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gear giveaway

Author Archive

AJ Peat Pedals’ Screaming Flamingo and Dirty Buzzard

Orange County boutique manufacturer AJ Peat, owned and founded by Luthier and self-described tinkerer Andrew James Peat, builds guitars, effect pedals and other signature audio devices. At the 2016 Summer NAMM show in Nashville his pedals were on display in the Cusack/Mojo Hand booth. This was due to the fact that Jon Cusack offered to help AJ design non-hand-built versions of Peat's effects. We actually had a chance to talk to AJ directly about this and he was so happy about the results he was almost questioning why he stuck to hand building for so long: "the new, mass built designs sound identical to their hand built counterparts"- he said. Surely Jon Cusack's engineering brain came in handy to pull off this accomplishment.... Click on the title for more

AJ Peat Pedals’ Screaming Flamingo and Dirty Buzzard

Jess Abbott of Tancred and Now, Now talks about gear and the creative process

The solo project of Minneapolis singer/guitarist Jess Abbott of Now Now, Tancred plays riff driven power pop that will intrigue fans of Weezer and We Are Scientists. Her songs follow paths more unpredictable than your average pop rock band, always propelled by inventive guitar work and melodies that are instantly hummable. Jess is obviously a very versatile electric guitarist, as demonstrated by the range of parts and tones audible on latest album Out of the Garden, and also by the fact that when she plays with Now Now, her style is completely different - a lot less distorted and more subtle. We asked her a few questions about her new album and the guitar rig she sued to record it.... Click on the title for more

Jess Abbott of Tancred and Now, Now talks about gear and the creative process

VFE Pedals about to relaunch! – from Gearphoria.com

Peter Rutter of VFE Pedals is going back to teaching full time in the fall, and while he doesn’t want to walk away from all he has built with the pedal company, he knows he cannot keep it in its current form. So he is blowing out all of his back stock of highly-tweakable pedals in order to bring a new, simpler form factor into mix. All new VFE pedals will be limited to four knobs and one minor control, like a toggle (see image). Peter posted this page on the VFE site with details about his plans for the future. - Read the full article on Gearphoria.com.... Click on the title for more

VFE Pedals about to relaunch! – from Gearphoria.com

Lavachild and her Synths

LAVACHILD is a NYC based synth pop project fronted by (very fashionable) singer songwriter/keyboardist Chantel De Lava, whose hypnotic presence charmed us at our 2015 B.E.A.F. fest. Their older single "Want U To" went viral on the internet, and since then the group has been releasing promising new material on their Soundcloud profile, which should be soon gathered in a proper release. We asked Chantel a few questions about her gear and the way she uses it.... Click on the title for more

Lavachild and her Synths

Build your own spring reverb with Mod Kits DIY’s The Wave

Those of you who like to challenge themselves with DIY projects in the realm of electric engineering applied to music, should take a look at MODKits DIY's authentic spring tube reverb design called The Wave. For the the young and unaware, spring reverbs are an electromechanical reverb device that produces a reverb effect by inducing sound vibrations at one end of a long wire shaped like a spring. They were among the first reverbs on the market, and you can find them in many now vintage guitar amps from the 50s and 60s.... Click on the title for more

Build your own spring reverb with Mod Kits DIY’s The Wave

SOFI TUKKER’s synths and creative process

If pop is sugar and the rest of us are flies, it's safe to say that EDM has drunk the Kool-Aid. Alas, NYC duo SOFI TUKKER — née singer/guitarist Sophie Hawley-Weld and programmer Tucker Halpern — go unabashedly towards the infectious. With their minimalist approach to EDM and a penchant for incorporating world element into their music, the NYC based duo is releasing material that is resonating with a wide audience, also thanks to a dynamic live show that successfully breaks the rather static tendencies of the average electronic performance. We asked the duo a few questions about their gear and creative process.... Click on the title for more

SOFI TUKKER’s synths and creative process

Most music lovers know what a Hammond organ is and are aware that Leslie is a rotary effect traditionally applied to that instrument. We knew that much when, last week, we approached the Hammond booth at Summer NAMM 2016, inquiring about three stompboxes featuring the name "Leslie" on them. That's when Hammond's Gregg Gronowski briefly instructed us on the story of the Leslie effect... Click on the title for more

Hammond’s Leslie pedals for guitarists and keyboardists

Caveman’s gear: EarthQuaker Devices (and Carbonetti Guitars)

Belonging to the rare category of "bands that keep getting better all the time," Brooklyn's dream rock quintet Caveman just released their third full length album 'Otero War' (our sister magazine, The Deli, featured them on the cover of its NYC issue in 2011, before the release of their debut LP 'CoCo Beware'). With a gear insider like Jimmy Carbonetti in its ranks - besides being the band's guitarist, the man is a fine luthier and owns Carbonetti Guitars (previously known as Cobra Guitars - we were tempted to ask him a few question about guitar pedals.... Click on the title for more

Caveman’s gear: EarthQuaker Devices (and Carbonetti Guitars)

Check out the boards on display at the 2016 edition of the Summer NAMM Stompbox Exhibit! ... Click on the title for more

Pedalboards at the SNAMM 2016 Stompbox Exhibit

Outlaw FX introduces four new pedals at SNAMM ’16, including Lasso Looper

Outlaw Effects just announced the introduction of four new pedals - and hey! The company will be part of our Summer NAMM Stompbox Exhibit 2016, so visitors will be able to try these pedals in our booth (#1342)! Three of these products are "utility boxes": the Kerosene is a super affordable power supply (retailing at $69), featuring 8-300 milliamp power outs able to power many of the less power hungry effects on your board. Those who need a little more juice can take a look at the Iron Horse, which provides 2-500 milliamp and 6-100 milliamp outs - and also a tuner for just $75!... Click on the title for more

Outlaw FX introduces four new pedals at SNAMM ’16, including Lasso Looper

Olga Bell’s synths and creative process

Born in Moscow and raised in Alaska, Olga Bell is a classically trained pianist, composer, producer and performer based in Brooklyn. Unafraid of venturing into unfamiliar sonic territories, her musical career could be interpreted as an effort to defy cliche'. That's how her latest album 'Tempo' can be portrayed, since it was composed using typical EDM sounds, but the final results is nowhere near that genre. We asked Olga a few questions about her new release 'Tempo.'... Click on the title for more

Olga Bell’s synths and creative process

SNAMM 2016 Stompbox Exhibit: Amptweaker introduces the FatMetal Pro

Amptweaker’s James Brown - whose self-described specialty is not necessarily in the wild ideas but rather in the tweaking of ideas - is becoming one of the most nuanced pedal manufacturers for high gain distortion and we are proud to have him at our Summer NAMM booth next week. Built on thirty years of experience, his company has dialed in to the needs of the various subsets within various rock genres, metal in particular. At SNAMM James will be presenting the FatMetal Pro Distortion, aimed specifically at Black Metal players with tremolo affected leads, but by the looks of it the pedal has enough functionality to provide commanding undead crunch for any discerning metal player.... Click on the title for more

SNAMM 2016 Stompbox Exhibit: Amptweaker introduces the FatMetal Pro