Boss Chromatic Tuner: Very Accurate

You need a tuner that’s accurate, and they don’t get much better than the Boss. There’s a reason why you’ll find it with so many professional guitarists: it works. Professionals rely on keeping their instruments in tune, and tuning them up quickly when something does fall out of tune. They know that nothing is faster, easier or more accurate than the Boss Chromatic Tuner.

If this pedal gets the seal of approval from the professionals (who I might add have the ability to spend thousands of dollars on a good tuner, but usually choose this one), it’s certainly worth your attention.

Boss Chromatic Tuner: Tough

Beyond accuracy, another great feature of the Boss Chromatic Tuner is its toughness. It’s built in the same kind of all-metal chassis that Boss builds all its pedals in, so you know it can withstand even the harshest playing conditions. Unlike some companies who build their tuners out of plastic, the Boss tuners can take pretty much anything you can throw at it. It can even withstand you throwing it.

Think about this: Sure professionals rely on accuracy and speed, but they wouldn’t be lining up at the Boss factory to get these tuners if they broke, would they? Of course not. They need something that’s reliable and rugged, and this pedal is both.

Boss Chromatic Tuner: Low Price

It’s low. Very low. It’s hard to believe that a pedal of this quality is available around the $100 mark (less if bought used), but it’s true.

If you’re looking for a guitar tuner, the Boss Chromatic Tuner is certainly worthy of your attention.

Vox Wah: For Every Sound

It’s hard to believe that one pedal can work for so many different tones, but the Vox Wah can, as proven by the tremendous amount of professional players who use it. And these pros range from country to metal, jazz to funk, and more.

Just think about the tell-tale sounds of a wah pedal – it’s in virtually every style of music. Sure Jimi Hendrix used one, so did legendary blues man Stevie Ray Vaughn. But those are only a drop in the bucket.

Think of the entire genre of funk. A wah-laden guitar sound literally symbolizes this entire genre. Even people who make the funny “porn guitar sound” are using or emulating the sounds of a wah pedal.

The list is massive in terms of pro guitarist who use wah pedals: Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Kirk Hammet (Metallica), Slash (Guns ‘n Roses & Velvet Revolver), Eric Clapton (in every band he’s ever been in, plus his amazing solo career). This list could go on for ever, but the point is that big time celebrity players love the sound of this pedal.

Vox Wah: Low Price, High Quality

It’s rare to find a quality guitar effect available in the $100 range, let alone one that professionals themselves use (most pros use heavily modified equipment that ends up sounding nothing like what the average player can buy at the store, even if it is the same exact model). But the Vox Wah Pedal is the rare exception.

How It Sounds: Great Tone

This is just one example of how the Vox Wah can sound. Remember, this guitar effect is so versatile that you could just as easily integrate it into your classic country band or your face-melting metal group.

Vox Wah

It’s hard to be the value and quality of one of the guitar industry’s most prestigious and respected pedals. If you’re looking for a way to spice up your guitar rig, the Vox Wah is a very popular way to go.

This pedal has found its home amongst the pedal boards of all sorts of musicians, ranging from light jazz to hardcore metal – and everything in between. It’s been particularly popular amongst the “Looper” scene that has come alive thanks to famous guitar loopers like K.T. Tunsall, who like the idea of a one-man-band.

DigiTech JamMan Looper: How It Works

This pedal works on the same principle as pretty much any standard looping pedal, but it does have some features that others in its price range do not. It’s one of the best bang-for-the-buck guitar effects pedals on the market today.

First, let’s address the basics. To start creating loops, simply press one of the two pedals and start playing. Once you’ve reached the end of your loop, hit step on it again. The loop will keep playing continuously. It might take some practice to get the feel just right, but it’s pretty simple and most players will pick it up in a matter of minutes.

Now that you’re loop is going, you essentially have your own rhythm track. You can do two things at this point: keep adding layers (in the same way you added the first one) or simply jam over the top.

Pretty easy, huh!

No wonder this is one of the preferred guitar effects pedals of so many musicians.

Here’s what makes the DigiTech JamMan Looper stand out from the rest:

• It has an expandable memory port
• It includes XLR inputs so you can create vocal loops too

The first one is pretty self explanatory: the more memory the thing has, the more run time it allows you in terms of building loops. More memory = more loop power. Pretty simple.

The second is what makes this unit stand out  from the others in the price range, like the Boss units.

DigiTech JamMan Looper: One Man Band

If you’re going the one-man-band route, why would you only want to loop your guitar sounds? We all know how important vocals are, and more specifically, how much bigger vocals sound when they are doubled or even harmonized.

With the JamMan, you can make this happen. Because the mic runs through the pedal just like the guitar, you can build vocal loops the same way you built the instrument tracks.

The DigiTech JamMan Looper truly is an amazing pedal for the price, and the perfect way to jam.

The guitar instantly became a cult classic amongst musical instruments guitars, partly because of its playability, and partly because of its low price point. But the low price was always very misleading, because this guitar certainly played and sounded like instruments priced at much, much higher rates.

Ibanez RG270dx: Features

This instrument featured a bolt-on neck, a rosewood fretboard, three electronic pickups in a humbucker-single-humbucker configuration, a 5-way toggle switch, a volume control knob, a tone control knob, a Floyd Rose full-floating “whammy bar” bridge with fine tuners, a locking tuner nut, a high gloss finish available in several colors and Ibanez’s classic headstock design.

How It Plays and Sounds

Make no mistake, this guitar is built for speed. The wide fretboard and thin neck, combined with Ibanez’s special finish process, makes this neck one of the fastest playing guitar necks ever produced. Flying down the fretboard is almost effortless, to the point that its easy to let your fingers get ahead of your brain as you’re playing.

For that reason, the Ibanez RG270dx became an instant classic amongst the shredders, who value finger speed and precision, combined with searing tone. And this instrument certainly provided plenty of juiced-up tone. All three pickups were wired for very high outputs, which sounded great heading into an overdriven tube amp or even a solid state amplifier pushed for distorted sounds. But the guitar also cleaned up very nicely and found plenty of uses in Jazz bands and even rock bands who relied on clean, appregiated and even finger-picking sounds.

Here’s a tip: if you’re looking for a very clean, sparkly tone, roll the volume knob back a touch. That will take the sting out of the pickups, and will really clean up the sound nicely.

Availability

Ibanez stopped producing the RG270dx several years ago, but its spirit lives on. It’s still a very popular guitar for the entire spectrum of guitarists, ranging from shredders to beginners (the guitar is so easy to play that it makes a perfect choice for beginners). The company made so many of these guitars that they are very easy to find, even to this day.

If you get the chance, it’s worth sitting down and strumming an Ibanez RG270dx.

The Marshall 2204 fame came at a time when the famous amplifier company had recently switched gears from the vintage “Plexi” style heads to the more modern looking JCM style. The first series in this group was the JCM 800, which differed dramatically from the earlier Marshall amps in that it had a much bigger “Marshall” logo and grill cloth along the amp head face, rather than the hard, opaque plexi that adorned the earlier models. (See Musical Instruments Guitars for more information).

But the first 2204 heads and combos were introduced in the 1970s while Marshall was in its JMP phase (pre JCM). Sonically there isn’t much difference between the JMP and JCM 800 versions of this amp – though some purist might disagree, based on subtle nuances. The reality is that the 2204 was pure, raw Marshall tone – the kind of sound the shaped the rock musical landscape for generations.

Rumor has it that Marshall Amplifiers had struck a deal with a new distributor, and thus had the flexibility to change the design. But what is true is that the crazy “new” look of amps like the Marshall 2204 has held strong to this day, as it became the standard design scheme not just for Marshall, but for every other amplifier manufacturer that came along.

Marshall 2204: Tone

The Marshall 2204 has the unique, distinctive Marshall roar that only a full-blown tube amp can create, though you’ll have to crank the master volume up quite a bit to get it. That’s because it was designed to churn tone out of the preamp and power tubes, and without juicing all of them, you’ll be missing out.

One criticism of the 2204 is that it only has one tone, and this is very true. However, it is a great, full, authentic warm tone that sounds great as a roar or even cleaned up a little bit. This is by no means an amplifier for someone who wants crazy versatility, rather it’s the perfect choice for the type of guitarists who know exactly what they want and are unwilling to settle for electronically modulated sounds. This is the real Marshall sound, the type you can’t recreate with stomp boxes or computer programs.

Marshall 2204: Simple

The 2204 is a simple one channel design. There are no effects loops, channel switcher pedals or anything of the sort. This is a one-trick pony that does its trick very, very well.

Marshall did include the customary tone adjustment knobs to personalize the sound, including; Treble, Mids, Bass, Presence, and one knob each to control the output of the master power tubes and the pre amp tubes. It sounds basic by today’s standards, but these simple knobs can hand carve a personalized tone quickly and easily, and you’ll always find new sounds by experimenting with new settings.

Marshall 2204: Value

You can still find plenty of these amplifiers on the open market, and usually at a very affordable price. When you consider the quality of tone you’re getting for the price, it’s hard not to see the Marshall 2204 Guitar Amplifier as one of the best choices available.

The Gibson Les Paul 1960 Reissue Guitars are a very close representation of the original. As you may or may not know, Gibson didn’t offer all of the “flavors” it does today. There were no “Standards,” “Classics,” “Customs” or “Studio” versions of the famous guitar like there are today. Back then Gibson only offered one design, and like anything, this design would change from year to year (read Musical Instruments Guitars for more information)

1960 was a great year for the Gibson Les Paul, at least in the eyes of many players. That was the year when the company slimmed the neck, tightened up the electronics, rolled out new humbucker pickups, used new knobs and much more. In a nutshell, the 1960 Les Paul was a trend setter, and has been very popular amongst purists, players and collectors ever since.

The problem is that there really aren’t that many original 1960 Les Pauls just sitting around. The few originals that remain have been snatched up by collectors. If you’re lucky, you’ll still find one or two for sale, but they’ve either been modified so extensively that they no longer have any value, or cost upwards of $20,000! That’s not a very reachable price point for most players.

Several years ago, Gibson realized that there was a huge market of guitarists looking for the unique tone and look of the 1960 Les Paul and built the…

Les Paul 1960 Reissue Guitar

Gibson originally called this the “Les Paul Classic” and built it to nearly identical specifications as the famous 1960 model, complete with the crowned maple top, thin neck and some really hot pickups. Though the pickups weren’t the identical ones used decades ago, these had the same spirit: blazing hot humbuckers that screamed like none other.

The original 1960 Les Paul was famous for a more biting tone than the usual “mellower” Les Paul sound. This was about the time Gibson realized its guitars were competing with other electronic instruments in rock outfits, rather than the standard jazz and big band groups it was originally intended for.

The Les Paul 1960 Reissue, or “Les Paul Classic,” captured the same spirit, and became an instant classic amongst modern guitarists. It offered the classic 1960 tone and style at a much more realistic price point.

And the reissue has another advantage: You can actually play it! There aren’t too many people willing to risk the “investment” of a $25,000 guitar by picking it up and strumming it – let alone taking it on the road. The 1960 reissue solves that problems quite nicely, as it offers killer looks and tone, but is affordable enough for daily use.

Now days, Gibson has elaborated on their 1960 Reissue line, offering a Standard version as well. This model features the more traditional wide neck, mellow covered humbuckers and more refined knobs and accessories. It even gets treated to an exceptional stain process. The bad news is that these 1960 Standard Les Pauls, even though they are reissues, cost upwards of $6,000! Hardly within the reach of today’s gigging musician.

Still, if you crave the famous 60’s tone, a Les Paul 1960 Reissue is a very affordable and authentic alternative to the real thing.