Small Sound/Big Sound new Fuzz pedals

Just Arrived from our local friends at Small Sound/Big Sound, the “Team Awesome Fuzz Machine!”   Right on I say. Here at Main Drag Music, we really love to support local artists.  Here’s a prime example.  The builder of these pedals had brought in a prototype about a month and a half ago for me to check out.  I liked it but it needed a little tweaking in user friendly Feng shui.  Sure enough he came back to me this week with a much more usable pedal with some great graphics and of course……  an amazing take on the germanium fuzz.  Read more below for details….

Check out the new repair pages

Be sure to check out the new repair pages at Maindragmusic.com.  Photographer Timothy Herzog took documentary style photographs of our staff in their respective shops.  This one didn’t make the website but I thought it was really cool. 

Tim Herzog’s “JOHN AS ATLAS”

Online Guitar Lessons…

One thing, among many, that the internet has helped in aiding musicians with is online guitar lessons.  I for one love ’em.  Whether I want to find new scale lessons, learn a particular song, or find a new country lick to steal, it’s all on YouTube…. and it’s all FREE!

Unwillingly, I wake up at 7am every morning to walk my two bulldogs.  When I get home I have exactly one hour before my wife wakes up and we start our day with nine cups of coffee.  If you’re married or live with roommates, you may concur that this one hour period is about as precious as any government holiday.  Sure, I could use that time to learn how to speak japanese, lift weights, check stocks, or even do laundry.  Of course if I had any of these passions, I wouldn’t be working in a guitar store and touring in a van with other grown men with similar aspirations.  So… I learn guitar licks.  

The benefits to online guitar lessons other than that they’re free, is the fact that they are visual.  I always had problems learning any instrument from a book.  Without getting the visual and audio support to the teachings, I was lost.  Now I can choose the lesson content whether it be jazz, country, blues, etc… and learn at my own pace, in my underwear, and in my own home.  

There are even free sites to get started by tuning your guitar.  We’ve been nice enough to provide you one on our front page.  You can see it down on the left hand side of Main Drag’s Site.  Now that you’re tuned up, you can choose from over 183,000 “guitar lesson” vids on YouTube.   

The best part is… when you’re done you can watch videos like the one below…  enjoy and good luck.

Back in it….

Sorry for my lack of posting. I have picked up another webjob and the band is finishing a record. Ah… the life of an artist living in New York City.

Today let’s talk about the new pedals by MXR. The company, in many vintage inspired players’ minds, lost their mojo after the seventies. (Not being biased but they were based in New York) Slowly as Dunlop took over, their focus was moving further away from their roots. And just as many companies do as they “progress,” they make higher quantities of units with cheaper components.

Now as many of you know, or should know, good components equal better signal path. Companies like Fulltone, Klon, Zvex, Keeley, etc… picked up on this and thats why they sound and sell better. I am not going to start a pissing war so thats all I am going to touch on here.

Many of us (ocd tone obsessed gigging musicians) could seldem find a decent Dunlop-made effects unit through the years. Yes, there was one or two pedals that would pop their heads up now and again. I for one still love the purple Dunlop Tremolo pedals as well as the MXR blue box from the 90’s. But not until a couple weeks ago did my MXR radar perk up and salivate.

What triggered such a reaction? The new Carbon Copy Delay. WOW. Now I felt like writing this post because I have a personal connection to the history of this pedal. For years I would carry around three original green 70’s MXR Delays with me. Why? They were the best sounding delays I have ever heard… but they would break…. a lot. Not to mention, after my fifth studio experience of having the engineer tell me that the delay was just too noisy to record with, I felt at a loss. Well not anymore!

Like sleeping with an ex-girlfriend who got hotter with age, the experience of playing the new MXR Carbon Copy was amazing. Just as simple as the old version, having only three knobs keeps you focused on what’s important. Regen, Mix, and Delay time are all you get. And just like the original, there are internal bias pots to open or close your pots. From warm slapback to an all out shoegaze bonanza… this thing is a pocket sized space echo.

At $150 you can’t go wrong with this pedal. I even used it on rhodes and it’s glorious. Thank God, MXR is back…back….back….back… back….back…. (couldn’t help myself)