GW’s Paul Riario and Alan Chaput dive into the Vola Vasti KJM J1, Lava Music Lava Me 3 and Mooer GTRS guitars
It might only be the middle of winter, but 2022 is already heating up with plenty of awesome guitars, amps and accessories. To see just how hot it is, we welcome you to Guitar World’s New Year New Gear guide.
In this fifth installment, Guitar World’s Paul Riario and Alan Chaput select yet another slew of innovative super six-strings that are guaranteed to get 2022 off to a red-hot and rockin’ start.
First, we look at Vola Guitars’ Vasti KJM J1, the new signature model from award-winning French guitarist and social media star with Kaspar Jalily.
The semi-hollow six-string boasts classic looks and modern appointments, with a chambered alder body with F hole detail, a roasted maple neck and fretboard with 22 stainless steel frets and a 12-inch radius.
(Image credit: Vola Guitars)
The Vasti is available in Satin White and Satin Black finishes, and is loaded with Vola-designed handwound VHC humbuckers at the bridge and neck and a Vola VS-I single-coil in the middle position. Controls include volume and tone and a 5-way super switch with a mini switch coil tap for the humbuckers.
“Players with a traditional electric guitar language will be able to express it with ease on this guitar,” Jalily says, “while innovators will have all the tools and features to expand on their ideas.”
Next, Paul and Alan peer into the future with Lava Music’s Lava Me 3, the newest iteration in its range of Lava Me unibody carbon fiber guitars. This time out, the Lava Me 3 comes equipped with a three-and-a-half-inch multi-touch display that aims to “make guitar tools as intuitive as smartphones.”
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(Image credit: Lava Music)
It achieves this via the HILAVA operating system, which supports a set of apps that enable players to access functions like tuner, metronome, effects pedal, looper pedal and audio recorder without plugging in any external device.
Among the notable apps on tap include Effects – empowered by 50 audio algorithms – which lets users visually tweak a range of onboard sound effects, and Loops, which offers over 100 grooves of different genres that players can loop up to four tracks.
What else do you get with the Lava Me 3? How about a Practice app that features five practice modes – chord transition, strumming, scale training, ear training, and single note – and connectivity powers that lets users share their recordings to the Lava+ social media platform.
As for the guitar itself, the Lava Me 3 features key body construction upgrades, including the addition of a FreeBoost 2.0 actuator that works together with the internal honeycomb structure to boost vibrations and bass response, as well as 4-MASS technology for greater harmonic resonance in and around the soundbox.
The Lava Me 3 is available in 36-inch and 38-inch iterations, in a choice of White, Pink, Soft Gold, Blue, Red and Space Gray finishes, and comes equipped with a Plek machine-leveled HPL fretboard.
(Image credit: Mooer)
Finally, Paul and Alan continue their futuristic guitar explorations with Mooer’s GTRS. The company’s first six-string, the GTRS offers a complete, lightweight digital and analog guitar system built from the ground up.
It’s a one-of-a-kind guitar equipped with GTRS Intelligent Processor System, designed to function with a dedicated mobile app to offer seamless integration of classic guitar stylings and modern digital simulation technology.
Utilizing something called the Super-Knob, GTRS can quickly adapt to a variety of scenarios with the press of a button. A wireless footswitch, meanwhile, is also available to provide complete control of your tone during live performance, recording or practice sessions.
The GTRS Standard 800 model features an American basswood body, roasted maple neck and a rosewood fingerboard that provides all of the functionality of a normal guitar when the GTRS intelligent process system is turned off. The S-S-H alnico V pickup configuration offers plenty of tonal versatility, while the volume and tone knobs, as well as the pickup switch, can be used to tweak your sound without worrying about battery life or other digital aspects of the GTRS guitar.
The free GTRS app, meanwhile, offers up a wide variety of tools to shape guitar tones and aid in live streaming, recording, and practice.
To find out more about Mooer’s GTRS and all this amazing gear, check out the video above.
Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
