Hey everyone, Andy here with Noisegate! After spotting the brand-new Two Notes Reload 2 at the Melbourne Guitar Show, I knew we had to get hands-on with it. I asked the team at Two Notes very nicely (and maybe with a little bit of begging!), and they let us borrow one to dive deep. Let me tell you – this thing is seriously impressive. The Reload 2 isn’t just another reactive load box. It’s a complete reimagining of what a load box can be for home recording, live gigs, and studio use. Stereo operation, built-in stereo effects loop, wet/dry/wet mixing,…
Author: Andy Mc
The Melbourne Guitar Show 2025 brought some of the biggest brands and latest releases to Australian musicians. From high-end custom guitars and cutting-edge amp modeling tech to innovative pedals and local builders, there was no shortage of exciting new gear. We hit the show floor to check out the latest from Gibson, Fender, ESP, Ibanez, Blackstar, Vox, Digitech, Neural DSP, and more—here’s everything you need to know! https://youtu.be/UZny7_wwGOA Gibson Custom Shop – Iconic Designs & Lightweight Les Pauls Gibson had a stacked lineup of Custom Shop models, showcasing vintage recreations and modern innovations. Gibson Custom Shop Explorer “Big Ed” 💰…
Practicing to a metronome is one of those things we all know we should do, but let’s be real—it can get boring fast. Sure, we could use a DAW click track, but more often than not, it just feels easier to skip it and jump straight into playing. Enter the Korg KR-11 Rhythm Box, a compact metronome-meets-drum-machine designed to make practice sessions way more engaging. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDY0cis4Clc Key Features of the Korg KR-11 Metronome + Drum Machine – Pre-programmed drum grooves make practicing more musical. Multiple Styles – Includes rock, blues, R&B, jazz, Latin, EDM, odd time signatures, and more.…
Vox just dropped a wah pedal that feels like it should have existed years ago! 🎛️ The V863 Custom Auto Wah blends classic Vox wah tones with a built-in auto-wah mode, making it one of the most versatile wah pedals we’ve seen in a while. Wah pedals have been a staple for decades, but Vox has finally created one that seamlessly switches between manual and automatic control—and the results are seriously cool. https://youtu.be/4oyFCVExTvg Key Features of the Vox V863 Custom Auto Wah Classic Vox Wah Meets Auto Wah – Switch between traditional sweep and envelope-controlled auto-wah. Multiple Modes – Envelope…
Universal Audio is back with something that might catch your ear—literally. They’ve just dropped the UAFX Enigmatic ’82 Overdrive Special Amp, a pedal that aims to bring the iconic tones of the elusive Overdrive Special amps—famous for being used by the likes of John Mayer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Santana—right to your pedalboard. If you’re into rich, responsive tones, check out our video below, where Andy takes you through the whole pedal. https://youtu.be/ThCTEUGM4uY?si=MLxWoIitscJ99W2w What You Need to Know: Classic Amp Tones: It captures the distinct sounds of the Overdrive Special amps from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. Dual-Engine Power: UA’s…
We’re always on the hunt for a guitar that effortlessly combines modern tones with the timeless allure and attractiveness of classic design, so naturally, the Vox Bobcat S66 springs to mind. This guitar is a bit of a gem in the world of guitars with its unique sound, and although it may look like a standard semi-hollow body guitar like your Gibson 335 and your Gretsch’s, it has some unique features that are bound to pick your ears. The Bobcat was originally produced in Italy during the mid-1960s and it featured the same unusual three original single coil pickup configuration…
It felt like we hardly finished the video on the new UAFX Max, Galaxy and Del-Verb pedals when we at Noisegate got word that there were some new new UAFX pedals for us to check out! Like many others, a new release from Universal Audio always piques our interest so it is with great pleasure that we present this sneak peak of the brand-new UAFX Compact Series. https://youtu.be/QvM4_tuqWEI The first release of the UA Compact series contains four pedals: the 1176 compressor, Orion tape delay, Evermore studio reverb and the Heavenly plate reverb. We were lucky enough to get a…
The guitar and audio world seemed to be obsessed with the past, in my opinion. We live in our heads in a time where there was all the Brazilian rosewood we wanted, where the BC108 and JRC4558 chips for our fuzz faces and tubescreamers are easy to come by, and where ‘50’s wiring’ is just called ‘wiring’. In our heads, this historical place is tone nirvana. We can buy 50’s Les Pauls, 60’s Strats and 70’s Marshalls for a reasonable price. What we seem to have forgotten, however, is that our original pedals are robbing our guitar of high-end because…
How can we make any affordable guitar sound even better? Well, a good place to start is with the pickups! For the beginner and intermediate guitarist, the quality and choice of instruments available today have never been better. Seymour Duncan is a name synonymous with guitar pickups since its inception in the mid-70s – the JB, the Invader, the Antiquity, and the Quarter Pound are all well-known for their incredible tones. Recently, Seymour Duncan released the Psychedelic and the Scooped strat sets. These are a great set of quality pick-ups that can hot rod an entry-level guitar into a tone…
Blackstar has announced AMPED 3, their third AMPED release in their series of pedalboard amplifiers. Much like its predecessors, the AMPED 3 features a 100w amplifier switchable down to 20 and 1 watt, a plethora of ins and outs including MIDI, USB, XLR and the ability to power a cab or run direct to a PA! AMPED 3 distinguishes itself from its siblings by including a foot-switchable multi-channel amp with reverb and a switchable boost to complement the excellent tone we’ve come to expect from this series. Have a look at our video review of the AMPED 3 below, and…
