Kick your signal up with a 27 dB citrus splash.
RatingsPros:Adds girth to single-coils. Makes thin fuzz sound extra massive. Inexpensive. Cons: Might be too hi-fi and have too much headroom for some players. Street: $60 RPS Vitamin C Boost rpseffects.com
| Tones:  Ease of Use:  Build/Design:  Value: |
Clean boosts seem to inspire magical thinking. No matter how “clean” and free of coloration a boost is, extra gain ultimately runs up against an amp’s ceiling, imparting distortion and compression. The only way to true clean boost is a louder amp. But if you want your signal to sound louder, bigger, and fatter at the flick of a switch, without significantly compromising its tone signature, it’s hard to imagine a cleaner kick in the pants than the USA-built, op amp-driven RPS Vitamin C.
Compared to boosts like MXR’s Micro Amp and Dunlop and Xotic’s EP-3-based circuits (none of which make grand claims of “cleanliness”), the Vitamin C really is nearly free of compression or EQ spikes that produce distortion in an amp. It’s also really loud, with 27 dB of extra kick. But the Vitamin C manages all that extra volume without sounding clinical or harsh. The compression it does impart is warm and mellow with little adverse effect on dynamic range. Drive tones are warm, too. But depending on your amp, you may have to take the Vitamin C to painfully loud levels to summon true grit. The Vitamin C sounds best with small to medium tube amps, where its capacity for adding space, width, and warmth lends body to single-coil output, and sparkle and mass to jangly tones.
Test gear: Rickenbacker 370-12, Fender Jazzmaster, Fender Telecaster Deluxe with Curtis Novak Widerange humbuckers, ’68 Fender Bassman, blackface Fender Vibrolux Reverb, Fender Vibro Champ.
When is a J not a J?
RatingsPros:Lively and dynamic. Excellent playability. Nice neck. Pretty, economical styling. Cons: Brash midrange in heavy strumming situations. Richlite bridge feels plasticky. Street: $1,299 Gibson G-45 Standard gibson.com | Tones: Playability: Build/Design: Value: |
Gibson J-45s are absolutely beautiful things. On most days, I’d venture that they are the prettiest flattops of all. But the model’s enduring appeal and super-classic status is also tied to a certain sound: earthy, husky, mellow but big. If a venerable and dusty old barn could sing in soft summer evening light, well, that might just be the voice of a J-45.
Gibson’s new G-45 is a very different kind of Gibson dreadnought. And while it shares the same handsome lines, dimensions, and scale length with its more rustic elder cousin, the walnut-and-spruce G-45’s voice is brighter and more contemporary sounding than a traditional mahogany-and-spruce J-45. Yet for all these differences, the G-45 offers cool alternatives to canonical Gibson sounds that fit well in modern music production. And at $1,299 for the Standard model reviewed here, it comes with an accessible price tag, too.
Quick Costume Change
If you have a feeling that you’ve seen the G-45 before, in some ways you have. Just a few years back, Gibson introduced the J-15, a slope-shouldered, solid walnut-and-spruce take on the J-45 template. The G-45 uses the same basic walnut-and-spruce tonewood formula, but uses different woods and materials elsewhere in the guitar’s construction to achieve a more accessible price. So where the J-15 had a walnut bridge and fretboard, the G-45 uses Richlite fiber-based composite, and where the J-15’s neck was maple, the G-45 uses mahogany-like utile. The G-45 also uses a Fishman Sonitone pickup system, which is less expensive than the J-15’s LR Baggs Element.
Other significant differences between the two guitars have little to do with cost savings. The G-45 uses Gibson’s Advance Response neck profile, which is thicker than the J-15’s Slim Taper neck. And the G-45 uses the J-45’s belly-up bridge shape, in a nice nod to J-45 tradition.
While the G-45 is inexpensive by Gibson flattop standards and uses less luxurious materials in places to achieve that aim, it shows no signs of cutting corners in construction. Fretwork is perfect. Less conspicuous elements like bracing and the solid lining that takes the place of kerfing at the top and back joins are flawlessly finished. It’s little surprise that this guitar emerged from the same Bozeman, Montana, shop that’s produced Gibson’s highest-end acoustics for years. Someone is clearly paying attention to the details.
Meet Me in the Middle
If you’re looking to the G-45 to deliver classic mahogany-and-spruce J-45 tones, you might want to consider alternatives. The G-45 sounds very different—even within the wide spectrum of variation in the J-45 family. That doesn’t mean the G-45 doesn’t sound excellent, though. Many tones are unusual for a slope-shoulder dreadnought and potentially very useful in recording situations.
While many factors make up the G-45’s tone signature, the biggest differences between the G-45 and J-45 are likely down to the G’s solid walnut back and sides. Walnut typically produces bright, tight, focused tones with emphasis in the mid- and high-mid range. You hear that very tone profile in the G-45 immediately, and if you dive in expecting the deep, mellow colors of a mahogany-backed J-45 you may be taken aback.
But if you sit tight with the G-45 and explore its dynamic range and responsiveness to variation in playing style, you’ll uncover a wealth of surprises. The G-45 has excellent string-to-string balance. And while “pianistic” is overused as an adjective to describe acoustic guitar response, the G-45 does have a well-tuned piano’s balance and touch sensitivity over the fretboard’s whole expanse. High notes from the first string ring with detail and brilliance. The high-mid tone emphasis also works interestingly with the big slope-shouldered body—generating a perceptible natural reverb that, no kidding, could find you forgoing outboard reverb in the studio, especially if you use the guitar for single-note leads. This balance and strength in the mid- and high-range segments of the tone spectrum also makes the G-45 excellent for fingerstyle, where you can leverage the strong midrange and high-end detail for melodic nuance and use it’s dynamic range for expressive variation in bass lines.
If the G-45 has a relative weakness—at least in its freshly minted state—it’s the tendency for the midrange to overpower the bass in heavy strumming situations. In a recording studio, you can roll back some of the abundant shimmer, but in performance, the midrange is strong enough to force a change to a lighter picking approach. It’s likely this aspect of the G-45 will mellow over time. And while the bass sometimes seems underwhelming relative to the midrange, in isolation it’s warm, complex, and resonant.
The Verdict
The same design economy and inspiration that makes the J-45 and J-50 unassailable classics make the G-45 a gem to behold. The subdued styling is gorgeous. The maple hues of the spruce top work beautifully with the slope-shoulder lines and proportions. And you’ll probably stare at the complex, swirling walnut figuring on the back and sides for years. The guitar is tuning-stable, rugged, and built to last. The setup and intonation were excellent, and the Advance Profile neck is comfortable, fast, and full in a way that reduces hand fatigue while adding a sense of substance and quality. Purists seeking a J-45’s specific tone signature on the cheap may want to consider other alternatives. But for players with more open-ended agendas, the G-45 is a cool departure, brimming with many lively tones.
Watch the First Look:
Kessel’s signature Kay returns as a fun, fast-playing rock and jazz machine.
Kay Barney Kessel Artist guitar played through a tweed-Deluxe-style 1x12 combo.
0:00 - neck pickup, amp set clean-ish.
0:27 - bridge pickup, amp cranked up for crunch.
RatingsPros:Stylishly retro. High-quality build. Unique sonic personality. Cons: Minor buzzing and fretting-out about halfway up the neck. Some players might like a bridge pickup that cleans up more easily. Street: $1,299
kayvintagereissue.com | Tones:  Playability: Build/Design: Value: |
Jazz guitarist Barney Kessel had chops to rival just about anyone on the scene back in the 1950s. He was also a first-call session ace who appeared on recordings by the Beach Boys, the Monkees, the Righteous Brothers, Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley, Sonny and Cher, and boatloads of others.
Needless to say, Barney was a big deal. And in 1957, Kay struck an endorsement deal with the guitarist and launched the Barney Kessel line. Over the four years that Barney’s signature Kay models were sold, Kessel mostly stayed loyal to his Gibson ES-350 with Charlie Christian pickups. But the Kessel-branded Kays became coveted as worthy big-brand alternatives and pawn-shop prizes in the intervening decades. Now, a comprehensive reissue of three Kay Barney Kessel models, the Pro K1700V, the Jazz Special K8700V, and the Barney Kessel Artist K6700V—the latter reviewed here—join a roster of resurrected Kays that already includes the very cool Thin Twin and Pro Bass.
K Is for Kelvinator
Even at a distance, it’s easy to see how effectively the China-built Kay captures the visual splendor of the original Barney Kessel Artist. Start playing, though, and it’s also clear that the new Kay company built a better, more playable guitar in many respects. The multi-tiered, three-dimensional plastic “Kelvinator” headstock, named for its resemblance to Kelvinator refrigerator adornments in the ’50s, is a splendid work of mid-20th-century kitsch. It’s also home to a set of efficient 18:1 Grover Rotomatic tuners that make this Kessel a much more stable and modern instrument.
The cosmetic trappings are authentic elsewhere, too. There are clear plastic “Kleenex box” covers on the wide single-coil pickups, a silver-backed plexiglass batwing pickguard with a gold Barney Kessel-signature-and-chevron Kay logo, and a cross-hairs trapeze tailpiece. Laminated woods make up the fully hollowbody construction and the guitar’s pressed arched top is made from two lovely pieces of laminated spruce, replete with tight grain and glowing, flame-like medullary rays that peek through the amber in the vintage sunburst finish. Laminated flame maple makes up the back and sides, and both top and back are trimmed in 4-ply black-and-white celluloid binding. Parallel trestle braces support the top, and the solid, rounded-C-shape Canadian Maple neck is attached with a glued, cantilevered dovetail joint and topped with a bound rosewood 12" radius fretboard with acrylic block inlays. Scale length is 24 3/4". The nut width is 1 11/16".
The distinctive Kleenex box covers hide wide single-coil pickups that measure 12.93k ohms in the bridge and a more tempered 7.65k ohms in the neck. It’s a very “business in the front, party in the back” setup that suggests Kay is equally serious about the Kessel’s capabilities as a jazz and a rock machine. Kay tells us they’re made with ceramic 8 magnets rather than the alnico V of old, and have scatter-wound coils for authentic grit and edge. Controls include a tone and volume for each pickup and a 3-way switch.
Oh-Kay
The neck on the Barney Kessel Artist feels nice, if a bit generic. It’s certainly not unappealing in any way. The guitar arrived with medium action and just a hair of relief in the truss rod. There was just a little buzzing and fretting-out when playing and bending around the 9th to 12th fret region, so a little extra fret leveling might be warranted. That aside, the Kessel feels fun and fast under the fingers, and almost inevitably steers you toward bop and swing chops, even if you’re only a jazz hack at best, like me.
Tested through a tweed-Deluxe-style combo and a Friedman Small Box head and 2x12 cab, the Jekyll & Hyde nature suggested by the pickup selection reveals itself more clearly. In a general sense, the ceramic 8 pickups mix aspects of a P-90 and a Teisco gold-foil, with plenty of their own thing going on. With a clean amp, the neck pickup has a warm, darkish, semi-sweet character that will satisfy jazz dabblers that might want to crank it up with the bridge pickup on the weekends. In that setting, the Barney Kessel Artist transforms into a snarling, gritty, dirt-rock monster that rarely cleans up no matter how quietly you set up your amp. It’s a lot of fun, in a slightly messy way, and, of course, there’s feedback howl aplenty if you get too close to your rig, which is half the fun of using a hollowbody for rowdier rock stuff.
The guitar’s dual nature provides interesting contrasts and a lot of creative potential. But for all the the duality between the neck and bridge pickups, I think this guitar will appeal most to garage rockers, roots and Americana players, and rockabilly guys who can live without a Bigsby.
The Verdict
Kudos are due to the new Kay for bringing back this personality-packed instrument from the golden age of the electric guitar. Our review guitar could have used a little extra attention to the fretwork. And players that prefer relatively balanced output between neck and bridge pickups should be aware that the guitar has a split personality of sorts. Those constraints aside, the Kay’s stylish retro looks, smooth playability, and raw-to-mellow tones make up a package that’s likely to appeal to players across many styles.
Watch the First Look: