Monthly Archives: February 2013
Review: PRS SE Angelus Standard
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The SE Angelus Standard is a Grand Auditorium -sized steel-string acoustic from PRS Guitars’ brand-new SE Acoustic -range.
A special feature on all PRS SE steel-strings is their proprietary top bracing pattern which seamlessly combines the best bits of traditional x- and fan-bracing patterns. The end result should be a very dynamic and open-sounding acoustic tone.
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The PRS SE Angelus Standard (current street price in Finland approx. 730 €) is a beautiful and stylish piece of work.
A Grand Auditorium’s body has about the same cubic content as a Dreadnought. Its rounder shape with a more slender waist makes it more comfortable to play, and also produces a different basic voicing. Grand Auditoriums tend to sound more open with added clarity in the lower midrange (between 600 – 800 Hz) compared to a Dreadnought, making them easier to record.
The SE Angelus Standard is crafted from…
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Review: PRS Studio
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The PRS Studio -model, which was introduced last year, bundles all the improvements of the last few years in one single instrument. The Studio sports a long list of new – or improved – features, such as the Narrowfield-humbuckers.
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In Gibson-speak “studio” usually means a less expensive, slightly scaled-down model. In the PRS Studio’s case the word “studio” denotes a guitar that is meant to be very versatile.
The PRS Studio (current price in Finland around 3,000 €) is a set-neck electric guitar, with the company’s traditional 25-inch (63,5 cm) scale. A great-looking flame maple top comes as standard on the Studio. PRS offer several different colour finishes, as well as a choice between a wraparound bridge or a PRS vibrato.
Both the neck and the back of the body are crafted from top-quality mahogany. The Studio is offered with two new neck profiles: The fuller…
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Review: Orange Terror Bass TB500C-212
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Orange Amplification have a long and illustrious tradition in the building of guitar and bass amplifiers, a fact that shows in many of the company’s current products.
But that doesn’t mean that Orange are a backward-facing company – far from it. The brand-new Terror Bass combo, for example, is very much a contemporary product – a compact, yet powerful valve-hybrid amp.
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The Orange Terror Bass TB500C-212 (current RRP in Finland: 994 €) melds the company’s 500-Watt BT-500H-head with their 2 x 12″ SP-212-cabinet.
The Orange TB500C is a valve-hybrid amplifier, which in this case means that its preamp section is powered by two 12AX7 valves. The tubes imbue the combo with a warm basic tonality, nicely seasoned with mild and organic compression. I’d also wager that a bit of overdrive will be on the menu at some point.
The power amp, on the other hand…
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Review: Orange AD200 Bass Mk3 + OBC410
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British amplifier makers Orange have a long history going back all the way to 1968.
Even if many of their current products are manufactured in China these days – to keep the prices down – the company still make their top-of-the-line products in England. Apart from their guitar amplifier range Orange also caters for bass players – this time we will review their AD200 Bass MK3 all-valve head (current price in Finland: 1.510 €) together with the OBC410-cabinet (current price in Finland: 799 €).
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The combination of the Orange AD200 Bass -head and OBC410-cabinet carries all the famous hallmarks of the company. There’s the pictogrammes explaining the functions of the control knobs on the huge, white front panel, as well as the huge black knobs for gain and master volume. Both the head and cabinet are covered in the famous orange vinyl and have black metal corner…
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Review: ML-Factory LP-style kit, self-assembled
This is a review of an electric guitar kit I have assembled myself:
I had ordered an LP-style kit from ML-Factory in Germany (the price is around 200 €, depending on the chosen model).
One of the most critical and tricky operations has already been executed in this kit – it comes with the mahogany neck already glued into the body.
If you stick to an easy-to-apply oil and wax finish, the assembly of a kit such as this is a nice project for one day (or, maybe better, one weekend). The only slightly more advanced step left to you would then be sinking the back plates into the routings in the body’s back.
I had decided to apply an Osmo Color wood wax finish to the kit, which, naturally, added a few days more to the process, due to wood preparation, masking, and drying times.
Interestingly, I found…
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Review: Marshall JTM1C + JMP1C
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Marshall Amplification celebrate their 50th anniversary this year. To honour the occasion the company is releasing five small anniversary models, produced in limited numbers. Each model of these one-Watt all-valve heads and combos has been designed to represent one era in Marshall-history, both in looks and in sound.
Kitarablogi.com had the pleasure to review the Sixties and Seventies combos – the JTM1C and JMP1C.
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The JTM1C-combo (current street price in Finland approximately 700 €) nails the look of early JTM-models perfectly. Just like the famous Bluesbreaker-combo, the JTM1C sports a golden nameplate with the old-style block lettering and the famous salt-and-pepper grille cloth of yore.
Valve purists will be delighted at the sight of just one volume- and one tone-control – nothing stands in the way of pure tone.
Even though the anniversary models aren’t wired point-to-point in the vintage style, the electronic…
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Review: Mannedesign Newport 4T
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The active Mannedesign Newport 4T bass (current price in Finland: 883,14 €) is part of Manne’s mid-price range of Mannedesign instruments, all manufactured in the Far East to the Italian maker’s specs. The bass closely follows its more expensive Italian sibling in general looks, but offers different solutions in the finer details.
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Both the body’s as well as the headstock’s front have been adorned with beautiful flamed maple veneers, which have been finished in a rich honey-coloured hue.
Quality tuners, made by Gotoh, keep the tuning well and stable.
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Italian Manne instruments feature maple necks with multi-laminated beech cores for added rigidity. The Mannedesign Newport 4T sports a one-piece maple nack, with an additional piece for the headstock and the first frets. You can only just spot the scarf-joint on the reviewed bass.
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Here we see a genuine bolt-on neck, instead of the traditional screwed-on variety used widely.
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Review: Manne Ventura Satin
Manne Guitars is a high-end guitar company from northern Italy, who isn’t afraid of doing things in their own special way.
Kitarablogi.com reviewed their bolt-neck model – Ventura Satin (current price in Finland: 1.855 €, comes with a pro-quality gig bag).
The Manne Ventura uses korina for the body. The neck features Manne’s special construction – maple with a centre strip of laminated beech. The long-scale instrument (64 cm/25.2″) has a Resin-F-fingerboard and Dunlop’s 6110 jumbo frets.
The Ventura Satin comes equipped with two powerful Manne-humbuckers with blade poles.
Both the volume- as well as the tone-control feature push/pull-switches, with the down position giving each humbucker wired traditionally, that is with the coils in series. The up position wires the coils in parallel, which results in a slightly brighter tone.
There were a few smudges of satin white finish on the black body binding of the review sample, which…
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Review: Lakland Skyline 44-60 Custom
Lakland are offering their basses in two distinct lines: The US-series comprises of instruments made completely at Lakland’s own workshop, while the Skyline-series has the woodwork and finishing performed in Indonesia. The Skyline-basses are then shipped to Chicago, where they are equipped with the electronics and set up, using human craftsmanship alongside a German PLEK-machine.
Kitarablogi.com tested the passive Skyline 44-60 Custom (current price in Finland: 1.599 €), which is the company’s take on the venerable Fender Jazz.
The review sample is a beautiful instrument, very carefully crafted from quality woods, hardware and passive electronics.
These very nice, licensed versions of Hipshot’s Ultra-Lite tuners keep the headstock’s weight down.
Lakland-basses tend to feature quite low and slim frets, which probably add a percussive element to the attack of each note. Some players will be concerned about how well small frets hold up to modern roundwound strings, though.
Lakland’s…
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Review: Kataja Guitars – three basses
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Ari Kataja’s Kataja Custom Shop is a small builder from Tampere (Finland), who has concentrated on one-offs for his clients up to now (alongside repair work).
Kataja Guitars have recently come out with their line of Fender-inspired basses, produced in small runs; the new models were also on display at this year’s Bassopäivä (the annual Bass Day at the Pop-Jazz-Academy in Helsinki).
Kitarablogi.com jumped at the opportunity to get three models for a review:
Ari Kataja’s version of a P-bass…
…a model based on a 1960 Jazz…
…as well as a ca 1962/63 Jazz Bass -based bass (current prices in Finland start from 1,920 €, incl gigbag).
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Kataja Custom basses are crafted in Finland – start to finish. Even though there is quite a number of so-called custom builders, who use pre-fabricated bodies and necks as their basic ingredients, this is not the way for Mr…
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Gear Review Finland 
