NAMM: A guitar gallery

January 25, 2010
Events, Industry News>

Here is the last photo gallery from the 2010 Winter NAMM convention – guitars. We saw a lot of cool axes in LA from folks ranging from Airline to Zemantis. Some of the brands that were getting a lot of attend at the show included Fender’s new American Special Series, Suhr’s new Rasmus line, G&L’s Jerry Cantrell signature models and six string newcomer Jarrell Guitars. Be it awesome or oddball, NAMM always brings out the best (and worst) in guitars. There were more than a few that made our wishlists for 2010. Take a look at the gallery and pick your favorite after the jump!


NAMM: SolidGoldFX unveils new custom shop line

solidgold2Greg with SolidgoldFX had a new custom shop line of pedals on display at NAMM last week. Airbrushed by a local artist, the pedals shown included four new prototypes and three custom shop models. Among the prototypes shown was a new optical compressor in the lightning storm design, the delay proto with FX loop and warp switch in the blue skull design, an optical tremolo prototype featuring the flying eyeball and a new reverb pedal prototype in reptile green. From the custom shop, Greg showed his Superdrive pedal in true flame, Superduperdrive featuring the skull design and a custom germanium Formula 69 in green water spots. Release info coming soon!


NAMM: An amp gallery

January 22, 2010
Events, Industry News>

carr3In the spirit of the recent pedal gallery we published from last week’s NAMM show, here is the follow-up amp gallery. As we have just added boutique amp coverage full time to our site (Did you check out our first amp review?), we did our best to stop in and chat with most of the smaller builders that set up at the show – Jaguar, Cornford, Carr, etc… Those we didn’t get a chance to talk with, we did our best to get pics of… but we know we missed a few. Check out the gallery after the jump, which includes some pretty interesting stuff from the likes of Budda, Rivera and the latest developments in ‘plexi’ style amps!


NAMM: A pedal gallery

January 21, 2010
Events, Industry News>

vlgiggityNAMM is a huge show. Huge. So it was not a surprise to us that we missed a few things on the pedal front… like the new WMD and Jet City pedals. We did however take a lot of pedal pics… more pedals than we had stories for. With that in mind, and not wanting all our shutter finger work to go to waste, here is a little miscellaneous pedal gallery for you. You’ll notice some stomps from Dwarfcraft, Fuchs, BBE, Rocktron, Whirlwind and many more. We will follow this pedal gallery with an amp gallery and guitar gallery later in the week. For now, enjoy the pedal goodness after the jump!


NAMM: Levana shows off high-end stomps

levanafuzzOne of the more interesting pedal makers we ran across at NAMM was Levana Audio. The circuits in the Levana line of pedals are Israeli-born and American made. From a facility in Las Vegas, Levana (and distributor Studio Blue) are creating some high-end, studio quality stompboxes. The current pedal line includes the Scale Distortion, Studio Box, The Bunker Booster, EQ Booster, True Fuzz, CT’s Rough Rider overdrive and more. While some look like wood boxes, they are actually all high strength metal enclosures. A cool line to be sure, but a pricey one. Most of the Levana pedals sell for over $400. Check out the gallery from their show display… after the jump!


NAMM: New Red Witch synth stomp on the way

rwprometheusBen at Red Witch, who was kind enough to give us a video demo of the re-worked Medusa pedal (check our newly-launched You Tube channel), shared a little more info regarding new product coming soon. He has a prototype synth pedal ready to go, but unfortunately the working name he chose for it was already taken. He was calling it the Prometheus, but after learning of the Subdecay pedal with the same name, he had to hunt for a new one. He has another one picked out and will be announced soon… as will some of the other Red Witch releases planned for 2010, which are many! Intrigued? Stay tuned!


NAMM: Mad Professor has Bass OD coming soon

madprofessorHarri at Mad Professor told WTDP? that a prototype bass overdrive was due to be on full display at the NAMM show last week, but the postal service lost it. Hopefully the stomp, which we have little detail on just yet, will make it back to their shop in time for the naming ceremony, which is expected soon. The pedal is due to be released a little later this year. After the bass drive, the Mad Professor crew is said to be working on a reverb stomp that is expected to hit the market in 2010 as well. Again, no details… just confirmation that is being worked and coming soon! Stay tuned!


NAMM: Sightings Gallery, Part 2

January 17, 2010
Events, Industry News>,

satslashSaturday was a celeb-heavy affair at the Winter NAMM show… but oddly, we missed a bunch of them! And Sunday… well, we did say ‘Hi’ to Guthrie Govan and Stanton Moore, but that was pretty much it. We understand that the likes of Gene Simmons, Jason Mraz, Julianne Hough and others were around the convention center on Saturday, but we… of course, were busy gathering up the pedal and amp news for you! We did however see a few folks… so we thought we’d share an abbreviated Part Two to our Sightings gallery with you. Journey to Paradise City, after the jump!


NAMM: A Class A(ct) from Diamond Amps

diamond3Houston-based Diamond Amplification, in collaboration with Blankenship Amps, is producing a line of Class A tube amps geared towards blues/rock market. Included in the new line is the Del Fuego, a 22-watt British-styled fire-breather that uses three 12AX7s, two EL84 power tubes and one 6CA4 rectifier – available in both combo and head. Another is the Balanese, a classic Tweed style combo amp that can run with matched paris of 6V6 or 6L6 power tubes. The Immortal is a 50-watt head that offers up vintage clean and crunch with three 12AX7, two EL34 power tubes and a full range of tone controls. Check out the pics after the jump!


NAMM: Jaguar rolls out lucky number 7

January 17, 2010
Events, Industry News>,

jaguar7California-based Jaguar Amplification debuted their new low-watt combo amp at the NAMM show this week – the Jaguar 7. The 7-watt, single channel amp sports one 12AX7, one EL84 and one GZ34. The amp has just two controls – Volume and Tone. The amp has two inputs – one standard, the second offers more gain. A half power switch on the back panel cuts the wattage down to three. It comes stock with a customized 10″ Celestion speaker. The 7 joins the line of Jaguar Amps that includes the 17-watt Junior, the 200-watt Jaguar 200 and the award winning Jaguar Twin.


NAMM: DAR powers up Forza Quattro

January 17, 2010
Events, Industry News>,

darforza2DAR Amplification showcased a multi-faceted high gain monster at the NAMM show this week – the Forza Quattro. The California company’s flagship, the Forza Quartto boasts 100-watt Class A power, auto-bias four 6C33 power tubes with replacement indicator lights, series/parallel channel assignable loop, slave out for paralleling power amps, full MIDI control, preamp send and return via both balanced XLR and TRS jack, buffered instrument send and return, recording mode, loudspeaker simulation, headphone out, tuner out and much more. The amp has four channels – clean, crunch, rhythm and lead. Pics after the jump!


NAMM: DooDad touts Check-A-Board Red drive

checkaboardDutch builder DooDad Guitars brought their Check-A-Board Red overdrive/boost pedal to the NAMM show this week. The pedal is based around some of the dirtboxes and boost circuits popular in the 1970s. Both the drive and boost effects are independent true bypass switchable. The Drive side sports three knob controls – Drive, Tone and Volume. The Boost side has Volume knob that adds volume without compromising the rest of your tone. The stomp runs on either 9v battery or a regular 9v power supply. The pedal retails for around $140. Word is that there will be new Check-A-Board pedals later this year!


NAMM: Modtone touts new comp stomp

January 17, 2010
Events, Industry News>,

mtlemonsqueezeModtone Effects showed off a pair of new pedals at the NAMM show this week, including a prototype of their new Lemon Squeeze compression and sustainer. The pedal sports three knob controls – Level, Sustain and Attack. Roll up the sustain for more muscle to single notes and lead lines. The stomp also compresses without diluting your original tone. Also at the Modtone booth was the new StutterKill dual purpose kill switch. First, it is a kill switch that comes in hand when switching guitars during a gig… and second is a momentary kill switch that allows the player to perform the guitar on/off toggle stutter with his/her foot. Check out the pics after the jump!


NAMM: Rockbox trains a Red Dog and more

January 16, 2010
Events, Industry News>,

rbreddogdistWe tracked down Chris Campbell of Rockbox Electronics at the NAMM show today to get a rundown of the next several stomps coming from the makers of the popular Boiling Point overdrive. Sometime next month, the company should release its Red Dog distortion, followed quickly by the Rainy Day analog chorus. Other pedals in prototype stage include the Rollover Ping Pong Echo, Cobra Snake Tremolo, Baby Blues Overdrive, and an as-yet-unnamed compressor. The Rockbox line will grow substantially this year as more pedals hit the market. While we wait, check out the distinct swirl paint jobs of some of the upcoming stomps after the jump!


NAMM Exclusive: New Strymon pedals

January 16, 2010
Events, Industry News>,

strymonblueskyWTDP? had a private viewing/demo session of three new pedals from Strymon Engineering. The new pedals included the previously announced Orbit Flanger and two totally new stomps – the BlueSky Reverbulator and Ola Chorus/Vibrato. Both the Flanger and Chorus utilize the same dBucket technology Strymon has put in its upcoming Brigadier Delay. The BlueSky boasts three reverb types – Spring, Room and Plate, and three modes – Norm, Mod(ulation) and Shimmer. The Ola also has three types – Chorus, Multi and Vibrato, and three modes – Norm, Env(elope) and Ramp. All three pedals, along with the Brigadier will be available in February and will run $299.


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