The Pedals and Pickups Podcast

This week, Hailey and I talk all about compression, what specific compressor-related terms mean, the history and technology behind the effect, how you can use it to your advantage, and other compressor-adjacent effects you can use to level up your mixes. Check out our website here!

This week, Hailey and I go through the different recording methods and era-defining guitar tones from the 1920s all the way through 2022, exploring different popular pieces of gear and recording techniques that were responsible for the overall sound of a generation. Check out our website here!

This week, Hailey and I talk about the merits of all sorts of non-standard guitars, from double necks, to 12 strings, all the way to the modern metal powerhouse of extended range guitars. Have you ever been extended range curious? Tune in to learn all about them! Check out our website here!

This week, Hailey and I detail the multi-week project of how we upgraded our studio. We figured even though it's not a guitar-centric topic, it's something more than a few of you will get a benefit from. Tune in today to see how we upgraded ours, and how you can start your own home studio! Check out our website here!

This week, we're in the midst of a big studio upgrade so we're limited to only two channels to record on. Hailey's come to the rescue by cooking up a neat little challenge where she'll read us the reviews of a few guitars, amps, and pedals, and we'll try to guess what each one is based on the review alone. It's a perfect little challenge while we're in a limited capacity that you can play along to at home! Check out our website here! EDIT: There were some technical issues with this episode, namely a really intense bleed on my mic signal. I had to pull the episode until I got a chance to fix it, so if it cut out during your listen I'm sorry! Go ahead and give me all the shame, I deserve it. It should be fixed now for your listening pleasure.

This week, Hailey gives me a challenge by asking me to build an Alt-Rock pedalboard for cover band gigs with a budget of $1,000 USD. Can we do it? Does it sound good? Will Taco Bell ever bring back the Beefy Fritos Burrito? Find the answer to two of those questions in the episode! Check out our website here!

This week, Hailey and I will take a look at the history of Mason Marangella's Vertex Effects, from their meteoric rise, through their troubled controversy, and into the modern pedal lineup and social media presence of today. Check out our website here!

This week, Hailey and I walk you through the history of both DOD and Digitech, starting with humble beginnings in the early 1970s, all the way to the current corporate acquisitions fiascos of the late 2010s and early 2020s. Check out our website here!

I know, I know, we've been gone for awhile now, but we're finally back! We've got a lot to catch you guys up on, including the weirdest amplifier I've ever had the privilege of owning, and we can't wait to share it with you guys! Drop in today! Check out our website: www.pedalsandpickups.com

This week, we interview Alex Hall, a Nashville Country Artist whose debut EP Six Strings featured guitar heroes such as Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, and John Osborne. In the interview, we'll talk about his upcoming album, Side Effects of The Heart, and Alex's favorite gear to get his signature tone! Check out our website here!

This week, Hailey and I talk about some of our favorite, weirdest effects pedals and how to use them to make a unique sound for you! Check out our website here!

This week, we'll sit down and discuss whether boutique overdrives are really worth all the hype. One piece of sage advice constantly given on the internet is that your favorite overdrive coupled with a quality EQ pedal can sound like nearly any other overdrive out there, so we put that to the test by pitting seven boutique overdrives against a single TS9 with an MXR 6 Band EQ. Play along and see if you can tell which is which! Check out our website here!

This week, Hailey and I will talk about giving some older pedal's a chance, like the Rocktek chorus my coworker picked up for me in Taiwan, as well as the new announcement by Sunn of their revived product line including amplifiers and speaker cabinets. Check out our website here!

This week, we're getting back into the swing of things after being gone, so Hailey and I talk about the process of building a new pedalboard from the ground up. We'll go over everything from the purpose of the board, pedalboard sizing, cabling, mounting, modules, and take you all the way through actually putting your board together! Check out our website here, where I'll put a blog post in deeper detail with photos describing every step of the process!

This week we'll take a look at pedal, amplifier, and tube manufacturer extraordinaire Mike Matthews and his company Electro-Harmonix. Afterwards, we'll recreate the tone of Smashing Pumpkins guitarist and frontman Billy Corgan on the song "Cherub Rock" off their album Siamese Dream. Check out The Pedals and Pickups Podcast website! www.pedalsandpickups.com Need podcast merch? I got you covered: www.pedalsandpickups.creator-spring.com

I'm gone again for work this week, so enjoy a pre-recorded episode where I tried to do something fun. Hailey and I sit down and go through five rounds of effects pedal trivia questions and audio challenges. Feel free to play along at home and see how you do!

This week, we explore everything buffers and buffered bypass pedals can do for you. After that, we'll take a look at one of, if not my personal favorite band of all time, A Day To Remember, then we'll talk about using stereo effects and multiple setups to accomplish wet/dry and wet/dry/wet rigs.

This week we'll take a look at the history of a staple guitar manufacturer in Rockabilly music: Gretsch guitars. After this, we'll recreate the tone of frontman and guitarist Matt Bigland of the band Dinosaur Pile Up on their song "Back Foot", then take a look at the four most common types of audio routing and how you can make them work for you in your studio. While you're at it, feel free to check out the new website here! https://pedalsandpickups.com/

This week, we bring on Hailey (my loving wife, who also moonlights as a photographer for the podcast's social media) to talk about unpopular guitar opinions we've scrounged up from the depths of the internet.

This week, we'll talk about the traits and best uses of amp in a box pedals. Afterwards, we'll recreate the tone of Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains's song "Rooster", then take a deep dive on best practices for re-amping your guitar tracks.

This week, we take a look at the history of distortion and distortion pedals in the sphere of guitar, we recreate the tones from Nickelback's song "How You Remind Me", and we talk about the process for setting up the framework for a quality studio in your own home.

This week we talk about the history and development of guitar vibrato/tremolo units, we recreate the tones of Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante on Dani California off the album Stadium Arcadium, and we'll wrap up this week's show by demonstrating how you can make high quality sound effects with everyday household objects.

This week we talk about the history and most popular pedals released by MXR innovations. Afterwards we'll get into the gear and tones used by Tom DeLonge on blink-182's "What's My Age Again?", then talk about three major types of microphones, their advantages and disadvantages, and what they can do for you.

This week we double feature our famous gear by talking about the history of Sunn amps and their prized Model T as well as the Earthquaker Devices Life Pedal, the signature analog multi-effect of Sunn O))). After this, how could we not talk about the tones of Sunn O))) guitarists Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, where we'll use our budget Model T clones and Life Pedals to get the same crushing doom tones they have on their newest album, Life Metal.

This week we look at the history and most popular models of Japanese effects company BOSS, then we recreate the tones of Colson Baker, a.k.a. Machine Gun Kelly on his song "I Think I'm Okay". After this, we'll talk about tips and tricks for getting the best mic placement on your acoustic guitar.

This week, we look at the history of Vox Amplifiers and their distinct, chimey voice. Then, we'll go into the tones of John Lennon on The Beatles' hit song "Come Together", rounding the episode off with a look at different types of EQ units and how to use them.

This week we check out the (admittedly sparse) history of California manufacturer Schecter Guitar Research, then we dive into the guitar tone of Linkin Park's Brad Delson on "One Step Closer". To wrap up this week's show we'll talk about the differences between balanced and unbalanced audio signals and how you can use them to your advantage in your home setup.

This week we talk about the development and history of the distortion monster known as the ProCo RAT, then recreate Graham Coxon of Blur's tone on the track "Song 2". After this, we'll take a modern tube amp and look at a few different methods to make it sound closer to the vintage tube amp tone we all crave.

This week we look at the history of slightly delayed goodness known as "flanging" and the pedals that create this effect. Afterwards, we'll go onto the tone of the late, great, Eddie Van Halen on the song "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", then talk about tips and settings when you're setting up your track for a final mixdown or export in your DAW.

This week we look at the surprisingly ancient and rich history of tuners including the different types and which one is right for you. After this, we'll talk about the tone of Lita Ford from The Runaways on "Cherry Bomb", then we look at different things that can make or break a great vocal recording for your next song.

This week, we talk about the history of two of the most prolific guitars ever: the Gibson Les Paul and SG. We'll recreate the tone from Monster Magnet's "Space Lord", then move on to using plugins and how they can make your music sound more professional and ready to release.

This week I'm away for work, so I recorded an episode I've been wanting to do for a couple weeks: a dive into the book Stompbox by Eilon Paz. It's a great book that features a bunch of effects pedals that are popular with numerous different artists. In this episode we'll go over some famous pedals and popular settings used on them, as well as talk about some key points from the book.

This week we talk about the volume undulating goodness of Tremolo and look at getting the tones of Robby Kreiger from The Doors on the song Riders on The Storm. We'll also talk about the definition of gain, where it comes from, and how to use it to your advantage in your tracks.

This week we get our digital game on and talk about the wonderous world of modeling amplifiers and the history behind them. After looking into the tone of 1's and 0's, we'll recreate the tone of Simon Delaney on Don Broco's "Nerve" and talk about tools and accessories that make our lives as guitarists much easier and more... fulfilling? Does that fit, y'know what, it fits, who reads podcast episode descriptions anyway?

This week we talk about the history of music retail giant Guitar Center, from it's humble beginnings as an electric organ store in Hollywood, CA to it's present day near-monopoly on brick and mortar music sales. After history class we'll talk tone when it comes to guitarist Brian Bonds of Florida Georgia Line on This Is How We Roll!

It's been about three months since our last episode because I had quite a bit going on personally, but I'm super excited to be back in the seat hanging out with you guys. This week, we're going to talk about the history of those green, gainy boxes of goodness: tube screamers. We'll also look at the tones from Knuckle Puck's song "Want Me Around", and talk about how to get a good lo-fi guitar tone for your music!

This week we go into the history of the standard when it comes to the British amp sound: Marshall Amps. We'll use our newfound knowledge to build the tone of Billy Joe Armstrong on Green Day's "American Idiot" with budget gear, and we'll talk about how to select and set up a room for recording your guitar tracks.

This week we talk about the history and main different categories of delay pedals. We tone-chase after the great Josh Rand on the Stone Sour hit "Say You'll Haunt Me", and we look at what pedals are good for both guitar and bass, and what pedals you're better off springing for separate versions for each.

This week we'll use a DeLorean powered by NOS tubes and mojo to take a trip through each big era of Fender's history with amplifiers. After our escapade, we'll come back to the present to recreate the tone of Chris Stapleton on "You Should Probably Leave", and we'll discuss how country artists are unique in the way they use compressors.

This week we cover the history of common types of guitar pickups, analyze the tone of Mick Thomson on Slipknot's "Psychosocial", and demonstrate two effective ways to use a noise gate.

This week, we look at the history and different types of guitar synthesizer pedals and how they can help you achieve unique (and sometimes whacky) sounds in your music. We recreate Alex Lifeson's guitar tone on the song "Tom Sawyer", and we look at a few key factors when choosing your next set of guitar strings.

This week, we look at the history of Orange Amplification, the "Voice of The World", and their signature sound. We look at Caleb Shomo's guitar tone on Beartooth's "Aggressive" album, and we explore 4 different ways to double track your guitar. It's a bit of a late upload, but hey, it's episode 13, plenty of other things could've gone worse with that number!

This week we talk about the history of arguably the first "boutique" drive, the Bixonic Expandora. We re-create the guitar tone of Barry Stock from Three Days Grace on "Painkiller", and we make a pedalboard you can use to get a solid tone off of a few different genres on a budget.

This week we depart from our regularly scheduled nonsense to talk about budget gear and how it really might serve you better than you think. We use an extremely wallet-friendly rig to get Keith Richards's guitar tone on "Gimme Shelter" and talk about things to look for when buying a new guitar.

This week we look at a staple of 80's guitar tones: chorus. We recreate the tones of Johnny Stevens on Highly Suspect's "Lydia", and we talk about what parts of your rig are most important to your tone.

This week I'm traveling for work, so we take a (albeit pre-recorded) deep-dive on the history of the most popular fuzz circuits and architecture. In the spirit of talking about our favorite (but often most finnicky) pedals, we discuss the differences between true bypass and buffers when it comes to effects pedals.

This week we talk about the function and history of famous phasers in the guitar effects pedal lineup, the tone of David Gilmour on "Another Brick in The Wall Pt. 2" by PInk Floyd, and we go over some tips on choosing your first audio interface as a new home recording enthusiast!

This week we'll talk about the history of arguably the most widely used effect in every musical genre: reverb. We'll take a look at the tones of Alex Turner on Arctic Monkeys' song "R U Mine?", and discuss the pros and cons of using tube amps or solid state amps, exploring if you really do need a tube amp to get great tones (spoiler: you don't).

This week we talk about three key types of circuits that add dirt and flavor to your guitar tone: boosts, overdrives, and distortions. We recreate the searing, gain heavy guitar tone of Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, and we talk about the differences between germanium and silicon when it comes to the construction of electrical components and their use in guitar accessories.

This week we look at the history of Fender's 1962 flagship guitar, the Jaguar, we review the gear used in Kurt Cobain's rig when Nirvana recorded "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and we talk all about the creation and use of Impulse Responses.

This week we talk about Octave pedal circuits, from the early analog octaves like the Octavia and Dan Armstrong Green Ringer, all the way to modern digital octave circuits like the EHX POG and MXR Poly Blue Octave. We look at the gear and tones of Tom Morello on Rage Against The Machine's "Killing in The Name", and common guitar mods from headstock to tailpiece.