Tone. At Home.
“The Hermit’s Cave” is my little home recording studio. This is a general catch-all tag for anything about me and my gear.
Did you have a good Christmas and New Year?
I did: I spent a lot of time with my old Marshal Origin 20H amp and the Wampler tcd drive pedal. Great-sounding combination.
And that got me thinking about what I want to cover in my long-term review of the Marshall Origin 20H, and why I still want to write about this amp at all after nearly 8 years of owning it.
Continue reading “Marshall Origin 20H in 2026: Planning The Long-Term Review”Traditionally, December is a month where I try to avoid buying new (to me) gear, because Santa Claus (aka my wife Kristi) normally has something under the tree for me.
This year, though, I was forced into an emergency purchase, because I sat down one afternoon and discovered that my entire guitar rig was dead. Oh the (necessary) joys of using a power conditioner to power everything!
Continue reading “New Arrivals: December 2025”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m doing a rundown of what music I’ve made this year, and what I’ve learned from doing so.
Previous posts in this series: [2023] [2024]
Continue reading “2025 Review: Making Music”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m doing a rundown of what guitars I’ve had my hands on, and what I’ve learned from the experience.
This post covers guitars that I play at home for fun. I’ll cover the guitars that I gig with tomorrow.
Previous years: [2019] [2020] [2021] [2022] [2023] [2024]
Continue reading “2025 Review: Guitars For Home Playing”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I do a rundown of what amps I’m using for pedal platforms, and why – along with other amps I’m using at home with both electric and acoustic guitar.
Previous years: [2019] [2020] [2021] [2022] [2023] [2024]
Continue reading “2025 Review: Pedal Platforms & Other Amps”Father Christmas left me a new pedal under the tree!
What do I think of it? Here are my very first impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Wampler tcd Distortion Pedal”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what I’ve written about on the blog this year.
Continue reading “2025 Review: The Blog”