Rowbinet – Rowbi's Guitar & Recording Blog

It’s the eve of Musikmesse 2012, and despite the fact that I’m not going this year, I am totally excited about a few products that we’ve seen info or rumours about so far.

Blackstar have hinted about some important new products they’re releasing.  My guess is either a solidstate amp including built in FX (see the tempo light flashing in the video below), or if it’s not solidstate, then a hybrid amp with digital preamp and tube power amp.  At a push you could say it might be a full tube amp with built in FX, afterall that’s nothing new that Marshall haven’t already done (Marshall Vintage Modern has digital reverb).

Obviously if it’s solidstate or hybrid, they’ll have to put in some effort to win market share from Line 6 with their Spider IV solidstate amps and Spider Valve MKII hybrid amps which have sold in excess of a million units, and are the best selling amps in the US.  The same could also be said for the DT25/DT50 amps which standalone include some very sought after HD amp models and built in digital reverb, but with the potential when connected to a POD HD via Line 6 Link to have access to a whole host of HD amp models, which then also control the true analog tube power amp in the DT amp for the best tone and best flexibility… I think it’s time for Line 6 and Blackstar to drop trousers, and see who has the biggest!  That’s of course assuming Blackstar does release a product that’s in direct competition with Line 6….. You’ll have to wait and see

Here’s the teaser Blackstar video:

If you’ve been living in a cave in the Misty Mountains for the past 18 months, you may have missed that Joe Satriani is working with Marshall to create his new signature JVM.  This we know is being released at Messe, and you can see more info HERE.

Propellerhead are also due to announce something this evening, at an invitation only VIP event.  It would seem that the announcement will be something for the new iPad, because the invitations for this VIP event went out only 1 day after Apple announced its new iPad.  A coincidence perhaps… I doubt it!

That’s all for now…

It’s almost official!  The Satch JVM will be released at Musikmesse 2012, Which starts in less than one week.  Marshall will also be showing off their 1 watt Anniversary amps, and a few other surprises.  All of which I’m sure Chris George will be doing a fine job of demonstrating just like the AFD100 and YJM100 I saw him demo at Messe last year (See the photo below).

For more info just follow Marshall Amps UK on Twitter (which is the source for this information): https://twitter.com/#!/MarshallAmpsUK

Here are some photos from Chickenfoot on The Tonight show, 1st March 2012. You can clearly see in the photos here that one of those JVM heads doesn’t look like the other standard black JVMs. The details I can see are a smaller Marshall logo, tolex front panel (and not the modern Marshall black grille cloth), gold piping, blue tolex, a vintage handle (rather than the all black modern ones) and an extra button between the OD1 and OD2 controls.

Pictures taken from: http://www.facebook.com/joesatriani#!/media/set/?set=a.10150592879297308.380652.44512487307&type=3

There’s also more information about the blue tolex and extra button in a recent interview here: http://www.guitarworld.com/interview-joe-satriani-discusses-his-new-marshall-jvm-signature-series-amps-and-satchurated-his-3d-film

If only this were the real Golden Jubilee… I’d certainly be happy with a JCM800 as the Golden Jubilee (perhaps with a few extras like an additional gain stage that’s switchable with a pedal, power scaling and 50 watt switchable, and of course gold tolex)…

Just to be clear though, we have no official word from Marshall about whether there will be a Golden Jubilee (although all the hints suggest their will be), and the photo above is a production model JCM800 2203X reissue, with a custom shop option of an image printed on the grilles of both cabs and the head, specially for Marshall’s 50th anniversary year.

For more info on custom shop options, visit the Marshall Custom Shop

The first time I saw Zakk’s ‘Iron Curtain’ was at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in February 2011, and what a sight it was!  There were no fewer than 24 Marshall amp heads, and 28 4×12 cabs all arranged in full stacks with double amp tops, and another 4 cabs centre stage…. Or was there?  I can assume you that I wore ear plugs and it was LOUD, and some friends I went with who didn’t wear plugs had cotton wool ears for a couple of days!  It certainly seemed like a very loud gig!

In reality Zakk and Black Label Society’s 2nd guitarist, Nick Catanese, both use three Marshall 2203ZW amps (Zakk’s original signature, from 10 years ago, released in 2002), and some of the cabs that are on stage (probably 6 each).  Some more cabs (as you can see at the bottom of the stacks in the photo above) are bass cabs, and the rest are dummy cabs.  The Iron Curtain heads (2203BLS it seems they may be called) are just front panels and tubes that light up to look like they’re real amps (see the link below for photos of these dummy amps/cabs)

The interesting question is when will Marshall release the new Zakk Wylde signature head, and will it look like the Iron Curtain head?  If it does, I’m sure Marshall will sell a lot of these amps, as many Zakk fans have shown interest in these new amps being used on tour (even though they were dummies). I know I’d love to own one when they’re released (a man can dream!).  Zakk’s also been interviewed in various guitar magazines recently stating that a new signature Marshall will be released in 2012, and will be a copy of one of his currently owned heads.  Whether he means an existing 2203ZW or another amp he uses, we don’t know.  But he’s famous for using JCM800 heads, so I can’t believe it would be anything other than a JCM800 2003 clone, with perhaps a couple of little extra features (FX loop and built in OD pedal perhaps (like the YJM100), and maybe even power scaling like the AFD100 and YJM100).

Some info and photos of ‘The Iron Curtain’ are here: http://www.marshallforum.com/marshall-amps/33803-zakk-wyldes-iron-curtain-not-so-much.html

The cutting edge Line 6 DT50 is where it all started just over a year ago, but Line 6 certainly didn’t finish what they wanted to achieve in a single product. The DT25 is the new kid on the block, and while you could initially be mistaken for thinking of it as the DT50′s little brother, it is in fact very capable tube amplifier in its own right, with a couple of extra features that the DT50 itself doesn’t have to boot!

Read more…

If you’ve been reading all the rumours about the Satch Marshall signature amp that looks like it’s on its way soon, you may have also heard the information from Santiago Alvarez about the mods he made to the stock JVM410H, and one of them being the introduction of a choke.

Well if you’re not sure what a choke is or how it can affect your amp tone, check out the following link for a great description: http://www.300guitars.com/articles/chokes-what-are-they-what-do-they-do/

Well it looks like someone is either guessing, or do they know some inside info?

The rumour is that there may be a September 2012 release of the Marshall Golden Jubilee 100 watter (although as yet we have no idea what that amp will be). Realistically anyone could have a guess that at some point near the end of this year Marshall will release their Golden Jubilee amp…

Anywy, the hint comes from the Marshall Forum, and the poster actually links to a video where a Marshall demonstrator also suggests (as Chris George has hinted at in the past) that the 1 watt amps are just the start of other things to come in this 50th year of LOUD!

Source: http://www.marshallforum.com/marshall-amps/37332-official-50th-anniversary-thread-19.html

As previously mentioned, the ‘word on the street’ is that Marshall will release a standard production model of the Satriani JVM signature head, and also a limited edition model in blue.

The rumour at the moment is that the standard production model will be around £1400, but final pricing details have yet to be announced.  The pricing for the limited edition model are to follow…  So remember to subscribe to this blog, or bookmark and keep checking back to the Satriani Signature Marshall category on this blog here: http://rowbinet.co.uk/category/news/amp-news/marshall-amplification/joe-satriani-signature-jvm410js/

Meambobbo is a regular on the Line 6 User Community, and is particularly knowledgeable and helpful in the POD HD section of the Line 6 User Community.

Recently he has prepared a very interesting and in-depth guide covering the wide-ranging and all-encompassing topic of guitar tone.  But if you’re pushed for time the contents page at the beginning will help you narrow down to the section you are after to get some good general advice on what parts of you and your rig make up your guitar tone or what part of your POD HD setup needs some more work to improve your tone.

Click here for the webpage guide.

Click here for Meambobbo’s tone demo site.