December 2007 \ Features \ Product Spotlight \ The Best of '07

The Best of '07

 Premier Guitar December 2007
(2 of 6)


February 2007
Fender Classic Player 50s Stratocaster

Fender Classic Player 50s Stratocaster Custom Shop Master Builder Dennis Galuszka spec’d this bad boy out and Fender’s Ensenada plant put it together, saving you, the end user, several pesos in the process. Featuring a soft V-shaped neck that seemed straight out of Fullerton circa 1956, the Classic Player 50s also employs a trem design pulled straight from Fender’s Custom Shop, consisting of a modern, two-point bridge-plate with six vintage-style saddles, giving tremsters the ability to wiggle in tune as well as with tone. A great mix of vintage and modern features earned this workhorse top marks.

Fender Musical Instruments
MSRP $1142.84
fender.com
 Fender Classic Player 50s Stratocaster


Moonstone Guitars Vulcan Custom Extreme September 2007
Moonstone Guitars Vulcan Custom Extreme

Starting with a gorgeous piece of African limba and working from there, Moonstone’s Steve Helgeson added such showstoppers as a Brazillian rosewood fingerboard, African purpleheart binding and Paua abalone whenever and wherever possible, in addition to one of the purdyest tops seen in ages. All the baubles in the world mean nothing if they are adorning an instrument with less than stellar playability, but the Vulcan never suffers this fate, offering up effortless action and a hot mess of sounds via the twin Bartolini Pickups and push-pull tone pots, allowing the Moonstone to be the belle of any ball.

Moonstone Guitars
MSRP $9000
moonstoneguitars.com


Amps
Your amplifier is an essential ingredient in the relentless pursuit of tone, and it says a lot about you as a person. Do you go with the quietly understated combo, capable of putting out low-wattage boutique tone, or do you go with the glowing high-gain head atop a double stack of cabinets, ready to pump out massive lead lines at a moment’s notice? Whatever your choice may be, we’ve put our hands on lots of amps this year and proudly present the best models of 2007.
October 2007
65Amps SoHo

Hands down one of the best sounding, most flexible low-wattage combos we’ve seen in our offices, the 65Amps SoHo puts out 20 boutique watts through a Celestion G12H 70th Anniversary speaker. Hiding within the two-tone tolex lies a Class A EL84 circuit – clean and sparkly – that moves into musically crunchy EL34 territory once things start breaking up. If that wasn’t alone worth the price of admission, the SoHo’s Bump circuit adds a wide range of sounds to this amp, from British to brown to blackface. This amp responds well to pickups of all kinds, but if you’ve got a Strat handy, prepare to have your hands pried off this one by the music store bouncer.

65Amps
MSRP $2895
65amps.com
 65Amps SoHo


ENGL Powerball Head April 2007
ENGL Powerball Head

There’s an industrial look to the ENGL Powerball that could easily lend people to writing this amp off as one-dimensional, but with the clean channel reminiscent of an old Vox AC30 (when paired with a Vintage 30 loaded cab), and a lead channel that’s as massive as they come, this amp is capable of everything from metal to jazz-fusion. At it’s heaviest, the Powerball retains definition and clarity of your notes no matter how detuned you may be, and our reviewer was unable to get the amp to “mush” at even the highest volumes. The Powerball also features dual master settings and is MIDI-compatible, making this one versatile machine.

ENGL Amps
MSRP $2299
engl-amps.com


August 2007
Diamond Spec Op Head

Sporting four Svetlana EL34s and no less than seven 12AX7 Tung-Sol tubes, this amp is tailor-made for high-octane rock. The Spec Op’s tones range from scooped-out modern to metal’s biggest hair days. The Spec Op’s overdriven sounds are loud, punchy and unflinchingly honest, always served with a tight low-end. There’s a massive amount of gain on tap here with an inordinate amount of headroom (even the neck humbucker on our Gibson kept its definition). Combined with tone controls that actually work and a solid-as-a-tank build, this amp is a definite recommendation for anyone who dabbles in the heavy.

Diamond Amplification
$2699
diamondamplification.com
 Diamond Spec Op Head

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Comments

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UsernameComment
Rebecca from PG
on 01/03/2008 		The Fender Classic Player 50s Stratocaster has an MSRP of $1142.84, but retails for more like $799, paired with the Orange Tiny Terror (MSRP $699) that retails for $550, you'll be set up very nicely for just over $1300. Hey, who doesn't like dreaming though?
Rory Bluesthug Connolly
on 12/14/2007 		Happy Holidaze,Ahhhh yes,to sleep is to dream.Especially when your a married man with 1 kid,2dogs,and all the bills that roll in every month!!!!was there nothing/guitars made for under $1,300.00 in the past year that we mere weekend hacks playing the open jam at the local------(icehouse,pizzia joint,you fill in the blank)could use?Come on ,say a prayer for the hard working people.Try again next year guys



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