Yabba Dabba Dooo, it's Bedrock City

Even if you didn't grow up in the Golden Age of cartoons you know who The Flintstones are.  Many years ago the idea of Flintstone themed roadside attractions came to be.

There were a few across the United States although I believe the one in Arizona is the only one still operating.

I went there as a kid and decided to revisit this awesome place on my way to The Grand Canyon.

Tremolo vs Vibrato: What's the difference

Some of the earliest effects available to guitarists were tremolo and vibrato.  These effects were usually built into the amplifier.  Between the vibrato, tremolo, and reverb there was little else available to the electric guitarist.

Leo Fender's company while prominent in the development of the electric guitar led to some great confusion with the mis-labeling of their amps tremolo channel as vibrato.

Seasoned guitarists have figured this out but for anyone who hasn't quite nailed down the difference here is a quick video to demonstrate to the difference between tremolo and vibrato.

Phase before or after distortion

Phase before or after distortion?

I won't bore you with my opinion on the matter.  We guitarists are all individuals and like what we like.  Sometimes you don't know what you like until you hear it and then it's all or nothing

The phase pedal or phase sifter has been use by many a guitar player.  Eddie Van Halen notoriously used one to enhance his solos. The sweeping shift of frequencies in and out of phase with each other seems other worldly.

  But where do you put it in the signal chain?  Only you know for sure.

Check out my demo of phase pedals before and after distortion.

DIY Octave Pedal

The
Octave pedal in it's earliest form was a fuzzy nasty pedal that produced an octave up effect if played around the 12th fret with the tone knob rolled off.  In more recent years, pitch shifter pedals have given us the ability to produce clean octave up and octave down tones

Still, these early crude octave pedals such as the Tychobrae Octavia or Green Ringer were used to great effect and produced some great tones

Many years back I fancied myself one of these old school octave pedals.  With an infant in the house and no disposable income I decided to learn how to build one of these beasts. With the abundant information on the internet and a lot of trial and error I got into the hobby of pedal building.

Below is a demo of the pedal that came to fruition based on my shear determination and want of a simple Octave Pedal.

Abandoned Mine, Acton CA.

Mining in it's heyday of the 1800's and early 1900s was prevalent across America.  From the high dollar items like Gold and Silver, to minerals and other metals, mines dotted the landscape all over the country.

The problem with mining is that once you've dug out all there is to dig, there's nothing left to do but abandoned the mine. 

These abandoned mines are all over the place. Some still have whole Ghost Towns around them and others are just big holes in the ground. 

I went searching for a mine who's history and origins are still unknown to me, and I found it.  

Please enjoy my trek to find this abandoned mine.

Danelectro Chicken Salad...Part Deux

The Danelectro Chicken Salad vibe pedal is an inexpensive, yet decent sounding pedal.  For very little money you can get the swirly goodness of a Univibe and jam on some Hendrix or Robin Trower.

I did a video demoing the stock Chicken Salad which is not true bypass.  Some would argue that a better tone could be achieved if only the pedal did not have those annoying buffers in the way.

I decided to rehouse a chicken salad eliminating the switching mechanism and adding a proper mechanical switch making the circuit true bypass.  Below is the comparison of the stock buffered unit versus the rehouse true bypass unit.

Which is better?  You tell me.. Enjoy.

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.

The Dumbler Overdrive Pedal

Dumble amps are the things of legend. Handcrafted and owned by only the elite of the guitar world these elusive amps are extremely desirable.

For the common man the unobtainable nature puts these amplifiers well out of our reach.  There have been many clones as well as pedals that claim to capture that elusive sound.

The Dumbler Overdrive Pedal does not make any claims although the name alone would suggest m this pedal is inspired by the rare and expensive Dumble amps.

Since I've never played a Dumble amp I can't speak to whether or not this pedal sounds like a Dumble so you tell me, what do you think.

DIY Screamer boost pedal

The Ibanez Tube Screamer is undoubtedly the most ubiquitous and famous overdrive pedal ever.  It has been used by countless guitar hero's as well as being in the arsenal of a huge number of working musicians.

A number of years ago I decided to take a stab at building my own pedals. The Tube Screamer type circuit has so many iterations and variations that it is almost mandatory that one tweak the circuit and put their own twist on it.

Below is a video demoing my take on a TS type circuit with plenty of mods to satisfy my own needs.

Bouquet Falls Hike

If you live in the Santa Clarita Valley there is no doubt you've heard of the Bouquet Falls. In this time of extreme drought you may think that these stories date back to the olden days and there is no way there are active waterfalls in Southern California.

I recently decided to venture out the this mystical location to check it out for myself. What I found was what appeared to be an abandoned recreational area that at one time appeared to have been the place of many family picnics and barbecues.  Unfortunately these days it is accessible only by foot and no longer appears to be the family friendly area of yesteryear.  The below photos and videos document my findings.

Joyo Tremolo

Tremolo is one of the earliest effects guitarists had at their disposal.  Whether Optical or Bias based tremolo the warbling throb of the volume fluctuation in he guitar signal conjours a hypnotic feeling.

While most of us don't have a use for tremolo frequently, it is something the working guitarist should have in their
arsenal.

The Joyo tremolo is an inexpensive decent sounding tremolo that won't break the bank, yet give you that swampy throbbing goodness when you need it.

Check out my demo of the Joyo Tremolo.

Abandnoned Roadside Rest Stop

As I travel round Southern California I'm always looking for something interesting.  While I've been up and down Bouquet Canyon many times over the years it was only recently that I found this place.

The Los Cantiles Handicapped Picnic Ground was established in 1972. On my visit recently it was blocked off but looked to have been refurbished in the last 10 or so year.  I am not sure why this day use area is currently closed but it is an interesting place.

Check out my video of my exploration of this now abandoned day use/roadside rest stop in Santa Clarita.

Cheap Analog Delay

Guitarists in general are mostly gear hounds. We love new gear whether it's a new guitar, amp, or stomp-box. Some of us are complete gear snobs and will not even consider anything that isn't top of the line or boutique. Some of us simply look at what the best tool for the job is.  I'm not judging here, i'm just stating facts.

I recently stumbled upon a budget friendly analog delay on Ebay that I simply couldn't pass up.  Now I own several delays from a Roland SDE1000 rack unit to a Zoom multi effect, and my favorite, the TC electronics flashback.  While I didn't need this delay I felt compelled to buy it based on the price and the very diminutive size.

This analog delay from Mosky Audio was less than $30 on ebay, but how does it sound. You decide.

Abandoned Structure in Bouquet Canyon

While driving up Bouquet Canyon in Santa Clarita looking for a certain abandoned roadside stop I stumbled across another abandoned roadside structure.

This structure appeared to be, at least my best guess, a stable. I'm not sure how long it has been abandoned or what it's purpose was but I was very intrigued by this when I saw it.

I have driven this section of Bouquet Canyon numerous times but this particular day while looking for something else all together I stumbled across this abandoned structure.

Come with me as I investigate and tell me what you think this was.

Will it slide

Slide guitar is a staple for the blues guitarist.  Legends like Robert Johnson, Ry Cooder, and Dwayne Allman took slide guitar to amazing heights.  While I'm by far nowhere near proficient in slide guitar I got to thinking, what else could you use a slide on.

Join me as I investigate the musical and not so musical instruments that a slide can or cannot be played on in my quest to find out, "Will It slide?"

Zoom Choir

Back in the mid 90's Zoom released a few pedals that had some really cool functionality.  The pedals had a number of different types of sounds as well as the ability to set a preset and a current setting that was foot switchable.

I was fortunate enough to purchase the Zoom Choir 5050.  This pedal offered chorus,chorus and reverb,chorus and delay, delay, aura, and dimension.  While I mostly used this  pedal for chours and delay the other sounds came in handy at times.

Below is a video demo of my Zoom Choir 5050

Point Reyes Lighthouse

A few years ago my wife took a trip to San Francisco.  While up there she decided to fulfill one of her bucket list items, visit a lighthouse.

She made the trek down to the Point Reyes Lighthouse.  Established in 1870 it is approximately 300 steps down to this magnificent building.  Below is a video montage of the photographs she took on her trip.

Scott's Superdrive

As you may know I've dabbled in the DIY pedal scene for a while.  I love the smell of melting solder and the fly by the seat of your pants "will it work?" feeling when making a pedal.

A number of years ago I started trying my hand at creating something different by mashing different pedal designs together. Some of these were non starters and others were OK.  This particular experiment came out quite well.

Scott's Superdrive took the Tube Screamer type circuit and married it to a Big Muff type tone stack. Of course each of these parts of the pedal received their own tweaking and modifications.  At the end of it all was a Mosfet output stage to recover some of the signal loss from the tone stack.

The result was an overdrive with more drive than a Tube Screamer, less buzz than a Big Muff, and an overall interesting characteristic all it's own.