Lee Oskar Natural Minor Harmonica REVIEWER: CHRIS WILSON INFO: WWW.MUSICMERCH.COM.AU
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n full flight, nobody goes near him. Any blues or soul singer, he can match,” said blues singer Kerri Simpson in the last issue of Muso about our guest reviewer Chris Wilson, who has been an essential part of the Australian blues and rock scene for over two decades. Whether fronting Harum Scarum, Crown of Thorns or belting out his own songs or classic soul and blues tunes, Wilson is an out and out Australian music legend and one of the finest blues harp players goin’ around. He has just released a new album called Flying Fish and can be seen gigging regularly around the country. Muso is thrilled to have Chris onboard this issue as a guest reviewer. Visit www. chriswilson.com.au to learn more about him. Lee Oskar came to prominence in the mid-’70s as the harmonica player in the legendary funk/r&b band War. You may recall them as the band behind Eric Burdon’s hit, Spill The Wine, or alternatively their own classic Low Rider. Oskar’s style was atypical of the harp styles of the day. He preferred a clean harmonica sound, which contrasted with the heavily distorted Chicago blues sound that many harp players went for. This allowed him to play clean lines with the reed player in the band or allowed him to double keyboard or guitar parts without cluttering the lean tight sound of his band. His style was innovative. He employed multiple tunings, often changing harps within the one song. Around the early ‘80s Oskar began work with Tombo Harmonicas to produce a line of harmonicas that reflected his playing philosophy. The timing of this product’s release was all important. Until this time Hohner harmonicas had held a virtually unassailable position as the premier harmonica of choice among players. Now they had a serious rival. Oskar’s approach was simple yet radical. He produced harmonicas in every key, including major and minor variations - any scale that was playable on a ten-hole diatonic harmonica was manufactured.
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Any scale that could be played on the more cumbersome chromatic harp was also made. Which brings us to the product at hand. One of the first things you notice about Lee Oskar Harps is that the actual holes are larger than those of a Hohner harmonica. Whether the player prefers this is an individual matter; my guess is that this is to aid accuracy when playing. They are generally airtight, giving ease of playing, and this harp is no exception. The reeds are relatively light, giving a bright tone that cuts through a band’s sound with ease. This harmonica was obviously designed by a player for players. Every aspect is designed to give the user the most creative freedom. Traditionally harmonica players play in different modes to deal with major and minor scales in songs. These are called positions. Each of these positions has its own musical twists and turns
requiring various playing techniques. Each position has its own flavor. With harmonicas like the natural minor harmonica, Lee Oskar gives the player another option when approaching a piece of music. It is built so that the player can employ
CHRIS WILSON
all the skills of bending notes and tonal colourings that a player learns, whilst having the true notes of a natural minor scale available. It takes a little practice to master this harmonica but the rewards are fantastic. It brings a unique colour to a tune and I highly recommend you give it a shot. www.chriswilson. com.au
Timberidge Guitars - TRC-4F Dreadnought Cutaway
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On first look in the case, I certainly found this dreadnoughtshaped guitar to be visually pleasing. Solid Cedar top, with clean, smooth lines and a big body. This lovely lady comes with optional adhesive scratch plates in clear, black and tortoiseshell, but not having one definitely gives the body more room to breathe. The matte finish brings out the natural grains and tones of the Bubinga back and sides. Out of the case, it’s asking to be played! The Mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard is smooth and has great action, making fingerpicking a breeze, and makes for smoother transitions and less fret noise. Cross-
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REVIEWER: NYSSA BRADSWORTH INFO: WWW.JADEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
aving never heard of Timberidge Guitars before, and knowing they were Australian designed but assembled in China, I honestly didn’t know what to expect... but was pleasantly surprised.
The B-Band A3T piezo pickup, with pre-amp, has line level and mic level outputs. The onboard controls are sensitive and precise, featuring low, mids, highs and presence controls, as well as an onboard tuner for extra convenience. Plugged in, this baby packs a punch, but you do have to experiment with the settings quite a bit to find your own sweet spot. Once you find it, this guitar could rival any Maton or Cole Clark, giving clear and brilliant tones and a full bottom end. Normally, smaller bodied guitars like Martins and Mini Matons, are more ‘ergonomic’ for the female performer, but this is one of the more comfortable Dreadnoughts to play, sitting and standing, and allows for smaller hands to get around the fretboard comfortably. The free (that’s right!) paisley case is light-weight and quite pretty for the gals, (indie for the boys!), and that new guitar smell is always a winner for me! Comparable to the Maton EM320 Dreadnaught, the Timberidge 4 Series is bright, punchy and for under $700, a great first gigging guitar, or second guitar for that louder, rockin’ gig. Nyssa Bradsworth is a Melbourne-based singer-songwriter. Check out her Facebook page.
Allen & Heath Zed60-14fx Mixer REVIEWER: SEAN POLLARD INFO: WWW.TAG.COM.AU
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bracing in the body makes this a super-solid guitar, allowing for very little movement over time, but it’s very light-weight and easy on the shoulders. The black Grover tuners are comfortable and easy to tune initially, but I found that they did slip a little. Acoustically, the Timberidge 4 series Dreadnought is quite bright and clear with a very even sound from the bass through to high tones. I found the D’Addario EXP Long Life strings a tad bright for my liking; however other players may enjoy that tonal range. Unplugged, it has a very mid-heavy sound that would cut through any loud pub, but again, a bit more bottom end would please this Soul/Blues/Folk performer.
GUEST TEST
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ounded in 1969, the Allen & Heath company is based in Cornwall, England. A&H made a name for themselves initially by building a custom quadraphonic mixing console for Pink Floyd; the unit can be seen in the famous Floyd film, Live At Pompeii. These days, they’re known for producing high quality sound systems and a wide range of mixers. Pitched as the perfect mixer for smaller bands, the Allen & Heath Zed6014FX is a versatile unit with a huge number of features. As the 60th addition to the UK-based audio engineers’ wellrespected ZED series, the 14FX has been touted as a companion piece to the recently released 10FX mixer. Immediately, it’s clear that a lot of love goes into Allen and Heath’s Cornwall-built machines, as the unit comes in an eye-catching dark green with nice maroon side plates. All faders and pots are organised and everything is in it’s right place, although drummers everywhere will probably throw their hands in the air in frustration when they realise that Allen and Heath had guitarists in mind when they were putting this particular mixer together. Two of the eight mono channels provided have highimpedance jack inputs that can take a normal level from a standard pickup – the idea being that the guitar can be plugged straight into the mixer without the addition of a DI box. The desk also comes with an AmpliTube 3 free software package for guitar processing, which includes 50 ‘gear credits’ to add to the small but quality range of stomp-boxes, amps, cabinets, microphones and rack effects already featured here.
experience with mixers of this size and price. We did some pretty lo-fi recording with the unit and were extremely happy with the Ambient (echo) setting – especially on the lead vocals. The effects centre itself is easily located and not intrusive to the overall aesthetic on display. It even has a USB input, although many have complained that Allen and Heath have left out a matching cable for some reason. No matter – everyone seems to have spare USB cable lying around these days. It was slightly disappointing, however, that we were only dealing with USB 1.1 and not 2.0 - maybe an idea for the next model. In summary, this would be a great addition or jumping off point for anyone in need of a smallish mixer for live or recording needs.
As far as inputs go, we’re looking at eight balanced XLR, two instrument and six line inputs. Basically, if you’re a guitar band looking at buying your own mixer for practise or recording – you’re in luck here. Another feature of the 14FX is the classy range of onboard effects. The delays and reverbs all sound great and none of them have that strange glassy quality you can sometimes
The focus on guitar and addition of the AmpliTube software is a nice touch and, with clean and easy levels on all inputs, the 14FX is a package that’s hard to fault.
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