Friedman Amplification is one of the top Marshall-style boutique amp builders currently out there. One of their most popular models is the Dirty Shirley, which is a 40-watt amp geared towards vintage, classic rock tones. I played a Dirty Shirley this past weekend, and it's definitely in my wheelhouse of tones. It really sounded great. However, 40 watts is often more than … [Read more...]
Fano Standard Series
During last summer's NAMM show, Fano Guitars announced their new line of Standard series guitars consisting of sub-$2000 versions of some of their most popular guitars. Even though the guitars were announced last summer, there hasn't been any news about them since then until now, perhaps due to the numerous changes going on at Premier Builders Guild (PBG). In advance of … [Read more...]
The Return of the Pedaltrain Nano
Photo from Pedaltrain's Instagram account Last year, Pedaltrain did an overhaul on their product line and replaced several existing products with new models. One of the products that was replaced was the Pedaltrain Nano, which was replaced with a slightly larger model called the Nano+. The Nano+ added 4 inches of width to the board (18 inches of width versus 14 inches). I … [Read more...]
Carr Lincoln
Carr Amplifiers is a high-end amp manufacturer based in North Carolina. I've had the pleasure of playing through several Carr amps at a local dealer here in Nashville, and each model has sounded very good, if not exactly what I was looking for at the time. That may change with the new model they're introducing this winter called the Lincoln: The Lincoln concept started with … [Read more...]