Guitars, Pedals, Amps, Voodoo, Magic

A big part of last year was spent trying new pedals and amps out to gain new sounds, I learnt a lot. Different pedals can work differently with different amps, they can sound mega with one amp and dirt with another. I’ve also discovered the Pete Cornish signal chain bible which not only enforced some aspects I did know, but taught me a new thing or two. I know I’ve mentioned this a few times in my blogs about the experiences of trying new things but for me it’s worth mentioning and journaling again simply because how wide a difference it can bring.

I had a Les Paul moment this year and actually swapped my double neck and Sambora strats for a Gibson VOS series Les Paul Jnr in TV yellow. If I was going to dip a toe back into the Gibson water it wasn’t going to be for another Les Paul standard, despite how good they are. I always liked the Les Paul Jnr’s and loved the TV yellow colour but never managed to get them to work for me due to the type of music I was playing at the time. So this time it’s time to try something new.

I’m loving it, it’s got a fat neck and really works well with melody driven lines, the P90 brings out that classic 60′s/70′s sound. So far I’ve not written anything on it, but that’s down to a lack of sitting down with it, rather than not being able to use it.

I’ve also dipped back into pedals, I picked up a reasonably hard to find Frantone Cream Puff pedal. This gives a really really rich fuzz / light driven sound, a sound that in my teenage years I would have laughed at however now I like. I don’t think it’s a sound that you could write an album for, but for a riff, solo or song it works well. If I use this with my Fender Blues Deville amp and a Strat I get the exact sound John Mayer uses on the Crossroads track on Battle Studies. As I say, a core sound it’s too much, but I’ve used it for a solo on a song idea and love it.

I also picked up an Ibanez 70′s Flanger, it’s battered to high hell and it sounds fantastic but in the off position it’s a complete tone sucker so has to be used with a looper, it’s battery connection is knackered due to it’s age so it’s quite badly behaved and I can’t find an adaptor to fit with with my Diago Power chain. That said it’s ace, I do love vintage pedals. Not really used it yet though in song writing or live (due to it being so hammered).

Work in progress is the Bogner Alchemist head This is essentially a clean fender with a vintage marshall dirty amp in a modern day packaging. It’s got a good reverb and delay effect in built. I’m trying to get a dealer to get one of these in stock so I can actually sit down and play it.

Then there is the holy grail…..the Two Rock custom reverb amp, this is the beast, the best clean sound I’ve ever heard, bar none. It’s price tag is something that’s quite restrictive to mortals. This year could be the year I find enough non-allocated cash.

Good news on the pedal front, the Way Huge Aqua Puss analog delay pedal, the one that stopped production many many years ago and can change hands for as much as £500+ due to their quality and rarity, are being re-released for what appears to be a pretty reasonable price tag of approx £140. They are expected to be re-released in early Feb 2010, in which case in February, if you check this very site you’ should hopefully see a post saying “I’ve got my Aqua Puss pedal”

The search for tone and sounds continues…..not bad for a guy who only every used a driven sound and no pedals.