I grew up in a house full of guitars, as my father was forever building electric guitars on the families kitchen table. I spent my teenage years trying to tame a 100 watt Marshall JCM 800 and matching 4 x 12 cab in a bedroom, only just large enough for a bed. I’d bought it not REALLY understanding exactly how loud 100 watts is. At this young age I started to experiment with recording and MIDI and cut my teeth on Pro 24 and Notator on an Atari synced to a Foster R8 with an MTC-1.
Playing in bands and working in recording studios for many years, I learned to mix, record and eventually worked as a sound engineer. I also worked for many of the UKs large pro audio retailers, where I helped to set up DAWs in everything from local studios, music technology colleges all the way through to world famous recording facilities like Air Studios and The Strongroom. As I couldn’t help myself, I even owned my own recording studio in London for a while. There I learnt a lot about recording guitars, dealing with bands and getting quality results anyhow.
Over the years I have acquired a very sizeable guitar collection, which includes many guitars that I have built myself. I’m a total hoarder of effect pedals and valve amps and I’m a certified guitar geek. So there are not many that I have not owned at least once. Whether Parker Fly guitars or Klon Centaur pedals, I’ve had them all. Now running the annual Analogue To Digital music show in the UK, plus the Vintage Guitar Fair, I get to be busy throughout the year and also get to rub shoulders with many other guitar lovers, luthiers, manufacturers and pro players.
My tastes in music includes everything from Dinosaur Jr to Squarepusher.
Write him: jef (at) gearnews (com)
HOT
Fender Japan tweets about two fetching new Silent Siren signature models, the first announced since the company said it was aiming to increase its marketing exposure with female artists.
Seymour Duncan's new Diamondhead is an '80s-flavoured multistage distortion pedal with a flexible 3-band EQ and added boost section. This baby could be perfect for 80s hard rock - among other things.
This reissued Harmony 8418 amp is constructed using the original blueprints form the 1950s and its hand-wired, all-tube design should have plenty of lush tones - all accessed with a single volume pot!
The new Magnetic Effects Electrochop optical tremolo pedal has a total of ten waveforms and can do subtle vintage tremolo to more modern, harder ones as well.
The new ECCOS pedal is described by Keeley as a "neo-vintage" delay and looper. Eh? That's a flangy, tape-style delay to you and me. Plenty of features and lots of retro vibe on tap here.
Thomann has a sweet deal on Jackson King V X-Series models whilst stocks last. Among these high-performance models going for less is a signature guitar for Corey Beaulieu of Trivium.
The Mr Black OD-503 is handmade in Portland and is the latest in his series of mini pedals: This light dynamic overdrive is designed to make your rig sing while not overpowering your guitar's tone.
Morley has just announced three new wah models. The new 20/20 Wah Lock, 20/20 Wah Boost and the 20/20 Lead Wah Morley pedal. Each features the new 20/20 buffer for a clearer signal chain.
Hagerman launches two premium, American-made tube drive pedals, the Overdrive and Boost. On top of juicy tones on offer here, you can also experiment by swapping out the valves.
Fender replaces its Elite Series with the American Ultra Series, adding new pickups, a Modern D neck profile, new finishes and more, taking these classic guitars in a new direction.
The new Knaggs Kenai-J is a classic formula for guitar tone, based around a vintage-50s style single cutaway design, this boutique guitar looks epic
Based on the Deep Impact synth pedal, the new pandaMidi Future Impact V3 pushes the design even further, adding bags of features to help you get some deep, deep bass synth tones.
Four classic analogue boutique phaser voices in one pedal? The new Crazy Tube Circuits Cyclone covers everything from Floyd to Van Halen in one pedal. And at this price, it's a bit of a bargain.
UK builder Graham Skimming is launching his new wallet friendly Silver Series, with the Orthodox. A unique retro-flavoured design and vintage vibes.
Reverend Guitars releases a limited run of its Sensei RT models, coming in one of five sparkly finishes - Lime, Black, Rock Orange, Purple and Aqua.
HOT
New Fender American Ultra Series leaked online and it looks like we will get hot-rodded Stratocasters and Jazzmasters amongst the new models officially out on Tuesday!
The YouTuber builds a paper guitar glued together using epoxy resin. Only 800 sheets are needed - but does Burls Art's PaperCaster sound good? Or is it more of a lifeless board?
Fender ias teasing a new guitar line and with the tag line "Never Play A Fender The Same Way Again" it certainly looks like this new line of guitars could be an elite one.
Mooer's new Hornet White is based on its existing Hornet amp, just in white and with different amp models. How will this well-priced 15W practise amp handle the competition from IK, Blackstar et al.?
Dave Mustaine of Megadeth is auctioning off some of his guitar and tour equipment! Amongst this haul of over 150 pieces are some truly great instruments, one-offs, signature models and prototypes.
Mooer's E7 Synth pedal lets you blast out synth tones via your guitar without any extra hardware. It's certainly cheap, but does it have enough usable sounds to win out over formidable competition?
Joyo releases the R-10 Nascar Delay effect pedal in its ongoing attempt to flood the guitar world with decent, cheap effects. It's a simple BBD delay, but at this price it could be a good deal.
You can now wrap your beloved smartphone in a case with either AAA Curly Hawaii Koa, Indian Rosewood or Santos Rosewood with a classic Gibson logo on the back.
Joyo's new R-14 Atmosphere reverb pedal manages to squeeze in a gaggle of reverbs into one budget pedal - and some are quite spectacular. Love verb sounds but short on cash? Check this one out.