___THE UPDATER___SEPT 2024___NEW GEAR NEWS___UPDATED 24/7

THE UPDATER

SEPT 2024

Seperate those pedals that are a steal from 

those who are stealing from you at any price!

IF IT IS WORTH KNOWING IT WILL BE HERE FIRST !!!

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As a pedal theologian this is my place to pontificate the terrors of it all ...

MY MONTHLY RANT

Another month that took up to nearly the end until anything interesting came out. That happened to get all the holiday crowd home and thinking about the encroaching Autumn with the weather cooling and players thinking they will be at work or indoors with guitar in hand. Pedals are starting to cost more than a pro spec guitar with stainless steel frets, Anico PU's and a rosewood fretboard. 

 

THE GOOD NEWS

Last month we had United Artist FX put some of their new Compact pedals On Sale for $99.00 USD. MLA Pedals gave us the Super Natural OD that nails Carlos Santana's tones. MXR brought out Layers and like the Strymon Cloudburst it married Verb, Delay and modulation into a Synth like thing where the sounds act like a Synth doubling or in some ways accompanying your guitar but in real time so you can perform tunes with it. and not just make Star Wars noises 

. 

STONES' MICK TAYLOR DEAD AT 75

He became famous for replacing Peter Green in John Mayall's Blues Band. Green himself replaced Clapton. He went on to replace Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and was with them for 5 years. He was replaced by Ron Wood. Taylor died 5 days ago of what appears to be a stroke. 

 

LEKATO  

JA-02 Mini Amp  

It is a 5 watt amp that is only slightly bigger than an average double size pedal with 2 footswitches. The clean sound is very good. It is much better than many brand name bigger amps. The dirt sound is not amazing but totally usable.   

The layout is Volume, Tone and Gain, with a switch for Overdrive. A second Volume and input can be used for a mic etc. It has bluetooth and can be used to send music from your phone. It gives you 6 hours on a charge.  

It is capable of being loud.  

In fact "Turn that damn f.-ing thing down !!!'' 

kind of loud,😡. $35.00 USD.  

 

CHEAP GUITAR WIRELESS    W  A  R  N  I  N  G  

First there are 3 frequencies used for cheap units. The cheapest are in the $30.00 USD range.

They operate at 2.4 ghz. The thing is so does WiFi. So... if someone is on your channel your unit will cut in and out or even die. The second are the units using 5.8 ghz. They sell for $30.00 to $60.00 USD. It has the same problem with WiFi ...it is only better because it is not as popular ...yet ,lol. 

The 3rd are units that work on 500 mhz. They have been selling for $60.00 to $100.00 USD. They are incredibly reliable. Some countries use this for emergency, military or government business. One example is Germany. It is illegal to sell, or own one in those countries. Not everyone's rig works with every unit no matter what the frequency. Sometimes if you have several guitars the unit will not work on one of them for no apparent reason.

THING$ ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE 

I personally had endless problems with 2.4 ghz units.  Problems with 5.8 ghz. were less frequent but they were rare and by simply changing the channel I was OK. Units having more than one channel can save the day. The safest route is to buy one of each. Seriously it is not outrageous since it is about $150.00 USD or less. 

At the moment 500 mhz is the king ...but usually the pricy king because it is not on a frequency used by WiFi which causes 99% of all problems.

    THE BIG BUT  

The LEKATO WS-90 __5.8 khz is what I am currently using, BUT!!!

They now have the slim black and gold 500 mhz...  

LEKATO WS-70 @ $31.00 USD >>>  

The WS-70 offers a seriously pro 500 mhz product for 

an entry level  budget. 

>>> It only took 10 days to arrive. I have owned several over the last few years.

   This is the first one to sound more like I am using a cable, not a wireless.  

 

TOYS FOR THE OLDER BOYS

 

 

TONE CITY Tiny Spring V.2

You get a lot for your bucks. A serious take on a Fender Accutronics spring reverb. A great always on Verb that works with any or everything you put in it. The closer for me is worth the price of the pedal. It has a buffer built in that since it is at the end of the chain on your board makes all your pedals sound like they went 3-D with clarity and crispness . $55.00 USD WTF. If only all pedals could be this good at the same price point.

MOSKY AUDIO Volume Attenuator

It is a passive volume knob that you can set at a lower volume and kick in for a boost. It is so you can leave your guitar volume on full and cut the volume with the pedal but when you need it louder you turn off the pedal. The only thing that a power adapter does is turn the LED pilot light on and off. Yes it works just fine without an adaptor. One thing I like since it is the first pedal it is the one you are plugging your guitar in and out of. When the jack wears out it is cheaper to buy a new one than have your jack fixed on the pedal that follows it. $22.00 USD

 

LY-ROCK PEDAL LYR-Pedal Stacked Ed. 

A clone of the ORIGIN EFFECTS Cali 76 Stacked Ed.  

A  $500.00 USD pedal but the LY-Rock is $105.00 USD. 

There are not any videos only a few buyers raving about  

how good it is. 

.....I am having serious thoughts about pushing my luck 

      if it was even close it would be better than 95% of 

                     every comp out there.

 

NUX '63 DIAMOND

A VOX AC 30 in a box. It does something I have yet to hear. 

It actually sounds like the damn amp. Dial in a Tom Petty or 

early Beatles sound in a half a minute. I got onto a leak

3 months ago about it. A month ago they were shipped

and sold out in a day.  

($60.00 USD)                       .....I finally have one on the way   

CUSACK Project 34 

In the 1940's you had tubes. The transistor had not been invented. However if you needed something small and robust you could design using obscenely expensive military spec selenium rectifiers. They are still used in a few obscure industrial applications so Cusack designed a low gain Overdrive around them. I did a review in April but they are finally available. Scary good, organic sound. $240.00 USD, but half of that is the price of the rectifiers.

JOYO JF-25 BRIGHT DAY

This pedal is not just a clone but a dead on accurate sonic 

reproduction of a BOSS Blues Driver WAZA CRAFT version. 

It even looks cool in its 50's automotive pastel green paint 

color. $40.00 USD  (AliExpress shipping incl.)

 

FRESHLY UPDATED

UPDATED...9/7/2024  

                                                              

EASTWOOD P-46
$1400.00 USD
late 50's Hagstrom clone
alder body, white with blue or red sparkle top
bolt 24 3/4'' all maple neck, split coil PU's

GIBSON VICTORY
80's Reissue
$2500.00 USD
...a blatant Super Strat wannabe
...mahogany body & neck, ebony fretboard & maple cap.