Humbucker Soup - If you are obsessed about guitars

October 23, 2018August 30, 2018

Bogner Uberschall 100W 6L6 Tube Guitar Amp Head

The Bogner Uberschall 100W 6L6 Tube Guitar Amp Head is a very high gain amplifier with the needs of the modern Metal guitarist in mind. The Uberschall delivers 100 watts of power using four 12AX7 tubes in the preamp section and two 6L6 tubes in the power section. The amp has two footswitchable channels both with extended headroom. The first channel is the classic Clean, with Volume and Gain controls for dialing in your overdrive setting. It also has a three-band EQ with Bass, Middle, and Treble, along with a Presence control.

The input is ready to accept any of your pedals. The second channel is the aggressive high gain channel. This side also has a Volume and a Gain control, a three band EQ with Bass, Middle, and Treble controls and a Presence control. The very high gain is designed to retain its focus and clarity, and not get muddy or lose articulation. Effect pedals on this channel can be optimized by running them through a tube-buffered effects loop for a warmer tone with more control and a higher fidelity. All controls are easily seen, even in low lighting, with the fiber optic display.

October 21, 2018October 21, 2018

Electro-Harmonix Satisfaction Fuzz

The Electro-Harmonix Satisfaction Fuzz was designed with Keith Richards’ tone from the Rolling Stones song: “Satisfaction.” The pedal has two controls, so it’s very easy to dial in the tone that you want and return to it later when needed. The pedal’s Volume allows you to control the level of sound going into the amp, thereby letting you find your sweet spot. The Attack control adjusts the amount of fuzz applied to the signal. Continue reading “Electro-Harmonix Satisfaction Fuzz”

October 20, 2018October 21, 2018

Fulltone SB-2 Soul-Bender Distortion

Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page popularized the Colorsound and Vox Series III ToneBenders in the late ’60s. These units were manufactured by Sola-Sound/England, and the Fulltone SB-2 Soul-Bender Distortion is a pedal that is based on these products. The Soul Bender is equipped with three gain-matched Germanium transistors for analogue distortion, it’s designed to be responsive to your guitar, and the sound will clean up when you lower the volume. Continue reading “Fulltone SB-2 Soul-Bender Distortion”

October 16, 2018October 17, 2018

Marshall Plexi 1959SLP 100W Tube Guitar Amp Head

The Marshall Plexi 1959SLP 100W Tube Guitar Amp Head is a reissue of the Marshall Super Lead Model 1959 that was first introduced in 1965. This is the amp head that Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix used, and we now recognize it as the one that set the standard for how amplifiers should sound and look in Rock music.

Continue reading “Marshall Plexi 1959SLP 100W Tube Guitar Amp Head”

October 14, 2018October 17, 2018

Dunlop Silicon Fuzz Face Mini Blue

The Dunlop Silicon Fuzz Face Mini Blue is a modern design of the legendary Fuzz Face. As the name suggests, this pedal is housed in a much smaller package than its vintage bigger brother. This is a bright and aggressive pedal built with vintage spec matched BC108 silicon transistors. There are two knobs: Volume and Fuzz, which is where you’ll dial in your sound. Continue reading “Dunlop Silicon Fuzz Face Mini Blue”

October 13, 2018October 17, 2018

Radial Engineering Tonebone TriMode Distortion

As the name suggests, the Radial Engineering Tonebone TriMode Distortion has three modes of operation: True Bypass, which is designed to keep your signal clean and uncompromised on its way to the amplifier; Rhythm, where you can adjust the distortion, mid range, and output levels; and Solo, which optimizes your sound with increased control and sustain. Both overdrive modes make use of the built-in 12AX7 tube for that British overdrive tone, blending solid state gain stages for modern levels of saturation with the 12AX7 for vintage warmth. Each section has its own Level and Drive control as well as its own three-position Mid Boost switch. Continue reading “Radial Engineering Tonebone TriMode Distortion”

October 12, 2018October 12, 2018

How to Play Evil Ways by Santana

Evil Ways is played in the key of G Minor Dorian. G Dorian is a mode of F Major and both scales share the same notes.

This time, we are going to learn how to play “Evil Ways” as performed by Santana on their self-titled debut album in 1969. The song was written by Clarence Henry, and was originally recorded by Willy Bobo in 1967. It has been said that Carlos Santana detuned his guitar one whole step to play the chords in an open position for the recording.

Continue reading “How to Play Evil Ways by Santana”

October 9, 2018August 30, 2018

What are the Best Guitar Digital Reverb Pedals?

Let’s take a look at a popular effect — reverb — and see if we can find a pedal that is a perfect fit for your style.

Reverb is one of the most important tools available to a musician. It allows you to actually change the landscape and the size of the environment that you are in. You can set it to sound as if you are close to a wall, far away from it, or without any walls at all. Reverb got its start with the plate reverb, which is a large metal plate with microphones attached to it, to create and pick up reverberations. The next type was the spring reverb that was built into many amplifiers, making it very popular and well known to guitar players.

Today, digital reverb is growing in use, as technology expands in the areas of analog-to-digital converters, resolution, sample rate, bit rate, etc. Modern digital reverbs can be significantly hi-tech and meticulously crafted, to sound like any type of reverb, natural or unnatural. They can make use of convolution reverb, which is impulse response models of actual rooms. Throughout countless hours of practice I was always grateful for spring reverb. Now we’ll look at a few of these digital pedals and see if any stand out.
Continue reading “What are the Best Guitar Digital Reverb Pedals?”

October 9, 2018October 11, 2018

Boss RV-6

The RV-6 is BOSS’s first new compact reverb pedal since 2002. The RV-6 offers eight different reverb effects and uses four control knobs to dial in your sound. The first control knob is the Effect Level and this allows you to adjust how much reverb is mixed with the dry signal. The Tone knob adjusts the brightness of the reverb, and the Time knobs adjust how long the reverb trails off. The last knob allows you to choose among the available reverbs. Continue reading “Boss RV-6”

October 7, 2018October 8, 2018

What are the Best Budget Digital Modeling Combo Guitar Amps?

Let’s take a look at a few small and inexpensive digital modeling amplifiers and see if we can find the right one for your needs.

Digital modeling amplifiers have come a long way since the early days, when they were known for over promising and under delivering. The tones that they create today are very usable for live and recording purposes. Two advantages of digital amplifiers are their affordability and their ability to be quite compact. Modern technology has also helped by creating full range speaker systems that deliver a room-filling stereo sound from a very small package.

So, now we’ll take a look at a few of the best of the small and inexpensive digital modeling amplifiers. These amps should all be great for beginners because they won’t require too much of an up-front investment, but they will produce tones that inspire more practice. They’ll be helpful for people who don’t need too much power but also don’t want to compromise on tone.

Continue reading “What are the Best Budget Digital Modeling Combo Guitar Amps?”