Hanging with Grover
Chandler pedals
Chandler Limited designs high-end, hand-made studio gear, but they also just started making these guitar stomp-boxes. The "colored boost" (red) is a live rig necessity for me now. It makes a warm and ballsy drive but also keeps clarity and detail in the high end. The "germanium drive" (blue) creates some low-fi grit and will help my guitar poke into a studio recording mix with character. Nice stuff!
Tom
Today's pedalboard
From Left to Right: TCE Flashback, Love Pedal Babyface Tremolo, Malekko Vibrato, Ibanez Flanger, Tone Candy Spring Fever (reverb), Zvex Box of Rock, TCE Polytune.
Studio tour
Kennedy Center Honors
Studio Geekery part 1
The two silver ones with black knobs are Pultec equalizers. This is a pair of mono units and I use them to pass my stereo mixes through. The design is from the 1950's and they are pretty simple to use. Select a frequency, and then boost or cut it. If you are not an audio person, it's kind of like a fancy set of Bass/Treble controls. These Pultec's use tubes, audio people love the sound of tubes, but it's beyond me to describe how they work. They do get hot and if something goes wrong in the unit, you can usually just replace a tube and you're all fixed up. Next is the Manley Variable-MU in black with the two big white meters. This is a stereo compressor, and I put my mixes through this in-line behind the Pultec's. A compressor's role it hard to describe, but it basically smooths out the rough audio edges. Proper use of compression can make amateur recordings sound much more professional. The last unit on the right is the Fulltone Tube Tape Echo. This is actually a guitar effect I covered in my last post. This unit has a tube and makes echo effects using a tape loop. The basic design is based on the old Echo-plex units, and this one is improved in many ways, while still giving that sound that we grew up hearing on countless records. Okay that's it for today, take care until next time.
Tom Dumont
I play guitar in No Doubt
