the best song I heard last year: Delay Trees – Gold

Next week the details behind the much delayed successor to the Klon Centaur will be revealed at NAMM.
I picked up a silver Klon last week – turns out it is older than the gold one.
Time to sell some stuff and trade some stuff.

I saw the Vintage Revolution Pedal Pro on TGP.
Digitally controlled analog effects processor.
The website says reconfigurable effects chain but it looks like you can only move the filters in 9 different ways with everything else staying in the same order.
Industrial design by Fractal Audio?
If Dan Coggins, who designed the Lovetone pedals, created something like this, I would buy it.
The cheapest way to market this unit? Send one to Pete Thorn.

coverage:
allthingsd
thisismynext.com
engadget.com
gizmodo

In the first workshop, he covered some basics which you can see here. He ran through his pedalboard in the second workshop.

Pedals:
Keeley compressor (used to get sustain on clean guitar parts)
Ernie Ball VP Jr. with buffer mod
Boss tuner
Keeley Katana
Fulltone Supa-Trem
JHS Morning Glory (1st level of gain)
T-Rex Moller (2nd level of gain)
Rockbox Boiling Point (3rd level of gain)
Boss DD-20 (slapback on rhythm parts to make them bigger and modulated delay)
Eventide Timefactor
JHS tap tempo boxes

This is his main board but he has additional pedals that he brings on the road and in the studio. For recording, he can get his tone by turning up the amp but these pedals work well with most backline amps that he gets. When someone asked him about a specific chain that he used for a recording, he said that he used a Gretsch into a Vox AC-30 with a modulated delay. The amp was turned up so he didn’t need to use any overdrive pedals. He mentioned using a Matchless DC-30, Bogner Shiva, and Marshalls as well for recording. He demonstrated the looper on the DD-20 by playing parts of some John Mayer songs. The conference was sponsored by D’Addario so we got a pack of free strings (11 gauge). That is what I use on my guitar so that was nice surprise. I met a guy who is using a Axe-Fx II for worship and is really happy with the results. Another guy is planning to switch from a 20 space Mesa-based rack to the Axe-Fx.

I guess Devi Ever took down her video where she said that she was not going to pursue legal action against JHS pedals for cloning (allegedly ) her Hyperion pedal. When you say allegedly, you have to sing the word allegedly like the Amy Poehler character, Kaitlin, from the SNL sketch. I thought it was funny that someone made this comment on Devi’s youtube video: Christian Hipster Douchebag Pedals. Add an Inc. to the end of that and you can start your own pedal company.
I saw some Tom’s at the conference but no deep V-necks.

David Guggenheim‘s “From The Sky Down” will be shown on Showtime, Saturday, October 29. I’ve already heard most of the rarities in the Achtung Baby Super Deluxe Edition so I guess I won’t have to spend $144 just to see this film. Sorry, Paul McGuiness.

Cameron Crowe‘s “Pearl Jam Twenty” is going to be shown on PBS, Friday, October 21.

I found this interesting article where someone made different changes to a copyrighted track and uploaded to youtube to see what could be detected as copyrighted content.

I will have to try the +/- 5% pitch change next time.

K-Line guitars got dropped by Fatsound Guitars, ProGuitarShop, and Humbucker Music on the same day.
Coicidence or anti-competitive behavior by one of the bigs?

I don’t think of Fender and Gibson as guitar companies.
They are run like private equity firms who own trademarks and have access to capital. I remember when the Grosh Retro Classic came out with the sides of the neck rolled like a used guitar that had been well-played. When the Fender American Deluxe guitars were introduced, they had the same pre-rolled necks – thanks to Grosh for the market research! I’ll take the Grosh slab board fingerboard over the round lam of the 94 American Anniv Strat that I no longer have. I also sold a real 62 Jazzmaster that I picked up on CL for $500 that had been refinished to a mahogany finish (serious drug use in the 70′s!). It wasn’t worth restoring because it played so badly.

I couldn’t find a google cache of the thread but this post by Bobby D paints a picture of how Fender is running its business.
Check him out on youtube.

“as far as FMIC products go, i am not buying any. and if i have to use something on backline, i am taping over any logos.

if i owned any FMIC guitars, i would put a piece of black tape over the headstock logo.

after the way they treated my boss & his bandmates (The Funky Meters), they obviously have no respect for musicians, and have grown far too big for their britches.

besides, with a rare exception now and then – the guitars i have played and owned from Tyler, Sadowsky, Anderson, Grosh, Xotic — ALL have been significantly better instruments than the Fender guitars they are loosely based on.

I owned a couple of really good custom shop Fenders from the mid 90s….a Cunetto relic Nocaster (currently owned by a member here, got Jeff Becks signature on the back), and a Gene Baker “masterbuilt’ ’69 Strat…..both of those guitars were really good.

But my Tylers were better, as well as my Sadowsys, my Grosh, my Andersons, and now my Xotic.

Riddle me THIS batman — my boss that I tech for is Brian Stoltz, one of the “kings of funk guitar”. An icon of New Orleans music. 10 year member of The Neville Brothers, touring guitarist for Bob Dylan, and member of The Funky Meters and 4 solo albums of his own.

Fender gave him an endorsement in ’84, and gave him an off the rack Strat Plus – a typical plain Strat worth less than a grand, nothing special — but Brian played that guitar faithfully for 25 years on stages all over the world, from Tipitina’s to major concert festivals.

A few months ago, someone associated with FMIC called Brian and his bassist George Porter Jr up, and asked if they could use a photo of the two of them playing their Strat and P-Bass for a Fender calendar.

Brian replied nicely “sure…if you could put me in touch with Artist Relations, I can’t get in touch with them”

The Fender person said “sorry, I can’t do that”

So Brian said “Sorry, I can’t let you use our photos for your calendar”

I managed to get thru to artist relations, and emailed and spoke with one of the directors of artist relations for FMIC — all we needed was a damn TREMOLO BLOCK for that ’84 strat, Brian had broken the trem arm off into the block – and we wanted to try and get his and George Porter’s endorsement back on track and current with Fender, since The Funky Meters are releasing a new album, and doing a lot of festivals and touring this summer and fall.

I was basically told that they don’t want anything to do with Brian or George, and if I needed a trem block so bad, to call a parts dealer and buy one.

You mean to tell me that you are turning your back on one of the world’s BEST funk guitarists who has a resume and discography a yard long…..who has played your crappy ’84 Strat Plus on stages all over the world….and been a faithful Fender user for FOUR DECADES that you can’t help him out, even a little????

I have dealt with a lot of M.I. companies in my 30 years in the business. FMIC takes the cake for being the WORST one I have ever dealt with.

The Funky Meters will be getting ALL NEW “boutique” insrtuments from a builder that really digs them and their music, and all FMIC products are being retired to the warehouse.

And I personally will never buy anything from FMIC, not even so much as a pick.

I will support the cool companies who have a bit better attitude, and much better products.”

I found some old 4-track recordings that I made in the late 90′s.
Line 6 DL-4 looping in 1999

Digitech Whammy II in 1998 (for an audition tape for a touring sideman gig). Warning: lower your speaker volume – it gets kinda screechy!

In the 90′s, the 4-track was attainable, crappy lo-fi brilliance.