Gigbag: July/August 2004

Guyatone TD-X

Elaborating on its popular MD-3 Micro Delay unit by adding a 12AX7A vacuum tube and a new filter array, Guyatone has created a tube echo pedal that emulates vintage and modern delay sounds like BBD, tape and digital. The TD-X allows for up to 2,600 milliseconds of delay time and includes a host of controls to deliver a wide range of echoes. It has true bypass switching, wet and dry outputs and runs on an included 12-volt power supply. guyatone.com

Hal Leonard Signature Licks

HL’s Signature Licks instructional book series, which reveals the secrets of masters like Grant Green and Django Reinhardt, includes backing-track CDs that sound natural-because they’re made by musicians, not MIDI, and playing along feels all the better for it. The tunes are transcribed and arranged as heard on the original recordings, and thoughtful commentary on each tune provides further insight on how the greats stamped the songs with their signatures. The series also includes books on George Benson, Pat Martino, Charlie Christian and more. Halleonard.com

Planet Waves Tuner Up

Another nifty guitarist’s aid from Planet Waves, the Tuner Up is a cradle for hanging a tuner off an acoustic guitar’s soundhole. No more knee-based balancing acts! Better yet, there’s a piezo transducer built into the Tuner Up that senses vibrations from the guitar’s top and sends that signal directly to the tuner via an included 1/8- to 1/4-inch cable. planet-waves.com

Yamaha Magic Stomp

Yamaha’s Magic Stomp may have just a few knobs and switches and be no bigger than the Complete Bitches Brew Sessions box set, but it’s loaded with pitch shifters, delays, reverbs, distortions, mike modelers and other sound-shaping effects necessary for making your own bitchin’ sonic brew. To edit the nearly 200 effects crammed inside the box, hook it up to your computer via USB and tweak ’em out onscreen till the wee hours. You can even download more patches online at magicstomp.com.

Electro-Harmonix Pulsar

Besides looking smooth, as all E-H stompboxes do, the Pulsar tremolo sounds silky smooth. It’s a vintage-style tremolo with a variable waveform that creates beautiful, subtle trem textures as well as an over-the-top, ultrahypnotic pulse. E-H also recently introduced the Double Muff-a hybrid of its two best fuzz boxes-that can add a pleasant crunch, an extreme punch or anything in between. ehx.com

Acoustic Image Focus

Acoustic Image’s new high-fidelity integrated amps, the Focus 1, 1R, 2 and 2R, put out 600 watts of power and weigh only four pounds. The different models offer options like reverb, channel switching, microphone inputs and phantom power; but all four units include high and low-Z inputs, four band EQ, effects send and receive, an XLR direct out and dual twist-lock speaker connections. acousticimg.com