Hopefully by now you've seen these: http://www.voxamps.com/amplug/. If you haven't, they are amazing sounding pieces of equipment. I bought an AC30 one to bring out with me to Iraq and played around with it for about a week before leaving and was immensely satisfied with the tone.
I will say, though, that the durability of the amplug leaves a little to be desired. At least for me. I bought the amp specifically to bring to the desert and I'm fully prepared to admit that the trip would never constitute "normal wear and tear" in any way, but after a mere week out there it did not work.
Even though this isn't a normal thing to ask of a tiny guitar amp, I did buy it and it ended up dying. I feel pretty bad about it. The tone WAS good.
But besides the fact that it died, there were other things I was unsatisfied with, like the fact you couldn't use it to drive a cabinet. Or the fact it did not have a speaker.
I have been thinking about this tiny thing for months on months too and today, in a moment of insanity emailed Zinky Amps who make the famous Smokey Amp, if it was possible and, if so, how much would it cost to take an amplug and make it durable. Bruce Zinky himself wrote back and said that while he won't make a custom amp for me (and thinking about it, it was incredibly rude of me to ask, especially after Steve Benford posted about asking custom guitar makers to copy guitars) I can buy an amp from them and I can rest assured that not only is the amp made in the US, supporting jobs here, but they can rebuild it in any condition, "even if a truck runs over it." The current cost to rebuild the amp in ANY condition is $17.00 including shipping.
He then recommended the Supro Mini, a high gain amp in a Smokey package saying not only does it drive incredibly well and can even be used as a fuzz box in front of your amp, but if you roll off the volume on your guitar it will clean up nicely.
AND it can drive a cabinet.
He also recommended the Polycarbonate Smokey amp which is virtually indestructible. A definite plus in my case. It is actually made with the same plastic you can often find on bank windows.
Honestly, I don't know why I didn't go for the Smokey in the first place when I was looking for a deployment amp. They're small, durable and sound great. I remember my first one that was in a pack of Marlboros and it sounded amazing. Jazz guitarist Rick Wurzbacher flung it into a pool though and in an act of impatience I tried to turn it on before it fully dried out and it made a sound like an old TV being turned off WEEeeeeoooooo. I blame my age at the time. I know that if I had waited until it was fully dried out it would have been fine. Bruce even confirmed this for me. He went so far as to tell me that it would have been fine anyway, and all I needed to do take out the battery, dump clean water on the amp, wait for it to dry and them hook up a new battery and I would have been good to go.
But now that the lesson has been learned I'll be sure to pick up one (or maybe even two in case someone wants to jam out there) before I head out again.'
If you haven't heard of Bruce Zinky, Zinky Amps or Smokey Amps, do yourself a favor and check them out. They're located here: http://www.zinky.com/index.html
-Pappy
Tabs
Monday, June 29, 2009
Pro Tone Body Rot II Review Update
Greetings, everyone! I just wanted to write and say the videos for the BR2 are up on the review post and the pictures should be there by the end of the day. Check them out and let me know what you think. Did you find them useful in helping further convey the words that I typed? Were they just cool to look at? Is there anything you would like to see / not like to see in future videos?
Let me know!
Thanks!
-Pappy
Let me know!
Thanks!
-Pappy
Friday, June 26, 2009
Shred Or Burn?
First, I never understood the term “shred.” I know what it means, don’t get me wrong, but providing I had never heard the descriptive word for playing wicked fast I would have probably thought it was “burn” as in “he’s playing so fast his fingers or the fretboard are going to catch fire.”
Moving on from that, though, I have never been interested in it. A lot of it seems a little too… self indulgent for my tastes. You can go all the way to the beginning of the blog and see that, after listening to music my whole life, and playing guitar for ten years, I liked ONE shred artist, John 5.
And until I started listening to Pro Tone Pedals’ podcast I was perfectly content to enjoy John 5 only, as far as shred goes. But Dennis over at Pro Tone keeps playing these shred songs that are sounding more and more like musical compositions and less like self indulgent wheedlelee wheedlelee whee kind of stuff.
I’ve been listening to these tracks and liking them but none of them have made me want to BUY something new until yesterday as I was driving in to work and listening to their new podcast where Dennis interviews Jason Becker.
Let me tell you something about Jason Becker: He’s pretty amazing at the guitar. iTunes does him no justice when you check out the soundclips for Perpetual Burn. I’m definitely more intrigued about Becker’s work now.
So, if you don’t want to listen to the podcast (and I don’t know why that is) I’ll tell you the track that made me want to buy a shred album from someone other than John 5: It is called Concerto from the Speed Metal Symphony album.
Apparently, the only instrumental songs on the album are Concerto and Speed Metal Symphony and one reviewer said that the songs with lyrics aren’t at the same level.
Honestly, this makes me want to check out the album even more.
But yes, Dennis playing these songs is making me gravitate toward that kind of world right now. That’s the great thing about the guitar when you think about it. If you get interested in something new, even if you went out and bought a new guitar specifically for that interest, you would still know how to play it. You would still be able to figure out where the notes are and it wouldn’t be like learning to play all over, you would just be learning to play DIFFERENTLY and when you get right down to it, even if you throw away most of the songs you learned, you still have the skills you gained by learning a new genre. This of course may get a bit rusty if, say, you went from something like shred to deliberately slow blues, but since you learned it once before you wouldn’t need to start from square one (still keeping in mind “square one” wasn’t really square one at all) and is only a matter of bringing the skills back.
I love being pushed to new music and getting wrapped up in it. I find myself looking at new CDs, gaining new appreciation for performers and performances, and yes, I look at guitars.
That’s probably my favorite part. I love trying to find the perfect guitar for this SPECIFIC thing. While everyone should know you can play just about anything ON just about anything (I bet John 5 could shred on anything and sound close to the same) it’s still fun for me to think about my preferences and what I would use a specific guitar for. Jazz on a Country Club even though I would probably play just about anything on it, rock and punk on my Gretsch Anniversary, modern rock on a Les Paul, etc. etc.
And yes, I found myself looking at guitars that I consider more “shred.” At first I checked out Paradise Guitars’ Jason Becker model (of course) and I like it. The only thing I would change on it, personally, is the headstock shape. The rainbow colors don’t bother me. I actually think it’s cool. It may get some… inappropriate attention, but colors are cool. They’ve always been cool. I’m tired of people thinking that you can’t have a ton of colors on something because questions about sexual orientation may come up.
They may. Answer them and move on.
But I found it, my imaginary shred guitar. It’s the Jackson Dinky DK1 in natural. Alder body with a maple top and neck with an ebony fretboard and the necessary Floyd. 
Just look at it. Beautiful and shred-tastic.
So in summary, check out the track Concerto from Cacophony. And if you’d like to play the game, what guitar would you pick as YOUR shred-specific guitar?
-Pappy
Moving on from that, though, I have never been interested in it. A lot of it seems a little too… self indulgent for my tastes. You can go all the way to the beginning of the blog and see that, after listening to music my whole life, and playing guitar for ten years, I liked ONE shred artist, John 5.
And until I started listening to Pro Tone Pedals’ podcast I was perfectly content to enjoy John 5 only, as far as shred goes. But Dennis over at Pro Tone keeps playing these shred songs that are sounding more and more like musical compositions and less like self indulgent wheedlelee wheedlelee whee kind of stuff.
I’ve been listening to these tracks and liking them but none of them have made me want to BUY something new until yesterday as I was driving in to work and listening to their new podcast where Dennis interviews Jason Becker.
Let me tell you something about Jason Becker: He’s pretty amazing at the guitar. iTunes does him no justice when you check out the soundclips for Perpetual Burn. I’m definitely more intrigued about Becker’s work now.
So, if you don’t want to listen to the podcast (and I don’t know why that is) I’ll tell you the track that made me want to buy a shred album from someone other than John 5: It is called Concerto from the Speed Metal Symphony album.
Apparently, the only instrumental songs on the album are Concerto and Speed Metal Symphony and one reviewer said that the songs with lyrics aren’t at the same level.
Honestly, this makes me want to check out the album even more.
But yes, Dennis playing these songs is making me gravitate toward that kind of world right now. That’s the great thing about the guitar when you think about it. If you get interested in something new, even if you went out and bought a new guitar specifically for that interest, you would still know how to play it. You would still be able to figure out where the notes are and it wouldn’t be like learning to play all over, you would just be learning to play DIFFERENTLY and when you get right down to it, even if you throw away most of the songs you learned, you still have the skills you gained by learning a new genre. This of course may get a bit rusty if, say, you went from something like shred to deliberately slow blues, but since you learned it once before you wouldn’t need to start from square one (still keeping in mind “square one” wasn’t really square one at all) and is only a matter of bringing the skills back.
I love being pushed to new music and getting wrapped up in it. I find myself looking at new CDs, gaining new appreciation for performers and performances, and yes, I look at guitars.
That’s probably my favorite part. I love trying to find the perfect guitar for this SPECIFIC thing. While everyone should know you can play just about anything ON just about anything (I bet John 5 could shred on anything and sound close to the same) it’s still fun for me to think about my preferences and what I would use a specific guitar for. Jazz on a Country Club even though I would probably play just about anything on it, rock and punk on my Gretsch Anniversary, modern rock on a Les Paul, etc. etc.
And yes, I found myself looking at guitars that I consider more “shred.” At first I checked out Paradise Guitars’ Jason Becker model (of course) and I like it. The only thing I would change on it, personally, is the headstock shape. The rainbow colors don’t bother me. I actually think it’s cool. It may get some… inappropriate attention, but colors are cool. They’ve always been cool. I’m tired of people thinking that you can’t have a ton of colors on something because questions about sexual orientation may come up.
They may. Answer them and move on.
But I found it, my imaginary shred guitar. It’s the Jackson Dinky DK1 in natural. Alder body with a maple top and neck with an ebony fretboard and the necessary Floyd.
Just look at it. Beautiful and shred-tastic.
So in summary, check out the track Concerto from Cacophony. And if you’d like to play the game, what guitar would you pick as YOUR shred-specific guitar?
-Pappy
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Pro Tone Body Rot II Review
As I mentioned last time, I ordered my very first boutique pedal. I was incredibly excited to get it and sure enough, when I came home from work for lunch it was waiting for me. It’s a bittersweet thing that I had just enough time to take a long look at it, check the structural integrity of it and then go back to work. It’s a good thing because the review is broken down to aesthetics / non-sound related issues and then the sound.
In the end it worked out very well for me, I guess.
This is my first pedal review, so bear with me. I want to supply as much information as possible to you and hopefully it will be useful.
The amp I was using to test it out was a USA Fender Blues Jr. This model has a green circuit board that Fender updated in mid 2001 and features one of the darkest tones I have ever heard from a Fender. I have often thought about getting some Bill M mods and altering it to the sound of the Blues Jr’s that came out since mid 2001 with a cream circuit board. They sound more like – well, they sound more like a Fender.
The knobs on the amp were set up with bass and mids at noon and the treble turned all the way up. There was no reverb and the master volume was turned all the way up with the regular volume knob doing the work. In a place like a bedroom this is a good way to get a good amount of headroom with no breakup which is nice because I did not want to review what the pedal’s distortion sounded like on top of the amp’s distortion. I wanted it to be all pedal for the review.
The guitar I was using was a Gretsch 6118T Anniversary with TV Jones Classics in it.
And now that we have that out of the way, how about we get on with the review?
The Box
The box that was waiting for me said Pro Tone and I opened it up. I was giddy with excitement. I do not get the opportunity to get that much gear so whenever new gear comes along, it is always a pleasure for me.
Even knowing that though, it is far away from your average box stuffed with bubble wrap and your gear. Once the box was opened there was a promotional postcard with illustrations of all or most of Pro Tone’s current pedal line, a Ziploc bag of picks featuring the names and designs of some of his pedals (my bag came with picks advertising the Raven Dirty Chorus, the Christian Olde Wolbers Pre Amp pedal, and the Jason Becker Distortion) and a shop cloth. The pedal was wrapped in the shop cloth with a Pro Tone logo as protection which strikes me as particularly cool because how often do you take the bubble wrap out of a box and use it elsewhere? A shop cloth can get used and reused all the time so it is practical not only as cushion but as something you can use for a long time.
Inside the shop cloth was my pedal.
The first thing I noticed as I picked it up by the ends of the cloth before I opened up the cloth was that it is a lot lighter than I thought it would be which seemed good and bad at the time, but I’ve settle on purely good. The pedal is solidly built, made of metal and all that it just isn’t as heavy as something like a Digitech Bad Monkey. I was thinking about this and thought this is probably a REALLY good thing because once you start building a pedal board, weight adds up quick and you’re going to have to be lugging that stuff around everywhere. It’s best to keep it as light as possible without sacrificing structural integrity and in this regard Pro Tone delivers.
So there I was, holding my pedal, still unseen, wrapped in the red shop cloth trying to keep all my thoughts in a line for this review and I unwrapped it an edge at a time until I saw the pedal.
Right away I noticed that, while the pedal has a white background on the web site, mine was a naked metal with the artwork on top of that. I was a little confused thinking maybe this was the “blemish” that put it in the blemish sale. I don’t mind the color of metal or anything, but it was shocking and lacks the POP that you see on the web site. From a distance the blood is lost on the metal where, with a white one even with a passing glance someone looking at your pedal board would probably do a double take and say something like “holy cow, man! Is that blood?”
To which you would probably respond “You bet it is.”
I emailed Dennis about this asking if this was the “blemish” (I use quotation marks because honestly, the artwork still looks beautiful and the only thing I noticed was the “O” in “Out” was missing near the out jack but other than that, the pedal was perfect) or perhaps he uses white to give the pedal more pop on the black background of his web site.
He wrote back quickly (he’s always pretty quick to reply to emails which is great) and said that the Body Rot II usually comes with a white background and they experimented with the metal back. He said he thought it looked cool but lacked the pop necessary for retail success so they decided to keep it white. He mentioned that they made five of them and I received the last one, so if you’re out there and you have a metal Body Rot II, there are few others like it.
The pedal itself is built incredibly well. All the jacks were tight, the switch felt like it was heavy duty and could take a beating, the knobs were on solidly and not wobbly at all, and like I said earlier, the box is made of metal. Durable indeed.
The Sound
Like I mentioned in the beginning of the review, I play with an amp that has a tone that I am generally not very satisfied with. It’s a Fender, from a company known for sparkly tones and yet this one has a dark tone that leaves a lot to be desired (at least from me). I was fully prepared to give the pedal significant lee way based on the amp. It turns out it wasn’t necessary.
I turned every knob on the pedal to noon and pushed the switch and was instantly assaulted with incredibly painful feedback.
Helpful tip: when trying out anything new, or turning anything with volume on, start with the volume at zero and work up because this situation could happen to you. I genuinely hope that SOMEONE out there learns from my mistake and not everyone is sitting in their chairs laughing at how hilarious it is that I killed my ears for a second or two.
Anyway. I turned the pedal off, shook my head, made a few experimental noises to see if I could hear them and turned the volume on the pedal all the way down and then turned it back on and worked the knob back up little by little.
With everything (but the volume) turned to noon there was plenty of great sounding crunch and I was having a great time nailing some higher-gain punk stuff. It amazed me that with the knobs at noon this was already heavier than most pedals.
It seems like Dennis did a good job when he set out to make the heaviest sounding pedal ever.
The sound wasn’t just good, it was bright which shocked me since the treble was at noon with everything else. The brightness made me wonder what it would sound like with little or no distortion so I turned the gain down to about 7 or 8 o’clock and turned up the volume (again, little by little) and found a VERY nice clean tone that took my amp, my incredibly dark sounding amp, and made it into a Fender – a real Fender I mean.
Let me clarify: I do not mean that this pedal makes amps sound like Fenders. I’ve been experimenting with it and seems that it amplifies the setting on the amps but only to an extent. The treble on the amp was turned all the way up and the pedal took that and pushed it out like it should be sounding, not like it sounds when the pedal is off. Once I turned everything on the amp to noon (except the volume) it had a more normal rock tone without as much high end (which could be pushed all the way to ice pick tones if you wanted to. It is very much a “whatever you want to do” kind of pedal) and the tone was again amazing.
Honestly, I didn’t find a tone that wasn’t pleasing except brushing up against the ice pick zone so I’m already in love with it. If I had a ton of pedals, they would all be pushed to the side in favor of this one.
Ah, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Like I said, I was playing clean and switched to the neck pickup and turned the tone switch on my Gretsch (commonly known as a “mud switch” to Gretsch players) to the darkest setting (or “full mud”) and played a great sounding version of my jazz standard It’s Only A Paper Moon.
Yes, I decided that this pedal would be with me for a very long time. This isn’t a honeymoon phase or anything (I’m pretty sure). This pedal made my amp a pleasure to play through so I’m going to use it as much as I can and test out the battery life which Dennis says lasts quite a while on this pedal.
So playing clean was amazing but the pedal’s name is Body Rot II so let’s crank up the gain!
A while back Guitar Player reviewed this pedal saying that they could not coax a James Hetfield out of this box which threw me off it. A couple of months later I was listening to Six String Bliss on the way to work and who did they happen to interview? Dennis. And what did he happen to mention? That review. The name finally clicked in my head and when he said you CAN get James Hetfield out of it, I was intrigued again (and I’ve written about this in the past) not only because of the claim but because this was the first time I ever heard any manufacturer take issue with a reviewing magazine.
Well, now that I owned this pedal I was going to try to coax James Hetfield out of it even through my Gretsch hollow body packed with fairly not-hot pickups. I scooped the mids all the way to zero and turned the bass and treble all the way to the max and it sounded like early Metallica. The gain was at 3 o’clock. Anything past that the pedal doesn’t get heavier per se but it does get more raunchy sounding. A little unfocused is what I mean, which like every other section on the gain dial, has a practical application to it. The peal is useful in all positions.
On a side note, Dennis has said in a past podcast that this pedal works best with an amp that has tone sculptors like bass, mids and treble. You’ll find yourself fairly limited playing through an amp with one knob. This is one thing that I will try to find out about soon by playing it through a Gretsch 5222 (which is very close to a Champ) partly because I’m curious, but mostly because it’s just so fun to mess with this pedal.
By the way, if you are into getting a Metallica tone, it is in this box and you need only bump up the mids to adjust for whatever time period you’re after. Death Magnetic is full of them.
So, my first night with the pedal let me know that inside it holds 1) the key to making my amp sound a million times better, 2) a very nice rockabilly tone, 3) a very nice jazz sound, 3) great bluesy breakup, 4) punk tones, 5) metal tones, and 6) “Oh! hey guys, who opened the door to hell?” tones. When I say “nice” or “great” it’s a horrible understatement. This thing is spectacular. I can’t imagine playing my amp without it in front of it since it makes my amp sound like it cost QUITE a few more dollars and that isn’t even mentioning all the great distortion in it.
But the ultimate test walked in and asked me to play for her. My wife is known to not be able to hear the difference in anything musically. This is why she does not like instrumental music and asking her for her opinion on the tonal differences of guitars is not a wise idea since she says they all sound the same.
She told me to turn the pedal off and play something. I did, playing a Paul Pigat rockabilly lick and then turned on the pedal at its low gain rockabilly tone and she said that it does sound incredibly different and INCREDIBLY good but that’s not Metallica (she knows the story). Oh, I say, just wait. I turn a few knobs and I’m playing the bridge of Fade to Black and she nods and says “Yep. That’s Metallica alright.” She remarked that since SHE can hear the difference the price was justified to her. This was kind of a joke, but it’s nice to know that the money wasn’t spent on something that had such a subtle tone difference from what was already there that only the person who bought the pedal could hear it.
Speaking of money, let’s talk about price.
Boutique pedals have always scared me off because of the price. The Body Rot II goes for 169.00 US and I was able to pick it up from Dennis’ blemish sale for 119.00 which was a great deal when you consider the original price but is still pretty expensive for a distortion pedal, especially when you can buy a ton of other distortion pedals for significantly less from other, more often than not bigger, companies. I bought a few myself over the years and didn’t like them very much. I actually gave up on pedals altogether for a while because I was constantly disappointed with them.
That’s not the issue here. I LOVE this pedal. I thought it was going to be a one trick pony. That is very much not the case. I was completely wrong and this is the best time to be wrong. I spent over a hundred bucks on a pedal that could easily replace four or five one trick ponies that happen to be cluttering the pedal board.
Do you think 169.00 is too much for everything I listed above? I don’t. Yes, I am a little hesitant to try out any of his other distortion boxes like the WICKED cool looking Jason Becker Distortion because 1) how could it be any cooler than this? And 2) if I fall in love with THAT, there’s going to be a lot of saving going on in my household.
In the end though I think it’s an amazing pedal that is worth every penny. Dennis is never more than an email away and is incredibly helpful. There’s a face to the company and you know who your money is going to (the Jason Beck Distortion is so expensive because money actually goes to Jason Becker to help him out).
So if you need distortion in ANY way, you owe it to yourself to check this pedal out. It is amazing and amazingly versatile. You can check out the Pro Tone web site at http://www.protonepedals.com/, read their blog at http://blog.protonepedals.com/ and visit their YouTube page to see videos at http://www.youtube.com/protonepedals.
Stay tuned for eventual videos to be added to this particular post as well as pictures of the pedal taken by my talented photographer wife.
-Pappy
Well, the videos are being uploaded right now, so let me tell you a little bit about what they are and how they were made. They were recorded with an incredibly cheap digital camera that has a video function and looking at them, I noticed that they were nowhere close to how the music was actually sounding, so consider these videos more of a jist kind of thing and less like an accurate representation of how the pedal sounds. It sounds better in an unquantifiable amount in person.
The amp and pedal both had their EQ set at noon across the board except for the volumes so keep in mind that if things sound like they could use a little more highs, lows, or mids, they could get them.
The first video is my take on a Paul Pigat rockabilly lesson using the BR2 and a Danelectro Reel Echo which, though a GREAT delay pedal, does tend to color the sound a bit.
The second video is my take on the Reverend Horton Heat's Loaded Gun to give you a take on the blues power in the pedal.
The second video is a riff from Guitar World's Learn to Play Hard Rock and Metal and is used to convey the classic/hard rock tone potential.
The third video is a metal riff that I wrote (the first riff I EVER wrote, as a matter of fact). Metal is in this box.
The fourth video is another metal riff that I wrote, but this time I scooped the mids putting them all the way down and cranking up the bass and highs all the way up on the pedal ONLY. If I had done this on the amp as well, it would have been more pronounced, but I wanted to to see what the pedal specifically was capable of.
I hope you enjoy!
-Pappy
In the end it worked out very well for me, I guess.
This is my first pedal review, so bear with me. I want to supply as much information as possible to you and hopefully it will be useful.
The amp I was using to test it out was a USA Fender Blues Jr. This model has a green circuit board that Fender updated in mid 2001 and features one of the darkest tones I have ever heard from a Fender. I have often thought about getting some Bill M mods and altering it to the sound of the Blues Jr’s that came out since mid 2001 with a cream circuit board. They sound more like – well, they sound more like a Fender.
The knobs on the amp were set up with bass and mids at noon and the treble turned all the way up. There was no reverb and the master volume was turned all the way up with the regular volume knob doing the work. In a place like a bedroom this is a good way to get a good amount of headroom with no breakup which is nice because I did not want to review what the pedal’s distortion sounded like on top of the amp’s distortion. I wanted it to be all pedal for the review.
The guitar I was using was a Gretsch 6118T Anniversary with TV Jones Classics in it.
And now that we have that out of the way, how about we get on with the review?
The Box
The box that was waiting for me said Pro Tone and I opened it up. I was giddy with excitement. I do not get the opportunity to get that much gear so whenever new gear comes along, it is always a pleasure for me.
Even knowing that though, it is far away from your average box stuffed with bubble wrap and your gear. Once the box was opened there was a promotional postcard with illustrations of all or most of Pro Tone’s current pedal line, a Ziploc bag of picks featuring the names and designs of some of his pedals (my bag came with picks advertising the Raven Dirty Chorus, the Christian Olde Wolbers Pre Amp pedal, and the Jason Becker Distortion) and a shop cloth. The pedal was wrapped in the shop cloth with a Pro Tone logo as protection which strikes me as particularly cool because how often do you take the bubble wrap out of a box and use it elsewhere? A shop cloth can get used and reused all the time so it is practical not only as cushion but as something you can use for a long time.
Inside the shop cloth was my pedal.
The first thing I noticed as I picked it up by the ends of the cloth before I opened up the cloth was that it is a lot lighter than I thought it would be which seemed good and bad at the time, but I’ve settle on purely good. The pedal is solidly built, made of metal and all that it just isn’t as heavy as something like a Digitech Bad Monkey. I was thinking about this and thought this is probably a REALLY good thing because once you start building a pedal board, weight adds up quick and you’re going to have to be lugging that stuff around everywhere. It’s best to keep it as light as possible without sacrificing structural integrity and in this regard Pro Tone delivers.
So there I was, holding my pedal, still unseen, wrapped in the red shop cloth trying to keep all my thoughts in a line for this review and I unwrapped it an edge at a time until I saw the pedal.
Right away I noticed that, while the pedal has a white background on the web site, mine was a naked metal with the artwork on top of that. I was a little confused thinking maybe this was the “blemish” that put it in the blemish sale. I don’t mind the color of metal or anything, but it was shocking and lacks the POP that you see on the web site. From a distance the blood is lost on the metal where, with a white one even with a passing glance someone looking at your pedal board would probably do a double take and say something like “holy cow, man! Is that blood?”
To which you would probably respond “You bet it is.”
I emailed Dennis about this asking if this was the “blemish” (I use quotation marks because honestly, the artwork still looks beautiful and the only thing I noticed was the “O” in “Out” was missing near the out jack but other than that, the pedal was perfect) or perhaps he uses white to give the pedal more pop on the black background of his web site.
He wrote back quickly (he’s always pretty quick to reply to emails which is great) and said that the Body Rot II usually comes with a white background and they experimented with the metal back. He said he thought it looked cool but lacked the pop necessary for retail success so they decided to keep it white. He mentioned that they made five of them and I received the last one, so if you’re out there and you have a metal Body Rot II, there are few others like it.
The pedal itself is built incredibly well. All the jacks were tight, the switch felt like it was heavy duty and could take a beating, the knobs were on solidly and not wobbly at all, and like I said earlier, the box is made of metal. Durable indeed.
The Sound
Like I mentioned in the beginning of the review, I play with an amp that has a tone that I am generally not very satisfied with. It’s a Fender, from a company known for sparkly tones and yet this one has a dark tone that leaves a lot to be desired (at least from me). I was fully prepared to give the pedal significant lee way based on the amp. It turns out it wasn’t necessary.
I turned every knob on the pedal to noon and pushed the switch and was instantly assaulted with incredibly painful feedback.
Helpful tip: when trying out anything new, or turning anything with volume on, start with the volume at zero and work up because this situation could happen to you. I genuinely hope that SOMEONE out there learns from my mistake and not everyone is sitting in their chairs laughing at how hilarious it is that I killed my ears for a second or two.
Anyway. I turned the pedal off, shook my head, made a few experimental noises to see if I could hear them and turned the volume on the pedal all the way down and then turned it back on and worked the knob back up little by little.
With everything (but the volume) turned to noon there was plenty of great sounding crunch and I was having a great time nailing some higher-gain punk stuff. It amazed me that with the knobs at noon this was already heavier than most pedals.
It seems like Dennis did a good job when he set out to make the heaviest sounding pedal ever.
The sound wasn’t just good, it was bright which shocked me since the treble was at noon with everything else. The brightness made me wonder what it would sound like with little or no distortion so I turned the gain down to about 7 or 8 o’clock and turned up the volume (again, little by little) and found a VERY nice clean tone that took my amp, my incredibly dark sounding amp, and made it into a Fender – a real Fender I mean.
Let me clarify: I do not mean that this pedal makes amps sound like Fenders. I’ve been experimenting with it and seems that it amplifies the setting on the amps but only to an extent. The treble on the amp was turned all the way up and the pedal took that and pushed it out like it should be sounding, not like it sounds when the pedal is off. Once I turned everything on the amp to noon (except the volume) it had a more normal rock tone without as much high end (which could be pushed all the way to ice pick tones if you wanted to. It is very much a “whatever you want to do” kind of pedal) and the tone was again amazing.
Honestly, I didn’t find a tone that wasn’t pleasing except brushing up against the ice pick zone so I’m already in love with it. If I had a ton of pedals, they would all be pushed to the side in favor of this one.
Ah, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Like I said, I was playing clean and switched to the neck pickup and turned the tone switch on my Gretsch (commonly known as a “mud switch” to Gretsch players) to the darkest setting (or “full mud”) and played a great sounding version of my jazz standard It’s Only A Paper Moon.
Yes, I decided that this pedal would be with me for a very long time. This isn’t a honeymoon phase or anything (I’m pretty sure). This pedal made my amp a pleasure to play through so I’m going to use it as much as I can and test out the battery life which Dennis says lasts quite a while on this pedal.
So playing clean was amazing but the pedal’s name is Body Rot II so let’s crank up the gain!
A while back Guitar Player reviewed this pedal saying that they could not coax a James Hetfield out of this box which threw me off it. A couple of months later I was listening to Six String Bliss on the way to work and who did they happen to interview? Dennis. And what did he happen to mention? That review. The name finally clicked in my head and when he said you CAN get James Hetfield out of it, I was intrigued again (and I’ve written about this in the past) not only because of the claim but because this was the first time I ever heard any manufacturer take issue with a reviewing magazine.
Well, now that I owned this pedal I was going to try to coax James Hetfield out of it even through my Gretsch hollow body packed with fairly not-hot pickups. I scooped the mids all the way to zero and turned the bass and treble all the way to the max and it sounded like early Metallica. The gain was at 3 o’clock. Anything past that the pedal doesn’t get heavier per se but it does get more raunchy sounding. A little unfocused is what I mean, which like every other section on the gain dial, has a practical application to it. The peal is useful in all positions.
On a side note, Dennis has said in a past podcast that this pedal works best with an amp that has tone sculptors like bass, mids and treble. You’ll find yourself fairly limited playing through an amp with one knob. This is one thing that I will try to find out about soon by playing it through a Gretsch 5222 (which is very close to a Champ) partly because I’m curious, but mostly because it’s just so fun to mess with this pedal.
By the way, if you are into getting a Metallica tone, it is in this box and you need only bump up the mids to adjust for whatever time period you’re after. Death Magnetic is full of them.
So, my first night with the pedal let me know that inside it holds 1) the key to making my amp sound a million times better, 2) a very nice rockabilly tone, 3) a very nice jazz sound, 3) great bluesy breakup, 4) punk tones, 5) metal tones, and 6) “Oh! hey guys, who opened the door to hell?” tones. When I say “nice” or “great” it’s a horrible understatement. This thing is spectacular. I can’t imagine playing my amp without it in front of it since it makes my amp sound like it cost QUITE a few more dollars and that isn’t even mentioning all the great distortion in it.
But the ultimate test walked in and asked me to play for her. My wife is known to not be able to hear the difference in anything musically. This is why she does not like instrumental music and asking her for her opinion on the tonal differences of guitars is not a wise idea since she says they all sound the same.
She told me to turn the pedal off and play something. I did, playing a Paul Pigat rockabilly lick and then turned on the pedal at its low gain rockabilly tone and she said that it does sound incredibly different and INCREDIBLY good but that’s not Metallica (she knows the story). Oh, I say, just wait. I turn a few knobs and I’m playing the bridge of Fade to Black and she nods and says “Yep. That’s Metallica alright.” She remarked that since SHE can hear the difference the price was justified to her. This was kind of a joke, but it’s nice to know that the money wasn’t spent on something that had such a subtle tone difference from what was already there that only the person who bought the pedal could hear it.
Speaking of money, let’s talk about price.
Boutique pedals have always scared me off because of the price. The Body Rot II goes for 169.00 US and I was able to pick it up from Dennis’ blemish sale for 119.00 which was a great deal when you consider the original price but is still pretty expensive for a distortion pedal, especially when you can buy a ton of other distortion pedals for significantly less from other, more often than not bigger, companies. I bought a few myself over the years and didn’t like them very much. I actually gave up on pedals altogether for a while because I was constantly disappointed with them.
That’s not the issue here. I LOVE this pedal. I thought it was going to be a one trick pony. That is very much not the case. I was completely wrong and this is the best time to be wrong. I spent over a hundred bucks on a pedal that could easily replace four or five one trick ponies that happen to be cluttering the pedal board.
Do you think 169.00 is too much for everything I listed above? I don’t. Yes, I am a little hesitant to try out any of his other distortion boxes like the WICKED cool looking Jason Becker Distortion because 1) how could it be any cooler than this? And 2) if I fall in love with THAT, there’s going to be a lot of saving going on in my household.
In the end though I think it’s an amazing pedal that is worth every penny. Dennis is never more than an email away and is incredibly helpful. There’s a face to the company and you know who your money is going to (the Jason Beck Distortion is so expensive because money actually goes to Jason Becker to help him out).
So if you need distortion in ANY way, you owe it to yourself to check this pedal out. It is amazing and amazingly versatile. You can check out the Pro Tone web site at http://www.protonepedals.com/, read their blog at http://blog.protonepedals.com/ and visit their YouTube page to see videos at http://www.youtube.com/protonepedals.
Stay tuned for eventual videos to be added to this particular post as well as pictures of the pedal taken by my talented photographer wife.
-Pappy
Well, the videos are being uploaded right now, so let me tell you a little bit about what they are and how they were made. They were recorded with an incredibly cheap digital camera that has a video function and looking at them, I noticed that they were nowhere close to how the music was actually sounding, so consider these videos more of a jist kind of thing and less like an accurate representation of how the pedal sounds. It sounds better in an unquantifiable amount in person.
The amp and pedal both had their EQ set at noon across the board except for the volumes so keep in mind that if things sound like they could use a little more highs, lows, or mids, they could get them.
The first video is my take on a Paul Pigat rockabilly lesson using the BR2 and a Danelectro Reel Echo which, though a GREAT delay pedal, does tend to color the sound a bit.
The second video is my take on the Reverend Horton Heat's Loaded Gun to give you a take on the blues power in the pedal.
The second video is a riff from Guitar World's Learn to Play Hard Rock and Metal and is used to convey the classic/hard rock tone potential.
The third video is a metal riff that I wrote (the first riff I EVER wrote, as a matter of fact). Metal is in this box.
The fourth video is another metal riff that I wrote, but this time I scooped the mids putting them all the way down and cranking up the bass and highs all the way up on the pedal ONLY. If I had done this on the amp as well, it would have been more pronounced, but I wanted to to see what the pedal specifically was capable of.
I hope you enjoy!
-Pappy
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
iPhone Sale
If you're anything like me, you've been wanting an iPhone for a while now. Ever since they came out I was interested in them. The ability to get on the Internet just about anywhere, keep track of your social networking sites, your Netflix account, your blogs, etc. and still be able to talk on the phone and manage your calendar and do a ton more stuff has always intrigued me. It seems that with the iPhone there wasn't really a NEED to have a computer though they do come in handy still.
But then the iPhone 3G came out which was great if you live in a neighborhood with 3G, pushing up the web surfing speeds to something like five times faster. It also featured a new software package and got rid of the metal back to it.
And now the iPhone 3GS is out and Apple and AT&T are more than willing to sell it to you but they are ALSO willing to sell you one of the older iPhone 3G models that are still brand new, just not equipped with a video camera and a couple of other things.
As a musician a video camera would be cool. You could record your demos so you can not only hear what you were playing but see how you were playing it. How many times have you recorded something and forgot about the tape only to stumble on it months later and think that it sounds amazing but you have NO clue how you played it?
I don't need a video camera though and when the discounted price came to light, we jumped on it.
An 8gb iPhone 3G goes for about 100.00 and the 16gb goes for 150.00. That's 100% more space (theoretically) for 50% more cost.
The iPhone is great for musicians because there are a ton of applications (or apps) out there for them, ranging from tuners to four track recorders, all there, and all easily accessible.
If you're in the market for an iPhone or new phone in general and don't necessarily want all the extra stuff on the 3GS, you should check out the sale at your local AT&T shop or go to Apple's web site.
-Pappy
But then the iPhone 3G came out which was great if you live in a neighborhood with 3G, pushing up the web surfing speeds to something like five times faster. It also featured a new software package and got rid of the metal back to it.
And now the iPhone 3GS is out and Apple and AT&T are more than willing to sell it to you but they are ALSO willing to sell you one of the older iPhone 3G models that are still brand new, just not equipped with a video camera and a couple of other things.
As a musician a video camera would be cool. You could record your demos so you can not only hear what you were playing but see how you were playing it. How many times have you recorded something and forgot about the tape only to stumble on it months later and think that it sounds amazing but you have NO clue how you played it?
I don't need a video camera though and when the discounted price came to light, we jumped on it.
An 8gb iPhone 3G goes for about 100.00 and the 16gb goes for 150.00. That's 100% more space (theoretically) for 50% more cost.
The iPhone is great for musicians because there are a ton of applications (or apps) out there for them, ranging from tuners to four track recorders, all there, and all easily accessible.
If you're in the market for an iPhone or new phone in general and don't necessarily want all the extra stuff on the 3GS, you should check out the sale at your local AT&T shop or go to Apple's web site.
-Pappy
Monday, June 22, 2009
My First Boutique Pedal
Today was a big day for me. I woke up way too early after a rough night's sleep and a previous day of cramming for a huge test, then went to this huge test and the funny thing about this test, that is really two tests pushed together is that you never walk out of it (I have taken this test before) saying you did good. You always think you did poorly. They are tough tests.
But as I sat there I thought to myself that there is a perk to today, a very nice perk indeed. One that I put into today deliberately. I planned on being down and slightly depressed about taking yet another swing at a difficult test so I said that this is the day that I send in for my very first boutique pedal.
It made the test go by pretty well actually. I just kept thinking as I took the test that this is merely a speed bump to walking to the post office and sending the money order for the Pro Tone Body Rot 2. In the end, I walked out thinking I may have done pretty good on the test, but another great thing about the test is that it takes MONTHS to get the results back, so there's lots of extra time to think about THAT.
No, right now it was all about walking over to the post office and dropping the envelope in the mail.
Up until today, the most I had ever spent on a pedal was about $60.00. It was for an Ibanez flanger (and though this may be the year of the flanger according to Six String Bliss, as much as I try, I could never get it to work to my satisfaction and I ended up trading it for a delay pedal) and after my lesson with that, I considered myself done with pedals. I owned two pedals then and they were doing a great job of keeping my blinds close to the window and not moving every time the air conditioner kicked on. That's no way for a pedal to live so they went to a player who would appreciate them and I received an delay pedal in exchange. Then I bought a Digitech Bad Monkey, a pretty great Tubescreamer knock off when you look at the price.
Now, those who have been reading this site for a while know who Dennis from Pro Tone pedals is. I interviewed him back in February (see here: http://5th-fret.blogspot.com/2009/02/5th-fret-interview-dennis-mollan-from.htmland have been mentioning his pedal the Body Rot 2 (see here: http://5th-fret.blogspot.com/2009/01/importance-of-personality.html) since January and while it's always been on the (incredibly) short list of two pedals I would consider for the purpose I'm driving at, it IS pricey.
But then Dennis sent me an email with the blemish sale and whether he says it's the economy that makes him want to offer the pedals for a cheaper price to the public or something else, this was an opportunity for someone like me to hop on this and try out one of his pedals.
Now, obviously I haven't received the pedal yet, I just ordered it, but I am not too concerned with a blemished version of it. The artwork is a blood splatter. If you mess up a blood splatter it will probably look like... well, a different shaped blood splatter. And looks are only a very small part of this pedal as it's the TONE I'm after.
I'm super excited to get this and you can guarantee there will be a full review and maybe even a few videos demonstrating the pedal to anyone out there who will care to watch. Only time will tell.
-Pappy
But as I sat there I thought to myself that there is a perk to today, a very nice perk indeed. One that I put into today deliberately. I planned on being down and slightly depressed about taking yet another swing at a difficult test so I said that this is the day that I send in for my very first boutique pedal.
It made the test go by pretty well actually. I just kept thinking as I took the test that this is merely a speed bump to walking to the post office and sending the money order for the Pro Tone Body Rot 2. In the end, I walked out thinking I may have done pretty good on the test, but another great thing about the test is that it takes MONTHS to get the results back, so there's lots of extra time to think about THAT.
No, right now it was all about walking over to the post office and dropping the envelope in the mail.
Up until today, the most I had ever spent on a pedal was about $60.00. It was for an Ibanez flanger (and though this may be the year of the flanger according to Six String Bliss, as much as I try, I could never get it to work to my satisfaction and I ended up trading it for a delay pedal) and after my lesson with that, I considered myself done with pedals. I owned two pedals then and they were doing a great job of keeping my blinds close to the window and not moving every time the air conditioner kicked on. That's no way for a pedal to live so they went to a player who would appreciate them and I received an delay pedal in exchange. Then I bought a Digitech Bad Monkey, a pretty great Tubescreamer knock off when you look at the price.
Now, those who have been reading this site for a while know who Dennis from Pro Tone pedals is. I interviewed him back in February (see here: http://5th-fret.blogspot.com/2009/02/5th-fret-interview-dennis-mollan-from.htmland have been mentioning his pedal the Body Rot 2 (see here: http://5th-fret.blogspot.com/2009/01/importance-of-personality.html) since January and while it's always been on the (incredibly) short list of two pedals I would consider for the purpose I'm driving at, it IS pricey.
But then Dennis sent me an email with the blemish sale and whether he says it's the economy that makes him want to offer the pedals for a cheaper price to the public or something else, this was an opportunity for someone like me to hop on this and try out one of his pedals.
Now, obviously I haven't received the pedal yet, I just ordered it, but I am not too concerned with a blemished version of it. The artwork is a blood splatter. If you mess up a blood splatter it will probably look like... well, a different shaped blood splatter. And looks are only a very small part of this pedal as it's the TONE I'm after.
I'm super excited to get this and you can guarantee there will be a full review and maybe even a few videos demonstrating the pedal to anyone out there who will care to watch. Only time will tell.
-Pappy
Friday, June 19, 2009
Top Five Guitars
Six String Bliss, an ever-inspiring podcast I have written about extensively in the past and have claimed as the reason this blog exists has given one more nugget of inspiration for a blog.
The topic is your top five guitars. The rules are guitars that you would buy if you have no guitars right now, and they have to be production model guitars and while I know it’s fully possible, custom shop guitars are not applicable. Yes, you can call the Fender Custom Shop and have them build anything, but let’s not do that. Let’s try to keep it as stock as possible.
To hear PT and Pipes’ list of their top five guitars, check out episode 77.
By ALL means, I want to hear YOUR top five guitars. Make your comment as long as you like with your list with the guitars and the reason why if you like and have time. I love to hear justification for wants, it’s just something I like.
The way I did that was easiest for me was writing down the genres I most like playing and picking the specific guitars for that genre. I also wrote down guitars that I just thought were cool but in the end, those were the ones that got lined out. This is a fun little challenge and as fun as it was for me to do it, I’m looking forward to reading your list.
Listed in no particular order:
1) Gibson Les Paul Standard with a gold top
I have a thing for gold tops and Les Pauls so the idea of having a guitar combine them pleases me to no end. I love the deep, throaty sounds of a Les Paul and when I think rock, I think of this guitar.
Particularly, the new gray top/purple mist back and sides model. The only thing I would change is the bridge and when that’s the only thing you would change, you know you have a great guitar. You may notice eventually that there are no acoustic guitars on this list. That’s because this guitar can cover that base if I want it to and after hearing the acoustic sounds, chances are I would want to both play and record it acoustically. It is seriously a beautiful sounding guitar.
Plugged in it’s even better. It’s incredibly smooth and very versatile. Out of Gretsch’s current crop of guitars, this has to be one of the best in it. I can’t say enough great things about it.
This guitar is definitely the cheapest guitar on the list (the second cheapest is close to a thousand dollars more expensive) but it's still a great guitar. Light weight, very resonant with the tonal variety provided by three pickups (three GREAT pickups, by the way - the Megatron pickup is something that has to be heard in person. They're very similar to a P90 but with a little more edge. They clean up incredibly well, but if you want to rock, they'll rock with ease.) make sure you won't be itching for another tone for quite some time. And the weight would mean you could play it all night long and not feel it the next day or the second you took it off.
The topic is your top five guitars. The rules are guitars that you would buy if you have no guitars right now, and they have to be production model guitars and while I know it’s fully possible, custom shop guitars are not applicable. Yes, you can call the Fender Custom Shop and have them build anything, but let’s not do that. Let’s try to keep it as stock as possible.
To hear PT and Pipes’ list of their top five guitars, check out episode 77.
By ALL means, I want to hear YOUR top five guitars. Make your comment as long as you like with your list with the guitars and the reason why if you like and have time. I love to hear justification for wants, it’s just something I like.
The way I did that was easiest for me was writing down the genres I most like playing and picking the specific guitars for that genre. I also wrote down guitars that I just thought were cool but in the end, those were the ones that got lined out. This is a fun little challenge and as fun as it was for me to do it, I’m looking forward to reading your list.
Listed in no particular order:
1) Gibson Les Paul Standard with a gold top
I have a thing for gold tops and Les Pauls so the idea of having a guitar combine them pleases me to no end. I love the deep, throaty sounds of a Les Paul and when I think rock, I think of this guitar.
It doesn't hurt that it is what I've learned on so Les Pauls and me go way back and I'll always have a fondness for them, either.
2) Gretsch Country Club
2) Gretsch Country Club
Particularly, the new gray top/purple mist back and sides model. The only thing I would change is the bridge and when that’s the only thing you would change, you know you have a great guitar. You may notice eventually that there are no acoustic guitars on this list. That’s because this guitar can cover that base if I want it to and after hearing the acoustic sounds, chances are I would want to both play and record it acoustically. It is seriously a beautiful sounding guitar.
Plugged in it’s even better. It’s incredibly smooth and very versatile. Out of Gretsch’s current crop of guitars, this has to be one of the best in it. I can’t say enough great things about it.
My list started with something like ten guitars and each one I had to line through was tough, including the Gretsch 6118T, a smaller Gretsch and sometimes using a thicker bracing to reduce feedback and give it a more focused sound very commonly used for rock, but I figured the Club could do that and more so the Club remained standing.
3) Gretsch Patrick Stump Corvette
3) Gretsch Patrick Stump Corvette
This guitar is definitely the cheapest guitar on the list (the second cheapest is close to a thousand dollars more expensive) but it's still a great guitar. Light weight, very resonant with the tonal variety provided by three pickups (three GREAT pickups, by the way - the Megatron pickup is something that has to be heard in person. They're very similar to a P90 but with a little more edge. They clean up incredibly well, but if you want to rock, they'll rock with ease.) make sure you won't be itching for another tone for quite some time. And the weight would mean you could play it all night long and not feel it the next day or the second you took it off.
4) Gibson Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy has had three signature guitars and I honestly think this is the best one so far. Look at it. It's beautiful, right? The controls are very Gretsch meets Gibson because of the master volume on the lower bout, the finish is absolutely stunning in pictures and I bet it's even more jaw-dropping in person, the inlays are very cool and something I had never seen from Gibson before.
When I see this guitar it just looks like a guitar that you can coax all of the vintage sounds that inspired the world out of from Cliff Gallup to Scotty Moore, from Carl Perkins and of course, Duane Eddy himself. In particular I imagine how easy it would have to be to nail the tone from Rebel Rouser and how cool it would be to sit down for however long it takes and learn Cannonball Rag, which is an absolutely mind blowing piece that Duane performs with the greatest of ease and which always sounds amazing.
It can even produce an acoustic tone electrically from the L.R. Baggs transducer pickup in the bridge that is optional via push / pull pot.
The best part about it is that it's smaller than the Club but nowhere near the size of a solid body and sometimes you want a smaller hollow body without going to the extreme of a solid. A guitar with 16 inches at most of occupied real estate can be pretty comfortable to use.
5) Jaskon Dinky DK1 in natural
This guitar is the second cheapest on the list and usually goes for 1,700.00 to 1,800.00 which seems like an astronomical amount considering it has a bolt on neck, but it looks amazing and seems to be an incredibly solid guitar. I have another blog written and scheduled to post about this guitar in greater detail but suffice it to say for now that Dennis Mollan from Pro Tone Pedals is getting me more and more interested in shred by playing it on his podcast and if I were to ever buy a guitar specifically for shred, this would be the one.
Usually it's just a mahogany slab, but if you get natural (and who wouldn't? Just look at how beautiful that is) you get a flamed maple top to go with it. Active EMG pickups, an original Floyd Rose tremolo, ebony fingerboard and very easy to see inlays. It also features the contours for your forearm and your belly so it's probably wicked comfortable too.
While there were many guitars that were lined through that were perhaps more classic or more expected from me (a Fender 52 Hot Rod Telecaster was written down but lined through in favor of the Jackson) but with these five guitars I could tackle any genre and supply either the most appropriate tone for the gig or a tone that's even better.
Well, folks, this has been great fun and a little challenging making a list that is limited to five and five alone, but it was worth it. I am super excited to see what you guys and gals pick for your top five.
-Pappy
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Curt Mangan Strings
Within the last year a local music store closed its doors forever. My daughter had been born recently and my wife and I were on our way back from dinner to the babysitter’s to pick her up when my wife remarked “I think I saw a guitar store back there.”
Being super tired like a new parent is, and the time being late enough to not want to inconvenience the babysitters anymore I pressed on to their place and picked up my baby.
However on the way back home I decided I was going to check the shop out. There aren’t that many local shops so a new one is a big deal to me.
They had not even officially opened yet either and what I thought was going to be me peeking through windows to see what stock they had turned out to be the owner inviting me in while he was painting and talking about how he hoped the shop would be a success, that he was going to be a dealer of ESP and LTD and was in the process of getting involved with some other brands and we started talking about strings. He mentioned a string company named Curt Mangan strings and I admitted to never hearing of them. He asked what gauge I play with and when I told him elevens he reached back and handed me a set saying he’s not just giving me a set of strings – he’s ensuring I would be a repeat customer.
He was right. I did come back, often to buy more Curt Mangan strings and for a while they were all I played.
The search of the perfect string is a very personal journey and it’s difficult to swallow the idea that someone would know what’s best for you, but I’ll tell you my experience and you can decide if you’re interested in checking them out.
According to the shop owner, Curt Mangan used to work for Ernie Ball as a string maker but was growing frustrated with the wire breaking as he was making the strings (someone mentioned that EB may buy wire from wherever’s cheapest at the time) and decided nuts to this, he’s going to make his own high quality strings with high quality wire and they won’t be that much more expensive than Ernie Balls.
As far as EBs go, I played them when I first started playing guitar and broke them constantly. I’m not saying they’re bad strings (I just want to get that out there right now) – after all, look at the back of the packages and read who plays them – it was probably my fault for playing with such a heavy hand since I was just learning. But over time I started to slide away from EBs looking at other string brands like various Dean Markleys including Blue Steels and Skullbusters (the signature string set of Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein) and eventually D’Addario. D’addarios broke far less often (though I never had a problem with the Skullbusters and recommend them to anyone who wants BIG bottoms with a not-nearly-as-big highs) than any other string company and I thought I had found MY strings.
Of course, over time I started to think I was wrong what with all these OTHER string companies out there so I experimented more and ended up going right back to D’Addario like some backsliding guy at the church of Guitar, just begging forgiveness.
A few years go by and I find two string companies that deserve attention and at least one try: Thomastik Infelds (who make the most amazing flat-wound strings I’ve ever played with the perfect level of volume balance and balance in feel) and Curt Mangans.
My Tele is known for breaking strings but the Mangans held on and did not break. I bought two sets to bring to Iraq with me on a deployment (because you KNOW one will break) but ended up leaving Iraq with the same set of strings on the Tele that I strung it up with when I got there. Now, I won’t say I was in the field, bullets flying, playing guitar to test the quality of the strings, but it isn’t like they were in the most friendly of situations either. The fact that they held up impressed me to no end.
So I bought Mangans ever since the shop opened until it closed and because I could no longer find them locally I bought sets of Ernie Balls and D’Addarios, neither of which felt as good to me (perhaps I had just gotten used to the feel of Mangans) and then while doing adjustments on my 6118T’s bridge not one but TWO strings from the D’Addarios broke. The EBs are hanging in there on my Tele but I still miss the feel of the Mangans.
When I put these strings on I realized I would just have to bite the bullet from now on and buy Mangans from a different place (their website says there’s a shop 13 miles from where I live) be it a regular store or on-line. Either way, I plan on buying Mangans for a long time and hope you consider them next time you’re in the market for strings. You may love them, you may not, but at least you’ll know.
For more information about Curt Mangan Strings, you can visit their website here: http://www.curtmangan.com/
-Pappy
Being super tired like a new parent is, and the time being late enough to not want to inconvenience the babysitters anymore I pressed on to their place and picked up my baby.
However on the way back home I decided I was going to check the shop out. There aren’t that many local shops so a new one is a big deal to me.
They had not even officially opened yet either and what I thought was going to be me peeking through windows to see what stock they had turned out to be the owner inviting me in while he was painting and talking about how he hoped the shop would be a success, that he was going to be a dealer of ESP and LTD and was in the process of getting involved with some other brands and we started talking about strings. He mentioned a string company named Curt Mangan strings and I admitted to never hearing of them. He asked what gauge I play with and when I told him elevens he reached back and handed me a set saying he’s not just giving me a set of strings – he’s ensuring I would be a repeat customer.
He was right. I did come back, often to buy more Curt Mangan strings and for a while they were all I played.
The search of the perfect string is a very personal journey and it’s difficult to swallow the idea that someone would know what’s best for you, but I’ll tell you my experience and you can decide if you’re interested in checking them out.
According to the shop owner, Curt Mangan used to work for Ernie Ball as a string maker but was growing frustrated with the wire breaking as he was making the strings (someone mentioned that EB may buy wire from wherever’s cheapest at the time) and decided nuts to this, he’s going to make his own high quality strings with high quality wire and they won’t be that much more expensive than Ernie Balls.
As far as EBs go, I played them when I first started playing guitar and broke them constantly. I’m not saying they’re bad strings (I just want to get that out there right now) – after all, look at the back of the packages and read who plays them – it was probably my fault for playing with such a heavy hand since I was just learning. But over time I started to slide away from EBs looking at other string brands like various Dean Markleys including Blue Steels and Skullbusters (the signature string set of Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein) and eventually D’Addario. D’addarios broke far less often (though I never had a problem with the Skullbusters and recommend them to anyone who wants BIG bottoms with a not-nearly-as-big highs) than any other string company and I thought I had found MY strings.
Of course, over time I started to think I was wrong what with all these OTHER string companies out there so I experimented more and ended up going right back to D’Addario like some backsliding guy at the church of Guitar, just begging forgiveness.
A few years go by and I find two string companies that deserve attention and at least one try: Thomastik Infelds (who make the most amazing flat-wound strings I’ve ever played with the perfect level of volume balance and balance in feel) and Curt Mangans.
My Tele is known for breaking strings but the Mangans held on and did not break. I bought two sets to bring to Iraq with me on a deployment (because you KNOW one will break) but ended up leaving Iraq with the same set of strings on the Tele that I strung it up with when I got there. Now, I won’t say I was in the field, bullets flying, playing guitar to test the quality of the strings, but it isn’t like they were in the most friendly of situations either. The fact that they held up impressed me to no end.
So I bought Mangans ever since the shop opened until it closed and because I could no longer find them locally I bought sets of Ernie Balls and D’Addarios, neither of which felt as good to me (perhaps I had just gotten used to the feel of Mangans) and then while doing adjustments on my 6118T’s bridge not one but TWO strings from the D’Addarios broke. The EBs are hanging in there on my Tele but I still miss the feel of the Mangans.
When I put these strings on I realized I would just have to bite the bullet from now on and buy Mangans from a different place (their website says there’s a shop 13 miles from where I live) be it a regular store or on-line. Either way, I plan on buying Mangans for a long time and hope you consider them next time you’re in the market for strings. You may love them, you may not, but at least you’ll know.
For more information about Curt Mangan Strings, you can visit their website here: http://www.curtmangan.com/
-Pappy
Monday, June 15, 2009
Gretsch Introduces New Country Club Colors
I posted those pictures at the top to grab your attention and if you're anything like me, you may linger on them. I have no problem with that. Take as long as you like and if you feel like I'm typing way too much, take a break, scroll back up and take another long drink of cool picture before diving back into my words (assuming you're going further than the pictures in the first place).
Here's a secret about Gretsch guitars: They're versatile. Gretsch has a tradition of rockabilly, old school rock and roll and perhaps the blues, but they're actually good for just about every genre out there. Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day has been known to rock a black 6120 with P90s in it and even cites a single cutaway Gretsch with back pad on helping create the tone of their latest album 21st Century Breakdown.
James Hetfield of Metallica used a White Falcon on Nothing Else Matters, which, while certainly not their most aggressive song is nonetheless Metallica and the fact that it was picked up in the first place shouldn't be taken for granted.
Tons of 90's Alternative bands use(d) them, and Tim Armstrong of Rancid is practically known for his Baldwin-era Gretsch Country Club (which looks significantly different than the ones pictured above not just in the level of abuse given it but also fundamentals like f hole shape, tailpiece, pickup covers, etc. etc).
AC/DC uses Gretsch guitars. That's all I have to say about THAT.
Chris Cheney not only uses Gretsch guitars to craft his songs which range in styles from straight up punk, to straight up rock, from jazz to a punk reminiscent of the Clash (and even some rockabilly thrown in there), but he also has his own signature guitar (which has more information in an older blog located here: http://5th-fret.blogspot.com/2008/11/gretsch-chris-cheney-signature-guitar.html) from them.
Yes, an incredibly well-known guitarist named Brian Setzer did bring Gretsch back from the fringes of the Forgotten Realm during his time with the Stray Cats and yes, Gretsch has accepted this rockabilly reputation with open arms, and it's probably a mixture of the two that made it so today when you open up a case, even a non guitarist will ask if you're going to play some Stray Cats or Brian Setzer or simply some rockabilly.
Personally, I think this is an unfair stereotype. While Gretsch guitars DO have an amazing tone and an unrivaled history in the rockabilly world, they are oh so much more and the best example is the Country Club.
The name might call to mind snootiness or a sense of being above the common people, and in a way that's correct. The Country Club does excel in just about everything you make it do so yes, it is above other GUITARS, just about ANY guitar, but above the people? No way.
You shouldn't let the name impact you very much anyway. These are quality guitars with a thin top and soundpost bracing that makes the guitar shake as you strum making it feel alive in your hands, like you're having a conversation with the guitar rather than just playing it. The Bigsby is there to assist with any emphasis you would like to make sonically and the neck is as comfortable as comfortable can be.
Playing it you may think you can finally throw away that one trick pony acoustic of yours because this guitar has an acoustic tone that other guitars would kill for and when it's plugged in, electric guitars are just as jealous.
Gretsch is most well known for two guitars: the 6120 and the White Falcon (specifically the 6136) and the Falcon has been heralded as the top of the Gretsch line ever since Jimmie Webster first came up with it in his head but I'm here to say that while the Country Club may be a little more understated than the Falcon, the two are remarkably close in specs and the CC can nail just about any tone or make it better.
If you have resisted trying out the Country Club, do yourself a favor and try one. The Green models feature a spruce top where these two are maple, so if you have the opportunity, try them both. The size may take a little getting used to but it is something you can get used to and in time grow to love if you don't love it at first strum anyway. You can hug it to yourself as you play and feel the vibrations run through your body and really feel like you and the instrument are one and that's something every guitarist wants, right?
The ONE issue I have with them is the Synchro-Sonic (or Melita depending on who you're talking to) bridge. The knobs are a bit cumbersome when you try to palm mute and while this is something I'm sure you can get used to (Billy Zoom from X plays a Jet with a Melita bridge after all) I would replace it with a brass bar bridge. That's my only issue though and the bridge is a purely personal issue. There are a ton of dedicated Melita players out there. Besides, when you think about just how close to a perfect guitar these Country Clubs are, a bridge is a really small issue to have.
Before I leave you, I'll post what Gretsch Guitars has to say about these models:
For the yellow one:
"Country Club Heaven! The G6196TSP-BY features a vibrant three-ply maple hollow body (17" wide, 2.75” deep) that produces rich, dynamic tones-with help from the vintage-style parallel bracing and sound post, twin DynaSonic™ single-coil pickups, Synchro-Sonic™ bridge and Bigsby B6C tailpiece. This “Club membership” also boasts a pristine gloss-urethane two-tone bamboo yellow top with copper mist back & sides, all neatly accentuated by chrome hardware. When you plug this baby in and start expressing your soul, you’ll swear you’re in heaven. - MSRP $3,900 / Availability - July 1, 2009"
For the gray one:
"Two-Tone Opulence is one way to describe this supreme specimen, which has a top finished in smokey gray and metallic violet-finished back & sides. The lavish gold hardware is second only to the responsive sonic voice produced by Dyna’Sonic™ pickups and the vintage-style parallel bracing and sound post.
With stair-step button Grover® Imperial Tuners, a rosewood fretboard, Bigsby B6G tailpiece, 2.75" -deep three-ply maple hollow body and a Synchro-Sonic™ bridge, the Club is splendor itself. - MSRP $4,100 / Availability - July 1, 2009"
-Pappy
Friday, June 12, 2009
Gretsch 5120 Pin Striped!
When the car company Scion offered most modifications that people were already doing to their cars in an aftermarket sense, some people were incensed. For some reason it was considered not customized if it came from tthe shop like that which is understandable in a way. I mean, in an obvious way if it's stock it isn't "customized" (or "Kustomized" if you're into that scene) but honestly, when you really think about it, it's the exact same modifications, just offered to you before you buy the car which some would consider not just cool (cool because the company is obviously paying attention to what the buyers are doing to their cars and whether it be because they want to be part of this scene or they want the extra money to do it for you isn't the point. The point is they ARE paying attention to you and what you like) but convenient.
But what do cars have to do with guitars?
Well, a lot of people have had their guitars customized, or customized their guitars themselves. Some just have plans at the moment, some are working on them a little at a time, some all at once, much like the automobile hot rod scene. I mean, just look at Ger's amazing Squier Esquire conversion!
Pin striped hollowbodies seem to cater to a small market, a very niche market, more than likely filled with pompadours and cuffed Levi's but the market is there and Gretsch is willing to offer these fine folks all the glitz and glamor of a pin striped guitar in a considerably more affordable package than other limited number, niche-driven models.
For those of you out there that think the black Gretsch 5120 is cool, but in need of some extra spice, some more sizzle, some color, Gretsch is stepping up to offer you a mod-free way to scratch that itch!
California hot rod artist Jimmy C. has donated his time and energy into painting a limited number of black 5120s one at a time for public consumption. Here he is at work:
But what do cars have to do with guitars?
Well, a lot of people have had their guitars customized, or customized their guitars themselves. Some just have plans at the moment, some are working on them a little at a time, some all at once, much like the automobile hot rod scene. I mean, just look at Ger's amazing Squier Esquire conversion!
Pin striped hollowbodies seem to cater to a small market, a very niche market, more than likely filled with pompadours and cuffed Levi's but the market is there and Gretsch is willing to offer these fine folks all the glitz and glamor of a pin striped guitar in a considerably more affordable package than other limited number, niche-driven models.
For those of you out there that think the black Gretsch 5120 is cool, but in need of some extra spice, some more sizzle, some color, Gretsch is stepping up to offer you a mod-free way to scratch that itch!
California hot rod artist Jimmy C. has donated his time and energy into painting a limited number of black 5120s one at a time for public consumption. Here he is at work:
And those are the products. While most pin striping is usually not for me (most of the time the pin striping is way too busy and takes the attention away from the guitar where it belongs) I do like the thick lines and color choices. While gawking at Brian Setzer's prototype hot rod complete with empty hole where his tone switch used to be that was pin striped causes me to immediately pull to the red and white one, I find the blue one looking the best to me. Honestly, this is probably because it is not red and white, a color choice I am assuming (and I know what happens when you assume) most people will choose as their favorite even if they just say so and don't buy it.
I also like it because, although it seems to be inspired very much by Setzer's hot rod, it does not look like his paint job at all. This will give the folks who wouldn't be caught dead with a signature model enough room to say "it looks nothing like his!" and the folks that are looking for a really cheap pin striped hot rod enough closeness to the actual article to say "it reminds you of Setzer's doesn't it?"
And honestly, as a business, that's the line you want to tread, right?
Speaking of the finish, you can't have pin stripes on GLOSS paint so the tops of these are a matte finish while the backs and sides are gloss which reminds me of a letter sent to a car magazine where an enthusiast asks if anyone has painted a car (a Mercury in this case) primer black and then painted gloss black flames on it. If no one had, and the letter writer has not yet finished his car, he better step on it, because Gretsch is on to how cool gloss and matte look together.
But the best part is that this is not a standard model but a very limited model, leaving the standard 5120BK alone to folks that don't want this striping or don't want striping at all, and the finish-only upgraded version to the cats that want to stick out.
I know what you're thinking: How much does it cost? Well, so long as Gretsch uses a Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy, the numbers are going to change depending on who you ask. My advice is to find a dealer that offers great service and prices that would put big box stores like Guitar Center and Musician's Friend to SHAME (really, give Joel at Shanghai Music and Sound a call at (580) 718-9122 to put me to the test) but the MAP for this guitar in any of the colors is $1,225.00. Honestly though, that number means nothing until you give Joel or another smaller, independent music store a call to find out how much they really go for.
I don't bet, I KNOW you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Enough talk though, let's see some more of these Electromatic Hot Rods!
-Pappy
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Gretsch Welcomes Paul Pigat
In November of 2008, the 5th Fret conducted its very first interview with guitarist Paul Pigat.
You can read the interview here: http://5th-fret.blogspot.com/2008/11/5th-fret-interviews-paul-pigat.html
But for those of you who are new to the site and haven't gone back through the archives, Paul Pigat is a guitarist from Vancouver, Canada that fronts multiple bands, tours like a madman and still manages to shove aside some time to make some of the best instructional DVDs out there.
His first instructional DVD is all about teaching you rockabilly. It's incredibly well thought out and Paul goes slow enough for you to grasp what he's teaching with minimum rewinds, but let's face it, sometimes you have to rewind often to get a lick down. I know in my case it took me weeks to start getting the hybrid picking secton down but that's because hybrid picking was incredibly hard for me to pick up after years of playing punk and metal (though folks in similar situations may have different experiences), but I did get through it and feel like my playing has improved dramatcially.
But say you don't want to learn rockabilyl specifically and would rather learn more of a jazz thing. Paul's got you covered. Or maybe you want to learn some crazy travis picking to help your playing out of a rut or just to try something new. Again, Paul has you covered.
The best part is he's not done either.
For those interested (and everyone should check this out to see the preview videos) in his DVDs, you can go here: http://www.learnrootsmusic.com/. Just click "guitar," "electric," and "Paul Pigat," to see all his videos and there are preview videos on each one. Like I said, check them out for a small smaple of his playing.
These videos have been huge with the Gretsch crowd in particular since the first one was released and it was because of the fine folks playing Gretsch that I heard his name and bought the first video (the other two I plan to buy, don't worry) and when I had questions I emailed him directly as he's a member of the Gretsch Discussion Pages (GDP). Ever email I sent, be it a random question about picking or asking for details on his lovely Gibson ES350, has been responded to and he has never been rude or impatient. He was even willing to review videos I put on YouTube of me playing his material to critique and suggest ways to make me better.
Then he became our first interviewed guest!
Well, as much as Gibsons create amazing sounds, as a Gretsch enthusiast I've always wanted him to jump the fence.
Turns out he did!
Paul Pigat is now doing clinics for Gretsch guitars and honestly, it's a perfect fit. Paul's an incredibly versatile guitarist and Gretsches are incredibly versatile guitars (even if they get lumped into the rockabilly category nine times out of ten at first sight) and I'm pleased to see him sporting a Gretsch.
Congratulations, Paul from your friends at the 5th Fret!
-Pappy
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Story of Triple Seven
How a Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster became a hot rod Esquire tone monster on a budget.
Once you get bitten by the Tele-bug, you’re stuck with it forever. My first Tele was a MIM Nashville Tele. I modded the hell out of it until it became something that wasn’t a Tele anymore. Then I sold it. But the bug stayed, dormant at first but the GAS grew over the years, only held back by fulfilling my dream of owning a Gretsch. Got the Gretsch, money was gone. So the Tele-GAS needed to be cured on a budget. Then Squier launched its Classic Vibe series. The whole Internet guitar community was buzzing and everybody was raving about the quality of these guitars at a price that was hard to beat. The Classic Vibe Telecaster was so close to Leo Fender’s original vision; a cheap and simple electric guitar. Like the original it has a pine body, a gloss finished maple neck and fretboard and three brass bridge saddles. The cheap Mexican labour Leo used in the fifties is replaced by high-tech CNC machines in China.
The word on the web was that these guitars had very consistent quality, so I took the plunge and ordered one at a large box-shifting Internet store for less than 300 Euro. It arrived at my place in an unopened factory box. I examined the guitar and saw a superbly made and set-up instrument that one would normally expect of guitars in a whole other price range. I noticed the serial number. This guitar is the 777th one made. A name was given to the guitar: Triple Seven.
The only let down was the three-way switch. It felt flimsy and it sounded like it only let through half the pickup’s signal so that was quickly swapped by a proper one for about 12 Euro. That was the first mod done and yielded great results. I played it like that for a couple of months. The pickups and everything else was surprisingly good.
Here she is, still stock except the switch.
Modding is in my blood. I can only recall one guitar I owned that I left stock. Triple Seven would have to be modded. Ideas started to sprout from my mind; add a Bigsby, put a different pickup in the neck position etc. Where would that end? I remembered what I did to my first one. I kept adding stuff until I had spent loads of cash resulting in something that had lost everything that makes a Tele a great guitar. Plus I was on a budget, remember? Real hot rods and choppers are made by stripping it down to the bare essentials and improving the performance with the limited resources you have. The idea of an Esquire mod was born.
This is one of the simplest and cheapest mods you can do to a Tele. You rip out the neck pickup, swap the pick guard for one without a pickup hole and turn the pickup switch into a tone switch.
I found a flat black, non-bevelled Esquire pick guard for 13 Euro. Eight screw holes instead of five but beggars can’t be choosers. I had plenty of pick guard screws in my parts bin so I didn’t have to buy any of those and I managed to sell the stock pick guard for 10 Euro. Rewiring the switch might sound complicated but it isn’t. I wired it to the original fifties specs.
Diagram courtesy of TDPRI
0.05uF caps aren’t that common anymore so I used 0.047uF ones instead. So now we have an Esquire. The caps and resistors cost only about 1.50 Euro.
Costs: 12 for the switch + 13 for the pick guard + 1.50 for the electronics = 26.50
I got 10 back for the stock pick guard so this mod only cost me 16.50So this is a good quality Esquire for 316.50. The cheapest factory Esquire from FMIC will set you back a good 500.
Now, I’m a bit of a tone freak. The guitar sounded good but not at all like the real 50’s Esquires I heard on albums and youtubes. So I bought a Bare Knuckle Blackguard 50 bridge pickup. Not something that would seem in line with the low budget approach of this project but wait. I only need one pickup instead of two so that’s 50% cheaper. The pound was low to the Euro so the pickup ‘only’ cost me 75 euro. I managed to sell the original pickups for 30, so that’s only 45 euro for a stellar sounding, authentic, high quality replica of a 1950 pickup. Worth it? It changed the tone of this guitar from ‘surprisingly good’ to ‘WOW!’. This nails Folsom Prison Blues. Great rockabilly tone but not limited to that. It’s a very balanced pickup, the highs are nicely rounded so it will never sound harsh. It performs great with overdrive. A real bad boy rocker of a pickup.
Not long after the pickup swap, someone pointed me to the so-called Eldred Mod. The neck position of the switch in it’s original 50’s configuration wasn’t very useful to me. Also the Eldred setup made more sense too. Normal in the middle position and tone bypass in the bridge position.
Diagram courtesy of TDPRI
I did my own interpretation of this mod. The tone pot cap a .047 instead of a .050 and something completely different for the ‘fixed bassy tone’. I wanted something like the half cocked wah honky nasal tone of a Gretsch’s mud switch in the down position. I found a .0103 cap in my parts bin and installed that. Now this is a useful switch set-up. Center position for normal Tele tone, flick the switch back for an extra spanky lead. The fixed tone position is something you can use if you want to sound like you’re playing through a very small combo, a wha-ish lead or just want to rock out ‘Money For Nothing’.
So now I have this good playing, good quality and awesome Esquire that can rival the best of them for only 361.50. Even if I include all other costs such as shipping, costs for the adds of the sold parts and driving to the radio store I’m still well below the 500 Euro mark.
It’s a nice hot rod of a guitar but it doesn’t look the part, does it? What does a low budget hot rod need? You guessed it, pinstripes! Very popular in the States but not seen often in ‘the Old World’. I managed to find a pinstripe artist not too far away, contacted him for an appointment and we sat down together for a design. I wanted something basic with a ‘rocket’ behind the bridge. It was hard finding something cool for the upper bout but we succeeded by putting a triple seven logo there based on the slot machine seven. Here’s how it turned out.
-Gerlof Haagsma
Friday, June 5, 2009
Pro Tone Pedals Blemish Sale
While the 5th Fret is certainly not a space for random classifieds, I couldn't sit on something like this and keep it to myself.
If you have been looking at Pro Tone Pedals because of this site and have been thinking that perhaps a new delay pedal would really help you with your sonic goals, or how you would really like a bone-crushing overdrive with cool graphics on the cheap, but also thought they were out of your price range, Pro Tone is having a sale on some blemished models. I'll include the email he sent me and add the usual prices after the sale price to help keep everything in perspective.
Here's what Dennis has to say:
"Hey guys...
As you know things have been pretty hectic here since Winter NAMM 2009. So hectic, in fact, that we've brought in a few people to help out with production... and with the training of newbies comes blemished products.
Last year I said I would never offer blems again, but that was a year ago, and the economy has changed. So... I figure I would pass some killer savings on to you rather than spend the energy resurfacing these pedals.
So here's what we've got:
P.E. Delay+ (the silver-box-no-art-version) $169 3 at this price (249.00 usually - ed.)
Monster Fuzztortion $129 3 at this price ($199 usually - ed.)
Dead Horse Overdrive $129 2 at this price (229 usually - ed.)
Raven Dirty Chorus $189- that's $100 off the list price! 2 at this price ($289 usually - ed.)
Body Rot 2 $119 2 at this price ($169 usually - ed.)
Peligro Fuzz $119 2 at this price ($169 usually - ed.)
Kompressor (Thick stripe version) $119 3 at this price ($189 usually - ed.)
Jason Becker Distortion $189- that's $100 off the list price! 3 at this price ($289 usually - ed.)
Jason Becker LIMITED EDITION $259 2 at this price ($319 usually - ed.)
Skumstortion $109 2 at this price ($159 usually - ed.)
Phase Shifter $129 2 at this price ($219 usually - ed.)
T.V. Delay $119 1 at this price ($199 usually - ed.)
Mach II Dual Boost $119 1 at this price ($169 usually - ed.)
Brahma Distortion $89 2 at this price (139 usually - ed.) The Brahma was kind of our take on the Way Huge(r) Red Llama, but they're back now, so we don't need to fill that market void.
As always, there's nothing wrong with these guys under the hood, they just don't look as good as we like them to look. They all come with full warranties, but they do not come with the 10 day money back guarantee.
Dennis"
I won't lie, I've had my eye on Pro Tone's catalog for a while now because no one ever seems to have anything bad to say about his pedals and after getting to know him I wanted to help get his pedals out there. When this list came out I called dibbs on one of the Body Rot 2's. I wish I could buy more, like the delay or Jason Becker Distortion, or the Raven Dirty Chorus but I only have so much money and I think I'll be satisfied (for now) with the BR2 on my various tonal pursuits.
At least until the Shrunken Heads come out.
Check out their website here: http://www.protonepedals.com/products/Products.html for more information about the pedals.
-Pappy
If you have been looking at Pro Tone Pedals because of this site and have been thinking that perhaps a new delay pedal would really help you with your sonic goals, or how you would really like a bone-crushing overdrive with cool graphics on the cheap, but also thought they were out of your price range, Pro Tone is having a sale on some blemished models. I'll include the email he sent me and add the usual prices after the sale price to help keep everything in perspective.
Here's what Dennis has to say:
"Hey guys...
As you know things have been pretty hectic here since Winter NAMM 2009. So hectic, in fact, that we've brought in a few people to help out with production... and with the training of newbies comes blemished products.
Last year I said I would never offer blems again, but that was a year ago, and the economy has changed. So... I figure I would pass some killer savings on to you rather than spend the energy resurfacing these pedals.
So here's what we've got:
P.E. Delay+ (the silver-box-no-art-version) $169 3 at this price (249.00 usually - ed.)
Monster Fuzztortion $129 3 at this price ($199 usually - ed.)
Dead Horse Overdrive $129 2 at this price (229 usually - ed.)
Raven Dirty Chorus $189- that's $100 off the list price! 2 at this price ($289 usually - ed.)
Body Rot 2 $119 2 at this price ($169 usually - ed.)
Peligro Fuzz $119 2 at this price ($169 usually - ed.)
Kompressor (Thick stripe version) $119 3 at this price ($189 usually - ed.)
Jason Becker Distortion $189- that's $100 off the list price! 3 at this price ($289 usually - ed.)
Jason Becker LIMITED EDITION $259 2 at this price ($319 usually - ed.)
Skumstortion $109 2 at this price ($159 usually - ed.)
Phase Shifter $129 2 at this price ($219 usually - ed.)
T.V. Delay $119 1 at this price ($199 usually - ed.)
Mach II Dual Boost $119 1 at this price ($169 usually - ed.)
Brahma Distortion $89 2 at this price (139 usually - ed.) The Brahma was kind of our take on the Way Huge(r) Red Llama, but they're back now, so we don't need to fill that market void.
As always, there's nothing wrong with these guys under the hood, they just don't look as good as we like them to look. They all come with full warranties, but they do not come with the 10 day money back guarantee.
Dennis"
I won't lie, I've had my eye on Pro Tone's catalog for a while now because no one ever seems to have anything bad to say about his pedals and after getting to know him I wanted to help get his pedals out there. When this list came out I called dibbs on one of the Body Rot 2's. I wish I could buy more, like the delay or Jason Becker Distortion, or the Raven Dirty Chorus but I only have so much money and I think I'll be satisfied (for now) with the BR2 on my various tonal pursuits.
At least until the Shrunken Heads come out.
Check out their website here: http://www.protonepedals.com/products/Products.html for more information about the pedals.
-Pappy
Thursday, June 4, 2009
John 5 Squier Signature Guitar
If you're familiar with John 5 you probably know he likes Telecasters. He REALLY likes them. I remember reading that his goal is to have a Telecaster from every year. Can you imagine how cool a collection of Teles spanning the entire run would be? And they have to be bone stock too. During the podcast mentioned below, John talks about how he sometimes takes sessions he's not so proud of in order to help attain this goal. Good luck, John. Be sure to post pictures on your site when you're done.
John 5's music is something else entirely if you've never listened to shred and even in the world of instrumental rock guitar, he stands alone. Sure, there are other players that play fast but John doesn't JUST play fast. He has a wide range of styles and the songs he writes often include breakdowns that are unexpected and often serve as a breathing point. An example would be 27 Needles off of his album The Devil Knows My Name with songs written with famous murderers as a theme (another interesting thing about John 5 is he doesn't randomly pick titles to go with songs, but writes the song for the title whether it's a murderer or a torture device, he's trying to tell you about it using music). In the middle of this amazingly BLAZING song that never loses its sense of musicality (one more interesting thing about John 5 is that even his craziest music is still music and not just trying to set the fretboard on fire like you might associate with other shredders) there's a very Chet Atkins break and it's at that moment where you pause and take a breath and realize that you've just been listening to some RIDICULOUS music and just when you think you may be done you're going in again until the end of the song.
I strongly urge anyone who hasn't heard any John 5 to at least check out that song. It's .99 cents on iTunes so really, besides a buck and some time, what do you have to lose? It could be the greatest thing you've ever heard.
If you're a huge Guns N Roses fan, perhaps you should check out Welcome To The Jungle off of the same album.
So what gear does John 5 use to create these blistering tones?
According to the gear section of his website located at http://www.john-5.com/gear.html he uses GHS strings, Marshall amps, his signature Zoom pedal, and all four of his signature guitars.
FOUR signature guitars. The only other guitarist I'm familiar with that has four signature guitars is Brian Setzer (the SSU, the SSL (and SSLVO), the Black Phoenix and the Hot Rod). They include a Fender acoustic guitar, a Fender J5 with Bigsby that features an ash body, a custom shop "twisted" Tele single coil in the neck and a Duncan Hot Rails Humbucking pickup in the bridge. Another one of his signature guitars is a variant on the J5 that features a stop tail piece more commonly associated with the Tele, the same body wood, the same neck pickup, but an "Enforcer" bridge humbucker. His third electric is a take on the 70's era Tele Deluxe and features an alder body, an American Vintage Synchronized Tremolo, and THREE humbuckers (chrome covered Enforcer "Wide Range" humbuckers). Here are pictures of his four guitars from his website:
And how much do these guitars go for?
John 5's music is something else entirely if you've never listened to shred and even in the world of instrumental rock guitar, he stands alone. Sure, there are other players that play fast but John doesn't JUST play fast. He has a wide range of styles and the songs he writes often include breakdowns that are unexpected and often serve as a breathing point. An example would be 27 Needles off of his album The Devil Knows My Name with songs written with famous murderers as a theme (another interesting thing about John 5 is he doesn't randomly pick titles to go with songs, but writes the song for the title whether it's a murderer or a torture device, he's trying to tell you about it using music). In the middle of this amazingly BLAZING song that never loses its sense of musicality (one more interesting thing about John 5 is that even his craziest music is still music and not just trying to set the fretboard on fire like you might associate with other shredders) there's a very Chet Atkins break and it's at that moment where you pause and take a breath and realize that you've just been listening to some RIDICULOUS music and just when you think you may be done you're going in again until the end of the song.
I strongly urge anyone who hasn't heard any John 5 to at least check out that song. It's .99 cents on iTunes so really, besides a buck and some time, what do you have to lose? It could be the greatest thing you've ever heard.
If you're a huge Guns N Roses fan, perhaps you should check out Welcome To The Jungle off of the same album.
So what gear does John 5 use to create these blistering tones?
According to the gear section of his website located at http://www.john-5.com/gear.html he uses GHS strings, Marshall amps, his signature Zoom pedal, and all four of his signature guitars.
FOUR signature guitars. The only other guitarist I'm familiar with that has four signature guitars is Brian Setzer (the SSU, the SSL (and SSLVO), the Black Phoenix and the Hot Rod). They include a Fender acoustic guitar, a Fender J5 with Bigsby that features an ash body, a custom shop "twisted" Tele single coil in the neck and a Duncan Hot Rails Humbucking pickup in the bridge. Another one of his signature guitars is a variant on the J5 that features a stop tail piece more commonly associated with the Tele, the same body wood, the same neck pickup, but an "Enforcer" bridge humbucker. His third electric is a take on the 70's era Tele Deluxe and features an alder body, an American Vintage Synchronized Tremolo, and THREE humbuckers (chrome covered Enforcer "Wide Range" humbuckers). Here are pictures of his four guitars from his website:
And how much do these guitars go for?
Well, according to Musician's Friend, the J5 sans Bigsby goes for $1,169.99, the Triple Telecaster goes on Sam Ash for $1,199.99 and the J-5 with Bigsby goes for $3,400.00 on instrumentpro.com.
I know, I know, it's unfair to throw out prices on three different guitars from three different dealers. It in no way compares prices based on specs and all that. I know. But when you do a search for John 5 guitars you'll see that it's tough to find all three under one cyber-roof, so you'll have to excuse me.
My point anyway is that all three are over the $1,000.00 mark so if you are looking for the same blistering tone, you'll have to save for quite some time.
And maybe you don't want this to be an exclusive guitar that is your number one, your main axe, but more like one more tool in your collection to scratch a particular itch and if that's all you're after $1,000 may be a bit much.
But don't worry about not being able to afford your very own John 5 signature guitar because Squier is putting one out for you at a price point you can usually find well below 400.00.
That's right, John 5 is getting his 5th (fittingly) signature guitar for the enthusiasts who are after that tone, but not willing to separate themselves from that much scratch. Check out these beautiful pictures of it taken with permission from Elderly Instruments (for more pictures and info look here: http://elderly.com/fmic/items/SJ5T.htm):
So what kind of guitar is it? Well, I wish I could tell you how it played and all, but unfortunately this is not a review but an alert for anyone interested in the guitar and how it compares to his other models.
If you look at the stats right away you will see that the body wood is alder, the same as his Tele Deluxe but NOT like his J-5's that come with ash (which is kind of a shame if you ask me because ash makes for some great tone and I prefer it over alder), it has a 12" radius like all of his other guitars and features the telecaster bridge that features a more modern style where the sides of the "ashtray" bridge are absent leaving you free to play as hard as you like without worrying about scraping off the flesh of your hand on a piece of the bridge that, frankly, you might be curious about why it's there in the first place.
The great thing about the bridge is not its hand-saving lack of metal on the top and bottom but the fact that it is a string-through bridge. Owners of other Squier Teles with a top-loading bridge complain sometimes about how thin the sound is because there's just not enough resonance compared to a string-through bridge. I know because I'm one of them.
The guitar also features the traditional Tele headstock where two of the three of his other models feature a three-per-side headstock that looks more paddle-like than a finished headstock. I don't mind the headstock on his Fender models, but it's a topic of conversation that often occurs when people start talking about his guitars.
It has two humbuckers, the bridge having a more biting ceramic magnet, the neck having a more smooth sounding alnico magnet, the same sized frets as his other models and a mirror pickguard. Honestly, it's a pretty smoking looking guitar, the perfect addition to Squier's Telecaster line to give the buyer more options as a dedicated rocker. I'm sure it can handle other genres well, but there's no mistaking that it can rock. And rock bight just be what Squier needs to bring the Tele to a higher level of attention.
Pictures are always nice, but what about something a little more audible? You're in luck because Fender has a video on YouTube of John at home playing his completely stock (save a string change) Squier Tele both clean and dirty.
Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7QjBWJUCm0
It's probably a good idea to point out that John 5 could probably make any guitar sound that good, but at least you know the potential is there. I've read elsewhere online that people were looking forward to getting this guitar and immediately swapping out the pickups but just listening to the video, it would probably warrant a little time to decided before taking it out of the box and gutting it right away.
If this is the first you've seen of the John 5 telecaster, be sure to check it out. I'm sure if you don't like it, you probably know someone who might dig it. I know I think it's awesome looking and I already passed it on to MASK who may agree and give it some consideration in his guitar search of 2009.
-Pappy
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Jason Becker, John 5, Rusty Cooley, Jeff Loomis, And Richie Kotzen Sit Down To Chat
Do you enjoy shred? Do you enjoy talking about guitars? Do you enjoy hearing people talk about guitars or tour stories?
Well, if you answered yes to any of those questions, have I got a podcast for you to listen to. In case you haven’t had time to check out the Podcast Directory (located below) Pro Tone Pedals’ creator Dennis has been running a podcast that just hit it’s 11th episode and Dennis is starting to hit his stride, I think
In the most current 11th episode he has a LONG round table discussion with Jason Becker (Cacophony, solo projects), John 5 (Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, solo projects), Rusty Cooley (Revolution, Outworld, solo projects), Jeff Loomis (Nevermore) and Richie Kotzen (Poison, Mr. Big, solo projects) where they talk about everything from what they’re all most proud of, what they cringe the most at, their favorite recording stories, the hurdles of their careers and their appreciation for Becker who served as an inspiration to each of the other guitarists (the record most thrown out to check out is Perpetual Burn).
The best thing about having all of these great guitarists around talking to each other is NOT that they’re all great guitarists talking to each other about being great guitarists, but normal guys who HAPPEN to be incredibly good on the guitar talking about the guitar and their experiences. There’s a good sense of humility but not a level so low that it annoys you (like when people won’t take a heartfelt compliment) and jokes are tossed around and it makes for a great podcast. It is a lengthy podcast but it is all worth it, every minute of it. I don't want to say too much about it but if you're a fan of the guitar you owe it to yourself to have a listen.
Check it out. I doubt you’ll regret it.
Here's where the podcast is in case you don't want to find it in iTunes:
Also, when you click the link, if you think the podcast is great, vote it up and leave a comment. All you have to do is click the "vote it up" button on the link above and it will take you to Guitar World's Blips page, a section of their website that offers a wide variety of third party blogs (including the 5th Fret) where you can write down a note about why you liked the podcast and vote it up. This will help spread the word to anyone else who might be interested in it.
-Pappy 
And Now For The News Below The Fold
Depending on how you read the 5th Fret you may or may not actually be coming to the page and if you are not and are reading the articles in your reader application, this is for you.
But it is also for the folks who DO come to the page.
I just wanted to keep you up to date with a change in the website. In an effort to help keep load times down we relieved the page of the pictures of the contributing writers favorite guitars and have installed a link to the Podcast Directory so it has a more permanent place. Just click the picture of the iPod.
Stay tuned for a Blog Directory to match!
-Pappy
But it is also for the folks who DO come to the page.
I just wanted to keep you up to date with a change in the website. In an effort to help keep load times down we relieved the page of the pictures of the contributing writers favorite guitars and have installed a link to the Podcast Directory so it has a more permanent place. Just click the picture of the iPod.
Stay tuned for a Blog Directory to match!
-Pappy
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