
PG editors pick their favorites from NAMM day 1.
Ted Drozdowski - Editorial Director
Alvarez FYM74 Yairi Masterworks
And Alvarez has also updated its famed Yairi series—think Jerry Garcia—with slightly lighter bracing to increase resonance and projection, and gone all-in with its fine-tuned Yairi Masterworks Series. The FYM74 pictured, one of approximately 150 to be crafted, is a crown jewel. Company CEO Chris Meikle discovered the motherlode, a ration of California redwood that sat in the company’s manufactory for 40 years on a trip to Japan. And thus, this model. The top is redwood, of course, and the back and sides are solid East Indian rosewood. The bridge and fretboard are ebony, the bracing is Alvarez’s FST6 hard-carved, forward shifted system, and there’s an L.R. Baggs Hi-Fi pickup under the hood. This beautiful, limited edition runs in the neighborhood of $3,699.
Radial Nuance Select
Radial, whose products for studio and stage include the famed Tonebone preamp, has just released the Nuance Select studio monitor controller—in time for NAMM 2024. The aptly named Nuance allows you to silently switch between two sets of monitors and a subwoofer, has dual stereo inputs with an aux out, two independent headphone amps, and ultra-low distortion of transparency. The tag? $699.
Celestion Pulse XL
Celestion’s got the big bottom covered with their new line of bass speakers, the Pulse XL series in 15", 12", 10" and horn. Punchy, responsive, with rich full frequency sound and articulation, they boast long voice coils for a deeper bass sound and greater clarity, wound with round copper for the right taste of treble, formed on heat retardant polyimide. Hit celestion.com for more.
Nick Millevoi - Senior Editor
Huss & Dalton Electric Guitars
You know Huss & Dalton from their rich history as a boutique acoustic builder, but their electric offerings are on display here at NAMM. With singlecut and doublecut options, they start around $5,000. To customize your own build, you’ll want to reach out to your dealer or direct to the company about wait times.
Seymour Duncan Powerstage 100 Stereo
Seymour Duncan’s Powerstage 100 Stereo takes their portable—and lightweight!—line of power amps to the next level with more power, more EQ, and, of course, stereo capabilities! Priced at $599, they’re available now.
Aguilar AG Preamp
Aguilar’s AG preamp delivers the high fidelity tone of their AG series amps straight to pedalboards, with its bright and deep voicing. A great pairing with their SL 110 cabs. And their range of pedal offerings got a facelift to match. For pricing and availability, contact your Aguilar dealer.
Jason Shadrick - Associate Editor
Martin Inception Maple
Martin took a look at their recipe for making acoustic guitars and tweaked it a bit for their Inception Maple series. They come with a walnut neck and bridge, L.R. Baggs Anthem electronics, and an interesting new bracing system. They are available now for $3,999.
Revv G50
Revv was looking to create an amp that sits between their Generator 120 and the G20. The result was this feature-packed G50. It’s a 3-channel monster that includes many of the features found in the 120, but at a more affordable price. It dropped today for $2,099.
If you can't decide between acoustic or electric, Cole Clark has you covered with their striking True Hybrid Thinline Grand Auditorium with a nitrocellulose blue top. The Hybrid is entirely made from sustainable tonewoods: AA grade Australian blackwood (top, back & sides), Queensland maple (neck), and ebony (bridge & fretboard). The thinline is loaded with all Cole Clark electronics starting with their PG3 acoustic pickup system and a H-S-S magnetic pickup set. And a three-way toggle engages (electric/both/acoustic).
The Mick Ronson Cry Baby Wah taps into the vibrant, melodic character of one of rock ’n’ roll’s most gifted songwriters.
The Mick Ronson Cry Baby Wah taps into the vibrant, melodic character of one of rock ’n’ roll’s most gifted songwriters. Few guitar players have been able to combine a keen musical instinct with a profound grasp of composition like Mick Ronson. Laden with expressive resonance, his arrangements layered deliberately chosen tones and textures to build exquisite melodies and powerful riffs. The Cry Baby Wah, set in a fixed position to serve as a filter, was key to the tone-shaping vision that Ronson used to transform the face of popular music through his work with David Bowie and many others as both an artist and a producer.
We wanted to make that incredible Cry Baby Wah sound available to all players, and legendary producer Bob Rock—a friend and collaborator of Ronson’s—was there to help. He generously loaned us Ronson’s own Cry Baby Wah pedal, an early Italian-made model whose vintage components imbue it with a truly singular sound. Ronson recorded many tracks with this pedal, and Rock would go on to use it when recording numerous other artists. With matched specs, tightened tolerances, and a custom inductor, our engineers have recreated this truly special sound. “You place the wah, and leave it there, and that's the tone,” Rock says. “It's all over every record he ever made, and I’ve used it on every record since I got it. Dunlop’s engineers spent the time and sent me the prototypes, and we nailed that sound.”
To capture all of the nuance and detail responsible for Ronson’s unique wah sound, our engineers created a custom inductor that replicates the higher frequency response and subtler peak of the original pedal. The resulting sound offers an exquisitely balanced sonic profile that’s bright and clear with peaks that stay musically smooth. We want every player to get that same experience, so we tightened the inductor tolerance to ensure the closest possible representation of Ronson’s Cry Baby Wah. We have likewise reproduced the fast initial sweep of the potentiometer, which offers an instant reactivity that’s like nothing from the modern era. And it didn’t stop there—the engineering team even included period-accurate low-gain transistors and value-matched resistors that contribute to a truly distinctive EQ curve. This is a pedal that is literally tailor-made for Mr. Ronson’s signature fixed-wah tones.Capping it all off, we’ve adorned the Mick Ronson Cry Baby Wah with a special finish inspired by his work. Dig into the signature tones of one of the greatest to ever pick upthe guitar. Get the Mick Ronson Cry Baby Wah.
AVAILABLE 4/1/25
$249.99 street.
Get the JNCOs and flannels out because Mesa Boogie went back to the future with the release of the 90s Dual Rectifier that combined the best parts of the F & Rev G amps and created a modern monster. The 100W tonezilla has two channels (now with their "cloning" so you can Vintage or Modern Modes on either channel, patented switchable rectifiers (tube or silicon diode), and of course, they're using 6L6s.