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Luke Skywalker is on the Endor forest detritus, ignited lightsaber in hand. A Speederbike mounted Scout Trooper races towards him. The tension of the score increases as the distance between them dissolves. At the last second Skywalker side steps and swings down...
All of a sudden the videotape hits a spot of trouble. 'What's happening?!' one mate yells. The visuals slow down and the audio gets garbled, lousy with pitch modulation and stuttering.
We grip our hair and wail in horror! Has this VHS Cassette finally reached its limit? Was the 467th watch the final straw? The scene continues this way for 30 seconds or more, accompanied with a sea of static... and then, like a record player starting up, it whirs back to normality, our little faces plastered with the same relief as our hero who successfully evaded the attack.
Anyone within a decade of my age will have similar memories, whether it be the warp and crackle of a dusty, bent record, or the skipping and stuttering of a Sony Discman, or the abused VHS artefacts described above. But how is it, that something, which in the moment was a nuisance and source of frustration, now is loaded with reverie and fondness when we recall it. There has been a growing trend over the last decade, and that trend is the sound of nostalgic media. Think worn out, malfunctioning, old timey, audio equipment of yesteryear, fraught with vinyl warble, tape crinkle, hiss and white noise... it's a lo-fi revolution.
Back when Strymon released the first few sample sounds for the El Capistan I remember being blown away. I instantly associated those characteristics with cassettes and VHS tapes from my childhood and knew I HAD to have one. The 'tape crinkle' and 'wow & flutter' effects available really appealed to a huge audience, and helped kick start the next generation of delay pedals to include lo-fi and warping elements. Likewise, the Chase Bliss Audio Warped Vinyl caused a big splash. The first version of the Warped Vinyl was the debut release for Chase Bliss and was incredibly well received. Joel from CBA actually fully realised this circuit after his days working at Zvex. There he developed the Lo-Fi Loop Junky, which itself is definitely a progenitor to the era of nostalgic pedals we now find ourselves in.
5 NOSTALGIC PEDALS IN PRODUCTION
Today we're going to highlight five pedals that capture this feel and vibe, and maybe delve into why an ever growing community of artist and musicians are gravitating towards a 'less than perfect' sonic palette.
TEFI VINTAGE LAB - GOLDEN ERA REAL-TIME LO-FI MACHINE
Tefi Vintage Lab, from L'Aquila, Italy, had their beginnings in vintage keyboard repair and have slowly but surely built into a noteworthy brand. Emanuele from TVL worked incredibly hard to produce one of the nicest sounding pedals in this category. Where as other builders have pushed harder into the really 'broken' elements of yesteryear's equipment, bordering on and sometimes beyond the limit of what would actually happen, TVL have rounded out an era-traversing sound set that sounds believable, even at the extreme ends of its modulation.
Golden Era has a unique sound palette evoking the textures of phonograph and compact cassettes. With adjustable 'mechanical' noise and scratch, a filter that tops and tails your signal in a vintage-voiced bandwidth, and some waveforms that faithfully reflect the wear from a bygone time. Golden Era is definitely sitting in a niche of its own and is far from just a chorus with a few extra tweaks.
We hope to get another batch of these in store sometime in the coming months, as long as parts shortages don’t slow the TVL crew down!
SEE MORE ABOUT THE TEFI VINTAGE LAB - GOLDEN ERA REAL-TIME LO-FI MACHINE
DEMEDASH - T-60 ANALOG MODULATOR
Demedash Effects could easily have multiple pedals in the list but I’m opting for the recently released T-60 Analog Modulator. This pedal comes hot off the heels of the wildly successful T-120 and T-120 DLX Videotape Delay pedals from Steve Demedash. Those pedals have a truly wide and expressive modulation palette for ambience, but somehow Steve has managed to add more elements of destruction and wobble into the T-60.
Everything from lo-fi resonant flanging to slow true pitch vibrato and chorus are available, though with the addition of ‘CHOP’, ’LAG’ and the Hi/Low shelving EQ (that can be applied to just the chorus signal or also the dry signal), you can craft some truly strange and beautiful textures that can sound so beyond repair but also endearing at the same time. ‘Random’ mode gives some truly unpredictable jolts and tugs on the pitch of your playing, resulting in a real and organic sounding modulation. T-60 is also the only pedal in this bunch that sports a TRS stereo output for some ultra-wide, all-surrounding warble.
SHOP THE DEMEDASH - T-60 ANALOG MODULATOR
Solidgoldfx have been releasing pedals like mad over the last year or two, one of which is the NU33 Vinyl Engine. Amongst the company of other pedals on this list the NU-33 probably has the widest conventional palette of effects. Chorus, Vibrato, subtle Flange, and Lo-Fi filtering can be dialled into to mimic or supersede a plethora of other mod pedals. But where NU-33 is in a league of its own is when you incorporate the ‘Hiss’ and ‘Crackle’ effects to a high pass sine wave… simply put, an absolutely sentimental wonder.
But the surprises with NU-33 don’t end there… You can stand on the right foot switch at any time and sample a short snippet of your playing which will repeat ad nauseam, evoking a skipping CD or badly scratched vinyl record effect. Brilliant from top to bottom.
SHOP THE SOLIDGOLDFX - NU-33 VINYL ENGINE
CAROLINE GC - SOMERSAULT LO-FI MODULATOR
Philippe from Caroline Guitar Company has a real knack for taking a relatively simple and much-trodden path, and making something uniquely and undeniably his own. Somersault has a far more pristine tonality to it than other pedals in this list, but that’s only with a partial mix of the effect. Go fully wet and flick the tone switch to ‘Dark’ for some murky modulation that hits you right in the homesickness button. The familiar Caroline ‘Havoc’ switch is used to jump from slow modulation rates to real quick trills, allowing you to simulate Leslie speaker sounds or slow vibrato waves to seasick shakiness.
Somersault stays north of the garbled tape and broken equipment sounds that the other pedals here are emulating, which makes it a great choice for someone who wants some old-time pining, but without the risk of falling into extreme disrepair.
SHOP THE CAROLINE GC - SOMERSAULT LO-FI MODULATOR
FAIRFIELD CIRCUITRY - SHALLOW WATER K-FIELD MODULATOR
Fairfield Circuitry never shy away from the bizarre and aleatoric sound spectrum, and they're definitely not the only Canadians who do so. Their ever popular Shallow Water is a grand example of this. While Shallow Water does harbour a bunch of lo-fi quirks, it has a heavy focus on filtering and offers up some olden-day sounds by way of a Low Pass Gate and BBD circuit that offer unpredictable fluctuations in tone. The LPG along with the ‘Damp’ control combine in this weird way that sometimes makes a guitar note sound more like a faulty Mellotron under a pile of blankets… never thought that would be a tonal description I would be seeking out…
Shallow Water is best described, in nostalgic media terms, as a tape recorder in dire straits. It adds this ‘dubbed too many times’ character that is more of an homage to the warn out media transport than it is to the mechanical artefacts of unkempt vintage units. A positively unique pedal that isn’t something for everyone, but will be everything to someone!
SHOP THE FAIRFIELD CIRCUITRY - SHALLOW WATER
IN CLOSING…
That about wraps it for this discussion. We hope you enjoyed this little exposé on some of our favourite nostalgia boxes, and we hope that, if you’re so inclined, that this has inspired you to branch out into some not-so-perfect, not-so-in-tune, not-so-desirable sounds, and find ways of incorporating them into your playing and tunes! Remember, I always like to say that there are no bad sounds, you just haven’t found a place for them yet. Peace and love, my friends.
BEN SHAW
Ponderer Sounds
]]>Guitar gear culture is loaded with polarising topics. A close runner-up to the never ending debate on ‘soldered vs solderless cables’ is pedal power, specifically pedalboard power.
There are oodles of articles and videos suggesting all sorts of problems and remedies, but unfortunately, a lot of the time, the opinions are either ill informed or half-truths. Even the knowledge from qualified electricians, that deal with much higher (and dangerous!) voltages, isn’t directly applicable to 9-24v circuits. The typical power needed to operate our favourite little coloured boxes is way less problematic and less susceptible to the same issues that mains or high voltage power is.
In this blog we’ll cover a quick overview of pedal power, cover some simple rules to follow, and dispel a few misleading but popular opinions along the way.
There are three main elements of power that are helpful for any guitarist to understand. Unless you’re a blaring success, with an entourage of roadies and stage crew, it’s worth memorising what voltage (v), amperage or more accurately for pedals milliamperes (mA) and polarity (-+) refer to.
Voltage is important to understand but is also the easiest to grasp.
DC voltage, the vastly more common to us is ‘direct current’ that flows one way and AC voltage, not completely unheard of in pedals but somewhat rare, is ‘alternating current’ that cycles it’s direction of flow.
In simple terms voltage is the ‘Push’ that moves an electrical current along a conductor or wire.
What happens if you push something to hard? You can damage it. If we think of a pedal that needs 9v of push and we shove it with 18v it’s very likely that you’ll cause some damage that will void a warranty and require a technician (along with a technician fee) to repair it.
Likewise a pedal that needs 24v that is only given 9v isn’t getting enough electrical current ‘pushed’ into the circuit, so it won’t operate but most likely won’t get damaged.
The one exception to this rule is in some overdrive and fuzz circuits that can operate between 5v and 9v.
Supplying a varied amount of ‘push’ to these circuits can yield desirable characteristics like gating and spongey attack. This technique is called ‘voltage sagging’ and is sometime a feature on certain power supply.
Milliampere is the common unit for measuring current in pedal power. Current is the rate at which electrons flow through a complete circuit. Unlike voltage milliamps can not be over supplied.
If you have a 9v power supply with a mA limit of 1500mA and your Fuzz Face only needs 15mA don’t fret. Your pedal will pull what it needs from the available supply and the excess will not cause any issues.
On a high voltage scale, say Australian mains power 240v, this may not be the case, but on our low voltage pedal circuits the trivial amounts of current are inconsequential in excess.
Polarity refers to the positive and negative conductors we all have seen on batteries. Simply put, polarity is the direction of current flow, either through the tip of a power cable or the sleeve.
Polarity can be damaging to a circuit if it is the opposite of what a circuit is designed for.
This small image that you’ll see on just about every pedal or wallwart power supply is displaying if the centre, or tip, is positive or negative. Match this symbol on a pedal with the same symbol on a power supply and all is well.
Rewind a few years from now and there was a small amount of truly reliable power supplies available on the market, but things have changed somewhat.
A few brands pushed to the front of the pack in the mid to late 2010s, but the last 12 months in particular, have seen most brands in this category catch up or exceed the reigning benchmark.
So rather than bore you with comparison we’ll let you choose from our great selection. Don’t hesitate to ask us any questions!
This is probably the most controversial part of the power debate. Many people, reputable and some not so, will tell you that audio and power should never run together in parallel lines, only crossing if absolutely necessary at 90 degrees. The reasoning behind this is that parallel audio and power creates unwanted noise.
Let’s pull apart this half truth. The phenomenon being referred to here is when the magnetic field produce by a current interferes with an audio signal. This is absolutely a real thing… but the low voltage DC power all over our pedalboards has such a weak magnetic field that it will not have any significant audible artefacts when placed directly by audio cables.
If you use a pedal that has a mains power cable attached to it, like some old EHX or Carl Martin kit, this is a different story. That cable will present a stronger magnetic field, and quite possibly cause you some hums and annoyance.
Disclaimer, when we build pedalboards we do seperate audio and power as much as possible, but this is purely from a maintenance and aesthetic perspective. After all we all want the underside of our board to be just as pretty as the top right?
Wahs, if you like them and want one on your board, are sometimes temperamental creatures. At their heart is an inductor coil that will sometimes interact with analog power supply transformers by picking up the 60hz hum emitting from it.
A simple fix if you think your wah is causing noise is to firstly make sure it’s on an isolated output from your power supply with adequate mA. If this box is ticked then try to put as much physical distance between your wah and power unit to avoid that coil grabbing on to hertz.
If the amount of pedals on your board exceeds the amount of outputs on you power supply, please, PLEASE DO NOT, resort to using a daisy chain cable to power the extra pedals.
Perhaps you’re reading this and you’re running your whole pedalboard on daisy chains… you, my friend, need to pay attention to this part.
A daisy chain has one ground connection, that all the pedals attached to it share. When a few pedals are powered on a daisy chain and share an un-isolated ground there is a significant chance of unwanted noise. Especially if there’s a mix of high current digital pedals and low current analog circuits.
The ground ‘potential’ from each pedal can vary quite dramatically, meaning that the discrepancies will converted to hum and white noise. Please, for the love of all thing good and lovely, get a properly isolated power supply, and chuck that daisy in the bin.
It's worth noting that some power supplies that are on the much more affordable end of the spectrum that claim to be isolated really aren't ideal. A lot of these cheaper units are essentially a 'daisy chain in a box' and you will be taking a sideways step rather than a step forward by choosing one of these. The rule of thumb to follow - if it's cheap it's nasty. $100 power supplies won't stand up against a $200+ unit.
You’ll also find that properly isolated pedals sound better and perform as they were intended. I’ve lost count of the amount of customers that have transitioned from daisy chains to power supplies and noticed a marked performance increase in their gear.
One more note on high current digital pedals, if you have one and are experiencing a high pitch whistle sound coming from your rig, then it’s likely that the digital pedal is not receiving enough current. Check it’s requirements and see if you can swap things around to up its milliamperes supply.
Right, back to the pedalboard with a few too many pedals for the power supply. The best approach to tackle this problem is not a daisy chain, it’s an output splitter cables.
These cables use one outlet on a power supply but split evenly to two plugs for powering two different pedals. The trick to making this work well is that one of the cables has the ground ’lifted’, essentially it’s not attached, meaning that is cannot interact with the other pedal sharing the output.
Experiment with which pedals work best to share an output. Usually low current devices are best to pair. If at first you get noise just try swapping them around so the opposite one is on the ‘lifted’ ground side. This usually works without a hitch.
So you’ve assembled your pedals on your board and you’ve plumbed in the power cables. You may find that you have a fair bit of excess length on some of those cables. What should you do with it?
There are four options… one is terrible, one is not great, one is good and acceptable, and one is next level awesome.
Let’s just leave all those cables flapping around under there with no tidying. No… please don’t. Not only does this look awful, it’s easy for one or more of those cable to get snagged on something or get tangled to the point of causing damage that will result in intermittence. Not what you want mid gig.
I’ve seen an alarming amount of boards where the excess power cable is coiled up into little ‘piggy tails’ and then fastened in place. At first this seems like an alright approach but in truth coiled cables like this will accumulate more heat, and heat is not something you want building up under your board.
At the relatively low voltages and currents common on pedalboards this isn’t the same sort of hazard as their high voltage counterparts but there’s still margin for damage or shortened lifespan where excess heat is concerned.
Rather than coiling, it’s much better to double back those cables on themselves in longer lengths. This way the heat distribution is significantly reduced. Plus, in my opinion, it looks infinitely more tidy. Enough said.
SHOP OUR CABLE MANAGEMENT PRODUCTS
When it suits a customers budget, we like to cut power cables to length, making sure to leave 3-4cms of slack at the ends so as not to cause excessive tension, and then solder new connectors on the custom length ends. Customised lengths means no excess, which also means your board’s belly will be as neat and ordered as possible.
Well that just about covers it!! There’s probably one or two other areas I’ve missed or neglected, but on the whole if you follow these guidelines you’ll scarcely find yourself experiencing unwanted noise or failing power. As I said earlier, if you’re personally on a mission to upgrade your pedalboard power then please get in touch with us on email or phone the shop. We’d love to help you find the appropriate kit and get the most out of your pedals.
Thanks, and till next time, be kind and make noise… not ‘bad power’ related noise… good, wholesome noise!
Peace.
Ben
]]>Now, this may be a somewhat counter productive argument to put forward for someone representing a store that specialises in the curation of (for lack of a better word) boutique pedals… but have you ever considered that maybe what you need is a ‘ye olde faithful’ pedal?
On more than one occasion in the last few months I’ve seen customers, who are less concerned with brand calibre or popularity, choose a totally ‘mainstream’ pedal over one lauded by gear connoisseurs. And you know what? I’m convinced they made the right choice.
Now I’m not for a second saying that you should abandon you’re pursuit or love of small batch, handmade, beautifully crafted pedals. There’s a time and a place for every sound out there, and let’s be honest, sometimes we just want something because it looks so damn cool (or is that just me?). But what I am saying, is don’t disregard a classic or common tool to fill a specific role in your rig.
So… the stories… One customer, with his personal amp and guitar in tow, was trying to achieve a very specific high gain sound. Largely the gain character was coming from his dimed amp. He was about 80% there, but the frequencies were harsh in the wrong way and the tonal spectrum was still too wide despite some aggressive amp EQ settings.
We threw a ton of low gain drives, equalisers, and booster in the amp room with him and he set to work. Some of the best names in the pedal world were represented in the bunch, but systematically one after another was eliminated until the stock standard Ibanez TS808 emerged victorious. And for good reason. Something about that pedal, even in comparison to other 808 derived circuits, stood out and delivered just what the customer wanted.
Check out our Ibanez range
Check out our vintage Ibanez
Another scenario was a player in pursuit of a delay to enhance and add the finishing touches to a solo tone. Once again everyone working in the shop that day chimed in with a couple of options till the amp room table was littered with the most worthy of delays for consideration. After near on an hour of careful comparison, the customer resurfaced with the MXR Carbon Copy as their clear victor.
One more was a shopper who plays in a '90s grunge inspired band. She was on the hunt for something to tighten up the frequencies post big muff in her chain, and also something to get that '90s chorus tone, think Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins etc. The process was pretty much the same. I threw a handful of my faves and the lauded industry toppers her way, but for good measure made sure some classics were in the mix. Sure enough, after much deliberation, she presented two Maxon pedals to me. The OD-9 Overdrive and CS-9PRO Stereo Chorus, two stalwarts from the Japanese industry that are infamously known for their classic tones.
Browse our recently added Maxon collection
Let me explain what I think is happening here... it may be a bit of a gross generalisation, but I believe there's a significant element of truth to my thoughts. When I forget about the pedals (please forgive me) and think about the sounds that these customers were chasing, I have to admit that they were all seeking tones from an earlier time, loosely bracketing the early '80s to late '90s. No surprises really, those sounds are definitely making a resurgence in popular and independent music alike.
If we were to take a snapshot of the pedal landscape over that time frame we would see that the demographic was much smaller with maybe 4-6 dominant brands. The bands only had access to the likes of Ibanez, MXR and Maxon. It's actually no surprise that the sounds these customers were seeking were most accurately found in the stock standard pedals they chose, chances are that they were the actual pedals used in their favourite songs.
Let’s be clear, every single one of the other pedals that weren’t chosen are still amazing. There’s no doubt a scenario where a TS808 won’t get the upper hand on a Wampler Clarksdale, or the Bondi Effect Art Van Delay would prove more useful than the CC. The fact remains though, that just because a pedal is a modified, reimagined or ‘improved’ version of a classic, doesn’t mean it will perform better in every possible application. Sometimes the stock version gets the job done best.
Thankfully, we’ve broadened the brand spectrum extremely wide at Pedal Empire and we offer a lot of the staple classic brands that started this pedal-verse. It's refreshing to carry these great brands and also seeing them still making their way into our patrons collections. Some of us are old enough to remember when there were only 3 or 4 options at the local shop, and those brands were Boss, MXR, EHX and Ibanez, maybe Maxon or TC Electronic and a couple more if your shop was particularly savvy.
There was a time in more recent years that 'boutique' (yuck... I'm not a fan of that word) pedals were much more expensive and harder to acquire than the industry staples, but now-a-days you can walk through our door and see all these pedals side by side, and the price difference in a lot of cases isn't very dramatic.
I guess the moral of the story is not to judge a board by its cover, one loaded with industry staples may just sound better than your cream-of-the-crop rig... in the right setting perhaps!
As a bonus, if you're interested, read a great run down of the Maxon pedals history and how Ibanez and Maxon are related.
Thanks for reading, stay peaceful!
Ben
]]>Has the best overdrive been made? Will a new octave fuzz be released soon that will eclipse all others? Has the crafting of digital reverb algorithms reached the apex? Will another 60’s spec Strat or Offset homage be built and steal our hearts? Have amp & cab sims really caught up with the real thing? Are we living in The Golden Age OF Pedals?
These are all questions that, from our perspective of this industry, we ask each other all the time. When will it stop? Will this ‘pedal high’, that’s been rolling for the best part of two decades now, just keep riding the wave? Or will a new musical fad eventually steal the show? In my somewhat biased, optimistic view, I don’t think we’re destined for a demise.
Back in 2017 the Washington Post published an article called ‘Why My Guitar Gently Weeps’ which centred around the industry sales figures and mounting debts of guitar manufacturing giants like Gibson, Fender and PRS. The main ‘reason’ for this decline was explained by the ‘Guitar Gods’ of old like Clapton, Hendrix and Page, and their main guitar playing audience, fading away. The term ‘Guitar God’ didn’t have relevance any more. Trap beats, Hip Hop and Pop Stars had taken over.
View the original Washington Post article.
This article, though accurate at the time to some degree, was pretty short-sighted and hasn’t aged well in the light of 2021. While those industry juggernauts were ‘struggling’ it seemed like every other week a new pedal brand or homegrown guitar company popped up and gained traction in the social media world. Rewind to the early 2000’s and the pickings from pedal brands was extremely thin, with only the big brands being easily available at local stores.
Now the ‘Guitar Gods’ have actually been replaced by an ever-growing and inspiring throng of Instagram guitarists, as well as an exponential burst in YouTube demo artists (which I’m lucky enough to be one of). The ever expanding artisan builder demographic, hand in hand with these new musical personalities, have bolstered each other and propelled the pedal/guitar/amp industry repeatedly to new heights through the last few years, even through a pandemic fraught with lockdowns, parts shortages and horrendously affected freight systems.
But why? How is it possible that ANOTHER dual overdrive will undoubtedly take us all by storm, or a Tone Bender variant with an extra clipping option will sell out in minutes online. Is it because we’re all suckers? Are we all just incredibly bored or addicted? I think the answer is hidden deep in the neurological way we, as musicians and music lovers, respond to sounds. But I also think there’s an organic thing that has happened.
(The Protein from Browne Amplification is one of the recent dual overdrives killing it right now)
On one hand I’m surprised by the success of pedal release after pedal release we see in store, but then I’m as much of a consumer myself. I’ll play the latest creation sent to me for a video, or listen to a clip on instagram, and I’ll be enthralled by the harmonics, or chew modulation, or expansive ambience. Next thing I know I’m planning out where this new piece will fit in my rig, and which box may need to be sacrificed to satiate my latest desire. Something mystical happens when we ‘gel’ with a sound. Add to that the thought and creativity put into the aesthetics of todays instruments and devices… it’s a well oiled machine that draws us in… and I don’t mind one bit!!
View our latest releases here at Pedal Empire
Then there’s the fact that everyone of these companies have real, live faces we can associate with them. You can watch a clip on Instagram and see the person that put solder-to-circuit talking you through his or her latest creation. The industry has become relatable. No longer are we restricted to companies that are just a logo with no personality. We get Colt Westbrook, Robert Keeley or Joel Korte sharing their passion with us and thanking us for being part of their journey. It’s real and endearing, and makes us all feel connected in some greater way.
(Colt, Robert & Joel)
And it’s not just us, everyone is gassing for pedals. Something that may also surprise you is that it’s not just the guitar-centric world experiencing this boom. The hardware synth industry is growing rapidly too. Drum machines, samplers, analog synths… they’re all being produced by smaller and smaller companies. Take modular synth for example. In recent years eurorack modules have been responsible for the highest percentage of annual sales on Reverb more than once. Though this isn’t something to be worried about if you’re a guitarist. Lots of modular brands have incorporated interfaces into their product lines that allow their users to put pedals into their systems. So they’re all experimenting with the sounds original intended for guitarists, and that’s actually good for everyone!
Go to ModularGrid, my fave Modular Site.
It's becoming increasingly popular to use pedals as outboard gear in the studio. Re-amping guitar parts, acoustic instruments, pianos, vocal, or even as inserts on soft synth and sample instruments. In fact, I’d wager a bet that if you picked any recent song there’s a high chance at least one track has been manipulated by a pedal or two. These quaint, colourful boxes have infiltrated all avenues of music, be it at the hands of the bedroom hobbyist, in the rig of a touring artist or aiding the studio-bound producer in his art of refining others work.
Check out a great Reverb.com video on using pedals this way.
Well, that’s my broad ‘brush-strokes’ explanation, but there’s so much more to dive into, and this blog is going to be the place to do it! We hope you’ll join us to explore the empire of pedals further. We’ll be traversing the seas of controversy, diving deep into origin stories, interviewing your favourite builders (and some you may not know) and putting the spotlight on some devices that we think you should know about. Let’s take advantage of this era we live in: The Golden Age Of Pedals!!
]]>To do this one justice we need to address a variety of points, which may be a touch arduous but i want to be thorough.
First things first, let's get a few things straight. Not all solderless cables are created equal. Without naming names, there are three main types of solderless. We'll call them 'Stranded Core A' 'Stranded Core B' and 'Solid Core'.
'Stranded Core A' is a cable usually made of high quality SPC (silver plated copper) strands for the audio signal, and a braided outer shield for the earth connection. Inside the plug head is a centralised pin, which imbeds amongst the strands to create a connection, then a set screw is screwed through the plug housing, piercing the cable and creating a ground in the braiding. That set screw is almost exclusively holding the cable together.
Here’s a link to this type of assembly we sell: https://www.pedalempire.com.au/products/evo-solderless-bulk-plugs-and-cable
'Stranded Core B' is quite similar in appearance to 'A' however the set screw design is replaced by a screw-on back for the plug. The pin connection is still used but the shield is instead exposed and folded back over the outside of the cable, creating an earth connection with the plug housing, while the screw-on back offers a stronger cable than one relying on the set screw alone.
Both 'A' and 'B' are somewhat cost effective compared to Soldered or Solid Core, but can be problematic.
No doubt, stranded core, solderless cables that will be plugged and unplugged regularly or be under any prolonged tension, may fail over time. The success of these cables will come down to how well they are assembled and how they are used.
Here’s a link to probably the most popular brand making this style: https://www.lavacable.com/product/540/lava-solder-kit-ra
'Solid Core' is exactly what it sounds like. A solid, pure copper core cable in place of the strands which is flexible but strong. Instead of a pin going into the cable, the solid core is exposed and screwed into the plug through a fine threaded hole that connects to the jack tip. The copper, being softer than the plug material (typically brass or brass alloy), creates a very tight connection, which IMHO is a superior connection in strength and reliability. Another plus is the way these cables hold shape when manipulated around a pedalboard.
So, in saying all of that, from here onwards in this article, when I say 'solderless' I'm referring to the 'Solid Core' variety as it is the most worthy revival to soldered cables.
This link is to our favourite solid core product: https://www.pedalempire.com.au/products/evidence-audio-patch-cable-kit-10-sis-plugs-and-10ft-of-monorail-cable
The contemporary buzz phrase for 2021, being thrown around in support of soldered cables, is 'gas tight connection'. But to really understand how this impacts your rig, we perhaps need a brief history lesson on the origins of solder itself.
Solder, though archaic forms of it have been around as early as the 5th century BC (in ancient Sumeria for example), had it's recent historical birth around the turn of the 20th century when the accelerated production of tin cans used an early soft solder technique to fuse tin and other alloys.
In the decades to come, a more refined form of soldering was widely used, joining copper piping in gas lines, providing a 'gas free' or water tight connection. In other words, no gas will leak from the pipes and be potentially hazardous.
Since then, this phrase has been borrowed and used in any and all industries that use soldering. However, from automotive, to HI-Fi, to industrial electronics, any mechanic or engineer will openly admit that a soldered connection will deteriorate over time due to the flux residue left behind which is hard to avoid and inevitably promotes corrosion.
So maybe pay less heed the next time you read 'gas free'. It's not some expert level soldering skill, that avoids any contaminants, and only the best builders are capable of performing. It's phrase that has lost part of its original meaning along the way. Unless you're soldering in an airtight environment (which, let's face it, nobody is) , there will always be stuff in your solder: sweat, dust, grime... etc. As I like to say about my successor and current Pedal Empire board builder extraordinaire, "There's a little bit of Paul in every cable he makes"!
Here’s another buzz phrase that, in my opinion along with many others, has been used in a somewhat misleading way particularly in the realm of pedalboards.
Oxygen free copper is copper that has been through a refining process. It’s submerged in an electrically charged solution of copper sulfate and sulfuric acid to reduce the oxygen content to somewhere in the vicinity of 0.001%.
Now, while this copper is most commonly associated with high-end audio equipment, that’s not what it was original made for. The true, wide spread use of OF copper is in the manufacturing of industrial generators where the wiring is constantly exposed to high temperatures and frequent vibration.
Oxygen Free Copper is also used in the production of scientific equipment such as electromagnets, superconductors and particle accelerators, where the absence of oxygen is often crucial to avoid chemical reactions with other components in these devices.
Now, don’t hear me wrong, the minimal oxygen content does improve conductivity, but you’ll notice that when this is referred to in an audio context the phrases used are ‘supposedly improves low frequency translation’ or ‘is believed to sound better’ etc etc, there is never a reference to actually evidence.
The auditory benefit would really only be noticeable if you were using in excess of 75 feet of cable, which I doubt many pedalboards out there do, not to mention that once you hit that first pedal your signal is undoubtedly passing through other material, making the whole endeavour pointless.
Lastly, it costs more than other less-pure copper cables. We honestly think it’s espoused to sound better to entice the tone aficionados out there into spending more money. It’s fine if you want to, but you should know the truth.
Here’s another article about OFC: https://www.cablewholesale.com/blog/index.php/2016/12/08/oxygen-free-copper-what-is-it/
Side step into the Hi-Fi audio industry. It's still a widely used process today to crimp wires together for speaker connections in sound systems. This crimping is sometimes called a 'Cold Weld' connection. This cold weld can be compared to the solid core screw in method which is arguable of similar quality. Many people prefer to use both a cold weld and a soldered connection for reliability, but neither one or the other provide superior sound quality.
Just stop and let that sink in... why would people someone spend $10000+ on a Hi-Fi system, and crimp the speaker wires, if it was affecting the sound? The answer is, it doesn't.
Here’s a link to more Cold Weld info: https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/faqs/what-is-cold-welding
Further more, there are multiple points inside your pedals where the signal passes through tiny printed tracks, or in some cases through socketed components that aren't soldered. Not to mention that once you plug a cable into a pedal, the jack is literally making a connection by pressing against the tip contact. Very much not a 'soldered', 'gas-tight', 'oxygen-free' (insert buzz phrase here) connection.
Now side step one more time into our world of pedalboards. What is best for your tone? Asides from the steadfast opinion of some random redditor, or internet warriors swearing blind they can hear the difference in a Youtube video comparison (through their iPhone speakers no less), you will not find any clear evidence of a 'detectable lack in sound quality' between soldered or solderless cables. A spectrographic test may show slight differences, but I guarantee the human ear isn't even remotely sensitive enough to hear those anomalies.
I think by now you're starting to get the point. The choice between soldered or solderless cables really comes down to how you will be using or abusing them. The question of 'Will it sound better?' is somewhat null and void.
As mentioned above, a solderless cable that is assembled poorly, may very well sound worse, but that is a reflection on the assembler, not the quality of the product. Adversely, a full soldered board will almost definitely cost you more as the labour is more involved, unless you plan to do it yourself.
So, rather than list the positives and negatives, let's talk about three scenarios and the advantages of one cable over another in 'real world' applications.
Do you regularly swap pedals in and out on your board? Or sometimes don't even have a pedalboard?
If you answer yes I would strongly suggest against Stranded Core solderless options as these potentially won't hold up well over time. Go for some pre-made soldered cables or a Solid Core solderless kit. But if budget only permits the Stranded Core kits, and you're a novice patch cable builder, get help from someone who knows what they're doing.
Have you spent years gathering the perfect rig to gather and want to set it in stone?
If this sounds like you then allow your budget, aesthetic persuasion and skill level to guide your choice. A well assembled board, with cables tied down neatly, with no tension on connectors, and ideally intended to remain unchanged, can be made with any of the options available. Once again, emphasis should be on well made cables, whether soldered or not.
Are you a touring artist or regularly gigging musician that requires a reliable rig that doesn't fail?
If this is your wheelhouse then by all means please go for soldered cables or Solid Core cable kits. In the shop we've collectively built boards for the likes of Violent Soho, Jungle Giants, Ball Park Music, Ian Haug (Ex Powderfinger, The Church) MTNS and Vancouver Sleep Clinic, to mention a few. Some were soldered, some solderless. All of them have been around Australia and other parts of the world and returned sounding great and in perfect functioning form. Choose what you like the look of, as long as they're built well and cable management is top notch, you'll be gigging care-free.
Wow, what a mission! Congrats if you made it here to the end, I hope this has been informative for you. All of us here at Pedal Empire support our customers in their choices when it comes to cables. Above all we want them to make educated choices. You make the decision, we'll build it well, whatever you choose!
- Ben -
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Click Here for the playlist with the 3 videos we did for this!
The winners we chose were:
3rd - Spaceman Effects Sputnik. For being a crazy good fuzz but also so many cool options and a transformer inside so you can pout this fuzz anywhere in your signal chain and it will act the same! There's not many Germanium Fuzz's like this!! Amazing stuff. Check out the Sputnik HERE
2nd - Cooper FX Arcades - This pedal takes it's origins in design from the Arcade game consoles of the 80's. Thing Atari, Commodore 64, Nintendo.. you know.. all the good ones! You get a cartridge and load it in for 8 new sounds. Theres all sorts of cards that all inspire a new different creative vibe that I truly find inspiring. Check out the Arcades HERE
1st - Chase Bliss Automatones! Chase Bliss Collaborated with Benson for the PreAmp MkII and with Meris to make the CXM 1978 Reverb. Both of these units are incredible with flying faders, looks to kill and features like you haven't seen before! For both studio, gigging and home use these pedals will be at the top of the pile for innovation for some time. Fun AND amazing tones.. How did they do it? Not sure but thats why they win! Check out the Automatones HERE!
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Why is it that every time a new Delay is announced, especially if it’s of the analog nature, the gear nerds of the world lose their minds? Outsiders could be forgiven for thinking that one delay is much like another, that once an effect is created it’s done, no need to rehash, no need to better it. Using that logic then we should all still be writing letters with pen and paper, boiling our water over open fires and winding up the front of our cars before each trip.
Well that’s not happening… Technology progresses, that’s the way the human race works. But this industry has gone one step further, builders are using cutting edge algorithms to make stuff sound old and unpredictable. With the acceleration of DSP technology over the last decade, sound crafting has become so in depth that the gap between analog and digital is steadily decreasing. The sometimes dark, sometimes dirty, character rich tones of old units like the Binson Echorec Drum Echo, Tel-Ray Oilcan Delay, Maestro Echoplex Tape Delay and classic vintage analog units like the Boss DM-2 and the EHX Deluxe Memory Man are now being emulated fantastically. However, to a similar degree, the manipulation of true analog circuitry via a digital platform has reached an unprecedented level.
Enter 2016 The Year of the Delay! This year is turning out to be one of the most fruitful we’ve seen in a decade for delay releases. At Winter Namm, according to Bart Provoost of effectsdatabase.com (he’s a pretty thorough guy), there have been no less than 20 delays announced. Brands you’ll probably recognise like Catalinbread, Earthquaker Devices and Keeley have releases but also a slew of incredible inventions from up and coming builders like Alexander Pedals, Sinvertek and Decibel Eleven. But easily the most anticipated of them all is the Chase Bliss Audio Tonal Recall. Not since the release of the Strymon Timeline in 2011 has there been such excitement surrounding a delay.
But back to my first question, why are we all so obsessed with these little boxes that are essentially the pet parrots of the pedal world? I don’t know about everyone else but I love playing less and making a pedal do the work. Something about dialling in some washy repeats and making my guitar sound more like a keyboard, or setting up a syncopated rhythm like a dotted eighth and dancing around the frets in-between the repeats just makes me happy. Also, all the tasty algorithms available these days means that me and the guy next to me on stage can have the same pedal and sound worlds apart, it’s so easy to have an individual delay tone that compliments your personal playing style now. Add MIDI implementation into the mix and it seems that the horizon for delay possibility just got blown open by a country mile.
I’m excited for what’s to come, the conventional and the whacky, and I hope you are too. Stay tuned and subscribe to this blog for demos and reviews on a bunch of the delays reaching our shores this year. The fruits of our exploration will be great, lets celebrate Delay, the gift that keeps on giving, together!
]]>This jam - packed analog, monophonic guitar synthesizer will get you groovin’ no matter what your style is..
The Bit Commander does not see any of the shortcomings of synth pedals; it’s tracking is extremely fast and receptive. This allows the player to continue their single note runs and all of your soloing skills. It has the added features of an octave up fuzz and a square wave distortion...
This jam - packed analog, monophonic guitar synthesizer will get you groovin’ no matter what your style is..
The Bit Commander does not see any of the shortcomings of synth pedals; it’s tracking is extremely fast and receptive. This allows the player to continue their single note runs and all of your soloing skills. It has the added features of an octave up fuzz and a square wave distortion.
The “Commander” contains a -1 octave and -2 octave function; these combined with the traditional analog synth makes a authentic and believable sound along with a surprising easy playability. However! Earthquaker Devices recommend that you should be playing the Bit Commander from the 7th fret up to get the best results, but us real noise makers see no problem playing below that.
One of the features that really pushed this pedal over the edge for me (in a good way) is the versatility. The octave up voicing is great by itself but when it is used in effect with other fuzz or distortion pedals you gain a unique sound. This versatility allows this synth an ease of access when pedal and on your pedal board.
Overall this pedal packs a serious punch with the noise making ability and some off the grid tones, however unlike some synths the Bit Commander has enough versatility to be used consistently for your solo’s or can be tamed enough to be used throughout your jams.
We also cannot ignore. It has a sick name too.