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The best of 2014 - our top ten

We have seen some stunning guitars and gear in 2014 which has seen some definite trends emerging. It could be the Year of the semi, the small amp, the custom shop finish, the signature guitar and innovation in guitars and accessories as well as the boutique UK maker.

Semi-acoustics continue their march with new models from PRS, Gibson, Godin and Gretsch with their centre block range:

  2014 has also been the year of the cool custom finish with Knaggs leading the way, followed by PRS and Gibson:

  Signature guitars are still very popular with the Lee Malia Signature Les Paul Custom Artisan from Epiphone our favourite – beautiful:

  Duesenberg continues to win new friends which is not surprising when they put out guitars like this:

    We all have a pocket full of plectrums but I bet you haven’t seen one like this before from Dragon’s Heart Picks in the US:

  Kingdom Guitars in Bristol launched a bass and six string this year aimed squarely at the metal player, although our reviewers managed to coax jazz, twang and rock out of them as well!

  UK makers – both electric and acoustic – have brought some fantastic guitars to the market both as one-offs and as limited runs. The quality is unmistakeable as will be the sound. Peter Turner makes these Marrakesh resonators in limited numbers:

    Small amps have started to dominate the market both as home practice amps and for studio and small venue use. Costs for a quality, really good sounding amp are now very low as shown by Blackstar, Vox and Orange:

Gibson still lead the way in innovation and their 2015 line-up has the G-Force robot tuner as standard across all guitars with no manual tuning option. Will sales bomb or is this the way forward?

Far-eastern made guitars are getting better and better all the time and what you get for your money is phenomenal – budget guitars now sound and play well and mid-price guitars easily take on the US big boys. Some people feel though that what’s missing still is that certain something the name on the headstock brings to your playing…..

[yournextguitar]

Enter the Dragon

Picks, picks, picks or as we know them plectrums. This is a real minefield as every player has a preference and the only way to find ‘your pick’ is to try them out. The accepted wisdom seems to be that thin bendy ones are good for strumming but not so good when it comes to picking out notes; medium/thick ones are good for single note picking. Thicker ones apparently give you more control and volume and hard plectrums give a brighter and more delicate tone, so that you don’t have to pluck the string so hard.

You can get these plectrums in all different materials (plastic, nylon, wood, metal, felt (for Mandolins and softies apparently) in a huge variety of shapes and sizes with or without pictures on. They can cost between 50 pence and more than £25 (yep, seriously). A couple of friends use really thick plectrums – one is made from composites which will never wear out it is claimed and the other uses one specifically designed for gypsy jazz. 

This brings me to Dragon’s Heart Guitar Picks which have just come on the market and are a very unusual shape to say the least. They have kindly sent us a pack of three to test which our guitarists have been playing with. Nick, our Gypsy Jazz man has been using one and told us after a day “it’s certainly like no pick I’ve used before!”

Now, I don’t tend to use a plectrum often but this is strangely addictive; there is something about the shape and feel that makes you want to pick it up again! You can play all three sides (the picture shows what I mean). As they say on their website: 

“Dragon's Heart Guitar Picks are the result of a painstaking personal endeavour to develop the ideal guitar pick. Our Picks are formed from carefully selected materials. These specific grades of polyamide-imide are often used in aerospace applications as replacement for metallic alloys.

• The low friction coefficient makes Dragon's Heart Guitar Picks extremely fast playing. 

• The high erosion resistance makes Dragon's Heart Guitar Picks ideal for enduring the punishment of stringed instrument play. 

• Beyond this superior material, lies the depth of our pick design. Though our pick is thick compared to industry standards, we have incorporated a precision designed bevel.  Subsequently, it plays as easily as a thin pick while offering the control and consistency of a thicker pick”

So does they sound different? Yes they do. Compared to a standard plectrum you can get different sounds – and playing speeds – out of each edge. Depending how you play and your touch it can sound bright, clean or soft when picking notes. Try one and see for yourself.

www.dragonsheartguitarpicks.com

[yournextguitar]

Searching for the Holy Grail of sound

We are all waiting for that moment, the one where the sound you have in your head is the same as the sound coming out of your amp. Even BB King said in an interview a couple of years ago that he hasn’t found it yet; so, if he hasn’t what chance have we got?

I know the sound I want to hear from my electric guitar, and some days I get it but not all days; same guitar, same amp, same settings but somehow today it sounds different. It could be the touch and feel of my playing, the valves in the amp having a bad day or my ears and perhaps all three, but it’s not there. To solve this what do we do? We buy more gear!

The acoustic is easier as the sound is fixed somewhat (until you come to amplify it of course, when the acquisition of gear starts all over again) and if you’ve found the acoustic that gives you a good sound you’ll probably keep it forever.

But back to electrics. Yes, I know we are in the trade so we can get access to guitars and stuff but we do buy gear for ourselves. I moved house earlier this year and had to store some of my guitars in the office as I can only fit two at home and a small practice amp with a little pedal board.

Having played acoustic for many years I acquired my first electric just two years ago – I now have five – and have struggled a bit to get to grips with producing the right sound, tending initially to play it like an acoustic. And having gone from an acoustic with an amp (Vox AGA150) I now seem to have three electric amps (Egnater Rebel 30, Blackstar ID:Core and a small Laney combo for drum machine duties), two loopers, four pedals, two floor tuners, an audio interface for recording, two microphones, two multi-effects units and two boxes of cables and kit. And still I can’t get the sound I want!

The guitars include a custom Viktorian with a five way switch which sounds great for rhythm on coil tap, but seems a bit weedy for anything bluesy or rock based, a Godin 5thAvenue which is good for a bit of jazz and rockabilly although the P90’s can slice your ears off, a Gibson Midtown Custom which I love and sounds great for lots of stuff but not rhythm (the way I play it anyway!) and the latest acquisition a Lee Malia Limited Edition Epiphone Custom Les Paul. As well as looking fabulous this sounds really good with its Gibson USA pickups and coil tapping and gives me a range of sounds. I only got this last week and haven’t played anything else since.

Pedal wise I have a chorus pedal and a few OD pedals which I haven’t managed to find a good sound out of yet apart from with a Tube Screamer copy (Mooer Green Mile) which is good for some of the blues I play.

The rebel 30 amp is way too loud for home and whilst the clean channel is great I can’t get to grips yet with the Gain channel. The ID:Core is only ten watts (stereo) and gives fantastic clean sounds at low volumes and responds well to the pedals.

It is said that great players will sound like themselves on any guitar and amp combination, getting their sound out of it by touch and feel, but for us mere mortals gear seems to be the way forward. I know there must be an amp out there for me that I can dial in that sound in my head? Perhaps I’ve already got it but don’t realise it yet or perhaps it’s the Mesa Boogie that’s just come out or the Blug Amp1............ 

[yournextguitar]

Small Amps vs Small Amps

Is it me or are small amps getting smaller? Much smaller. Over the last 18 months a few of the big boys have launched micro and mini amps – Blackstar with their ID:Core range (we’ve got one of these and they are brilliant) and now the FLY; Vox with their Mini 5 and Orange with their Micro Crush and PIX. Most of these have modelling features – clean, vintage, crunch, overdrive amp settings – and effects built in – delay, chorus, tremolo etc and because of the electronics available now they all sound very good – not like in the old days when a cheap amp sounded just that – flat and dull with no sparkle.

All of these are great for home use as they are not over powerful and you can get decent sounds at low volumes (try that with a valve amp) that won’t scare the cat or blow the windows out. You don’t need any pedals or effects either as it is all built in. You could even use them in the studio and – whisper it carefully – on stage with a decent PA although your backline may look a bit weedy!

Now to blow all of these out of the water comes the Thomas Blug Amp1 which is the size of a large stomp box but kicks out 100 watts of nanotube power. Okay so its £589 but you could put it in your bag and just turn up at a gig with this and your guitar, plug it into your PA and off you go. At home you just need a speaker or headphones. Mr Blug is an accomplished guitar player and amp designer so he seems to know what he is doing. This is what his website says:

“AMP1 is designed for professional use onstage and in the studio. The NANOTUBE 100-watt power amp delivers your own tonal palette with the best tube quality and enormous sound pressure levels.

Four amazing, modifiable channels will take you on a stunning journey through the history of the guitar amp (from Clean to Vintage to Classic and Modern tones), and AMP1 also features switchable and adjustable Boost and Reverb controls, three integrated footswitches, a truly outstanding Speaker Simulation output for recording, and a headphone output, giving you all the options you would expect from a modern, boutique tube amp.”

We can’t wait to try one out.

[yournextguitar]

Should guitar makers go 'off piste'?

Gibson has taken a lot of stick this week over the release of its new Les Paul Studio Hot Rod, which looks fabulous. However, many ‘followers’ of the brand say that they should stick to what they know, leave the wacky designs to others etc etc. But should they?

We all know that there are four basic guitar designs with longevity – the single cut (Les Paul and Tele) and the double cut (ES335 and the Strat) – which have been copied and ‘refined’ mercilessly for decades. Both Fender and Gibson make the best examples of these with the most cache which we all aspire to - it says Gibson/Fender on the headstock so it must be good! Now I love Gibson guitars as there is just something about their looks and style that is mesmerising and addictive; once you play one you don’t want to put it down, never mind the build issues it’s just got ‘something’! But I have tended to love their traditional styles rather than the models they have brought in from time to time which have all but flopped and quietly disappeared. But this one is different as it is based on a tried and tested model – the Les Paul – which is hot rodded. Would Fender bring out a Strat with active pickups to appeal to the shredders? Yes. Would they bring out a Tele with humbuckers? Yes. Would they do them in wacky colour schemes? Yes. Would they make a 7 or 8 string? Not yet but I’m sure they are planning it! So why can’t Gibson, one of the guitar establishment, not hot rod a Les Paul?  They can, but will you buy it? Hot hatch Bentley anyone?........

[yournextguitar]

Attention all you shredders!

Guitar instructor Ben Higgins, famous for his viral videos on YouTube and a regular on Guitar World,  has decided to go back to basics and share with you how he started playing guitar; this will take you from being a beginner to shredding with ease!

On the course “Ben Higgins - Shredding for Complete Beginners", Ben will share the unique way he learned to play and how you can become an accomplished shredder!

Ben’s videos, "30 Shredders In One Solo" and "30 Misplaced Shredders" have racked up more than three million views on YouTube and he is a regular contributor to the Guitar Master Class on-line guitar lessons site.

Take a look at his course on the Guitar Master Class website: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/lessonseries/Bens-Beginner-Course/

This course covers everything from tuning, learning all the notes on the fretboard, how to hold the pick - to more advanced topics like writing a guitar riff and soloing. While learning the lessons, students can easily reach Ben Higgins via lessons interface or forum for additional guidance and help.

Guitar Master Class are offering five guitarists a free three month subscription to their site via YourNextGuitar. To enter their draw all you need to do is email us at [email protected] putting GMC in the subject box. The winners will be notified during early October.

You can get more information about Ben and a complete list of his guitar lessons here: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/instructor/Ben-Higgins/  

[yournextguitar]

Blackstar ID:Core 10 amp

A familiar situation: you want to practice at home but your valve amp is way too loud, even at moderate settings and besides unless you turn it up you can’t get the sound you want. So what do you do?

Lately amp makers have been waking up to this and a few innovative products have come onto the market such as the Yamaha THR range. Not to be outdone Blackstar, that bastion of innovative amp design here in the UK, has joined the party. Enter the ID:Core range.

These programmable combo amps feature the core attributes of Blackstar's original award-winning ID:Series. The range features 10W, 20W and 40W combos, all with super wide stereo, being small in size but huge in tone. We picked the 10 watter to test, which is small – about the size of a shoebox – and light! The ID:Core 10 has two modes of operation; automatic, which gives six on board sounds: Warm Brit Clean, Chiming US Clean, Vintage Crunch, Hot Rodded Drive/Super Crunch, US Overdrive and Saturated Lead/Overdrive; and manual where you can pick your core sound from six pre-amp voicings - Clean Warm, Clean Bright, Crunch, Super Crunch, Overdrive 1 and Overdrive 2 and then add your own Gain, EQ (the patented ISF control which takes you from British to American sounds) and a choice of four Modulation, Delay and reverb effects. If this isn’t enough you can download patches and add them via USB. So what does it sound like? Well first off the Core 10 is just right for practising at home; it’s light, compact and loud enough to give you a great sound from all its options. Throw in the stereo effect and you can get some authentic sounds at low volumes that are just not possible with a valve amp (our other amp is an Egnator Rebel 30 which is loud even at 1W and 2 on the volume dial). With the Core 10 you can plug in your headphones as well to stop the neighbours complaining. A lot of small amps can sound flat and lifeless at normal room volumes (ie: quiet) but this, with Blackstar’s trickery, sounds really good and fairly comes alive, without turning your tone up to 10, particularly with spring reverb where you can hear the full stereo effect. We tried it with a Gibson Midtown Custom with humbuckers, a Viktorian Grace with split coil humbuckers and a Godin 5th Avenue with P90’s and all sounded great. The Clean Bright is a particularly tasty sound that zings. The OD 1 and 2 also hit the mark sounding crisp with good note separation, lacking that muddiness that you can get with small and (let’s be honest at £89.00) cheap amps. All of the settings produce fairly distinct tones and with all the options there will be a sound, or three, in here that you will like and want to stick with. Even with headphones the sounds are crisp and distinct; what did we do before this came along? At £89 this is a bargain and highly recommended.

[yournextguitar]

Overdrive! No 21

Musicman have released details of a new guitar – The Majesty -  in collaboration with John Petrucci. "The Majesty guitar symbolizes the very reason why I am so proud to be a Music Man artist. I had the idea for this guitar a couple of years ago but it is because of their innovative spirit and dedication to the art of guitar building that it is now a reality.” www.music-man.com It’s Epiphone bass month - customers who buy an Epiphone bass will receive a free Epiphone Deluxe Leather Strap.  www.epiphone.com

Gibson has introduced its new ES-Les Paul guitar, which blends the best from the ES-335 and the Les Paul solid body. They say it’s not just a chambered Les Paul though, rather a careful marriage of features from both by the skilled luthiers at Gibson Memphis. www.gibson.com  Wampler Pedals has released the Latitude Deluxe Tremolo Pedal, designed for the player that wants a plethora of tremolo options underfoot. It includes four choices of divided subdivisions: (quarter notes, eighth notes, dotted-eighth notes, and triplets) and three wave forms to choose from: (Sine, bell, square). www.wamplerpedals.com  DigiTech has announced the introduction of Drop, a dedicated polyphonic drop-tune pedal that lets guitar and bass players instantly lower their tuning from one semitone all the way down to a full octave. www.digitech.com 

Adding to the company’s well-established line of boutique guitars, Scott Walker has unveiled a new formica guitar. The heart of the guitar is a 3" blade style pickup in a “Cigar” tube. The body and neck woods are Tempered basswood and maple with a Black matte Formica top and back. Price? $2500 so about £2500 in the UK when they arrive here.  www.scottwalkerguitars.com  Skunk Anasie guitarist Ace has teamed up with Italian boutique pedal manufacturer VDL Analogics to create the Hotbird distortion, drive and fuzz pedal.  The all-analog pedal covers a huge range of tones, from nasty retro fuzz all the way through to super aggressive modern distortions.  Floyd Rose has unveiled a new online “Build-Your-Own” bridge system, a way for customers to build the precise Floyd Rose bridge to suit their individual needs in an easy-to-use online Custom Shoppe. www.floydrose.com/customshoppe  This week’s ‘old rockers getting together again award’ goes to the Kinks. It has been widely reported that after 20 years apart, The Kinks are making plans for a full reunion with Ray Davies confirming he also plans to begin work on a new album.  “I met Dave only last week to talk about getting back together again,” Davies says in a new interview. We’ve also spoken a few times on the phone and emailed. He’s been composing his own songs, but I’d really like to write with him again. We both agree we don’t want to do old stuff or tour with past hits. It’s got to be something new.”

[yournextguitar]

Setting up a small studio for c£500

We all thought that setting up a studio to produce a few YouTube videos would be easy. After all, we didn’t need TV production levels or CD quality sound, and editing a 3 minute video with a single sound source and a static camera can’t be hard can it? Try searching for ‘setting up a studio’ on Google or YouTube – not easy to get good advice. We tried the old fashioned route and spoke to a sound technician and a cameraman (or two) and by a bit of trial and error and some duff purchases we finally got there! So what do you need? Essential A quiet space with good sound deadening qualities (ie carpets) and limited natural light (you can’t control natural light); some lights; microphone/stand; cables; lap top/PC; audio interface to capture the sound; headphones; digital video camera to capture pictures (web cams are of questionable end quality, although much cheaper); audio editing software; video editing software. Preferable Black out curtains; monitors to hear back (or in real-time) what you have recorded; a sound engineer and a lighting man! Some of this kit you may already have or can borrow but you can’t get away without the software and hours of patience whilst you learn how to use it! After a few sessions you get used to doing the takes and know what will work and what won’t. The lighting rig is also important so you (or your guitarist) don’t look washed out. You also get a feel for what to put in the background, how to speak and move and what to play – YouTube don’t like ‘covers’ and can block/remove some videos if it infringes copyright. Do you know how difficult it is to come up with original riffs and chord changes when testing a guitar? You will also need a thick skin for when viewers are rude about your playing! Our equipment: Theatre/stage curtains – black approx. £60.00 Photo SEL spotlights x 2 £100 Shure SM57 microphone with stand £95 (for the amps); Shure SM58 microphone with stand (for vocals) £95; AKG Perception 220 microphone (for acoustic guitar and vocals) £125 Sony Handycam digital video camera £250 Tascam US-600 audio interface £135 Behringer MS16 active monitors £50 Adobe Premier Elements video editing software £63 Reaper audio software approx. £45

Various cables, leads, stands, stools and attachments Laptop (needs to be powerful to cope with the video software) You could probably set all this up for less than £500 but don’t skimp on the microphone, audio interface or camera as no matter how you edit if the input is poor the output will be also. You can get free software but as with everything the more you pay the better features you get. Learning to use the equipment and the software is great fun and very rewarding and each time you do it you’ll get better – our first videos now look very amateur compared to the latest! So what are you waiting for?

[yournextguitar]

Overdrive! No 20

StompBox Band is a new iPad app that turns your tablet into not one but two guitar effect racks. It comes from 4Pocketsaudio, and is a beefed-up version of the original StompBox app. Gibson is celebrating the 65th birthday of BB King's Lucille with a new anniversary signature guitar. The legendary bluesman's Lucille, the luxurient black semi acoustic that has become synonymous with the BB King sound, was first named 65 years ago this year. The new model includes all the familiar Lucille features, including an f hole-free top finished in ebony, gold hardware including a TP6 fine tuning bridge and a 6-way varitone switch and stereo output, as well as a gold engraved '65 Years' truss-rod cover. www.gibson.com Gibson ES335 Studio launched and in stores soon! The ES-335 Studio is crafted to the classic formula of the Gibson ES-335, a near overnight success upon its introduction in 1958. Identical to the original specs are its body made from laminated maple with an arched top, two f-holes, and a solid maple core for enhanced clarity and sustain. Its stripped-down Studio ethos is revealed in a lack of binding and pickguard, streamlined controls, and simplified gold headstock logo. JHS announce the launch of the Vintage Re-issued Series V100MU Midge Ure Signature Model.  Having already played the Vintage V100MRPGM and V100GT models for a number of years (and Vintage VE2000GG acoustic model) the V100MU was designed in conjunction with Midge himself and legendary guitar 'guru' and designer Trev Wilkinson. www.jhs.co.uk  Carvin Guitars has introduced a new seven-string model, the TL70. The guitar features 25.5-inch-scale, neck-thru construction and is available with a Hipshot-fixed bridge or Floyd Rose tremolo. http://www.carvinguitars.com  Seymour Duncan and Aristides Launch the Red Rising Sun Guitar Giveaway. The Aristides  is a beautifully designed 25.5 inch scaled electric guitar. The 010 is made out of a one-piece-construction of Arium, handcrafted in the Netherlands and equipped with Seymour Duncan Pickups TB-5 (bridge), APS-2rwrp (middle) and the APS-2 in the neck.   Due to its dynamic character the Aristides 010 can be used for almost every style of music. To enter go to the Seymour Duncan Facebook page. PRS Releases the David Grissom Signature Amplifiers. Developed and refined over many years, the PRS David Grissom signature amplifiers DG Custom 30 and DG Custom 50 and signature DG Custom 2x12 cabinet bring David’s discriminating tone to players looking for a highly responsive and musical amp rig. www.prsguitars.com  Wilko Johnson is making "excellent progress" after undergoing an operation to have a pancreatic tumor removed. The 9 hour operation was undertaken at Adeenrbooke's Hospital in Cambridgeshire. A statement has been released via the official Dr. Feelgood Facebook page

[yournextguitar]

Overdrive! Weekly News no 19

Product News Wampler Pedals has announced the release of the Latitude Deluxe Tremolo Pedal, available worldwide now. www.wamplerpedals.com Double neck mandolin anyone? Eastwood Guitars and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis have teamed up again to produce the world’s first electric double neck electric mandolin. www.eastwoodguitars.co.uk Win a Dean Zelinsky Private Label Spyder Guitar – a custom engraved Tagliare - visit their Facebook page to enter. http://deanzelinsky.com/ In the Music Radar poll of the 20 best high end electric guitars the Gibson USA 2014 Les Paul Standard takes the honours. More tiny pedals as EWS Effects announce their Little Fuzzy Drive, a fuzz/distortion pedal. http://ews-us.com/  PRS is giving away an S2 series guitar to a fan in the EU – like their FB page to enter. www.prsguitars.com MusicMan are reintroducing their HD and RD Series amps after more than 30 years. Both models will be handcrafted in Italy and be faithful recreations. www.music-man.com  Other News An electric guitar played by George Harrison has sold for $657,000 (£390,000) at an auction in New York. Harrison played the 1962 Rickenbacker 425 guitar on British TV shows like Ready Steady Go! in 1963, prior to the band's US invasion in 1964. Also a Hofner bass guitar rented by Sir Paul McCartney in the mid-1960s was also sold for $125,000 (£74,000). Bono and The Edge are to join Fender's board of directors to help develop new products. Interesting....we wonder what their salary will be? Metallica's 'Black Album' Named Best-Selling Album of Past 23 Years, Sold Over 16 Million Copies, according to SoundScan who began tracking US music sales in 1991. Playing live pays! The Rolling Stones, U2 and Bruce Springsteen top a new list compiled by Billboard of the top 25-selling live acts of the last 25 years. The Stones sit at number one after grossing approximately $1,565,792,382 , followed by U2 who grossed $1,514,979,793 and in third place is 'The Boss' Bruce Springsteen who has grossed $1,196,116,507 on the road. However the UK veterans have amassed the most since 1990, performing more than 500 shows to over 20 million fans.

[yournextguitar]

The Gibson Midtown Custom - shown here in Vintage Sunburst - was only made in limited numbers; similar to a 335 in shape and size but with a flat solid maple top on a carved out mahogany body. Looks cool and sounds even better! We love it so much we put it in the studio rather than sold it!

[yournextguitar]

Beautiful Brazilian Rosewood guitars from LaRose - want one (or both)!

[yournextguitar]

Overdrive! Weekly News no 18

Epiphone are now shipping the ne Casino Coupe (great name by the way). They "Took Something Big and Made it Smaller!" www.epiphone.com  Honoring the legacy and innovation of the great Les Paul, Gibson has launched the 2014 Les Paul Signature (Ebony) has dual open-coil '57 Classic pickups...'50s rounded neck...Min-ETune ...and a blistering 15 dB Turbo Boost that brings the heat. www.gibson.com A new German company, von Dauer, are offering select, ultra high quality bass guitars, handmade in Germany. Based in Bavaria the company is dedicated to producing beautifully finished basses that use traditional designs which incorporate new ideas and use the finest components. Not a mass market manufacturer the company prefers to concentrate on the design and quality of a very limited number of instruments that offer the customer a superb bass that they will play and keep for years. The first model from the company, the Art Bass M1, is now available following rigorous testing of prototype instruments www.von-dauer.com  Glastonbury, the five day music festival in Somerset has been going on for 44 years and seen a ton of great acts, but this year will break new grounds, as it’s the first time a metal act has headlined the festival. That metal act, of course, is Metallica, whom will share the headlining position with Kasabian and Arcade Fire. In addition, fans can watch the likes of Skrillex, Mogwai, and Massive Attack. Small pedals rule okay! Everyone is now on the diddy pedal bandwagon including TC. Joining the PolyTune Mini, Ditto Looper, Spark Mini Booster and Hall Of Fame Mini are four more TonePrint pedals: the Flashback Delay, Corona Chorus, Shaker Vibrato and Vortex Flanger. www.tcelectronic.com  Line 6 has launched AMPLIFi FX100 which "provides a fast, fun path to great tone". Dial up amazing tones—including the award-winning Line 6 tones behind thousands of hit recordings—with unprecedented speed and precision. Plus, the AMPLIFi Remote v1.1 iOS app gives you even more exciting features, including tone sharing via Facebook and Twitter. Features include over 200 amps and effects, full remote control, auto tone matching so you can jam, cloud storage, tone sharing via FB and T, Bluetooth streaming. www.line6.com Japanese acoustic giant Takamine has introduced four new models to its world renowned G Series line, the GN10, GN10CE, GN20CE and GD20CE. www.takamine.com Breedlove have introduced the Solo Series models which have a side sound hole monitor to allow you to hear your music as if you were standing in front of the instrument. It’s a pretty amazing innovation, since the Solo models offer the same volume and distinctively crafted sound you’d expect from a Breedlove. www.breedlovemusic.com Gibson launch the Memory Cable – it has a built-in, super-compact recorder (designed by TASCAM, the undisputed leader in portable recording) saves up to 13 hours of your playing to commonly available, inexpensive Micro SD cards http://www2.gibson.com/Memory-Cable.aspx 

[yournextguitar]

Playing & Buying Habits

Just been reading the Guitarist magazine’s survey (June issue) of 2200 guitarists and their playing and buying habits. Very interesting. Apparently 53% of us buy our gear at a music store and 45% buy on-line, which seems about right in today’s marketplace. Looking at this in more detail 65% use a local store and 51% a national chain/superstore; private sales account for 18%. For on-line buyers 30% use ebay, which today has tons of 'buy it now shops' as well as auction stuff. We seem to be a nation of electric guitar players with 23% playing no acoustic guitar at all as opposed to 4% who play no electric; this is borne out in the question what are you planning to buy next – 45% said an electric guitar and 20% an acoustic guitar. We all seem to have large houses, bedrooms or studios since 82% of us own more than 3 guitars with 60% of us having 2 or more amps. Incredibly 34% have 5-9 guitars and 17% have more than ten (I bet their other half is happy!). What do we spend on our gear? 55% of us spend up to £1000 on a guitar with 28% spending up to £2000. Custom guitar sales over £3000 account for 5%. We don’t spend so much on, or own as many, amps with the majority paying up to £500, although 28% spend up to £1000. Multi-effects seem to be coming to the fore with 41% buying these as opposed to 48% buying pedals. Overall I get the impression that we all suffer, to varying degrees, from GAS, which is no bad thing!

[yournextguitar]

Overdrive! Weekly News no 17

DiMarzio Unveils Ionizer 7 Humbucking Pickups for 7 string guitars. www.dimarzio.com Dean Markey, whose amps are used by Eric Clapton, Alex Lifeson, Andy Summers and many others, is marking the 30th anniversary of its limited run CD30 and CD60 tube guitar amps by committing to full time production to celebrate the occasion. Fender is selling Guild. They intend to sell the Guild guitar brand and related assets to Cordoba Music Group, the manufacturer of Cordoba acoustic guitars, ukuleles and accessories. “It was important for us to find a great steward to continue the important legacy of Guild guitars,” said FMIC’s interim CEO and board member Scott Gilbertson. Wilko will be back! Former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson has undergone vital surgery to remove a cancerous tumour. “There is a small chance of dying, but that’s nothing – for over a year I’ve been living with a 100% chance of dying.” Zakk Wylde’s stolen Gibson has turned up in a pawn shop in Chicago, who paid $50 for it – a bargain as only 2 were made and it’s worth $10,000! Dean Zelinsky Private Label Guitars will be making new models and finishes, including the Set Neck Z-Glide StrettaVita and Zenyatta. The Tagliare Z-Glide Custom is now in available in new finish options, including Cherry Sunburst, Trans Wine and Retro Blonde. They are also doing them for lefties: http://deanzelinsky.com/ Eric Clapton is honouring JJ Cale's legacy with Eric Clapton & Friends: The Breeze, An Appreciation of JJ Cale. The star-studded project features 16 of Cale's songs with performances by Clapton, Mark Knopfler, John Mayer, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, Derek Trucks, Don White, and others. The album digs deep into Cale's songwriting, but does not cover perhaps his best-known tunes "After Midnight" and "Cocaine." Breedlove has introduced three new acoustic basses - the Studio, Solo, and Pursuit Basses. www.breedlovemusic.com

[yournextguitar]

Overdrive! Weekly news no 16

More Fenders: The esteemed Fender Custom Shop has introduced its latest collection of finely handcrafted instruments, the Artisan Series and Master Designed Series. Zoom releases new stompboxes: The G1on offers 100 guitar effects, including a variety of distortion, compression, modulation, delay, reverb and amp models. The G1Xon offers an additional 5 pedal-controlled effects. Ovation US to close Fender will be closing its Ovation plant in New Hartford, Connecticut after nearly 50 years of guitar making there. It will close by the end of June with production transferring to China, South Korea and Indonesia. All part of ‘consolidation’ and nothing to do with profit obviously. Iconic Guitars The Paul Kossoff 1959 sunburst Gibson Les Paul will be joining the Peter Green/Gary Moore guitar on the main stage at the North West Guitar Show on Sunday 18th May at Haydock Park Racecourse Exhibition Centre. Guitars Banned! The UK government has officially banned the use of guitars in prison, causing several prominent guitarists to rise up against the decision and demand its overturn through an open letter to the Guardian. These include Billy Bragg, Johnny Marr, Speech Debelle, Dave Gilmour, Richard Hawley, Scroobius Pip, Guy Garvey, Ed O'Brien, Philip Selway, Seasick Steve, the Farm and Sam Duckwort. Never Again Rage Against The Machine may have already played their final ever show together, according to drummer Brad Wilk. The band last performed at the LA Rising festival in 2011. Ex-Thursday vocalist Geoff Rickly confirmed that the rumours circulating the music world about him joining forces with Lostprophets members are true.