EHX Graphic Fuzz

I’ve been thinking of getting a new pedal that will give another layer of drive and boost over and above my mesa V-twin. In the past I have been unhappy with many distortion boxes, however really like the look of the electro-harmonix graphic fuzz. Surprisingly there aren’t that many demos online. Below are the only two I’ve found on youtube.

Fender Acoustic Review DG41SCE

Why did I buy it?

I came to university with just an electric guitar and a bass after having spent the previous year playing bass full time in a band with an amazing electric player. I had become quite depressed about my own abilities so decided to swap my strat for a good acoustic guitar that I could play in my room. Originally I wanted a Takamine however the model I was after was out of my price range. I went into the local shop and started playing all their acoustics and this one, the DG41SCE, really stood out in both feel and sound. I fell in love and bought it immediately.

How does it sound?

This model was later discontinued by Fender, and I haven’t seen many other positive reviews (edit: however it seems this is because it is quite rare. I’ve now seen a couple reviews where other people have been as equally impressed with it as I am). I don’t know if I was lucky and managed to find a single instrument that really stands out as remarkable, or if they were all this good (and if they were why on earth did Fender quit making them?). Everyone who’s ever played it has commented on how it both feels and sounds like a guitar twice it’s price. I have used it for (probably hundreds) of gigs and recorded with it many times. It has an excellent Fishman pickup built in and sounds well balanced both acoustically and through a PA (although annoyingly the battery can only be reached through the sound-hole). A cool feature of the built-in pre-amp is a phase switch that can magically makes the guitar sound better on the rare occasions that it does not sound great straight away through the PA. I really cannot fault the sound of this guitar in anyway – it easily competes with all the Martins and Taylors I have ever played or jammed with.

Keep or sell?

Keep keep keep – if I had to choose only one guitar to keep this would be it. I have owned it for twelve years and been through so much with it that it is now part of the family – or even an extra limb!

Fender US stratocaster review

Why did I buy it?

As a kid my best mate had a squire strat that I used to borrow all the time. I was also a great fan of Clapton and so all through my teenage years aspired to get a US strat. I finally bought a US cherry-red one with a rosewood fretboard when I was 18, played it for a few years but then traded it in for an acoustic guitar when I started university. This was a real mistake that I made after playing bass in a band with an amazing lead guitarist and becoming depressed that I would never be that good. A couple years later I bought a Mexican “Sambora” strat which was great except for the Floyd-Rose tremolo that I really didn’t get on with. After a brief dally with a Telecaster I finally went to ebay and got this second hand maple-necked guitar at about the same time I bought the Fender blues-junior amp. I wanted to “cut back to the roots” with nothing but a good guitar and amp.

How does it sound?

I love the five pickup selections. The neck pickup gives a great bluesy lead, the neck+middle is a variation on this and also good for jazz, the middle is cool for clean, I don’t really use the middle+bridge, whilst the bridge on its own is really trebly and precisely what is needed to cut through a mix, especially with lots of overdrive. On my first couple strats I kept the stock pickups however on my current version I changed all three for Texas specials which have a much higher output and thus drive my tubes much better. After having a Telecaster for a few years it was a real relief to come back to a strat which is far more flexible, and quite good for mixing up your sounds a bit especially when engaged in shoe-gazing noodling!

The only problem I have had is playing in a couple places (churches) with a hearing aid loop that gets picked up by the single coils. After a coupl bad experiences I made sure I always carried a guitar with humbuckers whenever I took the strat out!

Keep or sell?

Although I have tried out other guitars I always keep coming back to strats. I know some people do the same with Les Pauls etc. however there is just something about the sound and feel of a strat that does it for me. I think I will always keep this one, and maybe one day add a HSS version to my collection when I have a bigger house. As blues rock is my favourite genre, a strat is about as good as you can get.

Boss Acoustic Simulator AC-2 review

Why did I buy it?

bossac2

At the time I was playing electric in a band that also often featured an acoustic guitar, however the acoustic player also sang and sometimes had trouble managing some fiddly acoustic bits whilst singing. As these bits were few and far between I got this pedal as a mimic for an acoustic sound so that I didn’t have the hassle of an extra guitar (and signal path). I set it to the “Jumbo” setting with the body control at 12 and the top control at 1.

How does it sound?

I wouldn’t use this on a fully acoustic song or without a band, however for a little intro or bridge section the sound is passable and definately more like an acoustic than a clean electric sound. A bit of chorus helps even more with sounding like an acoustic.

Keep or sell?

Well I bought this for a purpose and it served it well. However since then it has been sitting in the bottom of a drawer. I did once get it out when we were recording some acoustic guitar and used it WITH an acoustic as it gives a bit of sparkle to the sound, however this was because we were double tracking a guitar part and I wanted the second track to be a bit different from the first. To be honest this pedal is more of a gimic than a replacement for a proper acoustic.