
Seen here at Nashville’s Easy Eye Sound, Estevan strums an E minor on “Rudy,” Dan Auerbach’s 1958 Gretsch 6120, while Alejandro cradles his own Silvertone 1446 with his Rickenbacker Electro NS looking on.
Brothers Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez invoke the grainy films of Sergio Leone and Jim Jarmusch to create a soundtrack for dramatic, arid landscapes on El Bueno Y El Malo, their Dan Auerbach produced Easy Eye Sound debut.
The desert has captured the imaginations of so many guitarists. Throughout the modern history of our instrument, players have been enchanted by its mystery, stillness, or whatever they feel it represents. Those who’ve made the desert their muse, whether for a one-off project or lifelong dedication, interpret their feelings just as widely. From Grant Green’s funky settings of cowboy tunes on his Goin’ West to the slow, monolithic riffs of doom icons Earth, Ry Cooder’s lonely, plaintive slide work on the soundtrack for Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, to Saharan guitar masters Ali Farka Touré and Tinariwen, there is no one desert sound. Instead, there’s an ineffable feeling, a vibration that resonates across the quirkiest and the most severe of these projects.
For brothers Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez, it wasn’t until they’d travelled across the American Southwest that they realized how captivated they’d become. Raised by an Ecuadoran mother and Swiss father in Switzerland—a decent distance from any arid terrain—Estevan explains, “I think it’s just a feeling that we have. It’s just in us.” In 2018, a couple years after forming their duo, Hermanos Gutiérrez, they took a trip across through Death Valley and the Mojave Desert. “It just blew our minds.” he says. The brothers had never discussed musical influences, and their trip taught them their deepest musical truth. The desert, Estevan says, “is where our music was born.”
Hermanos Gutiérrez - "Los Chicos Tristes" [Official Music Video]
A few years have now passed, and the brothers are confident in their inspiration, which, on El Bueno Y El Malo—their fifth full-length release and their first on Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound—comes by way of classic film imagery. The album opens with the title track, its dramatic first strums serving as an overture that introduces listeners to the type of instrumental storytelling they’re about to hear in 10 short, simply stated chapters. By the middle of the record, Western analogies abound: “Tres Hermanos” feels like a three-way high-noon guitar showdown across the stereo field with Auerbach joining in, while the simple, major-key elegance of “Pueblo Man” radiates the morning sun, contrasting the minor-key chiaroscuro of the subsequent “La Verdad.” Together, the album makes for an enthralling listen, with a balance of instrumental plot and exposition in their simple chord progressions, ornate rhythms, and plainly stated melodies that appeals to the same sensibilities as some of Cormac McCarthy’s best novels.
Any of the songs on El Bueno Y El Malo could serve as more intimate stand-ins for Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack work, and throughout their body of work, the brothers’ music feels like a series of ready-made film scores. “On a personal level,” says Alejandro, “I always love to make a sound that brings you somewhere. Because we love the desert and the spaghetti Western kind of vibe, we’re telling a story that has this kind of a feeling.” He points to “big film scores” as an outsize influence, specifically Morricone’s work with director Sergio Leone. “Watching those movies without music,” he says, “it’s impossible. It just shows the power of music itself.” He goes on to call Neil Young’s score to Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man “a milestone in film scores. It’s perfect.”
“The biggest thing you can hear on the record is the Easy Eye Sound, which sounds kind of hilarious, but it is. You enter this studio, and you can just feel it, you know?” –Estevan
It’s no surprise, then, that the Gutiérrezes talk at least as much in visual references as they do about musical ones. And as a touring act they’ve taken in a lot of firsthand stimuli. “Part of what we’re doing is travelling together as brothers,” says Alejandro, “so we go to places, we come back and we’re feeling inspired, and we feel like we’ve gotta write something about this place.”
Their relationship as brothers is the other essential part of their music. Around the age of 9, Estevan first picked up a guitar. He started by studying classical guitar and says he was a fan of “old music from Ecuador,” which he played into his teens. Once he took up surfing, he got into Jack Johnson, but says he “always stayed with my salsa roots.” Eight years younger, Alejandro saw the power of music in his brother’s hands for as long as he can remember. “Our mom always got emotional when he was playing that old milonga kind of music,” he says about “those Argentinian pieces which are so beautiful.”
Working with Dan Auerbach and his stable of Nashville veterans, El Bueno Y El Malo marks the first time the brothers have collaborated with a producer or featured other musicians on an Hermanos Gutiérrez album.
In his 20s, Estevan moved to Ecuador to live with his grandparents. “I didn’t have a real plan,” he confesses. “I just went over, and I started to work in a salsa bar on the weekend.” There, he served drinks and worked security, spending the rest of his time surfing. “[It] was the best experience I ever had.”
Back in Switzerland, Alejandro picked up the guitar out of loneliness. “I just missed that sound in our house, so I started playing,” he explains. He started by teaching himself and, by 18, his parents gave him a classical guitar.
It wasn’t until just six years ago, when Alejandro moved to Zurich, that the brothers, once again living in the same place, started playing music together. “We were missing each other,” Alejandro explains. “Instantly, we were connecting through music.” Writing with just their electric guitars plugged direct into small amps—a Gibson CS-336 and a Fender Princeton Reverb for Estevan, and a Fender Stratocaster and Vox AC10 for Alejandro—he says they “always had this idea of having our own vinyl” because “it lasts forever, and you can pass it on to future generations.” In 2017, they recorded their debut, 8 Ãños.
Estevan Guttiérez’s Gear
It wasn’t until the brothers took a trip through the American Southwest that they realized the desert was their muse. Estevan explains, “It just blew our minds.”
Photo by Debi Del Grande
Guitars
- Gibson CS-336
- Gretsch 6120
- 1959 Gretsch 6120 “Rudy” (at Easy Eye Sound)
Amps
- Fender Deluxe Reverb
- Fender Princeton Reverb
- Vintage Magnatone (at Easy Eye Sound)
Effects
- Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
- MXR Dyna Comp
- Malekko Omicron Vibrato
- Strymon El Capistan
- Boss TR-2 Tremolo Analog Man mod
- Boss RC-300 Loop Station
Strings
- D’Addario EXL 115 (.011–.049)
Even on their first record, the Hermanos Gutiérrez established a strong, recognizable style. Estevan and Alejandro say their basic approach to writing and collaborating has never changed. “We have this invisible communication,” says Alejandro. “We don’t have to talk to each other that much. We feel it.” When writing, he explains, “we always know the other part is missing, this is the other brother’s part. We have this deep connection as brothers.” He adds that they never question their intuition. “We’re never looking for a particular sound or rhythm,” he says. “It’s never conceptual. It was never trying to have this sound. It’s just what it was.”
That’s not to say the project hasn’t evolved. Gear discoveries have helped them along their path. “When we started, we didn’t use any pedals,” says Estevan. “We just used the guitars and the amps. We were just two brothers playing guitar.” Eventually, Estevan discovered the Strymon El Capistan, a watershed that opened up creative possibilities. “I remember that day,” he reminisces about first playing the pedal. “I fell in love. I knew it was gonna change something in our sound.” As soon as he purchased the El Capistan, he says he called his brother and said, “You have to buy this. This is gonna be next level for us.”
“Part of what we’re doing is travelling together as brothers, so we go to places, we come back, and we’re feeling inspired, and we feel like we’ve gotta write something about this place.” – Alejandro
Part of the El Capistan’s allure, Alejandro explains, is that that they both found ways to approach the pedal differently. “I use it as a layer,” he explains. “Really subtle. My brother uses it more as a delay. He has this horse sound, like this galloping sound he can create with his slapping, which only he can do.”
That slapping is a percussive righthand technique that Estevan uses—not slapping of the funk variety. Rather, it’s the way he hits the strings when he’s strumming. Both Estevan and Alejandro are fingerpickers, which—and lots of credit to their classical-guitar backgrounds—means they have a variety of picking, strumming, and righthand attack techniques at their disposal. That includes using muted-string attacks for percussive effect, a relative of the early “bongo guitar” methods used by players such as Ray Crawford or Herb Ellis in drummer-less trio settings. While Alejandro credits his brother’s signature technique, they each do a variation on the move.
The Gutiérrezes’ rhythmic versatility casts a spell in live performance. There are few instrumental guitar duos out there who can make their audience dance and rock out. But when the Hermanos played Philadelphia in November, most of the near-capacity audience pulsed along with the music, with a small cohort breaking out into wavy, full-body interpretations.
Alejandro Guttiérez’s Gear
The brothers live in Switzerland, but they were back at Hollywood Forever for a Day of the Dead concert this fall. “Part of what we’re doing is travelling together as brothers,” says Alejandro, “so we go to places, we come back and we’re feeling inspired, and we feel like we’ve gotta write something about this place.”
Photo by Debi Del Grande
Guitars
- Fender Stratocaster
- Rickenbacker Electro NS lap steel
- Silvertone 1446
Amps
- Fender Deluxe Reverb
- Vox AC10
- Vintage Flot-A-Tone amp (at Easy Eye Sound)
Effects
- Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
- Boss GE-7 Equalizer
- Ceasar Diaz Texas Tremodillo
- MXR Dyna Comp
- Strymon El Capistan
- Electro-Harmonix Freeze
Strings & Picks
- Pyramid Gold Heavy (.013–.052)
In concert, it’s just as easy to zoom in on the finer details in the brothers’ music as it is to vibe out on a wave of rhythm. Both Estevan and Alejandro sound as though they’re reproducing the most life-affirming classic guitar tones—mythical, old-school sounds, like they’re contemporaries of Santo and Johnny (another pair of guitar- and steel-playing brothers)—which will draw in any armchair historian of guitar music. Of course, that’s one thing to capture on record, which they do, but it’s another, more impressive thing to do with some rented Deluxe Reverbs. Within those sounds, there are sonic details to catch, like how nuanced Estevan’s right-hand patterns can get, or how Alejandro manages to pluck the string on his lap steel with his thumbnail—he eschews fingerpicks on lap steel as well—to add a bright attack to just the right notes. At the Philadelphia show, most of those who weren’t dancing slowly lurched closer to the duo until, near the end, the brothers were encircled on the World Café’s narrowly defined stage by listeners who were seemingly enraptured by these subtleties.
No doubt, though, it’s the brothers’ chemistry that ultimately makes them sound magical, no matter what a listener is focused on. For El Bueno Y El Malo, Auerbach was careful not to disrupt any of that energy. Upon arriving at Easy Eye Sound, he didn’t dissect how they’d approach the session with the duo. Instead, Auerbach simply let them do their thing. “We entered the studio,” says Alejandro, “and we were recording after 20 minutes.” As soon as they plugged into their amps, Auerbach made a few level adjustments around them while they got a feel for the studio. “We didn’t even realize,” he adds. “We looked at Dan and he said, ‘From the top again,’ and we were recording. That was ‘El Bueno Y El Malo,’ it was the first take.”
Although much has been written about Auerbach’s studio, including in PG, it bears repeating that the producer/guitarist has curated not just a fine collection of gear in Easy Eye Sound, but a vibe. “The biggest thing you can hear on the record,” points out Estevan, “is Easy Eye Sound, which sounds kind of hilarious, but it is. You enter this studio, and you can just feel it, you know? So, this mixed with all these vintage amps and guitars and our flavors that we put together, it was like a soup that we were cooking. It’s beautiful. You can hear it and it sounds so special.”
Brothers Estevan (left) and Alejandro (right) Gutiérrez at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in May 2022.
Photo by Debi Del Grande
At Easy Eye, Alejandro used the house Flot-A-Tone amp and Estevan opted for a vintage Magnatone. He points out that the amp’s heralded vibrato is noticeable on the title track. Alejandro brought along his own vintage Silvertone 1446 and his Rickenbacker Electro NS lap steel—which he tunes by ear to each song, though he notes that he doesn’t keep track of his tunings. While Estevan brought his own modern Gretsch 6120, Auerbach offered his own 1958 Gretsch 6120, “Rudy,” which was too good to resist, and he used as his primary instrument for the record.
The duo finished their parts in just two and a half days, using several first takes. “We were not rushing things at all,” says Alejandro. “It was just really flowing perfectly.” With more time planned for the session, the brothers, who’d never worked with other musicians on their records, had plenty of ideas for how they would take advantage of Auerbach’s connections, and they brought in percussion, string, and organ players for overdubs.
“It’s never conceptual. It was never trying to have this sound. It’s just what it was.” –Alejandro
“It was so beautiful to work with these kinds of musicians,” says Estevan. “Everyone is on a high level. We felt like this is the right place for us.” Although other Auerbach productions might feature old-school session cats ripping solos and contributing key riffs, the additional production on El Bueno Y El Malo simply adds color and amplifies the magic that is already there. Auerbach and company deliver the perfect Easy Eye treatment—all ears are on the brothers.
With El Bueno Y El Malo, coming to Nashville to record has added to the brothers’ ongoing musical travelogue. Having come this far, it’s no surprise that the album stands as a major aesthetic statement for instrumental guitar music, and the definitive statement of Hermanos Gutiérrez. At least for now. When we spoke, they were getting ready for their U.S. tour, which would end in the Southwest. Both brothers acknowledged this trip would be a return to the source of their musical inspiration, a full-circle experience they were looking forward to. “It’s just beautiful where we can go with this music,” says Alejandro. “It’s just my brother and I together, and we’re so happy to have this.”
YouTube It
With a pair of hollowbodies in hand, Estevan and Alejandro seem to manifest the history of electric-guitar music in this intimate live taping of “El Bueno Y El Malo.”
Analog modulation guided by a digital brain willing to get weird.
Fun, fluid operation. Capable of vintage-thick textures at heavier gain settings. High headroom for accommodating other effects.
MIDI required to access more than one preset—which you’ll probably long for, given the breadth of voices.
$369
Kernom Elipse
If you love modulation—and lots of it—you can eat up a lot of pedalboard space fast. Modulation effects can be super-idiosyncratic and specialized, which leads to keeping many around, particularly if you favor the analog domain. TheKernom Elipse multi-modulator is pretty big and, at a glance, might not seem the best solution for real estate scarcity. Yet the Elipse is only about 1 1/4" wider than two standard-sized Boss pedals side by side. And by combining an analog signal path with digital control, it makes impressive, efficient use of its size—stuffing fine-sounding harmonic tremolo, phaser, rotary-style, chorus, vibrato, flanger, and Uni-Vibe-style effects into a single hefty enclosure. Many of the effects can also be blended and morphed into one another using a rotary control aptly called “mood.” The Elipse, most certainly, has many of those.
Modulator With Many Masks
Anywhere pedal hounds meet and chat you’ll encounter spirited talk about the way pedals sound relative to a certain gold standard. It makes sense. Benchmarks are useful for understanding anything. But one of the things I like best about the Kernom Elipse is how it eludes easy comparison to such standards, and how the fluidity of its controls make it sound unique. As with any review, I compared the Elipse to as many pedals as I have that are relevant. Here, that included an Ibanez analog chorus, Phase 90 and Small Stone phasers, an optical Uni-Vibe-style pedal, a Boss BF-2,Mu-Tron Phasor II clone, and more. But what made the Elipse stand out in this company was function as much as sound. Operating the Elipse with an open mind, rather than a quest to replicate another pedal’s sound, leads to intriguing, unique, and unusual tones more specialized modulators don’t always offer.
“The Elipse is pretty ambitious for an analog modulator, but doesn’t spread itself too thin.”
Three of the Elipse’s controls—speed, mix, and depth—function predictably. The latter two controls, however, change function depending on the pedal’s mood (or mode). In tremolo mode, setting the mix at noon generates complex, warbly, and elastic harmonic tremolo-like textures. At maximum, it shifts to a more binary, on/off sound akin to optical or bias tremolo. In chorus/vibrato mode, the noon position marks a 50/50 wet/dry mix of pitch shift and dry signal—the ingredients for any chorus. At maximum, the signal is 100 percent wet, yielding pure pitch-shift vibrato. The shape control, meanwhile, adjusts the LFO waveform. In tremolo mode that means moving between triangle- and sine-wave pulses. The swirl control is the wild card of the bunch. It adds big-time dimension to the Elipse in all modes. Through most of its range, it slathers slow phase on whatever modulation is already bubbling and burbling. In the latter third of its range, though, it also adds gain, and by the time you reach maximum, the output is discernibly thickened in the low-midrange zone. The gain and low-mid bump helps compensate for the perceived volume loss intrinsic to modulation. But they also excite different segments of the harmonic spectrum as you manipulate other modulation-shaping parameters—adding expansiveness as well as the thickness you might miss from vintage modulators.
Enunciation Modulation
Compared to many of the modulation pedals I used for contrast, the Elipse has a high-mid-forward voice. This frequency bias has advantages. It lends most of the Elipse’s modulation textures a clear, airy essence that keeps their character present when adding fuzz or big delay and reverb effects. It makes some modulations less chewy, but it’s also easy to imagine such textures slotting easily into a mix where some thicker analog modulators would gobble up harmonic space.
The basic EQ profile also makes it easier to probe the nuances in the “in-between” voices, living in the liminal spaces between pedal moods. When you start to play with these blended textures and various blends of drive, shape, mix, and depth, you encounter many sounds that veer from vintage templates in cool ways. Lathering on gain from the swirl control and lazy depth rates made the hybrid chorus/flange intense, dreamy, and enveloping. Similar blends of slow, heavy harmonic tremolo and rotary speaker sounded massive too.
The Verdict
The Elipse is pretty ambitious for an analog modulator, but doesn’t spread itself too thin. Players looking for one or two very specific modulation sounds might find the interrelationships between the Elipse’s controls too complex. The inability to save more than a single onboard preset without a MIDI switcher might frustrate guitarists used to all-digital pedals’ preset capabilities. Players that already have MIDI switchers in their rigs, however, could fall hard for the ability to switch between Elipse’s myriad, complex, analog-colored textures. With or without MIDI, it is an excellent analog modulator that offers colors galore.
Unleash your inner metal icon with the Jackson Lee Malia LM-87, a high-performance shred-ready axe designed in collaboration with Bring Me The Horizon guitarist Lee Malia. Featuring custom Jackson signature pickups, a fast D-profile neck, and a TOM-style bridge for rock-solid stability, this signature model is a must-have for commanding metal tone and smooth playability.
British metal icon and Bring Me The Horizon guitarist Lee Malia has partnered with Jackson to create his signature LM-87, a shred-ready axe built for heavy riffing and alternative modern metal. As a founding member and lead guitarist of the Grammy-nominated band, Malia is renowned for his aggressive playing style and intricate solos. This high-performance guitar matches his demanding musicality.
With its offset Surfcaster™ body shape and vintage appeal, the LM-87 melds classic design with modern appointments. The thin open pore finish on the bound Okoume body and neck exudes organic style, while the unique 3-ply pickguard and chrome hardware add striking accents. The fast D-profile 3- piece okoume neck allows smooth riffing across the bound amaranth fingerboard.
Custom Jackson signature pickups, including a bridge humbucker with push-pull coil-split, equip the LM-87 with versatile tone-shaping options to fulfill Malia's sonic vision. The TOM-style bridge with anchored tailpiece and fine tuners provides rock-solid stability for low tunings and heavy picking.
Designed in close collaboration with the legendary guitarist, the Jackson Lee Malia LM-87 is built for shredding. Its blend of vintage vibe and high-performance features make this signature model a must-have for players who value commanding metal tone and smooth playability.
The Tune-o-matic bridge with an anchored tailpiece and fine tuners offers enhanced tuning stability and precise, incremental adjustments. This setup ensures consistent pitch control, improved sustain, and easier fine-tuning without affecting overall string tension.
The guitar’s three-piece set-neck guitar with graphite reinforcement offers exceptional strength, stability, and resistance to warping. The multi-piece construction enhances sustain and tonal clarity, while the graphite reinforcement adds extra durability and prevents neck shifting due to humidity or temperature changes. This design ensures a solid, reliable performance with improved resonance and longevity.
Features Include:
- Okoume body
- Three-piece okoume set neck construction with graphite reinforcement
- 12"-16" compound radius amaranth fingerboard
- 3-ply pickguard
- Chrome hardware
- Custom wound Jackson LM-87 pickups
- Volume with push-pull coil-split and tone control
- TOM-style bridge with anchored tailpiece and fine tuners
- Gig bag included
The Jackson LM-87 carries a street price of $899.99.
For more information, please visit jacksonguitars.com.
Unleashing the Pro Series Signature Lee Malia LM-87 | Jackson Guitars - YouTube
Jackson Pro Series Signature Lee Malia LM-87 Electric Guitar - Open Pore Black
Pro Series Lee Malia Signature LM-87 Open Pore BlackThe Tone King Imperial Preamp Pedal delivers legendary vintage American tube tone with modern control. Featuring two channels mirroring '50s tweed and '60s blackface tones, built-in zero watt poweramp, stereo convolution spring reverb and tremolo, and low-latency impulse response technology. MIDI programmable with up to 128 presets for instant recall.
The Imperial All-Tube Preamp pedal delivers Tone King’s legendary MKII amplifier's '50s tweed, '60s blackface, and vintage British rock tones in a compact, pedalboard-friendly format. It features the exact preamp section and phase inverter circuitry of the Imperial MKII amp, as well as Reverb, Tremolo and Attenuation, resulting in a pedal that sings with harmonic richness and blooming touch response. Powered by three 12AX7 preamp tubes running at high voltage, this preamp delivers the amp's sound, responsiveness, and exquisite interaction with your pickups and effects. The onboard, low-latency impulse response (IR) loader (per channel), Headphones, easy integration and expansion with your existing gear, and MIDI capabilities, takes these iconic tones into the new era of guitar playing.
Legendary Vintage Tube Amp Tones
The Imperial Preamp Pedal features two distinct channels, each mirroring the '50s and '60s flavors of the Imperial MKII.
- The Rhythm Channel evokes the essence of a classic '60s blackface combo's pristine cleans with a touch-sensitive response that transitions smoothly into overdrive.
- The Lead Channel is inspired by the iconic tweed amps of the '50s’ with the ability to glide between warm articulate cleans and aggressive midrange bark. This channel's Mid-Bite control adds a further layer of tone shaping, focusing the low-end, while adding high-end presence and gain for a British-flavored rock crunch.
Built-In Zero Watt Poweramp - Phase Inverter
The Imperial Pre-Amp Pedal includes the exact phase inverter circuitry of the actual Imperial MKII amp, utilizing one of its three 12AX7 tubes. This built-in “0 watt poweramp” authentically provides the harmonic and dynamic content of the Tone King poweramp section. This revolutionary design is the cornerstone that delivers the ENTIRE Imperial MKII experience right on your pedal board.
Stereo Convolution Spring Reverb & Stereo Tremolo
Like its namesake amp, the Imperial Preamp boasts foot-switchable spring reverb and tremolo (digital on the preamp pedal) which are assignable to each channel. A signature of the Tone King Imperial MKII tube amplifier, these era-correct effects add dimension and movement while transporting you to a golden age of electric guitar tone.
Impulse Response (IR) Cabinet & Power Amp Sim
The Imperial Preamp pedal's low latency IR and power amp simulation technology delivers its tube tones directly to the front of house or your interface. That’s especially evident in the 15 included OwnHammer-made IRs. Each channel has three of our favorites, preloaded, and selectable via dual 3-way toggle switches.
OH 112 Imperial TK1660: Tone King 1660 speaker in a Tone King Imperial 1x12 combo. Captured using a Shure SM57, a Neumann U87, and a Royer 121 through '70s API 312 preamps.
OH 212 Class A Blue: Celestion Blues from 1963 in a Vox AC30 2x12 combo. Captured using a Shure SM57, a Neumann U87, and a Royer 121 through '70s API 312 preamps.
OH 412 Basketweave M25: Celestion G12M-25 speakers from 1971 in a basket-weave 1960B 4x12 cabinet. Captured using a Shure SM57, Telefunken MD421, and Royer 121.
There are 12 additional IRs to choose from in the included Tone King Editor software (powered by Synergy) which are easy to swap in and out of the pedal's six available slots. You can also disengage the onboard IR loader entirely to use the preamp with an external IR loader or powered cabinet.
Tone King Editor Software
You can assign the Reverb, Tremolo and IR to each of the channels right on the pedal itself, making it a powerful and easy-to-use sonic tool. Tone King offers an Editor software, powered by Synergy, which takes the Pre-Amp's capabilities to another level, allowing you to fine-tune all of the preamp's digitally controlled parameters and save them in up to 128 MIDI presets
- Control the independent power amp simulation HF Comp and Low-Pass filters
- Access all 15 included OwnHammer IRs• Easily load your own IRs and manage your IR library
- Assign any of your IRs to the pedal's six available slots (three per channel)• Control your reverb, reverb tails, tremolo and effects loop bypass settings• Save these settings to up to 128 presets for instant recall via MIDI
The Tone King Editor software also unlocks all of the Imperial Preamp's modern control. Fully MIDI-capable, you can save your presets and access them instantly with a MIDI pedalboard controller or the laptop running your entire show. It is the perfect marriage of modern control and classic tube tone.
Expanding Your Rig's Capabilities
The Imperial Preamp Pedal is the perfect DI recording and performing solution. But that's just scratching the surface.
Add Channels to Your Current Guitar Amplifier
A standout feature of the Imperial preamp pedal is its ability to easily integrate with your existing amplifiers (must have a series effects loop). A straightforward 3-cable connection is all it takes, and you can instantly alternate between the Imperial Preamp as your amp's front end or your amp's preamp channels.
Networking with Other Effects-Loop-Equipped Preamp Pedals
Create the ultimate pedalboard-based rig with other preamp pedals (with effects loops). Using the same 3-cable method, you get both Imperial channels, your other preamp’s tones, the Imperial's stereo effects loop, and its onboard IRs. Additionally, you can assign the Imperial's spring reverb and tremolo effects to your other preamp channels.
Classic American Tube Tone for Every Stage & Studio
Whether you're a gigging musician, a recording artist, or simply a tone enthusiast, the Tone King Imperial Preamp pedal offers endless possibilities. Use it as a standalone preamp for recording or for silent stages and practice, add its two channels to your existing amplifier, pair it with a power amp and cabinet to move some air, or combine it with other preamp pedals for an even wider range of pedalboard-based tones.
Tone King Imperial Preamp Pedal is the ultimate marriage of legendary, vintage American tube tone and modern control.
For more information, please visit toneking.com
Features
- Two Channel High-Voltage preamp – DI
- 3 x 12AX7 preamp tubes running at proper high voltages
- Built-In zero watt poweramp - phase inverter circuit
- Two channels with independent Volume and Attenuation controls
- Rhythm Channel (top)
- '60s-era American blackface combo tone
- Bass and Treble controls
- Lead Channel (Bottom)
- '50s-era American tweed combo and British rock tones
- Tone and Mid-Bite controls
- Spring Reverb (convolution)
- Reverb and Dwell controls
- Independently assignable to each channel
- Tremolo (digital)
- Depth and Speed controls
- Independently assignable to each channel
- Stereo, Series FX loop (bypassable)
- MIDI programmable
- Save up to 128 presets for instant recall via an external MIDI switcher
- Presets save:
- Channel selection
- Master bypass settingo IR selection
- IR bypass setting
- Effects loop bypass setting
- Reverb bypass and tails settings
- Tremolo bypass settings
- Onboard Impulse Response (IR) Technology
- Low-latency Impulse Response cabinet simulation (bypassable)
- 3-position CAB/IR select switch per channel (programmable via software)
- Included OwnHammer IRs
- Poweramp simulation with software editable HF Comp and Low-Pass filters (per channel)
- Connections:
- Dual stereo balanced XLR outputs with Ground Lift Switch
- ¼" Headphone output
- Effects Send and Stereo Return Jacks
- MIDI 5-pin standard connector
- USB-C connector for use with the included Tone King Editor software editor
- To Amp In, From Amp Send and From Amp Return Jacks – for adding Imperial channels to your amp or preamp
- Included
- 6’ USB Cable
- Universal 12V Power Supply
- Dimensions: 7.2” (W) x 5.7” (D) x 2.75” (H)
- Weight: 1.9 lbs.
With a bit of downtime back in Nashville, co-shredders-in-chief Megan and Rebecca Lovell joined Shred With Shifty to deconstruct their face-melting leads on “Summertime Sunset,” off of their 2022 record Blood Harmony.
The Georgia-born, Nashville-based roots-rock outfit Larkin Poe have had a busy year. Last summer, they toured across the U.S. supporting Slash, and released their seventh studio album, Bloom, on January 22. With a bit of downtime back in Nashville, co-shredders-in-chief Megan and Rebecca Lovell joined Shred With Shifty to deconstruct their face-melting leads on “Summertime Sunset,” off of their 2022 record Blood Harmony.
The Lovells grew up reading sheet music and learning violin via the Suzuki method—there was little room for going off the beaten path until they fell in love with Jerry Douglas’ dobro playing on Alison Krauss records. Rebecca took up the mandolin, while Megan went for the dobro and the slide side of things. It took a while for them to get comfortable turning up from their bluegrass roots, but eventually they built Larkin Poe’s amplified, blues-rock sound.
First up, Rebecca, playing a pristine ’60s SG, shows how she put together her stinging, fuzzy solo by “hunting and pecking out” melodies in her mind, building up the chops to follow her intuition. Then Megan, playing a Rickenbacker-inspired lap steel of her own design through a Rodenberg TB Drive, details her dizzyingly fast slide acrobatics, and her particular “rake” technique that she copped from Jerry Douglas and Derek Trucks.
Tune in to hear them talk about how to sustain family relationships while going professional, keeping music community-minded, and whether or not they’ll go back to bluegrass.
If you’re able to help, here are some charities aimed at assisting musicians affected by the fires in L.A:
https://guitarcenterfoundation.org
https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html
https://www.musiciansfoundation.org
https://fireaidla.org
https://www.musicares.org
https://www.sweetrelief.org
Credits
Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering Support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion
Video Editor: Addison Sauvan
Graphic Design: Megan Pralle
Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.