Tone. At Home.
Pedals, pedalboards, and anything to do with these little boxes of joy :)
Tom and Adam from AStrings have just uploaded another demo of one of Fender’s new 2018 pedals: the Pugilist Distortion. This one has some serious chunk to it!
There’s two separate gain circuits in the Pugilist. You’ve got the option of running a blend of them together, or stacking one into the other in series. Either one results in very thick and meaty tone.
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My local guitar shop AStrings have just posted a demo of Fender’s new Marine Layer Reverb pedal. Check it out.
It looks like the Marine Layer Reverb is a mono pedal, best suited either to go into the front of an amp, or into the FX loop of an amp lacking reverb of its own. Those are two situations where a stereo pedal offers nothing extra that you can use.
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Watching YouTube this afternoon, up popped an advert for the Odyssey drive pedal from Hamstead Soundworks.
It looks like a very interesting drive pedal. There’s 3 different clipping options, 3 different input boost levels, and an EQ section that can be moved about in the circuit to suit.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed their video.
My local shop A-Strings has just posted a quick look at the new Danelectro Billionaire pedals, through a cool-sounding 5w Supro amp.
https://youtu.be/2rqAxhgZrks
There’s four pedals in the range: a boost, a drive pedal, a tremolo and a rotary speaker simulator. It’s a good choice: it’s easy to imagine all 4 on the same pedal board, as a complete pedal board.
I love drive pedals, so it’s almost inevitable that I’ll pick up the Pride of Texas pedal to try at some point. That rotary speaker pedal though … that’s the one that’s really caught my eye. I’m wondering how that’ll sound with a semi-acoustic guitar.
A quick shout out to A-Strings too. They’re my local guitar shop, and in my experience they’re the friendliest store in the whole of South Wales. They’ve just started stocking PRS USA Core model instruments. I’m looking forward to their demos of those!
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed their video.
It’s a long one this week – even by their standards – which is why I’ve only just gotten to it.
Dan and Mick take a tour of Josh’s board, including an in-depth look at the Lovepedal Tchula. The Tchula was Josh’s idea. It’s basically two Church of Tone (COT) pedals in one enclosure, with the left hand side fixed at Josh’s favourite setting, and the right hand side adjustable to suit. I can’t think of anything else quite like it.
I loved the segment where the guys had a schwang on Josh’s Tele, which is strung with 13s (!!) It’s fascinating to listen to how different each of them sound, playing the same guitar through the same rig.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment in you enjoy their video.
Over on the Andertons YouTube channel, Joss has built his ultimate metal rig – and it sounds epic.
The basic premise is that this is the kind of rig that Joss would use both to record with, and to gig with. It’s a straight-forward, no-nonsense rig that will handle both lead and rhythm duties in one. If heavier tones are your thing, it’s well worth a watch.
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Shane’s back, with a demo of Donner’s Green Land Pedal. Even if you’re not interested in the pedal, it’s worth watching just to listen to Shane tear it up in the opening jam.
This pedal reminds me of the Mooer micro preamp pedals that came out last year or the year before. They were designed to offer two channels from classic amps, complete with built-in cab sim for direct recording.
With this pedal, Donner has done something a little different with the concept. Instead of offering two channels from the same amp, this pedal offers Fender and Marshall tones all in one box. It’s also got built-in reverb. I don’t remember that being on the Mooer preamps?
Fender vs Marshall are two classic tones. Having them both available with the press of a foot switch sounds like a winning idea. How come no-one else has done this before?
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An interesting piece of news from Fluff – Way Huge are shrinking down the size of their pedal enclosures.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a lot of moves to make the most out of pedal board space. Mini-pedals have become a popular thing, and brands like Wampler and Earthquaker Devices have been moving the cable jacks from the side to the top.
Looks like Way Huge are joining the trend!
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Brian Wampler – the genius behind Wampler Pedals – has posted a Q&A video up on his channel. He talks about the hardest circuit to work on, collaborating with other pedal builders, introducing midi to future Wampler pedals, and what makes him decide to revise a pedal circuit.
One of the great things about the music world is how accessible people like Brian are. He talks about how everyone’s comments online and via customer support reaches him, and is a major influence on what he does.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Brian’s video,
Brian Wampler makes great pedals. He also makes great videos about pedals, amps, tone, and the guitar signal chain.
In this short video, he addresses a common question that crops up in Wampler’s after-sales support: why does the tone get a lot brighter when you add another pedal to the chain?
As Brian covers, the real problem is that the signal chain was artificially dark and dull in the first place. The culprit? Pedals that aren’t true bypass, and that don’t have an internal buffer. Watch the video for the full explanation.
Please head over to YouTube and leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoy Brian’s video.