Pre-Black Friday Clearance! Everything must go!

Ok, maybe not, but it's fair to say that all the emails I've received advertising pre-Black Friday deals have been wearing off on me. I've got a small mountain of gear up for sale... everything works great and is in generally excellent condition (email me for details on any particular item). Things will probably start showing up on e-bay later in the week.

• everything has been sold...
  

--B

VLOG: New guitar - EBMM Steve Morse

Pretty high on the list of amazing but generally unknown guitarists (well, aside from among other guitarists) has got to be Steve Morse... he's played with Kansas, Deep Purple, Dixie Dregs, and cranked out a handful of solo instrumental albums as well. For as long as I can remember, he's had a signature series guitar model manufactured by Ernie Ball/Music Man. A few months ago, curiosity got the better of me, and I picked up an EBMM Steve Morse model on e-bay to see what it's made of.

Literally, it's made of poplar (ha!) with a bolt-on maple neck, 22-fret rosewood fretboard, fixed bridge, and locking tuners. Two things stand out... first is the trademark blueburst finish, which almost takes on a greenish tint at times given the natural yellowish tint of poplar. Second is the pickup configuration: the Morse model has two humbuckers, two single coils, 2 knobs, and 3 switches. Most interesting, though, is how it's wired up in such a seemingly illogical manner... the 3-way blade switches between the bridge humbucker, the neck humbucker, and the bridge single coil (in that order); the 2-way toggle adds the bridge humbucker to whatever's selected on the 3-way blade; and the 3-way toggle adds the neck single coil to the mix (or solos the neck single coil). It sounds good and provides a lot of versatility, but requires way too much thought to keep track of "what switch does what" and "what position each switch is in."

So aside from needing a PhD to operate it, the Morse lives up to the typical high quality I've seen from Music Man guitars... flawless finish, tight tolerances, good stability (thanks to the 5-bolt neck). The neck is smooth (I'll admit I could use a bit more "meat" on the neck, but apparently Steve and I differ in opinion), and the body is well-balanced. Again, the tonal versatility is killer... the humbuckers are relatively hot and compress easily (great for soloing), the single coils provide a nice amount of twang. If only it could actually make me sound/play like Steve Morse...

Here's a demo clip of the guitar running through a Mesa/Boogie Electra Dyne head... I think I manage to use maybe 2 of the 11 different pickup combinations here...

"This Way for Good" by Conundrum:


And, of course, gotta have a couple of pictures of the guitar, too... check out that sweet blueburst finish...





As always, I'll have more guitar & amp reviews coming soon...

--B

VLOG: New amp gear - Hughes & Kettner Triamp head

Between when I first discovered Mesa/Boogie amps and recently re-discovered them, I tried dozens of amps in an effort to find something that fit my style better (challenging, if only because the style of music I was playing seemed to be changing on an almost weekly basis!). On the journey, I went through a Hughes & Kettner phase where I tried a variety of models (e.g., Triamp mkII, Zentera, Switchblade, Edition Tube), most of which were sold off when I started assembling the monster rack rig. So this summer when I started jamming around with Almost Lifelike I took a look around the studio and realized... all my high-wattage multi-channel amps were gone. I started the search for a flexible amp and was stoked to find an original H&K Triamp mkI up for grabs on the local Craigslist.

The Triamp is one of the most impressive amps I've ever seen from a specs standpoint... 6 channels, 12 tubes (8 preamp tubes + 4 power tubes), spring reverb, dual FX loops (series + parallel) and optional MIDI switching. Compared to the Triamp mkII, the mkI is loaded with 6L6 power tubes... having owned both, I found the mkI to be much smoother in comparison to the mkII model. With 6 channels, pretty much everything from crystal clean to nu-metal chunk is available: I had mine dialed in for a skinny (funky) clean tone on channel 1A, a "pushed" clean tone on channel 1B, a JCM800-ish crunch on channel 2A, a fat "brown" lead tone on channel 2B, a heavier rhythm tone on channel 3A, and finally a full-on metal lead tone on channel 3B. Plus, let's face it, there's something cool about being able to see all the tubes glowing through the plexi-glass front (though admittedly, not as cool as the blue neon in the Triamp mkII).

So here are a couple of videos that show me putting the Triamp through its paces with a Ernie Ball Music Man JP 7-string guitar and a Rocktron 4x12 cabinet:




And, of course, can't have a post without the obligatory picture...



Stay tuned... I'll have some new guitar & amp videos posted soon...

--B