OnBoard Research Corporation, the company that revolutionized the musical instrument tuning industry by creating the world’s first clip-on tuner, today announces the music industry’s first Wireless Pedal Tuner, The Intellitouch Freedom One. The new device provides a high-quality digital wireless link between a guitar and a pedal tuner, eliminating the cable normally attached to a guitar. The Freedom One has two components: A compact wireless transmitter that plugs directly into a standard 1/4 inch output jack on a guitar or bass, and a pedal tuner with a 1/4 inch output that connects to an amplifier or other effects pedals. When using the new Intellitouch Freedom One, the performer is free to roam away from their pedal board..

“Our customers asked for an affordable digital wireless system, and today we are announcing a very innovative solution”, stated Art Harvey, Director of Marketing and Sales for OnBoard Research. “The Freedom One is the first product in our new Intellitouch Digital Wireless Series. It’s a great entry-level wireless product and we are proud to be the innovator of this new technology. ”

The Freedom One’s pedal has a built-in tuner with a large backlit display that changes from red to green when in tune. The tuner is automatic, chromatic, and displays the measured musical note on a large LCD screen for fast, easy tuning. The pedal also has a backlit footswitch that is easy to find on a dark stage. The footswitch turns on the tuner display and optionally mutes the output while tuning.

OnBoard Research is conscious of the environment, and recently released the industry’s first rechargeable tuner. The Freedom One’s pedal tuner also has a useful feature to save batteries – a backup input jack for an audio cable, so that the pedal tuner can still be used without the wireless transmitter. If a user wishes to consume no batteries while practicing, they simply plug the pedal into a standard 9v effect pedal power supply and connect an audio cable from their guitar to the extra input jack on the pedal. This feature’s purpose is really for the environment, and is not needed for performance, as the Freedom One’s transmitter squeezes an astounding 8 hours out of a single AAA battery.

Both the pedal and the transmitter are made from a strong, fiber-reinforced polymer. The Intellitouch Freedom One model WT1 is currently on pre-order, and will begin shipping in July 2012, with a Heybrook Music price of £89.99 http://www.heybrookmusic.co.uk/intellitouch-freedom-one-wireless-guitar-tuner-pedal.html

The Vox AC30′s Top Boost sound has fascinated guitarists around the world for over fifty years. Capable of massive crunch or the clean, classic ‘chime’, this Top Boost tone is the essence of Vox’s identity.

The AC4C1-BL now delivers this unbeatable sound in a portable, compact body. Gain control, Bass and Treble tone controls, and a Master Volume enable any player to easily recreate this historic sound.

Remarkable not only for its authentic VOX sound, the AC4C1-BL is also captivating in its appearance: the rich, blue vinyl and Tygon fret cloth date back to 1963. Completing this vintage ensemble is an ‘old-school’ Bakelite handle.

Boasting the highest levels of design sensibility, the long-awaited VOX AC4C1-BL offers an easy way for anyone to achieve the legendary AC30 Top Boost tone.

Highlights

• All-tube mini combo amp
• Legendary Top Boost tone inherited from the VOX AC30
• Gain, Bass, Treble, and Master Volume controls
• 4 Watt Class A amplifier design
• 12AX7 preamp tubes (x2); EL84 power tube (x1)
• Historic 1963 Blue vinyl covering; Tygon fret cloth; retro Bakelite handle
• 10″ Celestion VX10 speaker

Available to pre-order here http://www.heybrookmusic.co.uk/vox-ac4c1-bl-special-edition-ac4-valve-guitar-amplifier.html

The Bill, introduced by Liberal Democrat Peer Tim Clement-Jones – and promoted in the House of Commons by Bath MP Don Foster – should now proceed to Royal Assent.

As a result, small venues wanting to host live music events will no longer need a local authority entertainment licence and it will now be easier for pubs and clubs to host live performances.

Paul McManus, CEO of the MIA, said:

“This is wonderful news and a great day for live music. The Live Music Bill will make a real and positive impact on musicians. The current Licensing Act has created an excess of bureaucracy – making it almost prohibitive for pubs and other small venues to host live gigs. We are extremely grateful to Lord Clement-Jones and Don Foster MP who have made this change possible.”

When Kurt Cobain hit the stage, it was very often with a Mustang^® guitar—an enigmatic anti-hero figure with an esoteric anti-hero instrument. It’s with great pride then that Fender introduces the Kurt Cobain Mustang, which evokes the man, the band, the sound and the times, and gives an authentically crafted nod to one of the most unlikely guitars to ever find itself at the centre of a musical maelstrom.

Cobain liked Mustangs a lot. For one, he preferred offbeat guitars that didn’t cost zillions of dollars, and the Mustang certainly fit those two criteria. Also, being somewhat physically diminutive himself, he liked to perform live with slightly more diminutive guitars, like Fender Mustang and Jaguar^® guitars, which better fit his hands and his reach.

See for yourself—go back and watch the famous 1991 video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and there he is and there it is slung over his shoulder. Or think back to when you saw them on the ’93-’94 In Utero tour, when he seldom went onstage with anything but a Mustang. Quite often and especially later on, Mustang guitars were a big part of what Kurt Cobain was all about, musically.

Inspired by his arsenal of modded guitars, the new Fender Kurt Cobain Mustang takes you back there, with highly distinctive features including an angled single-coil Mustang neck pickup and ferocious Seymour Duncan^® JB humbucking bridge pickup mounted directly to the body, dual on-off/phase in-out switches for each pickup, a polyester-finished alder body and an Adjusto-Matic^™ bridge with dynamic vibrato tailpiece.

Other features include the classic 24” Mustang scale length, C-shaped maple neck with urethane finish, 7.25”-radius rosewood fingerboard with 22 vintage-style frets and vintage-style ivory dot inlays, four-ply pickguard (Aged White Pearl on Fiesta Red and Dark Lake Placid Blue with stripe models; Tortoiseshell on Sonic Blue model), master volume and tone controls, vintage-style tuners, and chrome hardware. Finish options include Fiesta red, Sonic Blue and Dark Lake Placid Blue with stripe. Available in right- and left-handed models

Available to pre-order from Heybrook Music

http://www.heybrookmusic.co.uk/fender-kurt-cobain-mustang-dark-lake-placid-blue-with-stripe.html

http://www.heybrookmusic.co.uk/fender-kurt-cobain-mustang-sonic-blue.html

http://www.heybrookmusic.co.uk/fender-kurt-cobain-mustang-fiesta-red.html

http://www.heybrookmusic.co.uk/fender-kurt-cobain-mustang-fiesta-red-left-handed.html

http://www.heybrookmusic.co.uk/fender-kurt-cobain-mustang-sonic-blue-left-handed.html

http://www.heybrookmusic.co.uk/fender-kurt-cobain-mustang-dark-lake-placid-blue-with-stripe-left-handed.html

Housed in the playfully diminutive form of a vintage tabletop radio, the Pawn Shop Special Greta model is quite possibly the most unusual Fender tube amp ever (in fact, you’ll be hard pressed to find the name “Fender” anywhere on it). It’s a charming two-watt tabletop beauty with a 4” Special Design speaker, old-school VU meter with “clean to overload” indicator display, simple volume and tone controls, and a 1/8” back-panel auxiliary input perfect for iPod or other media player use.

Its vintage-style enclosure has front and rear wood panels finished in bright red, gold-finished metal top and sides for increased shielding, “Greta” script badge on the front panel and tabletop feet. Under the hood and on the back panel, Greta features a single 12AT7 output tube and 12AX7 preamp tube, with a ¼” instrument jack and ¼” line out jack (for preamp use with another amplifier).

Undoubtedly one of the most distinctive tube combo amps produced in Fender history, the alluringly refined Pawn Shop Special Excelsior harbours tones from polite, to raw and raucous. Its brown textured vinyl covering, smartly stylish “E” grille design and bold crossed-swords front-panel badge convey a decidedly stately vibe with a marked air of cold-war cool.

The 13-watt Excelsior elegantly encloses a single 15” Special Design speaker, with bottom-loaded primary chassis and top-loaded control chassis for operating convenience and low noise (powered by two 6V6 output tubes and two 12AX7 preamp tubes). Distinctive features include “instrument,” “microphone” and “accordion” inputs that each have individually optimized circuitry; tremolo circuit with speed control, bright/dark tone switch (for treble or bass emphasis), volume control and ¼” internal speaker disconnect that lets the amp drive an external speaker enclosure.

For playing at home, smaller gigs and studio sessions, the Excelsior is a class act that brings a fresh and unconventional new vibe to your playing.

Available soon from Heybrook Music

Heybrook Music made the front page of the Daily Telegraph today when they reported the recovery of a  guitar looted in the recent riots.

Here’s what they had to say:

‘Gunner Liam Bretherton, 20, faces dismissal from the Army after walking into a guitar shop with a valuable Gibson Les Paul just 12 hours after a music store in Manchester had been ransacked by looters.

He was arrested when the owner of the shop became suspicious and checked the serial number and locked him in until police arrived.

Gunner Bretherton, who serves with the Royal Regiment of Artillery, pleaded not guilty to burglary.

He tried to sell the left-handed Gibson Les Paul to Heybrook Music in Leigh, Wigan, on Wednesday. Grahame Hill, the shop’s owner, checked the serial number and then locked Gunner Bretherton in the shop.

Mr Hill said: “This was a £ 2,000 Gibson, the Ferrari of guitars, you do not pick them up cheap.”

Gunner Bretherton was denied bail. His mother, Eileen, sobbed as he was sent down to the cells. His father, Alan, yelled from the public gallery: “He’s been a good lad all his life.”

Gunner Bretherton is due before the court on August 19.’

There was a Westminster Media Forum last week about the future of the UK Music Industry. We especially wanted to hear an update from Lord Clement-Jones, the Peer whom we have been supporting to get concessions for small venues putting on live music.

Here’s the update……

Proposals to de-regulate small scale live music events could become law in 2012 after the Live Music Bill made it through its committee stage in the House of Lords.

Lord Clement-Jones highlighted the ‘great encouragement’ it would give to young musicians ‘performing in all kinds of venues, who will be able to take advantage of these provisions.’

The Bill now has just two readings left before it finally reaches the House of Commons!

Baroness Garden of Frognal re-iterated the Government’s support of the Bill in the Lords in light of a concession to change the time limit from midnight to 11pm and announced that the Government was ‘planning to consult shortly on wider reforms to live entertainment’.

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara backed the Bill on behalf of the Labour Party.

For more details of the concessions being sought, see this extract from a recent B2B newsletter

• Unamplified live music is exempted anywhere between 8 am and midnight on the same day, but this can be disapplied in alcohol-licensed premises if complaints are upheld. Conditions could then be applied. (This is a proportionate solution, because it allows, for example, cafés to put on such entertainment without the cost of applying for a full license.)
• A broad exemption is introduced for any premises not already licensed under the Licensing Act that qualify as a workplace for the purpose of health and safety legislation. This covers not only hospitals, schools et cetera, but factories, offices and any place covered by the workplace definition. This is an important new addition to the Bill.
• The removal altogether of the entertainment facilities provisions. There would no longer be a separate requirement to authorise the provision of musical instruments such as the piano for a school concert open to the public.
• A new exemption under the Bill to allow live and recorded music to accompany morris dancing.

Baroness Rawlings, Conservative spokesperson for the arts, culture and media in the Lords, speaking for the Government stated, “We are pleased to announce that it is the Government’s intention to be supportive of the Live Music Bill.

Right we’re off our soapbox now. Time to plug an SG into a valve amp

The puntastic Ravish Sitar certainly looks like a more practical way to add an Indian flavour to your sound than either getting hold of the real thing, tracking down an original Coral Sitar or picking up a second-hand, not-at-all-convincing Danelectro Sitar Swami pedal.

According to EHX, the Ravish Sitar boasts the following features:

• Lead sitar voice tracks polyphonically
• Sympathetic string drone simulation
• Selectable keys and scales including major, minor and exotic
• Select the sympathetic key by playing a note on your guitar
• Bend the pitch of your lead voice using an optional expression pedal
• Save and recall nine presets

The AC15C2 ‘Twin’ is a two-channel, 15-watt combo similar to the company’s AC15C1 but with a second 12-inch Celestion Greenback speaker and larger spring reverb tank.

The AC15C2 ‘Twin’ is set to hit stores early autumn and will be priced at $1100 .We’ll let you know UK pricing as soon as we get it. See below for more details:

The AC15C2 ‘Twin’ offers both Normal and Top Boost channels, tremolo, spring reverb, an effects loop, and footswitching capabilities. The tube amp design uses three 12AX7 dual triode vacuum tubes in the pre-amp section, and two EL84 pentode tubes in the power stage.

Each channel is equipped with its own Volume control, and the Top Boost channel offers highly interactive Treble and Bass tone controls. Both channels rely on the Tone Cut and Volume controls in the Master section.

The Tone Cut control operates in the power stage rather than the preamp stage, allowing an additional degree of sound-shaping. The Master Volume control works in conjunction with the individual volumes of each channel to create just the right degree of gain-staging.

By balancing the individual and Master volumes, the AC15C2 ‘Twin’ can deliver the coveted clean Vox ‘chimey’ sound or a powerful overdriven tone – and everything in between.

The classic Vox tremolo effect is equipped with adjustable controls for both the speed and the depth. A warm Spring Reverb is also included. With its larger dual speaker housing, the AC15C2 ‘Twin’ features the larger reverb tank normally used on the AC30C2, adding spaciousness to the sound.

http://www.heybrookmusic.co.uk/electro-harmonix-micro-pog-polyphonic-octave-generator.html

See it put through its paces here.

Micro POG – Demo by Larry DeMarco