Vibramate SR1

128 Guitarist July 2011
QUICKTEST
MISCELLANEOUS
Quicktest
Diamond
Bottlenecks
from £9.95
Mighty Bright Two-
LED USB Light
£13.50
Lighting for your laptop…
More slides from UK bottle blowers…
CONTACT: Mighty Bright PHONE: [phone] WEB: www.mightybrightuk.co.uk
Diamond
Bottlenecks’ has
made some new
additions to its
range of slides.
First up is a ‘pill
bottle’ slide based
on the famed
Coricidin glass –
not the more
common pyrex –
cold cure bottle
used by Duane
Allman. “After
many years of
searching, we
stumbled upon a
company making soda-lime
(bottle) glass pill bottles that
we could convert easily into
the ideal, pinky-sized, pill
bottle slide,” explained DB’s
founder Ian McWee. “The
internal diameter is 18mm,
with a full slide f lat playing
surface above the lip section of
60mm. For added comfort we
drill a tiny ‘breather hole’ in
the roof to prevent stuffiness
and vacuum inside the slide.” It
costs £9.95.
There are also English lead
crystal glass tone bars –
endorsed by Bob Brozman –
designed for Weissenborn and
acoustic/electric lap-slide
players. “These are mid-weight
bars offering a smooth, warm
tone with plenty of sustain.”
says McWee. The Brozman
signature, available in various
sizes, costs £24.95; the more
colourful Flags Of The World
bar is £35.
In Use
Full and liquid sounding, the
pill bottle is a perfect gap-free
finger fit, the best of its type
we’ve encountered. The crystal
glass tone bars are lighter than
the usual chromed metal bars,
but with a beautiful molten tone
that’s smoother than metal and
fuller than ceramic.
Verdict
If you’re a slide player and DB
isn’t on your radar, then it
should be. The finest glass
slides you can buy. [DB]
The Bottom Line
We like: Idiot proof; no
batteries to forget
We dislike: Less useful for
musicians than the standard
Mighty Brights
The Bottom Line
We like: Everything!
We dislike: They can be
rather addictive…
GUITARIST RATING GUITARIST RATING
Mighty Bright makes a wide
range of LED gooseneck lights
that are perfect for illuminating
music, or indeed your
pedalboard, onstage or in a dim
rehearsal space. They pack
easily into your kit bag and run
on batteries.
The latest addition, however,
is a dead simple two-LED USB
light which, obviously, needs no
battery power and just plugs
into your USB socket. The
bendable gooseneck is around
254mm (10-inches) long, and
there’s a simple switch on the
head that houses the LEDs.
In Use
Plug into to your USB, switch
on (you have choice of two or
one LEDs for less light) and you
have bright but focused light
that really doesn’t disturb
others. The gooseneck is rigid
enough to hold the head
wherever you need it. To be
honest though, we can already
see our laptop in the dark, can’t
we? Indeed, but we’ve already
used it to illuminate notes both
in the studio and on-stage while
working with a laptop and its
especially useful for those of us
of advancing years whose sight
is perhaps not as sharp in low
lights as it used to be.
Verdict
If you’ve not already
discovered Mighty Bright and
you have to use a pad or simple
notes on-stage or in rehearsal
then you really should
investigate these lights. This
USB light seems somewhat less
essential, but it’s still been put
to very good use. Why be left in
the dark? [DB]
CONTACT: Diamond Bottlenecks PHONE: [phone] WEB: www.diamondbottlenecks.com
GIT343.rev_quick 128 5/19/11 5:06:15 PM