Gear Review Finland

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German maker Warwick is offering a wide range of different bass amplifiers alongside their famous basses.

One of their newest products is the Warwick LWA 1000 – an ultra-compact, yet very powerful amp head.

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The Warwick LWA 1000 (current price in Finland: 789 €) is small and lightweight enough (2.75 kg) to fit into many gig bags. Optionally, you can also get a rack installation kit or a padded shoulder bag for this head.

As hinted at by its name, the LWA 1000 offers you up to 1,000 Watts of power (into a 4 Ohm cabinet, 500 W into 8 Ohms). Warwick have managed to squeeze this all into a compact package by using a Class D power amplifier.

Warwick’s two-channel preamp has been transplanted from their Hellborg-series, and promises to offer audiophile sound quality from its low-noise Class A circuits.

The two channels of the LWA 1000 are identical, and they…

The good people of EBS Sweden are now bringing a healthy dose of fuzz to the bassist’s toolbox.

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The EBS FuzzMo (current price in Finland: 169,90 €) is a fuzz-type high gain distortion developed especially for bass.

This stompbox is made in China to the EBS’ exacting standards. It’s a sturdy pedal with very positive feeling controls.

The FuzzMo can be powered in three ways:

If you use an EBS amp from the Drome-, Gorm-, HD- or TD-series, you can use a TRS-cable (aka a stereo cable) to feed phantom power from the amp to the effect pedal.

The FuzzMo pedal also runs off a standard 9 V battery, but you will need a screwdriver to take off the base plate first.

The third alternative is to employ a Boss-type power supply (9 V DC, centre negative) to fire up the stompbox.

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Even though the EBS FuzzMo looks somewhat similar…

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Marshall’s DSL5C combo is the newest – and smallest – member of the DSL-series.

The DSL-range has its roots in the year 1997, when Marshall introduced their – now legendary – JCM2000 Dual Super Lead -head. The JCM2000 was the first Marshall amp that combined a vintage-voiced Plexi-channel and a modern Ultra Gain -channel in one chassis.

The production run of the original DSL-series was discontinued in 2007, with the JVM-range superseding it. The new DSL-series offers the company’s most-affordable all-valve amps to date, which are produced at Marshall’s own facility in Vietnam.

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As you can easily guess by its name, the Marshall DSL5C (current street price in Finland around 520 €) is a five-Watt, two-channel combo.

In terms of its looks and the quality of its finish, this is a genuine Marshall. Quality control at the Vietnamese factory seems to as stringent as in Britain, and the combo looks great and feels well-made and sturdy.

The DSL5C comes with…

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James Hetfield is a musician, who surely needs no introduction. He is Metallica’s frontman, singer, songwriter and guitarist, and has played a very important part in the development of the Metal genre.

Metallica’s guitarists – Hetfield and his colleague Kirk Hammet – have long been collaborating with ESP Guitars. The LTD James Hetfield Snakebyte is the most recent fruit of this partnership.

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In the early years of Metallica, James Hetfield used to play a Gibsonin Explorer, and looking at his new signature model, it’s easy to conclude that this guitar legend still holds a place in his heart for angular guitars.

LTD’s James Hetfield Snakebyte (current price in Finland: 1.098 €) is an ultra-modern Metal-machine, with a clear stylistic nod to the Explorer.

Both the guitar’s body and set neck have been crafted from mahogany, while dark-black ebony has been chosen for this model’s fingerboard.

The Snakebyte’s body…

The Italia Fiorano Standard (price in Finland approx.  640 €) is a beautiful thinline, double-cutaway semi.

The Fiorano’s body is made by routing large pockets into the front of a solid mahogany body. In contrast to Italia’s Rimini 6 or Mondial Deluxe models the Fiorano doesn’t have a full centre block, though, but features an opening in the block between the guitar’s pickups. The body is then finished by glueing on a bound spruce top.

Hard rock maple is used for the Fiorano Standard’s neck.

The modern tuning machines are embossed with the I-for-Italia logo, and work very nicely.

The bound fretboard sports Italia’s stylish inlays, consisting of pearloid blocks and abalone dots.

The Fiorano Standard’s neck is glued in at the 19th fret.

Great to see Italia using a modern version of the venerable Tune-o-Matic-bridge. The updated design does away with the annoying and ever-rattling piece of…

Amfisound Guitars is a small company from the northern Finnish town of Oulu. Run by two master luthiers, Amfisound offers a surprisingly wide variety of different guitar and bass models, as well doing a lot of customising and repair jobs. Kitarablogi visited Amfisound’s workshop late last year – read all about it HERE.

Amfisound have introduced a new bass model recently, called the Raudus Bass, which is the subject of this review.

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The Amfisound Raudus Bass (prices for EU-customers starting from 2,520 €) clearly takes its inspiration from Fender’s classic Jazz Bass, but this new Finnish (passive) bass offers a number of modern updates and improvements. The easiest things to notice on first sight are probably the added 21st fret and the much deeper cutaway.

The Raudus sports a body made from Finnish alder and a bolt-on maple neck.

The neck comes finished in a very thin satin…

Blackstar Amplification’s very popular HT Venue-series has recently been joined by the company’s brand-new HT Metal-range, which offers you valve amplifiers tailored specifically to the needs of Metal-guitarists.

Kitarablogi has received the compact five Watt HT Metal 5-combo – meant for use at home, for warm-up and in the studio – and the chunky three-channel, 60 Watt HT Metal 60 -combo for this review.

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The Blackstar HT Metal 5 (street price around 450 €) is based on the company’s extremely successful HT-5R-valve combo, with the new amp sharing the older model’s main architecture and push-pull power amp.

The HT Metal 5 uses two different valves to amplify your guitar signal – one is an ECC83 (aka 12AX7), the other a model 12BH7.

Instead of a woven speaker cloth – like on the HT-5R – the HT Metal 5-combo sports a very sturdy metal grille.

The cabinet is…

Boss unveiled two Special Edition pedals at NAMM 2014. These new stompboxes are updates on two classic Boss-models, and are called the OD-1X Overdrive and the DS-1X Distortion. These deluxe versions promise more gain, a tighter attack, and an even more versatile EQ-section.

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What is the difference between a fuzz, an overdrive and a distortion?

The fuzz pedal is the granddaddy of everything “brang”, and it works in a rather neanderthal way, by means of brutal transistor overload. The resulting tone of transistors clipping sounds quite edgy and fuzzy (hence the name), and tends to work much better on solos and riffs, than it does on chords. A good early example would be the memorable riff on the Rolling Stones’ hit “Satisfaction“.

The terms “overdrive” and “distortion” describe effects that try to mimick the way tube amp distortion sounds. In the beginning both terms were used as…

Now Italia Guitars are finally available in Finland!

Italia is a new brand on the Finnish market, even though these guitars have been available in many EU-countries for 15 years already. Italia Guitars is the joint effort of South Korean guitar factory Mirr Music and British guitar guru Trev Wilkinson. Wilkinson’s list of achievements is long and illustrious, including inventions such as the Wilkinson-vibrato and his roller nut, as well as instrument designs for Vintage (by JHS) and his own Fret-King brand.

The basic concept behind Italia Guitars is to come up with instruments that are imbued with the quirky charm of European electric guitars from the Fifties and Sixties, but which feature up-to-date playability and reliable electronics.

Italia’s distributor in Finland is R-JAM Group.

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The Italia Maranello Classic (price in Finland around 640 €) is this brand’s best-known model, which has even found its way into the hands (and heart)…

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Vox’ legendary Sixties guitars, the Mark III and the Mark V – aka the Vox Teardrop (Mark III) and the Vox Phantom (Mark V) – have made a comeback! These Brit Boom-guitars have claimed their place in history as the chosen axes of the Rolling Stones’ original lead guitarist Brian Jones (Mark III) and Tony Hicks (Mark V) of the Hollies.

But the best news is that these new versions come at quite affordable prices!

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The Vox Mark III (current price in Finland approx. 355 €) sports a symmetrical body, which calls to mind old lutes or the Greek bouzouki.

This reissue comes with a short 22-inch scale (610 mm), making it an ideal beginner’s instrument.

The Teardrop is build from a basswood body and a bolt on maple neck. The fretboard is crafted from rosewood.

The new, smaller version of the legendary Vox-headstock cuts down on neck weight…