I just saw that Visual Sound posted (via Facebook) an interesting video where Phil Keaggy plays with a few Visual Sound pedals.Didn’t know much about Phil Keaggy, but if you’re interested tons of stuff on him via Wikipedia. He mixes it up with an electric guitar into the Visual Sound Route 66 and True Tone, then later he plays an acoustic with a Visual Sound Dual Tap Delay.

Pedals featured in the vide0:

Visual Sound Route 66 American Overdrive
Visual Sound TrueTone
Visual Sound Dual Tap Delay

One of my favorite computer pass times is to head over to the You Tubes and see if I can find something new musically. I really like music. I like playing. I like listening to it, but what I really like.. is to be inspired from it. That inspiration can be found in many forms – oldies but goodies, a horrible musician, that made a good noise at one point, or even an interview of a musician that makes me think of music in a new way.

Usually during this process I find at least one band that caught my ear for whatever reason, so I really try to do this a couple a times per month. The worst is being stuck in a musical rut. I think back to high school and how so much music was ‘new’ to me. Every person I met, every party I would go to, would be a new musical discovery. It’s not because there was more music back then, but I was very open and I wanted to explore. I think it’s good to keep that attitude today.

Anyways, I stumbled upon The Joy Formidable and something about it caught my ear. I like the chaos that was created by their effects. I like the drive of the tune countered by the pop/nice vocal style of Ritzy Bryan. I like that this video (by kexpradio) was shot in a bike shop, etc. They are from North Wales, UK and.. I want to hear more.

So, as you can see, there are some pedals on the floor. Let’s break down Ritzy Bryan’s board for this post:

Line 6 Echo Park Delay
Boss GE-7 Equalizer
Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
Boss GE-7 Equalizer
Boss LS-2 Line Selector
Electro-Harmonix Micro POG
Line 6 DM4 Distortion Modeler
Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler
MXR 10 Band Graphic EQ
Boss PH-3 Phaser
Boss TR-2 Tremolo
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+

I saw that she was manipulating two pedals, and I had a hard time seeing what that pedal was below her hand in the photo above, but I was able to capture one frame that shows it. It looks like she’s manipulating a pair of Boss DD-3 Digital Delays. It was also interesting to see that she has a total of 3 equalizers (2 Boss GE-7 and 1 MXR 10 band). I’m guessing she has a lead route and a rhythm route (based on the Boss LS-2). Still not sure what the MXR 10 band is there for. I was unable see the settings on the 10band, but both GE-7 were flat with the exception of the output (so using them as boost maybe?).

Let me know if I missed anything.. or if anything is correct by commenting below! Thanks!

UPDATE
The pedal I identified as a Line 6 Echo Park, might actually be a Line 6 Verbzilla. Additionally, right of the MXR 10 Band EQ is a Boss TU-3 Tuner (not seen in the photos above)

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I came across an interesting video by guitarguitaruk demo’ing the TC Electronic Flashback delay to achieve the Edge/U2 sound. Sounds like he’s representing quite well. Seen a few comments stating to just get the Nova Delay, but for the price point on the Flashback, it’s really quite affordable getting this sound.

Here is the video:

Here is the official description of the TC Electronic Flashback Delay:

The Flashback delay features 6 seconds delay time of every delay type you could ever wish for, from the TC Electronic legendary 2290 to a slapback, with 10 different types to choose from and it also doubles as a looper!Besides all that, the Flashback delay comes with TonePrint, so you can easily ToneTransfer your favorite delay settings. The Flashback delay also features TC Electronics audio tapping technology, allowing you to set delay times by strumming your guitar, and a toggle switch allows you to switch between 16th notes or dotted 8s, for a more U2-like sound.The Flashback features a spillover on/off switch as well as Delay Time, Feedback and Repeat controls, so you are always sure you get the sound you want without any hassle. Rounding out the pedals features are a small footprint, easy access battery hatch, true bypass, an analog-dry-through and the highest grade components.

At the time of this post, the TC Electronic Flashback is on sale at Amazon for $158.57. It lists at $232.00 and ships with FREE super saver shipping.

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The following is a guest post by Jeremy Cohen. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

In my role as a bass teacher, I often am asked, “what effects pedals should I get?”

The simple answer is that bassists really don’t need pedals, but then I follow that up by telling what the most useful effects for bass are. A an octave pedal  is definitely one of these. It is an effect which adds an octave below the note you are playing and it is a simple way to enhance the sound of a bass. Pino Palladino made a name for himself with extensive use of an octave pedal with a fretless bass. You can hear this most notably on the song, I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down, recorded with Paul Young. Here’s a nice live version (a little faster than the original). Keep listening to hear what he does at the end of the song.

Of course, in my role as a freelance bassist, I often bring a large pedal board with me. This usually causes the other players to groan, “oh, no, please don’t use those!” If I brought every pedal I owned, they would go into shock. However, once I start playing, I use the pedals sparingly. When I use the octave pedal, generally one of the other musicians will turn around and smile at me.

Over the years, I have owned a variety of pedals including the Boss OC-2 pedal and the EBS Octabass. Now that I have had the MXR M288 Bass Octave Deluxe for a while, I can say that this pedal gets the sound for which  I have been searching for years.

One of the features necessary in an octave pedal is good tracking and this pedal definitely tracks well, not only for single notes, but also for double stops (two notes at once). When using an octave pedal, just make sure you don’t play notes below A. The pedal may be able to produce those sounds, but your speakers won’t. I generally try to avoid going below C.

The next feature you need in the pedal is the ability to mix your straight bass sound with the octave sound and once again this pedal comes through using a control which is called Dry. Turning this dial all the way to the left will give you just the octave sound and to the right will give you almost no octave sound. You will want to start with the control and the middle and then adjust it to get the blend you want.

The unique feature of the MXR pedal is that it has two distinctly different octave bass sounds. MXR calls one sound Girth and this is a clean and smooth octave-below sound. The other sound is called Growl. This sound has more bite and to me it sounds very much like a synth bass doubling your notes. The two sounds have independent controls and can be blended together, giving this pedal a wide range of available sounds.

There is also a mid-range boost switch and the particular frequency and intensity of this boost can easily be adjusted with an internal slide switch and trim pot.  I like the sound of this boost the way it was set at the factory, but your mileage may differ.

Other features of the pedal are its extremely small size and internal circuitry which will keep the unit functioning properly even if the battery voltage starts dropping. The pedal is also true-bypass, which means that your signal completely bypasses all internal circuitry when the pedal  is switched off.

The instructions that come with the pedal include three sample settings: Sub Slap, Sub Rock, and …. Playhouse. (hmm…)

The price of this pedal is not out-of-line with that of other pedals of this type, especially since the Boss OC-2 pedal has now become collectible and prices for that one are going up steadily.

I strongly recommend this pedal for anyone who is covering songs on which the original recording had a synth bass part or a synth doubling the bass part You could also use it on a song in which the guitar is doubling the bass part. Then you will free up a guitarist to play a different part.  It also will instantly make any solo stand out. These are uses in which the pedal works for me and you will probably find some more uses once you have the unit.

One more feature I almost forgot to mention is that the pedal is blue so it matches my main bass, a Mike Lull M4V with a custom blue sunburst finish! Next time we meet, I’ll talk about other types and models of pedals which might be useful for a bassist to own. Happy bass playing!

Jeremy Cohen has been playing bass for over 40 years. He works as a bassist in the S.F. Bay area and is first call bassist for a variety of bands. He is known for tasteful, solid playing, sight-reading ability, the amount of preparation he does before gigs, and his ability to walk into any situation (with charts or not) and fit in.

He also has taught many students over the years and is extremely proud of all his students. Read what Matt Freeman of Rancid has to say:
http://www.jeremycohenbass.com/BParticle.09.pdf
Read, listen and see more about him at http://www.jeremycohenbass.com
His CD is on sale at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jazzexpress

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Here is a video by Premiere Guitar where the Electro-Harmonix booth at NAMM 2012 showed off their Analogizer and Deluxe Memory Man 550-TT. I’ve been very interested in the Analogizer and wanted to hear more about it. It seems like a great little box to ‘darken’ up the signal, especially on trailing delays, etc. I thought it was cool that it was a signal boost as well (similar to LPB1 – Linear Power Boost) giving it up to 26dB of signal gain.

I have a T-Rex Replica delay and I like how you can set it to be ‘dark’. I also have a Boss DD-3 which is very digital and a pedal like this could come in handy for a DD-3 or DD-7 to generate more of an analog feel.

The Deluxe Memory Man is similar to the standard Deluxe Memory Man with tap tempo, but has shorter maximum delay (550ms) since those chips are easier to come by. I particularly liked the demo with the POG2 in the effects loop of the pedal to only affect the wet signal with the POG. Very cool.

Here is the video:

I found a good ‘bundle’ deal on the Electro-Harmonix Analogizer for $104.85 at Amazon, but you get 2 free Strukture 6″ patch cables and 2 free Strukture 18.6′ instrument cables. Not a bad deal!

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The following is a guest post by Jon Patton. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

There’s a certain mystique and excitement in finding a new effects builder: not just someone whose boxes are rare sights on pedalboards, but someone developing something beyond clones of the same old tired, overdone circuits. So on the first snowy day of 2012, I made my way up to Joppa, Maryland, to talk with Luke Orsie of Luck Duck Pedals and demo a few of his creations. Luck Duck Pedals are made in Orsie’s home, where he hand-builds each pedal, right down to the etched circuit boards.

Here’s his creation process is in a nutshell:

He then passes the box to Brittany Howard to add unique artwork. I wanted to add a special note about the art, because it’s what first brought these pedals to my attention. I’m a bit of a sucker for both hand-painted stompboxes and cartoons. Although some people don’t care what the pedal looks like, when a small builder is just starting out, eye-catching visuals help set them apart. Making each box a one-of-a-kind collectable doesn’t hurt, either. Here’s Britanny Howard talking about her process:

Though he has dabbled in cloning some well-known time-based and tremolo effects for custom orders, Orsie managed to find some of the creative space left in the dirt pedal market with his bread and butter pedal, the Luck Duck Overdrive. The LDO puts two common clipping modes (LED and MOSFET) into the same enclosure with a familiar 3-knob control layout. Orsie gigs regularly with his band, and the 2.0 version of the LDO reflects the tweaks he made after frequent live use.

The pedal matched excellently with a Vox AC30, with a more assertive character of its own compared to other open overdrives like the OCD.

Here’s what it sounds like [Disclaimer: I am a writer, not a videographer! I kept the demos as simple as possible]:

We used a Fender American Standard Telecaster and Vox AC30 (amp settings here) for all demos.

The “Wah”ddle is a wah with a toggle to switch between extreme sweeps on the wah/whoa continuum. The defaults are very close to Vox (“wah”) and the Crybaby (“whoa”). Internal trim pots can give you more control over the sweeps. Although some other builders (e.g. Area 51) are making multi-flavor wah pedals, the simplicity of being able to go between the two most classic voices with a single toggle switch is appealing. An optional improved buffer makes the wah play nicer with dirt pedals. Somewhat rare for a wah, it also has true bypass switching.

Usually I prefer a Vox’s wah to a Crybaby, but this one surprised me. The “whoa” side was a great match with the AC30 and LDO. The pedal sweep was smooth all the way through without any obvious bumps.

Here’s a demo, first clean, then with the LDO:

The Comrade Duck is a limited edition pedal, a somewhat unusual silicon-germanium hybrid based on the Electra distortion. It has asymmetric clipping (meant to mimic power tube distortion) and a bright switch. It has a much raunchier character than the LDO.

I had fairly high hopes for this pedal, but it did not match up with an AC30 as perfectly as the LDO. The lack of a tone knob on an already fairly bright pedal meant overemphasizing the AC30′s chime without filling out the sound. And like most asymmetric clipping pedals, the harmonics created make chords unpleasant. But it fared much better on single-note lead work—producing a thick, complex sound. I’d like an opportunity to try the pedal with a Fender or Marshall, or with a cranked lower-wattage Vox-style amp, before passing final judgement.

Here’s the video:

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of this small but promising pedal builder. You can find Luck Duck Pedals on Facebook. Be sure to check out the photos of their work for extended descriptions of the pedals. Luke Orsie can be contacted at luckducksboxhotmailcom. Additionally visit them on Etsy and Flickr.

About the author: Jon Patton is a writer, musician, and (unfortunately) day job schlub in Baltimore, Maryland. He writes music reviews for Driftwoodmagazine.com and makes guitar noises in the band Midway Fair.

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Today I was super stoked to see a new Rig Rundown featuring Nels Cline of Wilco on PremiereGuitar. I’ve been a fan of Nels from a distance for years, but never really got to learn about his gear until this blog. Coincidentally, I did a pedal board breakdown of his board a while back (you can read it here – Nels Cline – Wilco – Pedal Board), but this video is fantastic. Nels really goes into detail about his guitars, amp and his effects. I really like it when artists go into ‘why’ they like a particular pedal. That kind of insight is very useful when looking at new pedals to purchase or understanding issues you might be having with your current pedals.

Here is the video by PremiereGuitar:

Here is the breakdown of pedals of his main guitar board:

Boss DD-7 Delay
MXR Phase 45
Crazy Tube Circuits Starlight
Crazy Tube Circuits Vyagra Boost
Fulltone ’69 Fuzz
Crowther Audio Hot Cake
Electro-Harmonix Pulsar
Bigfoot FX Magnavibe
Boss Digital Delay (DD-3?)
Boss VB-2 Vibrato
Klon Centaur (gold)
Boss FV500H Expression Pedal
Digitech Whammy
Fulltone Mini Deja Vibe
ZVex Fuzz Factory
Boss CS-3 Compressor
Boss TU-2 Tuner
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+ x2

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Here is a great video by MusicRadar.com featuring Bryan Kehoe talking about some upcoming pedals from Dunlop. A few of them have been talked about for a while (ie: Joe Bonamassa Cry Baby and the re-issue of the Way Huge Red Llama), but one caught my ear.  That was for the Eric Johnson Fuzz Face. I remember hearing various stories (could be legend and/or tales passed down from nerd guitarist to nerd guitarist) where Eric would have people find the classic Red Fuzz Face. He was always in search of a particular sound found in a few batches of germanium transistor fuzz faces.

For those of you not too familiar with germanium transistors, transistor were used to replace tubes back in the day. Now germanium is less efficient and consistent than silicon transistors made in the late 60s/70s. So one pair of germanium transistors can sound very different than another pair with the same value.  So a run of Fuzz Faces can have slightly different tonal characteristics.

I’m sure Eric Johnson has a mean collection of Fuzz Faces by now, so having him working with Dunlop for 6 years to develop his signature Fuzz Face is pretty cool. After doing some more research, I was surprised that they’re using BC183 silicon transistors in there. I know NOS germaniums are hard to come by, and I’m wondering for ‘production’ that was the deciding factor? Or it could be that silicon offers a more stable transistor for consistency.. but they definitely sound different. Curious what you think!

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Today I saw Caroline Guitar Company post a photo of the new Klon Overdrive at NAMM 2012. The Klon Centaur has reached mythical proportions (in desire and in price) over the last years. You definitely can spend up to $1500+ for original ‘gold’ Klon, etc. Last year, there has been talk about Bill Finnegan getting back into building Klons again, and there was a overdrive shootout video I posted a while back that had the new Klon (but in a card board box – weird right?). So, for 2012, there has been a lot of people interested in the new Klon. At NAMM, Bill Finnegan was there with his prototype Klon and here is the only video I found so far.

Video posted by natesousa:

Personally, I had a hard time hearing the pedal in this video, and hoping there will be more videos coming out…

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More talk about the TC Electronic PolyTune Mini pedal. They’ll be showing this off at NAMM today. No word on release date or price yet on this guy. I’m sure it’ll be a very hot item for 2012! They mentioned that this includes the Drop-D tuning upgrade as well (not sure if they released that update for their standard pedal). The bummer, just like anything, is buying something cool and then finding out a short time later, there is a better version. Just like computers, TVs, etc. Sucks, but that’s life. I know a lot of people picked up the current version of the PolyTune and are now bummed that they should have waited for the mini.

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