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Versoul Raya 12 & Swan 4 | NAMM 2022

Versoul Raya Ronnie Wood Blue Light Model Demo | NAMM 2022

See how the company took one of their standout models and added a wealth of high-end features including a gold-leaf finish.


Versoul Raya 12 Baritone

Versoul
$6000

Its crisp jingle-jangle also rang loud during the first flowering of psychedelia. In recent decades, Tom Petty and others have revived its unique sound. But anyone who has played an electric 12-string from its golden age’ knows just how problematic many of those instruments can be: everything from string spacing to intonation is oftenoff.’ Versoul’s Raya 12 is impressively `on’ in all the right places. The heart of the matter is its body of Finnish alder and an extraordinary scale length (26.75”), aiding the instrument’s robust resonance. There’s the laminated aspen and maple neck as well, crowned by an East Indian rosewood fingerboard. These elements lend the Raya 12 a near-orchestral sound palette, and you don’t have to fight it for optimal results: its low action and generous width at the nut make it the most playable electric 12-string imaginable. Whether you strum chords, pick single notes or play with your fingers, the Raya 12 was designed for ease of playability by any and all means. Solving the trouble-prone intonation of 12-strings, the Gotoh bridge design enables precise fine-tuning of each string. Here’s an electric 12-string that may inspire you to start a musical revolution of your own.

Whitman Audio introduces the Decoherence Drive and Wave Collapse Fuzz, two innovative guitar pedals designed to push the boundaries of sound exploration. With unique features like cascading gain stages and vintage silicon transistor fuzz, these pedals offer musicians a new path to sonic creativity.

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In our third installment with Santa Cruz Guitar Company founder Richard Hoover, the master luthier shows PG's John Bohlinger how his team of builders assemble and construct guitars like a chef preparing food pairings. Hoover explains that the finer details like binding, headstock size and shape, internal bracing, and adhesives are critical players in shaping an instrument's sound. Finally, Richard explains how SCGC uses every inch of wood for making acoustic guitars or outside ventures like surfboards and art.

We know Horsegirl as a band of musicians, but their friendships will always come before the music. From left to right: Nora Cheng, drummer Gigi Reece, and Penelope Lowenstein.

Photo by Ruby Faye

The Chicago-via-New York trio of best friends reinterpret the best bits of college-rock and ’90s indie on their new record, Phonetics On and On.

Horsegirl guitarists Nora Cheng and Penelope Lowenstein are back in their hometown of Chicago during winter break from New York University, where they share an apartment with drummer Gigi Reece. They’re both in the middle of writing papers. Cheng is working on one about Buckminster Fuller for a city planning class, and Lowenstein is untangling Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann’s short story, “Three Paths to the Lake.”

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