octave

Extreme Rig Rundown with Nuno Bettencourt & Pat Badger
- YouTube

Guitar legend Nuno Bettencourt crashes his own Rundown to showcase the “Bumblebee” guitar he cooked up to honor Eddie Van Halen, while bassist Pat Badger shares two killer stories about basses that once belonged to members of Van Halen and Aerosmith.

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This heavyweight digital solution packs a mighty punch. How does it stand up to the competition?

Excellent amp models. Neural Captures are really cool. Smartly designed footswitch knobs. Excellent mobile app.

Unable to run Neural's native plug-ins at press time. Some lackluster effects.

$1,849

Neural DSP Quad Cortex
neuraldsp.com

4.5
5
4
4.5

Neural DSP built its reputation on producing high-quality plug-ins. But packing great sounds into an all-in-one floor unit is a very different design challenge than creating a plug-in. In the form of the Quad Cortex, however, Neural succeeds at creating an intuitive interface and adding interesting features that even seasoned fans of digital setups will find intriguing.

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A wee synth pedal that packs enough sub-octave power to shake down the house.

Fat, fuzzy, bossy octave tones that can be used to double or stand in for bass. Many unexpectedly lyrical sounds at dryer mix levels.

Fine-tune control can feel imprecise.

$179

Pigtronix Space Rip
pigtronix.com

4
4
4
4

I'd love to do a show just with Pigtronix mini pedals. The always-creative New York company has built a sizable stable of little stomps that range from practical to weird. Space Rip inhabits the latter category, but its bombastic, belching, bass-y, and buzzy synth sounds would certainly be a highlight of whatever presentation I might concoct.

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