Blogging » Guitars, blues, rock, jazz and the music biz
Suhr Shiba LE Overdrive
Surfed the web this morning, boy, remember that term, guess that dates me! So does my recent high school reunion. Hah!
Here’s what’s going on in the gear and guitar blogosphere today, from my faves and, in part II, a few newcomers.
Guitar Noize
Consistently a strong guitar, gear and music blog, Guitar Noize reviews a new Suhr overdrive pedal;
…very transparent and adds a nice level of sustain to an already overdriven tone or creates a very natural overdrive tone on the clean channel… works well in series with other drive pedals to create your own cascading gain… [this is] a limited edition version in Black called the Suhr Shiba Drive LE.
Fernandes Ravelle Deluxe Bass (top), Music Man Bongo Bass
I’d like to own a Suhr Guthrie Govan Modern, would be cool to try out this stomp box as well. Read more about this pedal at Guitar Noize…
I Heart Guitar
This guy is my new hero. A prodigious blogger and columnist, Peter Hodgson writes for guitar and music mags down under and for Gibson, and has a way popular blog noted here and on our blogroll. This week he reviews two fine and eclectic electric basses, the Fernandes Ravelle Bass Deluxe, and the Ernie Ball Music Man Bongo Bass.
Also reviewed is a new Epiphone Les Paul Standard Ultra II, and this review shows his attention to detail and solid copywriting prowess:
Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II
The mahogany body (chambered for resonance and lightness) supports a quilted maple cap, while a mahogany slim-taper glued-in neck sports a satin finish, a rosewood fretboard and 22 medium jumbo frets on a flattish 12” radius. The scale length is your classic 24.75”. Hardware includes a LockTone Tune-o-Matic bridge and LockTone Stopbar…Electronics consist of two Alnico Classic pickups with individual volume pots for each; a master tone…; a volume control for the NanoMag sitting where the bridge pickup tone control would be. There’s a 3-way pickup selector switch in the usual place and, ‘round back, treble, bass and gain controls for the NanoMag pickup. But wait, I don’t see any wires poking out of the bridge. So where is this mysterious NanoMag pickup? Oh wait, there it is, set into the neck between the 22nd fret and the rhythm position humbucker. Crafty! This little wonder seeks to do away with the quackiness inherent in conventional piezo pickup designs, and instead it uses good old-fashioned magnetic means to capture the sound, strategically placed at a sweet spot where you’ll get the maximum fullness and tone.
These features offer you the added tonal variety of getting acoustic sounds out of your electric. I’d like to try that and compare it to the James Tyler Variax or the Roland Strat G-5.
