Check out the latest and greatest gear from the final day of the 2014 Winter NAMM show.
Analog Alien's new Alien Bass Station has three independent effects for bass or guitar. First in the path is the 3-knob limiter, then the amp generatorāwhich is voiced like an Ampeg B15āand then the gama fuzz. It goes for $399 street.
Demeter brought the new VTBP-M-800D head to NAMM. Based on the VTBP-201 preamp used by bass legend Lee Sklar for many, many years, the 800D uses a 280V power supply, an 800-watt, class D amp, and full-voiced preamp with input mode switch, bass and presence voicing toggles, DI and line outputs, and two Speakon speaker jacks. All in a 10.5-pound head with options starting at $1,359.
Diamond Tactical debuted their modular guitar bag system at this year's NAMM show. They utilize the MOLLE system (the same used by a number of NATO forces) for their gig bags, which allows players to customize and deck out their bags with modular pouches for everything from dedicated repair kits to cable pouches to pedal pouches to chart pouches and more.
Mayones was at the show with an array of stunning handcrafted instruments. Shown here is the Patriot Classic V-Fret with a "transparent black jeans" finish. It has an American ash body with flamed maple top, a wenge/padouk neck, and an ebony fan-fretted board. For pickups, this axe is decked out with a Bartolini xxP46C set.
Michael Anthony with one of his battered ol' Yamaha BB series basses at the company's NAMM room.
While certainly best known for his basses, Michael Tobias Designs came to NAMM with a new guitar in towāthe MTD Kingston Rubicon. Starting at $999, the Rubicon has a carved alder body with a flame maple top, an asymmetrical one-piece maple neck, choice of rosewood or maple fretboard, and custom-wound humbuckers with onboard series/parallel switches.
Fanned-fret pioneer Ralph Novak brought two 25th-anniversary Novax Guitars models to the show this year. The Sweet Annie (pictured) has a mahogany body and neck, ebony fretboard, two custom-voiced, passive Bartolini soapbar pickups, and innovative 5-way switching for a variety of warm tones. Meanwhile, the Sassy Annie has three single-coils, a 5-way selector, a contoured swamp-ash body, and an ebony-topped maple neck. Both go for an anniversary price of $2,500.
Phil Jones Bass just unveiled the 300-watt Suitcase Compact bass combo. This small yet powerful 2-channel amp houses four of Jones' 5" PJB Piranha speakers and weighs in at a back-friendly 40 pounds.
Sonuus' new Voluum features an all-analog signal path and multiple effectsāLFO, compressor, limiter, gate/expander, and volumeāthat can be extensively tweaked with the included editing software (Mac and PC). It comes with 30 factory presets and has 100 user memory slots. Street price is $319.
Yamahaās new TRBX304 4-string has a sculpted, solid mahogany body, a 5-ply maple-and-mahogany bolt-on neck with a rosewood fretboard, and M3 ceramic-magnet pickups with thumb rests. Controls include master volume, pickup balance, 2-band active EQ, and a 5-position "performance EQ" switch with preset EQ curves for on-the-fly adjustments.
TC Electronic's Ditto X2 Looper is the follow up to their uber-popular Ditto Looper. It has a dedicated stop/clear switch, a button for reverse/half-speed looping, stereo I/O, and the ability to import and export loops.
Diamond Amplification's new 100-watt F-4 has two independent channels (clean and crunch), each with a 3-band EQ, as well as volume, gain, and presence controls. A footswitch is included and the street price for this all-tube rig is just $999.
Former Nirvana tech Earnie Bailey is building absolutely beautiful guitars under the Wire Instruments name. These instruments are inspired takes on the old Gretsch Astro Jet profile called the Supercollider. The one on the left is a Korina bodied specimen with Lindy Fralin Pickups Plus P-92s. On the right, an Alder body with Railhammers.
Empress Effects reinvented its famous Tremolo pedal. The Tremolo2 has an all-analog signal path with incredibly powerful digital controls, including an innovative new multi-colored LED system for identifying up to eight presets. Also new is the control port which can be used with an external tap-tempo footswitch, an expression pedal (to control almost any function), or even with Empress' MIDI Box to recall presets or sync the pedal with time code. $249 street.
The new 100-watt Invader II from Engl features two clean channels and two overdrive channels that are all switchable between a hi/lo gain mode, and each channel has a dedicated 3-band EQ. As an add-on option for the Invader II, Engl offers the Sound Wizard Module Z16 for ultimate tone-tweaking hi-jinx.
Fano Guitars' newest, beautiful Alt De Facto RB6 mutation unites Rickenbacker, Kay, and Jazzmaster cues including Gold Foil pickups, Mastery bridge and vibrato, and checkerboard binding. Definitely one of the most fun guitars at Winter NAMM 2014.
Lehle introduced a trio of new bass pedals including the two shown here: the Basswitch Sonic Spark and the Basswitch Classic Boost. The Sonic Spark is an acoustic flavor enhancer pedal that's able to really fatten up bass tone. The Classic Boost is a booster pedal with voicing specifically developed for passive JJ, P, and P/J type basses.
Seymour Duncan's new Vapor Trail delay feature 600ms of completely analog delay with two mini pots for modulation, a transparent delay knob with an embedded rate LED, and a cool wet insert that you can use with an expression pedal to control volume of repeats or to use with a y-cable to loop in any other effect and have it only affect repeats. It goes for $149 street.
Glorious resurrection!!! Travis Bean Guitars is back! This particular all-metal marvel is Buzz Osborne's signature model, loaded with EGC humbuckers.
Universal Audio's new Apollo Twin recording interface features two high-quality XLR preamps, a 1/4" guitar input, a suite of 14 included plug-insāfrom guitar amp and effects to reverbs and models of classic UA studio unitsāas well as available plug-ins from partnerships with Boss, ENGL, and more. Most notably, all plug-in processing happens with SHARC chips built into the unit itself, which translates to low-latency tracking. The one-processor Solo goes for $699, and the Duo goes for $899.
Z.Vex Effects put their Fat Fuzz circuit into the new Fat Fuzz Probe. The theremin control governs the stab parameter, and there are also drive, comp, gate, and volume knobs, as well as a 3-position voicing toggle for standard Fuzz Factory sounds, and "deep" and "deeper" subharmonic modes. It'll be available in late summer for $369 street.
Among their numerous new offerings at NAMM, DBZ Guitars introduced a new vintage-inspired body shape to their line with the Maverick. The Maverick SM variation shown here has a mahogany body topped with spalted maple, and a mahogany neck capped with a rosewood fretboard. For electronics, the Maverick SM is packed with a Pearly Gates/'59 Seymour Duncan combo.
Brubaker Musical Instruments brought bass No. 1 of a brand new series called the JXB Standard. This J-style, handcrafted axe has an alder body, maple neck, and East Indian rosewood fretboard. Outfitted with a traditional JJ configuration, Brubaker chose Aguilar AG 4J-HC hum-canceling pups for the JXB.
Decibel Eleven's new Loop Expander is a four-relay unit that adds true-bypass loop switching to any MIDI setup. The fourth loop can function as an amp switcher, you can connect multiple units in series for large pedalboards, and it works with MIDI program or control changes. There's also a switchable class A buffer. $189 street.
Diezelās new 100-watt Lil Fokker is its simplest design to date. Powered by a quartet of KT77s, it features clean and dirty channels, a series effects loop, and a two-button footswitch for switching channels or between two different master volumes. $2,499 street.
Fargen Amplification debuted its first-ever combo to street for under two grand. At $1,699, the 6V6-powered Townhouse 20 has two circuitsātweed '50s style and '60s brownfaceāand external bias points for using 6L6 output tubes.
Majik Box new Body Blow Jake E. Lee Mod overdrive is similar to the existing Body Blow, but it's missing the two toggles because this box has more low end than the original, and Lee prefers the original's diode-clipping vintage mode. Unlike many overdrives, it accentuates low-mids to give more oomph to solos.
Walrus Audio's new Descent reverb goes from lush, dreamy soundscapes to twisted and trippy. Modes include hall, reverse, and shimmer, and -1 and +1 knobs add low and high octaves to the reverberations. There are three available presets, plus manual mode. Jacks include a mono input, stereo outs, and an expression-pedal input that lets you control reverb time or wet mix. $300 street
After 40+ years of making his instruments by hand, luthier Joe Veillette announced at NAMM that he is beginning production on an import line. The 18 1/2"-scale Avante by Veillette Gryphon short-scale 12-string is tuned D to D (above standard) and features solid-mahogany back and sides, solid maple top, piezo bridge pickup, and volume and treble-rolloff controls for $1,399 street.
Stompboxtober Day 29 is live! Enter today to win a pedal from StewMacāmore chances to win tomorrow!
StewMac International House of Overdrive Pedal Kit, With Bare Enclosure
The IHOO is based on the Crowther Hot Cake, an overdrive that became available around 1976. It was one of the earliest hand-made boutique effects pedals available. The circuit was designed to be what is now referred to as a ātransparentā overdrive. An effect that enhances the player's sound while keeping the original tone intact.
This circuit has undergone many changes since its inception, and we have further expanded on the design by returning to an earlier version most revered by players and removing the buffer, which resulted in a reworked circuit that is true bypass but still retains the charm of the design.
We also include the original LM741 IC chip found in the originals, as well as the TL071 that is found in later versions so you can experiment with which IC best suits your playing style.
On this Wong Notes, the legendary Doobie Brother, Steely Dan member, and session weapon talks the science of music and how to defuse conflictāwhether on the world stage or in the sound booth.
āSkunkā Baxter has had an interesting career. The Washington, D.C.-born musician was one of Steely Danās founding members in the early 1970s, and played on some of their most iconic numbers, like Canāt Buy a Thrillāsā āReelinā in the Yearsā and āDo It Again,ā or Pretzel Logicās āRikki Donāt Lose That Number.ā Then, he moved on to join the Doobie Brothers, from roughly 1974 to 1979, where he fatefully invited Michael McDonald into the band. After that stint, he became a go-to session player for artists like Rod Stewart, Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, and Donna Summer, and a touring performer for Elton John and Linda Ronstadt, among others.
That was just the beginning. Baxterās interest and background in electronics, science, and recording technology gained him a position in the U.S. defense industry. Turns out, a lot of digital music gear shared similar principles with emergent defense tech. āBasically, a radar is just an electric guitar on steroids,ā says Baxter, noting the same four fundamental forces at work over everything in our universe.
Wong and Baxter trades notes on how to navigate studio sessions (āJust shut the hell up,ā offers Baxter), early conversions of pitch into digital signals, and how Baxter cut his solo on Donna Summerās āHot Stuffā on a $25 guitar. And can mediating between artists and producers feel like high-stakes hostage negotiations? Sometimes. Tune in.
Wong Notes is presented by DistroKid.
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Featuring presets by Jack White, this pedal is designed to offer intuitive control, precise filtering, and flexible expression pedal integration.
Eventide, in collaboration with Third Man Hardware announces Knife Drop, a commanding new effects pedal that merges aggressive octave fuzz with earth-shaking analog synth tones.
Born from the collaborative vision of two pioneering forces in music technology, Knife Drop opens a new chapter in effects processing. The pedal combines Eventideās decades of digital audio mastery with Third Man Hardwareās innovative vision, resulting in a product thatās as intuitive as it is deep, as fresh as it is familiar.
"The Third Man crew have amazing product design instincts and we learned so much throughout our collaboration. It didn't feel like work, it felt like Rock 'n Roll.ā āRussell Wedelich, Eventide Audio CTO
"Collaborating with Eventide on the Knife Drop has been an inspiring and exciting experience that expanded into some amazing sonic possibilities. We're so excited to get the Knife Drop into people's hands, to make their own sounds and feel the same excitement we had." ā Dan Mancini, Third Man Hardware
Core Features:
- Rich blend of octave fuzz and analog synth capabilities
- Dual octave control with dedicated footswitch
- Precise filtering options with pre/post distortion routing
- Intuitive preset system with instant recall
- Stereo I/O with switchable guitar/line level inputs
- Flexible expression pedal integration for dynamic control
Intuitive Control
The Synth Mix knob allows players to blend between raw guitar signals and bold synthesized tones, while the Drive section delivers everything from a subtle boost to intense, biting distortion. The expressive filter section includes responsive envelope control, adjustable resonance, and switchable routing, putting total tonal flexibility firmly in the userās hands.
Knife Drop features an LED ladder display for precise preset navigation and a secondary function layer that unveils additional sonic territory. The dual I/O configuration supports both mono and stereo operation, while the switchable input accommodates various signal levels for versatile applications, whether onstage or in the studio.
Knife Drop will be available for purchase on October 29, 2024, in the United States through Third Man Recordsā website and internationally through Eventide's authorized distributors, with an MSRP of $299. Additionally, a limited-edition yellow model will be offered exclusively on Third Man Records' website for $333.
For more information, please visit eventide.com
Knife Drop Pedal: Presets Playthrough and Sound Demo - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.PG contributor Tom Butwin details RAB Audio GSRS ā a studio racking system purpose-built for guitarists looking to declutter, customize, and elevate their creative space. Whether youāre a pedal enthusiast or amp collector, RAB Audio has a solution for your recording setup.