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.
It’s Christmas, and Santa (in the form of my lovely wife Kristi) brought me a new pedal.
Is this a case of a gift that’ll live up to my expectations, or a piece of cheap tat that’ll find its way onto eBay before Easter arrives? Here are my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Hotone SoulPress II 3-in-1 Wah / Volume / Expression Pedal”A couple of months ago, I ordered a set of new pickups for my Fender Player HSS Stratocaster. It took a bit of time for them to arrive, and then a bit longer to get them installed.
Now that they’re in the guitar, what are my First Impressions? Read on to find out.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Bare Knuckle Apache & Stormy Monday Pickups In A HSS Strat”Just before Christmas, I was able to pick up a Lovepedal Superlead distortion pedal. Is this going to be a great little present to myself? Read on to find out.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Lovepedal Superlead Distortion Pedal”You know the old joke about how you wait ages for a bus, and then three turn up at once? It’s been a bit like that with second-hand gear.
Five of my bucket-list items turned up on the second-hand market this month. I could only snag one of them. The three guitars and the amplifier were well outside my budget atm, and the only sensible thing to do was to hope that they bring joy to the people who have bought them. It just isn’t worth going into debt for a hobby, not to me anyway.
What was the one bucket-list item that I did get this month? And what else found its way to the Hermit’s Cave? Read on to find out 🙂
Continue reading “New Arrivals: November 2021”I needed to move one of my Focal monitors off of my desk, so I ordered myself a dedicated speaker stand. Here are my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Gravity Vari-Tilt Studio Monitor Speaker Stand”I recently picked up another Antiquity pickup, to go into my other Squier Esquire. The guitar’s now back from the shop … so what do I think? Is this another great mod?
Read on to find out.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Telecaster Bridge Pickup”I recently bought a new floor-standing speaker stand for my home studio. How did I get on with it? Here are my first impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Gravity Vari-Tilt Studio Monitor Speaker Stand”I want to listen to music while I work, without having to physically plug a cable into my laptop. Will Apple’s HomePod mini do the job? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Apple HomePod mini Stereo Pair”
I recently managed to snag one of my bucket list pedals: the VS Audio Royal Flush. Here are my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: VS Audio Royal Flush Dual Overdrive Pedal”Towards the start of the month, something in me snapped. That’s the best way that I can describe it. I looked at three guitars that have fallen out of favour this year, and said to myself, “why am I not sorting this out?”
All three guitars have the same issue: I just don’t get on with their pickups atm.
One of them (The Squirrel) has a stock pickup that can’t compete with its sister guitar (Hedgehog). One of them (Dexter) has stock pickups that just deeply disappoint. And one of them (the Charvel) is already on its fourth or fifth bridge pickup, and I’m still not happy.
So this month, it’s new (to me) pickups all around. Is this going to be money well-spent, or an expensive disappointment? Read on to find out.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: October 2021”