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 | Download Example 1 Gibson Firebird (both pickups). Grease Monkey settings: Bass 5 o'clock, Treble 2 o'clock, Volume 9 o'clock, Shape #2, Cut from 6 o'clock, then 2 o'clock, then off. |
| Download Example 2 Ibanez RGA42. Grease Monkey settings: Cut off, Bass 2 o'clock, Treble 3 o'clock, Volume 1 o'clock, Shape #3 |
| Download Example 3 Gibson Firebird (bridge pup). Grease Monkey settings: Cut 11 o'clock, Bass 2 o'clock, Treble 5 o'clock, Volume 11 o'clock, Shape 1, 2 and 3. |
| Download Example 4 Fender Strat (neck pup). Grease Monkey Settings: (first) Cut 3 o'clock, Bass 2 o'clock, Treble 3 o'clock, Volume 9 o'clock, Shape #2. (then) Cut 3 o'clock, Bass 1 o'clock, Treble 2 o'clock, Volume 12 o'clock, Shape #3. |
| Download Example 5 Fender Strat, neck then bridge pickup. Gradually increasing volume on guitar. Grease Monkey Settings: Cut 12 o'clock, Bass 12 o'clock, Treble 12 o'clock, Volume 10 o'clock, Shape #2. |
| Download Example 6 Gibson Firebird (bridge pup). Gradually increasing volume on guitar. Grease Monkey Settings: Cut 2 o'clock, Bass 2 o'clock, Treble 3 o'clock, Volume 11 o'clock, Shape #3. |
| All clips recorded through a Marshall 1960B Cabinet, Shure 57 Microphone, Digidesign Pro Tools | |
Nuts, Bolts and Monkeys
The Grease Monkey amplifier is designed for higher gain, and is built for players who want an aggressive sound while retaining dynamic range and extreme touch sensitivity. It is a 30-watt amplifier with four EL84 tubes in the power section and three 12AX7 tubes for the preamp. It is hand-built, with custom-wound transformers and hand-wired military-spec components. It also has selectable preamp gain response, which is a signature feature that allows for high or low gain settings at the flip of a switch. It is a non-master volume amp with zero negative feedback.
The amp has a unique, retro kind of look and features a powder-coated aluminum chassis, a control panel with chickenhead knobs, and braided silver piping. The black tolex covering is standard, although other colors are available by request so you can customize the look to your liking.
The front panel is simple and straightforward. Besides the power and standby switches, there are controls for Bass, Treble and Volume, which controls the loudness and gain of the preamp. There are a couple of cool tone-shaping controls on the amp that expand the variety of tones even further. The first is a Cut control that varies the presence in the power amp section, similar to what is found on the Vox AC30. It can also be switched out of circuit by turning the knob counter-clockwise. Also, a unique Shape function lets you select either Bright input, Normal input or Low input.
The Grease Monkey’s simple back panel consists of an AC input, fuse and three speaker outputs—one 16ohm jack and two 8-ohm jacks. An Input Gain switch lets you toggle from high or low gain.
Getting Greasy
So enough of the specs—let’s get down to what you really want to know. How does this amp sound? Well, in one word: massive. The Grease Monkey should really be called King Kong! I wasted no time in plugging a Les Paul in and powering it up, and this thing can get loud. Using humbuckers with the high gain channel, pure rock tone poured out of the speakers. In the live room of my studio, I had every snare drum in the room rattling, as well as some of the ceiling tiles! Guitarists who want to stay married or remain in good terms with their neighbors may want to use an attenuator with the Grease Monkey.
The chords that were ringing out were clear, tight and powerful. The highs never got too piercing or brittle. I did notice that the bass control also cuts the low-mids from the tone, but I was able to dial in a nicely balanced tone rather quickly.
The Grease Monkey has excellent dynamics and it’s amazing how nicely it cleans up when rolling off the guitar’s volume. With some amps getting a completely clean tone this way can be quite difficult, but it wasn’t a problem at all with the Grease Monkey. With the consistent volume and plenty of clean headroom, you can go from clean to dirty just by adjusting the volume on your guitar. That’s a definite plus for those guitarists who don’t want to bother with a footswitch or other pedals. In a live situation, you’d be able to control your clean and dirty tones from any spot on stage by just using your guitar’s controls.
The Shape control offers three distinct tones. I found that it was easier to initially have a clean sound on the amp to fully understand what the three shapes can do. You can clearly hear the difference between bright, normal and low inputs. Between the three shapes, there is a wide variety of tone that is suitable for many styles of guitar playing.
The Grease Monkey definitely has multiple personalities, and it can sound like a different amp entirely when switching from a Les Paul to a Strat. You can really take advantage of the amp’s Input Gain switch while swapping out guitars. The low gain setting felt better with my Strat, and I was able to get some really nice bluesy tones out of it. My favorite setting was with the Strat’s neck pickup and shape #2 on the amp.
The Final Mojo
Before trying out this amp, I heard it described as a cross between a Vox and a Marshall. It may have tones similar to those amps, but a Vox AC30 can’t roar like the Grease Monkey and a Marshall won’t clean up as nicely as this amp does. Whether you’re playing with a clean or dirty sound, there are plenty of warm overtones and nice harmonics coming out of the Grease Monkey.
It’s always nice to have tonal options in an amp. With the Cut control, two gain structures, three voicings in the Shape control as well as different combinations of volume and pickups on the guitar, you have plenty of tonal options to choose from. With the amp’s extreme touch sensitivity and dynamic range, 3 Monkeys have created a tonal monster.
Buy if...
you’re looking for an amp with a variety of tones and voicings.
Skip if...
you don’t need an amp with a lot of gain, or if you’re afraid of monkeys.
Rating...
MSRP $2250 - 3 Monkeys Amps - 3monkeysamps.com |
This modeling amplifier comes in two colors (White, Black), each of which is paired with its own carefully curated selection of preamp models.
The modulation dial can be adjusted to choose between chorus, phaser, and vibrato effects, whereas the delay dial facilitates analog, tape echo, and digital delay. Also, the reverb unit includes room, hall, and church emulations, making sure that there is an atmosphere and effect chain that works for any practice scenario.
A unique feature of this amplifier is how it can be used in two modes: “Live” and “Preset” mode. When using Live mode, guitarists will be able to browse the device's built-in preamp tones, which they can then enhance if they wish to throw the effect units. In contrast, the "Preset" mode allows users to save these effects and dynamic parameter changes into each preset, enabling them to customize them without overwriting the originals.
As any good amplifier should, the Hornet 15 Li is complete with industry-standard features, such as three-band EQ adjustment dials, volume and gain dials, a 1/4" guitar input, and both an auxiliary input and headphone output. However, MOOER has gone above and beyond to pack the amplifier with several special features; for example, this modeling amp boasts separate tap-tempo buttons for both the modulation and delay units, in addition to a dedicated tuner button and function, allowing guitarists to use the device's screen to ensure their guitar tuning is precise. What's more, the Hornet 15 Li also supports Bluetooth input, meaning that any guitarist can stream their favorite songs and backing tracks directly to the amplifier, making practice sessions and rehearsals easier than ever.
Arguably, the most impressive feature of the Hornet 15 Li is the fact that, in addition to being powered by a mains supply, it can also operate on battery. The device is built with an integrated 4000mA.h lithium battery, empowering guitarists to practice guitar on the go for hours–even when there’s no power source nearby. Combining this with how the amp weighs just 2.9kg and comes with a built-in handle, it’s clear that MOOER had portability and convenience in mind when designing this product.
Features:
- Available in 2 colors (White, Black), each with its own selection of classic preamps
- 9 high-quality preamp models, each captured through MOOER’s MNRS technology (controllable through the 9-way tone rotary switch)
- Modulation effects unit (chorus, phaser, vibrato) and dial
- Delay effects unit (analog, tape echo, digital) and dial
- Reverb effects unit (room, hall, church) and dial
- Three dials for three-band EQ adjustment (treble, mid, bass)
- Gain and master volume dials
- Live/Preset mode toggle switch
- Tap tempo buttons and features for modulation and delay effects
- 15 watts of rated power, ideal for practicing
- Digital screen for displaying functional and tuning information
- Built-in digital tuner
- ¼” guitar input
- 3.5mm auxiliary input
- 3.5mm headphone output
- Bluetooth support for high-quality audio input playback, perfect for backing tracks
- Convenient handle for easy transportation
- Rechargeable 4000mA.h lithium battery for portable play
- Power switch for easy on/off control
The Hornet 15 Li is available from distributors and retailers worldwide now.
A Galloup guitar made from paulownia.
Guitars priced between $1,500 and $4,000 typically utilize domestic woods or other widely accessible alternatives that provide excellent value. However, in recent years, sustainability has become an increasingly critical concern regarding the sourcing of these natural resources. We are committed to ensuring that the materials we select not only deliver superior sound but also align with sustainable practices, helping to preserve the environment for future generations of musicians.
Over the years, I’ve encountered difficulties with alternative, sustainable soundboard options. That is, until I took part in the paulownia experiment initiated by World Tree, an environmental organization “focused on nature-based solutions to some of our biggest global challenges.” This project highlighted wood from the fast-growing paulownia tree, which was cultivated by former President Jimmy Carter. Initially, the prospect of using paulownia appeared impractical. Yet, upon further analysis, we recognized its potential as a viable substitute, though some of its material property characteristics, such as damping and admittance, still require further testing.
Many luthiers understand traditional soundboard materials well. Despite this knowledge, integrating new tonewoods into our repertoire can be an arduous process. Fortunately, advancements in wood testing technology have significantly expedited the evaluation process. Currently, for the assessment of wood, I use the Acousonix Sonic Calculator, a handheld application that enables me to input various wood-property parameters for a thorough evaluation. Upon entering the data, the application delivers a precise rating, considers multiple factors, delineates the wood's sonic characteristics, and then specifies its best use applications.
Fig. 1
My Acousonix analysis of paulownia indicates that its 11.3 sonic rating makes it unexpectedly well-suited for use as a soundboard (see Fig. 1). As my builds with this material progressed, the results were exceedingly promising. Paulownia features well-rounded tonal characteristics, exhibiting a rapid response with a seemingly high admittance, which indicates a lower damping factor. Another noteworthy aspect of paulownia is its sustainability: The tree reaches full maturity in approximately 12 years. Upon harvest, a new sapling can be replanted in the same root system, allowing for accelerated mature growth in around seven years. This cycle can be repeated multiple times, establishing paulownia as a highly renewable resource. But unlike typical spruce, which commonly yields eight to 11 growth rings per inch, paulownia’s growth rings come in at around three to four per inch. But don’t let this fool you. Despite its non-traditional appearance, paulownia has a reputation for being stable and warp-resistant (see Fig. 2).
Fig. 2
“Another noteworthy aspect of paulownia is its sustainability: The tree reaches full maturity in approximately 12 years.”
While testing paulownia for guitar making, we observed that this species yields a highly responsive instrument. It offers a fast musical response similar to many late-1930s Gibson J-35s I have played. It exhibits a quick response with a lower fundamental and a pleasant decay. But, due to its lightweight—around 5 grams per cubic inch—it tends to exhibit lower headroom. Thus, despite being a powerful and enjoyable guitar to play, it tends to distort when pushed to higher volumes. In its defense, most players commonly don’t play hard enough to reach these limits.
Ultimately, the tests I conducted affirm its potential as a substitute tonewood for guitars, possessing desirable acoustic properties. While paulownia has historically been utilized in instruments like the Japanese koto, it stands to reason that the acoustic guitar market should explore this avenue further. To prove a point, we used paulownia for the top, back, sides, bracing, and neck, with the total price tag for all tone woods used coming in at around $70. So, given its low cost, stability, availability, and the grower's commitment to environmental sustainability, paulownia is a resource deserving of serious consideration.
For more information about World Tree, visit worldtree.eco, and to learn more about the Acousonix Sonic Calculator, visit acousonix.com.
Andy Powers has been working with electric guitars his whole life, and he’s been slowly collecting all the ideas that could go into his own “solo project,” waiting for the right time to strike.
As CEO, president, and chief guitar designer of Taylor Guitars, Andy Powers has an unimaginable amount of experience sifting through his ideas and, with a large production mechanism at hand, efficiently and effectively realizing them. He knows that there are great ideas that need more time, and rethinking electric guitar design—from the neck to the pickups to how its hollow body is constructed—doesn’t come quickly. His A-Type—which has appeared in Premier Guitarin the hands of guitarists Andy Summers and Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard—is the innovative flagship model of his new brand, Powers Electric. And it’s the culmination of a lifetime of thought, experience, and influences.
“Southern California is a birthplace of a lot of different things. I think of it as the epicenter of electric guitar.”
“I’ve got a lot of musician friends who write songs and have notebooks of ideas,” explains Powers. “They go, ‘I’ve got these three great verses and a bridge, but no chorus. I’ll just put it on the shelf; I’ll come back to it.’ Or ‘I’ve got this cool hook,’ or ‘I’ve got this cool set of chord changes,’ or whatever it might be—they’re half-finished ideas. And once in a while, you take them off the shelf, blow the dust off, and go, ‘That’s a really nice chorus. Maybe I should write a couple of verses for it someday. But not today.’ And they put it back.”
That’s how his electric guitar design spent decades collecting in Powers’ head. There were influences that he wanted to play with that fell far afield from his acoustic work at Taylor, and he saw room to look at some technical aspects of the instrument a little differently, with his own flair.
The Powers Electric A-Type draws from Powers’ lifelong influences of cars, surfing, and skateboarding.
Over the course of Powers’ “long personal history” with the instrument, he’s built, played, restored, and repaired electric guitars. And, having grown up in Southern California, surrounded by custom-car culture, skateboarding, and surfing—all things he loves—he sees the instrument as part of his design DNA.
“Southern California is a birthplace of a lot of different things,” Powers explains. “I think of it as the epicenter of electric guitar. Post-World War II, you had Leo Fender and Paul Bigsby and Les Paul—all these guys living within just a couple of miles of each other. And I grew up in those same sorts of surroundings.”
Those influences and the ideas about what to do with them kept collecting without a plan to take action. “At some point,” he says, “you need the catalyst to go, ‘Hey, you know what? I actually have the entire guitar’s worth of ideas sitting right in front of me, and they all go together. I would want to play that guitar if it existed. Now is a good time to build that guitar.’”
“I started thinking, ‘If I had been alive then, what would I have made?’ It’s kind of an open-ended question, because at that point, well, there’s no parts catalogs to buy stuff from. A lot of these things hadn’t been invented yet. How would you interpret this?”
The pandemic ultimately served as the catalyst Powers’ electric guitars needed, and that local history proved to be a jumping-off point necessary for focusing his long-marinating ideas. “I started thinking, ‘If I had been alive then, what would I have made?’ It’s kind of an open-ended question, because at that point, well, there’s no parts catalogs to buy stuff from. A lot of these things hadn’t been invented yet. How would you interpret this? As a designer, I think that’s really interesting. Overlay that with understanding what happens to electric guitars and how people want to use them, as well as some acoustic engineering. Well, that’s pretty fascinating. That’s an interesting mix.”
Tucked away in his home workshop, Powers set about designing a guitar, building “literally every little bit other than a couple screws” including handmade and hand-polished knobs. Soon, the prototype for the Powers Electric A-Type was born. “I played this guitar and went, ‘I’ve been waiting a long time to play this guitar.’ A friend played it and went, ‘I want one, too.’ Okay, I’ll make another one. Made two more. Made three more….”
The A-Type—seen here with both vibrato and hardtail—is a fully hollow guitar that is built in what Powers calls a “hot-rod shop” on the Taylor Guitars campus.
From there, Powers recalls that he started bringing his ideas back to his shop on Taylor’s campus, where he set up “essentially a small hot-rod shop” to build these new guitars. “It’s a real small-scale operation,” he explains. “It exists here at Taylor Guitars, but in its own lane.”
The A-Type—currently the only planned Powers Electric model—has the retro appeal of classic SoCal electrics. Its single-cut body style is unique but points to the curvature of midcentury car designs, and the wide range of vibrant color options help drive that home. Conceptually, the idea of reinventing each piece of the guitar’s hardware points toward the instrument’s creators. That might get a vintage guitar enthusiast’s motor running, but it’s in the slick precision of those parts—from the bridge and saddle to the pickup components—where the A-Type’s modernism shines.
“It’s a real small-scale operation. It exists here at Taylor Guitars, but in its own lane.”
Grabbing hold of the guitar, it’s clearly an instrument living on the contemporary cutting edge. The A-Type’s neck gives the clearest indication that it’s a high-performance machine; it’s remarkably easy to fret, with low action but just enough bite across the board. Powers put a lot of thought into the fretboard dynamics that make that so, and he decided to create a hybrid radius. “You have about a 9 1/2" radius, which is really what your hand feels, but then under the plain strings, it’s a bit flatter at 14, 15-ish—it’s so subtle, it’s really tough to measure.” Without reading the specs and talking to Powers, I don’t know that I would detect the difference—and I certainly didn’t upon first try. It just felt easy to play precisely without losing character or veering into “shredder guitar” territory.
The A-Type looks like a solidbody, but you’ll know it’s hollow by its light, balanced weight. That makes it comfortable to hold, whether standing or sitting. But its hollow-ness is no inhibitor to style: I’ve yet to provoke any unintended feedback from any of my amps. Powers explains that’s part of the design, which uses V-class bracing, similar to what you’ll find on a modern Taylor acoustic.
Powers says the A-Type that is now being produced is no different than the prototype he built in his home workshop: “I have the blueprint, still, that I hand drew. I can hold the guitar that we’re making up against that drawing, and it would be like I traced over it.”
“Coupling the back and the top of the guitar matter a lot,” he asserts. “When you do that, you can make them move in parallel so that they are not prone to feeding back on stage. You don’t actually have that same Helmholtz resonance going on that makes a hollowbody guitar feedback. It’s still moving.”
On a traditional hollowbody, he points out, the top and back move independently, compressing the air inside the body. “It’ll make one start to run away by re-amplifying its own sound,” he explains. “But if I can make them touch each other, then they move together as a unit. When they do that, you’re not compressing the air inside the body. But it’s still moving. So, you get this dynamic resonance that you want out of a hollowbody guitar; it’s just not prone to feedback.”
What I hear from the A-Type is a rich, dynamic tone, full of resonance, sustain, and volume. I found it to be surprisingly loud and vibrant when unplugged. Powers tells me that’s in part due to the “stressed spherical top” and explains, “I take this piece of wood and I stress it into a sphere, which unnaturally raises its resonant frequency well above what the piece of wood normally could. It’s kind of sprung, ready to set in motion as soon as you strike the string. So, it becomes a mechanical amplifier.” The bridge then sits in two soundposts, which Powers says makes it “almost like a cello.”
“Literally every little bit other than a couple screws” on the A-Type is custom made.
The single-coil pickups take it from there. They’re available in two variations, Full Faraday and Partial Faraday, the latter of which were in my demo model, and Powers tells me they are the brighter option. Their design, he says, has been in progress for about seven or eight years. The concept behind the pickups is to use the “paramagnetic quality of aluminum”—found in the pickup housing—“to shape the magnetic field … which functions almost like a Faraday cage.” And he complements them with a simple circuit on the way out.
I found them to run quietly, as promised, and offer a transparent tone with plenty of headroom. They paired excellently with the ultra-responsive playability and feel of the guitar, so I could play as dynamically as I desired. If a standard solidbody with single-coils offers the performance of a practical sedan, this combo gave the A-Type the feel of a well-tuned racecar. At low volumes and with no pedals, it felt like I was simply amplifying the guitar’s acoustic sound, and I had full control with nothing but my pick. (Powers explains that the pickups have a wide resonance peak, which plays out to my ear.) Add pedals to the mix, including distortion and fuzz, and that translates to an articulated, hi-fi sound.
Now up to serial number XXX, the Powers Electric team has refined their production process. I wonder about that first guitar, the dream guitar Powers built in his house. How similar is the guitar I’m holding to his original vision? “It’s very, very, very close,” Powers tells me. “Literally, this guitar outline is a tracing. It’s an exact duplicate of what I first drew on paper with a pencil. I have the blueprint, still, that I hand drew. I can hold the guitar that we’re making up against that drawing, and it would be like I traced over it.”
“It’s one of those things you do because you just really want to do it. It puts some spark in your life.”
Playing the guitar and, later, talking through its features, I’m left with few questions. But one that remains has to do with branding and marketing, not the instrument: Why go to all the effort to create a new brand for the A-Type, which is to say, why isn’t this a Taylor? For Powers, it’s about design. “As guitar players,” he explains, “we know what Taylor guitars are, we know what it stands for, and we know what we do. The design language of a Taylor guitar is a very specific thing. When I look at a Taylor acoustic guitar, I go, ‘I need curves like this, I need colors like this, I need shapes like this.’”
Those aren’t the same curves, colors, and shapes as the Powers Electric design, nor do they mine the same influences. “There’s a look and a feel to what a Taylor is. And that is different from this. I look at this and go, ‘It’s not the same.’”
Of course, adding the A-Type to the well-established Taylor catalog would probably be easier in lots of ways, but Powers’ positioning of the brand is a sign of his dedication to the project. It feels like a labor of love. “They’re guitars that I really wanted to make,” he tells me enthusiastically. “And I’m excited that they get to exist. It’s one of those things you do because you just really want to do it. It puts some spark in your life.”
“It’s like a solo project,” he continues. “As musicians, you front this band, you do this thing, and you also like these other kinds of music and you’ve got other musician friends, and you want to do something that’s a different flavor. You try to make some space to do that, too.”
