Let's Talk About Gear! My favorite pedal...super fun portable good time rock and roll ROBOT JAMMING PEDAL!!!!!

A couple things have happened in the last week or so that have really changed things around here (in addition to the current NHL season starting).

First, due to time restraints and the need to make more money as well as spend more time with my kids and wife... I quit the band. Playing live was great, I loved it very much. Yoko was not involved and there are no hard feelings.

Second, I have discovered the COOLEST PEDAL EVER - The Boss RC-2 Loop Station.

Wow, what a great pedal - as I learn more about it, I am reminded of a recent Jackson post about Jamming.
The RC-2 is like having a little robot that jams with me when ever I want to. It plays the chord progressions exactly like you tell it to... The RC-2 (or as I like to call it the RC-D2 a.k.a. super fun portable good time rock and roll ROBOT JAMMING PEDAL!!!!!) has a 16 minute recording capacity and 11 channels for preset loops. Currently, all 11 of my channels are taken, but the GOOD TIME ROCK AND ROLL ROBOT set list changes every day

currently, the 11 channels go like this:

1. Blues in G
2. reggae progression
3. Shut your mouth and get your ass on the plane (a DBT song, basically a 1-4-5 blues progression)
4. Posetively 4th street
5. some riff in d
6. some Jazzy chord progression in g maj
7. Doctor Doctor Please (UFO)
8. rockin in the free world
9. goddamn lonely love (DBT song)
10. Avenues (old whiskey town song)
11. a g to a funky riff

Oh yeah, I forgot you can also loop stuff right from your iPOD onto this thing, That's what I did for "Doctor Doctor" and "shut your mouth".

Now whenever I get the urge to jam, I just plug into my robot and play with myself (great sentence).

Now I have only begun to scratch the surface of this thing - I am currently playing around with the drum tracks and what not, I'm sure I will be posting about this more in the future. Not sure how much I will use the drum tracks but it has a number of preset drum tracks playing numerous different styles.

Go get one of these things - definitely worth the money. Plug into your amp, or POD or whatever you play through and start jamming ANYTIME YOU WANT.

So much fun it should be illegal.

Let's talk about Volume Pedals Man!

I am in the market for a Volume Pedal - mainly for slide / bend fills - and... well.. the ability to control volume with my foot.

The following VPs make up my short list of acceptable units, under $100...


Ernie Ball VP Jr. Passive Volume Pedal
This is the VP of choice of all the country dudes out there. Sexy design with a nice wide foot pedal. The Ernie Ball also has a nice tuner out feature, (Ernie Ball came up with the idea - other VPs are following). The tuner out allows the player to turn the volume all the way down (using the pedal) and the tuner still gets a signal...
This pedal reminds me of a skate board with all the grip tape on the surface. Remember those old Banzai skateboards???

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Boss FV-500H Mono Volume Pedal - This does everything the EB VP JR. does for about $15 cheaper. The dimensions are slightly smaller, still the expression pedal itself is nice and large.

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Jum Dunlop GCB-80 High Gain Volume Pedal. Can't go wrong with a Dunlop - built to last like all other JD pedals, and this one goes for around $60. Plus no power needed for this model.

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Morley Little Alligator Volume Pedal - Great for the price (around $50) but seems a little flimsy. Being a big fat guy I worry I would break this thing.

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There you have it, I am leaning toward the BOSS - I have had great luck with all my BOSS pedals over the years.

I think this will make a great addition to my gear. I have been working on my slide playing and use my volume pot (to sneak up on a note) - the pedal will make that a lot easier. It will also add to my control when I switch guitars - My SG is much louder than my LP.

If anyone out there who has experience with any of the above VPs let me know - I'm mainly going by pedals I have actually tried.

DIY Volume Pedal

Since I saw Son Volt's guitarist, Chris Masterson's awesome volume pedal work I've been trying to find a cheap volume pedal. Then started talking to my bass player (amp builder, pedal tweaker) about suggestions, he said I didn't have enough room on my pedal board for a pedal the size of a volume pedal.
I do have a Dunlop Crybaby, and now I have found the schematics for Turning My Cry Baby into a Volume / Wah combo! Wow I can't believe how excited I am about this... I'm sure whomever is reading this is on the edge of their seat.

I will keep you posted on how it goes / sounds.

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UPDATE: TA requested a picture of my current pedal board set up... NOTE: I did not have a picture so I put one together using paint brush. The graphics are not as cool as they are on GuitarGeek.com (if you have not checked out this site - it's pretty cool - don't think it has been updated in the past few years).

So there you are TA - my pedal board - (I'll give you a minute to let the goosebumps go down) as you can see there is no room for a addl volume pedal.

And before any of you give me any shit for the wireless, you have to understand that my band does not have a sound man and it's important to be able to get off stage and see how things sound... See how things sound? HEAR how things sound. Sometimes I will run wireless from my pedal board to my amp to avoid a chord frenzy.