Guitar Journal: Ibanez Dragon Ball Z & More
EVH Striped Strobostomp tuner and Fractal Audio adds NAM A2!
This week, we look at the latest guitar news, starting with Ibanez’s announcement of a Dragon Ball Z line of guitars and accessories coming in early 2027. Next, we check out the Peterson Eddie Van Halen, which has just been announced and offers some of his ‘sweetened’ guitar tunings. Finally, the Fractal Axe-Fx III has just officially added NAM A2 support with the latest firmware update!
Guitar Journal
Dragon Ball Z
Ibanez has teamed up with the makers of Dragon Ball Z to launch a range of guitars and related accessories. These include a Japanese-made orange RG model with a custom pickguard, plus a single-pickup S-type model, a bass, and even a ukulele!
TubeScreamer
These models won’t be available until 2027, but you can see the lineup on the website, which has just launched with all the gear. It also includes a Dragon Ball Z TubeScreamer overdrive, plus some custom straps, guitar picks, and a gig bag.
Check out the official video below to see all the products being launched. They haven’t shared much detail about specifications, pricing, and the exact launch date yet.
Coming 2027
We don’t yet know prices or availability for this range, so keep an eye on the site for more information closer to the launch in 2027. These could be great for Dragon Ball Z fans or anyone who likes tie-ins with Japanese culture, etc.
Hopefully, the pricing won’t be too high on these when they finally launch next year.
Eddie Van Halen Tuner
Peterson has just announced an Eddie Van Halen StroboStomp pedal. It comes in the red, white, and black EVH stripes and offers 13 exclusive EVH tunings from the band’s first album.
Beyond Eb?
I’m really not sure how accurate these are. I was under the impression he just tuned to Eb, but maybe I’m not the most obsessive Van Halen fan. It has all the standard Strobostomp features, including an LCD strobe display, USB port, and a whole bunch of tuning options.
Maybe this is one for the super EVH fan? I’m seeing it more as a ‘cash-in’ on Eddie’s name, but maybe I’m just old and jaded?
Let me know your thoughts on this one in the comments section below. I get he may have used Peterson tuners, but I’m not convinced the world needs an EVH-striped Strobostomp.
Fractal Axe-Fx III NAM A2
The big news this week was that Fractal Audio has now officially added NAM A2 support to its flagship Axe-FX III system with the Firmware 33.00 update. This is huge, as it opens up the popular amp modeling system to the open-source TONE3000 amp library, which makes this whole system even more powerful.
Here at last!
It has been teased for weeks, but is now public and available to upgrade existing and new users via the firmware update. The update adds a bunch of new features to the Axe-Fx III, but really the main headline is the NAM A2 compatibility, as it is going to open this powerful system up to a massive library of tones and make it super flexible for anyone who wants to use it.
What’s Next?
Now that Fractal Audio is on board, I expect that the competition will be closely following the progress of this update. If you manufacture hardware with enough processing power, you surely won’t want to be left behind?
Users are now looking more at TONE3000 and NAM A2 profiles as one of the most viable solutions for amp models and more, so it makes sense to have your hardware compatible with it, or risk being ignored by consumers.
It is fantastic news for Axe-FX III users, and hopefully it will trickle down into more products in the coming year.
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