With recent problems behind me, my enthusiasm for music has started to return this month. While I haven’t picked up a lot of new (to me) gear, the items I did snag are all very special to me.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: June 2023”New Arrivals: May 2023
This month, I had – and took – the opportunity to add a couple of increasingly-rare tweed tone pedals to my collection. In both cases, I’m very glad that I did.
I also tried out a new (to me) pedal brand for the first time: NUX. I grabbed a couple of their pedals. Both were excellent in their own way.
Finally, I picked up another clone-in-a-box from my favourite pedal clone maker, websmurfer. It’s always a delight for me to try one of their designs.
Read on for all the details.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: May 2023”New Arrivals: April 2023
This month, I was able to tick off three items from my gear bucket list.
One of the things I’ve been (re)learning this year is this: the kind of gear I’m interested in trying is only getting rarer and rarer. If I see something, and don’t get it, there’s a very good chance that I’ll be waiting a very long time before I see another example.
And it’s always hard to tell whether or not an item was worth getting until you have it in your hands …
Continue reading “New Arrivals: April 2023”(Overdue) New Arrivals: March 2023
It was looking like a quiet run-up to Easter … then Marshall reissued those pedals …
Continue reading “(Overdue) New Arrivals: March 2023”New Arrivals: January 2023
Normally, I try to pick up something memorable in January, to celebrate another year of running my own business. It doesn’t always happen, but the idea’s always in the back of my mind when I’m looking at what’s around on the second-hand market.
This month, I picked up just the one item … but it turned out to be very special to me.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: January 2023”New Arrivals: December 2022
I’ve only picked up a couple of new (to me) pieces this month. One of them was a pedal that I’ve been looking for for over a year, so that was nice. The other? It’s a new release, and one that I’m already looking to put onto my board as an always-on pedal.
Definitely a month of quality over quantity.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: December 2022”New Arrivals: November 2022
The end of the month saw a huge change in the second-hand market here. For the first time in … I don’t know, it feels like 18+ months … there’s a lot of very interesting (to me) amps and pedals available. And I swear there were more Les Pauls listed during a 5-day period than overdrive pedals. It sure seemed that way, anyway.
Sadly, I think most of these pieces are being listed because people need the money. The mood of the country is pretty grim right now. We’ve had 12 years of single-party government, and they’ve led us into the worst cost of living crisis in living memory. The worst of it is still come too, too.
I was working abroad for part of the month (it was educational taking my new company to Web Summit for the very first time), and had no time to do very much at all with a guitar.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: November 2022”New Arrivals: October 2022
The tail end of September brought a bit of a surprise: PRS now makes pedals! And the initial demos made them sound really, really good. Fortunately for my bank balance, they haven’t hit the stores yet over here. Well … except for one …
Continue reading “New Arrivals: October 2022”New Arrivals: August 2022
August was shaping up to be a very quiet month, gear-wise. I had a plan: I was going to pick up just the one pedal – as long as I could find it nice and cheap.
But then something came along that I knew I’d regret if I didn’t get it …
Continue reading “New Arrivals: August 2022”New Arrivals: July 2022
I didn’t pick up any new (to me) gear last month, and just the one item this month.
The Axe FX 3 has definitely been a big factor in this. I’ve promised on Twitter that I’ll do a separate blog about this soon. The short version is that it’s been much better than I hoped for, and I’ve been putting so much time into exploring what it can do that I haven’t really had time to be curious about other gear.
So what did I find, and how was it interesting enough to wrench me away from the Axe FX 3 for a little bit?
Continue reading “New Arrivals: July 2022”