Digital Clef

  What do you get when two pedal nerds decide to LARP working for Electro-Harmonix under Mike Matthews in 1975, the heyday of the "big box" EHX pedals, and they come up with a new circuit? You get this: the Lizard Queen Octave/Distortion pedal. It's a simple but effective design that truly encompasses everything Electro-Harmonix was about in the mid-1970's. The backstory Sometime in 2021, Josh Scott, from JHS Pedals, and Daniel Danger, graphics designer and "Electro-Harmonix Archivist", wanted to know what it would be like to work under Mike Matthews in 1975. They then decided to design a circuit that EHX would have produced back then using the processes and parts that were available at the time. It also had to be in a big box enclosure like all other EHX pedals of the era, because why not: they look cool and they make a statement! Over the course of the following year, they hand-built 6 "big box" units and gave one to the man himself,  Our Lord An...

  I have a few things going on right now, and writing reviews and recording demos is not my top priority. Since I haven't published anything in a while, here is a short-ish one. -J.P. Why the roller coaster header image? Well, I couldn't find a suitable royalty-free image for an infinite loop, and that was the closest thing that made sense. As you might have guessed already, the cheapest pedal I found on Amazon this past April is... a looper! Without further ado, let's get right to the review. ammoon Loop Station It's one of those super-small "nano" pedals. In terms of dimensions, it is 3.6cm by 7.5cm by 2.6cm (width, length, height; that's 1¼" by 2¾" by 1" if metric is not your thing). It's smaller than my MXR Phase 95, which is a "regular nano" size (not to be confused by Electro-Harmonix concept of "nano", which only means "regular 1590B enclosure" instead of "1970's vintage big box enclosures...

  Guess who has two thumbs and managed to get sick on his last day of Christmas Holidays vacation? That would be me. The review I wanted to write and record for January got delayed until I could spend more than five minutes without sneezing and my voice doesn't sound like a wet accordion smoking four packs a day. Once that got better, I promptly managed to get  the Spicy Cough COVID, which meant no review for February either... Editor's Note: There's no audio demo or pictures (yet) since the unit was sent for repair due to a ground issue with the input jack. I'll make a "part two" once it's back. The Plex I've been on the lookout for a proper bass preamp for quite some time. I have an EQ and a compressor pedal, but I wanted something that would give me more voicing options. My bass teacher uses a Darkglass B7K Microtubes and it sounds awesome, however its price tag isn't... At about 650$CAD, it doesn't come cheap, so I decided to shop around ...

  This is the second (and hopefully final) part of my COVID diary. It went a lot better than I had hoped for and I'm quite surprised at how fast I came around. I am now 14 days post-diagnosis: the symptoms are practically gone and I've been testing negative for at least 2 days. T+7 to T+10 - Sunday, January 19th to Wednesday, February 1st These four days were honestly quite a blur. I don't remember much, except that I spent a few hours working each day and many hours napping in the afternoon. The main symptom I had left, beside the loss of taste and smell, was the extreme exhaustion that set in after only a few hours. Since I spend at least three hours on the phone every morning, I often ended up out of breath after one hour talking. That made for interesting days. I somehow developed a toothache, but I'm not sure if it's COVID-related. Maybe I'm grinding my teeth too much... Smell and taste are slowly coming back, but I'd say they're still below 70% of ...

  It was bound to happen one day, but after dodging it for 3 years, it's my turn to get the Spicy Cough. I had just gotten over a bronchitis... I'm five times vaccinated, and all those shots prepared my body to handle the infection in the most efficient way possible and minimize symptoms. This is part one of, uh... I don't know... maybe two, three, at most? I'm six days post-diagnosis and the infection is still running it course, so plenty more can happen until I'm fully recovered. All the planned gear reviews are on hold until I can actually think straight and play somewhat properly. Moral of the story: get vaccinated . T-4 - Wednesday, January 18th It seems my bronchitis finally went away. The course of antibiotics I've been prescribed is finished, and I have no symptoms anymore except a nagging, slightly wet cough. All of my COVID tests were negative, including the one I took this morning (you can never be too safe these days). T-3 - Thursday, January 19th We...

First and foremost, Happy New Year! Back in August, I purchased a Fender Bassbreaker that I reviewed (sort of) here . I ended up returning it because of some issues with the effects loop, the insane temperature it reaches while in operation, and a general feeling of "it could be so much better". I instead ordered a Fender Hot Rod DeVille IV 212 to replace it, and I regret not purchasing that in the first place. Note: this review is not totally unbiased since I previously owned a Hot Rod Deluxe II and it's very close to my heart, being the first expensive pro-ish quality hardware I ever purchased (and the first tube amp I owned). I'll try to be as objective as possible. Amp specifications The Hot Rod DeVille is, for all intents and purposes, a Hot Rod Deluxe on steroids. They both share the same PCB and most of their parts. The main differences being the Deluxe has one 12" speaker and 40 watts of output power, while the DeVille has two 12" speakers and 60 wat...