For those not wanting to spend all the money on a Gibson Robot, this may be a coll alternative. It’s a tuner that replaces your standard volume control. Check out the video to see how it works.
More information is available at their website.
ESP sure don’t do things by half, EGR has a story on the 50+ new models Esp is launching at NAMM. The full release is here.
One of the guitars of note is the Richie Sambora model. I think Richie goes through as many companies as Paul Stanley. But I don’t mind this guitar. Kind of classic with a modern twist. Strangely it reminds me of a Rickenbacker. Kinda.
It’s finally here and official:
There is nothing like the G-1000. Not even vaguely. It is arcane and radical. It is 100% vacuum tubes, from input to output. It contains 100% new-old-stock (NOS) tubes. Types never seen in guitar amps.
The G-1000 consists of two totally independent amplifiers, with very different preamp sections. One channel is called the HAPPY channel. The other is called the ANGRY channel.
For damn good reason. One sucks your face, the other gnaws your foreskin off.
The HAPPY channel is a more-or-less conventional instrument amp. It has plenty of gain and distortion (if desired), it has a conventional guitar-amp tone control section, and it has reverb. Everything else about it is DEVIANT. It has a PHASE control, which allows mixing of normal and inverted signals—or it may be adjusted to cancel out the original signal and pass only the distortion products….and, it’s all made of unusual tubes. Mostly pentodes, ha ha ha.
The ANGRY channel is well-named. It is designed for instability and raw, berserk distortion effects. It, too, has typical guitar-amp tone controls and reverb. It uses a 6BN6 and two remote-cutoff pentodes. Ask your mother what those are. She’s already tasted your foreskin anyway.
Despite the identical output stages of the two channels, they sound TOTALLY different. In ALL settings.
The output tubes are 6BK5s. Obscure, yes, but great and forgotten. Phase inversion is done with 6GU7s. Various types are used throughout the preamp stages: 6AU6, 6BJ6, 6CB6, 6BN6, 5BQ7, 6AK5, and others. No 12AX7s, of ANY brand. How many tubes? TWENTY-THREE tubes in total. Including eight 6BK5 outputs. It might be the most complex tube guitar amp available today….
The output tubes are in a special self-balancing, self-biasing circuit. It is unique to the G-1000 among guitar amps. It does NOT NEED matched tubes, nor is any kind of bias adjustment needed. Output power is 15 watts per channel, and two speakers (or a stereo speaker) are needed.
Vast ranges of tone are available from the G-1000. We cannot even begin to explain its flexibility. The G-1000 is NOT intended for middle-aged “tone questers”, who believe that they will be able to play like Eric Clapton by simply spending a lot of $$$ on equipment. We HATE those people. The G-1000 is intended for the intrepid experimenter, not the pathetic imitator. Tone questers are invited to DIE.
No, you moron, it’s not available in combo form. Head only.
Speakers are available from other suppliers.Artwork on the amp’s front panel by Dave Lovelace, of “Retarded Animal Babies” infamy. (http://www.umop.com)
Oh, the amp’s name? The idea came from Mike Brown of Livewire Synthesizers. Blame him. (It came from one of Dave Lovelace’s cartoons. Yes, the Fucking Fucker is a real, live cartoon character. A super-villain, come to think of it.)
G-1000 is made on a custom basis only and should be available in late 2008. Expected retail price is US $ 5000.
A high-resolution photo of the G-1000 is on our website at: www.metasonix.com/G1000large.JPG.
A few websites that cover synths have been very vocal in their disdain for us “humble minded” guitarist for not covering this product. I won’t mention their attacks on our intelligence. But unfortunately their call for guitarists to exit the dark ages and support new sounds by buying this amp will go unanswered simply because of the price. I would love to have a play with this thing, but I can’t afford it, and the people who will shape the future of what being a guitarist means, the people picking up the guitar now in an age where “traditional” instrumentation and digital production will soon be one and the same, they can’t afford it either.
Regardless, I’m looking forward to hearing some examples of what this amp can do.
Why? That is all I can think of. Why?
The list starts here over at Guitar Site, and it seems like it will never end. Here are a few of the …. umm… “choice” cuts.
Don’t stop here… post your own.
We all know the sound, but did you know what sort of guitar it came from. I didn’t until I saw this video. this is a Cigar Box Guitar. They are an old “home made” guitar made popular in Delta Blues guitarist from back in the Depression days. I think they sound fantastic.
Here are a couple of site worth checking out if you want to find out some more. I think I’m going to make me one.
