I’ve been busy today, filming a video demo for my Friedman Dirty Shirley Mini Amplifier. Its a beast…

Youtube legend, Andertons demo-ist and Dorje guitarist Rob Chapman, has started a competition to celebrate reaching a ridiculous number of Youtube subscribers.

The idea is to write and film a riff, using only frets 1 to 4 on the guitar. Here is my extremely humble entry. I never win owt, so expectations are low, but you lot giving me some views, may show him how popular I am 😉

Here is a quick video, shot on my iPhone, of the Friedman Amps Dirty Shirley Mini. This was recorded about 5 minutes after I took it out of the box. Blimey its good! The gain structure switch was set to level 2 of gain (not the highest) and then I controlled the sound via the volume knob on my guitar.

A full demo will follow soon.

Here are my current pedalboards. I’m really enjoying the three pedal board on the left. To be honest, when it comes to gear you’re using, sometimes simplicity is so much better! I find I’m just concentrating on playing when I’m using the smaller board, rather than on which pedal I need on next. And these are not all of them! Like many other players, I have a stash of currently “off the board” pedals.

To be honest, I think there will be a cull shortly…

I’m really enjoying this setup at the moment. Sometimes simplicity just works. I’ve got everything I really need here: tuner, an overdrive/boost and a delay. Plus a Wah pedal in front when the desire for such a thing hits.

Signal chain is Boss TU2 — Thorpyfx Peacemaker — TC Electronic Alter Ego Tape Delay. The Wah is a Dunlop CAE unit with switchable Fasel inductors and a built in boost if required.

All of that is mounted on a Pedaltrain Metro 20 with power coming from my original Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 which I wasn’t using.

The Thorpyfx Peacekeeper is a low gain overdrive with a 3 band eq. It is spectacularly good at boosting an already overdriven amp, without adding too much colour. I also love the sound of the Alter Ego Tape Delay, although I have had some problems with the foot switch working loose. I’ve done it up as tight as I can and it seems to be holding now. At the moment, my Strymon El Capistan Tape Echo, wont work on this board as the power supply doesn’t have an output that can provide enough milliamps. That will stay on my bigger board for the time being.

That “bigger” board is a Pedaltrain Jr, so it’s hardly massive, but I like this new simpler approach. I have so many pedals now that a cull seems likely. Recently, I have definitely fallen foul of the “acquisition of things” syndrome, particularly as far as pedals are concerned. I now have 5 drive pedals for example. And nobody needs 4 pedal tuners!!

I’m seeing so many players on Facebook groups, posting these enormous pedalboards with 3 Strymons, 4 boutique drives etc etc. However, I’m not convinced that many of them, actually have a clue on how to use all those pedals. Don’t get me wrong, there are some stellar players with massive boards (Steven Wilson, Guthrie Govan etc) who know exactly what they are doing with lots of effects, but I also feel that a lot of players are using effects to cover up some deficiencies. If that makes me sound like a snob, so be it, but some players seem to be searching all the time for a sound, rather than actually concentrating on writing a great song. Maybe thats indicative of all of us players, in that we are always searching for the latest/better sound. Each to their own, but certainly for me at the moment, less is more.

Hello!

It’s very busy in the land of guitargeek-dom at the moment. Demand for lessons is at a new high, so if you’re interested in booking a slot, please get in touch ASAP! I have a little bit of availability in the popular early evening slots, but also don’t forget I have availability in the daytime too. Email me with your day and time requirements, and I’ll see what I can do.

Sorry there hasn’t been any new video activity for a couple of weeks. I do have a couple of pedal demos in the pipeline, including one for the Thorpyfx Peacekeeper.

However, my main focus has been recording some new demos for my band The Nightwires. I always have lots of ideas on the go, so even though we only released “Life of Sound” last summer, Russell and I thought we’d start working on some new stuff. I think we plan on releasing them one song at a time, rather than doing another full album. Having said that, an EP release may see the light of day. Who knows. I’ll keep you all updated…

Everyone got an outing at last weekends rehearsal for The Nightwires. Well, all except Mr Jazzmaster, who was left at home, crying jazzy tears. Don’t worry my friend, you get to see all my lovely students during lessons! Anyway…

These 3 guitars cover all required bases to be honest. Still, it doesn’t stop me looking at shiny new things. The internet has a lot to answer for, in helping me spend my money.

Here is the ThorpyFX Peacekeeper low gain overdrive pedal. I’ve had to move on lots of stuff to get this one, but it was well worth it. Its being described as a “Klon Killer” but I think its much more flexible than that mythical pedal.

The 3 band eq is extremely powerful and the level of gain on tap is perfect for me. I’m using it as a boost for an already overdriven amplifier and there is loads of level available, to use it for this purpose. It’s gone straight onto my new “simple” board and it sounds particularly good with my Morgan amplifier. A video review will follow in a week or so…

Here is my latest video, featuring one of my newest acquisitions…

I recently decided to put together a new small pedalboard, initially to use with my Morgan Amplifier. The main reason being, that the Wampler Clarksdale Overdrive (which was not being used) sounds so great with the Morgan. The Tubescreamer based circuit, just complements the tone of the AC20 Deluxe so well.

However, I’m not man enough to play without any delay! So I bought a TC Electronic Alter Ego V2 from Andertons to stick on the board. That pedal seemed to be a great balance between sound quality and price. It is very good, although not as good as my Strymon El Capistan, but then not much is.

The Voodoo Lab power supply is also a spare one I wan’t using. The board is a Pedaltrain Metro 20, with the hard case.