Artists

Here are some short clips Andrew recorded on his Aiken Sabre, along with his comments for each track description. All clips were recorded dry, straight into the board. A touch of reverb was added afterward for ambience. The speaker cabinet was a Bogner Cube 1x12, loaded with a Celestion Vintage 30, miked with a Shure SM57. The tone controls were set flat for all clips, i.e. straight up on all tone controls and presence. Guitars were a Tom Anderson Classic Strat and a PRS Custom 24. All clips are 44.1kHz 256kbit MP3

Track 1: AC/DC type Crunch - gain channel, boost off, gain maxed, PRS bridge pickup (815k)
Track 1 dry: (mono, no reverb) (410k)

Track 2: Carlton-ish - gain channel, boost off, gain set at 12 o'clock, Strat neck pickup, really shows off the touch sensitivity of the amp. (1.4Meg)
Track 2 dry: (mono, no reverb) (712k)

Track 3: Country - clean channel, bright switch on , gain set at 1 o'clock, Strat bridge pickup (378k)
Track 3 dry: (mono, no reverb) (198k)

Track 4: Lead - gain channel, boost on, gain maxed out, PRS bridge pickup (565k)
Track 4 dry: (mono, no reverb) (288k)

Track 5: Blues Strat - clean channel, bright switch off, gain maxed out, Strat neck pickup (272k)
Track 5 dry: (mono, no reverb) (142k)

Track 6: Plexi Strat - gain channel, boost off, gain at 2 o'clock, Strat in-between setting (1.3Meg)
Track 6 dry: (mono, no reverb) (669k)

Track 7: Quack Strat: - clean channel, bright switch off, gain set at 12 o'clock, Strat in-between setting. (895k)
Track 7 dry: (mono, no reverb) (449k)

Here are some additional Sabre clips made by Andrew Synowiec. Be sure to check out the last two examples on this page to hear complete songs Andrew produced using the Sabre:

More Synowiec Sabre clips

Rod Welles of Julie Stewart and The Motor Kings

Originally from Boston Massachusetts, Roddy’s musical world now spans more than 45 years. He has been on 10 different recording labels, working with various bands and singers, and has recorded numerous tunes for radio and TV ads. His live performances are now numbered into the thousands throughout the states. He has been on over 100 CD’s & records over the years because of his unique style of lead and slide guitar playing.

Rod’s Solo Instrumental CD, Get The Red Out, was voted one of the top five CD’s of local Boston releases in 2000. Some of the artists Roddy has played with include Dave Brubeck, Billy Squier, John Butcher Axis, The Fools, The Stompers, Face to Face, The Del Fuego’s, Nevada Beach, Rosie, The Divas of Gospel, The Free, The Nitty Grity Dirt Band, Tommy Bolen, Sons of Champlan, The Outlaws, the Monkees and The Mighty Sam McClain.

Rod currently is playing a Sabre 50W head through a 2x12 open-back cabinet loaded with 75Hz Scumback speakers, which will be featured on the upcoming CD.

Website: motorkings.com

Arthur Lynn of ANGIESCREAMS

and his ultra-cool white Intruder live at the Knitting Factory:

Website: http://www.angiescreams.com
Myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/angiescreams (sound clips of the new EP featuring Arthur and his Intruder are on this site)

Rob Gainey of Burnin' Sky

Burnin' Sky is a Paul Rodgers/Bad Company tribute band based in Hollywood, CA. Lead guitarist Rob Gainey plays an Aiken Sabre 50W head through his own custom "T-Rex" 6-12 speaker cabinet - that's right, six 12" speakers! Check out their website for streaming video of their debut gig and hear this cab in action wth the Sabre and Rob's Telecaster.

Website: http://myspace.com/burninsky

Joe King of The Mark Hodgson Blues Band

Joe King is a master blues artist (but not limited to blues - he plays rock, soul, blues, and jazz as well).

Here's a link to a few videos of Mighty Joe King in action at Daytona in 2006 with his Nash strat and an Aiken Sabre head, showing the bluesier side of the Sabre. The Nash has Rio Grande Vintage Tallboys in neck, middle and a Rio Grande Halfbreed in the bridge position. Joe used two mics on the speaker. A Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser e905 into a digital recorder.

Ever loved a woman

Voodoo Child

Walkin' The Dog

If you've ever wondered what the Beach Boys would sound like had they been born a generation later, this is it! Complex, multi-part vocal harmonies (very Beatle-esque, with some Queen influences as well), combined with catchy tunes and very tasty guitar playing by Matt McCloskey (lead vocalist and guitarist on all tracks). The entire album was recorded using Matt's 18W Invader 1x12 combo.

In Matt's own words, this is how the album tracks were recorded: "The guitar was a Tom Anderson Classic with hum/single/hum configuration. The overdriven guitars were all the bridge pickup. Clean tones (on track 1 - Someday I'll Find It) were done with my Suhr Classic in bridge position single coil. I went straight to the amp with a George L's cable. Clean was in Plexi mode, no attenuation, volume 1 at about 9 oclock. Overdriven rhythms were done in Ali mode with both volumes at about noon. Leads were in Ali mode with volume 1 at about 2-3 o'clock, volume 2 at around 11 o'clock. The single Greenback was mic'd with an SM57, on the cone slightly off center. Run through an Avalon M5 mic pre, into Digital Performer on a Mac. Leads and clean tones use a touch of digital room reverb, rhythms are dry."

Following are some sound clips contributed by some of our customers. Unless indicated, these are not professionally recorded, but they should give you an idea of the basic tone of the amplifier.

Amplifier:         Sabre
Contributor:    Brent Pearcy
Recording setup: For the high gain rhythms I used a stock EBMM Axis for the leads. Clean and greasy bluesy stuff I used a Fat strat (HSS) with floyd bridge Pickups in it or SD Custom Custom and stock Fender single coils. I used two Bogner 412s one was loaded with Greenbacks the other with G12H30s. The mics used were a Sennheiser e609 and Shure SM57. For settings:

All high gain parts including leads:
    Pres-10:30, Master-10:30, Treb-1:00, Mids-12:00, Bass-1:00, Gain-2:45
Clean:
    Master-2:00, Treb-10:30, Mids-11:00, Bass-3:00, Gain-1:00 Bright OFF with Pres-10:30
Bluesy:
    Same as Clean except Gain maxed, Master 10:00 and Roccaforte Bastard volume boost pedal.

Aliken Sabre demo by Brent Pearcy

Amplifier:         Tomcat
Contributor:    Dave Leslie
Recording setup: Sound card into a computer

Clip 1:   This is a Les Paul into a Tomcat, using a greenback-loaded cabinet, with the volume on 4 and the gain boost "on", with the attenuator set at -9dB.   This clip shows the amount of gain available in the boost mode.

Clip 2:   This is a Strat into a Tomcat, showing the clean tones available.

Clip 3:   This is a Les Paul into a Tomcat, using a Celestion G12H30 speaker.

Clip 4:   This is a Les Paul into a Tomcat, using a Celestion Alnico blue speaker.

Amplifier:         Tomcat
Contributor:     Leon Chalnick
Recording setup (first two clips):   SM57 and Marshall Elec compressor mic, Behringer Eurotrack MX802A mixer, Cakewalk.

Clip 1:   This is Leon's take on a Van Halen tune, using a PRS CE24 on the bridge pickup directly into a Tomcat, using a Bogner Shiva 1x12 cab loaded with a G12H30. This was recorded at a very low volume, with the attenuator all the down to the "VAR" setting, and the variable control down to halfway.   Volume on around 4:00 , gain boost on.

Clip 2:   Here is a classic Hendrix tune, using a Strat into a Tomcat..   The speaker is again the Bogner Shiva 1x12 loaded with a G12H30. Volume was set around 12:00, gain boost off. The gain boost is engaged during the solo.

The following video clips are DivX-encoded, and you may need the DivX player to be able to see them (you should be able to hear them with the Windows Media Player). The DivX player can be downloaded from this link: http://download.divx.com/divx/DivX511.exe .

Clip 3:   Here is a live video clip (.avi) of Santana's Black Magic Woman (15MB!) featuring the Tomcat in a wet/dry effects setup. The dry signal from the Tomcat goes into a Bogner 1x12 Shiva cabinet loaded with a Classic Lead 80 and the effects (wet) go into a power amp into two /13 1x12 cabs loaded with Weber Blue Dogs. The Tomcat's attenuator is on -6dB (2 clicks down).

Clip 4:   Here is a live video clip (.avi) of Gary Moore's "Still Got The Blues" (5.4MB) featuring the Tomcat in a wet/dry effects setup. The dry signal from the Tomcat goes into a Bogner 1x12 Shiva cabinet loaded with a Classic Lead 80 and the effects (wet) go into a power amp into two /13 1x12 cabs loaded with Weber Blue Dogs. The Tomcat's attenuator is on -6dB (2 clicks down).

Clip 5:   Here is a live video clip (.avi) of Santana's "Oye Como Va" (8.5MB) featuring the Tomcat in a wet/dry effects setup. The dry signal from the Tomcat goes into a Bogner 1x12 Shiva cabinet loaded with a Classic Lead 80 and the effects (wet) go into a power amp into two /13 1x12 cabs loaded with Weber Blue Dogs. The Tomcat's attenuator is on -6dB (2 clicks down).

Amplifier:         Invader MKII 50 (a custom 30W MKII model modded with a higher voltage power transformer for 50W output)
Contributor:     Joe Davies
Recording setup:   Nuendo

Clip 1:   This is a blues shuffle recorded by Joe using a Warmoth strat with Bill Lawrence pickups.   It showcases Joe's excellent phrasing and unique style in a blues context.