I saw this posted on bookfayce today and thought I’d share it here. It’s alternatives to popular Fulltone pedals for folks like me who are turned off by racism.
He mentions a couple of JHS pedals but those don’t work for people like me who are turned off by homophobia, but there are still some interesting ideas here.
All the tone of a fulltone ocd with none of the racist bullshit.
This is the boutiquiest thing I’ve ever been a part of. Malaise Forever is a guy in Columbus (go Blue Jackets) who builds pedals. In this case, the order was placed before the pedal was built. Does that mean it was made to order? Probably not, but let’s pretend, yeah?
A piece of the profit from the sale of this pedal was given to organizations fighting for racial justice and to protect civil liberties.
Go buy something from this guy. If there ever was a pedal builder deserving support it’s Malaise Forever.
After recording vocals on five songs this morning, I put leads on three of them tonight. I could have done more, but I decided to quit while I was ahead.
So my thumb… I hurt it weeks ago. I don’t remember how, I just woke up one day and ouch. It wasn’t bad. It was annoying, but nothing to worry about. I figured in a day or two it would be history.
Instead, it’s gotten steadily worse over time. The last couple of days it’s been really bad. Like, bad enough that I’m thinking of breaking lock down to go get an x-ray or something. Clearly there’s a bigger issue than just a boo boo.
Tonight was the first time since it started being a major problem that I tried to play the guitar. How’d it go? Okay. There was some pain, but the motions my left hand needs to do to play are not those that really kick my ass. I feel like I’m lucky, but will it get worse? Who knows.
I used my full pedal board tonight so I’ve been getting goofy with all of the toys. I used a fuzz pedal tonight, and the uni-vibe pedal and a flanger and lots of wah wah. Goofy, but fun. Just feeling good about my hand not sabotaging me. Like, whew, am I right?
There are guitar pedals that I covet that are no longer in production that cost a small fortune that I would love to get my mitts on, but given the cost I would never actually consider.
That’s a common occurance (looking at you, vintage EHX Electric Mistress, and Triangle Big Muff, and Klon Centaur, and a bunch more).
Today I put a new twist on this for the first time. I looked around for a certain pedal that I know is out of production, but the used market is not out of control at all. It’s a Keeley 1962, or a 1962x. I’ve got a hankering for that Blues Breaker style pedal and I still have a year or more to suffer through the Analogman King of Tone waiting list, and I was hoping to get something cheaper than a Wampler Pantheon, and I refuse to do business with JHS (Google it). I’ve seen Keeley 1962 pedals for less than the Pantheon, so I went looking today.
Nothing.
I found one for sale on ebay from a seller in Japan.
For the first time in my internet shopping pedal junkie existence… I have been denied.
Damn!
Lunch time came and I finally couldn’t stand it anymore. I pulled a power cable off of another amplifier and took the new (used) Vox AC15 for a spin. Much to my surprise it actually works. Jen was still working so I didn’t test the volume, but I did play it clean with the master volume and the channel volume low, and I played it dirty with the master volume WAY down and the channel volume cranked. I can still smell the tubes cooking. Nice.
Fortunately, while I was noodling UPS came with the missing power cable. The amp was eight days late. The cable was nine. It’s here though. My ES-335 is feeling like it might need some new strings. Other than that I think I’m ready to record some guitar tonight.
I should note that I still haven’t actually plugged in the new power cable yet. Am I counting my chickens before they hatch? Probably. Oh well. I’m sick of this shit. It’s over. Let’s boogie.
My new (used) amp was delivered today. It was eight days late, but it’s here…. sort of.
It’s hard to tell with a closed back cabinet, but it looks like the vacuum tubes survived the ordeal. Do they work? That’s the question.
Why is that still a question, you ask?
Because guitar center failed to include a power cable in the shipment.
There will probably be a post discussing the power cable situation but (spoiler) I need to calm down first.
I’m getting old. I’m out of shape. Bending down to see something that’s on the floor is no picnic these days. Also, I’m going blind. My eyesight is getting suckier by the day. Also, the printing on the Keeley D&M Drive pedal is really, really small, and the color scheme doesn’t help. The little sucker is hard to read.
Fortunately I have an iPhone. I can reach down and take a pic with the 2x lens, then zoom in on the image and magically I can read the labels on the knobs.
I love living in the future.
Except for the whole pandemic thing. That bites. The other stuff, the tech stuff, is cool.
In other words, they haven’t a clue where my package is. Okay. From now on I will reserve all of my bitching about this subject for phone calls to UPS customer service. You folks won’t have to listen to me anymore.
I heard a sound outside. It sounded like a large vehicle. I looked out the window. There was a UPS truck driving away.
Oh happiness! My amplifier!
I went outside. There was a package. It was large. It weighted about five pounds. What? The amp weighs over 40 pounds.
Crud. It’s not my amp.
UPS… come on guys. I mean, I used to be one of you! I worked in the Chelmsford Hub for a year. I loaded trucks bound for the Worcester, MA Center. I loaded trucks for the Portland, ME Center. That was a major volume belt. Come on guys, let’s deliver my new (used) amplifier. My June Music project Trello board tells me I have two songs waiting for lead guitars, and if you drop off that sweet little AC15 I can use it for those tracks tonight.
Come on, UPS. Let’s get ‘er done!
In other gear news, I was clued in to an independent pedal builder in Ohio who is selling clones of the Fulltone OCD pedal and donating the money to Black Lives Matter bail funds. How awesome is that? Seriously, that made me so happy. He did a very small run (looks like his business only does small runs. In fact, it feels like the business is just one guy in his house) and then did a second slightly bigger run (the pedals are named Black Lives Matter and that too is awesome). I sent him three questions on bookfayce. Are you going to make more, which version of the OCD pedal are you cloning, and how much are you charging. I know it’s going to be expensive, but if he makes more and I get a chance to buy in, I am totally going to buy one. I’ll do it for two reasons. First, I want to use all the arguments I had a few weeks ago as an excuse to donate some money to the cause. Second, I still want an OCD pedal and I want to stick it to Fulltone. Petty? Yes. I don’t care.
There are other companies making OCD clones because of this situation, but for some reason this is the one that’s calling out to me. The name of the company is Malaise Forever Customs. Here’s hoping they make more.
Inside the Red Head's Head 