Acme iR-5b Barrel Scanner

Advantages: Across the board competence. Nice tone, good build.
Disadvantages: Intonation suspect, a safe choice - nothing spectacular.

...A little history: Buffet, as the name suggests, were founded in France and are still manufactured there today. However, only a few decades ago, they were absorbed by the student music giant Boosey & Hawkes. In the title is said Buffet are mass-produced - this is not strictly true. What I mean is that Buffet churn out hundreds and hundreds of clarinets, and try to cater across the board. They do however spend a lot of time on the instruments - in the Buffet factory, there is one guy whose job is to test barrels. He has a clarinet, picks up a barrel from the barrel bucket, and puts it on. He plays for a bit, then changes the barrel position by a miniscule amount, and plays some more. When he has found the best position, he stamps the logo on it. That's the level of detail on these clarinets. Here's an overview: Entry... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Lots of interesting music, and many different instruments
Disadvantages: Is seen as a kids instrument, often not taken seriously

...tootling experimenters (like myself). If you just want a small, fairly easy instrument to get a simple tune out of, I would steer towards the penny whistle before the recorder, as it is easier to play, and rarely has tuning difficulties as recorders occasionally do. If your recorder is out of tune with other instruments you are playing with, you can alter the pitch by pulling out or pushing in the barrel of the recorder. Since you are effectively lengthening or shortening the instrument, this makes the sound higher (if shortened) or lower (if lengthened) as described earlier. However, if you are looking for an interesting option in instrumental playing, and aren't too concerned with missing out on orchestral playing, then the recorder is an original and satisfying choice. You can also spend many hours arguing with cynics that you are... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Amazing sound, cool looking imo and affordable
Disadvantages: Some might not like the look of it and construction quality uneven.

...First of all, I'd just like to point out the this is not really a Les Paul Standard. It is the Les Paul Menace which as a bit hotter pick-ups and kind of a raw (like the title say) version of the standard Les Paul. I'll start by a little description just for the sake of giving you an overview of the guitar. The Look: It's only available in Flat Black (almost see-through), as a brass fist inlay on the fifth fret, tribal routings all around the body and near the tailpiece and switches. The Hardware: A Mahogany body and maple top, Ebony fretboard. special smoky-coil 490R & 498T brass stud humbuckers, Grover tuners and Tune-o-matic bridge. Came with a Gibson solid case. Now onto my experience with this baby, I bought it about 5 months ago and love it since the moment I laid my dirty hands on it. It's not really because of the beauty... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful