Guitar Noize

“The Silver Jubilee Series was created in 1987 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Marshall Amplification and the 50th year of Jim Marshall being in the music business. The limited edition, all-valve Silver Jubilee amplifiers looked stunning in silver vinyl covering with chrome-plated control panel.”

Based on JCM800 2203 and 2204 Master Volume models, the Jubilee amplifiers were the first Marshall products with Pentode/Triode switching, which halves power output. The Jubilee Series featured an innovative preamp circuit which had three gain modes: Clean, Rhythm Clip, and footswitchable Lead Channel. The Bass, Middle, Treble & Presence controls, although shared between channels, were re-designed and offered more tonal variation than any other Marshall product had before.

Check out the Marshall product demonstration of the 2555x Silver Jubilee Reissue:

Here’s another video from Premier Guitar taken at NAMM just to give you a few more tone examples.

For more information head over to the Marshall 2555x Silver Jubilee Reissue product page.

I’ll admit I have no idea who Servio Vallin is (apparently he is in Mexican quartet Maná the world’s biggest Latin rock band) but I think this is a very interesting signature Fender model as it seems more based on a pawn shop model than most signature models. In fact this is an all new body shape which is sort of an offset Stratocaster. The wood combination is classic Fender with an Alder body, Maple neck and Rosewood fretboard, but the controls and trem definitely have a unique look with a chrome plate under the trem with Sergio’s signature engraved into it.

Check out the full specs of the Fender Sergio Vallin Signature model here.

Press Release
El Capitan is Blackbird Guitar’s latest model which debuts at the 2015 NAMM Show built on the concept shown last year. The small jumbo model has the tone and vibe of a vintage wood instrument, but is actually crafted of Ekoa®. The natural fiber composite is mostly made of low-density linen that rivals the tone of the best wood with stiffness in two directions rather than the simply one. Ekoa® is not only more tonally responsive but also exceptionally durable as well as humidity and temperature stable. El Capitan is the first guitar constructed of the new high-performance, ecological composite and a major step forward in premium acoustic materials from the industry standard old growth wood.

El Capitan’s enhanced resonance is driven by the Ekoa® double top soundboard as well as Blackbird’s celebrated hollow neck, unibody construction. In 2013, after years of research, Blackbird introduced their first Ekoa® built instrument Clara. The game-changing ukulele is widely considered the most powerful concert ukulele available. Building on this success, San Francisco-built El Capitan is a next generation guitar with unmatched dynamic response, old-school feel and a worry-free playing experience. This ground-breaking instrument will be available February 2015 complete with ergonomically sculpted slothead, truss rod and deluxe soft case. Street pricing starts at $2995.

Ekoa® materials are produced by San Francisco-based sister company Lingrove and are poised to revolutionize the music industry as a superior alternative diminishing wood stocks.

https://www.blackbirdguitar.com/

I’ve been a massive Joe Satriani fan since I picked up the electric guitar in 1988 and immediately wanted an Ibanez JS the moment they were released in 1990, it wasn’t actually until 2008 that I bought one, a black pearl JS1000. It was a great guitar, sounded fantastic, but as G.A.S. took hold of me (as it does regularly) I ended up selling it to fund my Suhr S4. Hey at least I finally followed through on my plan to buy one.

So just to make me and everyone else who started playing guitar around that time it is the 25th Anniversary this year of the Ibanez JS Series and there have been some fantastic models over the years and they continue to evolve to meet Joe’s demanding requirements. One of the coolest pair of guitars I ever saw played live were Satch’s Black Dog and Donnie (a JS3 painted by Donnie Hunt) and I thought the hand painted and scribbled graphics were fantastic so it is very fitting that for the anniversary Ibanez invited Joe to draw custom graphics on a load of bodies that would be sold as limited edition models, I’ve read that 50 guitars will be produced and it appears they will follow the more recent JS2400 model with 24 frets and single coil sized Satch Track humbucker. I guess that’s just based on what Joe plays now but personally if I was going to be able to stump up the $8000 needed to buy one of these limited edition guitars I would want the original 22 fret 2 humbucker JS Model. Anyway check out this awesome video below to see Joe Satriani and a set of Sharpies customising the JS bodies.

Here is a great photo of one of the completed guitars:

This is an interesting product from my fellow Black Country folk at Laney, the Laney IRT Pulse is a tube driven boost pedal plus an audio interface that can connect to your DAW directly via USB and as an added bonus feature it also allows re-amping at the touch of a button. The IRT Pulse contains 2 ECC83 or 12AX7 tubes and features two modes REGULAR and HOT. Regular allows you to dial in a small amount of tube drive giving you a really nice amount of natural break up whilst hot mode switches you into real IRONHEART lead tone and everything in between. The IRT-PULSE comes equipped with a switchable on-board cabinet emulation – the same as the great sounding cabinet emulation as the IRT-STUDIO, meaning you can use the on-board emulation or record it dry and add an IR from you DAW.

“The USB2.0 Bidirectional interface simultaneously sends an amped and a dry signal to your DAW via different channels, allowing you to re-amp the dry signal later using the leadless re-amp feature – simply hit the re-amp button and your original dry guitar track is re routed via the USB socket back through the IRT-PULSE.”

For more info head over to Laney.co.uk.

“Firehawk FX is packed with over 200 amps and effects, giving you powerful flexibility to create your own sound or reproduce the tones of any recording. From warm vintage classics to high-gain powerhouses, the world’s best amps are now at your fingertips. And to take your sound even further, Firehawk FX is loaded with inspiring effects, including must-have stompboxes and stunning Line 6 originals. Firehawk FX is a powerful multi-effect guitar processor that will foster your creativity and energize your playing”

“The Firehawk Remote app for iOS and Android makes it easier than ever to create the perfect guitar tone. From your phone or tablet, you can craft elaborate signal chains, fine-tune hundreds of tone parameters, and connect with a massive online community of guitarists. The Line 6 cloud contains a vast library of tones covering countless genres and thousands of popular songs. You can create, save and recall an unlimited number of presets, so you’ll always have access to the tones you need.”

Line 6 Firehawk FX
http://line6.com/firehawk-fx-multi-effects-pedal

Check out this video from Andertons and Guitarist Magazine who have teamed up for NAMM 2015 who show off the new Variax guitars made by Yamaha and the Line 6 Firehawk FX:

The Line 6 Variax Standard is described as innovation meets Yamaha craftsmanship with access to an entire collection of electric, acoustic and exotic guitars. It is simple to switch between alternate tunings with the turn of a knob and create any guitar imaginable with Workbench HD software. It has a lightweight alder body, fast maple neck and custom single-coil pickups

http://line6.com/variax-standard/

It might look weird but the new Washburn new Travel Guitar is super compact and includes a microphone pickup. The guitar features a solid spruce top and a full size 24″ scale. Strangely, I think, it comes complete with a soft shell case that includes a shoulder strap, “instructional CD ROM”, guitar strap and 3 picks. I personally would have thought it would have been better to have a smaller tough gig bag? It kind of defeats the whole point of a travel guitar with a cumbersome case? Plus a CD Rom… really? Is it 1998? Why does this guitar need an instructional CD anyway? It’s a travel guitar not a beginner pack isn’t it?

Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray has been playing hot-rodded Fender Strats his entire career and this one is just that. The Dave Murray California Series Stratocaster may look fairly traditional but it is loaded with 3 Seymour Duncan humbuckers and a Floyd Rose locking trem. The choice of single coil sized humbuckers help retain the traditional 3 single coil strat look but they are actually a Seymour Duncan® Hot Rails™ for Strat SHR-1B in the bridge, a Seymour Duncan® JB Jr.™ SJBJ-1N in the middle position and a Seymour Duncan® Hot Rails™ for Strat SHR-1N in the neck position which allow for some serious metal tones as well as sparkling cleans.

If you are interested in a modern Fender Strat with a vintage look, this might be the guitar for you.

Bella is a portable, American voiced, hand-wired, all-tube amplifier from Suhr. It has been designed to be a grab-n-go amplifier and a great platform for using with effects pedals. The Suhr Bella is powered by two 6L6GC power tubes that deliver either 22 or 44 Watts of Class A/B power. On the back of the amp you have the effects loop which has Send and Return Level controls, an In/Out Switch and Boost Footswitch Jack.

On the front panel you have a Boost Switch (2-Position), Bright Switch (3-Position), Volume, Treble, and Presence and a Standby/Wattage Selector Switch.

Read more about the Suhr Bella here.

This guitar landed in my inbox in an email overnight along with 80 others, yes 80 emails overnight, all NAMM news… I’m not sure if this is actually showing at NAMM or not but it is called the Fender Custom Shop Pine Cone Stratocaster and was created by Fender Custom Shop’s Senior Master Builder Yuriy Shishkov.

This guitar is modelled after the antique “Pine Cone” Easter Egg made by Fabergé in 1900. It is an exclusive one-of-a-kind guitar and features 550 high-quality diamonds, 10 feet of 18 karat gold adorning a flawless single-piece maple body and exhibition grade birdseye maple neck.

“The body artwork design was created in a 3D format and projected onto the guitar before it was hand-carved to produce the sphere surface effect of an egg. If all the scales on the guitar were extended beyond the instrument’s contour, they would create a perfect “egg” shape. The blue hand-stained “multi-composite” finish was specially invented for this particular guitar to recreate the “egg-like” appearance.”

“The guitar’s hardware was hand engraved; the knobs and switch tip were custom designed at the Fender Custom Shop and crowned with diamonds. In addition, the “Fender” logo on the headstock is made of 2mm gold plated solid silver; the fingerboard comes complete with inlaid diamonds and 10 feet of 18 karat gold ribbon wire inlay, and is finished with a gold-plated nut.”

The “Pine Cone” Stratocaster will be accommodated with an authentic limited edition Fabergé Easter “Pine Cone Egg”. Both the guitar and the egg have matching serial numbers (0074). Like the original antique egg, it has a surprise miniature “Elephant” inside. In addition, the egg has been signed by Maison Tatiana Fabergé.

The guitar comes complete with a custom carrying case, a hand-tooled blue leather matching design custom strap and lighted display case.

For more information, go to http://www.fendercustomshop.com/features/pine-cone-stratocaster/.