Our favorite guitars, basses, amps, effects, and accessories from the last 12 months.
Brubaker JXB Standard bass
The Fender Jazz Bass was more or less born perfect. But that hasn’t kept Kevin Brubaker from tweaking the formula to killer ends. The JXB uses a set of Aguilar hum-cancelling pickups that manage traditional smoky J-Bass tones and honky, pointed midrange sounds suited for modern mixes.
$2,499 street
brubakerguitars.com
In the years we’ve compiled our annual list of Premier Gear Award winners, we’ve probably never seen a list more eclectic than 2015’s. From high-gain monster amps and atmospheric reverbs to mini overdrives and wahs, 2015’s award winners covered all the bases.
As always, it was a joy to see how both big-time musical instrument industry players and little shops a step removed from the garage managed to haul in Premier Guitar’s prize for gear excellence. And if anyone’s counting, we’re pretty sure we also set a record for Premier Gear Award winners. So we hope you’re comfy—this list of primo gear may take some time to cover.
Digital control meets excellent Brit-favored analog drive and distortion tones in a smart and easy-to-master solution.
Tons of flexibility and switchability that’s easy to put to practical use. Many great overdrive sounds spanning a wide range of gain.
Takes a little work up front to get your head around the concept.
$349
RJM Music Technology Full English Overdrive
rjmmusic.com
Programmability and preset storage aren’t generally concerns for the average overdrive user. But if expansive digital control for true analog drive pedals becomes commonplace, it will be because pedals like the Full English Programmable Overdrive from RJM Music Technology make it fun and musically satisfying.
Following on from the Overture, which combined classic overdrive types and original RJM circuits, the Full English is dedicated to serving up as many British-flavored overdrive flavors as you would find on its famously over-the-top namesake breakfast dish. (Which drive is the black pudding, we have yet to decide.) The pedal’s digital capabilities make navigation easy, facilitate MIDI implementation, and enable user editing of presets via Mac/PC/iOS software. But the overdrives and signal chain are fully analog, and it sounds great as a result.
Brit Box Abounding
Any one of the six core overdrive circuits can be the foundation for a preset. From mellowest to heaviest (more or less), they include push, blues, royal, imperial, shred, and stack. Each can be adjusted WYSIWYG-style with the gain, tone, volume, bass, mid and treble knobs (the latter three are configured as post-gain EQ). They can then be saved—overdrive mode, knob settings and all—to one of eight preset slots by a long-press of the same button that cycles through the six voices. The right footswitch is a standard on/off while the left selects from four active presets. But stomping both footswitches together toggles between red and green preset banks, enabling access to the full eight. All told, it’s easy, straightforward stuff.
Even when the pedal is bypassed, the active preset is indicated by the slot and mode lights, so you don’t lose track of what lies in wait when you switch on. Doing so illuminates a red LED above the on/off footswitch, indicating an active preset. Twist a knob, though, and that on/off LED turns green, indicating you’re in a live state for that control function, or any others you manipulate. The pedal also includes a USB-C port for connecting to your computer, where it will appear in any MIDI-enabled app.
Royal Flush
I taste-tested the Full English with a Telecaster and an ES-335 through Vox and Fender tweed-style amps. No matter the combination, the RJM’s core sounds were robust and wide-ranging, with all the dizzying performance versatility the feature set implies. Players are likely to find something to love in all six modes, although for pure aural appeal, I was most drawn to the medium-drive ODs—royal and imperial. Each was rich, thick, and lusciously saturated, plus easy to shape and re-voice to right where I wanted with a twist of the very capable EQ.
Stack and shred were fun for really slamming the amps, though, and well-suited to heavy rock leads and classic metal, respectively. Though the six modes span a pretty huge range of gain, I can see plenty of players getting good use out of all six modes and moving between radically different sounds from song to song—or within one, for that matter. Even using eight variations of one or two favorite core voices offers a ton of variety for rhythm, crunchy chords, lead, and solo-boost settings. And other than the time invested in the initial user-reconfiguration, it’s easy to use in practical, real-world performance situations.
The Verdict
RJM Music Technology has done a fantastic job of taking analog overdrive into the programmable realm here. The number of really great sounds is enough to impress. But it’s the preset options, MIDI control, and the ease with which you can put them to work that take the Full English over the top—both in terms of pure usefulness and appeal to old-school players that, to date, found anything more than a 3-knob overdrive too complex.
Check out Warm Audio’s Pedal76 and WA-C1 with PG contributor Tom Butwin! See how these pedals can shape your sound and bring versatility to your rig.
Songs of a Lost World
The Cure return after 16 years with Songs of a Lost World, out November 1. Listen to "Alone" now.
Songs from the record were previewed during The Cure's 90-date, 33-country Shows Of A Lost World tour, for more than 1.3 million people to overwhelming fan and critical acclaim.
"Alone," the first song released from the album, opened every show on the tour and is available to stream now. The band will reveal the rest of the tracklisting for the record over the coming weeks at http://www.songsofalost.world/ and on their social channels.
Speaking about "Alone," the opening track on Songs Of A Lost World , Robert Smith says, "It's the track that unlocked the record; as soon as we had that piece of music recorded I knew it was the opening song, and I felt the whole album come into focus. I had been struggling to find the right opening line for the right opening song for a while, working with the simple idea of ‘being alone’, always in the back of my mind this nagging feeling that I already knew what the opening line should be… as soon as we finished recording I remembered the poem ‘Dregs' by the English poet Ernest Dowson… and that was the moment when I knew the song - and the album - were real."
Initially formed in 1978, The Cure has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, headlined the Glastonbury festival four times and been inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. They are considered to be one of the most influential bands to ever come out of the UK.
Songs Of A Lost World will be released as a 1LP, a Miles Showell Abbey Road half-speed master 2LP, marble-coloured 1LP, double Cassette, CD, a deluxe CD package with a Blu-ray featuring an instrumental version of the record and a Dolby Atmos mix of the album, and digital formats.
Shred-meister and Eric Johnson expert Andy Wood joins us to talk about EJ’s best tracks, albums, and more. Whether you’re a fellow expert or don’t know where to start, Andy’s got you covered, from studio albums to live tracks. Come with questions, leave with homework!
