Two Stunning Sequels

T-REX MUDHONEY II

Controls (Both Channels)

• Level: Controls overall output
• Gain: Sets grit/crunch/distortion amount
• Tone: Controls high-end roll-off
• Normal/Boost Switch: Switch from moderate to high gain
• Bypass Footswitch: True bypass switching

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The release of this little doozy was one that for me made absolute sense. Like the original this new pedal also works perfectly for all types of rock - from alternative, punk, and hard rock, to blues, country, and classic rock. And also like the first Mudhoney this puppy is also an awesome tool for stacking up with other dirt boxes and overdriven amps. Only with this Mudhoney T-Rex has added a second identical channel for even more tonal range on the fly. Finding suitable amps, guitars, and pickups to match this pedal up with was a piece-of-cake. I was literally able to just plug in and go without any problems,  thanks to the pedal's responsive and versatile controls. I plugged this pedal into everything from Strat's and Les Paul's, to Tele's and semi-hollow guitars, and never found I wasn't able to dial in stunning tones. 


I'll start with my 15 watt head and neck bucker Tele, which I later used with the Mudhoney II on a small gig and ended up being the perfect little tone machine for knocking out all of my overdrive and distortion textures. Later I would discover this would also be quite an impressive setup for studio and recording sessions. With the amount of range that this pedal's gain and tone controls have to offer, it made it possible to dial in everything I needed. Then add in the pedal's boost function and a little meddling of your guitar's controls - and you got yourself a whole new range of tons to play with! Having the ability to set one of the pedal's channels to a light boosted grit, and the other channel to a hotter drive - really made this one of the most useful dirt pedals. Using the pedal to slam into the tubes I was able to get these traditional punchy clean/dirty AC15 tones with lots of highs and smooth mids. Then once engaging the pedal's second hotter channel I was able to push into more distorted and aggressive rock tones. All without loosing the amp's characteristics and maintaining my root tone feel. I was also easily able to control how and when the tone broke up by the dynamics of my picking and strumming. A light touch would provide a sparkling clean tone with gritty undertones, and digging in would take the amp into a howling growl. With ease I was also able to get back to the amp's clean tone by rolling back on the guitar's volume, all without any coloration or drop in tone. Next I experimented with one channel as a clean booster and the other cranked full blast. Here the pedal created an authentic rich'n'smooth golden rhythms and ruff'n'rugged leads. Most awesome was how each pick would respond. In the Tele's bridge pickup the overdrive signal was able to slice and cut with great definition and spank. Ringing out chords never sounded so beautiful! I got great note separation yet still had plenty of attitude to punch out massive sounding chord work. With the neck humbucking picking it was more of the same. I got all of the same note separation and aggression, only with even more smoothness and low bottom thump. I thought to myself "Here I am not even ankle deep into this pedal and it's already pushing out tons of awesome tones." This was something that the first Mudhoney pedals had, and why so many players love them so. Another amp/guitar combo that works nicely with this pedal was my 4x10 Deville and P90 equipped Junior copy. Here also tried the clean booster channel/fully cranked lead channel thing and it was marvelous! The throaty P90 tone cut through like a deadly samurai sword. It was obviously going to be no problem getting this pedal to adapt to whatever pickup you played it through. I was could take the sparkling Fender clean tone into just about any dirt tone I wanted. Through this amp I also got hear what the Mudhoney II sounded like through super loud levels. If you guys have ever played the Hot Rod amps you know how knarly they can get. And with mine sporting four 100watt ten inch speakers, a revamped tone circuits, and a few other tweaks - it gives it enough clean headroom to spare and makes it the perfect amp for running dirt pedals through. With the amp cranked loud enough and the Mudhoney set just right, I was also able to convert it into a Marshall-like demon. The four 10's sounded like a wall of rock god heaven. This amp is also another piece of gear I use a lot for gigs, and with the Mudhoney II it was really nice. On stage the pedal was able to give me the perfect blend of clean to distortion, and able to provide me with those blaring screeching lead tones. Using this pedal live also gave me the opportunity to stack it up with some other pedals... hehehehe. Just for kicks in the middle of a riffing good break down I decided to stomp on the Mudhoney, while already playing through a blaring smooth fuzz tone. The Mudhoney took the fuzz pedal's grimey sound and twisted it into a mothership of psychedelic harmonics and overtones. Then there was pushing this pedal though an already overdriven signal, which was probably one of my ways to use this pedal. Through both pedal overdrive and amp overdrive the Mudhoney II came through with flying colors. After playing around with the Mudhoney II for a couple days I would safely describe it as a pedal capable of a huge range of dirty tones, a pedal that plays well with other stompboxes, and a pedal that thrives when matched up with tube amps.... and just a kickass pedal PERIOD!

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T-REX ROOM-MATE

Controls

• Mix: Mixes the dry and the wet signal. Set at 12 you can hear the guitar go through
• Decay: Determines the length of the spring, that is emulated
• Hicut: Cuts the high notes on the tail of the reverb. Giving the tail a smooth sound
• Level: Controls the output volume
• Gain: Controls the level on the input signal. With this knob you can turn down the input signal, if it is too power full. The green light on top of the pedal will go red, if the input signal is too high and makes the pedal distort

Reverb Types

• Spring: Sounds like an old vintage Fender amp with the typical spring based reverb
• Room: Typical room reverb. Like a clinic in a small room
• Hall: Sounds like a big concert hall
• LFO: Reverb with chorus

(Pedal gives stereo output through the left and right output jack plugs)

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I could very easily describe this pedal in one sentence simply by writing - The end-all be-all reverb pedal for the masses. But I won't stop here. First let me say I honest to God thought there was no way T-Rex could improve on the Room-Mate... boy was I wrong. I myself never owned a first version Room-Mate but nontheless I am quite familiar with the pedal. The first Room-Mate is a pedal that many cats that I know use in their studios and gigging pedalboards. For this reason I must admit that when I first heard there was going to be a new Room-Mate hitting the streets, I got giddy with excitement. Never did I think it would end up being as amazing as it is. Features I won't go into, if you want to read up on the new Room-Mate's features look above or click here. It is all about how this pedal works with you and your tone, and how versatile of a reverb box it is. 


I'll start with some honest to goodness classic spring reverb tones. For this I plugged into my Super Lead and Telecaster. The big booming sound of the 100 watt Marshall in fact ended up being the perfect canvas for the new Room-Mate's awesome tones. To achieve a vintage voiced spring verb sound was indeed very very easy. I simply set the mode switch to spring, dialed in it's controls to my liking, and that was that. Right there swimming out from my amp was a lush sparkling classic reverb tone that had my guitar sounding pretty damn hip. I had the perfect blend of British attitude and classic American verb, which made for one very cool tone. I slowly went from a clean tone to pushing the amp into a light grit. With the pedal's decay and mix controls I could dial-in just the right amount of effect and feel. It was nice having the ability to have a big decayed reverb only mixed in lightly. This created this strange reverb that sat intensely behind the amp's root tone. Lots and lots of fun. When I first demo'd this pedal I had done it through a Twin Reverb (the king of all reverb amps if you ask me). This would later lead to comparing both of the reverb types. A/B-ing the amp and pedal's reverb tones I must say was quite tuff, and I will have to honest here - I did choose the pedal more times than I did the amp. Later when getting deeper into this pedal I knew exactly why this was - It is the Room-Mate's tone quality. Even at low almost undetectable rverb settings the pedal gives your root tone a little bit of sweetness. This is one of those pedals that holds all of the mojo that makes a great vintage tone great, yet takes this tone into higher grounds. This let me pull surfy psychedelic 60's verb tones and light fluffy whispers, with plenty of warm and definition. All literally a breeze for this pedal. With the pedal's wide range of controls I could pull a bunch of variations on each reverb tone I dialed in. This automatically makes this a killer gigging reverb. Anyone without a on-board reverb would do themselves proper by snatching up one of these pedal's.  Then there was using this pedal as a studio tool (which is where the fun really began). Not everyone can afford expensive rackmount reverb tools or has room for big bulky reverb tank units. This pedal is a perfect alternative to all of this. I'm the type of cat that when recording uses the best tool for the job. Not always what might work best for one application work for another. Sometimes I like to use something flashy, sometimes I use a plug-in, and sometimes I use pedals. With the new Room-Mate I was able to get all types of uses out of it. One of my favorite was using it's room reverb effect in recording sessions and live gigs. With drums and vocals this especially worked best. I was able to give my drum tracks a big, sweet, forgiving room sound that added size and muscle to the overall sound. I recorded these hi-hat/kick/snare tracks with a stereo overhead and mic in the kick, that in the end sounded pretty damn impressive (thanks to my micing techniques and skills, hehehehe). Later when adding the Room-Mate's room reverb things got even sweeter. I was able to hear and feel all of the room's characteristics and sweet acoustics. This possible with both hall and room settings. Adding the pedal's hall reverb also sounded great with fuzz pedals and high gain distortions. I myself really enjoy using an exaggerated hall verb with fuzz for adding spooky and psychedelic layers to tunes. It's a great way to create background noise and make your fuzz notes trail on forever. Then last came the super cool super hip LFO reverb mode. Oh mama! I've heard and played many different takes on this type of reverb before, and thought either they were too much or just not interesting at all. With this pedal it is not like so. The LFO mode really takes your tone and turns it into something wild and special. I was able to get these beautifully aquatic-like reverb/chorus hybrids, then take her all the way up to trippy warbling madness. Again, having the amount of control that that this pedal offers made it a cinch to get tons of different variations. From one end of the reverb spectrum to the other - I was able to cover just about every sound you could imagine. This is one of those pedals that really needs no help in speaking for itself - a pedal that will for sure become a collector's in years to come. 

Night of the Living Fuzz

Spencer Amps
Distortion Processors/Modifications

That's right kids, we've got another extra special treat for you from the awesome mind of Bill Spencer. Earlier this year when I discovered Spencer Amps I had no idea what I would be in for. In this life of a tone conscience/tone hunting fool - I come across and am introduced to lots of different gear. Some of the time the finds are real gems, and other times it is just more of the same. With Bill's gear it was a refreshing combination of familiar and wild'n'crazy tones. For those of you didn't catch our Spencer Amps feature on the Mystique Overdrive click here and come back to us once you've finished. You'll be glad you did. So what is it that makes these pedals a force of their own? Well, it appears Bill has a knack for uniting distortion tones with killer sounding fuzz. This is a talent that has led Bill to modify and design some real champion stompboxes. Below Bill has taken what in my opinion is not all that great of a pedal, and converted it into a spectacular one. You players that dig swimming within the distortion and fuzz box realm will ab-so-lut-ely dig this one. 

Supra Zombie Distortion

Mixfuzz (Total Conversion Mod)

Controls:

• Level: Controls overall output, with enough on tap to send your amp into a fierce overdrive
• Tone: Shapes your overdrive's tonal character - From smooth to sting
• Gain: Dials in grit amount and overall aggression
• Mix (Zombie): Works to blend in a second distortion circuit for a world of dirty tones

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This is one pedal I have been very very excited to share with you. I have always thought DOD pedals could be easily improved on and always wondered why more builder hadn't done so. Bill Spencer's "Zombie" modification of the DOD Supra Distortion is one that not only converts this pedal into a higher quality stompbox, it also provides it with the ability to deliver tons more tonal possibilities. What was once a normal run of the mill dirt pedal, is now a beast of many many faces. The Supra Zombie is capable of hitting you with everything from gritty boosts and overdrives, to distortions of all types and fuzz's of all colors. But dirty signals isn't all this pedal can do, no sir. In the right settings this pedal is also capable of synth-like tones, gated overdrives, and even controllable noise and feedback sound effects. Exactly how this pedal does this I won't get into. If you'd really like to read up on the specs and techs of the Supra Zombie you can click here. Instead I will share with you my experience with this saucy demon.

One of my favorite amp's to push with the Supra Zombie was a mighty fine ol' 22 watt Fender Deluxe. This amp's ability to go into naturally smooth and silky overdrives, makes for a great painting canvas. The Deluxe is an amp that on it's own is capable of great clean, semi-clean, gritty, and all-out distorted tones. By playing the Supra Zombie through this amp I was able to add to and accent everything the amp created. Guitars of all sorts were also something this pedal worked with magnificently. Through the Deluxe amp P90's and Strat pickups were my favorite. With the Strat I was able to get awesome Texas blues tones, super sustain soaked lead tones, and Hendrix-like fuzz tones. With the P90's I was able to some of the most aggressive and brutal dirt tones ever! And getting all of these tones was a cinch too, all thanks to the Zombie knob. Some dirt pedals you will wit with for hours trying to find and dial in sweet spots. Many dirt pedal you will plug into and just end up with the same old thing. With this baby that ain't so. In one direction the Zombie control will act much like an overdriven tube amp, giving you plenty of dynamics and letting you control the character of the crunch with your pick attack. At the opposite end the Zombie knob will take you into non-traditional dirt tones. I began by experimenting with the pedal without it's Zombie circuit blended into the signal. I Set the pedal's level and tone at noon, and the gain at 9'o'clock. Here the pedal pushed out a spot-on Pete Townshend rhythm tone that sounded amazing through all types of chord work. No matter how strong or soft I pushed the strings, the signal would dish out balanced and defined notes. It was something quite special actually, and it really took me my surprise. Strumming lightly the Supra Zombie kicked out perfectly clean notes that had plenty of sparkle and chime. Whenever I wanted more from the pedal I had to do was dig into the strings and I was home-free. With every bit of gain that I added to the signal I would get more crunch and more attitude. Once I got to about noon on the gain knob, the pedal began producing these harmonically rich super charged under/overtones that sang and howled with every little touch. This was really noticeable when chugging down on the strings, playing up on the higher frets, playing harmonics, and bending and playing double-stops. Here I was able to dial in a killer sounding David Gilmour lead tones. Then by adding in a hint of analog delay only made it that much better. Last before getting into the Zombie knob I went ahead and cranked the gain to full blast. Just like I expected the pedal's grit stayed intact with killer note articulation and smooth sweet compression. But even with the gain at full blast the pedal wasn't done doing it's magic. By rolling off on the tone knob I was able to get even more tonal characteristics and colors.And then, it was time to mix in the Zombie control.I started slowly, rolling it up while playing a chord. At low levels the Zombie control created these light synth-like tones that only got in the way enough to give the tone some extra sizzle. I began crunching down on a bunch of complex huge chords, and just like magic the pedal was able to hold it's own. Everything from riffing to bending sounded spectacular! Then I rolled the Zombie up a little more and the pedal began creating these killer sounding gated overdrive/distortion tones. But unlike sticking a normal gate pedal into your signal, this baby made things much more user friendly. The Zombie control was able to maintain and tighten the guitar's overall signal, yet produced a smooth enough roll-off that things didn't sound too choppy or robotic. Then I set the Zombie control at noon and things really started getting interesting. Here is where the signal turned into something other than just an overdrive or distortion tone. It was synth city all the way.And once this started the possibilities were endless. I was able to shape and mold the tone with my guitar's volume and tone, with my picking, and with my feedback. It was lovely! A little trick I found to be quite fun was playing way close to the bridge, with the volume rolled back half way, and the tone at full blast. Talk about a stinging hot signal. Passed noon the Zombie control began to blend a perfect balance of the first distortion stage into the second one. I got plenty of sizzle and zap, lots of smooth overdrive, and a hell of a lot of weird overtones. The type of pickups I played with the Zombie circuit engaged also made a huge difference on it's outcome. High watt amps, overdriven signals, through clean boosters, wah pedals, dirt boxes, etc... all sounded rock and roll. What was really cool though was how the pedal's dirt signal would stay defined and balanced no matter how much gain or Zombie I introduced into it. For anyone on the hunt for something a little bit different, a little bit strange, yet capable of getting back to the traditional - this pedal is it. If any of you out there have a stock DOD© Supra Distortion laying around the house collecting dust - Do yourself a favor and contact Bill Spencer for a proper mod. You'll be stoked you did!

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For more info on Spencer Amps go to www.spenceramps.com or click one of the Spencer Amps links. Make sure to check out our other Spencer Amps reviews and look out for more from this company in the near future. 

Helping You Get There

Vyagra Boost

Tone Shaping / Booster

CONTROLS

• Right Footswitch: True Bypass Operation
• Left Footswitch: Kicks in Parametric EQ
• Gain: 25db of  Clean Boost
• Frequency: Parametric EQ / 220Hz-1kHz
• Cut/Boost: Cut or Boost Frequency Signal

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Anytime I get a chance to try anything from the Crazy Tube Circuits pedal line, I just know I'm going to be in absolute treat. For those of you hardcore pedal addicted stompbox junkies, these pedals are the ultimate fix. It didn't take me long to become a loyal and dedicated fan once getting a hold of these boxes. Everything from the artwork on these boxes to the dynamite sound that they project is highly attractive. Chris Ntaifotis (mastermind behind CTC) has been able to design his pedals with the perfect balance between vintage vibe and traditionally smooth boutique sound. In all of the CTC pedals I have ever tried I've been able to find spot-on classic tones, as well as characteristics that make them all their own beasts. And speaking of tone beast, this is exactly the perfect way to describe the fury of the Crazy Tube Circuits Vyagra Boost. 

The Vyagra Boost's purpose is unlike any other booster you will ever come across. This simple yet extremely effective pedal will most certainly boost your signal into some of the most beautiful and powerful overdriven tones your ears will ever hear. But it is the Vyarga Boost's capability of taking your tone into wild and new horizons that sets it apart from many others. How it does this exactly? We will get to that shortly. This pedal is housed in a heavy duty small footprint enclosure, which makes it great for saving on pedalboard space, and built with only the highest of components. The Vyagra's gain control is capable of a whopping 25db of boost, enough for slamming the front-end of any amp. The freq control works as a parametric eq which lets you dial in a number of different tone characteristics. The cut/boost works inconjunction with the freq control for dialing the eq signal in & out. Last the pedal sports two LED indicators, and two high quality footswitches for true bypass and the for switching in the eq circuit.

Because of the Vyagra Boost's eq section I was able to run it up against every type of pickup and amp imaginable. The sweep of the parametric eq made it possible to fine tune both my clean and dirty tones, and let me convert certain pickup types into completely different animals. The pedal's eq section also made it possible to convert other pedal's into different beast and gave pedals such as modulation and compressors really cool flavors. I started with a duel humbucker equipped semi-hollow guitar and 15 watt tube amp. I set the amp as clean as I could with it's tone control at noon, no verb, and nothing but a pair of high quality cables going to amplifier and guitar. The root tone itself was thick and full of lots of meaty clean harmonics. The Vyagra Boost I set with it's gain control at about 15% power and left the eq circuit out for now. I engaged the pedal and hear the amp go up into an even thicker meatier sound. With the guitar's humbucking pickups I was able to easily get a bit of grit from the signal simply by digging in and striking down on the strings. Chords rang out rich and clear which made the amp sound much more poweful than it actually was. Single notes also had plenty of definition and strength which sounded great with riffs and licks of all sorts. I added in another 10% of the pedal's gain and switched to the neck humbucker. Here the root signal became much thicker and even more grittier depending how I struck the strings. I really liked how transparent the Vyagra's signal was, and how much mileage I could get from it's sound in each gain setting. I switched the pedal in & out to listen for changes in my tone, but there was none. The character of the naked amp was still present, only much more in-your-face. I then dialed the pedal's gain control to give me a medium overdriven signal, something perfect for blues and classic rock. I was actually able to get these great southern rock tones by pushing my amp and using the semi-hollow guitar. All good good stuff. I then took the amp's volume control as loud as it could go, which gave me an organic crunchy tone, and shot it's tone up a bit higher for more sparkle. I then pumped the pedal's gain up to about 50% which pushed the amp into delivering a stunning bedroom/studio level rock tone. The overall sound handed me plenty of everything! Rich harmonics, great overtones, lots of smooth'n'creamy grit, and sweet sweet mojo. Next I took the pedal's gain to full gain, and cranked out an army of different chords. My oh my what a sound that little was able to kick out. I was actually quite taken by how much power the Vyagra had to give. Here is where I began playing with it's eq section. I began by finding the neutral eq frequency, and left the cut/boost control at noon. From here I experimented with shifting from cut to boost. This is where I realized just how many sounds were going to be possible with this pedal. I was able to add weight to my sound or thin it out with just a turn of the cut/boost control. This also let me fine tune my amplifier, which is perfect for those of you who have trouble finding your amp's sweet spot. By cranking the pedal's gain control to the desired spot and setting the eq section just where I wanted it - I was able to get exactly the sounds I was hearing in my head. Next I began playing around with different freq control settings. Very very quickly did things become interesting. To get the sound I wanted form my pickups all I had to do was strum down on a chord and turn the freq control until I found the tone I wanted. Then with the cut or boost I was able to dial in as much or as little of that sound as I wanted. I was able to get cocked wah sounds, treble boost tones, midrange heavy tones, tones that sliced through the air, and just about everything in between all of these. Using this pedal for lead guitar tones was something I found was exceptionally fun. I then plugged the Vyagra Boost into a 100 watt Super Lead and let it fly. I set the amp really loud so it would overdrive into a big natural crunch. Then I stacked the pedal's boost section into it and got an even bigger sound. The Vyagra didn't change the feel of the tone but instead gave it more of what made it sound great. The more of the pedal's gain I pushed into the amp, the more of the amp's mojo I was able to get. Tossing in some of the pedal's parametric eq was also quite delightful. The huge sound of the amp and frequency range of the eq gave me just about every sound I wanted. I could go about playing my amp's natural clean or overdriven tone, then with the Vyagra Boost boost that signal and have the eq pre-switched for a maniacal sound that made everything sound wild and crazy. Then there was mixing in different dirt pedals, such as overdrivers, distortions, and fuzz boxes. The Vyagra Boost worked as an external eq control which could convert every one of the dirt pedals into whatever sound I wanted them to be. Overall the Vyagra Booster worked great with other pedals and many many different amps and guitars. This was only a scratching of the surface of what kinds of sounds one can get from this pedal. It you're a tone perfectionist or just love tone weapons with lots of range - this pedal is for you. 

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For more info on Crazy Tube Circuits go to www.crazytubecircuits.com or click the direct links in our sidebar. Make sure to check back in with us for more awesome CTC features coming very soon! Also make sure to check out our review of the CTC Ziggy overdrive pedal. Just type out Ziggy Overdrive in our search engine.

Nov: News/Updates

Xotic Effects

presents

Interview and Demo with Gannin Arnold

My good friends over at Xotic Effects/Pro Sound Communications have got a real treat for you guitar lick loving, rock & roll digging, riff till dawn guitar lovers. Xotic has added another awesome interview/gear demo with another one of today's inspiring and extremely talented guitar players, Griffin Arnold! Griffin demos Xotic and EWS pedals such as the AC & RC Boosters, Brute Drive, Arion Chorus w/Mod, and Fuzzy Drive. There are also some great live performances and a lot lot more. Make sure to check it out!

Check out the rest of the rest of the videos here



www.xotic.us

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The Cats at IK Multimedia have released their newest version of the iPhone/iTouch Amplitube App

Below are some of the new features found on Amplitube version 2

• New recorder with insert FX and re-amping
• New speedtrainer to slow down/speed-up imported songs
• Enhanced sound quality derived from AmpliTube 3
• Import songs directly from your iPod library on your device
• Import songs directly from iTunes with file sharing
• Export recordings to iTunes as WAVs with file sharing
• Send recordings by email as MP3s
• New preset naming
• New set-up panel with input/output settings and metering
• Now settings can be retained after closing the app
• Keep playing with the app in background with multi-tasking  

There are also new in-app purchases for expanding your playing and recording experience

• New 4-track recorder with pan, volume, send FX and insert FX + New Master FX section with Reverb, EQ and Compressor (available for only $9.99/EUR7.99)
• 5 New Stomps effects suitable for playing or recording guitar, bass or any other type of instruments or vocals:Compressor, Reverb, Parametric EQ, Graphic EQ and Limiter (available for only $2.99/EUR2.39 each)

For more info on Amplitube 2 for iPhone/iTouch click here 



www.ikmultimedia.com


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Now Available from our fantastic friends at Strymon, is the mighty mighty 
El Capistan dTape Echo

The cats at Strymon have been working day and night to bring another batch of these fantastmic boxes. So go on ahead and head over to the Strymon online store and get yourself your El Capistan dTape Echo. Can you dig it!?

Strymon is also on Facebook so make sure to stop by and add them to your group of friends. You can keep track of all their news, events, contests, and other cool happenings. Go to www.facebook.com/strymon for more info.

For those of you Strymon pedal playing rockers, join Strymon on Youtube and be a part of their Playlists. There you can see a little of what players are doing with these fantastic pedals. For more info on the Strymon Youtube channel go to www.youtube.com/strymon.

And last but not least... Congrats to whomever is the winner of the Strymon El Capistan that the cats over at Huge Racks gave away! 

www.strymon.net




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Sonoma Wire Works bringing us

AudioCopy/AudioPaste Software to Help us Share Audio

Sonoma Wire Works, creators of the 

FourTrack iOS app and the Mobile Audio Product Interaction (MAPI) 

Program, has released the AudioCopy/AudioPaste Software Development Kit v1.2 for iOS audio app developers. Apps that support AudioCopy/AudioPaste now include a pasteboard history of up to 12 items with audio previews. Users can make up to 12 copies of audio, then launch an AudioPaste app, and paste from any of those 12 copies. The AudioCopy/AudioPaste pasteboard includes meta data such as tempo, file format, name of app copied from, duration, and more. Forty apps from fifteen publishers have implemented AudioCopy and/or AudioPaste and more are coming soon. The AudioCopy AudioPaste SDK code license is free, downloadable, and includes source code, optional UI, instructions, a license agreement, an example app, and a link to a demo video to help developers implement the features into their apps easily. 

To check out more info and some of the AudioCopy and/or AudioPaste compatible apps click here.

www.sonomaworeworks.com

Drifting Through the Highway to Hell

RRPG Mini Looper

True Bypass Switcher

• Size: 1 3/4" x 3 7/8" x 2 3/8"
• Single Channel Swictcher
• Heavy Duty Enclosure
• Built w/ Top Notch Parts & Components
• Custom LED Color Options
• Standard 9V (-) Adapter Jack
• Hand Built in Canada

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In today's world of stompbox play it is not uncommon to see players using switchers of one sort or another. These helpful and genius little boxes have become the secret weapons for many of today's players, from the bedroom jammer to the certified pro. With today's breed of player becoming more and more tone conscience, tools like these are a necessity. So where is it one turns when on the hunt for a solid top quality switcher?... One place many players are turning to is Road Rage Pro Gear, and for good reason too. RRPG's rep for kicking out great quality versatile switchers is one that has really begun to make some noise. This little Canadian outfit offers one of the widest variety of switchers you will ever come across. On the Road Rage website you will find everything from single all the way up to 12 channel loopers, different types of signal/feedback/and tap-tempo switchers, boosters and buffers, small footprint volume pedals, DIY kits, great quality enclosures, awesome pedalboards, and much much more. Each one of RRPG's products is built by hand one at a time and constructed from the finest parts and components. Road Rage Pro Gear comes to us courtesy of Jeff Wesseling. Along with his partner Rosa, Jeff has made it his mission to deliver unto the music playing community some of the best quality tone saving tools money can buy. These switchers are great for maintaining one's root tone and for pulling the best sound from your pickups, amps, and guitars. Once you have a go at one of these switchers you will see just how impressive and attractive they really are. I myself was quite blown away by the beauty of the RRPG Mini and found it to be one of the most useful little gadgets I have ever come across. 

Whenever assembling, designing, or putting together together one's precious beloved pedalboard, the name of the game is always to try and save on as much space as possible. This is where a pedal like the RRPG Mini true bypass switcher comes in very very handy. Being no longer than a finger and no wider than two, this little box is the perfect choice for any crowded pedal gathering. And don't let it's size fool you, this box is capable of a lot more than most pedals. Pay attention.

I began my Road Rage Mini experiment by using it as a simple true bypass looper. Because of the pedal's size I was able to mount it onto my board without moving or swapping out any of my pedals. My first mission was to plug it into some of my buffered overdrivers, boosters, distortions, and fuzz boxes. I have some great sounding old and new dirt boxes that I just knew would benefit from a true bypass operation. Just like I expected the pedal helped with both tone sucking and overall sound issues. The Mini was able to show me th differences between true bypass and the opposite, which helped choose just where and with what pedals to us it with. When using a pedal like this you won't necessarily hear from insanely crazy change in your sound, it's something you feel and can notice in the response of your playing. Through the Mini I was able to achieve a much more transparent and clearer tone, which made everything work smoother and got me closer to the naked amp feel. The RRPG Mini also came in handy for use with switchless stompboxes. An example of this was plugging my switchless treble boosters in with the RRPG Mini. This let me kick the treble boosted signal in & out as I pleased just like any other pedal. This sounded and worked great for solos, choruses, and build-ups. Digital delays are another area where a true bypass switcher can come in handy. Not all digital delay stompboxes are of studio quality or built with the finest components. This can have a dramatic affect o your sound which you will most def pay for in the end. This little pedal here fixes this problem by making those cheapo part delays into true bypass fine machines. Another great use I found for this pedal was using it as a preset switch, which the possibilities can be endless for. For this all you simply need to do is grab those two or three favorite pedals that you like to use together, plug them in line and then in and out of the switchers send and returns, and that's it! You're good to go with a killer, simple, favorite preset switch you can call in any time you'd like. I did this with a fuzz and reverb pedal to help me get those haunting spaced out tripped out fuzz sounds. This is a sound I like to use whenever layering or adding accents to a song. I actually used the Mini on a few gigs which was of huge help. The last switcher I had didn't fit on my board and sat on the floor. Here I did not have this problem. Another really cool trick I was shown some time ago, is plugging in a half cocked wah and throwing in a crunchy/gritty overdrive pedal.  This creates one of the wildest most unique tones you will ever hear, and it is simple to do. How about those of you that like play your lead tones with delay? Again, not a problem with this little beast. Like I said, the possibilities are endless. Next, I was able to use the Mini as a silent true bypass tuner mute. This works great for any tuner you need or like to leave on, or any of thos egreat quality non-switch tuners. But one of the coolest uses I found for this little monster was using it as an A/B amp or instrument switcher. This is another trick I learned from a buddy of mine that I dig using when playing big enough venues. You can literally feed one signal into your favorite clean amp, and another to your favorite dirty amp. You can also patch in whichever pedals you like to use with each amp or plug into all your pedals first to use them with both amps. With the Mini you can switch from clean amp to dirty amp, all without some complex or expensive system. With instruments maybe there's an acoustic and electric you gig with, or a keyboard and guitar you gig with. Plug them both in and switch back and fourth with no problem. In the end this makes for a much more powerful tool that it may seem to be. For those of you familiar with the world of true bypass switchers and loopers you already know how they can benefit you. For those of you who haven't had the chance to jump into this world, this is a perfect place to start. The Road Rage Pro Gear Mini is tiny and packs on hell of a punch! 

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For more info on Road Rage Pro Gear go to www.roadrageprogear.com or lick any of the RRPG banners on our site. We will try to bring you some more from our Canadian friends as soon as possible so hang tight and let the bed bugs bite. 

E to the M to the G

When I was first introduced to the guitar as a small wild child, there was only one thing I wanted to do.... and that was rock as loud as humanly possible. For me it was all about ass kicking, greatly defined, crisp distortion being pushed out of my midnight purple Charvel guitar. Boy did that guitar see some insane volumes. Then one day comes my buddy with this beastly looking V shaped Jackson equipped with EMG active pickups. I had never seen pickups of this nature and was instantly drawn in by their sleek and simple look. Next I would hear what these pickups were capable of, and from that day fourth it was all about those three lovely letters whenever wanting to take it full force... E-M-G. As the years went by my style of playing and taste in music would grow. I began falling in love with the roots of rock & roll, jazz, and later folk and country music. This led me to explore many different types of ceramic and alnico designed pickups. Fast forward a good 20 years later and I still reach for my EMG active pickup equipped guitar for heavy sessions, and alnico or ceramic magnet pickup guitars for mellower types of rock and other music. Recently I discovered EMG was building a wide variety of great quality, superbly priced, collection of passive pickups. At first I thought, "Ok, passive pickups. Cool, I'll try them". The results?.... read on.

SRO Series

OC-1 Neck/Bridge

Pickup Specs                            Neck    Bridge

Inductance:                                3.80       8.15

DC Resistance (kOhm)                7.35      16.90

Resonant Frequency (KHz) (2)     1.96       1.35

Resonant Frequency (KHz) (3)     3.18       1.95

Z @ Resonance (kOhm) (2)        46.70     69.00

Magnet Type: Alnico 5 w/Steel Pole Pieces

Wired In Series

Loaded w/500k Vol & Tone with a 20' Cable

Loaded w/1MegOhm / 47 pf

EMG-SRO Coil Wiring

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Installing the OC-1 set was an absolute walk in the park. With the neatly arranged wiring system these pickups come with and the wiring diagrams that are provided, you can set them up for just about any sound. The SRO 5-Wire Cable also makes it easy to swap in & out of other SRO HZ Series pickups without having to re-solder anything. This gives you instant access to different tones and pickup characteristics on the fly. The OC-1 pickups themselves are built beautifully, and look and feel great. For the price asked you can't go wrong. I was actually quite impressed with the overall quality and look. As a guitar choice for the OC-1's we went with my buddy's  Les Paul Studio, which I thought would be the perfect choice. Now, I have owned many and played many different active EMG pickups, and in fact still own that EMG 81 equipped guitar from my youth. The one thing that has always stuck with me about the EMG sound is the clarity and projection that is sucked up from the pickups and pushed out through an amp. This would indeed be the first thing I would notice from the OC-1's.

I began playing the pickups through a reissue 1959 Super Lead and 4x12 cabinet. Starting with just the guitar'n'pickups, a proper cable, and the amp set sweetly clean. I did try the OC-1's through a handful of other amps which all sounded great, but the Super Lead was by far my favorite. I began strumming down on some open chords, barre chords, and blues licks and riffs, and just like any nice set of passive buckers I was able to hear plenty of warmth and lots of boomy bottom-end. With every run of the frets the pickups would push out plenty of sweet sweet mojo. Even better was the feel these baby's kicked out. Standing in front of my amp I could feel the pickup push out plenty of thump and growl. The sound would hit my back with powerful dose of vibrating sonic therapy. Along with a great sounding collection of booming lows the OC-1's also kicked out plenty of snap and bite, which made the treble and midrange frequencies sound spectacular. This really helped with painting the amp's clean tone character and feel. In the neck position the OC-1 was able to provide me with these beautifully balanced vintage/modern tones that were easy to shape and manipulate. With just a flip of the guitar's tone knob I was easily able to round out or soften the overall tone to my liking. This would later help me with getting kickass sounding woman tone. The guitar's volume control also worked quite nicely for finding interesting sounding tones. In the bridge position the pickup produced lots of sparkle and even more clarity. I was able to get more aggression from this pickup which made perfect for riffing and lead tones.The bridge pickup also made it easy to cut through any mix, and it did it without sounding harsh or tinny. This worked great for stacking up more than one guitar in live and recording situations. Next I slowly began to introduce a bit of the amp's natural overdrive, beginning with a very mild semi-clean tone. I did this by just cranking the amp's volume to get an idea of how the pickups would respond to natural overdrive. In both pickup positions the clarity and clean tone was still present, only now with a thin layer of glowing tube grit. The leftover clean tones blended with the now mild gritty undertones, made for some awesome note articulation. If ever you've taken your humbucker equipped guitar and stacked on a bit of EQ, whether it be a pedal, plug-in, or rack effect, you know the difference it can make. This was the vibe that I first got from these pickups, only on a much more subtle level. Taking the amp to a medium overdrive level I began to really hear what these pickups were capable of. Clean tones sounded awesome through these pickups, but the real magic began once a nice amount dirt was dialed in. The pickups dished out everything from blues and classic rock, to hard rock and heavy rock. With the amp now dialed in slightly hotter, I broke out a TS-808 style overdrive pedal and simple clean booster. I set the pedal with it's volume and tone knobs matched to the amp's gain st to hit the amp's signal pret-ty hard, and in neck pickup position. The pickups adapted beautifully to the OD pedal and together with the amp kicked out more grit, grime, and aggression. Every chord I pushed out through overdrive signal stayed smooth and intact. Just like in lower gain settings, in higher gain settings I also noticed great string separation. This created stunningly powerful rhythm tones that worked great with all types of music. The overall sound had a classic rock type feel only with a bit more midrange honk and definition. Getting a scorching blaring lead here was very very easy. All I had to do was incorporate the clean booster and I was home free. In fact, here I was able to switch in and out of semi-cleans, gritty rhythms, crunchy distortion, and rockin' leads. All possible thanks to the guitar's tone and volume knobs. In the neck pickup position the pickups and pedal created more of a modern tone. The OC-1's also responded quite nicely to the clean booster and sounded great with a little bit of analog delay. Overall the pickups did a great job. They were able to deliver different variations of both modern and vintage tones, they sounded great through both high and ow watt amps, and played well with many different stompboxes. For the price the OC-1's are a steal! Anyone looking for that crisp and clear EMG sound but wanting to keep it passive would do themselves proper by grabbing a set of these. 

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For more info on EMG Pickups go to www.emgpickups.com or click any of the EMG logos on our site. Make sure to also check out EMG TV on the website for killer demos and artist interviews, and cool performances. Stay tuned for more EMG pickup features here on AWC coming very soon.