1998 Burgundy Mist Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster with Joe Barden pickups
Welcome to the most confusing stratocaster I’ve every owned or even played. I recently acquired this beauty in a trade for my Two-Rock Studio Pro Plus 22 and have been confused about it ever since.
Let’s start with the guitar itself, a 1997-98 burgundy mist strat with a rosewood fingerboard. The neck is wide and thick with a flatter, chunky ’51 U-shaped feeling to it and a 12″ radius on the finger board. This is very different from any other strat I’ve had as it is thick and wide, but not the comfortable V-shaped carve I had on my SVL. The closest neck I’ve had that I can compare it to is maybe the John Mayer signature stratocaster I had a long time ago. At first this felt strange and uncomfortable, but the edges are rolled so smoothly and the frets are done so nice (had a very recent refret with some really beefy frets) that it started to feel pretty nice after my hand adjusted.
The fingerboard as well feels very strange being such a flat radius on a stratocaster. I’m used to it on my PRS, but when I pick up a strat I don’t expect it to feel like this. However if I close my eyes, forget what I’m playing and just play, things start to make sense again. The frets are smooth and slick and leveled beautifully so the action is low and the neck set flat. The flatter radius means no choking on big bends and it doesn’t want you to grip and go, but let your finger dance over the frets with a light touch.
Now we must talk about the pickups, those Joe Barden mini humbuckers that give this guitar a different look and sound that I’m not sure what to make of. They’re sort like a humbucker version of the PRS Silver Sky pickups, where they sound undeniably stratty, but also somewhat more hi-fi, but unlike the PRS pickups they do have the compression of a humbucker. They don’t have the magic of the ’59 pickups, but they also don’t have the quirks and drawbacks since they are true 4 wire humbuckers.
And just like that it’s gone. The guitar was received with a gentleman’s agreement that if either of us were not happy with the trade after the weekend we would trade back. Unfortunately the Studio Pro Plus was too clean of an amp for the other person and as such the trade has been reverted and the Two-Rock is back home. It was fun for a while, but perhaps for the best as it was not my favorite strat and didn’t really speak to me as such. Sorry, no real pics since it was here for too short of time.
At some point every electric guitarist these days stumbles across the amazing studio musicians that create content for YouTube. Just watch Tim Pierce, RJ Ronquillo or Pete Thorn and you’ll soon have amp fever, lusting after their quick multi-head amp switching systems. After my experiments with various cabs, leading to my decision to go with all head and cab amps instead of combos, I started looking at these switching systems.
At the same time I am a huge fan and constant watcher of That Pedal Show, where Dan and Mick have taught me about the joy that is a wet/dry rig. Having one amp run all the gain pedals and another running gain plus all the time and modulation effects gives a huge soundstage that doesn’t wash out you main tone. Trying different combinations of amps for each role has led to some very interesting and inspiring tones that would not have been otherwise possible.
The Problem with Most Switchers
But this has led to a bit of a problem. All of the top amp/cab switcher are pretty much mono, and even running 2 of them would mean having to split my amps into two groups ahead of time (I don’t have many amps, so that would make it pretty pointless). Just as I was about to bite the bullet and go full mono from now on, I came across a brand I’d never heard of before in a forum post.
De Lisle to the Rescue
De Lisle makes a number of switching solutions, some more basic than the often-proposed devices. In fact, the amp and cab switched I ended up with is a fully passive device that simply lets you switch any of the 8 cabs to any of the 8 amps. Its only safety measure is a passive load that protects an amp if it’s not connected to a speaker, but even then, only if you don’t send a signal to the amp.
So it’s not fancy, doesn’t have midi control and won’t let you swap between a bunch of amps while playing to try out various tones. What it does do is let me set any amp that is connect to any cabs that are connected. If the amp could handle it, I could run all 8 cabs to one amp. More importantly, I can run any amp to any cab at the same time, making any wet/dry combination possible without having to go behind and re-wire my cabs.
Not only has this wonderful device made experimenting more fun and easy, it’s also breathed new life into my Mesa Boogie Triple Crown as I play it way more often now that I don’t have to hook it up every time I want to play it.
Which only leaves one last question, which head should I buy next. Ok, maybe that one is already answered as well.
I have had Kemper Profiling Amps on and off for the last couple years, normally selling them when I realize I don’t actually play them like an amp as much as I twiddle through the thousands of profiles I have on my computer. The concept of the Kemper was a ground breaking thing 10 years ago, but has been done by other companies with more powerful processors and updated UIs. The one thing none of the competitors have match thus far is the powered head/rack with their built in 400 watt solid state amplifiers which let you use the Kemper as a stand alone amp.
But there has always been a drawback to doing that, which is your still had to lug your favorite cab around with you (in my case a Two-Rock 2×12 open back) and it never quite sounded right for the different profiles, though I find I prefer the Two-Rock for most amps, digital or tube. Then Kemper came out with the Kab and Kone which are Full Range Flat Response (FRFR) speakers make by Celestion in a small cab (or sold alone). These plus a software update promised to let you change the sounds and response of the speaker to match a selection of popular speakers, giving you a truer amp in the room experience. But do they deliver?
Having picked one up for myself, I immediately loaded up some of my favorite profiles of a Hi-Octane kit amp I once had. It’s a 5 watt class-A Marshall clone, that sounded incredible when you pulled the second preamp tube out, giving more of a JTM vibe. I profiled this amp a while back using a direct box to record the speaker out signal, meaning the cab/mic was not in the “direct” profile giving it a true amp only feel. So how did it sound into the Kab? In a word: Terrible. You see, what I expected was that the Kemper Kone setting in the software would make the Kab work like a standard guitar cabinet. Instead what it does is use the existing cab information in the profile (in my case, nothing) and tweak the response and eq curves to mimic having that cab loaded with different speakers.
At this point I was pretty much ready to return the Kab and sell yet another Kemper, but then I decided to do a quick copy/paste of a Two-Rock cab off another profile, onto my Hi-Octane profiles to see how well it works compared to my actually cab. While I can say it’s not 100% accurate (partly because there is no impulse for the Two-Rock branded speakers in the cab) it does sound much better, and the little 1×12 Kab can really put out some volume and bass despite it’s diminutive size. Oh right, lets talk the Kab itself.
It’s small, about the size of a Fender Princeton, meaning it can fit pretty much anywhere. This plus it’s laughable weight (25 lbs) means it’s very portable, something that I was really excited for. You see, I have my guitar amps all setup in a nice place in the basement, good for playing and recording, but not near my computer. Especially having gotten rid of my Bloomfield Combo, I no longer have a good way to play guitar in my office area, so being able to chuck this speaker under my desk and far enough back that I won’t kick it is great.
Image Copyright of Kemper-Amps.com
The weight also means I can carry the Profiler in it’s case in one hand and the Kab in the other hand down halls, up stairs and anywhere else with ease. I’m still not sure how that speaker is so light, being used to a 1×12 Blackshadow in my old Mesa Boogie Mk III weighing almost 20 lbs by itself, I’m not sure how this beast of a speaker exists. What do I mean by “beast of a speaker”? The Kemper Kab is rated for 200-watts rms! Though they do say that you shouldn’t use it with any other signal generator as it won’t sound right unless running the Kone software, but it does pump out tons of volume. The bass response of this skinny, tiny speaker cab is also quite impressive thanks to that power handling and a bass boost option in the Kone settings page. I still need to play with it more, but it seems to get close to my very large 2×12 cabs in overall bass response, which is very impressive.
So what is my final verdict? At $500 with tax, it feels a bit too expensive, but if you want to go with a Kemper as your main rig without resorting to in-ears, it is a pretty good option for monitoring on stage. Ultimately for me, I am a bit disappointed by it’s failure to work without a cab in the profile, and I would have returned it the next day had the store I bought it from online not had a 5% restocking fee. But I am glad I didn’t as the more I use it, the more I find how I can tweak it to get some great tones and am spending less time zipping through profiles and more time playing guitar. Which is ultimately the goal of any gear.
Update (12/8/21) The Kabinet is gone. In the end I decided the convenience of the light 1×12 didn’t outweigh the cost when I already have a couple 2×12 cabs I like the sound of the Kemper through already. Money-no-object, I probably would have kept it around just to have under my desk for the occasional quick play, but at $500 it just wasn’t worth it when something like a Yamaha THC, Waza Air or other more practical options exist for less.
If you’d like to support the site, consider buying your own Kemper Kabinet using our affiliate link on Reverb. It costs nothing more to you and gives a small cut, just check the return policy first. Thanks and keep playing.
Love it or hate it (or sometimes both) the Dumbloid pedals by Shin’s Music are some of the most fantastic overdrive tones you can get. Shinichi Suzuki is probably “the guy” to go to in Japan if you have a Dumble amp that needs service or repair. In his years of working on these amps, he’s learned a bit of the magic that makes them so special, and has translated some of that aural magic into his Dumbloid pedals.
So what makes this pedal frustrating at times? For me it comes down to the Accent control and the fact that this pedal sounds SO good in many different settings. First lets look at the Accent control, which is essentially a sort of a presence control that also affects the transient response of the note. The transient response is the initial attack of the pick on the string that give a note “bite” and is a big part of the Dumble ‘thing’. However this control isn’t perfect as sometimes it creates and unwanted buzzing noise when playing lightly with lower gain settings.
Turning down the Accent control all the way completely solves the issue but also muddies the tone a bit. Luckily you can max the tone control to match and have all the beautiful singing high end back in your signal. I find these controls (Tone and Accent) live in the most harmony when set inversely proportionate. When the Accent goes up, the tone goes down, but keeping the tone above the 10 o’clock position.
The other “issue” is that I love this pedal as a slightly dirty clean boost; and as a medium gain tone shaper; and as a high gain singing lead tone. It sounds so good at so many settings that I have trouble picking just one. While the Chase Bliss Automatone can get close and give you presets, it doesn’t quite have the same magic. Luckily this can be solved to an extent by buying a Dumbloid Twin. Two Dumbloids in one box, with the optional boost circuit.
To sum up, like many great amps and other effects, the Dumbloid series of pedals require some work and playing around with to find the sweet spots, but when you do it’s simply magic.
A collaboration between John Mayer and Paul Reed Smith, the J-MOD 100 was originally born from a need for an amp to take on John’s Dead and Company Tour. Once over, they went back with the prototypes and refined the amp to be an amp to end the search for amps. A lofty goal indeed, especially when Mayer himself reports on his own GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) saying he’s like all other guitar players collection and swapping gear constantly.
At $5,990 for just the head, this is by far not a cheap amp but can it be your last amp? To cut to the end, for me, no it cannot. However it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon as it is probably my ideal second amp, so lets take a look and see what the J-MOD 100 offers and where it comes up short.
Paul Reed Smith J-MOD 100 John Mayer Signature Amp
When you watch the videos of Paul and John’s release of the amp, and all the demos that came with it, you typically hear two main points be emphasized. They are that the amp is a lot quieter than expected and the “bounce” that John regards so highly with the amp. After playing the amp for a bit I can say that they are definitely both true statements, and are actually closely related.
100 watts of all tube power is typically an ear popping experience that is largely innapropriate for home use, or means you just tickle the volume on to keep from going deaf or annoying the neighbors. But with this amp, you find yourself turning it up way more than would seem reasonable looking at the knob. In comparison, with the J-MOD turned up to half way, I would only need to turn my 40 watt Two-Rock Bloomfield drive combo up to less than a quarter to reach the same volume. And it’s not all down to the pots with the volume jumping in huge leaps in the second half of travel, it’s relatively quiet all the way up.
So where are all those watts going? Are they just getting wasted, turned to hear in inefficient tube layouts? Not at all, all of those watts are going to the “bounce” we have heard so much about. You see, Paul and his team have managed to pack an insane amount of bass end into this amp and cab, and many of those watts are being used to support that bottom end to allow it to respond as quickly as the rest of the frequencies. There really is a bounce, an urgency, or a cleanliness to the bass response that seem to never flub out regardless of how high the volume or bass eq is turned.
But it’s not all good. Balancing the overdrive setting with the clean is a difficult process almost always ends in some compromise, much like early Mesa Boogie amps. Often the gain levels in the overdrive “channel” (not really a channel, but another switchable gain stage) are more than I’d want with just enough volume to make up for a low gain setting. It’s not to say I’ve found any setting that didn’t work, it’s just that I’m often right at the end of the pot’s travel with no room left “just in case” I wanted more.
Lastly, I understand that John doesn’t need a reverb built into the amp with his Bricasti near by, but for those of us with a standard pedalboard and no rack effects, it necessitates an awkward decision of either running long cables to put a single pedal in the effects loop, or a separate power supply for one pedal to sit on the amp. This to me, is the main reason why it could never be my only amp. Which is OK. Because it pairs perfectly with my Bloomfield 40 in a wet/dry rig that sounds fantastically epic at any volume, but especially sweet as your turn it up and feel that wonderful bouncy bass in your chest.
Bonus: The J-MOD 100 uses a 5 pin cable for it’s footswitch. If you want to use a pedal switcher (like a GigRig G3 or other similar ones) then you need to make a cable or converter to go from 1/4″ TRS to the 5 Pin connecter. Being the amazing company they are, PRS quickly replied to my questions and the amp tech drew this out to send to me.
I am starting a new series of videos and blog posts that I am calling “Pedal Deals” for now. The basic premise is to highlight some pedals that people might not know about, or have dismissed based on their price, but are actually great sounding or inspiring. As I have been getting into higher end gear over the last couple years, I am guilty as much as anyone as dismissing some of the old staples as too “pedestrian”. So let’s take a look back through some old favorites and try out some new pedals that are either at a deep discount or simply budget minded from the beginning.
The first pedal I wanted to highlight is the old series of pedals by Tube Works. These pedals are designed by B. K. Butler of Tube Driver fame (used probably most famously by Eric Johnson) and use a 12ax7 running at good voltages to generate the overdrive tones. The Blue Tube is a low to medium gain pedal, good for pushing an amp that’s already overdriving, or adding organic tube overdrive in front of a clean amp.
One popular mod is to replace the original foot switch with a high quality true bypass switch. The originals were somewhat prone to failure with heavy use, and the mod is very inexpensive especially if you can solder at even a basic level. Another much less common mod, is a power conversion. The original pedals have a permanent 110v power cable attached. This is a much more difficult mod but can make the pedal work much better on modern pedalboards.
One interesting feature on these pedals are the knobs. They are what I can best refer to as “clicky” knobs. As you turn them they have notches you can feel giving you more exact settings and making it easier to reproduce them. Not sure how robust they are, but I haven’t seen any fail on the pedals I’ve had in the past.
The Blue Tube and other old style Tube Works pedals can be consistently had for under $150 USD (at time of writing), and if you keep an eye out and are patient, can be found for around $100. At this price they are competing with inexpensive solid state overdrive pedals and are definitely a good deal that could give you some interesting texture and tones outside of what’s normally available.
One last thought is something I still have to try, but I wonder how well these tube based overdrive pedals would work in front of a cheap solid state amp? As these pedals do sag and compress as a tube should, they may be able to add some of the feel and life of a tube amp to a solid state practice amp. I will test this out when I get a chance to borrow a practice amp.
If you’ve followed Two-Rock or been interested in their amps for a while, you’ll know that many of their amps are Dumble inspired. The Bloomfield Drive is no exception, taking inspiration from their ODS-style TS-1 and adding a lush reverb. In theory this should be the best of both worlds, but owners have been finding that they can’t quite get the ODS tones they’re looking for from it. So is some magic sauce missing, or is it user error?
Goals
I have owned a Bloomfield Drive combo now for more than a year and it has been exactly what I originally wanted. An amp that can do beautiful cleans similar to a Classic Reverb but with a drive channel that lets me get some breakup at reasonable volume levels. Setting the drive channel just on the edge of breakup gave me two “clean” channels that I could stack pedals in front of.
However lately I’ve gone back an watched Joey Landreth’s demo again, as well as checking out some videos of other actual Dumble amplifiers. I found myself wondering if I could get the ODS tones from my Bloomfield Drive. Turning up the gain on the drive channel didn’t really get me where I wanted, and remembering the Josh Smith video of the TS-1 reminded me to turn up the gain on the clean stage first as it cascades into the drive channel to push it further.
Revelation
Well turning the “clean” gain up to 3 o’clock didn’t really get me there either, leaving me a bit cold and bewildered as to how Joey got those sweet tones. Was it due to some really pokey P90s? Maybe my combo is set to lower gain levels, or I needed to roll some tubes. Well the answer was none of the above, and once again came from thinking back to a Matt Schofield video from when he was on “That Pedal Show” explaining how he sets his amps, pedals, etc.
He describes listening to the pots as you turn them and to listen for the point where the have the most impact. When doing this you usually find a couple points on the rotation of the pots (short for potentiometers or “knobs” for the non-technical) where they have a lot more impact. Doing this on the first gain knob through the whole range I found two interesting spots I didn’t notice before. They are at around 4 o’clock and 5 o’clock, or on a 1-10 scale they’d be about 8 and 9. At these two points the gain jumps up by a lot, giving those sweet overdrive tones I had been looking for.
One bonus tip if you’re looking to really up the gain on the Bloomfield Drive, the mid boost switch gives a good boost to the gain that can push it over the edge. This is especially good with certain guitars such as a Strat that is naturally more lacking in the minds.
As many of you know, I have found a new fatuation in Chass Bliss pedals and all their configurability and quirkiness. Also if you’ve known me for even longer than you may know that one pedal I’ve always come back to is the ZVEX Fuzz Factory 7, my all time favorite fuzz. When I found out that they were doing a collab for the Reverb Pedal Movie, I jumped on the chance to snag one.
Of course this being the time of Covid where everyone is home and online, as well as Chase Bliss pedals going for ridiculous markups after undoubtably selling out, I was too late. In the first hour of sale all one thousand pedals were gone with no plans to make more. So back to the board with a plan to watch the flips pop up, and to try and get one for as little as possible, which would still turn out to be nearly double the original price.
But this post isn’t about the troubles of limited runs and the scalpers that markup the pedal the next day, it’s about this fantastic pedal. And it is FANTASTIC. One of the reasons I keep coming back to the Fuzz Factory 7 over the years is that it has fantastic cleanup, and there are a ton of different tones in there. From classic Fuzz Face, to thick molten modern fuzz, octave rich spitty tones and gated video game effects, all are possible. With Joel’s magic done to the Bliss Factory, the biggest part for me was the ability to save all those sounds to presets.
The added resonant high pass is a nice addition, giving some flexibility to tone, whether mellowing it out with reduced high ends, or adding some peak resonant frequencies to give a cocked wah feel. The Aux foot switch let’s you do things like make the high pass in one state and have it rolled off in the other allowing you to sit back in the mix even with a thick tone.
Chase Bliss / ZVEX – Bliss Factory
Lastly in true Fuzz Factory style, the noises that happen when this pedal self oscillates can be used for all sorts of crazy creations. Add this to pedals like the Thermae, Mood and Blooper and you have music potential with no guitar needed. That said, for me this is a fantastic fuzz pedal first, with all those noises coming in as an occasional fun thing to play with. The cleanup on the guitar volume knob is up there with the best of any fuzz and is truly an overlooked feature of this amazing pedal.
If you’d like to support the blog and the channel then please use our links when purchasing through Reverb and pickup your own Fuzz Factory variant today.
From the creative minds of Chase Bliss Audio and Knobs, comes the “Bottomless Looper”, a creative fully featured looping pedal that can even be customized. But how well does it work as a standard looper, and does it’s extra features provide the normal person with enough value to justify the high cost?
As a standard looper, the Blooper has really just one hurdle to get your head around. The length of the loop doesn’t change even though it may seem like it temporarily. Confusing to describe, confusing the first time you do it, not too hard to work around once you know what’s going on. For example, when you slow the playback, it will play the full loop at half speed and an octave down. However if you then try to “record” that effect permanently into the loop it will only record to the length of the original loop, giving you only half of the slower loop. Like I said, confusing to explain, not too bad once you play with it.
So now how about that Repeats knob? Well when you put the pedal in “Add” mode, it takes any filter and re-applies it per repeat. So a slowdown gets even slower each time, a warp gets more warpy each time around, and the volume drops based on the repeats knob. Turning this creative, character-ful looper, into an awesome, customizable delay. Reverse delay, character delay, high-pass filter, dropper; all kinds of things are possible here.
At about $500 new, this is the most expensive looper that I know of for sale, making my previous looper (Pigtronix Infiniti Looper) look down right affordable. As is the case with pretty much all Chase Bliss pedals, it may look overpriced on the surface, but when you start looking at it as a whole it starts to make sense. Midi controlled, super flexible looper, incredible character delay and future upgradability via usb updates, this pedal gives you ton’s of options in a very small package.
Once again Chase Bliss Audio has taken a simple concept and expanded it to be a creative tool that you can get lost in for hours at a time. This is why I have embraced them wholly and built a board pretty much exclusively from their pedals.
Regret and reconnection, these two words sum up my history with this guitar. December first, 2017 after selling off some 50 pedals and other assorted gear I finally ordered the 1959 Stratocaster I had been dreaming of. I had worked with the buyer over couple days coming to a price that worked for both of us and was now in my budget.
When it first arrived I felt immediate regret. The tuners felt loose, the neck was super skinny (which I later found out is common on Strats of this year) and some of the controls were pretty sloppy feeling. Had I bought a dud? When people say that vintage guitars have their own personalities, they mean it. This guitar likes heavy gauge strings (11’s minimum at Eb) and prefers to be in standard tuning unless you go even heavier. At that point the tuners are rock solid, the frets play smooth and clean, and the guitar sounds incredible. Learning how to get it into the 2 and 4 pickup positions took a little while but have their own rewards. Did you know on a three way selector there are more than 5 pickup combinations? Apparently the 2 and 4 positions can actually “lean” towards the middle pickup and the neck/bridge. Resulting in different tonal combinations which for example could sound pretty much identical to the neck pickup, but both tone pots would affect the tone, giving very slight variations.
I had owned the guitar for just just over a year, have learning all the intricacies and foibles of the guitar over that time. However a new focus on financial freedom, and an immediate need for money to purchase a rental property would mean a need to sell. After fees I made a very small profit but was content that I essentially borrowed a vintage Strat for a year and got paid to do so.
A year and a half goes buy, replacing my guitars with a ‘61 Reserve SVL, which after replacing the middle pickup with a non-reverse wound one got as close to the tone of the ‘59 as any other guitar I had tried in that time. But then came the messages, first from someone who contacted me to see if they could get the buyer information of the Strat to see if they could buy it. That deal didn’t happen, but I was reminded of the guitar and new the buyer still had it and was willing to sell now though. Later when moving videos from my old YouTube account to the new one, I was reminded how incredible that 1959 Stratocaster sounded.
Some messages later, an agreement was struck to essentially refund the original purchase and return the Strat back to my possession. So now it’s back, and this time I’m not making the mistake of letting it ago again… well at least that’s the plan for now.
