Charlie Hunter has been a fixture on the jazz scene since the 1990s with a number of albums both in trio and quartet format in addition to many special appearances and side projects. While his prolificity is inspiring, it is his instrument of choice that truly sets him apart from his peers. Hunter plays 7-string fanned-fretted hybrid guitars made by California-based luthier Jeff Traugott. The unique axe allows Hunter to play bass and guitar at the same time… a wholly dexterous feat. John Mayer may have said it best when he said watching Hunter play is its own explanation as to why he would elect to pursue such a curious instrument.

The crew at ProGuitarShop have gotten their hands on and are selling a trio of new stomps by Radial Engineering that are due for formal launch at the NAMM show in January. The Bones Series pedals are smaller than their Tone Bone brothers, but still pack quite a punch. The new stomps include the London Distortion, which boasts dual Level and EQ knobs, a Drive knob and Bite and Kick three-way switches. The Texas Overdrive sports dual Level and Tone knobs, a Drive knob and a pair of three-way Bite switches. Lastly, the Fullerton Distortion offers up dual Level and EQ knobs, a Drive knob and three-way Cut and Gain switches.

The good folks at Barber Electronics began offering up a new dirt stomp on their website this Black Friday. The Dirty Bomb is described as an ‘extremely versatile high gain distortion that provides wider range of stellar tones – from ultra sweet to scooped.’ The pedal features Volume, Treble, Bass and Gain knobs with a toggle switch that selects mid-range character. The true bypass stomp also boasts an internal bass boost for powerful sub-frequencies. The Dirty Bomb is available for order from Barber for an introductory price of $99.95. Barber expects to post sound clips of the new stomp on their site as soon as this weekend.

Dominican pedalsmiths Copilot FX has a new filter stomp due to ship to retailers next month. Dubbed the Gyroscope, it is a dual-wave pedal – a triangle wave that sounds phaser-ish and at high speeds can get in the vibe neighborhood, while a stepped wave sounds like a pseudo sample and hold, according to the company. It also has option to control the speed via an expression pedal. Both waves are independent with their own knobs and are selectable via a toggle switch. The pedal evolved from the original version where the speed of the triangle wave was modulated by steps, to produce some changes on the speed of the LFO, but it was hard to dial in and tweak on the fly. The Gyroscope will run about $165. Demo video after the jump!

Sometimes, things are just too cool to not share… and The OD Pedal Comparinator is just one of those things. Brought to you by the folks at oldtonezone.com, the Comparinator allows you to run head-to-head comparisons with 17 popular overdrive pedals such as the Boss Blues Driver, Fulltone OCD, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, DigiTech Bad Monkey and so on. The match ups can automatically toggle between the two stomps so you can here the distinct tonal difference of each on the fly. Be warned, however… this is a fairly addictive little tool. Be sure and set a little time aside to really get into it – using different gain modes and either raw or studio mixes for each pedal.

It’s been a year-long road trip for rock trio Year Long Disaster. The group has been touring almost non-stop since it the late 2007 release of its self-titled debut album. WTDP? had a chance to sit down with guitarist/singer Daniel Davies prior to the band’s Houston show last week – the third-to-last show on the band’s schedule prior to it returning to home base in Los Angeles. Davies, son of Kinks’ guitarist Dave Davies, walked us through his current rig, favorite guitars and offered a brief glimpse into the future as the band gears up to record its sophomore effort in the new year.

Who? The crew at Subdecay Studios, that’s who! The F-Bomb is a pending new release coming from the makers of the popular Flying Tomato fuzz and the wicked Prometheus resonant filter. Brian with Subdecay told the forums at Tone Factor that the pedal is somewhere between a fuzz and distortion. He added that it reacts really well to the guitar’s tone and volume controls and sounds very 1990’s. It is meant to sound really compressed and maybe a bit messy at full gain, but turn the volume knob back on the guitar a bit and it cleans up really well, he said. Starting price for the F-Bomb is $109.

Here are some details of the new Empress Effects ParaEq with Boost straight from the source! The pedal is designed to be a simple device. The EQ section of many instrument amplifiers offer a very limited range of control. Empress designed the ParaEq to give musicians a powerful, musical, high quality EQ in a conveniently small package. The signal path of the ParaEq w/Boost is comprised of the highest quality components chosen for their transparency, powerful tone shaping capabilities, and low operating noise. Price of the new pedal is $249 and it is expected to be available next week. See all three ParaEq video demos after the jump!

Merriam-Webster defines falmulus as a private secretary or attendant. We’re not sure how that relates to New Zealand-based Red Witch Analog Pedals new stomp, but what we do know is that it is one of TWO new products the company will be releasing at the Winter NAMM show this coming January. Ben from Red Witch confirmed the new release, and added his own famulus definition – “An assistant, especially to a magician or a scholar in medieval times.” His emphasis, not mine. Interesting! He added that more details would be available soon. For now, we’ll just have to stare at the picture and try to decipher what this beauty might sound like. A bigger picture after the jump!

You might not be too familiar with Louisiana-bred Lizard Leg Effects, but if you’ve picked up a recent copy of Premier Guitar you know that word is spreading. Last month, the popular industry mag heaped praise on the effect maker’s Flying Dragon boost stomp, and this month one of the company’s logo picks adorns the front cover. WTDP? was able to sample a Flying Dragon a few months back, and whoa! It’s everything you’d want to add a little sparkle to your cleans or extra sizzle to you grit. We sought out Lizard Leg’s Steve Miller recently to give him a run at our five little questions… and Abracadabra! His answers will reach out and grab you after the jump!

The effects gurus at Electro-Harmonix have been working overtime on a bevy of new stompboxes as well as updates to old classics. The company has debuted its Voice Box Harmony Machine and Vocoder, Big Muff Pi w/ Tone Wicker and the Signal Pad Passive Attenuator. In addition to these, EHX is offering a few older pedals in new, sturdier housing. The Worm phase/tremolo, Graphic Fuzz EQ and distortion and the MicroSynth all get new die-cast boxes. The pedal maker also is offering up the last 300 of its Hot Tubes Distortion stomp. Whew… that’s a lot of news there. Check out the details on the new pedals after the jump…

Indyguitarist Brian Wampler has created a new light-to-medium gain overdrive stomp as a replacement to his original Ecstasy Drive pedal. Dubbed the Super Ecstasy, the smaller box has two levels of bass boost accessed via a toggle switch as a well as a second toggle that allows the player to move between a ‘Dumble’ setting for smoother tones and a ‘Ecstasy’ setting that has a bit more bite and growl. Three knob controls on the stomp are Volume, Tone and Gain. Ordering an Ecstasy from Wampler now will land you a Super Ecstasy box. Brian put together a You Tube video showcasing the new stomp. Check it out after the jump…

Roland’s Boss unit has unveiled the second coming of its online virtual pedal board – an e-gizmo that allows the curious to assemble various Boss effects and hear the results via the web. The Flash-fueled tool is a solid upgrade from the original and allows you to pick from various music styles, alternate set-ups and lead or rhythm playing styles. The board allows for on-the-fly switching between pedals so you can hear the difference each stomp makes as the sample riffage is played. It is hardly a substitute for hands on experience with the stomps and dialing in the precise tone of your choice, but it is a solid primer to the family of Boss pedals and gives you a good indication of their usefulness. Check it out at http://www.bossus.com/go/vpb-2/

Mike Piera – aka Analogman – chimed in over at The Gear Page to fill forumites in on the latest pedal news from his shop. In a nutshell, the Dark Peppermint Fuzz that was last seen at Summer NAMM now has a paint scheme and should be available soon. Mike said its tone was darker, sounding like a trumpet when you turn the guitar down. The fabled Bigfoot overdrive also is expected soon. Current version 56.a still has a bit too much ‘hair’ according to the builder and is being ’smoothed out’. Updated models of his Sun Lion fuzzes have landed with Doyle Bramhall II and Kenny Wayne Shepherd recently. Lastly, a new drive and delay also are being worked.

My first exposure to Wattson Classic Electronics was their impeccable Superfuzz stomp – a reproduction of the Shin-Ei and Univox Super-Fuzz from the 1960s and 70s. Surfing the forums I began to hear a bit more about some other projects Jim and Chris – the brains behind the group – were looking into – including a Univibe repro. Chris’ recent announcement that Death Cab For Cutie guitarist Chris Walla was using the Superfuzz prompted me to ask him if he’d like to take a pass at our five little questions. He said yes. He says more… after the jump!