Our featured reader designed this guitar with doom metal in mind, then farmed out the building of its components to various companies.
I had Warmoth make the body (rear-routed to avoid the need for a pickguard), and had them paint it as well. They did an amazing job. The neck was made by the Electrical Guitar Company. They were kind enough to put some Gotoh locking tuners on there for me as well. There are a few companies making these necks now, but I thought their headstock looked the coolest. It went in the neck pocket with minimal adjustment. Both took about three months from order to delivery.
When you only have one pickup, you kind of have to choose wisely. After a bit of agonizing, I finally decided on a Lace Matt Pike Signature “Dragonauts” pickup. I figured if it’s good enough for Matt, it should work for me. It sounds amazing and articulate enough through an ungodly amount of fuzz.
Since this is a Jazzmaster, it seemed natural to go with a Mastery bridge and tremolo. I’m not normally a big wiggle-stick guy, but it’s fun to give things a bit of warbly flavor every now and then. It’s probably not the first choice for most metal players, and it initially felt a little strange palm-muting, but it works for me. It stays in tune, and it’s way less fiddly than a Floyd. Mastery makes that awesome space-age-looking tremolo arm tip, too, which I think really sets this thing off.
Reader and guitar designer Erik Sheppard.
“I think the cool kids use even heavier strings, but these work fine, and I stopped being cool a long time ago anyway.”
I added some standard pots and knobs and Schaller strap locks, and it was done. I’ve got Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky .012–.056 strings on there (since the guitar lives in C standard), which are just fat enough to not be floppy, without feeling like telephone lines. I think the cool kids use even heavier strings, but these work fine, and I stopped being cool a long time ago anyway.
The whole thing cost about 2,300 bucks, including a few hundred for some help from the folks at Strait Music here in Austin, who are always amazing. I was a bit paranoid about drilling into the body and potentially screwing up the finish, so I enlisted the pros.
My only complaint is that this thing is an absolute beast, at about 11 pounds, which is a lot heavier than I’d prefer, but a wide Levy’s strap makes it a bit easier to shoulder. It looks, sounds, and plays exactly as I wanted it to, so I’m quite happy with how it turned out.A flexible multi-effect pedal that takes inspiration from the eccentricity of vintage recording technology and delivers it through an intuitive user interface.
Chroma Console offers 20 stereo effects, organized into 4 discrete modules: Character (dynamics and distortion), Movement (modulation), Diffusion (time-based effects) and Texture (collection of textural effects). The modules can be used independently or in combination, offering users a wide-ranging sonic palette in the studio or on stage.
With Chroma Console, users can easily re-order effect modules and experiment with different signal chains. This encourages experimentation, like processing reverb through a fuzz, running a reverse delay into a pitch shifter, or sending the evocative, gritty sound of an aging cassette recorder into a stereo double-tracker.
Other unique Chroma Console offerings include GESTURE, a hands-on modulation tool that allows you to record and loop knob movements in real-time. CAPTURE, a 30-second looper, can be used to create ephemeral loops or looped musical phrases.
Hologram Electronics Chroma Console
Features
- Designed and assembled by hand in Knoxville, TN
- Up to 80 user presets for instant recall of your favorite sounds.
- Power via 500mA 9V center-negative adapter (included with pedal)
- Configurable bypass settings: buffered, buffered with trails, true bypass switching
- TRS expression input mappable to any primary control
- Automatic input calibration for use with instrument level and line level sources
Chroma Console is available for $399 USD exclusively on Hologram’s website: www.hologramelectronics.com.
Boris announces Amplifier Worship Service Tour across North America, performing all songs from their first album. Featuring two drummers and Starcrawler as support, tickets on sale April 26th.
This fall, Boris will trek across North America performing all of the songs off of their beloved first album, Amplifier Worship. Featuring two drummers and an extended backline, this will be a Boris tour not to miss. Starcrawler will support all shows and tickets go on sale Friday, April 26th at 10am local time— a complete list of tour dates can be found below.
Boris has been in constant pursuit of their own ideal “heavy” since their formation in 1992. From the outset they became like a chimera, evolving at a rapid pace, establishing a unique style with extreme down tuning and mega volume. Their broad sense of “Heavy Rock” swelled grotesquely, as it engulfed powerviolence, ambient and drone, with a trance component of krautrock and so on.
From Tokyo to the world, Boris spread out from the underground community to have their name become more widely known. Five years after their formation, Boris went deep into the beyond of heavy music to make their first album, one that can be said to be a palace constructed in unexplored realms. However, the album by no means serves as a peaceful "end" or resting place/"gravestone" for those compositions. Rather, it was a map to the “beyond” that Boris drew up at the time, a blueprint pointing to the future. 25 years after the release of Amplifier Worship, that guidance has been revealed: a full length tour for performing all of the songs on the album in a double-drum-format Drone Set.
As a pioneering effort in Drone Metal, a palace under the name of Amplifier Worship was constructed and revealed as both a point of departure as well as a destination. Amplified oscillations and volume, going from anguish to pleasure and back, being in fear as well as in awe at what can be called heavy— we venture into this palace of worship together.
For this tour Boris are taking along Starcrawler, a band that "...intensifies the prayer of rock 'n' roll. This only takes us further into the beyond, embarking on this worship service. Welcome to the ceremony!" comments Boris.
Look for more exciting news from Boris to arrive very soon.
For more information, please visit borisheavyrocks.com.
Boris, Amplifier Worship Service Tour Dates:
September 25 San Diego, CA @ Music Box
September 26 Los Angeles, CA @ Belasco
September 27 Pomona, CA @ Glass House
September 28 Fresno, CA @ Strummer's
September 29 San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
October 1 Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
October 2 Seattle, WA @ Showbox
October 4 Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Hall
October 6 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
October 8 Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
October 9 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
October 10 Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium
October 11 Chicago, IL @ Ramova Theatre
October 12 Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
October 13 St. Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall
October 15 Grand Rapids, MI @ Elevation
October 16 Detroit, MI @ St. Andrew's Hall
October 17 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
October 18 Pittsburgh, PA @ Tunderbird Music Hall
October 19 Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
October 21 Boston, MA @ Paradise
October 22 Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
October 23 New York, NY @ Racket
October 24 Baltimore, MD @ Soundstage
October 25 Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle
October 26 Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
October 27 Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
October 29 Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater
October 30 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live Midtown
November 2 Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole
November 3 Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre