Cool action shot that just got shared with me from last week’s show.

My pedalboard keeps changing.

Swapped out the Benson Preamp for an Angry Driver today.

New Guitar Day: not what I expected to say the least.

2021 Les Paul Standard in Honey Burst with a 60s neck

Figured I’d take a guts shot while changing tubes.

This is what happens when you stay up past your bedtime.

Look at this scruff. A real dog-shaped dog.

Nepenthe had a great deal on beer. I can’t believe I got this six pack for $10.

My nephew is quite pleased to have a someone working away in his home office while he sleeps in his favorite spot.

I’m begging coffee shops to sell half pastries. This is too much. But half…

State of the Board for one day only as I punch in a part from home.

Welcome to the family, Mae!

I am very not good at this new thing I’m trying.

This Memorial Day involved a bunch of random activities. Including:

Setting up a new electronics work station

Who knows if this hobby will stick? But I’ve decided it’s time to get to work on a breadboard and with a soldering iron. I’m hoping to build some guitar pedals as a starting point. Send me your fun electronics project ideas!

Power Washing

I haven’t properly cleaned this deck since we moved in almost 8 years ago. It’s way past time. I spent over an hour, and there’s still so much more to do. Also, there are so many wasps out there.

Ribs

When Whole Foods has ribs on sale for Memorial Day weekend, you make some ribs.

Misc.

We watched the first two episodes of The Last of Us Season 2. It’s… fine.

I played a lot of guitar.

We looked at a lot of dogs to adopt.

Solid pre-guitar shopping food.

I figured I should share my “current family” of guitars (messy room, sorry) after writing about what I tested.

Note Wiring is not really complete– I need some additional organization and cable lengths to make things clean and ideal, but I think this is the core layout.

Signal chain

Polytune 3 Mini -> Keeley OctaPsi -> BSRI Magawa -> (Amp) -> Walrus Julia -> Chase Bliss Billy Strings Wombtone -> Walrus ARP-87 -> Walrus Fundamental Ambient -> (Amp)

(Amp) is mostly the Dr. Z Maz 18 I have a UA Lion ‘68 (pictured) that I’m using sometimes for home recording and also intend to bring to gigs to enable an amp-less setup/backup if needed. I’m also not 100% sure I’ll always run the modulation/time stuff in the effects loop. In fact, I’ve mostly been running entirely into the front of the amp at rehearsals because it’s less hassle. But I think that I prefer this stuff in the loop, so I’m going to be less lazy about using a four cable method going forward.

The Dr. Z amp pedal is not a switcher– it’s a built in boost. To my ears, I don’t get much volume, likely because I have enough crunch set on the amp that I just get more compression, sustain, and gain when I slap that on.

The Walrus Canvas Power 15 is new, as is the pedalboard (Pedaltrain Classic 2, versus the original Pedaltrain I had– the tilt is really nice). Both are great so far.

Why are things arranged this way?

The spatial arrangement of the pedals is intended to make it easy to switch between the four-cable method, getting the dirt before the amp or the UA Lion, then getting the send from the effects loop into the Julia or going from the Lion to the Julia.

I put dirt on the bottom because that’s what I hit the most often. Magawa alone, amp boost alone, or both combined are my most common switches. That’s definitely followed by the octave on, which I use in a few songs to fatten a lead or a part heavy in diads. Typically, I am only using one modulation or time-based effect on at a time, so having them be a bit more distant is no problem. The Fundamental Ambient gets turned on the most, so it’s also in an easy spot at the edge.

What didn’t make the board

I continue to futz with the Slö and Fathom, the other two Walrus reverbs. I owned the Fundamental Ambient first and love everything about it. I’ve never been quite able to worm to the “big brothers” the Slö or Fathom. They may just not be for me. I honestly want to read more about both and look at other people’s settings and see if I can find a way to love them. If not, I’ll probably sell or trade them soon. I think I may want another reverb still– perhaps something more classic, perhaps something built into a delay like the Wampler Ethereal Delay and Reverb I traded (which I may get again, or perhaps try and EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master).

The Nano POG got pulled off when I got the OctaPsi, but it’s so damn good at what it does I don’t know if I’m willing to get rid of it yet.

Other uncertainties

I’m not so sure about the ARP-87. I think I liked the Wampler Ethereal Delay more, so like I said in Remainders about a reverb, I may be looking for a different delay, perhaps one with a reverb as well. I’m considering something like the JHS Flight Delay, too. I love the way the Julia sounds in general, but I’m still dialing it to find a setting that really fits with what I play and makes sense for a song. I suspect if I am ever going to get along with chorus, this will be the one, but I’m not quite there yet with it.

I got the Wombtone in my Mystery Box and immediately found a great setting for what I like a phaser to do and what I use it for in the band. Is it markedly better than the BSRI Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter– not for me, I use it in an almost identical fashion and don’t find it that much more meaningful. That said, it can do more and it’s a smaller enclosure, so when by chance I saw someone looking for the BSRI on Reddit I made the trade. I don’t need two phasers around, and BSRI will be at the Baltimore Pedal Show next month so I can always pick up another if I want and support a local builder.

Speaking of BSRI and reverbs, I’m pretty sure I want to look at the Soft Rains and the Smell of the Ground. I loved this pedal last year, and only didn’t get it because I was practically willing to buy everything BSRI had to show. Given my current reverb situation, I think it’s pretty likely I buy one of these next month.

What else am I considering? I think I want some more dirt options. The Magawa sounds and works great. The OctaPsi is untameable, like any Muff style pedal should be. But I still have interest in adding more textures and subtly. I think I’m most interested in a Browne Amplification Protein, the Boss OD-3, the Boss BD-2 or maybe instead a Boss Angry Driver JB-2, or possibly a Wampler Tumnus. The Benson Deep Sea Diver is also really interesting for another version of just “blow things up” in one pedal. I have tried hard not to gas over the Walrus Qi Etherealizer, because as much as I absolute adore Yvette Young, I can’t play even a little bit like her so I can’t “trust” the demos of what that pedal would do in my hands. But that being said, some of the sounds are absolutely crazy. I really like the idea of being able to create spacey pads of sound on guitar that are not just walls of fuzz. I also keep eyeing the EarthQuaker Devices Swiss Things. I do a fair amount of tap dancing sometimes to go from clean + Fundamental Ambient -> Magawa and amp boost on. It’d be kind of neat to have dirt in a loop so that I could set up any of my stacking how I need and one switch get to where I’m going. Plus, with the UA Lion, my Dr. Z amp, and the Valvetech amp, A/B/Y starts to get pretty interesting in terms of options.

Just hanging out, being destroyed by allergies.

Reddit recommended this post to me, with the following image:

As a reminder, this is what’s going on in my office, at the rehearsal studio, and who I am:

Ouch.

I only just barely had enough time to plug it all in and get it working, but I can tell you that my “record song ideas at home” setup just got a massive upgrade.

In fact, now it’s a “record solid takes at home silently” setup.

As I told Elsa, “I had to buy a new small box so that I could buy more small boxes.”

The Citadel. 📍

My youngest brother in law just graduated college! Elsa looks pretty good in his hat.

It turns out, one of the best burgers in Baltimore can be found at Camden Yards.

The AVAM in Baltimore is such a weird, precious treasure.

It is absolutely insane to me that there’s no way to click and add this to my calendar. Who makes apps like this? It’s been this way for years.

Pretty much where I spend my free days.