SMG Review: Gibson Dethklok Thunderhorse Explorer

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GIBSON GUITARS

The Gibson Guitar Corporation is an American manufacturer of guitars. Gibson also builds: Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo guitars.

Company founder Orville Gibson made mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the late 1890s. He invented arch top guitars by using the same type of carved, arched tops found on violins. By the 1930s, the company was also making flattop acoustic guitars, as well as one of the first commercially available hollow-body electric guitars.  In the early 1950s, Gibson introduced its first solid-body electric guitar and its most popular guitar to date—the Les Paul. After being purchased by the Norlin corporation in the late 1960s Gibson’s quality and fortunes took a steep decline until early 1986, when the company was rescued by its present owners.

OUT OF THE CASE

Inspired by The hilarious Adult Swim Cartoon Metalocalypse. This axe is played by lead guitarist Skwisgaar Skwigelf. The Dethklok “Thunderhorse” Explorer is equipped with two Gibson BurstBucker humbuckers that are both powerful and articulate. These Heavy Metal masterpieces will have you chugging away till your fingers bleed! The thick sustain is long lasting and makes your tone as versatile as any guitar out there. The set mahogany and rosewood neck is both fast and comfortable. This is definitely a great metal axe with all the trimmings, for less then you would expect to pay.

THE SPECS

  • Explorer body style Mahogany body (non-chambered)
  • Set mahogany neck Slim
  • Ebony fingerboard
  • 22 medium-jumbo frets
  • White swirl acrylic dot inlays
  • Gibson BurstBucker 2 bridge pickup with Alnico II magnet
  • Gibson BurstBucker 1 neck pickup with Alnico II magnet
  • 3-way pickup selector
  • 2 Volume/1 Tone control with black top hat knobs
  • Chrome mini-Grover tuners
  • ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge/stopbar tailpiece
  • Corian nut
  • 24-3/4″ scale
  • 1.695″ nut width

THE LOW DOWN

The Dethklok Explorer is a phenomenal axe that you will enjoy for the rest of your days. This axe might not be for everyone but for those who can handle the larger size of a Gibson Explorer, you will be in Metal bliss. It seems to be a bit lighter than the classic Gibson Explorers, but not by much. If you are into Explorers, do yourself a favor and check one out ASAP! Who knows how many of these bad boys Gibson will produce. So go out and get you some Skwisgaar magic…. and shred the night away like the master himself!

Pros: Mahogany body, fast neck, awesome sustain, powerful tone, great feel.

Cons: N/A

Street Price – $1600 – $1950

Till next time, thanks for reading and keep on shredding!

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SMG Review: gig-fx’s Peter Frampton Mega-Wah

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Check out the Peter Frampton Signature Series Mega-Wah by gig-fx!

A LITTLE INTRO

gig-fx was founded by CEO, Jeff Purchon. Jeff’s relationship with guitar started at age 11 and just two years later he was playing small venues all over northern England. He regularly played with school friend Mick Ronson (who went on to play with Bowie) and neighbor Robert Palmer. At 17 he was opening for bands including Black Sabbath, Free, Deep Purple, and Genesis and continues to play with some of the biggest names in music today.

Along the way, Jeff had a desire for pedal designs that were not readily available. Teaming up with an experienced core of analog electronic design engineers, he started his own pedal company in 2004: gig-fx. His initial product, the Chopper, became an instant classic, finding its way at the feet of guitarists including Mark Tremonti, Adam Jones, and Adrian Belew. In designing his initial wah pedal, Jeff sought to combine an auto-wah, envelope filter, and volume pedal into a single unit – such was the birth of the Mega-Wah. Peter Frampton called one day raving about the pedal and requesting specific design tweaks. This led to the signature Peter Frampton Mega-Wah.

WAH-T’S UP

The first thing catching my attention was the dogbone shaped foot pedal. This design allows for easily accessed controls on either side of the base. Intentional or not, it also serves as a carrying handle and sheds weight from what would otherwise make it bulkier and chunkier. That being said, the aircraft aluminum construction provides ruggedness in a lightweight package. The foot pedal offers plenty of surface area which is topped with soft, yet durable and grippy rubber tread. Controls include Mode (Cry, Mega, Trig, and Auto), Rate, Gain, Resonance, and Sensitivity. A blue LED indicates when the pedal is active and a red LED blinks in time to where Rate is set in Auto mode. Instrument IN and OUT jacks are found on either side in addition to a standard 9V DC input jack. A battery compartment, held in place by four Philips screws, houses a 9V battery underneath. No signature pedal would be complete without an actual signature and Peter Frampton’s appropriately graces the side of the medium navy blue chassis.

FOUR WAHS IN ONE

CRY: This is the classic wah mode. Gain controls the overall level of the effect, providing a thinner more subtle wah at minimum setting and a fatter more intense wah at max. Resonance adjusts frequency boost. This translates to more quacky wahs as sounds open up to a broader range. For you mixing fanatics, this can be thought of as adjusting the ‘Q’ – the width of a particular frequency.

MEGA: This mode is similar to CRY, but by boosting the low end it makes for a fatter, fuller sound. The high end is mostly unaffected and Gain and Resonance controls behave similarly.

TRIG: Pick dynamics replace the foot pedal in this mode. Softer attacks are similar to having the pedal down in the lower registers, while sharper, more aggressive picking brings out high end wah. This is a really fun mode as the feeling is very interactive and you can get downright punchy and FUNKY! Gain and Resonance perform similarly as the previous two modes, but Sensitivity adds an additional control. With this turned down, lower frequencies are prominent and it takes massive attacks (no reference to the band) to get the pedal to open up to the higher end, which is very brief. At the opposite end, higher frequencies are promoted as it takes the softest of touches to coax the low end.

AUTO: Lazy foot? No problem. Click over to this mode and the pedal will take over, rocking back and forth through the sweep as if you were tapping in time yourself [Author’s request: Can you actually get the pedal to physically rock back and forth? That would be wicked cool! Anyway…]. Again, Gain and Resonance works the same, with the added Rate control which sets the speed of the effect. Think of a vibrato or tremolo effect, though it’s not quite the same. My only complaint is I would have liked a way to set the width of the wah as it’s hard-wired to maximum sweep. Perhaps a future version could allow the position of the pedal to determine this.

THE FINAL WRAP

The Peter Frampton Mega-Wah is mega fun! Each mode is useful – no gratuitous effects. Performance and sound quality get high marks and physical operation is clean, making my Crybaby feel clunky in comparison. The pedal is activated optically by kicking into action when it senses the pedal is pushed forward about 1/4″ from fully back. This takes some getting used to as rocking all the way back disengages the effect after a period of time set by a control recessed in the bottom of the unit. I think it’s a slick feature that eases ON/OFF, but there’s something about that physical click you get from leaning on a switch that I missed. But who knows? Maybe after a bit more time spent with it, I wouldn’t miss it at all. Finally, gig-fx designs the wah with what they call “better-than-true-bypass” by using a circuit that optimizes the signal between the guitar and amp input. All in all, a very useful, fun wah that offers a lot of bang for the buck and has me considering replacing my beloved Crybaby, even if I have to give up the footswitch.

Street Price – $149

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Straight From the Heart: What Are Your Influences?

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Sensational guitarist and real life Guitar God – Steve Vai rockin’ out on his ‘Heart’ guitar!

WHAT INFLUENCES US?

Many of us have been influenced by our friends, a particular song on the radio, or a new song by our favorite group. Maybe a family member, or even a particular life experience impacted and shaped your influences. All kinds of things have led us to play this wonderful instrument….THE GUITAR!

We all have our reasons for playing guitar. On top of that, we have our reasons for what we play and how we play it. It’s easy for some to identify their influences. Others not so easy. Or maybe not what one would consider a standard answer. Some need to search for something much deeper than a song or artist. And influences can change with time, I can attest to this from personal experience.

YOUR DADDY CAN ROCK ‘N ROLL!

I originally wanted to play guitar because I thought it was cool. My dad played guitar, but he played country music and I wasn’t into it at all and had no appreciation for it at the time. I was just a dumb kid, although I loved to listen and watch him play. He was amazingly talented and I was extremely impressed by his level of skill on the old 6-string. But at the time, I was more influenced by the great ‘GUITAR GODS’ of the day. In those days it seemed like every good band had an amazing guitarist.

We had Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck,  Pete Townshend, Tommy Iommi, Billy Gibbons, Robin Trower, Ted Nugent, Gary Moore and this list could go on and on. In the early 80′s it was Rhoads, and the Metallica wave, ending with SRV and Healey in the late 80′s. But that’s about the time I hung up my guitar. Oh the things we do in life for others! But the music never stops. Once it’s in your heart, it’s always there. In my most recent return to playing guitar, I have discovered some new influences. My dad who passed away right before I got my guitar, is definitely a big influence on me now. I hope someday to be as good and as accomplished as he was. Not that he was some big star or anything, but he gigged for the better part of 20 years and did some recording too.

BACK IN BLACK – I’M A POWER PACK!

These days my biggest influence is…..my own heart! I have a new love for guitar that I never had before. And I have an incredible desire to get better. I am dedicating more and more time to practicing guitar….and the more I practice, the more I want to play!

I am still influenced to play certain songs because of a cool rhythm or riff, but my real influence to play these days comes straight from the heart. I just love it! It is the best fix for a bad or gloomy day. Stressed? Grab your guitar! Want to put a smile on your face or the face of someone else? You know what to do…..! Look deep….why do you play…what influenced you?

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Join the SMG Social Network!

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Join the Share My Guitar Social Network!

A Social Network for Guitarists!


Add pics, links, videos or your music right from your member homepage!

Share My Guitar is a social network for guitar enthusiasts. Create your own profile and you’ll be able to share your guitar collection with the world! Upload pics, songs, videos, chat with other guitarists, join guitar groups, post ads on the classified page, browse the SMG forums and much more!

This is a  free and cool way to promote yourself, your music, your band and connect with an exclusive group of like-minded people. Tons of other awesome features. What are you waiting for? Join now!

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SMG Poll: Who is the Best Rhythm Guitarist?

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SMG Review: T-Rex Engineering’s Twister 2 Chorus/Flanger

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T-Rex Engineering is a Danish company that has been providing the guitar community with high quality effects, power supplies, switches, controllers, and more for over a decade. Their recognition as a significant industry player is validated by worldwide sales and a client list that includes Carlos Santana, John Mayer, Mark Tremonti, and Steve Lukather, to name a few. T-Rex originally released a combination stereo chorus and flanger in a single pedal called the Twister. The pedal was well received but rather than settling for ‘good enough’, T-Rex, with the help of user feedback, gave the unit a facelift, updated the hardware and software, and unveiled it as the Twister 2.

THE OUTER SHELL

The pedal’s tone-twisting technology is housed inside a lime green aluminum casing that measures a bit wider than standard stompboxes. A small but rugged switch toggles between Chorus and Flanger with five dials controlling behavior: Depth, Regen, Tone, Rate, and Level. The on/off footswitch is industrial-grade sturdy. A spring-released knob for setting Input Gain is inset into the right side of the pedal. The remaining features include a standard 1/4″ input jack, two 1/4” jacks for mono or stereo output, a 9V DC jack, and 9V battery compartment.

TWISTING TONE

In optimizing the level going into the pedal, I adjusted Input Gain to insure I was getting a rich signal, just shy of distortion. Starting with the pedal in Chorus mode, I set all controls mid way and gently strummed my EMG DG-20 equipped Strat, letting the effected notes ring out and wash over me. The sound was serenely lush, but begged for some good ol’ knob twisting. Adjusting Tone controls higher frequencies, but it felt more like an expansion knob as the sound opened up overall with a clockwise turn. Rate adjusts the speed of the sweep. At the minimum setting, it’s slow and dreamy with a quality that I felt more than noticed consciously. At its max setting, it gets very shimmery, but avoids going overboard and remains usable. Depth controls the intensity of modulation from nearly unaffected to rich and full. Regen is reserved for Flanger mode and as such, offers little in Chorus mode, though I thought I detected a touch of added sparkle when turned up. Switching to Flanger mode, my amp went cosmic with a more pronounced warbly effect. Tone, Rate, and Depth behaved similarly as in Chorus mode, but the result differed as I achieved everything from a more intense chorus-like effect, to a deep, harmonically intensified vibrato, to an eerie rubber band-like journey through space in which notes seemed to interact with each other sympathetically within the pedal itself – trippy! With Regen, I modeled the sound based on how the other controls were set. I was able to dial in a unique range of character from classic flange frequency sweeps to a wacky Slinky effect that responded sensitively to pick dynamics. As if that weren’t enough, the pedal has two outputs for twisting in stereo! Talk about a true sonic soundscape!

THE FINAL WRAP

The greatest quality of the Twister 2 is the way in which its effects are felt, more than heard. I required a little adjustment in my expectations as many chorus and flanger pedals are in your face as an effect, rather than melding into and becoming part of your sound. The pedal will twist your tone into something other than what you put into it – you give up transparency, and I had to turn the Level knob up higher than I would have liked to gain parity in volume between its on and off state, but aside from those exceptions, I was pleased with the fantasy of sounds produced.

STREET PRICE – $279

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Dan Coplan is senior staff writer at SMG. Dan is a Los Angeles based cinematographer and self-admitting guitar junkie. Email: dancoplan@sharemyguitar.com

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Guitar Zen: Breaking Up is Hard to Do!

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David Gilmour and Roger Waters buried the hatchet and performed together in 2010!

ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE

Starting a band is something that I believe EVERY guitarist dreams of achieving. The excitement and energy of 4 or 5 individual musical craftsman, or craftswomen, coming together in a balance of rhythm and harmony are essential in making music an art-form. This creative mixture from coming together also begins the process where each of the individual voices join together and becomes one sonic stream or single unified voice.

On the flip side, sometimes the voices no longer align. When the magic is missing, things start to fall apart. Band break ups can be some of the most traumatic emotional experiences that a musician will go through, often filled with drama and aggravation that can turn lifelong friends into enemies. When you look at some of the greatest bands, like Pink Floyd for example, and then think about the depth of artistry they created together yet for reasons we will never truly know, it just didn’t work out for them at some point.

KEEP A POSITIVE ATTITUDE – DON’T BURN BRIDGES!

If the band should break up, it doesn’t have to mean the end of your musical career. Bouncing back into a stable creative mindset, you can really shape your own vision and go for it. But there are a few things to remember when breaking ties with your bros in the band. Here are a few tips to help you have a smooth break up:

  • Be upfront and be honest – There’s no reason to dance around the truth when it comes to a split. Just be upfront and let each member have their own opinions about how it all went down.
  • Don’t bad mouth anyone – No matter how mad that drummer made you or how many times the keyboardist told you your not in tune, you don’t want to burn bridges by talkin’ trash. Just let it go and get creative. The music community is smaller than you think and you don’t want to be know for being difficult or talking bad about others.
  • Take the power back – No matter what happened, it happened. Now it’s your time to dive back into your creative side and play your fingers off! The surge you’ll get from being expressive will amp you up and give you more confidence to do it on your own.

IN CONCLUSION…

Remember to stand up, dust yourself off and get ROCKIN’!

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Scott “SVH” Von Heldt is a staff writer for SMG. Scott has worked with members of White Zombie, Cirque Du Soliel and many others. In late 2008 he released the first book of his Mystic Art of Self-Discovery series entitled Mind Over Metal: The Musician’s Guide to Mental Mastery. Email: SVH@sharemyguitar.com

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SMG Poll: Who is the Best Shred Guitarist?

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HOW TO GET YOUR JAM ON WHILE TRAVELING

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HITTIN’ THE ROAD

I recently went out of town for work for a month. My first concern, before wondering about sleeping conditions and food opportunities, was how to keep up with playing, primarily with respect to the new songs I had to learn for my band. I was hauling a lot of gear for my job, so whatever I brought had to be compact, easily transportable, and rugged in order to survive any mishaps. Furthermore, I needed a way to hear my guitar and be able to play along with the songs I needed to learn.

TRAVEL GUITARS

I had two travel guitars prior to this journey. My Baby Taylor is perfect for taking to the park, the beach, or even plunking on at home on the couch. When acoustic is the flavor of choice, it’s compact enough and resides in a nicely padded gig bag that’s ideal for travel, but it didn’t meet my needs for this trip. Though durable for an acoustic, I didn’t want to subject it to being knocked around. I was going to be spending a lot of time in airports and on buses and wanted something that wouldn’t disturb others. Finally, learning the solo to ‘Flirtin’ With Disaster’ just wouldn’t have cut it on any acoustic.

My Aria Sinsonido is super compact and also comes in a nicely padded gig bag. It’s been all over the world with me, proving itself as road-worthy time after time. The headphone output meant I’d be able to play anywhere, anytime, without drawing attention. But it’s a steel string model – not so friendly to high register pitch bends and other electric-style gymnastics.

My neighbor had an electric-style guitar from Traveler Guitars that he really enjoyed so I got in touch with them and told them of my plans. They sent over the very appropriate EG-2: full-scale neck, compact and solid, yet small framed and short in length with the tuners built into the body, and both standard 1/4″ guitar and 1/8″ headphone jacks. Add to that a well padded gig bag with extra pockets and carrying handles and straps. Guitar – check.

PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC, WHITE BOY!

My next challenge was figuring out how to play the song list for my band and jam with it at the same time. I had all the songs on my trusty iPod Touch, but had no way of looping sections for practice. I was also figuring out how to listen to the songs while playing along at equal volume. IK Multimedia’s Amplitube app and iRig interface to the rescue! Uploading the songs to the app, I was able to loop sections and adjust playback speed. With the iRig, my guitar interfaced perfectly with the app, allowing me to set playback and guitar levels, dial in killer tones through the amp modeling, and further shape my sound through pedal effects. With the inclusion of the built-in tuner and metronome, I had the perfect all-in-one practice solution on a pocket-sized device. This setup was just what I needed and served me well, but when I was holed up in my hotel room, I wanted to break free of the headphones and extra cabling and rock out in the open (as much as rocking out in a hotel room will allow).

THIS ONE GOES TO 11! (but won’t disturb the neighbors)

I took a quick trip to Guitar Center (they’re everywhere!) and scoped out the micro amps. There was good variety and I tried every one, excitedly settling on a Danelectro HoneyTone. It had the best sound of all the amps, it was perfect in size (easily tossed into a backpack) and power (quiet enough to rock and not get kicked out of the hotel, to loud enough to rock and get kicked out of the hotel), and looked damn cool. Done!

I had my Mac laptop with me. One of my favorite practice tools is software by Roni Music called ‘Amazing Slow Downer’. Similar to Amplitube, it allows looping sections of music and adjusting playback speed, but also includes equalization, mix control, saving loop presets, and more. I initially balked at the $50 price tag, but it has become one of the best purchases I’ve made and I use it on a daily basis.

With the songs playing through my laptop’s speakers, and my EG-2 through the HoneyTone, I wailed to my heart’s content. The laptop, guitar, and micro amp were enough, but incorporating Amplitube into the mix really made for a fun time as I ran the guitar into the iRig, through the app’s amp modeling and pedal effects, and out to the HoneyTone. Now I was cookin’!

GO FORTH INTREPID TRAVELER!

With all the great, innovative, travel-friendly products on the market, there is no longer concern as to how to keep up with your six-string while on the road. With the gear mentioned above, I had everything I needed for full-on practicing and jamming: one small, compact padded gig bag for the guitar, and one laptop bag which easily held my computer, iPod Touch, HoneyTone, cables, picks, guitar magazines…

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Dan Coplan is senior staff writer at SMG. Dan is a Los Angeles based cinematographer and self-admitting guitar junkie. Email: dancoplan@sharemyguitar.com

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SMG CONTEST: WIN A CLASSIC VIBE JAZZ BASS® ’60s with HYPER-MOD!

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WIN A CLASSIC VIBE 60s JAZZ BASS!

Are you familiar with a company called AweSome Musical Instruments? They make an assortment of killer products to mod your favorite guitars and basses and in particular, I am very fond of this AMAZING controls mod for the Fender Jazz bass called the JCP-T2 Pickup Tone Multiplier Board Hyper-Mod that they gave us to review! We just reviewed the mod and installed it on a brand spankin’ new Olympic White Fender Classic 60′s Vibe Jazz Bass and it ROCKS!!! Now that the review is complete, it can be all yours. You can enter our contest to WIN IT!

If you’re interested in reading the review you can CHECK IT OUT HERE.

Please by forewarned, this bass BLEW OUR MINDS! The Fender Vibe is truly an unbelievable bass for the price and the controls mod actually DOUBLES THE ANALOG TONES that you would get with the stock setup. We are giving this modded bass away to one random person. Enter now for your chance to score this BAD ASS bass package, which includes a brand new Olympic White Fender Classic Vibe 60s Jazz Bass,  an AweSome Musical Instruments’ Jazz Hyper-Mod (pre-installed) and a brand new Road Runner soft case. ENTER HERE!

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