Silvana Bidirinis

Most of us tended to have a loss of faith on the new generations of Fender guitars... well, I gotta say that all my faith is restored with this new American Elite Telecaster. It sounds almost like a tv commercial, but it's absolutely true. I got mine two months ago and I’m stunned with the superior quality over the American Standard and (in my opinion) the American Deluxe ones. It feels like a real Fender and not another guitar like tons of others out there with a “plastic” feeling (like the Standards, where you can see some details poorly made, like a cheap painting, rude finishings on the frets and some circuit noises). The most notable changes are: -The neck: The C to D shape is one of the best improvements, it makes easier the access to higher notes and the play is really smooth without taking away any part of the identity of the telecaster. The Heel-Mounted Spoke Wheel Adjustment is another of the new features and makes it really easier if you need to change anything on the neck while it’s still bolted on. -4th Generation Noiseless Pickups and electronics with the S-1 switch to select if you want to play with your pickups on parallel or series (both pickups are single). The “No-load” tone knob is also a really nice improvement. When the tone is all up, it clicks and bypasses, so there’s no need to pass the signal through a useless extra knob. The most important thing about this subject is that maintains the classic "twang" of the Telecaster. -The bridge is a beautiful 6 American Tele chromed saddles and works perfect with the strings through the body. Comes with a very secure case with TSA locking if you have to travel on airplanes, a thin leather strap, two straplock adapters, one Fender cable (mine was making noise at a week of usage, but I prefer to think it was a bad coincidence) and the respective user manual.

This 8 string guitar is a really great starting point for those who want to explore the extended range guitars world. At first, Is not that easy to play when you don't have any experience on guitars of more than 6 strings but is not hard to get used to it, the whole guitar is ridiculously light weight (for an 8 string guitar), the 5 piece Wizard II-8 neck is really thin, Gibraltar type bridge and the S-series curved body are absolutely comfortable. The pickups do their job well, obviously they are not the best in the market, but they are nice if you are a beginner in the 8 string world. It has two main control knobs: Master Volume and Tone. In my personal opinion, the only "bad" thing is that the default string gauge (.009/.011/.016/.024/.032/.042/.054/.065) is a little bit thin for this type of guitars. The 8th string is really loose so when you play harder styles and hit the string harder, it touches the pickups and for the same cause you have to be careful when playing with palm muting techniques. Overall, is an absolutely nice and versatile guitar at an affordable price and a great way to start playing extended range guitars.

This Epiphone SG "Elite" (the name they had before they changed it to "Elitist") was made in Fujigen, Japan in 2002. It has Grover tuners, the classic Tune-O-Matic bridge, two humbucker pickups, a three position pickup selector, two volume control knobs and two tone control knobs. – Mahogany body and neck – Rosewood fretboard with nacre (mother of pearl) inlays – ABR-1 bridge – Grover tuners – Pickups: Epiphone USA 50SR (neck) y 60ST (bridge) – Original japanese electronics. Photo and description by: Headbanger Rare Guitars - https://www.headbangerstore.com/product/epiphone-sg-elite-made-in-japan-2002/

If you are a beginner looking for your first power supply for your pedals, this is a really great choice. This 9 volt power supply has 8 standard plugs and include some adaptors for 9volt batteries, Moog, DOD, Line6, Danelectro, Morley and other pedals with uncommon plugs. Handles up to 1700mA and automatically converts voltage worldwide, which is great if you travel a lot and play in different countries. One of the greatest features of this power supply is that is incredibly silent and that is something that we all need specially when several fuzz, distortion or overdrive pedals are constantly used (because that types of effects are more likely to boost the signal and make noise). It's not a full professional power supply but it's a really nice choice for amateur players on rehearsals and small gigs.

There's no category to put this pedal in. It gives you repetitions as a normal delay, but also you have the possibility to modulate that repetitions as a chorus or phaser, tune the repetitions as something similar to a shimmer, filter them and control every aspect of it using the knobs as LFO controls. It's a wonderful pedal to combine with long reverbs or other digital sounds to build beautiful landscapes!