The Hermit’s Cave – HomeToneBlog.com

11th January 2020

#HomeTone Thoughts Before Winter NAMM 2020

Winter NAMM is almost here. It’s one of the most high-profile guitars & gear trade shows in the world, and traditionally, many manufacturers use it to announce or launch their major new products of the year.

YouTube is going to be dominated by NAMM show floor coverage for the next few weeks. If you want to see everything that will be displayed at the show, subscribe to one of the YouTube channels I recently recommended.

From a #HomeTone perspective, what are the gaps in the market that I’m hoping to see filled by new products?

4th January 2020

Studio Diary #16: Noise … From The Thunderbolt Cable?!?

I’ve been working on some recording today, and I ran into a problem that I never expected in a million years. I’ve got an audio noise problem that goes away if I unplug the Thunderbolt cable from my Mac.

2nd January 20204th January 2020

2019 Review: Gigging Gear

Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what gear we started with and what gear we ended up with – along with a discussion of why.

1st January 20204th January 2020

2019 Review: Home Studio Gear

Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what home studio gear I’ve got, and why.

1st January 20204th January 2020

2019 Review: Pedals

Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what pedals I’m using, and why.

29th December 20194th January 2020

#CoffeeAndKlon 25: 2019 In Review

This conversation was originally posted to my Twitter feed.

Good morning! I hope you all had a great Christmas, and that you’re going to have a great New Year. I’m back with the final #CoffeeAndKlon of 2019, and today, I want to talk about the upcoming week.

This is the time of year when people traditionally write two kinds of posts: “best of” and “new year resolutions”. If that’s your jam, they’ve already got it covered. I want to do something different. Something more relevant to me, and hopefully to you.

28th December 20194th January 2020

First Impressions: Fender MTG Tube Distortion Pedal

Back in November, I bought myself Fender’s new MTG Tube Distortion Pedal. I’m a huge fan of the drive pedals that Fender’s been releasing in this new series, and I’m determined to collect them all.

These are my first impressions of the MTG … well, almost.

21st December 20194th January 2020

Studio Diary #15: Revisiting Old Gear

I’m currently getting my home studio more organised, and along the way I’m sharing my thought process, decisions, discoveries and regrets.

One of the benefits of this autumn’s home studio mini-revamp is that it’s now pretty easy to use any piece of gear that I’ve currently got. I’ve been taking advantage of that, by revisiting old pieces of gear that didn’t get much use in the past.

Thanks to the cleaner cabling, I’m finally able to hear this gear at its very best. And – spoiler alert! – I’m rapidly falling in love with a couple of items that I never got on with first time around.

1st December 20194th January 2020

New Arrivals For December

We’ve just had Black Friday, and Christmas is right around the corner.

I’m keeping my eye out for anything unusual, interesting or an outright bargain, but in all honesty, there isn’t going to be much left over to spend on gear after Christmas shopping for my family.

30th November 20194th January 2020

New Arrivals For November

My home studio revamp is in full swing. I’m hoping to complete it this month, so that I can spend the winter months getting to grips with it all and starting to record music for myself once again.

The second hand market on eBay has picked up a little since the horror show that was October. It feels like the number of items is up a little, but I haven’t really felt tempted by any of the items put up for sale.