Tag Archives: gear

Cool Tools, Products

Yamaha’s Recording Custom Series

Yamaha-Recording-Custom-Kit-2-copyYamaha’s Recording Custom Series was reintroduced this year, making its debut at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (NOJHF). Yamaha collaborated with Local 802 (New York City) member Steve Gadd on creating the redesign. Together they set out to retain the greatest features of the previous Recording Custom Kit while incorporating the latest innovations. For the first time, the snare drums will be available in a variety of metal shells, including brass, stainless steel, and aluminum, and in sizes to meet the needs of all performance styles. The Recording Custom Series drum sets include 100% birch shells and 30-degree bearing edges. Yamaha has been an official drum sponsor of NOJHF since 1985.

www.yamaha.com

The Michael Kelly Patriot Striped Ebony
Cool Tools, Products

The Michael Kelly Patriot Striped Ebony Guitar

CT-Michael-Kelly-Patriot-StripedThe Michael Kelly Patriot Striped Ebony features a distinctive ebony top and mahogany body, with five-ply white-black binding, as well as a mahogany set neck with single-ply white binding and double-adjustable truss rod. The rosewood fretboard has 22 medium jumbo frets with pearl-bone inlays, a 24.75-inch scale length, 12-inch radius, and synthetic graphite nut. Its tune-o-matic style bridge with additional chrome hardware finishes the guitar’s rich look. Its playability is enhanced by a Great 8 boutique wiring mod that allows two-volume, two push/pull tone configuration, combined with the three-way switch and MK-PAF-Plus pickups.

www.michaelkellyguitars.com

The GP-400BK Casio Celviano Grand Hybrid
Cool Tools, Products

The GP-400BK Casio Celviano Grand Hybrid

Casio-Digital-PianoThe GP-400BK Casio Celviano Grand Hybrid delivers new advances in tone and feel. For realistic playing comfort, its keys are made of wood, using the same materials and process as C. Bechstein grand pianos. Tones were also jointly developed with maker C. Bechstein. GP-400BK features three grand piano sounds that faithfully represent a grand piano from above and below the soundboard. Other design innovations include a curved rear panel and thicker side panels and legs, plus the height from the keyboard to the music stand matches that of a conventional grand piano. It’s black woodgrain finish provides an elegant look.

www.casio.com

The Ocean Way Audio HR4
Cool Tools, Products

The Ocean Way Audio HR4

Ocean-Way-HR4CThe Ocean Way Audio HR4 is an accurate, wide-dynamic range monitor speaker. Its console top, 25.5-inch-wide design features integrated two-way dual-horn directivity control, delivering a stunning 100 x 40-degree dispersion pattern over a wide audio range. Its massive horizontal “sweet-spot” delivers a consistent stereo image, even to the far corners of a room. For those who wish to achieve higher SPL, there’s a three-way version with dual 12-inch sub-bass cabinets with entitled HR4S delivering 25 Hz to 25 kHz at 118 db.

www.oceanwayaudio.com

Artisan Goodtime banjos
Cool Tools, Products

Artisan Goodtime banjos

In celebration of 20 years of Goodtime banjo success, Deering Banjo Company has launched the Artisan Goodtime banjos. These banjos, priced from $729, offer stunning aesthetics normally reserved for higher price banjos. A rich dark brown hard maple neck features elegant, eye-catching artisan inlays, while the peghead is adorned with a beautiful carved scroll design that allows the maple color to shine through. A three-ply grade maple rim enhances the Artisan banjos’ full, rich, sparkling tone. The Artisan Goodtime banjos come in all standard styles—four-string plectrum, 19-fret five-string parlor banjos, and 22-fret five-string banjos. All are available both with and without resonators and tone rings.

www.deeringbanjos.com

Dictionary for the Modern Trumpet Player
Cool Tools, Products

A Dictionary for the Modern Trumpet Player

DICTIONARY-FOR-MODERN-TRUMPET_CDesigned for both the novice and advanced musician, scholar and performer, Elisa Koehler has created a key reference that addresses all instruments in the high brass family. The book includes detailed illustrations, biographies of prominent performers, composers and instrument makers, and entries on historical instruments, like the cornetto, keyed bugle, and slide trumpet. Appendixes show a timeline of trumpet history, a survey of valve mechanisms, and a list of excerpts from orchestral and operatic repertoire.

A Dictionary for the Modern Trumpet Player, by Elisa Koehler, Rowman & Littlefield, www.rowman.com.

The First Genesis Memoir
Books-Resources, Products

The First Genesis Memoir: The Living Years

The First Genesis MemoirThe story of Genesis is the stuff of rock legends: how a humble schoolboy band evolved into a group of superstars. Founding member (with Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel) Mike Rutherford played lead guitar, was the backing vocalist, and penned some of their greatest hits. He also delves into his conflicted relationship with his father, a naval captain. The book is twofold: a chronicle of a band’s rise to stardom and a more personal story of the complex relationship between a father and son, amid the seismic social and cultural shifts of the 20th century.   

The Living Years: The First Genesis Memoir, by Mike Rutherford, Thomas Dunne Books, www.thomasdunnebooks.com.

Harman’s Whammy Ricochet
Cool Tools, Products

Tonebone Bumper

Harman’s Whammy RicochetDesigned specifically for anyone who has to quickly change instruments on stage, the Tonebone Bumper by Radial Engineering, Ltd., is a compact instrument selector that lets you connect up to four instruments to a single amp and easily toggle between them using a footswitch. Bright LEDs let you know which input is ready for use. Bumper fits easily on any pedal board and automatically configures to the number of instruments connected. Its Drag control load correction can be tailored to compensate for the buffer and replicate the tone and feel, as if connected directly to the amp. Trim control allows sensitivity adjustment for quick changeovers.

www.tonebone.com

Harman’s Whammy Ricochet
Cool Tools, Products

Harman’s Whammy Ricochet

Harman’s Whammy RicochetHarman’s Whammy Ricochet takes the popular whammy pitch shifting effect and places it in a small footprint pedal. Instead of using a foot treadle, it bends the pitch of the incoming note at a rate determined by shift and return controls. This allows guitarists to bounce their sound up or down in pitch in controlled or crazy shifts. Whammy Ricochet provides seven pitch selections—2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, octave, double octave, and octave+ dry. A toggle selects up or down for the chosen pitch, while an LED ladder displays shift trajectory times. The pedal has two modes of operation: Classic Whammy algorithm for single note soloing and Chords for pitch shifting of full chords.

www.harman.com

MEL9 Tape Relay Machine
Cool Tools, Products

MEL9 Tape Relay Machine

CT-EHX-Mel9The Eletro-Harmonix (EHX) MEL9 Tape Relay Machine emulates classic Mellotron sounds—
orchestra, cello, strings, flute, clarinet, saxophone, brass, low and high choir, and more. It is designed to work on any guitar without modifications, special pickups, or MIDI implementation, and will also work with bass and keyboards. You can select your sound choice via a rotary switch. Independent effect and dry volume controls let you create the perfect mix, and attack controls set the volume swell speed. Sustain control adjusts the release time after a sound is stopped. The MEL9 Tape Relay Machine comes with an EHX 9.6DC 200mA power supply.

www.EHX.com