Welcome back for a special episode of Wong Notes! If you couldn’t make it to Cory’s Syncopated Summer Camp, this one’s for you: It features Wong and his Flyers bandmates—Nate Smith on drums, Joe Dart on bass, and Mark Lettieri on guitar—in a live masterclass recording from this summer, as they jam and break down an original composition.
The group starts off with a rowdy rip through the tune (which, apparently, didn’t go so well when they played it in Italy) before slowing down its constituent parts and highlighting Lettieri’s thoughtful arrangements. Each member of the band takes a turn explaining their approach to jamming and improvising—and how to know when trouble is coming. (For Smith, it’s when one player tries to “force an agenda.”)
The most important instrument for a successful jam and songwriting session? Your ears: It all comes back to listening. So listen in and learn with the best on this exclusive instalment.
Prog-Rock supergroup DarWin today release their anticipated new studio album, Distorted Mirror, via OoS/Phantom Recordings.
Distorted Mirror, which is co-produced by Simon Phillips and DarWin, is the follow up to last year’s hit release, Five Steps on the Sun, and picks up exactly where the last album left off. Offering original and creative rock songs that continue to break new ground, Distorted Mirror is a true journey, packed with intricate melodies, sledgehammer grooves and wall-to-wall virtuoso playing.
DarWin is an ongoing musical exploration led by songwriter/guitarist DarWin and drumming legend Simon Phillips (Toto, Jeff Beck, The Who, Judas Priest, Tears for Fears). Since forming in 2015, the duo has collaborated with lead vocalist Matt Bissonette (Joe Satriani, Ringo Starr, Elton John), bass sensation Mohini Dey (Steve Vai, Willow Smith, Guthrie Govan), guitarist Greg Howe (Michael Jackson, Protocol, Justin Timberlake) as well as a hall of fame roster of musicians over the years, including Derek Sherinian, Julian Pollack (J3PO), Jesse Siebenberg, Andy Timmons, Billy Sheehan, Guthrie Govan, and many more.
Over the span of the last several months the group have released a vast palette of captivating videos offering both conceptual and live performance as well as a series of guitar and drum playthrough clips that can be viewed HERE.
Watch the official music performance video for “Man vs. Machine”HERE.
An alternative conceptual cut of the “Man vs. Machine” video titled “Dawn of the Robots Version” is also available HERE.
Fans can also watch the official music video for the song “Rising Distortion” HERE.
The Distorted Mirror album tracklisting is as follows:
PG contributor Tom Butwin introduces the Clementine from @orangewoodguitars, a semi-hollow guitar that blends classic style with modern functionality. It features a unique belly carve and a satin-finished mahogany neck for enhanced comfort and playability. Equipped with Seymour Duncan Seth Lover humbuckers and a coil split, the Clementine delivers a range of versatile tones. It also includes practical features like an accessible electronics panel and Grover Roto-Grip locking tuners, making it a reliable and easy-to-maintain instrument.
Today, Fender expands its Hammertone pedals series with two brand new pedals – the Hammertone™ Breakup Drive and Hammertone™ Boost. Built to be the essential building blocks of any board, the expansion of the Hammertone™ range offers players even more options to choose from – either used individually or stacked to suit any style and personality.
The brand new Hammertone™Breakup Drive provides responsive, tube-like overdrive tones with two clipping modes, giving players expansive control over their sound, while the Hammertone™Boost offers players the choice of cleanly boosting their solos or adding a warm, harmonic richness to their tone.
Hammertone™ Breakup Drive
($99.99 USD, £75.99 GBP, €89.99 EUR, $159.00 AUD)
The Hammertone™ Breakup Drive delivers responsive, tube-like overdrive tones in a compact, format. Built around a JFET-based circuit, it’s designed to replicate the dynamic feel of hot tubes pushed to the edge of saturation. Two selectable clipping modes let players dial in anything from light breakup to low-gain overdrive, each offering expressive responsiveness that cleans up with lighter picking and intensifies with more aggressive playing. An expansive tone control and a switchable pre-gain mid boost provide flexible frequency shaping to craft the perfect sound. Whether adding character to a clean tone or delivering touch-sensitive overdrive, the Hammertone Breakup Drive offers versatile performance for players who crave feel and nuance.
The Hammertone™ Boost elevates any rig with two distinct boost circuits housed in a single enclosure. Its Type switch allows players to choose between a clean, op amp-based boost for transparent volume enhancement and a JFET-based boost that adds warmth and harmonic richness, reminiscent of vintage tape unit preamps. With center-detented Treble and Bass controls, the EQ section offers easy access to a completely flat boost or precise tonal shaping—cutting or enhancing frequencies as needed. Whether used to cleanly boost solos, push an amp into breakup, or add subtle sweetness to a core tone, the Hammertone Boost delivers exceptional flexibility and performance.
The aptly named Kali distills elements of the Fortin Cali—a Plexi-inspired amp—into a 2-channel pre-amp and distortion pedal. Each channel has three gain modes—vintage, raw, and saturation—which are selectable via a mini toggle. And each mode has a very distinct vibe, which could be loosely categorized as low-end-heavy, midrangey, and high-gain-centric, respectively.
Charging right into Kali’s arms, I selected the vintage mode on Channel 1, and set the gain 2 knob to 9 o’clock. The gain 2 knob, which controls the gain level that hits the circuit’s front end, is the default gain knob for both channels. The gain 1 knob, which adds additional gain stages, only works on channel 2. But even at this modest setting, I was already into toothy distortion that was very touch-sensitive.
Wide Range of Rage
Without changing any other settings, things got significantly filthier by merely switching over to the saturation mode. And even at this lower-gain setting, the output is tailor-made for heavy rhythm in a classic metal jam. Pumping the gain 2 knob to around 3 o’clock, meanwhile, makes the Kali a very in-your-face proposition, with sounds rooted in Sunset Strip/Jose Arredondo Marshall-mod energy.
Interestingly, even though saturation mode has the most aggressive gain structure, it doesn’t feel especially compressed. It’s also the quietest of the three modes when tested across identical settings. This was especially noticeable when I switched between vintage and saturated modes at high gain 2 settings. It follows, then, that raw mode—the pure sound of the pedal without any extra gain stages and essentially the preamp only—is the loudest of the three modes.
Well Put Together, With a Bright Personality
Channel switching is handled by one of the two footswitches (the other
is for bypass) and it enables you to cascade one channel into another. In cascaded-stage mode, gain knob 1 is active and serves as a pre-gain (hence the gain 1 designation). In saturation mode, with both gain knobs at noon, switching between the channels sounds organic. Channel 2 is generally thicker and sustains bends for a tad longer. But the two channels definitely do not feel haphazardly thrown together. They are clearly cut from the same cloth.
“[It’s] a very in-your-face proposition, with sounds rooted in Sunset Strip/Jose Arredondo Marshall-mod energy."
In general, the Kali is bright, but if you need brighter, there are a pair of 3-position bright switches for each of the two channels. At low output volumes the changes offered by these bright switches are noticeable but not too dramatic. They are much more pronounced at high output volume. The active +/- EQ knobs actually have much greater impact on the Kali’s personality—particularly in the zones between 9 and 3 o’clock, where minor tweaks yield very different tonal realms.
The Verdict
The Kali comes across as a cohesive whole, yet its interactive controls and powerful EQ unlock a wide range of Plexi and modded-Plexi tones. No matter how you set it, it sounds impressive.