The 6260 100-watt head model shares many key components with its Bugera counterparts, something that trims down production costs. in addition, with the Bugera’s similar chassis metalwork and cabinetry dimensions, the models share the same power and OT (output transformer) designs. The amplifier’s transformers are generally its most pricey components, and the OT is a particularly important contributor to overall tonal qualities (as for any amp.)

According to Behringer’s leading cheif, Uli Behringer, the company developed and refined the perplexing design details and sound of the Bugera’s OT for over a year. With that kind of boutique-like dedication for detail, it’s obvious the Bugera crew is truly serious.

Similar to all of the Bugera amp designs models, the 6260 sports four output tubes (which all of the tubes reside in high-quality ceramic sockets). And for you hardcore tone maniacs, all of Bugeras are integrated with a select switch that changes the amp from either 6L6 or EL34 operation, and a conveniently placed top-mounted bias pot with RCA test-jack makes it easy to check, fine tune and tweak your amp’s bias on the fly.

The 6260 shape an especially collaborative bond with the exceptionally smooth – deep – and rich sounding Bugera 412H – BK 4×12 speaker cabinet. It’s obvious that the Bugera team did a lot research and experimenting to design speakers that so flawlessly complement the sound of the 6260 head; you will have to hear them together to get the inclusive Bugera experience. The amazing thing is the Bugera speakers are made in their factory. It’s easy to understand why the Bugera speakers match the head so seamlessly when you play it first-hand, you will hear for yourself how Bugera’s manufacturing capabilities allow the company to perfect their amp / speaker performance so readily.

The 6260 w/ 412H – BK halfstack is a serious rock-n-roll machine. And while the clean channel is indeed capable of crisp and punchy clean sounds (especially with vintage-style single-coil or PAFs pickups), this rig was clearly born to kick ass and take names. Engaging the clean channel’s crunch mode drives up the gain with a more aggressive upper-midrange tonage that barks back with Pitbull-like authority, and amazingly, it’s equally effective with either single-coils or humbuckers.

The lead channel increases the gain with more perfected voicing, upper-mid-range emphasis and a leaner, trimmer and more percussive low-end that handles down-tuned and 7-string guitars flawlessly. Despite the tonal personality, the lead channel sounds fat thanks to the cab’s exceptionally thick bottom-end thump. It’s truly amazing how seamlessly both amp channels work together and how many great sounds are available from so few controls.

The Bugera 6260 is much like the Peavey 5150 in so many ways.

Gear-Vault Classifieds is an eBay alternative. Come sell your used guitars and amps with us, for free!

I’m always excited when new pedals are released. One of the more recent releases was Seymour Duncan’s Twin Tube Mayhem SFX-04, which is a balls-to-the-wall full-range tube driven distortion pedal jam-packed with welcoming features. It comes with your standard EQ–Treble, Mid, and Bass controls but a great added feature is the mid boost switch from 600hz to 1.4khz. The Mayhem also has a foot-switchable boost that you can set to either +4dB or +8dB. Loaded with gain, the Mayhem is perfect for hard rock, old school metal to death metal and everything in between.

Application

Rugged High-Quality guitar preamp with built in 4dB or 8dB boost. The Mayhem uses a duet of premium, mil-spec, subminiature, USA-made Phillips-Sylvania 62051 pentode preamp-tubes. Perfect for hard rock, new metal, thrash, death and doom.

Description

The high plate voltage and 100% vacuum tube signal path allow the preamp-tubes to operate at their fullest potential and provide maximum dynamic range. Additional gain is achieved with a high voltage, low noise, discrete Class A input stage. The solid state input stage increases the resistance of the stomp-box to microphonics. The result is maximum dynamic range, the most gain, and the heaviest tone you would expect from a great tube preamp voiced for hard rock and metal. Also features user-selectable 4dB or 8dB boost for pre-setting rhythm and lead levels. True bypass. Fully encapsulated toroidal transformer for quiet operation. As expected, you can trust that the Seymour Duncan Mayhem is built with a rugged heavy duty steel chassis, with the hardcore guitarist in mind.

Gear-Vault Classifieds is an eBay alternative. Come sell your used guitars and amps with us, for free!

“These new songs are a lot of fun to play,” says Ulrich. “Traditionally I think we’ve been a little conservative when we’ve started off with two songs, three songs (from the new album). We’re going to hit the ground running here. We’re probably gonna learn all of them and play, I hope, at least five a night and probably rotate ‘em so we get a lot of new songs in. That’s one thing I’m definite about.”

Metallica is happy to have dates booked as late of August of 2009, will again be playing in the round, though Ulrich says the production will be “a completely different thing than what we’ve done before.” He says that there will be “a big-ass fuckin’ lighting rig above us, and there’s some pretty cool stuff up there. There’ll be some shit that turns on and off and some shit that blows up… the usual stuff.”

Ulrich says the band is also similarly enthused about the reception to “Death Magnetic,” Metallica’s first set of new material since 2003’s “St. Anger.” The album topped The Billboard 200 for three consecutive weeks and has sold a million copies already in the U.S. and 2.5 million around the world.

“It’s just an overwhelming, positive thing,” Ulrich says. “You couldn’t have told me a month ago or six months ago that we would have a record that would be this well-received. It seems like it’s so universal this time and it’s all over the world and everybody’s so into it on so many different levels–the fans, press, the peers… everybody.”

“I’m a little overwhelmed, humbled… and certainly appreciative. When you put out a record twice a decade, which is kind of what we find ourselves doing these days, you bask in it a little bit.”

Of course you are Lars, you’re selling lots of albums and have shows booked into August 2009. Glad the album is a success.

Gear-Vault Classifieds is an eBay alternative. Come sell your used guitars and amps with us for free!

On September 16, 1977, just after five in the morning, an Austin Mini carrying English rocker Mark Bolan and driven by Bolan’s girlfriend, Gloria Jones, swerved off a road in Barnes Common, England, and crashed into a tree. The 29-year-old Bolan, who had never learned to drive, was hurled from the passenger seat into the back of the car and killed instantly.

While he began his career as a trippy-hippy in an acoustic and bongo duo, Bolan is best remembered for his work fronting T.Rex, the electric-pop-boogie band that is often credited with giving birth to the British glam rock movement of the early Seventies.

On the strength of two classic albums,1971’s Electric Warrior and 1972’s The Slider, as well as a flurry of strong singles, among them “Bang a Gong (Get It On),” T.Rex enjoyed enormous success in England in the first two years of the leisure-suit decade, topping the charts repeatedly and inspiring millions of young teenyboppers to fits of frenzy unseen since the rise of the Beatles. Unfortunately, T.Rex, despite numerous attempts, were unable to repeat their success in the United States, and their popularity in the UK waned rapidly as the public grew tired of the band’s essentially stagnant musical formula.

Ironically, at the time of his fatal accident, Bolan was enjoying something of a comeback. His final album, Dandy in the Underworld, charted respectably and was proof positive that his creative juices were once again beginning to flow. At the same time, the diminutive rocker’s cred was given a huge boost when the leaders of England’s punk revolution, who had come of age at the height of T.Rex mania, frequently cited T.Rex as one of their most important influences, embracing Bolan as the “Godfather of Punk.”

After Bolan’s death, his body was cremated. His memorial plaque, along with those of the Who’s keith Moon, T.S. Elliot and Sigmund Freud, can be found at Golden’s Green Crematorium in London.

Gear-Vault Classifieds is an eBay alternative. Come sell your used guitars and amps with us, for free!

White Korina wood, also known as African limba, provides a thick solid tone much like mahogany. Korina wood is also the same high-quality wood used for many of the early [Gibson] Flying Vs and Explorers that now demand such high dollar. Notably, a Korina wood Ibanez Destroyer guitar had played a large part in Eddie Van Halen’s legendary “brown” sound. A nice piece of lightweight wood, like the ones used to construct the Korina McCarty guitars, provides renowned dimensionality and depth, screaming highs, rich rounded mids, thick lows while providing vocal-like velvety warmth backed with tremendous sustain.

The Korina McCarty’s body is carved from sold slab of Korina wood, as is the 22-fret thick-wide neck. For those who have not played the liked PRS carved neck, it’s a beefy C shape that’s positioned into the 25-scale body. The chrome-covered McCarty humbuckers are similar to the highly commended humbuckers in the standard McCartys, and a Duncan-wound soap-bar is offered as an option for those who want something a little more unique. Vintage style tuners and a fixed aluminum bridge add a touch of sparkle to the Korina McCarty’s highs.

Like the PRS Mira, the PRS Korina McCarty confirms that a guitar doesn’t need a maple top to sound excellent. The Korina produces all of mahogany’s warmth with more definition in the bass and a more dynamic response. The well-defined midrange harmonics are also dazzling—2nd-,3rd- and 4th-fret harmonics pop clearly from this McCarty, even with a clean amp setting. When needed, treble response can be sharp but not piercing. It’s a sound enthusiast call “refined” because the pronounced highs and loose lows are balanced to create a bolstering prominent midrange.

The PRS McCarty’s highly developed and defined tone just sings, but through an amp that has plentiful gain, it could be likened to Santana’s heavier sounds or when you turn up the gain or turn the treble down and comp out some cool jazz lines. Korina McCarty does every style well, rock, jazz, country, etc… The sound to remember.

PRS Korina McCarty Guitar.
prsguitars.com

Gear-Vault Classifieds is an eBay alternative. Come sell your used guitars and amps with us, for free!

“I put a Seymour Duncan pickup in the bridge position—I can’t remember which on but it may have been a Distortion,” Hanneman continues. “I had a Kahler tremolo put on her, too. Actually, the guy who put it in for me was the first guitarist in Megadeth, Chris Poland. I think he did it for 50 bucks! To do the paint job I taped up the pickups, dipped a stick in some red paint and just splashed it on there. I think I screwed some chains on her for awhile, too.”

Hanneman’s Les Paul appeared on both Slayer’s debut, Show No Mercy (1983), and the Haunting the Chapel mini album (1984). “It might have showed up on a couple of songs after that but I retired it before Reign in Blood (1986),” he says. “Like I said, I’d pretty much beat it to shit. I used to drop it on stage and let it bounce and I’d drag it across the stage by the lead too. I think it’s still playable but the neck is pretty tweaked!”

“My dad got me that ’77 BC Rich Mockingbird when I was about 16,” says Kerry King. “That was before strap-locks were real popular, and one time it just fell down and broke the headstock right off. I didn’t know what to tell my Dad! I was like, ‘Oh man, I might just as well move now, because I’ve got a gun shot coming to my head! He was cool about it, though, and we took it to the BC Rich factory to get it fixed. They put three rods in the neck where the head broke off, and we had it painted red too. It was natural koa wood before that. Had I known how cool the guitar was at the time, I’d have probably never had it painted.”

Like Hanneman, King had a Kahler whammy system added ti his guitar but left the pickups alone. “I’m pretty sure they’re the stock DiMarzios it came with—probably a Super Distortion [bridge] and a PAF [neck].” Also, like Hanneman, Kerry added his own personal touch to the axe. “I don’t think I did mine because Jeff did his, but it’s so long ago I don’t remember,” he laughs. “I got a little eight-ounce can of black paint, stuck a drum stick in it and dribbled paint all over the guitar—very musical!

“I used it on Show No Mercy, Haunting the Chapel and Hell Awaits (1985). I might have also used it on some Reign in Blood, but by then it was pretty much retired and replaced by a [BC Rich] Warlock.”

Gear-Vault Classifieds is an eBay alternative. Come sell your used guitars and amps with us, for free.

“I’ve added more midrange to my over sound. I can still appreciate my original scooped sound, but I need to feel the ground shake when I hit a chord. It hasn’t been any radical change in gear as much as it’s been a change in EQ. For Death Magnetic I used what I always use, which is my standard touring rack, which is filled with some [Mesa] Boogie stuff and a Marshall that I’ve had forever. I also used the new Randall amp that I helped design and Greg Fidelman, our engineer, turned James [Hetfield] and me onto Ampeg heads. Ampegs made incredible guitar heads in the early Nineties and then stopped. And I don’t know why. The one we used had a nice clean, warm sound, and it blended well with the other amps that were in the studio.

I’m a total vintage freak and would have liked to use more of my collectible amps, but we got the sound that worked for the sonic context, and I really didn’t want to make it more complicated. The same goes for guitars. I used a few vintage guitars here and there. I think I used a ’58 Paul and a ’59 Tele on some clean stuff, but overall, almost everything is done with my ESP Mummy and Caution guitar, which is the original “Skully” [KH-2 Kirk Hammett signature] guitar—the very first ESP guitar, from 1987.”

And that’s what Hammett has to say about that!

So, now let us ask the Gear-Vault readers. Do you like Metallica’s Death Magnetic Guitar Tone?

Gear-Vault Classifieds is an eBay alternative. Come sell your used guitars and amps with us, for free!

The BONES front panel features consist of Input, Gain, Bass, Bright switch, Boost switch, Middle, Treble, Voicing L/M/H switch, Depth, Presence, and Master controls as well as Power and Standby switches. The Voicing L/M/H is a 3-way switch that selects between 2, 3 or 4 stages of gain. This function really changes the tone and feel of the amplifier giving you an astounding array of sounds. From succulent, vibrant cleans to blazing, cabinet erupting high gain overdrive, it’s like having three totally different amps! The rear panel includes 5 LOUDSPEAKERS, AC input, 4-Bias controls and test points, jacks and if requested, the following optional features (FX loop, Lineout with level, Footswitch & MIDI). The individual Bias controls are a powerful feature and tool for tapping into more tonal possibilities with the BONES amp. You can also mix and match different tube types together for virtually unlimited variety of tones.

BONES Chassis mounted components are wired, “flying lead” design, to a 1/8″ thick, 4oz weighted FR4 PCB. All ceramic tube sockets, sealed stainless steel shafted pots, metal jacks, metal switches, custom designed precision wound power, choke and output transformers are mounted to a rugged14 gauge brushed stainless steel chassis. Front and back panel are clear anodized brushed alloy with laser etched lettering that will not wear off. Housed in a ¾-inch birch-ply head case, accented with custom black aluminum anodized metal grills and a ¼-inch thick machined alloy logo plate. Premium components are used throughout, combined with solid, reliable design that will last several lifetimes over.

BONES FEATURES & SPECIFICATIONS:

World Mains 100/110/120/220/230/240 VAC 50/60HZ.
VOICING L/M/H selects between 2, 3 or 4 stages of gain.
4 - 12AX7s (1 x 12AT7 FX Loop) & 4 x Power tubes in any combinations of EL34, 6CA7, KT77, 6L6, 5881, KT66, 6550, KT88, KT90, KT100. Class-AB, 100 to 180 watts
4 - BIAS locking pots.
RMS, depending on types of power tubes used.
Fully regulated preamp DC heaters for an ultra low noise floor.
Optional FX Loop, Lineout w/ level control and other footswitching and MIDI options.
Marriage of PCB and Point-to-Point assembly.

Approx Street price: $2575.00

Visit Fortin Amps web site at www.fortinamps.com.

Gear-Vault Classifieds is an eBay alternative. Come sell your used guitars and amps with us, for free!

Hail the Gibson Robot Guitar! The Gibson Robot Guitar was awarded with the prestigious “Best Music Hardware Award” at the BT Digital Music Awards 2008. The BT Digital Music Awards now in its 7th year was held at the Roundhouse in London on Wednesday October 1st.

The Gibson Robot guitar is the world’s first electric guitar with robotic technology and beat stiff competition from the Motorola ROKR E8 and Ripserver. The Best Music Hardware Award in association with Stuff Magazine was decided upon by a panel of prominent industry judges. The Gibson Robot Guitar was sighted for its innovation, style, usability and price point among additional features.

The Gibson Robot Guitar is known for eliminating tuning problems for guitarists. The Robot Guitar automatically tunes to standard A440 tuning. In addition, it allows players to access six programmed tuning presets at the push of a button. The Gibson Robot intonates seconds after string changes, truss rod adjustments or change in weather conditions. Ultimately, with the locking tuner, single string changes or changing the entire set of strings is an automated luxury.

The annual Digital Music Awards were presented by TV’s Fearne Cotton and Rufus Hound and was filmed for ITV2. Bands performing in between the awards included Sugababes, Ida Maria, British Sea Power, Sam Beeton, Fightstar and Iglu & Hartly.

Thirteen of the 20 awards given were voted for online and the remaining seven by a panel of industry experts.

Gibson Robots official website: http://www.gibson.com/robotguitar/

Gear-Vault Classifieds is an eBay alternative. Come sell your used guitars and amps with us, for free!

That’s because whatever Kiss has lacked in finesse and skill, they surely make up for with sizzle and sheer business savvy. Instead of spending the rest of their loves playing grimy bars in New York, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Frehley and Peter Criss put on wild kabuki make-up, devised all sorts of onstage parlor tricks, and eventually became the greatest show on earth—think of them as the rock equivalent of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Baily Circus. In fact, if you look at the entire Kiss oeuvre, the band’s motto has always seemed to be “Let us entertain you.” Certainly, if there was any group that put the term “show biz” into the rock music lexicon, it was none other than Kiss.

Now on to the show…

Kiss began as a four-piece in New York City, circa 1972. Bass player Gene Simmons (born Chaim Whitz, later Gene Klein) and guitarist Paul Stanley (a.k.a Stanley Eisen) had covered Beatles tunes in Wicked Lester, but wanted to form a glam-rock band, using clown and kabuki make-up as their original contribution to the genre. After answering an advertisement in New York paper, Paul Frehley joined the band as lead guitarist. From the outset, the band was never taken seriously. Their riffs were admittedly stolen from the best sources (“Firehouse” from Zepplin’s “Misty Mountain Hop,” for instance), their songs never ventured far from four-chord format, and what they lacked in technical ability they made up in volume and stage presence.

Despite the protests of his modern-day fans, Frehley was hardly a lead-guitar innovator; the majority of his solos relied on bending single notes over and over (although his pick-tapping solos were precursors to Eddie Van Halen’s popular two-handed taps).

Stanley was a stock rhythm guitar player—no better of worse than thousands of others—and Simmons was about as generic a hard-rock bassist as you could get. But all that was beside the point: Kiss put on the best rock shows in the world. To make their concerts even more spectacular, they would line up dozens of empty speaker cabinets onstage to make it seem like Kiss had the biggest guitar amplification system on planet Earth. To Kiss’ credit, the audience bought it. But if you consider that the ‘70s were the “bigger is better” decade (remember, Smokey & The Bandit was considered a real gem of a movie in its day), this shouldn’t be surprising. Although it was a fun decade for entertainment, no one has ever characterized the 1970s as the decade of good taste.

The first three Kiss studio albums were relatively nondescript affairs, but the aptly titled Alive! Double disk served up all the fury, frenzy, and fire (literally) of a Kiss concert. One of the great ironies here is that few people had heard of Kiss before the live set came out. So just who were all those people that filled the coliseum show on the back cover? Like Peter Frampton, whose Frampton Comes Alive! would create the same mystery the following year, Kiss already had a deeply loyal fan base that could fill the rafters whenever the band hit town. It was just that the wider world hadn’t heard of them. . . yet, that is.

With the release of Alive!, however, the band found its “overnight” success, and whetted the public’s appetite for a studio album that would deliver the same high-volume rock goods. Since most of the world had never listened to any of the band’s studio records, Kiss had to come up with something that would not be snickered at. Fortunately, the band succeeded. By all accounts, then and now, Destroyer was an exceptional rock album; not from the standpoint of technical guitar playing, but from the marriage of big guitar songs with studio technology. Under the guidance of producer Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd), the band came up with a well-arranged, deftly orchestrated set. Utilizing harmony guitars on “Detroit Rock City” and “Shout It Out Loud,” thundering power chords on “Do You Love Me,” and eerie riffing on “God Of Thunder,” Ezrin got more mileage than most people expected out of Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley. The solos were well-choreographed (especially “Detroit Rock City”) but never felt forced or stilted. The record’s success was due as much to the guitarists’ ability to make pomp rock sound raw and reckless as for Ezrin’s technical direction.

To further build up the growing Kiss tsunami, the band appeared on national TV, landing a prime spot on comedian Paul Lynde’s 1976 Halloween special. Like the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, this was the first chance many teenagers had to witness the band’s dazzling performance power. After burning all over “Detroit Rock City,” Peter Chris gently crooned his way through the ballad “Beth” (all lip-synched, of course) and, in a flash, Kiss had instantly turned every 13-year-old American into a charter member of the Kiss Army, as their fan base was called. Kissmania had begun.

After Destroyer, and the breakthrough success of “Beth”—a piano single—Kiss embarked on a long and arduous journey that continues to this day. Rock And Roll Over, Love Gun, Alive II, and Double Platinum followed, as did the release of simultaneous solo albums, which despite “shipping platinum” reportedly didn’t sell too well. Considered a brilliant public relations ploy, little memorable music was created here, with the exception of Frehley, who had shown that he was capable of both writing and playing his own material, gaining airplay with “New Your Groove.” But the band members began to suffer form their own glam excesses—especially Frehley. Sinking deeper into drugs and drink, he became reckless (wrecking cars seemed to be an ongoing pastime) and alienated himself from the other members of the band, especially Simmons and Stanley, who were notorious control freaks.

Frehley departed from the band bitterly in 1982 after a series of poorly conceived and received albums, notably The Elder and Creatures Of The Night. He was replaced by Vinnie Vincent, a Frehley look-alike who was technically a better player than Ace. Upon hiring Vincent, Kiss removed its make-up and shored up its career with Lick It Up, a surprising return to its early simplicity. Though a skilled player, Vincent was apparently even more difficult to manage than Frehley, and he was tossed out by Simmons and Stanley. Contemorary metal flash Mark St. John was hired in 1984 for Animalize, but he was soon diagnosed as having Reiter’s Syndrome and was unable to continue playing with the band (he later worked briefly with Peter Criss).

Kiss finally settled on New Yorker Bruce Kulick, formerly of the band Blackjack (featuring local singer Michael Bolotin, who later shortened his name to “Bolton”). In retrospect, he was probably the most well rounded guitarist to ever join the Kiss ranks. While he had to play much of Frehley’s material over the years, he was instrumental in the band’s return to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a hard-rock band par excellence. With Kulick, the band recorded 1992’s Revenge, which pushed them back to a popularity rivaling their Destroyer days. Interestingly, Vinnie Vincent also received co-writing credit on that album.

Frehley continued on, post-Kiss, with a checkered solo career, releasing albums under his own name and with a loose outfit he called Frehley’s Comet. Surprisingly, he emerged as one of the biggest influences on the guitarists of early ‘90s metal, notably Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell and Anthrax’s Scott Ian; even country-pop sensation Garth Brooks turned out to be a huge fan. In hindsight, this may have more to do with Frehley’s stage antics and simple power chords than any technical proficiency. Still, as a guitarist, he is appreciated—even worshipped—more in retrospect than he ever was during his tenure with Kiss.

As for the larger Kiss phenomenon, rock critics are still scratching their heads looking for answers. But pop culture is a tricky beast, and it’s often heard to figure out a rational reason why one celebrity vehicle flies and why another goes down the toilet. Perhaps the best explanation behind Kiss’ success is just what any of their fans will tell you (that is, before they punch you in the teeth). And that is simply that Kiss writes great kick-ass rockers, looks cooler than anyone else, and is perhaps the best freakin’ live band in the world. Now, 30+ years after their heyday, the Kiss juggernaut rolls on, even earning their own segment on MTV’s Unplugged. After all the back-biting and mudslinging, there was Stanley, Simmons, Kulick and new drummer Eric Singer joined onstage by Ace Frehley and Peter Criss for rollicking acoustic versions of “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “Nothin’ To Lose,” plus a new tack on “Beth.” And judging by all the smiles and fist-pumping from the audience, you could tell that many of these same fans were the ones who watched the Paul Lynde Halloween special, all those many years ago. This, if nothing else, proves that the Kiss Army is alive and well. Amen to that.

Gear-Vault Classifieds is an eBay alternative. Come sell your used guitars and amps with us, for free!