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.
