Top Finds of 2009 / OnoMATOpoeia

I knew from the second I first head of this company that the music world was going to be in for a real treat. For those of you not hip on Emma Electronic's pedals get out there and get your hands dirty, some of the best stompboxes you will ever play. These aren't pedals with just funny, catchy sounding names. Play any of the Emma pedals and you will quickly discover these boxes speak for themselves, producing rich, quality tones, and providing you with an endless amount of possibilities. I had a chance to try just about every one of the Emma pedals last year and was impressed by each and every one. Choosing a pedal to feature in our Top Finds was not easy, I must have gone back and fourth a dozen times. When the cloud of brilliant and massive tones cleared we were left with something we thought everyone would benefit from, an overdriver. But this isn't just any old overdriver pedal...

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Emma Electronic

Aarhus, Denmark

OnoMATOpoeia

Booster/Overdrive

* Level: Controls the output level of the pedal.

* Tone: Controls the overall clarity of the sound.

* Saturation: Capable of vintage/modern distortion tones.

* Gain: Controls the amount of drive.

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The special qualities in this pedal lie in it's combination of unique controls. The controls may be labeled with everyday ordinary names, but I assure you they come with a bit of a surprise. The Onomatopoeia is built is a solid, heavy duty enclosure. It's simple artwork and design give it a sleek and cool look. From left to right the pedal's controls are Level, Tone, Saturation, and Gain. With these four controls the Onomatopoeia is capable of taking your amp from clean boost setting all the way to rich'n'thick, fully saturated distortion tones. The Level knob works to dial in the pedal's overall level, this knob alone has enough output to push your amp into a screaming, natural tube grit. When combined with the Gain control the Level knob becomes even more flexible. The Tone knob works to set the overall character of the pedal's sound, whether it be a clean or dirty setting. You will notice when rolling back the Tone knob into darker tone settings that you will not loose any of your sounds mojo. The Tone knob is sensitive to the slightest of touches and works great in all situations. Next we have the Saturation control which defines what your overdrive's vibe is going to sound like. It is well known that before the use of dirt boxes players would experiment with their amps by removing tubes to achieve their distortion tones. This is the purpose behind the Onomatopoeia's Saturation control. Turning the Saturation counter-clockwise produces a warmer, fluffier, vintage style drive. Turning it clockwise gets you a more modern sharper tone. Last we have the Gain knob, this controls the amount of dirt you want in your sound, it can go from clean to mean and everything in between. All of the pedal's controls work great together giving you a mountain of rock and roll tones.

We put the Onomatopoeia through two main settings, a classic bright'n'punchy American clean tone, and an overdriven British dirt tone. We tested the pedal behind and in front of other pedals, with different pickups, and different level settings. We started with a big/rich clean tone, dialing in lots of lows and mids, and just the right amount of treble. Once we had the setting we wanted we matched the pedal's output to the amp's and got to steppin'. I set the Tone right at the amp's sound, Saturation at noon, and Gain close to zero. Once engaged the pedal pushed the amp into a big/bright light overdrive. The sound had lots of clarity, a smooth layer of grit, and a beautiful attack. The lightest of picking would produce chiming, clean notes, and the harder I strummed the more intense the sound became. It was a great sounding blues tone, something like a spanky Texas SRV tone. To darken up the tone and give it a more classic rock feel I bumped the Level up a bit louder to help push the tubes, set the Tone just below 11'o'clock, Saturation at 9'o'clock, and Gain at noon. The Strat we had plugged in sounded wonderful with the Onomatopoeia. The overdrive had a medium level of aggression, and lots of bounce and warmth. Chords took well to this setting as well as single note runs and licks. From here we took it further, creating two extreme, and very cool sounding tones. First we maxed out the Gain, kicked the Tone knob back 10'o'clock, set the Saturation fully anti-clockwise, and Level at 3'o'clcok. This created a thunderous, classic rock lead tone. The combination of the Level control pushing the amp and maxed out Gain gave the amp a woofy, hairy, distortion sound. I was able to make the sound even warmer by rolling off some of the guitar's tone, and able to clean it up a tad by shaving off some volume. The next extreme setting we dialed in was a more modern tone. The pedal's Volume and Gain stayed the same, only we switched the Tone between 2-3'o'clock, and set the Saturation fully clockwise. The difference was uncanny, like we had two completely different stompboxes in front of us. This tone was meaner, edgier, and much sharper. The character of the distortion let me shake and manipulate notes into a bunch of wild shapes. This tone also made for a great lead tone and could easily be mellowed out by rolling down the guitar's volume. I was able to go from a warm, crunchy rhythm tone, to an all out screaming lead just by playing with the Strat's volume and tone. The Onomatopoeia proved to work wonders through a killer sounding clean tone. Definitely two thumbs up!

Now it was time for some already overdriven amp tones, tones with lots of grit'n'grime. We used two different amps and a couple different guitars. First setup was a Les Paul, 15 watt head, and a 2x10 cab. The amp was pushed as far as we could get it and pedal set the a blazing loud clean tone. We started with the Gain all the way down, both Tone and Saturation at noon, and Level close to 100%. The natural sound of the overdriven amp was beefy, warm, and thick. The Onomatopoeia was able to give the sound a bit more clarity, lots more hair, and a more defined tonal spectrum. This worked great for going from a rhythm's to lead's. Slowly we introduced the pedal's Gain control which gave the tone these great fuzzy, treble booster type sounds. At about 25% percent the Gain created at perfect blend of overdrive and distortion. The amp's natural grit was still very present and just behind you could hear the unique sound of the Onomatopoeia. Half way up the gain started creating these massive classic rock tones. Something that really impressed me was how well the pedal's drive would respond to playing no matter what level of gain I had coming out of it. Some pedals you get them loud and aggressive and there is no dynamics in the tone. With the Onomatopoeia the overdrive and distortion acts just like that of a tube amp's. Having the ability to change the character of the grit with the Saturation knob is a huge plus here. This means you get all the control over the dynamics you want and not have to be stuck to one sound. With this pedal you can use the same guitar to layer your guitar tracks, or use it for tons of different tones live. Dialing it in is quick and easy, there aren't a ton of knobs to worry about, and the quality of each sound is always right on point. Using this pedal with other boxes is also something you'll find comes in handy. You can use the Onomatopoeia to push other overdrivers, boosters, fuzz boxes, or add color to other effects. It never overpowers the root tone you have dialed in and can easily be controlled with just the lightest touch. Before we called it quits we broke out our Marshall and cranked it to some searing rock tones. First we set a nice, evenly balanced crunch tone, and used the pedal to push it further. The pedal worked just as nicely through our 100 watt badboy as it did through the rest of gear. I was able to dial in a dark'n'warm dirt tone and with the pedal push it into a bright'n'defined lead sound. Or I could do the opposite. The Onomatopoeia was capable of clean boosts, subtle overdrives, thick grit, lead tones, and everything in-between. The pedal can be used for modern or vintage style tones, which is always a plus. Then there's the magic is can work with both clean and dirty tones. All in all this ended up being one of the sweetest and most versatile overdrivers we've ever come across. I really hope you guys get a chance to explore this awesome company for yourselves, every one of their pedals kicks much ass. We will for sure be bringing you guys more from Emma in the near future so keep them eyes peeled.

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For more info on Emma's cool line of pedals go to www.emmaelectronic.com or visit our friends at Godlyke Distribution at www.godlyke.com Remember yo can always click the logos in the sidebar for direct links. We will work at bringing you more from Emma real soon so hang tight. Peace!!

Top Finds of 2009 / Way Huge Pork Loin

One of the coolest things to hit the pedal scene last year was the return of the Way Huge pedal line. Anyone who's hip on hip stompboxes knows the name of Way Huge and the man behind the plan, Mr. George Tripp. I had a chance to put the first three Way Huge pedal releases through their paces and was impressed by each and every one of them. I was able to pull a huge number of tones from all three pedals and found them to work beautifully through everything I ran them through. These new pedals are a great way for those who didn't have a chance to get their hands on the first run, and a perfect way to get inside the mind of electronics madman Mr. Tripp. Anyone looking to downsize their pedalboards while maintaining a wide variety of sounds would benefit highly from these pedals. Or if you're just looking to take your sound to the level, looking for something new and exciting, or are in need of a tonal facelift. The Way Huge pedals will hand over exactly what you're looking for. Hold on tight, we're going in.

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Way Huge Electronics

Benicia, CA

Designer: George Tripp

Years in the Game: Plenty

Pork Loin

Soft Clip Injection

Top Controls

* Volume: Controls the pedal's overall output level

* Tone: LPF used to roll-off high end.

* Overdrive: Used to dial-in grit amount

* Clean: Blends in clean preamp signal

* Curve: Used to fine-tune overdrive's character

Internal Controls

* Filter: Adjusts the clean preamp tonal spectrum

* Presence: Tweaks the high-end on the overdrive

* Drive Mix: Controls the mix of the overdrive.

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So there you have it, another genius control layout making up one of the baddest stompboxes to ever hit the stompbox world. It's definitely the tuffest purple stompbox I've ever come across. Again I was dumbfounded by the ability of another Way Huge pedal, dumbfounded and left out to dry. I felt as if the Pork Loin had taken my overdrive virginity, showing me overdrive tones I never knew I could hit. I must have ran this damn pedal through every amp and guitar imaginable and ended up highly impressed each time. The Pork Loin loved single coils and humbuckers the same, dug huge/fat clean settings, and thrived in over saturated drive tones. The Pork Loin's magic lies in the clean "british style" premp sound and smooth overdrive that it pushes into your root tone. The outcome is one of the richest, fattest, and most harmonic driven overdrive tones you will ever hear. On the pedal's face you'll find what may seem like not too special of a control layout, a Volume/Tone/and Overdrive. Then you look a little closer and realize there's more, like internal controls that consist of a Filter/Presence/and Drive Mix. Thhhhen you look even closer and realize the controls are not your typical run-of-the-mill control pedal features. How slick a man that George Tripp is, an absolute madman of the game. I had no problems pairing up the Pork Loin with other pedals, and even got great results using it through other instruments such as bass guitars, Rhodes keyboards, and lap steels. Oh what a good time I had, and absolute great time if you really want to know.

Live Situation

The first setup I plugged the Pork Loin into was my modified 4x10 Deville and beautiful custom Tele otherwise known as "Lady". I was to sit in with a buddy's band the day the pedal arrived and was told to bring a mellow setup, "There ain't much room on the stage we're goin to be playing on so make sure to keep it simple brother.", is what my friend said to me. I did need something loud, something capable of mucho tones, and most important a decent tone. What I ended up with that night was more than a decent tone. I figured I'd take the pedal along for the ride and test it out in a live situation first, whatever the outcome was up to fate. Other than the Pork Loin, the Deville, and Tele I also had a tuner, clean booster, vibe, and delay pedal. When I was dialing in my root tones for the night I set my amp like I always do for live setups, everything at 7, reverb at 2-3, and volume to fit the room. Then I kicked in the Way Huge pedal, I had no idea what to expect. I had faith in the pedal because of my prior experiences with the Fat Sandwich and Swollen Pickle. I started by cutting the pedal's volume all the way down then turning it up to match my root tone. I worked each of the pedal's knobs from the middle into the desired settings and went from there. In fact, with everything at noon I was able to get a killer tone! For my semi-dirty tones I ended up setting the pedal with it's Overdrive at 10'o'clock, Tone at 1'o'clock, Curve at noon, and Clean signal just passed noon. The internal settings were set at their stock position, getting to them was going to be tuff while playing a show. The sound ended up being a perfect blend between gritty and sparkling clean. The two sounds combined created something of a Kieth Richards meets a blackface amp tone, it worked wonders for my rhythm parts. I had all the clarity and sparkle I needed, and just the right amount of grit and grime thanks to the Pork Loin. All it took to get back to a semi-clean tone was rolling the guitar's volume back a bit. Once I had that setting marked off I moved onto the next setting, which was to be a more intense medium to high overdrive. For this setting I set the Pork Loin with it's Overdrive at 3'o'clock, Tone at noon, Curve at 2'o'clock, and with a hint of the Clean signal. The sound that came from the amp was that of a tube amp being pushed to the fullest. I had a ton of richness in the drive, the right amount of warmth so as not to come off too brittle, and a sweet balance of clarity and aggression. This ended up being the tone I used that night the most, I was able to take this setting back into a mellower grit, and push it further by using the clean booster in front of it. I switched back and fourth from humbucker to single coil throughout the night, getting these rumbling, thick overdrive tones when in the bucker, and banshee lead tones when in the Tele bridge pickup. All in all I would say it was a great night, with this one pedal I was able to handle all of the dirt tones I needed. What was even more impressive was that it was the first time I had ever used it. The Pork Loin was user friendly, provided a wide range of tones, and adapted to my picking and playing beautifully.

"A bunch of amps & guitars"

Back in the studio I was able to look deeper into the Pork Loin's capabilities, really get inside of it to see what made it tick. I was eager to hear how well it would work with lower watt amps, amps ranging from 7-22 watts. The Pork Loin handled the 4x10 Deville's output and character just wonderfully and I had a feeling it would do the same for the little amps. I took out the 7/15 watt head and 1x12 cab for this demo. The guitar of choice was my Hagstrom Viking 335 style semi-hollow body. The combination of the pedal's smooth, defined overdrive, with the guitar's warmth, and vintage voiced pickups made for some real champion guitar tones. The amp was set to a naturally tube driven overdrive, and guitar set in the neck pickup. Now here is where the Pork Loin really started working it's wonders. I dialed a subtle crunch out of the pedal but dialed in a bunch of the clean signal. The already overdriven amp being pushed by the subtle grit of the pedal and clean signal flowing into it all created a complex, wonderful color of tones. Up front you could hear a steady amount of grit and crunch, while just behind this was a bright'n'tight clean guitar tone. Everything I played through this tone sounded sweet, but it was chords that really sounded amazing. To darken up and make the sound more intense I just opened the pedal and added more of the Drive Mix, and throttled back on both the Filter and Presence controls. The internal controls really make it easy for matching the Pork Loin to whatever amp you're playing through. I switched the 7 watt setting for it's 15 watts and pushed some clean boost and higher gain sounds through it. To achieve a clean boost setting from the Pork Loin we matched the Tone knob to the amp's, Clean Signal 100%, Curve at noon, just a hint of Overdrive, Drive Mix rolled back, and all other internal knobs at noon. The pedal had more than enough juice to push the amp's tubes into a roaring, howling, natural overdrive. I was able to maintain my root tone's characteristic's with a booming thrust of British flavor. The overdrive had lots of high-end spank and definition. We rocked this setting through a Tele, Strat, Les Paul, and Junior, and all of the different pickups worked wonderfully through the Pork Loin. We also setup a Super Lead to a massive classic rock overdrive, turned it up nice and loud then fed it the Way Huge Pork Loin. For this I matched all of the controls to the amp's sound, and started with the Overdrive knob at zero. The pedal took the Super Lead from clean boosts, gritty overdrives, fuzzy overdrive tones, brown sounds, and woman tones. Way Huge absolutely hit a homerun with this pedal. The Pork Loin is capable of so much and through a little time spent with it you can really nail just about any rock tone imaginable. For those who dig the "Blackface" type amplifier the Pork Loin is perfect, it add a lush, howling British style sound to your overall tone that meshes to create something really special. The pedal sounded great through low watt amp, high watters, and even solid state amps. I am super excited to check out the next run of Way Huge pedals and you guys can be sure we will be bringing you all the tasty info as soon as possible. Keep it huge and stay tuned for more!

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For more info on Way Huge products go to www.wayhuge.com or click the direct link in our sidebar. You can also visit the Dunlop website at www.jimdunlop.com Keep your eyes peeled we have more coming soon!

Top Finds of 2009 / BilT Guitars

There are a lot of cats playing their card at designing unique and interesting guitars these days. I can't remember ever coming across so many exciting and talented luthiers in all the time I've been a musician. The last couple years has been a wonderful explosion of original and innovative guitar designs. If you look you can find a guitar of just about every style and flavor, from vintage vibed to modern space age creations. For me there are a few things that have to come into play in order for me to be attracted to an instrument. 1. The instrument has to have a high level of playability. 2. Great tone. 3. It must have something all it's own. 4. Must have class. and 5. It has to be cooler than cool. Masterminds behind the BilT Guitars line Bill Henns and Tim Thelen have not only taken all these factors into play, but have gone far and wide into the realms of creativity to build what is now one of the most spectacular guitar designs to ever hit the music scene. Bilt offers one model with a more traditional vibe to it, a classic style guitar with great looks and great quality. The other guitar is something really special though, a guitar with on board effects consisting of a analog delay and fuzz circuit. With cats stacking their boards with endless amount of pedals these days what better tool to have than a guitar capable of dishing out some killer effects. The Bilt guitars are guitars fit for the everyday player, the professional, and the experimentation freak. Vintage freaks and modern cats alike will find an ultimate level of satisfaction from these amazing instruments, and find themselves swimming in a sea of stunning possibilities. Analog War Cry gives Bilt Guitars two thumbs up, a solid 5 stars, and all the props in the world.... with a cherry on top!

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BilT Guitars

Des Moines, IA

Crew: Bill Henss & Tim Thelen

The

Relevator

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What She's Made Of

* Neck: Hard Maple w/bound rosewood fingerboard. A 7 1/4 to 91/2 inch compound radius. Kluson tuners. Bone nut. A 2-way truss rod with slot head heel adjustment.

* Body: Alder in custom colors with the standard range of pickguard options.

* Hardware: The Mastery Bridge!! A modified USA Jazzmaster style tremolo. www.masterybridge.com

* Pickups: Seymour Duncan Antiquities, Jazzmaster bridge/neck, Jaguar middle. Open to custom combos and variations.

* Color Options: Lake Placid Blue, Sonic Blue, Dakota Red, Olympic White, 3-Tone Burst, Ice Blue Metallic, Sherwood Green, Seafoam Green, Black. Open to color suggestions.

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Controls & Onboard Effects

* 3-Position Toggle Switch

* Master Volume

* Master Tone

* Input Jack: Cuts Power to Effects when Unplugged

* Neck Preset Circuit: Preset Volume/Preset Tone

Fuzz Circuit

* On/Off Power Switch

* On/Off Oscillate Switch

* Fuzz Drive

Analog Delay

* On/Off Power Switch

* On/Off Modulation Switch

* Feedback Knob

* Mix Knob

* Delay Time Knob

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I don't even know where to start, everything about this guitar left me with my jaw on the floor. T

he entire build design from headstock to bottom strap button is absolute eye candy. The Relevator plays like a dream, sounds stunning, and it's looks are cool as ice. Just holding the guitar in your hands you'll notice it's a top quality, remarkable instrument. The neck shape is a perfect blend between the best of both the vintage and modern worlds. I was able to get around the frets comfortably, never found my hand cramping, and didn't have a problem with fretting out. The beauty of the neck's design is topped off with cream/white binding and lovely rosewood fretboard that gives it an elegant vibe. The alder body feels perfectly balanced and is carved with both arm and tummy cuts. The body is fitted with the highest quality hardware and sports an array different controls which give the Relevator an enormously wide range of sounds and possibilities. The Relevator we got to demo came equipped with Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups, Jazzmaster style pickups for the neck/bridge, and Jaguar style pickup middle. The guitar's bridge consists of the super cool and dead-on accurate Mastery Bridge, if you guys aren't hip on these do some homework, you'll be glad you did. The pop-in tremolo arm makes for a user friendly feature and also works and feels great. There are master Tone and Volume knobs, 3-way toggle switch, and pickup slider selector which lets you choose every pickup combo imaginable. There is also a Neck Preset Circuit which consists of an on/off switch, Volume slider, and Tone Slider. When the Neck Preset is on it shuts off all other pickups, which works great for being able to switch into a mellower/warmer tone on the fly. The Relevator's fuzz circuit is simple, on/off switch, oscillation on/off switch, and fuzz drive slider which controls the amount of fuzz. The analog delay circuit (and probably my favorite part of the guitar) is built with on/off power switch, modulation switch, feedback, mix, and delay controls. Last the cats at Bilt Guitars provide you with a power supply that runs power to the onboard effects via a stereo guitar cable. The power supply also comes with two extra DC power outputs for powering other effect pedals. WOW! Now that's what I call a well rounded tone machine.

"Nice and Clean"

We started out by testing the Relevator just as a normal guitar, no effects, no nothing. Just the actual guitar itself played through all of it's pickups and pickups combinations. Amp of choice was going to be tuff, so we just pulled them all out. The first amp to dance with the Relevator was my modified 4x10 Deville, clean channel, eq at 7, reverb at 2, guitar in it's neck pickup position. I began with some simple chord work and blues riffs, started digging in, then let loose and hammered away like a mad man. The neck felt great, tremolo arm reacted beautifully to my touch, and the sound that came out of the amp was just stunning. It had a nice vintage vibe, full of warmth and clarity. The pickup created a nice bouncy tone that reminded me of bands like Television, The Jam, Sonic Youth, and Nirvana. The combination of both outer pickup made things even more interesting. With both neck and bridge pickup I was able to cover much more ground, get more bite from the sound, and lots more jangle. With just the right touch I was able to get bit of hair out of the sound, perfect for clean, aggressive rhythm work. While in this pickup setting I rolled off a bit of the tone and actually was able to dial in a pretty sweet sounding jazz tone. This was a nice surprise, nice jazz tones always make up great blues tones once a bit of overdrive is added into the mix. Next I kicked in the bridge pickup alone. The sound stayed just as defined as before only with more bell-like tones and midrange honk. In fact, I got some killer rhythm guitar tones form the bridge pickup as well. Two thumbs up for Bilt choice of Antiquity's.

"A Bit of Grit"

Round two for the Relevator consisted of more of the same, only this time through overdriven amps and some of our favorite dirt boxes. We started with a Princeton reissue we had on loan that week, set it loud enough to get it to break up, and threw a TS808 style pedal on top of it. I switched into the guitar's neck pickup and let her rip, first without the TS808 engaged. I was able to get as much or as little grit from the amp as I wanted just by the level of my pick attack. I could from a natural, semi-crunchy amp tone, to a straight out balls to the wall overdrive. Next I kicked in the Tube Screamer. The sound that came flying out of the amp stood the hairs up on my arm and pulled the breath out of my lungs. It was one of the most massive sounds I had ever heard come from such a little amp. The 15 watts of tube grit, dirt box, and Relevator ended up probably being my favorite sound of the entire demo. The natural beauty of the guitar's sound mixed with the amp and pedal created the perfect rhythm rock tone. The harder the pedal pushed the amp, and the more I dug into the strings, the better the overall sound. I hit the guitar with bends, double stops, and harmonics and got great sounds each and every time. The sound was rich, full of character, and very woody. Next on the menu was plugging the Relevator into something a bit more power, something that would shake the walls and the floor. What better amp for the job than a 100 watt Super Lead? My partner did his little magic setup of jumping the amp's channels, mixing them to his liking, and setting the output level to a ground shaking volume. The outcome was a loud'n'proud, rock and roll sound. The combo of the bridge and neck pickup once again came through beautifully. The guitar created a smooth, creamy overdrive tone with great string balance, and lots of variety. The tremolo also delivered magnificent results, and Mastery bridge kept intonation spot-on. No matter how much I pulled or wiggled the tremolo arm, or how hard I played the guitar. The Relevator was able to stay in tune beautifully. Sign of high quality, great build, and hard work. I also rolled back the guitar's volume and was able to dial in some mellow, warm overdrive tones. Another option for getting a mellower tone from the guitar was it's Neck Preset Circuit. With the Neck Preset Circuit you can roll off both volume and tone, and switch it in and out via it's own on/off switch. Leaving the rest of the guitar's controls free from change and giving you a winder range of sounds. Next we dialed back the amp's tone to a subtle crunch and fed it a bunch of different fuzz boxes. We took out vintage boxes, extreme fuzz pedals, and boutique pieces. All of them sounded great with the guitar and sounded wonderful with each pickup combo. One of the pickup settings that really stood to me was the middle Jaguar style pickup. The sound of the middle pickup through a nice, fat, vintage style fuzz created one of the most intense fuzz tones I've ever heard. In the end the Relevator proved to be a great playing, great sounding, and extremely versatile guitar.

"Onboard Effects"

Now here is where things got super duper fun. For this we broke out the Twin Reverb and dialed it in to the most sparkling clean tone possible. I gave the tone a hint of verb, cranked the volume to 4, and set all eq knobs at 7. The sound of the Twin Reverb and Relevator alone was immaculate. The root tone had everything I wanted in it to be able to build off of. Each pickup position produced it's own special tone, full of richness, clarity, and versatility. Then we kicked in the Relevator's onboard fuzz circuit and the sound turned into a fuzzy, furry, wall of class A tone. We set the fuzz circuit to a mild, gritty growl, without the oscillation switch engaged. The sound was a pure, spot-on authentic vintage fuzz sound. Some of the fuzz tones I was getting from the guitar were better than some of the pedals I have. The more I gain I fed the fuzz the hairier and nastier it got, just as good and responsive as any fuzz box I'd ever played. I'll be honest, at first I thought the onboard fuzz was going to be janky and generic. This was not the case, not-at-all. Fully cranked the Relevator's fuzz turned into a screaming force of complex harmonics and undertones. It sounded great with single note runs and chords. The sound of the Relevator's fuzz is somewhere between a blend of a thick treble booster and vintage fuzz box. I could dig into a note, hold it for as long as I wanted, or shake it and manipulate it a wild and aggressive howl. Once the oscillation was introduced to the sound things became even cooler. To control the oscillation's sound you just take the drive knob and turn this way and that. The fuzz circuit's control does not end there though, no sir. On the back of the guitar inside the back panel you will find not one, or two, or even three, but five thumb wheels used for shaping and tailoring your fuzz tone to your liking. That's more tonal control than some pedals are capable of! This assures you'll be able to match or dial in the fuzz tone of your liking.

The analog delay circuit on the Relevator is also top notch and great sounding. It reminded me of a great sounding vintage tape-echo machine. All of the cool tones and sounds you can get from a great quality analog delay are possible with the Relevator's delay circuit. The delay is controlled by a on/off power switch, on/off oscillation switch, feedback knob, mix knob, and delay knob. Inside the back panel of the guitar are also width and speed controls for the modulation sound. All of these controls together make up for one of the most versatile delay units you will ever come across, and the best part is it lives on your guitar not your pedalboard! First I dialed a short, slapback style delay sound without any modulation. With the mix knob I was able to make the delay sound as present or laid back as I wanted. This is great for those subtle delay tones you want more as a little layer and not so much an effect. Next I dialed in a medium length delay tone, mellow mix, and a subtle amount of modulation. I was able to get just the right amount of delay effects with nice pristine, and warm repeats. The possibilities were endless. The guitar;s delay was capable of subtle delay, long delay tones, country slapback tones, spaced out delay sounds, and everything in between each of these. The guitar's delay circuit sounded and worked great with overdrivers, fuzz tones, and distortions. Setting in a delay sound of your if your liking is as easy as reaching down and fiddling with a few controls, all without the need of fussing with a pedalboard. For those of you looking for a versatile guitar with effect capabilities and great tone, the Relevator is a great choice. Even for those of you just looking for a killer quality guitar Bilt makes a version of the Relevator without the onboard effects. Either way the guitar plays great which is the most important thing. Bilt Guitars is open to different pickup cobmbinations and types, and willing to work with you on the color of your guitar. It doesn't get much better than that. For those of you curious to get more info on the Relevator we have posted some demo video from Bilt Guitars at the bottom of this article, check them out and enjoy!

For more info on Bilt Guitars go to www.biltguitars.com You will find a ton of great information, more video demos, and a bunch of great pics of different colors and pickup styles. We highly suggest anyone looking for something new, exciting, or outside the norm to look into Bilt Guitars Relevator's. Dig it!!

Top Finds of 2009 / EP Booster

Xotic Effects never seizes to amaze us. I can look back at each one of the Xotic Effects pedals I've ever had a chance to try out and remember them all as being top-notch. The thing that makes Xotic pedals such desirable pieces of gear is their simplicity. If you've ever had a chance to plug into any of their dirt boxes you know that they're all about getting straight to the point, quickly, and painlessly. While many of the bigger companies are floating towards designing complex and multi-function effects pedals, Xotic has taken the simplest of ideas to create one of the most useful tone tools to hit the streets in a long time. I mean how many different classics does Mr. Mathews plan on playing off of? It's a circus of tasteless, gimmick ridden, trinkets and knick-knacks out there. So when you find yourself lost in a sea of maddening bright boxes and need a straight no chaser, no-frills stompbox that will get the job done and done right. Look towards Xotic Effects.

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Xotic Effects USA

Van Nuys, CA

EP Booster

Features

* Gain Control Knob

* On/Off Status LED

* True Bypass Switching

* Input Jack (nominal input -20DB)

* Output Jack

* DC Jack 2.1mm x 5.5mm / 9-18vdc Negative Center

* Internal DIP Switches: Bass Boost / Bright

* Battery Power: 9V

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The EP Booster is an absolute amazing little pedal with an unbelievable capability to enhance and push your sound. I gotta hand it to Xotic Effects for one of the coolest little pedals to come out last year. The idea for designing the EP Booster came from mighty pre-amp section that can be found in the classic EP-3 Echoplex's. I don't know about you guys but I've had a chance to plug into a handful of different EP-3's in my time, and every time I have I've been blown away by how killer of tone their pre-amp sections are capable of. The EP-3's pre-amp is a little trick I've seen many studio cats use to enhance and give their guitar tracks some edge. Amongst the many engineers and everyday cats like myself who have fallen in love with the Echoplex preamp sound, there have been many heavyweight professional's who have also counted on it for their signature and root tone's. Cats like Brian May, Tommy Bolin, Joe Walsh, Jimmy Page, and the man himself Mr. Hendrix have all used Echoplex preamp's to give their tone some mojo. Xotic Effects has now taken this wonderful tool and shoved into 3.5"x1.5"x1.5" enclosure. This way you get all the killer tone without having to sacrifice much space on your pedalboard, lord knows we can use all we can get. On the EP Booster you will find a true bypass switch and solo knob used for controlling the gain amount, but there's more! Inside the EP Booster is a whole nother story. In the pedal's guts you will find a couple of DIP switches, one for boosting the bass, and another for flat or bright eq. This gives you the ability to match or give your sound a little color, and if you're looking for a little something extra take it from me, use the pedal's magical little color.

Like all of our demos we like make sure we use as many different scenario's as possible. We try and pull out as many amps, guitars, use different style pickups, and even run the gear we demo through other pedals to see how they react. The EP Booster came through with flying colors, working beautifully with everything we used it with and sounding magnificent on it's own. The scenario we worked with EP Booster was Strat, Twin Reverb, and two Bullet Cables. We set the amp with all eq at 7, volume at 3-4, reverb at 2, bright switch off. The EP Booster was set in it's default setting with the Bass Boost off, and Bright on. The sound of the Twin Rev alone of course sounded damn sweet, full of richness and boom. With the EP Booster engaged things got even better! It's kind of hard to explain if you've never heard what a EP-3 Echoplex sounds like when driving an amp. It's not so much that it works to boost your sound into an overdrive, which it can do, the magic is on the hint of color that it throws on your sound. It covers a wider, rounder frequency range for the bass, and shines a little light on the highs and mids. The result is a tone that's a bit tighter, richer, and able to cover more ground. At first you don't notice much a difference, then you start hammering away at some chords and begin to feel the sound around you becoming much nicer. I always say the best guitar tones are the ones you feel and not so much hear. I did the same thing with an overdriver set after the EP Booster and got the same results. The creamy overdrive setting I had dialed in went from great to greater. There was more definition in the grit and a lot more flavor in the overall sound. Before I moved onto the vintage setting in the DIP switches I decided to plug my guitar into a 100 watt Super Lead, dial in some natural overdrive, and boost the signal with EP Booster's default setting. I set the amp fairly crunchy, with lots of mids and lows. Once I kicked in the pedal I could hear the everything tighten up and become a bit more complex. It was apparent this pedal was going to work with just about anything I threw at it. Next I kicked in the pedal's vintage setting, which is both DIP switches in the off position. Here the tone was able to maintain all of the character I had work into the amp only with a warmer and fluffier feel. The overdrive had more of a classic rock vibe to it, some where between a Page and Townshend tone. Not too shabby hey? The pedal worked great with everything, other boosters, overdrivers, distortions boxes, fuzz pedals, and best of all on it's own through an already dirty tone or clean sound. Xotic's mission to build a simple way to achieve the EP-3's preamp sound is a definite success. With the EP Booster's DIP switched it makes things even that much better. This simple little box turned out to be much more complex than I though it would be, and created a handful of tones that some multi knob pedal's aren't capable of. I'm proud to say the EP Booster now lives on my pedalboard, in front of everything else, and always on. It makes shaping things after it much easier and more precise. If you guys get a chance to plug into one go for it, grab a nice guitar, plug into a decent amp, and watch it add life to any signal.

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For more info on Xotic Effects go to www.xotic.us or click on the logo in our sidebar for a direct link. Also go down to our Youtube search engine and type in "EP Booster" for some cool video demos from the Xotic Guitars Youtube channel. Stay tunes for more form this awesome company in the near future. Peace!!!

Top Finds of 2009 / Killer Guitar Components

You want to see quality, class, and killer looks? Look no further my fellow gear junkies. For those of you not hip on them, let me introduce you to Killer Guitar Components. KGC specializes in the building of exquisitely high quality, top notch tremolo blocks. If you've ever heard the sound of a proper, cream of the crop Stratocaster. You know that a lot of it's golden tone comes from it's components, attention to detail, and overall build quality. Now, in today's gear market there are lots and lots of insane products claiming to do this, that, and everything under the sun to improve your sound. As players our guitar's sound is the first thing we pay attention to, and the one thing thing we spend most of our time trying to perfect. Like many of you I'm sure have done throughout your entire lives as musicians, I too have been on a hunt to seek out as many great guitar tones as possible. I've tried many different amps, pedals, pickups, guitars, speakers, components, and tons of so called magical electronics. When I took on the task to put together my own 60's style strat, the job turned out to be a lot tuffer than I thought it would be. Finding the right parts and components to get an authentic vintage Strat tone is definitely an art form not easily mastered. Then I swapped in one of KGC's tremolo blocks, and things started falling into place. It became the perfect starting point for mapping out the rest of the guitar's tone. It's funny, sometimes the things you least think will make a difference end up being the most important.

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Killer Guitar Components

Gloucester, MA

Design Team: Rick & Sandy Peek

KGC-V

Tremolo Block

Customized for Vintage & Vintage Reissues

* Maximized Vibration and Sustain

* Less Harshness and Improved Tonality

* Dramatically Improved String to String Definition/Clarity

* Powerful Lows/Clearer Midrange/Detailed Highs

* Increased Sensitivity and Stability when Playing

* Detailed/Focused Note Projection

* Purer Intonation

* Mirror-Polished Finish

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So here I am, absolutely stunned at how beautiful these tremolo blocks are. Never in a million years did I think such a random piece of gear would be so important, but here I am, and this has been one of the best moves I have ever made. The difference in my guitar's tone was instant! I noticed my clean tone was brighter, richer, and much more focused. As if I'd fine tuned a nice eq layer over my root tone. The guitar's lows became stronger and tighter, midrange sat smoothly in the mix, and highs became glassy and bell-like. My overdriven sounds also became a lot sweeter, with tons of bite and definition, and no muddiness or harsh corners. I've had good results from using brass parts on my guitars before, but never anything like this. Even when unplugged the guitar rang out with lots of character and power. You can literally feel the strength of the strings vibrating through the guitar's body. With most stock parts you get trem blocks made up of low quality pot/zinc or crappy molded steel. This causes a dead, flat, and not too exciting guitar sound. KGC on the other hand took it to the maximum when designing their trem blocks. To make sure their products produce the best sound possible they use the most musical brass alloy available. Through spectrum analysis KGC sonically tests all of the brass alloy used to build their tremolo blocks. The end result is brass alloy capable of filtering out undesirable harmonics and frequencies. You might hear some cats claim that things like this don't make much of a difference, but once you have a go at something built from high quality love I promise you'll never turn back to the norm.

For our KGC demo we broke out every amp and pedal we could muster, and a bone stock MIM Strat for comparing to. To keep things strictly on the trem block side of things we equipped both guitars with a set of boutique quality pickups. The first setup we rigged up was a 4x10 Deville, a handful of Core One Bullet Cables, and a A/B splitter with both guitars feeding into it. The amp was set straight up the middle, with the volume at about 4-5, and reverb 100% dry. First up to bat was the MIM Strat in it's bridge pickup, both tone and volume knobs all the way up. I rang out a handful of big chords, ran through some blues licks, and really dug into the strings as hard as I could. The sound was all there, good highs, nice mids, and beefy lows. Everything you would expect from a solid, nice sounding Strat. Then we switched into the KGC equipped Strat and did the same thing. I played the same chords and licks, and dug in to get an idea of what kind of natural grow I could get from the guitar. I was stunned at how much of a difference there was, this was the first time I had a chance to plug-in and play and it was beautiful. There wasn't just a change in the tonal quality, the sustain and resonance of the notes was also much more intense. Notes rang-out and held on to the wind as if they were equipped with hands. It was having a subtle amount of high quality compression on the sound, the kind you can barely notice is there until you start hammering away and notice everything sounds much nicer. I played out a handful of different position harmonics and also got some lovely results. Everything I played through the clean tone became clearer and more defined. I knew I was in for a real treat once a little overdrive was thrown into the mix. For the next test I pulled out a few different dirt boxes that ranged from boosters, overdrivers, distortions, and fuzz pedals. Again we started with the action with the MIM Strat, only this time flipping into the bridge pickup position. The pedal we kicked into the mix was a simple 15db clean booster, enough to send the amp into a subtle, natural overdrive. I rode the neck up and down, strumming here and there, and pulling off double stops along the way. The sound again was pretty damn sweet, nice and full with a healthy amount of under/overtones. Then it was the KGC guitar's turn and everything became much clearer, literally. Again my string projection was much tighter, even ,and more defined. The quality of the overdrive seemed to take on an entirely different light. The kind of difference in tone you get when you've mastered your guitar tracks and put all the finishing touched on them. Next I kicked in a bit more grit by plugging in the overdriver and putting down a strong attack unto the strings. I could feel my guitar shaking violently against my body and left hand. The string transfer you get from these trem blocks are like nothing I have ever experienced. The character of the KGC trem block's sound adapts itself to whatever you throw at it. Creating a root tone that works beautifully at any level, through any amp, and with any stompbox. I reached down and switched out the overdriver for a distortion pedal with a ton of gain and grit, set it to a howling lead tone and got to work. The air exploded with thick/rich harmonics, overtones, and undertones. Every little nuance in my playing came through sublimely! I rolled off a bit of the guitar's volume and noticed it was still full of sparkle and pop. Last I plugged in the loudest, baddest fuzz box I could find, and still I heard a positive difference in the sound. Even when I maxed out the fuzz's gain level I could hear the trem block doing it's thing. I could take my guitar's tone knob all the way back and still get a sweet'n'rich sound. We did this through a handful of other amps and got the same results with each one. It was damn near impossible to get a bad sound through the KGC tremolo block. I highly recommend anyone looking to upgrade their guitar start with one of these first. It make everything standout to the max, which makes even tuning and setting your guitar' intonation a spot-on job. To top everything off, make everything just that much sweeter. All of the cats at Killer Guitar Components provide some of the best customer service you will ever come across. I want to take this time to and say thanks to Kevin and everyone else at KGC for being so cool and taking the time to work with us on this. You guys gotta take the time to check out their website, they offer a bunch of different tremolo block models for different style guitars and appointments. Besides their own trem blocks KGC is also an authorized dealer of Graph Tech products, another awesome product make to enhance and give life to your strings. We're gonna stay close to all the progress and updates from our friends at KGC, and make sure to bring you guys all the info. AWC is diggin' on the KGC products big-time and hopes everyone else gets a chance to experience the same lovely results we had.

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For more info on Killer Guitar Components products you can go to www.killerguitarcomponents.com or click the KGC logo in our sidebar for a direct link. We will try to bring you guys some more awesome features from this killer new company so make sure to stay tuned. Keep on rockin'!

February News & Updates

February

2010

Another month in the books, and what a month it was. I hope you guys have been digging our Top Finds of 09 articles and hope you've had a chance to check some of the gear out for yourselves. In all my time as a musician I have never seen so much cool gear, it's as if the Gear Gods are smiling down upon us nonstop. Every few weeks another killer amp, beautiful guitar, unbelievable stompbox, or killer set of pickups gets thrown at us as if it's Christmas. Oh how I love it! It's been a blast looking back at and sharing with you guys all of the great gear that came through here last year. We've had a chance to check out some killer speakers, pickups, cables, pedals, pedals, and more pedals. Well we have a surprise for ya'll.... we're not done! Nooooo sir we're not. We still have a handful of amazing, mind blowing products to get through. The next few weeks will be put aside to bring you guys another run of what we think is some of the most awesome gear available today. We've got pickups, guitars, hardware, totally new products, and yes, more pedals! Another mission on the horizon for Analog War Cry is getting to some of the new and exciting products that were let loose on the world at NAMM a few weeks back. We will work our hardest to get out hands on as much new gear as possible and will make sure to keep ya'll up to date on any happenings of the gear world. With that said, let the fantabulous gear continue.

Top Finds of 2009 / Jensen Jet Series

Jensen really needs no introduction of any kind, they walk the walk and have been doing so for quite some time now. Many of the first amps I fell in love with had Jensen speakers in them. No one can deny these people know what they're doing when it comes to loudspeakers and great tone. As the years go by and things change Jensen follows close beside, always on top of the changes in music, and always building innovative and special speaker models. One of these unique and amazing products Jensen has produced in the last couple years is the Jet Series, a collection of pure tone pushing speakers with a killer look that says "Here I am!" The one thing I love the most about the Jet Series is that Jensen decided to build some 10" models. I have always been a lover of 2x10 and 4x10 cabs and combos. There is a punch and definition you get from a 10" speaker that you won't hear in many other speakers. We will take a look a few of the Jet Series speakers, put them through their paces, and push them to the limit. Come along and ride with us the speakers won't bite.... or will they?

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Jensen Speakers

Ce Distribution

Tempe, AZ

Jensen Jet Series

Blackbird

JP10-100BB

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FEATURES

* Nominal Overall Diameter: 10 in

* Magnet Type: Alnico

* Magnet Weight: 29oz

* Voice Coil Winding: Aluminum

* Cone: Paper

* Basket: Pressed Sheet Steel

* Nominal Impedance: 8Ω

* Rated Power: 100 W

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If you've never taken the time and performed a speaker mod on your amp you are missing out. It is one of the quickest and easiest ways to enhance your sound and bring some life into your tone. All in all the guitar speaker is a huge part of your tone's end result, of course there are many more elements that make up one's overall tone, but with just a little investigating the right speaker choice will get you closer to that dream sound you've always wanted. A few month's back I swapped out two of my 4x10 Deville's stock speakers for two Jensen Blackbirds, I wanted to see just how much of a difference the speakers would make. Well, the difference was noticeable instantly! As is the Fender Deville is actually a really decent amplifier, you'd be surprised how many professionals choose this as their stage and studio amp. You can get the cleanest most beautiful guitar tones from this amplifier. With the Jensen Blackbirds the whole picture just got that much better. I'm the type of player that relies on overdrive pedals for his grit and distortion tones, which means I have to have the best sounding clean tone to get the best results. This means I have to have the correct balance between highs, mids, and lows. I noticed tight away that Blackbirds added this rich, punchy, and dynamic sound to my overall eq that gave my root tone a boost of character and articulation. The bass frequencies somehow jumped in size but didn't become muddy or overpowering. I was able to dial in much more bass from amp without the fear of drowning the rest of the tones underneath it. The highs were also a real treat to listen to out of these speakers. I got that bell-like tone from the highs but with a modern type clarity that created a perfect balance between the old and the new. Both clean and dirty tones rang out in a springy, sparkling howl which made my tone stand out beautifully. It is like having the best of both the vintage and modern feel all wrapped into one. The absolute magic in the sound of the speakers lay in the mids though. Many stock speakers get this area of the frequency spectrum wrong. Either they use speakers that dish out mids that are too sharp, or mids that clash with the lows. The midrange in a sound is a tone that has to be able to separate itself without getting lost or sounding weak. You want your mids to hit you in the gut and snap back with authority. Jensen's Blackbirds handed me this vibe and much more.

Before the Blackbirds landed in my 4x10 Deville we had them in a beautiful 2x10 cabinet. This gave us the chance to run the speakers through a bunch of different amp heads. We tried everything from low to high watt amps, and used a handful of different guitars, pedals, and guitar cables. Along with this we also tried a bunch of different microphones and mic techniques. One of our favorite combos of gear was an Orange Rockerverb 50 watt head (on loan to us from our good buddy Rich), a custom Tele, and couple of Bullet Cables. We started with the amp's clean channel, kept the treble at noon, bass at 1'o'clock, just a hint of reverb, and volume up to a nice practice level. The sound that came out of the cabinet shot out like a cannon, full of attitude, power, and clarity. The richness in the speakers delivery was enough to keep me stuck ringing out of beautiful jangly chords. Each guitar string came through evenly and full of sparkle. I went ahead and picked out a few big, fat harmonics and just like I expected they rang out wonderfully. While dialed into this great sounding clean tone I pulled out a few dirt boxes and put them through their paces. First I grabbed a typical 808 style overdriver and dialed it in to take the clean tone and push it into a healthy overdrive. First I knocked on a bunch of thick'n'meaty barre chords. The Blackbirds took to the overdrive pedal's grit like a kid to candy. There's point when a tone sounds so good that it is nearly impossible to get it to sound bad. Every setting I put the overdrive pedal in hung onto the speakers and created a huge sounding tone. It was time to put the speakers through some naturally overdriven tube-grit. I flipped the amp into it's dirty channel and started turning things up. I wanted to test the Blackbirds frequency range so I started with some intense eq settings. I rolled the treble back close to zero, mids at noon, lows close to 100%, gain at 75%, and volume at about 30%. Believe me, things got loud real quickly. The Jensen's were able to handle the huge amount of lows and lack of treble without creating an ugly, muddy tone. The Blackbirds were able to adapt to the setting just beautifully! I set the Tele in it's neck pickup, rolled off some of the guitar's tone, and BOOM! I was swimming in the most monstrous woman tone you could ever hear. Kicking in the lead pickup made things even sweeter. I created a mix between a Gilmore lead tone and Clapton rhythm sound, a stunning work of great speakers and amps. I also played my semi-hollow body and Strat through a 7/15 head. We pulled out some of our favorite fuzz pedals and put the speakers to the test. The first combo was a mighty silicon fuzz, semi-hollow body, and amp set in it's 7 watts. Cables were our trusty pair of coily Bullet Cables. I cranked the amp as loud as I could get it before it started getting dirty. Once I added in the fuzz things got very very interesting. The Blackbirds became creamy, boomy, and became loaded with gobs of sustain. It didn't matter how much or how little gain I threw at them, the articulation of the notes all came through full of character and definition. I had mic'd a few of the guitar tones and recorded them to hear how they were coming through for session purposes. I was stunned I didn't need to give them any compression and very little if any equalization. Through the 15 watt setting I plugged the Strat in and pulled a germanium fuzz box. It made no difference what I plugged into, the speakers did their magic and came through like champs. I got all the pop, spank, and bounce one would expect from a set of Strat single coils. The warmth of the germanium fuzz box worked wonders with the clarity of the Blackbirds. There are guitar speakers and then there are guitar SPEAKERS. The Jensen Blackbird 10's are definitely a professional grade speaker and work wonderful in all settings. Anyone looking for an upgrade or quick mod job would benefit highly from a pair of these badboys. As someone who gigs regularly the Blackbirds have given me a much tighter, brighter, stronger, and wider range set of tones. I don't see these speakers going anywhere for a long long time. Unless they wear out and them it will be time for more. Go black!

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For more info on the Jensen Jet Series Blackbird's go to www.jensentone.com or www.cedist.com You can also click the direct link in our sidebar. The Jensen website has a bunch of great info, audio demos, and speaker models to choose from. Analog War Cry will be taking a look at more of these awesome speakers in the near future so make sure to keep your eyes peeled.