Everyone has their own little favorite things. The special something that makes life easier, makes your work easier or is simply best suited for the job. The runner has the shoes that are the most comfortable for the foot, the graphic designer has Photoshop on their Macintosh and the mechanic swears by WD-40.
Musicians like me have their own little pet peeves and favorite items that they can't do without anymore. Just imagine all the different things you're using on a daily basis. If I look at my studio, I see guitars of course and amps, an electric piano, a sampler, a Mac, a mixer, microphones and all kinds of other guitar gear. It is a collection of artifacts from the last 25 years. Some of my equipment is so vitally important to what I do that I could hardly live without it (or would have to spend a lot of money).
As technology progresses and everything is getting bigger, better and cheaper some older products fall off the wagon. They didn't generate the revenue that was expected or the manufacturing company simply chose a different path. There are hundreds of reasons why products are no longer made.
Today I would like to highlight three products that in my opinion are far underrated and manufacturing has stopped. In my opinion it is a shame because these items are of great quality, longevity and versatility.
Marshall JMP1
The Marshall JMP1 is a guitar pre-amp with a built-in midi interface. It uses two tubes for very characteristic sounds. The beauty is that you can use the amp for different clean and distorted sounds and equalization adds to the flavoring. It also has an effects loop with volume and mix control. Changing sounds is easy with a Midi-Foot Controller. Use the amp with a power amp and a speaker cabinet and you have endless possibilities at your fingertips. One of the nice things is that you store your sounds electronically so you can use let's say sound #11 and five years later sound #11 sounds exactly the same as when you last used it. This can be very helpful when you record a lot like me. Working on different songs over the course of a week or a month you can come back to a song without having to worry that the guitar will sound different because you adjusted the level, the gain is not quite right or you are using more treble. You simply plug in and dial the knob to the same sound#.
Blade RH-3
I've recently celebrated the 20th anniversary (yes, I am that old) of my Blade RH-3. The guitar initially came with active electronics and pick-ups that have been replaced or "customized" with passive pick-ups of my liking. But the hardware of the guitar is phenomenal. It has a sustain that is unrivalled and it sounds beautifully before ever plugged into an amp. There are no tuning issues with locking tuners that allow you to take advantage of the full length of the strings. What bothers me in today's guitar market is that there is a gap between the average quality guitars and the high quality guitars. If I translate this into dollars I would say that there is an overwhelming amount of guitars available up to $1000 and a great amount is available starting at $2000. But there is not much in between anymore. The Blade used to fit right into that gap and it still satisfies all my needs in a guitar.
Yamaha MFC05
You would think that this is only a Midi-Foot Controller and all it does is switch between banks or programs. That is correct. It doesn't make your fridge dance, make your guitar sound like a keyboard or get the crowd going. It is beautiful in its simplicity and robust for stage (ab)use. It is a metal box with six pedals on it. Think about how many sounds you really use on stage. More than three? That's rare. More than five? Weird sounds and variations must be your specialty. What makes the whole setup so versatile is that you can use any Midi enabled effects processor with the Marshall in the effects loop. You can change both, the Marshall sound and the effects processor bank with the touch of one button. Granted, there are a million multi-effects processors out there for guitar but when it comes down to it, which ones offer high-quality effects that don't influence the sound from your amp? Most of them don't.
I am sad that the direction in guitar amplification development went away from the building blocks technology. This technology was easy to use, versatile and uncompromising when it came to sound.
I would like to hear from you about items are no longer manufactured although they should.
Stay tuned for another post on great new technology that offers fantastic tools for all your recording needs.
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