Effects Bay

A few years ago I was on a pretty major Dead Meadow kick. Recently, I sorta rediscovered these guys again. They’re an interesting band in the sense of you have to ‘get them’ to ‘get them’. When that moment clicks, you really dig what they’re all about. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Dead Meadow, they’re on the psychedelic side of the stoner rock spectrum. Nice pentatonic leads with plenty of fuzz, wah and delay.

I figured I would break down Jason Simon‘s board (guitar/vox).

By Füttermeinego http://www.flickr.com/photos/46618716@N03/4592479396/

Here is a nice shot from top down. Both of these photos are semi-recent (2010ish). This photo was originally displayed here

Here is the breakdown of the board. The first photo has the Tanpura shown off to the right.

Boss TU-2 Tuner
Dunlop Rotovibe
Vox Wah V847A
ProCo RAT2
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi USA Reissue
Line 6 Echo Park Delay
Raagini Digital Electronic Tanpura

Here is an older shot of Jason Simon’s pedal line up from 2008/2009 (pre-board):

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

Hello Kind Readers!

Today I’m offering up a Creamer Dreamer Clone by Grumpy Toad FX.

Todd of Grumpy Toad offers up clones of well-known and often hard-to-find models. The Creamer Dreamer is basically a modded Big Muff, but it’s sound is stuff of myths and legends. If you are looking for a Big Muff with “a little more,” then the Creamer Dreamer is for you!

At low levels of gain, the pedal offers semi-clear chords and clear single lines. Let’s be honest, it’s a fuzz, chords are not going to be very clear in general, but that is the point!

As you bring the gain higher, this is where–in my opinion–the pedal truly comes alive. Single lines are singing and soaring and ringing, and chords are fuzzy and saturated. My favorite settings is with the tone set to a little bit more treble. I’m a bigger fan of fuzzes that can give me a saturated fizzy texture, and this does it pretty well.

I’ve included a small video that demonstrates the pedal in conjunction with the rest of my pedalboard and I go through some of the settings. Thanks for reading!

Todd is a great guy at Grumpy Toad, and he can build you quite a few things!
Check him out here at:

http://s422.photobucket.com/albums/pp301/Toadlc/Grumpy%20Toad%20FX%20Pedals/

Kevin Ian is a multi-instrumentalist. His current project, The Common Men can be found at http://www.thecommonmen.tk

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I found another nice little bundle at Amazon.com. This time it’s the Electro-Harmonix Little Big Muff Pi Distortion bundle. This bundle is the same price as the pedal alone at Musician’s Friend and other merchants at Amazon, but has some extras. With this bundle (only $69.75) you get On Stage Hot Wires 6 inch right angle pedal coupler (pictures shows two, but the description makes it sound like there is one??), On Stage Hot Wires Instrument Cable (6′), Two Fender Classic Pick (351 Medium Shell).

Here some info about the Little Big Muff Pi:

Same silky smooth violin-like sustain and creamy tone that made the legendary 1970 Big Muff famous – This little brother proudly displays its heritage proudly. Small, pedal board friendly, die-cast case.

Pick up the the Electro Harmonix Little Big Muff Pi Distortion Bundle for only $69.75 at Amazon.com!

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Today’s pedal line is from Daniel Minnerick. 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.

Pedal Board (In Order):

Boss Chromatic Tuner

Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff (*Typically run this pedal on the dry signal. Great for making choruses and bridges have a lot of bark*)

MXR M82 Bass Envelope Filter (*It’s like butter.  Combine with the Big Muff to make some very colorful textures*)

Hartke Bass Attack VXL Tone Shaper & Pre Amp (*the heart and soul to my tone.  Pre Amp is almost always triggered on.  Shaping mechanism is great
for bass drops & dub)*

***Board runs through the effects loop on a Mark Bass TA501 head (built in tube compressor with a little bite of the built-in vintage pre amp filter)

Daniel Minnerick
The Holland Account
Indianapolis, IN
www.reverbnation.com/thehollandaccount
www.myspace.com/thaowns

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I absolutely love tinkering/hacking and generally playing around with electronics. Besides playing guitar, this is by far one of my favorite interests/hobbies. A few years ago, I subscribed to MAKE magazine. If you don’t know what MAKE is and are interested in making cool things found around the house, dumpster, etc., this magazine is for you! I have several friends that subscribe to this magazine because the cool/nerd factor is undeniable.

I came across this MAKE video of Collin’s Lab where he hacks a Big Muff Pi with a Arduino and digital pot. An Arduino is basically a board with inputs and outputs that are controlled by a microcontroller that you can program. You can do all sorts from powering LEDs to running servos, etc. Pretty nerdy. Pretty cool.

Here is the video by makemagazine:

If you want more information (source code for the Arduino, etc) check out the MAKE blog entry for this project here.

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The Devi Ever Hyperion fuzz… and is being described as the “Big Muff Killer”. This is a interesting fuzz, with lots of edge and the over the top fuzz you’d come to expect from Devi Ever. Also, interesting point, they’ve included a built in noise gate, not sure if you can adjust the threshold of this or not, but seems handy to have.

Here is the official description:

The Devi Ever Hyperion Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal has been described as the “Big Muff” killer. The Hyperion pedal has excellent sustain and is very sensitve to playing dynamics. The Devi Ever Hyperion is a great lead fuzz pedal that generates tones that are reminiscent of acidy San Fransisco sounds of the ’60s. A built-in gate effect quiets noise when Hyperion distorton pedal is not receiving signal.

Devi Ever Hyperion Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal Features:

* True bypass
* MXR sized enclosure
* Boutique quality components
* Incredibly low ma draw
* Silicon transistor based
* 9 volt, 2.1 mm, negative tip power jack
* 9 volt battery snap inside (unscrew the back plate)

I found this video by devieverfx..

You can pick up the Devi Ever Hyperion Fuzz for $97.50 at Musician’s Friend.

Remember, if you like reading about these 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 or so, I watched “Fuzz: The Sound That Changed the World“. Really cool documentary on the fuzz pedals.. and about the people that build them. In that movie, there was a small clip of J. Mascis and his Big Muff collection, it was pretty awesome. I wish they had more footage of the collection and him talking about it, but here is a quick shot of his collection of older vintage Big Muffs.

As you can see, it’s a pretty hefty collection of older Rams Head, Triangle Muffs, etc. Pretty cool. Yesterday, someone tweeted about a Rams Head Big Muff on eBay, so I had to take a quick look. This, of course, led me to think how it stacks up with Big Muffs of today. I went to YouTube, and started my search, and what always seems the case, there is a Gearmanndude video that is exactly what I was looking for.

Here we have Gearmanndude comparing the Rams Head Big Muff vs. the Big Muff of today:

So how did you think it sounds? Definitely different.

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It’s funny how I get on these tangents. So after talking about the Devi Ever Rocket pedal, I came across a blog (Glittercop) which I found on the GearPage forum, that talked about Billy Corgan’s pedals from early Smashing Pumpkins. I had to read further, and so should you. This is a great post, and there are a few more posts about his guitar and amps. Great blog.

Please click here to read Glittercop.blogspot.com

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I have to first start off saying that I’m a big fan of Fuller’s Fulltone pedals. They are well made, and he makes a wide range of quality effects. Today, I wanted to talk about the Fulltone Fulldrive 2 MosFET overdrive pedal. I have to say this is one of the best overdrives you can get. It’s similar to the Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9 but you get WAY more control and more meat to your tone. You definitely can dial in a TS9 sound if you’re wanting that, and you can get a very large amount of sustain without huge amount of gain or noise. To me, that is very important. The Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9 is a little brighter and thinner in the low mids than the Fulldrive 2, which is not a bad thing at all, just pointing out some differences.

The boost setting comes close to the the Maxon 808 with Big Muff in the line, giving you some serious punch and sustain for rhythm or leads. The pedal gives you clean boost or wild overdrive.

The pedal has volume, tone, overdrive and boost knobs along with footswitches for selecting vintage/compcut modes and MosFET/standard overdrive. Having the knob controlling boost is something very cool in my opinion.

The MosFET/standard mode adds more low end and roundness to your tone. Use the tone knob to control presence and smooth out upper harmonic frequencies. Vintage/compcut gives you the classic midrange bump.

The pedal was named “Best Stompbox of 2006″ by Guitar Player magazine, so you know musician’s are digging this unit.

You can currently pick this pedal up for $179.00 new at Musician’s Friend,  or you might find a better deal new/used on eBay via Pedal Nerd.

Below is a great demonstration video of the Fulltone Fulldrive 2 MosFET overdrive pedal. Shows various settings and played with different guitars.

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Over at Never Too Late Guitar, he posted a great post where he compares the EHX Big Muff Pi (Wicker Switch Version) against the Analog Sun Face NKT 275. He played his 1957 Reissue Gibson Les Paul Goldtop and a Vox AC15CC.

Along with his description of settings, he provided a nice little video with audio clips of the two different effects. Personally, he did the clips the way I like them. Simple. Play the same ‘simple’ thing with one pedal, then play it again with the other pedal. I thought it gave a great interpretation of what the pedals sound like in the real world. Obviously, different guitar and amp can change this as well, or the application of the pedal… meaning do you use a fuzz to ‘wool’ up your lead tone, or is it stand alone for rhythm or specific lead tone. I personally have a few pedals just for ‘wool’ (not sure if that’s a official term or what), but I use them for giving body to lead. I don’t particularly like the pedal by itself, but love it after the TS9 for example.

Anyway, kudos to Never Too Late Guitar. Great comparison. You should check it out!

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