Dhellemmes + Birkhan at the Small Forms Sessions

Getting ready for coming Friday's Small Forms Sessions - we will be recording in the afternoon and performing in the evening. I will play (unless the project evolves some more) a first part with my iPad and two guitars, then writer / performer Ines Birkhan will join with spoken words, synth and drum machines... 

I started to use the iPad for concerts last month and I'm thrilled by the result - some sophisticated apps I use combine perfectly with the raw guitar sound I came up with recently - thanks to my new North Effects Ampeg Scrambler clone (I need to post something about my current pedal line...)

Dancing on Ashes (Circle) in Pinacoteca

Tomorrow I will perform again a projected text + music show I created 5 years ago in Berlin - one of my few theremin based projects. It will also be the first Angel Meat performance in the last years...

This heap of pedals allows me to create a quadrophonic soundscape - just from the sound of the theremin (I couldn't use so many effects with a guitar, I had to make a performance for too many pedals!) The place is called Pinacoteca and is a small but very nice independent gallery in Vienna, with cheerful and supportive people.

pedal board and canned peaches

This is another version of the pedal board I use for one of my current projects - with just guitar and voice. I'm quite happy with the strange synth sounds I get by combining the auto-wah and the reverse delay (as you can hear in the video down there), or the Blue Box and the Carbon Copy... I still have to get my Sovtek Big Muff fixed, or acquire a new fuzz - hopefully a Devi Ever FX Soda Meiser, until then I'm good with the Boss... 

In that case I don't use the looper for music but I always include it to make the sound check - when I play in a café or a small theatre I can just loop a few notes and go into the room to listen then adjust my amp - it makes my life much easier... 

concert/reading in Vienna

My current music projects include a new collaboration with writer Ines Birkhan for a series of concerts/readings - and we premiere a new one, called Dosenpfirsich (Canned Peach - it's in German but we plan to make an english version at some point), tomorrow. 

It's more than a reading over a music background, as text and music were conceived together, and I'm very happy with the result - it's not singing, it's not theatre, it's not exactly spoken words, it's a new attempt at creating a strongly evocative art work with minimalist means. The result is promising, we will keep developing this in the coming times for stage and video...

For this quiet solo project I need a more subtle sound than with my very noisy bands - so no accumulation of dirt pedals! My favorite pedal of the moment is the Boss OC-3 octaver, I never practice without it for weeks, and it makes me play some unusual funk lines - both bass and guitar! 

And since I'm playing at low level I start using the overdriven channel of my Fender Champion 100 - something I never thought I'd do (I bought it in emergency last year as I needed a new concert amp and couldn't afford a tube one - and used only the clean channel since), and it has very nice warm sounds that I can't get out of any of my pedals, and I couldn't have at this level with a tube amp I guess…

gearing up for coming concerts

I will have a few concerts in the coming weeks - solo and with the Soft Power Ensemble of Vienna. Here is my pedal line for my improvised solo act next week - as you can see I added an EHX Holy Stain multi-effect to the line, that might surprise some people if you've read some bad reviews this pedal has online. I got it first to add reverb and distortion to my Volca Bass, then it was very convenient to put it in my bag when I go jamming at the Neu New York/Vienna Institute of Improvised Music - it replaces 3 of my basic pedals: fuzz, tremolo and reverb… Then for the same reason I started to use it for rehearsals until I mastered it enough to put it in my pedal line.

People often dislike the harshness of its fuzz and overdrive, that is true that they are not for the fainthearted, but they suit me, also the deep reverb and harsh tremolo. I even get along well with the pitch shifter, that I use either as a detuner or set on max where its bad tracking gives painfully artificial squeaky sounds. I like this a lot! I've even learned lately that you can upgrade the pedal by tweaking its chip and get a chorus and a flanger - and split the control for reverb and effect… There again my lack of knowledge in electronics prevents me from doing it myself, so I will be looking for someone to do it for me here in Vienna (would be even better if it could have a gain control…)

Actually I do need some more electronic help for I ruined my Sovtek Big Muff - I pulled off a wire of the battery connection then tried to replace it with a power jack and now it doesn't work at all… I almost dumped it to buy a EHX one but I like it - and if I have it fixed I will also ask for some mods and changing the input/output jacks positions - I favor efficiency over authenticity… 

So for now I went back to use my Boss FZ-5 - and here again the very bad reviews that pedal has feel like pure snobbery: compared to other fuzzes I have it sounds very powerful and rich. Maybe it doesn't sound how it's supposed to and all authentic and shit but I don't really care about that. 

  

geared up for tomorrow's concert

Now that I do concerts again, I see how different it is since I started to get interested in gear. I spend almost as much time tweaking stuff as preparing music! Well I do improv, so I need to keep fresh, and it's a good way to stay focused, understand how sound is produced and try something completely new! 

I housed my Volcas in a crude wooden rack and put my LeafAudio DroneSynth in a wooden box. 

Here is the new Göldo roller bridge I put on the Jaguar - broke too many strings since I put the LesTrem. I'm not satisfied yet with it, the E strings jump easily out of the roller saddles - my playing style is quite enthusiastic… But I'm sure it can be set up somehow - have to figure out how.

And this is the pedal line for this project !

Pedal rig

This was my pedal rig for the last concert of Soft Power Ensemble of Vienna: from right to left (this is not the order in which they are plugged, it's more complicated!), an auto-wah by Z. Cat (a small company in Latvia that makes quite interesting combined effects pedals), a Sovtek Big Muff, a EHX Freeze, a Boss tremolo, a MXR Carbon Copy, a Hardwire Supernatural Ambient Reverb, my Montreal Assembly Wrong Side of Uranus bizarro-bit crusher +, with a Behringer expression pedal and a true bypass router pedal because it's a little bit noisy, a Noisemaker Effects Freakshow Fuzz that is also just noise in a can, my Inductor Guitars Mellifluous Pussy MP-1 harmonic percolator, a Pro Co Rat, a Danelectro Rocky Road faux-Leslie and a Danelectro Back Talk reverse delay.

I also got myself a Fender Champion 100 amp, as my 25-year old Peterson GS100 is currently out of order and requires a full rejuvenation - and I was afraid it would not be ready on time. Actually the Fender was not my first choice, I needed something cheap, simple and powerful - and I'm a pedal guy so solid state is good for me as I just use the clean channel - and after some research I set my choice on the Hiwatt Maxwatt G100 (it could have been Palmer but they don't have a 100 watts model) - just two channels and basic controls, I don't want more.

But no shops or online-shops in Austria, Germany and France had it in stock, until I found one on rock-gear.de and ordered it. They cashed my money and after two weeks they admitted that they don't and won't have it - and so far they didn't refund me… Not the most trustable people in the world if I may say… Then I just had 3 days left to get an amp and the Fender Champion was the only option - and the local shop where I got it only had the demo model left so I can consider myself lucky to have had it in time for the concert!

Anyway, finally I'm happy with it, even with the effects that I thought I would'nt use, because it sounds good at low level so it can be also my house practice amp, better than my Roland Cube. I think that I will get a tube preamp (from EHX) at some point to hear how it can complement it…

And of course I used it for last Friday's concert and that was a very good moment!

pedals for sale

I have to sell a few pedals to fund my new project (I first considered selling a guitar - it would have been quicker - but I just can't do it, one day I'll probably die of starvation hugging my guitars). They are all in very good state - I'm quite maniac with my gear - and I picked these ones to sale mostly because they are too good for what I do with them! 

Take the Empress Tape Delay, it's a Rolls Royce and I use it like my MXR Carbon Copy, when there are many mods, sounds, tap tempos and stuff… It deserves to be used by someone who needs something sophisticated… Same with the Boss Loop Station, it has a lot of functions, layers, memories, when I just need a one switch TCE Ditto.

The Boss Metal Zone is incredibly powerful and more versatile that one could believe, but I'm so much into fuzzboxes now that I never really used it - and the Boss FZ-5 Fuzz emulates the Maestro FZ-1A, the Fuzz Face and the Octavia - it's perfect to explore fuzz sounds at a reasonable price before switching to a favorite - mine is now the Sovtek Big Muff - or to gig without having to carry a ton of precious pedals…

If you're interested, please ask me in comments for the prices (suited to European market).

You can check some reviews and demos here, here and here.

repeat percussion pedal kit

So, it's time to build this Poodle's Pedal Parts repeat percussion pedal - well it's soon time, I have other things to finish before, like usually... 

new pedal board and stuff

Having acquired some new pedals lately I have to rethink my pedal board - and eventually I have to double it - I need to put about 15 pedals on it and keep it transportable, I don't know yet how I will do that...

The Hardwire Supernatural and the Empress Tape Delay really changed my sound and the way I play, I relay now on the sole Inductor Guitars MP-1 for drive/fuzz, I start to use regularly the Montreal Assembly Wrong Side of Uranus bitcrusher though I still don't really understand how it works, and as you can see I failed to re-house my Dan'o Rocky Road faux-Leslie, and though it's uneasy to use I do like its sound a lot...

I also just bought a channel switcher that allows me to organize all that and clean my sound, and I'm waiting for a new repeat percussion (a kit, gotta heat my soldering iron)... I'm getting ready for my new music project about which I'm quite excited.

Something else, David from Michigan having noticed that I changed the pickguard of my Paul Westerberg signature First Act and looking for an original 'ugly plaid one' for his, asked for mine, and I sent it to him (I still have to etch the alu one I made).

I take the opportunity to suggest to you to have a look at songsforslim.com and support former Replacements guitarist Slim  Dunlap, who suffered a stroke and lives in the glorious US of A, where real people cannot afford insurance.

The Owl programmable effect pedal

Last year I posted about Devi Ever's Console project - a cartridge-based analog effect platform funded by Kickstater (unfortunately it's not been released yet, it seems that it was more difficult to develop than planned). 

Here is another open-source / open hardware digital effect pedal, targeted at musicians as well as at developers: the Owl - and it's also looking for crowd funding... More or less you can program - or upload - any effect you can think of (preferably something that was never done before) in there!

It seems very interesting to me, though I know nothing about coding, but I'd bet that a completely new era is starting with these projects where musicians and technicians can closely collaborate to develop new sounds!

Mellifluous Pussy MP-1 review

When Erik from Inductor Guitars proposed me to review his MP-1 pedal, I was interested right away because it had already attracted my attention last year when Fuzz Box Girl released a video about it. But I'll have to do the review my own way because 1. my technical knowledge is quite limited, so I can just talk about what I hear and feel, and 2. most of the guitar sound description terminology is undecipherable to me, and I cannot really use any of the colorful adjectives you find in catalogues and magazines...

The astutely named Mellifluous Pussy MP-1 is Inductor Guitars's take on the Interfax Harmonic Percolator, a fuzz pedal from the 1970s. It just has 1 volume knob and 2 switches - that makes 4 positions. I tried it with my Rickenbacker 620 and an Eastwood Airline 3P, plugged in a Marshall stack.

The thing I noticed right away and highly enjoyed is that the MP-1 combines a super sharp bite with a warm sound, with quite present medium - that is probably what makes the harmonics sing. The sound is particularly rich with a single coil guitar, with humbuckers you can still go for a good fat sound with bigger low but it's less special. In its way it respects more the original sound of the pickups than many  distortion pedals I use, not that it matters much to me but people who play instruments for their specific sound will be interested.

I also like the velcro-ish quality of the MP-1 - it's not going synth but it's in the edge, staying on the enjoyable side (I mean it  stops before you feel your teeth are about to fall), so the sound is quite unique without having to be freakish to stand out of the lot. Since you don't have many controls, you have to like the sound how it is - still the pedal reacts quite well to the volume knob of a a guitar -, I mostly played the cleaner position, perfect for super chopping rhythm, something I have no equivalent of in my other pedals.

Here I made a rough demo of the most distorted position - with my Ricken straight to the computer (I didn't put too much effort in it since I don't believe that YouTube's sound through computers' speakers make justice to any kind of sound device unless you have a real sound engineer to do the post-production!)

Mellifluous Pussy

I just received this Mellifluous Pussy fuzz pedal MP-1 by Inductor Guitars for reviewing - just can't wait to plug it and play it loud....

First impression: good looking, seriously made - I have nothing against amateurish looking boutique pedals but I like it better when the outside says that the inside is a pro job too!

Review comes next week!

new pedal

Lucky me, I won an Empress Tape Delay at the weekly ProGuitarShop giveaway - and received it the same day I got my Supernatural back (the one I had was dysfunctional and had to be replaced). After having been busy lately with fuzz boxes, bit crushers and other noisy effects, I find myself with two atmospheric pedals whose possibilities I start to explore... 

One thing I like is that they force me to play slowly and be more careful about melodic and harmonic development - good qualities for improvised music... Their danger is that one can be easily seduced by ambient music clichés and let the pedals play on their own! Definitely have to shot a demo video!

miscellaneous

1.2.

1. So, I finally reinstalled my workbench and I little by little start to work again on my pedal enclosures.

2. I've been offered today a Hardwire Supernatural reverb - a fine piece of electronics. I will practice with it for a few days and record a demo, but I can tell already that it's a very promising pedal...

3. I was doing some computer maintenance and I found a piece that I made a few years ago when I was learning how to use music softwares - it's been uploaded on MySpace just before they sabotage themselves, and I forgot about it, it might interest someone...

3.

New tools for a new project

Yes I know, another guitar related project (I do also have other kinds of projects going on lately, hence the scarce posting and the lack of concrete achievements in the field of guitar/pedal making)! This one will require new tools and the uncovering of old and unused skills... 

Oh such a mystery! To be unveiled soon!

Devi Ever's Console project

I'm supporting Devi Ever's Kickstarter Console project - I think it might interest some readers of this blog. 

You probably already know that Devi Ever produces extremely interesting fuzz boxes - I will acquire one very soon, well as soon as possible -, now she's busy with a cartridge based effect platform, available for one, two or three cartridge. A kind of anti-iStomp, its open-sourceness will allow anybody to conceive and release cartridges to be used on it - as much boutique makers (including Ohnono whose Chk Chk Boom I enjoy very much) as DIYers, and of course the first cartridges will be Devi's own very cool fuzz devices.

The project looks for funding with the help of Kickstarter and new backers are welcome, please go have a look and maybe join!

another good working day

Didn't lose my time today, having access to a band saw, I could cut my Ikea butcher block as a modified telecaster - though I still don't know if I should use my Microfret neck or wait until I can buy a baritone neck (the extra horn makes of course more sense with a longer scale neck)...

I also prepared planks for my next plank guitars and advanced finally on the fuzz box project - I should  finish it soon since I just had some enlightenments about electronics and I'm not stuck anymore...

Pedalboard

OK, a pedalboard is not much if you consider that I ambition to build guitars - a sloooow process as you might have noticed - but at least it is really useful - since I switched back to pedals after a long multi-effect phase (I've been an avid user of Korg's Pandora - that fits in one's pocket), I've been carrying around a few kilos of pedals (and I don't even have boutique ones!) and lost a lot of time plugging and unplugging!

So this pedalboard made of aluminium mesh fulfills my needs: it's compact, light and cheap. I'm not super happy with the red rubber bands - there's a clear lack of coolness there -, but the system works and that's what matters! It fits in a basic alu tool case and I have a trolley for it, so I won't have a broken back anymore when I arrive at the rehearsal studio (knowing that I usually also carry two guitars, it was time that I take care of this!) At some point, I'll have to get new cables with proper length and flexibility, but this is not en emergency. 

OK, the next project is another planck guitar for a friend in France, that should quickly be used on stage for his current act - more about this later.

pedalboard troubles

I can't believe that I've spent two hours rearranging these pedals just to make them fit in the case! Now I found the right disposition, with zigzagging cables, but I can't understand why MXR pedals still have their power jacks on the side on the 21st century, it's so unpractical!

Anyway,  a little bit more drilling, cutting and screwing, and my super-light portable pedalboard is ready!