It looks like Seymour Duncan is looking to move in to steal some of EMG’s active pickup market with their new Blackout pickups. I only say that because they are active pickups and they look exactly like EMGs, complete with the metallic logo in the bottom right hand corner.

Blackouts are a new set of 9-volt active pickups from Seymour Duncan. Before starting their design the company did some research and claims to have found a a fundamental flaw in the design of the circuitry that causes signal compression and a loss of frequency response. They concluded the problem was the use of an unbalanced differential preamp. Therefore, in Duncan’s design they use balanced inputs which made Blackouts 14dB quieter than EMGs the competitors. As a result they claim you get more lows, more highs, more output, and less hum.

They do their regular round of name dropping to promote the product, citing players who have switched to Blackouts like Mick Thompson of Slipknot, Corey Beaulieu of Trivium, and Mike Schleibaum of Darkest Hour. To be fair, I’m pretty sure these guys were all already Seymour Duncan artists… so it’s not like they jumped over from “the other guys”.

Blackouts are already available for purchase. The neck and bridge pickups will be sold individually and in a two-pickup matched set. Battery life is 1420 hours for one pickup, or divide that by two for a set of pickups.

I Love my EMG 81/85 active pickups, but I have always wanted to try some Seymour Duncans. I think this is probably where I would start.

In addition to the release of their new micro stack, Krank has also released a new overdrive pedal. From the Krank website Krank says:

Designed for those guitarists who like to add that extra gain to their amps or simply want a classic overdriven tone for their clean channel, the Krankshaft delivers. Featuring a heavy-duty chassis and true bypass circuitry, the Krankshaft can help you achieve screaming leads or smooth country rock-blues tones.

I cant say that I see anything specifically special about this pedal, but the Krank fanboys out there will probably love it. The only feature information I could find was that it has true bypass and a heavy duty chassis. It’s a simple pedal that has only three controls including output, tone, and gain. There is a true bypass switch and thats about it.

Online retailers are listing the unit at $129USD and it should be available for purchase by tomorrow.

Line 6 has released an entry level option in their POD line of modeling units. The Pocket POD is about the size of a digital guitar tuner and runs off of either 4 AAA batteries or an optional (sold seperately) AC adapter.

On their official website Line 6 states that “Pocket POD® exhibits all the celebrated features and pro tone that makes POD a standard in recording studios everywhere”. I’m obviously skeptical of that statement since why would the release a lower end version if it has all the same features. So I decided to take a closer look.

Comparing the Pocket POD and the POD 2.0
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Zakk Wylde, love him or hate him, has developed quite the product empire. Despite never really breaking into the mainstream with Black Label Society, even as much as other similar bands like Lamb of God and Children of Bodom, Zakk has an amazing cult following. Because of this he has been able to build up quite the product line.

There was a time when Wylde was the be all and the end all for me. I thought he was the king shit of life and if I ever had a dream it was to be able to play like him. I have since broadened by metal tastes, but I would still love to have one of these on hand when I just want to plug in and play some BLS.
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It’s always fun to play with another guitarist. But what if you have the urge to jam but can’t find anyone to jam with? Sometimes when you are writing songs you need someone to play the rhythm part so you figure out a solo. Have you ever been the guy who has to play that rhythm over and over again?

The DigiTech JamMan Looper Phrase pedal is the solution to all of those problems. The JamMan is a 24-minute looper that allows you to record and play back up to 99 tracks. You can record your rhythm, record a lead, and then record a harmonizing solo on top of that.

This isn’t your ordinary looper though, it’s packed with tones of exciting features. The pedal supports compact flash cards up to 2GB to allow for 6 and a half hours of loops. It comes complete with a USB port for downloading your tracks to a computer. To help you get those loops just right it also has an auto record function to start when you start playing.

The pedal is a standard stomp box style floor unit. It has two switches, one to control playing and recording, and another to control the built-in rhythm and tempo features. If you have difficulty keeping your timing without a beat track the JamMan is for you. It has a simple percussion function that will have listening to a bass and cymbal track with a few simple toe taps. The JamMan isn’t limited to just 4/4 timing either.

In addition to the compact flash and USB ports the JamMan includes a mic Input, aux Input, and a port for an auxiliary footswitch for added live control.

ature Overview

• Compact Flash Slot supports up to 2GB of storage (128MB Included)
• 99 Loop Banks
• USB Port for downloading loops to a computer
• 44.1k Sampling rate
• Rhythm function with tap-tempo and multiple time signatures
• Sturdy stomp box metal casing
• Included power supply

For any guitarist who loves jamming this is the one pedal they should have in their setup. It is also an essential tool for the songwriter.

I had a buddy when I went to college who used to rip all of his music to his computer and pass it through a BBE Sonic Maximizer plug-in before he would listen to it. He said after listening to the optimized sound he couldn’t go back.

BBE Has introduced their popular rack sound processor in a stomp box format. Naturally through every connection and wire that sound travels between your guitar and your amp it looses quality. The BBE Sonic Stomp is put right before the amp to regenerate that lost sound. It is there to create more fullness, clarity, and presence to the sound of your guitar.

Guitar World reviewed it in their 2006 Holiday Guitar Review Guide and said “The BBE Sonic Maximizer’s patented BBE High Definition Sound process - which helps correct the effects of phase and amplitude distortion, improving music’s punch, presence, definition, and harmonics - is now available in a compact and gig-friendly pedal; the BBE Sonic Stomp. Powered by a nine-volt battery, the sonic stomp packs the same processing chip found in the more expensive, AC-powered units.

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The POD XT Live is the newest member of the Line 6 POD family. The XT Live is an extension of the popular POD XT but made with the live performer in mind. It is a multi-effect floor processor with a bite. It can be used for any guitar amp or can plug into any Line 6 Spider amp to become a full control unit. The XT includes many features such as stomp boxes, effects, amplifier, and different amp models. Best of all, the unit comes complete with a variax input and is USB ready.

Musicians Friend reviews the Line 6 PODXT Live and writes “For relatively minimal cost, a POD provides a world of guitar tones-models of all the major amps, high-quality cab emulation, plus a whole slew of effects. All this in a compact, easy-to-use unit with all the right connections and pro quality sound. In short, a POD makes it possible for the average-joe guitarist to record really pro-sounding tracks, even on a family-PC-based recording setup.”

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