Author Archive
Whirlwind is an American company with a very American story -- founder Michael Laiacona was one of the masterminds behind the original line of MXR pedals, and later left to found his own company, Whirlwind. While arguably best-known for their excellent line of pro audio products, the team at Whirlwind decided to go back to Michael's roots and a few years back, introduced their own versions of the original MXR circuits (Phase 90, Dyna Comp, and Gold Box) in their Rochester Series of pedals, built in-house, in upstate New York.... Click on the title for more
Continuing the line of hallowed delay pedals that include the award winning Replica, the Reptile 2, and the Duck Tail, T-Rex effects has introduced yet another delay effect into the mix. The latest addition is called the T-Rex Replay Box, which came about due to reverse inquiries of customers asking for a pure delay that does not modify the tonal quality of the original guitar signal.... Click on the title for more
There's a new tendency in the pedal manufacturing world we really dig and encourage: we are referring to mainstream companies like Dunlop and DigiTech assigning some of their pedal designs to "emerging" boutique manufacturers. One of the new products of this kind of interaction is the DOD Boneshaker distortion, which was created by Tennessee's Mark Wenz, the man behind the Black Arts Toneworks creations.
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In March 2015 The Deli's Stompbox Exhibit - a free, interactive, in-the-headphones display of guitar effect pedals - will travel to Austin for its second official involvement in the SXSW's Music Gear Expo, part of the big music festival hosted by the Texan city that week. The exhibit, featuring dozens of stompbox manufacturers (see list at the bottom), will be sponsored by Washburn Guitars, AKG Headphones and George L's Cables.
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EarthQuaker Devices unveiled four new pedals at NAMM 2015, two of which are re-issues of classics now in a smaller format (which is definitely a trend appreciated by musicians when pedal board real estate is a necessity). The first of these re-packaged re-issues, the Hummingbird tremolo, is one to desire above others due to its mode switch. It has 3 speed controls - slow LFO, medium LFO and ‘super fast.’ There’s also a jack for an expression pedal to control the rate. The slow and fast speeds now go even slower and faster, and the depth knob can now be set so low that you can use it just as a clean boost when not using it as a tremolo. The Sea Machine is the other reissue. It is basically just a sized-down version of the classic Sea Machine with the minor addition of an LED to show the rate, even when disengaged.... Click on the title for more
The Slivertone "Twin Twelve" 1484 is a classic sleeper amp. Manufactured by Sears in the 60s, the amp packs a ton of sound in a somewhat rickety plywood cabinet. Because of the poor build quality, and a tinny and temperamental reverb circuit, the amp has classically never been as popular (or expensive) as comparable amps like the Fender Twin Reverb. That said, the Twin Twelve has recently enjoyed a surge in popularity on the adoration of people like Jack White. White has used it throughout his career, and immortalized the amp in "In Might Get Loud". The new Twin Twelve from JHS attempts to package up the amp into pedal form, and from the sound of the demo video recorded at the pedal's NAMM debut, it does a fine job.... Click on the title for more
Another pedal that caught our attention at NAMM 2015 was Wampler's new Plexi Drive Deluxe, which will be released on February 27, 2014. We at Delicious Audio are huge fans of the Plexi era of Marshall amps, but the truth is, they're massive and hard to find - and hard to duplicate tonally.... Click on the title for more
