Maybe the coolest moment of NAMM for me personally is when Converge guitarist and God City Studios engineer Kurt Ballou, who by the way is hosting the free Studio Pass: Kurt Ballou clinic next week, showed off his new line of GCI guitars (it stands for God City Instruments). No, that’s not a Kurt Ballou signature guitar, it’s a guitar designed by Kurt Ballou, and he’ll be releasing them for sale to the public.
I know of a few musicians already playing “Kurt Guitars,” like Mares of Thraces’ Thérèse Lanz. Like Kurt’s recordings, his guitars seem to straddle the line between old-school aesthetics and modern power. Stay tuned, because you should be able to buy one for your own clumsy mitts shortly.
As a bonus, Kurt showed his new axe off through the new Orange Dual Dark 100 amplifier, so we got a taste of that new piece of kit as well. It’s being marketed toward the metal scene as a more versatile and louder big brother to the Dark Terror head. I’d like to try one side by side next to their existing high-gain beast, the Thunderverb 200.
dump wagon / January 29, 2014 7:40 pm
A Mustang trem? Ew.
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Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar / January 31, 2014 12:01 am
That’s incredible. LOVE the inspiration from multiple models, and the Mustang-style trem is a WIN. Posting this on our Tumblr!
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AngryFuckingMusicianGuy / January 31, 2014 11:56 pm
Just waiting for the comments about the tre-……oh wait, they’ve already begun.
I like the retro vibe that he’s going with. Everyone is so focused on Hipshot tuners and bridges, super-hyper-special-custom-made pickups, and that stupid fucking AxeFX II bullshit.
I guess I’m just old school, but I dig this guitar more than what’s been coming out lately.
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dump wagon / February 3, 2014 2:25 pm
I stand by the complaint. It’s an awful trem unit, and it’s incredibly common to find them blocked on most serious Mustang players’ guitars. Of the various trems Fender’s made over the years, it’s easily the worst. Kind of surprised he seems to prefer it over the Jag/JM unit, all things considered. If you’re going to go for an oddball old school trem, it’s better in almost every way than the Mustang’s. The guitar looks great otherwise, but I would lock that thing down first thing if I wound up with one.
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did you idiots even watch it? / February 17, 2014 9:58 am
There is no trem unit. Its a “mustang-inspired design” that has evidently been improved upon. Clearly it’s a hardtail bridge.
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