So in my recent ’Guitar Elements’ series it’s finally come to Amps now - where I list out what I believe are the most historically significant and therefore Iconic amps. A lot of you are still conflating Iconic with Vintage, and discounting some of the more recent models - while Iconic does not necessarily infer a long term history and provenance - just that said item or element is a major marker or step forward in the evolution of that device - whatever it may be.

I’m not the first to do ...

So this is actually the very first Katana ’Artist’ Head - while it comes in the same Specs as the MKII Edition Katana Artist Combo Amp. Meaning that if you like the Artist variety of Katana - you now have the option of acquiring it in Head + Cab format - as well as the existing all-in-one Combo Amp.

This of course gives you the added advantage of being able to chop and change your Speaker Cabinet - while of course Boss has you covered in that regard too - with its matching new 2 x 12" Waza ...

Currently running as a Kickstarter Campaign and thus far two years in the making - the forthcoming Zero, Dynamic Hybrid Amplifier is an entirely new design of Class D amplifier which fully recreates every part of a Tube style amplifier with a highly innovative active OpAmp array. While typically OpAmps are used in active amplifiers between passive stages like a more conventional EQ / Tone-stack, with the Zero, all EQ Filters are fully active in order to draw more dynamics and harmonics out of ...

Anyone who’s read this blog will be very aware that I’m a fan of the Boss Katana amps - I’ve had the now series 1 KT-100 since it first came out as my left-hand amp in my stereo rig, and had already decided that I would be transitioning to the Katana Artist - with its better speaker and it’s various included extras - amongst them the forward-facing control panel.

Now the MKII range has come out and it has in effect frog-leaped over the Artist in terms of overall...

I feel Boss still kind of bossed it in 2018 - with 3 heavy hitters that took on all-comers in those categories - the Katana Air, Katana Artist and Nextone Artist - a trio pretty much suited for any sort of conditions - the first as the best of the portable practice amps - and the latter two as the ultimate versatile gigging-machines - for those that still like to lug amps around.

I feel that this sort of cabinet form factor of amp will be largely restricted to more fixed locations as ...

I always expect to be excited by the new prospects introduced at Summer NAMM, but it can be somewhat antic-climactic, particularly compared to this year’s very formidable Winter NAMM show. Several pedals that were announced there are still alas somewhat in the ether. I was expecting to see updates of the Empress Zoia and the Keeley Stereo Tape Delay pedal - but those were not forthcoming, which most probably means some production delays - I certainly can’t imagine the Zoia is going ...

I know many guitar aficionados prefer to spend most of their money on amps, then guitars, then pedals. While in many ways I’m the other way around really. Although I wouldn’t mind spending around £2K for an amp or a guitar once I’ve saved up, my guitar will always take precedence as the highest ticket value item. For me the guitar is the start of the tone journey, and so much of what is important in handling a guitar and achieving great tone and dynamics is impacted by ...

If you are in the market for an electric guitar, there are actually just 3 brands which together still totally dominate and skew the entire marketplace. And while the birthplace of the modern guitar (USA) has become more open-minded towards brands from other points of origination. The UK is still very much overly skewed toward just a handful of brands. I’ve just completed watching the highlights of the BBC Big Day Out event in Hull, and the dominance of Fender, Gibson and Marshall is ...

I have so far acquired 3 amps along this tone quest. I rather naively though I could get by with purely solid state - with largely onboard effects - i.e. moddelling. My first acquisition was the 150W Fender Mustang IV V2 - which excels at reproducing Fender’s classic amp tones, but does not quite have the full throttle grunt for harder styles of playing - it’s generally a very good amp with some excellent effects, and very even tone - most will be able to dial in something pretty ...