The Hermit’s Cave – HomeToneBlog.com

6th July 20255th July 2025

#CoffeeAndKlon 42: Can I Learn To Love My RYRA The Klone?

#CoffeeAndKlon is my (irregular!) Sunday morning magazine series, where I talk about whatever’s on my mind right now. There’s always coffee, and there’s normally chat about the Klon and its many competitors.

I’ve had my RYRA The Klone pedal longer than this blog’s been going, so why haven’t I featured it at all until now? Why hasn’t it had the love from me that its fan base says it deserves?

And is that about to change? Can I learn to love my RYRA The Klone?

3rd July 2025

New Arrivals: June 2025

There’s … a definite theme to the new arrivals this month, shall we say? 😁

I managed to find two of my bucket-list pedals, both of which I thought I’d never get the chance to try. While doing the background reading for their blog posts, I ended up stumbling upon another rare pedal that I didn’t even know about. And then I grabbed one of their cheaper cousins too, because the opportunity was there.

Dear readers, June has been One Control month.

21st June 2025

Studio Diary #61: Remastering My Original Pedal Platform Presets For Axe-FX 3 Firmware 28.05

‘Studio Diary’ is an occasional series where I talk about building a home recording setup for hobbyists and enthusiasts like us. I share my personal experiences, and the thinking behind some of the decisions that I’ve made along the way.

Fractal Audio have recently overhauled their amp modelling in the Axe-FX 3 / FM-9 / FM-3. And my recent dive into the Orange Getaway Driver has shown me that I need to revoice my signal chain. I’m taking this as an opportunity to re-evaluate everything about the pedal preset I’ve built for the Axe-FX 3.

I spent most of Spring dividing my playing time between the pedal platform patches that are based on the DRRI and using my real Tweed Deluxe amp. When I came back to my original 57 Vintage and 65 Modern presets, I could hear a stark difference – and not in a good way.

So, before I finally wrap up this series on the pedal platform patches, I want to go back and re-master those two original pedal platform presets. There’s been some recent Axe-FX 3 firmware updates that make this easier to do and sound better than ever.

3rd June 20252nd June 2025

First Impressions: Tone King Imperial MKII Synergy Preamp Module #TweedTone

Synergy have just released the Tone King Imperial MKII preamp module.

This is a photo of the Imperial MKII preamp module in a (dusty!) Synergy SYN-1 housing.

On the left of the module, there are two rows of three pots, one row per channel.

The top row of three controls are for the Lead channel (the tweed-voiced overdrive channel). They are labelled Volume, Tone, and Mid Bite.

The bottom three controls are for the Rhythm channel (the blackface-voiced clean channel). They are labelled Volume, Bass and Treble.

Next to them are two large, fixed stepped controls. These are the Attenuation controls, one for each channel.

There's a mini toggle switch nestled in between the two large controls. This enables a high-frequency cut.

On the right, there are two more toggle switches, to switch on the built-in, valve-driven tremolo. Next to them are two more pots, for controlling the speed and depth of the tremolo circuit.

I found one in stock here in the UK the day after launch, and ordered it straight away.

Now that it’s here in a very dusty Hermit’s Cave, what do I think of it? Here are my (very positive) first impressions.

31st May 2025

(Belated) New Arrivals: March 2023

I’ve had computer troubles, which stopped me posting anything for a while. And, unfortunately, I didn’t manage to make a blog post about this pedal before the computer troubles began.

31st May 2025

New Arrivals: May 2025

They say buses come in threes. After a quiet couple of months, I’ve had three new (to me) tweed-tone preamps all arrive within 48 hours of each other.

Sadly, I won’t be keeping them all …

26th March 202525th March 2025

#PlexiTone: Synergy Plexi Module + Axe-FX 3 For Reference Marshall Plexi Tones

After last week’s success with my Synergy BMan module, I decided to see if the same approach would work with my Synergy Plexi module and the Axe-FX 3.

This is a bit more of a quick and dirty effort. But hopefully you’ll agree that the results are, at the least, very promising.

18th March 202516th March 2025

#TweedTone: Dialling In A 5F6 Bassman Reference Tone For 2025

Recently, I posted about my latest attempt at creating a reference tone for my 5e3 Tweed Deluxe reissue amp. I’m still wrestling with creating a similar 5e3 reference tone purely in the Axe-FX 3. Sadly, I’m nowhere near ready to write up my promised comparison of the two.

I decided to take a break from that, and work on another reference tone that I’m going to need for future #TweedTone blog posts: capturing the mighty 5F6 Tweed Bassman sound.

Here’s how I got on. There’s audio demos to listen to, and a full breakdown of the signal chain that I used, with plenty of photos / screenshots to show you everything.

5th February 20254th February 2025

Quick Listen: Ritual Devices Grey Overdrive With Strat And Tele Bridge Pickups

Quick Listen is where I capture and share guitar tones that I’ve dialled in. No exploration; little discussion – just a quick audio demo or two along with a documented signal chain.

A close-up photo of the Grey Overdrive guitar effects pedal, made by Ritual Devices. — The Ritual Devices Grey Overdrive pedal on my pedalboard.

Today, I’ve grabbed my Ritual Devices Grey Overdrive, to find out how well it can rock out when I’m playing single-coil bridge pickups.

4th February 20252nd February 2025

#TweedTone: Dialling In A 5e3 Tweed Deluxe Reference Tone For 2025

New year, new (and hopefully improved!) reference tone from my Fender 57 Custom Deluxe amp.

All made possible thanks to a late 2024 freebie from Origin Effects … and me figuring out how I’d been using my Fryette Power Station PS-100 wrong …