Eastwood Hi-Flyer Phase 4

When it comes to retro or vintage, I'm typically excited about it. I like all things tweed, and I love a good retro interpretation of "futuristic". I know I'm not alone in this because in recent years, the demand and adoration of the kitschy weird guitars from the 50's and 60's has increased greatly. Brands like Airline, Goya, and Univox (to name a few) have become coveted pieces of gear. This is partly due to guys like Jack White bringing them back into the spotlight, and partly because they're affordable for vintage guitars. Lucky for those of us on budgets, the Eastwood guitar company has snapped up the designs for many of these beloved oldies and has been re-issuing them at incredible price points. Today I'm going to talk about one of the newer offerings: The Hi-Flyer Phase 4!

When this guitar came out of the box the other day in the shop, I was instantly excited. The Hi-Flyer is a re-issue of the Univox model of the same name which first appeared roughly around 1977. Univox was an arm of the Unicord corportion (which was eventually an arm of the Gulf+western company..). They began with amplifiers and in 1968 merged with the Merson company to begin importing guitars. There were four phases of the Hi-Flyer model (which was essentially a riff on the Ventures Mosrite guitar) with Phase 4 being the last one produced. This version most notably did away with a tremolo system and added a gibson style hardtail bridge. Possibly the reason the Phase 4 is most well known these days is for Kurt Cobain's use of it in the "Heart Shaped Box" video. Let me be clear...I am NOT a nirvana fan boy at all. In fact I never got too excited about Nirvana. This post is not an homage to a guitar based on Kurt Cobains use of it. I just love this damn thing! From it's killer looks to the impressive pickups, it has it all!

The guitar features a basswood body and maple bolt on neck. The neck has a satin finish to it, which I love. I've never enjoyed playing an overly lacquered neck as it tends to get sticky and uncomfortable very fast. The nut is a comfy 1 5/8" and has a gibson style scale length at 24 3/4". I've always prefered the longer strat style scale length but this bad boy still feels very comfy and the double cutaway gives you nice access to the higher frets. The electronics are simple and straight forward: One volume, one tone and a three way toggle switch. No coil tapping on this guitar but that certainly doesn't impeded it anyway. The Phase 4 eastwood humbuckers sound incredible! I was very impressed with them both clean and driven. To top it off, they look bad ass in their clear coverings and slight angled settings. Adding even more to the wow factor is the Mintech 3 way adjustable wrap around tailpiece. This is a super adjustable hard tail that lets you intonate the guitar as needed. Not a common feature in many hard tail guitars.

The Hi-Flyer does not come with a case but eastwood brand hardcases are available and generally cheap (somewhere around $130). It's a small loss considering this axe is merely $599 and sounds/looks incredibly cool. It may not be the high end guitar you treasure all your life, but it is definitely the guitar you take to every gig and give it one hell of an active lifestyle. Below I have a quick 30 second video to let you hear the guitar. I did record a dirty version as well but i managed to delete it off my camera..so bear with just hearing it clean! Thanks to my fellow employee Ariel for the demo.

To learn more on Eastwood's other killer vintage re-issues check them out at www.eastwoodguitars.com. Pop by Rudy's sometime and see the one we have before it's snatched up! I'll be happy to show you!

-K.

Fairfield Circuitry

When I was a teenager, the only cool and exciting pedals I knew about were BOSS pedals. I still remember being blown away by my friends BOSS phaser, and being completely over the moon when my mom got me one. I must have played "space oddity" by david bowie a thousand times over with that phaser "swooshing" the song all over the place. Nowadays, there are seemingly endless options for pedals and many new and exciting companies coming up. Today I want to talk about one that I find particularly cool: Fairfield Circuitry.

Fairfield Circuitry is owned and operated by Guillaume Fairfield and has been making pedals for musicians in the know since 2008. At present he makes 5 pedals: The Barbershop Overdrive, The Four Eyes Fuzz, Randy's Revenge Ring mod, The Operator feedback loop and the Unpleasant Surprise experimental fuzz gate. The things I loved immediately about these bad boys is the look of them. To me they look like evil robots from the future...but you may also just say minimalist! The simple gray boxes with the "burned in" numbers and dial descriptions look a little more like something out of "Terminator" than what you may be used to on a pedal board. Seems like a small thing but in a world of colorful and splashy looking pedals, it's pretty cool to see these stark and simplistic boxes lined up in a cabinet. All the pedals operate on standard 9 volts and can be powered with anything from a 1 spot to a pedal power brick. 

The Barbershop is a beautiful overdrive pedal that comes the closest I've heard to a natural warm tube amp. The pedal features a power sag knob allowing you to reduce the voltage sent to the amp. This let's you either get that warm, "pushed" amp sound, or dial in some nice crunchy sounds. It's very flexible and a good addition to any pedal board, even if you already have an overdrive you love. The Four Eyes Cross over fuzz, it's frequency control, switchable resonance and the option to add a footswitch is one of the most versatile fuzz pedals out there, allowing you to get a wide range of flavors in one box. 

My two favorite of the bunch have to be "the unpleasant surprise" and "randy's revenge". The "unpleasant" is described as an experimental fuzz gate, and I suppose thats about as close as you can get to being accurate with this wacky piece. I've often described it to customers as a more usable version of a Zvex Fuzz Factory. Giving you everything from odd creaking  noises to out and out thick deadly fuzz this little monster adds a fun element to any pedal board and can be even more wacky when combined with other effects. I've run this thing through a number of delays, tremolo's and more and never been bored! The "randy's revenge" is a ring mod with just as many possibilities as the "unpleasant surprise". When the main frequency knob is between 0 and 12, you get some beautiful trem/vibe effects. Past 12 you creep into other worldly territory with all the crazy noises a ring mod fan could want. Play a little with the low pass filter and mix knobs and you'll find yourself overwhelmed with new noises to add to your palate! 

You can find the whole array of Fairfield Circuitry pedals at Rudy's and can learn more by checking out their website. These days it's all about who can stand out in the crowd of pedal companies and Fairfield easily accomplishes this task with their beautiful understated design, and unique sounds.

As always feel free to post comments or questions!

-K.

Comins Guitar Craft Series

Bill Comins may not be a name immediately recognizable to you, but to many "in the know" guitarists he is a well respected luthier, and craftsman of very high end archtop jazz guitars, nylon string acoustics and some solid bodies. Mr. Comins produces a limited number of pieces each year, and the price range is certainly out of reach of the average working musician or hobbyist. With that thought in mind, he began working with a South Korean guitar manufacturing facility on an affordable instrument to sell here in the U.S. The result is the Guitar Craft Series, two models of semi hollow guitars that are absolutely fantastic! Mr. Comins has designed the instruments himself and set a strict series of standards that the manufacturer must adhere to. Each guitar gets personally set up and inspected by him before they send off to the shop and it certainly shows. The guitars play perfectly out of the box, with a nice low action and would please even the most picky guitar player. The look of the instruments is another nice surprise, combining classic and modern aesthetics for a very sophisticated look. Little touches like the black, rubberized tuning machine heads, and the bound body, headstock and neck, make the guitar look much more expensive than it's price tag reveals. 


There are two models to choose from, with 5 colors available. The GCS-1 features a laminated flame maple top, laminated sapele back and sides, with a center block of solid wood, and a rosewood fingerboard. The GCS-1E is the same model but gives you a laminated spruce top, and an ebony fingerboard. These are hardtail guitars but you can add an optional bigsby, in case you need your tremolo fix. 

The pickups are custom made Kent Armstrong humbuckers, with a volume and tone for each one. One of the tone puts is push/pull and allows you to coil tap the humbuckers. I've never personally been a big fan of coil tap..I find that they never quite produce the sound that you want. Rather than get that true single coil "quack", you often just end up with a quieter pickup. As far as coil tapping goes however, these do a far better job than I've heard on other instruments. The humbuckers have quite a lot of punch and warmth to them, allowing for a more distinct and present tone when cut in half. 

Now, there may be some of you out there who see "made in korea" or "made in china" and this immediately turns you off to a guitar. I'll go into this notion a bit more in depth in another post, but I'm a firm believer in judging by how the guitar feels and sounds, and not where it's made. So many factories across the world are now making very high quality guitars, and I would count these as among the very top. The look, feel and sound are all top notch and so much more than one might expect from a non US made instrument. For those of us who want a classic looking, super versatile semi-hollow guitar and can't quite afford the price tags on a Gibson, or even a Collings, these axes fill the gap perfectly. 

The Comins Guitar Craft Series retails at $1599 for a hard tail, or $1899 with a bigsby. Both models come with a TKL hard shell case in a light brown tolex, that adds a nice bit of value to the guitar. More info on these guitars and all of Bill Comins' creations can be found at his website: www.cominsguitars.com

We have these for sale here at Rudy's, and I encourage you to pop by and check one out! I'll be happy to chat with you about them. Feel free to leave your thoughts as well! 

K.