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Gallery: Halo Guitars AshCourt Build

Halo Guitars shares with us the build of their AshCourt model reviewed this month.

At home in the shop at Gibson USA, where DeCola is R&D manager and master luthier.

Photo courtesy of Gibson

The respected builder and R&D manager has worked for the stars—Eddie Van Halen, Paul McCartney, and others—while keeping his feet on the ground, blending invention, innovation, and common-sense design.

As a teenager, DeCola fell in love with surfing, but growing up in Indiana … no ocean. So, skateboarding became his passion. When a surf park called Big Surf—replete with rideable waves—opened up near his sister, who he was visiting during spring break at Arizona State University, she treated him to a day at the man-made sea.

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A dual-channel tube preamp and overdrive pedal inspired by the Top Boost channel of vintage VOX amps.

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The compact offspring of the Roland SDE-3000 rack unit is simple, flexible, and capable of a few cool new tricks of its own.

Tonalities bridge analog and digital characteristics. Cool polyrhythmic textures and easy-to-access, more-common echo subdivisions. Useful panning and stereo-routing options.

Interactivity among controls can yield some chaos and difficult-to-duplicate sounds.

$219

Boss SDE-3 Dual Digital Delay
boss.info

4.5
4
4
4

Though my affection for analog echo dwarfs my sentiments for digital delay, I don’t get doctrinaire about it. If the sound works, I’ll use it. Boss digital delays have been instructive in this way to me before: I used a Boss DD-5 in a A/B amp rig with an Echoplex for a long time, blending the slur and stretch of the reverse echo with the hazy, wobbly tape delay. It was delicious, deep, and complex. And the DD-5 still lives here just in case I get the urge to revisit that place.

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Reader: T. Moody

Hometown: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Guitar: The Green Snake


Reader T. Moody turned this Yamaha Pacifica body into a reptilian rocker.

With a few clicks on Reverb, a reptile-inspired shred machine was born.

With this guitar, I wanted to create a shadowbox-type vibe by adding something you could see inside. I have always loved the Yamaha Pacifica guitars because of the open pickup cavity and the light weight, so I purchased this body off Reverb (I think I am addicted to that website). I also wanted a color that was vivid and bold. The seller had already painted it neon yellow, so when I read in the description, ā€œYou can see this body from space,ā€ I immediately clicked the Buy It Now button. I also purchased the neck and pickups off of Reverb.

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