jaco Pastorius, Chris Squire, Geddy Lee and Marcus Miller.  To see the fun that one can have playing bass, one only need to head over to All About the Bass on the Anderton's Music Youtube channel and watch the jams with Nathan and Lee.

Marcus Miller is an incredible musician.  He was one of the top NY session players and also worked with Jazz genius Miles Davis.  He's also an incredibly nice fellow if his interview with Lee Anderton is any indication.

Marcus Miller partnered with Sire to bring high quality basses to players who didn't have multi-thousands of dollars to drop on a great bass.  I'm fortunate to have added a number of great basses to my own collection over several decades including Fender Precisions, Fender Jazzes and Rickenbackers.  I also have an inexpensive Cort with a shorter scale that is a joy to play.  I recently had the opportunity to get a Sire Marcus Miller V7 on evaluation to do this review.

Wow!  Most times when you pick up a bass in the $500 range, you are getting something that might be a start to decency.  Without wanting to throw Squire under the bus, that's a decent example.  Having now been exposed to the Sire Marcus Miller series from V3 through V10, I cannot imagine why anyone would go with anything other than a V3 as their first bass, or if finances allowed, not just go to a V7 and play.

Although not part of this review, let me quickly touch on the V3 lineup.  Here you find mahogany bodies with Canadian Rock Maple necks.  The fretboards are rosewood with the rolled edges and fret smoothing that you typically need to go to high products for.  The pickups are switchable for active or passive and include the comprehensive EQ system that Miller prescribes for all instruments bearing his name.  Thus you have a three band EQ built in where you have control over what frequency the midrange control impacts.   The bridge is solid steel and the strings load through the body.  I've not found a bass in this price point that sounds or plays anywhere near this quality.   And btw, the finishes are beautiful in a deep and rich gloss, not some horrible matte spray that says the maker was too cheap to do a nice and proper finish.

Coming back to the V7, we move to a choice of body and fingerboard options.  There is a swamp ash body with maple neck and maple fingerboard, or an alder body with maple neck and ebony fingerboard.  The latter is what I had for my evaluation.

The V7 has an offset body and at the risk of offending the Fender purists is very much like a Jazz bass in its body shape, nut width and overall profile.  The controls are different than a Jazz bass because of the 3 band active EQ, and of course the headstock is different, but the V7 has the wonderful playability one comes to know from a Fender Jazz Bass built in California or in Mexico, or one of the rarer specials from Fender Japan.

Tone is lovely with a nice punch and enormous control when using the Active functionality and three band EQ.  The volume knob is a double stack with the centre post being the volume and the outer ring being the main tone.  The choice of Active or Passive is via a micro-switch so if you don't want to use the Active 3 band EQ, you do not have to.  The pickups are enamel wound and have a nice brightness with excellent resolution.  They are called Marcus Super J and are designed and built to sound like a vintage Jazz pickup.  I don't have access to a vintage Jazz bass, but I like the sound very much.

When I ask newer players what frustrations they have, one of the comments is that their instrument is physically hard to play.  This is most often due to a poor setup at the factory along with the use of lowest cost strings.  When I ask parents of newer players what frustrates them, it's that their child doesn't play the instrument much after asking for one for months.  When I ask if the bass was setup at time of purchase, most of them ask me what a setup is.

I deal with professional guitar shops.  All of them offer a setup either at time of purchase or in the first year of ownership.  A setup means that the instrument is going to be checked over by the resident instrument technician and he or she will adjust action, neck bow, intonation and otherwise check the instrument for maximum playability.  Every bass player needs time to build up some calluses, but going through this on a poorly setup guitar is more painful than it needs to be.  Online shopping is very prevalent, but if you as a buyer can spend time in a proper guitar shop, your odds improve.

The other reality is that no shop can afford to offer a free master grade setup on an instrument.  This kind of thing can run into the hundreds of dollars and even a basic setup will normally cost about $75 or so depending on the instrument.  It would be better if the instrument was well setup out of the box and already had decent strings on it, instead of the junk so often installed.  I was very impressed with the V7.  It was hung on the wall right out of the box after a very quick check and tuning.  When I took it down, the only thing that I had to do was tune it.  Every other setting was very acceptable to the majority of players as is.  When I got it home, I checked the neck relief, the action and the intonation and there was nothing there that was bad.  I found a minor fret buzz on the E string.  It was slight and probably wouldn't bother to most people.  I'm very picky and so a quick bridge saddle adjustment was required to slightly raise the E string.  This eliminated the buzz but was not so extreme as to compromise the action.

I was very pleased to see that if at some point, I did need to adjust the neck there is a long slot for a neck wrench in the pickguard so you can make the needed adjustments without pulling the neck off.  So sad that other instruments in this price range require you to pull the neck to adjust it.

I've been playing the V7 through a 60 watt Fender Bassman amplifier.  This is an older solid state amp with a nice clean tone and no digital modeling.  It has an active / passive selector and the only other non-standard thing is an Enhance button, that in my case, is always off.

Because this is a very basic and relatively low cost piece of kit, I do use a pedalboard with it.  It's my only board that is all TC Electronic.  Not by design, it just worked out that way.  The signal chain is a Polytune 3 Mini, then a Spectrodrive, a Corona Chorus, a Flashback Mini and a Hall of Fame Reverb Mini.  For my use cases, these are all excellent tools that do what they are designed to do without unwanted excess coloration.  I have been pleased with the V7 whether I plug in directly or go through the board.  The tuner is handy and I probably have the reverb on 90% of the time, albeit at a very low setting.  The Spectrodrive is a great tool, particularly with basses that do not have their own EQ, and the compressor that is built in is exactly what a want for a bass.  Plenty of added sustain with no squishiness.  Regular readers will not be surprised because they will already know that I am a compressor dork.  I only use the chorus or delay rarely in my use cases, but like many effects, they are essential when you need them, but otherwise idle.  The V7 responds well to being put through this effect chain and I like the creamy sustain that I get from the Marcus Miller Super J pickups routed through the Spectrodrive.  As an aside, if all you need is a bass compressor, just get the TC Electronic Spectracomp and be done with it.

The V7 that I have has a bound fingerboard.  I realize that this sort of thing is typically marketed as an upgrade and it certainly is well done.  However, if the fingerboard edges were not so nicely rolled and the fret ends so well finished, it would not matter.  I find the edge and fret finishing on the V7 as good as a California built Fender Jazz Bass and better than most any other non-American built instrument.  How do I draw this conclusion?  Sit in the bass room and take lots of basses down and just run my fingers and hand down the neck.  There should be no sharp edges or grabbing as you do so.  This may sound like a small thing, but in the long term, it's a very big deal and takes a lot of skill and time to get right.  I have tried instruments at three times the price where the fret ends were like a series of little dull knives.  Not so the Sire V7.  We won't even discuss instruments from other makers at this price point.

The conclusion?  If you are looking for a bass guitar and want to keep your spend under $1000, or perhaps even less, there is, in my opinion, no better place to look that at Sire.

The Pick of the Picks

When we think about guitars, we typically don't think about how we engage with them.   For some players, the interaction is all with the fingers, but for a large part of the population, that interaction happens with a pick.  When we look at the pick selection in our music stores, there sure are a ton of pick options and materials.  Tortoise shell, is thankfully, no more, but we have lots of choices in terms of plastics, nylons, and composite materials.  Picks can be super thin, or super thick.  Some makers actually gradate their picks with thickness measurements.  Some are textured, some are smooth, some are tiny and some could be triangular dinner plates.

Plenty of choice.  Like many of us, I have, over the decades tried all manner of picks in all kinds of materials.  When I was younger, I searched for Herco picks because that's what my guitar heroes used, at least according to the interviews published in Creem or Circus magazines.  BTW, you can get Herco picks today.  They are one of several lines from the Jim Dunlop company.  About ten years ago, I was standing in Gruhn's in Nashville, looking at all the guitars I could not buy, and noticed these really thick, clear picks.  The salesperson told me that they were called V-Picks and I remembered having seen an ad somewhere for them.  They were, at that time about $3 USD each and feeling flush with an American $20, I bought five of them in different sizes and edges.  All of them were thick, over 2mm, and all were clear.  They all had beveled edges, some with rounded ends and some with sharper ends.  None were shaped like a traditional pick though.  At the time I was using Jazz III picks pretty much exclusively.  I liked them, but found them a bit small, and I had a bad tendency to let them slip away.

The V-Picks were unique.  The longer I held one in my fingers, the more it tended to stay put.  Not like glue, or sticky but just not sliding around.

Years have past and I have been using V-Picks since then.  I first encountered owner Vinni Smith and his wife when they were based out in California, they are now in Nashville.  Vinni is a class act who answers his own phone.  If you have a question or an issue, he engages personally.  I recently had a misshipment in an order, and Vinni made it right that very day.

The pick pictured at top is my current favourite.  It's called the Screamer and the finish is what Vinni calls Pearly Gates.  If that sounds Gibbons-esque, note that V-Picks do have several signature series picks, and there is a Billy Gibbons version.

[caption id="attachment_137" align="aligncenter" width="215"] Vinni and the Rev[/caption]

The Reverend Billy G is known for having played with a buffalo head nickel and his current signature pick features the special V-Pick edging process called Ghost Rim.  This very subtle roughening of the edge of the pick produces a bit more string grab that can, in my opinion, really add to your tone.

[caption id="attachment_138" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Billy Gibbons Signature Pick[/caption]

Not everyone likes a heavier pick.  Fair enough.  I find them to be much more precise and help with my speed and accuracy.  I've given, at my own expense, V-Picks to a number of local musicians and everyone has liked them.  Now they want to know when I am doing an order to get in on things.  In addition to the more traditional shape and the Screamer shape, V-Picks come in alternate shapes and colours to suit the player.  They are also great for bassists who use a pick because of their lack of flex and high precision. I have successfully converted bassists as well as guitarists to V-Pick, not because I push them, but because the products are excellent.

I like the sharp pointed picks for electric (and they are really pointy - you could hurt yourself if you were stupid) and the more rounded ends for acoustic strumming and chord work.  I also like the rounded ends for bass.

You can buy your V-Picks through some shops, but I prefer to deal directly via the website.  With your order comes Vinni's business card (did I mention that he answers his own phone?) and a current printed catalogue.  The catalogue is a nice thing, but there are always new picks being announced.  The Farley was announced to me in an email only yesterday.

[caption id="attachment_139" align="aligncenter" width="400"] The Farley[/caption]

While I am not a big fan of the trad shape, I will be buying a few on my next order because even if they aren't for me, I have a lot of musician friends who prefer this style of pick.

One of the older ones, that I love was a glow in the dark version.  I don't see them as available any longer, but will be asking about them as for me, being clumsy, easy to find in the dark.  They don't slip from my fingers but I do place them down inadvertently.

I also recommend buyers trying the Ghost Rim and regular versions of a pick because the feel and the tone is different.  Sometimes I prefer the sound of the ghost rim and sometimes I don't.  The luxury is that we have the option as players to choose which way we want to go.

V-Picks also have pick holders, not dissimilar from the ones you see for regular thin picks, but sized to hold the thicker V-Picks.

It's possible that you may find 900+ words to be a lot on the subject of picks, but for many of us, our interface with the guitar is the fretting hand and the pick so maximizing that interface just makes great sense.

The 1965 Fender Twin Reverb Blackface Reissue

If there was one amp to appear on more records than any other, the Fender Twin Reverb would likely be at the top of the list. I don’t have access to the actual data so I for the moment this is speculation on my part.

The Twin Reverb is often associated with the American amp sound, but this is about as useful as saying that there is one amp maker that defines the British sound. Would that be Marshall British, Vox British or HiWatt British? Same deal for the so called American sound, although Fender’s market penetration, particularly early in the game was likely a runaway leader. This does not take away from other makers, such as Mesa Boogie or more recent players like PRS, but there is a difference in sound, and the sound of a Fender Twin is both distinctive and identifiable.

The Twin Reverb was built with the idea that the amp would not overdrive no matter how much you turned it up. Watts measurement is not really a consistent measure of how loud something gets. A fully cranked Fender Twin Reverb is rated at 85 watts. It will also destroy your hearing and shake walls. I think only the late Dick Dale found the Twin Reverb not loud enough, although Leo Fender did come up with the Dual Showman to accommodate Mr. Dale.

In addition to the seemingly endless clean sound, came Fender’s awesome spring reverb. If anything ever brings to mind the sound of deep twanging reverb it’s Fender spring reverb. There is of course a tremolo function in the amp, albeit called Vibrato incorrectly. This function has two controls for speed and for depth. This was a very popular effect in the Sixties, but some players, like to set the rate very low and the intensity very low and leave it on most all the time. I had not heard of this, but have tried it myself and really like the subtle widening effect it brings.

I had been told before I bought my Twin that it is so loud that you cannot turn it up past 1 in a home. There are two inputs on the reverb channel and I am plugging into the 2nd input most of the time and find that I can turn the amp up more, nearly to 3 in my room. Certainly not where the tubes are being thrashed, but a beautiful open clean tone.   The dual 12” Jensen speakers sound marvellous and I like the open back design.  Like many older style Fender amps, the Twin Reverb has those iconic tilt-back legs and I really enjoy that element.

I’ve kept my pedal board really clean for this amp. I have the supplied switch to control the reverb and tremolo, a TC Electronic PolyTune 3 mini, a TC Electronic Spark Booster, which provides a pleasant light crunch tone without compression or high end loss, and for the time being my old Diamond Memory Lane delay. The Memory Lane was really something when it came out, but delays have moved a long way and I expect to retire it shortly and replace it with something else with more delay options.

When I first received the amp, which I bought used from Guru Gear online (the company is located in New Brunswick Canada) I set all the tone controls at 5. I have had no cause to change these. My spankiest guitar is a Fender Custom Shop 1967 Telecaster and it is bright without being grating in any way. Even high output humbuckers sound good through this amp, but if you are looking for native overdrive tones, you are thinking about the wrong amp.

I own an “American” amp in the PRS Dallas. It is lovely sounding but is obviously darker and less spanky than the Twin Reverb. If I play with the EQ on the Boogie Mark V, I can get kind of close but there’s a fair bit of futzing around required to make the Boogie sound like a Fender. I briefly tried the new Boogie California amp before I bought the Twin Reverb, and it’s definitely got a different soundscape. Not bad in any way, but none of the spark of the Fender Twin Reverb.

I have heard it said that if you are a guitar nut and not bound tightly to a particular music style, that you need a Twin Reverb in your amp lineup. Even after over forty years as an alleged guitarist, I only just added one, and I am becoming a believer.

REVIEW : Keeley Caverns

Ok this is just my opinion, but I think that there are two classes of pedal effects.  The common and relatively inexpensive that do a decent job and are the mainstay of many pedal boards, and then the more esoteric or refined choices that are used in a lower volume, cost a bit more and provide a different soundscape.  I am an admitted pedal geek, having more than I really need.  I’m not Dan Steinhardt of That Pedal Show in terms of owned quantity or knowledge but I have been playing guitar for a long time (adequately at best) and know what I like.

Robert Keeley is the man behind Keeley Effects.  As of this writing, I only own three Keeley products, the D&M Drive, the excellent 30MS Double Tracker and today’s write up, the Caverns.

My friend and long time guitar specialist tweaker Darryl Bradley of The Arts Music Store in Newmarket Ontario turned me on to the Caverns.  I had mentioned in passing that I was moving my TC Electronic Flashback Mini and TC Electronic Hall of Fame Mini Reverb to my bass rig and would want to replace them in my practice rig based around the Blackstar HT-5R Mk II amplifier.  Darryl advised me that I needed to try out the Caverns from Keeley, and arranged for a test period.

Let me say that the testing period was over really quick because this pedal just fit right in.  It combines delay and reverb in a what looks to me to be a two sided pedal, not unlike the D&M Drive.

The Delay side offers three voicings, Off, Deep and Light along with controls for Time, Rate, Repeats and Blend.  Very intuitive and quick to master.  It is based on the proven Keeley Magnetic Echo model which has a very analog tape feel to it.  The voicings allow introduction of wow and flutter effects common to analog tape delays of yore.

The Reverb side offers Spring, Modulated and an amazing Shimmer mode.  I would say that the Shimmer is the best that I have heard outside of Eventide’s SPACE or H9 MAX pedals.  They are of course, excellent but quite a bit more money, being built to do more.  The controls are Blend, Decay and Warmth with a Rate control that applies when the Shimmer voicing is used.  

The switches are positive and not overly clickey or super resistant.  I’m running my unit off a pedal board power supply.  The inputs and outputs are TRS type so if you have only a single chain or amp it works great but if you want to use two effect chains or two amps, you just need a TRS male to dual TS female adapter cable

There are also internal DIP switches to enable True Bypass or Trails if you wish.  The device manual is really a cheat sheet as is common for stomp boxes.

Even though it is a single page, the necessary info is there to get you going if you happen to be one of the kinds of folks who actually reads the documentation on a product.

My use case is for practicing at low room volumes.  That’s why the Blackstar HT-5R Mk II in the first place.  While the amp has decent reverb, I prefer the reverb options in the Caverns and it’s pretty much always on.  What I particularly appreciate is that when the delay is kicked in, it doesn’t fight with the reverb and there is none of that wallowing soup pot tone found when you mix delay and reverb in other scenarios.

I have bought and tried a lot of delays over the years and own some really marvellous ones, but will propose that you will likely find it hard to beat the functionality and tone in a Caverns with anything else near this price point.  Definitely recommended.

First Impressions : The TC Dreamscape

Suppose for a moment that you prefer stompboxes to rack effects, but your board is getting a bit large and you would be ok combining Chorus, Flanger and Vibrato into a single pedal because you would not be using those effects together. Suppose also that you would like the idea of being able to store a couple of defined sets of settings per effect and also be able to create your own setups, or use the setups of other artists.

If any of this makes sense, you may find The Dreamscape by TC Electronic to your liking. The Dreamscape is a signature pedal approved or designated or whatever by John Petrucci of Dream Theater. Whether one is a fan or not may be of less import. Credit to Mr. Petrucci for understanding the power of his brand and leveraging it wherever he can, including with excellent products from Ernie Ball Music Man and Mesa Engineering.

Clean layout that is easy to read

I bought The Dreamscape, not because it was endorsed by Mr. Petrucci but because the idea of a simple stompbox that had the functionality described in the first paragraph made sense for me, and because I needed to replace the Corona Chorus in my AC30 board because I had moved it to my bass board. I could have bought another Corona, which I like very much, but I thought that I would try something different.

I have not been a big flanger user since the 80s when they were the next hot thing, but as I tend to play more older stuff than newer, the benefits were there. I also like a gentle chorus without high speed or massive sweeps from time to time, and find that it works well for ambient work alongside an excellent reverb. The reverbs in my Vox AC30 Top Boost and Koch Multitone (no longer made) are particularly nice and complement a rich yet subtle chorus very well. I use finger powered vibrato a lot but have not (yet) been a big consumer of it as a consistent effect. It's in my old Eventide Mod Factor, but I never really glommed onto it as a pedal effect. The Dreamscape gives me two presets for each of the three effects and the factory defaults are decently usable. I appreciate this as a I often find factory presets significantly overdone and annoying. I have an old G Major 2 in the effects loop on a Marshall 2550 and find most of the factory defaults completely unusable. The Dreamscape proves the exception.

Like many TC pedals, The Dreamscape has the Toneprint function. This allows you to download existing Toneprint files, or to create your own based on your own experimentation in the Toneprint Editor which is available for macOS and for Windows. There is a companion smartphone app that allows you to store multiple Toneprint files and "beam" the one you want to use to the appropriate pedal by bringing the phone speaker up to the pickup in your guitar and sending the file to the device without needing cables or the like. For a live performer, this flexibility is wonderful. If you are playing for your own enjoyment only, it still is a real benefit because it encourages creativity because you can Toneprint settings that you really like and not lose them when you start to twiddle effects. Learning to use Toneprint is not hard, and it really adds to the potential return on value of the so equipped TC Electronic products. A side benefit for me is that all my Corona Chorus toneprints can be used on The Dreamscape.

There is also a bright/normal/dark switch that changes the voicing of the effects accordingly. I use my Dreamscape mostly in the Normal position because those sounds please me most, but again, having some variety is a good thing.

The knobs turn smoothly but are not overly loose. There is no binding. The footswitch is click free and is smooth to engage. The pedal is the same height as my other pedals on the AC30 board so I don't hit or miss the switch as I move back and forth. I use it with a pedal board power supply unit but it will run on a 9v battery if you wish. The pedal defaults to True Bypass but is switchable to buffered if you prefer. There is also a Kill Dry option if you use it in a Parallel Effects loop. The only amp that I have that has this is the Koch and I have not tried the pedal in that loop as yet.

I do run The Dreamscape in the effects send/return loop on the AC30. I just prefer time and modulation effects there. You should do what you prefer.

TC says that the pedal is analog-dry through so your unaffected signal is truly unaffected. Turning the effect mix to zero results in no colouration as expected.

The Dreamscape supports mono and stereo in as well as mono and stereo out. The only real downside is that the owner's manual is just a one page startup guide. TC make great products but I have never found their documentation to be all that good, even for complex things like the G System or G Major. On this subject, they could stand to take a lesson from Eventide.

Note the clear power requirements and the mini USB2 port

You can update the firmware and connect the pedal to your computer for use with the Toneprint Editor via USB2 and a cable comes in the box with the unit.

Whether you get The Dreamscape because you aspire to Petrucci status or just want some of his signature tones or because you like the idea of having three useful effects in a single easy to use pedal is entirely up to you. I own a number of TC pedals and have only returned one because I did not like the sound (HyperGravity Compressor). Calling this one Recommended.

Quick Review : The Bends, the Guitar Compressor from Fender

Fender makes some pretty awesome guitars and amps so when I found a used version of The Bends in my local store, I wanted to give it a try.

For those for whom the idea of a compressor is not clear, or who just want a simple understanding of what compression really is and why one might care, I have a post on the subject coming.

Onto The Bends

The Bends is a traditional guitar compressor in that it uses an analog circuit not based on an op-amp.  Unlike many similarly priced tools, it provides a lot of controls to the user including Drive (compression), Recovery (sustain), Level and the most critical to me, Blend, so you can mix the wet and dry signals to suit.

My first impression was that in what I expected would be middle ground, the unit seemed to be doing nothing.  One use of a compressor is to provide more sustain and this one really needed the release knob cranked all the way up to really sense any significant change.  Even at this point, the sustain, while improved, was not that much better.  Considering that this is a new pedal, I expected more than what I would hear from a 30 year old MXR Dyna Comp.  Not this time.

The unit is very quiet when engaged.  Gradually increasing the drive control increases the amount of compression.  Fully wet, the sound is unpleasant with a significant loss of highs.  Increasing the blend in favour of the dry signal improves the overall tone, but instead of a nominal thickening as expected, it sounds more like a high pass filter.

When pushing the drive past the halfway point, distortion started to creep in.  Compressors should not distort.  They may add the illusion of boost at the expense of dynamic range (at least lesser ones do) but distortion is a no-no.  This distortion while slight was enharmonic and not pleasing at all.

It was easy to use the Level control to match the engaged volume with the disengaged volume, and also to set it for a little bit of boost if one were to use the compressor only for solos,  Personally I would rather use a proper boost pedal after a compressor but to each his or her own.

It was passable with high output humbuckers, but with lower output single coils such as in a Telecaster bridge, or Fender Vintage Noiseless in one of my Strats, I really had to crank the drive to get the compression to engage at all.  The operating lamp is white when the compressor is on, and glows pink when compression is happening.  In a perfect world you would have a scale to see how much compression is happening, but this is mostly on or off.  In addition to the operating LED, you can activate LEDs built into each of the knobs.  This is quite nice in a really dark environment, but you will not like it if you are using the unit as part of your practice rig at home because at night, those little blue LEDs are like runway lights.  There is an external switch to turn them on and off.

While The Bends has more control options than a less expensive old style Dyna Comp, in my testing it did not sound as good.  I felt I lost too much tone, particularly on single coils and did not get enough extended sustain.  The distortion in the drive settings made this unit a non-starter for me.

The Bends sells for about $170 here in Canada and is widely available.  if you like compressors, you might be inclined to give one a try in an amenable music store, but do some comparisons with other alternatives.  I think that you can do better for less money.