Thursday, August 23, 2012

Cheezy


 Cheese please!  This is the Danelectro Grilled Cheese pedal, and I bought it off eBay some years ago.  In fact, I bought TWO!   To this day, I have no idea how I wound up bidding on two auctions for the same pedal. The only upside is that I think the combined cost was under ten dollars.  I probably paid more in shipping.

This pedal is basically a one trick pony.  It provides a nasal fuzz tone, which you control with the Resonance control (that's the knob on the right).  I find that cranking the knob fully clockwise produces a somewhat mellow distortion.  Going the opposite direction gives you the nasty.  The other control is Level, so it's a pretty basic pedal.  If you want a Dano fuzz packed with features, order up some French Toast.

Listen for yourself on this little tune I recorded.  I'm using the Cheese (cranked fully counter clockwise) on my Stratocaster (fourth position) and I used no other effects on the guitar except for a bit of post-mix reverb.  There's no compression, no EQ, or anything - this is the Cheese in all its obnoxious glory.   I think I put the Resonance control in the center for the solo.  The amp provided no coloration either as I went through Pod Farm's basic Fender amp model.

The rhythm guitar went through the same guitar set up, minus the Cheese and with the Pod Farm Phase model.  The Danelectro bass went through my Alesis Smashup compressor.  Oh, the strings and choir sounds came courtesy of a VST instrument plugin called Mellowsound (available at this link) - yeah, I wish someone sold a pedal that made your guitar sound like a budget Mellotron. I would be all over that!


If the Soundcloud widget doesn't appear, please click on this link: Cheezy!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Tasty Pedal!





You can never have enough fuzz pedals, especially when they're bargain priced!  The Danelectro French Toast was a cheap and cheerful pedal that hit the markets a few years back.  I bought one because it was based on the 1970s classic Foxx Tone Machine, including an octave up feature.  The only drawback to this pedal is the lack of a LED to indicate when the pedal is on.  There probably wasn't room to squeeze in the circuit. 

I recorded "Toaster" to show off the French Toast with the octave up feature engaged (I'm pretty sure the photograph above shows the settings I used for the recording). I find that the pedal sounds more lively that way.  I was using my Stratocaster and no other effects were used, so you're hearing the pedal in all its raw glory.  The echo was added later.  The spooky sounds in the background beginning with the second verse were created with a Minimoog V Original VST instrument.  The bass was my Danelectro (hmm ... is there a pattern here?), while the drums came courtesy of BFD Eco.


If the Soundcloud widget isn't visible, please click here:"Toaster"

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Let's Swirl!


So here's a pedal I don't use often enough - the Ibanez Bi-Mode Chorus.  The premise is somewhat unique - this is a single pedal which contains two separate chorus pedals, each with their own SPEED and WIDTH controls (see the above photograph).  Playing around with each pair leads to some intriguing sounds.  I recorded "Swirly" with the controls set above.  The pedal can be heard best in the main guitar line, while the guitar solo is he same setting only with some distortion added.  The more outrageous sounds and stereo effects were made with plug-ins.



If the Soundcloud widget isn't visible, here's the link to the tune:

Swirly .