RatingsPros:Delivers big-amp feel in a compact combo. Beautifully well-built. Versatile voicing switch. Effective attenuator. Cons: Lacks the tremolo that many love in black-panel combos. Street: $2,490 Carr Super Bee carramplifiers.com
| Tones:  Ease of Use:  Build/Design: Value:  |
Summoning big-amp tones from smaller, lighter, less-window-rattling amplifiers is now a top priority for many amp builders. For some of these manufacturers, that quest takes the shape of getting convincing high-gain sounds out of a less potent circuit. But Carr's new Super Bee takes on an arguably more challenging task: making the sound, dynamic response, and complex tone nuances of Fender's big Super Reverb into a less hefty whole.
Crank It Down
The original Fender Super Reverb 4x10 is a pretty loud 40-watt amp. So to rein in the power while retaining a Super's thumping push-pull feel, Carr employs a pair of unusual 6BM8 output tubes, rather than 6L6s. They generate only 10 watts between them, but when you push them hard they yield surprisingly full-throated response. The front end includes a traditional 12AX7 preamp tube. A Fender-inspired spring reverb is powered by another 12AX7 and a 12AT7. And because those unusual 6BM8 tubes each house both a preamp triode and an output pentode in the same bottle, they perform phase-inverter duties as well. A 9-pin EZ81 tube takes care of rectification.
Two key features further distinguish the Super Bee from a vintage Fender. First is Carr's fourth generation attenuator, which takes the output down to 2 watts, or a near-silent setting. Then there's the 3-way Sting switch that offers three voices: “64," which is scooped and shimmering; “68," which is a thicker, classic black-panel voice; and “72," which delivers higher gain and greater midrange emphasis.
The solid pine cabinet measures 21"x17.75"x10" but tapers beautifully to 9" deep at the top. The trapezoidal speaker cut-out is a distinctive retro-design touch. And the vertical central racing stripe (our review amp features a tasty two-tone of cream with a Carolina-blue stripe) and the Super Bee name are another cool Carr nod to '60s muscle car culture. The speaker is a 12" Eminence-made Carr Valiant, though a 10" Eminence Copperhead is also available. Inside, the Super Bee is classically Carr: point-to-point wiring, a bundle of high-end components including Jupiter capacitors, and American-made transformers by Chicago's TMI, who have built transformers since 1949.
Sting Like a…
Matched to a Fender Stratocaster, a Gibson Les Paul, and a Collings I-35 LC, the Super Bee fast made it clear how thoroughly Steve Carr attained his design goals. Classic black-panel sounds might seem, for some, an unoriginal jumping-off point. But the Super Bee feels both familiar and full of possibilities. It delivers big, sparkling clean tones, meaty twang, and deep output-stage overdrive—which are all easy to fine-tune via the simple 3-band EQ and the Sting switch voices. The resulting combination of bite, articulation, and compression is positively addictive. It's difficult to switch this amp off once you get into a groove.
Obviously, one of the main attractions of a vintage black-panel Super Reverb is the volume and pronounced low end you get from the 4x10 speaker configuration. But apart from the Carr's essentially lower volume, you shouldn't expect anything less than a genuine black-panel experience. The reverb is lush and full. And though it sometimes feel like it comes on a bit strong at lower levels, you'll never worry about having too little reverb to replicate the surf-ier side of the vintage Fender experience. The amp also interacts with overdrive pedals wonderfully. Even at just 10 watts, full-power mode gives you enough gas to hang with a drummer. But if there's no band to compete with, the attenuated sounds deliver much of the same richness, overdrive characteristics, and stout playing feel at quieter volumes.
The Verdict
On the surface, the Super Bee might seem to do relatively little for the price. There's no channel switching, no effects loop, no high gain switch, and no master volume—yet that's exactly the point: the amp just flat out sounds great, and enables players to rediscover a classic tone and feel that can be hard to achieve in intimate gigging and recording environments that require lower volume. The Sting switch also significantly extends its versatility, delivering three distinctive amp voices in one. When it comes to providing exquisite American-style big-amp tone in a manageably sized combo, the Super Bee is a total success, and one of the most inspiring amps I've played in quite some time.
Watch our First Look demo:
Diamond Pedals Dark Cloud
True to the Diamond design ethos of our dBBD’s hybrid analog architecture, Dark Cloud unlocks a new frontier in delay technology which was once deemed unobtainable by standard BBD circuit.
Powered by an embedded system, the Dark Cloud seamlessly blends input and output signals, crafting Tape, Harmonic, and Reverse delays with the organic warmth of analog companding and the meticulous precision of digital control.
Where analog warmth meets digital precision, the Dark Cloud redefines delay effects to create a pedal like no other
“I‘m so excited about this new venture with the Jackson family. This is a historic collaboration - as I am the first female in the history of Jackson with a signature guitar and the first female African American signature Jackson artist. I feel so honored to have now joined such an elite group of players that are a part of this club. Many who have inspired me along this journey to get here. It’s truly humbling.” says Diamond.
Diamond Rowe is the co-founder and lead guitarist for the metal/hard rock band Tetrarch. Since co-founding the band in high school, Tetrarch has become one of the most talked about up-and-coming bands in the world - with several press outlets such as Metal Hammer, Kerrang, Revolver, Guitar World and many others boldly naming Diamond Rowe the world’s next guitar hero. Tetrarch has connected with many fans while performing on some of the world's biggest stages garnering spots alongside several of the heavy music world’s biggest names such as Guns N’ Roses, Slipknot, Lamb of God, Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, Sevendust, Rob Zombie, Trivium, and many many others. The Jackson Pro Series Signature Diamond Rowe DR12MG EVTN6 is based on Jackson’s single-cut Monarkh platform and is a premium guitar designed for progressive metal players seeking precision and accuracy.
Crafted in partnership with Diamond, this model boasts a 25.5 “ scale, Monarkh-styled nyatoh body draped with a gorgeous poplar burl top, three-piece nyatoh set-neck with graphite reinforcement, and 12˝ radius bound ebony fingerboard with 24 jumbo frets. The black chrome-covered active EMG® 81/85 humbucking bridge and neck pickups, three-way toggle switch, single volume control, and tone control provide a range of tonal options. The Evertune® bridge ensures excellent tuning stability, while the Dark Rose finish with a new custom 3+3 color-matched Jackson headstock and black hardware looks simply stunning.
To showcase the Pro Plus Signature Diamond Rowe DR12MG EVTN6, Diamond shares her journey as a guitarist, delving into the inspiration behind her unique design specifications and the influential artists who shaped her sound within a captivating demo video. This video prominently features powerful performances of Tetrarch’s latest release, “Live Not Fantasize,” and “I’m Not Right” showcasing the DR12MG EVTN6’s unparalleled tonal versatility and performance capabilities.
MSRP $1699.99
For more information, please visit jacksonguitars.com.
Tetrarch's Diamond Rowe Unveils Her New Signature Pro Series DR12MG EVTN6 | Jackson Guitars - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.Jackson Pro Series Signature Diamond Rowe Electric Guitar - Dark Rose
Cory Wong—a funky player with his own signature-model Strat wiring.
Guitarist, songwriter, and producer Cory Wong is renowned for his solo work, his band Fearless Flyers (with Mark Lettieri, Joe Dart, and Nate Smith), and collaborations with artists such as Vulfpeck, Jon Batiste, and Dave Koz. His playing style is deeply rooted in funk rhythm guitar, with a heavy dose of rock and jazz. Well-known for playing a Stratocaster, his signature model was released in 2021, and it’s a unique offering. If you want to build your personal Cory Wong Strat, here is your shopping list, starting with the primary structure:
• Alder body, scaled down to slightly smaller than a regular Stratocaster, with Fender American Ultra body contours
• Maple neck with a rosewood fretboard with rolled edges, modern Fender American Ultra D neck profile, slightly larger headstock, 25.5" scale, 10" to 14" compound radius, 22 medium jumbo frets
• Locking tuners with all short posts, a bone nut, and two roller string trees
• Vintage-style 6-screw synchronized tremolo
• Hair tie around the tremolo springs (which mutes them to enhance the rhythm tone)
• .010–.046 strings (nickel-plated steel)
“While these are all interesting features, resulting in a very comfortable guitar, you don’t need to copy every detail to transform one of your Stratocasters into a Cory Wong-style Strat.”
For the physical build, as you can see, Wong and Fender created a real signature instrument to his specs and wishes. While these are all interesting features, resulting in a very comfortable guitar, you don’t need to copy every detail to transform one of your Stratocasters into a Cory Wong-style Strat. My personal favorite of these is the hair tie for muting the tremolo springs. A lot of my funk-playing customers are doing similar things on their Strats to get a dry sound, and they’re using all kinds of funny things in there, like foam, rubber bands, and pieces of cotton, as well as hair ties.
Now, let’s have a look at the electronics:
• Seymour Duncan Cory Wong Clean Machine SSS pickup set
• Standard 5-way pickup-selector switch with classic Strat switching matrix
• 250k master volume pot with a 90/10 audio taper and Fender treble-bleed circuit PCB
• 250k tone pot with a 90/10 audio taper and Fender Greasebucket tone control PCB for only the neck pickup
• 250k audio push-push tone pot with Fender Greasebucket tone control PCB for only the bridge pickup; the push-push switch overrides the 5-way switch and defaults to middle + neck pickup (in parallel) as a preset
• Middle pickup is without tone control
Let’s break this down piece-by-piece to decode it:
Pickups
The pickup set is a custom SSS set from the Seymour Duncan company with the following specs:
• Overwound hum-canceling stacked bridge pickup with a 3-conductor wire and shield in permanent hum-canceling mode (red wire taped off), bevelled alnico 5 magnets, approximately 14.5k-ohm DCR
• Overwound middle single-coil, RWRP, beveled alnico 4 magnets, approximately 7.1k-ohm DCR
• Overwound neck single-coil, bevelled alnico 4 magnets, approx. 7.0k-ohm DCR
The pickups are voiced for clear highs, which perfectly suits Wong’s funky playing style and tone. While a lot of pickup companies will have pickups in that ballpark, it will be difficult to put together a full set that really works as intended. The Duncans in the Cory Wong Strat are available as a balanced set, so if you want to get as close as possible, I think this is your best bet.
5-Way Pickup Selector Switch
Nothing special here, just the standard 5-way switch with two switching stages that is wired like a classic Stratocaster:
bridge
bridge + middle in parallel
middle
middle + neck in parallel
neck
The upper tone pot is assigned to the neck pickup, while the lower tone pot is connected to the bridge pickup, leaving the middle pickup without tone control.
Master volume pot and treble-bleed circuit.
The 250k master volume pot is a standard CTS pot with a 90/10 audio taper found in all U.S.-made Fender guitars. The volume pot has the treble-bleed circuit from the Fender American Pro series, but uses a ready-to-solder PCB from Fender instead of individual electronic parts. The PCB is available from Fender individually (part #7711092000), but I have some thoughts about it. While using a PCB makes a lot of sense for mass production, it has some downsides for us mortal human beings:
• Soldering on PCBs requires some training and also special soldering tools.
• The PCB is quite expensive, while the individual electronic parts are only a few cents.
• The PCB uses ultra-tiny surface-mount parts, so it’s very difficult to repair or mod it to your personal taste.
I don’t think we need a PCB for adding a treble-bleed circuit, so let’s do this project using conventional electronic parts. The treble-bleed PCB contains a 1200 pF capacitor with a 150k-ohm resistor in parallel, plus another 20k-ohm resistor in series. Using individual parts, it looks like this:
Courtesy of single-coil.com
In general, a treble-bleed circuit will help you to combat the “volume vs. tone problem” when using passive single-coil pickups. When you turn down the volume (even just a bit), the high end or treble loss is not proportionate. In other words, a small cut in volume creates a far greater loss in your guitar’s treble response. Using a treble-bleed circuit is an easy way to get rid of this problem, as long as it is calculated carefully.
ONLINE ONLY: If you want to find out more about treble bleed circuits please have a look here: https://www.premierguitar.com/diy/mod-garage/treble-bleed-mod
Next month, we will continue with part two of the Cory Wong Stratocaster wiring, bringing it all together, so stay tuned!
Until then ... keep on modding!