Outfitted with new hardware and potent pickups, the glammy Eastman Romeo LA is ready to rock.
Comfortable feel. Even neck response. Responsive vibrato. Sounds equally great clean and dirty.
A bit expensive for an Asia-built instrument.
$1,749
Eastman Romeo LA
eastmanguitars.com
They say first impressions are everything. And a guitar's appearance often tells us exactly what it aspires to be. When we look at a pointy guitar with humbuckers and a locking trem, we know its intentions. Subverting those expectations can be fun though—like seeing someone rip bebop licks on a Flying V (more of this, please!).
Just as fun is when a guitar model subverts its own intentions, which is what Eastman's Romeo LA accomplishes to some extent. First released in 2019, the original Romeo glowed with a vintage-style radiance that, apart from its curvy, offset profile, evoked traditional Gibson and Epiphone semi-hollowbodies and the jazzy, bluesy tones they produce. The LA, however, with its glammy options and assertive pickups, feels made for bright lights, big stages, and modern rockin'.
Both clips recorded through a '70s Fender Champ miked with a Shure SM57 running into an SSL 2+ and into Logic Pro with no EQ or effects.
Clip #1: Clean
Clip #2: Recorded using a Klon KTR with gain knob cranked and tone knob at noon.
Ch-ch-ch-changes
The Romeo and Romeo LA share many specs: a maple neck with 12" a radius ebony fretboard, mahogany laminate back and sides, and 24.75" scale. There are pronounced differences too, though. Eastman replaced the solid spruce top on the Romeo with a laminate spruce top (which are common on even the most expensive archtops). Another big change is the shiny, metallic celestine blue finish that covers the asymmetrical body and maple neck. Rather than cultivating the understated, traditional elegance of its predecessor, this Romeo screams for attention.
The slick finish isn't the only thing primed for hot stage lights. Two Seymour Duncan Phat Cat P-90s are housed in stylish gold foil–style radiator covers. And a Göldo Les Trem and 3-point bridge look sharp and enhance the Romeo's tonal personality and expressive abilities. Göldo K-Line locking tuners help keep the guitar pitch stable.
A California Dream
Playing the Romeo LA is a dream. It's resonant, with lots of sustain, and big, open chords sound great unplugged. It arrives with stock .011-.049 D'Addario NYXLs, but the fretboard feels fast and slinky and easily accommodates quick licks of all flavors. The guitar feels balanced and comfortable too, which kept it in my lap for long spans.
Rather than cultivating the understated elegance of its predecessor, it screams for attention.
The Phat Cat P-90s are a real statement piece—and not just visually. They are warm, dynamic, and bright. Each pickup has a dedicated volume knob. But there's just one tone knob, which is wired to the bridge pickup. That means no rolling back the neck tone for straight-ahead jazzbos—a clue to this guitar's more rocking orientation. But the neck pickup is bright and clear, and to darken that sound up would be a crime. Both pickups offer sparkling cleans but really come alive when paired with overdrive. Hitting my Klon with the bridge pickup, the Romeo LA sounded strong and focused across the fretboard. The neck pickup, meanwhile, added powerful low-end rumble.
The Göldo Les Trem is a serious highlight too. It does all the things that Bigsby-style vibratos do well, and the arm, though a little pointy on the end, fits nicely in the palm of my hand while I do my picking. The Göldo feels more modern and is faster than the competition though. It's capable of quick, springy attack—in both directions—and impressively deep dives.
The Verdict
The Romeo LA may offer a lot of flash and pizazz, but it sounds and feels as good as it looks. Thoughtful hardware decisions make it feel like a hot rod. But while it definitely rocks, it's suited for many mellower playing styles. At $720 less than its predecessor, it's a great deal, too.
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
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.
Two Plus One
Gravity Well’s design and control set make it a charm to use. Two footswitches engage tremolo and wavefolder independently, and one of three toggle switches swaps the order of the effects. The two 3-way switches toggle different tone and voice options, from darker and thicker to brighter and more aggressive. (Mixing and matching with these two toggles yields great results).
The wavefolder, which has an all-analog signal path bit a digitally controlled LFO, is controlled by knobs for both gain and volume, which provide enormous dynamic range. The LFO tremolo gets three knobs: speed, depth, and waveform. The first two are self-explanatory, but the latter offers switching between eight different tremolo waveforms. You’ll find standard sawtooth, triangle, square, and sine waves, but Cosmodio also included some wacko shapes: asymmetric swoop, ramp, sample and hold, and random. These weirder forms force truly weird relationships with the pedal, forcing your playing into increasingly unpredictable and bizarre territories.
This is all housed in a trippy, beautifully decorated Hammond 1590BB-sized enclosure, with in/out, expression pedal, and power jacks. I had concerns about the durability of the expression jack because it’s not sealed to its opening with an outer nut and washer, making it feel more susceptible to damage if a cable gets stepped on or jostled near the connection, as well as from moisture. After a look at the interior, though, the build seems sturdy as any I’ve seen.
Splatterhouse Audio
Cosmodio’s claim that the refractor is a “first-of-its-kind” modulation effect is pretty grand, but they have a point in that the wavefolder is rare-ish in the guitar domain and pairing it with tremolo creates some pretty foreign sounds. Barton McGuire, the Massachusetts-based builder behind Cosmodio, released a few videos that demonstrate, visually, how a wavefolder impacts your guitar’s signal—I highly suggest checking them out to understand some of the principles behind the effect (and to see an ’80s Muppet Babies-branded keyboard in action.)
By folding a waveform back on itself, rather than clipping it as a conventional distortion would, the wavefolder section produces colliding, reflecting overtones and harmonics. The resulting distortion is unique: It can sound lo-fi and broken in the low- to mid-gain range, or synthy and extraterrestrial when the gain is dimed. Add in the tremolo, and you’ve got a lot of sonic variables to play with.
Used independently, the tremolo effect is great, but the wavefolder is where the real fun is. With the gain at 12 o’clock, it mimics a vintage 1x10 tube amp cranked to the breaking point by a splatty germanium OD. A soft touch cleans up the signal really nicely, while maintaining the weirdness the wavefolder imparts to its signal. With forceful pick strokes at high gain, it functions like a unique fuzz-distortion hybrid with bizarre alien artifacts punching through the synthy goop.
One forum commenter suggested that the Gravity Well effect is often in charge as much the guitar itself, and that’s spot on at the peda’t extremes. Whatever you expect from your usual playing techniques tends to go out the window —generating instead crumbling, sputtering bursts of blubbering sound. Learning to respond to the pedal in these environments can redefine the guitar as an instrument, and that’s a big part of Gravity Well’s magic.
The Verdict
Gravity Well is the most fun I’ve had with a modulation pedal in a while. It strikes a brilliant balance between adventurous and useful, with a broad range of LFO modulations and a totally excellent oddball distortion. The combination of the two effects yields some of the coolest sounds I’ve heard from an electric guitar, and at $279, it’s a very reasonably priced journey to deeply inspiring corners you probably never expected your 6-string (or bass, or drums, or Muppet Babies Casio EP-10) to lead you to.
The ’60s Were Weird and So Were the ’90s—Thanks, Santana
Was Supernatural his ultimate gift to the world?
Carlos Santana’s career arc has been a journey. From blowing minds at the far edges of psychedelia at Woodstock to incendiary jazz experimentalism with the likes of John McLaughlin and Alice Coltrane to later becoming a chart-topping star with some of the biggest collaborators in pop and rock, his guitar playing has covered a lot of ground.
On this episode of 100 Guitarists, we’re covering everything about Santana’s playing we can fit in one neat package: How did Santana’s sound evolve? Has any other rock star mentioned John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme on morning network television? Was Supernatural his ultimate gift to the world?
In our new current listening segment, we’re talking about a Bruce Hornsby live record and a recent release from guitarist Stash Wyslouch.
This episode is sponsored by PRS Guitars.
Learn more: https://prsguitars.com.
Lollar Pickups introduces the Deluxe Foil humbucker, a medium-output pickup with a bright, punchy tone and wide frequency range. Featuring a unique retro design and 4-conductor lead wires for versatile wiring options, the Deluxe Foil is a drop-in replacement for Wide Range Humbuckers.
Based on Lollar’s popular single-coil Gold Foil design, the new Deluxe Foil has the same footprint as Lollar’s Regal humbucker - as well as the Fender Wide Range Humbucker – and it’s a drop-in replacement for any guitar routed for Wide Range Humbuckers such as the Telecaster Deluxe/Custom, ’72-style Tele Thinline and Starcaster.
Lollar’s Deluxe Foil is a medium-output humbucker that delivers a bright and punchy tone, with a glassy top end, plenty of shimmer, rich harmonic content, and expressive dynamic touch-sensitivity. Its larger dual-coil design allows the Deluxe Foil to capture a wider frequency range than many other pickup types, giving the pickup a full yet well-balanced voice with plenty of clarity and articulation.
The pickup comes with 4-conductor lead wires, so you can utilize split-coil wiring in addition to humbucker configuration. Its split-coil sound is a true representation of Lollar’s single-coil Gold Foil, giving players a huge variety of inspiring and musical sounds.
The Deluxe Foil’s great tone is mirrored by its evocative retro look: the cover design is based around mirror images of the “L” in the Lollar logo. Since the gold foil pickup design doesn’t require visible polepieces, Lollartook advantage of the opportunity to create a humbucker that looks as memorable as it sounds.
Deluxe Foil humbucker features include:
- 4-conductor lead wire for maximum flexibility in wiring/switching
- Medium output suited to a vast range of music styles
- Average DC resistance: Bridge 11.9k, Neck 10.5k
- Recommended Potentiometers: 500k
- Recommended Capacitor: 0.022μF
The Lollar Deluxe Foil is available for bridge and neck positions, in nickel, chrome, or gold cover finishes. Pricing is $225 per pickup ($235 for gold cover option).
For more information visit lollarguitars.com.
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.
Supro Montauk 15-watt 1 x 10-inch Tube Combo Amplifier - Blue Rhino Hide Tolex with Silver Grille
