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GALLERY: Summer NAMM 2016 Day 1

Here's a taste of the gear we came across during the first day of Summer NAMM, with tone toys from Fender, Seymour Duncan, Bullhead Amplification, and more.

Daredevil Pedals Fearless Distortion & Red Light District

Chicago's Daredevil Pedals typically brings something cool to Nashville‪ ‎NAMM‬. This year it was this two-beastie complement of Op-Amp based distortion boxes, the Fearless Distortion ($159) and the Red Light District distortion. Both are based on the same basic Op-Amp circuit and have switchable hi/low gain settings that enable the pedals to range from light Faces-style crunch to much more in-your-face distortion. The Red Light District adds a killer switchable and tunable scoop control that dishes tight, stony, and super-heavy desert rock sounds among other super-sick tones.

Diamond Pedals introduces the Dark Cloud delay pedal, featuring innovative hybrid analog-digital design.

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Handcrafted by the Gibson Custom Shop, only 100 guitars will be made, featuring premium appointments and a Murphy Lab Light Aged Walnut finish.

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Digital control meets excellent Brit-favored analog drive and distortion tones in a smart and easy-to-master solution.

Tons of flexibility and switchability that’s easy to put to practical use. Many great overdrive sounds spanning a wide range of gain.

Takes a little work up front to get your head around the concept.

$349

RJM Music Technology Full English Overdrive
rjmmusic.com

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Programmability and preset storage aren’t generally concerns for the average overdrive user. But if expansive digital control for true analog drive pedals becomes commonplace, it will be because pedals like the Full English Programmable Overdrive from RJM Music Technology make it fun and musically satisfying.

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LA LOM from left: Jake Faulkner, Nicholas Baker, and Zac Sokolow

Guitarist Zac Sokolow takes us on a tour of tropical guitar styles with a set of the cover songs that inspired the trio’s Los Angeles League of Musicians.

There’s long been a cottage industry, driven by record collectors, musicologists, and guitar-heads, dedicated to the sounds that happened when cultures around the world got their hands on electric guitars. The influence goes in all directions. Dick Dale’s propulsive, percussive adaptation of “Misirlou”—a folk song among a variety of Eastern Mediterranean cultures—made the case for American musicians to explore sounds beyond our shores, and guitarists from Ry Cooder and David Lindley to Marc Ribot and Richard Bishop have spent decades fitting global guitar influences into their own musical concepts.

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