John Lennon Revolution Casino Electric Guitar Review
August 26, 2008 by Chazders · Leave a Comment
Used in the latter part of his career with the Beatles (most notably on the Revolver sessions) and for much of his solo work, Lennon’s Casino was a highly personalized instrument that reflected much his maverick spirit. Purchased by Lennon in 1965, the hollowbody originally had a sunburst finish and a pickguard. By 1968, however, in the search for a more resonant sound, Lennon had stripped the finish and removed the pickguard, leaving only the natural, instantly recognizable guitar that he is so often associated with. In order to reproduce the instrument as perfectly as possible, representatives form the Epiphone company paid a visit to the legendary instrument a the late Beatle’s New York apartment, where it had been stored, virtually untouched, since his death. Precise measurements of the guitar were taken and tests performed on it, and the findings returned to Epiphone’s Nashville factory.
The results of all this research is the “Revolution” Casino, and eerily “alive” guitar that features a hollow, laminated maple body and top, mahogany neck, two Alnico V P-90 single-coil pickups and a no-nonsense control layout featuring a three-way pickup selector and two volume and two tone pots. As on Lennon’s guitar, the top-mounted screw and spacer for the pickguard are still in place, and there is even an unfilled
screw hole on the bottom side of the guitar where the pickguard would have anchored. The natural satin finish feels refreshingly woody, and the 22-fret neck plays like butter. However, guitarists who like to engage in upper-register wailing should be warned that, like all Casinos and Gibson ES-330s, this guitar’s neck joint is at the 14th fret, making it difficult to play comfortably anywhere about the 17th fret.
The combination of P-90s and hollowbody construction has always yielded great results, and this guitar is no exception. The Casino has an organic, almost spongy tone that imparts clean chords with a bell-like roundness, while distorted tones are throaty and rude. The guitar’s rich harmonic content makes virtually any amp sound like it’s running in some sort of Vox-like Class A configuration, and through and old Vox the “Revolution” Casino would certainly sound, well—one can only imagine.
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Jenson P10R Speaker Review
If one of your guitar-playing buddies walks up to you and says, “I’ve got the blues,” it could mean one of three things: he just found out his girlfriend’s nick-name is “Back Door Bertha,” he’s a drug pusher or he just had some Jensen P10R speakers installed in his amp. Known as the “blue cap,” “blue bell” or “blue frame,” the original Jensen P10R is considered the ultimate guitar speaker by many tone connoisseurs, and with good reason.
Epiphone Prophecy EM-2 FX Guitar
August 12, 2008 by Chazders · Leave a Comment
While we all know Gibson and Epiphone are both well-known for their SG and Les Paul guitar-style, however, what makes Prophecy EM-2 extraordinary, is the construction of the “swept-C” body-style. Interesting enough, the guitar looks more like an axe made hybrid by Schecter and Steinberger (Steinberger is a division of Gibson). The Prophecy EM-2 FX is a guitar with an edge-cutting design manufactured by Epiphone.
Main Product Features
At first glance, I noticed the Epiphone Prophecy EM-2 FX comes in a very tempting color: Midnight Ebony Quilted Maple Top. The tops are flawlessly chosen to give the finish a beautified swirled look. The EM-2 is crowned off with white binding that goes around the top-edge of the body.
The guitar has mixed-color hardware—the tuning pegs, tremolo bar and pick-up selector are black, while the control knobs are silver, which enhance the beauty of the ‘blade’ inlays.
Another thing that is impressive about the EM-2 guitar is that, despite being very modestly priced, is that it features high quality hardware. Every FX guitar comes standard with an Original Floyd Rose tremolo system and Grover Tuners, giving the guitar rock n roll flexibility, while vigorously holding tune.
All FX guitars come with authentic EpiActive humbucker pick-ups. EpiActive pick-ups are now being commonly used in recent Epiphone guitars, and are considered to be on par with EMG pick-ups. In addition, EpiActives can also be used in passive mode to provide a traditional output without the need for a battery.
The EM-2 body-style screams rock n roll - achieved with Epiphone’s patented “swept-C” cutaway that gives you comfortable access to all 24-frets, which you’ll be thankful for when you crank up the volume and start soloing. In fact, Epiphone actually made the first EM-2 styled guitars back in the early 90s when Grunge was the frenzy, and this EM-2 Custom FX features the same dedicated reverse Explorer-style headstock as its bona-fide-brothers.
END THOUGHT
The Epiphone Prophecy EM-2 FX is a solid guitar, high quality components, and great playability, all for a very modest price tag of $399. Go test drive one for yourself, you won’t be disappointed.
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AC/DC To Film New ‘Black Ice’ Video In August
July 30, 2008 by Chazders · 3 Comments
Radio show host, Eddie Trunk of XMs Boneyard (who has a long-time-standing with radio show, “Friday Night Rocks”, on New York’s channel Q104.3 FM) informs us that Australian hard rockers AC/DC are heading to London England early August to shoot a video for the first off their new album, “Black Ice”. Read more
The Gibson Holy V Guitar - Only 1000 Being Made
July 26, 2008 by Chazders · Leave a Comment
Having come up with such guitars as the Les Paul and Flying V, among others, Gibson is known for innovation, creativity and spirit. The Gibson Holy-V is a representation of this continuing ingenuity, with its unique body and headstock. Like most Gibson guitars of the month, January 2009—is Gibson’s latest testament to their imagination. Production is quite limited—just 1,000 of these are being made, making it both a collector’s item and a good guitar for both the amateur and the pro guitarist.
The Main Features
One of the most noticeable things about the Holy V is the holes (vented openings) that are found in the V-shaped body and headstock of the guitar. These holes are carefully carved into the body and the headstock, so as to make the guitar the lightest Gibson to date and gives an intense aesthetic effect. Indeed, the guitar has the same tonal sound quality of a traditional Gibson Flying V, while it’s said that the vented cavities provide for more sustain, we should all agree that the light weight creativity is a unique feature in itself.
Another thing people will notice about the guitar is the gearless tuners. There are no tuning pegs on the headstock, which gives the headstock a very distinctive look. Every Holy V is fitted with Steinberger Gearless Tuners which are noted for their smooth tuning action and accuracy and are said to prevent string slippage.
The Gibson Holy V also features a 24-fret ebony fingerboard, making it ideal for guitarists who need the extra two frets for soloing. While the Flying V is usually considered to be a guitar appropriate for metal/hard rock guitarists, the Holy V can handle many types of music. So if you’re a classic rock or modern rock guitarist, you’ll still find something to like about this guitar.
Among the Holy V’s other features are the beautiful split diamond inlays, a mahogany set-neck construction (for better sustain), solid mahogany body with a Tune-O-Matic bridge and a ‘57 classic pickup, supplying the classic Gibson PAF crunch and power.
While the Holy-V is an expensive guitar, for all that it features and uniqueness; is worth it?
MSRP $2799 but can be found as low as $1839. The Gibson Holy-V will not be available until January 2009. However some music stores will allow you to pre-order.
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Reverend Announces the Roundhouse RT Guitar
July 19, 2008 by Chazders · Leave a Comment
Reverend announced the Roundhouse RT guitar yesterday, the latest addition to their Set-Neck Series. The Reverend Roundhouse RT Guitar is a Les Paul look-alike guitar Read more
Carvin Legacy VL212 Combo Review
July 9, 2008 by Chazders · Leave a Comment
We were more than a bit surprised when this underrated, business-like amp slipped from its cardboard carton. No fluorescent floral Tolex? No trans-dimensional quantum drive? Not even a monkey grip? Steve Vai designed this, didn’t he? Read more
How to rate your amplifier speaker cabinet ? - properly hook it up
July 4, 2008 by Chazders · Leave a Comment
Why is it that when manufactures rate their stereo amplifiers at say, 40 watts, the back panel will usually read 20×20? Is that really 40 watts? And if I run two 60-watt mono amps through a stereo signal processor, using one amp for each channel, does that make 120 watts? I’m also very confused about matching heads and cabinets. Could you explain the whole ohm thing?
Chad Baker
Irvine California
Everyone has heard the terms “peak” and “RMS” power; they’re the most commonly used power measurements, RMS stands for “Root Mean Square,” and is a mathematical averaging of an amp’s ability to deliver clean, undistorted power. “Peak” generally refers to the maximum power capability of an amp, full blown and distorted. An amp’s peak power is usually just short of twice RMS rating. So, if each channel of your stereo amp is rated at 20 watts RMS, you’ll have a sum total of 40-watts RMS. But, the peak power, depending on the amp’s design, will be around 80-watts or so (combined). These numbers hold true whether you have a single stereo amp or two separate mono amps (60W X 60W = 120W).
Now to the more complex part of your question. Dead German physicist George Simon Ohm’s law is R=E/I (I=Current [amps], E=Electromotive Force [volts] and R=Resistance/Impedance [ohms].) When we flip it around for our guitar amp purpose we get:
(R1)(R2) Impendence of two
———- = speakers in a parallel circuit
R1 + R2
This formula will work for the majority of cabinets. The other type of wiring is called “series,” and is generally found only in the internal circuits of cabinets. If you need to calculate the impedance of a series circuit, just add up the resistance (R1+R2+R3=cab impedance).
Generally, you won’t need to do any heavy math for most amp/cab combinations, because if you are using two matching cabinets in parallel, all you have to do is divide the impedances in two. For example, the impedance of two 16ohm cabinets is 8ohm. But if you get stuck with two mismatched cabinets, let’s say one at 16ohm and the other at 8ohm; you’ll have to use the big formula to arrive at an impedance of 5.33ohm. In this situation, you could set your amplifier to 4ohm without doing any damage, but the 8ohm cabinets will be doing twice the work and be much louder than the 16ohm cabinet—not good for the speakers and a waste of the power-handling capabilities of the 16ohm cab. Its best not use mismatched cabinets. You run the risk of damaging your amp, like Marshall, Hiwatt and Soldano, have speaker jacks wired in parallel with a selector to produce the right impedance from the output transformer. With this type of setup, you simply do the math and plug in. On Fender and Mesa Boogie amps you’ll find one jack labeled 8ohm and, usually, two others, labeled 4ohm. If you have one 8ohm cabinet, plug it into the 8ohm jack; if you have two 8ohm cabinets, plug them into the 4ohm jacks.
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