I would totally shop at this store, too bad it's in Southampton, England. (source - Neatorama)Click here to visit the Guitar Store's website

As someone who has been gigging for over 15 years I'm tired of lugging large amps around.  The premise of Fishman's Loudbox amps is that you can get a quality amp for small to medium gigs that you can easily carry around.  I was skeptical since I've played through so many small amps that lacked depth or any low end response.The first time I played a Fishman Loudbox 100 in my local guitar store I was blown away.  It was far better than any other acoustic amp in the store, even better than larger and more expensive amps.  The Fishman sounded balanced and even with just about any guitar in the store.  The most amazing thing was that it had a punch and bass response that was unbelievable for such a small amp with just an 8" speaker and tweeter.  I'm currently borrowing a friend's Loudbox so after putting it through its paces, I'm really falling in love with this amp.  The sound quality is great.  It makes my guitars sound beautiful with no distortion or compression when I play percussive or loud.  Vocals sound great too!  I would define the sound as "hi-fi".  There's a high end crispness that is awesome but might be too much for some.  That's why Fishman put in a tweeter pad in the back in order to dial down the top end if it's getting too shrill for you.  My iPod sounded fantastic through the line in so this will be perfect for playing music during breaks.  For fun I plugged my Fender fretless bass through it and I was surprised that it sounded better than a lot of small bass amps.  This is clearly not what this amp was built for but I'll bet you could do small acoustic gigs using this as a bass amp.  I was in awe that it could support the lower tones of my bass with ease.  I'd be hesitant to play my bass at a higher level for fear of blowing the speaker so I refrained from slapping on my 6 string fretted even though I'm wondering now if it can reproduce the low-B...The control layout is one of the best I've ever seen.  It's almost as versatile as a full mixer but it also includes great sounding effects, a line in with volume, a notch filter on both channels and a master volume.  Fishman really seems to have covered all the bases with this amp.  The only things I would want might be a front bass port for a little lower end response, RCA and 1/8" line inputs and a pole mount for a PA speaker stand but these are small issues.For a street price of $599, the Fishman Loudbox 100 isn't the cheapest out there but it's pretty much the lightest at only 23lbs and it's easily capable of handling coffee house to restaurant size gigs with ease and great sound quality.  I'm definitely going to have to own one of these soon!Features: Power: 100W RMS cumulative, bi-amped with active crossover and master volumeDrivers: 8' woofer (90W), 1' neodymium soft dome tweeter (10W)SPL @ 1 meter: 114dB SPLAuxiliary stereo input with level controlDigital effects: hall 1 & 2, plate 1 & 2, chorus, with master levelD.I. output: balanced XLR outputs for instrument channel, instrument/mic channel, main mixTuner outputHeadphone outputMute for instrument and inst/mic channelsDimensions: 16' H x 15.5' W x 11.2' D (40.5cm x 34cm x 29cm)Weight: 23 lbs.

I've been looking for a good delay with a tap-tempo feature in order to do cool rhythm based delay effects.  If you want to do Edge influenced delay tricks like in "Where The Streets Have No Name", it helps to be able to use a tap tempo because few drummers can keep a steady beat to a delay line.You can pick up the Line 6 Echo Park for only $109 at Zzounds.com.  Click here to check out the Line 6 Echo Park at Zzounds.com

ProGuitarShop.com has been doing some really great pedal demos on YouTube.  I recently saw this one and really fell in love the the MI Audio Crunch Box.  I just love the note definition and how the sound of the the guitar and amp can still be heard.  So many distortion pedals out there sound so generic and overly color your tone.Update: OK, I dropped $119 for the Crunch Box so I'll let you know what I think when it gets here.Click here to visit the official MI Audio websiteClick here to visit the ProGuitarShop.com website

I've been such a fan of Line 6 gear that when Pod Farm came out, I wondered if I even needed it.  I've been using their great GearBox software for every demo and recording in the last year that I really couldn't understand what they could improve.  In fact, I was almost afraid to try it out in case it didn't work as well or caused my machine to crash.  Well, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it installed quickly and works great.  The interface is visual and easy for those of us who don't like reading manuals to use.  And the sounds?  Well, most of the sounds are very similar to their GearBox software plug-in but with a bit more depth and variation in some of the presets.  Some of the dual channel presets really come alive and feel so real you might not be able to tell that it was recorded with software and not a real amp.So will this replace your expensive tube amps?  Well, maybe.  For me this is perfect because I can record a full, great sounding demo in less than an hour where before it used to take several hours just to set up my equipment.  The ease of use is unprecedented and my workflow was like lightning with only the most brief of a learning curve.  If you're into home recording and want to add great guitar, bass and vocal sounds to your software recording studio, Line 6's Pod Farm is a great solution and add their UX2 interface (like the one I use and love) and you have an easy an inexpensive all-in-one recording solution.  My neighbors couldn't be more happy that I don't use real amps to record!Click here to check out the UX2 Pod Farm bundle at Zzounds for only $199

Sometimes people ask me why I don't own a Les Paul.  It's because they're heavy and not as tonally diverse as I'd like.  Then I saw the new Gibson Dark Fire.  I'm drooling over this sexy guitar because it's the Les Paul I would've designed.  It has a chambered body to make it lighter, it has a P90 in the neck to give clean tones more shimmer, a pickup in the bridge for acoustic sounds and to cap it off, the new and improved Robot Guitar auto-tuning!  The only other thing I would need is a whammy bar but that just wouldn't look right on a Les Paul.  Of course all this awesomeness comes at the bank-busting price of around $3,500.Click here to read more at Gibson.com

Any musician who loves using live loops already knows about the original Boomerang Looper and I just found out that there's a new Boomerang III Looper on the horizon.  It looks like they added a lot of great new features.  I want one!From the official Boomerang website: This powerful pedal continues the Boomerang tradition of a simple user interface but adds many new features customers have requested. It records in mono or true stereo with 4 independent loops that can be played sequentially (verse/chorus/bridge) or simultaneously. In the latter mode the loops may be synced or played independently.After a loop is recorded, additional material may be added. There is an undo/redo capability for the last added part.The user can assign a number of interesting and useful functions to the green and yellow Bonus buttons: Stack, Erase, Once, Octave, Reverse, Reverse Solo, Play-Stop All, Fade, Undo/Redo and Copy.

I've been trying to imitate organ sounds with my guitar for 20 years but I never thought you could get this close! By using the Electro-Harmonix HOG, you can get so close that you could fool most people. Awesome! The only downside is that the HOG is $465. Of course, it can do other effects so it moves to the top of my most wanted list.

Guitarists who remember the great sound of the original A/DA Flanger will be excited to know that there are going to be reissue pedals made soon!  It looks like the guys responsible for the original A/DA flangers will make more along with more Final Phase pedals.  Both will feature true bypass!From the A/DA Blog: Analog/Digital Associates was co-founded by Don Flory and David Tarnowski in Berkeley California in one of the offices of the infamous Howling Dog Garage on Blake Street.  Alot of things sprung from this location:  Blake Street Hawkeyes, Whoopee Goldberg, the first DIY geodesic dome company, and some pretty strange politics.  We moved to a building south in Hayward as we picked up a medical electronics design contract.  Don joined the medical firm and David moved back to Berkeley.  When Seamoon closed down, David took over the building at 2316 Fouth Street, where he perfected the design for the ADA Flanger.  He showed it at NAMM, took orders and began volume production in 1978.Click here to visit the new A/DA website

Wow, this is a real deal! For only $399, you can own a Bogner designed tube amp with Line 6 amp sims and effects. This is an amp worthy of gigging with for the price of a practice amp. Why so cheap? Line 6 just unveiled their new Spider Valve MKII.Click here to get the Spider Valve amp cheap at Zzounds

For those of you who are familiar with Propellerhead's Reason, the announcement of their new Record software should have you running out to buy it now. It claims to streamline the recording process and it has some sweet built-in features like Line 6 guitar and bass modeling. I'm going to download the demo and see if I like it better than Sonar.If you own Reason, you can upgrade to Record for only $149 but if you're buying new, it sells for around $249. There's a $50 rebate offer at Zzounds.com!Click here to read more at Propellerhead's official website

I've heard so many stories about Jaco Pastorius' legendary Fender bass. The stories were that it was lost forever shortly before his passing. Fans of what might be the best bass player to walk the planet always wondered what happened to the bass and now we know!From Bass Player: Allow me to offer my personal reflections upfront. When I first laid eyes on the instrument, my initial reaction was that it didn’t look like the Bass of Doom, what with the figured-maple top and back. (A photo of Jaco holding the restored bass can be seen on page 240 of Bill Milkowski’s updated Backbeat Books bio Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius.) As for picking up and plucking a piece of history, let me describe it this way: Who among us hasn’t wondered if we would sound better playing the instrument of one of our bass heroes? Well, the answer in this case is, Yes! The Bass of Doom is the best-sounding and feeling fretless I’ve ever fingered. It’s very light and very resonant, with the extra-narrow neck of early Jazz Basses.Click here to read the whole article at BassPlayer.com

I love the sound of tubes. Most guitar players that are serious about tone, love tubes and the TubeUlent gives you an easy way to add that wonderful clean or overdriven tube tone to any amp or recording device. Don't confuse this with the ZVex Nano Head because it's not an amp, just a preamp meant to be put in front of any amp or mixer.From the Tone God Website: The advantages of using the TubeUlent as a preamp verses a full size tube amplifier include:Smaller size and lighter weight makes for a more portable performance rig.Rugged construction requires less maintenance and provides higher reliability than most amplifiers.No major reliance on type or model of final amplifier. Just about any amplifier (tube or solid state) can be used, but the player still benefits from tube amplifier response characteristics, and the warmth of tubes.The output power of the final amplifier does not affect the response of the TubeUlent. The amplifier can be a headphone amp, a practice amp, or a medium to high power amp. This facilitates the scaling of the final output volume to suit the situation without affecting tube response - very useful for recording as well as live performance.Other effects can be used before and/or after the TubeUlent, providing a broader range of tonal possibilities that in some cases would be difficult to do with full size tube amplifiers, such as reverb after distortion.Click here to read more about the TubeUlent tube preamp at the Tone God website

After having tried the Fishman Loudbox 100 and loving it, I totally want this collectors edition. The only downside is that it's $100 more expensive and only available at Sam Ash. Only 100 were made and they're all autographed by Larry Fishman. It's a nice amp but I don't really think it's worth $699.Click here to read my review of the Fishman Loudbox 100Click here to check out the Fishman Loudbox 100 Collectors edition at Sam Ash

Digitech has really been making a lot of great pedals lately! The new Digitech Timebender is now looking like the ultimate delay pedal. I can't wait to get my hands on one!

If you're a guitarist that loves effects but hates programming, the new Boss ME-70 is for you! The ME-70 offers just about every effect from various distortions, delays, harmonizers and this model adds a phrase sampler for looping! This thing is also built solid for gigging musicians, no cheap plastic body here. At a street price of only $299, roughly the cost of 2-3 pedals you can have the equivalent of a whole pedalboard of effects in one easy to carry and use unit!Click here to read more about the Boss ME-70 at Zzounds.com