Tone. At Home.
Late 2020, Wampler Pedals launched the Wampler Belle, which comes in a fetching green. They also did a limited run of these in the Claymore finish, as a tribute to the late Alex Abernathy Clay. Same circuit, just a different finish.
Here are my (long overdue) first impressions of this delightful overdrive pedal.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Wampler Belle Overdrive (in Claymore Finish)”November 2020 is mostly about what didn’t arrive this month, alas.
I ordered a couple of cool pedals from Italy at the end of October, and they only just didn’t make the cut (they arrived 1st December 2020). They’ve both awesome pedals, and I’ll have a lot more to say about them soon.
Another shipping target for the Neural DSP Quad Cortex has been and gone. Both the first and second batch were expected to be in backers’ hands this month, but once again that didn’t happen. With Christmas right around the corner, this is surely going to slip into 2021 now.
The other thing that didn’t arrive? This post. It disappeared without trace from WordPress. Twice. That’s happened a few times in recent weeks. Not yet sure whether it’s WordPress or my new hosting arrangements.
So what did arrive? I got a couple of cool things. Oh, and the world got several COVID19 vaccines too 🙂
Continue reading “New Arrivals: November 2020”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”This will be the last regular “New Arrivals” for the time being.
Partly thanks to the UK Government following scientific advice that was based on an outdated model of the wrong disease, Britain has failed to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus before it became widespread. We’re heading for a lengthy social lockdown (at best), with the serious economic hardship that inevitably follows.
Don’t worry, the blog’s not going anywhere. It’s just that there’s more important things right now than buying guitar gear.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: March 2020”I’ve actually had this pedal for almost a week. Normally, I try and post my First Impressions within a day or two of plugging in a pedal. In this case, though, I’ve really been struggling to get to grips with the Paisley Deluxe.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Wampler Paisley Deluxe”I’m not entirely sure what the correct name for this pedal is. In the box, it says that it’s the Abasi Concepts Pathos, and online it’s more commonly referred to as the Abasi Guitars Pathos.
Confusingly, their YouTube channel is called Abasi Concepts, and their website is called Abasi Guitars.
Either way, here are my first impressions of this interesting pedal.
Continue reading “First Impression: Abasi Concepts Pathos Distortion Pedal”This conversation was originally posted to my Twitter feed.
Good morning! I hope you’re having a great weekend. And, if you’re here in the UK, enjoying the unseasonable bank holiday weather. Got another #CoffeeAndKlon for you this morning. Only there’s no Klon today …
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 14: Sans Klon”This conversation was originally posted to my Twitter feed.
Sorry that I didn’t do a #CoffeeAndKlon this morning. I had the coffee, and then had to go out to run an errand that couldn’t wait.
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 12: The Tumnus As Drive For Early Wampler Pedals”The plan this month was to finally buy a nice rack for my home studio, so that I can get the Synergy amp wired up once again. That didn’t go so well. Silver linings and all that though …
I found a rack that I liked on DV247’s website, paid for it … and later that day received an email from them asking for almost 30% extra money before they’d ship it. Now, the regulations on selling online are clear: you’re not supposed to do that. So yeah, that purchase fell through.
Before I could find and order an alternative from somewhere else, some of the remaining pedals from my bucket list turned up for sale. Interesting (to me) pedals have been hard to find at prices I’m willing to pay all summer long. Having three come along at once was an opportunity I’m glad I didn’t have to pass up.
Continue reading “New Arrivals For August 2019”This month has been a month of two very different stories: guitars and pedals.
On the guitar front, I’ve been very fortunate to find a couple of guitars that blew my socks right off. Proper love-at-the-first-note through an amp fairytale stuff. Fairytales don’t always have a happy ending, mind, so do check back in the months ahead to learn whether these do (or don’t)!
Pedals have been much more of a mixed bag. Good deals have been hard to come by this month, with a lot of people chasing a smaller pool of 2nd hand gear. Maybe it’s the summer months, or maybe it’s the renewed uncertainty here in Britain atm? Either way, I hope things pick up.
I’m doing something a bit different this month. Rather than try and squeeze my first impressions into 3 or 4 paragraphs (to keep these ‘New Arrivals’ posts short), I’ve started breaking them out into separate posts that I’m linking to from here. It gives me a bit more space to talk about each piece of gear. Do you like it? Or do you prefer the ‘all-in-one’ format I’ve been using up to now? Let me know in the comments below.
Continue reading “New Arrivals For July 2019”