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.
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”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m doing a rundown of what home studio gear I’ve used this year, and why.
Previous years: [2019] [2020] [2021]
Continue reading “2022 Review: Home Studio Gear”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m doing a rundown of what gear we started with and what gear we ended up with – along with a discussion of why.
Previous years: [2019] [2020] [2021]
Continue reading “2022 Review: Gigging Gear”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]
Continue reading “2022 Review: Guitars For Home Playing”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m writing up a rundown of what pedals I’m using, and why.
Previous years: [2019] [2020] [2021]
Continue reading “2022 Review: Pedals”At the end of September, seemingly out of the blue, PRS dropped their first three guitar pedals ever: an overdrive (the Horsemeat), a double-flanger (the Wind Through The Trees) and this one, an optical compressor (the Mary Cries).
Mine has just arrived. What do I think of it? Is it worth the price? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: PRS Mary Cries Optical Compressor”Earlier this month, I revisited my first-ever tweed-tone pedal: Joyo’s Sweet Baby Overdrive pedal.
Many years have passed since I’ve played one of these. Is it going to be a happy reunion, or am I going to get a crash course in why I replaced it with my beloved Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive?
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”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”Back in October, I picked up a new (to me) mini pedal: Tone City’s Dry Martini overdrive. I’ve seen folks recommending this as a viable alternative to Fulltone’s legendary OCD pedal.
But … is it really? And if not, is it still worth checking out? Here are my first impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Tone City Dry Martini Overdrive Pedal”