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Gear
reviews
These
reviews are all by our very own Colin Green, a session guitarist
of outstanding pedigree, and represent warts and all reviews of
our instruments and gear under real world conditions.
Blade
California Custom and Avalon A200
Sometimes you make decisions without any thought at all and
the consequences can be dire. At other times a snap judgement can
turn out to be inspired. Such was the case when I decided on the
instruments that I would road test on the TV show 'World
Idol'. I was asked to play electric and acoustic
guitars but, as usual, no hint was given as to style or sound.
So I chose, quite at random,
a California Custom Blade
electric and an Avalon AS200
acoustic. I had previously tried out a Blade a few years ago and,
while I thought them to be a high quality instrument in both build
quality and sound, had no inclination to purchase one at that time.
The Avalon I had tried at a trade show and was keen to see if it
would perform as well as I anticipated in the studio. I needn't
have worried.
 The
Avalon turned out to be even better than I remembered. Strung with
Martin SP light gauge strings the action and sound were both superb
and suffered from none of the 'jangly' effect that can result as
a combination of new, light gauge strings. The sound remained tight
and controlled even when played in a quite heavy rock rhythm as
was called for a rock ballad Aerosmith cover and yet retained an
open country rhythm characteristic when finger-picked.
It was the choice of the Blade
that proved to be the most inspired. One of the 'World
Idol' singers had chosen to sing a cover of U2's
'Beautiful Day' which called for a rapid and radical change of sound
from clean & chorused to crunchy slap-back rhythm in the space
of one semi-quaver!!. Under normal circumstances this would involve
either a nifty bit of footwork on three pedals simultaneously or
holding up the studio while I programmed the effects into two adjacent
MIDI patches. The Blade, however provided me with a third and infinitely
more practical solution. Between the solitary volume and tone controls
there is a micro switch which activates a preset tone boost. Activating
this switch gave me exactly the crunch tone that I needed and obviated
any need to change the amp sound. All that remained was to lose
the chorus and add the slap-back delay. Job done!!
Apart from it's vast range
of tonal possibilities the Blade is a handsome beast and a true
pleasure to play with it's well finished fretting and impeccable
intonation ( regular readers will be aware of my obsession with
good intonation!) The model that I played was 'Honey Blonde'
with a rosewood fingerboard with pearl inlays and was, in addition
to all the sound and playing attributes, a mighty fine looking guitar.
Try one …. You won't be disappointed.
Santa
Cruz OM
 I
took the opportunity to road test the Santa
Cruz OM model under the severest circumstances when
he was engaged to play on the soundtrack of the Tim Burton film
'Big Fish' - music
by Hollywood legend Danny Elfman. The recordings took place at Air
Lyndhurst studios, one of London's leading recording venues
which is owned by Beatles producer Sir George Martin.
The OM proved more than equal
to the task and its pure tone and outstanding intonation were very
favourably remarked upon.
The score called for quite
a bit of 'up-front' solo acoustic guitar with some severe close
miking. It takes a superb instrument to stand up to that sort of
examination and the OM came through with flying colours. In addition
to that you can find yourself playing for 9 or 10 hours a day on
a project like this and your hands can get very tired if the guitar
action is unresponsive. The OM was superb from that point of view
and even at the end of five days playing from 9.30am until 11.00
at night the hands were still working. The brain? ….. well
that's another story!
The guitar has a huge sound
and really round full tone despite its small body; the finish, as
one would expect from an instrument of this quality, is impeccable.
Altogether a stunning guitar for the discerning player.
Tradition
MTQ
 As
a working pro musician most gigs that you do are essentially for
money!! There are times, however, when you might consider other
factors...
About ten years ago I had been
involved in the reformation of the Bert Kaempfert Orchestra which
was being run by Tony Fisher, an old pal of mine. Tony had been
the trumpet player on most of Kaempfert band's German recordings
from the mid 70's until Bert's untimely death in 1983 so when he
called to ask if I could work with the band again I took the opportunity
to re-visit Kaempfert's music and to catch up with some old pals.
For those of you who have never
heard of Bert let me assure you that you will almost certainly have
heard his music. Apart from a dozen or more million selling instrumental
albums Bert also wrote 'Strangers in the Night' for Frank Sinatra
and 'Spanish Eyes' which gave Al Martino a huge hit.
The Kaempfert band's style
meant that I needed a good, fat sounding instrument …a job
for the Tradition MTQ.
The
MTQ Tradition that I tested was a very handsome looking
PRS influenced guitar with a flame maple sunburst top in a colour
that Tradition call 'Tobacco'. This was very nicely offset with
gold plated fittings making the whole instrument extremely eye catching.
The combination of humbucking pick-ups and Tradition's insistence
on using only the finest woods for body neck and fingerboard, provided
just the sort of rich, warm tone that I needed … a fact commented
on by other members of the band, who can be relied upon to be pretty
severe judges when it comes to sound quality.
Some of the writing in the
Kaempfert pad calls for the guitar to play in unison with the flutes
and trumpets in quite high registers. This will very quickly show
up any intonation problems that may be inherent in the instrument.
No worries here, the MTQ proved to be immaculately in tune all the
way up to the 22nd fret. The quality of the fretting also got the
thumbs up, there being no sign of choking even at the extreme 'dusty'
end of the fretboard!
Despite all that I have just
a couple of small gripes. Firstly, the model that I tested had a
fault with the volume pot i.e. the pot was not smoothly graded and
had a definite off-on slope that was difficult to control at low
level. It wasn't needed for this job but 'violining' would have
been impossible. Secondly the pick-up selector toggle switch is
made of a cheap looking off-white plastic which is quite out of
keeping with the rest of the furniture. A gold toggle to go with
the rest would really make this a handsome instrument.
All in all the MTQ performed
well and is to be recommended as an excellent all-round guitar in
the PRS style and, with a price tag of £499,
represents tremendous value. Try one out … you'll see what
I mean!
Behringer
V-AMP II
Far from worrying
about the music that they might be called upon to play most recording
musicians concern themselves with much more mundane matters. Where
can I park? How much is it worth? What time will I have to leave
to be sure of being at the studio on time? Will we finish before
the pubs shut? These are all considerations that the studio player
will address before he even gets around to thinking about the artistic
needs of the job!
Another potential
source of anxiety (or maybe it's just laziness!) is one that presents
itself whenever a flight is involved. That problem is "How
many instruments will I have to carry?" The 'carry' part of
that is paramount as no sane musician would commit their precious
instruments to the cargo hold where, despite the 'Fragile' notices
liberally plastered on the case, it is almost certain to arrive
at your destination (if you're lucky) with footprints all over it
and several ominous looking dents in the case if not the guitar!
So …you carry them and argue with the air stewards/stewardesses
& other passengers re taking up all the overhead locker space.
Believe me, it's no fun, so, when I was recently asked to play in
the orchestra for the Royal Variety Show in Edinburgh my initial
concern was 'how many instruments?'
'Three' I was
told. 'Electric guitar, Acoustic & Banjo'. My heart sank. Electric
guitar involves not just the instrument but also an amplifier and
a selection of effects pedals. That plus the acoustic & banjo
made five cases in addition to my suit-bag. However the offer was
made to hire instruments for me in Edinburgh which I quickly agreed
with. they would provide a Fender Strat (American built of course),
a Deluxe Twin amp and a decent electro-acoustic (which turned out
to be a Takamine).
That left the
pedals issue to me and, as I had no idea what sounds I would be
called upon to provide, I decided to take a V
Amp II from Behringer
which, with it's huge selection of amp simulations, cabinet options
and digital effects would provide just the variety of sound options
that I needed - all in one small, light shoulder bag - just the
thing for flying.
The V
Amp was, as I anticipated, more than up to the job
providing me with great overdriven amp sounds for...wait for it...Donny
Osmond...and spacious clean stereo-chorused effects for Daniel Beringfield.
The Auto Wah feature was just what was called for in Jamie Cullum's
set and the Takamine that I used for accompanying Luciano Pavarotti
sounded great with just a bit of the V
Amp II's super clean delay. The built-in tuner which
can be accessed from the footswitch (which, like the mains supply
and handy carrying case, are included in the price) came in really
handy and made yet another item that I didn't have to remember to
take.
The V Amp
II is something that you need to try...there is so much
in such a small guitar shaped unit that it's impossible to cover
all the possibilities. The accompanying documentation does a good
job but there's nothing quite like 'hands-on' with a unit like this.
So my advice is
this. Come into the shop, ask for a V Amp II demonstration
and prepare to be amazed! Oh...you'd better bring some cash with
you...you're going to need it or you'll miss out on what at £136
must be the guitarist's bargain of the century!
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