New Pedal Day: Fuzzrocious Baby Furnace

I like the Fuzzrocious Blast Furnace, actually I fucking love it. I’ve already detailed why the Blast Furnace is awesome in a previous post: NPD: Fuzzrocious Blast Furnace . It just does fuzz really well. You should probably read that prior post before reading this.

So when the Baby Furnace was announced I was quite intrigued. I get the fuzz that shreds and a accessible tone control for my needy bass player needs. The delay that I’m sure annoyed my bandmates like no other is gone. That last part I will kind of miss, there’s nothing like some delay induced feedback at the end of the set. 

What amazed me with the Baby Furnace right out of the gate (see what I did there?) is that it felt like a different pedal, even though it isn’t. Sometimes with pedals, you have to do some fine tuning to get it right. Other times it just works. The Baby Furnace just worked. The classic Blast Furnace setting sounds great (duh), and that second volume with tone is hot. 

The Blast/Baby Furnace are massive pedals. The Blast Furnace inspired me to go for a wall of sound sonic approach because as soon as I plugged it in that’s what it did. This sounded great, but on my part should have been dialed in a bit more. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm part of the rhythm section, sonically there are things I can do and things I can't. As a bass player it was easy to let clarify and definition slip away because of pure volume and range. The tone control on the Baby Furnace allows me to correct that easily. The set it/forget it nature of the Blast Furnace is/was awesome, but I think for my needs this tone control will work really well. 

The blend is a great addition. With some pedals I really don’t need it, and quite frankly it can be a distraction. But with this aggressive of a fuzz, having the ability to tame it is beneficial in a band setting. 

This thing rips. If you have a guitar you may love the Blast Furnace more than the Baby Furnace. If you have a bass/not a lead instrument you might like the Baby Furnace a little bit more. I didn’t realize how awesome the tone control would be. The blend is super helpful too, Im getting a nice 50/50 blend that’s working hella well with my rig. 

I recorded a thing with the Baby Furnace. The feeling of the air around me moving when that first fuzz section is kicked on is undeniable. That’s something that my mic didn’t capture, but believe me it’s there. 

Things That Are Older Than Me Episode #4: "And I Don't Care Where I'm Goin'"

It feels good to be back, and it feels good to be back with one of these.

Tonight’s “Things That Are Older Than Me” is about modulation.

This is about a Flanger.

Quick update, life has been wild. I got to visit a excellent friend in Asheville, NC in the spring and to snag a beautiful black label OC-2 (which is another story for another day). Work has been rocking, life has been rocking, band has been really rocking!

As you may have surmised, I believe there is something to be said about vintage pedals. I also believe there is something to be said about new and improved counterparts. That OC-2 is something special. But in a live situation I appreciate the dependability, accessibility and improvements (top jacks yo) on modern variants of storied pedals.

However, components and design are great reasons why vintage pedals have a place in my heart, even if they don’t have a place on the pedalboards that I take out. They may not see certain gigging/jamming situations, but for recording and making music they can be magical. Which takes us to the point of this….

The MXR M-117.

So I like flangers, I really do. It’s such a fun effect. Quite by chance, I stumbled upon this M117. I wasn’t too sure of the year, I was semi familiar with the modern repro with side mounted jacks. So it was bye to the eq pedal I wasn’t using and hello to the flanger that has been a ton of fun to play.

It turns out this thing is (at least to my dating) a very late 70’s- early 80’s variant. The first thing I thought of when I saw this pedal was Van Halen. “Unchained” and it’s flanger usage is so rad and inspirational to me. This, to my research, would be the variant that would get me closest to that era and sound. I mean, flange is just a cool effect all around. It’s perfect for someone that loves filters, hates chorus, but still needs that modulated sound. It goes deeper and is more emotive as a way to enhance a tone, in my humble opinion. So with a flange I get my chorus vibes covered without a chorus pedal, sometimes (depending on the flanger) I have my funky vibes covered too. It’s the perfect modulation pedal for me.

This M-117 has the AC power vs a now standard 9v (or similar DC) connection. And those side jacks..for both input and output! Solderless cables are a godsend for runs like this, because very few companies make a patch cable that would work in this setup. 

And now the sound. This thing can go from warm and funky to jet plane and everywhere in between. On bass it just adds this nice little dimension that I can slip into. It is a deep flanger, or at least it can be if you want it to. Lay it back and it does subtle like it invented the word.

I have flangers that can be great flangers. I have flangers that can go through zero, I haven’t been able to push this one past zero yet, but I’ve gotten really close. 

Remember when I was talking about modern improvements? I make exceptions to lack of LED indications for the noise this thing puts out. What a rad Flanger.

Safety Nets

Since day one of recording on my own, I always strove for a dry track when possible. I liked the idea of a safety net. In my mind, if I messed up with micing, or phase or whatever, the dry track would be the life preserver for whoever was mixing it. I would position it early in the chain, usually right after my compressor and record that way. Sometimes I’d run the DI from the amp as well, not an entirely dry track, but in the same vein.

Fuck. That. 

Truant Minds recently took a look at some older material. This material required me to re-record the song as we’ve been playing it for the last 2 years. With this band, of course depending on the song, I try and do my thing. Sometimes I can’t, because the original parts are exquisite and they have to stay. I can’t change excellent lines, and that’s okay, there is nothing to improve. I have a blast playing those songs. Respect and kudos to the bass players that came before me.

This song was one that gave me freedom. I could do my own thing on this. 

This particular song needed some sway, it has that thing. After a bunch of recordings, I’ve been able to experiment and explore what works. I think this recording was the ultimate refinement of that process. My RBH cab is unbeatable, but I don’t know if I like the CX-115 with a mic in front of it. Or at least not for TM, it sounds great beyond that and I love jamming through it. For Truant Minds there’s this grind I’m going for that the RBH just has. The CX-210 was used this time around, which I like a lot. That cab is solid. the combination CX-210/RBH115 gets me the exact sound I want.

Sorry, I got distracted talking about cabs.

Anyways... so for this song I wanted to capture that sway. So I went with two mics, One on the 15 one on the 10. I had a DI from the amp. That DI track is currently chilling in my trash bin. This was also the first TM recording with my #1.

(I’m about to get off topic a bit, skip the next two paragraphs if you don’t care about my Precision Bass)

Short story:

In high school I worked during the summer,

saved a few bucks and bought my first Fender Precision Bass. This bass has seen a lot of bands, many situations and a ton of different strings. It’s always been my go to. When I joined Truant Minds it was strung with flats, so it was a never used. I was also trying to go for a bit more top end tonally, maple boards worked better in that regard. But then I got some new Curtis Novak pickups in it (which rule) and thought “what if I throw some DR Lo-Riders on it and see what happens?”.

Dude! The neck felt like home. It just felt right. Everything felt right. It sounded incredible, it sounded right. Those pickups feed dirt exceptionally well. Goddamn. I love that Precision.

So.. sway... yeah. P Bass+ (Boss CS2-> Fuzzrocious Demon-> Fuzzrocious Broke Dick Peanut Gallery)+cranked Gallien Krueger= my favorite bass recording so far. 

I’m proud of everything I’ve put out, but this symbolized a refinement of the process. I found an equation that worked! 4 sources were useless, I’m so happy with 2 now. Less confusion, less mucking around, more playing. 

I got rid of the safety net, and it was an excellent sonic decision. We all have safety nets, and they might not be sonic ones. Since this revelation I’ve been trying to uncover my nets and challenge them, bass related and life related.

It's more fun this way.