OVERDRIVE- BALAGUER Fissiondrive ...Metal pedal at it's best & you can buy a guitar there too.

$200.00 USD

 BALAGUER FISSIONDRIVE 
Balaguer are a small company in Pennsylvania that for
a few years are offering very competitive hand made guitars. You can order one or you can get a custom shop one.
What is really cool you can choose the wood ..the colour ...the hardware etc. and design the guitar on-line right on the site.
In my case I could see the picture change from the pink guitar to the red one ...one change at a time.
Prices tend to start around $1200.00 USD to $2500.00 USD
for most people. At $2500.00 you get an average basic Custom Shop guitar.
Mine looks plain I do not need binding & things that are cosmetic.
I put my money on a neck thru body!!! The body is mahogany... the neck all maple. Gotoh 380 bridge and Hipshot tuners. It was priced at 1865.00 USD

The pedal is a Metal type amp-in-a-box. It has both pre and post gain. Thing of it as preamp volume and master volume.
Ignore the knob called 'Master' and just think of it as a power attenuater
to turn the overall sound up or down.

CONCLUSION

The price is good and you get a lot of control over the sound.

and while you are at the site design yourself a 'dream' guitar just for fun!

BASS FUZZ- ONE CONTROL Hooker's Green Bassmachine ...for those that love OR hate dirt!

  ONE CONTROL > HOOKER'S GREEN BASSMACHINE  

$150.00 USA

The trouble with  a lot of Fuzz pedals is they kill the dynamic range and the note attack of your bass. A lot of Fuzz pedals add back your clean signal to compensate.
Passable but not what you want. Bjorn Juhl has a rep for stellar design so to him this is just too tacky to even contemplate. Headroom is the answer!!!
You can operate the pedal at lower voltage like a 9v adapter but for killer dynamics the headroom from an 18v adapter is killer.

The sound is very similar to a big 70's style transistor amp pushed way beyond it's best before spot on it's volume knob!

The controls make for a dead easy set up. The treble gives you your tone the drive your dirt and you have a volume to keep the level the same as your clean tone or use it to overdrive your amp.

CONCLUSION

Nice ...you can go nuts with it or if you see your style as something far less aggressiveness

you can just add a little bite to your attack. Great for uptempo tunes especially

if you favour a deep round bass tone.

OVERDRIVE- FULLTONE OCD Ge ...yes the famous OCD but with germanium transistors

$195.00 USD

 FULLTONE OCD Ge 

Well it is not really new. lol
The first generation of OCD's had germanium transistors but the manufacturer discontinued them and Fulltone redesigned the pedal.
Recently a few handful showed up so they decided to do a limited edition until they run out.

Nothing new in the overall responsiveness. The sound is fat and very chunky and it still has a very limited amount of sustain.
The price is reasonable for a real limited edition ...
(not just a change in the colour of the paint. lol)

The standard is still $130.00 USD.

CONCLUSION

Well the price is fair. The sound is much warmer but even fatter. The standard OCD is a fairly dark sounding pedal ...that dark sound came over with a lot more aggressive then this. If you get one of the 'blue meanies' it will soon become a collectors item as there has never been a bigger selling OD created in this century.

I like fat and warm but I like the better definition of the standard pedal.

BASS PREAMP- ONE CONTROL Blue 360 ..an Acoustic 360 in a box...scary good

ONE CONTROL BLUE 360
Back in the late 60's all pro bass amps were tube.
Except for the Ampeg SVT they were under powered with very
little headroom and could get very muddy ...especially the
Marshalls.
Then on the scene stepped in Acoustic 360 with the Acoustic 361 cab.
it was the first really pro solid state amp. It had headroom,dynamics and it's famous aggressive growl.
John Paul Jones used two but it was Jaco Pastorius that put it on the map!

Designed by the guru of pedal design Bjorn Juhl the Blue 360 does a very good impression without breaking the bank.
It is an amp-in-a-box treatment where they capture the whole tone of the amp including it's tone and dynamics.
Some guys will find it they never turn it off ...others will just us it on tunes where the bass needs more balz or to be front and center.

CONCLUSION
Nice! An amp in a box is great if only for a a change from your 'same old'

OVERDRIVE-CHELEE Sir Robin ...Bluesbreaker pedal with a bad attitude ...Grrrrrr

$120.00 USD

 CHELEE SIR ROBIN OD 

Chelee are the team of Peter and Chelee Taylor.
A Florida based couple that have make handmade and hand wired gourmet pedals based from classics.
They have an excellent rep for building very good quality
pedals that tweak original designs mostly to get the bugs out of them but not kill the magic.  
The Sir Robin is a great example.The fat switch is big improvement giving you the classic lower mids of a real Plexi!  The presence is unusually good in giving that fat sound great definition ... & a clarity. The presence with much more expensive pedals is often strident, artificial
& in some cases unusable.
It runs from 9v to 18v. It is unusually quiet even when run on 18v !!!!

The pedal has a rich fat beefy Marshall Plexi like tone. It
is very warm without being a bit muddy. 

You can not but be impressed with the quality for the money.


CONCLUSION
Impressive!!!
I love the chicken ...my kind of humour! LOL

OVERDRIVE- GTOWN Holy Grail OD ...a Dumble?? maybe? however it does sound good.

 GTOWN AMPS HOLY GRAIL OD 

$140.00 USD

Gtown are from Groznyy Russian that claim their amps have 'Dumble' inspired tones. They may??
They start at $1450.00 USD for a 50watt head.

Well I digress ...but just to give you some idea of the company.
Gtown also has a pedal. Surprise surprise
It is a Dumble inspired pedal too. ;-)

How Dumble it is ...is a guess. But it really sounds pretty good. Worth a listen for sure.

CONCLUSION

The Dumble thing for me is all about Fusion & a lot of pretension. Dumble is a hot rodded Fender Deluxe. Most Fender amps have a superb clean sound. But Dumble or not there were definitely some excellent tones coming through on the videos.
The price is very good & since they sell through Reverb ordering is simple.

MULTI EFFECTS PEDAL-KEELEY DDR ...OD, Delay, Reverb in a box ...unusually good!!!

 KEELEY DDR MULTI-FX 

$180.00 USD

Surprisingly good. 
You can not use the reverb and delay at
the same time but they sound excellent and on a guitar if the delay is on the reverb is seldom missed.

The most impressive is the OD. It is very clean sounding.
You can play full chords and arpeggios finger or flat picking and it all comes through without any mud or mush. 

Right now it is on sale. At $180.00 USD.  
It is an excellent deal!

CONCLUSION
I hate multi effects even the precious Strymon was a disappointment. No one company can nail it all. So one FX will be stellar and another unusable.
BUT ...all the sounds are very good and at the sale price a true bargain!

OVERDRIVE- The very best of the best ...pick one!!!

OVERDRIVE DILEMMA

It is an OD world. Even those that play clean usually have a tube amp or some digital black box to imitate one.

A tube amp even the cleanest by the very nature of the tubes produces second harmonic distortion.
Second harmonic distortion means it exaggerates the level of the harmonic that is the same as the note that is being produced. In short an 'A' note has loud 'A' overtones a 'G' has loud 'G' overtones etc.
A low gain/transparent drive attempts to do this.. Unfortunately most work better if they produces more then just the second harmonic on purpose since just producing the second harmonic is tricky. You get an uneven sound when either the the harmonics dropout or come in at random. In short the tone is inconsistem fro moment to moment.  Analog tech is like that. Imperfect! LOL
Very very few big name pro's use solid state ( basically transistor) amps. Digital modeling yes ...but NOT a standard solid state amp.
You can rationalize all you want but things like the Quilter do not cut it unless you never have a good medium gain or high gain OD on all the time.

TYPES OF OVERDRIVES
Lately life has become easier by calling all dirt boxes an OD. One just labels what type.
Then names speak for themselves.
Transparent OD's are OD's that let the type and character of the guitar come through.
High Gain pedals have been & some still are called Distortions.
A Fuzz really is not an OD but some have adopted circuits that make them a hybrid.

LOW GAIN
MEDIUM GAIN
HIGH GAIN
METAL
VARIABLE
FUZZ Hybrid

As a rule of thumb Fender guitars benefit more from a transparent drive. Strats in particular. Without the Strat's 'chime' getting through a Strat is not a Strat. The PU's can easily end up sounding like  thin and cheap sounding Humbuckers. Nasty!!!

BRIT OR AMERICAN VOICED OD'S
The voice of an OD is usually based on Marshall or Fender amp types.
the exception is Metal or Fuzz hybrids that are so distorted that a $200.00 guitar in a blindfold test can sound damn good. lol

The identity of the sound is really about the sound of the power amp tubes. Fender uses 6L6 or 6V6 tubes and Marshall EL34 or EL84 tubes. Marshall has fat mids and tends to distort easier and Fender tends to be cleaner and scooped.

FENDER 
Fender is damn hard to emulate and requires much more detail in the sound. Marshall is so forgiving that a few $30.00 Chinese OD's actually sound pretty good!
The most bullet proof OD's are the better Marshall-amp-in box OD's some are variable gain which gives you a damn good sound from near low gain through to high gain.

The only reasonable convincing Fender type box I have heard is a Free the Tone String Slinger.  It is toted as a Fender black face amp sound. I think they were trying for the sound of a Dumble Steel String Singer ...the name is a give away. lol 

The Dumble amp started life as a Fender Deluxe schematic and went from there.

At $350.00 USD it is a big OUCH! 
It ain't perfect pushed hard you loose's it's Fender character and to me sounds very coarse. But at low gain it is killer!!!

MARSHALL

First if you play a Strat the best hands down is the 
Thermion Heart Breaker.
It lets the Strat chime come through. It has gain control of the pre amp and power amp on separate knobs. You can push the power amp and pull back the preamp and even get a good Hendrix type clean sound. I wouldn't be without one!
At $180.00 USD this pedal is a steal.


This works onStrats, Teles just about any guitar ...but especially those using Humbucking PU's.  Lawrence Petross Designs LPD 87 is bullet proof. No low gain but ....
a nice medium gain right up to 80's Metal.

This is in my opinion is an OD that never fails to impress any player!
When one thinks of a Marshall stack screaming out to you on a
recording of your fav guitarist this is the sound you have in your head!!!
Yes it is a cool $335.00 USD but worth every penny!

DAWNER PRINCE RED ROX DISTORTION
In a blindfold test of 35 of the best OD's the Red Rox won!
The tone knob is set so if you move it into the bass range you get 
a great scooped early Metal sound. At about 1 o'clock you get a nice rich fat mid sound and still further it heads into the late 80's origins of modern Metal.
Even at bedroom levels this sucker comes in first place for a long sustain.
At $220.00 USD it is well worth considering.




OTHERS
If you want a very organic transparent variable gain OD that goes from low gain to the low end of high gain and sounds stellar in all then your 
pedal just has to be the Stormy Monday. It is not meant to copy a 
particular amp.
It is ideal for Blues based music or ...any kind of the Americana genre. Oddly ...used at lower gain it would suit many Jazz players. 
It sounds very, very tube like and is unusually sensitive to the personal expression of your touch.
It's $200.00 USD ...and not overpriced for it's quality in every respect.


CHEAP

Well one does come to mind. The biggest selling ...tube amp sounding ...medium to near high gain OD in history.

The Fulltone OCD. It ain't cheap either lol. 
BUT ...
Mogoo make a clone. Or more to the point ...they make a 
counterfeit copy.
Unfortunately for Fulltone even the circuit is a copy.
The Mogoo is $37.00 USD

Two pics & one is a fake OCD

CONCLUSION
There are many,many other OD's I love and own  but they are perfection to a very specific music or lean more to one's taste. 

Some like buttery smooth OD's some like harsh rip your face off sounds.
The four OD's I have recommended are quite simply the best of what they do.
What they do is cover a generalized category.
They are all based on FET transistors which are the closet you can get to a real tube.
Sorry but the one weak point of any OCD is it's weak sustain. The true test for sustain is playing at 'Bedroom' volumes.If you push out 20 watts or more the amp is loud enough to feedback into your pickups and give you more sustain. 

They have all been posted with video.
So check'em out!

GUITAR- CIARI Ascender ...a full size travel guitar that fits in your pocket ...OK maybe not your pocket

$2800.00 USD

 CIARI ASCENDER TRAVEL GUITAR 

An interesting idea. The guitar simply bends over the back.
It even was designed to fit under the passenger seat of a plane.
To be fair it is a quality piece of machinery. It has great hardware and using Duncan PAF's will be perfect for the kind of players that buy it.

The question is are their enough middle aged execs that will buy one.

CONCLUSION

                                                          Yes it will probably tank!!!
                                                   If I had that much cash I would buy 

  the new 59 Les Paul Standard.

GUITAR- Tele Strats & LP's have a basic figure 8 shape. Good but are they the only choices???

 BREAKING THE MOULD BUT NOT GOING CRAZY 

Maybe you can get excited by the guitars that look like a Tele or Strat or LP . But I find it tedious!
It's time for a change. The basic figure 8 shape has been a practical staple for a few century's. I have no problem with that.
But lets's get at least a little variation.

Ignore the color or the hardware etc. just the body shapes
The guys that changed what Rock players think is cool like Page, Clapton, Hendrix and EVH did not
get 'their' by using what everyone else was using!
I am NOT talking about bridges, PU's and hardware
I am taking about the shape of the body!

GUITAR- The Fender Telecaster: A Short history

 ALL ABOUT THE TELE...

I stumbled onto a video of Keith Williams doing the history of the Strat which I posted
He also does the Tele ...enjoy!

2019 SUMMER NAMM ....Friday's TOUR OF THE NEW CUSTOM SHOP GUITARS

 MARK AGNESI TOURS CUSTOM SHOP AT @ SUMMER NAMM 

    

CONCLUSION

Video taken yesterday. 

Cool guitars but ... OUCH!!!

WELCOME ALL AMERICANS !!!!

WELCOME ALL AMERICANS TO SBS

Back in 1812 the brass at Fort Niagara walked across the U.S. Canadian border to have dinner with the Canadian forces at Fort George. Having dinner at each other forts happened all the time. During the dinner the Canadian General announced that the U.S. had just declared war on Canada. He then said  "There is no sense in spoiling a perfectly good dinner over this." ...and they didn't! LOL

It has never been different! It never will be!

What's the difference between an American player and a Canadian player???
The color of their Strats.  LOL

See I told you what makes me Canadian
...my Strat is a different color then yours.

A few of you may not have figured it out but I am a Canadian by birth. My grandmother lived with
the family and she was a Brit. I moved to Briton for a looooooooong time and because of her I was
legally considered a Brit.

I now live beside the General Motors Plant in Oshawa Ontario. How American is that! I am 2 hours away from the border and 45 minutes away from Toronto (the 4th largest city in North America ...soon to be third)
Fortunately Toronto is a mecca for all kinds of music.
Nothing is perfect but generally speaking thousands of people of every race in the world are in Toronto and we all get along pretty good.
There are only two kinds of people in the whole world Assholes and Everyone-Else. Fortunately there are not too many Assholes but since the media finds we are always curious to read about them we start thinking we are the only person that isn't one.

My wife is black and over 20 years younger then me ;-)
...an amazing bass player and has a Jazz background in both singing and tenor sax.
She loves everything from Johnny Cash to Metallica. lol
HEY! ...she does ...You can't make this Sh@t up!
She of course has an American Jazz bass an American P. bass
and an American Music Man Stingray bass. All 3 were designed by Leo.

We are well into writing music for a guitar/bass/drums trio.
Think of the music sounding like Carlos Santana playing AC/DC
with Nina Simone singing.
It is loud and aggressive mostly written in the Dorian mode
using harmony borrowed from Claude Debussy.
just like Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie did in the early 50's.

A FINAL CHEERFUL NOTE
Did you know that when Kramer emerged in the 70's  the guitars were made by Godin in Canada using Canadian wood & U.S. PU's & hardware. They were then shipped as a finished kit to the U.S. where they were assembled then set up and sold as Made in the USA.
(quite legal in case you wondered)
A very sensible arrangement all around. :-)


You guys have virtually taken over Stomp Box Steals. It is read world wide
but you guys outnumber everyone else 10 to 1.

Anyhow we are all musicians so where you live is irrelevant.
But since you invented Rock you can take a well deserved bow.
but get that smirk off your face. It's just not polite!!!!

OVERDRIVE-DANELECTRO The Breakdown ...a classic Univox UD-50 clone

 DANELECTRO THE BREAKDOWN OD 

One thing about good ol' Dano is when they clone thy do it
right. I have their Fish & Chips Grapic EQ and it is dead on 
the MXR.
This time it is the antique Univox UD-50 Unidrive.
Just like the original you have a 6 position switch increasing 
The gain at each click. With the handy dandy volume control
you can use it like a ts to boost the front end of your amp or
you can keep it at unity gain.
If you are looking for just a boost pedal leaving this pedal on '1' smokes most boost pedals with just a touch of grit that adds some balz to your sound. I hate dead clean boosts. They may sound sensible but they are as about as exciting as milk!

PRICE   $150.00 USD

Univox UD-50

CONCLUSION

It does what it does. It does it well. I see it more as a

problem solver then an OD. A much needed boost to your

clean sound or perhaps to give a favorite OD a bit of punch.

Maybe even a killer over the top sound pushing some 
power chords on an OD or a Fuzz.
FINAL NOTE: this is a no brainer for a selection of useable
Fuzz sounds. You can not go wrong with this Fuzz. If you are getting your first fuzz and have stayed with OD's this is the one to get!
It sounds damn good!!!

FLANGER- LONGAMP Roxanne Flanger ...is it the best sounding flanger ever made? Many think so!!!

$400.00 USD

 LONGAMP ROXANNE FLANGER 

So what we have here is an exact clone of the 
Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress Flanger
in spite of a bit of a volume drop in the sweep & a bit of hash and hiss it is the classic of classic Flangers. When the MN3007 chip went out of production this little beauty went defunct.

Except for a much needed clean up of the noise this pedal is bang on!!!
It is made in Wroclaw Poland where it is one of several classics they reproduce. 
Unfortunately you have to prepay your order and wait about 5 months.
Yes it is $400.00 USD OUCH!

The pedal 'speaks for itself!'

CONCLUSION
There is nothing not to like. It is glassy yet very full sounding. To have a clean sound with the rich fullness of good OD is a miracle in itself and this pedal makes it an always on pedal with a clean sound.
a lot of players including me thought Andy Summers was using a Roland Jazz chorus to get this sound.
It made sense as his sound was clean but had such an amazing breadth!

One final thought ...damn it ...it even looks dead cool!!!!  lol

I will probably buy one. I too live in the real world and have had some heavy expenses with 
taxes and car problems. LOL
BUT...it is on the top of my short list !!!!
I can certainly procrastinate on buying for now as I only use it on one tune where I use the so called 'Egytian scale' It is a simple pentonic scale. I have a solo in it & have struggled to make it interesting. The tough part is running any chromatic runs just destroys the exotic mood it creates ...breaking years of habit is a bitch.

OVERDRIVE- FRET KING Klassic Drive ...a Klon clone with it's own sound and a damn good one too!

$100.00 USD

FRET KING KLASSIC DRIVE
I guess it was bound to happen. The Klon circuit just like the Tube Screamer has been around so long it has become just a starting point to take in a hundred directions.

Fret King is another of Trev Wilkinson's
efforts. The Fret King guitars have a solid following. Wilkinson guitar hardware is his best known product.
It started out as budget hardware & like all of the man's endeavors the innovation and quality has him in with the 'big boys'. 
I just got some of his Strat type locking tuners
and with a 19:1 ratio they are a treat to tune with.

Trev Wilkinson worked along side Leo Fender
for about three months and they became the best of friends. 
Trev was the last guy to see Leo before he died.

His new locking Strat bridge is killer!!! Best of all you could even play a guitar with one on it and not even notice it locked.

The Klassic  has the standard Gain, tone and Level set up.
It has two inputs in and two out to make connecting to other pedals easier. It has the Klon transparency but it has a bit more gain then a Klon. the Klon has a liquid like smoothness in the tone where this pedal has an earthy warmth. the Fret King has a very nice fullness to it and a very full near even resonance in the mids. The Kon has it's distinct honk in the mids.
It has an excellent tone thru it's whole range from the expected low gain but right thru to a very nice medium gain.
It reminds me more of a Klon stacked on a Plexi pedal.

CONCLUSION
A really good mid range pedal full of character.

MODULATION- MAD PROFESSOR Double Moon ...Chorus, Flanger, Tremelo and multiples there of ...killer !

$250.00 USD

 MAD PROFESSOR DOUBLE MOON 
 MODULATION PEDAL
Mad Professor has been around forever and every year they bring out new pedals.
None are disappointing but ever two or three years one is a total killer. Well they have done it again.
You get an array of flangers, chorus and tremolo. Others have done like wise recently with very good effects. But the mind blower here is
if it was a pedal with just the flanger on it or if it was a pedal with just the chorus on it would have to be on my short list.
These tones alone rival the very best. They are rich and sumptuous. But hell ...you get them both as well as double chorus and double flangers that are not just as beautiful but are twice as full. You get 11 modes and that gets even bigger with not just the standard controls but what is called the 'control' knob which depending on your choice of sound does things unique to that sound. Yes it can do some crazy Sci Fi stuff ...but it has a sh@t load of sounds can be just clicked on to tunes you already play. If that isn't enough you get a choice of several as good that are different that work on your tune as well.

CONCLUSION
Excellence!
If all you use are 3 or 4 patches at $250.00 USD
you have a Steal! 
This pedal is a Stomp Box Steal King !!!
King of bargains!!!