SANTA CRUZ
DON EDWARDS
COWBOY
SINGER
Acoustic guitars don’t get much prettier—or
prettier sounding—than this. Santa Cruz’s
Don Edwards Cowboy Singer honors one of
America’s genius cowboy poets, but it’s also
about the nicest interpretation of the classic, all-mahogany Martin 00-17 that you’re
likely to see.
Like so many Santa Cruz guitars, the
Cowboy Singer oozes with understated
luxury. And while it may be inspired by a
classic, it has a personality all its own. Gear
Editor Charles Saufley remarked, “the Santa
Cruz has a dimension, brightness, and
crystalline tone that you could safely call
uncommon for this tonewood recipe.”
He also noted “the fact that Santa Cruz
gets such a wide spectrum of sound and
projection out of a small-bodied mahogany
acoustic speaks volumes about Hoover’s
extra-mile manufacturing methods, which
include thin nitrocellulose finishes and time-
consuming, tap-tuning of tops. And the
payoff comes in the form of an extremely
dynamic, touch-responsive guitar that can
gracefully accommodate stylistic shifts.” A
sweet singer to be certain.
NOLATONE
AMPWORKS
ROTTEN
JOHNNY
The Nolatone Rotten Johnny was in the
running for the prettiest amp we saw all
year. The beauty went more than skin
deep. The 15-watt, 12" speaker equipped,
6V6-powered amp proved to be quite
capable of clean and nasty tones thanks to a
well-designed control set and circuit.
Reviewer Steve Ouimette was prompted
to remark that “the Rotten Johnny doesn’t
lack headroom. Because there is so much
control via Pre and Post gain over how hard
you hit the tubes, I found myself digging
deep into the wealth of Strat-friendly clean
sounds you can get with less aggressive use
of those controls.”
On the flip side, Ouimette noted that
he “was able to dial in AC/DC rhythm
tones with just the right amount of kerrang
and chime to create the illusion of a blar-
ing baby JTM45.” All that and a cabinet
that drove many of us to drool, left us little
choice but to bestow a Premier Gear Award.
nolatone.com
SKREDDY
PEDALS
LUNAR
MODULE
DELUXE
The cult of Gilmour is a mighty army. It
even has a team of engineers dissecting his
tone around the clock—picking it apart
down to the very last brick in the wall, so
to speak. Sometimes they yield discoveries
for the rest of us. Take the Skreddy Lunar
Module Deluxe—unabashedly created to
transport us to the microgrooves of the
Dark Side of the Moon LP, but also a fuzz of
wild flexibility.
Reviewer Joe Charupakorn was quick
to note how beautifully the Lunar Module
Deluxe tamed the more temperamental side
of silicon Fuzz Faces like Gilmour’s. He
further observed that the Skreddy “gives the
player even more control over this notoriously hairy circuit with a variable-gain input
transistor, as well as a tone control for added
brilliance that’s helpful for tailoring the
pedal to different guitars and amps.” Great
for Gilmour-heads, but a sweeter Fuzz Face
clone for the rest of us, too. Meet you on
the dark side, then?
