My green Strat is back from the shop. It’s been in for some more mods. What have I had done to it this time, and am I happy with the results of the upgrades I asked for?
Continue reading “The Green Strat Is Back”Followup: D’Addario XT Strings
At the start of the month, I tried D’Addario XT strings for the first time. With the end of the month almost here, I thought I’d write a quick follow-up about how I’m getting on with them.
They’re coming off both guitars, just as soon as I’ve got replacement strings.
Continue reading “Followup: D’Addario XT Strings”First Impressions: Boss FBM-1 Fender 59 Bassman Overdrive Pedal
Above all others, there’s one tweed-tone pedal that I haven’t yet tried. It might not be the very first tweed-tone pedal, but it’s certainly the earliest one that I know about. It’s a pedal that’s rumoured to have graced the boards of many successful recording and touring artists.
And finally, after years of watching them go for very high prices, I finally won one on eBay. Was it worth the wait? Or will it remain forever in the shadow of my beloved SHOD?
Continue reading “First Impressions: Boss FBM-1 Fender 59 Bassman Overdrive Pedal”First Impressions: Synergy BMan
Recently, I picked up a BMan preamp for my Synergy rig. How did I get on with it? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Synergy BMan”First Impressions: Tannoy Gold 5 Studio Monitors
Back in April, I bought my first set of studio monitors for my little home studio. They went onto my desk straight away, and I’ve been using them pretty regularly since.
Read on for my First Impressions of them.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Tannoy Gold 5 Studio Monitors”First Impressions: D’Addario XT Strings For Electric Guitar
Every now and then, I like to try some different strings. Just because I’m happy with my current choices, that doesn’t mean that other strings won’t be great too. I always preach about having options, and sometimes that can just be from how a different set of strings changes a guitar.
I grabbed a set of D’Addario XT 9s and a set of XT 10s (both for electric), and put them onto a couple of guitars to try for the very first time. How did I get on? Read on to find out.
Continue reading “First Impressions: D’Addario XT Strings For Electric Guitar”New Arrivals For May 2020
It’s been the second full month of lockdown. eBay remains quiet, partly because sensible folks are reluctant to head out to post parcels, and partly because eBay has been limiting their discount sales fees to once a month.
The blog’s been quiet too. I’ve had some other things in life to deal with. So many basic, run-of-the-mill things are difficult-to-impossible to resolve when most of society has shut down. It’s one thing to know it, it’s quite another thing to experience it first hand.
Here’s what’s arrived this month. Spoiler alert: it’s all really good stuff, and there’ll be full First Impressions blog posts for each of them soon.
Continue reading “New Arrivals For May 2020”Studio Diary #20: How Am I Going To Hear All Of This?
With the home studio revamp,
- I’ve addressed my lack of preamps
- My Synergy rig is now back up and running
- I can easily patch in any of my affordable pedal platform amps
- I’ve got a way to play (rather than just program) drums
- The signal chain’s now in a sensible order
- I’ve bought so, so many cables
… and I’ve revamped the layout of the space, as part of improving the vibe. It feels like the end is in sight, at last.
I’m not quite finished yet though. I need to add a set of studio monitors to my setup.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #20: How Am I Going To Hear All Of This?”#CoffeeAndKlon 27: The Big Tweedy Drive With Super Tweed Mod
Earlier this week, Mad Professor announced a limited run of pedals: custom modded versions of three of their popular pedals. [Ed: they’ve added a fourth one since]. It was right at the end of the month, I had a bit of cash spare, so I ordered one the same day.
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 27: The Big Tweedy Drive With Super Tweed Mod”New Arrivals: April 2020
I wasn’t planning on making any purchases this month.
With the UK firmly in pandemic lockdown, the second-hand market has massively shrunk. There’s not a lot of gear on sale right now, and some sellers are going to find it difficult to ship gear out to buyers.
The plan was to concentrate on actually putting my gear to use. When I tried, it was clear that a couple of things needed sorting. That, and conversations about gear helped convince me to pickup a very special indeed.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: April 2020”