Last week Gary from Thumbrella found this fantastic Swineshead Pickups Humbucker Keyring so I thought I would see what other guitar related keyrings were on the market. Well I didn’t have to look long before finding a company that specialises in miniature guitars and keyrings called MiniatureGuitarOutlet.com. The image on the left is labeled on their site as a ’Dark Wood Electric Guitar Keychain‘, which is a little bit strange considering this company create 9” replica guitars, you would think they would at least call it a Flying V?

Although they don’t acknowledge the different styles of guitar they actually create Les Pauls, Strats, Teles and Flying V’s in a range of colours and they are only $2.19 a piece.

MiniatureGuitarOutlet.com

What do you buy the guitarist who has everything? How about a Braithwaite Orpheus? ”designed for the guitar player who knows that playing the instrument is more than just a hobby” and only $105… surely worth the money because not only can you fit all your cards and cash in this leather wallet but also 3 guitar picks because of course they take up so much space in your pocket!

”Without picks inserted, you can see the black silk lining the back of the pick holder, creating a look reminiscent of shark’s gills. With picks in, the true purpose of the wallet (and its owner) becomes clear.”

Yeah because with those picks in there I had no idea what the true purpose was!

When I discovered Kangaroo Amp Covers I was excited that I had found another Aussie company after featuring JLF Guitars yesterday however I was a little disappointed to find out that despite the name they are in fact an American company, ah well I’ll forgive them. Now have you ever needed to protect your guitar amp from a military invasion? Well you might want to consider buying a cover made from 1050 Denier Ballistic Nylon as used in bulletproof vests!

Kangaroo Amp Covers give you the choice of either ballistic nylon or 32 oz. heavy duty sierra vinyl to ensure your amp will be protected in the back of the band’s transit van, in fact Kangaroo Amp Covers say it is “the next best thing to having your own roadie”. Apart from being rugged enough for your amp to survive a pub tour of Baghdad each cover features exterior pockets for all your extra bits an pieces, kettle lead… erm and whatever else you can’t fit in your guitar case. The covers also have a 3/8” high density foam padding (thats 10mm in the wonderful metric world) to help protect your amp as it bounces around the outback with skippy.

UK based Swineshead Pickups have some very interesting pickup designs, for instance the Swineshead Warthog which is a high output humbucker with a powerful thick tone has a Paduak wood finish.

The other wood finishes available are Maple, Rosewood, Ebony, Mahogany, Zebrano and Lacewood. And that is just the wood finishes! Check out some of the other special finishes available such as Diamond Tread, Red Sparkle or their colour combinations. Oh and the customisation options don’t stop there, you can also have custom engraving on your pickups!

But how do they sound? Well I don’t know there aren’t any sound samples, but the humbuckers all use Alnico magnets as shown on this tone chart.

IK Multimedia have today added to their arsenal of audio products with the announcement of SampleTron which includes the most complete “Tron” anthology ever released in one virtual instrument, with over 2 GB of sounds, 640 presets and 260 multi-samples from 17 rare and vintage Mellotrons®, Chamberlins™, and their derivatives like the Optigan™, Rhythmaster™ and much more. I don’t normally mention software that is not guitar related but with recently I have been doing a bit of recording (post coming soon) and found myself needing a lot of backing instruments for my compositions and these would have come in very useful! You can’t just have all guitar tracks can you! (I know it is tempting!!!)

”SampleTron’s diverse library was meticulously sampled by Sonic Reality and assembled to showcase the entire sonic palette, with chromatic samples that accurately capture the complete authentic tone of each instrument. Jam-packed with unprecedented instruments originally used by The Beatles, Moody Blues, Genesis, Yes and other famous bands from the 60’s and 70’s, the sounds in SampleTron are diverse, powerful and inspiring!”

Here is a list instruments that the sounds are based on:

Mellotron® M400
Mellotron® MK5
Mellotron® MKII
Mellotron® Powerhouse (8 Track Rhythm Machine)
Novatron®
Vako Orchestron®
Optigan™
Talentmaker™
Chamberlin™ Music Master 600
Chamberlin™ Music Master 400
Chamberlin™ Model 200
Chamberlin™ M1
Chamberlin™ M4
Chamberlin™ Rhythmate™
360 Systems® “Digital Tron”
Roland® VP-330 (Choir)
Stylophone®

Good old stylophone! The interface design is a bit weird, they have gone for a eroded kind of look but I suppose it is meant to resemble a rusty old vintage instrument?

SampleTron is now available from all worldwide IK dealers, distributors and in the IK online store for just EURO249.99/$329.99. A crossgrade price of Euro199.99/$269.99 is also available for all previously registered users of any lite or full version IK product.

For more information check out the official SampleTron site.

Talking of IK Multimedia, don’t forget the Guitar Noize/IK Multimedia Competition closes in a week so don’t miss out on your chance to win a fantastic StompIO!

”You’ve got a guitar that is a work of art and a beautiful hand made tube amp, why would you trust all this to work at its best with a cheap, machine pressed fit cable?”.

I suppose they have a point, every guitarist is on a quest for the perfect tone and we spend thousands of dollars on guitars, amps, strings, stompboxes and then trust all of these connections down to a cable that we spent a few dollars on. Well ok I actually have a couple of decent cables but at the moment my recording input cable to my mac is a cheap crappy cable. Solid Cables‘ new Dynamic Arc Ultra Guitar Cable is a pro guitar cable built for durability, its rugged design makes it capable of pulling an object weighing six to ten thousand pounds without breaking which makes it a handy tow rope if your car breaks down on the way to a gig!

”The cable makes a notable audio enhancement on any instrument. The clear sound allows you to hear any instrument. Improved note detail and complexity make this cable the go to cable for producers.”

Here are the stats:

Conductor: ultra pure oxygen free copper for the most harmonic content
Solder: high silver content alloy for clearest sound
Armor: tear strength of 6000 PSI - you could tow a car with one if you had to
Ends: nickel plated - all metal for classic tone
Insulation: 1kV shorting resistance
Ultra quiet: no handling noise, not microphonic, resists up to 98% of EMI/RFI noise
Hand assembled in Pasadena, California
Triple strain relief
All parts chemically welded together using the same stuff they use on dragsters and fighter jets.
Lifetime warranty
Available in stock lengths from 12 to 21 feet
The Ultra is available in dusk cherry or carbon black

And here is the all important pricing info:

21’ Dynamic Arc Ultra $156.95
18’ Dynamic Arc Ultra $149.95
15’ Dynamic Arc Ultra $142.95
12’ Dynamic Arc Ultra $135.95

Now I know that sounds expensive but these are professional quality cables, so not really aimed at the bedroom guitarist, but like I said if you are a tone perfectionist then you might want to add one of these to your setup!

Solid Cables Official SIte

At Winter Namm 2007 Vox announced that they were collaborating with Joe Satriani on a series of stomp boxes that he had been testing on tour, at the time they had nothing to show but Vox have just announced the first in the series at Musikmesse Frankfurt 2008. The Vox Satchurator pictured left is a distortion pedal that apparently recreates Satch’s distinctive tone. Apparently the Satchurator is capable of very high gain levels but operates more quietly and musically than other modern distortion pedals. It also preserves the tone and pick-attack of the guitarist plugging into it, regardless of style, from subtly distorted blues tones through classic rock and shred. Oh and like his Ibanez JS1200, it is red!

There is no news on the official Vox site as yet but I’m sure that will be updated soon.

While I’m on the subject of Professor Satchafunkilus himself, starting March 22nd Joe Satriani will be releasing video podcasts on his site with insights into how the new album ‘Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock’ was recorded much like he did when ‘Super Colossal’ was released, check it out on Satriani.com. You can also check out a new track from the album - “I just wanna rock” on the homepage too!

For my final military themed installment for the week I thought I would feature Bareknuckle Pickups’ Nailbomb Humbucker. Now I’m no pickup guru so I will leave the description down to Bareknuckle themselves:

”Chaos in a pickup. No nonsense attitude for huge, aggressive and harmonically rich assault. The Nailbomb humbucker was created for the player demanding a powerful pickup with exceptional organic tone and versatility.

Double wax potted to eliminate michrophony and fitted with 4 conductor wire as standard. Sonic domination has never been this easy or sounded this good! ”.

Oh and of course the pickup comes with a custom Urban-Camo finish for £210 a piece. Another similar product is their Warpig Humbucker which has a hand distressed nickel silver cover again using an Alnico V Magnet, this one will set you back an extra tenner.

Well Ibanez have not exactly been trying to keep this one secret in fact Steve Vai actually talks about this new pedal and shows a prototype that he has been using on tour in this video, a must watch for Vai fans as it shows he shows his entire touring rig (make sure you check out part 2 as well!).

The twin stomp box is not yet featured on the US site but I found it on the Ibanez Japan site. So first of all Vai chose the vomit coated finish reminiscent of his Passion & Warfare era Ibanez Universe UV77MC. The unit has 2 identical distortion units, apparently with a Boss DS-1 distortion type sound is on one side, and an Ibanez TS9 sound is on the other according to Music Radar. It will be interesting to see this pedal in action as the information is a little scarce at the moment, Ibanez seem a little slow to update their site after NAMM unlike many of their competitiors.

Regular Guitar Noize fans (come on there must a few out there!) might remember a little while ago I posted about Dava Picks, well I’ve just finished putting 4 Dava Picks through their paces and I wanted to share my thoughts with you.

First of all I have to say I was reaaaaaaaally looking forward to trying out the Dava master control pick, this is the one that combines the flexible plastic grip with the Nickel Silver tip. The website promised that this pick would be incredibly smooth and fast and not too bright. Well, I’m afraid I was a little disappointed with this one, I guess I had built it up in my head to be better than the reality. It is really fast and smooth, that I do agree with, but I found it a bit imprecise and scratchy in comparison to the other picks. I think it needs a bit of adjustment to get used to it? It is a very comfortable pick to hold though the plastic grip is great.

So I’ll tell you which one was my favourite, the Dava Grip Tip. This was in my opinion the outstanding product. It is the most comfortable pick I’ve ever held, the longer you hold it the more it seems to blend in with your fingertips and the soft grip makes it almost impossible to drop, it doesn’t even shift when you start hammering into the strings! It is very precise too, I tried the same mixture of alternate picking exercises, arpeggiated chords and strumming and although a little harsh for strumming my acoustic guitar the overall control makes up for it.

My 2nd favourite was the Dava Precision Points Pick. This pick is a lot more flexible than the others but is great for fast picking. I did find it a little scratchy but I think that once the edges wear in a bit that will soon smooth out the tone. I probably wouldn’t choose this pick over my usual brand, unlike the Grip Tip, but it is a great tip for the Paul Gilberts out there. It wasn’t that great for strumming on my acoustic, but again I think it would soften a little over time.

I think that 3rd would be the Nickel tip, but I’ve already given you my opinion about that, I’m going to keep using this one and see if I can adjust my sloppy picking technique and see what happens. I’ll keep you posted.

Lastly I tried the Dava Rock Control Celluloid Pick, this was my least favourite. The edges definitely needed wearing in to take the scratchiness away. It wasn’t that precise for fast picking but it was ok for strumming.

I think if you want to try Dava Picks you should buy a few different types and see which one suits your playing style, but whatever you do make sure you get a Grip Tip that one is taking over as my new favourite pick!

Thanks to JBV Strings in Victoria, Australia for supplying the picks to test and to Kurt Jacob.