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The boring gear post


Happiness is a warm apple pie, says nobody ever. For us musicians it would be a gig, any gig! It’s been a while since the last post as to be honest, there’s not much been going on.
It’s been a useful time though to get into some pedal board experimenting and test out some of the amazing gear you can get now.
My new favourite toy is the TC Electronics Plethora X5. It’s a small board containing most of their famous TonePrint pedals and is astonishingly quick to set up 5 effects pedals for a gig with room to create 127 pedal boards. With my Analogman King of Tone Overdrive in its FX loop I can get fantastic tone and pretty much any effect I want without spending hours fiddling with parameters. I now have a cupboard full of redundant pedals.

This sounds great through my Victory Duchess V40 amp and Zilla 212 cab but also sounds good straight into the PA with my newest toy – DSM & Humboldt Simplifier stereo amp and cab simulator. It’s similar to the Strymon Iridium and is every bit as good, in my opinion.

The plan is to use this as a fly rig if we ever get back to overseas gigs. On a Pedaltrain Metro 16 board it fits inside standard carry-on luggage which saves checking in an extra case. Just pack your gig clothes around it and you only need to check your guitar in!
It has to be said though that I still find it hard to beat my Kemper for the straight to the desk sound. That said I think I now have a pretty amazing and portable alternative for quick flyovers.

The diary is starting to fill up again with festivals with Nik Kershaw and others but several are being cancelled as fast as they’re being booked. Nobody still knows if things will get back to normal any time soon. It’s an ongoing nightmare for musicians, crew, and everyone in the entertainments industry. Theatres are tentatively being re-opened so I’m now re-learning 5 West End shows at the same time but I can’t wait to get back to playing with a band again!

Once again a big welcome to all our new members and hope you enjoy what we believe to be the most complete and best value no-nonsense guitar course on the planet.

All the best
Nick