Tone. At Home.
Pedals, pedalboards, and anything to do with these little boxes of joy :)
Earlier this week, I bought an MXR 10-band EQ pedal, and finally, the heatwave has abated enough for me to feel comfortable about having an amp on for a few hours.
How have I gotten on with it? Is it an upgrade over the Boss GE-7 that I’ve been using for the last year? Here’s my first impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: MXR 10-band EQ Pedal”Long-time readers might well remember me raving over a pedal I called the Little Pink Wonder (LPW for short) over on my personal Twitter feed. (As far as I know, it doesn’t have an official name). That’s a high-quality clone of a boutique boost pedal, and the clone is made by a local pedal builder and sold directly on eBay UK.
Ever since I bought the LPW, I’ve kept an eye out for his stuff on eBay, and tried to win as many of his pedals as possible. Well, except for the fuzz pedals, because fuzz isn’t my thing, and traditional fuzz pedals don’t go well with the dirty power supply we have here in the Welsh valleys.
The Champ Drive is the latest of his pedals that I picked up. From the name and control layout, I was expecting a Lovepedal Champ clone. How did I get on with it? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Websmufer’s Champ Drive Pedal”By my track record, June 2020 was a very quiet month for trying gear. The second-hand market’s been very quiet, and to be honest, my appetite for new (to me) gear has been too.
With music kind-of on the back burner at the start of the month, I went into July without any real plan for the month. Did I get anything at all, and if so, why?
Continue reading “New Arrivals For July 2020”When it comes to pedal manufacturers, I’m a huge fan of Mad Professor pedals. I’ve owned pretty much all of their older (pre-Simple) drive pedals over the years, and I’ve probably logged more hours playing these pedals than any other brands’.
So I was floored when I recently read that the Golden Cello is actually an Amber Drive with added delay (a la the Bluebird Overdrive). How did I miss that?!? But it’s true.
The reason I hadn’t noticed this before? I’ve always used my Golden Cello with the delay turned up a bit (it’s endless hours of fun with an ebow), and it’s an older delay design that doesn’t feature a dry signal blend. ie, the delay colours the sound quite a bit.
Turn the delay off, and hey presto: the two pedals are identical.
So if you’ve always been curious about the Amber Overdrive, but found the second hand prices too high, keep an eye out for a Golden Cello. In my experience, the Golden Cello often goes for rock-bottom prices.
I guess I’m not the only one who didn’t know about this!
In my opinion, Fender’s MTG:LA pedal is a bit of a conundrum. I think it’s got just the one sound, and if that sound doesn’t work for you or your rig, the pedal’s EQ controls can’t save the situation.
I love it with my Strat and my Tele. I don’t like it anywhere near as much with my Les Paul.
Thankfully, we’re not limited to what the MTG:LA can do on its own. We can give it some help, in the form of a second pedal to shape the tone a bit more. And I’m really liking the results.
Continue reading “Tone Stacking: Using Another Pedal To Shape The Fender MTG:LA’s Sound”
In 2019, Fender released not one but two tube-based drive pedals: the MTG Tube Distortion Pedal, and the MTG:LA.
I’ve had both pedals for several months. During that time, I’ve also played quite a few other tweed-tone pedals from Boss, Mythos and Lovepedal, which has helped me with my understanding quite a bit.
How do they compare? What are the differences? I’m going to try and answer that in this blog post.
Continue reading “Side By Side: Fender MTG & Fender MTG:LA”Recently, I picked up a second-hand Lovepedal 5e3 Deluxe.
What did I think of it? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Lovepedal 5e3 Deluxe”Recently, I bought a Lovepedal High-Powered Tweed Twin (HPTT for short) from the second-hand market.
What do I think of it? Here’s my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Lovepedal High Power Tweed Twin (HPTT) Overdrive Pedal”Today, I learned that my Analogman King of Tone shipped from the factory with the top-mounted toggle switch disabled.
Fortunately, it’s an easy thing to sort out, and well-worth doing so.
Thanks to its association with That Pedal Show, the Keeley Electronics D&M Drive has to be one of the most well-known drive pedals to launch in recent years.
I’ve finally taken the plunge and bought myself one. What do I think of it? Here’s my first impressions of this award-winning pedal.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Keeley D&M Drive”