November 2020 is mostly about what didn’t arrive this month, alas.
I ordered a couple of cool pedals from Italy at the end of October, and they only just didn’t make the cut (they arrived 1st December 2020). They’ve both awesome pedals, and I’ll have a lot more to say about them soon.
Another shipping target for the Neural DSP Quad Cortex has been and gone. Both the first and second batch were expected to be in backers’ hands this month, but once again that didn’t happen. With Christmas right around the corner, this is surely going to slip into 2021 now.
The other thing that didn’t arrive? This post. It disappeared without trace from WordPress. Twice. That’s happened a few times in recent weeks. Not yet sure whether it’s WordPress or my new hosting arrangements.
So what did arrive? I got a couple of cool things. Oh, and the world got several COVID19 vaccines too 🙂
Wampler Belle Overdrive Pedal in Claymore Finish
Back in October, Brian Wampler released the Wampler Bell, a new mini-overdrive pedal based on the legendary Nobels ODR-1 drive pedal. The month before that, he took orders for a limited run of these pedals in the Claymore finish, in tribute to the late Alex Abernathy Clay. It’s the exact same circuit as the Wampler Belle, just in a different finish.
I’ll talk more about Alex in the full write-up of this pedal. Suffice to say, he was taken from us too soon, and he’s sorely missed by everyone who knew him and everyone who hung out in the Wampler Tone Group over on Facebook.
As for the Belle itself, here are my First Impressions.
L.R. Baggs Align Series Session Pedal For Acoustic Guitar
I’m not entirely sure when we’ll be able to get out and gig again – it could easily be 2022 before it’s safe enough to do so. I’m missing both rehearsing and gigging very badly, and I need something to look forward to.
So I’ve decided to start putting together an acoustic pedal board for when that day comes. And it’s going to populated largely with pedals from the Align series.
The Session is a combined compressor, sort-of EQ and saturation pedal. As far as I can tell, the basic idea here is to sweeten up and smooth out the signal so that it’s a little less raw for the audience.
I’m not really going to have much else to say about this until I get out and gig with it.