Review by Ian Garrett The Pedal: Lovepedal OD11 The Point: Overdrive The Cost: $99 There’s a lot of talk on the interwebs that the Lovepedal OD11 is a close copy of another well- known overdrive. I don’t know if that’s true or not but decided to just plug in and play, and see what develops. I tried a few different guitars when testing out the OD11— A Telecaster, Les Paul and an SG, using a Vox AC15 amp. For some stereo testing, I later added a Fender Mustang III modeling amp. I found
By Daniel Brooks Here is a story full of hope. In the late 1960s, a young man named Sixto Rodriguez was playing his own socially-conscious folk music in Detroit’s clubs and bars. As a second generation Mexican-American whose parents had come to the States in 1920, Sixto grew up in a somewhat run-down area of Detroit, and was quite familiar with the difficulties of poor, working-class immigrants. Born in 1942, his teen years coincided with the folk music boom of the 1950s, which inspired him to pick up his parents’ guitar at the age of 16. Within a few years he had found his voice, and when he wasn’t working in one of Detroit’s factories he
Review by Ian Garrett The Pedal: MXR CSP104 Vintage Script Logo Distortion+ The Point: Distortion The Cost: $99 Find it at Pro Guitar Shop The MXR Vintage Script Logo Distortion+ turned out to be a surprising pedal for me. Refreshing even. A distortion pedal with two knobs that’s been around since the ‘70s shouldn’t be much of a surprise by now. And yet it was. There’s a certain tone from this pedal that sort of straddles both the overdrive/distortion and fuzz spectrums in such a simple and effective way that you don’t see much of nowadays. In the pedal world there are
by Daniel Brooks It may be ironic that one of the most underrated guitarists of the past fifty years is also one of the most respected, well-known and successful. From 1977 to 1984 guitarist Andy Summers, singer and bassist Sting (Gordon Sumner) and drummer Stewart Copeland worked together to fuse Reggae, Jazz, Prog-Rock, Pop and Punk into a seamless whole that made The Police one of the most popular bands ever, selling more than eighty million records and selling out venues around the world. In an era where guitar-oriented rock often featured extensive, sprawling solos that were as much the point of the music as the song itself, Andy Summers took a textured, elemental approach to the guitar to evoke a compelling
by Jamie Wolfert Mystical Weapons is an improvisation based collaboration between Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier and guitarist/keyboardist/Son-of-a-Beatle Sean Lennon. Born spontaneously out of a need for an opening act for one of Lennon's other bands, Mystical Weapons has taken on a life of its own, resulting in an album of surprising range and accessibility. For many listeners the description “improvisation based” is enough to send them running the other direction, fleeing from imagined horrors of 17-minute “songs” and hippies playing fake jazz. Mystical Weapons turns this prejudice on its head with 13 relatively structured and mostly wank-free songs, many at 3 minutes or less, featuring a wide range of moods, dynamics, and instrumentation. Lennon interleaves
By Jamie Wolfert 2012 was Canadian rock trio Metz's year. The Toronto-based band went from relative unknowns to Official Noise Rock Torch Carriers in the blink of an eye. Metz is their debut record on Sub Pop, and since its release, universally adoring reviews have compared the band to Touch and Go heavyweights The Jesus Lizard and Shellac, as well as Dischord artists like Fugazi and Nation Of Ulysses. I've been willfully ignoring the hype about this band all year, so I figured 2013 was as good a time as any to cave to the pressure and give Metz, and Metz, a listen. My first impression of Metz was that, big surprise, most of the comparisons to other bands were
Review by Ian Garrett The Pedal: Vox DelayLab The Point:A Multi-Mode Digital Delay Pedal The Cost: $229.99 Find it at Pro Guitar Shop If you’ve watched Andy’s video of the Vox DelayLab, he mentions at the end that he’s “only scratched the surface” of what this delay can do. He’s right you know – there’s so much more to this pedal. I’ll try to cover a little more ground, no easy feat when you have 30 different delays to expand on. I’ll highlight a few modes and how the pedal operates, as well. This is a pedal
By Daniel Brooks So, you’ve removed your strings and improved the contact between the neck and the body for better resonance. You have, maybe, reconsidered your string gauge before restringing your guitar. You’ve added or adjusted the tremolo springs, adjusted the truss rod, reset the action and fine tuned the intonation. Now what? Well, most of the time, you can leave it at that, call it a successful set up, and get back to playing in pursuit of the next great musical inspiration. But we are Stratocaster players, and there is always another adjustment or modification that will elevate the quality of our instrument and our ability to play it. The first of these is
