Hands-On Reviews and Product Spotlights

Spider guitar amplifiers are famous for breaking down barriers. Last year, more guitarists chose Spider III amplifiers over all other guitar amplifiers*. Spider Valve is the world’s first guitar amp to combine world-class modeling with a boutique-style, all-tube preamp and power amp. Spider Jam™ is the only jam amp to deliver dialed-in, artist-created tones and a wide variety of backing tracks performed by pro players. Now we’re setting the bar even higher. Two brand-new lines of Spider guitar amplifiers will shatter your idea of what is sonically possible from modeling amplifiers. Introducing Spider IV and Spider Valve MkII.

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For years I’ve had to face a dilemma when traveling by commercial airline: Do I put up with the risk and hassle of bringing along a guitar or just leave it at home? Like most guitarists, I suffer separation anxiety when I don’t have my trusty six-string with me. You know the drill: If you bring your full-sized guitar along, checking it in baggage can induce a different kind of separation anxiety—your guitar’s neck being separated from the body, usually at the hands of baggage handlers who seem to react instinctively to the sight of a guitar case with an overwhelming urge to see how far they can toss it. If you decide to bring the guitar into the cabin, you’re at the mercy of the flight attendants, who may not be able to stow it for you.

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The need for a durable, unyielding case was demonstrated recently when a YouTube video went viral. In this video, a guitarist sings an amusing country ditty about how an airline destroyed his guitar. Because I travel a lot on that same employee-owned airline, and do not wish to incur the wrath of a miscreant baggage handler, said airline will remain UNIdenTifiED. In response to this YouTube clip, the gang at Reunion Blues shot their own video demonstrating how a guitar enclosed in their new RB Continental case can be tossed from a three-story building and emerge unscathed—still in tune even.

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In the vast landscape of acoustic guitars, searching for a guitar that resonates with your musical creativity can feel like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Finding the right instrument is even more perplexing when it comes to the massive trove of guitars under $500. When faced with hundreds of guitars nearly identical in appearance, sporting ubiquitous spruce tops and mahogany bodies, how to choose?

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The latest batch of product samples for review from Electro-Harmonix posed a bit of a problem for me. The 2880 Super Multitrack Looper I could wrap my head around, but the Bi-Filter, a rackmountable analog filter processor, and the NY-2A, a vacuum tube optical compressor, are both high-end studio tools that I wasn't sure I'd be able to do justice to. Thankfully, I'm not the only writer on staff, so I recruited our resident recording expert Darius Van Rhuehl to help out. Darius evaluated the Bi-Filter and NY-2A in his studio while I spent quality time with the 2880.

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Hands-on reviews are fun to do. Who doesn't like checking out new gear? But they offer the most fun when the gear you have your hands on is especially cool. QSC's new K Series Powered Speakers are just that. They are exceptionally compact, very high powered, have a number of unique features, and sound fantastic.

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