A Hang With Rabea [Strats, Pedalboard Update, Music Man, Neural, Real Amps, Stormzy & More!]

[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] welcome to that pedal show Dan here Mick here hello hello hi sorry uh we are joined today by the wonderful Robia uh yeah rubia Mossad um old friend of ours actually he's not that old we're just old friends uh if you don't know who he is get out from under the rock we say it every time um and it's a pleasure to see you mate it's been a while it has been a while it's been a while but I haven't seen you I saw you at nem very briefly yeah one night in a bar which was fun um but I haven't seen you since before the world fell apart yeah and then got back together again so we filmed the last time we filmed with you yes and you stayed at Nick's house I did even before yeah and it was the first time you've ever seen spinal tap it was I think I feel more complete as a musician you haven't seen it yeah yeah well it was our duty yeah as soon as you said you hadn't seen it was like that's well after you've got over it after you got over the fact I hadn't seen it you were both like what yeah so A lot's happened in in that time it was literally um the day Ruby arrived with us was the day the government basically said don't go anywhere yeah do you remember yeah yeah so we did we filmed the next day and off you went home and that was that and we didn't see for ages and so much has changed yeah big time so briefly uh Tosca is no more disbanded here um you've got new projects ongoing you've left Chapman and gone to Music Man indeed he says all the offender we're going to talk about strats you've got a new Strat pickup set yep and the re the first reason we came to to to do this video today was we wanted the original and this would be about 18 months ago yeah we wanted to talk about strats in a slightly heavier context so we'll cover some of that stuff um as well today in addition Dana swapped out uh so you built this board for a beer how long ago oh boy well that was when it was when we did the whole spinal tap thing yeah that was why I was here to show like heavy tones and yeah and stuff yeah and uh yeah would be a wanted a G3 so I thought it would but the thing is as well because you've got another project that you're coming up and so all the extra Media stuff um you know it just was a natural progression but I wanted to ask you because the next time I saw you after that you said there was something big happening but you couldn't say what it was and then lo and behold watching stormzy at reading oh yeah and out pops you yeah to open the whole thing yeah I only found out about that bit though like two days before a day before come on tell the story though it was horrifically scary so I got asked to do the gig um through Instagram um no way I almost didn't see the message because I never check Instagram messages I don't know if you guys are the same but I really didn't check my inbox this Instagram you talk about what's that yeah you know because it does message requests and you don't always see them so I went in and I was just checking in a friend of mine um Jack Duxbury yeah he was friends with the MD of the whole thing so he was like you need to check your messages man like so I did ended up having a chat with the guy called kojo Samuel who's the MD really nice guy he asked me if I wanted to play uh reading in Leeds because they wanted to bring back the idea of used to be an old rock metal festival kind of vibe there's a way heavier bands back in the day um and they wanted to reignite that kind of thing so I was like yeah absolutely because I knew I'd never listened to stormzy but my sister's a huge fan so I was like okay so this is a big opportunity so I said yeah went and did the pre-production and stuff and um I had to like arrange with kojo the intro to the whole thing because they wanted to do like a big balls to the wall kind of Riff version of one of the songs called Big Michael so I threw together a demo at home sent it over and they approved it straight away they're like this is great we'll just do this so then went to do a fly by night which is a big production facility uh ran the ran the set I was playing on the opener um a song called Blinded By Your Grace and then vosibop which was at the end of the whole set and the whole time we've been doing pre-production was in a rehearsal space but it was only in when we did the dress rehearsal which was two days before Lee reading that they were like right so that X in the center you need to walk out there so like we did the thing and I walked out and I'm like doing it and there's like pyros and stuff but there was no one else on stage and I sort of pulled the the show director to the side and went just is it just me at the start they're like yeah yeah like so I was completely like paralyzed with like fear at that point and then right before we went on kojo the MD's like hanging around in the wings and I'm like obviously very nervous because this is the first gig out of lockdown as well like I hadn't played for a couple of years so I was pretty nervous and it was also I was running my quad cortex on time code so it's being changed on its own right and I've never done anything like that relinquishing controlled that much so the whole thing's just like oh this is so intense so I thought I just need to warm up on the side and then he he comes over and he's like I love these pre-broadcast Vibes side of the stage and I was like so broadcast he's like he's like yeah man BBC I'm like I had no idea I had no idea it was gonna be on BBC until about a minute two minutes before we went on and then in your ears your inner monitors you've got right back in track walking music and go and you're just like walk on stage and it was just it was amazing as soon as I played the first note I was fine they wanted to do like a When Doves Fly kind of yeah like sort of Scrappy lead intro and then kick in with the big riffs and just as soon as the risk came in I was fine but on top of all of that at the time I'd torn my ACL so I remember walking from the from the bus to the stage and my leg kept like popping out so I had this leg brace that I used and I tightened it to such a point that I couldn't bend my leg and I had to do the whole gig with it you know with a torn ACL that was really hard to like stand there and power stance and rock out hoping that it wouldn't you know give way and I just fall on my ass in the middle of this day it was terrible honestly but an amazing experience I can't believe that happened so I think it was incredible and you absolutely nailed it you did oh yeah we were all very excited watching it on the TV oh my God it's big yeah it was super cool so I mean previous to all of that and you've been doing all the stuff with Leo and those turned into some big gigs in the end didn't they yeah so this is Leo frogly by the way yeah yeah I started out in sort of 600 cap venues we did the second tour and now we're going out again in September and he's doing 4 000 cat venues no way yeah that is nuts yeah it is crazy people just love the party Vibe I think right we'll we'll sort of flip between stories and a bit of playing before we get to a bit more playing how does um how does it change then so if you think pre-leo pre-redding Festival yeah [Laughter] if you're doing his few hundred here and there how does the production how does the feeling change between like a decent normal gig that most of us are used to and then four thousand and then whatever it was forty thousand well reading was 90. yeah I mean for the most part you know how it is that there's a certain number of people in the audience before at which point it kind of just blurs into one you don't really think about it like this the Hardy gigs are the really small Club venues you can see everyone all their faces whereas like Beyond I'd say like two three hundred people it starts to feel more or less the same and then luckily with frogly we'd done like an over Rock gig a few years back um and that was 40 000 and you get I'd had that I'd had that experience once where there's so many people you can't comprehend it and it just looks like a sea of that like skin color so at that point I kind of I wasn't the gig the reading it I wasn't worried about the amount of people I was worried about all the technicalities you know the time code the wireless system the accountings and you're in is which I've never had cues like that before you know all that stuff so that was more scary but you'd done production rehearsals to get a bit used to that stuff yeah I mean like again with frog leap it we're kind of left to our own devices in the sense we've got our own rigs we're all on it is and it's we were talking about earlier like a silent stage so as long as you don't take your inners out you're all good um and then the bigger the stage gets the worse that is when you take your in ears out yeah to put a wedge near me so that if ever I did feel like taking them out I've got something yeah yeah um but like yeah other than that you know things like when we used to go with Tosca whatever size venues we used to do there was a whole setup ritual because you got amps and pedal boards and all the rest of it so you get your tone before you've done anything else then you do soundtrack then whatever the gigs the gig whereas with the Frog leap stuff and even with the stormzy thing it's just the modeler because we that's what I had to use wasn't allowed to take amps and with frog leave they're all fly gigs so you just put it down the presets the same preset you used the last time nothing changes so it's kind of weird like it took a long time to get used to the difference of making sure all that's set up and yeah that's set up yeah to just going presets loaded cool that's it why you go let's get into a discussion of that in a minute then for now for those of you who want to hear Revere play a bit more I certainly do we've we've been a bit naughty today so you normally play like when you are we'll get into the discussion of amps and models in a sec but you normally play a stereo rig right two Krakens yeah today we've we've urged Rivier to try something different just for the for the hell of it um so what's happening down the Kraken is doing we've got the signal coming out of the let's see with uh Mobius into the Volante goes into the front of the Kraken then by splitting the signal in the effects Loop of the crack and one side goes back into the crack and so the signal then goes to the parent section into the cab the outside comes out back into the board into the timeline and Big Sky stereo out left and right into the power and left and right into the Zilla cab so we do have a wet dry wet rig fully wet dry well fully wet dry well even though it's when you hear it in your ears you'll you will experience wet dry wet we were setting up earlier how does it feel compared to stereo rig a lot different right it's faster we would say yeah it's more immediate when you dig in because it's not all mixed together yeah um and I guess on a smaller side note because all the effects are on that side and I've got the dry here but that's that's sort of negligible but what is very noticeable is the immediacy of the the dry yeah yeah do you like that I haven't used it long enough to really know right come on talk us through talk us through um some basic sounds like your go-to when you would plug in yeah what how does it begin well it's it's kind of we were saying this earlier because obviously Dan very kindly re-rig rejig the board put the the G3 on there but up until very recently um well I'll say very recently up until just after lockdown it was all preset for the Tosca stuff and I would just kind of tweak the settings if I just wanted to play whereas now with the new projects I'm going to be using a lot more single core guitar as well in that and I'm trying to dial in uh heavier tones for that sort of sound but in terms of what the board does one has always been a rhythm tone [Music] um and then two and three are varying degrees of like wet you know site two would be really really wet and then three be slightly less wet and then four is just more like a better Reverb five would have been like an octave first thing six would have been a pad and seven would have been a solo boost so that's what we've named them as you go along sorry and you can see so that's how they're set up bearing in mind I'm using the Strat at the minute so into the crack and gain one it's not when it says main Rhythm that would have been a heavy Rhythm yeah it would have been so there's no overdrive pedals with just guitar amp at this point yeah so this is how it sounds straight in so [Music] it's just it's dry you know um one thing that I've grown to love using strats and amps is a compressor really enjoy using the compressor so underneath there is the Cali stacked so I'll go to number four bit of Reverb and then just the the compressor [Music] yeah so I would you I would use that sound generally for playing on my own and then these were set up more for like uh songs at the time I've tried to recreate it real quick but um that kind of thing going on but yeah anyway this sounds [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you I really really I would sit and play that for hours um and then three is very similar but what I'll show you I suppose is what the pedals are doing so some of these are dialed in right now for a heavy strap thing so if I go there throw in the compressor because it's fun and then I believe that is in number seven [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] yeah I really like that that's the PDF from Stone deaf just when Ruby was setting up he tweaked the frequency control on the PDF just listen to this and say I'll put it back where it should be yeah I promise I've played a bit more please just make sure that that narrows the band okay so if you if you turn that to the left and then move the frequency you can hit [Music] [Music] like it there yeah yeah I like it to have a thickness that low mid thing yeah so with that band wide like that it just gives a bit more thump that's the bridge pickup it's just thick so it makes those [Music] nice and fat that's amazing it's cool it's a cool pedal it's almost like a fuzz yeah at that point yeah yeah yeah that's a bit of a gem like you keep putting it back on the board again yeah actually I need to and that's the clean mode has a dirty mode as well so if you've done if you press that it goes to Red so let's have a quick I don't really of often use it on red [Music] thank you hello Luke if you're watching Luke from Stone death yeah Legends um so that's kind of like I would generally use that for with with the single coil Strat sound that would be like my rhythm sound maybe it'll be slightly brighter but that would generally be like the Rhythm sounds that I use for riffs yeah um but then I have varying degrees of that so like the thunderclaw is a like I love that thing I actually put that in my neural plugin these two are in my neural plug really yeah wow um on the Vintage mode so that's the Vintage mode that's the modern mode in the plug-in because they're like quite similar but this one has a little bit you can riff with it whereas this one's really chewy because you know so I'll give you a quick example so thank you [Music] which I really like and then if I go to the Bender foreign [Music] that with the Park too so I'll give you that real quick [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah can can I ask there's I've always loved a heavy Strat sound or a heavy Telecaster sound there's something about the attack on the bridge pickup that I don't know it just doesn't cave in if you hear if you listen to the what was happening there on the front of the low strings you get you hit the twang yeah you can still hear the pick yeah yeah yeah which would be completely lost yeah that's something I'm falling in love with more and more over the years that like over lockdown I did a project called the turtle mist and that was done all with like single coils right I used Strat and Telly I did use a Gretch um with a filter Tron thing yeah but mainly it was it was this with actually these pickups the first iteration of the minatelli that I used for all the heavy stuff and just it's just so much fun yeah such a different approach to heavy sounds from what I've always done which is on Bookers because there is that there is that tendency right as soon as it gets heavy throw hamburgers in yeah but I feel like that's obviously there's so many genres of music now that are synonymous with humbuckers but also the it's in the name most of the time when you turn up the game people need to get rid of the humps you know so I feel like a lot of that's just the kind of done thing but oh this I mean like Andrew Groves from Arcane Roots was a great example of someone that did Heavy tone with the Strat you know like yeah yeah of course you know these guys like doing it for years before like I really got turned on to it but I I don't know it's just really fun to carve out a sound using single chords definitely because there's an aggression with them as well like there's quite a big difference between a strat bridge and a telebridge like the Telly bridge is way more aggressive um but the two just work so well there's a flying Beast there is a flame he likes your tone yeah he does we get this every year about this time we're on a farm right so uh there are flying beasts excuse the flying Beast it's got good taste but yeah um there is then the only other things I've got going on is uh as I was saying too earlier when we were messing with the board I'm starting to chop and change more like I remember when we first built the board that was how it was going to be whereas what I've started doing is taking stuff off trying new stuff so like the Halcyon is currently on there um as a tube screamer but I also have a second Tube Screamer underneath which can you see the blue light that's the Tempest from Fortin and the reason that that's on there is because it has a high and a low pass yeah has a high and a low pass knob on it which I think all tube screamers should have 14 as in Mike 40 yeah oh well yeah and it it's uh it's actually a signature pedal of The Architects um that they use it for heavy stuff but it's great um because of that high in the low pass control so you can really dial it in so um [Music] so he's just adding a bit of Drive I've boosted the level so it's hitting the front but then I've rolled off the high end so it's not quite as sharp [Music] so it's a little less that is amazing it's good isn't it that's awesome I was about to say can we hear some neck pickup yeah it's crying out for it yeah [Applause] all right [Music] foreign [Music] and then lastly the Halcyon what's the house I'm currently doing that's in number six that will sound like without it and then the Halcyon [Music] thank you [Music] so yeah tube screamery things amazing um it does require a certain level of confidence to play those sounds yeah at that sort of way less forgiving on a single coil as well but that's you can't have any furry on there it's all just straight in Dana started to refer to delay in Reverb as phui oh yeah and I must admit that using a compressor for me is a dangerous game yeah because you get so used to using it so much fun having a compressional time and although Sanders just showed you with I didn't have the compressor on yeah and I'm used to it right and so it's a little bit more like you're out in the you're out on your own now what is this number of ways this discussion needs to go one is guitars obviously we need to talk about straps of single coils and music man but also amps and the the compression question is interesting because another thing that you did lockdown wise was you were sort of forced to tosca's all loud amps right and then the relationship with neural and all of that you lived in modeling world for most of that and have come out changed right yeah seen the light so to speak yeah in some respects so how does that work then maybe explain a little bit about the the lockdown process and how you got into all of that and what you've learned well I mean throughout lockdown it was a case of look we got a little there's a little sweater on the mic that was extremely accurate it was but there was a there was a I think he was sucked in behind the yeah the the uh it was of water yeah I really want to know what that sounds like through the mic yeah um if I'd have hit it on the end you'll hear the fly landing on the mic yeah and you'll hear the cries that was great I was so impressed with how you didn't manage to hit it but was it at such velocity he's a man of mentality yeah yeah um yeah so like uh the modeling thing like obviously it's worth saying that I have some very close friends that work in Euro firstly so that head of Arts relations is my friend called Max who used to tick Tor manage take photographs of all the bands I've ever done and Dan Davies who's now their CMO and like I've known him as long as I've known Rob like they were like a pair that I met at the same time so since like 2011. what's CMO a chief marketing oh okay so he's in control of all the marketing for you um so like when they brought out the qualco I've tried the plugins and stuff before lockdown and I've done videos with them and stuff like that but being completely honest like I would always then go back to amps and pedals and stuff like that um and they're fun but I saw them more as a cool thing that it's a convenience factor when you don't have the opportunity to microphone on your computer I remember going to you to get some I asked IRS for speaker I asked because you had a lot of experience you'd you'd tried a lot of stuff yeah and to the point where you had you did your own IRS yeah and because when you're at home load box for me I always wanted amp and then if I couldn't have a cab it would be a load box but I wanted an amp to do a thing um but yeah and so I would try the plugins it would be kind of cool convenience whatever like they had some cool quirks and you know like architect Corey Wong which had a call all sorts of fun sounds and then quad cortex came out and that was like you know it's a modeler but it captures amps as well which was for me a really important thing because although I like you know I've tried a few different models different amps and stuff I always like more attracted to the idea of catching my own amps sure so when we say capture like Kemper profiler okay so that's a similar process yeah rather than like on a line six device or whatever they decide what's going to happen in your amp model yeah with both quad cortex and Kemper indeed you can plug the amp into the thing and it learns basically and it learns yeah and and but and you know I'll just say it like call me biased or what but the qualco tips capture is far more accurate than anything I'd experienced before okay yeah I.E Kemper or whatever like it just had more depth that the response was better it had more of a that feels and sounds like my Aunt does right so I was immediately drawn to that okay uh so when it came out I captured all my answers the captures I use for frog leap so it's all my like I use a kraken SLO capture that are my own amps that are I run for frog leave and yeah I kind of just because what does that look like you need mics and stuff to do that or do you well I just took the load box out you know so you just take what the load box would be sent then into the computer you know with your IRS or whatever I just take the load the line out the load box uh in okay so it captures everything that's in the front as well so you were saying you you could put Drive pedals in front right yeah so for any of you who understand this it might seem like a very simplistic discussion but for those of you who don't understand it hopefully it will help yeah absolutely I mean it can capture fuzzes and overdrives okay stuff like that so I was able to build my rig digitally with inside QC which is right you know could have cap Krakens with fuzzes and overdrives in front and get get a very similar Vibe you know like so it was fun and it sits on your desk so like when you sat home writing and you can quickly dial in I need delay in front and grab the blitz got an iPad style Right Touch Screen so it's just super intuitive whatever but then then I got the opportunity to make a plug-in with them which was like uh even more going down the rabbit hole of how it all works and getting to go there and see how it's done and and then pick my own gear choices for the plug-in and all that stuff you know so yeah coming out of lockdown now and having released that last year and stuff like I in my head if I'm playing in an Originals band like I'm going out and playing on stages and stuff I need to I need a cab we were talking about this earlier I need the raw of speaker cabinets to to give me something like that I just know that's how I feel best playing original music whether it was Tosca or any new project but where I absolutely can't deny the value in modeling or plugins for me now is as a Production Tool like I'm sitting at home and I'm writing music and thinking of all these cool layers and ideas that I could throw in the arrangement it's so quick right it's so quick to just quickly dial something in or whatever and then get that sound that's in your head and I there's so many songs and stuff I recorded now that I think if I had to wire up a rig in the analog domain I'm trying and then track it yeah it would take me so much longer sure so for me that's the value in it massively and and on top of that I suppose if you know the feel of them is really good right yeah they've really nailed the feel so you know when you dig your pick in it gives you the thing that you're kind of expecting right like there's a thump to it that you kind of the only way I can describe it is that like thump that ampy thump yeah if that makes any sense I'm interested to understand the context of that because uh if you spend I'm trying not to make this a leading question but if you so you're spending a lot of time in your studio with monitors and headphones and a certain SPL and you kind of get used to that and then maybe some of the bigger gigs is all iems anyway yeah so you'll hear what you're essentially hearing all the time is a kind of a recorded type sound yeah rather than being stood in front of the cab so I I totally get it from a Studio perspective and maybe even on big stages perspective because your experience of the gig is coming yeah essentially through headphones how does it matter how does it feel in a room like how is there a way in which you can get the quad cortex loud through a cab that you enjoy well you could put it through the effects return of an amp because you can just load up a capture of a preamp yeah or a preamp model so obviously inside QC you have to load up an amp and yeah otherwise it'll sound terrible yeah um so you could do that and run it out into the effects return of an amp and get to listen to that like we've done that quite a bit that's fun but what about through just a straight FRFR all right occasion system so you take your uh called quarter yeah and plug it into a PA speaker and use that as long as it's a good speaker yeah and you're happy with that feels good and I mean for the most part yeah yeah being completely honest you know I've tried a few different ones um and yeah as long as it's loud enough yeah right so you get that because okay amplifiers are unruly loud you know they just start like we're sat in here and it's loud yeah so you need to get that to fit to get the kick back and the feed back into the whole experience I would say part of that part of that feedback is you know like this is a 50 watt Kraken and part of that feedback is that 50 Watts right on the edge as you dig in it caves in you know it's it's not incredibly efficient no and that's gives you that feel so to replicate that through that's what we model that isn't it yeah exactly all that stuff they model all that stuff but to replicate that to get that accurate you have to have a uh a full range of Smart speaker that's capable of enough power to actually to accurately you know transmit that exactly what's going on in that yeah right I mean some people use like these but you've got one up there I think that Freya thing yeah see people use that into a cab get the same experience there's either FRFR cab or you do something like that yeah the c-modern can power stage however so you've got a guitar speaker but yeah not a yeah yeah yeah which can really help I would say with the in ears to just go about something you said earlier like I've heard bands using QC and it feels like what they've done is taken their album presets and use them live and it sounds terrible right it doesn't work yeah what I've learned when I'm using it for life purposes I leave it almost I don't really use a heavy EQ on it because there's a tendency to like make it try to carve it yeah yeah but I don't do that I leave that up to James sound guy and he just carves out what he needs for the life purpose and it feels more well it sounds bigger right for me because we were saying this earlier we went to see carnival on their last tour recently and I was chatting with a few of my friends and we talk about guitar sounds when we see bands live and a lot of them are using modelers these days QC specifically and it's like does sound great but when I leaned in to them and I just said you know that's why it sounds huge because he's running a 5150 and it's cranked on stage and he's running a jcm and it's cranked on stage and it just gives you that extra thump that power yeah that low mid resonance thing that happens with a cab on stage and also if you've got you know if the drums are acoustic and yeah and because he's such a great drummer yeah and he just any it's like if you've got a drummer that has that much power and and you don't have something on stage that can sit with that yeah you know if you it's like um I've been to gigs and at the front of the stage where it's a silent stage but there's a loud drummer yeah and all I can hear is drunk yeah you know what I mean it needs to be back a bit it's not the weirdest thing yeah but like Carnival is a great example you know that they're a band that mixed themselves on stage yeah and it just it's such a powerful thing that's how me and Dave used to do it we used to mix ourselves on stage with Ben to make sure on stage it had a good sound yeah but you know I would say coming out of lockdown coming out of that period um I have just as much valid use base now yeah sure use case for modelers and plugins uh as I do for amps and pedals yeah that's a sort of grown-ups conclusion isn't it yeah yeah it's like actually in the right context it's all good yeah we've yet to find the context is is probably where we are because we don't play on big stages and we don't spend more Our Lives producing and making music so but I guess like you've got the means in here to die to build any kind of analog rig you want and it's just like the dream whereas if you have like a little model a box that has a plethora of effects and pedals and models and stuff you can kind of take that same sound design approach and do it we get that in the comments actually um thanks everyone for all the comments you leave quite often someone will say you know I'm exclusively a digital player but actually the stuff I learn on the show really helps me dial into it presets and stuff together so yeah yeah all right um when Revere arrived we said have you brought your cortex and he's like I didn't think I'd be allowed yeah yeah I genuinely didn't think it I thought you'd you'd shun me out of the place no no we wouldn't we wouldn't I was there's a small side of me that was kind of hoping that you did but anyway you did I will do that's just an excuse for another yeah to come down it is yeah yeah um all right then so uh the Dual cracking rig we know about we've explained what we're doing here today and how that differs I guess guitars then we touched on it with strats yeah um a lot to talk about obviously Revere and I share a passion for uh for strats and whenever here I hear him playing a strike it's like wow I'm hearing him play yeah and hearing one thing and I look down and it's it's another thing yeah yeah so this is your custom shot 55 right yeah I've had this this is my the one I've had the longest I've felt the neck on it Dan yeah I have it's mad it is amazing it's huge so I remember talking about strats and him just getting into them when we did the boss show yeah years ago and I we'd done our thing and we're having a chat and I hear this guitar sound like what the flipper neck is that and then it's you on that but playing like your heavy stuff and it just sounded epic yeah and that's the first time I'd heard you play on that yeah so what I mean how did that happen especially knowing is that knowing you with the you know the heavier really Dynamic stuff how did the Strat happen uh being completely honest it was being introduced to Philip sace wow because I like everyone has their Gateway artist into that stuff and like my dad's a huge Gilmore fan and so like it's not that I didn't know strattone and all that stuff but nothing really got me going until I heard the peace Machine album yeah God just loved the style yeah that like filthy blues rock thing but it had a bit of the groove and it it was just a great album if you haven't heard peace machine check it out but some of the tunes on there and then the playing and I was like that's just a strat you know like so I wanted to play like that so I bought a strat I've had a it was an American Standard and I just wanted to get into it but then obviously you just pick it up a lot of the time and started to develop my own thing with it and go down Rabbit Hole of how heavy can I make it and then seeing guys like I came roots and stuff like because we went on tour with the matoska and he was playing a strat into a he was running Victory a sheriff and a kraken so uh it's a similar world of gear so I knew that it was possible but um I just love the I love the three single coil thing so like you know we'll sure we'll touch on it later but with music man I'm I'm getting uh I'm trying to get uh a Cutlass made which is their version of a strap with three single calls they'll have my bare knuckles in it um and use that you know alongside the the other model um but just generally speaking like I just love the vibe I love what how that there's so much more vocal yeah right you know tell us about the pickups and so uh beer and I have had many discussions down the years about strap pickups I think I even sent you some at one point yeah Ron Ellis how did we end up here then so this what they called These are called the triptych triptych single coils yeah from bare knuckle uh you and Tim have worked together on them yeah yeah for quite a while actually yeah um because uh yeah after we spoke I'd have made a bunch of videos trying to trying out different pickups um and one thing that I'd landed on was I absolutely love like early's early to mid 60s sounding strap pickups there's more of a scoop to them and they're more Spanky so you know I I just preferred that um so I knew that that's what I wanted but then I was like Tim obviously I like to play heavy stuff so if they're too twangy then it means that as soon as I kick in all the overdriving fuzz and stuff that it's just gonna get wiry and right and harsh so we and but also I didn't want them to be super high output because yeah then you lose all the dynamic and you can't get all the classic turns out so there needed to be this like happy medium so he came up with the idea of putting zinc plates on the bottom of in fact if I just grab yeah yeah I'll just grab this because I was going to swap this over here's one we made earlier yeah so if you look this is the first prototype set because we actually pulled the zinc plate off the middle pickup if I hold it up hey it'll be closest to me excuse the wiring I just crammed it in there but um yeah so you put two Zing plates on the bridge in the neck and what that did was widen the magnetic field um and it gave more but it gave more thickness to them but it didn't necessarily tamper with the overall sort of sound that I was after which was that mid early to mid 60s thing yeah it can be it's a mod that's been done for a long time I think Lindy frailing might have been one of the first people to do it to put a metal plate on the bottom of the pickup and you and sorry just to confirm your experience of that is what does it do to the sound for me it made them a little bit thicker but it didn't compromise that overall sort of scooped early to mid 60s thing that I was enjoying and it didn't compress them or boost the output in such a way that made them not as Dynamic yeah um which I really really um really really liked her but they were originally on all three and I found that positions two and four so if something was compromised in two and four that I didn't enjoy so we popped it off the middle did you have the rwlp conversation yeah and where did you end up I think that's what it is yeah yeah yeah yeah I know I'm sure it is Tim did a guitar for Johnny Marr once we did pickups for Johnny Marr and they had the rwrp and a jaguar and they decided they preferred them both the same yeah right wine so non-hum canceling right okay yeah strange all these little tiny things that make a difference do you know anything else about the specs like what the magnets are or uh I yes I do but are they Al Nico um aniko something oh no that's really bad I should know that no don't worry I'll put the information on the screen and is that heavy form Vault oh no they've got covers and uh the staggered pole pieces and stuff yeah vintage stagger or whatever you call it um yeah so they're a little bit higher output than a traditional set of sort of your 60s voice pickups yeah but overall all I was really bothered about was getting I could sit and play the classic you know dynamic kind of like low to mid game tones that I love or when I kick in the Frozen octave in the overdrive and all that stuff that it will absolutely handle it yeah right and I can play Fat riffs as well that's really cool we'll hear them a bit more in a minute and then right before the end of the video we're B was saying that um go to the bare knuckle website if you want to see the specific specs and all that but um specific specs even um you were saying the pickguard makes a difference it massively does because they're mounted to the pickguard and I think somehow so basically I didn't know this and the reason this is on here and forgive me because this is a 50 strap with a 60s plate on so the the holes don't match up sacrilege I know I'm glad you said it yeah yeah no I know like the reason that that is this is on here was because I made videos when the pickups came out and I wanted people to hear them in a plastic play because most people will have plastic plates yeah because with that this looks so much better I love the way it looks without it yeah yeah but it it rolls off high end okay so this is an anodized aluminum pick guard which is what you would have seen on some early 50s fenders and you say it reduces the high end yeah there's like more of a roll-off why Dan uh well technically it becomes a capacitor you've got the yeah it it's the same thing as if you Shield the cavity and the yeah I mean it's it's a it's a tiny amount however you've got to remember that the you know the the signal coming out of these things is Tiny and all those little things will make a difference well a tiny amount at 150 watts yeah exactly but it was enough of a difference that I you know like I don't consider myself like a super expert with it I could you can hear it yeah yeah definitely I did some comparisons and you could hear it right right at the end of the video we're going to have some lunch we're gonna put this pick uh guard in that guitar and then beer will come back and play some stuff so you'll get to hear it before the end of the vid yeah for now can we hear um the sort of gamma of clean to overdrive with some lovely yeah yeah some of your lovely Ambience on it some lovely animals how much Ambience do we want oh as much as much as you want to give us okay we'll go with this one then [Music] oh [Music] [Music] foreign I mean it's not clean such but this is a compressor and then position four one of my favorites if not a lot of people's favorites you know [Music] [Music] oh [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] oh are we good I love it so that the first sound you had there that's just um the amp and the compressor right yeah obviously Delane River but what that gives you from the guitar is Sparkle through to actually quite a nice overdrive yeah just from the guitar and you yeah yeah like yeah I think the thing with the compressor is for me it makes it a little more touch responsive right like you get the it picks out it compresses so it picks out the little hand you know nuances and stuff when you're playing that I really I've just kind of really enjoy but yeah the pickups the heavier you hit them the more it gives back which I've tried quite a few straps and not all of them have that for me sure no it's it's quite remarkable because the high end remains there yeah so you're just looking at this you've got no treble bleed or anything like that it's just straight capacitors yeah um and yeah high end remains right there yeah and it remains clear and yet you do get that overdrive when you dig in that's an unusual blend for a strap pickup yeah would you humor me for a second yes and play the 70 yeah so um just gonna hand repair that guitar so that for the pure reason that it is also tuned to E flat that is E flat isn't it yeah yeah um so these this is a 1970 strap with 1970 pickups or 69 pickups I think they are um it's the weakest sounding Strat I have and I'm just kind of interested in the in the difference I think I know what I'm gonna hear okay [Music] all right [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you it's not too far dissimilar I can hear what I thought I was going to hear was it doesn't seem to have the same Dynamic capability that this does yeah so your difference between sparkly clean and quite over driving quite a bit that just doesn't have yeah yeah it doesn't have the extra it's quite weak I mean it sounds sweet enough yeah but that I just so I just needed some context yeah what I was hearing yeah and I guess that the neck on beer strut is Bonkers it's like a tele neck It's amazing And that's pretty small by comparison is it it's nice though it reminds me a lot of my dad's like I said before it's lovely but yeah Bridge pickups like it doesn't gain up anywhere near as much when you dig in [Music] [Applause] [Music] just swap back quickly like I said [Music] [Applause] [Music] obviously there are other differences between the guitars but that you guys have done a great job there do you really think so I really do because quite often when you get a bit more from a strap pickup it all starts getting too mid-rangey and like it starts to sound overwhelmed which is great you know people really like that a bit bit like going to a bridge position humbucker in a way where it just gets thick in the mids like that yeah but that retains the spank and the yeah nice one man yeah it's really good really good did I get mixed seal of approval wow amazing well it doesn't matter does it but it's it it oh but you know like yeah I just as they as they get a bit more as they get a bit beefier they often get too yeah but yeah what a great job and I guess the plate is a part of that yeah yeah I think it's challenging to get that balance right that you can have such a broad thing especially if you want the ability to do heavy stuff because you know you can you can do the the minuscule changes between um you know a little bit more mids or a little bit less bottom end but and actually to have such a wide range of stuff that you can do and that's super impressive but you don't have to have the zinc plates like when people order them it's just it's my preferred setup for these pickups you can get you can get them without if you prefer but I sound amazing I think it's a great you know fairly unique I suppose but you know yeah I'm really happy with it I think they sound the sound killer and I I actually prefer it with the alley guard as well we'll hear that before the end of the video yeah yeah uh okay then before we break for a bit of food um uh music man yeah music man oh yeah knew nothing about this and we're gonna dish the dirt on Chapman obviously aren't we all the dirt all that stuff yeah there's no dirt it was just time uh just to clear that up in case anyone wonders but I've already said a million times when socials like yeah it just felt like I left Chapman before getting on board with music man and it was more just to like I genuinely wanted to explore that free agent thing do you know what I mean like I just I was just like because Chapman's Direction and where I was trying to do or what I felt like I wanted to have from a guitar company had changed quite a bit um and I just decided for me I'd like to just sort of go into the unknown so to speak and just I just said to him yeah like I think it's time that I did my own thing and they were just like Legends both Rob and Lee were just so nice about it and Rob was like I'd do the same like not in a kind of discredit to his own brand but he was just like yeah I'd do the same if I was you man like you've been with us for 11 years or whatever like wow Do Your Own Thing like go out and just mess around and see who approaches you in chats with you and all that kind of stuff and uh I got chatting with music man because it turned out that Brian Ball I think he's the grandson of Ernie bottle yes was William Sterling uh sorry Ernie Sterling Brian yeah that's how it goes and yeah and he was I guess from one of a better phrase like a fan of mine like he used to watch he watches my YouTube videos follows me on Instagram like all that kind of stuff and enjoyed what I did on the guitar and with the bands I was in uh and I'd got I'd been told by toast and Abasi that they'd had a chat about me so I found that really odd and I was just like intrigued so I wanted to meet them and I met them and we got talking and then the idea was you know like at the end of the day one of the things really important to me was like the whole like family Vibe or a family-run business still and like uh it was a big deal to leave Chapman in the sense of like they're my friends like really close friends and like it's funny like even though we're talking about leaving your friends to move something else loyalty is like a big thing for me like being loyal to your friends and and all that stuff but you know people can misconstrue that kind of thing if that's the right phrase as they have online um there must be some dirt yeah they're like you're not loyal you left Chapman it's like no you don't get it when you're friends it's not about it's not as black and white as though a true friend would say mate spread your wings yeah go do your thing that's that's what true friendship which they have right yeah absolutely and and moving to music man is like genuinely a cool thing like they're a family they're welcome into the family like I don't I'm not gonna jump ship from that you know like this is it genuinely feels like a new home with a bunch of incredible artists and uh that's crazy good obviously that goes without saying but their guitars the next specifically are fantastic uh there's a huge history and Heritage there and just there um what's the word I'm looking for like their their positivity towards me uh wanting to do something together was was overwhelming for me so just like and Brian's such a lovely guy we've got to know each other a lot better and yeah so long story short it almost felt like that was the right there wasn't another option sure yeah because there wasn't really I didn't go shopping around right it was just a natural thing that happened and I was like well this feels right anyway um so what we're looking at in a triple neck eight string bass a mandolin and uh absolutely get bored at the top yeah yeah built in streaming timeline maybe toaster um but one thing what was interesting was like uh a lot of their necks albeit incredible feeling were all quite small for me like so I've got big hands hence this Beast yeah so I I said to them you know would be really cool to because in a nutshell we were designing a guitar and artist model um and I said I'd love to have a guitar with like a chunky neck on it because that's what I'm used to so they've made I think it's the biggest neck that they do now or they will be doing but it's really cool because it's super fat it's much fatter down here and then it sort of thins off a little bit up here so if you're playing lead and stuff it's a little a little less to get in your way which apparently is unique I had no idea that's the opposite of what it is yeah I didn't know it just in my head I was like that kind of makes sense but um yeah so it's going to be a saber which is very similar to a it's like a S-Type you know it's like double cut slightly offset it's going to have my bare knuckles in it it's gonna have the the roasted Maple thing nice and fat neck and then yeah alongside that we've actually just built this Cutlass which will have these in it which I don't think will be an artist model thing but I've just asked for that guys how to play yeah so that I've got my heavy option yeah so the guitar that you're you're pictured with your picture with it now yeah how close is that to what you're gonna end up with I would say I would say it's like 70 oh okay we might experiment different colors there's going to be some structural stuff so like we're gonna carve back the heel a bit more right so there's less wood there for the upper frets um and I think the hardware is changing bridge is changing uh there'll be like a push push for coil tap they can't split um so you haven't gone for the like deep cut cut away heavy rock guitar it's in a way it's a little more traditional yeah yeah yeah it's kind of straightforward simple kind of thing double humbucker uh it'll have a bridge that you it'll be like this see the bridge can sit against the body or you can you can dip it if you've got a bar um and that's basically it you know um and then I think maybe at some point next year we'll start looking at designing a signature model which okay my own unique shape which I've already drawn up and know what it's going to be so it's the Explorer oh yeah across BC Rich Market yeah yes you know uh oh that's that's well cool mate but it's really feel honored seeing the pictures and it's like it's really good it's really well it does set us up nicely for a return doesn't it and we'll it'll be quicker than three years this time yes quite cortex and a music man yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah if anyone is gonna drag us through the head scream and it really ought to me yeah absolutely it'd be my pleasure yeah for you watch me sad face for an hour yeah it sounds like it sounds like a plan guys I'm up for that right yeah yeah we're up for it too um right before we break for lunch have we missed anything stormzy check uh oh projects what are you doing what's your what's your band situation so we've the the total missed I'm in the midst of recording the guitars for the second EP so that's going to be done hopefully in middle of summer that'll be out right yeah I'm aiming for uh and then the guitarist and so the in the term is the drummer is Liam Keely from black Peaks yeah because they disbanded as well at the start a lot okay like a lot of people a lot of bandages just disband around yeah yeah but me and Liam did the terms together and then Joe gosner who's the guitarist from Black peeps as well the two of them are obviously a tight unit from Peaks but me and Liam became a tight unit so we decided why not all three of us start writing and it just turns out that Joe and I have a really similar musical palette like okay for original riffs and sounds and he loves all the ambient beds of chords and the more emotive chord progressions and stuff so we've started writing together we've got about I think seven or eight tracks towards an album now wow wow um and we've got a singer in mind who is currently working on some ideas which I'm not allowed to say yet even though I don't think anyone really cares but I'm not allowed to say yeah um yeah but Taylor Swift yeah absolutely Taylor um but with any look it'll all come together I would love to see that yeah can you imagine Taylor in a problem I actually can but um yeah so with any look that'll come together and we'll have something to show album wise next year but with that it's a bit more of a these days I'm not trying to do a band for like I'm not I don't need to like earn a living from a band or anything I don't feel like I need to do that like so it's fun it's more about the enjoyment of playing gigs and hopefully gaining fans that want to listen to the songs and sing to the lyrics and just try and see where it goes awesome I I feel there's pressure lifted uh somehow over the lockdown or something that's amazing but that's what I want to do just have a band for the love of writing music and playing riffs out in in in I was gonna say beers in in clubs and bars and stuff uh and then hopefully do the maybe a bit more of the session stuff on the side and just carry on so so like yeah those two projects are the main musical Thing aside from medium my own thing which hopefully will happen soon watch this space then and it sets us up nicely for returning however long all right before we have something to eat and come back to hear the uh anodized pick guard can you pick a sound play something and remember what it is yes while we have lunch all right to hear the difference yeah yeah yeah and then obviously we'll send Revere off to uh play you something really lovely but um I don't know something simple with a sound so that they'll hear this one when it comes back we'll do the same thing and maybe we'll be able to hear a difference or maybe we won't yeah so I'm trying to think now should it be dry or do you want it to have um it can be whatever you like I will record it on my phone so that we can remind ourselves when we come back into the room or I'll do bridge and neck I guess like I'll do the same Rift bridge and neck so I'll just we need to remember what pedals are on okay oh that wasn't meant to be honest I could just keep it dry just amp [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] actually let's do a finger click okay let's Scooby-Doo [Music] [Applause] yeah I mean it was about an hour and a half ago yeah um I'm looking at the waveforms they seems like whatever is happening in that guard there's less yeah it's not as strident no as as the previous ones okay we are going to get Rabia to play you out but before we do that we've oh no not that one so many strats so little time I I just feel I want to feel like I'm part of the club so I'm hanging on to this man [Music] um cue a bit of VT here we are then so you've just heard uh this pickguard in this guitar and this is a rewind to what happened before that indeed and we decided over lunch that we were going to put that set there into my custom shop strap just for scheiss and gagales Chasers soon as we explained earlier pickups that were in that guitar are now on this guitar they are obviously the guitars are very different that will have an ash body this is an older body um I'll get rabies playing both in a minute but let's have a see what they sound like in the gold guitar a bit of verb in that I'll just try uh yeah give me some help can you [Music] foreign [Music] definitely um I want to say thinner but not in a pejorative way than the pickups that were in there and that extended top end yeah it's so in there can I play yours just for two seconds and then I promise he'll play you out but [Music] um [Applause] thank you [Music] are they the same pickups this guitar sounds fatter yeah doesn't it yeah but they're the same pickups yeah yeah that is mad and then [Music] thank you it's quite a big difference really Oh I thought I did that though I pressed the wrong button mate [Music] yeah it's quite a big difference that's unreal there's some things I much prefer about that the sort of fatness in the mid-range yeah now let's spark a flipping internet right off that's all the stuff I associate with a maple neck yeah yeah okay okay batter kind of I would say upper mids like you would expect from if you stick a humbucker in there and start playing Rock that's where you get that bark from but equally I'm completely aware that we could be creating a narrative here to explain what we're hearing so it could be any of the above couldn't it yeah the pickup for what it's worth the strings are more or less the same Beer's got um 10 to 52 on there there's ten and a half to 50 on here so these the touchscreen is a little bit lighter pickup heights are the same because they're adjusted the same and our actions aren't a million miles off this one might be like a smidge higher Maybe um cool man amazing it's quite interesting yeah what do you what were you hearing absolutely that just sounds more powerful almost I don't want to say it's just like bigger spectrum of sound more extended eyes yeah more extended highs um this I'm used to the sound of this like it for me it's it's rounder yeah um which for me is really helpful when I start adding gain and Furs and but you did say didn't you that the anodized pick guard knocks off some highs yeah so again we might have just walked into our own trap there but I was as soon as it came on it's like it's yeah it's a big difference yeah wow kill them amazing killer okay um we'll get Roberto play us out um it's been a great day mate it's so good to see you have such a good time for having me yeah no you're so welcome can we convert you to wet dry wet or is it just too much hassle I mean I don't know I think I might mess around with it at home as I have my own Studio space now kind of similar size to this kind of room so I get to actually turn amps and cabs up so nice I'm probably gonna try and give it a go myself wet dry wet kind of vibe or something brilliant because I've got the capacity to do that are you going to be filming from there yeah I'm trying to I'm trying to trying to do lots more the flying Beast is on the front of the Marshall yes he is I think we could give him the shock of Our Lives okay so uh check out all the stuff there'll be links below uh please click on that stuff check out rabia's stuff we want to say thank you to our patrons on patreon indeed thank you so much massive thank you to anyone that's gone to that pedalshowstore.com and grab some merch buy T-shirts and buy you merch yes indeed with a nod to Revere's Carnival t-shirt today which we don't sell brilliant uh mate if you'd be so kind I'll try I will try right what we're gonna play with everything oh let's start here thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause]

Channel: That Pedal Show

Views: 214,745

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Id: RT41cPOc1ng

Length: 75min 36sec (4536 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 02 2023