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.
Back in June, I picked up an MXR Sugar Drive. How does this mini Klon klone compare to the real thing? And is it a cheaper alternative to any of the other klones that are in my collection?
Continue reading “First Impressions: The MXR Sugar Drive”I’m still recovering from surgery in April, which really limited how much time I could spend with my guitar this month. On top of that, the medical bills came due.
And then I ended up having a second (completely unrelated and unplanned) procedure this month too. I’m still recovering from that at the time of writing.
But I did get about a week in between all of this to try something new (to me).
Continue reading “New Arrivals: June 2021”Regular readers are probably bored with me talking about the state of the second hand market here, so I’ll keep that brief. Anecdotally, there still isn’t a lot of second hand gear turning up, and (again anecdotally) it’s becoming more and more common for sellers to list second-hand guitars at above-retail prices. eBay has really cut back on its offers this month too, which probably isn’t helping the situation.
This month, though, there has been a number of interesting (to me) items crop up. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to even think about bidding on them because I’ve been into hospital for an operation, and it’ll be July before I’m fully recovered and able to lift amps and guitars again.
I was able to pick up a couple of pedals off my wish list, thankfully. And this month saw the release of a new guitar that’s completely blown me away. Read on to learn more!
Continue reading “New Arrivals: May 2021”#CoffeeAndKlon is my occasional Sunday magazine-style series, where I talk about whatever’s on my mind about guitars, gear, music and yes, sometimes my love of both coffee and the Klon pedal.
If tomorrow was going to be your last day on Earth, and you could spend it playing just one guitar rig (that you already own), what would you be playing?
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 30: My “Last Day On Earth” Rig”This year, I’m aiming to record four pieces of original music that I wrote in the early 1990s. They’ll be performed on acoustic guitar, and I’ll be doing the engineering, production and mixing myself.
Four songs on an acoustic guitar doesn’t sound like much, does it? After all, your average guitar YouTuber probably has to bang out at least one piece a week, every week. And this awesome chap is on track to record and upload 100 songs.
So why am I only aiming for just the four songs? And how is it going? The clue’s in the title.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #26: Rehearse, Rehearse, REHEARSE!”The big news this month (here in the UK) is that non-essential retail has been allowed to re-open. We’re coming out of lockdown, and guitar shops can open their doors to visitors once again. It’s too soon to travel the length and breadth of the country to hunt for hidden gems gathering dust on a wall somewhere, but we’re getting closer to that day.
In the meantime … this month, I’ve managed to pick up a couple of curious pieces to try. They’re a bit left-field, and (he says, having not tried them at the time of writing) probably not for everyone.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: April 2021”I recently picked up another of the Boss Legend Series pedals: the FDR-1.
Is this dinosaur of a pedal a dud or a delight? As with its sister pedal the FBM-1, it all depends on what guitar you play … and what you want to use it for.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Boss FDR-1 Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Overdrive Pedal”MIDI drums and drum samples. Love ’em or hate ’em, they’re a fact of life for just about everyone who records music at home. And, just as most of us can’t accommodate the noise of a real drum kit in the house, most of us have nowhere to keep a digital drum kit either. We’re left with using much smaller percussion pads, or we compromise and use something we can sort-of play like Roland’s SPD-SX.
But how do you get them into Universal Audio’s LUNA DAW in the first place? When I googled, I couldn’t find any instructions anywhere on how to do this.
So I wrote my own.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #25: The Roland SPD-SX and Universal Audio Luna”#CoffeeAndKlon is my occasional Sunday magazine-style series, where I talk about whatever’s on my mind about guitars, gear, music and yes, sometimes my love of both coffee and the Klon pedal.
I can’t wait to get back into guitar stores when it is safe to do so once again. Why? Let me try to explain …
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 29: Why The Eyes Don’t Have It”It’s been a very quiet month for new arrivals. This time, it’s mostly down to me.
(The second hand market here is still a mess, but that’s a topic that probably deserves its own blog post …)
I’ve been enjoying both the Mad Professor Sweet Honey Custom and Sweet Honey Deluxe Overdrives so much, I’ve just not been very curious about the pedals that have been cropping up on the second-hand market this month.
But, you know me: I’m always on the lookout for tweed-tone pedals, and this month, I picked up a couple that are pretty rare in their own ways.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: March 2021”