Category: Guitar

Did you miss me?
Guitar Scarebear

Did you miss me?! No … Me either

52 Pedals. That article series certainly isn’t going to plan is it? I’ve covered 26 different pedal manufacturers which sounds like a small victory, but it isn’t. I could say “Yes! Half way there!”, but as far as the calendar year goes, we are actually in week 37. Epic fail. I have some serious catch-up to do—and right after the last post I made about catching up! Oh well.

I could say I’ve been busy doing all kinds of cool guitar related things. That would be an acceptable excuse right? “I hand carved a solid body electric guitar using nothing but a whittling knife!” … But I’d be lying. The past month or so has simply been real-world chaos. But I’m hopefully now on top of all of that. Why? How? Good questions. I don’t have the answers because I’m not that smart. What I will say though is this. There are new articles, pictures and possible audio/video to come.

Excitement. I can feel it in the air*. … Did you miss me?! No … Me either

StringJoy
Guitar

If I had custom strings, they’d be these StringJoy strings

Have you ever played that game If I had a custom guitar it would be [insert make and model here]? I know I have. In a way I followed through on that game by getting myself a custom Scarebear guitar through Moniker Guitars. But that’s a different story. An easier game to play for the average guitar lover is If I had custom guitar strings they would be [insert custom string gauges here]. Well I’ve almost played that game too thanks to the kind folks over at Stringjoy. And I have to say, I’m now a big fan of the wound G string. … If I had custom strings, they’d be these StringJoy strings

Crazy Tube Circuits Black Magic MkII
Guitar

52 pedals, week 26—Crazy Tube Circuits Black Magic MkII

Is it week 26 already?! Wasn’t week 25 just a few days ago? Well yes and no. It’s actually week 27, but I’m a little bit behind. So although week 25 was a couple of days ago and it’s currently week 27, today is week 26. Confused?! Imagine how I feel! I’m writing about yet another pedal I wished I owned, but don’t. Crazy right? Crazy indeed. And that’s why this week—or is that last week?—I want the Crazy Tube Circuits Black Magic MkII pedal. Because if anything can make sense of this nonsense, it will be magic. … 52 pedals, week 26—Crazy Tube Circuits Black Magic MkII

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah Mini
Guitar

52 pedals, week 25—Dunlop Cry Baby Wah Mini

There has been one thing most pedals in my wish list have had in common. Their pedal board footprint. Most guitars are the same size. There’s generally one recognised exception. An acceptable exception if you will. The wah pedal. What if you don’t have a lot of spare real estate on your pedal board though? What if you have tiny feet and you don’t your pedal to give you a complex? Well you can be like Krusty The Clown from The Simpsons and wear oversized shoes or you can get the Dunlop Cry Baby Wah Mini. The latter is easier and cooler. I’d recommend that. … 52 pedals, week 25—Dunlop Cry Baby Wah Mini

Cold Craft Effects Echo Verberator
Guitar

52 pedals, week 24—Cold Craft Effects EchoVerberator

Regular readers of this series of articles will notice a couple of things. Firstly, I love overdrive and distortion pedals a lot. Secondly, this series is way behind it’s schedule. To make up for both short comings, I need to make sure the next few pedals are awesome. They need to really show that this article series can get back on track in quality and quantity. The Cold Craft Effects EchoVerberator will take care of the quality. Sadly, the quantity is up to me. Luckily, we all know quality is better than quantity.

Phew! … 52 pedals, week 24—Cold Craft Effects EchoVerberator

Randall RGOD
Guitar

52 pedals, week 23—Randall RGOD

Hi. Remember me? I used to write regularly about the guitar pedals I desired. There would be 52 of them eventually. The aim—never really set in stone—was to release a post a week. That way it’s easy for me to manage and hopefully not too much for anyone paying attention to deal with as I post the links to social media. Well, the real world got in the way. My day job has been keeping me occupied and I’ve been enjoying a real social life—that’s not something I’m going to apologise for. I also purchased a Randall RD5C tube amplifier. That’s seen me playing guitar instead of writing about it—also not something I’ll apologise for.

Having mentioned all of that, I feel it’s time to get back into the swing of things. So today I reintroduce the 52 pedals series with the Randall RGOD pedal. If figure Randall is partially to blame for my recent writing departure. they should be responsible for my return. I want the RGOD pedal! … 52 pedals, week 23—Randall RGOD

Red Panda Context
Guitar

52 pedals, week 22—Red Panda Context

I had lunch with friends today and mentioned that I’d once made a logo that had a panda in it for no apparent reason. The logo also featured red writing because I wanted to recognise that the black and white panda—clearly my favourite—had a relative known as the Red Panda. The fact that the logo I’d made was for a marketing department that had nothing to do with pandas was irrelevant*. That’s fitting really, because this introduction has absolutely nothing to do with this week’s wishlist pedal.

Well I suppose I could reference the fact that the manufacturer of this week’s pedal is called Red Panda. That may give the introduction some context. The fact that this week’s pedal is named Context probably helps too.

What do you know? I made it work. To the article! … 52 pedals, week 22—Red Panda Context

Keeley Phase 24
Guitar

52 pedals, week 21—Keeley Phase 24

Tonight (sometime) here in Sunny Queensland—that’s in Australia for the geographically challenged—a large portion of the adult population is going to be fixated on a little sporting event called State of Origin. Me, I could care less. I’m not phased at all. The only thing that phases me is a good guitar pedal. Particularly a good phase pedal. Good thing I discovered the Keeley Phase 24 then! It’s delivering 2 and 4 stage phasing like nobody’s business. I think it may be in a league* of its own.

* Yes, this week’s article is going to full of football puns. We’ll all have a ball! … 52 pedals, week 21—Keeley Phase 24

Stringjoy Strings
Guitar

Stringjoy custom guitar and bass strings

Recently I was approached by the folks at StringJoy who asked me if I wanted to try their strings out. I didn’t have to think too hard or long about that. I’d seen their work on Instagram and was very intrigued by the concept of custom string sets. I was especially interested in their ability to provide custom string sets for 7-string guitars. As a recent owner of a 7-string guitar, I jumped at the opportunity.

So far I’m very glad I did. These strings are truly amazing. They’re so good I don’t want to change the first set out yet! … Stringjoy custom guitar and bass strings