Author: Stuart

Posted on

PRS Silver Sky – John Mayer Rig Shootout

Today, we have a different kind of demo from Peach Guitars. They’ve done a shootout between John Mayer’s current rig – PRS Silver Sky and JMOD amp – and his old, pre-PRS rig – Fender 63 Stratocaster and a Two-Rock amp.

The PRS Silver Sky continues to be the most talked about guitar of 2018. I still can’t figure why it’s generated the reaction that it has – including my own reaction.

The more I hear it though, the more I’m interested in trying one for myself. To my ears, it sounds like a lot has gone into tuning it to be a great guitar for completely clean tones. That’s where I used to live before moving onto Les Pauls. I’d love to find the right guitar to go back to that style one day.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Peach Guitars’ video.

Posted on

2018 Rig For Clinics

Sam Coulson has posted a short video, showing us the rig he’s using when he’s giving guitar clinics this year.

He’s running a modded Charvel into a Helix, out to the Yamaha THR-100HD. The Yamaha’s setup as a clean platform for the Helix. It’s a simple rig that looks very easy to load in and out without a lot of effort.

I’ve got the Yamaha THR-100HD myself, and for a couple of years it was my main practice amp. It takes pedals better than any other modelling amp did at the time. You can run two amps at once out into different cabs, and that gives you a taste of that two-amp blended tone thing.

My main complaint with the THR-100HD is that it felt like Yamaha abandoned it to a large extent. It’s been a couple of years since the last firmware update, and they haven’t added any new models – or improved the existing ones – since launch. It’s become a very much take-it-or-leave-it amp.

But – unlike some modelling amps – you can use it as an amp, without hooking it up to a computer. Which means that they’ll continue to be usable long into the future.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Sam’s video.

Posted on

Fender 2018 Pedal Range Demo

Pete Thorn has posted his demo of Fender’s 2018 Pedal range. If you want to hear what they sound like together in a mix, this is the demo for you.

Rather than go through every single tone the pedals offer, he breaks down a complete song, showing what he used for each part – and letting us hear them soloed out.

I love the tones Pete gets from the Santa Ana Overdrive in this video. I’ve already got the Pugilist, and it sounds great with a Tele. The Santa Ana with humbuckers … that’s a sound that I do have a need for. Not too long until pay day 🙂

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Pete’s video.

Posted on

Which Is The Best Strat – Fender, Suhr, PRS

Not to be outdone by Anderton’s PRS Silver Sky video today, Thomann have shot a shootout video comparing a real Fender Strat against two of its competitors – Suhr (who used to work for Fender) Classic Pro and the new PRS Silver Sky.

It’s wonderfully click-bait-y – but do we learn anything from this video? I’m not sure that we do.

I didn’t hear much difference between the three – and nowhere near the amount of difference that I was expecting. The extra low end we heard the PRS Silver Sky do on the Andertons video isn’t there, and neither is the high-end from the Suhr’s stainless steel frets. I played a Suhr Classic Pro about a month ago, and in person that extra high-end is far from subtle.

So yeah, I’m surprised, and I’m not sure what to make of it.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Kris’s video.

Posted on

PRS Silver Sky Demo and Discussion

The PRS Silver Sky has been the most-discussed guitar of 2018 … and now Andertons are weighing in with their thoughts. Oh, and they have one to demo for us too.

This is a great video, and not at all the kind of sales-y video you might be expecting. From a first unboxing to first impression playing to discussing many of the points raised online – including comparing it to Fender Strats – there’s a lot of useful ground covered.

One thing in particular – there’s plenty of string bends in this video, showing that the vintage radius isn’t going to cause string bends to choke out.

For me, it sounds fantastic in this video. It has that quintessential Strat tone in buckets. There’s both a top-end snap and a bottom end chime that I personally look for from Strats and the like. The pickups seem nicely balanced in output too, and across the full range of the neck.

When they’re more readily available, I’m definitely going to try one out.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed this video.

Posted on

Gretch Jet BT G5220 Demo

A-Strings have just gotten their hands on the new Gretch singlecut guitars, and Adam’s done a demo for their YouTube channel.

These are definitely something a little different from most singlecut-shaped guitars, thanks to the wood choices and the pickups. And I’m a big fan of the new natural look of the backs of these.

Once you’ve got the Holy Trinity of guitars – Les Paul, Strat and Tele – or maybe you just don’t feel any of them are for you, then something like this is well worth a look.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Adam and Tom’s video.

Posted on

Behind The Scenes – Making Backing Tracks

Shane has been making new backing tracks for his YouTube channel, and he’s shot a video showing how he does it.

He’s got a pretty slick and efficient way of putting these together, and a very firm opinion of what to do for drums in a track (plus recommendations for where to get great drums from). You’ll have to watch the video to see how he does it 🙂

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Shane’s video.

Posted on

Mad Professor Kosmos Reverb Pedal Demo

Burgs has posted a demo of Mad Professor’s new Kosmos reverb pedal.

The Kosmos is a mono pedal, featuring 11 different reverb models in a standard-sized pedal format. It also has a freeze feature – just hold down the foot switch to keep the reverb going until you lift off again.

These mono pedals are great for running straight into a clean amp, or in the effects loop of an amp – especially if the amp doesn’t have a built-in reverb of its own.

Mad Professor is one of those pedal brands that most players haven’t heard of. I’ve been using their pedals for years, and I’ve normally got several of them on my main board at any one time. (My pedal cupboard has plenty of them too, waiting to fight their way back onto the board.) Not only do they sound great, they have the lowest noise floors around and lots of input headroom – perfect for stacking.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Burg’s video.

Posted on

T-Rex Handbuilt Mudhoney Demo

Danish Pete from Andertons (and before that, from demoing Mesa Boogie gear) has his own YouTube channel – and he’s just uploaded a demo of the new hand built Mudhoney from T-Rex.

He’s a phenomenal player. Give him a looper and an overdrive, and he’ll entertain for hours. This video is no exception.

There’s a really cool story behind this video. Pete had #4 of the original Mudhoney run, and he let T-Rex have it for their museum cabinet. Turns out that they took it apart, and used it as the basis for this new handbuilt series of Mudhoney pedals. So Pete’s in effect demoing a recreation of his old Pedal here.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a comment if you enjoyed Pete’s video. And maybe hit that subscribe button too while you’re there?

Posted on

Mary Spender Breaks Down ‘Only One’

For this week’s Tuesday Talk, Mary Spender walks us through the history and recording of her new song ‘Only One’.

https://youtu.be/juikboGFLTw

This is the first song where Mary has done all the engineering herself. She normally records in a studio, but this time she wanted to have more time to work on the song – and studio time quickly becomes very expensive.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment. It takes a lot of courage to share this kind of information, especially in today’s world of armchair critics and trolls.