L.R. Baggs Anthem Tru-Mic Pickup System
Reviewer Gayla Drake Paul calls this
dual-source acoustic system “a truly
giant leap forward” for those who
want their great-sounding acoustics to
sound amazing even at ungodly stage
volumes. Find out what sets it apart in
this month’s full review.
Street $299
lrbaggs.com
PRS Ted McCarty DC 245 Limited Run
It’s probably not a stunner to see a PRS
McCarty among our Premier Gear award
winners. After all, it’s a guitar that a gazillion
players have lusted after since the
model debuted in 1994. In its DC 245
Limited Run incarnation, however, the
McCarty is outfitted with the company’s
much-lauded 57/08 pickups, vintage-inspired
aesthetic touches (like brushed-nickel
pickup covers and an understated,
slightly aged-looking smokeburst finish),
and fancy touches (like bird inlays) that
Smith incorporated as a special tribute
to Ted McCarty, the former Gibson
president and design pioneer. Reviewer
Jordan Wagner couldn’t find enough
ways to praise the 57/08 pickups, calling
them “utterly fantastic.” Over the
course of evaluating the McCarty (
April 2010 web exclusive), Wagner found that
“midrange response from the pickups is
very soft, but each frequency is audible
and discernable, making them rather difficult
to muddy up. Combined with tight,
blooming lows and a very unique, singing high end, the whole package
is just extraordinary.” And in the end, Wagner called the McCarty
DC245 Limited an “extraordinary tribute from one visionary to another.”
Street $3395
prsguitars.com
Real McCoy Custom RMC8-Guitar Eqwahlyzer
Brad Plunkett’s mid-’60s design
for the Italian Vox Clyde McCoy
is widely regarded as one of the
greatest wah circuits. And for
many pedal makers, building a fair
emulation of that iconic stomper
would have been a major accomplishment.
But Geoffrey Teese,
the man behind Real McCoy
Custom wahs, has always had the
will and wizardry to constructively
tinker with classic wah sounds.
And the RMC8-Guitar Eqwahlyzer
(
November 2010) does a beautiful
job of delivering the much-loved Plunkett/Clyde McCoy flavor, with
equalization capabilities that enable you to customize the voice to your
rig and style. The versatility doesn’t stop there, either. A toggle switch
allows you to switch the sweep contour between a NOS Icar-taper pot
and an expanded-range taper that’s reminiscent of an aged Icar-taper
ROC-POT 5.2 wah pot. Reviewer Steve Ouimette loved the way the
controls enabled him to modify the wah’s tone to better suit humbuckers,
P-90s, and single-coils. And he remarked, “no matter what combination
of guitars and amps I used, the RMC8 delivered in spades. The
tone was always lush, the sweep was smooth and free of scratchiness,
and the sonic flexibility was nearly unlimited. It can be easy to grow
weary of a wah when it’s a one-trick pony. But there’s almost no end to
what the RMC8 can deliver.”
Street $269
realmccoycustom.com
Ultimate Ears 4 Pro Series Custom Monitors
Few performing musicians—even seasoned
pros—warm up to in-ear monitors right off
the bat. No matter how muddy a stage mix
is, the same in-ear-monitor mix will usually
sound—and feel—weirder. But as our
reviewer John Bohlinger found, Ultimate
Ears 4 Pro in-ear monitors (
January 2010)
are, how shall we put it . . . unnaturally
natural. Bohlinger performed with the
Ultimate Ears 4 Pro in settings including
an open-air festival, an intermediate-sized
club, and a recording studio, and he found them superior to wedge
monitors or headphones in every instance. According to Bohlinger,
had he “started with the UE 4 Pros, I would’ve stopped right there
and saved myself lots of money and aggravation.” With everyone
from the Rolling Stones to Van Halen in agreement, maybe we’ll have
to start imagining a world without wedges.
Street $399
ultimateears.com