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Totem X.2 X7 Spalt Instruments, a superb guitar built for great sounds!
Monday, 27 December 2021
In the series of Totem X.2 resin top guitars from the Austrian luthier Michael Spalt, here is an instrument with the sweet name of X7 Spalt Instruments (spaltinstruments.com). It may not be very poetic, but this guitar is beautiful and it sounds great! Totem series X.2 X7 Spalt review Until the next gear review or
"Classic S Suhr, the best American Super Strat today?" Come on! Let's assume the bold statement that the Classic S from Suhr Guitars (suhr.com) represents the best of the modern Super Strat in the production guitar segment. Big fan of John Suhr (whom I hope to interview one of these days!!) and his work in
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Showroom feature: Tausch Guitars model 665 Raw in Candy Apple Red
Tuesday, 20 April 2021
As part of the service proposed to boutique guitar builders to exhibit and try out instruments in our private showroom in Paris, France here is the model 665 Raw in a gorgeous Candy Apple Red relic finish from Tausch Guitars (tausch-guitars.de). This guitar built in Germany by the luthier Rainer Tausch is full of cool
The American pro audio brand Eventide continues to renew its guitar pedal line. After the BlackHole reverb, the MicroPitch offers a stereo delay with the famous Eventide detuning function. The possibilities of this pedal are incredible as it can be a simple delay, a stereo multi-tap delay, a stereo delay with modulation or a chorus!
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Tausch Guitars 665 Raw Deluxe review, a great German boutique guitar
Friday, 05 March 2021
The German luthier Rainer Tausch (tausch-guitars.de) makes guitars that have a very classic appearance but are in fact completely revisited instruments. In the case of the 665 Raw Deluxe model, it is clearly Telecaster inspired. And yet this luthier guitar is a hollow-body with a glued neck, so it's far from the Esquire. Tausch 665
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Franfret luthier’s guitar model #1, a Strat with a Mahogany body
Friday, 12 February 2021
The Spanish luthier Francisco Rodriguez is the craftsman behind the Franfret brand (franfret.net). Already interviewed several times, he sent to the showroom of The Guitar Channel a Strat like no other. Indeed, not only is the inspiration clearly David Gilmour's vintage guitar #00001 but its body is made of Mahogany. On this kind of guitar
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As part of the service proposed to boutique guitar builders to exhibit and try out instruments in our private showroom in Paris, France here is the model 665 Raw Deluxe from Tausch Guitars (tausch-guitars.de). This guitar built in Germany by the luthier Rainer Tausch is full of cool features (see specs below) Tausch Guitars 665
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Invaders Bluegrass 550 tube amp, a 50W single-channel powerhouse
Tuesday, 26 January 2021
The Bluegrass 550 from Invaders Amplification (invadersamplification.com) is a 100% tube amp single-channel tube amp that has a pretty phenomenal sound. One thing is sure, you won't run out of headroom with this amp! Invaders Bluegrass 550 review Until the next gear review or interview, keep on playing the guitar! Pierre Journel.
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Boost an amp with a Klon or simulate it with a Ceriatone Centura in a Simplifier
Friday, 15 January 2021
Changing the sound of an amp with a boost pedal is a recipe almost as old as the first tube amps. In this gear video, we listen in detail to the sound changes when you push a Marshall sound with a Klon Centaur type pedal. In order to simplify the configuration and to have everything
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Octopus G2002 Spalt review, awesome sounding guitar and a piece of art
Friday, 08 January 2021
Make no mistake the Octopus G2002 from Spalt Instruments might look like a piece of art (guess what, it is one!) but it is first and foremost a badass guitar! It was a real pleasure to review this guitar which spent a couple of weeks at our showroom in Paris before heading to Japan. This
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Tone Bender, review of one of the ultimate and sought-after Fuzz pedals
Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Thanks to a faithful premium subscriber of The Guitar Channel (thanks Steven), I was able to test a vintage Sola Sound Tone Bender Professional Mk II. It is one of the most sought after Fuzz pedals by aficionados. Tone Bender Professional Mk II review Impressions Fuzz pedals are difficult beasts to tame. This Tone Bender
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Gate Guitar #047 Spalt Instruments review: a piece of art you can play for good!
Friday, 11 December 2020
The Gate Guitar #047 from the Totem resin top series built by Austrian luthier Michael Spalt is one of the three guitars recently received at our Paris, France showroom. This is part of the service proposed to boutique builders described here in this post. Yes! It is definitely a piece of art but, boy, is
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Unicorn Classic Ruokangas, a super high-end Les Paul type luthier guitar
Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Ruokangas (ruokangas.com) is a difficult name to pronounce for us but it's a well known name on The Guitar Channel since there have already been several interviews with luthier Juha Ruokangas as well as several luthier chronicles. In the category of high-end luthier guitars, here is the Unicorn Classic, the reinterpretation of the Les Paul
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As part of the service proposed to boutique guitar builders to exhibit and try out instruments in the private showroom of The Guitar Channel in Paris, here is the Unicorn Classic coming from Finland and built by Ruokangas Guitars (ruokangas.com) led by master builder Juha Ruokangas. Ruokangas Unicorn Classic Unicorn Classic Ruokangas Specs Amount of
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Showroom feature: 3 Spalt Instruments guitars by luthier Michael Spalt
Tuesday, 17 November 2020
As part of the service proposed to boutique guitar builders to exhibit and try out instruments in the private showroom of The Guitar Channel in Paris, France I am very pleased to present a trio of Spalt Instruments guitars (spaltinstruments.com) by luthier Michael Spalt : Gate Guitar #047 G2002 Octopus Totem X.2 X7 Presentation of
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Spalt Instruments Gate Guitar #047 – 5min review, playing only, no talking
Sunday, 15 November 2020
The video below was recorded in one take during a live broadcast on my Twitch channel (twitch.tv/lachaineguitare) during a demo of the awesome Gate Guitar #047 from Austrian boutique guitar builder Michael Spalt (Spalt Instruments). Only the playing sequences were kept for the edit of this 5min video review. 5min demo of the Spalt Gate
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Simplifier Zero Watt DSM & Humboldt fully analog guitar preamp review
Friday, 13 November 2020
The Simplifier Zero Watt from the Chilean brand DSM & Humboldt (simplifieramp.com) is a fully analog guitar preamp that offers the three standard tube amp types. So we find the Fender Blackface sound, the VOX AC30 sound and finally the Marshall Plexi sound. The unit has a very small footprint since it is just the
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It was a blast to record a gear review of this 1965 Gibson SG Junior. Here is a great Rock'n'Roll machine of a Vintage guitar! This example is in player condition, meaning it is not fully original (the original tremolo is gone, the tuners were replaced, etc.) and it was heavily played. 1965 Gibson SG
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Let's play a little! What do you think was used in the clip below to generate the guitar sound? Let me help you a bit, it's a 100% software solution. Mystery on a riff of U2 The song of U2 from which this riff is extracted is Until the End of the World, a great
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XTone Pro Xsonic review, 2 input USB audio interface and MIDI pedalboard
Friday, 31 July 2020
In this review I present you the XTone Pro from Xsonic. This is a super cool USB 2 input audio interface which doubles as a MIDI pedalboard! Great piece of gear which works great with your favorite amp emulation software on your computer or mobile device. Disclaimer: this gear was sent to me by the
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Fender Lead II and Lead III, two great guitars from Fender Mexico!
Friday, 19 June 2020
At the Winter NAMM 2020, the Mexican reissues of the Fender Lead models caught my eye. A few weeks later, here is now the complete test of the two Mexican Fender Lead series, the Lead II and the Lead III. To make it simple, the II is equipped with two single-coil pickups and the III
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In this video we put back to back two loadbox simulators, the Captor X Two Notes Audio Engineering and the OX Box Universal Audio. Both devices are connected to the same Marshall 6101 100W tube amp. May the best win! Shootout: Captor X Two Notes versus OX Box Universal Audio Advantages Ox Box The fineness
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Fender Duo-Sonic, an excellent Fender Made in Mexico, in Desert Sand!
Friday, 29 May 2020
With its scale of 610 mm instead of 648 mm on a normal Strat, this Fender Duo-Sonic is terribly sexy! Especially in that Desert Sand finish with its anodized plate which is a must have for this model. Here is the complete test of this beautiful Made in Mexico reissue of a flagship model from
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Valvebucker, the tube powered guitar pickup invented by Juha Ruokangas
Friday, 22 May 2020
Juha Ruokangas is a Finnish luthier who leads a small team of highly skilled craftsmen. Ruokangas Guitars builds high-end electric guitars and basses. In 2014 at the Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin, Juha Ruokangas presented the Nemo guitar, a prototype electric guitar with a tube pickup, the Valvebucker. It wasn't until 2019 that the
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Amp attenuators and cabinet simulators, only the best gear at our showroom!
Wednesday, 20 May 2020
There is only the best gear regarding attenuators and speaker/mic simulators in The Guitar Channel showroom in Paris for recording gear reviews, for Guitar in Hand interviews and for live broadcasts every Friday night. Reminder on attenuators and simulators The gear presented in this article has two distinct functions: Attenuator: to reduce the electrical power
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How to broadcast live from your smartphone for guitar builders or musicians
Monday, 27 April 2020
Here is an article written to help the guitar builders after the Holy Grail Guitar Show (holygrailguitarshow.com) edition 2020 was cancelled because of the Coronavirus quarantine. The idea was to explain this subject as simply as possible so they can have a good online impact during the virtual edition. We are going to focus on 3
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Eccos Keeley, a delay with the power of digital and the warm sound of analog
Friday, 17 April 2020
The Eccos Keeley (robertkeeley.com) echo pedal promises nothing less than simulating the effect obtained with two tape recorders that are linked to generate a repetition of sound. Make no mistake, this pedal is fully digital but achieves the performance of sounding beautifully like in the good old days of analog recording. Eccos Keeley review Until
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JHS PG-14, Paul Gilbert signature distortion pedal – Jam à la Santana
Friday, 10 April 2020
The American pedal brand JHS (jhspedals.info) which bears the initials of its founder Joshua Heath Scott has just released a distortion in collaboration with the one and only Paul Gilbert. With a clever equalization with a semi-parametric midrange adjustment, a very large range of sounds can be reached. The dynamic response is also pretty awesome.
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Guitar Review – California model from luthier Tony Girault, a mean P90 rock machine!
Friday, 28 February 2020
Here is a video of a great electric guitar built by a French luthier Tony Girault (giraultguitars.com) who is based in Normandy in a town called Evreux. This California model is a great Rock machine with its twin P90 pickups built by Tony himself. Config review For this video the guitar was plugged straight into
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Friedman amp factory tour by Dave Friedman in Huntington Park, Los Angeles
Friday, 31 January 2020
Right after Winter NAMM 2020, I had the opportunity to have a tour of the Huntington Park facility where the Friedman amps (friedmanamplification.com) are built. Furthermore, my private guide was Dave Friedman himself. Pretty cool. The full version of the article includes the full length video as well as a complete photo album. This Boutique
