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.

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

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.

If at first you don't succeed...walk away?

Have you ever had one of those days where you just couldn't get it right. You're trying to learn a part but you keep running into a wall. You try to get a track down, but you keep flubbing the take. So you keep trying. You don't quit right?...or do you.

Sometimes walking away is the best thing. Clear you head. Let your body relax. Give yourself time to rethink the process. I know it's hard when you are so focused on getting it right, but that focus may be misleading. You may not be focusing on the part but rather the need to get the part done.

It's amazing how the mind and body can come together when they need to, but sometimes you need to give them space.  Sometimes all you need is a reset button.  It's a hard thing to do when you have a deadline, a gig tomorrow night, or you are one track away from finishing the next big song.

Remember, music is made up of sounds and spaces where there is no sound. Allow yourself the spaces so that the sound that you make is spectacular.

Musician pet peeves

I try not to be a judgmental person. Live and let live. But as a guitarist, I can’t help but have pet peeves about fellow guitarists. I’m not bagging on anyone personally and I’m sure I have some qualities that my rub others the wrong way but this is my blog so I’m gonna let my pet peeves be known.

1) ” Don’t touch my guitar” Ok… I know a man’s guitar can be like his woman but c’mon. Do you really think I’m gonna mess it up. I’m a guitar player too. Get over it, it’s just a guitar.

2)” I need to drink to play my best” I can totally relate to having a beer or two to loosen up. A few beers throughout the course of a gig is fine. If you need to get drunk before you go on stage, you will never play your best, regardless of what you think.

3)” I only know it in the key on the record” Ok, this is where the boys are separated from the men. Yes, you learn a song from the record. Maybe most bands play it in the same key. But occasionally, you will find yourself in a situation where you have to play it in another key. Learn to transpose, it’s part of being a professional musician.

4)“My amp sounds best when it’s this loud” I know we all want to be heard. Trust me, it’s a fruitless effort. While you may not be hearing yourself as well as you like two feet from your amp, the audience is getting more than enough volume twenty feet away. Maybe your amp does sound best at that volume but the band as a whole needs to sound like a unit, not a guitar player with a backing track.

5)” I just can’t get my tone” Translate to: “I’m playing like crap”. I know we all have an ideal tone and yes, there are times where things just don’t seem right with our rigs. This should not diminish your playing ability. You should be able to play just as well on a rented back line as you do on your own rig. Tone is secondary, capability is primary.

OK….I’m not trying to offend but after playing for many many years I have practiced a few of these and endured playing with people who practice some of these.

Scott

T.C. Electronics Flashback Delay

Delay is one of those effects that seems to have two camps. One camp believes delay is a crutch to cover up poor playing and the other camp views delay as a vital tool utilizing multiple delay units for different purposes.

For the former camp, read no further, for the latter camp, the T.C. Electronics Flashback is definitely something you should have in your toolbox.

A wide range of delay sounds as well as the tone print technology allow you to dial in the perfect delay for your needs.

Check out this demo of the Flashback complete with a simple little trick to let you use the Flashback as a chorus pedal.