START ME UP!

Five awesome new products to get your gear engine revving this month…

MONTY’S ’54 P90

1 The british crew headed by Matt glees on continues to affirm its position as one of the finest pickup builders in the world – the reputation of Monty’s Pafs are well-earned. these are the P90 channelling of that golden era vintage mojo; model led on examples from a ‘54 Gibson les paul and amid-60s E pi phone century. less mid honk, more clarity and versatility from “airy mids and plenty of bite”. We’re sold! Bridge (7.7k) Neck (7.1k) £200 set or £105 each( do gear, soap bar, black and cream options ), www.montysguitars.com

EPIPHONE 1959 LES PAUL STANDARD

2 The limited edition guitar that raised our eyebrows at NAMM is finally surfacing – the ultimate Epi LP? Well, 1959 hand-rolled neck profile with long neck tenon, aged Vos-style finish, Gibson Us a burst buck er 2 and 3 hum buck er pick ups, switch craft Ctspots, ‘50s era wiring and Mallory capacitors suggest it is likely. Epiphone have proved they can make aviable gibs on lp alternative (see page 90), so we want to play this.

£749, www.epiphone.com

THE GIGRIG G3 AND G3 ATOM

3 How can dan steinhardt top his acclaimed 2013 effects pedal-switching system? Well, there’s 12 programmable true-by pass mono effects loops, up to six for stereo effects and 99 banks of presets, but now there’s improved signal output options, app integration via Bluetooth for changing setlists of pedal settings. The more affordable G 3 atom model offers six programmable true bypass effects loops. G3£1,095/g3atom£795, www.thegigrig.com

CAPTAIN FAWCETT JOHN PETRUCCI NEBULA SIGNATURE SERIES

4 You may never have a beard as mighty as Dream theater icon john Petrucci’s, but you can do the next best thing–use the same beard captain fawcett face follicle conditioning products. The nebula series features a beard balm, moustache wax and two sizes of beard oil (10ml and 50ml). All faces covered then. the first 100050 ml beard oils also include a Nebula edition Petrucci Dunlop Flow guitar pick. From£11, www.captainfawcett.com

SOLID GOLD FX NU-33 VINYL ENGINE

5 There’ s often beauty to be found in imperfections when it comes to guitar, and the “warm and gooey” chorus/vibrato tones here embrace that–sounds that will “warble, glitch, bend and break in all the right ways”. The NU-33 stirs filters and wave shapes into the sonic brew for lo-fi goodness that you can shape with six knobs, four toggle sand two switches. control parameters including tap tempo, momentary speed ram ping and even triggered vinyl skips. $250, www.solidgoldfx.com