Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
A Summary Overview of Central London's Denmark Street Gear Haven
When I first visited Denmark Street in the Mid 80’s - both sides of the row were all fully bustling Musical Instrument Shops - mostly guitar-related. I bought my first guitar here - a black gloss Ibanez RG440 Roadstar II Deluxe back in late 1985 - around my 16th birthday. It was a brand new instrument - but I can’t recall what I paid for it, or which shop I bought it from - it was on the North side of the street for sure. While for a period I was crossing the street back and forth in ...
Roland delivers the ultimate live performance compact battery-powered Multi-Instrument Amplifier - the Cube Street Mini
The Cube range of Amps is somewhat unique as it straddles both Boss and Roland brands - which is very unusual. Moreover the selection of amps is variously marked out by a mix of Boss, Cube and Roland decals.
Back in 2022 some of the formerly Roland Cube Amps switched to Boss branding - and I thought all those amp models would eventually transition to Boss - all bar the Jazz Chorus, Blues Cubes, and some of the PA type speakers - but Roland has held onto some of those Cube Models too - which...
A Brief Hobbyist Primer on BBD's - Bucket Brigade Devices
A Bucket Brigade Device (BBD) is an analog electronic circuit (Integrated Circuit Chip) that delays an audio signal by using a series of capacitors to ’hold’ and ’pass’ tiny samples of the signal, much like a line of people passing buckets of water. The signal is moved from one capacitor to the next within each ’Clock Cycle’, and the speed of this transfer can be adjusted to change the Delay Time - typically regulated by a further ’Clock Chip’.
In accordance with this feature, the Max Delay...
Roland slays the competition with its new TR-1000 Rhythm Creator Drum Machine - which combines Analog TR-808 and TR-909 Engines with Digital ACB, FM, VA and PCM Engines - with Sampling and Morphing also!
Occasionally something so innovative materialises - that it transcends boundaries. And while this is of course massively and mostly a pedal blog - I do also have time for innovations in related fields too.
I’m not going to go into too much detail here beyond the Specs! - you just need to watch the demos to be convinced.
What Roland has achieved with the TR-1000 is utterly magnificent - in combining full vintage style analog circuits with cutting edge digital ones - giving you the key ...
Sophie Burrell x Boss Katana Tone Crafting Masterclass at the Roland Denmark Street Store
So I attended Boss’s inaugural workshop / masterclass event at the Roland Store on Denmark Street. Hosted by Matt Knight, and featuring Guitarist / Creator / Social Media superstar Sophie Burrell - who just happens to be a major Boss Katana Ambassador for around 10 years now, where she featured very prominently in Boss’s recent Katana Gen 3 rollout.
I’ve been peripherally aware of her for several years now - while early on I used to occasionally confuse her for Sophie Lloyd! I do remember ...
Arlo Anwin holds court at Roland's Denmark Street Store - with a unique mix of Demo, Interactive Tutorial, Masterclass and Gig - based on the flagship Boss Loop Station
I first met Arlo Anwin - one of the 2 main projects for multi-instrumentalist Chris Woods - at Boss’s ’In The Loop’ event at Studio 9294, Hackney Wick back in October of 2022. His other main project is The Chris Woods Groove Orchestra. And Studio 9294 is now the home of the London Synth and Pedal Expo - and benefits from a superb canal-side location, with excellent sort of gastropub next door - the Number 90 Bar. ...
The GPX take on the recent Warm Audio 'Replicas' - Josh Scott asked did they go too far with their recent editions?
Many who read my blog don’t know that I used to work in advertising - mostly brand origination / development - and we dealt with a lot of copyright and trademark issues over that time. You quickly get a feel for how close you can sail into the wind - and the truth is mostly not that close at all! Of all of these replicas only probably the first one could be argued away against a top copyright lawyer - the other 5 would pretty much come under straight-up plagiarism - but there are other factors ...
Another 25 Notable and Distinct Guitar Body Shapes - Part 3
Do please note that this is the 3rd roundup in the series - for those looking for more classic / vintage guitar designs - then the first part is the more pertinent for your preferences. Part 2 became a little more eclectic and avant-garde, while this Part 3 is an even mix of more classic / traditional designs and more modern and futuristic.
This part plays some fan service in covering some of the more popular omissions from the previous posts - while I don’t subscribe to the same view for ...
16 of the Most Iconic Electric Guitar Amps
So in my recent ’Guitar Elements’ series it’s finally come to Amps now - where I list out what I believe are the most historically significant and therefore Iconic amps. A lot of you are still conflating Iconic with Vintage, and discounting some of the more recent models - while Iconic does not necessarily infer a long term history and provenance - just that said item or element is a major marker or step forward in the evolution of that device - whatever it may be.
I’m not the first to do ...
Boss launches 2 pedals into an entirely new category - the Gigcaster 5 & 8 Multi-Channel Audio Streaming Mixers
Next time you navigate to the Boss.info website you will find an entirely new Category for Boss - consisting of these 2 brand new Gigcaster Audio Streaming Mixers. And while parent company Roland has a few products in a similar category - albeit they tend to be combination Audio / Video Mixers and Controllers - Boss has not been active in this segment before.
The reason for why this sits as part of the Boss rather than Roland range - is that all the effects onboard are taken from the same ...
