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Vox V863-CA -testi on luettavissa TÄÄLLÄ.
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Nyt Rockway-blogissa: Vox V863-CA semi-auto-wah
Testipenkissä: Odes Custom Guitars ”White Wizard”
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On aina ilo tutustua aloitteleviin soitinrakentajiin ja heidän luomuksiinsa. Jonkin aikaa sitten minuun otti yhteyttä uusi soitinrakentaja nimeltä Osku Toppinen, joka on juuri alkanut yrittää vakiinnuttaa omaa sähkökitaroiden valmistustaan ”Odes Custom Guitars” -nimellä. Voit ottaa yhteyttä häneen Facebookissa tai Instagramissa.
Osku osallistui hiljattain Uraltonen tapahtumaan Helsingissä, ja onnistuin saamaan sähkökitaran testattavaksi. Tätä Odes Custom -kitaraa kutsutaan nimellä ”White Wizard”. Se on moderni, kiiltävän valkoinen Tele-tyylinen soitin – hintapyyntö on 1.800 € (ilman alv:tä).
White Wizard on kyllä todella upea – kokovalkoinen leppärunko ilman häiritsevää plektrasuojusta, mutta erittäin kauniilla etu- ja takaviisteillä. Rungon kiiltävä viimeistely on upea; musta ja valkoinen ovat tekijälle vaikeimmat värit, koska jokainen pieni virhe tai kuoppa pinnassa näkyy kuin mikroskoopilla. White Wizard on yksinkertaisesti virheetön – loistavaa!
Kaula saattaa näyttää perinteiseltä Fender-kaulalta, mutta se on itse asiassa tehty kolmesta pitkästä vaahterapalasta, jotka on liimattu yhteen pituussuunnassa. Otelauta on erillinen vaahteralevy ja siinä on 21 kiiltävää, ruostumattomasta teräksestä valmistettua nauhaa.
Virittimet ovat korkealaatuiset lukkovirittimet. Yläsatula on veistetty suomalaisesta hirvenluusta.
Otelaudan päässä oleva tumma aukko on huoltoaukko kaularaudan säätämiseen. Odes Custom White Wizardissa on kaularauta, jossa on pyöreä säätömutteri – aivan kuten Music Man -soittimissa – mikä tekee säätämisestä helppoa. Siihen ei nimittäin tarvita erityistä avainta tai muuta työkalua, millä tahansa metallitanko, joka sopii pyörän reikiin, voi kiertää mutteria.
Talla on Gotohin nykyaikainen malli, jossa on kuusi tallapalaa, sekä rungon-läpi kielitys.
Kaulan liitos on perinteinen pulttikiinnitys – jotkut soittajat haluaisivat pyöreämmän liitoksen, mutta minulla ei ole koskaan ollut ongelmia vintage-tyyppisten kaulanivelten kanssa. Niin kauan kuin kaula pysyy tukevasti ja varmasti paikallaan, kaikki on mielestäni kunnossa.
Odes Custom White Wizard -kitarassa on Oskun itse valmistama kaulamikrofoni, kun taas tallamikrofoni on avoin humbucker, joka tulee vanhasta Hamer-kitarasta.
Mielestäni useimmat ihmiset odottaisivat käsintehdyltä sähkökitaralta perusteellista häiriösuojausta – joko johtavalla maalilla tai kuparifoliolla – joten tämä on ainoa pieni kritiikin kohta tässä arvostelussa. Työn laatu sinänsä on varsin kelvollista, ja kaikki toimii juuri niin kuin pitääkin.
Minusta tärkein ominaisuus, joka erottaa käsintehdyn sähkökitaran massatuotannosta, on epäilemättä kustomoidun soittimen ylivoimainen soittotuntuma.
Odes Custom Guitars White Wizardin kaulaprofiili on yksinkertaisesti uskomattoman mukava. Se on yhdistelmä 1960-luvun alun Tele-kaulaa – hoikkaa ja solakkaa C-profiilia – ja hieman epäsymmetristä poikkileikkausta, joka jättää hieman enemmän tukea peukalolle. Tämä profiili sopii minulle täydellisesti, ja kaulan satiiniviimeistely on virheetön.
Kitara on säädetty nopeaksi. On vaikea uskoa, että kyseessä on kymppisetti, koska kielten venyttäminen on niin vaivatonta.
Akustisesti White Wizard kuulostaa jo valmiiksi vahvalta ja täyteläiseltä.
Vahvistettuna tämä Odes Custom -kitara on melko erilainen kapistus kuin isoisäsi Tele. Kaulamikin soundi on puinen ja pähkinäinen, mutta ei liian lasimainen; se on enemmän Hendrix- kuin Bakersfield-henkinen. Tallan humbucker saa sinut haluamaan rokata ja tiluttaa, kunnes kanssaihmiset alkavat valittaa. Kytkimen keskiasento tarjoaa maukkaasti heliseviä soundeja.
Odes Custom Guitarsin White Wizard on loistava soitin modernille kitaristille. Tsekkaa Odesin sosiaalinen media nähdäksesi muita hienoja luomuksia!
Tiedoksi: Osku Toppinen ja Odes Custom -kitarat ovat mukana tämän vuoden Tonefestissä.
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Muuten:
Käytin White Wizard -kitaraa myös tämän videon soolokitaran osissa:
Review: Odes Custom Guitars ”White Wizard”
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One thing Finns are justifiably proud of is their education system. Take luthiers (guitar makers), for example; Finnish luthiers are not people who had to learn guitar-making autodidactically by trial-and-error, here in Finland there is indeed a vocational institution (or trade college) teaching you how to make guitars. At the Ikaalinen College of Crafts and Design you can study to become a competent maker of string instruments. Finland also has a Guild of Finnish Luthiers to help Finnish guitar makers with networking more effectively.
For me it is always a pleasure to get to know budding luthiers and their handiwork. A little while ago I was contacted by an up-and-coming luthier named Osku Toppinen, who has just started to try and establish his own electric guitars under the banner ”Odes Custom Guitars” – you can contact him via Facebook and Instagram.
He recently took part in a small trade show in Helsinki, and I managed to get an electric guitar for testing. This Odes Custom Guitar is called the ”White Wizard”. It is a modern Tele-style instrument in gleaming white, priced at 1,800 € (sans VAT).
The White Wizard sure is one hell of a looker – an all-white alder body without any distracting pickguard, but with very luscious front and back contours. The body’s gloss finish is fantastic; black and white are the most difficult colours to get right, because every little flaw or dimple shows up like under a microscope. The White Wizard is simply flawless – I like it!
The neck might look like your regular Fender-type rock maple affair, but it is actually constructed from three long strips of maple, glued together lengthwise. The fretboard is a separate slab of maple, and offers 21 gleaming stainless steel frets.
The tuners are high-quality locking machine heads. The top nut is handmade from moose bone from Eastern Finland.
The dark hole at the end of the fretboard is actually the truss rod access. Odes Custom White Wizard sports a rod with a wheel nut – like first seen on Music Man-instruments – which makes adjustments a doddle. You don’t need a special key or other tool to adjust the rod, any metallic object that fits in the holes of the wheel can turn the nut.
The bridge is a modern six-saddle unit, made by Gotoh, with through-body stringing.
The neck joint is the traditional ”bolt-on” job – some players would prefer something rounder, but I’ve never had any problems with vintage-type neck joints. As long as the neck is kept firmly and securely in place, I’m good to go.
The Odes Custom White Wizard guitar comes with a bespoke neck singlecoil pickup made by Osku himself, while in the bridge position we find a coverless humbucker that had once been installed in a Hamer guitar.
In my view, most people would expect thorough shielding in a handcrafted electric guitar – either with conductive paint or using copper-foil – so this would be my only small niggle in this review. The workmanship in itself is quite decent, and everything works just as it should.
For me, the main feature that distinguishes a handmade electric guitar from high-volume bulk production is, without any doubt, the superior playability of a custom instrument.
The Odes Custom Guitars White Wizard’s neck profile is simply unbelievably comfortable. It is a combination of an early 1960s Tele neck – a slender, nice C-profile – coupled with a slightly asymmetrical cross-section, leaving a little bit more meat for your thumb to hold on to. This profile fits me to a tee, and the satin finish of the neck is flawless.
The set-up is fast and slinky. It’s hard to believe you’re actually dealing with a set of 10s here, because string-bending is so effortless.
Acoustically, the White Wizard already sounds strong and full.
Amplified, this Odes Custom Guitar is quite a different proposition compared to your grandpa’s Tele. The neck pickup has a sound that’s woody and nutty, but not too glassy; it’s more Hendrix than Bakersfield. The bridge humbucker makes you want to rock and shred until your better half starts complaining. Additionally, the switch’s middle selection offers some tasty jangling tones.
Odes Custom Guitars’ White Wizard is a great instrument for the modern guitarist. Check out Odes’ social media for other cool creations!
If you want to try out Finnish handcrafted instruments, and you’re able to come to Helsinki at the end of February, you should go and visit this year’s Tonefest exhibition, which runs on the 28th of February and the first of March.
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PS: I used the White Wizard for the lead guitar part in this video, too:
Review: Flight DUS410QA – DUC380CEQ – NUT310
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Tämän testin alkuperäinen suomenkielinen versio löytyy Rockway-blogissa.
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Slovenian company Flight focuses entirely on ukuleles and has been able to expand its range considerably in recent years. The design of the instruments is European, but the ukuleles are made in the company’s own factory in China.
Tampereen Musiiki has recently become the brand’s new importer in Finland, which I thought was a good opportunity to try out three different ukuleles from Flight’s range.
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Flight’s NUT310 (119 €; includes bag) is a basic tenor-sized ukulele with a rosette decorated with beautiful shamanic symbols, laser-etched into the wood.
The NUT310’s soundboard is made of sapele mahogany plywood, while the neck is carved from African okoume. The neck is made from one long piece, with one piece added for the neck heel and another for the peg head. The neck is glued to the body at the 14th fret.
The fingerboard and bridge of this tenor ukulele are made of walnut. The neck hold 18 well-installed frets. The position markers are round. Both the bridge saddle and nut are made of genuine bovine bone. The nut is 35 mm wide.
The Flight NUT310 has open, guitar-style tuners with black plastic knobs.
All Flight instruments have at least a strap pin at the soundbox’ butt end, allowing a standard guitar strap to fit without any problems.
The Flight NUT310 is comfortable to play and has a beautiful, round, and resonant sound.
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The Flight DUC380CEQ (149 €; incl. gig bag) is a concert-sized ukulele with a cutaway and an active preamp. The DUC380CEQ is available in four different colors – amber, coral, topaz and jade (like the test instrument). The laser-cut rosette consists of Inca-style animals.
The soundboard of the DUC380CEQ is made of mahogany plywood, too, while the neck is made of okoume. The uke’s body has a beautiful cream-colored binding on both the top and bottom.
The neck structure is similar to the other two instruments in the test. The neck is glued to the body at the 14th fret.
The concert ukulele’s fingerboard and bridge are made of walnut. The fingerboard is decorated with black binding. The fingerboard holds 17 neatly installed frets. The position markers are finger-shaped inlays placed on the bass side of the fretboard, like on some Gretsch guitars. Both the compensated bridge saddle and the top nut are made of genuine cow bone. The saddle width is 35 mm.
This model uses modern closed tuning machines with black plastic knobs.
Mounted on the side of the bass side rim is Flight’s own FU-T3 preamp, which is used to shape the signal of the piezo mic located under the bridge. The preamp is powered by two button batteries, their compartment can be found at the bottom of the soundbox next to the output jack. In addition to a volume control, the FU-T3 preamp offers a three-band EQ, as well as an internal chromatic tuner.
Successfully installing a piezo microphone on ukuleles is relatively difficult, because the piezo works best when the strings are pressed tightly against it. Due to the short scale, ukulele strings are quite loose, which often results in the C and E strings sounding louder than the G and A strings. The DUC380CEQ that we tested also suffers from the same problem – so using a compressor is recommended.
Acoustically, the Flight DUC380CEQ sounds very beautiful, with the slight midrange emphasis typical of a concert ukulele. The ukulele is very comfortable to play.
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There probably aren’t many ukuleles with a quilted ash body, but Flight’s DUS410QA (159 €; incl. gig bag) is just that. The strong cloud-like pattern on the plywood of this Flight model is very impressive. The top of the soprano model has a multi-layered edge binding, while the bottom of the body has a single-layer decorative strip.
A very beautiful walnut fingerboard is glued to the front of the okoume neck, where 12 frets are very neatly seated. The DUS410QA model’s impressive multi-piece fingerboard inlays are reminiscent of inlays on a 1930s Gibson Advanced Jumbo model. Both the walnut bridge saddle (compensated) and the instrument’s nut are made of genuine bovine bone. The saddle width is 35 mm.
Such an impressive instrument is just the ticket for gold hardware – a strap pin, as well as modern tuners with black (wood patterned) plastic knobs.
The Flight DUS410QA soprano has a suitably bright, yet strong sound, and it projects its sound surprisingly well.
Review: Fender Blues Junior and Groove Pro harmonicas
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Alkuperäinen juttu on ilmestynyt Rockway-blogissa.
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In March 2025, Fender released two new harmonica models.
The smaller of these is the very compact diatonic Fender Blues Junior (€35), which is available in three keys (C, G, and A). The other new addition is the company’s first chromatic harmonica, called the Fender Groove Pro (€79).
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A standard diatonic harp with ten holes is already a nice compact instrument that fits easily in a trouser pocket. However, almost all manufacturers have always had even smaller instruments available for different purposes.
About 15 years ago, the German traditional manufacturer C.A. Seydel found a new approach to the miniature diatonic harmonica when it invented its Big Six collection. In the Big Sixes, the distance between the holes remains the same as in a full-size harmonica, but instead of ten channels, only the first six were offered. According to Seydel, most blues players usually only use these holes, because the bends are best done in these, and therefore the missing high notes are not a problem at all.
Fender’s brand new Blues Junior 8-Hole Diatonic model is based on the same idea, but offers two channels more tonal range than the Seydel Big Six. The harmonica is sold with a lanyard and a cleaning cloth.
The Fender Blues Junior’s design is very sleek and beautiful. The steel covers have a matte finish, while the harp’s comb is made of black ABS plastic. The appearance of the Blues Junior resembles a slightly smaller version of the Hohner Golden Melody model.
Because the channels on the front of the body have round holes, at first glance it may seem that they are closer together in the new Fender than usual. However, the distance between the channels is the standard 7.5 mm.
Fender’s contract manufacturer seems to have top-notch quality control, as the Blues Junior is suitably airtight, while the sensitivity of the phosphor bronze reeds has been adjusted appropriately.
The Fender Blues Junior harmonica is precisely tuned and very comfortable to play. The Blues Junior is a pleasantly loud harp with a deliciously crunchy sound.
In the demo above, I have used a model of a distorted tweed amplifier.
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Since each air channel in a chromatic harmonica is connected to no fewer than four reeds, so-called valves have been found in chromatic models almost from their inception.
In modern instruments, the valves are made of lightweight plastic. They are narrow flaps that are glued to the reed plate at the opposite end of each reed. Thanks to the valves, when you blow into the harp, the air only goes through the blowing reed of the channel, while during drawing, the air only flows through the reed that is played during the draw.
The advantages of valves are – in addition to airtightness – the more precise attack of the chromatic harmonica and a louder sound. On the other hand, valves make bends practically impossible, because bends are based on the modulation caused by the opposite reed of the same channel. In addition, the valves can sometimes stick to the reed plates due to the humidity of the exhaled air, which makes it difficult to sound the reed and can give the attack a slight duck whistle-like roughness.
Because valves add to the price of chromatic harps – but also because of the drawbacks of valves – a new wave of cheaper, valveless chromatic harmonicas has emerged in recent years. According to bloggers and YouTube testers, the Chinese manufacturer Easttop seems to be a fairly high-quality manufacturer of affordable chromatic harps.
Why do I mention the Easttop brand here? Well, because Fender’s brand new Groove Pro Chromatic is clearly manufactured by Easttop – it’s a so-called OEM version – of their own Forerunner 2.0 model. The abbreviation “OEM” comes stands for “original equipment manufacturer”, and it means that the manufacturer does not put their own brand logo on the product, but the logo of the brand in question – in this case Fender.
In any case, Fender’s new Groove Pro seems to be of very high quality and its transparent comb has a nice weight, which increases the volume and ”weight” of the sound in chromatic harmonicas. The Fender Groove Pro has 12 channels, which means that the harp has a three-octave range (c1-c4). In addition to the harmonica, the package includes a very high-quality, pencil-case style soft case and a cleaning cloth.
The Groove Pro has a very nice rounded cast metal mouthpiece with round holes. The switching mechanism feels fast and it is also pleasantly quiet. The harmonica’s reeds are made of phosphor bronze. The mouthpiece and matte black steel covers are shaped in such a way as not to cause problems with a player’s beard or moustache.
I think the Fender Groove Pro’s tuning and sound are really good. The new harp’s airtightness is also a positive surprise – although it does require a little more air to play than a harmonica with valves, the difference is not striking. Although the volume of the Fender’s sound is – naturally – a bit lower than my Hohner Chrometta or Hohner Discovery, it is easier to play the lowest notes on the Groove Pro (read: in tune) even with poor playing technique, because the valves do not have the braking effect on the reeds’ attack.
Even ten years ago, wiser people than me said that buying a chromatic harp for under a hundred euros was throwing money in the trash, because the cheap harps of the time let a lot of excess air through, and because they were very poorly tuned.
In recent years, the quality of inexpensive chromatic harmonicas has increased significantly, of which the brand new Fender Groove Pro is a very good example. I can only recommend this model – and not only to beginners.
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