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Visual Sound Reaches Out To Nashville Musicians
To help Nashville area musicians that have suffered losses from the recent flooding, Visual Sound would like to swap out any flood damaged Visual Sound pedals for new units gratis. We will also swap out flood damaged pedals from the following makers:
1. For a Keeley Compressor, will will swap it for our Comp66 compressor pedal.
2. For a Fulltone Fulldrive we will swap it for our Double Trouble Dual Overdrive pedal.
3. For any Ibanez Tube Screamer models, we will swap them for our Route 808 Overdrive pedal.
Please note that you must give us the flood damaged pedal to receive a Visual Sound swap out.
A David and Goliath Story
We get lot's of fan mail, and sometimes we like to share it with others. This email came to us from a VS user in the U.K.
A David and Goliath story....
I emailed you some months ago regarding a replacement casing for my Route 66 which was destroyed by a truck backing over my pedalboard at loadout after a gig, the circuit still worked...
Anyway I bought a new V2 Route 66 and couldn't be happier, same great sound, and the noise reduction is brilliant.
Last Saturday I was playing a gig in North London, there were two other bands on the bill. All bands were using the house backline (the guitar amp was a Marshall JTM 45 reissue through a 2 by 12 cabinet).
One guitarist was using a 'Timmy', the other a 'Klon Centaur', I was was using my Route 66.
I was standing at the bar at the end of the evening with both players, and the house soundguy came up and complemented me on my overdrive sound, its responsiveness and character.
The next day I was in Denmark Street checking out the guitar shops when I ran into one of the players from the previous night. Guess what....he had just purchased a Route 66!!!!
Just want to congratulate you on your company's products and your customer service.
Dale.
PS: The Route 66 is the best unit I have used, and I have been through most of the boutique, 'corksniffing' units.
I love the fact that I have a great sounding, reliable piece of gear which is free of white noise. Also the fact that I can replace the unit in an emergency so readily is a bonus. Who wants to go on a waiting list for up to a year for a replacement pedal due to either theft or damage?
Of say the top five players living in my area, four are using the Route 66. These include blues, rock, alternative and jazz players. Two guys bought the unit after trying mine - it's that good.
The pedal is a real sleeper. It may not have the hype of some pedals mentioned in the online forums, but the amount of times I've seen it on pedalboards in the real world, used by real working musicians is testament to its enduring quality of sound and performance.
If you are in the U.K. and need help finding Visual Sound products, please contact our partner Headline Music.
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Pure Tone Buffer
The Visual Sound gang saw a blast from the past on Ebay recently, a Pure Tone buffer. The Pure Tone was a line driver/high to low impedence converter that utilized a unity gain pre-amp buffer circuit that was introduced in 1997. It was one of Visual Sound's earliest products and here is a bit from Bob about why he came out with it in the first place.
This Pure Tone was built originally for guitarist Neil Zaza who needed something to clean up his bypass tone for all the pedals he used (VOX wah included). Pure Tone, when placed first in the chain, made it sound like you were plugged straight into the amp even when going through notorious tone killer pedals. We ended up selling about 200 of these to very happy tone conscious guitar players before we put it into Jekyll & Hyde as an added feature. So, if J&H or Rt. 66 is first in your chain, it will buffer everything that follows it as well as itself. Even if it's in the middle of the chain, it will still work to some extent.
Thirdly, the Pure Tone buffer also keeps the Hyde circuit (in Jekyll & Hyde) stable. In the early stages of design, I noticed that the Hyde circuit was prone to occillation and feedback until I put the Pure Tone circuit before it. Somehow, it left all the good characteristics in tact and eliminated the ugliness. We stopped production because we didn't feel the need to package it separately anymore.
As times and tastes have changed though, look for a reissue of the Pure Tone from Visual Sound's new Custom Shop USA division.
Check out the pictures below of the vintage Pure Tone.
The 2010 NAMM Wrap Up
Winter NAMM 2010 was a smashing success for Visual Sound. The record attendance in the booth -- along with rave responses to the new Garage Tone line -- kept the VS crew busy and in high spirits all through the 4-day run.
For many, a highlight of the show was seeing the new Visual Sound pedal display. The 'Obelisk of Tone' contains all current VS products, plus the 5 new GarageTone pedals. The 1 SPOT, not to be overlooked, was represented by a single unit powering the entire display. Pumping out the sound is a 10-watt powered speaker cab designed by Bob and R.G. featuring a 12" Celestion speaker, and especially designed to showcase pedals.
At the end of the show, Bob and company decided to put the display in one of their favorite southern California stores, Westwood Music.
Fred Walecki's Westwood Music is, by far, one of the most famous music stores of Southern California. Started by his father, Herman, the store originally specialized in rare violins and cellos. When young Fred took over in the late 60's, he transitioned the focus of the store to guitars. Soon, Westwood Music was the home-away-from-home for many of the architects of the California sound. These same players that Fred supported early on came to his support when he fought cancer a decade ago. A few of the artists that stepped up to help him in the form of a benefit concert included Crosby, Stills and Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and the Eagles. Visual Sound is proud to have Westwood Music as the first store to have both the pedal display, and the first to have the GarageTone line to check out.
Click below to see pictures of the new Visual Sound pedal display in Fred's store.
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Rick Derringer’s recollections of his infamous red Les Paul
A couple of months back at Summer NAMM in Nashville we got a surprise guest to the booth, Rick Derringer. The rocker best known for "Hang on Sloopy," and "Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo" dropped by to check out some of our pedals. Hearing him play, I was reminded of why he has appeared on albums by everyone from Edgar Winter to Steely Dan. Being the guitar geek that I am, I had to ask him about his old Les Paul that was reported to have ended up in George Harrison's hands. I better start further back. In the early 60's, Rick bought a '57 gold top Les Paul that he loved but the gold paint was flaking off, and it was not yet cool to have a beat up guitar. He took the guitar to the Gibson plant which was then located in Kalamazoo to have it refinished. After choosing cherry red as the new color for his Paul, he had them also remove the Bigsby vibrato, and install a stop tail piece while they had it under the knife so to speak. After getting the guitar back, Derringer felt like it had lost some of its magic, and sold the guitar at the Dan Armstrong guitar shop in New York City. Now comes the interesting part. Eric Clapton, while on tour with Cream, buys the guitar, and then proceeds to gift it to Beatle George. Harrison then has Clapton Guest on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" playing the red Les Paul, and George nicknames the guitar Lucy. Now we have a guitar with 3 very famous guitar players having owned it. Now here is something interesting that Derringer said at the end of telling the story about the guitar. He indicated that he did not remember the guitar looking like it did in photos that are available of George playing it. To be more specific, he did not remember the off-set seam of the maple top that is clearly visible in all photos of Harrison playing the guitar. So, is it the same guitar? Did Clapton buy more than one red Les Paul? Ah, life is a mystery.
More Great Reviews!!
The great reviews continue to roll in for our newest offerings. Check out this latest review of Open Road and True Tone that appear in the Holiday 2009 issue of Guitar World Magazine.
The following is a quote that we are especially fond of.
"Today, many guitarists want pedals that have minimal effect on an amp's tone and feature a wider array of control over the effect. Visual Sound has been responding to this demand by looking beyond established ideologies and creating effects boxes that aren't merely clones of the classics." Guitar World Holiday 2009
Open Road and True Tone Reviews
Our good friends at Headline Music in the UK, were kind enough to send us this stellar review in Guitar Buyer Magazine.
Earlier this year, Vintage Guitar Magazine had the following review in their fine publication of Open Road and True Tone.
Welcome to the Visual Sound Blog
Welcome to the first installment of the Visual Sound blog. Here we will talk about all things gear related. Furthermore, we will not only discuss Visual Sound products, but also talk about gear setup, interesting and historic products, and other helpful hints for the hard working musician. We will also talk some about the artists we work with, and some of the funny, and not so funny occurrences that happen to them out on the road. Now that we have our intro out of the way, let's get started.
Hearing with your eyes
Do you hear with your eyes? Do you have a certain setting you invariably use whenever you try out equipment? Don't think you are immune to this syndrome. How many musicians try out an amp or pedal and set all the knobs at 5 or Noon, and expect the device to sound its best. It is ok to have extreme settings on equipment... all that matters is if it sounds good to you. Here is another test for you. Do you take 2 pedals or amps and set them to the exact same settings and expect them to be identical, or worse, solely judge them by these identical settings? All the electronic components have a plus or minus variance of 5-20%. If you add up all the variance that is possible with all the parts that are used in the unit's construction, it is with good reason that no 2 pedals, or amplifiers or anything else for that matter are completely identical. Now even though there is this variance, if you set those same controls using your ears instead of your eyes, you will find the point were they sound basically the same... and it's probably not where the settings are identical. Next time you are in a guitar shop trying out gear, bring along a blindfold and see what you come home with. You might end up saving yourself some money.
Zac Childs
