Inspired by that magical time of day, the new finish also heralds the arrival of new pitch shift, delay and reverb effects to the guitar's HILAVA system
(Image credit: Lava Music)
Lava Music has introduced a new-look iteration of its advanced Lava Me 3 smart acoustic-electric guitar, which arrives in a glorious Golden Hour colorway.
The finish itself, according to the company, is inspired by that magical time of day just before sunset and after sunrise, with the guitar designed to give musicians "their own 'golden hour.'"
Previously, the Lava Me 3 was available in Space Gray, White, Soft Gold, Pink, Blue and Red colorways.
(Image credit: Lava Music)
Joining the Golden Hour finish are four new effects that have been loaded into the brand’s proprietary on-board HILAVA system: Nebula, Desert Rose, Cassette and Edge of Breakup. Though not much is given away in terms of what each individual uniquely named effect offers, they’re all said to incorporate effects such as pitch shift, delay and reverb.
Aside from the flashy new finish and slight sonic upgrade, the Lava Me 3 otherwise stays true to the original, feature-packed spec sheet.
That means the guitar arrives equipped with a three-and-a-half-inch multi-touch display that aims to “make guitar tools as intuitive as smartphones." The screen can control the HILAVA operating system, which provides tools such as a tuner, metronome, looper, a variety of effects and an audio recorder.
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(Image credit: Lava Music)
(Image credit: Lava Music)
(Image credit: Lava Music)
Lava Me 3’s on-board effects are powered by 50 audio algorithms, and can be tweaked by a dedicated Effects app, which offers multiple tone-tweaking parameters. There are also apps for Loops – which offers over 100 grooves of different genres that players can loop up to four tracks over – and Practice, which features five individual practice modes.
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These modes include chord transition, strumming, scale training, ear training and single note training, with each providing a detailed feedback report to document progress.
As for build, the guitar features a unibody carbon fiber design, which in turn accommodates a FreeBoost 2.0 accentuator that works with a Honeycomb structure in an effort to deliver boosted vibrations and more distinct low-end tones.
The Golden Hour Lava Me 3 is available now for $999.
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
