Earlier this week, I picked up a second hand Cash Cow drive pedal from Danelectro’s Billionaire range. How have I gotten on with it? Here are my first impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Danelectro Cash Cow Drive Pedal”Studio Diary #18: Recreating The Sound Of My Speaker Cabs Using Celestion Impulse Responses
Now that I’ve added the Two Notes Torpedo CAB M to my setup, the next challenge is to set it up to sound like my actual speaker cabs do.
One day, I want to make my own impulse responses of my speaker cabs. I want to be able to share them with you, so that you can recreate the signal chain I use for yourself. That’s something I can’t do with any impulse responses that I buy.
I’m going to be using Celestion’s official impulse responses on the CAB M, until I can replace them with my own impulse responses.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #18: Recreating The Sound Of My Speaker Cabs Using Celestion Impulse Responses”Studio Diary #17: Getting A Better Recorded Guitar Tone By Using Impulse Responses In The Right Place
The whole point of last autumn’s home studio revamp was to get things to the point where I could start recording music again. However, as I mentioned in my 2019 review of the home studio gear, I wasn’t sure I’d got my signal chain order sorted out.
It was a good call.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #17: Getting A Better Recorded Guitar Tone By Using Impulse Responses In The Right Place”First Impressions: Lovepedal 4-Knob Brownface Deluxe Overdrive Pedal
I’ve just picked up a second-hand Brownface Deluxe Overdrive pedal off eBay. What do I think of it? Here’s my first impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Lovepedal 4-Knob Brownface Deluxe Overdrive Pedal”First Impressions: Two Notes Torpedo CAB M
The Two Notes Torpedo CAB M is a little computer in a pedal. The whole point of it is that you don’t need to mic up an actual guitar cabinet to get a great guitar tone. Instead, it uses impulse responses to emulate what a cab & mic does to the signal from your amp.
I recently bought one to add to my home studio setup. I’m going to be using it to help me record electric guitar. I spent an evening after work getting it setup and dialled in, and then returned to it the following day for several hours.
How did it go?
NB: I’ve updated this article with some corrections. You’ll find the corrections in [square brackets].
Continue reading “First Impressions: Two Notes Torpedo CAB M”New Arrivals For January 2020
Almost no new gear for me, this month. The gear budget had to go on some urgent car maintenance instead. I can’t complain; the car’s been almost completely trouble-free until now. It’s just one of those things as it gets older (120,000 miles and counting!)
I don’t feel that I missed out, though. Volumes on eBay are definitely up, but not back to the levels of a year ago. If anything, there’s been more interesting guitars than interesting (to me!) pedals … and plenty of people piling on and bidding hard on those pedals.
A couple of items I’d ordered last year did arrive this month. Here’s what I got.
Continue reading “New Arrivals For January 2020”#HomeTone Thoughts Before Winter NAMM 2020
Winter NAMM is almost here. It’s one of the most high-profile guitars & gear trade shows in the world, and traditionally, many manufacturers use it to announce or launch their major new products of the year.
YouTube is going to be dominated by NAMM show floor coverage for the next few weeks. If you want to see everything that will be displayed at the show, subscribe to one of the YouTube channels I recently recommended.
From a #HomeTone perspective, what are the gaps in the market that I’m hoping to see filled by new products?
Continue reading “#HomeTone Thoughts Before Winter NAMM 2020”Studio Diary #16: Noise … From The Thunderbolt Cable?!?
I’ve been working on some recording today, and I ran into a problem that I never expected in a million years. I’ve got an audio noise problem that goes away if I unplug the Thunderbolt cable from my Mac.
2019 Review: The Guitar Community
When I was growing up and first getting into guitar, all we had was word of mouth and the odd album tab book with dodgy transcriptions in it. Things are so different today. We’re not just living in a golden age of guitars and gear, we’re living in a golden age of access to information, demonstrations, opinion and actual professional experience.
As you go through the lists below, you’ll spot that everyone I’ve listed here is someone that I follow because they’re people that I’m learning from in one way or another. Right now, it’s practically all educational content. I hope you don’t mind; it’s an honest reflection of where I am at the end of 2019.
One of the things I want to do in 2020 is expand this list to also include people who are just out there to make and release music: bands and artists.
Continue reading “2019 Review: The Guitar Community”2019 Review: Brexit And Buying Gear
With the UK about to leave the European Union, we need to talk about Brexit: the impact it has already had on guitars and gear, and what impact it might have going forward.
This post is all about us here in Britain, and the British guitar gear market.
Continue reading “2019 Review: Brexit And Buying Gear”