HARP MIKE FROM HOHNER

Looking remarkably like Shure's legendary 'Green Bullet' is a new harmonica mike from Hohner, the RRP £85 'Blues Blaster' 1490. Designed for Blues harp players, the new Hohner mike uses a crystal element and has a claimed frequency response of 30Hz-10kHz. High impedance, omni-directional in its pickup response pattern, the Blues Blaster has a built-in volume control (useful for feedback suppression we should imagine) and comes with a chrome plated grille and a rich blue metallic paint finish on the body.

More details on this new mike from M. Hohner Ltd., (Contact Details).

COLOURFUL SEYMOUR

Fancy a 'custom coloured' humbucker a la ZZ Top? If you do then take a look at one of the latest introductions from California's Seymour Duncan, the man who built the Texas threesome's transducers. Yes folks, you can now order custom colours on all Seymour Duncan humbuckers, the colours being moulded into the pickup bobbins themselves. Seymour's twin coil monsters come in any combination of the following: red, yellow, hot pink, light pink, dark blue, light blue, black and white. Just one word of caution: they'll cost you an extra £24.95 over the standard coloured price!

Meanwhile, watch out for two new introductions from the Duncan design demons — the 'Alnico II Pro Humbucker' and the 'Telecaster Hot Rails'. The humbucker uses Alnico II magnets (as against the more usual Alnico V) and is claimed by the makers to offer a softer magnetic field allowing a freer, more natural, string vibration leading to greater sustain. UK distributors Labtek International tell us that the single coil version of this pickup is currently being used by Jeff Beck, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton and Hank Marvin so they reckon that this humbucking version has got to be really great stuff. Hard to disagree with them, isn't it? Available calibrated tor either neck or bridge positions, the new Alnico II will have an RRP of £74.95.

Previously only available in versions for Strats, the final new introduction from Seymour Duncan is a 'Hot Rails' type for Telecasters. Seymour's Hot Rails pickups are humbuckers which can be directly substituted for existing single coil Fender-style pickups without the need to carve out extra space in these guitars. 4 Conductor wiring is standard on the new Hot Rails Tele-type, allowing coil switching wiring so that players can switch directly from a standard single coil Tele sound to fatter humbucking tones. More details of all Seymour Duncan pickups can be obtained from Labtek International, (Contact Details).

KUDOS QUEUES?

Bristol-based Kudos PA speaker and amp makers tell us that they've just appointed John E. Dodds & Co. as exclusive UK distributors.

Well respected in the club, pub, band PA and and sound installation market, Kudos gear has become particularly well regarded in the cost-conscious band market for small PA systems.

IT readers can get more details on Kudos fear direct from John E. Dodds & Co. Ltd., (Contact Details).

'Round the Clock' Support for Steinberg users

A new Oxford-based distribution team to back the popular Steinberg Research software systems has recently announced that it is opening a 'computer line' offering 24 hour a day contact through which Steinberg users can pass on advice, post queries and communicate with other Steinberg users.

New products from the Steinberg team, moreover, will soon be with us, including a revised Pro-24 programme which connects to the Atari ST computer via its RS232 port. Steinberg Research assert that this combination will set 'new standards in sequencing from timecode, through the SMPTE generator itself'. Price is expected to be around £600.

Other Atari-based releases destined for early 1987 are likely to include a music notation/scorewriter programme plus a visual editor for the Atari S900 sampler. This latter will also feature the facility to transfer data for use with the Sequential 2000 and 2002. For Commodore owners, Steinberg tell us that they've re-packaged hardware versions which now include synch-to-tape and graphic editing. The Pro-16 Plus will include a scorewriting programme and will sell for £299. The Pro-16, meantime, will be on offer at £239. Disc-based software additions include visual editors and sound librarians for Roland's Alpha Juno I and II and Korg's DW000 synths.

More details from the new Steinberg Research setup at (Contact Details).

Art for Art's Sake

Released during November's Los Angeles AES Show was ART's new Pro-Verb programmable reverb system, which is going to be available to UK players and studios before Xmas. Destined to sell for significantly under £400, ART's Pro-Verb is a 19" rack mountable device, offering 100 preset effects comprising 50 reverb, 10 gated, 10 reverse, 10 chorus, 10 delay and 10 echo effects. MIDI-based and working from the latest computer architecture, the ART unit handles a remarkable 6 million calculations per second but (despite all this clever technology) is easy to use, with all the controls situated on the front panel and laid out in a logical format beside which are all the necessary programme details.

More info on ART's Pro-Verb from UK distributors Turnkey, (Contact Details).

Winning Ways

Sorry folks — our sincere apologies for not having updated you on ITs free entry competition winners lately. We intended to print the details of our most recent lucky winners in last month's IT but ran out of space in our NewsXtra pages! So, here comes a bumper crop of winners to prove that we really do give all these goodies away (our psychiatrist says it's good for the soul to confess this sort of madness!).

Firstly, congratulations to Issue 9's 'KMD 100 watt valve Combo' winning entrant, Mr. Simon Stafford of London SW7. Simon came along to the IT stand at August's British Music Fair and we were happy to show him round the Rosetti stand where the full range of KMD amps was on display. Simon's now using his KMD watt combo (worth some £390) regularly, finding out for himself (we're sure) just how good these superb guitar combos are.

For the record, the answers to our competition were as follows:
(1) True - the KMD GV100 uses a 12" Celestion Sidewinder speaker),
(2) True - the KMD uses Groove Tubes valves),
(3) C - the KMD GV100 features a metal speaker grille,
(4) True — the KMD GV100 has a 'bright' switch, and
(5) C - the KMD's reverb spring is made by Accutronics.

Congratulations, Simon - bet you're shaking the walls right now!

Issue 9 featured a second great free entry competition as well, with two fabulous Audio-Technica mikes as prizes. Up for grabs were an ATM41 (worth £125) and one of that illustrious manufacturer's Pro-22 models (normally sold for £35). Our winners here were (for the ATM41) Mr. Ian Hart, of Walsall, West Midlands and (for the Pro-22) Mr. T. Passmore of Ivybridge, North Devon.

Just four questions needed answering to enter this one and the answers were as follows:
(1) A — the Audio-Technica ATM41 is a Dynamic type mike.
(2) C - frequency response is measured in Hertz..
(3) True — cardioid means 'heart-shaped' and
(4) True — the Audio-Technica Pro-22 comes complete with a lead.

And so to Issue 10's 'Akai S612 Sampler' competition. With a prize worth virtually £1,000 up for grabs (as you can imagine!) the entry for this one was staggering! However, a winner finally made it through - Mr. Marco Shirodkar of Elstree, Herts. Marco (a keyboard player who cites Trevor Horn as one of his influences!) answered our five questions correctly, as follows.
(1) True — the Akai S612 sampler is a digital unit,
(2) True — the S612 can be driven from any MIDI synthesiser,
(3) C - the Akai Disc drive is the MD280,
(4) C - the S612 sampler's maximum sampling time is 8 secs.
(5) True — the Akai S612 has an overdub facility.

Congratulations again to all our competition winners! Next month we'll be revealing the winner of Issue 11's two great competitions — one to win a Shure 568 mike, the other to win a complete Fostex X-15 mini-studio courtesy of London's Turnkey Shop. Watch out for it! Meantime, why not join our lucky winners and enter this issue's fabulous Free Entry competitions? You've nothing to lose but a few brain cells, after all!

HANDS ON COMES OFF

Last month we told you about November 22nd/23rd's Hands On Show, the UK's sole home recording exhibition. We despatched the indefatigable Jerry Uwins to report back from the swish Strand Palace Hotel venue. His carrier pigeon delivered the following script: 'As I sit here, in war-torn Huddersfield, the bullets flying...' (wrong report! —Ed). 'Oh yes, sorry. This year's Hands On show marked a move from its previous residency at North London's Clive Hotel. Although advance publicity for the show suggested a 'bigger and better than ever' format, all exhibitors were to be found in a quite modestly sized area. Maybe it's just that the big, bad city tends to dwarf one's perception?

'Adjacent to the product displays was a room used exclusively for the established and traditionally popular Seminar Programme. This year's discussions and lectures were well up to anticipated standards, embracing a variety of topics including an acoustics workshop (to discover ways or achieving good recording and monitoring environments in budget studio layouts), wiring up and using jackbays, first steps with SMPTE and applying audio tracks to video, with Gateway's Dave Ward imparting lots of useful tips about working with 16-track and getting the most out of 8-track. Meanwhile, Akai and Synclavier both took the opportunity during the weekend to give promotional demos of their products.

'Seekers after new products would possibly have been disappointed, but there were one or two things to catch the eye. Amongst the low-cost multitrack offerings were the new Fostex 160 and Tascam's Porta Two. Four or five of these latter units were powered up for discrete hands-on, and Tascam distributor Harman UK were, understandably, using the new JBL Control 1 mini speakers to power their other externally amplified demos. Control 1s, by the way, are ultra compact 2-way units handling a pokey 120 watts at 4 Ohms, and are claimed to be equally suitable for nearfield monitoring and extension Hi-Fi use. They'll set you back just £149 a pair. (review follows in next month's IT - Ed).

'Probably the show's most significant new (or new-ish) product was also the most unassuming looking. A tiny cuboid wooden cabinet, diamond shaped, four colour 100 LED display, no controls and just inputs on the rear panel. It's called 'The Box'. Made by a Milton Keynes company, Tapetalk, the Box is essentially a phase analyser which, when hooked-up to the outputs of a recording, provides a continuous analyses (via its LED display) of what's happening with the stereo image — its balance, level, width, positioning, phase inversion etc. You can even use it in conjunction with a tape machine to display how well the heads are aligned! Three models are available, ranging from £130-£260.'

More info on next year's Hands On and the products mentioned from The Turnkey Shop, (Contact Details).

Guitar Teachers get Primer

According to author J. Lee there are many thousands of guitar teachers currently at work in the UK, and the demand for their services is greater than many realise. In fact, Mr. Lee suggests, the potential rewards for a guitar teacher are pretty good too, but he also points out that you do need to organise yourself on a proper businesslike level if the job appeals.

To help existing and potential teachers, Mr. Lee has just published a fascinating book which he's called The Business of Guitar Teaching. In a large format paperback, the author goes into the vital areas of fees, exams, getting pupils, supplies and shop discounts — he even includes a handy review section on musical equipment books which prospective teachers can offer their pupils. Add all this to sections on guitar repairs, lessons, teacher training and book-keeping and you have a volume which no guitar tutor should be without.

Just for the record, Mr. Lee has two further titles due out in the New Year — Learning Pop Vocals (on book and cassette at £7.95) plus How To Become A Guitar Teacher (a book at £5.95). Both of these new launches plus the £3.95 The Business of Guitar Teaching are available direct from Mr. J. Lee, at (Contact Details).

MACHINE'S DEANS

Making a welcome reappearance on the UK market are those hot US properties Dean guitars. Boosted to 'must have' status by the recent spate of ZZ Top videos in which they starred, Dean have a wider range of models available than we've previously seen over here, and Music Machine, the new distributors, tell us that they'll be starting to appear in the UK sometime around the middle of this month.

Needless to say, we're doing our best to net a review sample and will bring you more info as and when we have it. Readers wanting more on Dean in the meantime should contact Dave Cottle at Music Machine, (Contact Details).

Mixing with MIDI

Leading mixer makers Soundtracs have announced the launch of their 'MIDI-intelligent PC Series'. The Soundtracs Midi Series provides an 'In-Line' configuration offering either 16 or 24 input/output module, mainframe with 16 track monitoring and 16 subgroups. Designed for what the makers escribe as 'primarily keyboard workshops' the MIDI series has 32 or 48 MIDI controlled inputs with MIDI control on four auxiliaries, plus 8 optional MIDI controlled FX returns. According to Soundtracs, their MIDI series doesn't need external computers to function and are extremely user friendly. Moreover, the on-board microprocessor allows for simple programming of the console which may be designated to any of the 16 MIDI channels currently available. As a useful extra, control of external MIDI devices can be programmed from the desk. Soundtracs can be contacted at Soundout Laboratories Ltd., (Contact Details).

KLONDYKE STRIKE GOLD

Back in Issue 8 we reviewed the (then newly launched) Klondyke strings range, concluding that they represented fine value for money and reckoning that they had a great future ahead of them. Well it seems we were right, because we've recently received a list of endorsees from Klondyke and it reads pretty impressively, including Alan Murphy and Graham Edwards from Go West, Greg Lake, Laurie Wisefield, Latin Quarter, Tony Hicks, Felix Krish, Mart Jenner, Phil Palmer and many more. Not bad, eh? What's more, the Klondyke range is continuing to grow. Apparently you can now obtain Bronze XII sets as well as single strings - essential for those players who want to build up their own gauge sets.

Congratulations, Klondyke — keep 'em coming, lads!

More on Klondyke Strings from The Klondyke Trading Company, (Contact Details).

Pro Bass from Hohner

The trend towards ultra-high power pro bass amplification continues with the launch by Hohner of a new bass stack in their 'Professional' amplification range, the PB 250 head and matching PBB 250 enclosure. Rated at 250 watts RMS, the new Hohner bass head comes with an integral 'carpet covered' flightcase, although it can be 19" rack mounted. A comprehensive eq section includes master bass, middle and treble controls, a 5-band graphic equaliser (providing 12dB cut and boost on 70, 210, 630, 2000 and 6000Hz.), variable compression and a foot-switchable chorus. Also 'carpet covered', the speaker cab contains four 10" speakers protected by metal kickproof grilles.

The price of all this high power bass sound? Well, the PB 250 head will set you back a cool £550, with the cab following not far behind at £400.

Details from M. Hohner Ltd., (Contact Details).

MICRO VERB BELTS PRICE BARRIER

Hardly has the dust raised by the launch of the Alesis Midiverb begun to settle than the restless so and so's are at it again, this time with their brand new Alesis Microverb.

Priced at an impressive RRP £249 (inc. VAT) the Microverb offers 13 conventional reverb settings, beginning with small room and plate settings and reaching up to large hall simulations. According to UK distributors Sound Technology Ltd., 'Depending on the effect selected, the sense of stereo depth and width will be different and this parameter has been deliberately tailored to suit the type of environment being simulated'. In addition, two different gated settings are provided, along with a 'reverse' setting which gives the effect of making any sound being recorded appear as if it's being played backwards. Fitted with a variable impedance input, the Microverb will accept a wide range of input sources (even allowing you to plug an electric guitar into it) not to mention the usual connections for home and Pro studio equipment as well as PA systems. You don't even need to use the Microverb with a mixer, apparently, because it has its own level and balance controls. In operational terms, the Microverb uses a specially developed microchip which replaces a considerable number of conventional IC's. As a result it's able to use 'RICS Architecture' to achieve the requisite computing speed to give a dense, natural sounding reverb despite its low cost.

Using a 16 bit linear PCM conversion system, the Alesis Microverb is claimed to be capable of delivering the same sort of low noise and high quality resolution as compact disc recordings - even offering a stated 90dB dynamic range. According to Sound Technology Ltd., samples should be reaching UK shops this month. Meantime you can find out more from them direct at (Contact Details).

Funk Drops In

New on the British market are the unusually named 'Funk Drops', a specially formulated liquid claimed to enrich unvarnished guitar and bass fingerboards, replacing the oils that are lost in day to day playing and thus helping to preserve the wood. As a happy byproduct, Funk Drops (the makers claim) also clean strings, giving them a longer life and ensuring a smoother, silkier feel under your digits. The cost of this wonder juice? Just £2.95 per pack.

Apparently you can get your hands (literally!) on Funk Drops from many major guitar retailers. Failing that you obtain details from the British importers who are A.M. Agencies, (Contact Details).

ROSES BLOOM IN HEMEL

London's West End Rose-Morris store has expanded its operations by opening a new branch in Hemel Hempstead, Herts. Previously poorly served in the instrument and equipment market, Hemel musicians will now be able to see and choose from a similar range of gear to that stocked in R-M's Denmark St. including products from Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Casio, Vox, Carlsbro, Laney, Fender, Gibson, Ovation, Takamine, Westone, Ibanez and more.

You can find the new Rose-Morris store at (Contact Details).

PREMIER PRIZES

The October winners of Premier Percussion's 3 month £6,000 prize competition have just been announced by the Leicester-based drum outfit. They're D. Tyas and A. McCarthy from Huddersfield, Bill Kidd from Peterhead, Spencer Goode from Basingstoke, F. Poxon from Wolverhampton, Andrew Messinger from Birmingham and Dave Wybrow from Weybridge.

Each of these winners had a share of some £2,000 worth of Premier equipment as their prizes for having correctly identified the favourite features of his Premier APK kit selected by Status Quo's Jeff Rich. The competition continues to run throughout December and is open to anyone buying a Premier product from a participating retailer. Details from Premier Percussion Ltd., (Contact Details).

Gaynor Gains

In a surprise move, Simple Minds drummer Mel Gaynor has recently signed to Japan's Tama drums as an endorsee. Mel's choice of Tama kit is the latest generation of Artstar II series drums which are destined to be launched onto the UK market in the New Year. Also forming part of Mel's set-up will be Tama's 'Power Tower Cage System', which will hold his X-Tra Power toms, Octobans and Gong Drum plus his battery of Zildjian cymbals.

More details on Tama gear direct from FCN Ltd., (Contact Details).