GALLERY: NAMM 2019 Day 2

Orange Amplifiers TremLord 30 Combo

Orange Amplifiers came to NAMM with a very different tone vibe in their new TremLord 30 combo. Outfitted with a single 12” speaker, it’s driven by a quartet of EL84s (switchable to 15, 5, or 1 watt) and is voiced for a mellower American-amp flavor. In addition to bass and treble controls, it features spring reverb and two footswitchable photo-cell tremolo speeds governed by a single depth control.

Seymour Duncan Dark Sun

Designed in conjunction with Periphery's Mark Holcomb, Seymour Duncan's Dark Sun is based on the same platform as their Silver Lake and Andromeda pedals (which Holcomb was also involved in). It's a deep and rich digital delay reverb that offers a mind-boggling amount of options for players who like to dig deeper and experiment with routing, presets, and the company's dynamic expression which alters the chosen effect based on how hard you hit the strings.

Spaceman Effects Mission Control

Even by Spaceman Effects' own admission it's hard to describe exactly what the Mission Control does. Actually it's probably easier to make a list of what it doesn't do. Not only does it offer CV and expression control, but it can function as a wet/dry blender, tremolo, buffer, mixer, autofader, and much more. Streets at $369.

Two-Rock Amps Silver Sterling Signature

Over at the Two-Rock Amps booth we took a look at the new Silver Sterling Signature. It’s a headroom monster that’s available in 100- and 150-watt versions that use 6550 and 6L6 tubes, respectively. The hip feature is a pair of 7-position knobs that control the high and low filter. The tome is rich and punchy and the 6! 12AX7 tubes give the reverb a lush and earthy feel. The 100-watt version will street for $4995 and the 150-watt version will be $5495.

Supro Solidbody with Authentic Faraday-cage Gold-Foil Pickups

Supro’s big unveiling at NAMM this year was this approximately $800 solidbody with authentic Faraday-cage gold-foil pickups and either an ash (left) or a mahogany body. Meanwhile, the tweed-toned Blues King combo pumps 15 watts of beefy, 6L6-derived tone through a single 12” speaker, all for about $599 street.

Ovation Guitars Californian

For the first time in its long, storied history, Ovation Guitars came to NAMM to unveil a run of 25 all-solid-wood acoustics called the Californian that features traditional maple back and sides, a maple top, and a mahogany neck for around $2,000.

Fryette Amplification

Amp wizard Steven Fryette from Fryette Amplification came to NAMM with this 30th-anniversary reissue of the industry-changing power amp that put him on the map back when he launched VHT Amplification. It features two channels, each with a quartet of EL34s pumping out a hundred watts, as well as independent presence, depth, and power-scaling controls.

NUX Horseman

Klon Centaur clones aren’t exactly a new thing, but the Horseman from Nu-X (Cherub Technology) brings a couple of intriguing points to the crowded field: For starters, you can hold down the footswitch to toggle between the company’s take on the original “silver” Centaur or the later “gold” version. Secondly, it goes for around $70 street.

Electro-Harmonix

For pedal legend Mike Matthews and Electro-Harmonix, this year NAMM meant the introduction of four new stomps: Mono Synth pedals tailored for both guitar (top right) and bass (not shown), a 3-preset-equipped reimagining of the company’s 1980s Attack Decay volume-swell effect (top middle), and a highly intuitive, 8-loop, 16-bank programmable loop-switcher called the Super Switcher that goes for $399 street.

Collings Guitars Waterloo WL-AT

We met up with the Collings Guitars crew to get the lowdown on this brand-new Waterloo WL-AT. This flat-back archtop was an idea that company founder Bill Collings had before he passed away. It has a mahogany body and neck with a solid spruce top. Naturally, it has a very woody, vintage tone. It also helps when Julian Lage demos it.