Tone. At Home.
Traditionally, December is a month where I try to avoid buying new (to me) gear, because Santa Claus (aka my wife Kristi) normally has something under the tree for me.
This year, though, I was forced into an emergency purchase, because I sat down one afternoon and discovered that my entire guitar rig was dead. Oh the (necessary) joys of using a power conditioner to power everything!
Continue reading “New Arrivals: December 2025”Father Christmas left me a new pedal under the tree!
What do I think of it? Here are my very first impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Wampler tcd Distortion Pedal”This is a second (and lengthy!) look at the LPD Pedals Dutch ’24 that I recently bought.
I’ve already written a First Impressions on the Dutch ’24. In that, I said that I’d briefly tried it as a main overdrive, and was a bit meh about it. (You should definitely go and read that post. I was very happy with how it helped me address the top-end of position 4 on my Strat.)
When used as a main overdrive, I’m finding the Dutch ’24 both incredibly familiar and – at the exact same time! – quite different too.
It’s been bugging me ever since.
So I spent a couple of evenings at the start of the week comparing the Dutch ’24 against other pedals aimed at the blues-rock market.
Along the way, I fell in love with how the Dutch ’24 is its own thing.
Continue reading “First Impressions: LPD Pedals Dutch ’24 Overdrive As A Main Overdrive Pedal”#CoffeeAndKlon is my (irregular!) Sunday morning magazine series, where I talk about whatever’s on my mind right now. There’s always coffee, and there’s normally chat about the Klon and its many competitors.
This week, I want to share a new (to me) way of using Klons and klones. I’ve just given it a go, and I just have to write up the results for the blog. I think they’re very promising!
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 38: Using The Klon To ‘Fix’ Other Drive Pedals”Yeah, I’m a little late with this. I’ve had a rough start to the year, and I’ll leave it at that.
Despite not blogging for months, I have been playing guitar … and enjoying a couple of new pedals that arrived over the festive season. Together, I’ve found them to be especially inspiring, and they’ve become my preferred signal chain for my Silver Sky.
Read on to learn about them.
Continue reading “(Belated) New Arrivals: December 2023 & January 2024”Back in January, I got a Wampler Ratsbane distortion pedal.
This pedal really does it for me. Why? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “(Belated) First Impressions: Wampler Ratsbane Distortion Pedal”I’m lucky enough to own a physical Tweed Deluxe amp. I also think that a Tweed Deluxe amp rig for home use has become so expensive in 2023, it’s difficult to justify. So I’ve started looking at alternatives, to see how they compare to the real thing.
Today, I’m looking at Wampler’s classic Tweed ’57 overdrive pedal.
Continue reading “#TweedTone: How Does The Wampler Tweed ’57 Pedal Compare To A Real Tweed Deluxe Amp?”#CoffeeAndKlon is my (irregular!) Sunday morning magazine series, where I talk about whatever’s on my mind right now. There’s always coffee, and there’s normally chat about the Klon and its many competitors.
Today, I want to talk klones, and specifically the most important klone pedal ever released: Electro-Harmonix’s Soul Food. Make yourself your favourite morning drink first. This one is going to be a #longread … with audio demos.
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 33: The EHX Soul Food”#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.
Fractal Audio recently released a digital Klon klone pedal for the Axe FX 3. Knowing Fractal’s reputation, it will have been meticulously modelled against a real Klon Centaur pedal – either one they own, or one they were able to borrow from the community.
Can a digital klone be a stand-in for the real thing? Let’s find out together.
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 32: A Digital Klone In The Axe-FX 3?”
Back in March 2020, I picked up a second hand Paisley Deluxe (Paisley Drive Deluxe? Even Wampler’s own marketing uses both terms …), and really struggled with it. And that has bugged me ever since.
A lot has changed since then. Will that make any difference, or will it still be a pedal that just isn’t for me? Details below 🙂
Continue reading “Second Bite: Wampler Paisley Deluxe”