A review of the newest amp from Samamp. 40 Watts, 2 channels, with various boosts, and the killer VAC power reduction circuit. This is a long video :-)
]]>A review of the newest amp from Samamp. 40 Watts, 2 channels, with various boosts, and the killer VAC power reduction circuit. This is a long video :-)
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Product: Holy Fire Overdrive/Distortion Pedal
Manufacturer: Creation Audio Labs (www.creationaudiolabs.com)
The Holy Fire is a really unique sounding overdrive, much like the Mk.4.23 from Creation Audio Labs, the Holy Fire is really transparent, and the overdrive circuit can thicken your tone in a way that's audibly different than any other pedal. In this video, I show you how I use it on my pedalboard.
Product: MK.4.23 Boost
Made By: Creation Audio Labs (www.creationaudiolabs.com)
A demo of one of the cleanest boost pedals you'll find anywhere. This is the 48V model which gives it massive headroom.
I use it to thicken the tone of my guitar with a very subtle boost. Because the pedal has such a flat frequency response, I can do this without losing any low end.
Product Name: AxeTrakWhen I found an office space that could work as a guitar studio, I realized I had to find a way to keep my volume under control. Not just under control, but at times, really, really quiet.
While I had seen isolation cabinets before, most of them are pretty expensive. Then I found the AxeTrak. I requested a demo unit for review purposes, but I knew within 5 minutes of using it that I was going to buy it.
Simply put, the AxeTrak allows me to use my amp at near silent volume levels.
As you'll see in the video, having the AxeTrak is not enough, you need to know a thing or two about recording and mixing to really get the most out of it. If you like your amp, and you have no need for super-low volume levels, the AxeTrak is not for you. But if you're into recording, and there are times you need almost zero-volume from your amp, the AxeTrak is worth looking at.
A demo of the McWah pedal from Mike McConachie at mccon-o-wah.com. My previous demo using this pedal featured some comments about changing resistors, etc.. all of which you should ignore. I explain why in this video, as well as showing off the sounds of the pedal, both clean and with OD pedals.
Last year, right around Christmas, I went looking for a new pedalboard. This video explains why I purchased not one, but two pedalboards from Pedaltrain. In short, Pedaltrain pedalboards are light, allow for very neat cabling, and the raised design allows me to mount non-standard power supplies to the bottom.
More details below the video...
The Pro pedalboard stays in my studio, allowing me room for all my 'regular' pedals, with plenty of room for any pedals that I'm currently reviewing. The Mini is my practice and small gig pedalboard. Combined with a Visual Sound 1-Spot power supply, I can transfer 4 or 5 of my favorite pedals to the Mini, and be out the door in hardly any time at all. Upon returning, getting them back on the big board is simple.
One last note about Pedaltrain: I love the fact that the velcro is included. It's sad that I almost expected that it would ship without any, maybe I've been nickel-and-dimed too many times before. Both boards shipped with enough velcro to cover all the surfaces, with some left over. That's the kind of decision made by someone who cares about their customer, not someone watching the bottom line.
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A fuzz octave effect is a nice tool to have for any Hendrix inspired guitarist. This video will show off the Angry Fuzz from Visual Sound, a very nice sounding pedal with separate controls over the fuzz and octave levels.
You can hear this kind of effect in use on songs like "Blue On Black" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and on "Voodoo Chile' Slight Return" by Stevie Ray Vaughan from the 1989 ACL performance.
This video compares the Ecstasy Overdrive from Wampler Pedals and the PlimSoul from Fulltone. Both are great sounding pedals, but they have different 'personalities' that makes them appropriate for different uses. I've found a place for both of them in my lineup.
A few weeks ago I was given an Ecstasy Overdrive from Wampler Pedals. While I was quite happy with the Fulltone PlimSoul I had just bought, the Ecstasy found a place on my pedalboard because of it's ability to add some subtle distortion to my clean tone, allowing me to play "dirty rhythm" in a way that most OD pedals can not.
The bottom line is that it's a sweet sounding OD pedal at any setting, and is very, very transparent.
A comparison between my SRV Strat and my KWS Strat. Both are designed for the big strings / low tuning style of playing, the SRV Strat has better build quality, and a more transparent, crisp tone.
A rundown of the things I like about the Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster.
This is the first demo of a 2005 Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature Strat which I bought at a guitar show for a great deal. I'm playing the song 'Testify', and using a minimal amount of gear, just guitar, pedal and amp. All recording and gear settings are listed below the video.
2005 SRV Signature StratocasterThe guitar used in this demo is a 2005 Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature Stratocaster. When I bought it (used), it was in very, very good condition, with very little fretwear, and almost no dings or dents. The pickups are the original Fender Texas Special pickups. I have no idea what strings were on it when I recorded this, but they feel like .11s with very little wear.
Wampler Pedals Ecstasy OverdriveThe only pedal used in this demo is the Ecstasy Overdrive from Wampler Pedals. This pedal is fantastic for giving your clean tone a bit of grit, without giving that telltale midrange boost that indicates a pedal is on. I love it because I can run my amp cleaner, and use the Ecstasy Overdrive to give me a dirty rhythm tone when needed. It might not make as good of a cutting lead pedal, but it's not really designed for that. It adds smooth buttery distortion to the edges of your clean tone, and does so in such a transparent way, that you might forget you even have it turned on.
Samamp VAC 23 Combo AmpThe amp used in this demo is my Samamp VAC 23, a 1x15 combo amp with a unique (and brilliant) way to lower the power level. For this demo, I had the amp set on the 11 watt setting. I wanted a somewhat cleaner tone in the low end, so I couldn't use the 3 or 5 watt settings, at those levels, I couldn't get enough volume without the low end getting mushy.
Samamp VAC 23 SettingsThe settings for this demo are shown here, the Texas Special pickups in the SRV strat are more bass-heavy than my other pickups, so the bass on the amp is turned down to avoid distorting the low end notes as much.
Mic PositioningThe microphone, a Shure SM-57 was positioned just off center, pointed inward, almost towards the center of the cone, but not quite. This provided a decent amount of low end, with the firm high-end that you get towards the inner part of the cone. I usually position the mic farther outside, towards the edge, but with the Texas Specials, I needed more clear high-end, and the tone towards the edge of the speaker was too bassy, with less defined high-end.
Logic Express Main WindowThe microphone was connected to a Mackie Onyx 1220i mixer, connected to my MacPro via Firewire, and recorded into Logic, along with a backing track I found online. The recording, mixing and mastering was done using Logic Express. I did 3 or 4 takes, keeping the final one. Logic allows you to record in looped fashion, so as soon as one take ended, the next one would begin, allowing me to warm up during the first couple takes.
Waves Q4 EqualizerI applied 3 plugins to the guitar track. First was a Waves Q4 EQ plugin. I identified two spots in the lower frequencies that sounded boomy, and didn't sit well with the backing track. I applied moderate reductions to those frequencies. The backing track had a fair amount of high-end cymbal noise, so I had to apply a gradual roll-off to the high-end of the guitar track to avoid interference with the cymbals.
Waves DoublerSecondly, I used the Waves Doubler plugin, to do two things. First to widen the guitar sound by panning two delayed copies, hard left and hard right. These were mixed back in with the original at a very low level, and the delay is very short, so the net effect is a more defined sound for the guitar, making it stand out from the backing track. The other thing this plugin accomplished was a slight chorusing effect, by shifting the pitch of the delayed signals by +6 and -6 cents respectively. This created a very, very subtle chorus effect, which can be heard more clearly on notes that are bent, or held.
Waves IR-L ReverbLastly, I felt that the guitar track sounded a bit "up front" so I added a tiny amount of reverb with the Waves IR-L Convolution Reverb plugin. Most times, it's not even noticeable, but when I A/B compared the sound with and without the reverb, there was a noticeable difference. I noticed that the actual recording of this song had a bit of reverb, so I wanted a bit of that feel on my demo.
For a long time, I've used a Nobels ODR-S as my main overdrive. It was a good sounding pedal, with a 3 band EQ, which I loved. However, it's been out of production for a while. The Fulltone PlimSoul is one of the first pedals I've tried that I liked enough to use in place of the ODR-S. Here's my review.
A Great Rotary Speaker Simulator
I bought a used RotoSIM off of Ebay, and after playing around with it for a few weeks, I think it's a keeper. Here's a video showing off all the controls, as well as explaining a bit about what a Leslie is and how a Univibe style pedal is different than the RotoSIM.
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This demo showcases a wah-wah pedal and a set of pickups that I purchased from Mike at Mccon-o-wah.com. The song is called "Running Scared". Complete details about the gear used in this demo are below the video.
The guitar used was a Fender Kenny Wayne Shepherd Signature Stratocaster. The stock pickups have been replaced with a set of Bell-tone pickups from Mccon-o-wah.com.
The wah-wah pedal was a McWah pedal from Mccon-o-wah.com, customized to fit my personal preference. I prefer a wah pedal that 'opens' a bit sooner than most. In addition, I wanted more bass and a bit more volume, so Mike gave me instructions and guidelines for changing a few resistors.
NOTE: There is NOTHING wrong with this pedal. It sounded absolutely great right out of the box. I have a long history of modding my pedals, beyond what is necessary, sometimes ruining them in the process. I was not modding this pedal because I was unhappy with it. The changes were subtle, and I only did them because I can.
The next pedal in the signal chain was a Boss GE-7. You can see in the settings that I'm boosting the 800Hz and 1.6kHz sliders. This gives me a midrange boost, similar to what is present with a Tubescreamer, but I can also dial in a small boost at 200Hz to give the sound a bit more fullness.
Whenever you boost one specific range of frequencies, the other frequencies are de-emphasized. With a Tubescreamer, not only does it boost the 'nasal' midrange, but it also loses low end frequencies. With the GE-7, I can get a similar midrange boost, but also boost the low end a little bit to compensate for the natural de-emphasis that happens when boosting the midrange.
The next pedal in the signal chain was the Holy Fire Overdrive/Distortion pedal. This pedal can function as a very clean boost, or with just the overdrive circuit, or overdrive and distortion combined. Since the pedal is extremely transparent, it does not provide the midrange boost for leads that a tubescreamer does, so I use it as an intermediate boost to push the amp a little harder.
I used the Holy Fire to push the amp a bit harder, and the overdrive circuit produces a nice compressed sound, that responds very well to the midrange boost coming from the GE-7.
I was using my Samamp VAC 23 amplifier for this demo, running in 5 watt mode. None of the boosts were engaged, and the settings were exactly as shown in the picture.
I was running the amp much cleaner than usual. This gave me a really chimey clean tone, and when I'd kick on the Holy Fire and GE-7 during the solo, the resultant tone was thick and screaming all at the same time.
I used a Shure SM-57 microphone place near the outer edge of the speaker, angled toward the center of the speaker. I've found this position to yield a nice fat tone with just enough brightness, without being shrill.
I recorded the vocals through a Rode NT1000 condenser microphone. While my vocals are far from stellar, a condenser mic like the Rode is much sweeter and much more airy and crisp than a dynamic mic.
The backing track was assembled in GarageBand, using drum loops from Betamonkeymusic.com and some built in organ loops. I recorded the bass track, and then opened the project in Logic Express.
In Logic Express, I recorded the guitar and vocals on separate tracks through a Motu 896HD firewire audio interface.
I applied EQ, compression and reverb to each track, and some master limiting to the final mix before exporting the final recording. The master recording was then imported into Final Cut Pro where it was synchronized with the video.
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I’ve been asked on numerous occasions what I think of the Bill M. mods for Fender Blues Junior Amps. I could never answer that question because I had not ever heard any of his modded amps.
I finally decided to get some mods done and less than $200 later, it’s like having a brand new amp. The differences are very, very noticeable. Much more bass, a lot more brightness, and far more usable tone controls with more available gain.
Cheaper than a set of great pickups, these mods are a slam dunk in my opinion. Details about what I had done are below the video.
This is a video profiling the guitar that was built for me by my cousin Joe of Stauffer Guitars. The video explains why the guitar was built and what the main features are.
Amp
I used a Shure SM-57 instrument microphone placed near the outside edge of the speaker, aimed inward, and very close to the grill.
The vocals were recorded with a Rode NT1000 condenser microhpone.
The backing track was downloaded from GuitarBT.com and imported into Soundtrack Pro, where it was mixed with the audio tracks from the vocals and guitar.
The vocals had compression/EQ/Reverb and some delay added. The guitar track had minimal eq, plus some delay added. The final mix was mastered with the Waves L3 Ultra-maximizer plugin.
The mix was exported back to Final Cut Pro where the final video was exported and compressed.
*UPDATE* I replaced the Jensen Alnico speaker with a Weber Neomag, see specs below.
I've always loved the tone that Stevie Ray Vaughan had in the early 80s when Vibroverbs were his main amps. Unlike the more popular 2x10 version, Stevie had the more rare 1x15 version. And a 15" speaker has a different 'shape' in the lower frequencies than a 12" speaker does.
Because I'm not a rock star, I don't have the luxury of playing at ear splitting volumes on a stage in front of thousands. So I require much lower volume levels, and consquently a lower powered amp. This amp is the first 15" combo that I've found that allows me to get the fat tones of a Fender-style 15" combo amp, but at very reasonable volume levels.
The adjustable power circuit is done using a series of small light bulbs which soak up power, reducing both voltage and current. This is different than amps that only reduce the plate voltage of the power tubes. This approach limits the current as well as the voltage, essentially causing the tube to act like a smaller tube.
This allows the amp to sound very good even when running at a miniscule 3 watts. This is the setting that I normally use at home when recording lessons or practicing.
With an upper power level of 23 watts, the amp can get very loud. Louder than what I'll probably ever need.
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Specs
The ‘Legend’ is a custom guitar built for me by Joe Stauffer from Stauffer Guitars. Since I’m a Strat guy, and Joe isn’t, we designed the body shape together, and it ended up looking familiar without being a direct copy.
The purpose behind this project was to build a guitar that was designed for the style of playing that I use and teach. I use heavy strings, and therefore need big frets, as well as graphite saddles to prevent string breakage. With that in mind, we put together a guitar to meet those criteria.
Since the guitar has a good bit hollowed out, it has more resonance on the low end than my strats do. The no-tools pickguard assembly makes it easy to pop the pickguard out for pickup swapping. This particular build has a special feature that will allow me to swap pickups without doing any soldering, so it will be great for doing pickup comparisons in the future.
Because of the fat neck, and the ebony fretboard, the guitar is really comfortable to play. The basswood and zebrawood body has an interesting mixure of warmth and snap and isn’t really like any guitar I’ve played before. Not to mention it’s one of the lightest guitars I’ve ever played
The amp in this demo was a ‘64 Vibroverb Custom with the Diaz mods. I have always wanted a 1×15 Vibroverb, but the vintage ones are ridiculously expensive, and even this reissue was quite pricey. However, I knew that since Fender had just discontinued it, it would only get more expensive so I took the plunge and picked up one of the last ones I could find.
For this demo, I had the Diaz mods engaged, but was not using the higher power mode, so I was still running on the 40 Watt setting. I was running through a THD Hot Plate, but did not have it engaged. It was obscenely loud and I can almost never use this amp in this fashion, but I had headphones on so I didn’t suffer too much in the recording process.
The first pedal I engage in the demo is a Creation Audio Labs MK-423 Clean Boost. There’s not much to say about this pedal other than that it does exactly that. With a 48v power supply it’s quite capable of providing more boost than anyone would ever need. You can see from the settings pictures that it was barely turned up (it starts at unity gain). Just enough to push the Vibroverb a bit.
In many of my previous demos I’ve used two Boss Parametric EQ pedals. The PQ-4 and PQ-3B. I love these pedals, but they are sadly out of production. I’ve been experimenting with the GE-7, trying to get similar toned boosts and so far I’m pretty happy. Due to the fixed EQ bands, there is not nearly as much control over the frequency of the boost, but with more bands, you actually have more possible EQ curves at your disposal.
I place a Shure SM-57 microphone about 3 feed from the amp, slighly off center and pointed at the rim of the speaker. This gave me a pretty good rounded sound for the guitar, without the shrillness of having a mic directly on the speaker.
I recorded the track through a Motu 896HD audio interface, into GarageBand. The guitar had no EQ added to it, simply a touch of reverb to make it sit in the mix better. This is one of the first times I’ve found a mic position that did not require any EQ to enhance the tone.
Upon mixdown, I applied a very gentle amount of the L3 Ultramaximizer Limiter from Waves, to even out the volume of the track and give it a more professional sound.
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Here are some pictures from the recording setup for this demo. The detailed settings are below.
The guitar used in this demo a '96 era Strat with a set of Rocketfire Guitars Pickups in them. These pickups were given to me by Nick at Rocketfire and they made a huge improvement in the guitar's tone (upgraded from a set of Fender Texas Specials).
This Parametric EQ Pedal is no longer in production. Although it can produce a wide variety of tones, I use it basically as a clean boost, with a little extra boost in the low/midrange area. This pedal is first in the lineup, and I use it in two ways: First to provide a little boost to the amp by itself, and second to push the Nobels Overdrive farther into distortion when it is engaged.
Settings (clock notation)
This is another parametric EQ pedal not made anymore. This one I use to get a more narrow boost at around 1.5 KHz to add an extra edge to leads, similar to the tone Stevie got from his tubescreamers with the tone all the way up. I also add in a little extra low end to balance it out a bit.
Settings (clock notation)
I really like this overdrive pedal. It seems to work especially well with the Blues Junior. The distortion produced mixes well with my amp, and it has plenty of usable gain. Since the amp is producing a decent amount of distortion on it's own, I only set the gain up about half way, just enough to thicken up the tone enough for leads.
Settings (clock notation)
The amp used in this demo is a Fender Blues Junior. Mine is a Tweed NOS Edition. I do not have any mods yet. You can see the settings from the picture here, if you want a bigger picture, check out the pictures tab. For this demo I wanted a pretty thick lead tone so I have the preamp gain set pretty high. But for the first portion of the song where I want a cleaner tone, I use a combination of lighter picking as well as rolling the volume back just a tad. This takes off just enough signal to keep the amp from really distorting during the first part. When I first kick into the solo, I turn on the Nobels, and the PQ-4 for a pretty thick lead tone. When I get the the second heavy solo chorus, I kick on the PQ-3B to really push the tone through the roof. I'm pretty sure Stevie was using some sort of fuzz pedal for some live performances when he played Life Without You because his tone was just monsterous for that song.
Settings
I recorded this demo using a Shure SM-57 microphone slightly above and off to the side of the Blues Junior cabinet. The mic was pointed a little off to the side of the center of the speaker, and was sitting about a foot away. Positioning of the microphone relative to the amp makes a big difference in the tone. While it's normal at a live show for the mic to be pointed directly at the speaker, I find that the resulting tone lacks warmth and is a bit too harsh for my tastes. Moving the amp off to the site, immediately changes the tone of the recording, and pointing it close to, but not directly at the center of the speaker, allows it to remain clear, but not as harsh as being pointed directly at the center of the speaker. In addition, having the microphone elevated a little above the speaker and pointing down helps capture some of the natural bass respons of the amp, resulting in a fatter tone. I could easily have spent an hour finding the optimal placement of the microphone, and if I had been recording for an album, I probably would have. But the plugins available in most recording software can do an amazing job making up for poor mic placement. I know from experience that this mic position gives reasonably good tone, and in the interest of time and not driving myself crazy, I decided to set it up this way, and just play. The microphone was connected to a Motu 896HD Firewire Interface, which connected to my computer, a MacPro.
The demo was recorded in Apple's GarageBand software. I first assembled the backing track using a hacked up version of one of the songs packed with the software. I took the drum loop and chopped it to the right length and looped it. Then I keyed in the bass and keybard parts using my keyboard. Not a piano keyboard, but my typing keyboard. Once the backing track was assembled, I recorded the guitar part on a separate track. Before mixing down, I applied an equalizer, and a reverb plugin to the guitar track. The equalizer plugin cut out a bit around 800Hz to remove some muddiness, and boosted around 6-8 KHz to add a little sparkle. Then the reverb plugin was set to add a little room sound to the guitar.
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Amp DetailsThe amp being demoed was my Fender Blues Junior, purchased new in late 2007, the Tweed NOS edition with the Jensen C12N speaker. There were no mods to the amp.
Settings:
I use this pedal to dial in a boost right at about 1.5k to get that screaming tone you hear during the solos. I also add a little low end boost so that the tone remains balanced. This boost only really works while the other pedals are on because it adds quite a bit of gain to the signal and if the amp and other pedals aren't already overdriven, the volume goes up way too much.
The settings were as follows:
I use this pedal to give a clean boost with no change in the EQ settings. On some amps, I dial in a little low end with the boost, but for the Blues Junior, I just set the Level knob to about 1:30.
I love this overdrive pedal. The distortion is fat and natural sounding. It's one of the few pedals I've used that actually can add distortion nicely to an already slightly overdriven amp.
Settings:
I bought this guitar used in Austin Texas a few years ago and it opened my eyes to what a well built guitar can do for your playing. The guitar feels much more solid than my strat (mexican), and the tone is just incredible. The swamp ash body gives it a very light feel, and a midrange dip in the tone. The brazilian rosewood fretboard is much brighter than indian rosewood. And the Lindy Fralin pickups just scream.
I recorded this demo with a Shure SM-57 microphone about 18 inches away from the front of the amp, about 45 degrees off center and pointed at a spot close to the rim of the speaker. This gives me a little warmer tone than being pointed directly at the center. The distance from the amp gives the sound a little more space. The sound from the mic was recorded through a Motu 896HD firewire interface into GarageBand running on my MacPro. The guitar was mixed with no EQ, and the only effect added was the built in AUMatrix Reverb plugin that comes with OSX. The reverb plugin gave the guitar a little more room sound than what was recorded so close to the amp. The backing track was from an mp3 I found on the web of Stevie Ray Vaughan Backing tracks. I used the L3 Multimaximizer limiter plugin on the master channel in GarageBand to level out the volume and fatten up the sound a bit. This plugin can work magic on recordings that sound weak. The mixdown was exported to a 192Kb/s AAC audio file.
I recorded the video of me playing with a JVC miniDV camcorder. I then imported the footage into iMovie '08. I then imported the audio file I had created in GarageBand and synced it up with the video. iMovie '08 make it easy to add professional looking titles to your videos very quickly. I then exported the movie as a quicktime.
]]>The amp is a Fender Blues Junior Tweed NOS edition. The settings on the amp were as follows:
Reverb: 3/12 | Master: 12/12 | Mids: 6.5/12 | Bass: 12/12 | Treble: 9/12 | Volume: 5/12
Boss PQ-4 SettingsI use this pedal to give a clean boost with no change in the EQ settings. On some amps, I dial in a little low end with the boost, but for the Blues Junior, I just set the Level knob to about 1:30. I turn on this pedal at 2:34 in the demo video.
Nobels ODR-S SettingsI love this overdrive pedal. The distortion is fat and natural sounding. It’s one of the few pedals I’ve used that actually can add distortion nicely to an already slightly overdriven amp. I turn this pedal on at 3:31 in the demo video. The settings are as follows:
Drive: 5/10 | Low: 5.5/10 | Mid: 6/10 | Level: 2/10
Don Grosh Retro ClassicGuitar: Don Grosh - Retro-SI bought this guitar used in Austin Texas a few years ago and it opened my eyes to what a well built guitar can do for your playing. The guitar feels so much more 'solid' than most factory built guitars. The swamp ash body gives it a very light feel, and a midrange dip in the tone. The brazilian rosewood fretboard is much brighter than indian rosewood. And the Lindy Fralin pickups just scream.
Recording SetupI recorded this demo with a Shure SM-57 microphone about 18 inches away from the front of the amp, about 45 degrees off center and pointed at a spot close to the rim of the speaker. This gives me a little warmer tone than being pointed directly at the center. The distance from the amp gives the sound a little more space.
The sound from the mic was recorded through a Motu 896HD firewire interface into GarageBand running on my MacPro. The guitar was mixed with no EQ, and the only effect added was the built in AUMatrix Reverb plugin that comes with OSX. The reverb preset was "Large Room". The backing track was from an mp3 I found on the web at this page:
Stevie Ray Vaughan Backing tracks.
I used the Waves L3 Multimaximizer limiter plugin on the master channel in GarageBand to level out the volume and fatten up the sound a bit. This plugin can work magic on recordings that sound weak. The mixdown was exported to a 192Kb/s AAC audio file.
]]>Settings: Volume, and Master Volume both about 6, Bass, and Mids, full on, Treble at about 7, Reverb at about 2.
Pedals: Two Boss Parametric EQ pedals, one set for even boost, the other set for a notch boost around 1.5k for that Albert King tone Stevie had on Texas Flood and other Slow Blues Tunes.
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