I'm starting the NAMM 2008 thread because John didn't make one yet

wtf? where'd the pic go?

http://www.harmony-central.com/ProductImages/Medium/000024921.jpg

My kingdom for an edit function... ah well, in further NAMM news, Way Huge is back!

DUNLOP MANUFACTURING TO RELAUNCH WAY HUGE ELECTRONICS

Benicia , CA. January 4 th , 2008.

Dunlop Manufacturing Inc., maker of the legendary Crybaby and MXR line of pedals, have announced a new partnership with famed boutique effect pedal manufacturer Way Huge Electronics. Originally launched in 1992 by Jeorge Tripps , Way Huge Electronics began as a result of the desire to create killer sounding effect pedals that were road rugged and pedalboard friendly. Way Huge created legendary effects which quickly found their way into the hands—and onto the pedalboards of the world's guitar elite. Using only high-grade circuitry, Way Huge created such effect masterpieces as the Aqua-Puss Analog Delay, Red Llama Overdrive, Saffron Squeeze, and Swollen Pickle Jumbo Fuzz.

With the success of the highly acclaimed Jimi Hendrix Authentic Analog series of pedals under their belt, the partnership will develop a new series of Way Huge pedals built under the watchful eye of Mr. Huge himself. "Dunlop's 25 years of meticulous attention to detail in manufacturing and Jeorge Tripps' spectacular creations are a winning team!" cited Dunlop Manufacturing Vice President Jimi Dunlop .

Pulled directly from the pedalboard of effects guru Jeorge Tripps , new pedal designs with finely tuned electronics, high-grade components and road worthy construction will debut at the 2008 NAMM show. Way Huge Electronics will be available through a select worldwide dealer network and this time will deliver boutique tones to the masses.

For more information, contact Dunlop Manufacturing Inc., (707) 745-2722, or visit www.jimdunlop.com. NAMM Booth #4768

Based on the freshly-updated Way Huge site, it looks like we can expect...

Blue Hippopotamus BH-1
Green Rhino GH-2
Red Llama RL-2
Foot Pig FP-<illegible>
Purple Platypus PP-1

Not that I've got any need for any of the WH redesigns (and per the press release, they won't be strict reissues), most of which have probably been improved on as the booteek industry has moved ahead, but they're fun and its probably a good move for both parties.

hahaha thanks for starting this.

The Way Huge thing is interesting, and might actually finally convince me to go factory direct w/Dunlop (until now I've just gotten them through ElectroHarmonix because I didn't really care all that much about them). Ampeg looks shit-hot awesome, and I'll guess right now that due to Loud they'll be either Chinese or Vietnamese (hopefully Chinese, which seems odd to say, but whatever).

So far on the NAMM front, it doesn't look like Fender will be changing much other than the umpteenth redesign of the American Series/Standard models (changes in the undercoat thickness, saddles reverting to vintage style, brass sustain blocks, necks w/satin backs and gloss fronts). I'm sure that there will be a few surprises, but I'm starting to think that my 50th anniversary year of the Jazzmaster/Jaguar hopes might be ill-founded ;_; Tons of new Ibanez models, but the only things that I find particularly interesting at first glance are the Dragonforce dudes getting signature models, and some psycho Taylor-attacking weirdo acoustic w/15 knobs on it. The only new Electroharmonix thing I'm currently aware of is a Nano series envelope triggered bass boost named (get ready for it) the STEEL LEATHER.

On the short list/probably going to start dealing list for us is

Eastwood
Reverend
Toad Works
SubDecay
+a bunch of stuff I haven't heard of yet.

Any opinions (bad or good) on the above would be much appreciated.

Subdecay: great stuff - all of the bread'n'butter drive pedals are original and sound good. Liquid Sunshine in particular pairs brilliantly with an AC30. They've started rolling out a bunch of cool noisemakers that are going to get their official debuts at NAMM. Also Brian Marshall is a general champ and a bro over at Haunting Mids.

Toadworks I don't know so much about.

Reverend makes a killer bang-for-buck guitar, and their new not-quit-gibsons are really interesting. The only x factor is Joe Naylor, who seems to get a new good idea every month, abandoning the old ones along the way. But if he offers to throw in an amp to close the deal, DO EET :)

Eastwoods are cool; I just don't know how quickly they move in a retail setting. The line is so broad and so quirky... love the Josh Homme tribute, but that's probably the most bread'n'butter of the line.

Oh, and interesting about Fender. GC's been blowing out Highway 1 and Baja teles at mad-low prices so I just figured Fender must have something up their sleeves. That whole Classic Player line just kills...

Are Ibanez replacing the ARC500 artist? I had a fancy for one of them for some reason. I don't know why, I don't need one or anything, I just like the look of it a lot.

Last time I looked, there are about five clones of the Way Huge Red Llama, which is fundamentally a copy on some old Craig Anderton thing.

I approve of anything that undercuts the speculators, though. Now we wait for the desperate to show up at Harmony Central and in chat rooms claiming the new Way Huge stuff doesn't have the same mojo as the old Way Huge stuff because it uses newer caps or lacks a special JFET.

I don't think that'll be necessary. I'm betting the market for original Way Huge boxes won't really be affected that much - if anything, by exposing a bunch of folks to the previously-mythical brand it may even increase the market. It's not like Dunlop's going to be rolling out Hairy Yetis and Tone Lepers.

there better be a UAD-2

Those new Dan Armstrong guitars look pretty sharp. They look like a souped up Les Paul Junior.

http://www.harmony-central.com/ProductImages/Medium/000025681.jpg

Blackheart Killer Ant

Pumping out <1W of PURE TOOB POWER for a mere $139.99, is it the Zvex Nano for the rest of us? Only your Crate rep knows for sure... yet.

New Guitar Player has a review of reissue Fender Fuzz Wah, Phaser and Volume pedals. I had the former in its original form. Was a big-big footpedal with a decent one button -- no knob -- fuzz, a wah and a side-to-side foot treadle which controlled its volume and the intensity of the fuzz.

The wah was designed around string-actuated pulleys and had problems associated with it, due to slippage and stretching of the strings. Would be interested to know if Fender has had it redesigned for the reissue. Hard to imagine it still having pulleys in it.

I'd probably buy a new one if that problem was circumvented. It had a great sound.

lottalotta stuff from Gretsch, including some big-buck blingmachines, a reskinned reissue Champion 600 (I like the look of the Champion better but YMMV, and it doesn't look as though the Gretsch will cost any more) and, um, a G. Love signature electromatic Corvette.

http://gretschpages.com/media/img/board_pics/2401239828v9_xl_t400.jpg

http://gretschpages.com/media/img/board_pics/duojetdv2_xl_t400.jpg

http://gretschpages.com/media/img/board_pics/2401025800v4_xl_t400.jpg

Those Fuzz Wahs sound great, I hadn't hear about the reissue until now. Did they list a retail/street at all?

xpost lol @g. love signature.

http://gretschpages.com/media/img/board_pics/2301030000v7_xl_t400.jpg

http://gretschpages.com/media/img/board_pics/2505201544v1_xl_t400.jpg

Fender Fuzz-wah reissue (retail $199/street price NA)
Phaser -- somewhat cheaper
Volume pedal $100

what's the lowdown

the baby SSL duende is of interest

Also from Fender pedals, that wacky volume/tone where up/down is vol and L/R is tone. Pedal steel players get all geeked out about it.

lololololololololol

http://www.metasonix.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=67&PHPSESSID=fe236502e318749effcfd4f48108d561

(bizarrely kind of not really safe for work, if you work in a church or grade school or something)

And the inside is crazier than the outside.

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w271/Loags/metasonix2.jpg

But not entirely crazy! Note hidden message of wisdom on the board...

the baby SSL duende is of interest

My recruiter has passed me a few jobs going at SSL, I reallly want to do them but they are just too far away for me ;_;

I love the spiel on that m'sonix amp slagging off tonehounds whilst flogging a $5k USD boutique tube amp head.

Old-school (no MIDI or memories) minimoog voyager looks well tasty. Right up my street, that one.

I don't know about no memories...I just CV'd up some Arps and the realization that once I get the sounds perfect, I can't work on anything else until I actually finish something is pretty frustrating. I could write down all the slider positions, but that would be way tedious.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/fatback2/NAMM08/PIC_0134.jpg

At $150 street, this makes me feel funny in special places.

sweeet

And because every NAMM needs its OH SHIT product...

The Egnater Rebel head - 1-20W continuously-variable output, power section switchable between EL84 and 6V6, $499 when it hits your local GC...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/fatback2/NAMM08/egnaterNAMM.jpg

And anyone who's heard/played it has come away super-impressed.

Music123 is offering $65 off purchases over $250 - so I just (back)ordered a Blackheart 5W head and 1x12 cabinet for $188 w/ free shipping. $249.99 for the pair, and a $3 pack of no-name picks to get over $250.

Well, we're a way huge dealer now, and also direct with MXR. Which means in the new store toys category, I have a Swollen Pickle MkII, MXR analog delay, MXR custom shop 1974 phase 90 (yet another version, these are "handwired w/original spec components"?!), and a Hendrix Octavia on the way. Will report back as they arrive.

you're a way huge dealer with a swollen pickle.

i should put that on my business cards y/n

I vote no. What's a Swollen Pickle, John? My basic impression was that it was a premium Muff fuzz filling a gap when EH was out of business. I never actually saw one. At the time, I was more into Scholz R&D. Which also turned into a Dunlop property. Ooooo, spooky.

Yeah, it's a premium fuzzbo thing, but we sell a lot of those (blenders, vintage fuzzrites, all manner of EH muff/graphicfuzz stuff) so it kind of fits our demographic, and since it streets @ $160 it isn't all that insane pricewise, esp compared to the desperate ebay lunatics that had pushed the old versions up to $750 (!?!?!). supposed to be super versatile, which would be a nice change from the current nofuzz to BLZZARTRDRTTRTRRT in one clock position goal most of the boutique stuff nowadays seems to be shooting for. we'll see.

The octavio also sounds uglycool judging from the sound samples on the web.

Yeah, I'll agree, the fuzztone fad has been driven over the cliff slightly. I'm old enough to have bought fuzztones because they were the only way to juice a Fender Vibrolux into a semblance of Britishness. That and there weren't any other such things in the market. So I tend to like modest-sounding fuzztones with good rip and a decent roll-off at the volume knob. I have three, two of which -- the Holowon Static Egg and UFO Octave -- cover most things. My UFO's a bit fussy. Being germanium, some days it sounds much better than others. It gets the usual maniacal raves on harmony central which I've found hard to believe in the last few years because everything is either a hysterical recommendation or a smaller percentage of grudge brought on by someone's bad day with a piece of kit. From the standpoint of the maker, one supposes Harmony Central has been a great thing, but when everything is given a 10 and a paragraph of idiotic over-the-top adjectives ...

harmony central is an equal mix of hilarious and depressingly stupid. don't really know if its always been that way, but it sure sucks nowadays.

Now that the dust has settled, I think that it's safe to say that this was the least exciting namm release i can remember. witha few exceptions, there was less new stuff across the board than ever before. lol american manufacturer fear of the economy.

I've played an orig. Swollen Pickle and while it's obviously in the Muff family it was a lot huger. Truly dominating low end. Despite the awesomeness it was nothing I needed... it might CRUSH on bass though...

Anyhoo the most interesting thing to me about the new Pickle is the adjustable mids, which will change the character of a standard Muff considerably. Of course, that's also available on the buildyourownclone muff, but that's not really so much cheaper and you can't get it from John.

Speaking of which, I've been developing a hard-on for a script Phase 90, but this new new new MXR version seems tempting...

For the Jazzmaster freaks, Fender just announced an Elvis Costello model, slightly more $ than the US '62 vintage. More info when I know more.

MXR custom shop 1974 phase 90

How was this one, John? I do like the phase 90 sound.

I love it. A great reminder that the modern phase 90 really is very different than the script era, not better or worse, just not the same. More limited in scope/range (nothing super wacky here), but softer edged somehow. Also, it is fun to take it apart and see that they replicated one or two "ooops looks like we forgot to connect that point to ground" jumper wire moments from the golden era of really stoned guys designing pedals.

really stoned guys from Rochester, NY!

how was the MXR analog delay?

I've noticed Korg has issued a much pricier version of the Pandora. Anyone seen them.

I was curious even though I don't need its USB power and data link. I went down to Guitar Center to look for it. None were there so I inspected the PX4D, the previous model. It's had twenty bucks knocked off the price and was a good deal cheaper. My previous experience with Korg processing, the Ampworks, was good to excellent so I went home with the PX4D. Seems to be quite the buy, everyone should have one. Took a little doing because the clerk behind the counter had no idea what they were (and none were on display) even though the store had 'em.

at the risk of coming off as MXR pitchman, the Carbon Copy delay was fantastic. I haven't really had the time to dig into it, because we keep selling out of them (which is a good problem to have), so I can't tell you much about the modulation option. The factory setting on the mod is extremely subtle, which is a good thing in my opinion, but i never got any further than taking the bottom off and showing people where the trim pots were. Sounded great, very legit tonality, does all the proper spaceweirdo pitchchanging and self oscillation, nothing stupid going on with the range of control (either in the sense of limitation or just plain idiotic uselessness), and most importantly, the sparkly green paint makes you look cooler on stage.

not to mention the blue led, of course

OK, tomorrow we become an Eastwood dealer, so reports will follow when the Canadians send the first boxes.

Awesome. Do you know if you're getting one of the H44s?

probably not on the first order (they're opening us up with an order of 8, and they make like 20 bagazillion options once you figure in model+color+lefthandedness). We are getting in a twin tone in black, a bunch of sidejacks (dlx blk, std metallic blue, and baritone in amber), a delta 66 cherryburst, p-90 special in TV yellow, stormbird in gold, and a hi flyer in either blueburst or plain burst.

probably bring in an airline map and a classic 12 soon. weighing the jack white airline easy option, probably going with no.

The MXR Carbon Copy received a very respectable review in the new edition of Guitar Player. Perhaps surprisingly, the Carl Martin Classic Chorus was given the Editor's Choice award in the same piece.

Did you get to try the Twin Tone, John?

setbacks related to US endless deathmarch into economic oblivion have forced me to delay our order boo hiss so no

new eh pedal geekery:

not namm related, but people that lurv fuzz boxes should def check out the EH Big Muff w/tone wicker. about $90 street, and the switchable bypass of the tone control and HF filtering is MASSIVE if you like your fuzz on the more mangled side of the street. honestly shocking how much pulling the tone control out of the circuit does. also, the signal pad is the simplest and smartest no-color "boost" solution ive seen in a long time, although it does break the cardinal guitar rule that turning anything down ever is bad.

oh yeah, and the bass big muff is also v v useable and cool.

haven't quite gotten the courage to pull the trigger on the voice box, but probably will, and will report back on the vocorder function. a bright spot in a really really boring year for guitar stuff.

oh yeah also this is probably as good a place as any for this - i am going to go out on a limb and predict painful and brutal industry-wide price increases this year, so be prepared.

TONE WICKER

http://www.brandoncreasman.com/images/mesa_boogie.jpg

those amps are really the last point where i cared about mesa boogie. so awesome tho.

back in the day we sold one of those used for a criminally low price because no one understood what it was. o_O

You say this just to taunt me, right? "Ho ho, brace yourselves, prices are going sky high... but this one time we sold a Mk 1 for $17 because everyone thought it was a hamper/footstool."

btw, I know I fail but shouldn't plummeted demand and a glut of used gear nudge prices... down?

Re the EH Big Muff with Tone Wicker: Looks like EH has decided to make tappable some of the mods that have been popular by the homebrew hackers of fuzzes. This one, at the very least, seems to the Muff to a Colorsound Tonebender, which was one of the most desired twiddles.

Seems like a very good idea if it's not much more expensive than the regular BMP. I understand that the "Tone" switch bypasses the tone stack, but does anyone know what the "Wicker" switch does?

yeah, the wicker opens up 3 HF filters that are standard in the little big muff (and i think most other muffs). gets much more noisy, but also has a ton more definition without getting reedy. like i said, street is $89.25, and the little big muff streets for $66.75, so you're only paying $22.50 for two very useful (but defeatable) mods.

just got in a germanium OD today, will report back if i get the chance.

(xpost) Thanks for the information. I'm a UKer though, so that translates as roughly $ = £. Little Big Muff ~£50, Tone Wicker ~£80

I was curious even though I don't need its USB power and data link. I went down to Guitar Center to look for it. None were there so I inspected the PX4D, the previous model. It's had twenty bucks knocked off the price and was a good deal cheaper. My previous experience with Korg processing, the Ampworks, was good to excellent so I went home with the PX4D. Seems to be quite the buy, everyone should have one. Took a little doing because the clerk behind the counter had no idea what they were (and none were on display) even though the store had 'em.

Answering myself, I finally bought the Pandora PX5D. Glad I did so. It improves over the PX4D, which was excellent. I have an old POD XT and Adrenalinn III -- both in the same ballpark -- and I prefer this a bit although it is not quite as feature-rich as the A-III. (It's also about sixty bucks cheaper.)

For vintage rock tones emulated in a cigarette pack sized aluminum box, it really packs the inspiration. Runs of two AAA cells or can be powered through USB. Also uses USB 2.0 for interface control through MIDI and send/receive of audio. That is, you hang it on a USB port and with its ASIO driver, it becomes a sound card.

Came with a CD of utilities to get this happening, also packaging Ableton Live Lite 6, which I bitched about a week or two ago. The latter's a poor match -- crippleware 4-track recorder/sequencer encouraging you to fork for the newest Ableton -- for what the PX5D does. In a pinch, you can use it to record 4-tracks (or more if you want to do bouncing). Made me curse for an afternoon but that was an overreaction.

Using the Korg software to directly program the PX5D increases the fun. Since it comes with a fairly good rhythm machine, the editor allows you to sequence tunes -- oriented toward rock, metal, country, jazz and blues -- on the fly in an intuitive way. That is, you can build up the rhythm sequences while listening to it, then write it to a memory slot in the Pandora. It is much easier to program out-of-the-box than Roger Linn Design's Adrenalinn, which is actually a great machine, too.

That BMP Wicker sounds terrific... Going to see if Grayson's has one in stock after work

Just wanted to chime in that I have a Carbon Copy delay and it is teh niceness.

I think I can hear that it is a bit noisy but I like it all the same. I sometimes play it with the modulation switch on but usually not, and I haven't bothered to fiddle with the trim pots yet. Most of the time if I'm using a delay it's on clean arpeggios, and anything like tremelo or chorus or extra modulation in there messes up my ability to hear a coherent chord being built in the repeats.

So who-all's going to start the NAMM 2009 thread?

Rolling 2009 Gearhead Geekout Thread

sorta