Category: At Your Feet

Pedals, pedalboards, and anything to do with these little boxes of joy :)

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One Control Baby Blue Demo

Mike Hermans has posted a demo of One Control’s Baby Blue Overdrive pedal.

This is a pedal designed by Bjorne Juhl. If you haven’t heard of him, you might have come across BJF or BJFe designed pedals from Mad Professor or Bearfoot FX. The guy’s a legend in the pedal community, and arguably one of the top pedal circuit designers of all time.

I’ve got plenty of his designs on my own board or close to hand in my pedal cupboard. Whether it’s the Sky Blue Overdrive, Sweet Honey Overdrive, or the Uber Bee, his pedals have been at the heart of my guitar tone for many years now.

So what about the Baby Blue Overdrive?

This reminds me a lot of the Amber Overdrive – a fuzzy overdrive pedal trying to sound like a cranked Fender amp. [The Amber Overdrive is actually chasing the sound of a vintage fuzz into a cranked Marshall stack – Ed] Both designs need to be first in your signal chain, like an old-fashioned fuzz pedal. In practice, the Amber Overdrive is challenging to dial in. I haven’t found that sweet spot yet on the two examples that I’ve owned.

The Baby Blue looks like it might be a little more forgiving. Had to say for sure without trying one. Speaking of which …

New for 2018, Bjorn is hoping to ramp up production of pedals based on his designs, and bring the prices down to more obtainable levels. He’s going to be doing this through One Control, and it seems that his long association with Bearfoot FX has come to an end.

Elsewhere in the same forum thread, Bjorn says that this new version of the Baby Blue OD is built using modern components (the original ones were built using NOS components that he can’t get any more). As a result, it does sound different, and he thinks it’s closer to the sound in his head than ever before.

Unfortunately, I can’t find one to buy just yet. I’ll keep looking. I really want to put this side by side with the Amber Overdrive to see how they compare.

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Chase Bliss Audio Warped Vinyl HiFi Full Demo

Henning has posted his full demo of the Chase Bliss Audio Warped Vinyl HiFi Pedal. I was intrigued by his mixed track demo from earlier. How will the pedal fare in a detailed demo / review?

It’s a long review, because this pedal has a lot of ways to shape the effect. Far more, it turns out, than Henning has time to go into. Not only are there more controls than your average chorus pedal, there’s a lot of dip switches on the top edge of the pedal to shape things even more.

This is definitely a pedal for those of you who are adventurous and willing to put in the time to explore just what this pedal can do.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Henning’s video.

 

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Danelectro Cash Cow Distortion Pedal Demo

Rabea Massaad has just posted a demo of the new Danelectro Cash Cow distortion pedal. It’s a paid demo (as many of these kinds of videos are), and thank you to Rabea for making that clear at the very start.

This has a thick, saturated tone to it – the kind that might be very enjoyable to just noodle on at home unaccompanied.

Rabea does say that he thinks it’s one of the darker distortion pedals that he’s played through. I’d love to hear it in a mix, to hear if it can cut through for lead duties, or whether it works best as a rhythm pedal.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Rabea’s video.

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Kemper Profiler Demo

Shane’s been teasing us about the Kemper Profiler that he borrowed from Sky Music of Melbourne … and now we have his thoughts on it.

I’m going to save my thoughts on the Kemper until I’ve had time to sit down and record my own Kemper demos. For now, I agree with what Shane thinks about the Kemper – especially when it comes to pedals – but I have a lot more to share about profiling accuracy soon!

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Shane’s video.

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Leo’s Shuriken / Helix Live Setup

Leo from Frog Leap Studios has posted a demo of his Line 6 Shuriken Variax, and how it enables him to perform his famous metal covers live.

It’s really cool how far the Variax has come from the early days. I had the original Variax – boy was that a long time ago – and it was so bad it ended up in the recycling. I couldn’t even give it away. But the Shuriken – especially paired with the Helix – looks worlds apart. Check out Leo’s video to see just what it can do.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Leo’s video.

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Kammer TinyK Pedalboad Amp In A Produced Track

Henning’s just put up a quick demo of a very interesting piece of gear – a 40W that sits on your pedalboad. Not a drive pedal – a full-blown amp, complete with FX loop!

If you’re a gigging musician, having a backup amp of some kind is essential – especially if you gig with real valve amps. Lugging a spare amp around isn’t fun. And depending on what you buy, that’s a lot of money tied up in it, especially as you hope to never actually have to use it.

Some kind of backup that can sit on your pedalboad – just in case – has a lot of appeal.

And for us home tone chasers, if you can’t have / don’t want a traditional amp at home, this kind of thing is well worth looking at as an alternative to using modelling amps or software amp sims.

I’ll post the full review when Henning uploads it. This could be one to watch.

Please head over to Henning’s channel to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Henning’s video.

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Looking Glass Pedal Demo

Shawn Tubbs has posted a short demo of Digitech’s Looking Glass overdrive pedal.

In this demo, Shawn does something that I wish more demos did: he plays a Strat, a Tele and a dual-humbucker guitar too. It really gives you a flavour of what this pedal might do for you.

I do own a Looking Glass myself. Right now, it’s in the pedal cupboard, waiting for me to have the time to spend on it properly. Easter weekend can’t come soon enough!

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Shawn’s video.

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Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl HiFI – In A Track

Ever wondered what the Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl HiFI pedal sounds like in a professionally-produced track? Henning has you covered:

I love these kind of demos. It’s very useful to hear someone try a pedal out by itself – that mimics us Home Tone Chasers noodling at home. It’s also great to hear what a pedal can sound like in a recording, for those of us who like to try our hand at creating our own tracks.

The pedal itself? I’m looking forward to the full demo, to see just what it can do.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Henning’s video.

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JHS Modded Boss DS-1 Synth Drive

Yes, you read that right. JHS has taken the ubiquitous Boss DS-1 and made some crazy mods to it. And then they asked Mike Hermans – one of the top  demo guys – to show what this thing can do.

It starts out with an upgraded drive circuit, complete with a three-way toggle switch for different clipping types. That alone would be a great mod in its own right.

Then, they added 3 different synth circuits that you can switch in and out independently … just in case you’re bored with overdrive sounds. Or you just want something that’s batshit 🙂

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Mike’s video.

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2018 Rig For Clinics

Sam Coulson has posted a short video, showing us the rig he’s using when he’s giving guitar clinics this year.

He’s running a modded Charvel into a Helix, out to the Yamaha THR-100HD. The Yamaha’s setup as a clean platform for the Helix. It’s a simple rig that looks very easy to load in and out without a lot of effort.

I’ve got the Yamaha THR-100HD myself, and for a couple of years it was my main practice amp. It takes pedals better than any other modelling amp did at the time. You can run two amps at once out into different cabs, and that gives you a taste of that two-amp blended tone thing.

My main complaint with the THR-100HD is that it felt like Yamaha abandoned it to a large extent. It’s been a couple of years since the last firmware update, and they haven’t added any new models – or improved the existing ones – since launch. It’s become a very much take-it-or-leave-it amp.

But – unlike some modelling amps – you can use it as an amp, without hooking it up to a computer. Which means that they’ll continue to be usable long into the future.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Sam’s video.