A Guitar Pedal Idea: Singing Crystal Bowl Pedal?

In the world of guitar pedals it seems it's all been done.  When I first started playing I had ideas of what would make a great "new" sound.  Then I would find out someone had created it years ago in the form of rack gear or guitar pedals.  The best you can hope to find these days is a better quality/better sounding brand of guitar pedal.  A brand that does one what you want better than another brand.

A few weeks ago I had an amazing experience.  I was able to sit in a room with not one, but two women playing dueling singing crystal bowls.  It was wonderful.  Here is a YouTube video of one of the women, Dru Ann playing her set of bowls.

Here is Dru Ann and Ashley playing dual singing bowls.  This is what I was able to experience for forty minutes.  Make sure to turn up your volume to really hear/feel/experience the sounds of the singing bowls.

For those who don't know, a set of bowls look like this:

Here's a photo of them with lights in them.  The lights correspond to a person's Chakras.

The two musicians, Dru Ann and Ashley, gifted me with sounds I had never heard before.  What really surprised me was just how loud the singing bowls were.  It was rather loud and intense.  Since the ladies set their bowls facing across from each other the sound was split like a stereo (versus mono.)  It also set up a dynamic rotary speaker type of effect.

As I was meditating/thinking/plotting, a thought came to me.  I don't think a sound like this exists in the guitar world.  If it did, you would need lots of pedals.  But what if there were an all in one guitar pedal that could make this sound?  What if there was a "Singing Bowl Guitar Pedal?"  How would it be done?  Well, I got to thinking about that.

First up, it would need to be a long pedal.  One that would have a number of foot-stomping switches on it.  Kind of like this:

The first switch would be a delay switch.  In fact, now that I think about it, it could be a delay with a looper.  At first the pedal would delay the signal, and then loop it four times.

Next in line would be a feedbacker with distortion.  You could set the level of feedback, and the delay would carry the signal.  I know distortion makes people think of metal, but this would be a subtle distortion.  Just enough to fuzz up the signal.  And now that I said fuzz, maybe a fuzz pedal would be a better choice than a distortion.

But what really sells this pedal is the next effect in line.  Next would be a rotary speaker/tremolo effect.  This is what would give you a dual/stereo type of sound.  The rotary setting gives it that "heartbeat pulsing" effect that the singing bowls are known for.    

So this is how the pedal would work.  You would have a clean signal go into the pedal.  The delay acts like a sustainer when the delay time is extended.  

Next, the looper would have a setting for how many loops you would want it to perform.  My first choice would be for the note to loop four times.  But I think an option for it to loop between two and ten times would be usable.  Of course, you could set your loops via a knob.  

Next would be the feedbacker.  The settings could range from subtle singing to intense Nirvana type feedback.  The distortion or fuzz knob would change the setting from clean as glass to angry bees.  

Next up would be the rotary speaker.  Since all the other settings are controlling tone and distortion, I would have only two knobs for this pedal, speed and depth.  

So now we can all start working on this pedal right?  Except with all the technology built into one pedal it would probably have a store cost of $800.  Mmm?  Yeah, that's not really feasible is it?  Now I know why they never built one. 

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.

New Pedal Board Day: Homestyle Edition: Part 1

Ever since my SKB pedal board broke down, I've been looking for a new pedal board.  I bought a power supply with the intent of either buying a Pedal Train or Gator pedal board.  However, the one's I've been looking at cost $150.  Honestly, I just can't swing that, so I turned to the internet for help.  I looked into building my own pedal board.

It turns out there is a very easy way to make one.  It's with the help of Ikea.  You take the Hejne HM-35 shelf, and make it into a pedal board.

http://www.ikea.com/my/en/catalog/products/20287812/

So here's what I am dealing with:

The shelves come in two packs.  So if I screw one up, I can always use the other one.  Now to cut it down to size.  I wanted it to fit into my old SKB pedal board case.  So I took measurements of the old case.

So now for a little trim.

I took off one of the wooden bars, and shortened the other ones.

Here I took the former piece on the side, shortened it, took out the nails with the cutoffs, and then re-nailed it to the shortened pieces of wood.  I hope that made sense.  Either way, the above is now perfectly cut to size.  Now to make it angled.

Now to put the feet on.

I used wood glue and screws to hold down the angled feet.  I used the clamps to hold it in place while I worked on it.

Since this is a soft wood I made sure to drill holes before I put in the screws.

I used three screws on each side.  That along with Titebond wood glue should be plenty enough.

Here it is on the ground.  It doesn't rock or anything.  So I'm doing well so far.

And it still fits well in my SKB case.  I'm really starting to dig this.  Now it's time to paint.

Here you can see my "hi-tech" painting station.  I decided to use some paint we already had.  But first I used the primer. 

The wood was so porous that it was just soaking up the primer.  So I kept putting on more as I was trying to fill in the hard to reach places.  Now I will let it dry for a while before continuing on with the project.

So stay tuned.  I will post a "Part 2" for this story.