I have to remember to buy new tubes for my crusty vintage combo amp!

my bedroom studio

french toast octave FUZZ by danelectro

omg i love this pedal!
plugged into this transforms my guitar tone into a searing synthesizer tone that never leaves me disappointed.
i've read online that the french toast pedal is a copy of the vintage Foxx tone machine, and since i've never used that, i can't offer a comparison.
All i know, is that fuzz is the shit, and this pedal takes fuzz to a distant planet and back again!!!
for under $60 this pedal is unreal....i would have paid double, if it was housed in a more solid metal case, like my older danelectro FabTone...i guess the cost effective(cheap) plastic knobs and case will help danelectro compete in the global market....i don't mind if i need to buy another one as a back up...

Past Collaborations....

In the middle of the first decade of the 21st century i had been struggling to discover my place within the world and what i should do with music, and my home studio gear collection was top notch, everything needed to produce anything music & sound related waz set up in the spare room next to my bedroom.
I worked at setting up an online presence for my music production alter-ego: DextroSoundLab
At some point i posted an advertizment on an Ontario,Canada based musician resource web site called "overhear.ca" where i was looking for a collaborator.
A few people answered, but only one woman was serious and she caught the bus from Toronto and arrived in Kitchener, where i was lingering around the bus terminal wondering 'who' this musical woman was....and eventually i approached a dark haired beautiful woman who had seemed to be waiting for someone...and indeed, she was waiting to meet me.
Her name is Lilia Loria, and she was in Toronto on a visitors visa visiting her sister...originally she was from Dubai, UAE.

She later made a music video with this song, and i discovered it on youtube a few years after i had last seen her.

I used my Roland D2 groovebox & m-audio keyboard controller & Phatboy midi controller for all synth & drum parts, and captured her vocals with an Apex Tube condenser microphone, and a Focusrite twintrack pro recording channel strip....For effects i was using a Korg kaoss pad-2, and an Alto alphaVerb multi-fx for delays and ambience.
It was recorded to 1/4 inch multi-track tape on a Fostex E-8 eight Track recorder, and mixed down to digital master through an Alesis 3630 compressor/Limiter and burned to disc with an HHB Cd Recorder.

Thrift Store Scores...

While searching through a nearby thrift store in Waterloo, Ontario, which i made an effort to search through on a regular basis paid off for me on many occasions.
On one such occasion i discovered a Sansui AX-7 rackmountable mixer with built in analogue spring reverb plus Hi-Z inputs for plugging electric guitars in as well as microphones.
The device is amazing, the routing that is available on the back leaves the user with unlimited potential.
It has 4 mono channels and like most console mixers you can route the reverb to each channel individually.
The knobs are metal, and high quality, and the overall built quality is outstanding.
I discovered via a google search that the AX-7 was made during the late 1970's, and found a home within the audiophile's hi-fi system.
The multitude of RCA jacks on the rear enable the user to use this as the command hub for simplifying a complex line-up of hi-fi components.
I use it as a front end to my Roland CDX-1 Disc Lab, my multi-track digital recorder/Sampler.
The CDX-1 has 2 channel input capabilities, and the Sansui AX-7 helps route a 4 channel sub-mix into the CDX-1....with the option to process some or all of the 4 tracks with analogue reverb.
Basically it's a space saver for jamming in the bedroom with a roland groovebox or two and electric guitar.
Thanks to vintage hi-fi gear, this home recording hobbyist can have a good time!

PAX px-8 echo chamber:
My friend Mike found this 70's era tape delay unit in the garbage someplace in Waterloo....he later gave it to me.
Thanks to a google search and an effects database, as well as suggestions from another old friend i was able to discover that this unit used 8 track tape cartridges.
with a little hunting in thrift stores i was able to buy 5 tape cartridges for $5, brought them home, installed the tapes, and discovered that the heads on the device were dirty....i then cleaned and tried again, a little better, but the echo sound was really distant.
I am probably going to try and find a tech who will be able to fix this delay unit.
The tape based analogue delay will provide a unique effect to any sound source fed into it.
i just can't see myself throwing a perfectly good audio device in the trash, it will be a muission to complete.
more to come later....