This time we have something very special to feast your eyes on!

Many people may not know this, but ESP Guitars also runs its own, small West Coast workshop in California. Apart from building one-offs for ESP artists and collectors, ESP USA also produces a couple of their own models in very limited numbers. Currently, production stands at about 20 guitars per month. Kitarablogi.com has been lucky to get to take one of these guitars for a spin – the ESP USA Eclipse.

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The ESP USA Eclipse (current price in Finland: 3.939 €) is the company’s ultimate version of their popular Eclipse model, using only the best materials and production methods.

One of the USA Eclipse’s special features is the ESP Set-Thru-Neck, which aims to combine the best attributes of a traditional set neck with the tonal advantages of a through-neck.

ESP’s Set-Through-Neck is basically a…

Usually, we get the products we review from the Finnish distributors, or directly from Finnish guitar- or amp-makers.

This time, though, I was approached by guitarist Jaakko Rytsölä. Jaakko had ordered a guitar for himself, liked what he got, and is now thinking seriously about importing this brand, in partnership with Espoo-based company Guitarworx.

Jericho Guitars – who are based in Plano, Texas – are a brand specialising exclusively in long-scale baritone electric guitars. Jericho use what they call a ping-pong manufacturing process: The raw tonewood is hand-selected at a wood supplier in British Columbia (Canada), and then sent to a manufacturer in South Korea for all the basic neck and body work. The half-finished guitars are then shipped back to Texas, where they are assembled and set up. According to Jericho, this process results in high-quality instruments with a player-friendly price tag.

Jericho have already caused quite a…

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Vuorensaku is a guitar maker from the Finnish town of Jyväskylä. Luthier-Artisan Saku Vuori repairs and builds all types of string instruments. Vuorensaku also winds his own brand of custom pickups.

When it comes to handcrafted instruments, Vuorensaku isn’t relying on any specific range of models, instead this is a true custom workshop which makes one-offs according to its customers’ wishes.

Saku Vuori is a member of The Guild of Finnish Luthiers.

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Saku sent us a recently finished solidbody electric for review – a very cool crossbreed of a Seventies Fender Telecaster Deluxe and a Fifties Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster. Vuorensaku’s guitars usually are designated by their serial number only, but for the sake of simplicity I will name this instrument the “Vuorensaku T-Style Custom”.

The T-Style Custom has been crafted from quality tonewoods:

The bolt-on neck has been carved from a piece of lightly flamed Canadian hard…

Boss’ Waza Craft pedals are the company’s brand-new all-analogue, top-of-the line compact effects. The Waza Craft range has been designed to give the quality-conscious guitarist the full boutique-pedal experience in the well-loved Boss format.

The Japanese word “waza” can be translated as art, artistry or technology, and hints at the fact that the three new pedals (the overdrives reviewed here, plus the DM-2W delay) are a return to old-school, all-analogue circuitry, and that the effects are factory-modded for your convenience.

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The Boss Blues Driver BD-2W Waza Craft (currentprice in Finland around 155 €) is a “waza-treated” update of the popular Blues Driver overdrive.

In the late 1970s Boss came up with the now-legendary, compact guitar pedal format, which has since become an industry standard. The typical Boss pedal is made from a cast metal casing with the quick-access battery compartment tucked away beneath the pedal’s switch…

JAM Pedals is a Greek maker of boutique effect pedals, whose products are now available in Finland, too (distributed by R-Jam Group).

JAM Pedals’ products are all-analogue, built by hand from first-rate components. Some models even rely on hard to come by NOS chips and transistors for their sound.

Most JAM-models can also be ordered in point-to-point versions, or with customised specifications and/or artwork.

All JAM Pedals come in hand-painted, unique designs, and are delivered with a cloth sack for storage, as well as a JAM-logo’d plectrum.

All the effects tested in this review run on a nine volt battery or a (Boss-type) power supply (not included).

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JAM Pedals offers four different versions of its Tube Dreamer overdrive pedal.

Their compact Tube Dreamer 58 is the company’s take on the ultimate Ibanez Tube Screamer 808 pedal. The circuit is built around an original JRC4558D-chip.

The JAM Tube Dreamer 58 (current…

DOD has introduced an updated version of its Bifet Boost 410 pedal this year – the 2014-version adds a switchable buffer to the circuit.

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The DOD Bifet Boost 410 (current price in Finland:99 €) is a signal level booster, giving you up to a whopping 20 dB of amplification.

The booster sports two controls – one for volume and one for tone.

Over the last few years, the term “true bypass” has become the new marketing buzzword, bandied about frequently to “prove” one pedal’s superiority over another. In reality there’s no mystique attached to true bypass – it simply means that when the pedal is switched off the input is hardwired straight to the output, without passing through any of the effect’s circuitry. If a pedal’s manufacturer doesn’t state true bypass in the spec list, chances are the pedal in question has an internal buffer, which…

Hughes & Kettner’s Red Box has been a runaway success, ever since the first version was introduced in the late Eighties.

The Red Box is a specialised DI-box for your guitar amp. Traditionally, DI-boxes are meant to transform the high impedance signal of an electric guitar (or bass) into a low impedance signal fit for direct connection to a recording (or PA) console.

The Red Box, on the other hand, is inserted between the amp’s speaker output and the speaker (cabinet). Hughes & Kettner’s analogue cabinet modelling then makes it possible to send the sound of a miked up guitar speaker to the mixing desk (or sound card) without having to actually put a microphone in front of the amp’s speaker.

Hughes & Kettner haven’t been resting on their laurels, though. They have updated and improved the Red Box every once in a while, with the most recent version being…

Puuverstas Änäkäinen’s Rumble 1 x 12 -cabinet (prices in Finland start around 580 €) offers a few fresh ideas on how to come up with a cracking guitar tone.

The fathers of the Rumble-concept are cabinet maker Kari Änäkäinen (try saying: Curry ANNA-kay-nun), who is also gigging as a guitarist and bassist, and Kuusankoski’s very own tube amp guru, Triodipaja’s proprietor Lassi Ukkonen (LUSS-cee OO-cow-nun). The guys hit upon the basic idea for the Rumble cabinet, when Kari asked Lassi to calculate the correct cubic content for a lightweight bass cabinet he was building for himself. The bass cabinet turned out very well and set the duo on the path to coming up with the Rumble.

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When it comes to the cosmetics of his Rumble cabinets, Kari Änäkäinen is a dyed-in-the-wool vintage fan.

We received two different Rumble 1 x 12 cabinets for this…

From a guitarist’s standpoint, Finland truly is the land where milk and honey flow. In relation to its tiny population Finland is home to an unbelievable number of first-rate guitar-, effects- and amp-makers.

One such boutique-level amp brand is Hehku Customs from the town of Pori (on the western coast). Hehku’s team consists of chief designer Jarmo Välimäki, as well as Markku Penttilä and Juha Heljakka, who are in charge of R & D, sales and marketing.

There are several examples of different custom amps the company has built on Hehku’s website. Prices for custom amps start at about roughly 1,300 €. Hehku Custom’s cabinet sizes and shapes are standardised, but all other details can be tailoured to each customers wishes and requirements. “The basic idea is that we want to make our customers’ wildest dreams come true!” says Jarmo Välimäki.

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Kitarablogi got a 15-watt Hehku Nightingale 15…