Radial Engineering is top quality audio equipment outfit based in in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company first began back in 1991 as the Canadian distributor for Jensen Audio Transformers and Mogami cable.  The next year, they reformed as JP Cabletek Electronics, and they started using the Radial name for their house brand cables.  Later, in 1996, the Radial brand launched the JDI direct box, and today, there are more than 50 different products marketed under the Radial, Forest Audio, and Tonebone brand names.  In 2006, the company officially became Radial Engineering.  They have a huge staff of more than 50 employees and work out of a 25,000 square-foot facility, giving them the ability to manufacture many different great products.

Under the Radial brand, the company offers their J-class products.  This line of boxes, splitters, and re-ampers are some of the best in the world.  Then there’s the Pro series, which is designed to balance performance with price.  The HotShot series, on the other hand, is innovative and built to last for years. (more...)

Need a great boutique amp that’s going to pump out all the tone you could ever need... If you know anything about amps, you know that the Matchless line of boutique amps really deliver a mixture of modern high fidelity mixed with an old school sensibility and taste.  The Matchless Chieftain Boutique Amp is another in their line of powerful amps that provide top quality sound.  This amp is a Class A 1x12 combo amplifier, and it is completely hand built by the professionals at Matchless.

The Chieftain is one of the Matchless Celestion Signature Series.  It is a 30 watt amp that features point to point wiring and all tubes.  It is powered by four 12AX7’s and two EL34’s.  The back of the amp provides inputs for either 4 ohm, 8 ohm, or 16 ohm operation.  On the front, you can control the bass, middle, treble, brilliance, reverb, and volume, plus there’s a master control.   The presence on the Matchless Chieftain is actually similar to that you’d find on a top of the line British amp.  Below the controls is a Matchless logo that is backlit.

This is one of the top Matchless amps on the market today, and it’s sure to provide the sound and the power you need for any gig.  While it’s not cheap—a used one may cost upwards of $2,000 or more—it is certainly worth the money.
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If you are someone who is looking to get the most out of your overdrive pedal, then you will want to consider using the Maxon TOD-9 True Tube Overdrive pedal.  This is because it is designed with the best military specification subminiature tube at its core.  Because this technology was once considered outdated when submarines stopped being used so widely at the end of the Second World War, there is a large quantity of this product that is ready for use.  The manufacturers of the Maxon TOD-9 True Tube Overdrive realized the potential that the subminiature tubes had on the sound quality of a pedal and they decided to use these tubes as a base component of the sound that was produced by their product.

The Maxon TOD-9 True Tube Overdrive has harnessed the power of these subminiature vacuum tubes to create a truly unique pedal that combines solid distortion with the tube stage.  The benefit of this is that the pedal works in a way that completely enhances the player’s performance, creating a balance that is truly interactive with the guitar and the artist.  If you utilize this pedal to the maximum then you will be able to increase your performance and this will work to make your music even better.  The dials are simply laid out and can be used by anyone with a basic understanding of how they operate. (more...)

One of the things Dr. Z is known for is creating very simple, traditional amps that do a lot more than what they first appear to do.  The Dr. Z Monza Boutique Amp follows this route.  With only three knobs, this amp does a lot.  This Monza has amazing gain and sustain.  It features 20 watts of power, and it can actually be a bit too loud for some home studios with thin walls.

The Dr. Z Monza amp uses two 12AX7s for preamp, two EL84 cathode biased tubes for output, and a 5AR4 tube as the rectifier.  While it’s only 20 watts, it can sound like it’s pumping 100 watts of power through it—it’s that powerful and amazing.  Crank up the volume and you’ll find the sound just gets bigger and bigger, while the drive and tone knobs give you control over your sound.  The speaker is a 10” Red Fang AlNico.  Overall, this powerful little amp only weighs 37 pounds, making it a great amp to take on the road.  If you want to score a Dr. Z Monza for your own, you’ll find them used for about $1,200. (more...)

Maxon has made a number of great overdrive pedals in their Vintage Overdrive Pro Pedal series, and the VOP-9 is yet another one of them.  This overdrive pedal combines both overdrive and clean boost into one device.  It uses a dual pot to mix the saturated and clean tones together to make a less compressed and more transparent sound.  It also features true bypass switching so you can let your signal shine through if you want.

The VOP-9 is actually an upgraded version of the OD820, a pedal that Maxon introduced in the 90s but that was largely overlooked.  However, at the time, few saw the benefits and power of the pedal, and it was mostly ignored as simply being an overpriced version of the OD808.  However, the VOP-9 is more than just a renamed OD820.  While the pedal does run the entire circuit at 18 volts, just like the OD820, it now comes in one of Maxon’s nearly indestructible 9-series chassis.  The pedal is also capable of operating at 9 volts by activating an internal DIP switch.  The VOP-9 also makes use of the same op-amp that allowed the OD820 to operate so quietly, and the negative feedback loop clipping diode is the same as well.  The Maxon VOP-9 Vintage Overdrive Pro Pedal costs
$200.

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The Tsunami is an 18 watt boutique amp by Category 5. It's a great amp for classic rock and blues. The 18 watts of power mean that this small, portable amp works great for small venues, especially blues clubs, and it also works great as a recording amp.  The Tsunami features two preamp channels, a global reverb circuit, variable recording line out, and a variac voltage control.

The first channel has a single gain stage that provides some nice tube overdrive.  The second channel is for versatility.  Here, you’ll find a full tone stack and the ability to really shape the tone to your liking.  This channel is great for scooped mids, treble, and bass, and with three cascaded gain stages, you’re able to get both more and less clean headroom than you can with the first channel.

The Tsunami is powered by two EL84 power tubes and four 12AX7 preamp tubes.  The first channel features tone and volume controls, while the second features volume, bass, middle, and treble controls.  The basic Tsunami 1x12 combo amp retails for $2579.
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