Guitars, pedals, amps...

Lately I'm fascinated with all things electric guitar. I've always loved the instrument, but recently there's something that makes me feel like a 16 year old again when I plug in to an amp and hit a power chord. I've been purchasing some random effects pedals and upgrading most of my current collection of "axes". I've somehow managed to justify buying 3 new and 1 used guitar(s). This is unusual for me because I've always been a drummer first and spent much of my musical career ignoring any instrument I couldn't bash with pieces of wood.

It all started after making some major mods to my 70's MIJ Stratocaster this past Winter. I came to realize that working on guitars is the perfect melding of woodworking, electronics and music geekery. What's not to love? I ended up working on 4 other guitar projects in as many months.

I've also picked up some cool, cheap, non-boutique pedals. Actually, now that I think of it, one's called a "Coolmusic Modulator". It has 11 modulation effects built in, my favorite one being the phaser. Everything sounds better with a touch of phaser on top. It also has a flanger and a Wah that are a hoot to play with. The included chorus sounds better than my actual dedicated chorus pedal and I've read that many think the same of the phaser, although I still want an MXR Phase 90.

It takes me back to the first time I ever played with an effects pedal. When I was probably 15 my friend Chris Mueller showed me his new Boss Flanger pedal. It was bright pink and made everything sound trippy like a Jimmy Hendrix song. I was amazed. Chris didn't have an amp at the time, so he plugged into the 1/4" jack on the front of an old stereo system. Still, back then even owning one effect pedal meant you were a "serious" player. At least that's how my 15 year old mind looked at it.

My latest purchase was a Demon Tube Screamer knock-off that sounds pretty fantastic for the money. There's a switch on top that seems to do not much more than look switchy. I also finally broke down and bought a proper pedal board power supply. I made my brand choice mostly because I liked the fact that it's called a "Pigtone", but there's a picture of a tiger on the logo. I think something must have been lost in translation there. It has 10 extremely high power LED lights on the front that apparently are there to let you know it's sucking power as it should. It also doubles as emergency egress illumination.

I often find myself playing with all ten of my pedals engaged at the same time. It seems like there's probably some unspoken guitar law about this, so I just tell myself it's how I achieve "my tone" as I've overheard many a guitar player grumble to themselves after being told by the sound guy to turn down...

Current homemade pedalboard built from wood salvaged from my 111 year old barn.

Bret