Review: Sterling SUB Ray4 + Ray5
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We bassists owe a lot to Mr Leo Fender – Mr Fender was the father of the electric bass, which he introduced in 1951, as well as the man behind three of the most classic bass designs ever.
After inventing the Fender Precision and the Jazz Bass for the company that still bears his name, Leo Fender carried on designing and building instruments for Music Man, with the StingRay becoming a true classic. The StingRay wasn’t the first bass with active electronics, yet it was the design that brought the active bass into the mainstream.
Since 1984 Music Man is part of the Ernie Ball-company. The company’s current boss – Sterling Ball – is behind the more recent moves to also bring out affordable Music Man-instruments in the guise of a new brand – Sterling (by Music Man).
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Sterling’s brand-new SUB-series offers even more affordable versions of Music Man’s…
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Review: Warwick Corvette Standard Ash
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Warwick’s Pro- and Artist-series instruments are being built in South Korea these days, which results in lower prices when compared to Warwick’s German basses. The question is “Are Korean Warwicks really thoroughbred Warwick basses?” Read on…
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The Warwick Corvette Standard Ash (current price in Finland: 873 €) is the German (Warwick Series) Corvette Bolt-On’s more affordable Korean Pro Series counterpart.
As is already hinted at by its name, the Corvette Standard Ash bass features a body made from swamp ash.
Three long stripes of ovangkol are used as the main ingredient for the neck. The ovangkol pieces are visually offset by two thin strips of ekanga. Both woods come from West Africa.
The Corvette’s neck is screwed on using four separate screws and individual washers. A round chamfer on the body takes away some of the bulk for smoother top fret access.
Warwick’s famous oil and wax…
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Review: DV Mark Multiamp
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One of the hottest new products at this year’s Musikmesse was the Multiamp from Italian makers DV Mark.
The DV Mark Multiamp head niftily combines pro-quality amp and cab models with top-drawer effects and a very powerful – yet unbelievably lightweight – 500 Watt Class-D power amplifier.
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The DV Mark Multiamp (current price in Finland: 1.380 €) is build to withstand serious use, yet is still manages to look elegant. The whole chassis is made from sturdy folded metal, with the front panel finished in a fetching cream white.
You can put the Multiamp on your speaker cabinet (or on your table), or install it in a 19-inch rack. DV Mark have supplied the necessary mounting brackets and screws with the amp.
A very quiet, brushless fan keeps the unit cool.
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DV Mark’s Multiamp has been designed with user-friendliness as one of the main…
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Review: LTD Elite ST-1
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There are a lot of changes in store for ESP/LTD-instruments in 2013, because ESP have decided to reshuffle and restructure their whole product range.
In future the name ESP will only appear on the headstocks of Japanese ESP Custom Shop instruments. ESP’s Standard series will be renamed E-II.
New for LTD in 2013 is their Made-in-Japan Elite series, which has been designed to offer the very best of what this brand has to offer.
Kitarablogi has received a brand-new LTD Elite ST-1 -guitar for review. The model is available in two permutations – either equipped with a rosewood ‘board neck and active EMG-pickups (LTD Elite ST-1/R EMG) or (like our review sample) sporting a maple fretboard and passive Seymour Duncan pickups (LTD Elite ST-1/M).
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The brand-new LTD Elite ST-1/M (1.387 €) is a stunningly beautiful guitar, which manages to blend successfully an air of timelessness with…
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Review: Mannedesign PFM + RDV
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Mannedesign is the more affordable, Far Eastern-produced brand of Italian company Manne Guitars.
Apart from Mannedesign’s wide array of electric guitars and basses the brand’s model range also includes several steel-string acoustics, two of which are featured in this review:
The Parlour-sized Mannedesign PFM and Roberto Dalla Vecchia’s signature-Dreadnought, the RDV.
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The Mannedesign PFM (660 €) is an all-solid, small-bodied instrument for the Blues-, Folk- and Roots-guitarist, who is looking for a vintage-toned guitar.
The deep and rich matte finish on the PFM’s cedar top embues the instrument with a good dose of street credibility.
The mahogany neck is one-piece, save for the upper half of the headstock, and a another piece used to get the neck heel up to its full length. The neck joint is a the 12th fret, just like it was on many guitars in the 1930s.
The back and rims of the…
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Assembling a Set-Neck Guitar Kit – free eBook out now!
The brand-new eBook from “Mr Kitarablogi” – Martin Berka – takes you through the process of assembling a guitar kit from the viewpoint of a novice.
“Assembling a Set-Neck Guitar Kit” is not meant as an all-encompassing encyclopedia of guitar-building knowledge, but rather as a description of how this affordable kit was transformed from a heap of components into a working electric guitar.
Get your free copyHERE!
Review: Roland Cube Lite
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The brand-new Roland Cube Lite (current price in Finland: 155 €) is the latest model in Roland’s successful Cube-range, and the mega-selling Micro Cube’s little sibling.
Contrary to its name the Cube Lite isn’t square-shaped, but rather a stylish stereophonic (2.1) practice amp that looks more like the company’s acoustic combos. Due to its very compact size there wasn’t enough space left for batteries – the Cube Lite runs exclusively on its PSU, which is included in the package.
The Cube Lite offers you three different COSM-modelled amplifier choices, called JC Clean, Crunch and Extreme. Apart from the Drive- and Volume-controls you’ll also find a two-band EQ-section.
The combo’s effect selection has been simmered down to a chorus and a reverb.
All of the Roland’s inputs and outputs are found on the combo’s back panel: In addition to the regular guitar input and the mini-jack for the headphones…
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Review: Tokai AJG-88
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Are you looking for something off the beaten path of Strat- and Les Paul-clones? One interesting guitar might be the Tokai AJG-88 – an homage to the Fender Jazzmaster, factory-modded for the modern player.
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The Tokai AJG-88 (current price in Finland: 1,099 €) is a bolt-on-neck instrument with a long scale.
We find a one-piece maple neck fastened to a streamlined alder body, crafted from three side-by-side pieces.
The Tokai comes in an all-gloss finish: The neck has been sprayed with clear lacquer, with the body showing off a sumptuous three-tone sunburst.
One welcome nod to the 21st century is the AJG-88’s truss rod access, which has been moved from the traditional body-facing end of the neck up to the headstock for easy accessibility.
The AJG-88 comes equipped with a nice set of sealed Gotoh tuners.
The chocolate-coloured rosewood fingerboard sports 22 medium-jumbo frets, which have…
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Review: Tokai TTE-55
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Tokai’s TTE-55 is the company’s newest made-in-Japan Tele-type guitar. The TTE-55 isn’t meant to be a dead-on copy of a Tele from a certain period, but rather something like a Tokai “best-of-vintage-T” model.
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You can get the Tokai TTE-55 (current price in Finland: 848 €) with either a one-piece maple neck – as on our White Blonde review sample – or equipped with a rosewood ‘board.
The finish of the hardware is dependent on the body’s colour – in our case here the Tokai sports gold coloured hardware, which embues this Tele with a good dose of Mary Kaye -style panache.
The 1950s-type neck is screwed to a Sixties-type, bound alder body.
The fine Kluson-copies have one major advantage over more recent designs: The nifty safety posts prevent any sharp string ends from sticking out.
The neck’s silky-smooth satin finish is a much more modern…
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Kitarablogi’s Book of Guitars – get your FREE copy!
Kitarablogi.com have just released their first eBook for iPad, called “Kitarablogi’s Book of Guitars (Volume One)“.
Kitarablogi’s Book of Guitars features over 100 pages of guitar photography, getting up close with many different models starting with Duesenberg and ESP, and continuing all the way to PRS, Schecter and Yamaha. Click on the audio-icons in the eBook to hear sound samples of all the guitars covered in this interactive tome.
Get your free copy HERE or by visiting your iBookstore!
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