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December 2008 New Products

New products to drool over from Ernie Ball, Dean, Hartman, Goodsell, Breedlove, Jensen, Way Huge and more.


Ernie Ball Titanium Electric Strings

Ernie Ball is introducing new titanium coated electric strings. Ernie Ball’s titanium-reinforced coated electric strings combine the latest technological advances in string manufacturing. All wound strings are treated with a micro-thin layer of an exclusive enamel that prevents decay and corrosion up to five times more than uncoated sets. Titanium’s inherent strength prevents string breakage, string slippage, and is proven to keep your strings in tune better than conventional plain strings.

MSRP $17
Street $9-10
ernieball.com

Ernie Ball Titanium Electric Strings



Dean/Buddy Blaze MLDean/Buddy Blaze ML

Dean guitars and famed guitar designer and builder Buddy Blaze have teamed up and jointly created a custom Dean ML guitar. The Dean/Buddy Blaze ML is decorated with a chrome flame graphic and features a top-mount Floyd Rose tremolo similar to the one that Buddy installed in Dimebag’s world famous Dean From Hell. Other features include signature middle and bridge pickup positions loaded with a custom-wound Dean DMT pickup.

MSRP $1625 Street: $999
deanguitars.com




Hartman Electronics Tommy Bolin Signature Fuzz

With the assistance and cooperation of the Bolin family and estate, Hartman has recreated Tommy’s legendary fuzz tone. Beginning with an original model of Tommy’s go-to fuzz and refined against the original, isolated guitar tracks of Bolin master reels, the result is a 3-knob box of dynamite featuring a definitive palette of tones from deep within the Bolin zone. Controls include Attack, Tone and Volume.

MSRP $189.99
hartmanelectronicstore.com

Hartman Electronics Tommy Bolin Signature Fuzz



Goodsell Black Dog 50Goodsell Black Dog 50

From Richard Goodsell comes an all-new EL34-equipped amplifier that continues on the previously successful platforms of the Super 17 and 33 Custom amplifiers; simple and sensibly-priced tone, but this time with a little bite. The Black Dog 50, Goodsell’s first high-gain model, is a hand-made, point-to-point-wired guitar amp. Based on his favorite tones from the golden era of seventies rock, the Black Dog has the all the power and more, yet it can be dialed back to calm clarity using only your hands and the knobs on the guitar.

MSRP Head Only $1899
MSRP 2x12 combo w/Reverb $2799
superseventeen.com




New Breedlove Atlas Series

The all new Breedlove Atlas Series comes in four packages: Stage, Studio, Solo and Retro. These newly voiced instruments feature the all new LR Baggs Stage Pro Element pickup with a stealthy chromatic tuner. Each Solo model includes a fully voiced monitor side sound hole, which helps project a balanced sound. The Stage, Studio and Solo models are all braced for balance and reinforced with the bridge truss. Breedlove says all models are based upon traditional designs, and the geometry is focused on balance and power for bluegrass and spanky blues. Pictured: Stage C250/EF.

MSRP TBA
breedloveguitars.com

New Breedlove Atlas Series



Jensen Jet Electric LightningJensen Jet Electric Lightning

Jensen Musical Instrument Speakers is announcing their latest addition to the Jensen Jet series: the 12”, 70-watt Electric Lightning. Jensen says, the electric Lightning’s tone is straightforward and powerful with fat lows, throaty mids and crisp, bright highs. They say it is a true in-yourface rock n’ roll speaker that can handle the heaviest of playing styles and is designed for loud applications.

Street $107.10
jensentone.com




Voodoo Labs Wahzoo

Voodoo Lab has announced the release of Wahzoo, which combines vintage wah tones, a funk-approved Autowah, and a unique programmable Stepwah. Wahzoo delivers three filter-based effects all in a single, versatile pedal. Vintage mode has all the clarity and expressiveness of classic sixties-era pedals. Autowah mode is the classic dynamic-based effect, but rather than utilizing a generic bandpass filter, it’s based around the vintage wah’s voicing. Stepwah mode automatically jumps through different wah treadle positions as a rhythmic pattern. You can create and save four sequences of up to 28 different wah positions each.

MSRP $400
voodoolab.com

Voodoo Labs Wahzoo



Way Huge ReissuesWay Huge Reissues

Way Huge pedals is reissuing some updated classics: the Swollen Pickle MkII, the Fat Sandwich and the Pork Loin.

The Swollen Pickle MkII adds a tone stack Scoop control that elicits classic Swollen Pickle mid-scoop or a flat mid-frequency sweep, and a Crunch knob to adjust the compression intensity of the fuzz. Under the hood, the Swollen Pickle MkII has two internal mini controls; Voice sets the intensity of the external scoop control from light to heavy mid cut, and Clip varies between two sets of clipping diodes for smooth or opened fuzz sustain.

The Fat Sandwich has an innovative multi-stage clipping circuit. The passive tone stack was tuned to bring out the “sweet spot” with any guitar and amp combination. The Volume control produces tons of output, making it ideal for driving the headroom out of the most powerful tube amps. Additionally, the Fat Sandwich has two internal mini controls: the Curve knob lets the user fine-tune the corner frequency of the overdrive filtering and the Sustain control adjusts the gain of the final distortion stage.

The Pork Loin incorporates two distinct tonal pathways that are blended together—a modern soft clipping overdrive and a modified classic British preamp for clean. At the heart of the overdrive path is a soft clipped BiFET overdrive gain stage with a passive Tone control, rounded out by a Curve function that fine-tunes the corner frequencies. The Volume control regulates the output while the Clean control blends in its warm glistening clean tones. Additionally, the Pork Loin has three internal mini controls: Filter and Voice deliver extensive tonal shaping possibilities, while the overdrive Mix control allows the Pork Loin to be run as a clean preamp.

Swollen Pickle MkII Street: $159.99
Fat Sandwich Street: $179.99
Pork Loin Street: $169.99
wayhuge.com


Day 9 of Stompboxtober is live! Win today's featured pedal from EBS Sweden. Enter now and return tomorrow for more!

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In our annual pedal report, we review 20 new devices from the labs of large and boutique builders.

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A 26 1/4" scale length, beastly pickups, and buttery playability provoke deep overtone exploration and riotous drop-tuning sounds.

A smooth, easy player that makes exploring extra scale length a breeze. Pickups have great capacity for overtone detail. Sounds massive with mid-scooped fuzz devices.

Hot pickups can obscure some nuance that the wealth of overtones begs for.

$1,499

Reverend Billy Corgan Drop Z
reverendguitars.com

4
4.5
5
4

No matter how strong your love for the guitar, there are days when you stare at your 6-string and mutter under your breath, “Ugh … you again?” There are many ways to rekindle affection for our favorite instruments. You can disappear to Mexico for six months, noodle on modular synths, or maybe buy a crappy vintage car that leaves you longing for the relative economy of replacing strings instead of carburetors. But if you don’t want to stray too far, there are also many variations on the 6-string theme to explore. You can poke around on a baritone, or a 6-string bass, or multiply your strings by two until you reach jingle-jangle ecstasy.

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A familiar-feeling looper occupies a sweet spot between intuitive and capable.

Intuitive operation. Forgiving footswitch feel. Extra features on top of basic looping feel like creative assets instead of overkill.

Embedded rhythm tracks can sneak up on you if you’re not careful about the rhythm level.

$249

DigiTech JamMan Solo HD
digitech.com

4.5
4.5
4.5
4

Maybe every guitarist’s first pedal should be a looper. There are few more engaging ways to learn than playing along to your own ideas—or programmed rhythms, for that matter, which are a component of the new DigiTech JamMan Solo HD’s makeup. Beyond practicing, though, the Solo HD facilitates creation and fuels the rush that comes from instant composition and arrangement or jamming with a very like-minded partner in a two-man band.

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