Burlap and Blues, The Blues Blog

On Monday I presented a distortion effect that was dependent on frequency to distort. Somewhat different that the treble boosters of the past, but it still made for a very interesting effect. Today I will present a more complex effect that takes attack and delay and frequency control to another level.

Imagine if you would an effect that if you played subtly, your notes would come through, nice and relaxed with a subtle delay, when you hit harder, the clean note would ring and then quickly mute, and slowly a distorted note would fade in. At the same time, A delay would go from 0% mix up based on the level that you hit the string. As your string fades, the delay fades out. A hard hit makes you sound like you are playing backwards.

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I hate to throw everyone off by breaking this up with an effect review, but I am trying to keep everyone on their toes.

The rest of the single coil manifesto (interpreted)

All preamp distortion, tube or solid state, will sound buzzy at low volumes. I don't care if it's a point-to-point wired Matchless Hotbox, a Boogie V-Twin or whatever, preamp distortion sounds buzzy unless it's used moderately in combination with a hot power amp. That's just the way it is.

A good point to remember.

Tube amps still sound more organic than solid state amps. The difference is mostly in the power amp section, however. That's just the way it is.

Another good point to remember, even if you are running the latest $1200 digital emulator.

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What if there really were no limits in creating good analog effects. What if the mind was really the limit. Well if it was, I would be new creating effects every day. I want to take some time to think outside the effects box. This week I will submit a few effects for your review that I created.

The first effect I will submit for review is the Frequency dependant OD. This overdrive takes 1 / 2 of the signal and distorts it, while keeping the lower frequencies clean. If you were to purchase the analog box it would look something like this:

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Single Coils (from where) Manifesto has graced the internet for quite some time. I have taken time to translate the best into words that most people can understand.

Collecting guitars is fun. But actually keeping more than five guitars properly set up, in fresh strings, and in tune is a pain. More than five is for collectors, not players. That's just the way it is.

Yes, it is a pain, maybe when you get 12 you should plan on having a guitar tech. I have more than 5 but rarely bring more than 3 to a gig. I have several styles of gigs I do, so each of my guitars gets pretty regular use.

The guitar and amp markets are dominated by lower end gear. The high end gear is the most fun to discuss. But most players are shemps who play in their bedroom on low priced equipment. That's just the way it is.

I agree and I will trade you my Marc Sean Price for your entire collection.

The $800 rule. On solid body guitars you get what you pay for (at regular street prices) up to about $800. After that, quality continues to increase with price, but with diminishing returns. Another way of saying this is that you pay most dearly for that last 10% or so of quality. That's just the way it is.

I still am amazed at the number of people who are trying to gig playing guitars that are not matched to their playing ability or amplifiers. This year I watched a young man play a starter $99 bass guitar into a $750 bass amp. Great amp, crappy tone from a crappy guitar.

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Well, this past week I have been reviewing the AXL SRO Marquee series guitar. This guitar can be purchased from many outlets for $169, which is cheaper than it's better selling competitor the Squier Stratocaster.

Features: 4 guitars out of 5.
This guitar is pretty straight forward with the configuration H-S-S. Nothing different than any other H-S-S. Better than average bridge saddles, and tuning stability.

Sound: 4 guitars out of 5.
This guitar has a better than average sound, especially at it's price range. For a guitar under $200, you will be VERY hard pressed to find something that sounds this good that is new. There is an expectation with single coil pickups that there will be noise when going with a single coil selection, but usually with lower end guitars, there is noise in all switch selections, and this is not true with the AXL guitar that I reviewed. Again, much better than would be expected for a guitar of this price range!

Action, Fit, & Finish: 3 guitars out of 5.
Again, a well produced guitar, about average for the price range. The truss rod, action were easily tweaked as should be with any guitar. It felt good to play, not as easy as my Fender, or any other high end guitar that I own, but it was not uncomfortable like other guitars that I have owned.

Reliability/Durability: 2 guitars out of 5.
This guitar gets a low rating due to the cheapness of the trem bar. I would expect that this guitar otherwise would do well over it's live. That being said this guitar was designed with a trem and should have had been built with a trem. The ONLY flaw in the design of this guitar.

Value: 5 guitars out of 5.
At under $200 a great deal. I would rate this guitar midway between high end Sqiuer and MIM Strat. You would be pretty hard pressed to find a guitar at this value. With this said, this is an overseas production guitar, and you should expect that you should have some set up work that needs to be done with this guitar.

Overall Rating: 4 guitars out of 5.

This guitar is definitely was designed to be in a class of guitars to compete with starter guitars, but good enough to be a guitar that could be played for some time. This guitar is better than almost all new guitars in this price range, including models from Squier, Epiphone and Ibanez. As with any lower priced guitar, expect that there will be minor tweaks that need to be done out of the box as care that is given higher end models will not be standard practice.

Don't be fooled by the price tag, I might just have to say it again before the end of this review, the build quality generally is pretty solid. The guitar is well balanced and not what I ever expected. I actually had a chance to play the badwater series, which is significantly lighter, but the pickup configuration is the same. The badwater series is a series of road worn guitars that are priced under $200. I would assume that the sound quality would be very similar to the SRO series with a little more mojo with looks.

I will not be keeping this AXL guitar, but I do not have a problem giving this guitar to someone I know who is a serious or maybe not even a serious player. It looks pretty good and has a decent sound for a lower priced guitar. If I ever saw one in a pawn shop for under $100 it would be a no brainier. Although I do not believe that this guitar sounds better than a Fender as some reviews have stated, it certainly sounds better than the Squier model.

For more information about AXL guitars, check out their website regarding this specific guitar http://www.axlguitars.com/as800sn_shape.html. AXL guitars has many other guitars in some very odd shapes. This weeks review was based on 1 sample of a guitar produced by AXL guitars and may not be representative of all guitars produced by AXL guitars. As with all guitars, each individual guitar should be carefully inspected before buying, and when buying on-line be sure that you can return a guitar with defects.