Stetbar has added a hard tail model to its line of no-mod, surface-mount floating-bridge tremolo systems.

The hard tail was primarily designed for non-trem Stratocaster-style guitars and certain Squier Telecaster models, but it will also fit other models with the same bridge specification. The base plate has the familiar five-hole pattern to allow users to add Stetsbar functionality to their guitar without drilling new holes.

The hard tail unit adds to the number of guitars that can take advantage of the Stetsbar's range, stability and feel.

Jay Turser Guitars now features Graph Tech NuBone nuts and saddles on its instruments to deliver improved tuning performance and tone, as well as precision string slotting.

Nuts and bridges made of NuBone contribute enhanced harmonic sustain and rich, uncolored tone, and they can be manufactured to exact specifications within .002 of an inch. Graph Tech will custom make each NuBone nut and saddle for Jay Turser to ensure a perfect fit.

"If you really care about the sound of your instruments, then you need to be very discerning about the about the materials you use,” says Dave Lee, head engineer/designer at Jay Turser Guitars. “NuBone saddles and nuts produce a beautiful clarity and tone, and we are passionate about tone."

Located in British Columbia, Graph Tech Guitar Labs is the world’s leading guitar nut and saddle maker, with products that include Tusq and Black Tusq manmade ivory, String Saver saddles, String Saver Classics steel saddles and Ghost modular pickup systems. The company’s products are currently in use by Taylor Guitars, Martin Guitars, Larrivee, Ovation, Carvin, Fender, Fernandes, Godin, Ibanez, Peavey, Samick, Schecter, Gibson, Tacoma and Yamaha Custom Shop.

Jay Turser Guitars was developed in the Nineties with the goal of designing and building great-sounding and –playing guitars that the average musician could afford. The company’s current product line includes acoustic, electric, bass, and jazz guitars, as well as a line of amplifiers. Jay Turser guitars are distributed world wide. In the United States they are distributed exclusively by American Music and Sound at americanmusicandsound.com and in Canada by Coast Music at coastmusic.com. Available at leading music stores in every city.

The RM100KH custom Kirk Hammett amp is the newest addition to Randall Amplifier’s Kirk Hammett Signature Series.

The custom head cranks out 100 watts of power and features three modular preamps that recreate Hammett’s tones from over his long career, ranging from classically clean to brutally crunchy. The KH1 module replicates Hammett’s classic clean tone, the KH2 his signature rhythm tone and the KH3 his legendary high-gain rhythm tone. The modules are interchangeable, allowing musicians to pair existing modules with Hammett’s tones to build the rig to their own specifications.

Hammett worked closely with Randall to ensure that all aspects of the amp are up to his exact standards. Even the volume, drive and level indications on the MTS modules are done in Kirk's own handwriting.

Additional amp features include 6L6 power tubes, MIDI In/Thru, a parallel loop with front panel mix control, a series loop and a tube bias section.

The RM100KH Custom Amp retails for $1,999.00 and is available at exclusive Randall dealers.

Fender has announced it will introduce the Elvis Costello Signature Jazzmaster guitar, honoring the British musician and songwriter as one of the most recognized Jazzmaster players in music history.

The iconic electric guitar, produced in Fender’s manufacturing headquarters in Corona, California, is a detailed replica of Costello’s original instrument, a guitar that has continually accompanied the famed British singer/songwriter over an extraordinarily versatile and prolific career that spans four decades. This signature release comes during the 50-year anniversary of Fender’s introduction of the Jazzmaster guitar model, in 1958.

Costello launched his professional music career in the mid Seventies with hits that included “Watching the Detectives,” on which his Fender Jazzmaster is prominently featured. At the time, the Jazzmaster had largely fallen from fashion, but Costello’s success seemed to lift it to new and previously unknown heights of appreciation. In the years that followed, players of new wave, alt-rock and indie rock prized the resurgent Jazzmaster for its versatile tone and subversive cool.

“This is a brutal-sounding guitar,” Costello says of his Jazzmaster. “It suits the way I play. But this guitar—it’s had a funny life. And I’ve just always stuck with it; I always come back to it. I’ve done all sorts of different music, but whenever it’s involved electric guitar, I don’t think there’s one record I’ve made on which the Jazzmaster doesn’t feature somewhere.”

Costello’s original instrument has undergone many changes in the past 30 years, and Fender’s new Elvis Costello Signature Jazzmaster replicates the guitar as it existed at the time that he recorded his acclaimed 1977 debut album, My Aim Is True. Uniquely Costello inspired features include a post-'68 neck design, a walnut stain finish and a tremolo with easier and greater travel, essential for that “Watching the Detectives” tone, or what Costello calls that “spy movie” sound.

“The original guitar this model is based upon has been refinished, rebuilt, and has a new neck with Elvis’ name inlaid into the fingerboard, so we had to reference a lot of Seventies-era photography, as well as Elvis’ personal anecdotes, to get it right,” says Justin Norvell, Fender marketing manager for electric guitars. “Elvis dialed in the finer details—the points that photos can’t tell you, like the feel and setup and the exact hue and luster of the finish... Things only he would know.”

The new Elvis Costello Signature Jazzmaster guitar will be available through authorized Fender dealers beginning May 2008 with a list price of $2,149.99.

Laguna Guitars, reflecting the passionate convictions of musicians, celebrates Earth Day by launching their new “One Guitar, One Tree” reforestation initiative. This plan involves planting one tree for every Laguna guitar made. In addition, Laguna continues to deepen its other practical efforts to reduce waste, recycle and conserve the planet’s resources.

For decades, musicians have proudly been socially aware and urged others to take more action, advocacy and awareness in environmental matters. As musicians themselves, those at Laguna have always passionately supported that position, knowing that trees are an economical, long-term solution to many tough environmental problems, including air and water pollution, climate change, wildlife protection, habitat restoration and more. In partnership with AmericanForests.org and their Global Relief campaign, Laguna proudly plants a tree for each Laguna guitar made.

In addition, Laguna’s shipping cartons are designed to provide maximum protection with a minimum of material. Their boxes are made from 100% recycled cardboard that is also 100% recyclable, which they naturally encourage wherever possible. Also, in the interests of conservation, they have decided not to print glossy, heavyweight catalogs as millions from various companies end up in landfills every year. Instead, Laguna provides extensive information online at their website (www.playlaguna.com) and a catalog will soon be available as downloadable PDF’s, allowing users to print only those pages they want.

As with the design and manufacture of their guitars, Laguna welcomes an open dialogue with musicians and encourages them to share their thoughts and ideas on environmental matters including Laguna’s “One Guitar, One Tree” initiative and other earth-friendly plans. All such feedback can be directed to environment@playlaguna.com. Please visit PlayLaguna.com or AmericanForests.org for more information on the “One Guitar, One Tree” initiative and Global Relief campaign.

For more information on Laguna Acoustic and Electric Guitars, visit www.PlayLaguna.com.

BBE Sound revolutionized professional audio with its Sonic Maximizer technology, which restores the harmonic richness that is typically lost in the recording process. The company aims to do the same for consumer audio with its new VG360 Sonic Maximizer.

 

Utilising the same technology employed by Sonic Maximizers used in studios, the VG360 is designed to improve the audio quality from video game consoles, DVDs, CDs, MP3s and cable TV and satellite services. BBE claims the unit can improve sound effects, soundtracks, speech intelligibility and the sound of compressed audio without causing hearing fatigue or distorting the character of the source material.

Controls for the BBE VG360 include Lo Contour, Process and Function switches. The unit has a five-year warranty and has a street price of $99.99.

 

TC Electronic has begun shipping the Nova System, the company’s new all-in-one floor multieffect unit that combines analog distortion and overdrive with the advantages of digital control.

The heart of Nova System is NDT – Nova Drive Technology – an overdrive and distortion circuit that offers true analog sound under preset and expression control. While the drive circuit is 100 percent analog and physically separated from the digital effects, its controls are digital. This way the drive effects can be tweaked, stored and recalled in exactly the same way as any of the digital effects, and the amount of distortion can be controlled in real time by hooking up an expression pedal.

In addition, Nova System houses eight effects blocks taken straight from G-System: drive, compression, EQ, Noise Gate, Modulation, Pitch, Delay and Reverb. All of the blocks are programmable and can be stored in 60 user presets.

Nova System has Hi-Z and balanced inputs plus balanced stereo outputs, and two footswitch layouts - preset and pedal - with an option for adding a G-Switch for further control. The unit has a list price of $995.

Dean Guitars has introduced a series of signature models for Trivium guitarists Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu.

Matt Heafy Model (MKH)
The MKH Signature model is based on the ML Series guitar, originally designed and introduced by Dean Zelinsky in 1977. The MKH has a 24-fret neck, not seen on a Dean ML for quite some time, a 12-inch-radius fingerboard and a newly designed sculpted tapered heel for clear access to the upper frets.

The frets are medium round crown allowing better intonation at blazing speeds. The neck is solid maple construction with an ebony fingerboard and is joined via set neck design at the 19th fret for better tone transference and continuity.

The body is a solid mahogany ML shape featuring the Rising Sun graphics, paying homage to Heafy’s Japanese heritage. The neck features a pearl inlay Trivium logo at the 12th fret. The headstock features Grover black 14:1 tuners, the Trivium logo, the Dean Wing logo and MKH on the truss rod cover.

Rotosound has redesigned the packaging on its major guitar string lines to emphasize its British history and make each style of string easier to identify on store shelves.

The new packages feature a distressed Union Jack motif on a color-coded backdrop featuring a silhouetted guitarist: silver for British Steel, bronze for Tru Bronze and blue for Pure Nickel.

Rotosound was founded in 1958 by James How, a British engineer who became obsessed with zithers after viewing the 1949 film The Third Man, which featured the instrument on its soundtrack. Having amassed some 250 broken or stringless zithers, How repaired and sold them, and with the proceeds developed a semi-automated string-winding machine, the first in England.

Named Top Strings, and later Rotop Strings, the brand was eventually called Rotosound and became the choice of many players during the electric guitar boom of the early Sixties. Over years, the brand has been used by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Pink Floyd, Yes, Led Zeppelin, the Buzzcocks, Queen, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden and Oasis, among many others.

Godin Guitars has added yet another line to its family. At the recent Musikmesse 2008 show in Frankfurt, Germany, the Montreal-based guitar maker announced the creation of Richmond Guitars Canada.

Two electric guitars make up the Richmond line at present: the Belmont and the Dorchester. Both models are made in Richmond, Quebec, by a team of craftsmen dedicated to the new brand.

“Vintage” is the word that best describes the look of the new models. Both recall classic models from the Sixties, although their playability is decidedly modern.

The Belmont (shown here) has a solid mahogany body and a 24 3/4–inch-scale mahogany neck with rosewood Ergocut fingerboard. Electronics consist of two single-coil lipstick pickups in the neck and middle positions, a bridge-position Seymour Duncan ’59 humbucker, a five-way pickup selector and volume and tone controls.

The Dorchester has a chambered silver-leaf maple body with poplar wings and a 25 1/2–inch-scale rock maple neck with rosewood or maple Ergocut fingerboard. Its electronics include two Lace Alumitone humbuckers and volume and tone controls. In addition, the four-position pickup selector has what the company calls a “beefy” first-position setting that places both pickups in series for more output and fatter tone.

Both models have a chrome roller bridge with fixed tailpiece, chrome Kluson tuning machines, and a Nordic white pickguard and truss rod cover.

The Belmont has a list price of $1,195 and a street price of $995. The Dorchester lists for $1,250 and has a street price of $1,049.

The Godin family also includes the Seagull, Simon & Patrick, Norman, and Art & Lutherie acoustic lines and LaPatrie nylon-stringed classical guitars. Godin Guitars is also the manufacturer of the TRIC acoustic guitar case.