Welcome to The Gear Page
The Gear Page (TGP), started in 2002, now combines its 100,000+ members' forums with a webzine. Some articles of potential interest are listed below. Of course, our primary focus is on our forums, which can be reached by clicking on "TGP Forums" in the navigation bar above. Please make sure to read our Rules of Conduct for the forums. To read any of the full articles listed below, click on the image.
V-Picks: This review is long overdue and had its beginnings over 10 years ago. At that time I was laying down some bass tracks for Ariel Pozzo, an Argentinian guitar player and, although I am almost exclusively a finger-style bassist, there was a track that really required me to use a pick. I tried some of the typical choices available at that time but wasn't happy with the sound I was getting. As I was going through my small pick collection, I saw one pick sitting there that was quite unusual. It was from V-Picks and was made of thick acrylic, was larger in overall size than the others and, on a lark, I decided to give it a try. That pick ended up being the one I used for the track and, although I continue to be a finger-style player, whenever I need a pick for bass or guitar, I invariably use a V-Pick.......... To read the full review, click here.
Source Audio sent us a Soundblox Dimension Reverb pedal, a really interestingly laid-out pedal with its sideways-rectangle control knob layout and button panel below that. With 12 different flavors of reverb (6 different room sounds, 2 plate reverb settings, 2 spring reverb settings, and a modulation or an echo setting) and a massive amount of parameters you can tweak, the Soundblox Dimension 2 is a really versatile reverb unit that should find a home on everyone’s board.
Before I even read the directions, I just messed around with the center dial, getting the various reverb types to easily show off each of their unique characteristics. And they all sound so gorgeous, I really had a hard time deciding which one I wanted to leave it on. Our contact at Source Audio recommended we pay particular attention to the Spring Reverb mode, and he’s right, it’s really special. The engineers at Source Audio auditioned many amps and reverb units to make sure they got it right, and they nailed it...............Click here to read the entire review.
Source Audio also sent us one of their Programmable EQ pedals, which is an awesome little EQ in a tiny little box. But unlike the EQ pedals we’ve used in the past, with faders that slide up and down, the Source Audio unit uses a row of electronic meters to display what your EQ settings are, and is programmable so that you can recall your specific EQ settings for various uses – set it up one way for one song, but set it up another way for the solo. The Programmable EQ allows for boost or cut of 18dB on seven frequency bands. There is a control on the pedal called "Octave Extend" which adds control over the 62Hz range................ Click here to read the entire review.
Last, but not least, Source Audio included a Dual Expression Pedal, which feels very smooth and extremely precise in operation. The pedal has two outputs, so you can control two different pedals at the same time. What a concept! I’m telling you, these engineers have been really thinking outside the old box. I was using it to control two different delays that I have on my board and it was just great fun to be able to manipulate both of them at once.
In addition to operating like every expression pedal you’ve ever known, the Dual Expression also includes a special Sensor Output which “connects directly to any Hot Hand®, Soundblox®, Soundblox 2, or Soundblox Pro pedal for real-time control over filter sweeps, effect modulation, LFO speeds, wet/dry mixes, drive levels” and more. Oh, and did I mention, the range of Output 2 is adjustable with a knob on the right-hand side of the pedal? It’s really an expression pedal on steroids! .............. Click here to read the entire review.
Current Artist Feature: Interview with Oz Noy
A few years back, I was up one night surfing the net. You know the drill. For me, it’s my normal routine on the nights when my bouts of insomnia resurface. I can’t remember if I was looking at different amps or guitar effects, or what, but that’s not even important. What is important is that in the mist of my surfing, I discovered a guitar player that changed my life. Strong words, but it’s true. His name is Oz Noy, and the raw energy of his playing escaped from my speakers and proceeded to melt my face off. I then had a new mission: to find any recording with Oz Noy’s name on it. So, that’s exactly what I did (after my face grew back).
The playing I heard on those recordings was fantastic. At the time, I had really grown bored with instrumental guitar music. For me, it was all starting to sound the same, but Oz changed all that! His songs had melodies that stuck in my brain and the playing was beyond spectacular, but the one thing I found in his music that was lacking elsewhere: funk. This dude’s sense of timing was so very cool. It is this rhythmic sense that pushes Noy’s music in to a whole other stratosphere.......... To read full article click here.
Current Article Feature:
No doubt there’s tons of very cool stuff hiding in any guitar/amp rig, some of it very hard to find for all but the initiated, so IMHO it really helps to know a little bit about how your rig thinks in order to find it all. By learning how amps and guitars think in general, a lot of those knobs on the front and rear panels will make gobs more sense and will greatly increase your power to sculpt tone before you ever touch an effect. So this article is the first in a series designed to show you, sans screwdriver, how to do just that with gain structure.