Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
MXR Phase 45 clone in a sweet swirled enclosure.
Jemsite is one of my favourite forums to hang out on. There are a great number of fantastic members, all fans of Ibanez guitars. Late last year, one member posted about a whole bunch of pedal enclosures that he had swirled (like some of the classic Jem models). I thought they looked really cool, but didn’t have the money to buy any. One other member was generous enough to buy two enclosures, one for me to build him something, and the other as payment to me for building him a pedal.
As I was waiting for the enclosures to arrive we discussed what sort of effect he would want. He decided on a phaser of some sort, which I was a bit nervous about building. I had only build boosts and distortion/fuzz effects at that point, and was worried about whether or not I would be able to successfully build something like a phaser. (more…)
Tags: build, DIY, effect, General Guitar Gadgets, guitar, MXR, Pedal, Phase 45, phaser
Posted in DIY, Effects | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 26th, 2012
The PolyTune Mini, "tuning distilled".
When the TC Electonic PolyTune was released back in early 2010 it took the world by storm. No longer was it necessary to check one string at a time. You could quickly strum all of your strings, and get a quick idea of what strings were out of tune, and then focus on those quickly and easily.
Now that the PolyTune has been out for a while, and others have tried to imitate, TC Electronic have taken the PolyTune concept one step further. They have dramatically shrunk the form factor, providing the same great easy to use polyphonic tuner in a pedal about 1/3 of the size of the original PolyTune. (more…)
Tags: chromatic, Mini, polyphonic, PolyTune, review, TC Electronic, tuner
Posted in Effects, Reviews | No Comments »
Thursday, March 8th, 2012
Railhammer Chisel pickups - awesome innovation, awesome tone.
Continuing on from my Chisel bridge humbucker review, here is the Railhammer Chisel neck humbucker review. The Railhammer Chisel neck, like the bridge version, is loaded with a ceramic magnet, but a much lower resistance of 7.5KOhms, perfect for a neck pickup, and a great match for the Chisel bridge. Like all Railhammer pickups it utilises thin rails for the bass strings, and fat pole-pieces for the treble strings, resulting in an evenly balanced tone that won’t get muddy or shrill. (more…)
Tags: Armor Gold Cables., Chisel, guitar, humbucker, Joe Naylor, neck, pickups, Railhammer, Reverend Guitars, review
Posted in Pickups, Reviews | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
Railhammer Chisel pickups - awesome innovation, awesome tone.
Joe Naylor is someone who is very well known throughout the guitar industry. With his time making amplifiers, Reverend Guitars and Armor Gold cables, Joe is someone who is known for creating new and wonderful things in many fields. Railhammer Pickups are his latest creation, and in true form are something quite new to the pickup world.
Railhammers have a unique design compared to humbuckers from other manufacturers. Where others design humbuckers with rails or pole-pieces, Joe Naylor sought to combine both types of humbuckers into one design, allowing his designs to have the best from both worlds. With thin rails underneath the bass strings and over-sized pole pieces under the treble strings, Railhammers provide sharp cutting tone that won’t get muddy for the bass strings, and full-bodied tone that never gets shrill from the treble strings.
(more…)
Tags: Armor Gold Cables., bridge, Chisel, guitar, humbucker, Joe Naylor, pickups, Railhammer, Reverend Guitars, review
Posted in Pickups, Reviews | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
The Ormsby Guitars Hot Rock, it's hot and ready to rock!
The Ormsby Guitars Hot Rock is the second of two pickups provided to me by Perry Ormsby (the first being the Nunchucker Humbucker). It’s taken me a while to have the time to install and test the Hot Rock, but at long last, here is my review! I made sure that I tested the Hot Rock in the same guitar as the Nunchucker Humbucker, my custom Alder-bodied Ibanez RG/JEM style guitar.
With an medium to high output level, and resistance of 13.4K, and overwound mismatched coils, the Hot Rock is a much harder hitting pickup compared to the Nunchucker Humbucker. The pickup I received is also loaded with an Alnico 5 magnet, but you can also request an Alnico 8 or Ceramic if either of those are your preferred type. (more…)
Tags: Hot Rock, humbucker, Ormsby Guitars, pickup, review
Posted in Pickups, Reviews | No Comments »
