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)
Dwarfcraft Devices reissues the SheFuzz pedal - as a limited run of 50 pedals with part of the proceeds from the project being donated to a women's charity.
After last weeks announcement of the new Boss SY-1 synth pedal, now we have the new Source Audio C4 modular synth pedal! Could Summer NAMM be a massive synth fest, but for guitarists?
The new EVH 5150 Series Guitars of guitars is launching at Summer NAMM this year and they all look hot for shredders. Available in both Deluxe and Standard finishes, with EVH branded hardware throughout.
The Gyrock pickup system rotates two drums implanted into your guitar, each fitted with different bespoke SD pickups - for 15 combinations! It's insane! And very expensive...
James “JC” Curleigh and the team at Gibson HQ are moving out of the outskirts and into Cummins Station in Downtown Nashville. I wonder if Mark Agnesi will have a corner office?
Kemper adds two reverbs to its Profiler OS, which reaches v6.0. Available now via its website, the two reverbs are of the expansive "big studio machine-grade" variety, adding welcome new textures.
Designed in conjunction with Jared Scharff from the Saturday Night Live band, the new Walrus Audio Kangra combines two fuzz pedal circuits and a filter section to make a whole heap of great tones!
HOT
Potentially boutique builders may only be able to build a certain amount of those Gibson authentic guitar shapes, but will have to pay a royalty or license for the privilege to do so.
The latest addition to Supro's Reissue Collection is its Silverwood model that comes loaded with Gold Foil Clear Tone pickups and sporting some lovely finishes.
This new pedal from Farm Pedals is called the Fly Agaric. A four-stage phaser with twin LFOs this little funky porcini will have you tripping balls and getting all psychedelic with your guitar riffs.
Is it Metal Mickey's chest plater or Knight Industries Two Thousand's front lights? Or, is it another guitar tuner?
Made in Nashville, USA these two new combos both launch at Summer NAMM. You can go for either the Clean Sink with Fender/Vox tones or the Dirty Sink with Plexi-style drives.
JHS's Josh Scott has come up with a cool new video explaining not only how Clapton created the legendary Blues Breaker tone but how pedal makers have been trying to emulate it for decades.
This compact, pedal board friendly reverb pedal can go from vintage style reverbs to huge cavern-like washes of sound - and all that with three simple wee controls. Neat.
Death By Audio cooks their Evil Filter down to its essentials, packing those sounds into a limited edition version with a smaller case. And then they call it the Evil Fuzz. Want one? Be fast.
The new Blackstar amPlug2 Fly headphone guitar amps seek to make practise more fun for guitar and bass players. Both units have unique features aimed at either guitar or bass playing.
You have until 13th July to download the new Grind Machine II Metal virtual amp plugin. Audio Assault are giving away this brutal modern amp setup for free for a limited time.
The new Boss RC-10R adds a rhythm section to the Boss RC range of looper pedals, with 280 presets and 16 kits available as well as 6 hours of recording time.
The new Boss SY-1 compact pedal manages to squeeze in 121 synthesiser sounds into one small unit and gives you the ability to easily manipulate them in real time.
HOT
Armadillo is accusing Gibson of threatening dealers that are selling Dean and Luna guitars with legal action. They are also making a counterclaim against the Flying V, Explorer and ES-335 body shape trademarks.
Part of the monthly Fender Rarities Series, the new Chambered Flame Top Telecaster has just been released, including Tim Shaw pickups and a chambered body for a wider tonal range.
Is PRS about to launch a cheaper John Mayer Silver Sky SE model? Or is the rumour mill just in overdrive pre Summer NAMM? PRS's COO stokes the flames of speculation ahead of Summer NAMM...
Oozing vintage vibe, the Supro Ozark may have been the first electric guitar owned by a certain Jimi Hendrix. Designed for slide players, it has a single pickup mounted single steel baseplate.
Artificial intelligence, deep learning and neural networks are not just buzzwords for plug-in developers or deep fakes - no, they can even invent new names for pedals!