Uses
This is a living document of the tools I use to create this website and record my demo loops.
Guitars
My trusty K'mo Memphis Standard in open pore metallic blue. It's a T-style guitar completely handmade by Moe, a luthier from Berlin.
Plays like butter, looks stunning and has that classic Telecaster sound. Very versatile.
These are the specs to the best of my knowledge:
- 12" fretboard radius
- Katalox fretboard
- Maple neck
- Korina body
- Wilkinson bridge (brass saddles)
- Handwound K'Mo pickups
My custom Fidelity Guitars Stellarosa Lite II. This is probably the guitar I'm playing the most right now.
It records so well. It's chimey and articulate without being harsh.
Here are some details about it:
- Roasted maple neck with wenge fretboard. The neck has the most comfortable shape. A little chunkier than the K'mo Memphis. Very well set up out of the box and stellar fretwork
- Obeche body
- Descendant Vibrato
- Lollar Firebird Pickups. The best I can describe them by is something between a beefy Tele and a more articulate Humbucker. The neck is punchy and glassy, like a Strat neck pickup on steroids. The bridge is like a higher output Tele bridge, a bit more smooth and a little scooped in the mids. All without noise because they are humbuckers.
- It only has a volume knob, a 3-way pickup selector and two slide switches. One switch toggles the series mode. Both pickups are then wired in series, which results in more output and a beefier, more compressed sound. The other slide switch is a low-pass filter, meaning engaged it's like turning down a tone knob to zero. I really this in combination with the bridge for a cocked wah sound or with the series mode engaged.
- Color: Burgundy Mist Metallic nitro finish. Medium ageing on the body finish and hardware
My first and so far only bass is this Justin Meldal-Johnsen Road Worn Fender Mustang Bass.
The JMJ records pretty well. It has nice thumb with plenty of attack and a bump in the upper mids to stand out in a mix. I mostly use the Iridium in round mode with Ownhammer AMPG bass IRs to record bass.
I did a few mods:
- I had Baguley Guitars cut me a custom one-piece aluminum pickguard (just for looks). Knobs are also sourced by them.
- I removed the plastic pickup covers. I wrapped the coil wire with black electric tape for extra protection. I added heavier springs to the pickup screws. Now they don't wiggle and sit really tight, so the covers are not needed anymore. Pickups themselves are stock
- I sanded off the back of the neck and applied some regular wood furniture finish to seal it. Feels really smooth now.
- I rounded off the fret edges. I got this used and due to transportation, it must have developed some fret sproud. It didn't turn out super pretty but playability-wise it's great now.
- I'm still experimenting with strings. Right now I have D'Addario Half-rounds on it. Before I just used the stock Fender flatwounds for a while. I think I might try flats from a different brand. The Fender ones are fine but it's fun to experiment.
Picks: Mostly orange Dunlop Tortex 0.60mm
Strings: 11s on the Stellarosa (comes with Stringjoy strings) and Ernie Ball 10s on the K'mo Memphis.
Cables: EBS Gold Flat Patch Cables and and Ernie Ball instrument cable.
Pedalboard: Pedaltrain Classic Jr.
Power Supply: TrueTone 1Spot CS12.
Right now I mostly play to record demos, so my pedalboard is mostly interface, re-amp box, DI, Iridium, tuner, the obligatory altoids tin for picks and whatever pedals I'm currently recording with.
I have the board mainly for easy relocation purposes. I will often go downstairs to the living room to record so I don't wake up the rest of the family (even an unplugged electric can be pretty loud).
Recording
All my demos are recorded at home with a silent setup. I use the Strymon Iridium as my amp/cab sim and it's the basis for all my guitar home recordings.
From the Iridium, the signal goes straight into the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2*. I record everything in GarageBand.
I use the XLR output and the tuner out of my Radial Engineering SB-2 StageBug* to split the signal.
The XLR out goes directly to the audio interface. This is the dry and unaffected signal.
The other goes to the demoed pedal, Iridium and second input of the audio interface. I record dry and "wet" signal simultaneously.
The wet signal is just so that I have an inspiring monitor sound to record with and to "play to the pedal". Later, I delete the wet signal and only use the dry signal for reamping.
When I'm satisfied with the dry, unaffected loop, I reamp it with the Radial Engineering Pro RMP Reamp* and record the whole loop with different settings on each pedal.
For each setting you see in the demos, I recorded the whole loop with the pedal set to that setting. The loop has to be recorded for every single setting, which amounts to about 30 audio files per demo.
I also program drums, record bass and sometimes a few guitar overdubs to create a backing track for my latest demos. I mix everything so that the main guitar that goes through the pedal in the demo is in the foreground. And you can turn off the backing track to listen to finer details in sound changes through the pedal.
Coding
- I built this website with Gatsby and React.
- I code in VSCode and use Hyper as my terminal.
- Hosting is done via Netlify.
- For pretty much every app where I can customize the color scheme (code editor, terminal, notes, slack, this website 😉), I use the Dracula color theme.
*These are affiliate links and I earn a small comission if you buy stuff through those links. There is no additional cost for you. It helps me keep this website alive.