DEAN ZELINSKY: I Can No Longer Attach My Name To Quality And Direction Of DEAN GUITARS

Today Gear-Vault received information that Dean Zelinsky, founder of Dean Guitars, announced that he has parted ways with Dean Guitars, the company that he founded in 1977. Read more

What’s Tremolo and how does it work?

Tremolo suffers from an acute identity crisis. Thanks to various descriptive errors made in the Fifties, tremolo is frequently mistaken for vibrato. For the record, tremolo is a rhythmic pulse produced by a change in volume over a set clock rate; Read more

Story of the Instruments Strings

The very utterance of the word ‘guitar’ conjures a series of varying and fleeting images in one’s mind. Though mostly associated with the long haired, head banging rock stars, guitar also conveys or signifies various other connotative meanings as well, mostly above all the Freedom of Expression. Despite the fact that this string instrument in the modern times is perceived as a symbol of articulation of free thoughts, it has been now confirmed that guitar has its history and origin sometime in the first century in the Roman Civilizations.

In spite of its germination in first century, it was not until around 1200 AD that this instrument started resembling its present day counterpart in terms of the shape, appearance and functioning, for the first time and this feat is generally credited to the Hispanics, Moors and the Norse. The saga of the modern day guitar more or less starts with Gaetano Vinaccia, a resident of Naples who lived in the mid 18th and early 19th century. Another set of important names that have been historically associated with vintage guitars are those of Antonio Torres Jurado and Louis Panormo, both having significant contributions in the make or construction of the instrument. All these were howbeit, facts related to the traditional, classical acoustic guitar. It was George Beauchamp of Texas, USA along with Adolph Rickenbacher of Switzerland who jointly founded the guitar manufacturing company “Rickenbacher” and patented Electric guitars; though the mass production was first started by “Danelectro”.

The chronicles of vintage electric guitars witnessed an era of emergence and development of various new ideas in terms of style, design, etc. in and around the time of the Second World War. One of the pioneering names from this period is that of American jazz guitarist and inventor Les Paul. Among his groundbreaking contributions are those of striking the correct balance with a pickup, bridge and neck of a guitar leading to the solutions of problems involving the sustaining and feedback of sound. He also experimented with the effects such as phaser and delay and made important innovations which were to be popularized by musicians in decades to come. His model of guitar, manufactured by Gibson Guitar Corporation became known as the “Gibson Les Paul” and went on to become one of the most familiar instruments in different genres like jazz, blues, rock, metal and have been associated with figures like Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, Slash, Adrian Smith and Ted Nugent among others.

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The only other name that appears in the same row as Les Paul in the story of vintage guitars is that of Leo Fender of USA. His model of “Esquire” and “Broadcaster” (later changed to “Telecaster”) was nearly synonymous with early popular music like boogie woogie, R&B, swing, honky tonk, etc. It was however with “Stratocaster”, launched in the early 1950s, that he struck gold. With its solid body and bolt-on neck joint, the very name invoke names of its eminent users including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Ritchie Blackmore, David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray to mention a few.

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Epiphone Riviera Semi Hollow Body Electric Guitar Review

The Riviera is a perfect example of Epiphone’s ability to rival parent Gibson in quality and playability. It’s a kissing cousin to the Gibson ES-335, set apart by its mini-humbuckers and “Frequensator” tailpiece. Read more

Washburn HB-35 Hollowbody Electric Guitar Review

Washburn puts just enough spin on the HB-35 to make it both a strong contender for the Gibson ES-335 customer and a viable alternative to the ES-335 clonedom. The body’s cutaways are a shade wider and less like the “mouse ears” of standard ES-335s, and the extra handroom really does provide greater access to the upper frets. The body is covered front, sides and back with the deliciously tight-flamed sycamore (a close relative of maple) in a pale golden yellow natural finish (tobacco sunburst and whine red finishes are also available). The rosewood fingerboard, ornamented with variations on split block inlays, has an open grain which is sealed, leaving a surface that’s attractive and silky smooth. The gold hardware (including Grover Tuners and a Tune-O-Matic bridge) is an appropriately regal touch, making the Washburn the most handsomely appointed guitar of the batch.

The attention to detail extends to the workmanship and playability, too. The neck is a solid-maple affair, with a wide, mildly V-shaped contour. A scarf joint at the headstick is added for strength. The frets are medium-tall and somewhat triangular, and the sides of the fingerboard are slightly rounded for a friendly “played-in” feel.

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The setup, with .011-.049 strings, including a wound G, was perhaps the best of all the guitars straight out of the case from our hollowbody review models. The action was boldly low, yet free of buzzes, and the heavier strings and triangular frets contributed to a firm and precise feel.

Clean amp settings unveiled a somewhat dark neck pickup and a refreshingly open bridge pickup that country players will love. The pickups work well as a pair, but I suspect a pickup swap would add some fresh air to the neck position. On the other hand, the pickup combination made perfect sense when sent through overdriven amp settings. The pickup growled on command, and the neck pickup had a smoky jazz tone that cleaned up well. The combo position retained its identity even as high-volume leads sent the responsive tope into resonant feedback.

The End Line

Looks great, feels great, sounds great. You could cover a lot of gigs on this axe. If it sold for close to two grand, I’d call it a great guitar. At a list price of $949, it’s a bargain to boot.

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Jackson Kelly KE3 Pro Review

Jackson guitars have always offered aggressive looks and sound coupled with high-quality workmanship. Their KE Pro series brings all the upscale Jackson elements to a very attractive price point. Based on the Kelly, the KE3 has a sharply chiseled Explorer-like body shape, with Jackson’s signature pointy headstock. The nearly -$1,400 difference between Marty Friedman’s favorite axe and the KE3 is really not so huge: the tremolo is a JT580LP Floyd Rose License, not original; the pickups are Seymour Duncan’s Jazz and JB and the neck is bolted on, all of which add up to a great deal.

The KE3 has an alder body and a maple neck of wide, oval proportions. The headstock is attached with a scarf joint behind the fist two frets, adding strength at the nut—an important detail when dealing with the extra routing necessary to accommodate a locking nut. The rosewood fretboard is fitted with 24 wide, near-jumbo frets, which are superbly crowned and polished. Jackson’s trademark “shark fin” inlays, done in a rich pearloid plastic, are inlaid to the neck with admirable neatness. Our review model arrived dressed in Black (Transparent Red, Blue and Black are also available as well as Cobalt Blue, Swirl and Skulls), all black hardware, including black tuners, and black locking nut and tremolo and a single black volume knob.

Plugged in, the KE3 really came to life. The Seymour Duncan Jazz SH2N and JB TB4 pickups, in neck and bridge position respectively, are bold and brawny, high-output humbuckers with a hard-assed bite that can be felt even through clean amp settings. But don’t peg them as one-trick ponies: each pickup alone offers some enticing colors, particularly with the volume rolled back a couple of notches, and the combinations of the two makes for a fine clean rhythm or lead tone.

But let’s face it, the axe was made to cut eardrums, and so most of my playing time was spent with the KE3 pumped through a Marshall JCM800 and a ProCo Rat distortion pedal. The resulting sound was capable of rearranging furniture and small pets in the house across the street. The bottom end on this guitar is something the U.N. should sanction. Muted rhythms take on a tribal percussiveness, and leads sound like they’re doubled with tap-dancing gorillas. The treble had to be rolled back a bit from my usual “everything on seven” setting, however, since a hint of microphonic squeal could be coaxed from the pickups with a tap of the pick. Still, the KE3 delivers some awesome muscularity along with radical good looks and solid craftsmanship.

For those who wish to single eyebrows and swill Jaegermeister on a Budweiser budget, Jackson’s KE3 Pro is your weapon of choice.

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