Rowbinet – Rowbi's Guitar & Recording Blog

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

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.

Here’s Slash’s own custom Marshall AFD5, 5 watt combo.  I wonder if it will ever get produced into a production model… According to this video, it sounds like it will some time in 2012:

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Along come Line 6, and give us some more free updates.  This time some extra features for the modelling of the acoustic guitar models in the JTV, as well v2.0 for the higher end POD HD devices.

Soon to be downloadable for free on line6.com, JTV firmware v1.8 for the James Tyler Variax series features spectacular updates to the guitar’s five acoustic models and enhanced functionality when the guitar is connected to a POD HD500 or POD HD Pro multi-effect processor.

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Welcome to the 4th part of my ‘Guitar Wiring 101′ series of blogs. If you’ve missed the previous blogs, check them out here: Rowbinet’s Guitar Wiring 101 Series

Just like in a previous blog where I talked about volume and tone controls, pickup selector switches are also not essential, yet they are widely used and accepted as the norm.  For example, if you only have a single guitar pickup then you wont really need a selector switch (unless you have a humbucker and want to run the coils in parallel or series at different times).
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Whether you need a MIDI keyboard for your PC, MAC, iPhone, iPOD Touch or iPad… You now have a single option that can do all those things. Introducing Line 6 Mobile Keys.

Here’s the official Press Release from Line 6 from earlier today:

Line 6 Mobile Keys™ Premium Keyboard Controllers Move Seamlessly Between iPad®, iPhone®, Mac® and PC

– Available in 25- and 49-key models, each with full-size keys, iOS and USB connectivity, and compatibility with iPhone^®, iPad^® and iPod touch^® –

ANAHEIM, Calif. – January 19, 2012 – Line 6 (room 212A/B) is showing Mobile Keys™ premium keyboard controller for iPad^®, iPhone^®, Mac^® and PC at Winter NAMM 2012.

Mobile Keys 25 and Mobile Keys 49 are a pair of new, lightweight, ultraportable keyboards designed to control iOS music apps and do double duty as USB MIDI controllers for Mac^® and Windows^® computers. Both models have full-size keys and solid keyboard action. The keys are velocity sensitive, allowing them to accurately interpret the nuances and subtleties of a keyboardist’s playing. Both Mobile Keys models are compatible with any iOS app that supports the CoreMIDI standard for input, including GarageBand^® and numerous drum machines, synthesizers and virtual instruments.

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Well Well! Here’s a little taster of what’s going to be released by Marshall to start their Golden Jubilee celebrations at NAMM.  The pictures above show the JTM-1H, JTM-1C, JMP-1H, JMP-1C, JCM-1H, JCM-1C, DSL-1H, DSL-1C, JVM-1H and finally the JVM-1C.  Obvioulsy they are respectively H and C for head and combo, and then based on a JTM, JMP, JCM800, DSL and JVM.  All are 1 watt, but details have yet to be released on the exact poweramp specs.  Most people are assuming they will be tube based, with something like 12AX7, or something similar (like some other popular 1 watt tube amps).  The combo’s feature 10″ speakers, which means they will be good for some home jamming or recording… But unless you mic them, will likely be too quiet for any gigs.

It is said they will be released one every 10-12 weeks throughout 2012, and these versions will not be released again… Although the sensible consumer would take a guess that some slightly modified versions will be put into production in a year or two for less money…  But there’s no guaranteeing that… So if you want one, you should place an order as soon as they’re officially released at NAMM (which is when you will be able to order one).

Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society need to introduction to any guitarist who keeps their eyes and ears open to modern music.  From those crazy pinched harmonics, to the crushing phat guitar tone, most metal axe slingers would love to have Zakk’s sound in our arsenal.  Well if you missed out on the first Marshall Zakk Wylde signature amp, the 2203ZW, then you might be able to get your hands on a 2203BLS, the new Zakk Wylde signature which may well be released in 2012.  There’s very little info out about this amp yet, I just hope this is going to be a production amp eventually

There’s some hints in a recent interview Zakk did, that perhaps may hint at what this amp will be based on.  Check it out here.

I remember the first effects pedal I ever bought when I was an angry teenager at 15 years old – The Zoom 3030.  I didn’t really need such a large box of tricks, and a Zoom 505 would have likely done the job well enough.  However a friend of mine (who was also a better guitarist than me) had the 505, and so felt getting a bigger FX pedal would make me a better player… Well FX pedals do have an instant talent switch, don’t they!?

Roll forward 15 years and there’s far more processing power available in my iPhone and iPad than in pedals even from a few years ago, as well as many tens of millions of users of iPhones and iPads globally.  So it’s a sensible way forward for any amp modeling and FX software company to design an interface and iPhone/iPad App that can give guitarists the amp and FX tones they crave for, any time and in any place they can hook up their iPhone/iPad…
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