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
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
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.
Gary is not exclusively a destruction machine. Its distortion/overdrive section is a very streamlined take on EarthQuaker’s Gray Channel, a versatile DOD 250-derived double distortion. Like any good circuit of the 250 ilk, Gary’s hard clipping OD/distortion section bites viciously in the high- and high-mid frequencies, supported by a tight, punchy low-mid output. You can play anything from balanced M.O.R. studio crunch to unhinged feedback leads with this side of Gary. But it’s the envelope-triggered pulse-width fuzz—which most of us will hear as a gated fuzz, in many instances—that gives the Gary its werewolf duality. Though practice yields performance patterns that change depending on the instrument and effects you use around the Gary, its fuzz ultimately sputters and collapses into nothingness—especially when you throw a few pitch bends its way. The cut to silence can be jarring, but also compels a player to explore more rhythmic leads and choppy riffs that would sound like sludge with a Big Muff. The Gary’s unpredictable side means it won’t be for everybody, but its ability to span delicioso distortion and riotous splatter fuzz in a single unit is impressive.
EarthQuaker Devices Gary Automatic Pulse Width Modulation Fuzz/Overdrive Pedal
