Blindfold Tubescreamer Challenge

Chappers and The Captain have posted their latest blindfold challenge. Can Lee tell a real Tubescreamer from a pool of clones? And which ones will he like?

The Tubescreamer is possibly the most-copied pedal circuit of them all. Most pedal brands have a TS-style pedal in their range, and there’s a TS-style pedal to fit every budget.

It’s not really an overdrive pedal, and that’s very confusing when you get one for the first time. It’s more of a colour pedal, thanks to it’s pronounced mid-hump. Run it into a dirty amp to shape the overall sound, or run it after a gain or fuzz pedal to act as a great boost.

A Strat -> Zendrive -> TS signal chain in particular is a very special sound.

Over the years, I’ve had a few of the pedals in the video, and the one I use is the Mad Professor Little Green Wonder. You can’t get a sense of it from this video, but one of the great things about the LGW (and, indeed, all Mad Professor pedals) is the low noise floor.

I’d love to try a Wampler Clarksdale one day – just waiting for one to turn up at a good 2nd hand price. The J Rockett Blue Note is another pedal featured in this video that I want one day. Burgs did a demo of it years ago now that really sold me on it.

And just how good does the new Hot Rod Deluxe Mk 4 sound?

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Pedals Into A Clean Amp vs A Dirty Amp

Brian Wampler has posted a video of what it’s like to run drive pedals into a clean amp, and what it’s like to run the same pedals into a Dirty amp.

He’s picked an Orange Rockerverb 50 Mk 2 for this. It’s an interesting choice, as it isn’t your typical Fender-voiced or Marshall-voiced amp.

If you’re interested in running pedals into an Orange amp, hopefully you’ll find it useful.

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How To Sound Like A Gear Demo

Brian Wampler has posted a great video, walking us all through his exact recording process for the amps and pedals in his videos.

It’s incredibly generous of Brian to share this with us. For many YouTubers and professional musicians, recorded sound quality is a competitive advantage – and teaching these techniques is a source of income too.

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Wampler Q&A

Brian Wampler – the genius behind Wampler Pedals – has posted a Q&A video up on his channel. He talks about the hardest circuit to work on, collaborating with other pedal builders, introducing midi to future Wampler pedals, and what makes him decide to revise a pedal circuit.

One of the great things about the music world is how accessible people like Brian are. He talks about how everyone’s comments online and via customer support reaches him, and is a major influence on what he does.

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Are Your Pedals Too Bright?

Brian Wampler makes great pedals. He also makes great videos about pedals, amps, tone, and the guitar signal chain.

In this short video, he addresses a common question that crops up in Wampler’s after-sales support: why does the tone get a lot brighter when you add another pedal to the chain?

As Brian covers, the real problem is that the signal chain was artificially dark and dull in the first place. The culprit? Pedals that aren’t true bypass, and that don’t have an internal buffer. Watch the video for the full explanation.

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