00:00today is one of those episodes where i
00:02show you a pedal line that you didn't
00:05and then five or ten of you complain for
00:08two to three months about how the price
00:09is raised on the pedals that you never
00:15so yeah one of the most overlooked pedal
00:30in 1995 a prolific pedal designer named
00:33bob wiles starts the company visual
00:35sound they were one of the first pedals
00:39in the boutique market and one of the
00:41first boutique style pedals i ever saw
00:44in a big box store like guitar center
00:46designs like the route 66
00:49overdrive compressor the jekyll and hyde
00:51overdrive distortion
00:53i believe this is the first two in one
00:56the h2o liquid chorus echo things like
01:00the visual volume that i don't have
01:02but i do have the visual metal so it's a
01:06with a treadle that kind of rhymes and
01:09the one spot who doesn't have a one spot
01:12even if you hate music you don't own a
01:16and you don't even know what electricity
01:17is there's a one spot
01:19in that one drawer in your kitchen super
01:22well bob's doing well and he decides in
01:26he wants to create the ultimate budget
01:29line of pedals we're talking
01:3160ish dollars down to 40 dollars
01:34he wants them to be high quality metal
01:36enclosures and really solid circuit
01:40this with the help of rg keen who is an
01:43genius this is a guy that hangs out on
01:48diy stomp boxes etc places that i've
01:51learned when i was starting and just
01:53well he works with bob a lot on the
01:55designs and they make this line
01:56the garage tone series and it's
02:00excellent the sounds are great the
02:02quality is great but
02:03this line disappears it seems like
02:06nobody was interested
02:07and today we're going to play each one
02:09we're going to listen to it we're going
02:11to talk about the circuit
02:12and see what you think first up is
02:16the chainsaw distortion i like the color
02:19let's talk about the circuit this
02:23started as a different circuit than what
02:25is actually inside of it so when bob
02:28he was taking the marshall shred master
02:32which is also what he used inside the
02:35jekyll and hyde for the distortion
02:37and you know they have the product
02:40almost done they're calling it the
02:42it's a high gain distortion and
02:45chainsaws make you think of high gain
02:47distortion or at least
02:48they do you know when i'm out cutting
02:50wood in the woods i just think of that
02:52and somebody slides this across the
02:56the box of rock they decide to change it
03:00argy and bob take the box of rock they
03:02remove one of the last stages do a bunch
03:05put it in here and because of the rush i
03:07guess they didn't change the name so
03:09what we have here is this strange
03:12where a product is released uh and
03:15it says chainsaw but it's actually a
03:20basement plexi style overdrive circuit
03:23so that doesn't make a lot of sense to
03:25people and it might be one of the
03:27this didn't take off as product it was
03:31can we talk about how insanely cheap
03:38killer circuit and uh
03:41yeah just didn't catch on so let's jam
03:44it is a fantastic light medium gain
04:37it's amazing and you didn't buy it you
04:41you probably should look at cheaper
04:43petals a little differently this one's
04:45really good i don't want to make you
04:46feel bad there's like no shame in it but
04:48be kind of ashamed next up is the oil
04:51can phaser it was 59
04:54and i do have the box
04:58um i want to point out that the
05:01um you know here it is you have a garage
05:04because these are garage tone brick wall
05:08the pedal but hang with me the door of
05:16come on then there's another door so
05:19oh is that original is this the original
05:23oh hold on is that an original
05:26registration warranty card is this the
05:30it's on glossy stock too is that a thing
05:38here it is and here's the story someone
05:41walked into the office
05:43uh when they were developing these and
05:45they had an electra phaser from the 70s
05:48i don't have this particular favorite
05:56i don't have this particular phaser and
06:06it's not a big deal because it was a
06:09rebranded small stone
06:11electro harmonix had made these
06:12electrophasers there's a picture of it
06:14on the screen right now
06:16it was basically just this rebranded it
06:18even said electro harmonics on the
06:20so what they did is they replicated the
06:24the older small stones have a very
06:26particular sound and different parts
06:28they sound quite different than the
06:29newer ones so it's a pretty special
06:32they took that replicated it and instead
06:35switch they installed a knob so you have
06:39adjustment instead of two adjustments
06:42and i think for this song
06:44let's do something like steely dan at a
07:24that was a pretty good jam i think uh
07:28i think we really nailed the steely dan
07:30at a birthday party vibe
07:33that would have been amazing to have
07:34steely down at your birthday party if
07:36you've had that experience
07:37uh tell us in the comments next up is
07:40tremolo and yes i have the box to this
07:47let's open the garage tone garage door
07:51the other door oh don't have the bubble
07:55i do have that manual here we oh
07:59guess what's in here guess what unused
08:04original rubber feet look at that
08:08who has the anybody else have these no
08:11no they don't here it is the tremolo
08:14a really good replication of a fantastic
08:18optical tremolo called the demeter
08:19trimulator i don't have a demeter
08:23i'm actually in full shock and denial of
08:33because it's an amazing circuit they
08:35have a compilator too that's awesome
08:37check out demeter yeah that's what this
08:40you have a wave selector from sine to
08:43good depth good speed control i think
08:47um i'm going to add in the chainsaw for
08:49some drive which is not going to sound
08:51anything like you think a chainsaw would
08:54because it's a nice plexi basement
08:55overdrive i'm going to add that in
08:57and we're going to do we did steely dan
08:59at a birthday party let's do
09:01radiohead in a western saloon 1856
09:05and let's put the setting let's let's do
09:09west part of kansas really out there but
10:31that jam was so good my words cannot do
10:35and that pedal is really good again i
10:38need you to know you really missed out
10:42because they were dirt cheap when they
10:45but that's okay on to the next one it's
10:49did you try again siri leave me alone
10:53the next one is my favorite one of the
10:57i was shocked to find out what it
10:59actually was and i was shocked to find
11:02it is the drive train which should have
11:04given away what it is
11:06but i just didn't connect so it's the
11:09uh drive trouble based volume now this
11:12one came in at 59 bucks
11:14and it is a clone of the reverend
11:18now it's shocking that i didn't realize
11:21drivetrain meant drivetrain but i just
11:23didn't connect the story i used to use
11:26on my board uh around 2002
11:29i had it on there for around a year and
11:31really liked it it's a type of a tube
11:33screamer style thing
11:34and uh reverend there's a guy named joe
11:38they had these amps they had all kinds
11:39of stuff going on i believe
11:41and uh bob weil actually designed this
11:45for reverend i never knew that so bob's
11:47telling me the story
11:49joe calls up he says i want a tube
11:50screamer thing with the bass treble
11:52so this is 99 2000 and bob
11:56hacks into the tube screamer side of a
12:00and he makes all these mods and
12:01basically he creates
12:03the drivetrain so later on
12:07that's what this is and crazy cheap
12:10really versatile if you like tube
12:12screamers you're gonna like it
12:14a lot because you can carve in and out
12:16bass in trouble and it kind of gets rid
12:18almost useless tone control of a tube
12:20screamer if you don't like tube
12:22screamers it's probably because of the
12:24almost useless tone control and you'll
12:26really like this because you can cut
12:28so on this gym i'm going to cut a lot of
12:32brighten it up and play something kind
13:32that was not funky i'm sorry i
13:36kind of threw you up there that was more
13:40like a life insurance commercial and
13:43some like 60s r b song
13:47choosing a life insurance policy can be
13:50that's why at jhs insurance we're making
13:54easy so pick jhs life insurance
13:58because you are going to die someday
14:03next petal it is the axial grease delay
14:11the reference to axle grease it makes me
14:14think of axel rose guns and roses but i
14:16know it has nothing to do with that
14:1869 bucks it's a great delay time repeats
14:22this is a pt 23 99 base delay and that
14:26is a chipset that is used in a lot of
14:30it is originally created for
14:34echo in karaoke machines and you can
14:38and make it a guitar effect and that's
14:40what has happened here
14:42but along with rg king's help i would
14:44say this is one of the most
14:46original 2399 sounds
14:49i've heard i actually didn't
14:52think it was 23.99 when i first played
14:55it when i talked to bob he told me
14:56and i kind of i almost argued with him
14:58because it just has a different
15:01it feels very very much like a bucket
15:06yeah i'm going to add the drivetrain
15:07back in and we'll place something kind
15:11i think we've been too happy in our jams
15:14too happy too thoughtful we need to be
15:17more emotional and so that's where we're
16:40now that you've heard all of these
16:43what have we learned from the garage
16:47uh that was released in 2010. what have
16:51i think there's a few things just
16:53because something is
16:55cheap doesn't mean it doesn't sound good
16:58or that it's not quality
17:00sometimes we equate expensive stuff
17:04with being better stuff and with guitar
17:06pedals and in my experience
17:08and historically with all the stuff that
17:12pedal lines over 60 years that's just
17:15some of the best pedals ever made were
17:17just really cheap pedals
17:18they were very affordable some of them
17:21some weren't but some sound great and
17:23they're very usable so
17:25i think one of the takeaways is that we
17:27shouldn't be so snobby with our gear
17:30secondly is we need to look at pedals
17:34uh we can get really hung up on
17:37you know that aesthetic's kind of flat
17:41there's just like a there's no icons
17:44there's no graphics whatever
17:46there's just a font there maybe you
17:48don't like the colors maybe you don't
17:51at the end of the day if you're wanting
17:54if you're wanting something to make your
17:56guitar sound great and to inspire you
17:59there's a lot of great inspirational
18:01sounds in these pedals
18:03and you probably didn't try them because
18:05they were too cheap or you didn't like
18:08and i don't necessarily think that's a
18:10good way to approach
18:12guitar and the tones that you're wanting
18:14you got to open yourself up to buying
18:16that you might not love how it looks you
18:19know we all like to buy stuff that we
18:21think is beautiful and we all like to
18:23buy stuff that we associate with but
18:26there's a lot of great options out there
18:27if you're willing to step away from that
18:30you'll find some sounds that are awesome
18:32at low price and i'll let
18:34this close with bob on our phone call
18:37kind of giving his statement on why he
18:39thinks these didn't work out
18:41and i think i agree with this statement
18:43everything he's about to say
18:45um i think if he had done what he's
18:47about to say he should have done
18:48these would have done a lot better i
18:50just said done like four times but
18:53i'm done let's listen about i would have
18:57not tried to make them cheap pedals i
18:58would have you know you know honestly
19:00it's the same advice that i
19:01that i've given to other would-be
19:05or would-be pedal builders put it that
19:06way you're going to get into the pedal
19:07business shoot high there's too many
19:09others doing the mainstream and low
19:11you know go into the higher market
19:13higher price emphasize the boutique
19:16origin of the pedals if you will and you
19:18know you know make the housing look
19:21a little extra on the packaging that's
19:23what we should have done
19:25uh i should have taken my own advice
19:26that i'd given to other people you know
19:29today's record time is brought to you by
19:32the future and the past by natalie press
19:36it's a really great record um
19:39i don't know what to tell you about it
19:41except from track one it's purifier
19:43track one's my favorite song oh my
19:46listen to track one and then you're
19:47gonna wanna listen to track two three
19:49it's really really good the production's
19:51fun because her other stuff
19:53up until this kind of sounds nothing
19:57i really enjoy this and in the comments
19:59let me know what you think
20:00let me know what you think that this
20:04i just have some general chatter about
20:06how good this record is
20:08it's awesome thanks so much for watching
20:10this i want to close out with a bit of
20:12visual sound changed its name completely
20:16to true tone in 2015 so go over to
20:20there's also the true tone lounge on
20:22youtube it's a really cool show
20:24go watch that and bob is sending
20:27in a new power supply one of the really
20:30isolated power supplies we're going to
20:32give that away so there's a link in the
20:34description below go down there
20:36fill that out for the giveaway be a part
20:37of that hopefully you win it you can't
20:39all win it so some of you are gonna lose
20:41but we all win because we're in this
20:42together hit like if you like this
20:44subscribe to the channel
20:45click the bell icon to get notifications
20:47of future episodes and remember
20:48next time you see a pedal that's really
20:52you know maybe it's really good maybe
20:56sorry you missed out on these it's a
20:58shame it's a real shame
21:01also check out bandlab oh yeah bandlab
21:05and the link below click that you can go
21:07to bandlab there's the jhs show page
21:09and uh you can jam with us our jams from
21:12and prior episodes are on there so you
21:14can go create music around
21:16everything you've heard us do on the
21:20is that fun it's so fun it's pretty fun
21:23band labs cool download it on your phone
