Sewing session with Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood
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Where to good bands go when they die? Hopefully, the Meat Puppets won’t have to answer that question… again. The heralded post-punk stalwarts have seen some tough times via the assorted demons of bassist Cris Kirkwood. The band, apart for years, reformed and released a new album in 2007, Rise To Your Knees. That collection was met with some praise, but not like that of 2009’s Sewn Together, which boldly announces the return of the Puppets in all their rocka-psyche-twangy glory. WTDP? had a chance to talk with Cris’ brother, frontman/guitarist Curt Kirkwood, about the current album, his gear de jour and the state of today’s music from a fan’s perspective.
Portland’s Devi Ever has posted a new demo video showing off the The Mangler – a passive (read: no batteries) joystick controller that will allow the user to bend, twist and otherwise distort other Devi Ever effects boxes – throw the Soda Meiser into chaos mode, pace the Rocket’s tremolo or the Disaster Fuzz’s oscillation! A toggle switch (not pictured) engages a feedback loop. The pedal works as simple joystick controlled stereo gain controller. The Mangler will retail for $95. Devi also said this week that the Bit Mangler and Dream Mangler are being discontinued. Take a look at The Mangler in action after the jump!
So, yeah… by now you know that we’ve launched our first ever giveaway here at WTDP? We’ve hooked up with the crew at Marion Henry Electric and the awesome group that is Umphrey’s McGee to give away a Fuzz Bucket pedal signed by the band. The Fuzz Bucket is an awesome two-knob fuzz that both Brendan Bayliss and Jake Cinninger from Umphrey’s use on their boards. Click the Contests link over in the left column of this page and read how to win. It’s as simple as an e-mail! We’ll have a full on review of the Fuzz Bucket up in the coming weeks. And be sure to check out Umphrey’s McGee as they roll through the US throughout the rest of the year!
If you find yourself in the Northbrook, Illinois area next Friday, October 2, stop on by Fat Tone Guitars and get treated to an after-hours in-store jam by Chicago’s own The Steepwater Band. I personally got turned on to the Steepwater boys sometime last year and absolutely love their blend of roots rock and blues. Show starts at 8pm. There is no cover charge and free parking! Go for the music… return during business hours to test drive Fat Tone’s wide assortment of effects pedals, amps, guitars and other great gear! If you go to the show, send us some pics! We’d love ‘em! Here’s a little more motivation for those unfamiliar with The Steepwater Band! Enjoy!
When we had the chance to meet Bob Reinhardt this summer, we were curious about his recent move into the pedal world and more specifically about his first product – the Willard distortion pedal. He told us that he was a big fan of the old 1980s vintage ProCo Rat sound, but had foolishly sold his off a while back. In a desire to reclaim that tone, Bob set out to build what became the Willard – a suped-up tribute to a pedal he loved. He was nice enough to send us one in the mail recently and we put it through its paces. But did we find a Super Rat or just a hunk of 80s cheese?
Brian over at Farndurk is close to releasing the first in the company’s MilSpec line of effects pedals – the M7 drive. Unit M7 is an audio signal amplification unit, according to the builder. Simple single knob operation provides a minimum of +18 decibel increase in signal gain. Turn it up and it gets louder and dirtier. When activated, the Detonator Switch engages specialized circuitry that decreases compression and increases headroom, as well as increases available gain to +24 decibels for some serious crunch! All MilSpec pedals will have a green powdercoat paint job. Head over to the 
The crew at Strymon teamed up with the minds from Damage Control – makers of the TimeLine, Glass Nexus and other effects units – to create a new delay stomp codenamed the BBD. The BBD takes the compact aluminum chassis and form factor developed for the Strymon OB.1 and crams in a ‘ton of DSP horsepower’. According to Strymon, the team took a super powerful SHARC DSP and dedicated to doing one thing only – delivering the ‘best analog bucket brigade delay sound ever’. The pedal boasts tap tempo, modulation and true bypass as well. More info as it becomes available. Stay tuned!
Bay-area pedal newcomers Take Flight Pedals is offering up their new Goose fuzz stomp. The true-bypass pedal has six knob controls. Volume controls level, X-O controls crossover distortion level, Blend mixes in clean signal into your fuzz tones, Honk controls the octave up level, Feed (side knob) will cause the pedal to go into oscillation and is interactive with pickup impedance and other knob settings… and finally, Mood is a six-way rotary switch that changes the overall character of the fuzz tone. Additionally, an internal trimpot will allow the user to change the input impedance. The Goose retails for $199. Check out the Take Flight website 
Danish pedal makers T-Rex Engineering has set 1 November as the planned date of arrival for the company’s revised Bloody Mary distortion pedal – an upgrade with even more gain and power. According to the builder, the beast gets its true power from its five knob controls, giving users complete control of a full three-band EQ via the High, Mid and Low settings, and Gain and Level controls to cover the amounts of distortion and volume. The Body switch adds a distinct tone and a rich lower mid and bass to the sound. Sound clips of the new Bloody Mary are available now on T-Rex’s website.
The Plush FX crew have been busy over the past few months prototyping what is slated to be a line of three delay pedals – one high-end, one middle-of-the-road and one entry level. The top unit, Replay, will be a digital-based delay unit with all tube analog audio and boast 16-khz bandwidth, tap tempo, 50-ms to 1-second of adjustable delay, variable repeats with frequency contouring, wow and flutter controls to additionally emulate tape and a separate FX loop for the delay signal. A few units could make their way to the LA Amp Show next month. Full line roll out will occur at NAMM in January. Check out a video demo of the middle unit, the Replay Jr, after the jump!
Singapore-based GoosoniqueWorx has new high gain distortion pedal hitting the market dubbed Seventheaven. The Jfet-based pedal is designed to mimic a high gain tube amp tone. The pedal is true bypass, has two channels and can take power from 9V to 18V DC. Controls on the pedal include knobs for Volume, Presence/Feedback (toggle controlled), Treble, Mids, Bass and Gain. The stomp also has an inline boost function activated via a second footswitch. Full production on the Seventheaven is due to begin in October and shipping of the initial batch is expected in November. Check out the demo video after the jump!
Tone Box – a collaboration between Kasha Amplification and effects creator Shawn Crosby – is showing off its first creation – the Skull Crusher overdrive. According to the builder, the Skull Crusher is the world’s first overdrive pedal with eight distinct analog voicings. Controls – which are located on the back of the head – included Voicing, Tone and Gain. The Voicing knob allows the musician to select from four presets labeled as Clear (3dB up), Ice (11 dB up), Chains (15dB up) and Body (18 dB up). Combine these four with the 10 dB Boost to get the eight distinct voicings. The Skull Crusher is available in four different finishes and pricing starts at $399.
Dennis over at Pro Tone Pedals has chosen the upcoming Arlington Guitar Show to premiere his brand new line of drive pedals dubbed Premium Overdrives. In a blog post update, he said that work is 100% complete on both the Red Label and Gold Label drives and that prototyping of the Black Label is underway. Not much info has leaked about the make-up of these pedals other than Dennis’ assurance that they are not Tubescreamer-based. He did say that these would not be for the average player and will carry a very heavy price tag. Guess we’ll have to wait until mid-October to get the full scoop… or will we? Stay tuned!
I like free stuff. Heck, most people do… especially when it’s ‘cool’ free stuff. And I don’t mean stuff like pens, koozies, squishy balls or traditional trade show type fodder, I’m talking cool stuff. Like effects pedals. You like effects pedals, right? If so, then WTDP? has got you covered! We’ve teamed up with a certain Chicago-based jam band and boutique pedal maker to offer up something special for our very first contest/giveaway. See that Contests link that has magically appeared in the navigation bar to the left? Click it. Go ahead… trust me. I promise it’ll be worth it. 
Matt at Stomp Under Foot as a new fuzz pedal that will give that thick “Wall of Fuzz” sound you desire – the massive chords and leads that bloom with sustain. The Son Of A Bee has a variable Mid control that allows you to dial in the amount of mids you want. Turn it all the way counter-clockwise for a scooped mids tone, all the way clockwise for full mids, or anything in between. Other knob controls include Level, Tone and Gain. The Son Of A Bee is based on the old Roland Bee Baa fuzz and is available now! The true-bypass, hand-wired pedal is priced at $135.