Musik Indonesia

August 26, 1990 - East Troy, Wisconsin

Stevie Ray Vaughan was right where he wanted to be as midnight approached on August 26, 1990. Earlier that evening, he had closed out a triumphant summer tour with Double Trouble, opening for Eric Clapton, one of his heroes, in front of a sold-out crowd of 30,000 at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre, just outside of East Troy, Wisconsin. Now, as Clapton’s show was drawing to a close, the guitarist called Vaughan back out for a final encore performance of the blues standard “Sweet Home Chicago.” Joining them onstage was the night’s first performer, Robert Cray, along with two more of SRV’s heroes: Buddy Guy and big brother Jimmie Vaughan.

Stevie Ray was all smiles as the five guitarists took turns soloing throughout the lengthy jam. Almost four years after cleaning up and leaving alcohol behind, the Texas guitarist was on top of his game. Family Style, his new album with Jimmie, was in the can, due to be released in another month. The feuds that had separated the brothers were long buried.

The show was the second of a two-night stand, and Stevie’s playing was, by all accounts, fiery and fresh. With his favorite guitarists surrounding him, it must have felt to him like the exclamation point on a fantastically productive and happy period of his musical life.

“Those shows were just great fun, really exciting,” recalls bassist Tommy Shannon. “They were sort of the culmination of all the good times we’d been having for the last year or two. And as good as we had been playing, those two shows were just unreal.”

Adds Jimmie Vaughan, “Stevie just smoked. It was one of those gigs where you see someone play and you can’t believe what you’re hearing. Stevie was unreal. He was just on another plane, and we all knew it.”

When the final jam finished to an ecstatic roar at about 12:15 A.M., the musicians left the stage through a rear exit. Backstage, Clapton and Vaughan reportedly talked about paying tribute to Jimi Hendrix with some future gigs. Stevie, 35, was supposed to drive back to Chicago with Jimmie and Jimmie’s wife, Connie, but then he heard that he could hop onto one of Clapton’s four waiting helicopters. He initially thought all three of them could hitch this ride. When he learned that there was only one spot, he asked Jimmie and Connie if they minded if he grabbed it. “I really want to get back,” he explained.

The Bell 206 B helicopter took off in fog around 12:40 A.M. with Vaughan and four others aboard and almost immediately slammed into the middle of a nearby man-made ski slope, killing all aboard. They were just over half a mile from the venue but no one heard the crash, and a search for the wreckage wasn’t begun until 5 A.M. At around 7, searchers found the bodies of Vaughan, pilot Jeff Brown and three of Clapton’s associates. “I was woken up by a phone call from our tour manager saying that we had to have a meeting in my room right away,” Shannon recalls. “A few minutes later I got a call from our manager, saying that one of the helicopters had gone down, Stevie was on it, and there were no survivors. In the blink of any eye my life was taken away from me.” Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton got the news from Shannon. Says Shannon, “I was sitting on the bed crying, and Chris came into my room, asking what was going on. I said, ‘Stevie’s dead,’ and he just lost it, too.”

Adds Layton, “I was in denial and didn’t believe it at all, so I called security and forced them to let me into Stevie’s room. I really thought he’d be laying there sleeping, but when they opened the door, the bed was still made, the pillow turned down, with mints laying on it, and I just realized, My God, it’s true.

“I felt like a baby, just completely helpless. Then we realized that the news reports said that Stevie and his band were killed, and I realized that I had to get a hold of family and tell them that I’m still alive.”

Clapton and Jimmie Vaughan were called and asked to identify the bodies. Over 1,500 people attended SRV’s memorial service in Dallas. He is buried at Laurel Land Memorial Park in South Dallas.

Fresh off of their west coast run with Metallica and upcoming visits to Finland, UK, Ireland, Australia, Japan, and Indonesia, Lamb of God have teamed up with No Fear Energy for the North American tour in support of their fifth studio album, Wrath, which will be released by Epic Records on February 24th. The tour commences in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 2nd, and covers 35 markets in the U.S. and Canada, ending in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, May 15th.

Tickets and more information are available at livenation.com and NoFear.com. Check local listings for additional information.

Lamb of God has put together one of the strongest bills to come out of the metal community in recent times. As I Lay Dying and Children of Bodom are the main support acts on the tour, with the opening slot rotating between God Forbid and Municipal Waste. Lamb of God drummer, Chris Adler, commented “I cannot wait to begin the first North American run of the ‘Wrath’ world tour. The package we have lined up is guaranteed to leave sore necks and broken eardrums across the country. If you are into metal, there is something here for everyone, this is not a tour to miss. We are working up one hell of a show and can't wait to play the new material. See you there!“

The dates for the No Fear Energy Music Tour are:

April 2, 2009 – Dodge Theater – Phoenix, AZ
April 3, 2009 – Palladium – Los Angeles, CA
April 4, 2009 – Events Center – San Jose, CA
April 5, 2009 – Crest Theater – Fresno, CA
April 7, 2009 – Paramount – Seattle, WA
April 8, 2009 – UBC Thunderbird Arena – Vancouver, BC
April 10, 2009 – Shaw Conference Center – Edmonton, AB
April 11, 2009 – The Coral – Calgary, AB
April 12, 2009 – Praireeland – Saskatoon, SK
April 13, 2009 – Convention Centre – Winnipeg, MB
April 14, 2009 – City Auditorium – Thunder Bay, ON
April 16, 2009 – Ricoh Coliseum – Toronto, ON
April 17, 2009 – Cepsum – Montreal, QC
April 18, 2009 – Palladium – Worcester, MA
April 19, 2009 – Electric Factory – Philadelphia, PA
April 21, 2009 – LC Pavillion – Columbus, OH
April 22, 2009 – Tabernacle – Atlanta, GA
April 23, 2009 – Blackham Coliseum – Lafayette, LA
April 24, 2009 – Verizon Theatre – Houston, TX
April 25, 2009 – Concrete St. Ampthitheatre – Corpus Christi, TX
April 26, 2009 – Palladium Ballroom – Dallas, TX
April 28, 2009 – Fillmore – Denver, CO
April 29, 2009 – Uptown Theater – Kansas City, KS
April 30, 2009 – Myth – St. Paul, MN
May 1, 2009 – Congress Theater – Chicago, IL
May 2, 2009 – The Pageant – St. Louis, MO
May 3, 2009 – Egyptian – Indianapolis, IN
May 5, 2009 – Expo Five – Louisville, KY
May 6, 2009 – Fillmore Theater – Detroit, MI
May 8, 2009 – Roseland Ballroom – New York, NY
May 9, 2009 – Convention Center – Asbury Park, NJ
May 11, 2009 – Rams Head Live – Baltimore, MD
May 12, 2009 – House of Blues – Boston, MA
May 13, 2009 – Washington St. Armory – Albany, NY
May 14, 2009 – TBD
May 15, 2009 – House of Blues – Myrtle Beach, SC

Kali ini kita akan membahas salah satu produk gitar klasik dari pabrikan Cort. Cort ACC15F begitulah nama gitar yang merupakan varian produk dari salah satu gitar Cort seri AC15. Pada prinsipnya, baik ACC15F maupun AC15 memiliki spesifikasi yang kira-kira 80% sama. Perbedaan kedua gitar serupa tapi tak sama ini hanya terletak pada keberadaan 'cutaway' dan keberadaan 'Fishman EQ' saja. Karena ACC15F memiliki fitur yang lebih banyak, maka akan lebih baik jika kita bahas ACC15F saja pada kali ini. Karena dengan membahas ACC15F, secara tidak langsung kita juga membahas AC15 juga.

PENAMPILAN
Warna gitar apa yang membuat anda jatuh cinta dengan gitar klasik nylon? Hampir seluruh gitaris pasti menyukai warna natural sebagai warna gitar klasik mereka. Mungkin karena itu pula Cort mendesain seri ini dengan warna demikian. Untuk bagian permukaan body, Cort ACC15F cukup menonjolkan garis-garis seratnya yang membuat tampak permukaannya menjadi lebih berkelas. Binding simpel dengan warna yang masih seragam dengan sisi samping body memberi kesan eleganm. Cutaway pada body diberikan agar mudah mencapai fret 12 keatas.

Salah satu sisi menarik dari penampilan gitar ini terletak pada garis yang berada di belakang body-nya. Bagi saya keberadaan garis ini membuat penampilan gitar ini menjadi lebih sexy. Ibarat garis tulang punggung tubuh wanita yang sering kita lihat di karya-karya fotografi ;)

HARDWARE
'Slotted' tuning machine gitar ini berwarna cokelat, meski bukan terbuat dari besi, namun dengan kualitasnya yang baik memudahkan kita dalam melakukan penyeteman senar karena putarannya lembut.

Untuk memfasilitasi keinginan anda untuk bermain menggunakan ampli, Cort membubuhkan Fishman Classic 4 pada side body-nya. Anda bisa mengatur bass, middle, treble, dan briliance pada graphic equalizer-nya. Biasanya saya mengatur agar besarnya bass berada diatas middle dan treble karena faktor selera.

SCALE
Seri AC memang didesain dengan dimensi yang sama dengan gitar akustik nylon pada umumnya. Lebar nut 52mm dengan scale 650mm tidak berbeda dengan gitar akustik nylon yang ada di pasaran sehingga anda tidak perlu menyesuaikan diri dengan playability gitar ini.

Jarak ketinggian senar juga diukur dengan teliti. Menurut saya action (ketinggian senar dari fretboard) gitar ini sangat pas, tidak terlalu rendah dan juga tidak terlalu tinggi.

SOUND
Gitar ini memiliki desain dan karakter suara yang sesuai dengan karakteristik penampilan fisiknya, berkelas dan elegan. Suaranya berada di wilayah midd dan tidak boomy sehingga intonasi suara mulai dari senar 1 hingga 6 memiliki tingkat kenyaringan yang merata dan tidak ada yang saling mendominasi satu sama lain terutama saat dimainkan tanpa menggunakan amplifier. Body bagian atas terbuat dari kayu cedar sedangkan sisi samping dan belakangnya menggunakan kayu rosewood. Untuk bagian neck menggunakan kayu mahogany yang pada sisi belakangnya difinish tidak se-glossy bagian body sehingga membuat permukaannya menjadi tidak terlalu keset dan mempermudah kita dalam moving / pergerakan telapak tangan dan jempol saat berpindah fret.

Selanjutnya kami mencoba memainkan gitar ini dengan menggunakan ampli combo Cora GM60C. Dengan Fishman Classic 4 suara yang dihasilkan cukup bisa mewakili tone aslinya saat tidak menggunakan ampli. Tidak terlalu treble, tidak terlalu bass, masih tetap berada di kawasan midd. Aman bagi anda yang suka bermain-main dengan berbagai jenis settingan equalizer.

KESIMPULAN
Gitar ini sangat dianjurkan bagi anda yang sedang mencari gitar klasik nylon berkualitas baik dengan harga yang tidak terlalu mahal. Melihat fasilitas, kualitas, dan daya tarik yang dimiliki gitar ini, harga kisaran Rp. 2.200.000,- tampaknya cukup pantas untuk anda keluarkan untuk mendapatkan gitar klasik paling sexy ini.

Jika menyebut 10 band lokal Jogja yang wajib anda miliki albumnya, kami yakin nama Bagaikan pasti merupakan salah satu diantaranya. Bahkan mungkin jika harus menyebutkan 5 saja, kami percaya jika band yang telah berusia 8 tahun ini merupakan salah satu nama dalam daftar tersebut. Setelah menelurkan album perdana 4 tahun silam, para personel Bagaikan meyakini bahwa kualitas yang mereka sajikan di album Refresh ini jauh mengalami peningkatan.

Bagaikan yang kini dihuni oleh 6 personel merilis album dengan konten 11 lagu. Saya mencatat setidaknya album ini memiliki 4 lagu yang pantas jadi jagoan. Seluruh lirik lagu dibuat tanpa rekayasa dan penuh kejujuran. Tema yang diangkat seperti curahan hati seseorang yang mengingat kembali siapa penciptanya, perasaan seseorang yang lelah menjalani kehidupan dengan penuh dengan dosa, bahkan tema mengenai kerusakan hutan yang melanda dunia. Contohnya bisa kita simak di lagu Tak Ada Yang Sempurna, Kehendaknya, Malaikatku, Nurani, dan Selamatkan Dunia. Sebelas lagu dalam album ini memiliki tema lirik, alur, dan isi yang bisa dibilang sempurna dengan keberagaman ide dalam memilihnya. Cara menyajikannya pun cukup lugas dan tidak terlalu puitis.

Tanda bahwa mereka sebuah band yang lahir dan besar di kota Yogya pun ditunjukkan dengan sebuah lagu dwilingual yang sukses besar memadukan dua bahasa Indonesia dan Jawa, dengan mengundang seorang rapper yang berduet dengan Heldy sang vocalis (satu-satunya personel asli yang tersisa sejak awal band ini berdiri) dalam lagu Yo Wes Yo Band Yo.

Musik yang ditampilkan seperti memiliki perpaduan dari berbagai unsur seperti techno, rock, dan metal. Musik dalam album ini masih memiliki benang merah dengan band-band nu metal angkatan tahun 2000 awal yang banyak memainkan drive dengan level menengah keatas dengan beat seperti musik hip hop dan funk rock tanpa solo gitar yang bersliweran. Komposisi dan aransemennya pun dibuat dengan matang. Terlihat sekali bahwa band ini memiliki banyak referensi dan ide dari 6 kepala yang memiliki sarapan musik sehari-hari yang cukup berbeda.

Langkah yang cukup membuat orang tercengang lagi-lagi dilakukan oleh Prisa. Setelah sempat menyatakan ingin memperkenalkan Vendetta, band metal yang ia bentuk bersama teman-teman wanitanya, di saat yang bersamaan ia pun bergabung dengan band metal legendaris Indonesia, Tengkorak.

Setidaknya hal itu dapat kita lihat di situs MySpace milik Tengkorak. Band yang mulai eksis sejak pertengahan tahun 90-an ini sebelumnya sempat digosipkan hampir bubar. Namun justru hal sebaliknya yang terjadi. Jangankan bubar, mereka malah menambah amunisi baru dengan merekrut Prisa yang telah merilis album solo dan dikenal luas oleh masyarakat. Apakah Prisa betul-betul berniat mengangkat musik metal Indonesia ke atas permukaan dengan bermain di 2 band metal yang berbeda era ini?

Come back ke dunia musik ternyata tak berarti Britney Spears siap menghadapi gemerlap Hollywood. Buktinya meski mampu tampil lagi di panggung musik, ternyata ia malah memutuskan untuk menjauh dari Los Angeles dan mencari rumah di daerah yang lebih tenang.

Sebenarnya langkah ini sudah disiapkannya jauh-jauh hari sebelumnya. Sejak bulan Juni tahun lalu Britney sudah mulai mencari rumah dan pilihannya akhirnya jatuh pada sebuah rumah berharga US$8,9 juta di Calabasas, California. Kini Britney sedang memindahkan seluruh isi rumahnya ke tempat tinggal baru ini.

Setelah kabar tentang kemunculan band rock legendaris, U2, di acara BRIT Awards menyebar tanpa konfirmasi, akhirnya Senin (05/01) lalu, petinggi BRIT Awards memberi konfirmasi bahwa mereka benar-benar akan muncul di sana.

Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, dan Larry Mullen, JrGet On Your Boots. akan manggung di Earls Court London pada 18 Februari mendatang untuk menyanyikan single terbaru mereka,

The Pet Shop Boys juga akan manggung setelah menerima Outstanding Contribution to Music Award mereka.

Ged Doherty, ketua komite BRIT, berkata, "Kami merasa tersanjung bisa mengonfirmasi bahwa U2 telah memilih BRIT untuk melakukan aksi panggung pertama mereka di TV global untuk album terbaru mereka. Dengan masuknya mereka ke jajaran artis dalam pertunjukan tahun ini membuatnya menjadi pertunjukan terbaik kami."

Memang lelaki kadang dianggap tabu untuk menangis, namun Will Smith tak mau menahan air mata saat melihat Barack Obama terpilih menjadi presiden Amerika. Aktor yang pernah dua kali dinominasikan meraih Piala Oscar itu mengaku menangis saat Obama dinobatkan sebagai presiden negara adi kuasa itu November tahun lalu. Itu yang diungkapkan Smith hari Selasa (13/01) kemarin saat berkunjung ke Spanyol.

"Ketika ia menang saya menagis tersedu, sehingga putri saya mengira ada yang sesuatu yang buruk telah terjadi," kata bintang berusia 40 tahun itu, dalam jumpa pers di Madrid untuk mempromosikan film terakhirnya SEVEN POUNDS, sebagaimana dilaporkan AFP.

"Kemenangan Obama merupakan prestasi tak hanya buat Amerika Serikat, tetapi juga seluruh umat manusia," imbuhnya.

Smith, yang telah membintangi beberapa film laris Hollywood, antara lain MEN IN BLACK dan INDEPENDENCE DAY, terpilih sebagai aktor yang paling banyak menghasilkan uang bagi bioskop-bioskop AS pada 2008 dalam survei tahunan Quigley Publishing yang dirilis pekan lalu.

Ia salah satu dari hanya dua aktor kulit hitam yang terpilih dalam jajak pendapat itu setelah Sydney Portier, yang menduduki peringkat atas dalam polling tersebut pada 1968.

Smith dinominasikan sebagai Aktor Terbaik hajatan Oscar lewat penampilannya sebagai petinju Muhammad Ali pada 2001 dalam ALI dan sekali lagi pada 2006 untuk perannya dalam THE PURSUIT OF HEPPINESS, dimana ia melakoni peran sebagai Chris Gardner.

UNLESS YOU'VE BEEN shopping for pro-level P.A. systems or noisereduction devices, you may not be familiar with the ISP brand. But chances are you've already encountered the work of ISP's founder, James "Buck" Waller-the founder of Rocktron. After selling Rocktron to GHS, Buck and his brother Jon formed ISP, and the company debuted in 1999 with a line of powered sound reinforcement enclosures. ISP later entered the guitar market with its Theta guitar amps and Vector powered guitar cabs. Now, ISP has made its debut in the bass amplifi cation arena.

WHAT'S YOUR VECTOR, VICTOR?
Building upon the knowledge gained from the development of ISP's P.A. and guitar amplifi cation designs, Jon Waller's mission was to design a bass enclosure that could achieve a depth of tone comparable to their massive P.A. cabs. To maximize the Bass Vector's lowend extension, he chose large, 18-inch woofers, and to avoid the dynamic sluggishness and muddled midrange often associated with 18s, Jon opted to go with what might be considered a fairly low crossover point for a two-way cab (around 800Hz to 1kHz). To cover frequencies above the crossover point, he decided on a pair of wide-range 8-inch drivers instead of a more traditional tweeter. While the cabs are offi cially rated to 4kHz (± 3 dB), Jon says the 8s effectively reach up to about 10kHz.

The proof is always in the listening, and these cabs convey some of the most musical and compelling highs I've heard. My testing notebook is studded with such comments as "fantastic fi ngerstyle upper mids and highs" and "highs are just about perfect." Thanks to those 8s, the upper midrange and high end is butter-smooth, too, and not the least bit murky or muddy. Though not as sparkly as some tweeter-equipped cabs, the Vectors can still cop a bright modern tone, and offer plenty of top for all but the most zing-happy slappers. The 18s certainly get very low (ISP specs the cabs down to 39Hz, ± 3 dB), and they do so without sounding overly plump or wooly. And the tight and controlled nature of these cabs extends from the subterranean depths to the mids, and through the highs, as well.

The perceived low end varies a great deal depending on how the cab is placed, and there are several options: horizontally, vertically with casters, or vertically without casters. When using only one Vector, I prefer the cab standing on end (port down, 8s on top) without casters. But when using more than one cab, stacking them in their horizontal orientation is defi nitely the way to go. This allows all those 8s to form a pseudo line array, which aids in horizontal dispersion.

The primary difference between the Bass Vector and Bass Vector Pro (both cabs are powered 1x18/2x8 enclosures; both cabs are also available without internal amps) is in the choice of woofers and internal amp designs. The Bass Vector employs a 500-watt woofer, and the Pro's woofer is rated at 1,000 watts. The Pro's internal amplifi er is a higher-voltage design and delivers 1,000 watts into its 8-ohm driver. The Bass Vector can power another 8-ohm cab, while the Pro is intended to work solo.

ISP's D-Cat amplifier technology (co-designed and patented by Buck and Derek Bowers, a design engineer with Analog Devices) is worthy of its own review, but I will mention that its unique class-AB topology allows for extremely high current potential, which, according to Buck, improves transient response.

Regarding the tonal variances between the regular and Pro models, the Bass Vector has more of a warm low-mid voice, with a more punchy and aggressive midrange, while the Pro sounds more refi ned, controlled, and hi-fi . The two cabinets' perceived overall volume levels are comparable; the standard Vector has a more present mid emphasis, while the Pro steps forward with its deep, tight, and concussive lows.

Measuring 30" wide, 21.25" high, and 24" deep, and weighing in at 125 and 130 pounds, respectively, the Bass Vector and Bass Vector Pro are not for the timid. These are heavy-duty touring cabs, made from Baltic birch plywood with extensive bracing, and coated with durable rubberized polyurethane-just like many pro P.A. cabs. The construction is top-notch and beyond sturdy, and the overall design seems more utilitarian than fl ashy, with only the bright blue light near the center of the front baffl e to suggest that one is looking at something more extraordinary.

BETA PREAMP

With its understated appearance, the Beta Bass Processor preamp also seems intended to stealthily fl y under the radar, yet it's also loaded with surprises. For example, the clip LED is set up to trigger if you peak at any point in the signal chain-including the EQ section-which is a nice feature, especially when you don't have a means of monitoring the output signal. The shelving bass and treble controls are conventional enough, with a range of ± 15 dB, but the Mid1 and Mid2 controls provide boost and cut that to my ears sound asymmetrical, with boost seeming more audible than cut. These two parametric mid controls have overlapping ranges (60Hz-2kHz for Mid1, 200Hz-3kHz for Mid2), and each offers the choice of wide or narrow bandwidth (Q).

When boosting mids, I generally prefer a broad, fairly powerful control, and when I want to cut mids, it normally means I'm trying to notch out an offending frequency without mucking up the overall tone. With its selectable Q, the Beta can easily handle either situation. I found the Beta's Bright switch to be fairly subtle, yet it defi nitely helps the harmonics to ring out more clearly, so I usually prefer it engaged. The Exciter is rather unique, as well. According to Buck: "The Beta's Exciter employs a phase-shifted signal that is mixed back into the original, which not only enhances the upper harmonics, but also provides a subtle dynamic boost at the higher frequencies when it becomes phase-coherent."

There's no bypass switch for the Exciter on the front panel (though "zero" is effectively "off"), but you can engage a hard-wired bypass via use of the footswitch (which can also toggle the compressor on or off). The Decimator is fl at-out the best noise reduction product I've tried. Buck explains: "The Decimator employs time-vector processing, and is adaptive over a 1,000:1 range. It looks at the waveform coming in [both instantaneous and over time], compares this to the best time-constant fi t, and constantly adjusts the release characteristics. It's powerful [and consistent] enough to be used as a tone/note shaping tool, but when all you want to do is to dial out that annoying neon buzz between notes, it gets the job done, but remains virtually transparent in the process." (The Decimator circuitry is also offered in a pedal and standalone rackmount unit.)

The Beta preamp's compressor is impressive, too. Like the Decimator, the compression is also adaptive, and is exceptionally transparent. I heard no audible "pumping" or "breathing," though at the very highest settings, you might perceive some reduction in high-end sparkle. I normally eschew compression (I feel that most compressors have an audible impact on my tone), but now I'm quite content to leave the Beta's compressor set to kick in with some regularity.

The Beta's back panel features include an effects loop (with level control), a footswitch jack, unbalanced and balanced main outs, an XLR D.I. out (with level control), ground lift, and pre/post control. The power transformer is external to the chassis, sending a 9V signal to the preamp. The Beta's only obvious omissions are a mute switch and center detents on the appropriate controls. But Buck says they may incorporate both ideas in a future update.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The Bass Vector and Bass Vector Pro each offer incredible depth, dispersion, and detail in a tough and deceptively simple package. ISP's "stealth technology" defi nitely delivers the goods, and in a refreshingly new and different way. Yes, these cabs are big and heavy, but ISP hints that they have products in development for those of us who gig without the benefi t of a burly road crew. Bass players at all points on the spectrum can enjoy the unique benefi ts of the Beta Bass Processor.

Quite simply, this preamp offers an incredible amount of useful technology in a surprisingly affordable unit, and its paradigm-breaking feature set is both uniquely powerful and easy to use.

Dave Navarro is anything but unassuming. The guy's a rock star by vocation as well as by trade, so it's fitting that his signature acoustic-electric guitar is an instrument that makes a visual, as well as sonic, statement.

First the visual: The Dave Navarro Yamaha LLX6 DN is white in almost the same way that the cover of Spinal Tap's Smell the Glove was black, except that here, tasteful black accents-such as the headstock, fretboard, binding and even the finish inside the guitar-are there to put the blizzard of white into stark relief. But if anything, the contrast brings out the whiteness of the guitar's finish even more boldly. A dab of reflective color is provided by the pearloid tuning keys and a custom abalone headstock inlay of Dave's personal "Unicorn S" logo. Taken as a package, this dreadnought is extreme, bold and in your face. Onstage, it doesn't inspire as much as it demands attention. Clearly, this ax is for players who want to be seen.

And heard: Beneath the gloss are premium materials that give the guitar its commanding sound. These include maple sides and back, a solid Engelmann spruce top and a rosewood neck capped with a 25 1/2-inch-scale ebony fingerboard. Perhaps because of the finish, the Yamaha feels a little heavier than a typical dreadnought but is by no means uncomfortable to hold.

FEATURES

Sonically, the Navarro model has a full acoustic tone that leans to the bright side, with plenty of detail to cut through a typical rock mix. This dreadnought is loud, as well, easily filling a small room without the need for amplification. Single notes sing, sustain is long, and chords sound chimey and rich. All in all, it's a very musical combination.

But the Navarro is clearly designed to be plugged in and rocked hard. It boasts Yamaha's formidable System 45 electronics, a hybrid mic/piezo setup that includes a three-band EQ and a clever control arrangement. Most hybrids feature a blend control-usually a slide control-that sets the balance between the bridge-mounted piezo and the mic. Instead, the LLX6 has a volume control for the mic only, allowing you to mix in the condenser as desired. This is especially nice when playing onstage: it's much easier to grab and turn a knob than to fuss with a blend slider.

While this feature alone makes taming feedback simple-just grab the mic control and turn it down-the Navarro boasts several features designed to keep feedback to a minimum. The mic resides on an adjustable gooseneck, so you can move it around to adjust its tone and combat feedback that might be induced by the mic's position relative to the top. A phase switch helps to combat resonant feedback, and a notch filter, continuously variable from 80Hz to 10kHz, lets you pinpoint squealing frequencies and zap them to oblivion.

The EQ is effective at dialing in a range of tones, and you can mellow the LLX6's naturally bright character with some judicious tweaking. The guitar was effective in solo singer-songwriting settings (where its appearance earned comments from the audiences) as well as with a full band.

PERFORMANCE

If you like the kind of slick neck that's typically found on electric guitars, you'll be glad to know the Navarro model is of similar design. The neck is fast, with a low action; its overall feeling is of speed. The 14-inch radius is flat, but since the neck isn't too wide, every note is within easy reach. The guitar came out of its sturdy soft case very well set up, with good intonation, no buzzing, and low action. I found it a pleasure to play, and it can handle a wide range of styles. It would be even better with a cutaway.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Some signature guitars come across as just marketing gloss-stockroom stuff with a couple of decals tacked on. But Yamaha's Dave Navarro Yamaha LLX6 DN has a great mix of personality and functionality. Its powerful acoustic tone is enhanced by well-designed electronics, making it a winner onstage and in the studio. And no matter where you use it, you won't go unnoticed.

Originally printed in Guitar World, December 2006.

The 10 Strangest Vintage Effects of All Time.

It’s probably not a coincidence that effects such as wah pedals and fuzz boxes started appearing en masse about the same time that recreational drugs like marijuana and LSD became popular with rock musicians. Indeed, it would take the mind of an incredibly stoned individual—someone deprived of exposure to the sun’s rays, fed a diet of lukewarm Mountain Dew and stale frozen pizza and kept awake for days by snorting lines of Instant Maxwell House—to even conceive of the idea for some of the music industry’s many audio oddities.

In salute to effect innovators like Electro-Harmonix’s Mike Matthews and Zachary Vex of Z.Vex (both of whom may be as straight and unpolluted as an Iowa highway, for all we know), we present to you our selections for the strangest and most wonderful guitar effects ever unleashed upon the unsuspecting public. Plugging into one of the following effects is like discovering an ancient Mayan city of gold on the tip of your fingernail while your cat pontificates, in Lebanese, about Proust. Or whacking yourself in the head really hard with a sledgehammer.

To find out more about these pedals (and hear some audio examples), check out Discofreq’s FX Site (filters. muziq.be) or Tonefrenzy.com. If you’d like to take a crack at building your own, visit DIYstompboxes.com.

LUDWIG PHASE II SYNTHESIZER

What could possibly be weirder than a guitar synthesizer pedal made in the early Seventies by a drum company? Like many so-called guitar synthesizers from this era, the Ludwig Phase II is not a synth but actually several effects, including fuzz, voltage-controlled filters and gating, combined in a box that unfolds to reveal a rocker pedal, several oversized mushroom-shaped footswitches and a control panel placed at a height only Verne Troyer would find comfortable. With a little patient tweaking, the Phase II can produce the sound of anything from alien conversations to spaceship landings—the kind of weirdness that’s made it a favorite of Sonic Youth (Washing Machine), Primus’ Larry Lalonde (Pork Soda) and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready (Binaural).

AMPEG SCRAMBLER

Ampeg is best known for its big ’n’ beefy bass amps, but the company also attempted to exploit the pedal market in a few rare instances. Ampeg’s first effort, the Scrambler, bewildered even acid casualties upon its introduction in 1969, but today’s bizarro stomp box aficionados consider it the Holy Grail. Although these pedals are rarer than Paris Hilton’s brain cells, they were built to withstand nuclear war, so units that turn up are usually in fine working condition. Its two controls (texture and balance) generate a mutated rainbow of fuzz tones ranging from metallic ring modulation with buzzing octave-up overtones to the flatulence of a 400-pound chili cook-off judge.

DEARMOND TREMOLO CONTROL

Tremolo effects aren’t particularly strange, but this early Fifties contraption, the first mass-produced external effect device for the electric guitar, earns distinction for its primitive design and clunky aesthetics. (And it was manufactured in Toledo, Ohio—isn’t that weird?) Instead of employing components like transistors, resistors and diodes to generate its on/off effect, the Tremolo Control used a motor to rock a glass tube filled with mercury (the original heavy metal) back and forth across an electrical contact to open and close the circuit. Unfortunately, mercury deteriorates over time, but Windex makes a safe alternative (and it provides “clean” tone). This effect is a favorite of Billy Gibbons, Ry Cooder and Duane Eddy.

EMS SYNTHI HI-FLI

Another so-called guitar synthesizer from the Seventies, the EMS Synthi Hi-Fli was mounted on a waist-high stand and looked like a prop from Dr. Who (EMS actually made the synths used to create sound effects for the show). Originally (and appropriately) called the Sound Freak, the Hi-Fli was essentially an early multi-effect unit that combined fuzz, octave shift, ring modulation, phasing and resonant filters to generate synthlike tones. David Gilmour used a Synthi Hi-Fli on The Dark Side of the Moon, and other fans include Steve Hackett (when he was with Genesis) and the Chemical Brothers.

MAESTRO ROVER

Someone must have spiked the water coolers at Maestro with Blue Sunshine— how else to explain sonic oddities like Maestro’s Bass Brassmaster, Filter Sample and Hold, Ring Modulator and the world’s first fuzz box? The Maestro Rover is a rotating speaker unit that not only looks like a UFO but sounds like one, too, as the speaker can rotate at exceptionally high speeds to create watery, warbling Doppler effects. A built-in crossover routes low frequencies to a guitar amp while it directs treble frequencies to the Rover’s rather low-powered internal amp, which isn’t loud enough to irk even a Ladies’ Auxiliary tea party. That’s why David Gilmour’s Rover is, uh, house trained.

ELECTRO-HARMONIX FREQUENCY ANALYZER/MAESTRO RING MODULATOR

You know those bizarre, dissonant metallic boinks on ZZ Top’s “Cheap Sunglasses” and the closing theme of South Park? That’s the sound of a ring modulator. Electro-Harmonix and Maestro unleashed this atonal beast of an effect on unsuspecting musicians during the early Seventies, and guitarists have been struggling to tame them ever since. By moving the controls while you play (the E-H Hotfoot makes a handy “third hand”), you can imitate the sounds of extraterrestrial radio transmissions, drunken calypso steel drummers and screaming robot elephants. Who hasn’t wanted their guitar to sound like that?

ROLAND FUNNY CAT

Perhaps the most appropriately named pedal of all time, the Roland Funny Cat sounds like a feline that has huffed a spray can of Rust-Oleum and downed a bottle of Jäger—and is being whipped. Kind of a fuzz/envelope-follower combination, the Funny Cat spews and mews unpredictably, with the effect often becoming more pronounced the softer, or the higher up the neck, you play. Considering how hard it was to get killer buds (an essential part of good pedal design) in Japan during the early Seventies, the Roland engineer who designed this probably smoked a lot of catnip instead.

OBERHEIM VOLTAGE CONTROLLED FILTER/MAESTRO FILTER SAMPLE AND HOLD

These pedals are identical in every way except for their paint jobs. Controls consist of knobs for range (depth) and sample-and-hold speed, and a switch that engages either the sample-and-hold-random-filter effect or an envelope follower, for autowah effects. Even with this limited feature set, the pedals can generate a surprisingly vast palette of strange but wonderful tones, ranging from juicy, drippy envelope-follower funk to guttural auto-arpeggiator stutters. Frank Zappa used one on “Ship Ahoy,” “Black Napkins” and several other songs, so if it’s weird enough for the man who wrote “Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead,” it’s certainly weird enough for you.

ELECTRO-HARMONIX TALKING PEDAL

While honorable mention must be made to the Heil Talk Box (which provides guitarists with a tube that they stick in their mouths to duplicate the sound of a stomach being pumped and other barfy delights), the Electro-Harmonix Talking Pedal enables your guitar to speak through purely electronic means. Actually, it only produces “A-E-I-O-U” vowel sounds, but it does give a guitar an uncanny vocallike tonality that is reminiscent of Yoda speaking Cantonese.

Orginally printed in Guitar World, December 2006.

Guitar World sizes up the 10 most earth-shaking guitar innovations
of the past 25 years.

From amps and accessories to hardware and hard drives, guitar technology has undergone a major transformation in recent decades. Here, in no particular order, are Guitar World’s bids for the 10 most significant guitar innovations of the past 25 years.

HIGH-GAIN AMPS

To satisfy guitarists’ lust for dirt, amp manufacturers like Mesa/Boogie and Soldano paved the way for the increasingly gritty sounds of modern metal in the Eighties by building amps with five gain stages (by comparison, Marshall amps at that time had three gain stages). Metal just wouldn’t sound as heavy without high-gain amps like the Mesa Triple Rectifier, VHT Pittbull, Diezel Herbert, Marshall MF350 or Peavey 5150 (with its six ear-searing gain stages).

MODELING

Before Line 6 introduced its first modeling amps in the Nineties, guitarists who wanted a variety of amp tones had to use confusing multichannel amps or haul stacks of amps to gigs. Today, modeling amps can summon the shimmering clean tones of a Sixties Fender, the raunch of a Seventies Marshall or the vicious growl of a Nineties Boogie, and do so with the flick of a switch. Line 6 continues to push the envelope with modeling-based amps, guitars and stomp boxes.

FLOYD ROSE TREMOLO

Although the Floyd Rose tremolo was invented in the Seventies, it didn’t become widely available until 1982, when Kramer started mass producing the units and offering them on its guitars. The Floyd Rose allowed guitarists to radically drop and raise pitch, and without it we wouldn’t have Joe Satriani’s howling screams in “Satch Boogie,” Dimebag Darrell’s eerie lead in “Cemetery Gates” or just about anything done by Steve Vai. Then again, we probably wouldn’t have had Night Ranger. Win some, lose some.

DIRECT-RECORDING BOXES

Boston guitarist Tom Scholz single-handedly launched the directrecording revolution when he invented the Rockman, a device that allowed players to lay down massive studio-quality sounds without miking an amp. The Zoom 9002 brought digital effects into the fold in 1990. With amp modeling, cabinet emulation and digital effects, the Line 6 Pod is a current favorite in professional and home studios alike.

INEXPENSIVE CHROMATIC TUNERS

In the Seventies, your only options for tuning your guitar were a very expensive strobe tuner, a cheesy pitch pipe or an extremely good ear. After companies like Boss and Korg started offering affordable digital chromatic tuners in the Eighties, guitarists no longer had an excuse for being out of tune.

DIGITECH WHAMMY PEDAL

With its harmony effects and ability to sweep pitch up or down two octaves, DigiTech’s Whammy Pedal may be the wildest effect ever invented. What’s even more remarkable is that this pedal appeals to a disparate group of guitarists that includes Tom Morello, Trey Anastasio, the Edge, Korn, Radiohead and the late Dimebag Darrell. Any pedal that could influence songs like “Becoming,” “Killing in the Name” and “My Iron Lung” is all right by us.

BRADSHAW SWITCHING SYSTEMS

While using piles of pedals, stacks of racks and amp/channel switches looks cool onstage, it can be a headache for the average guitarist. Switching systems like Bradshaw’s RS-10 eliminated the challenges of using multiple amps, rack effects and pedals onstage by enabling users to program complex signal-routing setups that can be accessed instantly by stomping on a single switch.

HYBRID ELECTRIC-ACOUSTIC GUITARS

Although under-bridge piezo pickups have been around since the Sixties, it took a couple decades before anyone realized these pickups also worked on solid-body guitars. Instruments introduced during the Nineties, like the Parker Fly and Hamer Duotone, enabled players to switch from electric sounds to convincing acoustic tones in the middle of a song, without changing instruments.

INEXPENSIVE WIRELESS SYSTEMS

When companies like Nady and Samson made wireless systems affordable to the masses during the late Eighties and Nineties, musicians were free to roam the stage without ending up in a tangled mess of cords. Suddenly, guitarists could cruise the audience for chicks during their solos, while vocalists could take bathroom breaks without missing a beat. (Where did you think those grunts and groans came from during the drum solo?)

PRO TOOLS

Recording technology has grown by leaps and bounds since the Eighties, but nothing has leveled the playing field between home and professional studios more than Digidesign’s Pro Tools. With powerful editing capabilities and plug-ins like Sound Replacer, Beat Detective and Auto-Tune, Pro Tools made it possible for anyone with a decent computer to make great-sounding recordings and do so for less than $500.

Orginally printed in Guitar World, December 2006.

10 weird pedals that live among us.

METASONIX BUTT PROBE

With a name like “Butt Probe,” it’s gotta be good. This Metasonix pedal generates its excruciatingly painful distortion tones with tubes originally designed to broadcast Mayberry RFD.

Z.VEX RINGTONE

Every Z.Vex pedal is weird in its own right (the Fuzz Factory is a GW all-time favorite), but the Ringtone takes an already wacked-out ring modulator and adds eight carrier-pitch adjustment knobs, a sequencer and a random mode to unleash previously unimaginable audio strangitude.

LOVETONE MEATBALL

Boasting more tweakable knobs than a wet T-shirt contest in Cancun, the Lovetone Meatball is probably the most versatile envelope follower/trigger filter ever conceived. From barking bowwows to drippy quacks, a barnyard of funky fun awaits.

ROGER LINN DESIGN ADRENALINN II

While the Adrenalinn may be more highbrow than the usual acid fantasies of the boutique-pedal universe, it delivers incredibly weird beat-synched random filter and “talking” guitar effects that sound like they walked right out of some hippie’s hallucination.

DANELECTRO DSD-1 SHIFT DADDY

The Shift Daddy would be an ordinary analog delay effect except it allows you to use a rocker pedal to manually adjust the delay time and create whammylike pitch bends and buzz-saw sounds.

ROBOTALK

Essentially a clone of the coveted Oberheim/Maestro VCF/Sample and Hold pedal, Robotalk lives up to its name by producing gurgling vocal sounds and cyborgian cries.

GIG-FX CHOPPER

More than an ordinary tremolo, rotating speaker, auto-panning effect, the Chopper lets you manually vary frequency with its rocker pedal to produce head-spinning psychedelic sounds. Just ask Tool’s Adam Jones.

ELECTRO-HARMONIX HOG HARMONIC OCTAVE GENERATOR

If the ability to generate multiple octaves and harmonic overtones from single notes or chords sounds like your bucket of sonic slop, the HOG will make you happier than a pig in shit.

PIGTRONIX EP-1 ENVELOPE PHASER

Here’s another porky beast to appease ham-fisted guitarists. The Pigtronix EP-1 creates incredibly fat phasing effects with stinky resonance and gluttonous gain.

MID-FI ELECTRONICS GLITCH COMPUTER

From sputtering fuzz to frying audio damage, the Glitch Computer can make your guitar sound like a dropkicked Tivo or a PC slowly sinking into a swamp. Check out Mid-Fi’s Pitch Pirate and Random Number Generator for further sonic debauchery.

WHEN IT COMES to pointy guitars, no one designs them more radically than Neal Moser. Moser has been designing guitars for various companies since 1977. (For the full story, visit nealmoser. com.) He came out of retirement a few years ago to open the Moser Custom Shop in Southern California, and just recently he began offering affordable import versions of his unique, eye-catching models.

FEATURES

THE MOSER MVI-T (Moser V import tremolo) looks, plays and sounds like a custom ax, but it's priced comparably to a midline production guitar. Uncommon details, especially for a guitar at this price, include contrasting painted bevels surrounding the body and a thorough setup performed by techs at Moser's SoCal shop. The MVi boasts a maple neck-through-body construction with alder body "wings" carved to a wickedly pointy V shape and a distinctive sculpted "cutaway" beneath the bridge that looks like a crocodile took two hearty chomps out of the guitar's Venus mound.

The neck features a rosewood fretboard with a 24 3/4-inch scale, 24 medium-jumbo nickel frets and side markers rather than fretboard inlays. Right out of the box, it is evident how much attention to detail went into this guitar's setup. The neck feels smooth as silk, seemingly leading your fingers to fly faster than normal. Hardware includes Grover tuners and a licensed Floyd Rose locking tremolo, all finished in black.

The pickups are no-name Korean humbuckers, with a blade-style 'bucker in the bridge position and a traditional six-pole-piece 'bucker at the neck. Controls include individual volume knobs for each pickup, master tone and a three-position switch. The pickups deliver aggressive snarl and bite with black metal-approved chunk and bottom end-perfect for a guitar that looks like Satan's marshmallow roaster.

THE BOTTOM LINE

IF YOU LOVE the razor-sharp lines of Moser's creations but can't afford the cash for a custom- crafted ax, the MVi-T provides similar performance and sound at a cut-rate price. Obviously, a guitar this radical looking isn't for everybody (i.e. jazz or country guitarists), but anyone who appreciates aggressive music can rest assured that the MVi-T sounds as wicked as it looks.

WHEN I WAS a kid, we had to practice to vinyl records that only played at one tempo, didn't loop, didn't change keys, and wouldn't teach us our scales and arpeggios, and we had to walk to music school fi ve miles in the snow-and we felt lucky! As a certified bass geezer, I can't help but feel envious of the cool learning tools today's bass students have at their convenience. But now, the masterminds at Fender Bass Amplification have come out with a product that could revolutionize the way people learn how to play. Are you ready for an amp that may be smarter than you?

GHOST IN THE MACHINE
The Fender B-DEC 30 is a bass workout machine that pumps 30 watts through its 10-inch woofer and piezo tweeter. Its nine amp models, wide variety of onboard effects, and auxiliary inputs offer tons of cool tones and interface options, but it's the B-DEC's brain that sets it apart from conventional "practice" amps, while also creating a whole new category and breed of bass amplifier: the Digital Entertainment Center. You'll be entertained for countless hours by its 38 full-band play-along performance loops, in styles ranging from Chicago blues to punk rock.

There are also two complete, fully arranged songs in the memory-but that's just the beginning. Here's where the mad scientists at Fender took it to the next level: You can change keys, adjust the tempo, isolate the bass track, adjust the volume of the keyboard tracks, dial in just about any tone imaginable-and perhaps the coolest part is you don't need an engineering degree to figure out how it all works. And they've managed to keep it musical; the performance loops sound good and the tasteful drum tracks thankfully avoid the annoying over-playing and over-programming that plague many preset rhythm devices.

If you're a beginning bassist, these loops can give you a whole lot of playing experience in a wide range of styles. And while the B-DEC is an invaluable training tool for newbies, if you're an old pro, try cranking up the tempo, or changing the key--the machine will always win! The amp models represent a good range of tonal choices, from modern hi-fi to vintage tube, or grindy rock-making the B-DEC 30 a great little amp for miking in the studio, too. The built-in effects menu offers a heaping helping of some classic essentials, including overdrive, chorus, delay, auto-wah, and reverb. And they can all be tweaked to your personal taste and saved as user presets.

SCHOOL'S IN
As an educator, I find the 38 teacher loops contained in the B-DEC 30 to be its most exciting feature. A well-rounded program that includes technical warm-ups, multiple workouts for major, minor, and pentatonic scales, arpeggios, intervals, rhythms, and even slap bass, it provides a solid base of musical fundamentals. If practicing scales had been this much fun, I might have done it more often years ago when I should have! The B-DEC 30 has another cool feature called "Tempo Creep" that speeds up the loop each repeat (sounds like a drummer I know)--you can set how much of a jump the tempo makes, up to 10 metronome clicks.

As with the performance loops, you can program the B-DEC 30 to change keys each time (the modulation interval is also a variable preset), so you can practice valuable fundamentals in all keys. The B-DEC 30 comes with a method book with all the tunes and exercises written out in standard notation and tab. There are helpful technique tips, theory thoughts, and a brief description of the main objectives for each example, which kicks up the instructional value. The bass tracks are recorded for reference--you can play along with the guide track, turn it off completely, or even have it alternate so you can play with the bass, then play it on your own.

Whether you harbor delusions of grandeur, or have low musical self-esteem, the B-DEC 30 can also serve as your reality-check machine. The built-in phrase sampler lets you record yourself and listen back. Whether you're happily surprised, or brought back down to earth, this feature is a real boon for self-improvement. Aspiring solo bass artists take note: You can also create your own bass loops and add multiple layers with the overdub function, and hands-free control of the phrase sampler is possible with the optional ULT-4 footswitch (list price: $75). The ULT-4 also allows you to scroll through the presets, start and stop loops, and switch between three bass tones; it can engage and display the B-DEC 30's tuner functions, too. The B-DEC 30 also has a "virtual hard drive" which allows you to load standard MIDI fi les for playback. You can create your own, or download from any of the numerous free MIDI sites online.

THE BOTTOM LINE
The B-DEC 30 is an amazing example of forward- thinking technology that contains all the tools you need to make your practice sessions productive, challenging, and fun. For bass educators, it may be the ultimate teaching studio amp. Fender plans to develop the B-DEC concept further as the technology expands and becomes more affordable, so as feature-packed as it is right now, we can only imagine the possibilities that future advancements may bring as this new product category continues to evolve.

Martin's D-35 Johnny Cash model radiates its namesake's vibe before you even take the guitar out of its case. That's because the dreadnought honoring the "Man in Black" comes in a specially designed Geib-style case that's black at every turn, from the Durahyde covering to the latches and hardware to the plush interior lining. The folks at Martin clearly took nothing about this project's design for granted.

The guitar is also a nearly all-black affair-the top, back, sides and even the back of the neck are all finished in raven gloss. Pure licorice eye-candy, if you will. The grained ivoroid binding and heelcap, style-45 rosette (with a fiery ring of abalone) and zigzag marquetry on the back all provide elegant relief. Other aesthetic niceties include abalone dots on the bridge pins, star-shaped fretboard inlays (abalone, with mother-of-pearl borders), and Johnny Cash's signature in mother-of-pearl at the 20th fret. These details all work together to make this a visually arresting instrument.

The real fun begins once you stop gawking and start making some noise. While some dreadnoughts can sound boomy or tubby, this black beauty has a musically appealing and sonically practical voice, with a broad dynamic range and an ample sustain quotient. Robust country rhythms are its forte-no surprise. Strumming a couple choruses of "Big River" or "Ring of Fire" feels like walking a mile in Cash's own boots. The guitar needn't be typecast, though, as it works well for folky fingerpicking and other styles. It's easy to imagine using the guitar on a variety of live gigs and recording sessions.

Beneath its inky exterior, the D-35 Johnny Cash is not unlike Martin's D-35 and HD-35 models-it has a dreadnought body with a solid spruce top, solid rosewood sides and three-piece back and an ebony fingerboard (25.4-inch scale length) with 14 frets clear of the body. A few significant differences are worth noting, such as the upgrade from Sitka spruce to Engelmann spruce for the top. Many players and luthiers agree that Engelmann tops respond more quickly and generally make for louder guitars, and this instrument certainly is responsive and loud. The Cash D-35 sports vintage-style forward-shifted bracing, which lets the top vibrate more freely, further bolstering sustain and volume.

Another thing that sets the Cash D-35 apart from its kin is a "modified low oval" neck profile. The neck is substantial, yet surprisingly easy to get around on. The factory set-up (with medium-gauge Martin SP Phosphor-Bronze strings) is spot on. From note one, the guitar's action feels-well, ready for action. Chords and single notes alike ring true in every position. A set of chromed Grover machines (standard on just a handful of Martins) ensures tuning will be smooth and accurate.

The D-35 Johnny Cash isn't Martin's first Cash signature model. The company offered a limited edition Cash D-35 Custom in 1989, and a D-42JC in '97. Cash himself played these and other Martins- usually D-35 models-throughout his career. One particularly kicky six-string was his late-Sixties D-35S, which he had bedecked with ornate abalone inlay on the headstock and custom acorn-and-leaf inlay patterns on the fingerboard. The black dreadnought built for Cash in 1972 was another iconic Martin. Factory employees had to be stealthy while crafting this guitar, keeping it hidden from C.F. Martin III-then head of the company-because he thought the notion of a black Martin was just too radical. The secret six-string was revealed when Cash made a cameo appearance with it on an episode of Columbo. Apparently, Mr. Martin was pleased.

The Bottom Line

This is the ultimate acoustic for dyed-in-the-wool Johnny Cash fans. But even without the Cash connection, the commemorative D- 35's striking look, righteous sound and sturdy-yet-comfy feel make for a particularly appealing guitar. The price point may be out of reach for some, but it's justified. In this case, going a little into the red will get you deep into the black.