Year: 2014

3rd Power Solo Dream/Switchback amps
Price: $1,859 list/$1,149 street (EXL-1); $1,999 list/$1,409 street (EX-SS)
Info: www.dangelicoguitars.com.

Images of John D’Angelico crafting masterpieces in his Little Italy shop haunt guitar enthusiasts to this day, implying an era of lost glory. Happily, D’Angelico guitars, long inaccessible to average guitarists, are being revived and reinterpreted in a manner that the master himself might have appreciated: exquisite art deco-inspired designs made affordable yet suitable for the spectrum of players.

The new five-guitar Standard Series resurrects classic D’Angelico features, down to the brass headstock ornament. Two guitars in the Standard Series, the single-cutaway EXL-1 and EX-SS, ought to satisfy most players’ lust for D’Angelico. Stairstep tailpieces and pickguards, mother-of-pearl inlays, flamed maple, pediment headstocks, Grover Rotomatics with Imperial buttons, and multibound bodies – they’re all here. Both test models featured a Vintage Sunburst poly finish morphing to black on the edges and at the maple/walnut headstock and neck heel. (Natural finish is also available.) Pickups are by Kent Armstrong, longtime go-to maker for jazz guitarists.

The EXL-1 is a 17″ archtop measuring a comfortable 3″ deep with a 25.5″ scale. Laminated spruce tops the soundboard’s grand arch while highly flamed laminated maple decorates the back and sides. These timbers are affordable choices that also happen to be ideal for a warm, balanced electric response. Remember, John D’Angelico marketed the laminated G-7 model specifically for electric use. (The upscale D’Angelico Masterbuilt line offers solid timbers all around, at significantly higher cost.)

The EXL-1’s bridge and fingerboard are rosewood, and the floating humbucking pickup is wired through tone and volume controls mounted closely together on the beveled tortoise pickguard. The quality of workmanship is preternaturally flawless, more so than even many classic-era models. But does the sound match the looks?

The designers have coaxed an impressive acoustic response from the laminate top, which features parallel braces. With a set of .012-.054″ nickel roundwounds, a stiff pick produced gratifying volume for acoustic chord and single-note work. The setup was easygoing enough for pianistic fingerstyle, particularly satisfying when amplified at a solo jazz guitar gig. Warm but defined, single-note lines were balanced up and down the fingerboard, though the discerning ear might desire some pole-piece tweaking.

The EX-SS has a similar jazzbox vibe, but with crucial differences. The lightweight body is 15″ wide and 1.25″ deep. The scale length is 25″, and the headstock, dressed up like the EXL-1, is proportionately smaller. The top is capped with flamed maple, and an interior U-shaped sustain block supports the tune-o-matic-type bridge. Two humbuckers are top-mounted, with a selector switch and stylish tone and volume controls for each. The EX-SS has all the rich detail of the EXL-1 in tailpiece, engraved pearl, tortoise pickguard – the works. And neither guitar feels neck heavy, despite the expansive headstocks.

The EX-SS was shipped artfully set up with .010-.046″ strings, including an unwound G. The light strings had flexibility without feeling floppy, thanks to the neck/headstock angle and the extra string length resulting from the ornate tailpiece. There was enough acoustic sound to make unamplified solo practice viable. Through a tube amp, however, fat jazz electric sounds were dialed in with the neck pickup, the rhythm was funkified with the pickups blended, and a good cutting lead was achieved from the bridge pickup. Clarity balanced with warmth. An Ibanez Tube Screamer thrown into the mix resulted in serious volume with satisfying, controllable feedback. Jazz, blues, rock, and fusion players would be at home digging into this distinctive axe.

The affordable D’Angelico EXL-1 and EX-SS offer great playability and aural response, along with enough bling to make any guitar aficionado’s heart flutter. Plus, any guitarist taking to the bandstand with either model will likely earn a note of approbation from audience and bandmates… at least if his tux isn’t too badly wrinkled.

This article originally appeared in VG December 2013 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Alairex H.A.L.O.
Price: $399
Info: www.alairex.com.

Guitarist Alex Aguilar is a veteran player, former guitar-mag columnist, and today runs an effects company that recently released its first box, the Alairex H.A.L.O., an overdrive pedal designed to produce rich overdrive and multidimensional sounds.

H.A.L.O. is an acronym for Harmonic Amp-Like Overdrive, and the box is two analog ODs in one, with separate Gain and Level controls. Its left and right footswitches correspond to LEDs that indicate which channels are active.

Designed to run through a clean amp and be a fundamental component of a guitarist’s tonal footprint, the H.A.L.O. sports a three-way Shape toggle that controls distortion characteristics. The left position offers asymmetrical clipping and a darker overdrive/distortion, the middle position offers a clean boost, and the right position is a symmetrical clipping mode with brighter overdrive/distortion.

The Saturation toggle offers three post-gain options. The left position is on in both Gain 1 and Gain 2 settings, middle is off, and right is the on position for Gain 2 only. There are separate Gain and Level knobs for each channel and a Tone control that governs both circuits. The icing on the cake, however, is a tone-sculpting Bass knob that controls low-end, a Contour knob for the midrange, and a Presence knob that covers high-midrange frequencies.

Tested with Teles, Strats, combo amps, and high-gain heads, the H.A.L.O. offered a universe of clean boost, natural overdrive, and even-order harmonic distortion. Patient manipulation resulted in steroid-infused country leads or filthy heaviosity, all with a luminous sheen. The H.A.L.O. doesn’t do full-on metal, but it’ll push a high-gain amp over the cliff with upscale complexity and dynamic responsiveness.

Despite the number of knobs and switches, the H.A.L.O.’s functionality is easy to decipher and adds a luxurious quality to even the dullest amp. Both circuits offer rich crunchiness, but Gain 2 has more saturation and treble. Everything about the H.A.L.O. yields serious sustain and super-dynamic touch-sensitivity. It adapts to myriad musical styles and yields angelic harmonic overtones. It’s powered by a 9-volt battery or an external power supply of 9 or 18 volts DC.

The H.A.L.O. is an excellent tool for creating inspired variations in sag, dirt, or EQ-boosting to push blackfaces, tweeds, or dirty heads. It’s a solidly constructed effect that should live on your pedal board for years to come.

This article originally appeared in VG April 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Musicvox Spaceranger Guitar and Bass HT
Price: $799 (guitar); $899 (bass)
Info: www.musicvox.com.

Popularized in film and television, Musicvox Spacerangers have drawn attention for their mondo lower horn and freakishly huge headstock. Purists turn up their noses, but countless others dig the Euro-cheapo aesthetic. Users have included country star Keith Urban, of all people, and the late jam-band bass hero Allen Woody.

The Spaceranger Guitar is a straight-ahead rock and roll axe with a triple-bound mahogany body and 243/4″-scale bound maple neck, 19-fret rosewood fingerboard with block pearloid inlays, humbuckers (in Gretsch-style housings), tune-o-matic tailpiece, three-way toggle, master volume and tone, and vintage Kluson-style tuners on that gi-normous headstock. Incidentally, the thought of tuning a Spaceranger with those pegs located on the butt-end of the headstock might cause some to scratch their heads, but it’s not as strange as it might seem. There’s considerable space between each tuner, making them easy to grab, and with the shorter Les Paul-like scale, they’re also easy to reach. It may take a few seconds to get oriented to the new layout, but after that, it’s as easy as pie. The only debit to the large headstock is a bit of neck-dive, but that can be remedied with a non-skid guitar strap.

Plugged in, the Spaceranger is an animal. It feels great in the hand – the neck and fingerboard are set up well with a low action and a thin profile as befitting the Spaceranger’s Asian origins. The bridge humbucker delivered plenty of heavy rock flashes, while the neck pickup was good for bluesier stuff. Even with the humbuckers, there’s a nice dash of Strat or P-90 quack in the middle position with both pickups on. This is very useful on a lot of ’60s cover tunes. The three-way toggle worked fine, though it was stuck a bit too snugly between the tone knob and cable jack.

The Bass HT takes the Spaceranger design to new stratospheres of retro cool. With a 30″ neck scale, the Bass HT is a very likeable instrument for the bassist looking for something different. In addition to a bevy of finishes, this four-string has a fully adjustable bass tune-o-matic bridge, vintage tuners, 20-fret rosewood fingerboard, bass humbuckers, block pearloid inlays, master volume and tone, and a three-position pickup switch.

Like its guitar battery mate, the Bass HT is a rockin’ electric, and it provides the kind of fun for which short-scale basses are famous. Both the bridge and neck humbuckers deliver big sound whether clean or with a little dirt dialed in. The middle position, however, sounds better on clean settings; otherwise, things can get a little muddy. For more Fender-y sounds, use the neck ’bucker and roll down the tone a bit. One thing that jumps out after playing the Bass HT for a while is that the short scale and fast set up are great for players more used to a guitar-scaled neck than, say, a long-scale Fender Precision. Similarly, it sounds good with both fingers and a pick, which is a more authentic form of ’60s bass-playing (playing electric bass with fingers didn’t become the norm until the ’70s).

In all, both the Spaceranger Guitar and Bass HT performed great, not to mention those knockout looks. Granted, the design is not for everyone, but if you like that campy retro vibe, the Spaceranger shape is a flat-out classic.

This article originally appeared in VG December 2013 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.