I’ve since moved to a 65Amps Lil’ Elvis 1×12 combo. I promptly swapped the tubes for some Mullard’s, since the last owner had put in some crappy Mesa tubes – That was a huge improvement, but I don’t think i’ve played the amp enough to give a full review on it. Fun fact: I used the amp in the music video that we had recorded at the start of April. You can see it in the photo to the left. The goldtop is also my current #1 – I friggen love this guitar.

Further, I’ve made some other seemingly small, but actually pretty major changes with my cable’s. I’ve heard, and discussed with many people about how cables can effect your tone, quality, dynamics – some people believe it and some people done – I’m a believer. For that reason, I’ve been using George L’s cables almost exclusively for the last 2 years. Very high quality cables – their pedal board kit especially is great, because it is so customizable. I had been doing some research on cables, because I wanted to pick up a white coiled cable (pictured below), and found many people talking about how compared to George L’s, that Lava Cables are now the ‘it’ cables. Specifically people were saying that the George L’s have a slight tone shift to the upper mids/highs, reducing bass, and warmth. Being a tinker-er, I had to test this theory – so I ordered a set of Lava Cables. I’ve since fully switched to Lava Cables. The change was immense. I’m noticing more dynamics, a fuller sound range, and just an overall full spectrum quality increase. If you’re looking for a pedal board cable set, I HIGHLY suggest getting the Lava Cables. They’re slightly more involved in setting up, but well worth it.

Other changes, would be my signal chain: Fulltone MDV-2 > Turbo Tuner > Skreddy Screw Driver > Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive > Diamond Memory Lane 2 > Klon. I can’t even begin to talk about how happy I am with this setup.

The Sweet Honey is dynamic, going from very light overdrive, to medium drive with just a simple change in pick attack.

The screwdriver covers where the Sweet Honey leaves off – taking me into over the top drive sounds with fuzz mixed in – This has been the first fuzz pedal that I’ve actually been able to play, and like. There’s a lot of hype going around about the Skreddy Screw Driver, and in my opinion, its well worth it – I’m sure their other pedals are equally as great.

The Memory Lane 2 has been a fantastic addition to my board. I’ve been using a Empress Superdelay for a few years, but I decided that I’d prefer to have an analog delay – a Fulltone Tube Tape echo is what I would like to have, but the unit is far to large for me to justify carrying around. The Memory Lane is working nicely.

Klon – I haven’t passed full judgment on this pedal yet. It sounds great as a boost – I haven’t had that ‘shock and awe’ moment with it that most people rave about.

First off, the first thing I usually do with pedals, is compare them to ones I already have, just so i have an idea of what sounds it most mimmics… I could look up the specs, and the circuit design, and probably figure it out, but its better to do it with the ears.

First thing I noticed, at low gain levels, it sounds VERY much like my Gaspedals CARB that I got last month when I was in Texas for SXSW – BUT – it sounds like the CARB, when the CARB is turned up to half gain, I had the Mule at about 8o clock (barely on).

This surprised me – as I didn’t expect it, i’m used to fuzzes being too harsh sounding (which is why i’ve stayed away from them).

So then, I started comparing it to my Cusack Screamer Fuzz (the only fuzz pedal on my board). I was shocked at how good it sounded. It actually made me HATE the screamer fuzz to the point where I removed it, and replaced it with the mule.

Well, anyway.. after playing around with it for a bit, I noticed the Mule sounds really good stacked with my HotCake and even the Carb… they both add a bit more mid drive, which is nice at times… The Mule also doesn’t freak out when i’ve got the Tone Press on (something i’ve noticed about Fuzz pedals, is that they don’t usually play nice with compression pedals).

Either way, in all, i’m very happy with the Mule, I can see it staying on my board for a while.

We were accepted to play at SXSW about a month and a half ago… which is amazing – i’ve never been to texas, and i’m thrilled to be playing in such an amazing musical event. I hope I get to meet some famous people or something!

Also, we’re playing at CMW in weekend before we leave for SXSW… This is another weekend long music festival hosted in Toronto – this is also quite exciting as it will be my 3rd year playing in it.

And ALSO! Last week we found out that we were accepted on a tour with Mishka. This tour is especially exciting, because its across Canada – i’ve never actually been to any of the prairie provinces, and i’m going to get the opportunity to see Calgary, Whistler, Saskatoon, maybe Moosejaw (where I was born).

So all this is going to be happening in the next 3-4 weeks… i’m leaving for Vancouver on Wednesday this week, will be on tour with Mishka for 10 days, will arrive back in Toronto for a week, to play a few shows (CMW), then off to texas for another week… CRAZZZZYNESS! I’m going to be trying to update this blog as much as I can while i’m on the road (thank you iPhone WordPress app!!). I’m actually looking forward to putting my 6gb iphone usage to the test while on this tour – maybe i’ll hit 1gb in a month!

Oh, one more thing….. There may be some flakiness with this site in the next day or two – i’m transferring domain registrars – and it might cause a short blackout period… but nothing you should be worried about!