Paris Swing Mandolin: Unleash the Gypsy Fury
The Paris Swing Co. mandolin from The Music Link features designs inspired by the pre-War era Gypsy jazz instruments, a time when the versatile use of the mandolin ranged from carrying melody to fiery fast soloing. The Paris Swing Co. offers three models in either natural or sunburst finish including a D-hole shape, traditional F-hole design and the Oval soundhole Nuages model reviewed here. The mandolin requires some craftsman assembly: An adjustable rosewood bridge is left off the instrument out of the box for the option of affixing it permanently or leaving a floating bridge style. The mandolin allows a brighter tone from the smaller oval sound cavity. The solid sitka spruce top is well contoured to the flamed maple sides and back. This natural model is bound in classic tortoise-shell; the sunburst model comes with a grained ivoroid binding. A flamed maple neck rises to the ebony peghead keenly accentuated with the Paris Swing logo in white pearl, gold leaf and abalone-style Tour Eiffel inlay. The bass side body of the mandolin swirls up to a dramatic curling scroll, and the right angle on the treble side emphasizes its open access for flights of Gypsy wailing. For playability, this mandolin shines in its class. It bears noting that while this is not a custom-crafted mandolin (at a list price of $799), the Chinese construction and finish of this instrument pass muster. The body joints are clean and the fretting is smooth without any rough edges or glue marks. Though pessimistic at first sight of the plastic tuning buttons, I found that the metal string posts allowed smooth and stable movement to bring the strings to pitch. This mandolin held tune nicely. John LaMantia
Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight Guitar Amp: Portable Pro Sound
Fenders latest jazz guitar amp, the Jazzmaster Ultralight, is a compact 250-watt solid-state beauty that weighs only 7.6 pounds. Combine it with the 16-pound Ultralight 112 speaker enclosure, and you have a versatile and portable pro rig. The amp head is encased in a rugged aluminum chassis with solid maple side and top panels. The front panel contains a nice selection of controls without overdoing it. There are two inputs, one regular and another with a lower sensitivity for guitars with built-in preamps. The Jazzmaster Ultralight has a standard two-channel configuration with normal and drive channels available. The normal channel features a voice switch, which is essentially a brightness boost, and the drive channel adds a gain control knob for adjusting the amount of distortion. The back of the head provides a locking connector for attaching the speaker cabinet, as well as 1/4-inch jacks for tuner out and the foot switch. An XLR line out is also available for connecting to a sound system or studio equipment. The amp sits securely on top of the speaker enclosure using magnetic footing. The cabinet is a perfect match for the head and houses a specially voiced 12-inch Jensen speaker in closed-back design for increased bass response. As promised, the amp produces a clean and smooth tone using the normal channel. The 12-inch speaker keeps it fat with plenty of bass. The built-in DSP effects include a smorgasbord of choices, and effects can be selected for each channel individually. Switching to the drive channel produced a range of overdrive tones, from a bluesy tubelike crunch to full-blown distortion. This is especially handy on those jobbing gigs where you play everything from a bossa nova to a rock guitar feature. This amp is ideal if you are looking to keep your gear light. At a street price of around $650 for the amp and $250 for the cabinet, this is not an inexpensive option, but a wise one. Keith Baumann

Ordering info: themusiclink.net
Hei-D Super Mostro Guitars: 8-String Evolution
Fingerstyle guitarist Michle Ramo has dreamed up an eight-string instrument that combines two fretless bass-note strings with a standard nylon six-string format. Built by luthier Rich DiCarlo and inspired by the seven-string guitar work of Bucky Pizzarelli, Ramos new models includes the Hei-D Super Mostro IV Sofisticato and the Hei-D Super Mostro V Sicily. Both guitars come with two onboard MIDI preamps (Poly Drive IV by RMC), with one output that sends the first six strings to a guitar amp and another that sends the last two strings to a bass amp. That way, you never have to compromise the bass EQ or volume to accommodate the instruments high-end, or vice versa. The guitar bodies are joined to the neck at the 17th fret, with a cutaway at the 22nd fret. The Mostro Sofisticato has 22 frets total, giving it a range of five octaves (fretted) plus another octave-and-a-half (fretless) up to high double A. The Mostro Sicily has 34 frets and covers the same monstrous range, with six octaves (fretted) plus a half-octave (fretless). The two bass-note strings are actually thick guitar strings custom-made by La Bella. The seventh string, tuned to a low A, has a gauge

JEFFREY HERZLICH

Michle Ramo
of.070. The eighth, tuned to a low D, has a gauge of.080. Since the bass range is fretless, players can approach the comma system of semitone measurement for more precise intonation. The Mostro Sofisticato features a sitka spruce top, birdseye maple back and sides, padauk neck and ebony binding. The Mostro Sicily has a bearclaw sitka spruce top, pau ferro back and sides, padauk neck and Honduran rosewood binding. Both instruments are distinctly appointed and represent an evolution in guitar design. Mostro guitars can take the place of a full ensemble, providing melody, harmony/ chords and fretless walking bass lines all at the same time. When played fingerstyle and used to their full potential, they encourage the creative use of counterpoint and inside voicings. Ed Enright
Ordering info: 8stringguitar.com
Ordering info: fender.com

July 2006 DOWNBEAT 67

PRODUCT REVIEW Redstone Audio RS-10ER (Extended Range)

By David C. Stephens

and an RS-12. These are all very fine cabs. I found the RS-8 as good as any 8 that Ive used. The RS-10 was also great sounding, but I was very attracted to the RS12 by its extended range, compact size and relatively low weight (hardly any larger than the 10). In fact Id almost decided to review the RS-12 when I mentioned to Dave that I thought it was a great archtop cab and only lacked the very top extension that would make it work with nylon-string and flat-top, steel-string as an acoustic cab. Dave said he was working on just such a cab and before I knew it hed sent me an RS-10ER to try. Well, I fell in love with the ER right away. Like all Redstone cabs, the RS-10ER is very sturdy and utilitarian. Many pros prefer a black finish that blends in on stage and the Redstone delivers this look. It has an expanded metal grill over the 10-inch driver. The 1inch tweeter is recessed but uncovered in the upper left corner. The attenuator dial is in the upper right corner on the front of the cab, where its easily reached. Each cabinet corner has a thick, ribbed, rubber guard and the handle is sturdy but low enough so that most amp heads can clear it when placed on top. The RS-10ER has an L-pad crossover, including tweeter attenuator. If youre not going to use the tweeter, then it makes no sense to spring for the ER; however, some people like to roll-off their archtop system, but then dial up the tweeter for nylon-string or flat-top, steel-string. Most of the time I used the RS10-ER with the tweeter set at 12 oclock. When I want a darker tone, I use a guitar with flatwounds and/or roll-off the treble at the guitar. Most of my personal playing is with my spruce topped Heritage with floating pickup and roundwound strings, so I can enjoy the nuance of the tone that an ER-style cab delivers.
edstone Audio was formed in 2006 by Dave McElroy, Stan Lee and Gwen Jones. Dave and Stan are jazz guitarists and Gwen has extensive experience building high fidelity audio speaker cabinets. As a group theyve got serious engineering credentials. Their aim is to make good sounding guitar cabs that also reduce the propensity to feedback when used with acoustic archtop guitars. Although they have some ported speakers in their line, most of their designs feature unported sealed speakers in sealed cabinets. Their web site can be found at Theres something about a tweeter that opens up a cab http://www.redstoneaudio.com/index.html. and removes most traces of boxiness. Because of this, I like extended range cabs, even with my archtop with Redstone cabs are only available manufacturer-direct. its treble rolled down. Of course, tweeters really shine Their thirty-day return policy and manufacturer-direct at reproducing the complex overtones of fine nylonpricing policy compensates for the lack of dealers. I string and steel-string, flat-top guitars. I just havent first heard of Redstone on the internet newsgroup found a cabinet without a tweeter that does full justice rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz where Dave was offering to acoustic flat-top guitars. The RS10-ER is among the cabs to players that would use one and write a review very best that Ive heard for this purpose. on rmmgj. I watched and read several positive reviews Compared directly with Raezers Edges Stealth 12-ER and decided to investigate for myself. and Stealth 10-ER, the Redstone has a more controlled Over a few months Dave sent me an RS-8, an RS-10 bass. Ive written in the past that the S12-ER can be

Just Jazz Guitar

February 2007

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hard to control in certain rooms and that I preferred the S10-ER because of its flatter bass. The Redstone adds more control in the bass without losing richness. The S10-ER is more efficient, but also slightly more prone to feedback. However, using a good amp, like the Acoustic Image Clarus 2R-III that I used for most of this testing, I dont have any trouble with feedback with either the Redstone or Raezers Edge. I had to sit facing the cabs to really detect the difference in feedback. When I take my normal position beside the cab, its not much of an issue for me. Even when sitting in front of the cabs, the feedback and efficiency differences were only about 1 dB, so were talking relatively small differences. As usual I tried the cabinet with my ole standby, favorite head, the Clarus 2R-III. I used my Custom Heritage Golden Eagle armed with Thomastik Infeld roundwound strings and my surprisingly good sounding Dean Stylist 15 archtop (theres not a lot of arch to the laminated top, but its got f-holes, two decent humbuckers and a great, jazz guitar sound. My daughters nylon string Rodriguez with passive top-mounted pick-up (dont ask me how it works, all I know is that it sounds good) serving as an acoustic reference. The new element to my listening test is a 250 watt (into 2 ohms) Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight. The Ultralights clean channel is amazingly articulate. Ill probably give it a full review in a later issue, but its highs are elevated in comparison to the Clarus. This might have spelled disaster with a lesser cab, but I found myself playing hours of fingerstyle on the Heritage through the Fender/RS-10ER combo. The highs of the cab have that crystalline smoothness that you seek with strong highs. Since it was between Thanksgiving and Christmas I spent hours working on chord melody Christmas solos that featured lots of open chords. The sounds were mesmerizing. Its a good sign during the middle of a test when my fretting fingertips start getting numb, signaling that the rig sounds so good that I just want to keep playing. Later I tried the RS10-ER with the tweeter rolled totally off while using the Dean with its flatwounds to get a rolled off, midrangy classic jazz tone. This was easy as pie. I easily dialed in a tone that projected on solos, sounding better than the little Dean deserves. The Redstone sounds good with its tweeter on or off. I prefer it on, even when Im going for a more rolled off

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tone, which I achieve at either the amp or guitar. As I said earlier, a good tweeter seems to help almost any cab seem more open and less boxy. The nylon string Rodriquez sounded the same amplified through the RS10-ER/Clarus combination as it did un-amplified, just louder. For most acoustic players thats critical. They dont want to carefully select a great sounding acoustic guitar and have it produce a quackfest when played through their amp. The RS10ER keeps the sound open and natural. At $519 factory-direct, the RS10-ER is very competitively priced with no major tradeoffs compared to its direct competition. Its efficient, light, good sounding, well made, good looking and just an all round great cabinet. Its a little leaner than most of the competition, but many would say its more accurate. I tend to agree, feeling that the typical small bass hump has been removed. Its not so lean that I would call it dry. Im just trying to make a distinction so that youll have a little better idea which way to turn, whether that is toward more accuracy or toward more richness. Both are legitimate choices. Ive learned that jazz guitarists have a widely varying concept of the ideal tone and my goal is to try to help you understand where products fit within the continuum of tone. Amplification/speaker choices are rapidly multiplying for the jazz guitarist. When I started writing these reviews a few years ago there werent many choices. Now there are a wide range of very good choices. Cabs and amps are stacking up in my music room awaiting review. Redstone is one of the latest to join the fray, jumping into the deep end of the pool with some very fine products.
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