The Fender 30 pin to USB cable for the iOS Strat

This Christmas my wife gave me the ultimate surprise gift, a Fender Squire Strat. Now being the tech/guitar geek I am, she did not get me just any Strat, it was the Fender Squire iOS Strat. What boggled my mind most about this guitar is that how did my two favorite companies come together to make a product and I did not know it even existed? As I unwrapped this guitar I could not have been more surprised and curious. I carefully unpacked the guitar and began to inspect every inch of it. Squire is not a brand that I run to because of pa

Close up of the iOS Strat body

st experiences with lack of quality, but I knew that they had made a lot of changes in recent years and I wanted to see what kind of detail went into this guitar. After all, Apple is one nit picky company, so this should be pretty good, right?

As I poured over every detail on the guitar I became more and more impressed. For a guitar that I would consider a budget or entry level guitar, this was one well put together instrument. The finish is absolutely beautiful, so much so I am curious to know if this was on of the “photo finishes” that Fender had perfected in the late 90′s. The neck felt great and has a nice gloss finish, which I prefer when it comes to necks. My only complaint with the entire guitar is that the frets were sharp and in need of dressing, but this is something I am used to with guitars in this price range. A quick trip to my favorite guitar shop, Pittsburgh Guitars, and the guitar was good to go.

Back of the iOS Strat

While it is still a fully functional traditional guitar, what really sets this guitar apart is it’s direct connectivity with the iOS. At the bottom of the guitar near the strap button are a USB and headphone jack for connecting the included USB to 30 pin Apple Dock connector or standard USB cable to your iOS device or your computer. So after I finished going over every inch of the guitar, I put that USB connection to the test. I plugged it into my iPhone and then launched the Agile Partners Ampkit app and I have to say that I was quite pleased with the sound. Up to getting this guitar I had been using the Apogee Jam as my iOS interface. I really like the Apogee because it is a clean sound and it works with any guitar and I have to say that the USB connection on the iOS Strat is just as clean of a signal. I also like how the iOS Strat has a headphone jack on the bottom of it for monitoring and you can control that jack with a volume knob on the guitar itself.

The bottom line on this guitar is that it raises the bar for entry level guitars. While it is still budget priced, it has a lot to offer in quality, playability and sound. With just a minor set up, this guitar plays as well as any guitar I own and it plugs right into my iPhone or iPad, which makes it the perfect practice and songwriting guitar. I made a couple quick audio samples and posted them to sound cloud. you can listen below.

Death By Audio Soundwave Breakdown

One of the benefits of my day job is that from time to time I get to travel. Any time I travel I like to check out the local guitar shops. It's fun to see what other areas have to offer and I get to compare my home market to other Markets. Most of the time, my home market wins out. Pittsburgh really does have a great selection of guitar shops, but every now and then there are a couple areas where I wish we had more focus, so to close out International Guitar Month I want to feature a shop that I discovered on a business trip to Chicago in January this year.

Every time I go to Chicago, I am working well outside of the downtown area. This last time through the opportunity presented itself to drive downtown with a colleague for dinner so I jumped at the opportunity to head into Chicago and hopefully check out a downtown guitar shop. The shop I got to visit was Rock N Roll Vintage in Lincoln square. This shop was not actually my first choice, or even my second choice to check out. I had never heard of it before, but had discovered it earlier that same morning while surfing the Death By Audio page looking for dealers. If you are not familiar with them, Death By Audio makes some really out there sounding pedals, call it a unquie twist on the traditional. I had been wanting to try one of their pedals for a few years, so when I found a local dealer, I decided to head down and check it out.

The store is in a loft, which means it it is either going to look like a warehouse or be a really cool space. I am pleased to report it is a really cool space! Walking in it just has a cool vibe. You look around and you are immediately going to see quite an array of vintage and new instruments. I was very impressed with the inventory. Not only did they have the beautiful vintage Les Paul's and Strat's, they also had some unique instruments that I did not expect like the Ibanez Jem 777 in Desert Yellow. They even had a machine gun guitar similar to what Kane Roberts used in his Alice Cooper days. They also have a dedicated room just for acoustics. The store did not look as large as it actually was and they had inventory everywhere!

I read the website wrong and got there right at closing, but luckily for me the staff was super cool and let me hang out to try a couple pedals. Let me just start by saying there pedal selection was fantastic! They had many pedals that I cannot get in my home market and have only seen online. In addition to the Death By Audio line that I went there to see, they also had Earth Quaker, Idiot Box, and WMD just to name a few. I tried out the Earthquaker Dispacth Master, the Death By Audio Soundwave Breakdown, and another Death By Audio fuzz that I cannot remember the name of. I ended up going home with the Soundwave Breakdown pedal that night. I want to publicly thank the staff for being so cool and staying open longer for me to try out those pedals. Having worked retail for 10 years I know what a drag it can be when you want to close up shop and a customer comes in at the last minute, so I really appreciate when any retail store makes the effort to stay open for a customer.

I really enjoyed the short visit I had to Rock N Roll Vintage and I really hope to make back on my next trip to Chicago. It is a great store with a great staff and a great selection of pedals. So this wraps up my international Guitar Month Guitar Shop features and I hoped you have enjoyed reading them as much as I have enjoyed writing them. With any luck maybe I will get to visit a few more shops this year and write about them too!

It’s no secret that I love Apple products and creating music with those products. I am especially fond of creating music on Apple’s mobile products like the iPad and iPhone. I am constantly trying out new apps for recording, amp sounds, synths, etc… One thing that was alway lack was a good way to get a good sound into the iPad to use all these great amps. I tried all the solutions that sprung up fast like the iRig or the Peavey Ampkit link, and even the Griffin all in one guitar cable. All are good solutions, but they all add noise on the way in. So on the recommendation of Sue over at Rage and Apathy, I decided to try out the Apogee Jam.

The Jam has a street price of $99.99 which puts it about $60 more than the average interface on the market. After using it I can say it is worth it. For starters not only does it have a solid interface for a standard size guitar cable that plugs into the 30 pin dock connector on any compatible iOS device, it also doubles as an interface for your Apple computer as well. The box that you plug your guitar cable into is lightweight, yet feels solid. It also has a volume control right on the side for adjust the level coming into the iOS device. It connects quickly and easily and has worked with every app I have tried it with. When this interface really shines is the sound. It is a very pure and clean sound. The main app I use it with is the Agile Partners and Peavey Ampkit. The Ampkit app has some really great sounds, and those sounds got even better once I started using the Jam. The Jam is such a clear interface that I have been able to turn off the noise gate in the Ampkit app with little to no hiss(depending on the guitar I use).

The bottom line for me on this interface is that even though it is a little on the pricey side, it really is worth the money. You can’t beat the sound quality and since it is so easy to use I have found myself using it more, trying out different guitars, and just making more music. And anything that gets you making music is a good purchase in my book.

Marshall Vibratrem

Growing up north of Pittsburgh, there were not a lot of local guitar shops available to me. We had a few, and they did have some decent stuff, but overall the selection was limited. I learned quickly that if I wanted a large selection gear I needed t head into the city. That did not keep me from checking out the local shops and I am pleased to say that the local shops got better over the years as they found their niche. Just when I had gotten used to what the local shops had to offer, About two years ago a new shop opened called Sloan’s Guitar Emporium and brought a new approach to my local area.

Sloan’s was really a breath of fresh air. While other shops in the area have guitars, but also pianos, band instruments, etc., Sloan’s focuses solely on guitar and bass. You walk in the shop and lines guitars catch your eye. Right away you will notice the uniqueness of what this shop has

Even the Box is in good shape!

to offer. They are primarily a used shop with some new gear, but where they set themselves apart is the quality and types of used gear that they carry.

The owner is very selective about the gear that he buys and carries in his store, so when you look at the beautiful display of guitars on the walls, you would not even realized that they are actually used instruments. This is especially true of his pedal selection. Most stores that carry used effects pedals have a couple pedals that appear to be in good shape, but the others are normally so worn out you barley even make out what the pedal was. The knobs are bent, the pots are scratchy, and the effect is luck to turn on. This is absolutely not the case at Sloan’s. The selection is great and it is always changing. It covered everything from the standard Boss pedals to custom modded pedals, and they all look almost new. I have bout two pedals from them that were in fantastic shape. My first purchase was when my son and I were out shopping and stooped into the store to see what they had and I came across a Digitech Whammy pedal. I could not believe how new it looked and it even had the original box. The second pedal I picked up was a Marshall Vibratrem. This is a pedal that has been on my radar for about a year, but I could not find any in good shape that actually worked. I walked into Sloan’s and found exactly that! The Vibratrem I purchased from them was in great shape and worked beautifully.

Sloan’s is located North of the city of Butler, near the Clearview Mall. If you are in the market for a used pedal and cannot find what you want, give Sloan’s Guitar Emporium a call!