Effects Bay

This morning, a friend of mine from high school days sent me a link to this interview of Paul Rivera Sr. of Rivera Amplifiers. I’m a big fan of Paul Rivera and his company. I currently own a Rivera Knucklehead 100 head (vintage grey model). Love that head, it’s too freakin’ loud, but sounds great.

Rivera definitely make some great stuff. That Clubster Royale sounds awesome! Any other Rivera owners out there?

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Last month Vinni Smith of V-Picks sent me a few picks to try out.  I have to first say that reviewing picks is quite difficult. To me there is nothing more ‘personal’ than my picks. I can switch pedals, switch guitars, switch amps and ‘deal’ with the situation just fine, but picks are a different story. I’m constantly engaged with my pick, I know what it does, how it feels, how to grip it etc.

I look for a few things in picks.
- Gauge
- Snap
- Flex
- Tip
- Wear
- Grip

Gauge, Snap and Flex are related. I like a pick that is responsive and reacts to my strings and hand, but not mushy. Especially for lead. Tip is something that is really important for me on leads as well. I like something I can ‘dig’ with and nice tip is important. Wear is not a requirement for me, but a perk. I treat picks like I treat strings, when they’re bad/dead I throw it away. Currently my pick of choice is the Dunlop Tortex .88mm. Those picks last about one full band practice and I pitch them. I buy them by the dozen and keep bad ones around my office or when I practice in my basement. But when it’s rock time, I like to go with a fresh pick every time.  Grip. Oh grip, how I’ve struggled with this in the past. Holding on to the pick is pretty important when it’s go time. Grip options get pretty personal as well, and there are various mods (scratching the pick, drilling holes, preferring different materials, etc).

So now you know what I like in a pick.. heh, so lets talk about V-Picks. Vinni is passionate about picks! And being a musician he started his quest in searching for the perfect pick for himself, which led to the creation of his company (you should read the V-Picks Story). You can buy V-Picks for mandolins and basses, but I’m strictly looking at guitar picks for this review. Since I don’t know what makes a good mando pick.

V-Picks are made from clear acrylic and definitely have a great reputation for tone and grip. This acrylic was very interesting to me, and I can see the appeal for the grip. Coming from my background of Tortex picks, when edge wears and the grip turns smooth, that pick becomes very slick and dull. These acrylic picks definitely hold their edge for a long time. In fact, I’m looking at my test picks now, and I’m not seeing any edge wear. The acrylic material almost gives a ‘sticky’ feel which feels really secure.

Based on my sample pack and the assortment of pick ‘styles’ and shapes, they definitely have every shape, thickness and style available. From classic jazz picks to some triangle ‘shredder’ picks. The pick I related to the best was the V-Pick Ultra Lite Medium. I wish that pick was a little longer (the Large Ultra would have probably worked better for me). I also thought the V-Pick Lite Tradition was interesting as well. It was super thick, no flex, but for some reason, I dug it. The Tradition has the ‘traditional’ guitar shape.

Overall, the grip was great, and how it resisted wear was really good. I think it would be wise to try a few gauges and styles to see what works best for you.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked the EffectsBay.com community at Twitter what picks they used, and there were a few V-Pick users there. I followed up and asked what they thought of the V-Picks.. this is what they have to say!

300guitars @effectsbay I like the V-Picks because the notes have more fundamental and there is more clarity. Takes less playing effort too. Try ‘em!
clydetweets @effectsbay I love the clarity and easy grip. Totally worth the price in my opinion.

You can learn more about V-Picks at their website http://www.v-picks.com. Tell Vinni that EffectsBay sent ya!

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A couple of days ago, I posted the Electro-Harmonix’s Black Finger Compressor, they also have the Electro-Harmonix White Finger compressor. The White Finger is different than the Black Finger which uses 12ax7 tube circuitry by using FET solid state circuitry.

Here are the details:

An advanced multi FET compressor with uniquely varied sounds that stand out from the crowd. Controls include post gain, pre gain, compress, compression level, and sensitivity.

Here is another video by EHX (by Peter Stroud) demoing the pedal.

You can pick up the Electro-Harmonix Classics White Finger Compressor for $148.50 at Musician’s Friend. Currently, this item is a Musician’s Friend ‘Clearance Item’, so quantity is limited to stock-on-hand.

Remember, if you like reading about pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

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Last week I asked what position #1 on your wish list was. Lots of great pedals mentioned there, but one person mentioned the Electro-Harmonix Black Finger Compressor. I wasn’t too familiar with this, just heard the name, and wanted to take a closer look. Wow, this pedal seems pretty great.

Here is the official description:

The only optoisolator photocell/dual vacuum tube compressor pedal on the market!

What does that mean? The Electro-Harmonix Black Finger Compressor Pedal uses the same professional-grade techniques that the most revered, vintage and mega-thousand dollar, high-end studio compressors use, except that it’s in the form of an affordable, compact foot pedal! 2 different light sources (LED and lamp) provide distinctly different readings and offer uniquely varied compressions. One tube handles the compression stage while the other manages the gain stage. And unlike other “tube” hyped products on the market, which use 9 to 50 volts, the Black Finger’s design allows a full 300 volts of swing to be utilized. This makes it a true tube compressor in every sense.

Whether used as part of an effects loop or with direct guitar, bass or voice, the Black Finger will give music the type of treatment that simply cannot be achieved via plug-in emulation or with any other analog or digital product that doesn’t cost thousands of dollars.

The Black Finger effects pedal breathes life and warmth into any musical instrument or recording and makes it sound magical.

I also found this great demo by EHX (by Peter Stroud) on the Black Finger:

You can pick up the Electro-Harmonix Classics Black Finger Compressor at Musician’s Friend for $192.00.

Remember, if you like reading about pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

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Looks like Guitar Center is getting in on the President’s day sale action as well. Here is their current deal they are offering… not bad:

Save 15% on any Single Item $299+ at Guitar Center During the President’s Day Weekend Event (coupon: PRES, exp: 2/15)

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Just found out that Iain Burgess died yesterday morning. I’m a big fan of music from the Chicago area, and Iain is a giant part of that. He engineered many of the albums I highly admire, and his loss is great.

Here is what Steve Albini had to say (from the Electrical Audio Forum)

Iain fell ill after a trip to Florida to visit his family and had to be hospitalized, where his condition worsened and he died Thursday morning. Although he had Pancreatic and Liver cancer, his death was ultimately caused by a pulmonary embolism as a complication of the cancer.

I went to Black Box, the beautiful studio he built in the French countryside in January, and while he was sick, he was in good spirits and essentially the same guy we’ve always known. From the conversation I had with Dave Odlum, who works and lives at Black Box, the doctors said every indication was that Iain’s passing was peaceful.

There will be a funeral service on Friday, February 19.

Iain was a dear friend and mentor, and I consider him responsible for a good many of the best things that have ever happened to me. As is the case when someone important dies, I find it hard to imagine the world without him. Black Box survives as a testament and monument to Iain’s imagination and perseverance. It’s in the running for the best place on earth to make a record.

Requiescat in pace Iain.

If you’re unfamiliar with Iain’s work, he recorded some great bands.. Big Black, Poster Children, Naked Raygun, Ministry just to name a few

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Today’s pedal line is from Matt Cheezem (@CheeseBlocks) of Cheese Blocks Effects. If you have a pedal line (doesn’t have to be in a board) for your rig, please email me a photo, bio, description of pedals and routing to pedallineeffectsbaycom. Every Friday I’ll showcase a pedal line submission. Make sure you include any links to your band or music page.

This is my current setup… Everything is hard mounted with bike chain and cables are routed through holes… so it stays pretty permanent. If I have the occasional add on, I usually have to place it either before or after the board.

Everything is on a Trailer Trash board, with input and output jacks hard wired on either side.

Signal path goes as follows:

Input -> zvex Super Hard-On (modified with an external battery kill switch) -> Ernie Ball VP Jr. Volume Pedal -> Tuner out to Boss TU-2, Main out to the first sCream Cheese prototype (with the acid etched graphics) -> Catalinbread V8 Fuzz Tone Engine (LOVE that little guy!) -> 1982 ProCo RAT -> Duncan “Shape Shifter” Tremolo (poor man’s cusack tap-a-whirl… more features and about 1/3 the cost!) -> Boss DD-7 (tap tempo jack is hard wired to the right side of the board) -> MXR Carbon Copy Delay -> EH Nano Holy Grail Reverb -> Output

About the author:

Matt Cheezem is the owner of Cheese Blocks Effects and has contributed a few articles to EffectsBay.com!

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Save Up to $500 Instantly During Presidents’ Weekend Event at MusiciansFriend.com (coupon PREZ, exp: 2/15)

Here is additional info:

Shop online and use coupon code PREZ in secure checkout for unbelievable savings up to 15% (maximum discount of $500). Promotion valid only on in-stock items. Sorry, discounts not combinable with other coupons or special offers, and not valid on purchases of gift certificates, Factory Restocks, band and orchestra gear, or MF Gold Coverage and extended warranties.

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Last month I talked about the DigiTech JamMan Looper Pedal and the cool things you can do while setting up the loops, etc. Today, I found that DigiTech is releasing a new JamMan Looper Pedal called the DigiTech JamMan Solo Looper. This has some of the similar functionality as it’s big brother, but it’s in a single pedal chassis. The older JamMan was quite large.

Here are the official details:

The JamMan Solo looper is perfect for the guitarist or bassist looking for a full-featured looper in a compact, stompbox-sized design. Store up to 35 minutes of CD-quality loops in 99 onboard positions, or up to 16 hours of material using the SD memory card expansion slot (with optional 8GB or higher SDHC card) to add 99 more slots!

The JamMan Solo looper pedal also has a USB port to transfer loops to and from a computer, a metronome with multiple rhythm sounds and time signatures, automatic recording, and increased Hands-Free™ functionality with optional footswitch. Power supply included.

DigiTech JamMan Solo Looper Guitar Effects Pedal Features:

* Store over 35 minutes of mono, CD-quality loops in 99 internal memories
* Optional SDHC card can store over 16 hours (with optional 8GB or higher SDHC card) of CD-quality audio in 99 additional memories
* Record rhythm loops and solo over them on the fly, completely Hands-Free™
* Connect to your computer via USB and use the JamManager™ Loop Librarian software to organize and archive your loops.
* Aux Input lets you import music from CD and MP3 players
* Load up the JamMan with bass lines, drums, harmonies, and more; create an entire backup band, take it with you, and perform anywhere
* Slow down or speed up any loop without changing pitch
* Metronome with multiple rhythm sounds and time signatures
* Rugged metal chassis
* Power supply included
* Optional footswitch adds additional Hands-Free™ functionality

This pedal is brand new. It officially is available tomorrow (2/12/2010), but you can pre-order it today. You can pick up the DigiTech JamMan Solo Looper for $199.95 at Musician’s Friend!

Remember, if you like reading about pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

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Yesterday I was curious to find what others were wanting for pedals, so I had to ask.. and here was the response. Thanks everyone!

Twitter

WillFugate RT @effectsbay Community Question: What’s in position #1 for your pedal wish list?.. Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
AndrewElmore @effectsbay verbzilla! I’ll probly just buy it’s clone: Behringer RV600. I just love that shimmery Octo setting
PeterBerki @effectsbay completely honest, @cheeseblocks sCream Cheese
Fretrunner @effectsbay RE: Pedal #1 Lovepedal Les Lius Overdrive
pelossus @effectsbay probably the mxr carbon copy or the boss giga delay..gotta love the delays.
ctbalcerak @effectsbay digitech Timebender/moog phaser
markgrundhoefer @effectsbay the next pedal I want to pick up is the Subdecay Prometheus. So cool!
aloomens @effectsbay #1 on wish list would be an analog Delay w/tap tempo
AustinRemington @effectsbay an ernie ball volume.
Xquadra @effectsbay Fender Sub-Lime Bass Fuzz
RivetheadRasta @effectsbay The Boss RE-20 space echo pedal, I’ve always wanted a tape echo. This is as close as it gets.
JohnHaselden @effectsbay it’s got to the Pigtronix Echolution
SvNDeaTh @effectsbay a Dunlop Cry Baby
4ntwaan RT EHX Hog http://tinyurl.com/yf3g6e2 that’s for sure! @effectsbay: Community Question: What’s in position #1 for your pedal wish list?

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Jomar Findlay Electro-Harmonix Enigma.
Diego ? Ferri Univox Super-Fuzz
Kevin Kelsey MI Audio Crunch Box
Jeremy Hainline tie – Catalinbread Heliotrope or Catalinbread SFT. Was the WIIO, but mine’s on it’s way
T.J. Harris Custom Audio Electronics MC-404 wah pedal.
Kevin Ian Common four-way-tie: WMD Geiger Counter, EQD Ghost Echo, Devi Ever LP, or Moody Mushroom Echo… Either one of those would be fantastic right about now
Marijn Westerlaken Malekko B:assmaster is going to be the first new thing on my board
Andrew Elmore Verbzilla. But I’ll probly just buy it’s clone the Behringer RV600. After that it’s a three way tie between: Ernie Ball VPJR EHX Knockout EHX Big Muff (standard NY)
Mick Blowe Just had Paul Trombetta do some nifty mods on my Rat pedal, Checkitt! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oSDfhzAis0
Alexandre M. Störtregn EHX Cathedral
Andre Sachs a Mutron!

I have to say there are some sweet pedals in the line up above. As for me… I would love a T.Rex Replicator, but unfortunately, I think next line will be switches… b-o-r-i-n-g….

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