Effects Bay

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

Hello Kind Readers,

I’m back with some reviews of pedals made by Grumpy Toad FX. As mentioned before, Grumpy Toad is a one-man operation out of Northern California. He specializes in clone and custom effects. If you want it, and it’s hard to find, he’ll build it for you!

When I visited him last, he had made a clone of the Foxx Tone Machine. I have never heard of the original pedal, but I was curious about it. He gave me the pedal to try out and I thought I’d give a review!

The pedal itself is a three knob fuzz with a switch that switches into an octave up fuzz. I like to start with the fuzz and tone knobs completely dimed to see what extremes the pedal is capable of. What I heard was a biting–almost too harsh–saturated fuzz that made my solos sing and stand out. Rolling back the tone on the pedal yielded a far more creamy sound. Not my taste, but I know some people love it! I generally find myself dialing in more treble than most and keeping the fuzz at full blast. It was never too noisy and sung with every phrase I played. For chords, I would definitely roll back the fuzz a bit, but I’m not one to really chord with fuzz pedals.

The octave switch turns this pedal into a completely different monster! Any setting sounded like it was running through a bit crusher. I can see someone getting lost in the band mix if not set properly, as the octave up seriously kills any mids you may have in your tone. Simply making it a bit louder could easily fix this problem.

Playing through humbuckers and single coils, I can tell that the pedal reacts slightly better to single coils. If you use humbuckers, it is completely possible to fall in love with this pedal, I would simply dial in a bit more treble

Here is a small video I did with my Reverend Club King 290, which is outfitted with p90′s. My amp is a stock Peavey Classic 30. All of the delay is courtesy of an MXR Carbon Copy and any boost comes from a Barber LTD SR set to a slightly dirty boost.

Todd at Grumpy Toad FX is a great individual and he makes quality products. He takes the time to show me the insides of his pedals to show that nothing is loose and everything is securely in place (a form of quality control you just don’t get with some companies!). I highly recommend sending him an e-mail describing what it is you want, and he is very quick to reply with what he can do or find. He is always looking for circuits to build, so he will always have a few pedals on hand.

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

Here is the video with the review:

Kevin Ian is a multi-instrumentalist. He is currently the singer/guitarist for The Common Men. They can be found at www.thecommonmen.tk

Popularity: 3%

Incoming search terms for EffectsBay.com:

• Grumpy Toad
• fOXX tone machine clone
• foxx tone machine
• grumpy toad effects
• foxx tone machine review
• foxx tone machine kit
• foxx tone machine clone kit
• tone toad
• foxx tone clone
• Grumpy Toad FX Pedals

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

Hello Kind Readers!

The pedal I am reviewing today is The Pork Barrel Chorus by Grumpy Toad FX in Sacramento. Grumpy Toad is a small pedal company that specializes in built clones of your favorite vintage pedals. Todd –the builder– also slightly modifies pedals according to his customers’ wishes and has a great reputation for producing quality work.

I recently met him and put in an order for a custom boost pedal (which I will review when it arrives), but I had the pleasure of playing through one of his latest builds, a pedal he dubs the “Pork Barrel Chorus.”

The first thing I notice upon playing through it is the tremendous warmth and bass response. This is not your average chorus pedal, which tends to thin out your sound. This packs some serious bottom. I took it for a test run on my Peavey Classic 30, Vox, and my bassist’s GK rig, and the pedal stood up to all three tests.

The range of the rate knob goes from subtle to lush to seasick. I found myself more in favor of the subtle and lush sounds, which have yet to be rivaled by any chorus pedal I’ve played since. The depth can go from almost non-existent to extreme as well, giving you a vast array of tones at your disposal.

Todd also added in some switches to the pedal. The first one is a Depth switch. It changes the range of the Depth knob. The second –and my favorite of the switches– is a Vibrato/Trem switch that takes the dry signal out, leaving you with a vibrating tremolo sound. However, it wouldn’t be wise to call it a vibrato or tremolo because it’s still a chorus effect, so the effected signal is still detuned! This was a really unique addition to the chorus and one that was surprisingly musical and useful.

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

Here is a modest video with me going through a bunch of settings on the Pork Barrel Chorus.

Go through what he has done and talk to him about what you are looking for. I found him to be friendly, and helpful!

- Kevin Ian

Kevin Ian is a multi-instrumentalist and Internet Radio DJ. His current project, The Common Men can be found at www.thecommonmen.tk

Popularity: 5%

Incoming search terms for EffectsBay.com:

• grumpy toad custom effects
• pork barrel pedal
• toad works chorus
• porkbarell
• pork barrel pedal
• pork barrel pedal noisy
• pork barrel diy
• pork barrel chorus project
• pork barrel chorus problems
• pork barrel chorus pedal

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

Hello Kind Readers!

I thought I would review another one of the pedals on my new pedalboard, the Barber LTD Special Recipe. What distinguishes this from the original LTD? According to the official website:

“The LTD SR came about when “yet* another *early beta LTD” came to our attention from a good friend and excellent player/listener. Our “beta friend” asked for a clone of his early beta LTD to have as a backup for traveling, after listening to and cloning his beta LTD we realized what a nice voice this version LTD posessed…so, the custom shop has made this cool third LTD version available for players seeking a “flatter voiced” LTD…*very* faithful to your guitar and amp’s unprocessed spectrum.”

This pedal first came to my attention when the original owner, a good friend of mine, started using it live. I loved his low-gain sounds and he told me about the LTD SR. It is a much flatter-voiced overdrive and perhaps the most neutral sounding overdrive I’ve ever played.

Like most Barber pedals, this one also has internal trim pots. I have not touched them, as I have this strange superstition that I will mess with the mojo of the pedal if I so much as open the pedal!

Since I also run a second overdrive and a fuzz, I tend to run my LTD first, and the cleanest, with very little gain at all. It adds a nice amount of dirt, and is so wonderfully voiced, even at it’s highest gain setting, I can hear the nuance of even the craziest chords I may play.

I’ve gone through many pedals and I’ve tried many pedals, but this one has been the most consistent overdrive pedal I’ve ever owned. I know many people swear by the green one… and the overpriced one touted by a member of The Police, but for the price… this blows both way far out of the water.

I’ve included two links. One is to a demo of the LTD SR with an les paul. It is a great demo!

The second link is to a clickable MP3 song of my band, The Common Men, playing one of our newest songs “Impulsion.” I use the LTD SR almost exclusively (with my fuzz in the choruses) and it is a great indicator of how lovely it fits in a “real-life” situation.

Thank You!

- Kevin Ian

Kevin Ian goes through pedals like most people go through underwear. However, once he finds one he likes, there’s no letting go! He is a multi-instrumentalist and internet radio DJ, and occasional blogger. He hosts “The Mad Owl” on sacrockradio.com which airs local and unsigned alternative/electronic/ambient acts. He is primarily the singer/guitarist for Norther California’s post-punk trio The Common Men. You can find everything about The Common Men at their new official website, www.thecommonmen.tk

The Barber LTD Special Recipe is available for $139.95 at Amazon.com

Popularity: 5%

Incoming search terms for EffectsBay.com:

• barber ltd review
• barber LTD
• barber ltd sr review
• kevin ian review
• barber ltd reviews
• barber pedals review
• barber ltd pedal
• barber ltd special recipe
• ltd barber review
• barber ltd silver

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

Hello Kind Readers!

The Common Men are working on new material, and in this time I thought quite a bit about songwriting and the consequences of songwriting. I will focus today on some wisdom that has either been imparted onto me or self-realized after all of these years of writing and collaborating with artists of all genres.

Songwriting poses some serious challenges. Here are three main things I feel should keep you balanced during the songwriting process:

- Seek out Knowledge, but Know your Limitations

I have met many songwriters who have tried to overreach themselves and the end result is a meandering mess of a song. This is a tricky one to abide by because as songwriters, we are all naturally curious and want to see what chord substitutions can do and the like. Keep that adventurous spirit, but also realize that certain chords work together for a reason, and more often than not, your first instinct will be the best choice.

You will find yourself growing as a songwriter who wants to learn more about either theory, chords, or melodies. Actively seek out knowledge and immediately apply it to your next song. It may work, it might not, but applying everything you learn as soon as you learn it will make it part of your vocabulary as a songwriter.

In high school, I learned as many chords as I could. I was an expert at chord functions when I entered college. In my theory education, I received my education in HOW and WHY those chords work well together. That–along with my training in melody, voice-leading, and keys–helped me formulated ways to manipulate the audience through interesting and outlandish–but still appropriate–chord changes.

The second part is knowing your limitations. Everyone has a certain “style” to how they write songs. It doesn’t matter what genre you claim to write, if you were to write a pop song, rock song, or reggae song, they will follow a certain pattern and chord progression. Embrace this and be proud of it. You have your own influences and derive from them in ways unlike anyone else who might have the same influences.

As a songwriter in The Common Men, the promise of new material always gets the fans excited, and while I may venture from our usual song type, fans can always pick out the little things that still tell them it’s a Common Men song.

- Keep Things Simple (But Complexity has it’s Place)

This is pretty self-explanatory, but allow me to elaborate anyway Even songs that are super complicated (think about most progressive rock bands) have some elements of simplicity to it. Complexity for complexity’s sake makes songs sound meandering and messy.

However, remember that even with band’s that play simple music, they have a song or two or even elements of songs that have something complex about them. It doesn’t have to be a complex time signature change or overly complicated chords. The complex element can be an extra-melodic bass, a more syncopated drum beat or a simple chord with some extended harmony (think sustained chords or diminished chords) added to it. Perhaps your song is in E and you bring the bridge to C, or maybe you make the outro in E Minor. It’s the details that can really make your song standout.

- Perspective, Perspective, Perspective!

This is perhaps the most important of the three tips. This one helps you retain your sanity!

First and foremost: always be mindful of your audience. This does NOT mean that you write what you think the audience wants to hear. This simply means that you realize WHO will be hearing your music.

Most audience members have little to no knowledge about music–they only know what they like. Most of the time, the audience will simply not “get” you. Don’t be upset if they don’t “get” your lovely modulations or time signature changes. Most of the time, these people will simply go home and say to someone “Yeah, they played some complicated stuff.” They will also relate you to what they know. The Common Men are influenced by Joy Division, Bowie, Interpol, and The Moving Units to name a few. However, we get compared to Devo, The Fixx, The Minutemen, and The Dead Kennedys. It just happened that we remind them of what they like because they might not have heard of our influences or simply don’t see it that way. I figure, a fan is a fan

It may take you days, weeks, months to write a song. However, it only takes seconds for someone to listen, process, and judge your work. So, if they stick around and come up to tell you they enjoyed your set or really like a certain song, smile and be gracious about it!

In my years as a performer and songwriter, I know about the times when no one would show up to a show or even stick around. Now, The Common Men play to a good-sized audience every time we play out in our hometown. This keeps me humble and thankful for everything we have done and accomplished. This also helps breed confidence in our abilities as songwriters and arrangers. Though, the first time someone heard one of my songs ages ago and said “Hey, that sounds good!” was all I needed

I hope you have enjoyed this column! I will go into some of my favorite chords, and maybe a review or two of gear! Thanks again for reading!

Kevin Ian runs over 17 pedals. He is quite the tap dancer live on stage! He is currently the frontman/guitarist for The Common Men. You can find them on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.. Please direct questions and comments to thecommonmenmusicgmailcom

Popularity: 4%

Incoming search terms for EffectsBay.com:

• fugazi amp settings

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

Hello Kind Readers!

As the only guitarist in The Common Men, I enjoy taking a break during songs and letting the bass and drums take over. I consider my role as the sprinkles on top of a cupcake, if you will.

However, I sometimes like to take simple chords to the next level. I used to spend days learning songs and trying to find new ways to twist the chord changes. This was the easiest way for me to develop my own voice in playing guitar.

The chord progression is from a well-known 80′s song “Under The Milkyway” by The Church. Here are the chords:

low – high EADGBe

Am: X 0 2 2 1 0

A7sus4: X 0 2 0 3 0

Fmaj7: X 3 3 2 1 0

G: 3 2 0 0 3 3

I’ve taken the chords and added my own touch to them. Here are the reworked chords with an explanation of what I did:

Am9: X 0 7 5 0 7

The B natural in this chord add a lovely quality and is the 9th in the A minor scale

A7sus4: X 0 7 7 0 5

While I don’t have the G which would make it a 7th chord, the bass plays the G, which implies the 7th

Fmaj7: X X 7 5 6 0

I just took the chord up to the fifth position and added the open E string to make it a Maj7

G: X X 9 7 8 10

G chord in a different position. The high D gives it a lovely shimmer to it

I have also added the Behringer Echo Machine to a shimmer setting. It’s known as the “U2 Shimmer” and it sounds like a synth pad behind my guitar. I also add a fast delay on top of it.

I love using effects pedals. I think they can really augment a progression. However, a little knowledge of chord functions and a little ingenuity can add a uniqueness to your playing as well!

Thank you for reading!

- Kevin Ian

Kevin Ian runs over 20 pedals. He is quite the tap dancer live on stage! He is currently the frontman/guitarist for The Common Men. You can find them on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Please direct questions and comments to thecommonmenmusicgmailcom

Popularity: 6%

Incoming search terms for EffectsBay.com:

• church guitar effects
• guitar applications
• guitar effects church

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

Hello Kind Readers!

I’ve finally figured out my camera issues and will go back to doing video with my next column!

This is another short but sweet column talking about pedals. In my research I found out about buffers. If you run pedals, every time you introduce a pedal with cables, you add more noise to your system. Guitar pickups are high impedance devices which make them susceptible to noise from surrounding electronics. Furthermore, when you break up the connection between the guitar and amp, your signal becomes increasingly noisy. You also lose treble and your bass frequencies become increasingly muddy and flabby.

Most people will say “Use nothing but True-Bypass pedals and your problems are solved.” This helps only to a certain extent, as not all pedals are created equal. Even a pedal chain of True-Bypass pedals will lose tone and add noise.

I decided to experiment with a few things. Not one to use boost pedals, I decided to use one at the beginning of my chain to drive my pedals and compensate for volume loss. I also wanted to use something at the end of my chain. This is where the idea of using a buffer comes in. It retains the original sound of my guitar as if the pedals never existed. This sounded too good to be true, but what I found was surprising.

My boost pedal of choice is the MXR Micro Amp. It is a clean volume boost and does not add anything to my tone. I’m a big fan of my tone already, why change it? I found that with using this pedal, my guitar sounds bigger and I don’t need to dial in so much gain on my overdrive and fuzz pedals. This helps with the clarity of my chords and such. However, when I really want to go over the edge, the extra boost pushes the sucker over the cliff. Surprisingly enough, my Devi Ever LP at it’s full intensity now sounds extra fuzz and ugly. It’s a dream come true!

I have quite a few Non-True-Bypass pedals in my chain–namely two Behringer pedals and one Danelectro Mini-Pedal. I love the way they sound, so I’m not interesting in trading them in for anything more boutique right now. These pedals also dare to go places most pedals won’t for the price! I’d love to regain the original sound of my Reverend direct into my Classic 30–the original sound that sold me on the guitar. I purchased a Cmatmods Buffer from eBay and hoped for the best.

What happened next was amazing:

It was like my pedals were not there. It sounded like I was plugging my Reverend into my Classic 30 with a 10 foot cable. It was amazing. My treble was sparkling and my bass was taut and pronounced. However, the best indicator of my progress lies in the EQ.

Without my boost and buffer, I found myself scooping my mids and boosting my treble and bass on my amp. I also boost the treble on all of my overdrive and distortion pedals. My signal was quite noisy. After using both the boost and buffer, I had to readjust my EQ and kept everything pretty much flat with a slightly boosted bass. Most of the extraneous hiss is all but completely gone and I am happy.

I know some people who have gone into effects loop switching as well. I cannot write about it because it’s foreign to me. I do love cascading my pedals–sometimes turning them all on at once!–so one linear line does the job for me. If i so choose to experiment further, I will be sure to write about my experiences Sometimes, all people need is a little secondhand knowledge or experience to inspire them to experiment themselves. There are so many different options with regards to signal routing and looping and such… have fun!

Thanks for reading! I am planning to go back to real-time applications of my previous columns. We’ll take a look at a chord progression and explore different ways to play it. I might even flirt with recording guitar techniques. Stay tuned!

Kevin Ian Common loves large pedalboards. He eventually plans on running 30 pedals at once! He is a multi-instrumentalist and guitarist/vocalist for The Common Men. You can find them on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. You can reach him @ thecommonmenmusicgmailcom

Popularity: 9%

Incoming search terms for EffectsBay.com:

• cmatmods buffer
• guitar philosophy
• CMATMods Buffer Pedal
• cmat mods buffer review
• c matt mods buffer
• my guitar philosophy
• losing tone guitar pedals
• how to not lose tone on pedals
• guitar pedals how not to loose tone
• compensating for volume loss in pedal chains

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

Hello Kind Readers!

My last column discussed order of pedals in pedal boards. This short and sweet column tackles the on-going debate of “amp-like,” “true-bypass,” and “transparent.”

With the advent of the gear forums, I’ve noticed a very big mob mentality when it comes to gear discussions. Seems like people are more ready to write you off because you don’t subscribe to their idea of perfect tone. I go and I search for “best overdrive” or “best chorus” or “best delay” and I research all of these pedals to find that many of them are god-awfully expensive. You find that one person to mention Boss or Danelectro or even Arion and the pack goes for the kill. How crazy!

I find that enough people come up to me after a show and comment on how they like my tone or wonder how I get a certain sound. It always surprises them when they see my board and find such cheap pedals there. Also, I trust in that no matter what I play, it’s me, and people will be able to point out MY C chord in a sea of millions.

I understand that there are things I may not fully understand about pedals and how they work, but I feel that some of these buzz words are robbing budding and experienced guitarists of their essential journey of discovering tone. The debate and thought-process I hope to ignite revolves more around what sounds best for YOU. Remember, my opinion is only one of millions, but I am fortunate enough to share mine on such a public platform. Read on, you might discover something

Transparent-

After spending some time with what are considered “transparent pedals,” I have decided that the idea of not affecting my tone is not a factor in choosing my pedals. If I step on a pedal, I want it to do something. I bought my overdrive pedal to impart some kind of coloration on my tone. I am looking to alter it in some way, that’s why I buy pedals in the first place.
Of course this doesn’t mean go out and buy a twenty-dollar distortion and call it good. However, if that twenty-dollar pawn shop find works best for you, then why not keep it?

I once bought a certain overdrive pedal because my favorite band made my favorite album of theirs with THAT pedal exclusively. After finding it on eBay and winning it, I thought I had hit the jackpot! Turns out, while it worked with many aspects of my sound, it did not translate well to chords. And even worse, certain chords sounded downright terrible through the effect. As much as it hurt me, I had to let it go. I now have a distortion pedal that not only suits my needs, but allows me enough flexibility to achieve any tone I want for any situation. It may not be a three-hundred-dollar pedal, but it works for me.

I am a fan of brittle clean tones and distorted tones with a certain kind of bite. Needless to say, the phrases “thick and creamy” and “warm,” are ones I avoid when considering distortion or fuzz. I also tend to scoop my mids a little, so any pedal that adds mids to anything I generally stay away from.

True-bypass

Some of my mainstay pedals are cheap. This obviously means they are not true-bypass. I don’t care. I might switch them out with a true-bypass pedal in the future, but for now, I’m perfectly happy with them. There are still many companies whose pedals are not true-bypass, and some of them are the only manufacturers of certain sounds and pedals–why rob yourself of a possibly new sonic palette?

One of my favorite pedals on my board is a mini-pedal from an often over-looked pedal company. This tiny little pedal goes to certain extremes than pedals three or four times more expensive. That’s one of the beauties of cheap pedals–their ability to truly push the envelope sonically.

True, one of my favorite pedals on my board is two-hundred dollars. I won’t lie, some pedals I’m willing to spend an arm-and-a-leg for, but in that same respect, I got my favorite overdrive used for under one hundred dollars and my favorite modulation pedal was under thirty dollars.

I hope some of you have found my perspective interesting and slightly insightful. As you read this, I’m probably scouring eBay or Craigslist looking for pedals under 20 dollars to buy. I might buy 2-3 and experiment. Why not? I just might find another pedal that is essential to my own tone.

This column is not meant to tell you your decisions are wrong. However, when you talk about your pedal selection, do yourself a favor and buy pedals that help make yourself unique, not a popular person amongst a set of forums and gear-heads.

Thanks for reading!

- Kevin Ian Common

Kevin Ian Common is a multi-instrumentalist who has once used a pumpkin to help the guitar make music. You can find his band, The Common Men at www.myspace.com/thecommon. The Common Men are also on FaceBook and Twitter.

Popularity: 4%

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

Hello Kind Readers

The last month has been a little hectic for me. The Common Men have been really busy working on new material and preparing for shows and some music videos.

Not only that, but my previously planned columns have been put on the back burner because my camera is not working properly. Until I get that issue resolved, I thought I would take a look into some philosophical matters involving the guitar. The first issue I’d like to tackle is pedal order in your pedal board.

This is a very subjective matter because just like tone, there really is no “right” answer, but there are norms associated with it. I will go over them and then explain the different variations of pedal order. I will reference my own pedal board as well. While there was a Pedal Line Friday dedicated to my rig, it has changed dramatically since–a true testament to the ever-changing tastes and needs of gear-minded guitarists.

Something Typical Something Atypical.

The basic order when dealing with pedals is as follows:

Guitar – Tuner – Compression – Modulation/Filter – Overdrive – Distortion/Fuzz – Delay – Reverb – Amp

The general belief is that the compression evens out your signal before anything else. The modulation and filtering effects (chorus, phaser, wah, etc) come afterward so you get a rich effected clean signal. The overdrive is your first line of dirt, and is usually low/medium gain. Your distortion is more lead-based so you would have a fuller tone. Here, you would stack your dirt pedals for either high gain uses or leads.

My order is as follows:

Barber LTD SR – Barber Small Fry – Devi Ever LP – Spectacular Aenima

My Barber LTD is my go-to overdrive. I am also currently borrowing it until I can afford to purchase it from a fellow musician. It’s wonderfully rich and full of growl. The Small Fry is my main distortion tone. It is the most rich distortion I’ve played and I have the internal trimpots set to a small mid scoop, slightly boosted presence and bass with a very tubby note shape. The LP is a lovely pedal I have reviewed before. It has a random hiccup sound, like it’s broken. I use it mainly as a stacked dirty tone with a random stutter. With the control knob all the way, it sounds very fuzzy and almost undefined–a thing of true beauty. The Spectacular Aenima is almost always set to a glitch motor-boat sound or bit-crushing madness. Since I am a big fan of  weird tones and high gain when doing my solos, I prefer my stacked distortions to be unique and strange.

The delay comes after to fully take in all of the other effects and apply a delayed signal. Reverb is generally the last pedal in your chain if you use it. The philosophy is that reverb is the final augmentation, so it would follow everything else.

Of course, there is no real set way in pedal order. You can put your modulation effects after your distortion. However, you will get an added white noise swirl into your sound. Also, there tends to be a light volume boost with putting your modulation effects after distortion. I have switched between placing my chorus and vibe pedals before and after my distortion. I love the white noise aspect added to my sound.

Another interesting idea is putting delay before distortion. With the decaying delayed signal going into the distortion, the natural compression that takes place with distortion is striking. It makes you sound faster than you actually are! Give it a shot, it’s pretty crazy. I prefer the dying decay, and most people do, so this is a very unnatural decision.

I use multiple delay pedals. I really enjoy stacking delays and using different settings to create cascading delay sounds.

Here is the order as per my pedal board:

MXR Carbon Copy – Behringer Echo Machine – Digitech Digidelay

My MXR is set to quick U2-like delays with the Mod switch on at all times. That feeds into a long multi-tap delay on my Behringer. The final delay in my chain is a long reverse delay with very few repeats on the Digidelay. My thinking is that I feed the delays in order of short to long to special effect settings.

I have spent weeks changing my boards and chances are I will change it again a few more times by the time I finish another column. It will take you just as much time, but you will be surprised at the rewards associated with a little experimentation.

I have included a picture from a recent show that has both my boards in the picture. I will talk about my feedback looper and my texture board in the next column along with a little musing on the idea of cheap vs. expensive pedals.

This is meant to spark debate and experimentation. Happy stomping!

- Kevin Ian Common

Kevin Ian Common is a multi-instrumentalist who would love to plug in effects pedals to drums. He is currently in The Common Men, a Post-Punk trio from Northern California. You can find them @ www.myspace.com/thecommonmen.
You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.
Please direct questions/praises/rants/flames to
thecommonmenmusicgmailcom

Popularity: 39%

Incoming search terms for EffectsBay.com:

• guitar pedal order
• ebay guitar effects pedel parts
• guitar pedal board aby
• post punk pedalboard
• guitar pedal board philosophy
• post punk guitar pedals
• crazy pedal boards
• philosophy guitar effects
• PICKLEVIBE CLONE
• pedals commonly used in post punk

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

Hello, Kind Readers!

I’m taking a break from my usual column to talk about a movie. “Fuzz: The Sound that Revolutionized the World” is a movie directed by Clif Taylor in which he investigates the history of effects pedals in rock–namely, the fuzz box. He interviews contemporary pedal makers from the likes of Z.Vex to Death By Audio and vanguard pedal makers like Electro Harmonix. The insight from each interview is quite telling. You see everything from highly organized assembly lines to dirty desks littered with parts and pedal enclosures.

What makes this movie interesting is not only the rich history of effects pedals, but the varied perspectives presented throughout the movie. One on hand, you have the pedal makers and their loyal fans and users who speak of uncontrollable tones and noises and their value in modern music. On the other hand, however, you have guitar techs and audio engineers who speak of the difficulty associated with boutique pedals and their unpredictability.

The nature of forums and blogs discussing effects (much like this one!) is also discussed in great details from every side. The brutal honesty of those interviewed–irregardless of their views–is refreshing. They also tackle the mob mentality of the pedal business, ripping off circuits and designs, and buzz words that are often overused and misunderstood: transparent, true bypass, and amp-like.

This movie is not only for people who love gear, but for people who simply appreciate music as well. There isn’t too much “Shop Talk” to completely lose the casual viewer. Most of the terminology isn’t too complicated either. What you discover is that these pedal makers are regular people. Sure, they might have some screws loose–much like us musicians in general!–but they started out as everyone else–with an idea. This idea grows into a business, then they are making some of the most sought-after pedals in music today.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. I tried to remain as vague as possible because I would like everyone even remotely interested to watch the movie. It was so fantastic I watched it three times in a row!

Watching this movie may prompt me to write a few philosophy-angled columns about effects pedals. In the meantime, see this movie! Thanks for reading

- Kevin Ian Common

Kevin Ian Common is a multi-instrumentalist who would love to plug in effects pedals to drums. He is currently in The Common Men, a Post-Punk trio from Northern California. You can find them @ www.myspace.com/thecommonmen. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter. Please direct questions/praises/rants/flames to thecommonmenmusicgmailcom

Popularity: 7%

Incoming search terms for EffectsBay.com:

• "post movie review" "guest post"
• movie about boutique pedals

The following is a guest post review of the Devi Ever Spectacular Aenima pedal by Kevin Ian Common. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Good Day, Kind Readers

I get quite a few questions about my Spectacular Aenima Pedal. I purchased this pedal in a small underground electronic music in San Francisco called Robot Speak. It seems to be a Dwarfcraft build of Devi Ever circuitry with a few other things thrown in. I say this because it looks so much like the Truly Beautiful Disaster by Devi Ever. I have not found much on my version of the pedal, so I might consider it one of those interesting-couple-of-a-kind models.

I will eventually do a video to showcase it’s feedback looping capabilities, but that is a series of videos in it’s own right! I will focus on the fuzz.

This is not your typical fuzz. Most fuzz pedals sound like either a scratchy distortion pedal or a bassy and tubby metal pedal living under the guise of “smooth.” This is not a smooth fuzz–it’s nasty, it’s ugly, and sounds much more like a broken set of speakers than this “creamy,” “smooth” and “vintage” fuzz most of you are aware with. Single notes are wonderful while full chords are either massive note monsters or massive clusterf**ks–the choice is yours!

It has three stages of gain and a glitch mode. The glitch mode has all of the weird bit crushing and random arpeggios you remember from your days with Atari and Nintendo. The glitch mode actually is responsive to your volume and picking dynamics. The softer you pick, the more chance you have at random arpeggios, and when you kill the single completely, you get this motor-boating sound–enough to make ANY sound guy worry at a gig!

The fuzz is a wonderful thing to behold. It’s three-dimensional and feels full-bodied and massive. Everything at unity sounds wonderful, but boosting or scooping certain controls give you either bassy nastiness or white noise heaven.

I have uploaded a few videos to showcase it’s wonderfulness. I hope you enjoy it and look further into the pedal!

- Kevin Ian Common
thecommonmenmusicgmailcom

Kevin Ian Common is a multi-instrumentalist who has been playing guitar since high school. His band, The Common Men, is a Post-Punk trio from Northern California. For more information, subscribe to the WeLoveTheCommonMen channel on YouTube and find us on Facebook and www.myspace.com/thecommonmen.

Popularity: 5%

Incoming search terms for EffectsBay.com:

• Devi Ever Spectacular Aenima
• devi ever aenima review
• spectacular aenima
• Devi Ever Ænima Spectacular
• devi ever ænima spectacular
• spectacular aenima review
• devi ever aenima
• dwarftcraft
• review devi ever aenima
• devi ever truly beautiful disaster review