New Millennium Guitar started as a website devoted to the classical guitar but as I find myself more than a classical guitarist my product interests follows suit.

As we have seen, over decades of development with the "popular" guitar, an array of composers and performers that push the limits of tonal and popular music into the realm of composition. One need not go beyond Robert Fripp and King Crimson's various incarnations to see that the electric guitar and rock configured ensemble is an ample platform for composition.

When I left electric guitar to pursue classical guitar and music the simplicity of amplification was the tube or transistor amp and noisy stomp boxes. As I reentered electric guitar, in the early 1990s and as a classical instrument with a transducer nut for yielding the logarithmic inversion of the fretting system and processors for part of my master's thesis at California Institute of the Arts, things had vastly changed since 1979.

Using quality studio processors, of course, naturally abates noise, and I had the use of many fine studio processors at Cal Arts. Noise gates in these processors worked to a certain point but the more you add in the way of signal path and the rather primitive noise reduction in these processors, the spaces between the notes and the attack of the notes themselves presented a no-man's-land of artificial sonic questionability that would sap your original intent.

The Theta Guitar Amplifier is a wonder of a piece of gear! Endorsed by none other than Steve Lukather, from Toto, it is no wonder that this piece of gear has such an illustrious endorsee.

The Theta is an over the top amplifier. It incorporates dual front-end preamplifiers, with pre and post gain tone, and in the distortion channel more gain than any amplifier we've heard at New Millennium Guitar.

As only with a solid-state amplifier, the distortion tracks phenomenal speeds of picking without any tube harmonics that will bog down articulation. This amplifier slices the fastest of picking clearly and articulately like nothing we've heard!

This in itself is worth the money and there are amplifiers that come some distance in the capability although not winning the race with the ISP Theta. With the high level of distortion comes noise and this is another area where ISP Technologies is unbeatable.

"The Decimator, as explained by ISP Technologies uses a high quality voltage controlled amplifier that is controlled by an RMS based audio level detection circuit. A Time Vector Processing circuit is used, which varies the release response over 1000 to 1 ratio and controls the release response of the Downward Expander. The release response will be extremely fast on the order of 2 milliseconds… downward expansion takes place when the input signal level drops below the preset threshold."

In simple layman's terms you can saturate the gain to the max, add processors to the signal and it is dead quiet. You can stop on a dime and it is dead quiet. It is the absolute best noise reduction available in any amplifier.

"The THETA HEAD offers a unique approach to the guitar amplifier, providing two selectable input pre-distort preamplifiers. Using the THETA head is like having two low-noise, extremely high quality preamp pedals at the input of the amplifier. Each front-end pre-amp has gain, bass, mid level, mid sweep and treble which provides amazing pre-distort tone shaping. The amplifiers' "Clean" and "Distort" circuits have the same post distort tone shaping. Tone beyond your wildest dreams! No other amplifier, Tube, Solid State or Digital even comes close to the sonic flexibility of the THETA. The Clean channel has additional tone shaping with the inclusion of a Presence control providing more than 20db of high frequency boost. You want gain? The THETA literally has more gain available than any amplifier ever produced with greater than 140db of gain and you can control it and make it useable only because we've included dual independent full-featured Decimator Noise Reduction systems. The THETA is the first amplifier to incorporate "Dynamic Saturation Modulation" (tm), which delivers the actual feel of a saturated tube power amplifier. The THETA also packs a huge punch; the internal D-CAT power amplifier delivers more than 300 watts RMS into a 4-ohm load and 150 watts into an 8-ohm load. Derek Bowers, renowned IC design engineer from Analog Devices and Buck Waller of ISP Technologies, developed the patent pending D-CAT power amplifier technology. The D-CAT is a super high current power amplifier technology capable of driving a .5-ohm load. This means that the D-CAT amplifier delivers better transient response and punch than any other amplifier technology."

"The patents pending VECTOR SL(tm) 600 WATT ACTIVE GUITAR SUBWOOFER was developed in collaboration with one of the greatest and most prolific guitarists of our era: Steve Lukather. Because of a long-standing relationship with Buck Waller of ISP Technologies, Luke came to Buck with his desire to see a guitar subwoofer that would work with any guitar system. Based on specific inputs from Lukather, ISP engineers have designed the perfect complement for any guitar setup: the VECTOR SL. Years of experience in designing the highest performance Active Sound Reinforcement cabinets has allowed ISP Technologies engineers to develop the ultimate Active guitar subwoofer. The VECTOR SL incorporates ISP's patent pending D-CAT power amplifier technology with greater than 600 watts of RMS power. Connect the output of any guitar head to the VECTOR SL and plug in your favorite speaker cabinet and your supercharged Lukather VECTOR SL system is ready to ROCK.

The subwoofer level is adjustable via the sub level control on the back of the VECTOR SL cabinet. The internal 600-WATT RMS Active 15-inch subwoofer delivers more deep, low end punch than any other guitar subwoofer cabinet available. The VECTOR SL subwoofer extends your bottom end all the way down to 45Hz delivering enough low-end bass to match the frequency response of any 7-string guitar. Tune down as far as you want and the VECTOR SL continues to perform. To all this performance add three-way power amplifier protection and you have the most reliable active guitar subwoofer system ever made. The VECTOR SL's internal D-CAT amplifier has global thermal protection, thermal protection built in the power transformer, and an on board distortion limiter circuit to eliminate the possibility of feeding square waves to the woofer. This means that, as long and hard as you drive the VECTOR SL, even to its maximum limits, you never have to worry about failures."

"ISP Technologies introduces the GX4x12ST! This awesome 4x12 strait cabinet can handle tons of power! Up to 300 watts total RMS power at an 8-ohm load, it's enough to knock any player back a few steps. The cabinet features four, G12T-75 Celestion speakers that just make these cabinets' tone a thing of undeniable beauty. Tear Drop handles for comfortable lifting and heavy-duty metal castors for easy portability. Constructed from rock solid Baltic Birch plywood, and painted with a black Vortex lining, these cabinets are as tough and durable as you can get 'em! Hook one of these monsters up to a 300 watt ISP Theta Solid State amp head to maximize the cabinets output and performance!"

What this all translates to is an enormous sound with bottom end "THUMP!" For de-tuners, 7-string players and those who want overall earth shaking bottom end there is absolutely nothing on the market like this package! Recently introduced at the Winter 2007 NAMM show, New Millennium Guitar couldn't resist becoming the first dealer of ISP Technologies' Theta Head with the GX4x12ST cabinet and the ground shaking Vector Active Guitar Subwoofer System.

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