Author Archive
Ghost King's 2016 debut album "Bones" impressed our friends at The Deli so much that they made it NYC Record of the Month back in April. The album features what could be seen (and heard) as an noteworthy recap of the (indie) guitar rock sound of the '90s, with references to bands as disparate and glorious as Sonic Youth, the Violent Femmes, Pavement, The Pixies and Guided by Voices. Considering the wide range of guitar tones in the record, we thought band songwriter and guitarist Carter McNeil might have something interesting to say about what inspired the record and what gear made it possible.... Click on the title for more
For NYC's amukaT Gadgets’ latest stompbox, the name says it all: Tweaker. This is a revamp of the original Tweaker that came out two years ago, now with sturdier metal footswitches (you’ll understand why momentarily), a horizontal layout, and a redesign of the circuit.... Click on the title for more
Orange County boutique manufacturer AJ Peat, owned and founded by Luthier and self-described tinkerer Andrew James Peat, builds guitars, effect pedals and other signature audio devices.
At the 2016 Summer NAMM show in Nashville his pedals were on display in the Cusack/Mojo Hand booth. This was due to the fact that Jon Cusack offered to help AJ design non-hand-built versions of Peat's effects. We actually had a chance to talk to AJ directly about this and he was so happy about the results he was almost questioning why he stuck to hand building for so long: "the new, mass built designs sound identical to their hand built counterparts"- he said. Surely Jon Cusack's engineering brain came in handy to pull off this accomplishment.... Click on the title for more
Peter Rutter of VFE Pedals is going back to teaching full time in the fall, and while he doesn’t want to walk away from all he has built with the pedal company, he knows he cannot keep it in its current form. So he is blowing out all of his back stock of highly-tweakable pedals in order to bring a new, simpler form factor into mix. All new VFE pedals will be limited to four knobs and one minor control, like a toggle (see image). Peter posted this page on the VFE site with details about his plans for the future. - Read the full article on Gearphoria.com.... Click on the title for more
LAVACHILD is a NYC based synth pop project fronted by (very fashionable) singer songwriter/keyboardist Chantel De Lava, whose hypnotic presence charmed us at our 2015 B.E.A.F. fest. Their older single "Want U To" went viral on the internet, and since then the group has been releasing promising new material on their Soundcloud profile, which should be soon gathered in a proper release. We asked Chantel a few questions about her gear and the way she uses it.... Click on the title for more
Those of you who like to challenge themselves with DIY projects in the realm of electric engineering applied to music, should take a look at MODKits DIY's authentic spring tube reverb design called The Wave. For the the young and unaware, spring reverbs are an electromechanical reverb device that produces a reverb effect by inducing sound vibrations at one end of a long wire shaped like a spring. They were among the first reverbs on the market, and you can find them in many now vintage guitar amps from the 50s and 60s.... Click on the title for more


One of the premier effects from the mad minds at
Ghost King's 2016 debut album "![amukaT%20Gadgets%20Tweaker%20Ver2[1]](http://delicious-audio.com//wp-content/uploads//2016/07/amukaT20Gadgets20Tweaker20Ver21-612x457.jpg)
With her latest project, Half Waif's Nandi Rose Plunkett has successfully bridged the ever-growing chasm between "avant" and pop, taking Radiohead's lesson to a more intimate and less pretentious place. The band's sophomore album 'Probable Depths" is an intriguing blend of synth and orchestral pop full of texture and otherworldly melodies. We asked Plunkett a few questions about her creative process and gear.
What events and records have been inspiring the music in 'Probable Depths’?
At the heart of ‘Probable Depths’ is the experience of recording the basic sounds for the album in the house where I grew up, in Western Massachusetts. It was very cold and very snowy when we were recording, yet the house was lit up with warmth from the old wood stove. To me, the album has this slick, constructed outside atmosphere that feels like the sharp air and the architecture of the house. Inside, in contrast, there’s the personal nature of the lyrics, the inner warmth of my thoughts, a sensation of being nestled inside a world of sound. That house has a lot of history – a lot of memories, joys, and intense sorrow. There’s a depth there that you might not feel when looking at the quaint red New England exterior, just like I hope there’s a depth to the music that requires a few listens.... Click on the title for more
It’s 1973 in Berkeley, California, and a young electrical wizard named Craig Anderton has just developed his take on the envelope filter. He calls it the “Funk Machine”, and together with John Lang, starts an innovative and experimental guitar effects brand, Seamoon Inc. Hand-building each individual unit, they launch their new brand with one pedal and quickly the word starts to spread... Fast forward a few months, Anderton decides it’s time to expand, and with that he develops Seamoon’s own version of the classic fuzz effect: the Fresh Fuzz was born.... Click on the title for more
Orange County boutique manufacturer
Peter Rutter of
If pop is sugar and the rest of us are flies, it's safe to say that EDM has drunk the Kool-Aid. Alas, NYC duo
Most music lovers know what a Hammond organ is and are aware that Leslie is a rotary effect traditionally applied to that instrument. We knew that much when, last week, we approached the Hammond booth at Summer NAMM 2016, inquiring about three stompboxes featuring the name "Leslie" on them. That's when Hammond's Gregg Gronowski briefly instructed us on the story of the Leslie effect... Click on the title for more






