Tone. At Home.
After a couple of months of waiting, my Synergy IICP preamp module pre-order has finally arrived. Yay!
Was it worth the wait? And how is a tweed-tone nut going to get on with a recreation of an amp most famous for being the sound of progressive rock and classic metal? (Spoiler alert: this thing sounds fantastic in tweed … 😎)
Continue reading “First Impressions: Synergy IICP Preamp Module”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what amps I’m using for pedal platforms, and why.
Previous articles: [2019][2020]
Continue reading “2021 Review: Pedal Platform Amps”I’ve finally done it. I’ve gone and bought an actual 5e3 circuit tweed amp. I wasn’t planning on getting one, but when a different planned purchase didn’t happen, I went for it. And then, by an amazing stroke of luck, the amp arrived months earlier than expected – right when I’ve got a short break from work between jobs.
This is going to be one of the longer First Impression posts. I’ve got a lot of notes to share with you, even though I’ve only had the amp a couple of days.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Fender 57 Custom Deluxe Amp”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what amps I’m using for pedal platforms, and why.
Previous articles: [2019]
Continue reading “2020 Review: Pedal Platform Amps”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”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”I’m really not a fuzz kind of person. They pickup and amplify all of the noise on the dirty electricity we have here. I don’t enjoy playing through spitty, broken tones. And about the only time I use the bridge pickup on my Strat is to make sure it’s still there.
So what am I doing with one? And what do I think of Fender’s latest fuzz pedal?
Continue reading “First Impressions: Fender’s The Trapper Fuzz Pedal”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what amps I’m using for pedal platforms, and why.
Continue reading “2019 Review: Pedal Platform Amps”I’m currently getting my home studio more organised, and along the way I’m sharing my thought process, decisions, discoveries and regrets.
One of the benefits of this autumn’s home studio mini-revamp is that it’s now pretty easy to use any piece of gear that I’ve currently got. I’ve been taking advantage of that, by revisiting old pieces of gear that didn’t get much use in the past.
Thanks to the cleaner cabling, I’m finally able to hear this gear at its very best. And – spoiler alert! – I’m rapidly falling in love with a couple of items that I never got on with first time around.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #15: Revisiting Old Gear”This conversation was originally posted to my Twitter feed.
Good afternoon! I’m a bit late with this week’s #CoffeeAndKlon. There’s a couple of reasons why. And one of them does involve the Klon.
I’ve been a bit flat for most of this past week. Delivered a couple of workshops and a talk on the Saturday and Wednesday, and didn’t have much left in the tank after that.
So Thursday and Friday, I’ve mostly been finishing off the home studio revamp. A bit of upgraded gear, and mainly about getting the gear I already have back into use.
Continue reading “CoffeeAndKlon #22: Who Needs Pedals When You’ve Got A Great Amp?”