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.