REVIEW: EMG-ACS

EMG are rightfully known for their revolutionary active pickups for electric guitar, which are used by players as diverse as David Gilmour, Steve Lukather, Reb Beach, Zakk Wylde and James Hetfield, so it makes sense that they apply their active technology to acoustic pickups too. Active pickups have characteristically high headroom, which is especially handy for maintaining the fidelity of a clean guitar.

I mounted the ACS in a mid-level dreadnaught acoustic guitar. Installation is a cinch with EMG’s very popular Qwik-Connect plug-in connectors: secure the battery bag to the neck block, replace your existing strap pin with the supplied Ultrajak strap pin/output jack (drilling a half-inch hole if you need to), run the cable through the body, pop in the pickup and hook the units up - although in my case, since I was just borrowing the ACS for the purposes of review I secured the output jack to the surface of the body so I didn’t have to rout out the strap pin hole. EMG supplies Velcro to secure the wires to the underside of the guitar’s top, and also so that if you need to temporarily remove the pickup for some reason, you can stash the pickup cable out of sight within the body.

The height of the pickup’s pole pieces can be adjusted with a supplied 3/32” Allen wrench to achieve an even volume level from string to string. This is a distinct advantage over other acoustic pickup designs (and microphones), and it also means you don’t have to squash your dynamic range with a compressor just to even out the volume.

With only a single volume control on the pickup itself, this is a very simple system. There’s no particular need for bells and whistles like EQ, limiting, feedback elimination or a tuner.

The first thing I noticed with this pickup was the healthy dose of high end. This is especially good news for fingerpickers who need absolute note definition, and for strummers who need their pick attack to cut through the mix. If the treble is a bit too much, EMG suggests removing some or all of the pole pieces altogether. I like this very practical and straightforward way of customising the response of the pickup, and it feels a bit more ‘real’ than simply attacking the problem with outboard gear.

I kinda wish I had a guitar on hand with a piezo pickup in the bridge too, because a lot of companies now are combining different kinds of pickup in the one acoustic guitar, and it would be interesting to see how the ACS sounds when combined with the timbre of an undersaddle pickup, and to compare the two, because while piezo pickups are typically very high-end-heavy, it’s a different type of treble and attack to that of the ACS. The ACS definitely sounds more natural and realistic, and doesn’t need a whole bunch of processors and controls to do so.

This pickup is a good option for those who want a more natural sound from their acoustic than a piezo can typically provide, and it’s easy to install and customize. It may not sound as authentic as micing your acoustic up in the studio with top-flight microphones, but in terms of stage use, practicality and reproducibility it’s a very attractive option.

REVIEW: ESP LTD EC-256 AHB

Aah, the relicing issue. Not since ‘tone is in the fingers’ has a topic generated such heated debate on guitar forums, in guitar stores and in dimly lit bars after gigs. Whether you like the idea of buying a brand-new bashed up guitar or you think it’s an abomination and an affront to real vintage guitars everywhere, everyone’s got an opinion. One way to look at it is: whether you’re into the look or not, a pre-aged guitar by its very nature has a few features that should make it a little nicer to play in some respects than a pristine off-the-shelfer.

FIGHT THE SIGNS OF AGEING

ESP has had a few goes at offering aged finishes at various price points, including the James Hetfield Iron Cross and Truckster models (the latter of which was available in ESP and LTD versions), the George Lynch’s GL-56 and, most recently, the LTD EC-256 AHB. Based on the company’s Eclipse model, this relatively inexpensive axe is of the classic twin humbucker, set neck, mahogany body variety. It’s given ESP’s own distinctive touches, of course, including subtle curving of the top (instead of all-out carving), a volume-volume-tone control layout, and a sharp cutaway which seems to say “Some of this guitar is traditional, but your grandad never would have played this back in the day.”

The first thing to look at on a guitar like this is the relicing. Does it look authentic like a real beaten up guitar that’s been mishandled or loved on stages up and down the country? Nope. The sanding marks are pretty obvious, and the tri of dings on the treble side of the lower bout look quite contrived. Some rough sanding marks on the headstock look more like scratches from an unfriendly gig bag than a few decades of knocks from a succession of feisty roadies. But that’s all somewhat beside the point, because after a few years of regular use the ‘shininess’ of these manufactured blemishes is likely to be dulled by and intermingled with real-life ones, and it will truly become the dinged up but well-loved instrument that it was designed to look like. The most important thing about the EC-256 for me was that the back of the neck felt comfortably aged and friction-free, which made for a very pleasant playing experience. It’s also worth noting that the thin finish of the top allows the sound to breathe, opening up the treble and adding a little depth to the guitar’s amplified tone.

SO LET’S PLUG IT IN

The EC-256 sounds best with mild overdrive playing relatively dark music (Tool fans take note). It doesn’t seem to want to be a high gain screamer, although the natural tone seems to work really well with lowered tunings. It's just that the guitar's natural character is best represented by more subtle distortion levels. There’s a coil split on the tone control which extends the guitar’s personality and adds versatility while maintaining the guitar’s own character. Again, the neck pickup in single coil mode doesn’t really like to be distorted: it’s more at home with some light bluesy overdrive. If you dig the visual vibe and the way it plays but you need gutsier tones, a pickup upgrade might be in order.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Despite the aggressiveness of the cutway, which suggested a heavier musical orientation, I don’t think this is a guitar for those who play blazing solos over metal riffs. It’s much more at home with crunchy rhythm sounds and bluesy double stops. Whether you like the relicing or not is up to you but this is a guitar that will find its fans for what it is, rather than what it tries to be.

REVIEW: Roger Mayer Concorde + Treble Booster

Ok, you’ve got your fuzz, your overdrive, your distortion and your clean boost. That’s all, right? Wrongo. The treble booster is an almost-forgotten member of the distortion family, and without it we wouldn’t have such classic tones as Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid,’ pretty much all of Led Zeppelin 1, and everything Brian May’s ever done. So what’s a treble booster and why is it different to just turning up the treble knob on the amp? Well not quite a fuzz, not quite an EQ, treble boosters were typically based on very simple circuits and they promoted the idea of boosting the strength of the signal to the amp while tailoring its tone curve to attain maximum tonal goodness.
GIMMIE A BOOST

The Concorde +, like the other pedals in Roger Mayer’s Vision Series, has controls for Drive, Tone and Output, a sturdy and stompworthy footswitch, twin buffered outs and a hardwired bypass out, an input, a slidable battery cover and a super-strong casing. The electronics combine a low noise class A silicon drive circuit with passive tone shaping to drive a fully optimised germanium treble booster, allowing you to add drive and distortion with EQ before the actual treble booster section – think of it kind of like two pedals in a signal chain, which you can balance for the perfect interaction.

Mayer notes that you can also set the silicon drive section to drive the treble booster section much harder than any guitar pickup could ever do, without any added distortion but with the added feature of having EQ prior to the treble booster, so you get the qualities of soft germanium type distortion overload characteristics or more radical germanium distortion sounds.

HERE COMES TREBLE
Using an alder-bodied, Bigsby-loaded Ibanez Talman with vintage-output Ibanez Super 58 pickups, I flipped to the neck pickup and unleashed my inner Iommi for some ‘Paranoid.’ With a setting of about 3 o’clock on the Drive control and 2 o’clock on the Tone, there was just enough dirt and grizzle around the notes but still punch and definition on the low end. If you turn up the Drive a bit further you get a fuzzy buzz between the notes which works great for sludgier riffage. There are also some great Jimmy Page tones available. With everything set to the midway point the Concorde + is perfect for ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘Communication Breakdown’ – that barky, aggressive tone which begs for you to alternate between muted chugs and chord stabs. Wind back the Drive control a little for a bright, punchy clean tone which begs for heavy gauge strings and single coil country licks.

‘CORDE IN A TRAP
The Concorde + isn’t just for the player who wants to get closer to those classic Page, Iommi and May tones; it’s for the experimentalist seeking new levels of tone control, or anyone looking for a different character to their overdrive and distortion.

Roger Mayer: http://www.roger-mayer.co.uk
Buy Concorde + at GuitarToyz.com.au

REVIEW: Morpheus DropTune

Here’s a dilemma I face pretty much every day. You have your guitar set up to perfection. Perfection for you (well, for me) includes a finely balanced Floyd Rose type system. Problem is, every now and then you wanna jam along with some early Van Halen, Extreme, Yngwie Malmsteen, Jimi Hendrix, Slipknot, Meshuggah… can’t really do that unless you change your tuning, and you simply can’t lower the tuning for a few songs on a Floyd Rose, unless you use a device like the Tremolno to block the trem first, but then you can’t do any awesome whammy bar stuff. What’s the point? So you scrimp and save and buy another guitar with the intention of using that for a lower tuning. But you like the sound of it so much that you decide to keep that one in standard too. Time to start saving again… repeat every time you get into another band with a different degree of downtuning.

Morpheus has come to the rescue with the DropTune, a pedal designed with one thing in mind: to lower the pitch of your guitar while not sounding so darn fake about it. I’m sure we’ve all tried various pitch-shifting devices one time or another to achieve this. If the weird underwater-sounding digital artefacts don’t kill ya straight away, the latency will. But what do you expect: those pedals are typically designed to shift the pitch downwards to recombine with the original note anyway. The DropTune doesn’t aim to be a harmonizer with pitch-shifting capabilities. It’s just a pitch-dropping pedal.

The DropTune’s design is simple. There are three footswitches: On/Off, Up, and Down. The On/Off switch is also labelled ‘effect’ (see the photos) while the Up switch is also labelled ‘toggle.’ I tested a prototype version that didn’t have these markings. Around the back there’s a guitar in, a line level pot, a line out, a USB port and the 12V DC 500mA power jack.

The DropTune allows you to drop the guitar’s pitch up to 3 ½ steps down in ½ step increments (ie: your low E can be changed to Eb, D, Db, C, B, Bb or A) as well as an octave-down setting and an octaver effect which blends the octave-down note with your original one.

So how does it sound in practice? Awesome. For testing I used an Ibanez RG7620 7-string with DiMarzio Crunch Lab and LiquiFire pickups. I set the DropTune so I could play the low B string with the effect bypassed, then switch it on and play the E string instead but dropped to mimic the low B. Toggling back and forth between the two strings, the main difference was one of punch. The harmonic complexity remained, but the digitally dropped note was a little looser and softer – warmer and not as snappy. Through a raging amp you probably wouldn’t even notice a difference. Only the absolute slightest latency can be detected if you listen really hard – not enough to be distracting and certainly less than I’ve experienced with using software amp sims in Pro Tools, for instance.

One of my favourite features on the DropTune is the Toggle button. Use this to switch the effect on and off rapidly for weird pitch flutters, or even just to mimic a few notes or chords on a phantom 7th string if you’re playing a 6-string. Where was this pedal when I was 16, trying to play Steve Vai’s ‘The Riddle’ on a 6-string and having to play the few 7th-string notes an octave higher on my 6-string?

It’s also very gratifying to be able to play songs in Eb or D without having to set up another guitar. Finally I can jam along to ‘Eruption,’ ‘Far Beyond The Sun’ and ‘Sad But True’ with accuracy and ease! Sweet!

During the time I had the DropTune, a firmware update was released, so I was able to try it out both before and after the update. It was pretty cool to be able to hear the product in development like this. Before the update there was a slight muddiness to the notes and a little bit of noticeable latency. After the update the latency was greatly reduced and the notes sounded a little punchier. Here’s a little recording I whipped up, using Dream Theater’s ‘Lie’ as an example. Here's what you'll hear after the count-in:

Bar 1: Panned hard left - riff on the B string (no Morpheus)
Bar 2: Panned middle - riff on the E string (Morpheus set to drop 5
semitones, before the firmware upgrade)
Bar 3: Panned hard right - riff onthe E string (Morpheus set to drop 5
semitones, after the firmware upgrade)
Bar 4-8: Panned left - riff on Be string (no Morpheus). Panned right -
riff on E string (Morpheus after firmware upgrade)

Then there's a little solo, still using the Morpheus dropped down 5 semitones.

The post-upgrade E string version sounds eerily close to the B string version. Bar 2 before the upgrade is slightly muddier but Bar 3 has much of the same bite and snap as Bar 1. At the most, the sonic difference can be likened to using a different string gauge. There's only the tiniest bit of latency but it's barely even noticeable and certainly not distracting. In fact, the only distracting thing for me is hearing the natural pitch of the strings clashing with the Drop Tune when playing at bedroom volumes!

http://www.morpheusefx.com/

REVIEW: Eden WTB300V bass amp

I like plugging into a nice clean solid state bass amp as much as the next dude, but there are times when you really need to growl and snarl. That’s where the Eden WTB300V comes in. Eden has revamped their E300T amp into the WTB300V to make look as rockworthy as it sounds. As part of the new design you can see the valves from the front, making the amp look that extra bit evil. There’s also a groovy light-up Eden logo. But you can’t judge an amp on looks alone or we’d all be playing through little portable Pignose combos. So let’s check out the WTB300V’s innards.


Next to the input is a pad switch which reduces input gain by 10dB. Next there’s a gain control and an Overdrive button. The gain control is active whether you use the Overdrive button or not so you can balance it with your master volume to get the right amount of cleanliness or edge even if you’re using a clean setting. Next we have Bass, Mid and Treble pots with a Mid Shift button between the latter two which operates on the 500Hz and 2.2KHz frequencies. Finally there’s a Master Volume plus power and standby switches. Internally there are six independently biasable Ruby KT-88 output valves cranking out 320W RMS of pure rock power into 4 or 8 Ohms. Around the back we have 1/4” and NL-4 speaker output jacks, DI and tuner outputs, the 4/8 Ohm impedance selector and a footswitch jack. The included footswitch has two buttons, Mute and Overdrive, so even though the WTB300V is a single channel amp, the ability to switch the Overdrive section on or off remotely effectively turns it into a two-channel beast.

I tested the WTB300V with an Ibanez SR5006 Prestige Soundgear 6-string bass with active Bartolini pickups and a Yamaha Attitude bass with passive DiMarzio pickups. I used a Hartke 4X10 cabinet for testing. With the overdrive left off for now, the tone was be nice and even with good separation between the frequencies and good note definition even when blazing out fast passages. Something extra special seems to happen harmonically around the 12th fret which is great news for players who like to climb up there. Some of my favourite sounds occurred somewhere between clean and overdrive, where a softer pick attack resulted in cleaner notes while digging in harder bought out an angry, compressed edge. This was especially evident using slap and pop techniques on the 6-string. Nudging up the gain a little bit and flattening out the 6-string’s EQ brought out some warmth and colour which helped knit together tapped chords and picked arpeggios, really showing off how well-suited this amp would be not only for supportive bass players but also those who take lots of solos. I’d have no hesitation using it for a fusion gig, then packing it into the car and letting rip at a metal club. The distortion isn’t quite enough distortion for full-on extreme metal so we tried it out with a Big Muff fuzz to see how it handles ultra high gain and it sounded like doom on wheels. In a good way. We also ran a chorus through the effect loop and lowered the gain a little for a very convincing New Order tone. Switching to the Yamaha and reaching for a pick brought out those clicky, driving David Ellefson Megadeth tones, while going pickles and cranking the overdrive unleashed a Billy Sheehan-like firestorm. Also great for Tool tones if you bring the mids down a bit and crank the treble.

This is a great amp for those who need earthier textures, whether for rock, funk, jazz, blues, soul, some metal genres… in fact I can’t really think of a genre that wouldn’t benefit from having the low end coming out of the WTB300V if you’re after a warmer, smoother tone than that provided by solid state rigs.

REVIEW: Godin Velocity

Godin guitars remind me of comedian Rodney Dangerfield: they both don’t get no respect. In Rodney’s case this was part of his shtick. For the Canadian guitar maker, it’s one of the unexplained mysteries of the guitar world. Why are their instruments so highly prized among top name players like John McLaughlin (read my interview with him here), Richie Blackmore and Bill Frisell, yet they haven’t broken through to the forefront of brand consciousness? It’s a bit of a mystery to me: through teaching and as a repair tech I’ve found their guitars to be brilliantly constructed, cleverly designed and very easy to play. I can only conclude that they’re that one standout model or endorser away from staking out a solid corner of the hallowed turf occupied by the Big Guitar Makers.

CLICK HERE to see Godin guitars on Amazon.com (may not ship to all countries)

The Velocity model may look like a bit of a shred machine at first glance, but look a little closer and it has more in common with the boutique output of makers like John Suhr than the hepped up metal axes enjoying a resurgence today. The pickup scheme is the first clue: a pair of Godin GS-1 single coils in the neck and middle positions, and a Seymour Duncan SH-5 Duncan Custom humbucker in the bridge. The current shredder’s market tends to favour neck humbuckers and often omit a middle pickup altogether, but the H-S-S layout is still in great favour in more, let's say, refined designs.

The next hint as to this model’s design heritage is its vintage-style tremolo bridge. While other Godin tremolo models feature either two point fulcrum bridges or Floyd Rose locking systems, the Velocity puts its faith in the classic operation and unique attack characteristics of this 50-something-year-old design. I guess the assumption is that the kind of player this guitar is aimed at has no need for wild whammy bar antics, but may indulge in the occasional David Gilmour or Hank Marvin moment. Certainly at this price point the Velocity doesn’t need to use a vintage bridge to cut corners, and it’s no surprise that tuning stability on this model is as good as can be expected as long as you don’t try to pick the guitar up by the bar to perfect your Steve Vai wiggle-stick tricks.

The Velocity’s body is made of a silver leaf maple center with poplar wings and a solid high-flame maple top. The neck is rock maple, with maple or rosewood fretboard. The 12” radius fretboard is comfortable for complex chords, yet won’t fret out on wild bends. Electronics consist of a 5-way switch, and master volume and tone controls. Tucked down by the tone knob is a small black switch. This is Godin’s High-Definition Revoicer (HDR). This circuit is powered by a 9v battery accessed through the back of the guitar, and when engaged it revoices the frequency range of each pickup, boosting the output and amounting to a conversion from passive to active pickups at the nudge of a button.

The single coils have plenty of bite and gutsier output than I expected, especially combined with the visionary HDR system. In fact, the middle pickup was more than adequate as a main pickup in situations where one might otherwise choose the humbucker. The Duncan Custom is fat and rich, and the HDR bumps it up to EMG-like levels of gain. Thanks to the HDR you can certainly get metal tones out of this guitar if you're seeking them, but the Velocity is also very happy with mildy overdriven crunch tones and smooth distortion. The tone is warm yet bright - just enough treble bite to add an edge to your sound, but with a full body too. There's good note separation for open chords, and some nice midrange overtones when you move up the neck to play single notes.

If you're using a valve amp, you can even use the HDR almost like an amp channel switch to push your crunchy preamp into overdrive. Turn off the HDR and back down a little on the guitar's volume pot and there's yer clean sound. Cool!

The Velocity is a versatile entry to the ‘SuperStrat’ stakes, and is a little more ‘Strat’ than its ‘super’ looks might initially appear. If you haven’t experienced a Godin before, the Velocity is a great place to start.

SPECS
BODY: Silver leaf maple, poplar, flame maple
NECK: Rock maple with rosewood or maple fretboard
ELECTRONICS: 1 volume, 1 tone, HDR switch, 5 way switch
PICKUPS: 2 X Godin GS-1 single coils, 1 X Seymour Duncan SH-5 humbucker

www.godinguitars.com

REVIEW: Fernandes Ravelle Deluxe Baritone

In some circles, Fernandes is known for the high quality copy guitars it made in decades gone by. I have a rather impressive Fernandes Jazz Bass copy, for instance. For others the Fernandes Sustainer, a pickup system that provides infinite sustain and controllable feedback by interacting with the string itself, is a thing of legend, the key to a sonic Eden populated by the likes of Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen, Reeves Gabrels and Adrian Belew.

Fernandes calls the Ravelle Deluxe Baritone (discontinued in the USA but still available in some markets, or check eBay) the most aggressive axe it’s ever made, and it’s easy to see why. Apart from the distinctive Ravelle styling, which looks like some kind of medieval weapon concealed within the lower half of an otherwise subdued looking 50s solidbody guitar design, this mahogany-bodied beast features fire breathing EMG pickups and an extended scale length designed for maximum impact when tuning down.

The Ravelle Baritone came tuned to B and was strung with heavy D’Addario strings selected to get the most out of the extended 27” scale length at such a low tuning. The hardwear, in classic metal tradition, could be ‘none more black.’ The Gotoh-made Tune-O-Matic bridge and Stop tailpiece good choices for maintaining tuning stability, while the break angle of the bridge to the tailpiece seems to add its own little mojo in terms of sustain and fullness of tone.

Electronics consist of a pair of EMG 81 pickups, a 3 way toggle switch, and volume and tone controls. The fretboard has a 14” radius, with a 5 1/8” Graph Tech Trem nut. What? A trem nut? Hang on, bucko, there's logic behind this lunacy. Sure, at first it would seem like an odd choice – why would a nut designed for keeping vintage tremolo systems in tune be used on a fixed bridge guitar? But it makes perfect sense when you consider that there’s no ‘standard’ string gauge or even standard tuning for baritone guitars, so this self-lubricating nut is a great way of covering all bases and coping with the demands of a player who may change string gauges and tunings several times before settling on their preferred setup.

Ravelle Baritone, meet Marshall DSL50. The Ravelle is a straight up ass kicker from the very first chord. Those used to tuning down on standard scale instruments, or even dedicated 7-stringers like myself, will realise very quickly that they’re missing out by playing lower tunings without the extended scale of this baritone. The extra length keeps the string tension tight and makes the note definition sharp and punchy. On a down-tuned standard scale guitar, play a chord and the notes drift around a little bit, especially if you’re using lighter strings. On this baritone, the tuning remains solid, but more importantly, there's a punch and oomph to the note attack that you just can't get with a standard scale length. The EMG pickups add some bite and fizz to the top end, so not only does the Ravelle thud you in the chest, it also takes off some skin – metaphorically speaking of course, unless you get a bit too wild with that sharp treble side cutaway during live performance...

The Ravelle Baritone has uses for everything from metal to country, though pickups with a coil split option might enhance its use for the latter. While I thought I would generally pretty happy to stick with my 7 string when I need to get down to low B, now I'm not so sure.

CLICK HERE to see baritone guitars on eBay

REVIEW: Ampeg Dan Armstrong ADA6

Anyone with an eye to music video shows or channels will recognise this guitar from the Foo Fighters video for ‘All My Life.’ Music fans with a slightly longer memory may recall these flashy instruments in the hands of Keith Richards, Leslie West, Paul McCartney, Cream’s Jack Bruce or Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler. Let’s go through the plexiglass to see what’s on the other side.

CLICK HERE to see Ampeg gear on eBay.

X RAY SPECS
This version is a near-exact replica of the original Ampeg model designed by Dan Armstrong, dating back to 1969. It differs from the originals by way of an improved neck joint, as well as a compensated rosewood bridge designed for regular string sets with three wound and three unwound strings - the original’s bridge was compensated for a wound G string, and evidently Ampeg felt that remaining vintage-faithful in this instance would compromise tuning for the majority of players who favour contemporary string sets.

The double cutaway Plexiglas body certainly looks cool, but there’s a method behind this madness. The theory is that the density and uniformity of the body material eliminates unwanted vibrations and frequencies, improving sustain by transferring the string vibrations uninterrupted by the variations in grain and density that you might find in wood.

Another very interesting feature is the removable pickup system. Out of the case, the Dan Armstrong is fitted with a Rock Sustain humbucking pickup, but a single coil Rock Treble pickup is also included. Each are designed by Kent Armstrong, who designed the original’s pickups in the 1960s and 70s. The pickups simply slot into the body and are secured by a few thumbscrews. Electronics consist of volume and tone controls, plus a 3-way tone switch. The centre position bypasses the tone circuit completely, while the other two positions shift the frequencies affected by the tone knob.

The neck is hard maple, with 24 frets on a rosewood fretboard. Die cast Grover tuners are positioned for almost perfectly straight string pull, and are close-coupled to minimise string tension differences.

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
I plugged into my all-valve half stack, set to a vintage, edgy but clear tone, and let ‘er rip with some Bowie riffs. The first thing I noticed was the unique attack of the notes, compared to a more conventionally constructed guitar. There was a satisfying chunk and chirp to the pick attack, followed by a kind of opening up of the tone. If you hold a note, it seems to start out compressed then spread out, sustain for a while, then gradually fade away. With some smooth Tube Screamer overdrive, the Ampeg reminded me of Trey Anastasio’s main solo tone in Phish. The tone switch was handy for emphasising different overtones in single note lines, but for pure classic chunk the guitar sounded best in the centre position. Swapping to the single coil pickup, a bright, almost P90-ish jangle was attainable, and was especially great for blasting out “Jean Genie.”

TRANSPARENTING
While the looks are likely to divide players, the construction quality and tone of this guitar are undeniable. Fortunately, if you don’t like the clear look, Ampeg recently announced the AMG100 series, which replaces the acrylic with swamp ash, mahogany or alder, but you owe it to yourself to check out the attack and sustain characteristics of the acrylic version.

SPECS
Body: Clear acrylic polymer
Neck: Maple, bolt-on, 24.75" scale
Fretboard: 24-fret, rosewood
Controls: Master volume, master tone, 3-way pickup selector
Pickups: 1 single-blade Rock Treble, 1 dual-blade Sustain Treble; interchangeable
Tuners: Grover nickel die-cast
Bridge: Rosewood with compensated brass saddles
Case: Hardshell case included

CLICK HERE to buy the Ampeg Dan Armstrong from Guitar Center for $1,499