Mod Alert! ::: Xact Tone Solutions' Ibanez Echomachine ::: A Horse Of A Different Color

Hello Gearheads far and wide! I'm excited to share with you an incredibly cool modification available for one of my ALL time favorite pedals --- the Ibanez EM Echomachine! As many of you know, the EM5 holds a very warm place in my heart as it's one of my all time favorite delay pedals. It's a fantastic emulation of a tape style delay that is perfectly voiced and never seems to "get in the way" of your playing. I tend to leave my EM5 on all the time, creating a subtle bed as to which the guitar's voice can lay upon. If you'd like to read more about the circuit and it's supreme coolness, please take a look at Hidden Gems /// Ibanez EM5 Echomachine Delay.

The fine folks over at Xact Tone Solutions have come up with a modification and rehousing of the EM5 circuit that takes the already incredible sounding delay pedal and knocks it out of the park. The original Echomachine suffers a plastic fate, being enclosed in a cheap almost toy-like enclosure, and almost always, the on/off latching-style foot switch never works quite right. Many of us who love the EM5 just deal with the issue, as it's worth the tone. Well, now there's a much better option available. From the top notch rehousing work, down to the very cool graphics (that look just like the original pedal) on the face of the rehoused full metal and extremely sturdy enclosure. Sturdy new true bypass foot switches are added, making sure the EM5 can sound the best in your chain regardless of the rig being used. Greg Walton, partner/mastermind at XTS, also remarked that they fixed a slight volume drop that can happen when the original circuit is actuated. These are are all very worthy modifications that merit sending in your EM5 as is, but the buck doesn't stop there. 

Cool graphics and new digs aren't the only features of the new XTS EM5. They have found a very musical modulation circuit and added it to the Echomachine. It's available via a new modulation knob on the face of the pedal and can create a beautiful warm chorusing modulation that gets mixed in to the delay repeats. It's similar to the type of warm analog modulation one might expect from an EHX Deluxe Memory Man or similar analog/tape replicators. Simply put, it's one knob that gets subtle movement all the way to sea-sick, over-the-top warble. Set moderately, it offers a beautiful element that sits within your delay repeats and makes the already incredible sounding Echomachine even more vibey and deep.

XTS have also included a HOLD/Repeat feature on their pedal. This allows you to create a huge swash of sound via infinite repeats by just tapping the new switch. This is a super cool addition and allows for all sorts of new creative ideas and soundscapes. It essentially "holds" the delayed note of the guitar and puts it through this infinite cycle of repeats. If you play lightly and sparsely, it all sits in this wide ambient bed of beauty. Dig in or use louder or dirtier tones and it starts to "run away" from you and you get huge washes of sound. It's a very cool feature and while it isn't needed for the utility type delay, it's a very fine tool for creativity induced moments. This feature is available as either a momentary or latching style switch, and is specified when you send your pedal in to be modified. 

Imagine a world where everything you love and hold dear about your tools can be fitter, happier, more productive (sorry I had to include a Radiohead reference). Now realize that world is right within your grasp! The folks at XTS are constantly pushing the envelope of how to make what we guitarists use and need better in every way. It's almost like innovation via nostalgia. Taking into account the needs of working players and making that gear so much more usable and reliable --- and most importantly, sound so much better!

Whether you have an old EM5 Echomachine laying around, or you use it often, I highly recommend sending your pedal to the magicians at XTS. They've taken an already incredible hidden gem and somehow made it shine even brighter.

Tone Tools ::: The Volume Pedal & Why It's So Important

Hello! Today I'd like to speak to you about one of my most important pieces of gear and why I keep one present in all my rigs: The Volume Pedal! A Tonal Tool in every right and circumstance, the volume pedal can often be overlooked for a simple reason --- it only controls volume right?! The common tendency is to think that a volume pedal is just another volume knob, which you've already got sitting right there on your guitar.... why in the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks would you need something you've already got!? Well, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and the same goes for volume pedals. Adding a volume pedal to your pedalboard systems can open up a new universe of tonal choices and layers that previously were not easily found. I'll get into all of that and why it's such a great tool. And of course there are better options for which Volume Pedal you might choose, in addition to how to run them, so I'll get into that as well! 

Master Volume

Starting off past all of the above hyperbole, it is of my opinion, and many other great "Gear Gurus," that running a volume pedal first in line right after your guitar is a total waste of a great tool, and is actually just like having two volume knobs. Maybe you like having the ability to choose your volume with your foot? Maybe you like having a giant on/off button to silence the whole enchilada. I say avoid that all together, and use the volume pedal as a master volume. By putting the volume pedal after all your gain pedals (overdrive, boost, fuzz & distortion) but before your time based effects (delay, tremolo, reverb), you will essentially have a master volume on your pedalboard. This allows you to obtain any type of tone whether sparkly clean, slightly on the edge of break-up, all the way to total annihilation. The key however is you get to achieve this tone at ANY stage volume you like. This allows you to set the amplifier loud enough to "get above" the rest of the band, and just tune in that volume pedal for every musical moment. It's natural sounding and you get the benefit of the full richness of the tone without any issues with unbalanced guitar tones. It's a sound guy or gal's dream because you will be satisfied with your HUGE solo tones but they're at a level that's actually respectful for the stage and situation you're playing with. This technique has been used for ages in the live world but most often was found in studios, where session musicians had to match the levels and get the balance of tone, volume and presence in the sweet spot - and quickly.

Volume Pedal, Meet Volume Pot

Another very useful technique is to really get the marriage of the volume pot on your guitar and the volume pedal on the floor happening. This is where all the shades of color can come into play. Specifically with any tone, whether it be from an amplifier that's very dynamic and can go from clean to edge of breakup with just the signal being pumped into it, or by simulating that experience with a clean amplifier and using pedals --- you can get so much out of just rolling back your guitar's volume pot and using the volume pedal to compensate the balance of stage volume. This is just another one of the reasons the volume pedal is so important to my tone and work. It really helps me balance the entirety of what I'm doing. Couple that with the volume pot on the guitar and being able to get all those shades going, not losing any presence in the mix or being too loud, it's undeniably useful. To read more about the use of your volume pot on the guitar, learn the basics, and also tricks to get the most out of that tool, take a look here: TONE TOOLS ::: Clean "Roll-Off" ::: My First Effect

Choosing Wisely

In a market that's flooded with so many options and companies making great gear in 2017, you might be wondering where to start. Not all volume pedals are created equally and not all sound or function as good as they could. Much like any piece of equipment, it's important to find the tool that works the best for you. I can however help point you in the direction of some of the best sounding ones, on recommendation from my friend and tone-man David Phillips at LA Sound Design.

One of the easiest and affordable choices being the Ernie Ball Jr. 25k volume pedal. They're available at every modern retailer online or in-store. They fit well on a pedalboard and have a nice "throw", being the action from heel to toe on the pedal itself. The only caveat to the Ernie Ball would be the string it employs to create the tension on the pedal itself. The string can break over time due to use and it simply getting older. They do last a very long time, but many guitarists including myself have had to have them repaired. Factor in having them widely available, sounding and feeling great, they're a good option.

My favorite and considerably the best option is the Boss FV300L. It is however unfortunately discontinued but can be found fairly easily on the used market. There are no strings in the housing, only metal. In fact the whole pedal is made out of nice molded metal. It's much larger than the Ernie Ball Jr. however, so you'll need to be sure you have the space on your pedalboard for it. Other than the robust features of this discontinued gem, I find that there's a bit more transparency in the tone of the pedal. Specifically in the middle and top end. It's not that it's brighter, there's just more of a natural tone to it. For that reason, I have them on all of my boards. If you have the space they're definitely worth hunting for. Note that the newer Boss FV500L is not the same circuitry and does not sound anywhere as good. 

Hey Dude, Don't Volume Pedals Suck Tone?!

Yes they do, thank you for bringing that up! Volume pedals do suck tone, sometimes in the worst of ways, making the sound dull and lifeless. This terrible vampiric tonal nightmare can easily be avoided however by the use of a buffer. It's important, actually required, that if you put a volume pedal on your pedalboard, to have a buffer circuit before it. It can be a high quality buffer interface like the PI-01 or the BB-01 Boost/Buffer from LA Sound Design or it could be any pedal that has a buffer that's always on. Just be sure to have that pedal be before the volume pedal, and you won't loose any high end content, and your sound will ward off those tone suckers. If you'd like to skip buying a high quality buffer circuit for your rig, a simple Boss pedal would do the trick. The Boss pedal tuners are a good choice. Essentially, the buffer or buffered pedal helps "drive the signal" through the impedance loading and takes that darkened tone and brings it back to life. It's an important piece of the puzzle that must be utilized for the best results. The converse however is that if you have an extremely bright rig, you might like the the dulling effect, so as always don't just take my word for it... do what's right for your ears. For most rigs however, that would not be the case. 

All in all, adding a volume pedal to your tool box can offer up a whole new world of interactivity and dynamics to your sound. It's easily one the most important pieces in my rigs. I rely on that control in both the studio environment and on stage. Being able to match the actual volume and offer a balanced presence in a mix is a very attractive trait as a working musician to have. When playing for the song is the most important task at hand, having tools like this at your disposal are invaluable.

Tinkercity Survival Tips ::: The RocknRoller Multi-Cart

In today's issue of Gearheads I'd like to speak about an often overlooked aspect of being a professional musician... Cartage! For most musicians, professional cartage where a company will come and pick up your gear and take it to either a recording session or a live show, just isn't a reality. Most in-town gigging musicians are carrying our own tools of the trade back and forth between often multiple locations --- in and out of the car so many times, I've certainly lost count. While it's a true luxury to have someone else carry the load, and I've been lucky to experience that strange sense of abandon --- the reality is that the working musician is just that! Working on the stage and off the stage. Finding innovative ways to make that work less taxing and safer when transporting all our valuable and often times irreplaceable equipment is key. 

The traditional experience with most musicians doing their own cartage is taking many trips back and forth from home to car, car to venue staging area, staging area to stage... and after playing to your hearts abandon, repeating that process in reverse. That is a lot of trips and energy spent.

Enter the RocknRoller Multi-Cart. It is truly unlike any other multi-cart or hand cart. It's an extremely flexible transportation solution for any working musician. While traditional hand carts are an obvious option, what makes the RocknRoller a much better solution it's it's ability to be used in different configurations, whether it be length or orientation. All the RocknRoller Multi-Carts also break down into a very small portable package. This makes for extremely handy storage that won't take up much space at all in a closet at home or in your studio and more importantly in the trunk of your car on the way to work.

I've been a long time supporter and user of the RocknRoller, finding my first "R2 Micro" about 7 or 8 years ago. I used that cart to it's last fateful breath --- with so many gigs and sessions under it's weathered frame it was the wheel bearings that eventually led me to replace it with a new and improved version. That is an incredible feat for any piece of mechanical machinery to work so well for so many years under extreme circumstances. The folks at RocknRoller have also assured me that the new and improved "R2 Micro" that I've got now doesn't use the same wheel housing and therefore bearings wearing out will never be an issue. With the incredible workmanship they offer, I expect many years of hard cartage from my new "R2 Micro".

Lastly, it goes without saying, the RocknRoller isn't only for the working musician. I have used the multi cart for every single move from either home, studio, gifts at Christmas, laundry baskets, piles of groceries --- it's a single handed solution to being able to carry ALL of what you've got going on in ONE TRIP. That alone is worth it's price of admission! Fold it up and stow it away in your closet and you're good to go. The folks at RocknRoller have truly created a masterpiece for this modern survivalist --- without it, I would admittedly be at a loss. I highly recommend checking one out if you have to carry or transport anything of weight or significance on a routine basis. It will change your life!

Tone Tools ::: Clean "Roll-Off" ::: My First Effect

Hello Gearheads! It's time for another segment of Tone Tools, and today I'd like to talk about one of the most vital pieces of the tonal puzzle in my world, as well as many other guitarists. It's the first effect many guitarists will find at there fingertips and might not even know it... what is this magical, mysterious and apparently invisible pedal!??? Well, it's not a pedal it's on your guitar and it's called a volume knob or volume pot (short for potentiometer). If you are not familiar with the eccentricities of the usage of the volume pot, you might only see this as a useless knob that either you turn all the way up to be heard or have to make sure it's not turned all the way down when you strike that big open cord of nothingness.... yes that has happened to me before! At the end of the day, the guitar's volume pot is an incredible tool for tone and if you haven't adventured much into those depths, I highly encourage it. So, without further ado, I'll get into why it's so great and important to my technique.

The guitar's volume pot is the first place in the signal path to effect dynamics, tone and volume. Depending upon the type of volume pot or whether or not there are any tricks (I'll get to that later) done to modify the way the pot works, it can yield a myriad of tones just by adjusting the volume of the input while you play. You can essentially dynamically adjust the timbre of the voice of the guitar by just moving the pot up or down a little bit. This is easily the simplest thing to try, well, right now! If you own an electric, go and grab your guitar and play along...

You might be asking yourself, "Ok, well all you've told me is how the volume pot makes it louder or softer... what gives!?" You'd be right if that were all it did. What really makes the volume pot an incredible tone tool is how it interacts with pedals and amplifiers -- specifically when the amplifiers are overdriven or you're using pedals that introduce gain and/or distortion. The pinnacle of this ideology is the Fuzz Face, an incredibly simple circuit but one that responds dramatically to the use of the volume pot. With just a Fuzz Face style pedal you can get any shade of sparkling clean tones, light overdriven tones, all the way to the full-tilt fuzz roar we all love. It's interaction at it's finest. Much of what Jimi Hendrix was doing live and in the studio was accomplished by this method. I mean, it makes complete sense... Jimi didn't have every effect under the sun to tickle his fancy! He had to make and create landscapes of sound with what he had at his fingertips. The volume pot is a hero in these moments. If you, the player, can allow yourself to be married to this notion of motion and balance between the tone, sound and volume... major yields will be rewarded. 

I find the volume pot and this technique most useful on the stage. I'm mostly trying to do as little as possible with my body other than stand up right, not fall down and give an incredible performance. Having to hit 5 different pedals to catch a part along with singing and then hitting another jump above everyone in the mix to solo.... it's all just too much. The volume pot is my best friend in this scenario. I'm mostly able to use just a few pedals without having to switch a bunch of things on or off constantly, and get ALL the tones I need from dynamically shifting them with the volume pot. It's important to pick pedals that respond well to this technique and there are many on the market that do. One of my favorites is the Maxon SD-9. It's a weird little (and most of the time nasty sounding) distortion box... but when you tame it, it's like nothing else. I've scoured the effects world trying to find a better SD-9 and still have not been successful. It reacts very much like an amplifier: round and sparkly clean tone with the volume pot low, then it very smoothly and evenly moves up the gain and EQ range as you move that pot up. It's a pedal that when I'm playing live is almost always on. This allows me to stay away from my pedalboard and stop thinking about which box I have to step on next. Once you fall for this technique it becomes quite impossible to go back to just thinking of that pot as either on or off. There's so much beauty in that middle ground. Another pedal that works really well for this technique is the the Xact Tone Solutions Winford Drive. Based on a heavily modified RAT pedal, and capable of practically every type of gain tone available, the clean roll-off is very good here too. I used just the Winford Drive in a production of "One Man, Two Guvnors" where I was wireless and had to be away from my pedals and gear at all times, but still had to get sounds that were clean all the way to 60's style fuzz. I couldn't have accomplished any of this without this approach.

Now, onto the tricks I mentioned previously. There are a few things that can be done to make the this technique work the best it can.

Firstly, without any modifications the sound of "Rolling Off" your volume pot can make the tone sound a little dull and less brilliant. A common modification to fix this is called a Treble Bleed. It's essentially the addition of a capacitor in the circuit of the volume pot to allow the treble frequencies to "bleed" through as you roll down the pot. There are different values that you can use and it's most common to pick a value that sounds the most natural to the full sweep of the pot. This is common on Fender guitars, especially Stratocasters. I have this installed on both my Danocaster Double Cut and my custom Montuoro Hollowbody. The Treble Bleed has been an integral piece of this puzzle. With it installed I can achieve realistic and sparkly clean tones all the way up the gain range. For more information of the Treble Bleed circuit take a look at this article from Fender: https://www.fender.com/articles/tech-talk/how-a-treble-bleed-circuit-can-affect-your-tone

Another trick is often used on Gibson guitars and more specifically the Les Paul. It's called 50's Wiring and while it isn't as drastic as the Treble Bleed explained above, it still allows for a clearer less dull tone as you move the volume pot down. The 50's wiring vs the modern wiring on a Les Paul allows for a clearer voice but loses a little overall volume, which was the purpose of creating the modern type of wiring to allow for even volume distribution regardless of where the volume pot is set. For more information on 50's wiring and how it's accomplished, check out this article from Seymour Duncan: http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/tips-and-tricks/lespaulwiring

The final trick to getting the most out the volume pot Roll-Off technique is pretty simple and obvious. A volume pedal! Regardless of what type of guitar, effects, and/or modifications you might have going on, as you roll off that volume you might experience some actual volume loss. To solve this I simply use a volume pedal in my systems. It's important where you put the volume pedal - if you put it before the other pedals it will just act like another volume pot on your guitar. I put it after all the gain pedals and before any delay, reverb or modulation. This way, the volume pedal acts like a master volume for the entire rig. You can essentially get realistic overdrive and distortion tones at any volume with the volume pedal in that spot on a pedalboard. It's incredibly helpful and useful. Combining that with the rolling off of the volume pot on your guitar and you've got any shade you will need tonally right at your fingertips. It's the most interactive way to manipulate my tone in a live environment I've found, and I couldn't perform without it.

All in all, using this technique is about exploring the depths of what lies deep in the instruments we play. In a world where you can buy any effect to make practically any sound you want or sometimes sounds no one wants... it's a cherished tool to me to be able to control the guitar as best as I can. I highly suggest you try to open this door to greater control over the instrument as it's yield is incredibly rewarding and it will ultimately allow you to connect with the song, band and audience, better than ever.

Tone Tools ::: Builder Profile ::: Xact Tone Solutions, Mods & Beyond!

Hello fellow Gearheads! Today I'd like to bring you another edition of Tone Tools, this time spending some time profiling a company that I really love supporting due to the incredible work they do for guitarists, and musicians, alike. Xact Tone Solutions, also known as XTS, are a Nashville, TN based company that deals in rig solutions for musicians; as well as making some of the best sounding overdrive, boost and fuzz pedals in the market today.

Xact Tone Solutions is a formidable hot spot for tone seekers. Owned and run by Greg Walton and Barry O'Neil, together they have created a business that not only creates incredible pedals and rigs, but also very creative and unique solutions for signal routing and modifying existing pieces to get the fullest potential. Today, I'll be focusing on XTS's Modifications and how well they've worked for me personally.

At the moment, I've got three pedals that Barry and crew have done their magic modifications to. Most often players will seek out the type of mods XTS do for the sake of functionality, improving the way a piece works within a rig and how the it effects the system as a whole. On to the pedals!

Vintage Technologies BFD Tremolo

The BFD Tremolo is a personal favorite and recommendation from my friend David Phillips at LA Sound Design, another incredible rig building company here in Los Angeles. The BFD is unique to most tremolo pedals in that it sounds so incredibly close to a real amplifier's tremolo circuit. The way it pulses, undulates and moves the air beneath your note is remarkably close to the real deal. The BFD is a slightly rare pedal in that it's no longer manufactured and Vintage Technologies is no longer around. They can however be found from time to time on the used market. The circuit itself inside the pedal is very simple --- which is an attest to it's pure and rich tone. There are unfortunately a few caveats with the simple design and it's performance in the "real world". Firstly, there is a volume drop when you click the pedal on. This is a common occurrence with tremolo pedals due to the perceived loss of volume that happens when the signal wave is raised and lowered, thus creating the tremolo'd effect. There is a little more loss of volume than other tremolo pedals, and having XTS adds a non-intrusive buffer circuit that doesn't completely alter the tone, but allows you to fine tune the "headroom" of the circuit. The pedal now can hit unity or above unity volume and still sounds incredible. Another issue with the original pedal is the non true-bypass switch which creates all sorts of problems with other pedals and the entire signal as a whole. XTS replaced the switch and the pedal can be placed anywhere in a system without any worry. Also added, was an LED indicator light as there isn't one stock on the pedal and everyone needs to know when our pedals are on or off, right!? The BFD Tremolo is a dark star in the world of tremolo pedals and having these mods from XTS really help the pedal be the best it truly can be. 

Ibanez Mostortion MT10

The Ibanez Mostortion is a favorite overdrive of mine. In fact, it was my very first Gearheads post! Check it out HERE. The Mostortion is a sleeper of a pedal from the 10 series of Ibanez that has been a favorite of the Nashville recording scene for some time. It's a great tool in that it has a familiarity tonally but also has something unique about the feel and decay. The original housing however leaves a bit to desired, and can be slightly suspect to not being the most "road worthy" housing. For this reason, they are often rehoused putting the circuit and components in a new casing ensuring a long new life on any pedalboard. I'm a big fan of the rehousing work XTS performs, keeping all the key elements to the tone that I feel makes the pedal what it is and swapping out the elements that do not. I opted to have XTS only make the pedal true bypass so that it did not effect the rest of my pedalboard's signal and put the circuit in a new enclosure. I prefer to keep the original potentiometers and jacks etc... intact, as I feel they play a role in the tone of the circuit. What's left is fantastic sounding Mostortion with a new lease on life!

Nobels ODR-1

The Nobels ODR-1 is very neutral, natural sounding boost and overdrive. It sits somewhere between a light boost to medium drive. They were originally made in the 1990's and then later reissued. The EQ and presence of the ODR-1 makes the pedal great for recording due to it's rich low end profile and natural harmonic content, which is why it's another Nashville recording session favorite. I've got one of the original ODR-1's and found that while I absolutely loved the tone, I could not get past the awful bypass signal it created. It dulled my entire signal when the pedal was off and made other pedals sound less distinct and ultimately just didn't work that well. One obvious solution is to keep these types of devises in a "true-bypass loop," which is just another pedal that isolates the circuit, and allows you keep your signal chain problem free. I didn't have the space on my pedalboard for this solution and ultimately wanted to be able to use the ODR-1 in different situations where it could be used without a loop. Enter XTS and a very creative mod! The other option to solve my problem is to simply rehouse the pedal like my Mostortion was.... however I LOVE the look and the feel of the ODR-1 in it's present form. I didn't want to change ONE THING about the pedal. I love it's soft actuating footswitch and the vintage look. I just wanted the bypass of the pedal to be fixed so I could use it with willing and free abandon. Barry and crew at XTS devised a way to allow the pedal to essentially be true bypass but without changing out the switch or messing with the existing enclosure in any way. They installed a relay bypass inside the switching element that does exactly what I wished. Now the pedal sounds and looks incredible and it's become quite a favorite of mine in the studio.

All in all, many companies perform great modifications on all sorts of musical gear and I'm just happy to share my very satisfied experiences with the fine folks at Xact Tone Solutions. They are truly great lovers of all things gear and seek to help us musicians make the most out of what we've got. They definitely have gone above and beyond in making my tools that much more useful, something any musician would appreciate. Until next time, Happy Tone Hunting!

Vemuram Custom Pedals ::: Oz Fuzz

Hello Gearheads! Today, I'd like to share with you some thoughts on one of the newest offerings from Vemuram Custom Pedals: the Oz Fuzz! Created in collaboration with Oz Noy, incredible guitarist who blends jazz, funk, rock, blues, and r&b in an intoxicating mixture of sound. Oz has been working with Vemuram on and off during his tours in Japan, where Vemuram hail to create a signature fuzz pedal that incorporates all of the things he loves and wants out of a fuzz pedal. All I can say, is that the work both Vemuram and Oz have done has resulted in an extremely well voiced fuzz pedal capable of many different shades and colors.

The Oz Fuzz at it's base is a Silicon Fuzz Face circuit, capable of rich and full tones from an amplifier about to explode all the way to a fuzzy boost. There's an incredibly rich tone in this pedal derived from the two Silicon transistors and NOS (New Old Stock) parts that Vemuram and their master engineer Daiya Tezuka have sourced. There's a silky quality to the Oz Fuzz's voice, different than most fuzz pedals. Typically fuzzes, and the Fuzz Face in particular, range in voice from ragged and compressed to sometimes bright and even shrill. Fuzz Faces are loved and hated for their ability to sound and feel incredible with the "right" combination of gear and player or completely awful in the wrong hands. The element of settling in a Fuzz Face is just part of the beauty of the experience, the more dynamic you are as a player, the more dynamic the pedal sounds. Luckily, the Oz Fuzz does not suffer any of the pitfalls previously mentioned --- it's an incredible sounding (and feeling) fuzz.

One of my favorite elements and changes to the simple Fuzz Face circuit is the addition of a two band EQ, consisting of Treble and Bass controls. For such a simple circuit, adding such controls can really alter and mess with the delicate tone, but almost magically the Treble and Bass controls work really well with each other to get the most out of the tone. Raising the Bass control to the max will increase the available gain, and the Treble acts something like a "high cut" allowing the amount of high end EQ to be present in the signal. In speaking to Daiya Tezuka, he and Vemuram were vary conscious to be sure the touch response and dynamic floor of the circuit were not altered with these additions. Essentially what you're left with, is a dynamic Fuzz Face that can be tailored to each individual guitar and rig situation with ease.

Another element of what I feel makes the Oz Fuzz sound so great is it's gain range. While one could certainly use the pedal at it's maximum gain, full-on for massive rock and blues tones (and I'll tell you they sound very, very good), I love using the gain dialed back some and employing it as a fuzzy boost. It's a warm and rich tone, very 3D in nature. I was able to squeeze out some very convincing warm Clapton and Page tones, very woody and yet somehow silky. Using the pedal this way can work wonders as a semi clean to mid gain voice and can boost other pedals into enormous tones. I, like many guitarist who love dynamics, use my guitar's volume potentiometer control constantly to obtain as much control over the tone as I can. The Oz Fuzz works splendidly in this manner, with fantastic rolled off clean tones. They are never shrill or bright, very much like what you'd imagine a perfect clean tone to sound like. Clean volume roll-off is a very important characteristic in any piece of guitar equipment for me personally and I'm quite impressed by the tones available here. It seems that this is a limited release, with only 300 pieces being manufactured due to the availability of parts, so I'd suggest grabbing one while you can. I know I definitely will be.

Happy tone hunting friends!

Tone Tools ::: Using Pedals as a Preamp

Hello Gearheads! Today I'd like speak about the use of gain pedals as a Preamp or Preamplifier, which can be a very helpful tool when using particular pedals in a system. Often, in this modern age of ultra quiet stages, guitarists are required to bring the same incredible tones that usually come with cranking an amplifier to get that sweet pushed and distorted or overdriven tone. It's a difficult paradox to exist in and it's the main reason the guitar effect pedal market is completely saturated with boost, overdrive, distortion and fuzz boxes --- we MUST get those huge and killer tones sometimes at a whisper. Enter the use of pedals as a Preamp.

One of the most common uses of a pedal as Preamp is to simulate an amplifier that's already overdriving, or close to the edge --- the all holy Edge Of Breakup, cue all the "Ooo's & Ahh's". Anyone familiar with the vernacular of the electric guitar has probably died trying to achieve the perfect Edge Of Breakup or "EOB" tones. These are tones that are not quite overdriven, not quite clean, but somewhere in the middle of this beautiful mess called rock guitar. Quite simply, it's hard to attain these "EOB" tones in a modern environment where quiet is the new loud and everything is getting smaller.

Another situation where it's helpful to have a Preamp for your system is if you run a clean amp with a lot of headroom. I often fall into this category where I'm using a 120 watt Blankenship Twinplex amplifier --- it's got a ton of clean headroom, and never distorts or overdrives on it's own. It's simply a loud, clean beast of an amplifier. Using a pedal as a Preamp can make other pedals sound and feel better when the amplifier itself is quite clean. This model is especially noticeable with fuzz pedals.

Finding the perfect pedal to act as a Preamp is simple in nature but does require a bit of time, testing and patience. I'm featuring three specific pedals that work really well for me and others for this purpose, but by all means, you can get the end result with different pedals. It's just about finding what pedals work best with each other. This is not necessarily the ideology of "stacking", where you combine two pedals for more gain and compression. It's actually about thinking of the pedal as a tone enhancer after all your other pedals. With this in mind, it helps to have pedals that are open in tonal nature, offer a varying amount of gain and EQ, and ultimately don't contain too much compression. This is where the trial, error and success come into play. I've been lucky to have great tonal guru's in my life and one of them is my friend David Phillips of LA Sound Design. David is constantly searching for the best in the world of guitar and system building and I've certainly learned incredible amounts of knowledge from him --- including this concept itself. Now, on to the pedals! All three pedals featured here are incredible on their own merit, but for the purpose of this Tone Tools post, I'm showcasing the Preamp potential of each pedal.

The Shin's Music Dumbloid ODS is an incredible overdrive pedal that offers a very open and uncompressed Preamp capability. It's essentially a simulation of a Howard Dumble modified Marshall amplifier. It acts and feels like an amplifier, which makes the Dumbloid ODS a fantastic choice for this purpose. The EQ controls allow for more or less mid-range and ultimately more or less presence. Hitting the Dumbloid ODS with another overdrive, distortion, boost or fuzz will give you a wide and fat tone, with a great amount of mid-range content... a lot like what you'd get from a really good Marshall. This is 70's rock and then some. Fuzz pedals sound very good through the Dumbloid ODS as do midgain overdrive pedals.

The Vemuram Jan Ray is admittedly reminiscent of a cranked and juicy Fender amplifier pushed into singing sustain. It's a fat and bold tone that works really well as a Preamp. With less edge or presence than the Dumbloid, the Jan Ray adds a beautiful warm character that is more mellow in nature, and still cuts through the mix. Fuzz and boost pedals sound great with the Jan Ray as it takes some of the piercing high end that can be present in those circuits, and just adds this wonderful warm and fat overdriven tone. For anyone looking to get the violin like sustain of Eric Johnson, combining a Fuzz Face into the Jan Ray will absolutely take you there and more.

The Xact Tone Effects Fuzzy Tube Driver, or now called Iridium Fuzz, is another really great voiced pedal that truly acts like an amplifier for your pedalboard. The Iridium Fuzz is based off a modified version of the Craig Anderton's Tube Sound Fuzz and the Way Huge Red Llama. While all those circuits are relative to each other they are definitely different in feel and tone. The Iridium Fuzz is a warm yet clear voice that works perfectly for the purpose of Preamping other pedals in a system. It's tonally somewhere in the middle of both the Dumbloid and the Jan Ray, offering a more neutral tonal bed to work with. I hear it as a slightly more dry tone, just adding that perfect amount of tonal and gain change to make your other pedals sound killer in any environment. The Iridium doesn't impart it's own tone as much as the others do and while all these pedals allow your other pedals and guitar to retain it's true voice, the Iridium might just be a little closer.

Here is a really informative video from David Phillips of LA Sound Design explaining this process with both the Vemuram Jan Ray and the XTS Iridium Fuzz on how to use a Berkos Third Stone Fuzz with a clean amplifier.

Here is another example of how to use the Vemuram Jan Ray with Fuzzes and Octavio type pedals from the incredible Doyle Bramhall II.

Lastly, here is a video from David Phillips demoing one of his recent pedalboard builds. The video clip primarily showcases the Dumbloid ODS. You can really hear how the other gain pedals sound with the Dumbloid acting as a Preamp.

Tone Tools ::: Wah Ideology

Hey friends, today's Gearheads post is part of my "Tools Series" and in particular about the Wah- Wah and the way in which I use it.

The - was originally created by Del Casher, a guitarist and consultant for the Thomas Organ Company. As Del worked on the project, he discovered that when he moved the tone control from left to right on the amplifier, it created a "wah" sound similar to a harmonica player cupping his hands around the microphone and harmonica. This was the new sound that Del had been looking for. It enabled him to express a better bluesy feeling on the electric guitar. - Wikipedia. It was clear that a legend was being born from those early units, literally crafting a sound that would be heard and used by so many musicians for generations to come.

Whether it be channeling the vintage sounds of Jimi Hendrix or crafting modern filter sounds, the Wah-Wah is an indelible piece of equipment and tonal tool that every guitarist should have in their arsenal. Like most tone tools, I look at their usage as colors. Colors that can help shade the perfect moment in a layer of music, bringing out something special from the unknown. The Wah-Wah is one of those perfect tools for the job. It also goes without saying that as great as this effect is, it takes smart usage, and is not kind to the heavy hand --- no Wah should outstay it's welcome! Wacka-Wacka-Wacka...

I typically look at two elements when picking what type and model of Wah Pedal to use, and it's quite simple really: live on stage and in the studio. Many pieces of gear are suspect to this type of delineation and for me, the Wah Pedal is a big one. I look at the Stage VS. Studio in a modern/Vintage manner. The elements of the stage and live music environment will not allow my vintage-voiced pieces to shine, or even worse, be heard! The same goes for the studio choices, a modern piece may not have that depth of color I'm looking for when every note and iteration of my tone is under the proverbial microscope.

So, it comes down to two choices for me these days. The Teese RMC5 Wizard Wah and the Oxbow Studios Clyde McCoy (Picture Replica). Both pedals are lovely sounding and feeling Wah's, capable of making all the classic tones we've all heard and yearn to make.

I choose the Teese RCM5 Wizard Wah for the stage as it's voiced slightly more modern than most vintage voiced Wah's, and it has a treadle throw (how far the tone goes across the potentiometer's tonal spectrum). It has more low end, and most importantly, cuts through the loud full band mix regardless of the amount of distortion or gain. It works incredibly well in the live environment due to how well it's heard through a band mix -- I cannot stress enough how important it is to pick tools that suit the job, nothing is worse than stepping on a pedal and not being heard. The Wizard Wah also has a circuit inside that allows it to run in front of vintage style Fuzz pedals, the Fuzz Face to be exact. The Fuzz Face and the Wah-Wah (Jimi Hendrix anybody!?), is a classic combination that has always had issues due to the impedance mismatch that happens when running both together; and specifically the Wah Pedal before the Fuzz (which I and many believe to sound the best). The Wizard Wah has a handy fuzz friendly buffer circuit installed which alleviates all those issues. This Wah Pedal makes for a formidable choice for the stage and arguably could be used for any musical genre due to it's extremely friendly tone and feel. 

The Oxbow Studios Clyde McCoy (Picture Replica) is a horse of a different color. While I look for pieces that will help me be heard and sound great on stage, in the recording studio I look for tonal tools that are incredibly interesting sounding and most often landing in the vintage voiced camp. The Oxbow is an incredible replica of the much adorned and expensive 1967 Vox/Thomas Organ Clyde McCoy. It's a sound that is so classic and such a part of the guitar's tonal vernacular, and simply a joy to play --- there's a reason people seek high and low for great sounding originals and pay a hefty price. The Oxbow is a handmade Wah that uses hard to find vintage components from the 60's with only one idea in mind: to replicate a legendary piece of gear. I love using the Oxbow in the studio for it's fine tuned touches that can shine in the studio. It's got a very vocal yet sweet character to the throw. There's not too much high end and certainly not too much low end. In short, the Oxbow sounds like a very good original. You could spend years and boatloads of cash trying to find the original that works and sounds great, it's a joy to have modern replicas like the Oxbow available to make that tonal journey a bit easier to ride.

If you don't have either of these pedals or want to work on getting the best out of your own equipment, it's important to use the ideology of what will work best for each situation. Think about how your pieces work in a live environment versus the studio. Choose your tools correctly for your style, performance and tone. It's all about maximizing what you as a musician can give to the song, because without the song we are just a piece of the puzzle. Happy tone hunting!