New (Old) Guitar Pedal Day: DOD Mystic Blues Overdrive

Back in 1998 I worked for Sam Ash.  I was new to learning to play the guitar, and Sam Ash was a great place to learn about the musical world.  I was still acquiring basic gear so I had to be very choosy as to what I bought.  Not to mention I didn't have a huge amount of disposable income.

One of the hardest things I had to learn was terminology.  When I bought my first amplifier I looked for the distortion setting.  After having the amp blast me out I wondered, "What the cold Hell does "gain" have to do with distortion?  And why does this thing keep squealing?"  I eventually figured it out.

So little by little I started learning what all of us in the musical instrument business call, "Musicianese."  One of the hardest things for me to understand was the guitar pedals.  There were literally hundreds of pedals, and they all did different things.  They did, right?  Well, it turns out that wasn't exactly true.

I didn't know what flanger, chorus, echo, or reverb pedals were.  I didn't realize that each company had their own version of those pedals.  I knew what a distortion and/or overdrive pedal was.  So I started playing with those.

There was a pedal in the Sam Ash pedal cabinet that caught my attention.  At the time I couldn't afford the BOSS pedals, but I was digging the DOD series of pedals.  They had one called the Mystic Blues Overdrive.  During my lunch hour I asked to take it out of the case so I could try it out.

It was very different than anything I had heard before.  But let me clarify.  I was playing some pretty heavy music back then so I was trying out pedals that were serious heavy metal pedals.  I knew what fuzz pedals were so I had tried out a few.  But at that point in my life I had never played a Tubescreamer or an overdrive pedal.

So when I plugged in the Mystic Blues pedal it kind of surprised me.  It didn't have near the gain that the DOD Grunge pedal had.  (Note: The DOD Grunge pedal was the first pedal I ever bought.)  The Mystic Blues pedal added just a bit of a bite to my sound.  It really stood out to me.  However, I was playing much heavier music at the time, and didn't really have a use for it.  Still, I always held it in the back of my mind.

So here I am, 22 years later.  I was on E-Bay, and thought about the Mystic Blues pedal.  I found one that was selling for a fair price, so I pulled the trigger on it.  In the last 22 years I can say my playing has vastly improved, but I would have to say that my ears are my strongest musical talent.  I have a knack for tuning and telling the differences in EQ in pickups, amps, and pedals.

I wanted to see what my improved hearing would think about the Mystic Blues Overdrive.  The first thing I thought when I kicked it on was, "Oh my God this thing is bright!"  I immediately turned down the treble.  I also had to bring up the bass.  In the end my settings looked like this.

You know what?  It was still bright.  But then I got to thinking.  Remember this pedal was released in 1998.  Do you know what Sam Ash carried back then?  I know you are going to list all the Fender, Marshall and Mesa Boogie models, but let's be honest.  95% of musicians couldn't afford them.  They bought the other brands that Sam Ash carried.  That would be Crate.

Have you ever played through a 90's solid state Crate amp?  Not just that, but have you played through ANY 80's to 90's solid state POS guitar amp?  They do one of three things.

1.  They sound like a dentist drill.  Bright, annoying, and buzzy.
2.  Muddy.  They sound like a big dog coughing.
3.  They manage to do both.  Be muddy while sounding buzzy.

So what does this have to do with the Mystic Blues Overdrive?  Well, if you put a Mystic Blues Overdrive in front of a muddy amp, it will clean it up while adding bite to the sound.  So you have to remember this was a useful pedal for the time period.

But these days I'm playing through a Genz Benz El Diablo 100 amplifier.  It has more switches and knobs than I know what to do with sometimes.  I can see this pedal being used as a clean boost for solos.  It definitely works as a transparent drive.  The drive knob has a pretty good range.  It goes from, "No drive at all, to kind of a ZZ Top kind of vibe."

I'd have to judge the pedal like this.  As a kid your house looked so big.  Now as an adult if you visit your childhood home it looks so small.  At the time I hadn't heard anything like this pedal.  Today I own something like four Tubescreamer style pedals with this being the fifth.

Against today's pedals the Mystic Blues is an okay pedal.  It's better than some, but there are a lot better Tubescreamer clones out there today.  The TC Electronics El Mocambo Overdrive is a much better pedal for $58 new.  Not to mention it goes on sale quite a bit.  Oh, and you can find plenty of them used.

I'll say this, I'm glad I bought the Mystic Blues.  I'll keep playing with it.  Again, I've only played it through one amp so it might work better with other amps.

For more information about this pedal, check out this link.  It has some great information.

https://en.audiofanzine.com/overdrive-pedal/dod/FX102-Mystic-Blues/

New Pedal Board Day: Homestyle Edition: Part 2

Here's part 1 of this blog.  Read it to make more sense of Part 2.

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2016/07/new-pedal-board-day-homestyle-edition.html

I ended the last blog with the paint drying.  What I didn't know was that, I used paint + primer.  So I used two coats, and it turned out fine.  I then decorated the board.  It turned out like this:

So my next step was to use Velcro and zip ties to hold the Voodoo Labs Power Supply to the underside of the board.

I then added the Velcro to the top side of the board.

Next, I added Velcro to the underside of all my pedals.  I laid them out in a pattern that would work.  At this part I wish I had a bigger pedal board, but then I wouldn't be able to fit it in my SKB case.

It was at this time I realized that I used a different type of plug for my Snarling Dog's Wah-Wah pedal.  On my old SKB board I used different types of connectors than the Voodoo Labs used. 

To make a long story short, I talked to a few salesmen at Sam Ash, and they recommended a special 9 volt connector.  I check my stash at home, and realized that I had one already.  So I tested it out, and it worked on my Wah-wah.  So now, I tested everything, and got it working like it should.

Now I have a working pedal board again.  My only regret is that I didn't do this sooner.  But then again, I didn't know about how to make one.  I hope that musicians across the web might take a peek at my blog and be able to make some pedal boards of their own.  Good luck out there.

Guitar Trade Day: Fender Stratocaster, Part 2

Part 1:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2015/10/guitar-trade-day-fender-stratocaster.html

So here is the Stratocaster that I traded for:

I was looking for a black Stratocaster since I had a tortoiseshell pickguard with three Dimarzio pickups in it.  It has the Blue Velvet neck, FS-1 middle RW/RP, and Heavy Blues 2 in the bridge.

So last night I changed it all out, set up the guitar, and this is what she looks like now.

I was only able to play it through my Rocktron amp out in the garage, instead of one of my higher end amps, but she sounded really good.

I adjustment that I did make was to make sure the tone knob worked with the bridge pickup.  They usually don't come wired like that.  I was given some of the new D'Addario NY XL strings in a giveaway at Sam Ash.  So I put them on this guitar to see how they perform. 

So, I look forward to playing out with her when I am feeling better.  This guitar seems like she's going to be a lot of fun.

Play Guitar

I don't really talk about my band/music/playing out here on my blog page.  I try to keep them separate.  I think if I started to talk about my music on here, I would just do it constantly, and that would turn a lot of readers off. 

But I still start at the beginning.  I have a band (of which it seems that I am the only member) called Possum Apple.  I put out a self produced album called, "This Divided Highway."  You can hear the entire album up on Reverbnation.

https://www.reverbnation.com/possumapple

My bandmate/producer/friend Josh was the one who did all the percussion.  Unfortunately, he left to pursue other projects.  This happened just before the album was released.  So I played one album release party, and haven't really played much since.  I did play a few open mics here and there, but it wasn't anything consistent.

The fault lies with me.  I really didn't want to get outside of my comfort zone.  I would play the open mic at Sacred Grounds Coffee House, but nothing else.  But in the last few weeks, I've had a friend Nick, who has helped me get out of the house, and go to a few other open mics.

It seems that the local Sam Ash music store has different open mics.  The singer-songwriter night is on Wednesday.  The cool thing is that they give you a $10 store gift certificate for playing.  And if you do this week after week, those gift certificates start to add up.  I've been wanting a new guitar strap and some tubes.  So after playing a few weeks, I will be able to nab a few of those while spreading my music to a new audience.

A friend of mine, Phil, hosts a blues jam at Gaspar's Grotto in Ybor City.  The thing I like about blues jams is the crowd.  They tend to be older, and my Americana style music goes over really well with them.  The other fun thing is that, since we play outside at Gaspar's, we can turn the amps up, and the sound won't be overpowering like it would be inside.

I've played there twice, and my music has gone over really well.  And I have to admit I was worried.  I know my music is a touch out there, and may not be liked at all.  However, I had people in the audience laughing.  Even the other musicians (in the band, "Eyes Above Me") were holding up their hands doing "the wave" while I was playing my song "Buffalo."  I think it also really helped that I had other musicians playing with me, so I had a full band playing my songs. 

Thing went really well.  It went so well, it occurred to me that I forgot to bring hard copies of my album to sell.  I think I could have sold a few of them.  Oh well, next time I'll make sure to bring them.

A new friend I met, Robert, told me he hosted an open mic at the newer, hipper coffee shop near USF called "The Boba House."  Again, it's tough to play in front of younger, hipper college students, in that, you never know what they will think of your music.  A lot of them have no idea what Americana is.  Most think I'm playing country music.

When Florida Ave. Ales hosted their first open mic, I was the first one to play.  So I've been proud of that.  However, the open mic only seemed to last two weeks, and then it was gone.  I found out it was still being hosted, and was able to play it the other day. 

It's weird, in that, I feel like I am touring for my album that I released a while ago.  I have the second album pretty much ready to go.  I just need to get the money together to get the ball rolling. 

When it comes down to it, I think John Mellencamp said it best when he said, "Forget about all that macho shit, and learn how to play guitar!"  And that's what I'm doing.  I'm just going out there, and playing guitar.