Chris Loeffler

Earthquaker Devices Plumes Small Signal Shredder Plumes of shred! by Chris Loeffler When Earthquaker Devices announced they had a new pedal for evaluation, the last thing I expected to review was the Earthquaker Devices Plumes Small Signal Shredder. A “t00bscreamer” from the company that (begrudgingly, according to their copy) delivered the most definitive and flexible take on the classic overdrive circuit? Less than $100 and made in the USA? Huh. The Earthquaker Devices Plumes is dubbed by EQD as a Small Signal Shredder, and packs Volume, Drive, and Tone controls as well as a three-position clipping mode switch in a small vertical enclosure with true-bypass switching. What You Need to Know The way EDQ embraces the “NATS” humor in their product description is the perfect setup since the Plumes veers away from pretty much everything that defines the concept of an “ideal” Tubescreamer; no 4558 holy grail chip, no transistor buffers, three clipping modes, and a modified tone control. The Plumes is indeed quieter, cleaner, and more dirty that an off-the-shelf TS-9 or 808 thanks to many clever design factors such as removing noisy parts and increasing the voltage for extended headroom. The Volume control offers plenty of boost over unity. Output volume varies based on the amount of gain in the Drive control, but even with almost no drive in the lowest output clipping mode the pedal exceeds unity gain by around 1:00; it gets outright beastly when cranked in the Clean Boost mode. The Tone control is a deviation from the original Tubescreamer that it feels like the dramatic cut/add carving of the traditional tone control and demonstrates a more natural EQ curve across its sweep. The LED clipping mode is the crunchiest of the three modes and has the bite and gain structure of a vintage Marshall, including a slight sweetening of the midrange and noticeable growl to the lower-mids. I found the LED clipping to respond especially well when digging in on chords and producing interesting and amplike interharmonic modulation. This was probably my favorite mode running into an amp that was clean or that exhibited fairly high-fidelity gain EQ. The No Clip/Clean Boost mode removes the LED clipping diodes from the circuit for a rawer, cleaner, louder sound. It still gets dirty, but the gain is best structured to push an overdriven amp or another gain pedal and enhance it with additional harmonic content. That said, the slight stiffness to the gain attack does a fantastic job of tightening up spongier amp distortion, especially when demoed through a lower wattage Marshall clone. The SIlicon diode mode creates asymmetrical clipping and is what Earthquaker Devices describes as closest to a “standard TS” mode, with soft clipping and emphasized mid-range. This mode is the most compressed, vocal, and liquid of the three, and jumps out especially well when used for the traditional TS application of filling in the hollow-mids of a Fender and forcing gain focus to the upper-mids while trimming bass. Asymmetrical clipping in this type of circuit is more commonly associated with the Boss SD-1 (the classic Tubescreamer does symmetrical clipping), but there’s the science and then there’s the 20 other variables that come into creating an overdrive. The Plumes certainly nails the TS sound, and came surprisingly close to a rawer-sounding Analogman Silver Modded TS-9 I demoed it against in terms of clarity and distortion behavior. I found the different clipping modes to be distinct sounds rather than the typical “toggle” mod on a Tubescreamer that creates slight variations on a theme. I continued to come back to how much flexibility EQD crammed into the Plumes without introducing complexity. And at $99… I’m shocked. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the Plumes would convert a life-long TS hater, but if you’ve ever given that sound a moment’s thought, I am confident the Plumes is the most approachable, affordable, and adjustable take you can check out of this genre of sound. I hate to keep coming back to price, but really, they could have set retail price at 2x what it is and sold these like hotcakes (the breakfast food, not the pedal). -HC- Limitations None. Conclusion The Earthquaker Devices Plumes is a top contender for low-to-mid overdrive or the venerable TS sound at any price point. There is enough flexibility between the clipping modes to tailor it to pretty much any amp or application, the pedal is priced at half of what its contemporaries are at for a similar featureset, and it sounds phenomenal. Seriously, you should probably just buy this pedal. Resources Earthquaker Devices Plumes Signal Shredder Product Page Buy Earthquaker Devices Plumes Signal Shredder @ Sweetwater ($99.00) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

This is the final article following the chain of costs associated with how a piece of music gear gets to its retail price. We’ve previous explored MSRP vs MAP and the expenses associated with running a retail store and how those figure into pricing, so it’s time to dive into the final part of the pricing equation- the cost of designing and manufacturing a product. For the purpose of illustration in this piece, let’s use a $200 MSRP boutique overdrive effect pedal made in the US by an actual company (not a guy in a garage) that is available at many major retailers. This simplifies the math because of the relatively low part count and labor as compared to, say, building drum kits or digital synthesizers. Following the MSRP/MAP approach discussed in our article on retailer pricing and our case study pedal has an MSRP of $200 and MAP of $160, we can put a stake in the ground that the retailer paid the manufacturer about $100 for said pedal. Many musician’s will (understandably) think the price of manufacturing is just the BOM (bill of materials) for the pedal and some nominal amount of labor. Like most things in life, the truth is much more complicated. A piece of gear begins with an idea, and then R&D and engineering. Provided there wasn’t a marketing/executive dictate that “thou shalt design X style piece of gear,” designs will go through dozens of iterations once the foundation has been established, and engineers are likely juggling a half-dozen projects at a time. To be extremely conservative, let’s asapply 20 hours of focused research into the category and another 20 hours of experimentation to build the foundation for the effect (breadboarding, troubleshooting, etc). We aren’t counting the years of training that got an engineer to the point where they can tackle a project like this. An entry-level engineer makes $60-80k per year, so we’ll use the middle of the road hourly wage ($34/hour before benefits, or $50/hour with benefits, insurance, and tax); we have $2k in a pedal assuming one focused week to go from idea to working prototype. It’s now time to take that circuit out to testers/artists to get feedback. This will easily be 80 working hours (travel, correspondence, meetings, research). Now we have an additional $4k in user testing and feedback. Assuming everything went well the first go-around, it’s now time to put together a BOM (bill of materials) and design a PCB. The BOM can be defined based on what works best or to meet a price point, but likely represents the smallest expense in a pedal. As a standard overdrive variant in this example, the cost of parts, jacks, switches, and electronics can be relatively small; let’s say $25 assuming a price-break for volume ordering and pre-drilled, fully silk-screened enclosures. One thing people point to when considering the price of parts for modern gear is the perceived cost savings in DSP (digital signal processor) hardware as opposed to now-expensive and part-intensive analog solutions. This is true from a pure cost-per-component standpoint, but doesn’t take into account the programming that goes into the chip (a consideration not needed for analog parts). The median starting salary for a DSP developer is $78k per year, so this work quickly get more expensive than using mojo-drenched analog parts. PCB design and manufacturing can be done in-house, but typically gets outsourced to someone like Cusack Music’s fantastic Stompboxparts.com, where engineers design, test, and print through-hole or surface mount boards, can populate them, and even offer enclosures and varying levels of assembly, from completed products to unpopulated boards and empty enclosures. Whether outsourced or handled in-house, there’s an associated $10 labor with every pedal produced in a standard production run. So we’re at $35 in parts and labor for a simple circuit pedal, which leaves $65 in profit for the builder. OK, now let’s get back to the real costs. That $6k in (overly-simplified) work up front needs to be taken into account, so let’s spread that across an initial run of 1,000 units at $6 each. Additionally, we can add another $10 per pedal in rent, utilities, shipping labor, etc. Website and marketing will add an extra $5 to this first run as well, plus $10 for administration, bookkeeping, supplies, etc. We’re now at $66 in cost in the pedal, so there’s $37 in profit, less 30% for business tax, and we’ve got about $26 profit per pedal. All that math shows if this pedal sells 1,000 units in the first six months there is, in theory, $26k in profits to reinvest in the business, try new marketing, dedicate to longer R&D cycle products, and pay the owner (usually not the designer or builder at a certain point). So, Parts and Labor- $35 After Cost of Manufacturer Operation Costs- $60 After Manufacturer Taxes- $74 Sold to Retailer- $100 After Retailer Operation Costs- $140 After Retailer Taxes- $144 To Customer @ MAP- $160 Final Sale Price + Taxes- $173 Or Parts and Labor- $35 Combined Manufacturer/Retailer Operations- $65 Combined Manufacturer/Retailer/Customer Taxes- $31 Combined Manufacturer/Retailer Profit- $42 Thanks for taking this journey. As I cannot state enough, there are more assumptions I’m not including that negatively impact all parties (start up costs, credit interest, sales and discounts, trade show and travel expenses, sales, warehouse, customer service, rework). Whether you agree with the associated expenses or not, I hope you have a clearer picture of what goes into pricing. The music industry isn’t unique in this; it’s how things work in commerce in general. This information might be jarring if you’ve never been offered a peek behind the curtain of costs, but realize there is an entire infrastructure needed to support bringing you the gear you want. ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Musician's Guide to Home Recording Book Series by Craig Anderton Books to take the fear out of DIY home studio... by Chris Loeffler Craig Anderton has more than five decades in the music world, covering such diverse ground as his influential Mandrake band in the 60s, pioneering books on electronics in music, globe-spanning DJ work, and regular collaboration with leading designers of guitars, synthesizers, software, and more. One of the things that most embodies his work is his ability to see beyond the genre or category he is working in by returning to fundamentals first and building into the tropes of his project. Between stints as a Chief Magic Officer at Gibson and dozens of engagements with retailers and manufacturers, Anderton somehow found time to pour through several decades worth of his print and digital sound engineering articles to put together a definitive book series of instructional "best practices" for recording entitled Musician’s Guide to Home Recording. The series is composed of eight initial volumes: How to Create Compelling Mixes, Microphones for Recording Musicians (co-written by Harmony Central Senior Editor Phil O’Keefe), How to Record and Mix Great Vocals, The Musician’s Guide to Audio, How to Apply Equalization, How to Get the Best Sounds Out of Amp Sim Software, How to Choose and Use Audio Interfaces, and How to Apply Dynamics Processing; all available in softcover from Hal Leonard. What You Need to Know Like a well-trained SEO writer, Anderton’s titles get straight to the point, and promise comprehensive responses to the question each book is answering. Each book begins with a chapter on the general technology and terminology used before moving into copious examples of what’s currently available to achieve the goal, and then heads deep into the world of application, both technical and artistic. For those unfamiliar with Anderton’s writing style, "concise" is the name of the game. As both a writer and an editor his approach is always towards simplification, with a surgical precision of sentence organization and intentionally pared-down word usage. His time as a technical writer for user guides shows in his ability to communicate new processes in a manner that the average reader can immediately grasp and replicate, without needing to re-read or second-guess the meaning. I’ve spent enough time trying to decipher poorly written instruction manuals or board game rules to recognize superior communication of complex ideas! Iconography legends are provided at the beginning of each book that introduces how break-away comments and cross-references will be addressed. These frequent side notes or punctuations assist the reading process by keeping the core of the text laser-focused, while offering a steady stream of enhanced, supplemental ideas to reference in the moment or after the fact. This books offers a succinct, informal tone that carries through even the most advanced material addressed in the series, with logical foundation-building that avoids the pitfalls of many authors who attempt to cover so much ground (especially technical) in a relatively small word count, and end up causing reader backtracking. Each volume feels like a one-hour conversation with Anderton in the studio, with photos and illustrations deftly filling in the moments one would expect him to turn his chair, grab the mouse, and say, “Here, let me show you...” Given his track record as a leading expert voice in the music and audio world, I was a little surprised this series didn’t already exist, but I realize I have been consuming much of this body of work as articles in publications like Electronic Musician and Guitar Player, as well as his contributions to Harmony Central, for decades now. That’s not to say this series is a simple reprint of past material; it is a consolidation, reconfiguration, and expansion of Anderton’s wider body of work to serve as a definitive overview of the titular topic. Reviewing individual volumes of the Musician’s Guide to Home Recording would be a lengthy and ultimately futile process as each book, while a companion to the others, can be read and enjoyed on its own merits. The common thread to all of them is format, voice, and a focus on understanding. Many books and instructors will point you to a solution to your specific problem; Anderton would rather tell you what solutions exist, and let you make the best decision to achieve what you want. The end result is a more empowered approach to home recording, with a rich toolset to draw from. For an idea of the topics covered in each book, I recommend checking out each title’s synopsis in the links below. How to Create Compelling Mixes Microphones for the Recording Musician How to Record and Mix Great Vocals The Musician’s Guide to Audio How to Apply Equalization How to Get the Best Sounds Out of Amp Sim Software How to Choose and Use Audio Interfaces How to Apply Dynamics Processing Limitations The Musician's Guide to Home Recording series is designed for people who want to learn and find their own voice using best practices, not a crib sheet of "How to Sound Like X." Conclusion The Musician’s Guide to Home Recording is a foundational series that focuses on teaching the why and how of recording, aimed at setting the reader up with the knowledge to create professional recordings while finding their own voice. While a quick look at the table of contents or the detailed waveforms may intimidate newcomers, reading the first page or two of any of the books will quickly set aside any concerns about their own qualifications to understand and absorb the content. These books were written to be read, and understood, easily to make any step of the recording process not only approachable, but achievable with professional sounding results. -HC- Resources Musician's Guide to Home Recording Product Pages Buy Books from the Musician's Guide to Home Recording @ Amazon ($9-$24) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Following up on our conversation on pricing in the previous article, I’d like to turn attention to the business of owning a small to medium sized music store, and how MSRP and MAP play a role in business planning. On the surface, most people can rattle off some of the core expenses of running a music instrument store- rent, staff, inventory, and utilities. Those are fairly easy to guess at and vary widely based on location, real-estate prices, and pervading retail wages. For the purpose of exploration, let’s use a middle-of-the-road model for geography and store size as the example of what it takes to run an independant music store. Let’s skip the initial expenses of starting a business (approximately $25,000 in store sign, furnishings, basic equipment, business license, etc) and assume a store is established enough that those initial costs have been recouperated. In this example, let’s expolre a small retail store in a low-traffic strip mall (approximately 2,000 square feet, including showroom and storage/warehouse) renting at a low rate of $17 per square foot per year, costing about $2,800 a month. Add to that the typical “triple net” lease terms, which add common area maintenance, property taxes, and building insurance, and there’s likely another $200 a month to pay out for the space. Going cheap on utilities, we can assume approximately $400. Assuming a store is open ten hours a day, seven days a week and can get by on a barebones staff of 2.5 employees per day, prevailing retail wages for a small store manager, assistant manager, and two part-time employees in a median town (including taxes, insurance, etc) is about $8,000 per month assuming a $20/hr manager, $14/hr assistant manager, and minimum wage for the part timers after employer taxes, insurance, and benefits are paid out. If you’ve worked retail, you’ll recognize this is about as bare-bones as you can run a business and is likely a nightmare in balancing opening/closing activities, phone and email coverage, weekly inventory receipt, store merchandising, maintenance, cleaning, and bank runs. Quick math shows that, assuming there is no outstanding debt from investments in the business and the owner is serving as the manager, this store has $11,500 in expenses just to be open and staffed. Let’s assume (incorrectly) that all store merchandise is available on Net 30 terms (payment due within 30 days of receipt) and that all the inventory can be sold in that same time period (average turn rate for product in a music store is closer to 90 days) to simplify this next bit, because interest payments and the inability to use your money/space for something else muddy the water quickly. Let’s also be lazy and assume business taxes (state, federal, etc) are 30% of revenue in this model. Ok. That was a lot of math (and even more over-simplification), but it brings us to knowing that in any given store hour in this shop is costing $40 (not including marketing, website, taxes, supplies, inventory, admninistration) less 30% of profit earned on sales. Let’s now assume this store averages $200 in sales per hour (if you’ve been to a mid-sized town’s music instrument store, you’ll know this is highly unlikely, but we will give the benefit of the doubt that they sell at least one $1k instrument per day in addition to the typical accessory, book, and entry-level instrument sales). Using the MSRP vs MAP assumptions in this article, let’s say the retailer is paying 50% of MSRP for the gear he is selling, and sells at MSRP. This would mean they made $100 off the sales for that hour, less $40 in operating profits. However, credit card processing is 2.9%, and then they need to account for business taxes, meaning that $200 netted $40 in profit after taxes (assuming no marketing, website hosting, or additional expenses have been incurred by the business and the owner/manager is handling all bookkeeping, cleaning, and administration on their own, which again is highly unlikely). The reality, though, is customers now price shop and have been trained to pay MAP (or as close to it as possible) and will quickly pull up Amazon or Guitar Center pricing when they hit the register. Using an average, $200 in MSRP sales are MAP listed around $160. Working the same math above ($100 in cost of gear) with a $160 MAP price, we have $60 in profit, less the $40 for basic operating expenses, less the credit processing and taxes, and end up with between $13-14 in profit. Multiply that by operating hours in a year, and you are looking at a whopping $50,000 to cover marketing, pay the owner (assuming they aren’t the manager), cover the interest charge of inventory that isn’t sold before payment is owed to the manufacturer, or anything else. Again, this is assuming no janitorial services, no bookkeeping services, minimal staffing, and that all initial costs have been paid, which isn’t realistic for most people in most places. Why do I bring this up? To bring transparency to the pricing process from the retailer side, and to allow you, the consumer, to make more informed purchase decisions and consider what your retailer is worth to you. There was a strong “car lot” vibe to how music stores ran in the 80’s and 90’s because there was margin to spare without risking the business. As things have tightened, retailers are called to drop their prices out of the gate to reflect the lower margins required by large online retailers. At the same time, small retailers still have an ingrained customer-base that believes it is meant to push on the lowest marked price for a real deal. As a result, the person who walks in to purchase a guitar with a MSRP of $1,300 that is discounted to $1000 (MAP) may feel there is a lot of give in the price, not realizing that squeezing for an extra $100 off represents a 10% saving for them but cuts the profit of the retailer by nearly 30%. In addition to all the other costs previously mentioned that we aren't including in this equation, many stores do a proper setp-up on stringed instruments (or include one with purchse). At the end of the day, the retailer needs to ask themself- Is it worth it to take on $650 in inventory liability to make $150 in profit within a couple of months? We already know the risk associated means they're adding $150 in business tax and labor to the equazion, so to break even the would need to sell the guitar they purchased and has a MAP of $1,000 for $850 just to break even. Yes, the retailer may be willing to take it in the shorts in the moment to bring in cash flow in slow times, and that is an act of desperation, not a solid business move. I’m not here to tell you that guitar is worth $1,000 dollars; only you can decide that. What I ask you to consider is what your retailer is worth to you? What is the ability to try gear before you buy it worth to you? What is the information and service worth to you? How about the same-day availability of sticks when yours break? -HC- ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Electro-Harmonix Flatiron Fuzz Do I smell a RAT? by Chris Loeffler The Pro Co RAT first emerged from Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1978 as a dozen, made-to-order distortion boxes before achieving a mass release in 1979. Its entrance couldn’t have been timelier with rock guitar getting harder and more distorted and before racks took over the gear landscape for a decade. Like the Boss DS-1 (also released in 1978, albeit in a more confident way), the RAT took a simple hard-clipping diode approach to creating extreme distortion with the now iconic Motorola LM308 opamp’s lackluster slew rate creating the raunchy character that defined the gain sound. The RAT dominated the pedal-based distortion sound of the late 70’s and early 80’s, finding itself onstage with Metallica, REM, and Sonic Youth. Going through several tweaks, both cosmetic and functional, the RAT evolved based on parts availability and perceived market wants. Today, the RAT is one of the fundamental starter pieces of gear because of its ubiquity and price, with hundreds of companies offering modifications to either bring a current production RAT to vintage specs or expanding on the clipping options offered by the manufacturer. Enter Electro-Harmonix, an effects manufacturing legend that seems to move the category forth on multiple fronts; vintage-correct releases of their own line, technology-breaking new effects types, and, as of recently, putting out their take on classic effects from other brands. The Electro-Harmonix Flatiron Fuzz makes no bones about its inspiration, the Rat2. Featuring Voume, Drive, and Filter controls, the Flatiron Fuzz runs on a standard, center-negative 9v power supply or battery. What You Need to Know The Electro-Harmonix Flatiron Fuzz delivers symmetrical hard clipping tones that cover all ground from light overdrive to saturated fuzz, with most people seeking the classic distortion textures found somewhere in the middle. The Drive knob sets the amount of clipping the pedal produces, with tight, light crunch in the first ¼ of the sweep, chunky distortion of varying shades in the middle half of the sweep, and spitting, raunchy fuzz-like qualities in the final part of the sweep, as more compression leads to more sustain. The Volume control exceeds unity gain even at the lowest Drive levels, and the Flatiron has a punishing amount of output available the moment the Drive is set to noon. The Filter knob takes the place of the standard Tone knob found in many overdrives by setting a low pass filter that progressively grooms off the high end as it is dialed back (counterclockwise). This control has been an integral part of the RAT sound, as it neither messes with the low end nor bumps the mids. I have an original White Face RAT and a couple of clones I ran against the Flatiron, and while they indeed sound similar, the Flatiron Fuzz consistently had a bit more warmth and fuzziness to it at all settings. A direct A/B proved the RAT to clip harder and faster, with a tighter attack, while the Flatiron was softer and looser; falling somewhere between a RAT and a Triangle Big Muff. There was also a touch less clarity to the Flatiron which, depending on the tone you’re going for, is either a huge advantage or missing the point of a RAT-inspired circuit. Limitations The Flatiron Fuzz is such a great sounding distortion/fuzz hybrid that EHX almost does itself a disservice by aligning so closely with the RAT. It does sound similar, but people who are seeking a dead-on RAT clone will quickly feel/hear the differences. Conclusion If the Electro-Harmonix Flatiron Fuzz were released by a small builder with a quirky name and had a hand-painted enclosure I am confident it would jump to the top of flavor-of-the month pedals at 3x the price. It is really that good; warm, responsive, chewy, fuzzy, and articulate. It’s neither as tight nor clinical as a RAT, and it isn’t as loose and muddying as a fuzz pedal, taking chord work and leads on with equal aplomb. If you want a 100% accurate RAT, they are still available from Pro Co. If Muff-style fuzzes have appealed to you but always felt too sloppy or bass-heavy, on the other hand, the Flatiron was made for you. -HC- Resources Electro-Harmonix Flatiron Fuzz Product Page Buy Electro-Harmonix Flatiron Fuzz @ Sweetwater ($96.90 MSRP, $72,70 Street) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Teisco Delay Pedal Sometimes you just need a little delay ... by Chris Loeffler Last month I reviewed one of three new releases from Japan-based Teisco’s new line-up, the Teisco Fuzz. I was able to evaluate it not only on its own merit, but also within the context of the rest of the lineup, during which a sonic design philosophy began to emerge for the line that revealed a willingness to get a little weird while still being musical. One of the other two pedals I evaluated from the line was the Teisco Delay (how much more straightforward can you get than that for a naming convention?) which is what I want to talk about today. The Teisco Delay is a BBD-powered analog delay with an added chorusing modulation applied to the delay line. Featuring delay controls for Level, Feedback, Time, and modulation controls for Depth, Rate, and a Slow/Fast switch, the Teisco Delay is housed in a unique zinc enclosure, powered by a standard 9v, center-negative DC supply and features a Dry-Out output jack for semi-stereo rigs. What You Need to Know The Teisco Delay offers 600ms of dark, hazy delay via traditional BBD chips that is quirky and pleasingly lo-fi. Additionally, there is a modulation circuit added to the path to introduce movement. It’s feature-set calls to mind many of the Deluxe Memory Man-inspired delays to have hit the market in the last ten years, but it’s where the controls took me that caught me off-guard. The core delay sound falls in the middle of the darkness spectrum for an analog delay circuit with reasonably full-spectrum repeats at lower settings, but quickly darkens up as you pass the 200MS mark, gaining a soft, hazy fuzz halo around the notes and a ring mod style clang and sizzle detectable at the top end of the note. At the most extreme time setting the delay tone sits somewhere between a vintage Arion SAD-1 and a lonely AM radio transmission. Jesus, can this thing oscillate. Whereas most analog delay pedals tend to go into oscillation in the last little push of the Feedback control’s sweep, the UFOs are ready to take off at about the halfway point in the Teisco Delay. I found less of a volume jump as the pedal oscillated into bit-crushed mayhem (no speakers were blown in the evaluation of this pedal) than I’ve experienced with vintage units, and the pitch travel of the knobs is zippy and to the point. The modulation section creates the dreamy warble players use to emulate tape delay units, offering a range of options that remind me of early EHX modulations in that the controls extend way beyond where most people would consider them musical. The modulation Depth gets extreme beyond the first 3rd of the dial and can create pitch shifts as dramatic as warped records being skidded to a halt or bird-like chirps. Similarly, the Speed control quickly goes to neck-breakingly short turnarounds of the waveform to being nearly imperceptible by the end because it is moving so fast. Don’t mishear me; the standard, sweetened modulated delay sounds are available, albeit with their own lo-fi flavor. They aren’t as crisp as some high-voltage analog delays, nor as syrupy as others, but they hold their own (especially at the price point!) and sit well in the mix. As mentioned in the Teisco Fuzz review, I can’t talk about the Teisco Delay without discussing the form-factor. Their uniquely shaped zinc enclosure looks built to withstand a ten-story drop, and everything from the jacks to the knobs scream Japanese precision. Limitations This is not a pedal to set with your eyes the first time you plug in. “Traditional” settings tend to happen in the first half of a given dial’s sweep. Conclusion The Teisco Delay is a strange, amazing beast that reminds me of some of the early boutique attempts at analog delay (I had a Death by Audio one-off delay that comes to mind) where shamelessly reveling in the noise and mud was a part of the game. The Teisco Delay isn’t as clean as an AD9 or DM2 and isn’t as warm as a DMM. It occupies its own space and does it really well. It may fill in shorter delay needs without imparting too much character, but the Teisco Delay shines most when being its own weird, lo-fi, sometimes clangy thing. - HC- Resources Teisco Delay Analog Pedal Product Page Buy Teisco Delay @ Amazon (Street $149.00) Video Created by Pedalboard of the Day. ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Epiphone Bjorn Gelotte Les Paul Custom Outfit Enough flair to ring the bell for fans of Gelotte? by Chris Loeffler We’ve all been there… you’re onstage, you’re getting ready to rip, and you reach for an icy refreshment to loosen up before you swing your way into the opening chord. Gasp! It’s one of those pesky (but delicious) microbrews that isn’t a twist top! You try the ring trick to no avail, end up chipping a tooth trying to crack it open with the brute strength of your mouth, and infuse the night’s set with true, tortured pain as you ponder during tunings whether or not your manager actually is paying in to your dental insurance. I’m sure none of that happened, but it was a fun scenario to create when evaluating the Epiphone Limited Edition Björn Gelotte "Jotun" Les Paul Custom Outfit’s built-in stainless-steel bottle opener on the back of the guitar. The Björn Gelotte "Jotun" Les Paul Custom Outfit is the second Epiphone release of a Björn Gelotte artist model, taking the Les Paul platform, dressing it up with a “bone white” finish and contrasting ebony fretboard, and upgrading it for serious metal with EMG Metalworks active pickups and Grover Roto-Matic tuners. The kit comes complete with the aforementioned bottle opener, a signed certificate of authenticity, and a custom hard-shell case. What You Need to Know The Björn Gelotte "Jotun" Les Paul was built with In Flames inspired aesthetics; cream-and-black five-later binding on front and back of the Bone White mahogany body. The rounded custom ’59 neck carries the mahogany forward framing the 22 medium jumbo fretted ebony fretboard with single-ply cream binding and block pearloid inlays. It’s a Les Paul style body, so don’t look for light-weight wear, but it was entirely in-line with similar mahogany Les Paul’s I’ve played, and lighter than many. As with most Les Paul’s I’ve played, the guitar was well balanced and sat comfortably with a shoulder strap. Stepping into the modern world, the Jotun is powered by a pair of EMG Metalworks active pickups, with an EMG-85 USA humbucker in the neck position and an EMG-81 USA humbucker in the bridge position. Powered by a 9v battery, the pickups are punishing and full-bodied exemplified by a strong-but-musical high end that invites harmonic feedback when fed into high-gain pedals or amps. The pickups have much more immediacy in their attack and a stronger sustain than their vintage counterparts while maintaining more balance across the frequency spectrum. I wasn’t too familiar with Gelotte’s work prior to evaluating the Jotun, but a quick listen through his catalog confirmed that, yep, the Jotun nails his tone (especially his more recent work) in spades. That said, I didn’t find it to scream “I must play metal!” in aesthetics nor tone. Sure, it does that trick really well, but I would be happy to throw the Jotun on for pretty much anything that didn’t require single coils or the vintage sponginess of PAF-style pickups. Limitations None that I can find. Conclusion In my opinion, artist guitars can be a mixed bag, with some so customized to the artist that they don’t have much flexibility to go beyond that and others essentially a signature on the headstock and extra 20% tacked on; the Björn Gelotte "Jotun" Les Paul Custom Outfit isn’t one of these. It’s a cool, understated guitar that can stand in nearly anywhere, with just enough flair to ring the bell for fans of Gelotte. For the person looking for a hot-rodded Les Paul that’s modern while retaining classic Epiphone playability, I would recommend the Jotun as a strong contender. -HC- Resources Epiphone Björn Gelotte "Jotun" Les Paul Custom Outfit Product Page Buy Epiphone Björn Gelotte "Jotun" Les Paul Custom Outfit at Sweetwater (MSRP $1,332.00, Street $799.00) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Teisco Fuzz Pedal Sometimes you just need a little fuzz... by Chris Loeffler Teisco is a Japanese-based brand that operated from the 40’s-60’s that may recall low cost, exotic looking vintage instruments and amps that lined pawn shops and music stores in the 80’s and 90’s. Silvertone, Melody, Kay, Audition… the relabeling of their instruments (primarily guitars, amplifiers, and keyboards) makes for an even more prolific (if confusing) assortments. BandLab Technologies, a Singapore-based company who has revived brands such as Harmony, Heritage, and Swee Lee as well as broken new ground with BandLab, Mono, and more, acquired the Teisco brand in 2017 and went back to Teisco’s roots, seeking vintage-inspired products that honor the brand and fit today’s market. From that came the debut of three new pedals at the 2019 Winter NAMM show bearing the Teisco branding, an analog delay (review coming), a boost pedal, and the Teisco Fuzz. The Teisco Fuzz is “a classic silicon fuzz circuit with a switchable upper octave that takes inspiration from a furry 70’s predecessor,” that features controls for Level, Gain, Tone, and Octave in a unique zinc housing powered by a standard 9v, center-negative DC supply. What You Need to Know In case their description didn’t tip off the inspiration for the circuit, the Teisco Fuzz is based on the Foxx Tone Machine (fur not included). The Foxx Tone Machine is famous for copping nasty, aggressive high-gain fuzz with an octave circuit that and has a gated gain structure for tight rhythm work. I don’t have an original Tone Machine to compare the Teisco to, but I do have clones I can confirm sound close to the recordings I’ve heard of the Tone Machine (Frampton, Belew). Using those as an example, people seeking the Foxx sound should be very pleased (well, as much as a fuzz fanatic can be if it isn’t an original vintage). For the rest of us, the Teisco Fuzz presents an interesting sonic playground. From a gain “quantity” standpoint, it falls roughly in line with a Muff-style fuzz, but the gain is less compressed and smooth, with a less flubby bottom and a touch more mids. The fuzz has a Velcro-like rip to the attack in the first ⅔ of the gain sweep, with things smoothing out as things get super saturated. When the Octave circuit is engaged it produces a slightly synth-like octave ring that has a splatty attack to compliment the tightness of the fuzz. I’d be hard-pressed to say it has much place in music trying to sound modern and polished, but for anything lo-fi (White Stripes, Black Keys, Flaming Lips) there are some truly transcendent textures for riffing. The Volume and Tone knobs are, for the most part, exactly what you’d expect. There is a reasonable amount of volume on tap; more than some vintage units I’ve played, but not enough to blow an amp up. The Tone control itself is a standard simple filter, passing from muffled at one extreme to the sort of biting that may push ears through a clean, bright Fender on the other. The Gain control covers a lot of ground, from starved fuzz rip at the early stages to horn-like, thick leads when cranked. The Octave circuit is surprisingly well tuned to pop anywhere on the fretboard. I am used to needing to ride the neck pickup about the 8th fret to get a pronounced octave effect with a vintage octaver, but whether I was on the first fret or the 14th the octave was always bloomed with a pronounced strength. Below the fifth fret I found the octave to have a bit of a ring modulation feel to it, but popped to the seventh fret and above and the classic scream people associate with an octave effect showed loud and proud. The vintage tone of the fuzz and octave threw me off a bit, as I’m used to having to fight pedals that make those tones a bit to coax out the “right” sounds with playing dynamics, but despite the sonic responsiveness the pedal demonstrates it has an eerily consistent response. I’d liken it to getting used to fighting a dual-rectified Matchless Hotcat with a Strat and then playing into a JCM800 with a Les Paul… it just happens. I didn’t find it tempermental to power supply nor conditions and I ran a through different types of guitars through it to see if this held true. Each guitar maintained its sonic signature and attack, so I’m somewhat scratching my head as to how Teisco pulled off that little piece of magic. If you haven’t seen and held the new Teisco pedals you’ll have to trust me, but the enclosures and external components are stunningly overbuilt. The zinc case is thick and heavy and has a distinct look that is eye-catching without straying too far from what a standard pedal looks like. I promise most new builders would kill for such a great looking and feeling aesthetic. Limitations The Octave is a flip switch, so you have to bend over to turn it on mid-song (unless you want to risk breaking the switch with your foot); I would have loved a second footswitch. Conclusion The Teisco Fuzz is a very cool pedal for copping raunchy, ripping fuzz sounds that are surprisingly more consistent and replicable than their sonic signature would suggest. Vintage tones, modern looks, and a specifically unique fuzz and octave sound make for a pedal that’s sure to end up on at least a few hits in the near future. All that for $129.00, and the Teisco Fuzz is a hard pedal to pass on if you enjoy exploring fuzz textures. -HC- Resources Teisco Fuzz Pedal Product Page Buy Teisco Fuzz at Amazon ($129.00) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Kramer The '84 Electric Guitar Fantastically “love-it-or-leave-it”... by Chris Loeffler Guitars have come a long way, and trends come and go (and come back again?). While the sonic demands change with genre and evolution, there’s always nostalgia for the guitar we didn’t get back when we first got started. Whether it be the Jeff Beck strat or the Dimebag Darryl Dean, there’s a place for new gear designed to meet a genre that has long passed its moment in the sun. Kramer guitars can be accused of falling into this category, evolving but refusing to shed their shredder, Glam-rock inspired roots in aesthetics and appointments. It is fitting, then, that the Kramer The ’84 electric guitar revels in everything that made Kramer a big deal back in the days when hair was big, pants were tight, and mascara ran rampant. What You Need to Know The ’84 is styled in tribute to the original Baretta, with the offset double-cutaway body and rounded, elongated headstock, that was first introduced in 1984. The Baretta was one of the guitars associated with “in his hay-day” Van Halen, and everything from the form factor to the colors screams the type of shred Kramer made its name on. For all that bling, the ’84 feeds but a single hot bridge position Seymour Duncan® JB™ humbucker pickup for powerful simplicity. Push/pull series parallel coil tapping opens up tonal flexibility, and the Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo system is custom-tuned for the sort of screaming dive-bombs that embody hard rock and metal solos of the 80’s. From a construction standpoint, the ’84 stays period correct with a solid maple body (with a new Alder version available for those who want to trade period-accuracy for weight relief), bolt on neck, and a maple-on-maple neck/fretboard at 25 ½” scale. The slim profile and 22 medium-jumbo frets reflect that speed-tests of the time (without diving into the 90’s multi-octave, scalloped affairs). Of note is the review unit I was sent for evaluation had much more refined fret wire work than many new guitars that arrive at my door; the rounding and dressing were top notch. The Seymour Duncan JB produced clarity with a bold low end and clear highs and the trademark upper-mid lift that plays well with heavily distorted amps. The output is “vintage hot”, by which I mean it will overdrive an amp much easier than a PAF humbucker without jumping so far out of the pale that I was battling a 20dB jump. The parallel wiring option opens three unique configurations; a true humbucking pickup, a split coil that uses the slug coil, and splitting the two coils independently as individual pickups. I found more tones (if less immediately identifiable) than I expected to enjoy with the various pickup configurations. Tremolo work is understood but lost on me. My time pushing myself to embrace (and fail at finding) my inner shred did prove that hours of cranking on the Floyd Rose did nothing to impact the tuning stability and the arm’s travel was extremely consistent. Whereas my strat’s stock tremolo tends to work more on feel, I could predict the pitch I’d get on the ’84 before I’d even started the bend. Limitations The Kramer ’84 has its own sound, and your enjoyment of that sound is 90% predicated on the Seymour Duncan JB pickup. This is true of most guitars, but limiting yourself to a single pickup may be more than some tone tweakers are willing to tolerate. Conclusion The Kramer The ’84 is a so fantastically “love-it-or-leave-it” offering that it’s hard to dislike it. Yes, it is limited. Yes, it is designed to appeal to a very specific type of player. Yes, it is amazingly fun to play. If you’ve played a vintage Kramer, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting into, and if you haven’t, expect a speed machine with American-style metal appointments (comfort, warmth). -HC- Resources Kramer The '84 Electric Guitar Product Page Buy Karmer The '84 Electric Guitar at Americal Musical Supply (MSRP $1,165, Street $499.99) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Electro-Harmonix Super Switcher Programmable Effects Hub Could this be your multieffect preset world answer? by Chris Loeffler Multieffects are best. You can route effects and turn on as many as you want at the same time; essential for live performance or cover bands where you want to nail the original sound. Individual effects are best because they put all the control at your fingers and toes and YOU get to pick the specific overdrive or delay circuit you want. OK… both have strengths and weaknesses. Electro-Harmonix looks to solve one side (the individual pedal side) by bringing the functionality and convenience of the multieffect preset world to whatever pedal board you are using. The Electro-Harmonix Super Switcher is a MIDI-based, 8 channel effects loop and switcher with 128 presets, 16 banks, global MIDI control, optional input buffering, output boost, and more. The Electro-Harmonix runs on an included 9v power supply drawing 150ma. What You Need to Know The Electro-Harmonix Super Switcher brings the convenience of MIDI rack systems to the pedal board, combining the customization and WYSIWYG controls of a pedal board with the presets, routing, and syncing of the MIDI world. The Electro-Harmonix Super Switcher features a mono input, six mono effects loops, two stereo effects loops, and insert loop between the mono and stereo channels and stereo outputs. The six mono loops are run in series from first to last, while the first stereo loop has a mono input to stereo output into the second stereo loop, which has stereo ins and outs. Both stereo loops can be used in mono through the left send jack. There is a tuner output that constantly feeds a tuner signal with the ability to mute the output signal to your amp entirely for silent tuning. At its simplest, the Super Switcher allows users to turn off individual effects one-at-a-time with dedicated footswitches and LED indicators for loops 1-8, just like they would with the actual pedals, while reducing signal degradation due to large cable runs and the negative effects of bad buffers. The LED indicators give quick visual reference as to what is on at a given time. The CTRL 1 footswitch can be set to a Master Bypass, meaning everything in effects loops 1-8 are disengaged, although whatever is in the insert loop between loop 6 and 7 will remain in the signal path. Preset mode, however, is the reason most people will want a Super Switcher. In this mode, the eight footswitches dedicated to individual loops now become presets, where you can assign any combination of the effects loops to activate in a single stomp, meaning you can turn on (or off) multiple pedals at the same time. In practice, this means being able to jump from having a clean tone with chorus and reverb to a heavily distorted tone with an EQ pedal and delay instantaneously. There are 16 banks with eight presets each for a total of 128 pedal combinations available on the fly. Assuming you used four different settings in each song (which seems like a lot!) you’d have two songs per bank, or 16 songs in total without every using the same signal path. Instant Access mode combines the above two scenarios to allow users to start with a preset combination of loops and then manually add or remove individual pieces on the fly. An example of this use would be in wanting to kick the gain off without making changes to modulation or time-based delays. Saving presets is as easy as holding down the appropriate preset channel footswitch for a couple of seconds, and all presets and banks are accessible without needing to bend over or menu dive. The Electro-Harmonix Super Switcher includes a stereo clean boost signal at the end of loop 8 to beef up the signal hitting an amp without changing your tone. Additionally, there is a buffer at the front end that can be activated to retain your signal at the front end. Based on previous MIDI products reviewed, you either get it or you don’t, so I’ll leave it at if you know and use MIDI, you’ve got it. Whether having the Super Switcher be controlled by another MIDI device (if you’re a rack/pedalboard hybrid guy) or you want to use it to control the tempo of MIDI effects in the chain, you’re covered. Limitations Despite all the flexibility of the Super Switcher, the effects order can’t be changed, only what’s in the signal or not. Conclusion Many live performers want presets so they can instantly access the next tone they’re looking for without a bunch of tap dancing. Just as many people prefer individual effects they can turn on or off at a whim or be able to bend down and tweak knobs. The Super Switcher gives you access to both worlds without the need of adding additional MIDI equipment. Whether the intention is to remove the negative effects of vintage buffers or single-stomp tone swaps, it achieves the goal without introducing noise or complexity. While the three-pedal person may be challenged to justify the spend, if you’ve found your effects pedals have gone to a second (or third) row it is an investment worth considering. -HC- Resources Electro-Harmonix Super Switcher Product Page Buy Electro-Harmonix Super Switcher at Sweetwater.com (MSRP $530.70, Street $399.00) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Electro-Harmonix Bass Mono Synth When you need to throw down some low down! by Chris Loeffler True synthesis has existed of the periphery of stringed instruments in large part because the complexity of the polyphonic signal rendered mono that stringed instruments create tends to be more than the typical analog synthesizer can handle. Roland’s approach to this was to push a new pickup for decades that allowed synthesizer engines to create each string as a monophonic signal, and recently digital technology and processing has hit a point that, with ingenuity, processors can take a stringed signal and mostly synthesize it through extraction. Electro-Harmonix, ironically the biggest (and first?) company to introduce total, tech-free polyphonic synthesis with their 9 Series, launched two monophonic synthesizers at 2019 Winter NAMM, one for guitar and one for bass. The Electro-Harmonix Bass Mono Synth takes EHX’s proven digital synthesis and moves it back to the mono world, where careful and clean playing are king and the pedal plays the player. The Electro-Hamonix Bass Mono Synth features eleven synthesizers, volume controls for Synth and Vol, CRTL and SENS controls, expression out, a pre-set footswitch, and is powered by a standard 9v power supply. What You Need to Know The Electro-Harmonix Bass Mono Synth uses digital technology to create eleven unique, analog-based synthesizer sounds in response to a mono input signal. While this at first seems curious given their proven record with other pedals (Synth 9, Mel 9, etc) in converting guitar and bass signals into synthesizer and keyboard sounds, in practice the limitations of mono lead the player closer to approaching their playing style and composition to something truer to the original analog synthesizer sounds it taps into. The pedal shares three global controls (Dry Volume, Synth Volume, and Type) and two controls (Sens and CTRL) that do slightly different things for each synth type. The Sens control is essentially shared in functionality as it adjusts the moment of attack based on input signal, but the behavior and waveforms of the various types are different enough that it isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it control between settings. The CTRL knob, however, does something different for every setting. The Expression jack, too, allows for a deeper level of control than is available through the knobs. Walking through the eleven synthesizers- LASER is a pulsating synth whose rise and swell is dictated by the CTRL knob, from staccato blips to sustained, synth-string like drones. Think early 90’s Depeche Mode. The expression pedal controls the filter frequency to add animation and movement independent from the synth envelope. X-FADE is a multi VCO synth that blends dry signal added to the filter sweep for a sound like early synth attempts at organ sounds, from dark and moody to horn-like stabs. CTRL sets the decay time for the filter, and the expression pedal sets the frequency cutoff. ACID is a fast decaying synth modeled after the TB-303, with deep, percussive sounds that would be at home in early Aphex Twin recordings or 90’s West Coast rap. CTRL adjusts sweep depth and filter envelope in sync for what EHX feels (and I agreed) was the optimal interaction. The expression pedal controls the decay time of the envelope. COSMIC has a more aggressive edge that, despite the EHX description of being bright, seemed brooding and dark to me in its decay. The CTRL adjusts the decay time of the envelope, and the expression pedal controls the depth of the modulation. SUB can be the least synthesized sounding of the modes, with a simple sub-octave synth for adding low end that can sound natural or like an 8-bit soundtrack. CTRL adds on-the-fly adjustments to the sub oscillator and the expression pedal tweaks the frequency cut-off to blunt the sub-octave stab a bit. GROWL is percussive, vocal synth that features a vowel-like climb (E-O-W) as it decays and the filter sweeps to close the envelope. CTRL sets the decay time of the filter and the expression pedal sets the sweep depth and frequency range. WUB is a flabby synth with a lazy open and close synched to a LFO for hypnotic pulses. CTRL sets the speed of modualtion and the expression pedal sets the center frequency of the filter. UNISON is a stacked set of synths running in parallel for a wall of synth sound. Each note played sounds like an electronic choir. CTRL sets the decay time of the filter envelope and the expression pedal sets the cutoff frequency of the filter and the base of the filter envelope sweep . TWIN is a throaty synth with a paradoxically wet and dry sounding chirp to its decay like falling down a hole with mechanical crickets (man, that was fun to write). CTRL adjusts the attack and decay times of the filter envelope and the expression pedal controls the filter envelope’s sweep depth or frequency range. SPECTRE is multi VCO synth with an added adjustable pitched note that sounds like a robot invasion with laser guns and a bizarre clang in the decay. CTRL adjusts the filter’s cutoff frequency and the expression pedal sets the pitch of the added note in half-step increments from -1 octave to + 4 octaves. OBLIVION is to me the most “synth” sounding of the group, with wide, thick warmth animated with a throbbing modulation effect. CTRL sets the rate of modulation and the expression pedal adjusts filter resonance. Being raised on analog versions of “synth-style” effects for stringed instruments, the limitations of mono weren’t as big for me as they might be for someone who has never tackled a bass octave or MXR Blue Box, and I found the attack to respond similarly. I did find points in certain settings where the “glitch” when playing complex chords (which isn’t what the Mono Synth was made for) was less musically pleasing to me than an analog counterpart, in that it seemed to jump too cleanly between the notes it was guessing I was trying to play. I’d liken it to the difference between a CD and vinyl skip. The challenge with a pedal with so many sounds is getting to them quickly, and EHX deftly tackles with an allowed preset for each synth type, effectively giving you access to 22 synths (11 FYSIWYG, 11 presets). Saving a preset is as simple as holding down the preset switch for two seconds. Once saved, the preset is accessible by choosing the appropriate synth type and hitting the preset switch. The pre-loaded presets are a good starting point, and you can tweak and edit from there. Limitations The pedal is monophonic, so don’t expect it to take chords well. Conclusion The anachronism of using modern technology for mono synthesis may seem like a miss to some; I completely disagree. The Electro-Harmonix Bass Mono Synth is designed to encourage an intentional musical approach and honor the sonic roots of synthesis. There are enough synth models in the Bass Mono Synth to create an album’s worth of music without ever using the same setting twice, and the deep, rich tones defied my expectations of what a digital emulation of analog synthesis could sound like without ever becoming a glitchy mess. -HC- Electro-Harmonix Bass Mono Synth Product Page ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Positive Grid BIAS FX 2 Software Guitar Amp and Effects I'll take the Positive Grid over the negative grid any day! by Chris Loeffler It’s the year 2019, and guitar players are still clinging to their vacuum tubes and low-put passive pickups. While synthesizers long ago made the jump to comprehensive software offerings, only a few big players in the guitar world have fully embraced digital emulation and expansion of the tools available in the 80’s. Whether it be discussion of “feel” or just the benefit of being selfishly (and satisfyingly) blasted by air from a cranked amplifier, guitar players in general are just pickier about how they expect their playing experience to be. Outside of the hardware world of Line 6, Kemper, and Fractal Audio, few companies (Native Instruments, SoftTube, and Peavey being exceptions) have taken the plunge into creating a playing experience for guitarists that scratches their very particularly itches. Positive Grid has been one of those pioneers, and their initial launch of the BIAS Amp and BIAS FX plug-in suites was one of the most embraced products to take guitarists to the software world. With BIAS FX 2, Positive Grid build on their learnings and technological progression to introduce a true 2.0 experience to software emulation for guitar. Positive Grid’s BIAS FX 2 downloadable software that can be used as a stand-alone tool for live performance or as a plug-in (AAX, VST, AU) with all major DAWs for laying down tracks. It works on both Windows and OS X computers and requires OS X 10.11/mac OS 10.12/Windows 8, i5 Intel Core, and 4 GB of RAM and 1 GB of storage space for the program. What You Need to Know BIAS FX 2, first and foremost, isn’t a simple software emulation of classic amps and effects. Like Native Instrument Guitar Rig, you can start there, but the parameter controls very quickly take you beyond what the standard amplifier or effect the preset is replicating does, with deeper control and synthesizer-like control of the signal path (if you want it). Out of the box and without tweaking, you’ll find presets for 60-200 tones, 30-100 amplifiers, 45-100 effects, and some nifty features like Guitar Match and MIDI/automation functions. Setting the signal patch and dragging-and-dropping effects in and out of the signal chain is as intuitive as it is in real life with a clean GUI and even easier, as you aren’t tussling with bum cables, different power supplies, and Velcro. To start building your rig, you are allowed to choose between a single amp or dual amp setup to be run in stereo or summed to mono. The amps can be used as preset, or swapped with various cabinets, speakers, and microphone setups to get your sound. While doing a true A/B between a few of the real deal setup and simulations was beyond my gear cabinet and timeframe for this review, I can attest the different configurations and microphone placements sounded like what I expected with my general recording experiences. The effects, which are the core of BIAS FX 2, are arranged by effect type, including: Noise Gate, Compressor, Boost, Drive, Distortion, EQ, Modulation, Dealy, Pitch, and Reverb. Additionally, there are three effects modellers (Harmonizer, Time, and Fuzz) that essentially allow you to build effects from scratch, a Studio Rack collection with takes on classic rack units like the Tri-Chorus, Compressor, and various oddballs like teh Echorec, Leslie, etc. While Positive Grid doesn’t directly name the individual pedals evoked in each category, the naming convention and visual representation make it abundantly clear. For instance, under the Drive section, there is a green pedal icon named 808OD, a blue pedal icon named Blues Wizard, and a gold pedal icon with a centaur archer called Clone. You get it. There’s a complete list of what’s included on the Positive Grid site, but rest assured that 98% of “must have” pedals are included. The pedals certainly sound and react like their analog counterparts, and I found the sweep in the dozen or so comparisons I made to be similar as well. Said differently, if you have a favorite DMM setting you can visually dial it in identically in the Deluxe Delay effect and nail the same tempo and depth. The noise floor was quite, in fact a bit eerily so, leaving me to wonder how much mojo in a rig comes down to signal loss and additive noises between cables. I ran out of ability to audibly distinguish what was going on before I ran out of spaces to stack effects, and some of the creative routing that happened in real-time inspired me to revisit a couple of placements on my physical pedalboard. I found it easy to set both raw, live sounds or more processed, ready-for-mastering takes depending on how much I played with after the cabinets. Guitar Match is Positive Grid’s proprietary guitar emulation software and is included in all three versions of BIAS FX 2. It effectively converts your input signal and emulates the tone and characteristics of many different guitars, down to pickups, body resonance, and even fretboard quirks. Said differently, you can turn your ’95 MIM Strat with single coils into a ’57 Les Paul with PAFs. Sonically, it is dead on when set against benchmark recordings of the emulated guitar, and even things like decay differences are addressed in the algorithm. The biggest difference I experienced sonically had more to do with me playing like I was still on a Strat rather than it not sounding like the various guitars I was emulating. ToneCloud is a much-appreciated feature of Bias FX 2 and the direction I would hope all software programs continue to migrate, letting users store and share their presets and effects tweaks with the entire community. Integrated into the software, it feels seamless to the BIAS FX experience and is handy when jumping between bandmates’ houses for rough track recording. What I most appreciated about the feature was a chance to hear how far others had taken their presets before I dove into editing and also to find instant inspiration via a new tone to mix things up a bit. As with any user library, the ear and skill of the user dictate the quality of the presets, but taste is a subjective thing. Limitations The navigation of the program is icon driven, which keeps the look clean. However, there isn’t a pop-up window with a text explanation, meaning it isn’t necessarily that intuitive out of the gate what’s going to happen when you click on one. Conclusion Positive Grid’s BIAS FX 2 easily competes with the big dogs of the hardware world, and would likely cost 4x as much if it were a physical product. It sounds so close to the the original units it is emulating that you’d never hear a difference in a live or recorded setting, and, maybe most importantly, it’s an amazingly comprehensive overview of the entire effects landscape. While the quality is professional, the ease of use and accuracy of the effects and amps makes it an enticing, affordable primer to effects usage and sounds for any player. Possibly the biggest compliment I could give BIAS FX 2 is that after more than 20 years of effects usage and exploration there wasn’t a single surprise to be found… everything sounds, behaves, and works right. Bonus points for an extremely straightforward install, configuration, and upgrade process and not a single crash during 30 days of evaluation. - HC - Resources Positive Grid BIAS FX 2 Product Page (Free Trial - $299.99 for Elite Edition ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Early music in Western culture has a long history of being tied to the sacred and the sole domain of the church (if you want to read some real histrionics, check out how controversial and rigid the dictates of European church were toward song composition in the Middle Age). As music changed to a form of entertainment unto itself (again) and technology such as the printing press and, later, audio recording made it more available, a newly formed version of secular music settled into the public at large. The last century of popular Western music has created genres and sub-genres that split off into thousands of styles, most of which coalesce around shared themes and aesthetics. As blues splintered into R&B and then rock and country, metal, and so-on, music has been viewed more and more as a secular art, an expression of ourselves. While current popular genres such as modern country still squeeze in messages of faith between songs about girls in blue jeans and shooting abusive boyfriends, radio and mainstream music channels have largely been absent of overt religious messages. As such, the history and legacy of most gear found on the walls of Guitar Center or online at Sweetwater is more tied to the art and party lifestyle than it is viewed as a vehicle for worship. What’s interesting about this is that while instrument manufacturers and retailers have bemoaned the death of instrument and declining sales due to the lack of new heroes. The common sentiment expressed in trade magazine for the last decade is “traditional combo music is dying, and electronic music and video games are robbing us of our future customers.” While a look at music and music instrument sales doesn’t necessarily reflect this sentiment, there is a bright, shining contradiction to this sentiment- the rise of Praise and Worship bands. Fact: There are more houses of worship that include live music than there are active mid-sized performance venues in the US, and every Sunday hundreds of thousands of musicians have a gig in front of millions of people who hang on their every note in a way most bar bands can only dream of. Churches, big and small, have incorporated modern music as a part of their services, a way to bring their attendees to a different place before they begin their sermon. Statistically, churches are more likely to invest in higher-end audio and visual gear than the bar or club that struggles with getting enough of a crowd and pushing enough pints to cover their overhead. Much of this music has its roots in Christian takes on modern genres, with a specific pivot in the late 90’s to the music of the Hilltop church, where a blend of praise combined with an adult contemporary rock styling. Think U2 style, with textured guitar parts, melodic bass hooks, and reverb-drenched drums. Most churches have more musicians than can be addressed by a single house band, meaning there is a regular rotation and an openness to bringing in new players that is absent in most other genres. This means not only are there more opportunities to play to a supportive crowd, but there’s also a greater, more collaborative network of gear and theory gurus available to lift each other up and encourage newer players to stick with it. This hasn’t escaped the notice of the music instrument industry, and stores that once hawked their wears with images of leather-clad men with carefully teased hair and testosterone-fueled marketing messages now have entire sections of their websites and stores dedicated to Praise and Worship institutions. Many music instrument retailers can point directly to churches for a large portion of their annual sales, and there are entire companies based around building gear that appeals to the P&W crowd. Regardless of what instruments you play, I bet you can guess at least some of what you will see at a typical church. It is rare to see a P&W band without at least one Strymon or JHS pedal at the feet of the guitar, and if you’ve been curious where most of the premium electronic drum kits were going, you probably haven’t been to church in a while. Like any music scene, there is some tribalist mentality of what is (and isn’t) an appropriate sonic contribution to the song. The focus on clarity, clean live production, and direct-to-board processing that is such a part of the P&W sound requires a level of gear and quality that goes far beyond the aesthetic (and budget) of the garage band who pride themselves in lo-fi sounds and quirky old gear. Because the world of faith-based P&W music is rather binary (you’re either a part of that audience or not), it is also pretty isolated from those who aren’t a part of the scene; doesn’t show up in traditional musical instrument advertising in a way that exposes its impact to the industry. The stereotypical socially liberal nature of musicians can seem at odds with the relatively conservative structure of the P&W, which is likely how they exist as invisible neighbors to each other, but P&W has become a market force to recon with in the last two decades and shows a stronger growth trajectory than any other popular music genre when it comes to instrument sales. What does all this mean, and why bring it up? It is an example of how general industry (and consumer) sentiment isn’t nearly as comprehensive as it seems, and example of how an “outsider” consumer group can quickly become a significant participant in a market without making waves or requiring holistic pivots to marketing message or product line. Just because the popular music presented by corporate taste-makers veers away from the classic guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums concept of instrumentation doesn’t mean the audience or passion doesn’t carry forward. -HC- ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Ernie Ball recently made a connection between Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci and Harmony Central, and we had the chance to ask John a few questions about his new album, Distance Over Time, between shows as he kicked off their 2019 tour on the West Coast. Distance Over Time was just released… what does it mark for you in the progression of Dream Theater, instrumentally and conceptually? This was an incredibly fun record to make. We all went away together to a remote location to hang out, write music, BBQ, bond and have bourbon together! There were no distractions so the entire band was completely immersed in the process. It was one of the most collective creative experiences weʼve had in a long time and represents a very rootsy, organic and probably the most ‘liveʼ sounding DT recording ever. What did the songwriting process look like for Distance Over Time? We entered the Yonderbarn studios in upstate NY basically with a clean slate. As aways, going in we do have a collection of ideas from soundcheck and I have riffs and progressions etc. Iʼve collected over the months to refer to. Those sometimes act as seeds or conduits to songs and we build from there. Everyone participated in the writing process and weʼd normally finish a song within a few days. It took about 3 weeks to write all of the material for the album. What gear made it to the studio for Distance Over Time? I used my JP EBMM Majesty 6 and 7 string guitars on the entire album as well as my JP6 EBMM baritone guitars all equipped with my signature DiMarzio pickups. The amp I used is my Mesa Boogie JP-2C. I also used my Dunlop JP95 wah pedal and JP picks and my tc electronic JP Dreamscape modulation pedal. What are you taking on the road? Basically, Iʼll be taking the exact gear that I used to record the album on the road! This tour will feature my new 2019 EBMM Majesty guitars equipped with my new DiMarzio Dreamcatcher and Rainmaker pickups. Do you approach tone differently when performing live as opposed to recording? Itʼs really the same mindset in both settings. In fact, my Boogie has all of the sounds I need in one amp so the exact settings I used in the studio transfer perfectly to the stage. Describe the evolution of your relationship with Ernie Ball/Music Man. It all started with a handshake between Sterling Ball and myself and has grown into an unbelievable creative and personal relationship with the entire Ball family that has been hugely successful for all of us! The amount of conversations and meetings weʼve had and the process of seeing through the many groundbreaking creative projects weʼve done together have all strengthened our relationship and helped us learn more about each other as artists and engineers and designers. It truly has been nothing short of amazing! What can you tell me about the new Majesty? The 2019 Majestyʼs are amongst the most stunning ever made! We tweaked the DiMarzio pickups to further accentuate the beauty and depth of the guitarʼs natural qualities. The all mahogany/maple shield versions are beautiful and sound rich and resonant. The Basswood versions in stealth black and colorchanging Kinetic Blue are focused and musical and for the first time on the Majesty with the Tiger Eye model, we have an alder version with a full maple top that has an unbelievably sweet top end and boatloads of tonal character. How do you make better music? Well, it doesnʼt hurt to be in a band with some of the best musicians on the planet! The key is to stay hungry and to continue to challenge yourself musically and technically and to set new creative goals. Complacency is the enemy! -HC- ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

zenAud.io ALK2 Software Looper Will this looper leave your mind open to everything? by Chris Loeffler zenAud.io ALK2 is a software looper that is compatible with Windows 8.1 (64 bit) macOS 10.10 Yosemite operating systems and makes a meager 46 MB of storage space for the initial install. There are three versions of ALK2, a free trial, a solo mode designed for a single performer with some track and MIDI limitations, and a complete verson, ranging in price from free to 149 euro. What You Need to Know Upon the initial install and boot up of zenAud.io ALK2 , the program scans your computer for compatible software and plugins and makes the connections. In my case, this resulted in a reminder to purge a few trial plug-ins and virtual instruments I had previously installed but not purchased. I did experience an expired plug-in needed to be purged before I could launch ALK2, but a look at the error log showed it was the plug-in, not ALK2, that was breaking the startup. The zenAud.io ALK2 is best described as a cross between a sequencer and a looper, where tracks are performed and recorded live and then looped and layered with the ability to define, move, copy, cut, and paste in real-time. In practice, using ALK 2 feels like a combination of mixing and remixing with drag-and-drop parts. The ALK2 offers five loop/performance types: Audio, Instrument, MIDI, Command Automation, and Control Automation. For a further exploration of each, the manual is the best place to start, but, effectively, you can use any type of preexisting or live audio file plus leverage MIDI to perform through virtual instruments. An incredibly intuitive interface, at least if you’ve ever tinkered with mixing or recording on a computer, is aided even further by color-coded “families” that allow multiple tracks to be visually designated as belonging to a certain loop. Which brings me to one of my favorite things about ALK2… tracks and loops aren’t the same thing, meaning you can treat loops as areas in which tracks play, as opposed to the tracks being the loop. With these loops, you can pencil in trigger points and drop pieces in that will quantize to fit the loop. This level of sophistication sounds complicated, and could result in pages of explanation and application scenarios, but in practice it is so intuitive and seamless that I found myself able to just do something quicker than I could articulate what it was I was doing. Expanding on the, the most immediate benefit of the zenAud.io ALK2 is the way it completely removes the linear nature of looping, creating an open, 3D environment where virtually any part can be grabbed and exchanged for another, essentially turning you into your own DJ. Loop performances, however, are predicated by building the core structure beforehand. This means setting up the loop lengths and containers beforehand. Yes, you can fill them with whatever you want, but there wasn’t a “just hit record and see what shape it takes” situation, although there are ways to capture that approach by incorporating a song-length loop container. The integration of plug-ins and MIDI triggering takes the looping experience even further, and applying effects to just-recorded loops both created space for me to keep the sonic performance evolving as I prepared the next part and turned the manipulation of the loop into its own form of progression. Even crazier, tracks from various session can be mashed up and swapped, meaning pulling in callbacks from earlier songs or even earlier performances. Part of the performance art of looping is, of course, the chance of introducing an accident. It’s the NASCAR crash people say they don’t want but are always waiting for. ALK2 builds a pretty sturdy safety net (mixed metaphors) for this with its Panic button. The Panic function not only undoes the mistake, it inserts a safety track in place to keep the music going while you recalibrate. You need to create the safety track beforehand, but it is worthwhile. Limitations While there are workarounds, the core workflow of zenAud.io ALK2 assumes that players loop with a predefined structure in mind. This limits the ability to change the direction of a performance based on in-the-moment inspiration. Conclusion The feature-set of the zenAud.io ALK2 has more in common with a full-featured DAW than a traditional hardware floor looper, and that is a good thing. Traditional live looping artists may be overwhelmed by how quickly the ALK2 goes beyond the typical multi-track, overdub looper, but anyone using a laptop in their live performance will quickly realize the benefits of throwing in MIDI, .WAV files, and dragging and dropping parts across multiple tracks as a creative path unto itself that goes far beyond crowd expectations. -HC- Resources zenAud.io ALK2 Product Page (Free Trial, Solo , and Complete) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

What’s New for Ernie Ball Accessories in 2019 Welcome to guitar accessory heaven! by Chris Loeffler Ernie Ball, always a strong player in the fretted instrument and accessories arena, has significantly stepped up its efforts these last few years to grow their business and the categories they service. From a renewed focus in new product development to responding to customer demand and continually building their artist roster, Ernie Ball quickly became a legacy brand to watch within the industry. Meeting up with them at Winter NAMM 2019, it became obvious to me how much they are quietly but impactfully pushing forward to push their brand forward. While it isn’t uncommon for an accessories-focused company (yes, I’m putting Music Man aside for a moment) to have more than a couple of things to show at NAMM, what struck me was how intentional all their new offerings were. From customer requested lengths of their instrument cables to Ultra and Burly custom string selections for players who are picky about the gauge of their strings, it’s clear Ernie Ball is listening. Two of the most talked about things at the booth (other than the tried-and-true hall traffic every time Petrucci made an appearance) were the Ernie Ball 40th Anniversary Volume Pedal and their new ball-end ukulele strings. I asked for a few review samples to check out and was surprised to see a rather comprehensive collection of their new fretted instrument accessories show up at my doorstep a month later with a simple message asking me to let them know what I think. Ernie Ball Ultra Slinky and Burly Slinky Electric Guitar Strings My preference in electric strings leans medium-to-heavy, with 10s at a minimum and 11s as my half-time favorites (practice dependent!), so it made sense to check out their new Ultra and Burly Slinkys, which fatten up the lower strings a bit while retaining the standard sizes of the top two. In the case of the Ultra Slinky against the Regular Slinky, the standard 10-13-17-26-26-46 gets bolstered to 10-13-17-28-38-48 and the Burly takes the Power Slinky from 11-14-18p-28-38-48 to 11-14-18p-30-42-5. The result in both cases is the same gauge for the top strings for identical bending and chime with a beefier, more sustained low-end. My experience in both cases was a stronger, but not exaggerated, base for chords and a more piano-like low end on the E and A. On a single-coil equipped Stratocaster the ringing of the lower strings created enhanced droning whereas the 57 Classics in my Les Paul really crunched up power chords with a classic gritty mid when fed into any form of distorted device. Who isn’t the Ultra and Burly for? Probably people who don’t have the hand strength yet developed to take advantage of the additional girth and those who want more tinkle above the 12th fret on their low strings. Ernie Ball Ball-End Ukulele Strings Stringed musician are often traditionalists, embracing new technology mostly to cop the sound of old technology. You can apply this adage even more so to uke players, who typically are treated to “innovation” in the form of new paintjobs or slapping in decades-old magnetic pickup, which is why it was so unexpected to see Ernie Ball debut ball-end ukulele strings for standard and baritone instruments. While my first impression was surprise, I very quickly realized came around to being surprised by my surprise, and that these hadn’t been brought to market sooner. Nylon-stringed instruments tend to rely on tied knots at the bridge to connect, which is a hold-over from their inception in a time well before machining and the like made manufacturing more flexible and refined. While guitars have enjoyed ball-ends for nearly a century, Winter NAMM is the first time I’ve seen this made available for the uke. The benefits of ball-end strings are readily apparent; easier and faster installation, improved connection with the bridge for sustain and punch, and a significantly quicker break-in period. I quickly swapped in the strings on my daughter’s ukulele (I confess I’d been putting it off, as it didn’t sound too dull and I am rusty on string wrapping) with the demo set they sent me and, like any new set of stings, the uke instantly came back to life. I found the time it took to reach stable tuning about inline with my experience of a steel-stringed acoustic guitar (and I’m a heavy player) and I physically noticed more vibration in the body of the uke as well as a richness in the mids that I don’t recall experiencing in the previous restring. Conclusion I would summarize my experience of the 2019 launch of new Ernie Ball accessories (including new belts, new cable sizes, different pick geometries) as incremental but important evolutions of core products that are the sort of personalizations or customizations most players begin leaning in to as they begin to explore fine-tuning their experience. Ernie Ball continues the roll they began a few years ago in refining and perfecting the standards they themselves helped set nearly a half-century ago. -HC- Resources Ernie Ball 2019 Accessories Product Pages Buy Ernie Ball Slinky Strings on Amazon.com (Starting at $6.99) Buy Ernie Ball Ball-End Ukulele Stings on Amazon.com (Starting at $9.99) Buy Ernie Ball Prodigy Picks on Amazon.com (Starting at $9.99) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Mackie DRM12A 2000W 12" Active Array Speaker For flying high or laying low ... by Chris Loeffler Live sound installation was a cost-prohibitive proposition for decades, resulting in either neigh-impossible to recoup costs or, more often, inferior sound for most medium sized venues, such as performance halls, auditoriums, and Praise and Worship houses. As a result, musicians have learned to deal with less-than-optimal sonic situations. However, the reinvigoration of performance spaces (and likely not in the traditional areas you are thinking) and continued refinement and cost-reductions of technology have brought the costs down and quality up to a point where outfitting a venue with professional sound has become more affordable than buying a used car on Craigslist. Mackie is stepping up to own the mid-level market for live sound with their Winter 2019 NAMM debut of the Mackie DRM Powered Series, a collection of loudspeakers designed to bring professional quality and features at a value-proposition price point and an ease-of-entry integrated system that makes setup accessible to anyone with basic audio gear knowledge. I was sent a pair of the Mackie DRM12a arrayable loudspeakers to evaluate. The DRM12a are 2000W class-D amplifiers fed into a 1” titanium driver and 12” woofer featuring dual-angle pole mounts, flybar integration for connecting up to four cabinets and two optional subwoofers, and weighs in at 55lb. What You Need to Know The new Mackie Powered DRM Series features 12” and 15” loudspeakers, an arrayable 12” loudspeaker, and 18” subwoofer offerings to kit together for medium-sized venues. Varying in power from 1600W to 2300W, they are designed to be loud, clean, and flexible. The DRM Series loudspeakers were designed to be as flexible as possible, meaning they can be configured to fit nearly any application in which you might need sound from the board, from front-of-the-house to the primary stage sound. While it would be massive overkill to use them as stage monitors, yep, you can do that too. M10 flypoints allow for this versatility, and while it has benefit for a one-and-done venue setup, I can see even more opportunity in tackling sound as a touring setup, where a configuration that works in one place may not in the next. 2000W of Class-D amplification meant deafening volumes were available at 500-1,000-person spaces without ever touching the bottom end of headroom clipping. I didn’t have an occasion (nor venue) permissive enough to find the point at which distortion entered the equation, tapping out when I filled a one-block long warehouse from one end to the other. Testing different genres of music, I found the bass deep enough to exceed the requirements for any type of music but the “feel it more than hear it” subs of extreme EDM without needing to incorporate the optional subwoofers. Highs were crisp and musical and the mids were strong and rich. DSP-controlled Advanced Impulse leverages filters, transducer time-alignment, and crossover to intelligently compensate for the work parallel speakers are doing, and while I couldn’t attribute the alignment of the frequency spectrum specifically to physical construction and components versus DSP support, the low end stayed tight, present, and inline. The compression driver array is composed of Triple 1” titanium diaphragms matched with a 12” high-excursion woofer for a balanced representation of the entire frequency range I would expect from a complete band or recording. The DRM Powered Series includes Mackie’s proprietary Power Factor Correction technology that compensates for power fluxuations. I attempts a few tricks to mess with the average-at-best power conditions of the warehouse I used for testing, including running animated neon signs and turning industrial equipment with heavy draw on an off to test output and clarity of the speakers, but couldn’t crack it. Depending on the venue, your mileage may vary. The DRM Control Dashboard is a visual display on the back of the monitors that creates instant access to all parameters and tweaks in the DRM series. The GUI is bright and full color, allowing access to the various controls via a single control knob. From this display, you can access EQ and voicing, metering, and array configuration. There are up six user preset banks to save your work, and the system can be locked via a four-digit PIN. The DRM12As that I tested seemed well designed and ready to take a beating without damaging the electronics or speaker. It’s frowned upon to intentionally rough up evaluation units, but I handled the loudspeakers the same way I would any other piece of gear as I hauled them across locations. The cabinet itself is made of 15mm plywood and, popping open the enclosure, I was able to see robust bracing. This comes at a price, though, as these things are as heavy as one would expect this sort of power and performance to kick out at. Limitations There is some, but minimal, menu diving to adjust in the GUI. Conclusion Mackie has a reputation for building quality, road-worthy gear at affordable prices, and the DRM Powered Series loudspeakers I evaluated didn’t deviate from this path. High headroom, large volume live sound at an incredibly affordable price is the name of the game, and I’m thoroughly impressed that a club, auditorium, or place of worship can bring professional sound to their audience for only a couple of thousand dollars. Even removing the accessible price from consideration, the Mackie DRM Powered 12a loudspeakers stood out as quality solutions to mid-sized venue audio needs. -HC- Resources Mackie DRM Powered Series Product Page Buy Mackie DRM Powered DRM12A Loudspeakers on Amazon.com ($1.699.99) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Dunlop 2019 Guitar Accessories- Straps, Strings, Picks, and Cables - things guitarists need as staples... by Chris Loeffler As this line review was being written, we received word that Jim Dunlop Sr., founder of Dunlop Manufacturing, passed away at the aged of 82 years old. From the Dunlop website- Born in Scotland in 1936, Jim traveled to Canada as a young man looking for new opportunities. There he met his bride and mother of his children, Bernice, and the two of them headed to California for warmer weather. By the 1960s, he had started a family and was working as a machinist and then mechanical engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Off-hours, he turned his lifelong interest in music to creating accessories for guitar players. Jim’s fearless, innovative spirit led him to turn his hobby into a livelihood, and in 1965, he founded Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. Finding local success with handmade capos, he made the life-changing decision to become a maker of guitar picks when his obsession for precision drove him to design guitar picks gauged by their true thickness. Jim made a personal commitment to expanding the options available to guitar players of the time, introducing strict quality control and a wider variety of gauges than had ever been available before. He blended the advice of musicians with his precise engineering intuition as he experimented with numerous shapes and materials so that players could find the right pick and get the most out of it. One of the greatest triumphs to come from that experimentation was Tortex Picks, which is the #1 pick in the world today. In the 1980s, Jim boldly entered the effects market, assembling a crack team of engineers and securing top-quality parts. He acquired beloved brands such as Cry Baby and MXR and expanded their offerings while remaining true to their legacies and introducing a level of quality and consistency where it had never existed before. Taking on electronics blew the door wide open for Jim’s company, leading to collaborations with the family of Jimi Hendrix and numerous artists such as Eddie Van Halen, Dimebag Darrell, and Slash to make the sounds of the world’s top players available to everyone around the world. Today, Dunlop Manufacturing is one of the world’s largest pedal companies. It would be difficult to find a guitar player who hasn’t been affected by Jim’s thoughtful innovations. Ever attentive to their needs, Jim will live on in the many products that he created to provide people with a better playing experience. Jim was widowed by Bernice in 2001 and is survived by Linda, wife of 7 years; daughter Jasmin Powell, married to Glenn; son Jimmy Dunlop, married to Elizabeth; and grandchildren Alyssa Powell, Krista Powell, and Max Dunlop. Harmony Central and its staff has a decades-long relationship with the Dunlop family, and we send our respect and condolences to the Dunlop team. What’s New in 2019 for Dunlop Accessories don’t often get a lot of attention in the review world for several reasons; their feature-set tends to be a shallower pool to evaluate from, the breadth of assortment in a given category is extremely crowded, and they are considered complementary to the core function of an instrument. That said, they are often the most frequent purchases made by a musician, and often represent the customization of final 10% players are looking for. Dunlop Manufacturing has been providing guitar players with picks, strings, cables, and accessories for decades now and is one of the most visible brands in the world of guitar. Alongside their accessory offerings, Dunlop founder Jim Dunlop nearly singlehandedly kept the Wah pedal alive, resurrected renowned effects companies MXR and Way Huge, cementing their place in the industry as a company that cares about guitar. At the Winter 2019 NAMM Show, we were given the opportunity to have some hands-on time with much of what they’ll be releasing this year. While most of the booth traffic was enraptured by the surprise release of the MXR Dookie Drive and new releases like the Siete Santos Octavio Fuzz and Way Huge Smalls Supa-Lead, those in the know and who are already pretty happy with their sonic palette were demoing the next-gen of Dunlop accessories. Here’s a rundown of some of our favorites from the show… MXR Mini ISO-Brick The MXR Mini Iso-Brick Power Supply ($99.95) was designed to deliver quiet, noise-free DC power to wide range of pedal types in the smallest possible form factor. The Mini Iso-Brick Power Supply has five outputs; each 100% isolated to eliminate eliminate ground noise and to keep your pedals from interfering with each other. Four of the outputs run at a standard 9v/300mA with Boss-style center negative cable barrels, while the fifth can be set to provide either 9 volts or 18 volts at 800mA to goose pedals capable of taking a bigger sip to build headroom. Dunlop claims the Mini Iso-Brick has been tested against hundreds of pedals, including notoriously fickle ones, to ensure clean operation and separation. While the Mini ISO-Box is truly diminutive is size, it was designed to be expandable via a splitter cable that can be used to connect two pedals to a single output, provided they require the same voltage and you don’t exceed the output’s current rating. You can do this with all the outputs simultaneously provided you have the additional cables (sold separately). Between the small size, extremely low weight, and well-lit status LEDs (believe it or not, that visual confirmation has cut time troubleshooting for me more than a few times), the MXR Mini ISO-Box looks to be a surprisingly strong middle-ground between a daisy-chained power supply and the more expensive isolation boxes; perfectly primed to support small boards. Pendleton X Dunlop Woolen Authentics Guitar and Bass Strap Pendleton x Dunlop Woolen Authentics Straps represent a collaboration between the Bay Area Dunlop and Pacific Northwest lifestyle brand Pendleton, featuring a soft, worked leather backing with a randomly cut section of Pendleton’s most famous fannel designs. Srafted of pure virgin wool from Pendleton’s own mills, the random selection of fabric makes each of these exquisitely made straps a one-of-a-kind throwback that seemed equally at home with with a shot of whiskey at the roundup as it does upscale grunge (is that a thing?). Dunlop Flow Tortex Guitar Picks Flow Picks feature a wide angle, sharp tip, beveled edge, and low-profile grip for a smooth playing experience that provides enhanced articulation in attack and demonstrable accelaration. Dunlop's Ultex material, known for durability and strong tone mean Flow Picks project complex, powerful overtones (as demoed at the booth with a hot set of single coils on a Tele). Variety Pack includes Flow Standard .73mm, Flow Standard .88mm, Flow Standard 1.0mm, Flow Standard 1.5mm, Flow Standard 2.0mm, Flow Jumbo 2.0mm, Flow Jumbo 2.5mm, and Flow Jumbo 3.0mm picks. Not to be missed is the “we just legalized weed”420 green. As a Tortex user for many years, I'd say the differences were subtle but noticeable as I swapped picks back and forth. Fast players will find the most immediate benefit, but I'll be taking a set to my acoustic to spend more time with. More and More Click here for the complete line-up of planned 2019 releases, including guitar multi-tools and luthier accessories. -HC- ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

There comes a time in most players’ lives where practice begins to yield incremental (but the most important!) gains in perceived progress. For some, that may come after mastering modes and scales, for others, that may be the moment they can chunk their way through a four-chord progression. At some point, they realize they don’t sound like their heroes, or at least they don’t sound exactly like that one song they heard on the radio. That’s when a Google search happens and forums like Harmony Central come in to play. The amount of gear that is available, both current production and used, can easily overwhelm someone who is just dipping their toes into expanding their gear arsenal and, just like many look to Amazon reviews to help make a purchasing decision, they look to the people and tones they most admire to discover their first steps. Early in this journey, they discover a special, mojo-ridden pocket of the ultimate sound they are looking for is tied up in Holy Grail gear. This is the stuff that is synonymous with some of the biggest players’ sound that fetches 4x-10x what a similar piece of gear is available for new at the local Guitar Center or mom and pop music shop. With such a high price tag and relative inaccessibility, the romanticism of these pieces quickly become a psychological “last step” in attaining the perfect sound for many players. How does a piece of gear become one of the most sought-after pieces of life-changing musicality? Let’s take a (mostly) serious look… It must be unavailable. No piece of gear worth its salt will capture the minds and hearts of many musicians if it is readily available. Making music is often a personal thing; anything that is so common that it can be picked up at Amazon seems too common for a crowd that prides itself in deep cuts and bands you’ve never heard of. If a piece of gear is highly available, it is more affordable, and players can quickly buy or demo it to see how much of the magic they were seeking came from the piece of mythical gear versus how the result of the tasteful, damn fine professional performing through it. The Boss DS-1 is 40 years old and (arguably) unchanged since its inception. The pedal has been featured on thousands of albums and has had some tenure on the majority of guitar players’ signal chain… and it can be bought new from any major music retailer for $50 and sells used for around $30. Guess what isn’t a Holy Grail piece of guitar gear… It must have been a commercial failure. Just like monkeys and humans live side-by-side, there is a glut of vintage gear that has been in production for decades that exists alongside newly released designs. One of the biggest contributors to the aforementioned unavailability is the lack of success a piece of gear originally enjoyed when released. Whether it be form, function, or aesthetics, something about the Holy Grail generally didn’t find hold with the audience of its day. This means not as many people thoroughly explored the possibilities of a particular piece of gear to find its niche, and not as many people experienced one personally to be able to say, “eh, it’s 98% the same as X.” Someone made a masterpiece with it. This unavailable, unloved piece of gear that seemed destined to fade into obscurity gets rescued by an artist or album that manages to tap into the zeitgeist and defines a sound that enters the lexicon of music for that era. Some player finds a reason to latch on to that piece of gear, whether out of love of the obscure or a unique connection they make that the mass market missed, and that piece becomes associated with a sound. Examples abound, from The Edge taking the FA-1 from a rare Boss failure to one of the most sought-after vintage pieces of the 00’s to Brian Eno’s Low contributions making the short-lived EMS Synthi AKS one of the most expensive used market keyboard/synthesizers around. Arguably, there is nothing offered in these products that isn’t met (or exceeded) by decades of technological advancement and the accompanying cost savings, but they have an emotional hold that exceeds circuits and logic. At the end of the day, what’s important isn’t what is the best technical execution of a piece or gear nor how great something sounded in the hands of its iconic performers. How you feel, as a musician, when you play and hear your gear, is what matters. If the mojo of your favorite artist or the knowledge that no one else in town has one is what makes for a more pleasurable experience, you’ll be a better player. A Holy Grail piece of gear doesn’t guarantee you will sound any better, but if it fills a psychological or emotional gap that improves how you show up to your instrument there’s nothing wrong with a little magic dust! -HC- ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

JHS Pedals The Clover Preamp and Overdrive Are you ready to try your luck with this pedal? by Chris Loeffler The Boss FA-1 FET Amplifier was something of an oddity in the Boss lineup. Part of the (short-lived) Pocket Series, it shared a formfactor that took the effect off the floor and onto your belt (belt clip, of course, included) that was an “always on” addition to your signal chain. The FA-1 came out when FETs were trending as a new way to create gain in popular effects, and it proudly incorporated the overdrive technology into its name, anticipating players would jump on the chance to experience “new” technology. Best of intentions aside, the odd form factor, inability to bypass the effect, and lack of coalescence around cleanish boosts resulted in the quick discontinuation of the pedal from the Boss line. Fast forward a few years, and a young man by the name of David Howell Evans picked one up and made it kind of a thing on a few albums in the 80’s. Some people might know Evans as The Edge, and those albums as The Joshua Tree and Unforgettable Fire. While a few boutique companies have taken a crack at providing the circuit in a more stomp-friendly format over the last decade or so, JHS Pedals (who previously offered rehousings and modifications of the vintage unit) is the first mid-to-large scale effects company to take on the circuit in a big way, releasing a faithful recreation of the preamp while expanding its capabilities for a larger crowd. The JHS Clover features the standard FA-1 controlls of Volume, Treble, and Bass knobs as well as a Flat/Lo Cut switch to turn on a 3dB cut on the lower frequencies. It adds to the FA-1 by including a true-bypass stimp switch for on/off activation, a Middle tone control, an XLR output for acoustic or bass instruments, and a three-position rotary switch to choose different EQ presets. What You Need to Know First and foremost, the JHS Pedals Clover is a clean boost to light gain preamp that’s meant to sweeten a sound or push a distorting amp. Words often used to describe the FA-1 are politely raucous and reactive, with a general feel of liveliness and openness that comes with a true preamp. Those descriptors held true in my evaluation time with the pedal, and we’ll get to more of that in a minute. The Volume knob offers an aggressive 24+dB gain to play with, meaning the Clover is more than up to the task of overdriving a dirty amp (or pedal) and can get ungodly loud when cranked in front of a high-wattage clean amp with tons of headroom. At unity gain, there is a marked sweetness to the mids and highs, and there is a little extra punch and clarity to the initial attack. The Treble, Middle, and Bass knobs offer a 15dB boost or cut at the 10kHz, 1.3kHz, and 270Hz spectrums for natural sounding tweaks to the final EQ spectrum. This both sets the base tone and helps carve in more responsive overdrive behavior to any gain device downstream from the Clover. The previously mentioned Lo cut switch introduces a 3dB cut at 212Hz to clean up some of the sonic garbage that tends to translate poorly when overdriven. The revelation and reason most people would be interested in the Clover is the three-position rotary EQ knob. While the introduction of the Middle control gives more control over the frequencies guitar players live and breath in, the option between Full EQ, No Mid, and No EQ is where the pedal covers new ground. Full EQ allows brings in the Middle control, so yes, similar-but-different Tubescreamer tones are accessible (albeit with a wider total frequency range). No Mid brings the Clover to exact parity with the original FA-1, for those who don’t want to mess with their mids and want an exact sonic replication of the FA-1 tone. No EQ completely removes the three EQ knobs from the circuit, meaning you’re running an open, nearly transparent FET boost that’s snappier and hotter. The addition of the XLR output opens the Clover up to use with acoustic guitars and bass, and I found pleasant results in both instances. Running my Taylor 814ce into an Ultrasound acoustic amp, the Clover seemed to slightly round some of the peaks of the piezo pickups I demoed while also adding a touch of articulation to the mid-level parts. Said differently, the Clover added a more finished tone to what I was already really happy with, even as it removed a touch of the air from the acoustic space of the sound. The Ernie Ball Sterling Bass I ran through it become even more beefy and aggressive, and I was able to get a bit of growl from my passive pickups that I really enjoyed running into a Music Man HD-130 head and into an Avatar 4x10 cabinet with Fatar speakers. The JHS Pedals Clover works well in several applications, from a unity-gain buffer to Baxandall EQ to clean boost. Of course, these relatively “transparent” applications (overused a term as any) are highly rig-dependent. Long signal chains, low output pickups, and amplifier preamps that are starting to break up will by far see the most benefit from the Clover, while running it after high-output active pickups, wanting to introduce crunch in a high-wattage clean amp, or trying to further push a saturated distortion box will be less impressive. Limitations The grit of the preamp comes with volume, so while the pedals overdrive can be glorious, it’s going to want something breaking up after it to really bring meaningful overdrive to your setup. Conclusion Despite the reputation of the Boss FA-1 and JHS’ documented lover for U2, taking on the Clover is something of a surprise to me, because it trusts players to actually understand the application of a preamp/booster in a way that isn’t a treble booster and isn’t a straight clean boost. Because it can be as subtle or in-your-face as you like, my time with the JHS Clover had me realizing more often when it was off than when it was on. Like a good compressor, everything was just a little bit better with the right settings, from signal strength to the sparkle of my signal. -HC- Resources JHS Pedals The Clover Product Page Buy JHS PEdals The Clover on Amazon.com (MSRP $199.00) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.