Hands On

Hands On Product Review - Summer Music Gear Round-Up 2009

1. Long Horn Bass (Danelectro)

Jack Bruce from Cream used this. It is almost too ugly, but the fact that someone back in ‘65 decided to just own up to the ugliness and call it the longhorn bass makes me feel a sort of affinity for it, like it knows that it’s ugly and the poor little thing just can’t help it. These are limited, and as I write may be sold out, and you and I both will probably regret not getting one when we had the chance. Yes, those are real “lipstick tubes” that house the magnets for the pickups. Legend has it that someone got that bright idea back in the ‘60s when the company ran out of pickup housings and was trying to cut costs for both guitar and bass pickups. Now they are a key part to many a musician’s sound.

Tested at the Green Shift Music
danelectro.com



2. Catalyst Fuzz (Fulltone Guitar Pedals)

I love fuzz pedals. Last month I reviewed the iconic Big Muff pedal, which is a very simple and timeless vintage design used on countless records. The main downfall of the horrid and beautiful fuzz pedal is the lack of versatility, and that usually you need to be running it through a Hendrix-era Marshall stack to get that right sound that you want. The namesake of Fulltone pedals is an obsessive-compulsive circuit board tweaker, well known in the music community for his eccentricities and the long list of famous musicians that use his products. His newest offering is the Catalyst Fuzz, a smaller pedal that takes the simple concept of a fuzz box and turns it into a science of tonal control, so that you can get just about any fuzz tone you could ever want out of it. Definitely a step towards the future, but with plenty of sounds of the past too. I scared a dozen old people out of the guitar store when testing this one. Heck yes it must be good.

Tested at Stevie B’s Total Guitar
fulltone.com



3. Model 210E Acoustic (Taylor Guitars)

Sometimes it is surprising that a company that makes $3,000-$10,000 guitars can still make a $799 guitar and just get everything right. The 210e is Taylor’s new working man-aimed entry-level acoustic-electric model, with their new ES-T undersaddle pickup, a laminated back and sides and a solid sitka spruce top. Very impressive, and good enough and inexpensive enough to tour the world with.


Tested at Legends Guitars
taylorguitars.com



4. The Green Bullet (Shure Microphones)

Yes, it is a reocurring theme. I like old cars, old motorcycles, old music gear, old whiskey, young girls, fast horses, and more money. Basically a variation of a saying on a belt buckle that my granddad used to have that probably scarred me for life. This simple, strange-looking microphone is the key to getting all the sounds of the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s. It automatically sounds as dirty as the bottom of cowboy boots, and is nowadays only used for harmonica. That is a mistake. This mic was originally used for everything back in the day, including recording. So there is a secret for all you musicians who want to sound like the late greats of yesteryear, but for some reason always sound too sterile and clean: start smoking cigarettes, drinking heavily and singing into one of these. Now if only we could mount it on a mic stand without a tig welder.

Tested at Sam Ash Music, Kapok Tree
shure.com



5. "Classic Vibe" Duo Sonic (Fender Guitars)

I hate the word “vibe.” It is an ad agency’s invention. It has no meaning, and especially when used to describe a person verges on the insulting, i.e. “Jimmie Walker has such a great vibe about him!.” But this guitar is so simple and so good and so freaking cheap that I forgive the marketing guys at Fender that thought that term was a good idea.


And you could say: “But Shawn, Fender guitars and amps have vibrato and meh meh meh ...' True. But this one does not, so it’s still a dumb name.


The Duo Sonic was traditionally a cheap student model from Fender during the 1950s, with two AlNiCo pickups and simple brass saddles and a short scale, like the famous Mustang that would follow. This new one I tried comes in a a polyester finish (my only complaint, not like the 1950s Fenders, but it is really durable) of a beautiful cream color, with a gold anodized pickguard. Time to learn some Buddy Holly, or spray paint it ugly and play some Nirvana on it.

Tested at Legends Guitars
fender.com



6. CX-3 Combo Organ (Korg Instruments Co.)

The first version of the KORG CX-3 first went on sale in 1979, and while not really sounding like the behemoth legendary Hammond B-3 that you still hear on every record that you have ever heard an organ on, the CX-3 became popular not in small part because it did not require a moving truck to get it from one gig to another. Things have changed with this combo organ, but not the light weight. The new versions are such high-fidelity examples of sound that they are indistinguishable from an original (and huge) Hammond “tonewheel”-driven organ; you would have to be Booker T to tell the difference.

Tested at Sam Ash Tampa
korg.com