Vigier Expert Classic Rock Is In The House!

Well I've spent the last 24 hours with this wonderful instrument and I am seriously impressed!

I've gone through so many strat type guitars over the years and without exception all of them have been lacking something, whether it be tone at the expense of design or poor workmanship on mass produced guitars.

This Vigier Classic Rock has cured my quest for a single coil tone machine!

I'll do an in-depth review and tone test video over the next few days but the quality, sound and innovation on this fantastic guitar is amazing.

Massive thanks to the people at Vigier Guitars & Vigier - France. Ben, Lina, Patrice and Jack for being totally awesome (and for the killer swag). I can't wait to take this out on the road with Keepers Brew and use it in the studio with Dlugokecki over the next few months.

My First Vigier Has Left The Factory...

Just had confirmation from the lovely people at Vigier that my first of three Vigier's has left the factory on its way to me. 

This one is the "normal" one, an Expert Classic Rock. Three single coils for that retro vibe but with none of the headache's you get with your average Strat. I especially love the inclusion of a locking jack plug socket, what a genius idea and locking tuners to make string changes a breeze.

I'll do an unboxing and demo video as soon as it arrives but in the meantime I get to look at those pictures sent from Lina at the factory.

Finally I've had my other two Vigier orders confirmed. These are the more "out there" ones and will be ready in about 6 months time. I can't wait!

Positive Grid Video Released To The Wild!

I'm happy to announce that I'm working with the awesome people at Positive Grid in doing some video reviews for their gear. I'll also be using them both live, in the studio and giving all the lowdown on how to get the best sound out of their products.

My first video for the Bias Fx software has just been released, take a look below and let me know what you think!

Also stay tuned for my upcoming demo of the Bias Distortion pedal, it's good enough to eat!

Tour Starts Today and Pedalboard Of Doom Is Done (for now...)

So after months of preparation and working on our dance moves the Paramore Or Less UK tour starts today with a 10 minute drive up the road to the Engine Rooms in Southampton. Then on Sunday we're off to Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone. Then after playing Cardiff and Leamington Spa the weekend after next it's on to play O2 academy venues across the country, going as far north as Glasgow with stops in Sheffield, Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham and London on the way.

We'll be do lots of videos of life on the road and I'll be doing some gear reviews of some bits of my rig to see how they stand up to the rigours of touring so stay tuned.

Speaking of gear I finally finished the Pedalboard Of Doom® (patent pending) ready to use on the upcoming dates. I've added a TC Electronics Subnup for some low and high octave sounds, a Boss FS-5L foot switch for quick access to my AX8 tuner and a DS Engineering Chronograph, which is essentially a pedalboard clock and timer that can be seen easily onstage, perfect for those pesky tight set times. I've never been so excited about a digital clock in my life!

Oh and I added orange LED lights round the edge as you can never have enough lights.

See you on the road!

New Kicktags For My AX8!

My new Kicktags arrived today ready for the Paramore (Or Less) O2 tour next year. There's nothing worse than hitting the wrong switch live, especially when you've sprinted across stage after a solo expecting a pleasant clean sound only to hit the wrong switch and end up in death metal central for that pretty quiet bit of the song.

Thankfully Sukh Ryatt, owner of Kicktags, came up with this ingenious solution of using magnetic name tags that attach to my AX8 (and my MFC-101 previously) so that hitting the wrong patch is a thing of the past.

I've booted these around stages for a while now and they're road worthy, especially with Sukh's no wonk label surrounds (theres nothing worse than a wonky label), and are being used by the mighty Steve Vai amongst many others.

I also like the fact that they're modular so that I can change out the labels for each band. For example have the track names for a PoL gig but have generic sound names for a function or effect names if I'm using the AX8 in stomp box mode. Plus their glow in dark ability makes them easy to see on a dark stage.

Check out http://www.kicktags.com for more information and a big thanks to Sukh for getting these labels out to me even though the current run had sold out!

My Paramore (Or Less) Kicktags configuration

Function time!