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May 2013 Musings: Strymon, Rustiness, Electric Guitar as a System
After thinking long and hard about it, tonight I took a plunge on both Strymon top-of-the-lines — Timeline and Mobius. If you know me, you know that I already have Damage Control Timeline. What made me go to Strymon instead? (Shootout is coming, by the way). Well, I’ve had…
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4 Roles Guitars Play in a Band Context
I didn’t mean to turn this blog into just a bunch of pedal reviews, though that’s most of what I’ve been doing lately. So here’s a thought piece from a songwriting/arranging point of view — 4 roles guitars play in a band context. The 4 roles are: Rhythmic Melodic Harmonic…
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Diamond J-Drive TR (Limited Edition, Released Prior to Mk3) Review
All right, I’m a sucker for rarity. As a musician in pursuit of uniqueness, I always get tempted into checking out rare and unique gear — of course, the underlying desire is to find that elusive piece that helps you define your unusual, personal sound. From Ty Tabor’s Strat Elite…
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Boss CS-3 Compressor Monte Allums Opto Mod Review
Being a single-coil player, I always find it more comfortable to have at least slight compression on when I perform in public. Otherwise my picking technique’s flaws show up — and more importantly, I’d be self-conscious of my picking and will be timid in my playing. Buying an affordable Boss…
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VHT V-Drive Review
$100 doesn’t get you far in boutique guitar pedals usually. So when I first learned about VHT V-Drive, I was intrigued — here’s a smaller, more “boutique” brand with an overdrive pedal in $100 range. I realize that VHT isn’t quite a household name in pedals, and in fact, I…
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3 Ways to Spice Up Your Power Chords
Power chords are the foundation of rock guitar. But — after serving well for millions (I imagine) of songs, I can’t help but feel like “been there, done that.” There is nothing wrong with it, but as a guitar-based songwriter I am always looking for fresher sounds — and these…
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Assessing My Strengths and Weaknesses as a Guitarist
I must confess that I am quite embarrassed by the quality of the videos I’ve put up so far. And by that, I am talking about both the quality of the video (I know that as handy as the webcam built into my MacBook Pro is, it’s really not adequate…
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Pro Analog Dual Drive Review
I must confess, the collector in me is attracted to the buzz of rarity. ProAnalog Dual Drive has always been one of those mystic devices in my mind, since there are people on The Gear Page who seem to claim that there are unduplicatable qualities to these hand-made pedals. So…
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My First Videos!
I’ve been thinking about getting into posting videos for a long time, but I finally figured out how to take video using my MacBook’s iSight camera but with audio coming from my audio interface. So these look like crap but I’d say the sound is superior to most webcam or…