New Arrivals: December 2020

I had a plan for December: keep an eye out for outright bargains or ultra-rare pedals on the second-hand market, and spend more time enjoying what arrived last month.

Then, when writing up my Annual Review blog posts, that all changed. Looking back over the last 12 months made me realise that there was an obvious problem, and I needed to sort it out. So, I have.

I hope you had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. We filled our house with music, and it’s what gets us through these historic times.

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New Arrivals: September 2020

I think this month is mostly going to be defined by what doesn’t arrive.

  • I’ve cancelled the PRS S2 McCarty 594 SC that I ordered back in January. It’s probably not going to arrive until 2021 now, and I can’t be confident that I’ll have the money to pay for it when it does finally turn up.
  • After months of insisting that it would ship on schedule, Neural DSP has finally admitted that the Quad Cortex is going to be delayed after all. Given the current state of the world, it’s not a surprise. Delivery dates have slipped twice in the last two weeks alone. If this arrives for Christmas, it’ll be quite an achievement.

It’s a good job really, because the car needs some repairs. Whether or not those parts arrive this month or not remains to be seen. [They did not – Ed.] Right now, it’s a really bad time to be repairing or replacing pretty much anything.

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Tone Stacking: Using Another Pedal To Shape The Fender MTG:LA’s Sound

In my opinion, Fender’s MTG:LA pedal is a bit of a conundrum. I think it’s got just the one sound, and if that sound doesn’t work for you or your rig, the pedal’s EQ controls can’t save the situation.

I love it with my Strat and my Tele. I don’t like it anywhere near as much with my Les Paul.

Thankfully, we’re not limited to what the MTG:LA can do on its own. We can give it some help, in the form of a second pedal to shape the tone a bit more. And I’m really liking the results.

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Side By Side: Fender MTG & Fender MTG:LA

In 2019, Fender released not one but two tube-based drive pedals: the MTG Tube Distortion Pedal, and the MTG:LA.

I’ve had both pedals for several months. During that time, I’ve also played quite a few other tweed-tone pedals from Boss, Mythos and Lovepedal, which has helped me with my understanding quite a bit.

How do they compare? What are the differences? I’m going to try and answer that in this blog post.

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First Impressions: Mythos Pedals’ Lark (Rhett Shull Signature) Overdrive Pedal

Back in May 2020, my pre-ordered Mythos Lark drive pedal arrived. It’s been on the practice board most of the time since then, sharing time with various other tweed-tone pedals that I’ve been looking at.

How has it gotten on? Here’s my First Impressions of this drive pedal. It’s a bit of a long read …

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