Godlyke Distributing have put together a pedal raffle with proceeds earmarked for Doctors Without Borders – a medical humanitarian group that has been on the Haitian frontlines following the devastating earthquake earlier this month. For every dollar you send to Godlyke through PayPal (e-mail address is Godlyke@optonline.net) you will be registered to win a new Hao Omega Drive Sixteen pedal. There is no limit on the amount of tickets you can buy. The winner of the pedal will be chosen at random on 7 February. Be sure to include ‘Relief Raffle’ in the notes section of the payment. If you don’t want to go through PayPal, but would still like to help, contact Godlyke here.
The second pedal sent to us by Montreal-based Solidgold Soundlabs was a dirt box honestly titled the Rock Machine – an overdrive/boost stomp with a vintage bent. The OD sector of the boutique pedal market is awash with pedals, most derived from vintage Tubescreamer circuits while others like the Rock Machine, bring something a bit different to the party. I was thrown a bit by the Rock Machine at first due to its appearance – one knob and one toggle… hardly standard issue for an overdrive, but once I got into the pedal, the logic of the controls come forward. But does the Rock Machine deliver on its promise of vintage classic rock and blues tones in one package?
Canadian pedal shop Dr Scientist is transitioning its popular Reverberator pedal into a smaller enclosure. According to Ryan, the Miniberator will have all of the same sounds and controls, but it will not have the fancy hand-finished graphics. It will be in a powder-coated, screen-printed box. The move will cut cycle time and allow for greater production of the flagship stomp. The Miniberator will be $225. Later this year, the big-boxed Reverberator will return with some new features. The big units will come in either hand-painted or powdered/screened enclosures. Possible additions to the pedal include stereo in/out, expression control and a decay knob. Stay tuned!
Matt at Tortuga Effects has a new digital echo and delay pedal hitting the market very soon. Dubbed Rain Delay, the stomp has dual, switchable rate controls that can allows the effect to act as both a small room echo and a long solo delay at the push of a foot switch. The ‘Home’ side houses the shorter delay times – from almost nothing to around 300ms, while the ‘Away’ side gets you up to around 600ms – great for lead tones. The Rain Delay can be run at 9v with the internal battery or external power supply for more of an analog warmth or up to 18v with external power for more headroom and clarity. The pedal will run $299. Check out the demo video after the jump!
It was a vulgar display of power at the House of Blues last night as Five Finger Death Punch brought their brand of raw riffage to Houston. There was blood, fist fights and heightened security… and that was outside the venue! The band is touring in support of its ‘War Is The Answer’ album released last year. Gear wise, the boys rocked Marshall, Kustom and Diamond Amps… Gibson, Ibanez and BC Rich gutiars. It was very difficult to get in close to take pictures at this show due to the flailing of limbs and general mayhem. You can check out what we did manage to salvage after the jump!
Austin at Lightfoot Labs has posted an auction on ebay for a special prototype (#2 of 2) Goatkeeper v.2 pedal with all of the final sale price going towards Partners In Health – a charity that works to bring modern medical science to those who need it around the globe, including Haiti. You can check out the auction here. He added on a post at his website that he is once again running Lightfoot Labs full time, but Goatkeepers with diecast enclosures and new circuitboards are still ‘a few months off.’ Austin also said he has at least one new pedal and two new eurorack synth modules in development for release later in the year. Stay tuned!
Alabama’s Jason Isbell carries a pretty impressive resume around for someone just north of 30 years old. He played with Georgia alt-rock stalwarts Drive-By Truckers for the better part of six years. After leaving the band in 2007, he cranked out his first solo record… then in 2009 released Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – a solid collection packed with sad melodies laced with resilience and hope. The follow up was lauded – see Rolling Stone, Vintage Guitar, etc… – as one of the best albums of the year. High praise for a band named for a mental treatment facility in Florence, Alabama. WTDP? had a chance to catch up with Isbell to talk about the album, his gear and the future.
A lesser known Fuzzhugger offering, the Groundswell overdrive was originally built by builder Tom Dalton for Tom Dalton… with the goal of creating an overdrive with a natural feel and sound without artificial clipping. After getting requests to build more, he is making it available again in small quantities and a new enclosure. According to Tom, it is a full overdrive with a natural response to picking intensity. The Groundswell is a transistor overdrive, so it doesn’t have that artificial over-clipped sound. The pedal features dual gain stages and a voltage reducer that alters total amount of gain, as well as feel and response to pick attack. The Groundswell is $99.
We hit the Anvil show when it rolled through town this past weekend. By now most know the once-obscure Canadian metalheads due to their funny, poignant rock doc ‘Anvil – The Story of Anvil’. The two main players – guitarist Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner – have bassist Glenn Five in tow for their current US tour. The boys rocked the House of Blues with blistering versions of ‘White Rhino’, complete with drum solo, ‘Metal On Metal’ and encore ‘Jackhammer’ – about a particularly heinous groupie. It was raw and up front… just as a metal show should be. Check out some pics from the gig after the jump!
Here is the last photo gallery from the 2010 Winter NAMM convention – guitars. We saw a lot of cool axes in LA from folks ranging from Airline to Zemantis. Some of the brands that were getting a lot of attend at the show included Fender’s new American Special Series, Suhr’s new Rasmus line, G&L’s Jerry Cantrell signature models and six string newcomer Jarrell Guitars. Be it awesome or oddball, NAMM always brings out the best (and worst) in guitars. There were more than a few that made our wishlists for 2010. Take a look at the gallery and pick your favorite after the jump!
Boutique pedal guru Brian Wampler had what we’d assume was a pretty good meeting with country artist and pedal hound Brad Paisley last week. We weren’t there, but that fact that Paisley now has three Wampler effects in his rig tells the story. Paisley now has an Underdog Overdrive, AnalogEcho and Ego Compressor to fuel his Dr Z-charged Tele tones. Paisley will be coming through town in March as part of the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo line-up. Brian was nice enough to send us some fresh pics of Brad’s updated rig. Take a look at the shots after the jump!
Spaceman Effects has a new boost pedal hitting the market – the Mercury III: Germanium Harmonic Boost. The clean boost function alone can drive a tube amp from a light breakup to thick distortion. The Mercury III also generates tube-like, even-order harmonics, which can then be mixed in with your original instrument signal. Set the Harmonic setting at minimum and you’ll have a clean boost. Turned to max, your tone is now twice as rich in harmonic content, according to the builder. The tone control provides six tone selections – interactive with the Boost and Harmonic controls – and making the Mercury III a full boost, treble boost, bass boost and mid boost in one pedal.
Greg with SolidgoldFX had a new custom shop line of pedals on display at NAMM last week. Airbrushed by a local artist, the pedals shown included four new prototypes and three custom shop models. Among the prototypes shown was a new optical compressor in the lightning storm design, the delay proto with FX loop and warp switch in the blue skull design, an optical tremolo prototype featuring the flying eyeball and a new reverb pedal prototype in reptile green. From the custom shop, Greg showed his Superdrive pedal in true flame, Superduperdrive featuring the skull design and a custom germanium Formula 69 in green water spots. Release info coming soon!
In the spirit of the recent pedal gallery we published from last week’s NAMM show, here is the follow-up amp gallery. As we have just added boutique amp coverage full time to our site (Did you check out our first amp review?), we did our best to stop in and chat with most of the smaller builders that set up at the show – Jaguar, Cornford, Carr, etc… Those we didn’t get a chance to talk with, we did our best to get pics of… but we know we missed a few. Check out the gallery after the jump, which includes some pretty interesting stuff from the likes of Budda, Rivera and the latest developments in ‘plexi’ style amps!
65amps has introduced the Tupelo, a new amplifier rooted in the same lost designs as its brother, the popular ‘Lil Elvis,’ but based on a 6V6 power section. The 6V6 power section produces an example of US circuitry from the late ’50s to mid ’60s while also removing all the bad behaviors of those old amps. The 20-watt amp is loaded with 65amps’ proprietary Master Voltage power technology, which keeps the entire vocabulary, authority, and response down to 2 or 3 watts. The Tupelo sounds and feels right at any volume, according to the builder. The amp also features a passive FX Loop, two speaker outs, and 65amps’ unique bias tremolo.
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Godlyke Distributing have put together a pedal raffle with proceeds earmarked for Doctors Without Borders – a medical humanitarian group that has been on the Haitian frontlines following the devastating earthquake earlier this month. For every dollar you send to Godlyke through PayPal (e-mail address is Godlyke@optonline.net) you will be registered to win a new Hao Omega Drive Sixteen pedal. There is no limit on the amount of tickets you can buy. The winner of the pedal will be chosen at random on 7 February. Be sure to include ‘Relief Raffle’ in the notes section of the payment. If you don’t want to go through PayPal, but would still like to help, contact Godlyke here.
