I mentioned in a post last night that I got a Covid-19 booster shot. They stabbed me with that around 4:30pm, along with a flu shot at the same time. Double barrel vaccination action for this redhead.
As many of us who are not anti-vax morons know, the day after a Covid shot can kinda suck. I am definitely feeling it today. I got eight hours of sleep, thanks in part to the end of daylight savings time, and I should be nice and rested but I am not. I’m exhausted and my nose is running and my eyes are sore and just want to close and I generally feel a little sick.
It’s not that bad overall, but it is just bad enough to turn me into the stereotypical middle aged man who at the slightest hint of cold symptoms turns into a moaning, brooding, miserable, two year old who just wants to whine all day and bitch and moan and sleep and complain.
Look at me with pedals on the floor like some kind of freakin’ amateur.
Two songs were added to the 50/90 pipeline this morning. That makes eight, all with rhythm guitars recorded. I’m going lo-fi this time, sort of like I did back in March. No doubling. This time I have two amps though so I can pan one left and one right and still keep the bass in the middle. Fascinating.
I have also finished tracking volume 1 of the Great 2015 Re-Recording Project. I put the lead guitars onto the last of the eight songs. It only took five years! I’ll try to mix it tonight, but a crappy night’s sleep last night might get in the way of that.
Most important, my new Crybaby wah pedal is working. It wasn’t for the last couple of days. I thought I broke the switch. It worked fine when it was on, but when it was “off” the wah was still engaged, there was just maybe 1% of the signal coming through. I took it off the board on Thursday so I could get some work done. Today I put a battery in it (because when I tried to power it with my daisy chain it sounded awful) and messed with it.
The problem was still there. I remembered that there’s a switch inside to change from true bypass to buffered bypass. I figured since the bypass is the problem, maybe I could change that? Nope, didn’t fix it. I kept the buffer on. I know buffers are like bad words to most guitar gear nerds, but I prefer the way the wah sounds when there’s a buffer in the signal. What can you do.
So it’s not the bypass, maybe it is the switch? I flipped it a few times with my hand, maybe it’s stuck on something? Worst case scenario is I send it back to get it fixed and probably also buy something a little meatier than a Dunlop. Something boutique and expensive. I don’t know… that switch… One more try… I stomped on the pedal… really hard. Problem solved. Oh jeeze, Edith.
As mentioned yesterday, I am done with Fulltone and that SUCKS. The OCD pedal is amazing. The Clyde Deluxe Wah pedal is Earth shattering. I have a pedal I can use in place of the OCD (the Dan side of the Keeley D&M Drive is more or less an OCD clone) but I don’t have a suitable replacement for the Clyde Deluxe because no suitable replacement exists, at least not in my travels.
If you look back through the vast ocean of posts on this page you’ll find the one that mentions me first buying the Clyde and how it felt like I was cheating on 20-30 years worth of playing Dunlop Cry Baby wahs. When I first realized I was going to have to buy a new pedal my first thought was to just get a new basic, simple Cry Baby. Then I thought… I don’t wanna. I have grown accustomed to the uber nerd cork sniffing that comes with using a boutique brand pedal. I wanted more of that.
I went to Reddit and started a thread asking for ballpark alternatives to the Clyde. I had a few recommended to me. I spent some time on Google, and some time on youtube and everything I was told to check out sounds amazing. They also are really, really expensive. My Clyde Deluxe isn’t the most expensive pedal I own, but it’s probably #3. Maybe even #2. Do I want to spend $250-300 for another wah pedal? Yes but… probably not.
So I guess maybe I’m going back to Dunlop after all. It’s not a bad thing, the Cry Baby line is great and served me well for pretty much a lifetime. Unfortunately, there are something like 11,036 Cry Baby models to choose from. They have signature models for almost every guitar player alive. I think they might even have a signature model with my name on it (no they don’t, sarcasm).
So I went back to youtube and dug around. Some of them are just ridiculous. The Slash model has a built in distortion pedal. Lame. Nope. Their higher end non-signature pedal has a built in boost pedal. Not quite as lame but still lame. Nope. I don’t want bells and whistles this time. I had that and it broke my pathetic little heart. I just want a pedal I can stomp on and make my guitar quack like a duck on acid.
I made my choice. I was going with a Gary Clark, Jr signature model. I went to amazon and put one in my cart. Delivery date estimate? End of June. Oh for crying out loud. I found it from another amazon seller but it was significantly higher priced. Damn it! What was my #2 choice? The Joe Bonamassa signature. That was more expensive than the Clark, but not as expensive as the more expensive Clark. Oh okay, we’re going with the alternate choice.
The Joe Bonamassa signature Cry Baby wah-wah pedal should be delivered on Monday.
Having a conscience sucks.
Here’s a That Pedal Show episode where they mess with wah pedals… because.
Inside the Red Head's Head 