For the better part of a decade, the RC Booster by Xotic has pleased many 6-stringers who like some hair on their boost. A new collaboration with fusion guru Scott Henderson has created the RCB-SH, a dual-channel version of the flagship pedal. For as much tonal ground that was crammed into the RCB, Xotic didn’t add much in the way of controls. With an additional footswitch and a mini knob, a two-headed beast was born.
Henderson had a few goals with his namesake stomp, and high on that list was transparency and better note definition. Spoiler: Mission accomplished. The blue channel is basically a transparent boost and is stunningly clear and warm. There's less gain than say, a Tube Screamer, and it's way more sensitive to attack—welcome additions for more dynamic players who shuffle between pick and fingers. The red channel, which has a separate gain control, walks that fine line between sweetly singing leads and over-the-top saturation. On the gig, I pretty much left the blue channel on and flipped the red channel on for more soaring lead work. Simply put, this pedal isn’t the equivalent of a heavy-handed tonal facelift, but if your basic tone is already happening, the RCB-SH can surely find a spot on your board.
Test gear: Fender Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul Custom, Dr. Z Z-Lux, Fender Deluxe Reverb
Sacrilegious as it may sound to some, not everyone loves the iconic, ubiquitous electric guitar designs of the 1950s. And while vintage guitars that subvert those norms look killer and cut through the visual clutter, they can also be quirky in less-desirable ways: feedback-prone pickups, neck relief like a ski jump, and non-existent tuning stability, to name a few.
The new AC10 Custom is a very different amp than the first Vox to bear that name. That AC10 was one of Vox’s very first amps—a more affordable, stripped down little brother to the AC15 that was then revolutionizing the English amplifier landscape.
Electronics guru James Demeter has spent more than three decades producing amps and pedals that exemplify his no-frills approach to handcrafted analog gear. Based on his 800-watt VTBP-M-800D bass amp, the new Bass 400 is a petite 400-watt powerhouse that pairs Demeter’s early ’80s VTBP-201 tube preamp with a class-D power amplifier. The idea was to provide a smaller and more affordable alternative to Demeter’s flagship bass amp, with minimal tonal sacrifices.
Half-Power Howler
The Bass 400 comes in two aesthetic flavor options—a caged enclosure (which we received for our test unit) or a tolex-wrapped head. An exceptional handwiring job was revealed when I pulled the amp’s bottom panel off. The preamp’s circuit board looks decidedly old-school next to the modern and precise class-D power-amp board. The preamp’s board is populated with low-noise metal-film resistors and a ceramic socket for the 12AX7 tube. There’s also a little trimmer pot for matching the amp’s output volume with the sensitivity of your bass’ pickups.
If you don’t yet know the Big Tone Music Brewery name, you probably know the people behind the company. It’s a sister of Build Your Own Clone (B.Y.O.C.), the little-stompbox-kit-company-that-could whose pedals often top best-alternative lists for everything from Big Muffs to Boss Vibratos.
Buffer/preamp pedals are typically deployed to reinvigorate a signal sapped of its treble vitality by lots of circuit capacitance (e.g., tons of pedals or long cables). But they’re useful for far more than that—especially if you prefer tube amps dialed to the verge of breakup.
Ever since Maestro unleashed the FZ-1 fuzz in 1962, the quest to destroy clean guitar tones has remained more or less relentless. In recent years, builders like Death By Audio and ZVex pushed fuzz to extremes. Then came the rise of bitcrushers—the rabid lovechildren of a Tone Bender and a Nintendo 64 sound card—and the movement to eschew pristine tones in favor of mangled, unpredictable squawks marched on.
Hot on the heels of their first offering for bassists with the Factotum, New Zealand’s Red Witch has followed up in big fashion with the all-analog Zeus suboctave/silicon-fuzz pedal. Like the Greek god it shares its name with, this box is powerful, easily angered, and able to unleash a thunderstorm at will.
The Jordan Fuzztite is Mahoney Guitar Gear's take on the rare late-’60s Mosrite Fuzzrite—specifically, the silicon-based versions made after the first 250 germanium units. Like the original, it has volume and depth controls, while an added toggle boosts volume and frequency girth in its up position by removing a 22k filter resistor from the circuit.
Based in Champaign, Illinois, Analog Outfitters creates cool-looking, boutique-toned amps out of reclaimed materials—sometimes from funky old street signs, but primarily the guts and wood exteriors of less-popular old Hammond organs. The Scanner, however, is an outboard effect built from salvaged Hammond reverb and vibrato sections, and both its long-spring tank and spinning vibrato motor are visible through an acrylic top bookended by subtly rustic woodwork.
Stevensville, MD (November 18, 2015) -- PRS Guitars recently added two new baritone guitars, the new SE 277 Semi Hollow Soapbar and the SE 277, to its bevy of more affordable guitar model options. Tuned B to B, two and a half steps below standard, the two new baritones offer a taut muscular low end, with powerful aggressive tones and flexibility of going from chimey clean, to warm depth, to articulate tonal hostility.