Mitchel Guitars MS400 Series - Retail Price $399.99 to $449.99.
An outstanding choice for rock, metal, blues, and jazz, Mitchell's MS400 single-cutaway electric guitar employs a classic design with a modern twist. Part of Mitchell's newly reimagined line of high-performance electric guitars, the MS400 is a fresh take on the single-cutaway guitar, with a slim-tapered, set neck profile and adjustable TOM-style bridge. Its Deep Bevel Cutaway (DBC) design allows complete fretboard access.
The MS400 delivers fat, meaty tones, thanks to dual Alnico V humbucker pickups with separate volume controls and a three-position pickup switch. A pull coil-tap tone pot allows you to split either humbucker into a single-coil. The string-through body design increases sustain even further, and high-ratio locking tuning machines and a Graph Tech™ TUSQ XL™ reduced-friction nut make precision tuning easy.
The MS400's thin-profile, carved mahogany body mates with a one-piece, shallow "C" profile, slim-taper, mahogany set neck, and 22-fret, Indian rosewood fretboard to create a guitar that feels comfortable in any player's hands. A back-angled output jack helps avert accidental unplugging. Add flame maple body binding and neck binding, a body-matching gloss neck finish, and nickel hardware, and you have a serious attention-getter that looks as great as it plays and sounds.
"With the MS400, we've gone all out to create a truly premium guitar that also is an exceptional value," asserts Mitchell Product Manager Rick Gagliano. "We paid close attention to design, insisted on superior materials and construction quality, and focused especially on playability and tone. The result is a powerful-sounding instrument that is effortless to play, so your musical passion flows freely through your fingers. You can feel the difference." For more information visit Mitchell Guitars
Tech 21 Brit Fly Rig 5 and Cali Fly Rig 5 - Retail Price $249
Tech 21’s popular Fly Rig Series has two new additions: Brit Fly Rig 5 and the Cali Fly Rig 5. The Brit’s distortion section is based upon Tech 21’s British SansAmp Character Series pedal, which was inspired by the celebrated, crunchy vintage amps from across the pond. The Cali’s distortion section is based upon their Cali/US Metal SansAmp Character Series pedals, which were inspired by amps in the mid-'70s from the then-boutique shop over on the West Coast.
The other features are the same as the original Fly Rig 5. Sleek, compact, and simply awesome, the gunmetal-finish Fly Rig 5 is a tiny tonal titan, a thoroughbred professional unit armed with sweet analog tones. Weighing in at just over 18 oz. and under 12 inches in length, you can rule the road, rehearsal or recording gig.
At its heart is the omnipotent, all-analog SansAmp - a ground-breaking amp emulator, speaker and mic simulator - that will dial-in your favorite sounds for consistent tone every time. This version has been optimized for lush, chiming clean tones and has a Drive control to add just the right amount of gain from warm break-up to snarling grind, with an incredibly flexible 3-band EQ. The adjustable Reverb is also found in this section, voiced to create the rich ambiance of a vintage spring reverb without clattery pings, canyons of doom, or other annoying artifacts.
The roaring Plexi tone is the stuff of legend, with its muscular crunch, detailed mids, and mule-kick low end. Providing the dirty side of the Fly Rig, the Plexi section produces exquisite, ripped-ab rock tones that can be kicked into Hot mode with up to 21dB of pre-amp gain. The Hot footswitch operates independently to boost any of the Fly Rig sections whenever you feel the urge to punch it up.
An inspiring delay section completes the Fly Rig 5. Voiced to emulate vintage tape echo, the DLA features a separate tap-tempo footswitch and adjustable tape drift-style modulation for authentic textures. From thickening slap-backs to deep cascading repeats, the DLA adds space and attitude. For more information visit http://www.tech21nyc.com/
Lollar Introduces Senn Model One Pickups – Retail Price $210 per pickup
When Jeff Senn Guitars set about to design its unique Model One guitar, which pays homage to the “mail order catalog” guitars of the Sixties, the Senn crew knew that no existing pickup captured what they were looking for, so they turned to Jason Lollar to interpret their sonic wish list and turn it into a reality.
“I wanted something that was very, very clear and open but also had unusual sustain and overtones like my vintage Guyatones, Stratotones, and Teiscos,” Senn says. “I suspected we wanted a wide magnet with a thin profile to capture the sound field along with a metal cover, and Jason agreed.”
The Senn Model One is a humbucker in function, but the voice is that of a single-coil pickup. From huge twang to lovely overdriven tones, the Senn Model One is extremely versatile and doesn’t shy away from any genre of music. According to Jason Lollar, “I love those old guitars I grew up with, but no one’s making a pickup that really captures their tone. I really enjoy the Senn Model One for all musical styles. In fact, it even works great as a lap steel pickup.”
The Senn Model One pickups utilize alnico 5 magnets and come with nickel, chrome, or gold-plated finishes. Available in a calibrated set, the D. C. Resistance is 7.3K Ohms in the neck position and 8.2K Ohms in the bridge. One-sixteenth inch and 1/8” shims are available for top mounting. Note that the Senn Model One pickup does not retrofit most routs or mounts. It’s a unique pickup in dimension, wider than a P90 or standard humbucker, and it may require routing to install. The Senn Model One One pickups are hand built in Lollar’s Tacoma workshop and are available from authorized Lollar dealers or from lollarguitars.com
Radial Engineering Ltd Tonebone Switchbone V2 ™ - Retail Price $350
The Switchbone V2 may well be the ultimate ABY/C guitar amp switcher. This device lets you switch and combine up to three guitar amplifiers without introducing distortion, switching noise or hum into the signal path. Most importantly, the Switchbone V2 will retain the natural tone and feel of your instrument so that your natural playing style shines through.
The Switchbone V2 delivers a natural signal transfer without distortion or artefact that is commonly found with chip based switchers, eliminates switching noise and hum that is common with true-bypass devices, and incorporates a spectacular power booster and remote capabilities to enhance performance. For more information visit http://www.tonebone.com/switchbonev2.php
Standard ABY setup
The Switchbone is a high-performance ABY designed to deliver the natural tone of your instrument to your amps without introducing noise or artefact.
Used as an ABC amp selector
Use the tuner/out-C as a third output to select between three different amps. Transformer isolation and buffered outputs eliminate ground loops and noise.
Used as a channel selector
For older amps, the Switchbone can be used to drive the two amp channels so that you can toggle between them. Use the Slingshot output to control amp settings like reverb.
Breedlove Concerto Acoustic Guitar
Breedlove Stringed Instruments is proud to unveil the Breedlove Concerto, a new body shape that delivers a higher level of guitar resonance, volume and intonation. This new handcrafted guitar shape was designed to elicit the volume of a classic dreadnought, but with more lush, complex tonal resonance and a comfortable form whether sitting or standing.
The Breedlove Concerto is crafted from responsibly harvested exotic tonewoods such as myrtlewood, mahogany, rosewood, koa, cocobolo, and Brazilian. The new shape lets each wood sing in a way not heard before, with a design that increases the interior air space and reduces the sound hole size to decrease air resistance.
The new Concerto body shape offers loud, lush, textured sound, and was created using Breedlove’s proprietary new Sound Profiling technology that goes beyond traditional guitar manufacturing to dial in each piece of wood’s ideal frequency based on extensive research. Because tonewoods harvested from different parts of a tree have varying characteristics, Breedlove precisely Sound Profiles every top and back individually to target specific frequencies. The tops are then sanded to a thinness that will deliver those frequencies. This process brings out each wood’s special characteristics to produce significant volume and a palette of distinct tonal flavors.
While the Breedlove Concerto surpasses the classic big body sound of a dreadnought, it features a more pronounced waist, making it more comfortable to hold and play while sitting, and approachable while standing. Its thinner Breedlove neck profile also invites more flexibility in finger movement across the fingerboard.
The Breedlove Concerto body shape is currently available in the Breedlove Oregon series and will be integrated into other Breedlove series starting January 1, 2017. Current models include:
• Oregon Concerto E Sitka Spruce – Myrtlewood
• Oregon Concerto E Myrtlewood – Myrtlewood
