HOT
GEAR
Blackstar JJN-20R MkII Combo Amp
Blackstar has added to Jared James Nichols’s signature amplifier
line with the JJN-20R MkII combo amp.
The JJN-20R MkII features a racing green Tolex wrap and a
distinctive tilt-back design. The JJN-20RH MkII has two footswitchable
Clean Voices, one with an “American” character and
the other with a Class A “British” sound. Voice 1 clean gives a
bright and tight tone with a solid bass response, and the tone
shaping is positioned early in the gain structure for a refined
American tone and response. Voice 2 gives a highly-responsive
“chime” with a looser, resonant bottom-end for a British tone that
can be pushed into a mid-range overdrive when driven hard. The
two footswitchable Overdrive Voices are characterised by a tone
that is high in gain, but avoids the detached top-end “fizz” often
found in other designs.
The JJN-20R MkII also features Blackstar’s ISF (Infinite Shape
Feature) tone shaping control. The ISF control allows users to
adjust the response of the tone control network between any of
the traditional voicings to design their own sounds.
For more information, contact Korg USA: 866-444-9201,
[email protected], www.korgusa.com.
Alfred The Musician’s Lifeline:
Advice for All Musicians,
Student to Professional
Alfred Music has released The Musician’s Lifeline: Advice for All
Musicians, Student to Professional by authors Peter Erskine and
Dave Black.
The Musician’s Lifeline represents the combined experience
and knowledge of the authors gained through their lives in
music. In addition, it includes advice from over 150 top musicians,
with topics ranging from sight-reading, learning, listening,
auditions, the music business, practice, musical aesthetics, and
performance, to general travel and life wisdom. Contributors
include Gordon Goodwin, Nathan East, Janis Siegel, Christian Mc-
Bride, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Gary Burton, Kenny Werner, Steve
Smith, and more. It also features players from major orchestras.
Band alumni include musicians who've performed with Chicago,
Herbie Hancock, Ringo Starr, Count Basie, Buddy Rich, Miles
Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Zappa, and Frank Sinatra.
For more information, contact Alfred Music: 800-292-6122,
[email protected], www.alfred.com.
Cort KX300 Etched Electric Guitar
Cort has introduced the KX300 Etched electric guitar, which features
a matte black look accented with red or gold paint applied
only to the wood grains.
Building on the KX300 previously added to the KX Series, the
new KX300 Etched adds a more distinctive look to the doublecutaway
body with new colour finishes of etched black red (EBR)
and etched black gold (EBG). Cort starts with a 15 mm solid ash
top that’s sand-blasted for an open-pore finish and then treated
with either red or gold accents on the matte black background.
Other features include bolt-on construction for a big, open
sound. The hard maple neck has a 24-fret pau ferro fingerboard
with a 15.75-in. radius and 25.5-in. scale. The fingerboard also
features unique “raindrop” inlays.
For more information, contact Coast Music: 514-457-2555,
[email protected], www.coastmusiconline.com.
70 CANADIAN MUSICIAN