Musik Indonesia

Kapanlagi.com - Caliban salah satu band cadas dari daratan Eropa, tepatnya di Jerman, Rabu (6/8) malam sukses melakukan pentas perdananya di Solo dari rangkaian turnya di Indonesia.

Saat jumpa pers Rabu (6/8) siang di rumah makan SS Solo, band yang digawangi Mark (gitar), Patrick (drum), Andreas (vokal), Denis (gitar), dan Marco (bass), sudah berjanji tampil all out di Indonesia.

Andreas mewakili teman-temannya mengatakan Caliban dibentuk tahun 1997 dengan nama Never Again kemudian berganti menjadi Caliban setelah meluncurkan albumnya A SMALL BOY AND A GREY HEAVEN. Kemudian album keduanya VENT dirilis di Yokohama Jepang.

Andreas juga menerangkan, secara mengejutkan albumnya THE OPPOSITE FROM THE WITHIN mengukir kesuksesan menembus blantika musik Eropa, disusul dengan album berikutnya THE UNDYING DARKNESS menjadi lebih dewasa dan bertenaga. Andreas dan Denis memaksimalkan kemampuan mereka saling mengisi dalam lagu tersebut.

"Inilah air pelepas dahaga warga kota Solo untuk menanti konser besar," ujar Akbar, penggagas acara ini dari The Thik Production, sambil menambahkan bahwa hampir 20 tahun lebih Yngwie Malmstein menggelar di stadion Sriwedari Solo.

Vokalis Maroon 5, Adam Levine mengaku tak mau jadi rocker tua seperti The Rolling Stones. Makanya ia memutuskan untuk pensiun sepuluh tahun lagi.

Maroon 5 sendiri baru dikenal sekitar tahun 2002 saat mereka melepas LP pertama mereka Songs About Jane. Walaupun saat ini mereka sedang berada di puncak karir mereka, namun sang vokalis merasa bahwa hidup di atas panggung bukanlah kehidupan yang ia pilih.

"Aku menghabiskan masa mudaku di atas panggung dan tak pernah ada konsistensi dalam hidupku," ungkapnya. Lebih lanjut ia juga mengatakan bahwa ia ingin melakukan sesuatu yang berbeda karena ia tak ingin melakukan ini semua saat ia berusia 40 atau 50 tahun nanti.

Michael Jackson

Ternyata, Michael Jackson memberi kesempatan fans-nya di Inggris untuk memilih sendiri track yang mereka inginkan melalui GMTV atau harian Sun. Michael mengijinkan para pengemarnya di Inggris untuk memilih 18 track dari 50 track yang sudah disiapkannya.

Melanie Subono makin berani berkiprah di dunia musik internasional. Baru saja tampil di Singapore's Music Festival atau SingFest beberapa hari lalu, kini Mel pun ditawari untuk manggung lagi bareng musisi manca negara di Jepang.

"Puji Tuhan aq dapat tawaran lagi di bulan oktober untuk maen bareng Motley Crue. Mudah-mudahan aja bisa lancar ya rencananya," ujar Mel yang ditemui sebelum manggung di Soundrenaline 2008 di Malang, Minggu (3/8) malam.

Keberuntungan itu sungguh pas bagi putri Adrie Subono ini. Mel merasa spesial karena ia pun tak tahu menahu soal rencana itu sebelumnya.

"Aku juga nggak tahu gimana pertamanya. Pokoknya pas aku selesai main SingFest, trus ada yang nanya-nanya, 'Lo mau nggak main di Jepang?' Trus aku nanya lagi, 'Siapa aja yang main? ' Jawabnya, 'Pokoknya ini..ini..' Gue yang waw gitu," papar Mel senang.

Menurut gadis pecinta Rock and Roll ini, tampil di konser yang diadakan di luar negeri sangat beda dengan di Indonesia. Setidaknya di SingFest, Mel tidak merasa di-'anak tirikan' dengan band-band lainnya.

Konser Soundrenaline 2008 di kota Malang juga dimeriahkan oleh Radja. Band yang dikomandani Ian Kasela ini sekaligus memamerkan gitaris barunya, Tashea Nicole Delaney.

Sayangnya, penampilan gitaris cewek itu tak berhasil mencuri perhatian penonton yang memadati Lapangan Rampal Malang, Minggu (3/8) kemarin.

Apesnya lagi, saat Ian Kasela melantunkan lagu, penonton mulai melempari vokalis Radja tersebut dengan botol-botol air mineral.

Band yang diawaki Ian Kasela (vokalis), Moldy (gitaris), Seno (bassist), Tashea (gitar), dan Adit (drummer) itu juga harus menutup aksi panggung mereka dengan acungan jari tengah dari para penonton.

Jika Radja tak begitu mendapat sambutan hangat, Nidji yang tampil sekitar jam 22.00 WIB justru sukses membangkitkan semangat Nidjiholic.

Musisi Ahmad Dhani yang juga salah satu juri Kompetisi Sprite D`Plong Sensasi Rock`n`dut 2008 mengaku kesulitan untuk mencari penyanyi yang mampu memadukan irama rock dan dangdut sekaligus. Sehingga menurutnya kompetisi perdaduan rock dan dangdut merupakan sebuah tantangan untuk mencari penyanyi muda yang penuh bakat.

"Tak banyak yang bisa rock dan dangdut sekaligus. Dangdut hanya bisa dibawakan oleh orang yang benar-benar mampu 'menyanyi', apalagi ditambah dengan sentuhan rock pasti tidak akan mudah," katanya dalam jumpa pers bersama Mulan Jameela, di Santika Hotel Cirebon, Jabar, Sabtu sore.

Ia menilai, dangdut mempunyai tehnik yang lebih sulit dibandingkan menyanyi pop, sehingga banyak penyanyi yang beralasan tidak suka dangdut, padahal sebenarnya mereka tidak mampu membawakannya.

Menurut Dhani, pada kompetisi Rock`n`dut tahun 2007 lalu sebenarnya banyak peserta yang berbakat yang jika dipoles lagi akan bisa menjadi penyanyi terkenal, namun karena ada dua juri selain dirinya akhirnya yang berbakat itu tidak lolos seleksi selanjutnya.

Terkait kurang dikenalnya finalis kompetisi Sprite D`Plong, Dhani menjelaskan, sangat dimaklumi karena kompetisi itu hanya sekali ditayangkan di televisi saat Grand Final, sementara finalis ajang kompetisi lain yang ditayangkan hampir tiap hari juga banyak tidak langsung bisa menjadi bintang.

Ke depan, Dhani mengusulkan, agar tahun depan Sprite menjadi sponsor Republik Cinta Source Talent sehingga makin banyak potensi muda yang terjaring dan tidak terpaku pada kriteria rock dan dangdut. "Ini usulan saya pada manajemen supaya lebih banyak menjaring peserta," katanya.

Sabtu malam ini bertempat di Lapangan Arhanudse Cirebon, enam orang semifinalis Kompetisi Sprite D`Plong Sensasi Rock`n`dut 2008 dari wilayah Jawa Barat akan berkompetisi untuk meraih juara pertama yang akan mewakili wilayah Jawa Barat dalam Grand Final yang akan diselenggarakan di Jakarta, akhir Agustus 2008.

Keenam finalis itu Reza (24) dan Dedi KP (22), semifinalis dari Cirebon, Haikal MH (25) dan Argi G (23) semifinalis dari Bandung, Shinta NW (28) dan Sendi (22) semifinalis dari Tasikmalaya.

Usia dini adalah usia emas bagi mereka yang ingin belajar musik. Umur antara 2-8 tahun akan lebih mudah mengasahnya. Walau tidak menutup kemungkinan dalam usia lanjut juga masih bisa mempelajari musik. Karena sebetulnya, belajar musik itu tidak ada batasan umur.

“Kalau mau profesional lebih baik belajar sejak usia dini,” kata drummer Gilang Ramadhan dalam Talk Show 'Pentingnya Pembelajaran Musik Sejak Usia Dini' di Griya KR Jumat malam (01/08).

Acara tersebut kerja sama Gilang Ramadhan Studio Drummer (GRSD) dengan SKH Kedaulatan Rakyat. Selain Gilang Ramadhan tampil sebagai pembicara Betty Tjipta Sari (Psikolog) dan Ir Hariyanto MM (konsultan manajemen). Di samping sebagai pembicara, Gilang Ramadhan juga mendemontrasikan kemahirannya bermain drum bersama drumer anak-anak Aksatrya Panakula.

Ternyata bermain drum bisa menghidupkan otak kiri dan kanan. Sebab semua anggota tubuh aktif bermain. Kedua tangan dan kaki serta otak semua bekerja. Bermain drum berolah rasa dan jiwa. Di luar negeri banyak yang jago karena menurut Gilang sedah sejak kecil mereka bermain musik. Bahkan para tokoh dalam bidang lain, di rumah juga belajar musik. Idealnya belajar musik mulai dari rhytm dulu, seperti drum. Rhytm adalah ekspresi rasa dalam musik yang berlandaskan pada denyut tempo kehidupan. “Mereka yang awal belajar musiknya main drum, kelak dengan mudah pindah ke alat lain,” papar Gilang.

Gilang mengatakan banyak pemain musik khususnya drummer yang kemudian menjadi orang terkenal dan bisa sukses secara materi. Tetapi sebetulnya orang mempelajari musik tidak harus jadi musikus. Bisa terjun ke dunia pers untuk liputan dan membahas musik, atau juga menjadi instruktur. Bisa pula bekerja di studio rekaman dan kebanyakan seorang sound engineering di studio rekaman awalnya seorang drummer. Sebab dalam satu set drum ada nada perkusi dari yang paling tinggi sampai paling rendah.

SOME SAY THAT first impressions are everything, and that they influence your opinions and expectations forever after. Considering that our first impression of Ibanez's S Series guitars was a memorable one indeed-watching jazz übershredder Frank Gambale flaunt a gaudy yellow Saber in the late '80s-it should come as no surprise that we were completely beguiled when we laid eyes on the company's elegant new S2170FWNTF.

LOOKS
The S2170 is a standout member of the Ibanez A-Team-the Prestige Series-featuring some of the finest attributes the company has to offer. You'll surely find yourself gazing for a while at that intriguing burled poplar top, which adorns the slim yet sleek mahogany body that all S series guitars possess. The body's "natural flat" finish (indicated by the NTF at the end of the guitar's name) only adds to its appeal, as does the guitar's overall cosmetic simplicity: a mere two knobs for global volume and tone, one five-way pickup selector, and an elegant bound rosewood fretboard garnished by a lone Prestige inlay at the 12th fret. The headstock maintains the less-is-more aesthetic, topping the guitar with a rosewood truss rod cover and a subtle Ibanez Prestige logo that emanates a royal character underneath those classy-looking Gotoh Precision tuners.

FEEL
Don't be fooled by the S2170's slenderness; once you handle the guitar, you'll be quickly reminded that it does in fact possess a mahogany body. Still, it balances nicely on a player's lap. On its own, the buttery Wizard II prestige neck is nearly worth the guitar's full retail price--the rounded contours of this five-piece maple/Bubinga composite just melt into your fretting hand--and it only takes a lick or two to start gushing over the 22 jumbo frets and ultra-flat radius, which foster an atmosphere of bending nirvana. Whammy junkies will fully appreciate both the smoothness and the consistent tuning afforded by the roller bearings in the revolutionary Ibanez-designed ZR (zero resistance) bridge, not to mention its handful of tweakable features like the arm torque adjuster, which lets you easily adjust the whammy bar's height.

SOUND
Most important, and most astonishing, are the array of tones that the S2170 can produce. We were able to switch from thickly compressed, high-gain fusion lines to clean, delay-drenched ambient tones with only minimal EQ adjustments to the patches on our M-Audio Black Box. American-made DiMarzio/IBC pickups are the ace in the 2170's pocket; designed by pickup mastermind Steve Blucher, they project a warm, vintage-style rock 'n' roll tone at a medium output. Think Gibson PAFs, but overwound for hotter mids.

IS IT FOR YOU?
The S2170FWNTF is a versatile instrument capable of creating many sonic textures. Aesthetics notwithstanding, this guitar can be counted on to deliver on those days when you need the right ax for that midday session with Paul Rodgers, followed by the quick rehearsal with the Metallica tribute band that precedes your gig as sole guitarist backing up the Temptations.

The sound of Electro-Harmonix pedals has resounded through rock music for four decades. Almost every guitarist can name one that he (or she) loves. But many also lament that their favorite EH pedal is too big to fit on their pedal board, or that they're wary of taking it on the road because the casing seems, well, un-roadworthy. And the fact that these units require a different power supply than any other piece of guitar gear has always been a definite turnoff. Well, brothers and sisters, you can now rejoice. The new Nano series of pedals from Electro- Harmonix puts to bed all the aforementioned caveats, packaging the distinctive sounds that we've come to adore in solid, molded metal casings with standard adapter inputs, small enough to fit easily on the most crowded pedal board.

Nano Dr. Q
For funky filtering, it's hard to go wrong with the Q. Its sensitivity is preset but it responds equally well to single-coil and humbucking pickups. The Range control lets you go from low-end burps to high-pitched squawks, while the Bass switch kicks in a healthy dose of extra booty-to the extent that you'll need to back off your guitar volume to keep from overloading your amp. Once you do, however, you'll find that the additional bottom is a useful option. Whether your thing is Jerry Garcia (or New Bohemian)-style leads, funk rhythm, or electronica effects, the Dr. Q would be a welcome addition to your audio arsenal.

Nano Bassballs
Originally designed for bassists, the first Bassballs pedal found numerous fans among guitarists seeking a very vocal envelope filter pedal. With a Q that almost approaches a talk-box level of vowel reproduction, the Bassballs "speaks" for itself. Add a distortion switch that brings out further levels of harmonic overtones, plus a range of oscillation that approaches insane, and you have the recipe for a classic EH effect. Except for two subtle changes-the Sensitivity knob has been relabeled Response, and a mini-toggle engages the distortion instead of a slider switch-the Nano version exactly replicates the original. This unit gives new meaning to the concept of "making your guitar talk."

LPB-1
"An exact recreation of the original LPB-1 circuit, which ushered in the age of overdrive in 1968," says the EH website. A major claim, but not far from the truth. Back when guitarists started using higher-wattage amps to reach bigger crowds, but before there were hotter pickups to overdrive them or pedals to emulate that overdriven sound, the original LPB-1 (Linear Power Booster) allowed rockers to drive the front end of a Twin Reverb into distortion, even with single-coil pickups. The new version recreates the massive range of boost available in the original. It also revives that pedal's distinctive tone-not totally transparent but extremely warm and musical. There are many other clean boosts out there, but only one sounds like this.

Muff Overdrive
The EH Big Muff Fuzz is an archetype among fuzzes, the Little Big Muff and Muff Fuzz variations on the theme. The Muff Overdrive courts confusion by being neither a fuzz nor, to these ears, the standard definition of an overdrive, yet it offers elements of both. Like a good overdrive pedal, the Muff Overdrive cleans up nicely when you back the volume of your guitar down. That said, lots of other pedals give you a more natural-sounding overdrive than this one when you crank it up. Still, with a little experimentation, you'll discover what this pedal does well: adding some of that Muff Fuzz sound to an already overdriven amp. Setting a Fender Princeton to overdrive when my guitar volume was up, I could then kick in the Muff Fuzz for further distortion (à la the LPB-1) and some fuzz-like coloration. Backing off the guitar volume cleaned everything up - a limited but very cool effect.

Switchblade
This pedal revives one of the first external switching devices available to guitarists. Want to take advantages of the different channel inputs available in classic Twin Reverbs and Marshalls? Just run your axe into a Switchblade and avail yourself of route "A" (sent to one amp input) or "B" (sent to the other). Need to switch guitars quickly and quietly? Plug one instrument into "A" and the other into "B," then come out of the single Switchblade jack to the amp. You can change speaker cabinets, route pedals, or perform a multitude of other sonic manipulations with this simple pedal. Think for a minute and you'll find a use for it.

BACK IN THE LATE SIXTIES, when cigarettes were still being advertised on TV, the Chesterfield brand introduced a new line of smokes called 101s, which were 101 millimeters long. The whole marketing concept behind the brand was to poke fun at competitor Benson & Hedges, which had just introduced Benson & Hedges 100s, and the Chesterfield ads brilliantly skewered B&H's obsession with size by pointing out their cigarettes were "a silly millimeter longer" (which was sung to the tune of "La Bamba").

That old jingle came to mind when I first heard about Pedulla's Thunderbolt TB-5 19mm, the wider-necked version of the Thunderbolt TB-5. The 19mm reference comes from the string spacing at the bridge (19mm is approximately 3/4"). That makes the added width at the 22nd fret a bit more than Chesterfield's millimeter. To be exact: 6.35mm (approximately 1/4"). How much difference could a quarterinch make? You'd be surprised. Despite its bold moniker, the Thunderbolt is a bass of great subtlety, where seemingly small details can make a big sonic difference.

HEAVY NECKING
Pedulla's Thunderbolt basses are cousins of the company's Thunderbass line. They have a similar body shape, use the same active Bartolini soapbar pickups and TBT preamp, and also employ Pedulla's unique tone-shaping Thunderguts switch. Where the two diverge is at the neck: the Thunderbass is neck-through, whereas the Thunderbolt is bolt-on (Thunderbolt, get it?).

Pedulla sent the two Thunderbolt 5-string models for our tests, and the pair nicely showcased the strengths and aesthetic possibilities of these basses. Both were, of course, gorgeous- Pedulla is justifiably famous for the quality and beauty of its woods and finishes-and both played like butter and felt like old friends right out of the box, no adjustments needed.

The TB-5 (the one with the standard- sized neck) has a captivating AAA flame maple top finished in a rich "vintage cherry sunburst" and highlighted by the contrasting rosewood fingerboard and chrome hardware. Its wider sister is an ETB-5 19mm, with the "ET" standing for "Exotic Top," in this case, deep coffee-colored Bubinga wood. This bass also sports a coated maple fingerboard and gold hardware. Otherwise, the two were identical, with 34- inch-scale hard maple necks, soft maple backs, brass barrel bridges, identical Bartolini pickups and the four-knob control arrangement, and the same Thunderguts switch. Let's call them Skinny Red and Big Bubinga.

Being attracted to bright, shiny things, I started with Skinny Red. At just under ten pounds, it was hardly a featherweight, but was so well balanced and shaped that I barely noticed the load once it was strapped on. Also, the contour of the upper half of the body lets the bass slip into the ideal playing position, snug against the body but angled out enough for optimal access to the strings.

Each pickup is positioned in a carefully chosen spot, both for tone and comfort. When using the neck pickup as a thumb rest, my fingers fell into a naturally bright sweet spot about four inches from the bridge. There's also plenty of room between the pickup and the neck for slapping, and the comfortably wide string spacing was no doubt beneficial to my occasionally sloppy thumb.

But as happy as my right hand was, it had nothing on the left. Pedulla has one of the best-shaped necks in the business-thin but carefully contoured, it delivers both the ease and speed of a J-Bass neck, while also suggesting the solidity of a P-Bass. Playability can best be described as effortless, whether you're playing low and funky or high and melodic.

Being so pleased with Skinny Red, I didn't give much thought to Big Bubinga, until I decided to take Red to a rehearsal while using Bubinga for the gig. It turned out to make for a telling comparison. For one tune, I was asked to cover a cello part, which meant working between the 8th and 18th fret while trying to create the illusion of smooth legato phrasing without a bow.

Things worked well enough with Skinny Red, although the part sounded a little, well, thin. On the gig with Big Bubinga, by contrast, what had initially seemed a chore suddenly became a pleasure. Thanks to the extra distance between strings, I had more room to play with vibrato, while the maple fingerboard added enough edge to the tone to make the sustain seem more expressive and less guitar-like than before. It wasn't quite like playing arco, but it was plenty close.

It isn't just the string spacing that makes Big Bubinga so comfortable in the upper register. Pedulla uses a different fingerboard radius for standard five-strings like Skinny Red and for 19mm five-strings like Big Bubinga (a 12-inch radius for the former, a 15-inch for the latter). What that means in practical terms is that Big Bubinga's fingerboard is slightly flatter. Combined with the additional width, it improved my left-hand positioning, and made it easier to focus on controlling the strings.

It was a fairly subtle improvement, but Pedulla has a flair for subtlety. Take, for example, what the electronics and pickups do with the tone. Both basses have an inherently warm, midrange-y sound, with crisply defined and clearly present highs, and a tight, punchy low end. With the Thunderguts switch on, the mids and upper lows take on added weight and richness, as if you'd just gone from chocolate to chocolate fudge. And with the well-voiced, simple, and powerful Bartolini TBT bass and treble cut/boost controls, it's easy to fine-tune and reshape either instrument's sound to suit just about any situation.

But the controls are just the beginning. Because the active circuitry and Bartolini pickups are exceptionally transparent, they don't add color so much as amplify the basic characteristics of the Thunderbolts' sound, and where that really pays off is in your right hand. If you tend to use a variety of picking techniques, or even just greatly vary the intensity and dynamics of your attack, these basses have an uncanny way of enhancing such nuances that makes those subtle shadings seem even more remarkable and vivid.

And it only gets better the louder you play (unlike some basses that turn to mush at high volume). Both Thunderbolts sounded great at moderate volume through my Gallien-Krueger 400RB-IV and 210; on my test gigs, Skinny Red showed a few more teeth with a bit more growl, while Big Bubinga's sustain and warmth were wonderfully consistent in all registers. Big Bubinga's maple fingerboard made it a bit better for slapping, with plenty of clank-free bite, while Skinny Red sounded more at home in fingerstyle situations. And when I played both basses through a cranked G-K 800RB with a SWR Goliath III 4x10, the difference was like seeing a movie on DVD or seeing it in the theater: The story stayed the same, but the delivery offered more attentiongrabbing presence and detail, with obviously greater impact.

THE BOTTOM LINE
With a list price of over three grand, neither version of the Thunderbolt is cheap, but even so, Pedulla definitely delivers value. In addition to looks that will leave your bandmates drooling, these basses are clearly designed and built with a craftsman's sense of pride, and painstaking, unsurpassed attention to detail. And while they have plenty of power, their real strength is their ability to convey a wide range of shading and nuance, which is evident when playing quietly or solo- and also when blasting at high volume. And if you spend a lot of time high up on the neck, or you're a wild-ass slapper, definitely go for the 19mm option. There's nothing silly about a few extra millimeters

Active pickups have a specially tuned preamp built into each one of them that influences the pickup’s EQ, response and output. This preamp makes it possible for the pickups to consistently generate layers of overtones that most passive pickups cannot, especially in conjunction with high gain and distortion. On the flipside, these preamps generally inject a flavor outside of the guitar’s natural sound, often referred to as cold or one-dimensional.

This has left many players to speculate on what tones might be possible from active pickups if they were to also inhere the lifelike beauty delivered by time-honored passive designs. Seymour Duncan handily answers this question with its new Blackout active pickups. Through clever concepts, Duncan’s Blackouts are roughly the sonic equivalent of typical active pickups driven by a warm tube overdrive.

FEATURES
An industry-standard black epoxy casing hides the Blackouts’ bar-style magnets, which are wide enough to support either vintage or Floyd-bridge string spacing needs. If you’re already using active pickups with a three-pin connect system, it won’t take more than a few minutes to light a fire into the Blackouts. On the underside of each pickup, you’ll see the same three-pin, plug-and-play-style system. Should you prefer a typical installation, standard wires are also included. What aren’t visibly apparent are the groundbreaking balanced inputs that feed the differential preamp. This novel inclusion of audio technology results in far greater dynamics and a 12-to-14db reduction in noise compared to other active pickup designs.

PERFORMANCE
Active pickups are often cited for imparting their own frequency curve, thereby obscuring a guitar’s natural tone. The Blackouts, however, seem to supercharge the instrument’s tonal quality, imbuing it with a particularly aggressive midrange that sounded not at all unnatural. Neither sweet nor delicate, these ill-mannered heathens belch raw midrange blasts with all the grace of a gassy Tasmanian devil and scream with much the same animalistic emotion and toothy bite. Depending upon the amp I used, the pickups’ output sometimes required lower gain settings and a change in the amp’s EQ settings to achieve the best tones. Still, their sound was always woody, warm and intensely organic.

THE BOTTOM LINE
Seymour Duncan’s Blackouts have an exciting and natural sound, qualities I would have never expected to find in active pickups. Chief among their attributes are an explosive midrange charge, searing harmonic grind and an earthy foundation that belie their active nature.

Boosting a guitar's signal is easy, but it takes a sophisticated device to do it without adding distortion or affecting tone and response. One of the few pedals to actually achieve this is the hand-built Katana Clean Boost, from Keeley Electronics.

The secrets to the Katana's practically limitless headroom are audiophile-grade components and a specially designed I.C. known as a charge pump. This muscular circuit doubles the nine-volt input voltage to 18-volts before a set of FET transistors smoothly amplifies the sound.

The Class A Katana has a single side-mounted push-pull pot that lets users adjust the amount of boost with their foot. Pushing in the pot places the pedal in Pure Clean mode, where you get a healthy dose of clean boost. Pulling it out puts the Katana in High Gain mode, giving your tone a little tube grit just this side of overdriven.

Tested through a host of amps, the Katana was supremely transparent, offering everything from mild lift to radical boost while it maintained the precise nuances of my attack. It's like getting more from your amp without maxing out your gain. No wonder the Katana has found a place in the pedal boards of Z.Z. Top's Billy Gibbons and Anthrax's Dan Spitz, among many others.

MIKE PALERMO IS A CANADIAN guitarist and music store proprietor who once had a serious problem. After trying every distortion on the market, he couldn't find a box that fulfilled his twisted need for bombastic tone. His solution was simple and effective. Mike fashioned a steel casing to resemble a WWII landmine, stuffed it full of explosive circuitry and started placing his pedals in places where important people would step on them. Nice guy, huh? Needless to say, the hand-built distortion box has blown away everyone who has hit its switch.

The olive-drab-green Landmine is completely analog and has controls for level, low, mid and high adjustment, plus amp and mixer outputs that can be used simultaneously. All lettering is appropriately painted with a military-style stencil. Through clean Fender and Victoria amps, the Landmine produced crushing low-end, ass-kicking midrange report and fiery top end attack. But it was the distinct and offsetting textures of tubelike distortion and chainsaw fuzz that really tweaked my ear. Palermo has succeeded where many have failed before him, magnificently blending two dissimilar distortion types into one righteous high-gain ordinance.

If you're looking for a boutique overdrive that can introduce wicked tone in your arsenal, by all means, step on the Landmine and prepare to be destroyed.

Seymour Duncan is one of the oldest and best-known names in pickup design and manufacturing, but the company is relatively new to the crowded pedal market. I guess the old adage “Better late than never” is applicable here, because the Seymour Duncan SFX-03 Twin Tube Classic is a little master-piece of tube tone.

FEATURES
The Twin Tube Classic has Rhythm and Lead channels built around a pair of micro 6021 tubes, which were originally devel-oped for use in military devices. The quality of their performance is outstanding, and because the tubes aren’t sensitive to vibrations or jarring, they should last the lifetime of the pedal.

Although most other tube-powered pedals run 12AX7 preamp tubes at low voltages, Seymour Duncan cooks these little wonders with a hot 240 volts. The resulting tone is smooth, warm and thick, like a great tube amp cranked to 10 (or 11). Basic features for this well-built, heavy-duty pedal include global bass and treble controls and individual volume and gain controls for the rhythm and lead channels. The pedal is true bypass when switched off and comes with the necessary AC power adaptor.

PERFORMANCE
I tested the Duncan TT Classic with a Les Paul Custom, a vintage Charvel and a Fender Vibro-King. Playing just one chord through the Duncan’s Rhythm channel brought a big smile to my face. The tone was old-school, with the midrange bloom of a “Plexi” on 5 and the warm crunch of a pushed Bassman quarter stack.

Switching over to the Lead channel made things even better. The high-gain tones here were sweet, rich and extremely organic (think Duane Allman at Fillmore East). The fact that all this comes from a single pedal makes it all the more impressive.

THE BOTTOM LINE
The Twin Tube Classic produces beau-tifully thick and juicy output tube–style distortion, and its two channels provide everything players of classic rock, metal and blues could want.

SOME OF THE MOST interesting new sounds to come from the minds at Marshall are encapsulated in these three new digital stomp boxes: the RF-1 Reflector reverb, the EH-1 Echohead delay and the RG-1 Regenerator modulation

pedals. Having long ago established itself as a leader in amp design and manufacture, Jim Marshall and company have set their sights on building a line of effect pedals that deliver boutique tone at affordable prices. To that end, the Reflector, Echohead and Regenerator have features and tone that make them useful and welcome additions to the effect pedal market.

Each of these hefty beauties is built like a miniature tank and features top-quality polished jacks and tough switches that deliver a solid "click." Each pedal has six mdoes, dual output jacks, mono and stereo operation, passive bypass circuitry and a spillover circuit that prevents the effect "tail" from cutting off abruptly when the pedal is switched off. If I have one quibble, it's with the nine-volt battery compartment: in this age of easy access and advanced ergonomics, it's unfortunate that a screwdriver or coin is still required to open the boxes' battery doors.

RG-1 REGENERATOR

PEDAL MANUFACTURERS COMPETE to create the most dramatic and deranged modulation effects, but not all players want their sound to be dominated by vertigo-inducing sonic mayhem. This is what makes Marshall's Regenerator unique. The tones in its six modes-Vintage Chorus, Multi-Chorus, Vintage Flanger, Phaser, Step Phaser and Vintage Vibe-are reserved at all but the most extreme settings. The pedal has controls for speed, depth and regen and an expression pedal input.

I particularly enjoyed the Vintage Chorus mode, which recalled the warmth and thick sparkle of the benchmark Boss CE-2 pedal. I was also intrigued and somewhat amused by the Step Phaser's bubbling and sometimes abrupt "crystal staircase" effect. Overall, though, Vintage Vibe was my favorite mode, with its combination of chorusing with a soft rotary-speaker pulse.

RF-1 REFLECTOR

THE REFLECTOR'S REVERB effects are on par with some of the better rack units. The pedal has six reverbs on tap: Hall, Plate, Room, two Spring simulations and a wildly unique Reverse mode. The unit's time and level controls are standard fare, while the damping control lets you govern the amount of reflected high frequencies to produce everything from vibrant and sparkling ambience to creamy dark reverbs. An expression pedal input provides control over the decay time, a performance feature that let me sculpt dramatic ambient waves.

Tonally, the Reflector's simulations were comparable to my Victoria combo's tube-driven reverb unit, arguably the finest reverb of its type. The Reflector demonstrated an accurate decay that did not color the amp's tone. I especially enjoyed Reverse mode, in which the Reflector produced an alien amalgam of note rejection and regurgitated reverb that sounded as if the amp was throwing each sound back at me.

EH-1 ECHOHEAD

WHEN GUITARISTS USE the word "echo" to describe a delay effect, they're usually referring to a softer and more natural repeat, like those produced by a tape-driven delay unit. It's therefore appropriate that Marshall has dubbed this pedal the Echohead, because its delay tones are uniquely soft and lacking harsh digital edges, without affecting the accuracy of each repeat. Its has six modes-Hi-Fi, Analogue, Tape Echo, Multi-Tap, Reverse and Mod Filter-and controls for delay time, feedback and level. For players that are skilled enough to set a tap tempo, the Echohead's 1/4-inch foot pedal jack is compatible with most momentary switches.

Unlike so many other digital delay pedals, the Echohead's repeats seemed to meld organically with my existing tone, rather than force me to compensate for a loss of highs or unnatural sustain. The Hi-Fi mode produced a clear and colorless delay that was suitable for any application, but the Tape Echo setting was the most fun for me. Its relaxed repeats and pillowy bass response gave my Strat a calm and sweet demeanor that was great with fine blues and jazz tones.

THE BOTTOM LINE

MARSHALL'S NEW TRIO of six-mode pedals create truly fresh sounds. The EH-1 Echohead's digital delays can be particularly delicate, the RG-1 Regenerator's modulation tones are friendly rather than obnoxious, and the RF-1 Reflector produces the most realistic reverb I've heard yet from a pedal.

THROUGHOUT THE EIGHTIES, most guitarists considered wah pedals a joke, the kind of thing you'd only use if you were recording a porno soundtrack or chase scene music for a budget action flick. Then Guns N' Roses scored a Number 1 hit with "Sweet Child O' Mine," which features a blistering wah guitar solo by Slash. Suddenly, hard rock and metal players began to take the humble wah-wah more seriously once again.

FEATURES
DUNLOP'S NEW CRY BABY SW-95 Slash wah tips the ol' top hat to Slash's role in the wah pedal revival. The Slash wah is no ordinary Cry Baby. It features a high-gain distortion circuit and a classic Fasel inductor, just like Slash's own custom-built wah pedal. It also has an easy-access top-loading battery compartment on top of the rocker pedal and a Slash-approved metallic-red paint job.

The Slash wah operates just like a traditional wah pedal-just click the effect on by pushing down on the toe of the rocker pedal (blue LEDs on both sides of the pedal will light up), and wah away to your heart's content. To kick in the distortion circuit, push in the red mushroom-shaped knob on the right side of the pedal near the heel. Red LED indicators will start to glow, and you can adjust gain and volume with the knobs on the right side of the pedal.

PERFORMANCE
THANKS TO THE FASEL inductor, the Slash wah delivers an expressive, vocalike midrange that's thick and creamy. The distortion circuit is placed in front of the wah, which delivers a wider range of wah tone than if it were placed after it. Note that the volume drops dramatically at the full "heel down" position with the distortion engaged-this phenomenon always occurs when you place a distortion in front of a wah and is not unique to the Slash pedal. Also, the distortion does not work separately; you can turn it on only when the wah is also on.

THE BOTTOM LINE
TONALLY, THIS IS ONE of the most expressive wahs around, with a midrange sweet spot that can really make your guitar talk. Hats off to Slash for designing a wah pedal that's as classic as his riffs.

VINTAGE TUBE FENDER Princeton and Princeton Reverb combos are the stuff of studio legend. These low-watters were intended as upscale practice amps for guitarists who thought the Fender Champ too basic, but they found their way into studios because they sounded big and loud, at levels recording engineers could live with.

The Princeton name eventually got co-opted for a line of solid-state amps that were designed to be portable and affordable. With the new Princeton Recording-Amp, Fender has not only returned the amp to its tube origins but also enhanced its feature set for studio use.

FEATURES
SPORTING MINIMAL CONTROLS and a tube-driven spring reverb, the Princeton Recording-Amp uses a pair of 6V6 power section to push 20 watts of tube tone from its 10-inch Jensen C-10R speaker. If this were the end of the story, the Princeton would be a straightforward vintage-style tube combo.

But the new Princeton has modern features, too, including a built-in compressor, an overdrive circuit, the D.I. recording outputs (which have speaker emulation), and the Trans-Impedance Power Attenuator, which lets the power section churn out gain-heavy tone at low volumes. There is even an effect loop, which was lacking on the original vintage hardware.

The combo's front panel controls are divided into two sections. The top panel has traditional controls-volume, treble, bass and reverb level-and inputs 1 and 2, for guitars with standard and hot pickups, respectively. The lower control panel gives you command over the Princeton's compressor, overdrive and Trans-Impedance Power Attenuator circuits (more on this last item below). The compressor has an on switch and controls for sensitivity and level; the overdrive has an on switch and controls for overdrive, tone and level. Both are effective additions: the former adds sustain and drive and lets you dial up a countrified tone, while the latter reminds me a bit of a Tube Screamer, adding edge and grit without getting too fuzzy. Each section can be activated by the included footswitch, as can the reverb and effect loop.

The rear panel features speaker and headphone outputs, an XLR line output with a level control and ground lift, effect loop connections and a multipin jack for the included footswitch. The effect loop is especially welcome because it gives you the option of using processors like delay post gain, something preferred by most modern players.

TRANS-IMPEDANCE POWER ATTENUATOR
THIS IS EASILY the Princeton's coolest feature, allowing you to create huge sounds while maintaining low output volumes. It couldn't be easier to employ: use the amp's volume control to dial up progressive amounts of whole-amp gain, ranging from clean sounds to smoking blues tones; then, use the attenuator's oversized knob to set the amp's output level.

With vintage nonmaster-volume amps like the original Princeton, you still have to move some air to get the power tubes to sing, and while this may be fine in a recording studio, it's usually too loud for recording in an apartment. The power attenuator circuit is the solution to the latter problem and makes the Princeton sound much creamier than a typical master-volume amp, which relies on preamp overdrive and doesn't saturate the power tubes at lower volumes. Here, the preamp and power section work together to create thick tone syrup, sculpted by the tone controls.

PERFORMANCE
THOUGH IT'S CAPABLE of a range of tones, the Princeton Recording-Amp is not designed to cram the sound of every amp ever made within its compact frame. It has an identity of its own.J

In action, the Princeton did more than impress: it inspired, too. Free from the complexity of a modern amp's control panel, I just dialed in a baseline tone, plugged in my Tele and started wailing. The amp was plenty loud enough to compete with bass and drums. My favorite setting was with the volume up a little less than full; from there, I used the Tele's volume knob to go from clean to nasty, adding a little grit with the treble knob. The compressor and overdrive are both worthy additions, but the amp's pure tone was a blast without them.

THE BOTTOM LINE
LIKE A TASTEFULLY updated vintage Porsche, the Princeton Recording-Amp marries what's great about the old days with the utility of the modern age. The result is great tone that is accessible equally onstage and in the studio.