My Gear, Pt. 2: You Thought this Madness Was Over

Happy day to all of you reading this blog post today! I'm very happy that you're gracing my page with your clicks, views, and whatnot. I decided to write this blog post for essentially one reason: it's foggy here in Arlington. When it gets foggy, I drink tea. When I drink tea, I write, I share... I blog. All that to say, I feel you should know the "gear" I am sporting these days, and perhaps why I sport it. We'll see how long my tea and my impulse lasts. Here is my gear, part two.

Danelectro Fab Flange: A Review

Greetings blogosphere! You likely saw the title of this post and cringed. Here, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpfOUxIPkOk.

… No seriously, watch the video.

Pretty bad right? Well I don’t care! I flipping love the Fab Flange and will continue to use it in my music until the day I transform from the hip, indie lead player, to the mustached mandolin player who doesn’t really have a place. All joking aside, I will say this about the pedal- it adds noise, is cheap, and is actually a very poor quality flange pedal. But I love it. So be prepared, worship guitarists of the internet, for an overwhelmingly positive review on one of the worst pedals ever made!

How I Use the Fab Flange

I use the Fab Flange in the FX loop of my Strymon Timeline. Now, you might be wondering why I allow a Danelectro pedal on my pedalboard, never mind fogging up my $500 delay pedal’s signal. You ought to know that I am an immense fan of Jonny Buckland’s work on Coldplay’s “Ghost Stories”, particularly the first track on the album, “Always in My Head”. From the fact that he’s rawking the now-popular Silvertone 1484 (which has a beautiful recreation by JHS Pedals), to the fact his reverb could cut through the most bitter heart, I just love everything he does (even [as Rolling Stone described it] the most unsexy solo of 2014 on “True Love”). Aaaallllllll that to say, his overall sound is incredibly modulated, while not overly saturated. I use the Fab Flange to get these tones. Just check out Ghost Stories to get an idea of how my delay sounds.

Twist and Shout

There are three knobs on the Fab Flange: Regen, Speed, Depth.

Speed- The speed of the modulation. Nothing more, nothing less. I usually have it about 50-60%.

Depth- The depth of the modulation. Nothing more, nothing less. I usually have it at about 25-40%.

Regen- Hey, so imagine if you made Pikachu drink a cranberry Red Bull, shook him up, then stuck him in a knob. This is easily the most convenient and accurate way to describe the way the Regen knob. You probably won’t need it past 20%, if at all. I have it at about 10% most of the time.

Situationalism

Know when to use the Fab Flange. It doesn’t always sound good. On most Chris Tomlin stuff, you probably do NOT want to use it. On Bethel stuff, you likely do want to use it, as Michael Pope has a very modulated sound. The Fab Flange sounds incredible for overall ambience and swells. I usually use it once a set, which for me, warrants it a spot on my pedalboard. NOTE! Do not use the “infinity” mode on the Timeline when also using the flange. The modulation feeds into itself, warbling, ultimately sounding like a dubstep bass drop.

All in all, I have maybe 3 complaints about this pedal. Which is rare. And for only $15, it’s a steal. Go buy one.


Thanks y’all.

#antigearporn: Stop Normalizing Pornography

Hey all. Sorry my posts have kind of been off the wall lately. Here’s another one I want to run by you, with your permission of course. I'll also keep it short and sweet. This post will be themed around #gearporn (as can be seen in the image below) and the likes (i.e. #gearslut, #geargasm), or rather themed against them. While I am not entirely certain as to how this utterly disgusting social media trend started, I’m concerned with seeing the end of #gearporn.

When Not to Play

Nellie Bertram

"Oh, here's what happened. Seven forty-six, my alarm clock goes off. I hear it. Whack the snooze. Nine minutes. Bzz! Off it goes again. Whack! Seven more times I did that. Bzz, whack. Bzz, whack! By the time I got up, it was ten minutes ago. No willpower. That is my curse." -Nellie Bertram (The Office)

Minimalism: Playing the Background (Reflections on the Christmas Eve Service)

Here's my board setup for the Connect Church Christmas Eve service:

I'm posting this blog because I feel incredibly guilty that I used so much gear and played fairly obnoxiously. So ah, enjoy.

Pedal Order: Our Work is not in Vain

Alright. So I bet you saw the title of this post and thought, “Oh crap. Another pedal order blog post from some punk. He thinks he knows something. I bet he thinks he can teach me something. How DARE he.” I’m here to rewrite your opinion of pedal order posts. Because frankly, I don’t care one second how you order your pedals. Thanks to a friend of mine, I now put my drives before my volume; but if you put your drives at the end of your chain I’ll still be more concerned with how intensely you worship and love the Creator. So let’s start with a verse.

My Gear: Be Humble

"The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart." Psalm 51:17 

Be Humble (Ps. 51:17)

Back in high school, I was asked to pick out a Bible verse to read in front of the congregation. I went home and googled "good Bible verses in Psalms", expecting to see a bunch of verses about praising God with a loud noise and with instruments. I wanted to blow everyone away with my expert selection. Instead, what the Spirit revealed to me was Psalm 51:17, a verse about breaking oneself to please God. This greatly upset me. I didn't want to be humble! I wanted to be the cool, hip, attractive guitarist with the ultra-relevant Bible verse and the cool hair.  But God had other plans. God used that verse to humble me and equip me to better lead others. 

Welcome, Pedalheads

So,

You like pedals? Good. So do I. You also like to worship our Creator with your use of pedals? Me too! I'm glad we have these things in common.