As a new electric guitarist you typically start out with a guitar and an amplifier. Life is simple but you quickly learn that your tone is somewhat limited. As your skills progress you start venturing into the realm of effects which typically come in the form of individual stomp pedals.

Since you might only have one or two pedals at this stage (and probably don’t use them very much) you can get away with using 9 volt batteries. Unfortunately as your collection of pedals grows and you start playing open mic nights or join a band, the number of drained batteries begin to pile up -- along with the empty fold in your wallet where the money used to be!

At this point you have two options, you can buy the wall warts that (typically) don’t come with the pedal (usually between $10 and $20 each) or go for a dedicated pedal power supply. This is where the Fuel Tank Chameleon comes into play.

It has always been interesting to me to watch the changes in the musical gear industry. A great example of this would be the general transition from rack effects to individual stomp boxes. In the 1980’s and through most of the 90’s rack ruled the stage from stadiums to small local clubs. The thing that makes this transition somewhat unusual is the fact that it has happened primarily in the semi-pro market. When you look at the rigs used by most touring professionals, you will notice that most of these players use rack mount effects, often in tandum with individual stompboxes.

It is my belief that the difference between pro and semi-pro setups has less to do with the effects themselves, and more to do with time and labor. Racks are heavy and cumbersome, and take a lot more time to set up, not to mention that custom editing each patch to suit the individual gig environments can be a real chore. The unseen and often times under appreciated road and sound crews that keeps the big market touring machines running makes an enormous difference. Highly trained equipment technicians make all the equipment and rack gear changes necessary to keep the guitar player (and the rest of the band) sounding their very best.

Smaller bands however usually need to do their own setup and tonal edits. In addition, time factors come into play since most of these players also work day jobs and have limited setup time. Individual stomp boxes are relatively much easier to adjust to suit room environments, and are generally easier to use.

Which brings me to a question. What if there was a way to get the professional results from rack equipment that is equally if not more user friendly to set up and just as easy to edit for the club environment of the night? In this review we will look at a solution to the labor intensive rack mount system that is both flexible, and easy to use. This unit is the “GSP1101” with the “Control 2” foot controller by DigiTech.

Two weeks ago I reviewed an updated version of T-Rex Engineering’s “Room-Mate” tube reverb pedal. For this review we are going to go to the complete opposite side of the effects spectrum and take a look at a metal distortion pedal that screams “Bloody Mary”.

Like the Room-Mate, the new Bloody Mary is a modified version of a pedal that had been offered before. Almost every product that has come out of the T-Rex Engineering facility has garnered fabulous reviews throughout the industry, but the original Bloody Mary seemed to be an exception. Many players complained that this pedal did not have enough gain to put it in the class of a “must have” metal distortion pedal.

T-Rex took note of this criticism and not being a company that was willing to settle for keeping a pedal that was viewed by it’s customers as sub-standard, they went back to the drawing board. What emerged was a new updated edition of the “Bloody Mary” metal distortion pedal that is definitely going to turn some heads in the realm of metal music. Read on for my review of the Bloody Mary (New Version).

I first became aware of T-Rex Engineering in January of 2004. Dan and I were attending our first NAMM show in Anaheim California. We were both overwhelmed by the sheer size of the show and the scope of companies and products featured. We spent most of our time on the main show floor with the biggest players in the musical instrument industry. On the last day of the show we decided to see what was on the lower floor of the convention center.

One of the companies we stumbled across on that last day was a small guitar effects manufacturer from Vejle, Denmark by the name of T-Rex Engineering. At the time, they had a nice selection of products, but it paled in comparison to the incredible line they offer today. I have always wanted the chance to try out their effects, and the one in particular that has had my attention for quite some time was their tube reverb called the “Room-Mate”.

After many months of waiting, I was sent a Room-Mate for testing. A few weeks later, a press release from T-Rex informed me that the pedal I received was going to be discontinued, and a brand new updated version of the Room-Mate was going to be released which would feature new features and reverb styles. The new version soon arrived on my doorstep, and that is what we are going to be looking at in this review.

The world of multi-effects processors has taken huge steps forward in recent years. Amplifier and effects pedal modeling technologies now give players creative options that were inconceivable just a few years ago. Not coincidentally, my first two multi-effects processors were both from DigiTech -- the “2101 Artist”, and the “2120 Artist” models. Both of these units were state of the art rack mount processors for their time, and with the “Control 1” it even gave a player some utility in gig situations.

The two biggest limitations that I found with early effects processors was the inability to control individual effects within a given patch, and the overall quality of the effects, especially distortion and compression. That said, most of the time-based effects such as reverb and delay were better sounding, and very usable in most cases.

While the DigiTech RP line has enjoyed much success in recent years, there were still a few unaddressed issues that have now been tackled by the engineers at DigiTech with the release of the RP1000. This new flagship of the RP Series boasts some innovative solutions to old multi-effects problems. It will definitely appeal to the professional players who still yearn for versatility but want to hold onto their individual effects pedal setups. First, let’s take a quick tour the RP1000’s control surfaces, and then I will cover a few of the newer features in a little more detail.

John 5 (John Lowrey) has built an impressive reputation for himself as a solo artist and as the guitar shredding foil to Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson. On first appearance, his goth/horror makeup, which predates and may have inspired the late Heath Ledger’s Joker image, belies some incredible chops that have earned accolades from musicians and artists of diverse musical genres and have been in demand from the likes of Les Paul, David Lee Roth, Rob Halford, Lita Ford, Salt-N-Pepa, k.d. lang, Leah Adreone, Static-X, The Scorpions, Paul Stanley, Meatloaf, Joe Satriani and many others.

John 5 is an excellent studio professional who originally started his career doing session work. His signature Fender Telecaster through a Marshall amp forms the backbone of his primary live sound. He recently contributed 40 personally programmed patches to Zoom, resulting in the Zoom G1J John 5 Signature Edition. It is identical to the standard Zoom G1 except that it’s blood red and the package includes a John 5 poster, guitar pick, and a John 5 greeting card.

I remember the room well. The crew from GuitarGearHeads.com were finishing up our long day at the 2008 NAMM show. We had just come out of a tour of Taylor Guitars and were thinking of making an early break to Outback to beat the rush. That was until I happened to see a bunch of action coming from the DigiTech room – they sure had a crowd so we wandered over to take a look.

As it turns out they were setting up for a demo of their new Vocalist pedal as well the new RP 500. For some reason, stuck over on the side of the room was a display of the forthcoming Hardwire™ series of stomp boxes.

What caught our eye about the Hardwire™ series was that these were SERIOUS stomp boxes. Fully professional, all-metal, precision machined workhorses. Although we didn’t have a chance to play them at the show, we were promised a crack at a few of these little gems.

Just a few weeks ago we published a review of the HT-2 Tuner and SC-2 Valve Distortion by John Seetoo. Gary Allen and I are following up on that review with a look at three more in the Hardwire™ line. I reviewed the DL-8 Delay/Looper and Gary looked at the CR-7 Stereo Chorus and the RV-7 Stereo Reverb. Read on for all the details!

It is amazing to me how quickly the world of multi-effects has evolved. I remember not too long ago (circa 2001) evaluating some of the current attempts at digital amp and effects modeling and thinking that they were OK for practice but the sound quality does not compare to separate stomp boxes.

In the past few years, however, multi-effects and amp modeling technologies have moved beyond what I would call "studio toys" into fully capable rigs. At the end of the day, it's hard to argue with the convenience of having tons of great amps and effects pre-programmed and instantly available in such a small package.

The level of competition in this area has been intense, which is great in that with each evolutionary cycle we keep seeing better sound quality and more features shoe-horned into these boxes. Depending on your style and needs there are some amazing options that come in all shapes and sizes.

Often overlooked in this market is Zoom. A Japanese company, they have been a mainstay in the guitar effects game since 1983 - with one of the earliest forays into computer based multi-effects being the Zoom 505 in 1996.

Zoom is distributed by Samson Technologies in the U.S., and I was fortunate to review their flagship product, the G9.2tt. The G9.2tt is a cutting edge multi-effects and amp simulator with some really cool features not to be found on other devices, such as the innovative Z-pedal and dual tube pre-amps. If you have missed the G9.2tt until now, you should read on to find out all the details!

There’s one thing that’s common to all electric guitarists – we are all looking for amazing sounds that ignite creative expression. The trouble is that everyone has an opinion on the producing the “best tone” and which pieces of gear will get you there fastest. Usually, opinions (particularly from the marketing types) start with the word “vintage” and have the word “tube” embedded somewhere in the copy.

But what if you are looking for something decidedly (and audibly) modern? I’m not talking about a modern piece of digital gear that emulates vintage tone. I mean a modern piece of gear puts a different edge on classic effects. For the most part, approaches to date have taken the former approach rather than the latter.

Recently, I blogged about a relatively new company called Source Audio marketing a series of pedals called Soundblox. The intent of this new line was, in fact, to leverage the full extent of modern digital signal processing to inject a fresh perspective on the most commonly used effects. There are four stomp boxes in this line: the Multiwave Distortion, the Tri-Mod Wah, the Tri-Mod Phaser, and the Tri-Mod Flanger. Following my blog post, Source Audio sent me the Multiwave Distortion to conduct a hands-on review.

The short version of the review is that I really liked this pedal – it definitely adds new energy in the often formula driven distortion realm. If you are looking for a Marshall®-sounding “stack in a box”, then I suggest that this pedal is probably not what you are looking for; however, if you want something fresh and a little askew of center, then read on because the Multiwave brings the goods. Read on for all the details!