Guitar Review – Vola Guitar Zenith, double humbucker beauty
Friday, 22 February 2019
In this new Gear Review, we present the high-end category at Vola Guitar, the Zenith model which is characterized by a beautiful top and a great hardware. It's another great example of the Made in Japan high quality of instrument building. Vola Guitar - Zenith model Until the next gear review or interview, keep on playing the
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Amp Review – Kelt Amplification Sideman – 100% tube powered!
Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Thierry Labrouze manufactures in France in Brittany 100% tube amps that are found more and more in the hands of musicians who love beautiful tones. Some time ago a subscriber of La Chaîne Guitare ordered a Sideman Kelt but could not take delivery when Thierry brought him at the Puteaux show. So until further notice,
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Pedal Review – Overdrive Nobels ODR-1 – Cool natural sounding drive tones
Monday, 14 January 2019
It was during a conversation with Pete Thorn in Germany during the 2018 Guitar Summit that I heard about the Nobels ODR-1 overdrive pedal. It seems that this pedal has been used for a long time by studio guitarists in Nashville, as it costs around €90 online, I thought it was mandatory to try it
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Pedal Review – The Grunger – Tube powered booster from Sabelya
Monday, 31 December 2018
The Grunger is a tupe powered boost pedal from French boutique manufacturer Sabelya. This is a pedal that will serve to amplify the signal of your guitar by coloring it. We are not in the category of transparent boosts. On the contrary! The Grunger is made to bring color to your sound. The very neat
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Amp Review – BD Custom Amplification – BF/Brownie
Friday, 28 December 2018
In a previous article La Chaîne Guitare presented you an interview in French with Bruno Durand of the brand BD Custom Amplification. Here in this article you will find a review of his BF/Brownie model amp head that offers two completely separate channels. The first clean channel offers a Blackface type Fender sound, the second
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Guitar Review – Strandberg Boden Original 6
Wednesday, 26 December 2018
Here's the full video review of the fascinating Strandberg Boden Original 6 guitar, a great ergonomic guitar designed in Sweden and built in Indonesia. If you want to get some perspective about the Strandberg brand, check out the interview done with its founder Ola Strandberg back in 2013 during the Musikmesse. Video - Strandberg Boden
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First Contact – Strandberg Boden Original 6 guitar
Monday, 24 December 2018
Here is the first article in a series dedicated to the Strandberg Boden Original 6. Intrigued for a while by the work of this brand which you can find an interview with the founder Ola Strandberg made in 2013 at Musikmesse, The Guitar Channel has acquired a model in order to do an independently review,
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Pedal Review – Ô Finest Reverb from Sabelya
Monday, 17 December 2018
Sabelya is a French brand of boutique pedal shop Made in France. From the name of its designer and manufacturer Elyas Sabelya who is building interesting products including this reverb, the Ô Finest Reverb which has more than one trick in its bag. Ô Finest Reverb - Sabelya Until the next gear review or interview, keep
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Stoll Guitars – Demo concert Puteaux Guitar Festival 2018
Monday, 03 December 2018
The Puteaux Guitar Festival 2018 included in its program demo concerts that allowed to discover the instruments exhibited by luthiers throughout the festival in the magnificent Jean-Baptiste Lully Music Academy. Here are the Christian Stoll guitars presented on video. Stoll Guitars - Demo concert Luthier: Christian Stoll - www.stollguitars.de Musician: Arnaud Leprêtre - www.arnaudlepretre.com Video and sound: Philippe
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Gendre Guitars – Demo concert Puteaux Guitar Festival 2018
Monday, 19 November 2018
The Puteaux Guitar Festival 2018 included in its program demo concerts that allowed to discover the instruments exhibited by luthiers throughout the festival in the magnificent Jean-Baptiste Lully Music Academy. Here are the Julien Gendre guitars presented on video. Gendre Guitars - Demo concert Luthier: Julien Gendre (www.juliengendre.com) Musician: Shaï Sebbag Video and sound: Philippe Camus
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Pedal Review – Overdrive and clean boost King of Tone from Analog.Man
Monday, 15 October 2018
Analog Man's overdrive and clean boost pedal King of Tone has an excellent reputation among pedal fanatics. You will be able to see and especially hear what this gives in this recorded video thanks to Steven, a member of The Guitar Channel who owns this pedal. King of Tone from Analog.Man Until the next gear
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Guitar Review – Bluesmaster Custom 59 – Johan Gustavsson luthier
Friday, 12 October 2018
With the Bluesmaster Custom 59 built by luthier Johan Gustavsson (www.jgguitars.com) we are clearly in the category of exceptional guitars! This guitar made in Sweden in 2005 is the top of the crop. The marriage of Les Paul and Telecaster shapes will probably not please everyone but we at The Guitar Channel are loving it. Test
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Guitar Review – 2007 Gibson Les Paul Faded “Peter Green” modded by Larry Corsa
Thursday, 04 October 2018
In search of a Les Paul to equip the showroom to have this reference sound in the arsenal available to visitors and for testing gear, The Guitar Channel had the opportunity to test this 2007 Gibson Les Paul Faded at length kindly lent by a member of the network (thank you Sebastien!). This guitar has
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Guitar Review – Raccoon model from luthier Camille Jacob
Tuesday, 25 September 2018
It's a pleasure to discover the artisanal production of a young French luthier. The Raccoon is designed and manufactured entirely by Camille Jacob who also makes the excellent AMI Effects pedals. This instrument literally impressed me by the quality of the lutherie, this is top quality stuff. www.cjguitars.com Specifications Finish: shiny nitro-cellulo Body: one piece
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Pedal Review – Vanflet Distortion1: huge sounds from your pedalboard!
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Vanflet is a new French manufacturer of boutique tube amp, they are now launching a range of pedals. Here is the Distortion1, a pedal that inaugurates the series with the Driver1. Vanflet Distortion1 video review Specs Settings: Volume, Gain, Tone Soft switch 9V Price: 149 € What I enjoyed the most A huge reserve of gain
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Guitar Review – Nik Huber Krautster II – Awesome instrument
Wednesday, 05 September 2018
The Krautster II model from Nik Huber is a clearly inspired from the Les Paul. Made in Germany in the workshop of luthier Nik Huber (often interviewed on The Guitar Channel), the guitar reviewed below was lent to me by Gilles, a member of The Guitar Channel network (1000 thanks!). Setup configuration Amp: Kelt V-Twin
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iRig Pre HD IK Multimedia review: how to have a good electric guitar sound in a smartphone video
Tuesday, 10 April 2018
To follow up on the article entitled "Stop posting guitar demos filmed with a smartphone and how to do better!" here is a comparative review to show the results obtained on a smartphone video, an iPhone 6 in this case, using the iRig Pre HD from IK Multimedia. Three sound sources are compared: the internal
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Stop posting guitar demos filmed with a smartphone and how to do better!
Tuesday, 03 April 2018
Preamble I am regularly dismayed by the poor quality of videos of guitarists who make a demo and are posted, for example, at the end of the guitar shows where luthiers and amp manufacturers post videos made with a smartphone with a mediocre sound which is not showcasing properly the product presented (guitar, amp or
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Springer Guitars Halfbreed model demo – Simon Ghnassia
Friday, 30 March 2018
Simon Ghnassia is a musician who is often featured on The Guitar Channel, here he is at the showroom just before an online masterclass trying a guitar built by luthier Mikaël Springer, the Halfbreed model (a guitar reviewed in this article). The cameras were rolling, here's the result. www.springerguitars.com Halfbreed demo Test configuration Amp: V-Twin
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Guitar Review – Taylor K14ce Builder’s Edition – New V-class bracing
Wednesday, 21 March 2018
In the very high end category, The Guitar Channel is pleased to present you this guitar review of the new version of Taylor K14ce Builder's Edition guitar equipped with the new V-class bracing presented at NAMM 2018 (see this interview with Andy Powers, the master builder at Taylor to know everything). In order to highlight
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Pedal Review – Zorgverdrive / Zorg Effects
Friday, 16 March 2018
Zorg Effects is a French boutique pedal builder based in Toulouse. This builder has a wide range of gain pedal with several boosters, distorsions, octavers and overdrives. The Zorgverdriver is a great overdrive pedal with a wide range of tones. Pedal Review - Zorgverdrive Zorg Effects is a pro partner on The Guitar Channel Review
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Guitar Review – GS Mini Bass Taylor Guitars – Small format, huge sound!
Sunday, 11 March 2018
Taylor Guitars offers with the GS Mini Bass an atypical instrument since it is an acoustic bass guitar with a reduced tuning fork. In order to be able to make this bass sound correctly, Taylor Guitars has had specific strings developed by D'Addario. It is clear that the result is bluffing. GS Mini Bass video
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Guitar Review – Origin P90 hum-cancelling – Tony Girault luthier
Friday, 23 February 2018
The luthier Tony Girault continues to develop his range of guitar around his form Origin with a new classy model. See for yourself: we have a beautiful flamed maple top, a beautiful walnut body and a roasted maple neck. Plus this instrument features the all-new P90 hum-canceling pickups from Tony's design. www.giraultguitars.com Guitar Review -
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Guitar amp mic shootout – Shure SM57, SM58 and Koch loadbox LB-120 II
Monday, 19 February 2018
Miking up the sound of a guitar amp is an art in its own right where generations of sound engineers and home studio adepts continue to struggle to get the right sound. Since The Guitar Channel has a showroom in Paris, I experiment more and more with different sound recording methods for the recording of
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P90 pickup shootout: 1 guitar, 3 pickups from Girault, Häussel, Dreamsongs
Sunday, 21 January 2018
The idea of the P90 Shootout is simple: compare 3 P90 pickups on the same guitar. So the luthier Tony Girault came to the showroom with one of his Louisiane model guitar to make the P90 pickup swaps and yours truly served as a test pilot to make videos in the 3 configurations. The 3
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Guitar Review – Halfbreed Springer model by Springer Guitars
Wednesday, 22 November 2017
Back in September, The Guitar Channel proposed you to listen to a guitar only using the audio file of the review. The objective was to use more our ears than our eyes to evaluate the sound. The suspens is over, now is the time to reveal the mystery guitar! It's a guitar hand built by
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Pedal Review – Xotic Soul Driven signature Allen Hinds
Tuesday, 31 October 2017
Xotic (xotic.us) is a brand highly known for its boost pedals and its overdrives in the forefront of which we find the BB Preamp which pursues an endless career on many pedals around the world. The Xotic Soul Driven is a signature overdrive pedal designed for the musician Allen Hinds. Xotic Soul Driven signature Allen Hinds
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Guitar Review – Martin 000-15SM: 100% Mahogany
Friday, 13 October 2017
The Martin 000-15SM that you will discover in this review is my personal guitar which I acquired to return to playing the steel string acoustic guitar to regain the taste of pure sound without artifice. At C.F. Martin, the reference 000 designates the shape of the body, the figure 15 indicates that the guitar is
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Guitar review – Sorcerer 62 MJS Guitars – Luthier Godefroy Maruejouls
Friday, 08 September 2017
Godefroy Maruejouls is a French luthier who has been building high quality guitars, acoustic or electric. Last time we reviewed one of his acoustic instrument, this time this is an electric guitar called the Sorcerer 62. Video review of the Sorcerer 62 Audio version of the review For those into audio, here's the podcast version
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Guitar Review – Try to discover the mystery guitar!
Wednesday, 06 September 2017
In order to change from the usual format of guitar review, here's a new idea: you will find below the audio recording of a guitar reviewed on The Guitar Channel, the goal is to guess which guitar or at least which kind of guitar it is!
Review setup
Path: guitar > jack > Kelt V-Twin amp > Shure SM-58 > Tascam DR-70D
No equalization applied or reverv or anythyng: just the dry signal coming from the SM-58
The settings on the amp were the sam throughout the review
Any idea about the guitar?
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