Rotator: The Pedal Party

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Welcome to the beginning of the end. This episode we take a stroll down memory lane and talk about some of our favorite Rotator: The Pedal Party moments with a special guest appearance from our good friend The *****.  We talk guitars, amps, pedals and finally reveal our own pedalboards! Thanks for everything. This community has been amazing, and we couldn't have done it without you. See you all soon...

It's our holiday special! What gear did you always hope to find under the tree?

Sometimes you get in the mood for delay pedals, and you just have to get your hands on one. We did just that for this week's episode. We get down and dirty with the Strymon DIG. It's got two separate delay engines, and it's pink! The illusive DMB Stellar Drive makes an appearance as well. 

Are you ready to wobble? I never thought I'd want a delay or reverb pedal that had built-in wiggle, but the Caverns V2 actually does it on both—and incredibly well, I might add. Come on now!

What has three knobs, two switches, and a ton of tone? Listen to this week's episode to find out. We can't tell what kind of pedal it is, but we know it sounds good. 

This pedal is so serious about tone that it can KILL YOU. One knob, one switch, and only one emoji needed \m/

Charlie Paolo makes some pretty gnarly, doomy, boomy, zoomy pedals. This week, we got to try out the Obsidian Fuzz and Bloodstone Overdrive. So much straightforward rawk! Outro music by https://www.bensound.com because I can’t find our OG track! Whoops!

Tone snobs often treat “Tubescreamer” like a bad word, but should that always be the case? This week, we take a look at one high-end TS style pedal and compare it to a budget-friendly version. While they both have their shares of benefits, there is a clear winner in the end…  Also, we tried a few tweaks to the editing process, so let us know what you think of the new sound quality at rotator.party@gmail.com.  Gear used: 2013 Gibson SG ’61 Reissue 1995 Fender Stratocaster Hughes & Kettner Dual EL84 Statesman Shure SM57 Audix i5

GUESS WHO’S BACK. It’s us, the ‘Taterheads, and we have what you’ve been waiting for this whole time: a review of the high-end, special-made, blah blah blah we have an old, beat-up Rocktron Rampage, which totally lives up to its name. Summer is over, folks. Winter has come!   Gear used: 2013 Gibson SG ’61 Reissue 1995 Fender Stratocaster Hughes & Kettner Dual EL84 Statesman Shure SM57 Audix i5

Geraniums, germaniums, great flowery fuzz. What is the Twin Bender? Essentially, two iconic fuzz circuits in one unit accompanied with major modern upgrades that fix some of the finicky issues with putting old-school fuzz pedals on the boards of today. Tim is a great guy making some great stuff, so enjoy us being obnoxious! Gear used:  1995 Fender Stratocaster 2013 Gibson SG ’61 Reissue Fender Precision Bass Marshall JCM800 Shure SM57

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we were not able to record a pedal demo this week. Instead, as our little baby podcast turns 21 episodes old, we were forced to turn our eyes within, remembering all the great pieces of gear that, for whatever reason (probably rent and bills), we had to let loose. Grab a tissue and get ready to mourn alongside us during this week’s memorial service for the pieces that have gone before. Godspeed.  Gear used:  None. Only gear lost…..   

This is another episode we recorded a little over a month ago and completely forgot about, which is a shame, especially since you can find these on reverb.com for about $40! With three different drive modes, we put this in the budget-friendly/multi-purpose category. And while it doesn't necessarily nail any of the territories exactly as advertised, all three voicings and useful and pretty fun to play with. Gear used: 1995 Fender Stratocaster 2013 Gibson SG '61 Reissue Fender Jazz Bass Vox AC30 Shure SM57

On this very special (read: late) episode of Rotator, you get to meet Chance’s girlfriend Mikala, who since taping this episode has been upgraded to fiancee. Celebrate good times, c’mon. As for the pedal, the Blue Box is, well, a blue box. And that’s exactly what it sounds like. Blue and boxy! Is it a fuzz? Is it an octave? Is it a space machine? Hard to tell, but we did our best.  Gear used:  1995 Fender Stratocaster 2013 Gibson SG ’61 Reissue Fender Jazz Bass Vox AC30 Shure SM57  

An overdrive pedal modeled after…….. a projector?! Genius. Not to get too cliche here, but this might be the single most #musical overdrive we have demoed. Allergy attacks/weather alerts couldn’t stop us from bringing you the purest tones we could get out of an impressively useful dirt box. Enjoy.  Gear used:  2003 Fender American Telecaster 2009 Gibson Les Paul Traditional Fender Precision Bass Stulce Amp head Marshall 2x12 cabinet Sennheiser MD421 Sennheiser e906   

We finally did it; we broke the 1-hour threshold, even after some major edits. We just had so much fun, we never wanted the episode to end, ya know? In all seriousness, this pedal is fun, functional, but probably not family friendly. \m/ Also, Chance forgets more riffs than he remembers.  Gear used:  2003 Fender American Telecaster 2009 Gibson Les Paul Traditional Kauer Arcturus Bass Stulce Amp head Marshall 2x12 cabinet Sennheiser MD421 Sennheiser e906  LPD 87  

Congrats to John Pepe on winning the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Haunt Fuzz from last week’s episode!! The stereo setup didn’t work, the cabinet was rattling, and Sister Kelly gone and locked herself out of the church office. But gosh dime it, we still finished the episode. And we’re happy we did because we may have finally given in and accepted the idea of a “transparent overdrive.” Trust me, that took some work.  Gear used:  Fender Blacktop Telecaster 1995 Fender Stratocaster Special 1964 Fender Bandmaster Fender P Bass Marshall 2x12 cabinet Sennheiser MD421 Emerson Em-Drive Transparent Overdrive Strymon Dig Digital Delay

GIVEAWAY! If you want a chance to win the pedal we use in this episode, go like our Instagram account @rotatorparty and tag a friend who loves pedals in the picture we post for this episode! The winner will be randomly selected this Saturday (May 12). Special thanks to The Jared for donating this pedal. Knobs and switches and split-splat-patty-whack giva-dogga-fuzz. There are far more sounds in this pedal than we could discover in one sitting, but we did our best to capture this thing’s array of juicy flavor.  Gear used: 2009 Gibson Les Paul Traditional 1995 Fender Stratocaster Special 1964 Fender Bandmaster Marshall 2x12 cabinet Sennheiser MD421 Old Blood Noise Endeavors Haunt Fuzz A little delay from the Strymon Dig Digital Delay Visit www.rotator.party for more or subscribe in iTunes.

It took us a while to find the sweet spot, but once we did, we were hooked on this budget-friendly overdrive. If you want an affordable drive that can essentially turn a Blues Jr. into a 70s Marshall Superbass, getcha a Bad Monkey. And did we mention it cleans up well? Besides all our tomfoolery, if it’s good enough for the great Phil X, who are we to argue?  Gear used: 2009 Gibson Les Paul Traditional 2000s Gretsch 6122 Country Gentleman Stulce low-watt, EL84 head Marshall 2x12 cabinet Fender Blues Jr. III Sennheiser MD421 Sennheiser e906 Digitech Bad Monkey Tube Overdrive T.C. Electronics Hall of Fame Reverb

For our lucky number 13th episode, we present you with the Bogner Burnley, the most \m/ distortion pedal ever made. With a Neve transformer, fancy LED flashing, and the world’s first fat switch that actually works, this thing sent us both on a journey of obnoxious transcendence through shred forrest. It's a long one, but we aren't apologizing. Bonus points: count how many times Chance says "juice" or "juicy" to discover the hidden codex.  Gear used:  2009 Gibson Les Paul Traditional 1995 Fender Stratocaster Special Stulce low-watt, EL84 head Marshall 2x12 cabinet Fender Blues Jr. III Sennheiser MD421 Sennheiser e906 Bogner Burnley Distortion Strymon Dig Delay