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GALLERY: Summer NAMM 2016 Day 3

The final day of NAMM is in the books and here's a final look at the latest and greatest from the show floor.

Keeley Electronics the Dark Side, the El Monte, the Delay Workstation, the Hooke Reverb, & the Bubble Tron

Keeley Electronics continued its string of feature-packed 2016 stomps this NAMM with the release of the Dark Side—a Gilmour homage packed with delay, rotary, vibe, fuzz, and octave effects—the El Monte mod/drive pedal, the Delay Workstation, the 3-mode Hooke Reverb, and the crazy-awesome Bubble Tron—a filter/phaser/flanger based on a rare effect used by Frank Zappa.

PG editors pick their top gear from the second day of Summmer NAMM 2016. See everything from day 3 in our photo gallery.

Wampler Ego Compressor Micro

The latest creation from Wampler Pedals is a micro-sized Ego Compressor that's exactly like its big brother. The only exception is that the tone and attack controls are now mini-toggle switches that go between a pair of popular settings. It will street for $179 and will drop in September.

Balaguer Guitars The Thicket

For their ‪‎NAMM‬ debut, Pennsylvania-based Balaguer Guitars showed off an interesting take on a T-style guitar. The Thicket sports a pair of Balaguer "Hemlock" Evergreen humbuckers, coil taps for single-coil tones, and a wonderfully inviting hard rock maple neck. There are various options available when ordering and the base price will be $850.

Schecter Jeff Loomis Cygnus JLX-1FR

Shred ain't dead. So says Arch Enemy guitarist Jeff Loomis with the new for‪ ‎NAMM‬ 7-string Schecter Guitars Jeff Loomis Cygnus JLX-1FR. The cherry colored demon follows his 6-string Schecter model with neck-thru construction, a swamp ash body, 3-piece maple neck, glow in the dark side dots, a 25.5" C-shape profile, a Floyd Rose 1500 vibrato system, Grovers tuners, and Loomis' signature Seymour Duncan pickups, naturally.

Chase Bliss Tonal Recall

Mating analog sounds and circuits with digital controls is Chase Bliss Audio founder Joel Korte's passion. He had two new entries for ‪NAMM‬. The Tonal Recall delay—an advance model is reviewed in the brand new August issue of Premier Guitar—is built around a pair of re-issued versions of the legendary MN3005 bucket-brigade chips, and it's a silky-smooth delay with a bonus control for tone, a tap tempo button and an input for an expression pedal. Streets for $399.

East Amplification Duality

PG Ask Amp Man columnist extraordinaire Jeff Bober brought his full line of East Amplification Duality amps to Nashville ‪NAMM‬. Available in heads and combos driven by 6V6 or KT66 power sections ranging from 20 to 40 watts, they feature three voicing modes—American, British, and East's custom, mid-bumped mode—they feature two channels with a shared EQ, footswitchable boost and "BoberFET" clipping circuit, and an effects loop.

JAM Pedals Delay Llama Supreme

Athens-based JAM Pedals also brought the delectably zen Delay Llama Supreme to Summer NAMM. It starts with lush, warm repeats, but then adds a footswitchable modulation circuit, Q control, 3-position note-division switch, and expression-pedal control of both delay level and time.

B.A. Ferguson Classic Class

B.A. Ferguson Guitars came to ‪‎NAMM‬ with two new, lower-priced Classic Class solidbodies featuring handshaped bodies and necks. The Grifter (left) features a Mustang-ish outline and McNelly Autumn and Stagger Swagger pickups, while the Shirley features Porter Greewind humbuckers. Both feature a shortened T-style bridge, a 3-way selector, a volume knob, and a concentric tone control whose upper portion is a bass contour that yields spankier tones. Both guitars street for $1,499.

Supro Montauk Mini Rocker Amp Demo
- YouTube

A 6L6 power section, tube-driven spring reverb, and a versatile array of line outs make this 1x10 combo an appealing and unique 15-watt alternative.

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The two-in-one “sonic refractor” takes tremolo and wavefolding to radical new depths.

Pros: Huge range of usable sounds. Delicious distortion tones. Broadens your conception of what guitar can be.

Build quirks will turn some users off.

$279

Cosmodio Gravity Well
cosmod.io

4.5
4
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4.5

Know what a wavefolder does to your guitar signal? If you don’t, that’s okay. I didn’t either until I started messing around with the all-analog Cosmodio Instruments Gravity Well. It’s a dual-effect pedal with a tremolo and wavefolder, the latter more widely used in synthesis that , at a certain threshold, shifts or inverts the direction the wave is traveling—in essence, folding it upon itself. Used together here, they make up what Cosmodio calls a sonic refractor.

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Kemper and Zilla announce the immediate availability of Zilla 2x12“ guitar cabs loaded with the acclaimed Kemper Kone speaker.

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The author in the spray booth.

Does the type of finish on an electric guitar—whether nitro, poly, or oil and wax—really affect its tone?

There’s an allure to the sound and feel of a great electric guitar. Many of us believe those instruments have something special that speaks not just to the ear but to the soul, where every note, every nuance feels personal. As much as we obsess over the pickups, wood, and hardware, there’s a subtler, more controversial character at play: the role of the finish. It’s the shimmering outer skin of the guitar, which some think exists solely for protection and aesthetics, and others insist has a role influencing the voice of the instrument. Builders pontificate about how their choice of finishing material may enhance tone by allowing the guitar to “breathe,” or resonate unfettered. They throw around terms like plasticizers, solids percentages, and “thin skin” to lend support to their claims. Are these people tripping? Say what you will, but I believe there is another truth behind the smoke.

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