Huntington Park, CA (April 10, 2017) -- Dave Friedman’s Dirty Shirley Mini is a 20-watt, ultra-compact, 1x10 version of the popular full-sized Dirty Shirley which was designed for guitarists that want a vintage tone inspired by British tube amps from the '60s and '70s but in a compact size and weight.
The Dirty Shirley Mini is fueled by a pair of EL84 power tubes and includes a three position gain structure switch. This little beast delivers vintage crunch and cleans up nicely by simply backing off the guitar’s volume knob. Extremely versatile, this amp is capable of producing many styles of music from blues to rock and country by adjusting the gain knob, structure switch and master controls.
Loaded with a Celestion Greenback 10" speaker the Dirty Shirley captures the legendary sound of Celestion's 1970s 10s with a surprisingly meaty tone. The G10 Greenback features a complex, full-bodied tone with creamy mid-range, smooth, vintage top-end and rich in low-end thump.
The Dirty Shirley Mini was designed to take pedals well and loves boosts, OD’s, phasers, flangers, tremolos and wahs. The brand new ultra transparent series effects loop takes time-based effects pedals and rack units equally well. The handcrafted in USA Dirty Shirley Mini features beautiful black tolex, tongue and groove Baltic Birch construction and built to withstand the rigors of the road.
Features:
- Hand-wired in the USA
- 1 x 10" Combo
- 20-watt, all-tube head
- Single channel
- 2 x EL84 power tubes
- 3 x 12AX7 preamp tubes
- Gain, Master, Bass, Middle and Treble
- Three position gain structure switch
- Ultra transparent series FX loop
- 4, 8, and 16 ohm Impedance selector switch
- Celestion G10 Greenback Loaded
- Custom USA made transformers
- Limited Lifetime Warranty
- Dimensions: 9.5" (D) x 15.5" (W) x 16.5" (H)
- Weight: 30 lbs
The Friedman Pink Taco is the baby sister to the critically acclaimed BE-100, created for the many musicians who have been begging for the Friedman sound in a small, compact, lightweight, manageable format.
The Pink Taco is a super versatile hand-wired, 20-watt, EL84-powered, single-channel fire breather that is capable of producing many styles of music from blues to classic rock to heavy metal by merely adjusting the gain and master controls. Loaded with a Celestion Greenback 10" speaker, recaptures the legendary sound of Celestion's 1970s 10s with a surprisingly meaty tone. The G10 Greenback features a complex, full-bodied tone with creamy mid-range, smooth, vintage top-end and rich in low-end thump.
Many people don’t believe a 20-watt amp can deliver the tight bottom end and midrange that a 100-watt amp can produce. The Pink Taco proves otherwise! Friedman designed this amp to sound like a 100-watt monster, utilizing custom transformers and the cleanest possible signal path. The Pink Taco Mini Combo now features a Three position gain structure switch which lowers the overall gain of the amplifier.
Plug into the Pink Taco and you will instantly notice the harmonically rich detailed chords and resonating single note lines. This amp cleans up exceptionally well with the guitar’s volume knob, even with the amp on higher gain settings.
The Pink Taco was designed to take pedals well and loves boosts, OD’s, phasers, flangers, tremolos and wahs. The brand new ultra transparent series effects loop takes time-based effects pedals and rack units equally well. The handcrafted in USA Pink Taco features beautiful black tolex, tongue and groove Baltic Birch construction and built to withstand the rigors of the road.
Features:
- Hand-wired in the USA
- 1 x 10" Combo
- Celestion G10 Greenback loaded
- 20-Watt all tube head
- One channel
- 2 x EL-84 power tubes
- 3 x 12AX7 preamp tubes
- Gain, Master, Bass, Middle and Treble
- Three position gain structure switch
- Ultra transparent series FX loop
- Speaker Outs: 1 x 16 Ohms and 2 x 8 Ohms
- Custom USA made transformers
- Limited Lifetime Warranty
- Dimensions: 9.5" (D) x 15.5" (W) x 16.5" (H)
- Weight: 30 lbs.
For more information:
Friedman Amplification
The LR Baggs AEG-1 represents a highly versatile, forward-thinking approach to acoustic guitar luthierie. It sports a streamlined body shape with built-in electronics and pickup/microphone settings, providing a wide range of tones suitable for different playing environments and musical styles.
"The reason for AEG-1’s groundbreaking performance is its patent pending integrated neck support system that frees the guitar’s top and back from the need to support the neck. This allows Baggs unprecedented freedom to voice the top and back of each guitar to maximize the acoustic response, achieving a full-bodied sound from a slim and comfortable design. With greater structural integrity, more string energy is driven into the top, resulting in a wider dynamic range, greater tonal depth, enhanced low-frequency response, and improved tuning stability."
The AEG-1’s electronics feature an all-discrete studio grade preamp with a multi-pole crossover system that seamlessly blends the HiFi Pickups and Silo Mic for an inspiring feel and sound in any position – ranging between direct and natural to open and airy,and everywhere in between. As with all LR Baggs electronics, you can expect wonderful warmth, purity, low noise, and long battery life. The system’s three-knob side-mounted controls offer quick access to master volume, pickup/mic blend, tone shaping, phase inversion, and a battery life indicator.
Features
- Three different gloss-finished options for top wood: Torrefied Sitka Spruce, Natural Engelmann Spruce, or Sunburst Sitka Spruce
- Indian Rosewood back, with composite poplar frame body
- African Mahogany neck wood carved in a slim “C” shape
- Indian Rosewood fretboard with 16” radius, 25-5/8” (651mm) scale length and 20 frets
- Indian Rosewood bridge with composite saddle
- Nut width is 1.7” (43mm)made of composite material, with closed back tuners
- Onboard electronics/pickup system: Custom HiFi Duet with HiFi Pickups and Silo Microphone
- Full-sized body similar to a dreadnought-style guitar with scalloped X bracing, slim profile 2-1/2” body depth, and carved beveled armrest for extra comfort
- Utilizes single 9-volt with approximately 120-hour life
The Baggs AEG-1 Acoustic Electric Guitar is the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to high-performance acoustic amplification, all rooted in the craftsmanship of a luthier. Our founder and master luthier, Lloyd Baggs, began his journey as a guitar maker, creating instruments for artists like Ry Cooder, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, and Janis Ian. His deep respect for the guitar evolved into a quest to faithfully amplify his own instruments for live performance.
After years of studying the physics of acoustic instruments and pioneering advancements in pickups and electronics, the Baggs AEG-1 is the realization of everything we’ve learned about acoustic sound and amplification. Lloyd’s dual expertise as a luthier and a pickup designer allowed us to craft a guitar and its electronics in harmony, finely tuning the system for this instrument.
Lloyd Baggs, founder of LR Baggs and Baggs Guitars, describes the journey that has led to his newest creation: “My desire to faithfully amplify the acoustic guitars I was building as a luthier led to the creation of our pickup company. It became my life’s work to eliminate every obstacle to playing live acoustic guitar easy, inspiring, and fun. The AEG-1 is the realization of this philosophy and I’m incredibly proud of this instrument. I hope it brings you inspiration and joy for years to come!”
Designed in California and manufactured in South Korea, the Baggs AEG-1 carries a street price of $1599.
For more information, please visit lrbaggs.com.
Trey Hensley | Baggs AEG-1 First Listen - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.LR Baggs AEG-1 Acoustic-electric Guitar - Torrefied Spruce Top
Or you can check out the Reverend Billy Corgan Drop Z. At a glance, the Drop Z may not look like much of a cure for the 6-string doldrums. But pick it up and you’ll feel the difference fast. The Drop Z is built around a 26 1/4" scale and a 24-fret neck that makes this Reverend feel like a very different instrument. Designed and optimized for use with drop tunings, it opens the doors to whole palace ballrooms full of new musical possibilities.
Beastly Blue and Easy To Use
If the feel of the Drop Z alone doesn’t dislodge you from a guitar rut, there’s a good chance that its pretty profile would compel you to pick it up and play. It’s a handsome instrument. The conservatively chambered alder body (it’s routed at the bass and treble horns) is clad in a very pretty twilight-blue-meets-ocean-turquoise glossy finish, which is complimented perfectly by the brushed-aluminum pickguard. The chambered body definitely helps with the weight; the Drop Z is a little less than eight pounds. It also helps the guitar feel very balanced. There’s not a hint of neck dive. And if it weren’t for the discernibly longer stretch you make to reach the first fret, it would feel as familiar and comfortable as a nice Stratocaster.
The medium-oval neck, which is satin-finished maple with a maple fretboard, is a pleasure. It feels substantial and fast, and getting around its expanse is facilitated by a perfect setup. The 12" fretboard radius and jumbo frets also add to the Drop Z’s easy-breezy feel. Big bends require little more effort than they would on a normal scale, and I never felt the urge to squeeze a note to compensate for the weird intonation issues big frets and long scales can cause. From first fret to 24th, playing the Drop Z is an easy glide.
The Drop-Z pickups are a modified version of the Railhammer Billy Corgan Z-One pickups in his other Billy Corgan signature Reverends. The pickups’ impedance is rated at 14.5 ohms, which suggests a pretty hot unit. In this incarnation, the Z-One pickups are tuned for even more output and smoother treble. That’s a good idea for a pickup designed with heavy musical settings in mind.
Fangs on Cue, but Mellon Collie, Too
Though the Drop Z is easy to play in a getting-around-the-fretboard sense, plugging and turning up may take adjustments in approach and attitude. As the pickups’ impedance rating suggests, the Railhammer Z-Ones have a lot of hop, and as the expansive lengths of string resonate impressively, you’ll hear a lot of very present treble overtones. I spent most of my time with the instrument in a C# modal tuning or C–G–D–G–B–B, and in each tuning the Drop Z rumbled impressively (particularly through a late-’60s Fender Bassman head, which is a beautiful, burly match for this instrument). But unless I wanted to linger among the peaky resonances of the highest two strings (and I often did), I needed to attenuate both tone controls.
The good thing is that each of these controls has a very nice range. And while the guitar can start to feel stripped of its essence with too much tone or volume attenuation, there is wiggle room for softening transients and taming unwanted overtone blooms. These pronounced peaks are easy to hear in both the neck and bridge pickup, depending on your approach. I worked a lot more with open strings and drones than Billy Corgan might on songs like “Zero,” which the guitar was tailored for. But for those keen to explore the mellower side of the Drop Z’s personality, the combined pickup setting is a magic bullet. It’s airy, open, and makes it easy and rewarding to navigate slow-moving chord changes with strong bass foundations. It’s also fun to take advantage of the fretboard’s whole expanse in this setting—darting and dashing from toppy treble-note clusters to growling bass harmony notes—and enjoying the detail and string-to-string balance. By the way, the Drop Z, as you might guess, sounds positively massive with distortion, though you should be careful to choose your gain device carefully. The pickup’s midrange emphasis will make a similarly mid-heavy distortion sound harsh. A Sovtek-style Big Muff, with its scooped midrange and round low-end resonance, is an ideal fit if you want to get extra large.
The Verdict
The Korea-made Drop Z is a beautifully crafted instrument and a silky, easy, balanced player that will make you forget, in moments, about the expansive fretboard and extra scale length. It feels completely natural and effortless. How you relate to the tones here will depend on your musical mission. The hot pickups make it a perfect fit for outsized, aggressive tones. I, for one, would prefer to explore the wealth of overtones this well-constructed instrument generates via less aggressive pickups. But players like me will still find much to love in the combined pickup settings and the pickups’ impressive capacity for detail, which, depending on the tuning you use, can highlight harmonic interplay between notes and chords that would be much less prominent and less fun to explore in a more conventional guitar.
Reverend Billy Corgan Drop Z Signature Electric Guitar - Pearl White
