Beggars

So I found out today that my favorite band Thrice’s new album entitled “Beggars”, which is scheduled for release on Oct 13th this year, was illegally leaked and is all over the internet!

Wow… I have a new found DISrespect for bootleg copies of anything! I used to not care but I follow Thrice pretty closely and I actually felt a little hurt by this news.

Luckily, Thrice fans are the best people ever! So I know that we will ALL be buying Beggars the second it comes out!

I will resist the urge to find and listen to this illegal download and will continue to be REALLY excited for October 13th!!

SUPPORT MUSICIANS!!!! BUY MUSIC, DONT STEAL IT!!!!

CHOO-CHOO!! Here comes the Night Train!

LOOK OUT!!!  Here is an amp that will blow your mind grapes!

Introducing the Vox Night Train

Ok so I played through this amp at the store and BOOYA! It is awesome!  It has the great Vox clean tone! Then turn up the gain and flip to “Thick” mode and rock the pants off your grandma! I played through a strat with single coils and one with humbuckers and both were equally pleasing.

I usually look for an amp with an effects loop since i like to use some analog/digital delay effects, however, this amp takes to pedals very well if your are in the “Bright” mode.  Once you switch over to “Thick” mode for some real crunch, the delay effects are crap. But thats how it is any time you put a delay before overdrive/distortion.

While I was there I A/B’d it to an Egnater Rebel 20. Both were plugged into a Mesa 4×12 and the Vox BLEW the Egnater away!  I could not find a good sound out of the Egnater and I couldn’t find a “bad” sound out of the Vox! Havent A/B’d it to the Tiny Terror yet but I have played on a Terror before and I can find a better clean tone on the Night Train and I enjoy the amount of gain on both.

Wish there were a foot switch to change between Bright and Thick modes, but I’m sure that will come if its not already out there.

Overall: 10 out of 10 by my standards!  Great Sound at a Greater Price! Run this baby through a nice cab and you can forget about expensive combos… at least for a little while ;).

Line 6 DL4 vs Boss DD-20!

Along with occasional rambles I will also be offering guitar reviews and helpful (or at least i hope so) tips to you musicians!  Take it as is because I don’t have a degree in “big smart words” and chances are I don’t know everything but I do know what I like and what sounds good to my ears.

First things first, everyone has different tastes.  I know for a fact that I disagree with a lot of people when I talk about one pedal in particular, the Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler.  Most people love it because it has a bunch of different delay types and there are three spots to save presets and a tap tempo.  I remember in college my friend Josiah had one and I would mess around with the looping setting, which is a huge reason why people buy this pedal as well.

I’ll just go through some pros and cons of this pedal and then compare it to the Boss DD-20. 

DL4 Pros

1. Analog & Sweep settings sound great.
2. Tap tempo works very well.
3. The Delay time knob will warp when you twist it (I don’t Think i am using the right word)
4. Has Expression pedal capabilities.
5. Really Good loop setting, fairly easy to use.
6. Can have 3 presets.

DL4 Cons (in my opinion)

1. DURABLITY!!!  
2. It is too big.
3. Couldn’t get a good rhythmic delay (U2 kinda “chunka-chunka”).
4. Difficult to tweak tones and settings on any of the delays.
5. Malfunctions. examples: wont turn off, will randomly switch modes.

Over and over again I have heard that the DL4 fails when it comes to reliability.  That being said, I have also seen this pedal on more pedal boards (professional and not) than any other delay pedal. 

Now on to the DD-20 from Boss.

DD-20 Pros

1. Durability!
2. Size-  little bigger then 2 boss pedals side by side!
3. External tap tempo! (have to buy it but its worth it)
4. Easy tweaking!
5. Less expensive!
6. Button to set time signatures!
7. Digital screen shows you EXACT delay time!
8. Great mode settings!
9. Up to 5 presets!! (if you include the MANUAL mode)

DD-20 Cons

1. The delay time knob doesnt do as good a job at the crazy warping noises buy turning it quickly, it does however do some really cool things.
2. You have to scroll through the presets.
3. There is no Expression pedal option.
4. The SOS (sound on sound) feature is not easy to do without reading up on the manual.
5. Twist setting is a complete waste of space. They should of put a sweep echo on there to compete with DL4.
6. You have to scroll through the time signatures ( whole notes-16th notes) 

The first real guitar pedal I ever bought was a Boss DD-6 so I have been a fan of Boss since I started, that being said it’s no wonder I would lean to the Boss.  Fact is I have tried many times to force myself to like the DL4 but it’s just never gonna happen.

To sum it up, the Boss DD-20 is just more Reliable and Accurate then the Line 6 DL4.  The only thing it’s missing is the “easier” to use looping capabilities and the “sweep” and “swell’ echoes.