How to avoid ground loops - Banish Ground Loop Hum
LearningThere are a few different reasons why a musician might wish to use multiple amplifiers as part of their rig.
Gain without pain: giving the guitar cabinets their own… - Isolating your speaker cabinets for the best guitar sound
LearningFor recording guitarists, one benefit of a head-and-stack configuration over a combo is that you can separate the amplifier from the speaker cabinet and run a long cable between the two.
Orange Jim Root Terror #4 Review - Orange and Black
Written testIt might seem incredible but, up to this day, Orange had never offered a signature amp. But now the Jim Root #4 has changed things for good! So it's time for us to put the focus on this small black a…
Wampler The Paisley Drive Review - This Is Country Music
Written testThe market of guitar stompboxes is quite saturated — competition is hard, manufacturers fight against each other with new controls and serial numbers. While I was reviewing a Blues 3000, I got the fe…
Koch TwinTone III Review - Koch Is In The House!
Written testThere are brands of guitar amps we see quite often in stores but we rarely try out. Any reason is good enough to skip such amps: no time, fear of the unknown, or simply no interest in testing new thi…
Wampler SLOstorsion Review - Save the Soldano
Written testAll experienced fans of long-haired distortion know the famous Soldano SLO-100 made in the 80's: this amp seduced big names in the guitar world — nobody less than Eric Clapton, Mike Landau, Lou Reed.…
EVH 5150III Review - Eddy Van Houten?
Written testWhen Fender launched a new amplifier featuring a new "EVH" logo and the traditional "F" next to the 5150 III logo, questions were certain to rise. Rumors said this new monster is made for metal. Ther…
Zvex Instant Lo-Fi Junky Review - The Phonograph Stompbox
Written testWe are living in strange times where innovation efforts are aimed at recreating "vintage sounds" instead of creating new sounds. On the other hand, after reign of digital technology in the 80's and 9…
How to Listen to and Care for Your Amp When It’s Sick - Diagnosing and Fixing a Tube Amp
LearningGuitar amps are, no matter how you cut it, black boxes. You may think you have control over them, but when it gets down to it, you can’t really see inside the black box, and even if you could, there …
Fender Super Champ X2 Review - The War of the Worlds
Written testIn the world of guitar amps, war is raging. The transistor forces from the digital world are fighting the tubes army. Turning itself into a peace dove, Fender tries to put an end to this war by intro…
Understanding Those Magic Boxes of Doom - Distortion… Clean and Simple
LearningSo the bad news is, it’s virtually impossible to tell what the distortion pedal sounds like without auditioning it personally.
Use digital delay to produce many more effects than jus… - The Many Uses for Digital Delay
LearningThe two most important effects in a guitarist’s signal chain are distortion and delay. And if you derive your tone strictly from the amp—whether it’s squeaky clean or buzzsaw nasty—then the digital d…
Orange OR50H Review - Back To The Future!
Written testThe OR50H is not a new product. It belongs to the "Pics Only" series launched in 1972. It's a legend in amplification history and its "so British" sound had a great impact in the destiny of the manuf…
Fender Machete Review - There Will Be Blood!
Written testThe Fender Machete represents a new direction for the manufacturer. It's not like they want to start to making cutlery but rather they want to enter the heavy distortion world. This strategical decis…
Of Polepieces and Magnetic Fields - How to Adjust Your Guitar Pickups for Best Sound
LearningIt occurred to me that for all the tweaking guitarists do with their tone — rolling tone controls up and down on both their guitars and amps — very few ever touch the pickups. Most guitarists I know …
