All of the gear released in June 2011, in one place.
Premier Guitar contributor Steve Cook demos EMG's Pachyderm Gold Signature Pickups. Explore the signature sound of bassist Les Claypool with this simple pickup upgrade.
EMG Pachyderm Gold Les Claypool Signature 4-string P Bass Pickup Set
4-str, P Bass, Les Claypool 'Pachyderm Gold', PU SetThe Hi/Low footswitch is designed to provide a gain boost with an EQ shift for tight tones.
Now featuring enhanced functionality, along with a new and improved look, the Dutch Overdrive ā24 offers versatility in a pedalboard-friendly package.
The Dutch Overdrive retains its ability to cover a broad range of musical styles, from transparent clean tones and edgy breakup to medium-gain blues, hard rock rhythms, and searing leads. Delivering a perfect blend of classic American and British sounds, its smooth, balanced voice ensures compatibility with a wide variety of instruments and amplifiers.
In addition to a familiar four-knob control set ā controlling drive, treble, bass and output level ā the new Dutch ā24 offers a potent Hi/Low mode selector controlled by an independent footswitch. By engaging the Hi gain mode, you can add a preset, carefully tailored EQ/gain boost to provide just the right amount of punch, clarity, and output level to your solos.
Key features and upgrades to the Dutch Overdrive include:
- Hi/Low footswitch provides a gain boost with an EQ shift, enhancing added gain and focusing the midrange for tight tones
- A refreshed design for a modern aesthetic, with top-mounted input/output jacks
- Upgraded soft touch switching with last state memory ā powers up with the same settings you were using when you previously powered down
- 9-18 volt operation using standard external supply (no battery compartment)
- US-made in Mesa, AZ
The re-release of the Dutch Overdrive brings back a classic with modern improvements. The street price for the upgraded Dutch Overdrive is $225 and is now available for purchase at lpdpedals.com.
Developing good, clean workshop practices will help you save time and money.
Who doesnāt like a sweet, sustaining, saturated guitar sound? I know I do, but I also love a clear and full clean tone maybe even more. Dirty or clean, to me a guitar sounds like a million bucks when the tubes are glowing and the playing flows. But most of the time Iām in the workshop making lots of dirt, and I donāt mean the overdriven amplifier kind. Making guitars can be a dirty business. Carving wood, plastic, and steel into a majestic instrument creates a lot of mess, and eventually you have to sweep your way clear.
Half a century ago, a mentor passed on this advice: The best way to clean up a mess is to not make one in the first place. Maybe this sounds quaint, but I assure you that it is good for businessāany business. It doesnāt matter if you make pedals, guitars, amps, or even music, mess is money down the drain. Not only that, itās a psychological strain on you that saps your energy and makes you careless.
When I worked at Fender, I was part of a team that was charged with revamping departments for efficiency, safety, and worker well-being. I canāt say that we made a huge difference, but I learned a lot that I could apply to my own shop and a host of other businesses. One thing there we didnāt have to fix was cleanliness. Despite the gargantuan scale of the enterprise, all of the factories are incredibly clean, especially considering the amount of materials that get processed. It reminded me of the race cars and shops of Roger Penske, who understood that a clean, organized workplace sets the tone for excellence. Itās also difficult to pinpoint problems when areas are cluttered, and you canāt see whatās going on clearly.
Beyond the obvious advantages of keeping things organized, there is another benefit created by keeping things clean, one that Iām surprised that more shops I visit (and see in videos) donāt understand. Sooner or later, youāre going to have to stop making your product and clean up. When youāre buried in debris, straightening up is time-consuming, and time is money. When you determine your cost per unit, whether itās guitars, amps, or even rehearsal time, do you factor in the hours you spend cleaning up? It may not seem like much, but it can really add up. Regardless of if you own a shop or are in a band, if you create a tangle every time you work, the time you spend undoing it is time you could have been with your friends, family, or doing anything else.
A well-designed work area that reduces clutter will save your health and save you money. You donāt have to be a big organization to justify some basic cleanliness improvements like a good dust-collection system, either. It doesnāt have to be a huge investment. There are a slew of affordable mobile dust-collectors/vacuums with adjustable arms that can be rolled from task to task.
"When you determine your cost per unit, whether itās guitars, amps, or even rehearsal time, do you factor in the hours you spend cleaning up?"
Stop blowing dust off your workbench or machinery onto the floorāpicking it up later is like throwing profit away. Everybody benefits because cleanliness improves efficiency that reduces passing unneeded costs on to your customers. Over the course of a year, cleaning up 60 minutes a week adds up to almost seven daysā worth of time you could be using for something better, and who doesnāt want an extra week?
Iāve found that if you build cleanup time into your daily routine, it reduces stress as well. Itās important to create procedures that promote a constant state of improvement and order. After a gig, pro techs have a mandated way of breaking down and stowing gear that avoids confusion when the next setup happens. Daily routines of maintenance and cleanup catch problems before they stop the show or cripple production. If you habitually clean the spilled beer off your cables and amplifier, youāre making it easier for yourself in the long run. I know this all seems pretty obvious to some of you, but Iāve learned from master Kaizen practitioners that thereās always a higher level to reach for. If you are a one-person shop or a weekend warrior musician, those steps can really make a difference.
I suppose the reverse is true for me. If I apply this multi-tiered improvement regime to my guitar playing, Iād probably be a lot happier with my proficiency. An old dog can learn new tricks, and thatās exactly what I mean to do. So when I step on that distortion pedal, it will be the only dirt I deal with.A very Vox-like template yields a surprising wealth of trans-Atlantic tonesāall in a light, compact head.
Relatively small and light. All-tube power and preamp sections. Surprising versatility for a single-channel format.
Youāll have to be willing to tinker a lot with the EQ to tap into the maximum number of sounds.
$1,499
Victory The Deputy Compact Guitar Head
victoryamps.com
If a venueās dimensions demand you turn down, you might as well lighten your load.Victory Amps are hip to this trade-off. Their line is now thickly populated with amps that are smaller, quieter, but still sound massive.
The EL86-driven, 25-watt, single-channelThe Deputy Compact Head is the newest of Victoryās mighty mites. Although itās generally lunchbox-sized, The Deputy looks like a proper amp headāeschewing the mostly metal, vented enclosure design used in some other Victory offerings. Created in conjunction with Pete HonorĆ© (known to many YouTube guitar heads as Danish Pete), The Deputy Compact Head aims to span ā60s British-style clean tones and ā70s classic-rock overdrive. Itās truly compact at 15" x 8" x 7.5" and 17.6 pounds.
Dawg Daze
Other than the bijou size, which is not unusual these days, The Deputy stands out for its use of EL86 output tubes. Although it can be re-biased to use the more common EL84, Victory ships the head with a pair of new-old-stock EL86 tubes which are broadly similar to EL84s in character and output powerāthough capable of a little more of it from a little less voltage. They are also relatively available and affordable as NOS components. The preamp is driven by three 12AX7s. Rectification is solid-state.
The straightforward controls include gain, treble, middle, bass, reverb, and master, plus a 2-way bright switch and a 3-way voice switch. The latter is arguably more of a gain-structure switch, though gain, voice, and tone are often used interchangeably in guitar-speak. The ampās lowest gain setting is accessed via the upper position. The middle position stacks another +6 dB of gain on top of that, and the lower position adds upper-mid and treble on top of the extra 6 dB. As for the reverb, Victory describes it as a mix of plate- and hall-type textures, and it is probably meant to sound a bit more contemporary, studio-like, and less specific than a traditional spring reverb.
The ampās back panel includes send and return jacks for the series effects loop, two 8-ohm speaker outputs and one 16-ohm output, bias checkpoints, and a bias adjustment pot. Rather than being cathode-biased like most EL84 amplifiers, The Deputyās EL86s are run in adjustable fixed bias, which delivers slightly tighter, firmer response from any given pair of tubes, while maximizing their output potential (all else being equal). As such, you need to check and adjust this setting when replacing the EL86s or substituting EL84s. The Deputyās circuit is arranged on a rugged printed circuit board, the components are all high quality, and the transformers are U.K.-made.
Hot Lunch
I tested The Deputy with an open-back 1x12 cabinet equipped with a Scumback J75 and a closed-back 2x12 with Celestion M65 Creambacks. I also paired it with a Gibson ES-355, a FenderĀ Stratocaster, a selection of overdrive pedals at the front end, and a Source Audio Collider in the effects loop for delay and reverb. Almost regardless of whatās in the mix, The Deputy is a great-sounding little head. In fact, any sense of ālittleā largely vanishes from consideration once you start playing it. Full, fat, deep, clear, and vintage-leaning, with a character thatās very much its own, The Deputy doesnāt care if thereās a stompbox anywhere in sight, but itās also an excellent pedal platform.
The Deputyās tube complement and Victoryās English origins might imply that strictly Vox-like voices emit from this diminutive head, but the circuit enables many more trans-Atlantic sounds. With the EQ dialed in right and the bright switch engaged, The Deputy will indeed cop AC-style tones on the clean and crunchy side of that spectrum. But the robust preamp voicing and fixed-bias output stageāas well as the solid-state rectificationālend a tautness that enables convincing Fender-like tones when you want them. By dialing down the middle control to around 10 oāclock with the voice in the low-gain position, the gain below noon, and master just advanced from midday, I heard pretty good Deluxe Reverb sounds. Thereās certainly more than just one breed of clean to source.
On the whole, I preferred heavier amp-generated crunch and lead sounds with the voice switch in the middle position, the bright switch off, and a little bump from the midrange control. Set this way, The Deputy lends thickness to a Strat without adding harsh or spiky clipping, while the ES-355ās humbuckers are blissfully muscular and aggressive. With more conservative gain settings, the extra upper mid and high end from the brighter voice add cutting power and a shimmering, cranked-Vox-like character that plays well with many styles. Add digital reverbāwhich moves readily from ājust a touchā to an evocative atmospheric washāand the palette of tones at hand becomes even more impressive.
The Verdict
With an able assist from Pete HonorĆ©, Victory has pulled off another deft design. Itās a toneful performer that can sound and feel bigger than it is. For a single-channel head, itās crazy versatileāwith or without pedals. But if youāre into economy on the equipment and cost fronts, youāre bound to be pleased with how much you can do with this high-quality, diminutive head, a cab, a guitar, and nothing else.