Despite its eyebrow-raising construction, the Lune sounded fantastic. That is, when it worked. When you got lucky and all the connections were firing, it was a throbbing, mysterious, device capable of all kinds of pulsing mayhem, along with a very healthy gain boost and a thoughtful “spacing” control that changed the distance between cycles (as opposed to a speed knob which simply changes how quickly the volume goes up and down). I spent hours inside that pedal resoldering connections, replacing wires, and eventually replacing the switch. It sometimes failed when we did outdoor shows in humid environments, which made me think the failure was due to the cardboard getting saturated with moisture.
Years later, 3ms changed its name to 4ms because of pressure from 3M. (How anyone might have confused a ragtag gang of sonic communists with the multinational behind Scotch tape and Post-it notes boggles my mind, but such are the pitfalls for small builders then and now.) I ordered a replacement board several years back to rebuild my Tremulus, but kept the original CBCB as a reminder of what once resided inside. Meanwhile, Dan Green has steered 4ms and its DIY counterpart commonsound.org beyond pedals to all kinds of new, innovative noise devices and synth modules. The company’s influence can be seen today among many effect pedal builders we consider “boutique.” The way the pedals were signed and personalized by the builder responsible lives on in our work at Caroline Guitar Company, as well as many others. The home-cooked products and easygoing “marketing” (to use the term very, very loosely) are echoed in Brady Smith’s Old Blood Noise Endeavors. And remnants of the haphazard, almost dangerous-looking packaging can be found in the work of outfits such as Dwarfcraft Devices and Fuzzrocious.
To pay homage to this odd device and its effect on both my sound and experience—and to more broadly celebrate the spirit of pursuing different, inspiring sounds that prevent us from becoming “pedalbored”—I decided to speak with some of my favorite pedal builders about the unusual, off-the-beaten-track effects that made them think and play differently, and, by extension, influenced their own pedal designs.
YouTube It
Although videos of original 3ms Lunes are virtually nonexistent, an Australian DIY enthusiast created this video of the clone from a kit sold on 4ms’ commonsound.org store.
The Eventide H910 Harmonizer was gorgeously made, with crazily spot-on accurate pitch shifting for its time, transposing within +/- 1 cent. “They knew what they were doing,” says Jack Deville of Mr. Black Pedals. Photo courtesy of Arthur Stone
Jack Deville, Mr. Black Pedals – Eventide H910 Harmonizer
There are two groups of technically savvy people in our niche industry: Those who frequently have to be the “doctor” in the room, and those who really should be the doctor in the room. My friend Jack Deville is the latter. In addition to his own work at Mr. Black, Jack has been a valuable contributor to a number of other companies’ products. I had high hopes that the designer of the Shepard’s End Infinite Flanger—“the world’s first barber pole through-zero flanger”—would have a good story to tell about something that caught his attention. He did not disappoint.
“Have you ever looked inside an Eventide H910?” he asked. I was completely confused. I’d heard of the H3000—a legendarily expensive device from the 1980s that purportedly contained all the Steve Vai magic that you wouldn’t be able to acquire by practicing—but I was unfamiliar with the H910. Naturally, I consulted the magic network that my wife used to purchase my cardboard tremolo from a gang of socialists.
“It’s eye-opening, man—nuts,” Jack continued. “Gorgeously made, crazily spot-on accurate pitch shifting for its time. Transposing within +/- 1 cent. They knew what they were doing. It was a total wake-up call. These things cost crazy money back in the day—roughly $1,500 at release, which would be about $6,000 or $7,000 now if you adjusted for inflation. But studios had to have them.”
Jack was asked to work on a H910 by a friend who’d only found one other person willing to do so—and at a steep price. When he opened it up, he was startled by the craftsmanship and design. “There are better A/D converters in here than in a CD player,” he explains. “There’s MIDI capability with an external keyboard control. There’s a dual-sided, plated-through circuit board—that’s NASA-level shit for its time! There’s also an LED readout, a terrific layout with smart uses of ribbon connectors, and separate digital and analog power and grounds. And here’s the kicker: This is from 1975. It’s better made than stuff we regularly see today—over 40 years later!”
The H910’s effect on Jack was profound. “I’d been working on the Mod Zero pedal and I was feeling pretty good about it, but then I cracked this thing open and was just, like, ‘Fuck—why even do this [line of work] at all? This thing is a computer, and I’m making this dumb little flanger.’ It made me think about learning a process, learning a system, and how I apply that to my own work.”
YouTube It
How can you resist a video with a 1950s-style propaganda voice intoning, “Today we are going to learn about the many wonders of CMOS logic and the many ways it can frighten and confuse us”?
The Schumann PLL is capable of the kind of ragged polyphony and noisy collapse you’d hear in an ’80s arcade game like Missile Command, with descending laser-beam pitch glides and vocal roars as notes decay. Photo courtesy of Lynn Schumann
Brian Hamilton, smallsound/bigsound – Schumann Electronics PLL
One thing I appreciate about Brian Hamilton’s work at smallsound/bigsound is his capacity to surprise: In an industry where it seems five new effects companies appear each week with a new overdrive clone, Hamilton’s work—including his pitch-bending No Memory delay and Team Awesome Fuzz Machine—can delight and vex players looking for something different and unexpected. Because of this, I presumed the gear that has inspired Brian would be a bit wilder, with a broader scope of control than most traditional guitar effects.
While the Schumann Electronics PLL is described on the company’s website as an analog harmonizer that turns the input signal into a square wave with a multiplier and divider that adds intervals to your note, most players who play through one would describe it as the ultimate signal mangler and mutator—one where the dangerous textures of something like a Fuzz Factory might serve as a starting point. From there it can devolve into square waves completely devoid of pick attack—stuff that resembles a programmed Nine Inch Nails sequence—or into the kind of ragged polyphony and noisy collapse you’d hear in an ’80s arcade game like Missile Command, with descending laser-beam pitch glides and vocal roars as notes decay.
“I think we’re all used to certain effects where there’s a certain expectation of what’s going to happen when you play, and the controls seem to operate independently,” Brian begins. “Gain—that gives you more. Tone makes it bright or dark. Volume? That’s pretty self-explanatory. But with the PLL, everything seems interdependent and connected. You mess with the preamp, and that changes what you’ll want to do with the lag time, the tracking, or the multiplier. You have to figure out how things are connected and the balancing act involved in getting it right.”
While chatting about the PLL and how it influenced the way he thinks of sounds and his own designs, Brian said something that really stuck with me. “The PLL might have been the first effect I ever played that made me really consider what can happen after you play a note. I think before that—even with a lot of wild effects—there’s stuff you take for granted about how stuff will respond. The PLL kind of turns that on its head.”
YouTube It
The guys at BassFuzz.com give us a primer on the PLL’s daunting collection of dials, knobs, and switches.
By modulating delay times in a random way, the Pefftronics Super Rand-O-Matic “humanizes” a double-tracking effect, emulating the natural variation that a player might have while trying to play the exact same part the same way twice. Photo courtesy of Proto Guitars
Matt Farrow, Alexander Pedals and Disaster Area Designs – Pefftronics Super Rand-O-Matic
I first heard about the Pefftronics Super Rand-O-Matic in a Facebook thread about Sarah Koenig’s popular Serial podcast and its inconclusive finale. A friend speaking up in its defense made an analogy to this pedal, stating that attempting to reverse-engineer or recreate this very complicated device—even if unsuccessful—would be worthwhile for the education and experience. When I read the thread I didn’t even know the Rand-O-Matic was a real pedal—I thought it was a hypothetical name invented to illustrate a point. After confirming its existence, I replied, “I think I’d rather work with [Alexander Pedals and Disaster Area Designs builder] Matt Farrow and try to recreate it as an emulation.” Lo and behold, who should arrive on the thread but the devil himself, posting a photo of a prototype enclosure and explaining that he’d already been at work considering such a project.
Matt has perhaps the most encyclopedic, far-reaching mind of anyone in our game. In a conversation that’s initially about guitar pedals, we might discuss the Capitol Records digital-mastering tones used for introductions on audiocassettes, the operational processes Pizza Hut had to develop for their dual-crust pie fiasco, the curious placement of singles on the second side of Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime, or the virtues of the Casio DG-10 “guitar.”
“The Rand-O-Matic was built in the 1990s, and at its core it’s a really good digital flanger,” Matt explains. In the mid ’90s, there weren’t many pedal flangers on the market, other than the Boss BF-2. “Flanging basically comes from two modulated delay lines. But the problem with the analog flangers of that time was that it was almost impossible to make the sweep range large enough—you were limited by the clock rate, so you had to choose which way you’d go. But with the digital lines that [Pefftronics founder and designer] Jeff Vallier created with a ton of logic-based stuff, a microprocessor, and discrete logic chips, he could have his cake and eat it too with both short and long lines. You could have a longer one that creates that guttural roar, and a shorter one that creates that frothy jet whoosh.”
At $250 (nearly $400 in today’s money), the Rand-O-Matic was cost-prohibitive for most players in the early days of boutique. But for those brave enough to pony up the cash, the random function is the prize: By modulating the delay times in a random way, it “humanizes” a double-tracking effect more like an actual second guitar track, emulating the natural variation that a player might have while trying to play the exact same part the same way twice.
In considering how he would recreate such a device, Farrow hits upon a particular theme about emulation of older effects. “You can create a reissue, where you try to do everything exactly as it was done originally. Or you can create a work-alike, where your goal is to sound the same. Or you can create an analogue—something that emulates and builds upon the experience of such a device. With 90 percent of our industry making clones of a dozen archetypes, I’m not sure any kinds of straight copies are really what’s needed. I guess that’s why I’m more interested in pursuing my idea of what these devices can do. To quote Whitney Houston, ‘If I fail, if I succeed, at least I lived as I believe.’”
I was going to correct Matt that he was really quoting Linda Creed, but I figured he said Whitney Houston just to test me.
YouTube It
EffectsDatabase.com demonstrates the helicopter, laser, and other weird sounds to be had in the Rand-O-Matic.
Developed before more polyphonic harmonizers or multiple-octave devices became readily available, the OC-07 is much more suited for creating fake bass accompaniment or fattening distorted single-note lines. Photo courtesy of Eric Mann
Brad Fee, Mojo Hand Fx – Pearl OC-07 Octaver
A word of advice to any guitarist who is planning on going to NAMM (or who aspires to go): Please don’t try to impress people. You’re not going to get discovered—16th-notes in E minor or blues licks in A are something we’ve all heard before. That said, I have to give Brad Fee of Mojo Hand Fx credit where its due. After three loud days stationed across from his company’s booth at Nashville NAMM last summer, I really enjoyed and appreciated his playing. While succinctly and tastefully demonstrating his line of pedals, Brad consistently sounded like a Mike Campbell- or Keith Scott- style sideman with a weekly church gig in Texas. His company’s effects reflect a similar, practical ethos—a traditional design mindset with expanded function and versatility. Given this, I was kind of surprised to find out that a centerpiece of Brad’s own pedal collection is a pretty unusual piece that’s also being used rather unconventionally.“I’ve gone back and forth and bought the Pearl OC-07 Octaver over and over, and now I just can’t get away from it” Brad explains. “But I don’t think I’m using it the way it’s meant to be used. Most people who have an octave pedal like this use it for fattening-up single-note riffs. I just use it for clean chords, sometimes on an arpeggio or a strum, and it gets all glitchy, creating this weird, ‘wrong’ noise that is kind of out of context and different—almost like a ring modulator, but still something that can be used in a song.”
It struck me as surprising that Brad would prefer the Pearl over more modern, more accurate pitch shifters or doubling devices. Developed before more polyphonic harmonizers or multiple-octave devices became readily available, the OC-07 is much more suited for creating fake bass accompaniment or fattening distorted single-note lines. But the very fact that it’s inadequate to Brad’s task is kind of what does it for him. “You hit that Em barre chord on the 7th fret, and things go kind of bonkers,” he continues. “There are these dissonant layers because it doesn’t track that well, and there’s noise—but it’s subtle and works in a band context. It’s not this obnoxious thing that throws things off, but it’s interesting enough that you take notice.”
Seeing how much he enjoys this unusual effect for himself, I wondered if Brad has considered building a variant for his own brand and customers. “This is definitely one of those devices where you wonder ‘Is this only for me—am I the only person in the world who likes this?’” he laughs. “We’ve put some time and money into developing something similar, but it would require a bunch of components—and with the time we’d have to put into it, we’d have to charge something like $300 for it. And with us being known for more practical, utilitarian stuff, that kind of price for something kind of odd isn’t really the right kind of crazy.”
YouTube It
Enjoy a glimpse of the glitchy goodness pouring from the Pearl OC-07’s guts.
The warm, dark, and resonant Maestro FSH sampler sounded futuristic 40 years ago and still sounds that way today. And yet, oddly natural at the same time.
Jamie Stillman, EarthQuaker Devices—Maestro FSH-1 Filter Sample/Hold
I once heard an excellent description of travel as an act that takes a person out of context, be it your job, home, habits, or friends. When I searched for the originator of this view, it turned out the idea came from Rush drummer Neil Peart’s 2004 book, The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa. This mindset reminds me of Jamie Stillman and the team at EarthQuaker Devices in Akron, Ohio. While they make an endless array of useful boosts, drives, fuzzes, and delay pedals, what sets their work apart is how much it can take you outside of yourself. Your usual context—your habits, tones, sonic identity, and self perception as a player—kind of disappears when you plug into a Bit Commander or a Rainbow Machine (“the original unusable guitar effect pedal,” as Jamie calls it) and hear how they transform your sound and approach.
Jamie’s effect collection is pretty legendary—even among most of us hoarders who end up starting pedal companies—so I really wanted to know what the standout was for him. When I asked him, he didn’t hesitate for a second: “The Maestro Filter Sample/Hold—it’s the sound of warm computers speaking to each other.”
He elaborated when I asked about making his own filter-based device. “I’ve made dozens of filter-based things we didn’t release—there are seemingly billions of them out there, and almost none of them do it right. The Maestro is warm and dark, but still super resonant. You can easily make a filter get dark, but then you’re dulling it and it’s just unresponsive. For it to be ring-y and yet still full and warm, I know this can sound dumb, but it’s not natural—and yet totally natural.” The sample-and-hold function also holds a lot of charm for Jamie. “I know it’s something that synth guys take for granted, look back on, and think, ‘That’s nothing—I’ve got a billion CV controls interconnected to all these parameters.’ But to listeners, the sound of the sample and hold is always futuristic. It was futuristic sounding 40 years ago, and it’s still futuristic sounding today. It sounds like what we think of sci-fi and computers.”
When I asked Jamie whether the Maestro influenced the Interstellar Orbiter, EarthQuaker’s first filter-based pedal, he replied, “We went in a really different direction with that. Everything we make has to be something I really, really like. When there’s something like the FSH-1, which I think is really special—everything from that funky, red-white-and-blue folded steel enclosure to that sound and the possibility that components have aged, leaked, or were simply outside of spec—I think there’s something about it that goes beyond a schematic. And if I can’t make something I’d rather use for what that device does, then I should leave it be and make something else.”
YouTube It
Demos of original FSH-1s being played with a guitar are just about as rare as the Tremulus Lune, but companies like Makes Sounds Loudly Pedals offer DIY kits to capture the glorious sounds of yore.
One of the great things about NAMM is that it's a beautifully democratic bazaar. Garage-based pedal builders hawk their wares just a stone's throw from the biggest players in the business. And just when you think the newest 6-string from Fender, Martin, Gibson, Taylor, or PRS is the thing you'll remember as you fall off to sleep that night, some upstart fuzz builder pulls you over and blows your mind -- cranking their latest contraption through a ratty, blackface Princeton from a booth the size of your closet.
The whole cross-section is represented here, some of our favorites, anyway. But there's plenty more to see, including in-depth video coverage, at premierguitar.com. Check it out. Then holler and let us know what you think. You'll be seeing a lot of these products reviewed in the months to come, but we'd love to know what you're all hot about, too. Frankly, we're still a little blown away by everything we heard and saw.
Electric Guitars
1. Reverend Eastsider
Reverend’s Eastsider is the company’s second
Pete Anderson Signature model. It has
a Broadcaster-style bridge pickup, korina
body, and a compound radius fretboard.
reverendguitars.com
2. Moog Lap Steel
The Moog Lap Steel was one of the most
intriguing instruments at NAMM. It’s built
around the electronics from the Moog Guitar,
which means the Lap Steel is capable of
practically infi nite sustain, a cool controlled
sustain mode that simultaneously mutes unplayed
strings and sustains played strings,
and a piezo pickup so you can blend natural
lap steel sounds and Moogifi ed tones.
moogmusic.com
3. Jens Ritter Monroe
Jens Ritter’s Monroe, dressed up in deep
and luxurious royal blue from head to toe,
was a contender the running for the Rolls
Royce of NAMM. Ritter conceived the
model after a rockabilly listening binge and
features custom humbuckers and a Bigsby
B7 modifi ed by Ritter himself.
ritter-instruments.com
4. Hagstrom Viking baritone
The new 28"-scale Viking Baritone features
a maple semi-hollow body with fl amed top
veneer, a vintage-voice humbucker and
P-90, dual volume and tone controls, and 22
frets. Besides being beautiful and sounding
great, it’s remarkable in two big ways: It’s
possibly the only semi-hollow production
baritone on the market, and it streets for
around $700.
hagstromguitars.eu
5. LSL Instruments BadBone 2
This vintage-themed beauty comes in a
choice of swamp ash, pine, or alder bodies,
features either a 7.25"- or a 9.5"-radius
fretboard, and has a trimmed-down T-style
bridge that accommodates its handwound
PAF-voiced LSL humbuckers.
lslinstruments.com
6. Fender Johnny Marr Jaguar
Fender’s Johnny Marr signature Jaguar
includes several signifi cant and useful evolutionary
features. Pickups can be wired in
series or in parallel and there’s a reconfi
gured bright switch. Marr also requested
Bare Knuckle pickups and the guitar has
a chunkier-than-usual neck based on a
favorite ’65 Jag in Marr’s quiver.
fender.com
Acoustic Guitars
1. Blueridge BG-2500 Super Jumbo
Blueridge’s BG-2500 Super Jumbo has
a gorgeous flame maple back and sides,
spruce top, sweet, hefty neck, art deco
bridge and barks like a 200-pound hound.
sagamusic.com
2. Lowden F-35
Lowden’s F-35 fanned-fret prototype looks
bound for production and the combination
of reclaimed redwood top and Honduran
mahogany back and sides sounds distinctly
Lowden—warm, detailed, and really
responsive.
georgelowden.com
3. Santa Cruz Baritone
Santa Cruz Guitars brought some show
stoppers this year as part of their program
to support local guitar shops, including
this spectacular dread-bodied baritone
with sycamore back and sides and Italian
spruce top.
santacruzguitar.com
4. L.R. Baggs M80
Lloyd Baggs’ new soundhole pickup
features a stacked humbucking design in
which the second coil is suspended in a
proprietary material that allows the pickup
to act as a 3-D body sensor. It also has
active/passive modes and a multi-segment
battery indicator for more convenient
battery-power tracking.
lrbaggs.com
Amps
1. Orange OR50
Big and classically British, the single-channel
OR50 is a reissue of Orange’s legendary
“Pics Only” 50-watt head from 1972. Two
EL34s, two 12AX7s in the preamp, an attenuator
section and a ton of classic Rock
Over London vibes.
orangeamps.com
2. Marshall 1-Watt Anniversary Editions
Marshall Amplification introduced 1-watt
versions of their classic amplifiers celebrating
the company’s 50th anniversary in
2012. There is the JTM 1, JMP-1, JCM800,
DSL1, and JVM1. Each amplifier represents
the corresponding decade the amp was
originally released.
marshallamps.com
3. Diezel Hagen
A refinement on Peter Diezel’s acclaimed
VH4 head, the brilliant and brutal new 100-
watt Hagen is powered by four EL34s and
has a preamp that’s driven by six 12AX7s
and controlled by four horizontally arrayed
independent channels—clean, crunch, mega,
and lead. It also has three effects loops—one
MIDI controlled serial, a permanent serial,
and a permanent parallel with volume control.
diezel.de
4. Carr Bloke
Carr amplifiers unveiled their new hi-gain
amp, the Bloke. It takes its inspiration
from vintage British heads and late-’60s
tube bass amps from America. Controls
include lead master, treble, and bass with
the bass routed through a separate circuit.
The Bloke is powered by two EL34s, but is
compatible with 6V6 tubes.
carramps.com
5. Jet City JCA22W
Based on Mike Soldano’s Atomic 16
amp, the EL84-powered, 20-watt Jet City
JCA22W is a dream for guitarists who love
hearing pure tube tone onstage but are at
the mercy of sound men in the house mix.
The JCA22W’s monitor-like wedge shape
enables you to blast your own unadulterated
tones into your face while sending a
4x12-simulation via direct output to the PA.
jetcityamplification.com
6. Ampeg R-12R Reverberocket
ampeg.com
Effects
1. Malekko Plus Ultra, Chaos, and Helium
Malekko released three fuzz boxes at NAMM. The Wolftone
Plus Ultra, Wolftone Chaos, and Wolftone Helium all
create different flavors of absolutely insane fuzz mayhem—
and exponentially so when they’re used together—
and they are licensed designs from Studio Electronics,
whose own versions are highly sought-after rarities.
malekkoheavyindustry.com
2. Earthquaker Organizer and Rainbow Generator
Earthquaker Devices was up to their usual sickness at
NAMM. The Organizer helps you generate organ tones
and odd oscillations. The Tone Job is a simple but effective
cut/boost EQ and boost. The Rainbow Machine is a
DSP-driven, pitch shifting, tone twisting, dimension altering
piece of hardware that can also be controlled with an
expression pedal and sounds freaking incredible.
earthquakerdevices.com
3. Egnater Overdose
Egnater announced two new pedals at the NAMM show,
the Holy Driver and Overdose. The Overdose is a pure
analog overdrive and boost pedal. The right side handles
the boost and can be routed either before it after the
overdrive section in the signal chain. There are also patch
in/out jacks so you can insert other pedals between the
overdrive and boost sections.
egnater.com
4. Jack Deville Deuce Coupe
The Deuce Coupe is Jack Deville’s new dual-mode overdrive
pedal. You can double tap the clickless, true-bypass
switch to activate between 4 and 16 dB of boost.
5. Rivera Sustain Shaman
Paul Rivera’s new compressor goes way past traditional
guitar-pedal compressor designs by offering two channels
with extremely low-noise circuitry. Channel B has a
SuperSust switch for long, sustained leads, while channel
A is voiced for rhythm work.
rivera.com
6. Pigtronix Infinity Looper
Pigtronix Infinity Stereo Multi-Track Looper features dual
stereo loops with sync, 20 loop presets, multiplier for loop
2 (2, 3, 4, or 6 times), and USB access to save loops.
pigtronix.com
7. Diamond Pedals Quantum Leap
Diamond Pedals introduced two new pedals at NAMM.
The Cornerstone has two gain controls and two switches
for bright and mid. The Quantum Leap, which has design
roots in the Memory Lane Jr., is capable of everything
from a flanger-ish short delay all the way to a 500 ms,
analog-style delay. You also can get classic, chimey modulation
tones and pitch shifting up or down one octave.
8. Red Witch Synthotron
The new Synthotron pedal, which is dressed up in what looks
like a visual nod to the wild Mu-Tron pedals of old, offers up
a wild variety of psychedelic tones, including octave and
envelope-filter functions that let you get your Dr. Who on.
redwitchpedals.com
Bass
1. EBS Reidmar
ebs.bass.se
2. Epifani AL Combo
Epifani introduced the AL series line of
bass combos at NAMM. The AL is the
first to use a solid-aluminum shell, a
construction technique that Epifani says
results in improved frequency response
and power output without unwanted
tonal colorations.
epifani.com
3. Lakland Bass 60-11 Prototype
Lakland brought a new bass prototype
called the 60-11 to the show, and it’s
likely to appease anyone who’s ever
lusted for a Fender Bass VI. This 6-string
is technically a bass, but will be familiar
to baritone guitarists, too. The bass is
loaded with three Hanson P-90s and
sounds just as good through a bass or
guitar amp.
lakland.com
4. Warwick Jack Bruce Survivor
This fretless, neck-through designed
bass is ready to rumble. Available in both
fretted and fretless versions, this beauty
is handcrafted in Germany and outfitted
with passive MEC single-coils and active
MEC 2-way electronics. With a stained,
high-polish finish in either burgundy red
or nirvana black, Bruce’s signature axe
certainly turned some heads in Anaheim.
warwick.de
5. Gallien-Krueger 800 MB Fusion
GK’s latest features 800 watts (at 4Ω)
of power shaped by a 12AX7-driven
preamp. It’s all packed into an incredibly
portable design that weighs around
five pounds. New front-panel features
include backlit mute and -10 dB input
padding toggles.
gallien.com