Catching Ghosts Pt. 1: Recording that Old Time Music

I should begin with a brief apology for being on hiatus for so long.  Despite the endless supply of cluelessness which guitar culture provides me to make heinous/sarcastic posts, they take up quite a bit of time to write.  And time is something very few people have as they get older.  So to those of you asking, I will do my best to keep you entertained.

On to business.  I've had the great opportunity and pleasure of joining a very talented Old Time/String Band group known as Bud Heavy and the High Lifes.  While attempting to stay true to the ways of Old Time music, many members - myself included - have also come from strong punk rock backgrounds.  Thus the music reflects an interesting blend of traditional appointments and new energy.  Having played electric music for the majority of my existence, I must admit that I felt rather naked at the first rehearsal with them, being armed only with my trusty acoustic.

My lovely mistress.  A Gibson Southern Jumbo - True Vintage
 a gift from my mother.

After many shows, bottles of bourbon, bouts of nudity, and the like, it was natural for us to want to take our songs and amalgamate them onto a record.  For those of you naive to the world of record making witchcraft, there different avenues to track the album.  The most obvious is to spend some time at a legitimate business, and have an engineer - a person who makes it their business to actually know what they're doing- capture your magic.  After much deliberation, we decided that is not what we wanted to do.

I am a firm believer that an album, like a song, should tell a story.  There is something to be said about hiding away in an audiophile's man cave filled with glowing tubes and magnetic tape, only to emerge with a finely polished record.  It simply wasn't the story that we wanted this album to tell.  Most of the songs are older than atom bombs and automobiles (even a couple of US states).  It seemed fitting to do two things:  to track the songs in the same fashion as traditional Old Time music and to do so in a historic location.  So we put our feelers out to a handful of historic organizations, and received many enthusiastic replies.

In the end, Brownville Nebraska provided us with a deal much too swell to pass up.  Brownville is located in Southeastern Nebraska, and with enough Bourbon you could practically urinate across the border into Missouri.  The Brownville of old made much of its success operating steamboats down the mighty Mo' river, but also dipped its toes in clay mining and the business of the rail.  According to the the locals, Brownville is a legendary arts community.  The town used to provide local artists, musicans, and tradesman with grants and housing to sustain them while they honed their craft.  Modern-day Brownville proudly displays the original signs of old shoppes, while young local entrepreneurs move into the old shells like hermit crabs, and carry on businesses of their own.  The people are incredibly friendly and infinitely generous.  Brownville was the perfect setting for our story.

Brownvillite - (?) - Thomas Rudloff welcomed our project with open arms, and offered up his old Antiquarium Bookstore and Bill Farmer Gallery as a haven for our recording endeavor.  According to Thomas, the building was constructed in 1934, and has lived and been reincarnated in the forms of a grade school, gymnasium, artist residence, and presently a bookstore/art gallery.  The building is two stories high, but is one vast open room with wood floors and is illuminated by massive arched windows flanking the North and South of the building.
(Photos courtesy of Maxwell Morrissey and Spencer Morrissey)

Gotta include the artsy emotional photo.

After investigating the place thoroughly, we scheduled a date and began preparations for a long weekend in Brownville.  I will go more into detail on how we attacked the recording itself in Catching Ghosts Pt. 2, but the magnitude of the project requires multiple posts - sorry.  There will be much more gear and nerdery in the following post, and quite possibly a ghost story.

-  Stonewall

Collecting, Hoarding, and Minimalism

I was just having a conversation today with a good friend of mine, about whether or not he should sell one of his nice bass heads or not.  He has a two very nice bass heads, but he tends to prefer the sound of one over the other, therefore one gathers dust.  We've actually had this same conversation three times this week, and each time I gave him three different answers.  The first time, my gut reaction told him "Keep it!  You'll regret selling it later!".  The second time I told him, "Sell it, but only if you're using the dough to buy something you really want.".  And just now I told him, "If it has been sitting around, you may as well get rid of it.".  His situation never changed, I'm apparently just bipolar, er... tripolar.

After thinking it over, I've come to the realization that aside from being insane, I am equal parts hoarder, collector, and minimalist.  Doesn't make sense does it?  But it does.  I don't see each of those characteristics in a linear fashion, where one eventually evolves into the next.  I merely see different means to an end goal.

Hoarding

Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top is fabled to have an enormous collection of guitars, numbering (most likely) in the thousands.  Last year I watched a ZZ Top's Premier Guitar Rig Rundown with Billy's Guitar Tech Elwood Francis.  One comment that was made was "We don't change guitars nightly, we change a round of guitars a couple times a year..." Which means getting 7 and 8 brand new guitars from Gibson/Gretsch, and sending the old models to a storage facility.  Then Elwood goes on to say (16:15 in the video) "...just in ZZ Headquarters in Houston, over 12 years ago just in stage guitars, I counted over 450 guitars".  450 guitars... what the hell.  Jeff Tweedy is the same way.  I was the same way.  I use to keep every gadget I ever bought, and was picking up cool pedals on a regular basis.  I had some weird satisfaction knowing that when I returned to my mancave, I'd have 4 different versions of a Proco Rat awaiting me.  They all sounded awesome and slightly different.  Each little stomp or weird guitar carved out a little niche.

Why did I do it?  The ultimate goal was that if I kept this junk, someday I'll need that one sound for a recording/song.  It's not a bad thing, I suppose, and most people who hoard end up making a small studio out of it.  I just ran out of money.  I also was not getting any better at guitar, because I was too busy playing with all my toys.  But I get distracted easily.  Not everyone's like that.  My uncle has over 40 guitars and he gigs way more and writes better songs than I do.

Minimalism

If you're a semi-regular reader of my blog, I probably come off as a minimalist.  Yes to a certain extent, but I've still got plenty of shit at my house, so I wouldn't say that I'm a true minimalist.  However, I can greatly appreciate qualities of minimalism, especially on a gigging guitar rig:

1. More reliable.  Less patch cables.  Less shit to go wrong.
2. Less weight, size, and floor space.  Crap like that matters when you're loading a van, playing small stage, or being 25 years old with the back of a 75 year old brick layer.  
3. More focus on playing.  Less distraction with stomping correct pedals on.  I can't hide behind FX.

There was a certain time where I took minimalism super seriously, and sold everything except maybe 5 stompboxes, 2 guitars, and one amp.  Fucking stupid.  I sold off a bunch of stuff that I actually did enjoy, and ended up buying some of it back at a loss.  I did it to focus more on my playing, which was a success.  I learned how to read sheet music during this time, and I developed a healthy practice routine.  But in the end, I just got bored.  It's like having a paint brush, and only letting yourself use primary colors.  

Collecting

I think there's a nice middle ground between hoarding and minimalism, and I simply call it collecting.  I like what I like.  And I like sounding like me.  I enjoy having my 3 Moogerfoogers and getting crazy fucked up sounds when I record.  But when I play out with my electric rig, I tailor my pedalboard to the set.  It usually ends up being 4 -5 pedals, with maybe one fun one thrown in for me to play with.  I've filled in for a friends on acoustic guitar at churches, and the other guitarist showed up with a massive pedalboard.  I watched him play the same boring U2 licks/volume swells, and he just moved a capo around when the key changed.  I even had to explain to him how to add a 7th to a chord, and trust me, I'm not that theory savvy.  That's just silly.  

So I've got a nice little collection.  I play all my gear, all the time.  I don't really keep niche items around anymore.  If I can't swap it out and dial in a bunch of cool sounds to generate ideas, it usually doesn't last very long at my house.  I call it my 6 month rule.  If I haven't used it for 6 months, it gets moved to the chopping/trading block.  I'd much rather sell that stuff off and have a few extra dollars in savings.  Then when a guitar/amp/mic/whatever shows up for a great deal I can afford it.  I can think of at least 2-3 dream guitars that have slipped through my fingers, because I didn't have the cash and I couldn't sell my extra crap off in time.  Also to help curb my insatiable hunger for buying guitars, I've established a rule with myself where I can only buy one guitar a year.  A year is a long time.  It makes me really think about what I really want to get.  If I get a guitar, and I find myself wanting something different even more, then I probably didn't want the other guitar in the first place.  That Guild S-100 I kept promising pictures of is a good example.  It had a cool vibe and was a fun restoration project, but it held me back from getting a Rickenbacker I have been drooling over for years.  Now I have the Ric, and I'm much more satisfied.

YMMV.

-  Stonewall

Stereotypes II: Sellers

Do you remember when people use to go to the store to buy things?  That trend is pretty much dead.  Whether for better or worse, I have no opinion.  Eventually, it will probably completely die out.  I envision a day when I tell my grandchild that there was a place called "Blockbuster", where I used to rent/buy movies from.  And with a look of sheer disbelief, he/she will say to me, "Grandpa, are you making up stories to cover up the fact you sh$% your pants again?"  Maybe an exaggeration, but probably not.

The internet is not a "new" thing anymore.  Why talk to a microwave expert, when you can just look online and research it?  Then you can pretentiously bring up the fact you know all the specs on a 4-slot toaster at the water cooler tomorrow.  You can buy anything you want from the safety of the Men's Room stall.  Then eBay and Craigslist happened.  Regular people became not only expert consumers, but also expert sellers.  So on and so forth...

This is all well and good.  However, most people are idiots.  What does this mean for us buyers?  Let me show you:

Misinformed

This person is selling a "Gibson Les Paul Special II" for $125.  I assure you, this did not come out of the Gibson factory.  Maybe from the cesspool of expired lacquer that sits behind the factory, but this is in fact, not a Gibson.  I mainly find it odd that despite the fact that in fancy lettering up on the headstock, it says "Epiphone", this person decided it was a Gibson.  But of course, this type of seller never would include a picture of the headstock to confirm that.  This ad also falls into another category:

My Crap Smells Like Roses, Because It Was MY Crap

Do you remember when I sanded a guitar down to its sealer, and tried to sell it with no upgrades for $100 more than I bought it for?  Now you can drag your crusty panties out of the closet and put whatever price you want on it, cause it's got "stock parts".  Everyone wants to buy things for dirt cheap, and sell their stuff for twice the amount they paid, simply because they're magic and they owned it.

Terminology

People come up with the most hilarious adjectives for their stuff when they're selling.  I ran across this listing this morning, and almost died laughing.  What on earth is "swat"?  It sounds naughty.  Dirty.  Like some sort of fluid excreted from the nether regions of a person's body.  Needless to say, I am withholding my money for a "swat"-less guitar.  

Another term I see frequently is "MUST SELL ASAP!!!".  Maybe this is just me, but when I see that title, my brain immediately thinks "cheap".  But when I open the link, low and behold you've got that puppy listed for a pretentiously high price.  You're going to get low balled if you put that in a listing.  If you don't, please FWD me your email so I can low ball you.  

"Upgrades"

This is one that just blows my mind.  

Here's a guitar.  It was $700 new.  They blew them out in stores because they couldn't sell them for around $500.  But wait, he made upgrades.  Let's see *reads* they put $250 of upgrades into it.  Okay that makes $750 low, $950 high.... and they're asking a grand plus shipping.  But that would be if that guitar was new...

If you buy any guitar, from any store and your 30, 60, 90 day return policy goes away, that is now a used guitar.  I don't care how pristine it is or how little you played it, you own a used guitar.  But even more than this, all of my existence wants to smite people who try to sell a used guitar for substantially more than they bought it for.  Yes, there is a vintage market.  But what about stuff in the past 10 - 15 years?  Here's the hard truth.  Upgrades are nice, but they don't raise the value of a guitar much.  If anything, it makes it only slightly more appealing to sell at a reasonable used price.  If you really want to make your money back, you'll sell off the upgrades and try to get what you can for the stock instrument.  

Partscasters

I'm going to tread lightly on this stereotype because it seems to be hit or miss.  I've built up a couple Partscasters.  It's usually some extravagant scheme that will fulfill all my weird niche desires in a guitar, while having an original look and vibe.  I usually finish it, love it for a day, then realize that I've made some sort of ugly bastard guitar child and want to get rid of it ASAP.  I can tell you from experience, if you try to sell the guitar as a complete, you will almost never get what you have into it back out.  That's not to say it won't ever happen, especially if you build up a parts guitar modeled after a very famous retro guitar.  But if you have a super strat, with sustainer pickups, built in fuzz, and misting fan to keep you cool, it's probably not going to happen.  You're actually better off parting it out, that way people can incorporate pieces of your master scheme into their master scheme.  

Relentless Re-Posters

This is not Photoshop magic.  I kid you not, this is what my local CL looks like if you type in "piano".  If you scroll down, they keep repeating each day for a couple months (at least).  It has to be one person too, because these get re-posted in the same blocks of various pianos.  Someone even made a listing to try to get everyone to "Flag" these posts from popping up.  It worked for awhile, but they've crept up again.  I'm sure you've seen em too.  The WORST part about re-posters, is that they're typically unwilling to lower/negotiate price.  There was a guy with an Epiphone Casino on Craigslist a while back (he's actually resurfaced recently) who kept doing this.  I tried to get it from him at one point actually but he was unwilling to budge on price.  Now he's got a "PRICE DROP!!!" tag in the title, and it's -$25 less than he was asking in the first place.  I don't make the rules on selling, but if you haven't sold something for months or a year, you really should reconsider your price.

Now I don't rule the internet.  I don't make the rules.  These are just my observations.  I've been guilty of a few of these.  Let's just remember to turn that ole brain on when we're selling our old toys.  

- Stonewall

Stonewall Approved Gadgets #1: Electro Harmonix Cathedral

Long ago, when Stonewall's Guide was still gestating within the folds of my brain, I decided that I wanted to provide a resource to fellow musicians/nerds, without having to ball gag everyone with the latest hype and trends that plagues the forums.  Like music, I like to create things I would want to hear/read.  There's nothing more worthless to me, than reading a review about a pedal, which the writer has owned for three days, and ultimately claims "X pedal is the best thing they've ever heard."  If this is the case, you were probably born yesterday.  Tastes change, you get interested in other music, yada yada.  So I'm creating an installment, if you will, where I'll highlight some of my favorite pieces of gear that I'm particularly attached to.  Most of it, I've had for a decent amount of time and still use fairly regularly.  Since I don't get any free gear via sponsorship, I can give an honest pro/con.  I hate the term "review", because that gives off the vibe that I plugged it in for a couple days and formed some silly opinion, rather than really putting something through the gauntlet.  So welcome to the first feature of Stonewall's Approved Gadgets.

I'd like to kick this off regarding a very popular item these days, the reverb pedal.  It seems to be an ever increasing trend of buying/selling/trading reverb units, to get that latest "Shimmer" or "Grandma's Bathroom" reverb sound.  Prices on these puppies are getting higher and higher too (Blue Sky $300, Space $500).  To me though, most reverbs are just boring as F%&$.  (*turns knobs* big space *turns knobs* little space)  I'm still trying to wrap my head around why everyone wants a dedicated modulated reverb (I do have a deep hatred for most Flanger sounds).  I have two requirements that I look for in modern reverbs, decent plate sound and on subtle reverbs, the effect doesn't wash out when a boost is engaged.  I don't know why, but most companies never get the latter requirement right.  Any other added features outside of those requirements I just consider a bonus.  I used to just resort to using amp reverb, which I sometimes forget to shut on and off for various songs during shows, and is a pain.  I also don't want to deal with extra cables from FX loops and footswitches.  Solution?

Electro Harmonix Cathedral

 I will start by saying no, this is not the greatest reverb ever.  But damn, it is cool.  I'm not going to explain what all the knobs do, you're a big kid, but let me give you the basics.  It does 7 different types of reverb that you can save one preset for each type, and an echo.  The "Infinite", is a momentary switch that will hold sound that it captures when you hit the switch until you let it go.  Sort of like the Freeze/Slow Gear pedal, but very different.

Pros

An old pedalboard shot from a short tour I did.

Obviously, I like this pedal because it covers my two requirements.  The Plate setting is very big sounding, which I love for that droney shit.  And on most of the reverb types, it doesn't wash out.  The Plate will wash, but that's just what happens with real Plate reverb anyways.  As long as I have one other type of small reverb sound to emulate amp reverb (knob set to maybe 1-2), I'm happy.  Most people use too much reverb, I like it subtle.  The Room setting does a good job of that.

Added bonuses:  Cheaper than most reverbs.  I think it's maybe $220 street price?  Snag one used for $150 and you're set.  That's the price of the ever-so-popular RV5, and unlike the RV5, it doesn't sound like crap.  Presets?  Awesome.  It's nice to be able to just save a couple different 'verbs and recall them quickly.  I'm lazy.  Having an extra delay is nice too.  It'll sort of (I say sort of, and I'll address that in the Cons) of knock out the need to have a simple digital delay on your board for long repeats.  The Reverse doesn't really work like how a Reverse Delay would, but I actually use this a lot for a long, 90% wet, droning sound.  Very This Will Destroy You sounding.

The "Infinite" feature is definitely my favorite bonus.  I own a Freeze and Superego, and I must say, I really like the way this "freezes" the sound more.  A)  It swells into the freeze, rather than lock it in right away.  Sounds more natural to my ears.  B)  You can use the momentary switch to control how fast you want to release, by repeatedly releasing the switch for a couple moments at a time.  Like easing on the break in a car.  Again, more natural sounding than just killing the sound.  

The pedal is also built like a tank.  Which is actually pretty strange, because I've had a number of build issues with EHX stuff before.  This pedal has seen tons of shows, and I've even dropped it a couple times (yeah, like you've never done that).  Still works great.  As lame as this sounds, the graphic is pretty cool too.  

Cons

Since the goal isn't for me to gloss over the nasty stuff, here are a number of things that I wish could be improved about this pedal.  It's got the old Holy Grail algorithm as one of the preset types.  Which means all the old problems the Holy Grail had such as, being useless after 12 o' clock, volume drop, etc.  Again, some of the reverb types will wash out, which is really frustrating.  It basically means I can't use that reverb unless I don't anticipate doing any sort of gain staging.  But like I said, a majority of reverbs have this problem so I just choose to deal with it on this specific unit.  There's also a slight volume dip on a couple reverbs, especially the Accu Spring.  

As I eluded to before, the Echo is nice, but isn't very good.  For some reason it doesn't "cut through" very well.  I had heard about delays having this issue, but I've never really had this problem with any of the ones I owned, so it was very noticeable discovery for me.  Even if you turn the Blend (aka Depth) way up, it seems to duck out regardless.  I don't really use the delay much due to this (not that I really needed another delay).  

My final real complaint is that the white selector knob can be a bit sensitive.  Meaning if you're playing a show and the pedal is bumped too hard, it'll bypass your preset to whatever the knobs are at.  I end up just taping it down.  Not really a big issue, you just have to watch out for it.  

Improvements?

The last two "issues" I'll talk about, are more recommendations than cons.  I wish this pedal (actually any reverb) had a spillover circuit.  I'd like to turn it off and have the sound decay out naturally vs. stopping abruptly.  I actually have a looper on my board, just so I can sample short segments of this, and slowly fade it out, cause of this problem (some delays do this too).  I know that would require the pedal to "lose" its True-Bypass, but you're a child if you really believe all of your pedals need to be True Bypass.

Also, it would be super amazing if someone (Walrus audio?) offered a mod, so you could have an expression pedal control the "Infinite" function.  That way you could control the swell in and out better.  Not necessary but it'd be convenient.  

Anyways.  There are so many cool usable things about this pedal that I just love.  I've had since it came out, and I've used it on everything I've done ever since.  I think I tried to sell it once, but I put it at a stupid high price so no one would buy it (a big indicator that you really don't want to let something go).  I don't really care whether it has a Shimmer effect or not.  I tried a pedal with them shimmers, and I could never really use that sound in a musical context (it's harder than you think without sounding cheesy).  I've never been so blown away by more expensive pedals that I've felt the need to make an "upgrade".  If you're selling a $500 reverb, it should sound/have features that are $300 better than my $200 reverb.  I'm intrigued by the Eventide space, but it's way too much to shell out for.  So I just stick with what works.

- Stonewall

The Bane of My Existence: Sound Guys

I'm going to go on a bit of a rant, and I expect it will be slightly more grumpy than usual.

Unfortunately, my "normal life" has caught up with me, and my habit of blowing off responsibility has been put on hold.  My work has recently hosted a very large conference, and being an audio nerd, I was appointed the pretend title, "Head of A/V".  The beauty of this position, is that if all things go well, I don't have to do anything.  The curse, is that when the ever-lurking chaos strikes, everyone is looking at you to fix it.  So, blending a little bit of obsessive compulsive with my love technology, I set out to cover every angle for any disaster that could happen.  I reserved equipment, double checked reservations, recruited sound people, bought five of every possible adapter, dongle, and cable I could think of.  D-Day finally arrived, and I felt more confident about my preparation than ever.  Aside from a few minor user errors, things went very smoothly both Monday and Tuesday during the pre conference workshops.  My confidence evolved into cockiness, and I was sure this event would go off without a hitch.  

However, there is an epidemic that is directly related, but stretches far beyond our music community.  This epidemic is known as the Sound Man.  The idea of a sound man is wonderful.  A professional attentive to all things audio (usually video too), and to to deal with these issues as they appear.  Ideally, this person would also be someone who has a good ear for mixing, dynamics, quality of sound, the room, and have a good idea how to actually use their equipment.  But in reality, 80% of the population of sound men I've met, have absolutely no clue what they are doing.  What's even worse are sound guys who do know how to run the show, but are a entitled lazy sacks of shite.  Whether the sound man be "good" or "terrible", you almost always have to suck up.  Why?  Cause they'll make your experience a living hell if you don't.

I know many of you are beginning to grumble, and some are even plastering their computer monitors in frothy saliva from all of the F-bombs spewing forth from your mouths.  In no way am I implying that I am the golden poster child to be worshiped for my audio glory.  I like you, am learning more about this every day.  But, I have had the luxury of working with extremely talented and professional sound guys.  And in comparison, it's a night and day difference.

Let us return to my original story.  We had rented out a very nice auditorium, for a simple keynote lecture that was to be given.  One microphone, one channel, a projector, and a Power Point all hardwired.  They were to provide all the equipment and staff, we just had to show up.  Simple.  A job you could probably even have a slightly agitated Wolverine fulfill with success.  I arrived early, politely introduced myself, and met all of the A/V people.  I scope out the person who looked most in charge of the event, let's call him Randy.  I notice that there are a bunch of hanging microphones that are hanging in front our our screen.  I ask if they can be moved, and why they weren't in the first place.  "It's a lot of work to get them down, people will ignore them".  Good excuse I suppose.  I shrug it off.  I then ask Randy who I need to give my flash drive to for the presentation.  He points upstairs to the second level, and tells me there's a lady waiting for it.  I give it to her.  No sweat.

A few minutes before the presentation starts, Randy asks me to test out my slide show.  I tell him I gave it to the woman upstairs.  I am met with a blank stare.  I reiterate our previous conversation, and how he instructed me to bring it to the second level to give to the woman at the computer.  He replies, "Oh, she's just filming the event, she has nothing to do with us."  Ok.  Just a hiccup I say to myself.  I retrieve my slide show and ask him where to plug it in.  "Oh, you don't have a computer?"  I become slightly annoyed now.  No, I don't have a computer Randy, because there happened to be a contract that said that the auditorium would provide one.  Guess you didn't read it.  But I don't say that.  Instead, while Randy picks lint out of his belly button, I hunt someone down with a laptop I can borrow.  And we bring it up to the podium to be hooked up with a VGA cable.

By this point, most of the auditorium is full.  We're about a minute away from kicking this off, and I'm up on stage scrambling around last minute like a chump.  Once hooked up, I check the slide show on the screen.  The image displays brightly for a minute, flickers, gives a standby signal, then flickers on.  I ask Randy if that problem will go away.  He informs me that he's never had this problem, so he doesn't know.  I tell him we probably need a VGA Signal booster, because it's most likely that the projector is getting a weak signal from the computer (the cable goes from the main floor all the way up to the ceiling.)  He shrugs his shoulders.

Shrugs his shoulders.

You wanna make this wombat foam at the mouth like a pestilent beast?  Tell me you're going to do a job, and when an issue comes up, shrug your shoulders....

So my fate was in Randy and his incompetent crew.  I spent a good five minutes trying to wave the man at the board down, so he could lift the mute on the mic.  Whatever was on his cell phone was much more important though.  The presentation itself went fine, minus the blinking projector for most of the lecture.  Eventually, another technology person found a signal booster tucked away and swapped the cables quickly.

We had three other presentations at this auditorium which all went very similarly.  This whole fiasco merely supports my previous grumpy stereotypes about most sound men.  I've played too many gigs with absolute morons standing behind the console.

- Stonewall

PS (I'm hoping to start posting regularly again)
PPS (The gentleman who wanted to look at my DL4 for me, please message me!)

"Studios"

I wish I was one of those people who could sit on a couch like a lethargic puddle of human existence.  I could pass my days away soaking in sitcoms, eating Bugles, and cleaning my belly button out at various points in the day.  But alas, I fall into the category of animal whose brain doesn't shut down, because every second must be injected with tedious work.  In a way, time has become my nemesis.  As soon as I wrap up a project, another much larger one looms in the distance.  More specifically, I have finally gathered the final pieces for my Guild S-100 project, and now I am left scratching my head on how to even approach my next assignment:  upgrading my "studio".

Before I get much into my project "studio", allow me to digress since studio related things have been the only thing on my mind as of late.  Since the innovation of computer recording, everyone thinks they are a "producer" or "audio engineer" these days.  When I worked music retail, I can't even begin to tell you the number of people who came in asking me how to "set up a studio so I can make beats with Fruity Loops".  Atrocious.  A woman I almost dated (during a time of extremely low self-esteem and chronic beer goggles), had once told me her ex had even owned a studio.  I soon discovered that this "studio" was merely a Behringer mixing board, hooked up to a couple of crappy computer speakers, with a computer patched into the board.  90% of these people who buy an MBox end up having it sit around because they are either too lazy, or much too dense to even try to learn to use it.  The other 10%, end up with shotty recordings and give it up.  Then there are the few, like myself, who wonder if we can actually try to make a decent recording.  Over the past 4-5 years I have become increasingly interested in building my own project "studio".  I use the term "studio" very lightly, because any real audio engineer would scoff at my over-glorified Mancave.  However, since I am not a neanderthal with a BR600, I am comfortable saying I have a project "studio".

I will say that I do not have any fantasies about becoming a world famous engineer/producer.  And I have no intention of expanding into a larger commercial outlet.  I mainly use my cave to get simple ideas down, track a few guitar/bass/piano sounds, and do a bit of arranging, do a demo for a friend.  But most importantly, progressively improve my sound. There are legitimate studios for more complex things (notice the " " is gone?).  Real studios have Telefunkens, Neumanns, UA compressors, and Neve consoles (whose recording prowess can only be attributed to the evil Ganondorf sealed away forever within the board).  If you're looking to record something serious, an album, single, soundtrack, or whatever, it's much smarter to invest your money somewhere where you can worry about the music, and they can worry about the sound.  I'm not trying to scare anybody, but it's much smarter to think about where you're investing a few thousand dollars before you do.  Yourself or a studio?  If you do build a studio, narrow it down to what you want to do with it. 

Anyhow.  The first and most important thing in a studio, even more so than gear and the engineer, is the room which you record and mix in.  Blows your mind doesn't it?  Blew mine at least.  The room is crucial because it's what reflects the sounds and noises that happen in the room.  Corners can suck up all of your bass, footsteps can bleed onto mics, and you can even get a false perception of a mix in a bad room.  So it's extremely important to "treat" your room.  And when I say "treat", I'm not talking about sound proofing the room so sound can't get out, I'm talking about controlling the frequencies within the room.  To be honest, I can give much advice here as of yet.  If you can afford it, have someone do it for you.  Due to my budget (or lack thereof), I can't afford to have someone plaster my walls in Auralex and pretty panels.  So, much of my "new" room will be very DIY.  I'll be taking photos and keeping you in the loop as I go about this process, and how to be a cheapass doing it.  Here is the room I will be working with:

The best thing to do is get someone's advice on where to start.  I've been poking around on a few forums and getting some ideas, but I ran across this.  You can send your room measurements to one of these big box online distributors and have them do all the planning for you.  Then instead of buying the expensive traps from them, I'll build the ones I can.  No, my room will not be perfect.  But I'm not recording drums or doing any epic live orchestration.  And if you look, concrete and plywood walls aren't that great either.  I'm just trying to make the best of what I have to work with.  I'll talk more about my game plan, gear, and provide a photo blog of the final S-100 project soon.

Cheers!

-  Stonewall

A Tribute to a Friend Passed: The DL4 Still Slays

Reality is sad, sad indeed.  Sad, because I'm about to blog about my sense of loss over material possessions.  Sad, because you're going to read this pathetic post.  But what's most sad, is my long lived Line 6 DL4 has kicked the bucket.  That big green echo monster was my baby, I've had it for 9+ years now.  There are many magic spaceship delays out there right now, and I'm sure there are some that make glitter and unicorns shoot out of your guitar's headstock, but the DL4 was my favorite delay.

I remember getting into guitar gadgets when I was a meaty, sweaty, angsty high school kid.  This mysterious emerald device kept showing up on pedalboards of my favorite guitarists.

Aaron Pill of The Appleseed Cast.  One of my favorite guitarists.
This photo's pretty damn old too.

I probably watched hundreds of YouTube videos about the pedal.  I had to have it...so the antagonizing began.  I was relentless and I never stopped talking my mother into buying it for me.  After over a year of unsuccessful murder attempts my mom plotted against me, she finally had to cave.  On Christmas morn, the glorious DL4 became mine.  Oh the delight I had in twirling its knobs, making whale sounds, and creating god awful feedback!  I used it in every band I've ever played in.  At one point (during a heavy Minus the Bear phase) I had borrowed a second one and had both on my board.

No.  The DL4 does not have the best sounding delay, nor the best features, and there are little annoyances (like the ever-so-common volume drop issue).  I love my DM3, Moog 104M, and I loved my DMM (before Howard Davis f*&#ed me over).  But like these other famous units, nothing else sounds quite like it.  It's not a pristine clean sounding digital delay, it has some quirks.  However, I've had phases where I just flat out didn't want to use it anymore because it was "outdated", I didn't have the $$$ to mod it, or other various pathetic excuses.  The Line 6 M series spaceships came out, promising all of the features of the DL4 but better!  I quickly acquired these devices, hoping they'd knock my DL4 out of the park and provide me with more shit I didn't need.  I've bought and sold both the M13 and M9 on at least two occasions.  They just didn't sound right to me.  They were "too perfect".  The Reverse and Auto Volume didn't sound right, and the new M Series Analog Delay setting didn't sound as dark as my DL4.  The Eventide and Strymon fads have come, and will go.  I've considered "upgrading" on multiple occasions.  Prior to my current debacle, these new units never really offered more realistically usable features than the DL4 did.  

My DL4 had burnt out once previously.  I used it for 8 years, then randomly it farted out last year.  The local prick who fixed it says I was using a "questionable means" to power it (One Spot + L6 Adapter = questionable?  Probably not).  $80 repair.  Pretty hefty cost since you can get them secondhand for well under $150 now.  But hey, it has sentimental value.  A couple weeks ago, I decided to bust it out again.  Plugged it in.  Lights came on.  Abnormally flashed a few times.  Then nothing.  I tried different cables.  I double checked the owners manual to my new power supply I've bought since the last burnout.  I tried a different power supply.  Nothing.  I've read on all the forums about static under the chip, hard resets, yada yada.  I've tried it all, it's toast.  I'm well beyond my warranty on it.  Another $80 doesn't sound too appealing.  So I feel like it's time to retire it.  (Unless someone wants to fix it up free :D  )  

Now I'm in a weird situation I haven't been in for years, what's going to replace it?  Not sure I want a second one yet.  It's like being single after a long relationship, except the end result will have less Crabs.

R.I.P. my little green friend.

-  Stonewall

The "Best" Overdrive

Lordy!  It has been quite some time.  I've been rather busy with various projects, so busy in fact, that I have yet to come up with a reasonable excuse for my absence.  To the few of you regular readers, I apologize for my absence.  Very soon I should have a nice photo blog of my 70's Guild S-100 project.  I just need to locate a bridge position Guild HB-1 and I'll be raring to go!

In the meantime, let me get back to some smug gear talk.  Probably the most common question I've ever been asked is, "Which overdrive is the best overdrive?"  If I was a prattling snob I'd tell you to get out your checkbook and buy an original Klon.   If I was a true TGP'er I'd probably tell you to buy my old dirt box, so I can leap on the next overly priced bandwagon dirt pedal.  But glory be!  This is Stonewall's Guide, not theirs!  First thing I'd like to clear up, is that there's no best dirt pedal.  If there was, we'd all have one and there would be one company.  That being said, your musical tastes will change and you may use one consistently for years and then one day, never use it again.  I used a Fulltone OCD as pretty much my only drive pedal for a long time.  I've recently gotten a new amp and now all I use is my Xotic RC Booster and my sweet sweet Orange amp breakup.  It's going to change, you'll have to get used to that.  However, don't get caught up in hype, or you're going to end up one of those people losing lots of nickels constantly buying and selling new "best pedals".

Pedals are a math equation.  Your playing/style + your guitar + your amp.  They all make a big difference on the sound that's finally going to come out of the speakers.  If I don't know you all that well, my first question is always going to be "What kind of music do you like to play?".  Please don't tell me that you like everything, that doesn't narrow things down at all.  What do you truly like to play?  Rock?  Blues?  2 Step Thrash?  All of those are going to make a difference.  Basically it helps me decide if you might be looking for something with lots of gain on tap, or just a little bit of drive.  This also tells me what kind of overdrive voicing you might like.  In a really oversimplified way there's really only two voicings, Modern and Vintage/Classic.  Modern voiced pedals are typically going to be much brighter and have a more scooped sound, which is very common in that racket you kids call "metal".  As you might guess, Classic/Vintage voiced overdrive will sound a tad darker, have a more pronounced mid range, and might be more raw sounding than edgy.  I will digress for a moment, and say that with so many boutique pedal makers there are plenty of pedals that can be vintage voiced with a scooped sound and vice versa. Some pedals even can do both with the flip of a switch.

The next bit of information I'll need to know is how you're going to use it.  Are you running a completely clean amp and using it for your rhythm sound?  Are you going to be blending any amp distortion/overdrive? Are you wanting to just massacre everyone in a 9 mile radius with your Big Muff?  Some pedals don't stack well, meaning, they sound like shit with other dirt pedals or amp distortion.  (A Merriam Webster definition of course).  Stacking is a whole 'nother ball game I'm probably going to save for a later post.  It can get complicated because it depends on what order you have your stack, how you're running each one, etc.  We're just talking about "best overdrive" here.  The final piece of the puzzle is what amp you're using.  Clean Fender-esque amp?  Pushed class A amp?  Crunchy British amp?

Here are a few recommendations that've worked for me.  They may or may not work for you, but it would be selfish of me to withhold my experience.  I haven't tried everything, but I have tried more than my fair share.  Don't take my lack of examples as lack of experience.  I only recommend the "shining stars" that come immediately to mind.  The best drives, in my humble opinion, are the ones you can get at least 3 different usable sounds out of.  There's no bigger pain in the ass than bumping the setting and feather touching the knobs to get that non existent "sweet spot".  (Guess what?  You turn your amp up or down and that "sweet spot" moves around or disappears).  I tend to prefer "Vintage" voiced pedals, but I used to love that "Modern" sound.  Both have their place in music, you just have to use your ears.

On Clean High Headroom Amps
Fender amps are fairly "neutral" sounding to me, which makes them a great platform for using dirt pedals for different colors of drive.  Since amps like a Twin or a Hot Rod series amp have lots of headroom, they also provide a great platform to use the full range of gain in a pedal.  High headroom prevents lots of natural clipping; or the amp being overdriven/compressed on its own.  Once an amp starts to overdrive by itself, there's only so much gain you can work with before that gain knob just turns into a noisy mess.  This is what worked for me:

-  Wampler pedals:  The large amount of headroom allows the "amp in a box" Wampler pedals to really shine.  Given, you're not gonna turn your Hot Rod Deville into a Mesa Rectifier, but you'll still have a better platform to work with than say, a Vox.  They offer a pretty wide selection of tones, but I really bonded with the Black 65 and the Pinnacle.  The JHS stuff claims to do the same thing, but to me sounds like nasally shit.
-  Fulltone OCD:  It's based on a Marshall circuit, I used this for years.  I like the Fulltone stuff.
-  Tubescreamer Variants:  Although TS circuits aren't my cup of tea, they really fatten up a Fender.  Fender amps lack midrange, and a TS has a mid hump, making it an obvious choice.
-  Proco Rat (only with LM308 chip):  If you want to sound like old Sabbath get this.  The models without the LM308 chip sound thin and fizzy to me.
-  Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde:  These pedals are underrated.  Despite the ugly triangle (even uglier on current versions) they sound great.  Provides you with a TS circuit on one side, and a nice distortion on the other.

On Class A Amps
All you need to know about Class A amps for this post, is that they have a different power section, which in turn creates less headroom for you to work with.  (If you want to know more about Class A, Mesa has posted a nice little article about most of the differences).  Due to the lack of headroom, your amp will break up nicely without having to kill everyone at the volumes you'd be playing at with a non Class A amp.  A Vox AC15 or a Mesa Lonestar Special are great examples of a Class A amp.  Most people who buy these types of amps do so, because they want this type of natural drive/compression.  So if you've got this nice creamy  drive, why would you muck it up with an "amp in a box" pedal?  You can, but I'm not a fan.  I like to simply blend a more transparent drive, or simply boost the amp to get more gain from the amp itself.  If you boost the right frequencies on these amps, you can get a nice warm fat sound.  If you boost the wrong ones, you'll get an ice pick in the ear.  Here are some recommendations:

-  Xotic RC Booster:  Does a nice job of getting more dirt out of a Class A amp, while leaving the natural tone of the amp intact.  The Gain on the pedal itself blends very nicely without taking over the show.
-  Durham Sex Drive:  Same deal as the RC Booster, just with the ability to choose a Raw, Soft, or Hard Compression within the boost.
-  Fulltone OCD:  If you turn the Volume up to 2 or 3 o clock, and the Gain down to maybe 9, you can get a nice crunchy rhythm tone.  A lot of people recommend the Hot Cake for amps like an AC30, but I much preferred the OCD because it wasn't as fizzy.
-  Klon:  If you know what a Klon is, you can feel however you want about it.  I like it.  It's a Swiss Army knife for either a little grit or just a boost.  It's not my go to, but it sure makes a Class A amp sounds pretty.
-  Fuzz Face Variant:   I think FF's sound incredible when blended with some natural amp drive.  It makes 'em warm and fat. (Everything a man looks for in a lady).  I had great success with Analogman products and the new version of the Fulltone '70 (the old one sounds like shit).
-  Muffs:  A Muff can be brutal sonic mayhem, but like the FF I think they sound best when blended with a little drive.  I personally like the Wren and Cuff stuff, but I've heard Mojo Hand has been making some great clones as well.  You'll have to look online at the different types of muffs (probably shouldn't search that word at work) to find the kind that suits you best.

For Those High Gain Fiends
If you asking me, and you're wanting to play high gain/heavy music, buy an amp that's gonna get you there.  Although I don't dabble in the black, hairy, unshowered corners of music anymore, I learned quickly that there's no pedal that will ever do it right.  Some do an okay job, and will get you by if you're not wanting to dish out.  But, do you really think a little metal box with transistors can do a better job than 15 glowing KT88's?  If you didn't buy that $250 boutique "Mesa in a box", you could have saved up a few more bucks on gotten yourself a used Sovtek MIG, Read Bear, or 5150 secondhand that would leave you feeling more satisfied.

You can blend drive pedals with these types of amps, but once you reach a threshold of distortion you're either gonna get lots of buzz or not as much buzz.  You should sit down with a well produced metal record and listen to how "distorted" the guitars are, not as much as you think.  If you really need a little push, this is what I'd recommend:
-  Turn the Gain halfway down on your amp and try some pedals and see if you like the blended drives more than your amp alone.  If you do this, Muffs and FF's come back into the picture and they'll actually be usable.
-  TS Variant:  Turn the Gain down (or even off) and turn the volume up on the pedal.  It'll have the same effect as those Class A amps, but you can use the tone knob to color your drive without adding unnecessary gain from the actual pedal.
-  EQ or Clean Boost:  When you're dealing with lots of distortion, it's all about hearing the right frequencies. The audio engineers out there will appreciate this advice, don't always boost frequencies.  If you find that you  want more Treble, cut some Bass.  If you cut frequencies to enhance others, you'll get much less noise and your signal will be "cleaner".



This obviously was a very short overview.  It'll at least get you looking at videos deciding which ones work best for you.  I'm obviously biased, but it's been based on what's worked for me.  If you want a recommendation, feel free to drop a comment.  Although they won't throw me shillings for this, I would recommend checking out the Pro Guitar Shop, "Demo It Live" service on their site.  It allows you to hear various pedals through your amp so you can get an idea how they'll work for you.

Until next time,

Cheers!

- Stonewall

Help Yourself Out Without Spending a Dime

I apologize for the long absence from Stonewall's Guide, I was taking some much needed time off for a short vacation in Las Vegas.  I visited a fantastic guitar shop called Cowtown Guitars, and I was blown away by this small little store.  Cowtown had an excellent selection of interesting and vintage guitars, and the staff was extremely knowledgeable.  (I will post a couple photos later, since I foolishly do not have photos from my trip on this computer).  Since my return from the land of debauchery, I've been working on a few projects (both music and guitar related) that I've had to catch up on.  I've got a few posts in the near future that should be pretty interesting such as a Guild S-100 restoration and possibly a video demo.

Anyhow, I'd like to dabble with a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately, which is improving your presence as a musician, without spending a dime (or very few).  Since the baby boom of the Guitar Hero generation, it's difficult to discern the wanking turds from the young musicians who are actually pleasant to work with.  Unless you aspire be a Prattler, sitting alone in your dark bedroom playing with yourself (music, you perv), you're going to have to go outside and meet a few people.  This means networking.  Here are a few tips on how to make yourself less of a schmuck:

Make Yourself Searchable

Raise your hand if you've ever been perusing the local Craigslist and ran across an ad that read:  "I'm looking for X person to play on my record/in my band!  If you know how to get in touch with X, please email me!".  I've never had to post that, so I don't know what the success rate is.  But as a musician you should never make people do that, or you're probably going to miss out on a gig aka extra cash.  Even something as simple as having some form of social media (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (is that still alive?), etc.) will allow someone to search for and find you.  Make it simple too.  What if I wanted to hire Nels Cline or Eric Heywood?  Glory Be!  Their websites are (their name).com!  See what I'm sayin'?  

If you've got a few extra bucks, make a web page.  The nice thing about the modern world, is you don't have to know squat about web programming to create a page anymore.  Personally, I recommend Squarespace.com.  They have great layouts, and most everything is just drag and drop.  It's $8/month and you can have it charge you monthly or annually, and you can also use your own custom domain name.  Skip eating out twice a month and it's already paid for itself.  Make it look good too.  There's nothing more frustrating than having a bad site that lacks photos and audio.  For all of you groaning right now about how bad you are at designs, shoot me a comment or email mscaseyadams@gmail.com for free graphic design.  (It's not me, sorry).  She does excellent work and right now she's free, (simply because she's new).  So you have no excuses.  Last thing for all you old school dudes out there, if you don't want to deal with the internet, you better damn well get a business card and at least an email.  Preferably with your name on it, phone number, email, and not some silly made up business ("Pickin' Pete's Professional Audio".)  

And put some sounds on your site!  People need to hear you in order to like you!

Communication

Learn to be a good communicator.  I hate, Hate, HATE, it when I send an email to a musician/venue and I get a reply weeks or even months later.  The ship will most likely have left by that point.  If you're inquiring about joining a band, follow up.  If you're leaving a project, give them a good notice, fulfill all final commitments, and always leave on a good note.  Those people are your references when you try to join something new.  

Remember, the people you work with are your reputation in town.  Leave them with good things to say.

Communicate with fans or people who even remotely care about your band.  Even if it's your family.  If someone sends you a message, reply.  It's so simple, but it's unbelievable how many people neglect this.  Be courteous too, these people are your audience and payroll.  

Getting Other Musicians Into the Sack

Hey, we all wouldn't be musicians if we weren't a little socially awkward.  So how do you find other people to play with?  I guarantee if you do some looking, you can find at least a couple free shows with no cover.  You should go out even if you think the band sucks (play some pool or something).  I've met dozens of new people by enjoying a cheap beer (always Molson's for me) and making fun of the band.  Don't be straightforward about getting them in your band within the first 10 minutes, cause you'll be wearing awkward pants before you know it.  It's never worked for getting ladies, and it won't work on musicians either, sorry.  If you're serious about it, share a pitcher.  The time it takes this person to drink approx. 2.5 beers will be more than enough to get into a conversation.  Ask them what kind of music they play, bands they've played in, etc.  If they sound cool, just ask to jam.  No commitments.  Don't spew your life story over the first pitcher either.  There have been more than a few times I was interested in playing with someone, and then I was just creeped out by family issues and weird fetishes.  Keep the music in music.  

Most music stores have listings on a message board to meet people.  So check those once a month.  Craigslist is very hit or miss, but it's been known to work.  I actually met my current bassist of 5 years via Craigslist.  However, we have met half a dozen jabronis that route as well.  Use your discretion.

Practice

Be smart about your extra time if you're not doing anything.  You want to be prepared when opportunities come up.  Don't play what you already know, actually learn something new.  I watched an interview with Captain Kirk of the Roots and one thing that pierced my brain was:  "If you're practicing and you sound good, you're not practicing correctly."  I'm not going to get too into detailed about this, because there are countless resources and tips for this.  If you don't know how to practice, go here:  http://musicdiscipline.com/

Finally,

For Gosh Sake, Stop Whining

This makes me want to pull my hair out.  Don't whine.  Don't make excuses.  I don't do it so much anymore, but we all do it from time to time.  However, I have two guitar friends in particular that are quick to sully me if I begin to whine.

Common examples:

Excuse:  I don't have good enough gear to (make a recording/play in this project/play a show/etc.).

Answer:  Gear doesn't dictate anything, and don't let the smug players tell you that it does.  No one is expecting you to roll in with a Private Reserve PRS and a Dumble for an audition.  If you do, you darn well better have some chops.  

Excuse:  I don't know how to (sing/play this solo/write a song/etc.)

Answer:  Then learn.  All it's gonna do is broaden your musicianship.  Yeah, you're going to suck at first.  But if you refer to the bold face "practice" heading above, you can find the answers to the test.  Comment if you want recommendations.  I won't leave you high and dry.

Excuse:  I don't have a band, so there's nothing I can do.

Answer:  Nope.  You can learn how to write a song.  If you're not the songwriting type, get better at your instrument.  If you're satisfied (which you should never be), learn a new instrument.  You need to learn sooner than later how to work with and without people.  

Hopefully you can pull a grain of advice from some of this this.  

Cheers!

-  Stonewall

Finally, a Stonewall Pedalboard Rundown

Hello all!

Rather than write another smug blog post today, I thought I'd post my most recent pedalboard photo, with a little explanation of my rig as of now.  Like many silly people, I used to tote around a much larger board than needed, complete with a multi FX spaceship for wiggly underwater sounds.  But I've learned, the more crap you bring with you the more things can go wrong.  I will leave those topics for future posts, I digress.  Feel free to chime in with any recommendations,tips, or lessons learned!

I made it a point about a year ago to buy a PT Jr. with the intention of never going larger than the space the Jr. would allow.  This way, I had to truly decide if I was actually using something or not, and if it was really worth bringing to a gig.  95% of the time my signal chain is solely Tuner>Octafuzz>RC Booster>DM3.  The Octafuzz may get swapped for my Tall Font Russian (Green Muff clone) if I'm feeling a little more "muffy" on a given day, but it is a rare occurrence.  I've been through a number of pedals throughout my musical career, so I used to have quite a habit of constantly swapping things out.  The reason why these four pedals have stuck is because they sound good no matter which axe I'm playing.  It may sound obvious or silly, but if you haven't figured it out, some pedals sound like total crap with guitar X, but sounds spectacular with guitar Y.  Being a minimalist, I don't want to have to tote 3 extra overdrive pedals around because each one only sounds good with one guitars.  I will now provide you with a quick synopsis of how I use them in my rig, in the order of the signal flow.  I play a Tele, Gibson 339, Jaguar, Baritone Tele, and a Guild S-100.  I run everything through an Orange Rockerverb 50, using both channels.  EQ fairly flat with a slight mid boost.  Clean is clean.  Dirty channel is a little past the point of breakup.  Sometimes (but rarely) I run in stereo with an AC30, set to a similar sound to the Dirty Orange channel.  Volume knob to clean up.

Tuner:  I have no brand preference on this.  As long as it works, and doesn't suck my signal dry it works for me.  I much prefer a tuner that has a "Strobe" feature, which is a more accurate way to tune.  The "Poly" function on this tuner is nice, but I don't use it often.  However, I've been in a situation where I know I'm out of tune, have four seconds to figure out which string is unruly, and fix it before a lead phrase comes up.  I will say that using the "Poly" function as your sole tuning method is not a good idea.  Even though I've had everything "in tune", it clearly wasn't the case.

Moog Murf:  I can't really even describe in words what this pedal does.  Long story short, each of those sliders is a different filter and you can select 12 different patterns for the filters.  By flipping the LFO switch, you can reverse the pattern that you have selected.  I use this as my "modulation" on my board.  I can get a cool choppy tremolo, phasery/vibey swirly sounds, and arpeggiator-esque sounds (minus pitch modulation).  To be honest, it doesn't really do any of those in a "traditional sense" and that's why I love it.  It has a "Drive" knob so you can add some analog distortion to the sounds to make them even weirder.  I have no quarrel with bending over and changing the settings on a pedal, so I don't need a modulation spaceship with presets.  There really aren't any good videos that do this pedal justice out right now.  I hope to maybe make one someday (but it'll never happen).  This is the best one, which actually wasn't released very long ago by Moog themselves.  Just wait for the Murf segment to hear it.  I do also have a Moog Ring Mod that I love dearly and sometimes that will replace the Murf on the board.  The Moog pedals have built in buffers so I have it at the beginning of my board, and the DM3's buffer at the end of the board.

Micro POG:  Here's another weird pedal.  I actually use it quite a bit, and it tracks quite well.  The POG stuff is discussed quite a bit so I won't get into much detail.  I primarily use it for a Bass Octave, Octave up-esque sound, and B3 organ when combined with the Murf.  I never run the octave settings past 1 or 2 o' clock because it can start sounding a bit cheesy.  I used to have both a HOG and a POG2, but I settled on the Micro POG for my needs.  The HOG was just way too weird.  The POG2 was nice, but it was way too large, and I was really only using it for stuff the Micro POG could cover.  It's a good way to catch someone's attention with a lick.  It's also not like a Whammy or even the HOG where you write a song around a lick you made with this pedal.  You can actually turn it on and it sounds cool just over some playing.  I like to play Leo Nocentelli (The Meters) riffs with this.

Ghost Echo:  I own an EHX Cathedral that I was using fairly regularly.  But since it's such a large pedal and it can suck some signal, I've been starting to experiment with this Eartquaker reverb.  I normally put a reverb at the end of my chain, but this unit doesn't have much headroom so I have to put it before my boosts.  I don't use much reverb, but I don't like walking over to the amp to turn it up or down.  It's pretty extreme, so I keep the settings low.  Like it's name implies it has some slapback qualities if you dial it in right.  You could probably use it as a really short delay if you wanted.  I have been enjoying it, so it'll stay (for now).

Octafuzz:  I actually rarely use the "Octa" setting on the toggle switch.  The "Fuzz" is just nasty.  Mike Fuller could seriously just make the "Fuzz" side of this pedal and I would buy it.  It sounds HUGE into the clean channel of my Orange.  You can also get this really fantastic gated sound into the dirty channel.  I love this fuzz because it sounds epic whether I'm using single coils or humbuckers.  It's the first fuzz I found that works well with both types of pickups without farting out with the other.  Can't say enough good things.

RC Booster:  I've gotten further and further away from overdrives and much more into clean boosts.  I love the sound of my amp, so why the hell would I want it to sound like something else?  The RC is the first real "transparent" boost I've fallen in love with.  I'm sorry Paul C., the Timmy sounds pretty good, but just isn't "transparent" compared to this.  My Klon now sits on the shelf collecting dust since I've gotten this.  It seems to fatten things up in all the right places without adding a Mid-hump that most do.  It does add some slight Treble frequencies, but that's what the Shelf EQ is for!  The Shelf is probably my favorite feature about this boost.  My Gibson can be a bit boomy, so I like to roll back the Bass and give it a touch of Treble.  With my Tele, I roll off some of the harsh Treble, and some of the boominess of the neck pickup by rolling the Bass back a hair.  I can't say enough great things about this.  I've even considered getting a second.  

DM3:  Like many of you, I love delays.  But this IS my favorite delay.  Hands down, no questions asked.  I own the Moog delay, DL4, DMM and I've owned/tried dozens more and this is it for me.  I had tried a DM2 before and always wanted one, but I was really skeptical of the shorter delay time.  After a good friend let me try his I had to get one.  Like with my PT Jr., being limited really allows me to get creative with my delays (long delays are overrated anyways).  The slapback is superb.  You can also do some pretty insane indie-rocker stuff with it.  I won't say anymore, I love this thing.


Well there it is.  There are a handful of runner ups, but those four aren't going anywhere in the foreseeable future.  I power everything with a mounted PP2+.  I use some nice Fender patch cables I got for a good price too.  I try not to get hung up on the small stuff like cables.  Please don't misjudge, other pedals are great.  This is just what has worked best for me.

- Stonewall

Freshly Squeezed Signal. Compression.

I apologize for my disappearance the past week.  Sometimes trials in life require a good smiting, and I had some "project management training" that needed a good dose of smite.  Anyhow, a topic I've been wanting to address that has been grinding my gears lately, is compression.  I'm not going to get into what compression actually is, because there are a number of excellent articles about it, but I will hit on a few key points about compression here and there.  A compressor has a variety of applicable uses for guitarists.  It can give a nice "pop" to your sound if you're swattin' at some funk guitar.  If you're doing some serious finger tapping, compression can definitely help bring your signal up in the mix.  A soft right-hand fingertip just isn't going to give you same sustain as a plastic pick.

Do I Need a Compressor?
The short answer to 95% of you is, no you probably don't.  Most pedal junkies assume that a compressor is something needed to complete their ever changing pedalboard of smugness.  Let's be real here, having one of everything is much more American than just having what you need.  Am I right?  Compression really isn't an "effect", but is actually a "dynamic".  In a basic sense, it will bring up the signal of softer dynamics, and smash down some of the more extreme signals.  In most cases if you know that compression is being used, you're most likely using it wrong.  Many of you are about to retort, "This chump has some kind of nerve!  Everyone knows there shouldn't be any RULES to using effects!"  True, but these people also live horribly discontent lives trying to figure out why their guitar tone isn't spinning the world the opposite direction.  A compressor does not cover up bad playing, in fact, it enhances it.  If you suck, you will still suck.  A common "reason" many people buy them is to add some more "sustain" to their lead phrases.  Most compressors will do this, but they also raise the noise floor adding quite a bit of muck to your signal.  So in addition to that sweet string bend you just ripped, you also blasted everyone with quite a bit of snake hiss as well.

Another common "misuse" of a compressor pedal, is using it with an already overdriven signal.  Ladies and gents, an overdriven signal is already compressed.  This fact is especially true if you're using a tube amp that's cooking.  At that point you're simply squashing and already squashed signal.

But Stonewall, What about Transparent Compressors?!?
There are a lot of Jabronis that are going to talk up the Diamond, Keely, etc comps. While excellent compressors, I would argue that given most people's needs, you don't need something like that. I'm going to take it a step further and say that if you're playing live at stage volume, having a transparent compressor is pointless.  Unless you're using extreme settings for a very compressed sound (which defeats the purpose of a transparent compressor). If you're using a tube amp, playing at stage volume will add natural compression.  I fell into the trap of playing the nicer ones and owning a lot of the big names. When I played live with them, I never touched them because I didn't need to.  Also, as "transparent" as most of them are, they will add a dash of Treble to your signal.  If you're doing A LOT of recording, then a nicer compressor may be up your alley. However, wouldn't most studios have a nice thousand dollar compressor... 

So What IS a Compressor Good For?!?
In classic Stonewall fashion, I've now berated a topic and now most of you are wondering what the point of a compressor really is.  Having a compressor can be a convenient Swiss Army knife for a number of situations.  Have you ever had to use a backline at a gig?  If you have, you can appreciate the frustration of showing up at a gig only to realize you will be performing with a 100 watt solid-state POS.  Even an extremely high wattage clean tube amp (a Twin comes to mind) can be a pain.  Having a compressor handy can give you a little more sustain to work with.  It'll be a lot like slapping a band-aid on a bleeding ulcer, but you do what you can.

I've seen a number of artists do some really innovative stuff with compressors to help keep a strong signal, like rhythmic tapping stuff.  If you haven't already, check out Minus the Bear's Highly Refined Pirates record.  Dave Knudsen is the master of tapping and compression.  That album is drenched in the blood of a Boss CS3 and a Barber Tone Press.  Two compressors!  He's even been fabled to have used an FMR Really Nice Compressor during live performances as well.  A lot of chickin' pickers like compression because it give them a good "spank" while they're firing off the licks of the South.

Sweet mother of delay...

I've worked in some pretty lo-fi studios home studios, doing some session work for local artists.  Having a nice transparent compressor is nice in such a situation, because the "engineer" may not even know what compression is.

It's best to evaluate your needs and really understand why you would actually need a compressor, rather than gripe about why you don't have one.


-  Stonewall

Fender Brings Down the Backhand of Justice

If you're a follower of recent guitar news, like myself, you may have come across this The Tennessean article.  Long story short, big bad FMIC (Fender Music Infatuation Conservatory) is laying the smack down on private builder Kelton Swade for blatant use of the Fender logo.  Kelton Swade creates "Authentic Vintage Replicas", claiming them to be "better than the original.  Fender is currently suing this horribly threatening one man company for $2 million dollars for each infringement.  That's a lotta nickels my friends.  In Fender's defense, he was being a stubborn hick when on multiple occasions, Fender told him to knock it off and stick to moonshine.

Solomon: You got this one? 
Tummler: Yep. 
Solomon: [looks at the cat, and lowers Tummler's BB gun] Don't kill the bitch. It's a house cat. 
[the cat runs off] 
Tummler: It's a lesbian cat. You can tell. Solomon:  Looks like my mom. 
- Gummo (1997)

With claims of "being better than the original" flying around, I had to investigate.  Last time this claim was made, KFC promised their new recipe to be "better than original".  I spent the next day camped out on the john, with the same squirts I do with their standard chicken. Myth:  Busted.  Anyhow, landing on Swade's webpage, I was greeted by the smug grin of Keith Urban creepily staring back at me.  After searching for a solid two minutes, I noticed that none of his guitars have a "Fender" logo on them at all.  Just your standard Fender rip-offs, but no logos.  My only speculation is that he was using a Fender waterslide decal all sneaky like, upon special request.

Like most scandals, I assume this attention to Kelton Swade's business is probably booming.  This dances in the same boat as my previous post on pedal cloning.  The ironic fact about this debacle, is as innovative as Leo was, not all of his designs were original.  As one reader reminded me in my previous cloning post:

"If people didn't wholeheartedly rip off others' (circuits), after all, we'd never have Marshall amps, Mesa-Boogie, or even Fender (who took their designs straight from the RCA playbook, so to speak). While that trend hasn't been great for consumers when it comes to prices, it has been huge with regard to innovation

I can't fault someone for trying to protect their design, but music electronic circuits are simple and there is so little out there that hasn't been done before. That leaves designers with little choice - a certain amp company takes a legal intimidation route and slaps patents on circuit elements regardless of if they're new ideas or not (they aren't) - going so far to warn would-be cloners on their schematic drawings. Very few small builders have the money to pay for a lengthy legal battle though so they can intimidate any small builder they want. Oddly enough they haven't gone after big companies..."

 Although he is talking about circuits, this applies to guitars too.  There are only so many shapes builders can use before ideas start to degenerate (resulting in the Firebird X).  I've made this argument before, but as much as I love Fender, they have a knack for reproducing the same ol' guitars, crappy hardware (think stock jaguar bridge), and shotty pickups.  Let's be real here, unless you spend well over $1,200, the stock electronics in a Fender guitar blow (even then, they're only adequate).  By the time I finished replacing the worthless components in my Fenders, I had sunk quite a bit more money into it.  Gibson is the same way.  

I can see Fender pretentiously suing overseas companies because they were pretending to actually BE the Fender company.  But strong-arming a backwoods guitar builder seems a bit silly.  Anyhow, I'm curious as to what the opinion of the masses is.

- Stonewall