Welcome to The Gear Page

The Gear Page (TGP), started in 2002, now combines its 82,000+ members' forums with a webzine. Some articles of potential interest are listed below. Of course, our primary focus is on our forums, which can be reached by clicking on "TGP Forums" in the navigation bar above. Please make sure to read our Rules of Conduct for the forums. To read any of the full articles listed below, click on the image.

Giveaway For TGP Supporting Members!

As we heads towards TGP's 10th anniversary (January 2012), we have some giveaways planned for supporting members. The fact that The Gear Page has remained online and free of advertising for a decade is due to the financial support of the site by our supporting members. This giveaway, along with others to follow, is our way of making the 10th anniversary fun, and allows us to give something back to those who have kept the website online.

The four pedals reviewed below will be given away on November 28th, one each to four winners. To enter the giveaway, you must be a current supporting member and need to post on this thread that you are participating. Please read the post for rules and additional information!

Current Featured Gear Reviews:

T-Rex Yellow Drive and Tap Tone Delay Pedals

Sometimes you want it all, and sometimes you want a little more than that. The fine folks at T-Rex Engineering (t-rex-effects.com) in Denmark sent us two nifty little effects systems to look over, the two-channel Yellow Drive and the new Tap Tone Delay, and I have to admit, I have been in “have it all Heaven.”

Like most guitarists, when I gig out, I have my clean tone, my moderate overdrive tone and my guitar-solo tone. I like to have each all set to go so that mid-song switches are quick and easy. This is normally accomplished with two pedals, one for OD and one with a bit more punch and gain for solos.

Clearly, our friends at T-Rex are guitar players themselves, because they realized that having both of those guitar sounds in one single pedal would save work and money. The new Yellow Drive does exactly that.

The Yellow Drive gives you two separate channels full of the classic T-Rex gain tone. The left half of the box, labeled “A” is a nice mellow mild overdrive, and the right side, called “B” is a soaring, singing distortion, perfect for guitar solos. I found that setting my amp just on the edge of breaking up, then goosing it with the A channel put me right into that chewy rhythm zone. The amount of gain available on channel B seems to pick up right where channel A leaves off – so you are always ready to launch............Click Here To Read Review!

Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh and LSTR Pedals

Mark at Black Arts Toneworks (blackartstoneworks.blogspot.com)sent us their brilliant Pharaoh fuzz pedal, a stunning “tuxedo” model, which is a sharp black and white color scheme that just pops off the pedalboard. He also included his amazing LSTR fuzz in a gorgeous, powder coated maroon enclosure.

The Pharaoh is, in a nutshell, a tricked-out hot-rodded version of the classic muff-style fuzz circuit, sharing the general overall circuit topology, but with three major areas of differentiation that offer functionality and tonal options not found on any of the production versions of that famous pedal. Let's start with input resistance switch, the "Hi/Lo" switch, which toggles between two resistors that dictate the level of guitar output signal that gets amplified by the first gain stage. The Pharaoh's "Lo" setting reduces the input stage gain quite a bit more than any of the known muff-style versions. The "Hi" setting is identical to what is present in the several of the major muff-style production versions commercially available........Click Here To Read Review!

Current Artist Feature:

Jack Pearson's versatility and skill on guitar have led to an incredible career as a “1st call” musician for artists ranging from blues, jazz, rock and country. Although most people probably associate him with the Allman Brothers Band , whom Pearson played with from 1997-1999, my first experience listening to his work came in 1996 when I purchased a CD by Jimmy Hall (ex-vocalist with the southern band Wet Willie) titled “Rendezvous With the Blues”. It turned out to be one of the best CD purchases I ever made. The music was top-notch from beginning to end, but the thing that kept capturing my attention in tune after tune was the incredible guitar playing. I looked at the insert to find out who was on guitar and saw the name “Jack Pearson”. Who?.......................For full article click on image!

Current Article Feature:

No doubt there’s tons of very cool stuff hiding in any guitar/amp rig, some of it very hard to find for all but the initiated, so IMHO it really helps to know a little bit about how your rig thinks in order to find it all. By learning how amps and guitars think in general, a lot of those knobs on the front and rear panels will make gobs more sense and will greatly increase your power to sculpt tone before you ever touch an effect. So this article is the first in a series designed to show you, sans screwdriver, how to do just that with gain structure.

Current Featured Member CD:

............."Most of us could only wish to have the technique, ease of music flow, feel and sense of when to let loose or play it tight that I hear when I listen to this CD…….or watch him on his videos. Yes, Eric Johnson lives somewhere within him, but tunes like “Swank” and “Mikey’s Bluesy Shuffle” will convince you that there far more than first meets the ears. Even if you’re not a Johnson fan, there are tunes on this CD that will blow you out of your listening chair if you have any appreciation for talented guitar playing. Let your brain feast on “Big Big Sky”, for instance. You don’t believe me? Take in the YouTube version and decide for yourself!

The limitations of low-rez audio won’t be found on the CD versions of these tunes. The production of the CD is excellent, with Michael’s guitar playing against itself as the sound moves from dead center of the soundstage to fill the room, and then slips back to the center. Drums and bass playing are spectacular, and the blend of the trio lends a sense of force and truly tight timing to the music."..............Click on photo to read review.