the demos I have been pouring over sound
sonically salivating so far. Perhaps the
biggest wow-and-flutter factor for me is the
ability to tap tempo an actual tape delay
unit. This is worth the price of admission
alone, but the modern features don’t stop
there. Expression control can be assigned
to either Time or Feedback, multi-head
modes can be toggled via footswitch and
there is a built in chorus that only affects the
repeats. Add to these features a saturation
control knob and a quick-change cartridge
and we are talking total tape-tone package.
It also doesn’t hurt that the unit ships with
a carrycase, two cartridges and an array of
global plugs. I want.
BLUGUITAR AMP1
As I mentioned earlier, tube technology is
indeed yesteryear’s tech—or is it? Guitar
players and Hi-Fi heads must be the only
reason these glowing bottles of musical tone
are still being manufactured. But, there was
a time—when computers were the size of
warehouses—when tubes were state-of-theart. Televisions, radios, military equipment
and just about anything else electronic relied
on our favorite little valves. Of course, we
all know the flaws associated with them:
fragility, short lifespans, performance
consistency, maintenance—the list goes
on. So, why do we tolerate them, when the
world moved on decades ago? The answer
is tri-fold: dynamics, compression and
physical musicality; they play with us instead
of against us.
Here is another pertinent question . . .
where are most of these tubes coming
from? Russia. Let’s go back in time to a
pivotal moment; now, imagine how rattled
our nerves would be launching into space
knowing that the instruments were relying
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