ALBUM REVIEW: Slaves Beneath The Sun – Process Of Guilt
Often, an album cover will give away the content before you even get to press play. PROCESS OF GUILT‘s newest offering Slaves Beneath The Sun is one such instance. Featuring…
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SAXON Releases Music Video For 'Black Is The Night'
British heavy metal legends SAXON have released the official music video for the song “Black Is The Night”. The clip was directed by Ted Lindén of Bullsize Production. The track is taken from the band’s latest album, “Carpe Diem”, which came out in February 2022 via Silver Lining Music.
Produced by…
NEAL SCHON Fires Back At STEVE PERRY In Battle Over JOURNEY Trademarks
JOURNEY guitarist Neal Schon has commented on the legal action taken by the band’s former singer Steve Perry against Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain over the trademarks to 20 of the group’s biggest songs.
Schon and Cain, through their company Freedom JN LLC, own the trademark registrations to ma…
ALBUM REVIEW: The Mars Volta – The Mars Volta
It has been 10 years since THE MARS VOLTA last graced our ears with a new release, a long time that has seen a hiatus, break-up, and reformation, following the…
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Keeley Halo Review
There’s a zillion reasons to be excited about the Keeley Halo—a collaboration between Keeley and guitar ace Andy Timmons. For starters, it’s an express-train ticket to Timmons’ carefully honed delay sound: a spacious playground of echoes that dwells partly in the realm of reverb and lets Timmons’ fretwork breathe and gather momentum and size. It’s also a great pedal for players hooked on the possibilities of a dual-delay setup who have space constraints to consider. And it’s a perfect delay for players that want to dabble in multiple delay textures without the headache of programming and managing a million controls and presets.Doubling DownWhile it’s fairly easy to dive headlong into the Halo and get great sounds, the interface is more complex than a simple analog or digital delay. And because so many of the factory presets and delay types are characterized by delay subdivisions, it’s best to get your sea legs by setting the pedal for quarter-note delays. Even in quarter-note mode, though, it fast becomes apparent how much delay-shaping power you have at your disposal.None of the five primary controls here will surprise experienced delay users. There’s delay time, feedback, effect level, and modulation depth and rate. But pressing and holding the feedback knob gives you access to a high pass filter, a tone control for the delayed signal, a tape saturation control, and the 5-position selector that moves between tape-style, BBD-style, quarter note, and dotted eighth modes as well as Timmons’ own Halo mode that is the pedal’s namesake. The Halo also has stereo ins and outs, a remote connection jack, and an expression pedal jack via which you can control any of the five primary parameters. You can also set up the pedal for tap-tempo functionality and an infinite hold or “freeze” function. Needless to say, Keeley left few stones unturned putting the Halo together.Happy ToesOnce I got familiar with the Halo’s controls, it was pretty easy to get carried away with its capacity for tone sculpting. The Halo is powerful and spurs creativity. But it’s also easy to get lost in the early going, and if you’re aiming to get the most out of the Halo it’s vital that you embrace presets and, in some cases, a balletic sense of toe dexterity. These are not knocks on the Halo. Setting up and clearing presets is relatively easy, and so is scrolling through them. But practice at working through these footswitch commands is highly advised.Once you do have the preset dance down, you may find yourself filling them up pretty quickly. Halo gives you the potential for crafting many and varied tones, and you may get hooked on the power of having so many at your disposal.Timmons’ own Halo settings are lovely. The repeats tend to bloom ever so slightly and are tastefully backgrounded, even at extra-dry effects mixes, and this characteristic makes it a great fit for high-gain pedals. Most voices, in fact, tend to sit nicely with overdrive or fuzz. Both the bucket brigade and the tape delay voices in particular became favorites, largely because they sounded so fat with the addition of virtual tape saturation and darkening from the high-pass filter and tone control. Even in this dusky tone state, the Halo had plenty of room for fuzz and distortion without becoming a mess. This mix of headroom and personality isn’t an easy balance to maintain. Keeley executed that tightrope walk with aplomb here.The VerdictNine times out of 10, a collaboration between a veteran pedal builder and a seasoned session and touring guitarist will yield a very practical piece of kit. The Halo is indeed that. The feature-rich design, dual-function controls, and the fact that it’s packed in a compact enclosure means that there’s a learning curve. And that might dent the aura of practicality for some. Players that like to keep it simple might find the Halo to be a handful, too. But it’s hard to imagine a do-it-all delay more capable than this cooperative effort from two crafty vets.
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Ernie Ball raises the curtain on the Fall 2022 installment of its Ball Family Reserve collection
Two electrics and two basses flash exclusive colorways, ornate aesthetics and the brand’s newly released Heat-Treated pickups
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Watch Jaco Pastorius go from funk to fuzz in one of his most groundbreaking bass solos
The self-proclaimed (and undisputed) “greatest bass player in the world” went full tilt in this unmissable performance
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Sweetwater Black Friday deals 2022: the official dates and everything you need to know
Your place to find the best Sweetwater Black Friday deals, with offers on guitars, amps, pedals, recording gear and more
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Gibson unveils long-awaited “Greeny” Les Paul Custom Shop replica
Built with the original’s current owner Kirk Hammett, the Collector’s Edition Murphy Lab model is created from comprehensive scans, precisely applied aging and an identical spec sheet
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GWAR on “doing drugs and collecting Marshalls”, becoming “a full-fledged rock juggernaut”, and enjoying wah nearly as much as Kirk Hammett
BalSac the Jaws of Death and Pustulus Maximus check in on Toilet Earth to discuss The New Dark Ages, tube amps vs modelers and the evolution of metal’s most outrageous band
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