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Review | Joyo Vintage Phase

Tight, classic tone. When I was growing up, I wasn't all that into guitar effects. Distortion, maybe some kind of reverb or delay, and that was about it. My friends and I discovered Rocktek pedals, which were the cheapest of all possible budget pedals, and that changed our ability to experiment. My buddy got a Flanger, and I got a Phaser. And we had literally no idea what to do with them. In fact, his dad referred to my phaser experiments as resembling "frogs farting underwater." That ended my phase shifting career. Flash forward some 30 years, and while watching some guitar FX demos on YouTube, I saw a great one for the Joyo Vintage Phase. In the hands of the player using it, I realized what I'd been missing. It isn't just a modulation sweep effect. It can create a leslie or tremolo effect as well. So when I saw a used one for sale on the Facebook Marketplace, I grabbed it. I mean, even brand new these things sell for less that $50 Canadian on Amazon, so ...

Review: Music Makers Kantele (Kit)

Traditional Finnish instrument with new life I did it. I took the leap and bought a Finnish kantele kit from Musicmakers. I know that doesn't sound like a big leap. But considering the price tag ($169 US) plus the shipping to Canada ($58.50), by the end the total after conversion was $313.50 CAD. Again, not a massive outlay, but look at the difference between the sticker price and the final cost, and hopefully you can see why purchasing something online, made out of wood, can be a bit nerve-wracking at this price point. It was an unknown commodity to me at the time, although I will admit I've been wanting to buy SOMETHING from Musicmakers for a long time. To cut to the chase, this is an instrument I play pretty much every day, so it's 100% worth the price of admission. This was also quite early in my Woods & Strings journey, so I unfortunately didn't have the foresight to run up a whole build video. You pretty much get the unboxing, and a couple of test tracks. But...

Review | Donner "Giant Metal" Distortion Pedal

Insane sound from a mini pedal After years of scaling back to just my amp tone, I've started getting back into guitar pedals. 20 years ago, if you couldn't afford the Boss or DOD pedals, you were forced to go with the only budget brand out there: Rocktek. Those things were awful, but affordable. These days, the budget brands are king, in my opinion, and the compact size of the circuitry makes it possible to grab anything you want and try it out for less than fifty bucks. I wanted to start out with a good distortion, and after playing around with online reviews I decided to take the leap to the Donner Giant Metal. This little powerhouse lives up to its name! Super solid aluminum construction, easy to use controls, a fairly wide gain profile, and surprisingly flexible tonal control. It just has the one tone control, and the switch boosts highs or lows (top or bottom), or runs right down the middle. I won't say that this can replace a high-end Boss distortion, but if y...

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