Burlap and Blues, The Blues Blog

Download the newest BAB collab CD, SUMMERTIME now at http://burlapandblues.com/babsummertime/BurlapAndBlues-Summertime.zip Some of the best summertime music. Much more logical to do this than E=MC²

Well, I have had my Pedals by Tone Overdrive for a few days now and I really have fell in love with the tone that it gives. I have been writing my reviews as I play with the pedal, but today will be my summary entry into the Pedals by Tone reviews.

As I mentioned before I purchased this pedal based on the description given by the builder. Although the original sound clips were not the best, I decided to give the pedal a try. The first night I had this pedal I recorded a little clip to see how it responded and then how others responded to the tone.

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Now any review of a pedal would be completely incomplete if I did not give sound samples of the pedal that I am reviewing. The pedal is advertised as a pedal that will take a small clean amp and turn it into a stack. The Pedals by Tone overdrive is a FET overdrive with a series of overdrives. This pedal is serial #7 and Pedals by Tone is a new or newer company that I have never heard of before purchasing this pedal.

(note this review was originally set to publish on 6/28/2010 but I have decided to move it up a few days)

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Two days after ordering the pedal, it was right there on my doorstep. The pedal was packaged better than I would expect a Faberge egg packed. It was marked fragile everywhere! I wondered if I got the wrong package.

Well I opened up the package and found a well packed pedal double packed.

This is a real pretty pedal. The first thing I noticed it that this thing is LIGHT! Most boutique pedals this size have a little bit of weight to them. This was lighter even than a stock Boss pedal. This pedal is #7 (the seventh one made) in this style of pedals.

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Pedals by Tone? Never heard of them. A Google search left me with nothing, nothing at all.

The video was interesting, but I could almost tell that the amp was a solid state amp that they put the pedal through.

So why did I purchase this pedal, because the description was interesting.

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At this moment, summer is here. BAB is having a summer contest. Make sure that you stop by and listen to some of the great summer related songs we have!

The Summer Solstice occurs when the path of the sun reaches its northern most point in the northern sky. As this name directly relates to the season in the northern hemisphere, this date may be known as the Winter Solstice for those in the southern hemisphere to correspond with the season of winter beginning. The Summer Solstice is also known as the June Solstice, with it occurring usually near June 21st.

The date of the Summer Solstice corresponds to the longest day of the year for the northern hemisphere (and the shortest day of the year for the southern hemisphere). The sun is centered on the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees North), leading to the areas above the Arctic Circle (66.5 degrees North) to receive a full 24 hours of sunlight and for areas below the Antarctic Circle (66.5 degrees South) to have a full 24 hours of darkness.

(courtesty of NWS MKX)

The pick punch, a real interesting idea.

The original article and review regarding the pick punch has been edited to accurately reflect the current state of the pick punch. The Pick Punch has since greatly improved their product and it is no longer prone breakage. THE CURRENT VERSION OF THE PICK PUNCH IS IMPROVED AND DOES NOT BREAK! Please review the updated pick punch review at http://burlapandblues.com/bluesblog/blog1.php/2010/10/09/pick-punch-2-review

In the original post I commented on how good the customer service is, please beleive me. Please contact pick punch at www.pickpunch.com if you have any questions about this product.

Also understand that I received no compensation for this review.

In yesterday's review I went over a few tones with the Analogman modified Boss DS-1. When I got this pedal I had an odd chance to see another guitar player who was feeding an OCD into the Analogman. He said the tone was sustain forever with harmonic overtones.

So I pulled out the OCD

and fed it into the Analogman

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I found myself in the hands of an Analogman DS-1 recently. I purchased this at a great deal as a backup to my Keeley mod DS-1. The stock DS-1 from Boss is a harsh, grainy and cheap distortion, and the modification of these pedals has amazed me. These pedals tend to be built like a tank and they are very difficult to destroy, usually it takes an act of nuclear annihilation to destroy one of them.

I decided for the review to use my standard set-up for playing with my Keeley to see how this pedal reacts to my Ibanez Jem. The amplifier is a 'rectifier' clone.

http://burlapandblues.com/bluesblog/analogman/clean.mp3

For the next clip I added the analog man with a gain of about 50%.

http://burlapandblues.com/bluesblog/analogman/analogmanlow.mp3

I enjoy the harmonic overtones that are created by this pedal. The overtones are more pronounced than a stock DS-1, which as I said before tends to be very grainy. The sustain that is produced is pleasant.

The next clip I turned the gain all the way up on the analog man

http://burlapandblues.com/bluesblog/analogman/analoghigh.mp3

The grainyness of the distortion is seen once the gain hits about 75%. The pedal does give a good creamy distortion and is overall, not as noisy as a stock DS-1, but not as smooth as the Keeley modded DS-1. The sustain of the Analogman is a tiny bit better than a Keeley mod, but both are significantly better than stock (which is to be expected).

The Analogman overall did very well in this test. Tomorrow's review includes a neat trick I saw with this pedal online!

I haven't had fun with one of these stupid holidays recently, so I am going after national HUG day. no HUG does not stand for Huge Unitard Group... No it means physical touching out of kindness. Okay with friends, but not at work. There are good hugs and bad hugs... When they involve your kids and their boyfriends, not good hugs ever. I think a 6 or 8 foot rule makes tons of sense right?

Reviews of guitar related products will start again this week with the reviews that I have been waiting to type up, but instead I was playing guitar.. Go figure!

Keep checking back as I get down and dirty with some interesting reviews!

The purpose of The Willie Brown Blues Benefit is to raise money to purchase Willie Brown a headstone. Mr. Brown is currently buried in an unmarked grave in Tunica County, MS. Willie Brown, who not only recorded for Paramount and used to play with Robert Johnson and Charley Patton, is buried in an unmarked grave in Tunica, MS. In order to have a headstone created and placed at the Good Shepherd Church in Tunica, we need to raise $2100. Every single cent raised from this benefit will go directly to the purchase and placement of the headstone.

The Willie Brown Blues Benefit is a FREE SHOW. There will be raffles, live auctions, and a donation bucket to raise funds for this worthy cause.

For more information please check out http://www.tdblues.com/?page_id=834

It was a great ride. As of last night, it is all over for me. I did not get to move on in the competition. I was fortunate enough to be in the top 5 in Rockford, but the judges have made their decisions.

Last night 1200 or so guitarists competed and 214 will move on. Quite an elite group. Many of which probably do not belong to advance either because they did not know the rules or intentionally falsified to move on to the next round. Either way it is Guitar Center's contest, it belongs to them and they get to do it how they want. I am just thankful that I got to move on. I got some good tips from the judges. Some I agree with, some I do not.

Now back to things that are different.

When it started there were about 5,000 now there are about 1,000 people set to play tomorrow night.

Then there will be 214 left standing, give or take a few. I have never stayed to watch a store finals, but the videos I have seen have been pretty impressive.

I will not be telling people who won in Rockford until later in the day on Friday as I will be uploading videos of all of the competitors tomorrow.

If you made it this far, serious congrats to you for making it this far.