• Riff guitar parts (panned slightly left and right): Hamer USA Studio Custom • Rhythm and lead guitars: Squier Bullet Stratocaster • Guitar amp: Bluetone Shadows Jr • Mic: Shure 545SD • Mic preamp: Cranborne Audio Camden EC2 • The Squier Bronco Bass was recorded direct with the EC2
To many the Glam Rock genre was born with the release of T. Rex’ eponymous album in December 1970, as well as with the band’s two standalone singles ”Ride A White Swan” (10/1970) and ”Hot Love” (02/1971). The album ”Electric Warrior” (released in September ’71) – and especially its huge hit single ”Get It On (Bang A Gong)” – then shot the band into the stratosphere.
Marc Bolan’s idiosyncratic vocal delivery, charged with unveiled eroticism, was an important ingredient in the band’s success, but for many the real magic happened in the T. Rex guitar sound. Probably the most important ingredient in Bolan’s tone was a rather rare British fuzz box, called the John Hornby Skewes Shatterbox. Even though the Shatterbox was a two-in-one box that added a switchable treble booster to the fuzz, Marc Bolan tended to rely on the fuzz effect only, while using a Dallas Rangemaster for boosting purposes.
Fans of the T. Rex guitar sound were facing a dilemma; Rangemaster copies aren’t that hard to come by, but Shatterbox Fuzz copies are almost impossible to find. That is, until now…
The brand-new Bluetone Rattlebox Fuzz (220, – €) is a slightly modernised version of the original 1960s Shatterbox.
Bluetone’s Rattlebox contains a sensibly updated version of the Shatterbox’ original fuzz circuit. The Rattlebox is extremely easy to use, because it sports only two controls – Swell (the gain control) and Fuzz (the volume).
The Bluetone Rattlebox’ circuit is designed around three silicon transistors. The built-quality is top notch, without resorting to any point-to-point-voodoo. This effect runs on any Boss-type nine-volt power supply.
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What does the Bluetone Rattlebox offer you that you cannot get from other fuzz pedal?
Compare to a silicon Fuzz Face, for example, the Rattlebox sounds much fatter, and its bite is situated in a slightly lower frequency range.
Speaking of which: Fuzz Faces – and similar designs – are usually used with the gain turned up full or almost full. Then you use you guitar’s volume control to find your personal sweet spot.
This ”pedal to the metal” approach doesn’t work that well, when applied to the Bluetone Rattlebox. There are two reasons for this:
For one, Bluetone’s new fuzz reacts very interactively to the pickup feeding the signal to the pedal, and, secondly, the ”wrong” choice of Swell setting will make the pedal gate rather easily, sometimes even sounding like a broken guitar cable.
The Rattlebox is best approached by carefully going over the settings across the whole range of the Swell control to find the best spots to achieve the desired sound with your guitar.
In this example I recorded a silicon Fuzz Face clone (first half) and the Bluetone Rattlebox (second half) with the controls turned full up on both pedals. With these settings the Rattlebox leaves clearly audible gating artefacts with the guitar’s (SG Junior copy) own volume turned down.
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You can get beautiful and creamy rhythm sounds from the Bluetone Rattlebox, as the demo song proves. The lead guitar’s strong gating, on the other hand, is used here deliberately to accentuate each note’s start and finish.
• Riffikitarat (stereokuvassa hieman vasemmalla ja oikealla): Hamer USA Studio Custom • Komppi- ja soolokitarat: Squier Bullet Stratocaster • Vahvistin: Bluetone Shadows Jr • Mikrofoni: Shure 545SD • Mikkivahvistin: Cranborne Audio Camden EC2 • Squier Bronco -basso äänitetty suoraan EC2:n kautta
Monien mielestä Glam Rock -genren lähtölaukaus oli T. Rex -bändin vuoden 1970 joulukuussa ilmestynyt albumi ”T. Rex”, sekä yhtiön singlet ”Ride A White Swan” (10/1970) ja ”Hot Love” (02/1971). Syyskuussa 1971 ilmestynyt albumi ”Electric Warrior” – ja etenkin sen sinkku ”Get It On (Bang A Gong)” – lähetti T. Rexiä sitten lopullisesti rakettimaiseen nousuun.
Marc Bolanin omintakeisen, eroottisesti latautuneen laulutyylin lisäksi, T. Rexin menestys perustui pitkälti Bolanin rouheaan kitarasoundiin. Tämän kitarasoundin tärkeä ainesosa oli melko harvinainen brittiläinen John Hornby Skewes Shatterbox Fuzz -pedaali. Vaikka Shatterboxissa oli fuzzin lisäksi vielä treble booster -osio, Bolan käytti mieluummin pelkästään Shatterboxin fuzz-osiota, jonka jälkeen hän ajoi signaalinsa vielä erillisen Dallas Rangemasterin kautta vahvistimeen.
T. Rex -fanien ongelma on pitkään ollut että, vaikka Rangemasterin kopioita on suhteellisen laajasti saatavilla, Shatterbox Fuzzin uusia versioita on ollut tähän mennessä erittäin hankala löytää.
Upouusi Bluetone Rattlebox Fuzz (220, – €) on nykyaikaistettu versio 60-luvun Shatterboxista.
Bluetone Rattleboxista löytyy pieteetillä päivitetty versio esikuvan fuzz-osiosta. Rattlebox on erittäin helppoa käyttää, kun laitteesta löytyy vain Swell- (gain) ja Fuzz-säätimet (volume).
Bluetone Rattleboxin fuzz-piiri on toteutettu kolmella piitransistorilla (engl.: silicon). Toteutus ja työnjälki on kauttaltaan ensiluokkaisen siisti. Rattlebox toimii ainoastaan ulkoisella yhdeksän voltin virtalähteellä.
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Mitä erikoista Bluetone Rattlebox sitten tarjoaa muihin, enemmän tunnetuihin fuzz-laatikoihin nähden?
Esimerkiksi pii-Fuzz Faceen verrattuna Rattlebox tarjoaa runsaasti enemmän bassoa, ja sen purevuutta löytyy hieman matalammasta keskirekisteristä.
Fuzz Face -tyyliset fuzzit käytetään usein näin, että gainia laitetaan täysille (tai lähes täysille), minkä jälkeen käytetään kitaran volume-säädintä ns. sweet spotin hakemiseen.
Tämä ”nupit kaakkoon” -tyylinen lähestymistapa ei toimi kovin hyvin Rattleboxin kanssa kahdesta syystä:
Ensinnäkin tämä Bluetone-fuzz reagoi hyvin interaktiivisesti eri kitaroiden mikrofoneihin, ja toiseksi ”huonosti” asetettu Swell-arvo johtaa suhteellisen rankkaan geittaukseen, joka voi ääritapauksessa jopa kuulostaa rikkinäiseltä lähtöjakilta.
Rattleboxia kannattaa siis käyttää enemmän niin, että etsii rauhassa eri kitaroiden kanssa ne pisteet Swell-säätimen koko kaaresta, jossa soundi on omasta mielestä paras mahdollinen.
Tässä yksi soundiesimerkki Fuzz Face -kloonista (ensimmäinen puolisko) ja Bluetone Rattleboxista (toinen puolisko), jossa molempien pedaalien säätimet on avattu täysin. Näillä säädöillä ei pysty soittamaan SG Junior -tyylisellä kitaralla hiljaisia fraaseja, ilman Rattleboxin geittaamista.
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Demobiisi kuitenkin todistaa, että oikeilla Swell-säädöillä löytyy Bluetone Rattleboxista myös herkullisia mietoja särösoundeja. Soolokitara taas käyttää pedaalin geittaamista tehokeinona, jolla alleviivataan jokaisen nuotin alku ja loppu.
Here’s a demo song featuring the Bluetone Rattlebox Fuzz, and based on the T. Rex classic ”Get It On (Bang A Gong)”. Marc Bolan was the most famous user of the John Hornby Skewes Shatterbox Fuzz. The brand-new Bluetone Rattlebox Fuzz packs the vintage pedal’s sound into a more compact format. For more info go HERE. • Riff guitars (stereo left and right): Hamer USA Studio Custom • Rhythm and lead guitars: Squier Bullet Stratocaster • Amp used: Bluetone Shadows Jr • Mic used: Shure 545SD • Preamp used: Cranborne Audio Camden EC2 • Squier Bronco Bass recorded direct through the EC2
Olli Viitasaari is a young luthier from Järvenpää in the south of Finland.
After completing his training at IKATA, Olli has been working on his own electric guitar model (in addition to doing repairs and customising jobs), which he since displayed at Fuzz Guitar Show (Gothenburg, Sweden) and Turenki Tonefest (Finland).
Olli’s guitar model is called the Viitasaari OM (OM = Offset Model, prices starting from 2,500 €; a Hiscox case is included), and it represents Olli’s vision of the perfect Jazzmaster-style guitar. Guitarists have reacted very positively to the Viitasaari OM, and there are already a few guitars in active use by Finnish and Swedish guitarists.
Kitarablogi.com would like to thank Mr. Juha Pöysä for the loan of his personal guitar!
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The basic building blocks of the Viitasaari OM use the tried and trusted recipe of its 1950s forefather:
The OM’s body is made from alder, while the bolt-on neck has been carved from hard rock maple. The fretboard is rosewood.
The first indication that this isn’t your run-in-the-mill Fender-clone lies in the scale length. Olli has chosen 25 inches for his model, which places this guitar’s scale length in the same territory as a PRS – right in the middle between traditional Fender and traditional Gibson.
As Viitasaari Guitars is a true boutique builder there’s plenty of options for the customer to choose from, both in terms of pickups and electronics, as well as the guitar’s finish.
Juha Pöysä’s OM comes in a very fetching blue satin finish for the body, and a natural satin finish for the neck. The customer can also specify gloss finishes or oil-based finishes for his (or her) own guitar.
This guitar sports a set of Gotoh HAP-tuners, which combine vintage looks with height-adjustable tuner posts.
Leo Fender’s original Jazzmaster/Jaguar-vibrato is both loved and loathed among guitarists. Players tend to love the soft and slightly spongy action, but often tend to find the original design’s many quirks and idiosyncrasies extremely annoying.
Fender’s original design features tiny grub screws for the height-adjustment of the bridge’s separate bridge saddles. These screws often tend to work loose during playing, causing rattles and involuntary changes in string action. Additionally, there’s only a relatively shallow string angle over the bridge, exacerbating the string rattling, and sometimes even causing a string to jump out of position, especially with modern light gauge strings. In extreme cases, a bridge saddle may even turn upside down in the middle of a solo.
US-based hardware company Mastery has put a stop to all these problems by redesigning the Offset Bridge from the ground up. Naturally, this fantastic system has been chosen for the Viitasaari OM.
The OM’s 9.5-inch radius and fatter-than-vintage frets give the Viitasaari a modern playing feel.
The two P-90-type pickups have been developed especially for the Viitasaari OM by Olli and Finnish pickup maker Jarno Salo.
The special feature of these Viitasaari/Salo-pickups are their dual coil taps, giving you three different basic sounds (and output levels) per pickup. A slide switch above each pickup lets you select between the full coil and the two coil tapped variations.
You can choose between a three-way blade switch (as on the reviewed instrument) or a three-way rotary for the pickup selector.
The controls are master volume and master tone. You can also specify a built-in fuzz effect as an option, which is then activated by a push/pull-switch inside the tone control.
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The Viitasaari OM is a top-drawer boutique guitar; it is lightweight and easy to play.
Comparing a Viitasaari to a mass-produced guitar makes the differences blatantly obvious – even though the Jazzmaster/Jaguar-shape is already a very ergonomic design, Olli Viitasaari’s craftsmanship takes the smoothness to new levels. The OM feels like a natural extension of the player’s body.
The workmanship and finish on this guitar couldn’t possibly be any neater – you could call t exemplary. The playing feel with the 0105 [sic!] set of strings is precise and bendy at the same time.
Mastery’s Offset vibrato system really is the best that has happened to the offset-vibrato since its inception in 1958. This is how the bridge and vibrato should have been designed right from the start! The Mastery Offset takes all the whammy abuse you can throw at it without any untoward side effects – no tuning problems, no strings jumping about. No wonder so many Jazzmaster and Jaguar-players have already updated to the Mastery Offset-system.
The clean sound of the Viitasaari OM is Fender-ish in its fresh brightness and clean midrange, even though these P-90s are slightly more powerful than Fender Jazzmaster pickups. We get a high quality version of the Jazzmaster-tone with clearly less hum and buzz, thanks to the fine Viitasaari/Salo-pickups.
Using the coil taps will give you two quieter and slightly more rounded versions of the full pickup tone.
Here are the neck pickup’s three variations:
And the same for the bridge pickup:
As we all know, P-90s love chunky overdrive sounds, which opens the Viitasaari OM up to all sorts of tasty crunch tones:
I feel the coil taps are especially useful in distorted Rock/Blues-settings, making it possible to go from rhythm to lead playing without having to step onto an effects pedal. The shorter coil variations cool things down nicely, while the full coil gives you a ”boost” in volume and bite for lead guitar parts.
Here are the neck pickup’s three variations:
And the same for the bridge pickup:
In recorded the demo track’s guitar parts using a T-Rex Replicator analogue tape delay:
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What a gorgeous guitar! To me the Viitasaari OM is simply the best Jazzmaster-type guitar I have ever played.
The workmanship is boutique grade and the OM plays like a dream. The Master vibrato is the icing on the cake, taking this design to new levels.
In my view the best thing about the OM, though, is the way Olli has incorporated double coil taps in his design. The OM takes the lead/rhythm idea of the original Jazzmaster, but transforms it into something that actually works much better in a modern context.
Danish effects specialists T-Rex have caused an enormous stir with their newest guitar pedal. Their new stompbox – called the Replicator – is a genuine, all analogue tape delay, hand-assembled in Denmark. These days tape echoes in themselves are rather rare beasts, but T-Rex ups the ante by giving us the first tape delay with a built-in tap tempo function!
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What is a tape delay?
The tape delay was the first studio effect invented (back when Rock ’n’ Roll was in its infancy), and it was produced by ”misusing” an open-reel tape recorder (hence the name).
The magnetic tape recorder – originally called the Magnetophon – was a German invention from the 1930s, which used a plastic tape coated with magnetisable material as its recording medium.
An empty – or wiped – magnetic tape has all the metal particles in its magnetisable surface pointing in the same direction. The result is silence (in theory) – or rather: some tape hiss.
During recording the recording head transforms the incoming audio signal into magnetic bursts of different strength, wavelength and polarity, and magnetises the tape’s metal particles, rearranging them into different magnetic clusters. During playback these ”magnetic ripples” are picked up by the playback head and translated back into an audio signal.
In tape recorders, such as open-reel studio machines or C-Cassette recorders, many different factors affect the audio quality of the playback. These factors include things such as the physical condition of the tape, tape width, tape speed, the condition of the parts involved in the mechanical transport of the tape, as well as the exact position of the playback head in relation to the tape.
Most C-Cassette players have/had only two heads – one erase head, plus a combined recording and playback head – but reel-to-reel tape recorders in the studio usually came with at least three heads (erase, record, playback). Thanks to the separate recording and playback heads the studio engineer was able to listen to the recording in progress as it sounded on the tape, while it was being recorded (to listen for tape distortion or tape defects/drop-outs).
Because there is a small physical distance between the recording and playback head, there’s always a short audible delay between the signal being recorded and the playback off the tape. The length of this delay is directly dependent on the distance between the two heads, as well as on the tape speed.
In the end, a recording engineer somewhere hit upon the bright idea to use the studio’s backup tape machine as an ”effect processor”. The engineer used the main recorder in the usual way, to record the song’s final (live-) mix off the mixing console’s master buss. The spare tape recorder was fed only the instruments and vocal parts (from the mixer) which needed to receive tape delay. If you mixed the output of the second recorder’s playback head into the recording desk you got a single delay effect. By feeding a small portion of the delay signal back into the delay tape machine’s input you could get multiple delays.
Tape delays meant for live use usually come with more than one playback head, which makes it easier to fine-tune the length of the echo effect, and which makes rhythmic delay patterns possible. Almost all mobile tape echoes use tape loops as their recording medium.
The T-Rex Replicator comes equipped with four tape heads:
The black head is the erase head, next in line is the record head, followed by two playback heads.
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The T-Rex Replicator (current price in Finland:849 €) comes in its own, vintage-themed ”vinyl leather” carrying bag, which contains the Replicator itself, as well as its power supply, a second tape loop cartridge, the owner’s manual, and a set of cotton swabs (for cleaning the heads with a drop of isopropyl alcohol).
The Replicator is quite a rugged pice of gear, made to withstand onstage use.
The 24 VDC power supply, though, seemed a little weedy in comparison.
The back panel offers the following connectors:
There are the input and output jacks, as well as two connectors for expression pedals, should you want to control the delay time (tape speed) and/or the feedback on the fly.
The little Kill Dry-switch mutes the dry (uneffected) signal in the Replicator’s output. This is a very handy feature, should you want to run the Replicator connected to a parallel effect loop, or to a mixing desk using a send/return-bus.
The T-Rex Replicator offers you six controls and four footswitches to control its functions:
The On/Off-switch does what it says on the tin. When the delay effect is off the Replicator’s tape loop stops running.
The Heads-switch gives you access to the effect’s three delay modes by switching the playback heads on or off. A green light means you’re using the long mode (delay times of approx. 250 – 1.200 ms), red stands for short mode (125 – 600 ms), while orange means you’re running both playback heads simultaneously for a rhythmic delay pattern.
Stepping onto the Chorus-switch will introduce deliberate wow and flutter (tape speed fluctuations) to produce a chorus-style effect that can be fine-tuned with the corresponding control.
Tap Tempo does what it says on the tin. Although this is quite a normal feature on digital delay units, the Tap Tempo-switch on the Replicator is huge news for tape delay fans. T-Rex have developed a system to control the unit’s motor digitally, making it possible, for the first time, to synchronise a tape delay precisely on the fly.
The Saturate-control holds a pivotal role for the sound of the Replicator’s delays. Depending on its settings the effect can either be clean and dynamic or greasy and overdriven.
Adjusting the Delay Time- and Feedback-controls on the fly can produce some wild and wonderful effects (in Feedback’s case up to and including self-oscillation).
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Despite being a child of the Sixties, who has used a tape echo as the main effect in his first band’s PA-system, I have to admit that I’ve grown accustomed to the clarity and precision of digital effects. My first reaction when I tried out the Replicator for this review was ”Is it supposed to sound like this, or is there something wrong?”
Alas, it didn’t take long for the memories of a distant past to return, and I started to really enjoy the genuine old-school tones emanating from the Replicator. You should remember, though, that the Replicator is meant as a handy, portable tool for the guitarist or keyboard player. You shouldn’t expect Queen-style ultra-long, studio quality delay sounds from a compact unit such as this.
Tape speed is of course the most important variable, when it comes to the audio quality of the delay effects – short delay times (= faster running tape loop) will naturally result in cleaner and more stable sounds than long delay times (= a slow running tape).
The first audio clip has been recorded with the shortest possible delay time, while the second clip lets you hear the Replicator running at maximum delay (both clips feature all three head modes):
In my view, the T-Rex Replicator is a portable tape delay of professional quality. You should keep in mind, though, that a genuine analogue tape echo is always (!) a low-fi device in comparison to a digital delay pedal. But it is exactly this authenticity, the slight greasiness, and the sense of unpredictability a genuine tape echo conveys, that makes the Replicator such an enjoyable piece of equipment. The T-Rex’ delay never sounds tacked on, instead it becomes a natural part of your guitar signal’s harmonic content.
I’d say it is hard to overemphasise the advantages this unit’s tap tempo-function brings. The Replicator makes synching your delay child’s play.
I used the T-Rex Replicator to record two demo tracks, which show off the effect’s sounds in different musical contexts:
Demo Track 1
Demo Track 2
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There’s no beating about the bush about this – the single restrictive factor to seeing the Replicator creep into the pedalboard of each and every guitarist is the unit’s steep price. Most players will baulk at a price tag of over 800 euros for a ”lo-fi effect”, and rather opt for one of the numerous tape delay modellers, like the Strymon El Capistan.
The Replicator, which is lovingly assembled by hand in Denmark, will find most of its clientele among vintage collectors and well-heeled boutique guitar and amp connoisseurs. If you run your original 1950s guitar through an equally vintage amplifier, running an authentic, mechanical tape delay unit will be like the icing on the cake. Especially, if the tape delay is as reliable and easy to use as the T-Rex Replicator.
Is the T-Rex Replicator the best genuine tape delay ever? To my knowledge, there are currently three different new tape echo models on the market – each of them sound great. I would pick the Replicator, though, because it is small enough to fit on a medium-to-large pedalboard, and because of its nifty tap tempo feature.
Olli Viitasaari on nuori soitinrakentaja, jolla on oma paja Järvenpäässä.
IKATA:sta valmistunut Viitasaari on kehittänyt – korjaus- ja customointihommien ohella – omaa sähkökitaramallia, joka oli jo esillä viime (ja tämän) vuoden Fuzz Show:ssa, sekä viime syksyn Turenki Tonefestillä.
Kitaran nimi on Viitasaari OM (OM = Offset Model, hinnat alk. 2.500 €; Hiscox-laukku kuuluu hintaan) ja se edustaa Ollin näkemystä huippulaadukkaasta ihanne-Jazzmasterista. Yleisö on ottanut uuden mallin hyvin vastaan, ja useampi Viitasaari OM on jo suomalaisten ja ruotsalaisten kitaristien aktiivikäytössä.
Kitarablogi haluaisi kiittää muusikko Juha Pöysää henkilökohtaisen kitaransa lainaamisesta tätä juttua varten!
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Viitasaari OM -kitara lähtee liikkeelle tutuilla – ja hyväksi havaituilla – Fender-peruspalikoilla:
OM:n runko on veistetty lepästä, ja soittimen ruuvikaulaan taas käytetään vaahteraa. Otelauta on ruusupuuta.
Ensimmäinen ero vanhaan Fender-klassikkoon on uutuuskitaran hieman lyhyempi mensuuri. Viitasaari käyttää PRS-kitaroistakin tuttua 25 tuuman mensuuria, joka edustaa toimivaa välimaastoa Fender- ja Gibson-maailmojen välissä.
Koska Viitasaari Guitars on aito custom-paja, jää asiakkaille rutkasti valinnanvaraa, esimerkiksi viimeistelyn suhteen.
Juha Pöysän OM on viimeistelty kokonaan mattalakkauksella. Rungon ja viritinlavan väriksi on valittu erittäin kaunis, läpikuultava sininen. Olli Viitasaari tarjoaa kuitenkin myös kiiltäviä lakkauksia, sekä öljyviimeistelyt OM-mallin vaihtoehdoiksi.
Kitaran virittimiksi on valittu Gotoh HAP -koneistot, joiden tappien korkeutta pystyy säätämään vapaasti.
Leo Fenderin alkuperäistä Jazzmaster/Jaguar-vibratoa sekä rakastetaan että vihataan kitaristipiireissä. Vibraton todella pehmeää toimintaa arvostetaan, mutta alkuperäisen erillisen tallan toteutus saa oikeutetusti paljon kritiikkiä niskaan.
Pienten tallapalojen korkeussäätöruuvit löystyvät usein soiton aikana, mikä sotkee kitaran säädöt. Lisäksi kielten loiva kulma tallan yli aiheuttaa tallapalojen resonointia. Nykyaikaisten ohuiden kielten kanssa alkuperäisellä Jazzmaster-vibratolla tulee vielä lisää ongelmia – kielet hyppivät helposti ulos tallapalojen matalista urista (etenkin venytyksissä), ja joskus koko tallapala voi soiton aikana kääntyä yllättäen ylösalaisin.
Yhdysvaltalainen valmistaja Mastery on poistanut näitä ongelmia tehokkaasti omalla loistavalla Offset Bridge -tallalla, minkä vuoksi tämä systeemi onkin oiva valinta Viitasaari OM -malliin.
Soittimen loivempi otelautaradius (9,5 tuumaa) sekä vintagea korkeammat nauhat antavat OM:lle nykyaikaisen soittotuntuman.
Viitasaari-kitarassa käytetään kahta humbucker-kokoista P90-mikrofonia, jotka on kehitetty yhteistyössä Jarno Salon kanssa.
Näissä Viitasaari/Salo-mikrofoneissa on erikoisuutena tupla-coil-tap-ominaisuus, mikä tarkoittaa että mikrofonin kelasta voi käyttää kokonaisen kelan lisäksi kahta variaatiota, joissa käytetään vain osaa koko kelasta. Näistä kolmesta vaihtoehdoista voi valita sopivan kummallekin mikille kolmiasentoisilla liukukytkimillä.
OM-mallin kolmiasentoisen mikrofonikytkennän voi toteuttaa joko kiertokytkimellä tai (niin kuin tässä) vipukytkimellä.
Säätimet ovat master volume ja master tone. Lisäoptiona on myös saatavilla sisäistä fuzz-säröä, joka laitetaan päälle tone-säätimeen piilotetulla nostokytkimellä.
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Testissä käynyt Viitasaari OM on kevyt, mukavantuntuinen ja helpposoittoinen peli.
Ero Viitasaaren ja liukuhihnakitaran välillä on hyvin selvä – jo valmiiksi ergonomiset ja sulavat offset-muodot muuttuvat käsintehdyssä kitarassa ylellisen pehmeäksi kokemukseksi. Soittimesta tulee kitaristin kehon luonnollinen jatke.
Työnjälki ja viimeistely on ensiluokkaista ja esimerkillistä. Soittotuntuma on 0105-kielisatsilla [sic!] tarkka, mutta kevyt.
Masteryn Offset-järjestelmää ei voi mielestäni kehua liikkaa! Juuri näin pehmeästi ja tarkasti homman olisi pitänyt toimia jo vuodessa 1958. Mastery-järjestelmä kestää mukisematta kovaakin kyytiä, ilman että kielet hyppäsivät paikasta toiseen, ja myös täysin ilman vireongelmia. Eikä ihmekään, että monet nimekkäät Jazzmaster- ja Jaguar-soittajat ovat jo vaihtaneet omissa soittimissa alkuperäisen tallan ja vibraton Mastery Offset -järjestelmään.
Viitasaari OM -mallin puhdas soundi on Fender-tyylisesti raikas. Soundi on erittäin laadukas versio klassisesta Jazzmaster-soundista, vaikka P90-mikrofonien lähtötaso onkin hieman korkeampi kuin Fender Jazzmaster -mikeissä. Viitasaari/Salo-mikit ovat myös tuntuvasti vähemmän herkkiä häiriöille kuin klassikkokitaran mikrofonit.
Coil-tap-asetuksilla saa täyden kelan soundin lisäksi kaksi hieman hiljaisempaa ja tummepaa vaihtoehtoa.
Tässä kaulamikrofonin kolme vaihtoehtoa:
Ja sama tallamikrofonilla:
P90-mikrofoneja sopivat tunnetusti myös erittäin hyvin särökäyttöön, ja Viitasaarestakin lähtevät rouheat ja hyvällä tavalla purevat Rock-soundit:
Viitasaari OM:n coil-tap-kytkimet mahdollistavat mielestäni juuri särösoundeissa sellaista rhythm/lead-lähestymistapaa, ilman että tarvitsee polkaista säröpedaalia päälle ja pois. Lyhyempi mikrofonikela antaa mukavasti hieman siistimmät ja vaimeammat soundit, ja soolo-osuuksia varten voi vaihtaa liukukytkimellä täydelle P90-mikille.
Tässä kaulamikrofonin kolme vaihtoehtoa:
Ja sama tallamikillä:
Demobiisin kitararaidat on äänitetty T-Rex Replicator -nauhakaiun läpi:
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Minun mielestäni Viitasaari OM on loistava sähkökitara. Se on yksinkertaisesti paras Jazzmaster-tyylinen kitara, jota olen koskaan kokeillut.
Työnjälki on ehtaa boutique-laatua ja OM:n soitettavuus on ensiluokkainen. Mastery on tehnyt sellaisen vibraton, jota voi ja kehtaakin käyttää vakavastikin.
Parasta OM-mallissa on minusta kuitenkin elektroniikan toteutus, jossa alkuperäinen Jazzmasterin ajatus nopeasta vaihtamisesta komppi- ja soolosoundien välillä on säilytetty, mutta samalla viety nykyaikaan tarjoamalla kolme eri perussoundia kummallekin mikrofonille.
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