Amplifiers
Eric Clapton set to auction over 150 guitars and amps from personal collection
Although guitar legend Eric Clapton has auctioned off instruments from his personal collection before, next year's sale will mark the first time that he's made some of his amps available, too. Players looking to grab a slice of Slow Hand tone, fans of the man they called God, or music memorabilia collectors will all get the chance to bid on over 70 of the icon's own guitars and 70 of his amps. Donations from other famous musicians will also go under the hammer, with all profits going to the substance abuse center in Antigua that Clapton founded in the late 1990s. Read More
Being wired for sound to a games console can be a somewhat restricting experience, especially if you're trying to release your inner rock star with games like Rock Band 3. Astro Gaming has taken its pro-gaming MixAmp audio technology and made it both wireless and home-friendly. Users of the MixAmp 5.8 system can plug in just about any pair of wired headphones to the wireless receiver and benefit from 7.1-channel Dolby Surround Sound and a virtually interference-free wireless connection to the transmitter. Read More
Portable tones in a pipe: The Pipe Amp from FuzzHugger
FuzzHugger has just unleashed a portable, battery-powered amp that packs some serious volume and gorgeous 1960s fuzz tones into a pipe housing. The appropriately named Pipe Amp is about the size of a vintage effects pedal, doesn't have its own clean channel and can be used to drive a 4 x 12 cabinet. The fact that each one is hand-built and available in strictly limited quantities only adds to its must-have charm. Let the fuzz begin... Read More
Graphene has already brought us the world’s smallest transistor – twice – and now the one atom thick form of carbon that recently won its discoverers the Nobel Prize has been used to create a triple-mode, single-transistor amplifier. The new transistor has the potential to replace many traditional transistors in a typical integrated circuit and its developers say the device could become a key component in future electronic circuits. Read More
New guitar pickup design offers natural 3D sound
The incredible guitar virtuosity from the likes of Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and Stanley Jordan all rely on their string-picking proficiency being registered by the instrument's pickups. These vibrations are then transformed into electrical signals and sent off to an amplifier for our listening pleasure. Using such a setup, string movement can only be read on one axis, the horizontal. The 3Dxy pickup system reads each string twice, on both the horizontal and the vertical and is said to result in a rich, surround sound effect called natural stereo. Read More
With over a million sales notched up, Roland has announced that the next generation of Cube amplifiers is ready to be let loose. The Cube XL series is available in four sizes, starting at the practice 15W version right up to a gig-worthy 80W model. The amps all feature a host of tones and effects and an auxiliary input to allow a portable music player to provide backing tracks. Features on offer from the new range include amp modeling, channel-switching and a strange-sounding power squeeze function. Roland has also unleashed a couple of BOSS guitar effects pedals – one that offers the player pitch control and voice harmony possibilities and the other squeezing some tube amp sounds into a palm-sized stomp box. Read More
Guitarists who like to bring a little music to city streets and maybe make a bit of extra cash on the side face the problem of having their tunes drowned out by traffic noise or carried away on the wind. Traditional amplifiers requiring a power source are no help and while there are battery-powered units around, we don’t think any are as elegant or convenient as the solution developed by Laurie Nicoll of Victoria, Australia. His sound hole amplifier, or “SHamp” is a compact amplifier that fits into the sound hole of an acoustic guitar to give it that bit of extra oomph when you need it. Read More
Following on from success with the iPhone, IK Multimedia has now released an AmpliTube app for the iPad. Using an iRig interface adapter, the app offers guitar and bass players real-time, mobile tone-modeling and multi-effects solutions on the bigger multi-touch screen of the iPad. It is available in both free and paid-for versions, the latter giving players 11 effects, five amps and cabinets, plus two microphones to play around with. Read More
There are a huge number of apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch which make the most of the sensitive touchscreen display to mimic the playing of various musical instruments. Useful for learning, rehearsing and for just showing off to your mates, such things all suffer from the same problem - an awkward user experience. The Fingerist from EVENNO could change all that by allowing players to place an Apple smartphone or media player into the cradle of its guitar-shaped body, strap it around their neck, and then blast out some power chords using the built-in speaker. Read More
At last, a product is on the horizon which combines two of my passions - playing guitar and fiddling with computers. Renowned amplification specialist Orange Amps has just announced the forthcoming availability of its OPC. Users will not only get a genuine 15W per channel stereo Orange guitar amplifier, but also a fully working personal computer running Windows 7, with some top music software thrown in for good measure. Read More
