New pedals are for JD

Yesterday I found myself in Arvada on my way back to Fort Collins after a great morning of City Prayer at ORCC.  I was following a lead from craigslist about someone who was interested in trading me for my crappy old Boss pedals.  In short, the cost to me was:

• Japanese DD-2
• Broken-ish PS-2 (Pitch Shifter/Delay, kinda worthless to me)
• Vintage Ibanez EQ/Boost
• Entirely obsolete PSM-5 Power Supply/Master Switch Pedal 
• and my old, entirely broken Boss pedal case
• 40$

 

But I came home with:

• A  Line 6 DL4
• A G2D Cream-Tone overdrive
• A Fulltone OCD
• And a nifty, professional-looking new pedal board complete with velcro carpet and handles

I thought I did well.  I am IN LOVE with the Cream-Tone. Best overdrive I’ve ever played (although that’s not very many…).  I miss the DD-2, but having a DL4 like everyone else makes up for it.

 

Guitar effects are far too much fun.

I’ve been playing music only a short time by most people’s standards. I started playing drums in 6th grade, and now that I’m in 14th-or-so grade, music is still most of who I am in addition to Jesus. So with that said, let me tell you about my new favorite part of being a musician. Guitar effects.

I have a whole bunch of these random old Boss single-effect pedals from the early 80’s. A great man named Austin Schauer gave them to me when I started to play electric guitar late last year, and now it’s time for them to go. I put an add up on craigslist, and already I’ve had a ton of fun offers for trades and such. Too much fun! I’m sure I can get a DL4 and maybe a cool overdrive out of the deal? I will surely consult my guitar mentors before any big transactions go down.

Tomorrow night I head down to Denver to play drums at ORCC the next morning with Seanster. Sean’s got a cool Marshall Delay for me there and I’m pumped. I find it strange that I have had the exact same tried-and-true drum setup for the last two or three years, yet in the seven-or-so months I’ve been a serious electric player I’ve already altered my rig numerous times. Hopefully this will be a healthy and continuing pattern.

I sat at home today for a long time and played guitar. My Calculus test was done at nine, and my new job doesnt start until noon tomorrow, getting off at one thirty (some lousy free training thing). So I’ve had plenty of time to spend on guitar learning. This weekend I’m playing at my church up here in Fort Collins, and I’m super excited. The college pastor here was in some punk band in the 90’s, and around that time invested in a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier. They’ve outlawed us to use it during the main service because you have to make it so loud for it to sound good, but this weekend I’m trying to use the cabinet (complete with four Celestion 30’s) in addition to my AC15. I discovered that you can change the output impendance on the Vox with a little switch in the back, so I can connect it to the Mesa cabinet. The sound is interesting, and certainly different than the Warfdale speaker in the Vox. Not sure if I like it or not yet. Trying something new I guess.

(This is my beautiful, friendly, and tastefully traditional church.  Sunday we introduce Desperation.)

 

This Sunday is an important one for Faith. We’re playing a loud, strong song by Desperation band called “I Will Go”. This isn’t my favorite Despo song, but I definitely like it. Regardless, this is the loudest, most driving song in our church history. We’ve got it nailed down pretty well, and our leaders, Dan Pahlau and Ben Schuchard, certainly sing the song more pleasingly than Jon Egan, the writer of the song. So it will be fun. Pray that this sound of music will be accepted more by the congregation. This isn’t our only “fast song” of the morning, but it is sandwiched by organ-led hymns. I love organ-led hymns, but more so when in addition to loud music written in the last 40 years! Should be an interesting Sunday.