Tomsline Plexion Mini Pedal

Mini pedals seem to be all the rage these days.  With the prevalence of pedal board power supplies and the all the pedal board wiring kits available these little gems are great for packing more punch into your rig without taking up too much real estate.

If you're a gigging guitarist or just a bedroom jammer a Marshall would be an awesome piece of gear to have.  Unfortunately we can't always haul around a large 4x12 cabinet and head.  This is where the Plexion comes in.

This little giant has an enormous sound.  Everything from lower gain JTM 45, to Mid gain JCM800 to the highest gain offerings,this little pedal does it all for very little money.

It has a volume,tone, and gain knob. It also has a bright switch which

alters the voicing giving way to even more tonal options. I couldn't be happier with this little monster.  I've used it in a band setting and it turned my very clean Fender Blues Jr. into a fire breathing dragon.

Check out the below demo of the Tomsline Plexion pedal

Abandoned Oil Rig

The Santa Clarita Valley is famous for many things.  The history of the valley encompass  everything from railroads, to wagon trails to motion pictures, and oil.  While the oil industry isn't as big in the valley as it used to be,there are still some facilities working hard for those dead dinosaurs.

Placerita Canyon was a hot hotspot for oil drilling many years ago.  While the oil drilling equipment is long since gone there are still some remnants of this industry left for the adventurous soul.

I first spotted this gem a few years ago but it was so overgrown I was having a hard time blazing a trail.  The fires of July 2016 cleared the path for me and this past January I went full force into the wild to find what remained of and old truck and oil rig long since abandoned in Placerita Canyon.

Phase versus vibe pedal

Out of context one could argue that some Phase pedals and Vibe pedals sound the same.  Granted they both provide tons of swirly tones and some do a faux Leslie better than others. Still,the vibe and the phase pedal have similar qualities.

Eddie Van Halen certainly solidified the potential for phase pedals.  The likes of Jimi Hnedrix and Robin Trower certainly used the Uni-Vibe very effectively. So what's the difference.

Phaser, or Phase shifter pedals tend to use transistors and resistors to blend a dry signal with an out of phase wet signal. Vibe or the original Uni-Vibe used a photo resister and lamp to achieve a similar but usually more dramatic effect. In fact, the Uni-Vibe was first designed to emulate a Leslie rotating speaker. While it did not achieve the exact desired effect, it did achieve a sound all it's own

I decided to take my phase and vibe pedals and compare them side by side to demonstrate the similarities and the differences.

Check out the Phase and Vibe pedal comparison and see for yourself what each pedal does.