Chasing Tone - Guitar Podcast About Gear, Effects, Amps and Tone
Welcome to the Chasing Tone Podcast! Join Brian Wampler, Blake Wyland, Richard Oliver, and a variety of special guests as they dive into the world of guitars, pedals, amps, and other guitar gear. From answering your burning questions to discussing bands, gigs, and the latest trends in the guitar world, we cover it all. Expect plenty of off-topic banter and a behind-the-scenes look at our work at Wampler Pedals. If you enjoy guitar podcasts that feel like hanging out with your musician friends, you'll love Chasing Tone.
Chasing Tone - Guitar Podcast About Gear, Effects, Amps and Tone
638 - Two is the magic number for dumbness, Brian has a Fat Sandwich, and drunk testing the PedalHead
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It's just the two of us this week as Brian and Richard hold the fort without Blake for episode 638 of Chasing Tone - Two is the magic number for dumbness, Brian has a Fat Sandwich, and drunk testing the PedalHead
Brian lifts the lid on PedalSpice, the browser-based circuit simulator he's wanted to build for years. Slider-driven calculators spit out component values in seconds, saved circuit blocks drop straight into new designs, and neural amp models let you hear your circuit through a real amp before you've warmed up a soldering iron. Richard takes it for a spin, pitches a rival product called "Pedal Salt," and the guys get candid about building software with AI and why good results still take hard graft. And make your brain bleed. So. much. bleeding.
Meanwhile, Richard has found a deeply suspicious internet list of the top 10 reasons to move to Indiana. Gas stations with gum, cities with friendly names like Gary, a state supposedly named after a dog - Brian sets the record straight. Then Brian confesses to a Reverb spree on Way Huge pedals and goes digging for the schematic of the discontinued Fat Sandwich live on air.
Richard invents the thermic distortion drive. Stu Mac teams up with Scotti Hill of Skid Row on a Rangemaster-style boost kit, prompting a live investigation into a mystery chip. Brian has been trying to destroy the new PedalHead.
Jim Unnay, Gibson's new Ghostburst, Keeley's new germanium pedal, YouTube drama fatigue, a candy parcel reduced to glittery dust, too many tunings - it's all in this week's Chasing Tone!
Check out PedalSpice: pedalspice.com
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Welcome to the two of us today. Yeah, you can sing that song. I can say every time, every time I start singing, I won't do it this time.
RichardWhat I was thinking in the car earlier, Brian, was we should have like a list of two of us songs. There must be other, like two for tea, te for two, that sort of thing. And then you can sing a different one each time.
BrianMaybe so. Two rounds of Jovose Aquirvo.
RichardTwo is better than one. I'm sure that's uh two is the magic number. Is that the two is the magic number?
BrianThere you go.
RichardThat's a good one. Yep. There you go, see. Uh perhaps the listeners can help us out with other two songs. I'm sure we can't just opening ever.
BrianI'm sure we can Gemini this. I I wonder, you know how when you go to Google it now just defaults to Gemini? Should we change the name of Googling something to Geminiing something? Uh super Geminiing something, Bri.
RichardI've decided it's it's no longer just Gemini, it's Super Gemini. Of America. That's a weird it has a weird name to pick for your AI, Gemini. Um, yeah, I I suppose it's got an I in it. There's a bit of a pun. What did Google know about naming anyway?
BrianI mean, they could have called it some other astrological sign, I guess, but I mean they should have named it after a number.
RichardLike Google was named after a number. That's the way forward, surely.
BrianLike 10 is 10. Exactly. Yeah. Because that's that's about how much it's worth. 10 cents. It's terrible, terrible LLM. Anyways. Actually, is it though, Bri?
RichardLike really super quick things. It's good. If you just want to like Google how to make soup.
BrianHere's my problem. Like every I bet you literally, I say every, I bet you 80% of the time when I'm trying to Google something and it brings up the AI thing, I find something, I'm like, that's just simply not true. That's not true. I know that's not true. And when I push it, I'm like, yeah, that can't be true. It's like, oh, you're right, you caught me. And I'm like, this is so useless. I need you to be accurate. I need you to be accurate when I'm asking you something. Well, I mean And I mean, like, if not, then just stay out of the way so I can go find it myself. Geez.
RichardIf you don't like the results when you do look for, I don't know, average size of something, there's nothing I can say about it, bro. Okay. Should should this appendiature look like this? Is green the right colour? Um I I tell you what you can weigh in on Bri, and and this isn't AR, but it does come from that lovely internet. Is the top 10 reasons to move to Indiana? Now, the reason I've thought about this is because right behind me on the floor. Can you see? Yeah, can you see those parcels down there, Bri? Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. One of those is coming to you, Bri. I'm sorry. Did you ever get your candy? No, it got it got stuck in a post office for a million years.
BrianOh my gosh.
RichardTurned back up to your good lady wife, who got like a you were out, we've got something at the post office. She went to the post office and it was crushed candy and not the game.
BrianIt's just dust, like, oh, I see now that's why they uh they wouldn't let it pass. It's just dust.
RichardIt's just it's just like colourful, glittery dust. So no, I never got it. I I I maintain that it doesn't exist and it's something you've made up. Um, but no, I've boxed up a pedal for you and for Blake, and I'm gonna be sending them out next time I go to the post office. And I like I I thought about this. It's really bad that I didn't send you them straight away, but I I had to sell enough to make sure that it was viral. No, yeah, don't worry about that. But you have been on your you're in like the second influencer tier now, so you're all getting it.
BrianOh, am I?
RichardYeah, you should be pleased about that.
BrianI think I have a little look. I haven't released a video for several months, maybe like three or four.
RichardMaybe like six, but you know, that's also crossed my mind, bro. I was like, I'm gonna send this to Bri, and uh like if I'd have done this a year ago, guaranteed he'll make some content featuring it. Now I'm not so sure.
BrianI've just been so busy this year, it's always you know, it's it's not that I've like abandoned it, not you know, not intentionally, but I mean I need to get back into it. Everything's the algorithm thing has completely changed where used to you you you would try to use some sort of sticky topic to get attention from a larger group of people, and now like that stuff just doesn't work really well. Now you have to like niche down, and so you see views that are like down, but uh like from different channels, but it's actually more more of a um of an audience with intent. Yes, you know, more of an audience with quantity, right?
RichardYeah, very much so, yeah. So I can help you out here, Bright. If you need more eyes on your video, you simply need to enter the world of YouTube drama. You simply need to write a video showing off why all of these YouTubers are and insert whichever words you want. Because apparently that's how you get views.
BrianSo something like hinting Polly actually has hair, he just is faking it like that.
RichardOh, that would be amazing. He's wearing a bald wig all this time. That might be really offensive.
BrianJosh God is actually short, you know, it's just all a big ploy.
RichardThat would be so cool, that would be very cool. Robert Keeley is actually AI, he's actually the first Elon Musk robot.
BrianExactly.
RichardYeah, these are the sort of rumors we need to start. No, um very quickly, more drama. Uh honestly, I'm so bored of YouTubers having drama now. Um but KDH put out a very lengthy takedown video of the six-string um situation. It was pretty measured, about twice as long as it needed to be for me, to be fair. Um, but he, you know, he's a detailed guy, he goes into the weeds. So hopefully this is done.
BrianYeah, good dude. We've had him on the podcast before. Um, I just like for me as a viewer, I don't still have time for for drama stuff. I haven't watched any of it. I I only know about it from you guys. Yeah, and the and the group, but I'm guilty of consuming it now, Bri.
RichardAnd I'm worried, well, yeah, because I've watched all of these videos, because of course the algorithm's gone. Uh, you like a one video about a YouTuber. Here have 4,000 more every day in your feed.
BrianThat's an entire feed.
RichardYeah, you you do end up clicking on it on the odd one. And like I have learnt about YouTubers I didn't know existed in the guitar space through this. That is a good thing.
BrianI've I've seen YouTubers I never knew about that. Yeah, you know, now now I'll watch what they're doing.
RichardYeah, but generally the ones that I've seen bitching, I'm looking at going, I don't think this is a great advert for you as a content creator. If you're more interested in getting clicks from the the the sort of salacious side, I like when we when we send a demo pedal out, we want the person to be serious, like they can be funny, but they have to be doing a job, and we're not paying them to you know give us a good result, we're just paying them to take attention. And I worry that those that get more embroiled in the gossip and humor side aren't the best people for that. But that's fine, everyone can exist, and I'm I'm cool with that.
BrianI mean, like you said, if nothing else, it shows that there's a lot of YouTubers out there that uh talk about gear.
RichardYeah, way more than I thought. Like every week now I find a new thing, and their channel is always named something like that guitar guy, and I'm like, which guitar guy? But like maybe maybe that's your YouTube channel.
BrianYour YouTube channel needs to be called That Guitar Guy. Could well be, yeah.
RichardI don't think I can pull that one off, Brian. Uh I was actually writing up a blog for Oliver FX earlier, um, because you know, blogs are good things. And uh I was writing this blog, and then I was like, I I've been playing guitar an awful long time, and I'm still, I still like really am down on my own playing. I've never like sometimes I stop and go, oh yes, that sounded good, but generally I'm not as good a player as I thought I would be after 30 years of of playing. That 10,000 hours thing hasn't paid off. Anyway, top 10 reasons to move to Indiana.
BrianOh yes. Wow. So I can only think of one, and that's because it's the cost of living is much cheaper here than most other places in America.
RichardWell, we'll go through them. Basketball is the state religion. Do you like basketball?
BrianI mean I out of all the sports, that's the one I can tolerate the most. Let's put it that way. But I never I I played like for three months in middle school, and then I got bored and started wrestling. Um I mean again, you you're the same sort of age as me. Yeah, it's just okay to me. Like I can tolerate it, but it's not like baseball where I'm just like, I'm literally can't watch any of this, or I'll fall asleep.
RichardYeah, I mean, I I love all American sports, in honesty, but basketball is probably the closest to soccer because it is like constant action, it's soccer with the hands, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. So I I I dig it for that. But like me, Bri, you grew up in the era of Michael J. Fox's teen wolf. So at one point, being a good baseball uh basketball player was almost as important as being able to transform into a wolf. I believe that's a big deal.
BrianYeah, I mean, it's it's pretty common. I mean, it's very, very common here. I would say, and people take it very seriously.
RichardYeah.
BrianUm, so like even like college basketball is huge here. They have something called like I think it's called the Big Ten, which I guess it's the Big Ten universities where they have big basketball championships or whatever. I I know this sounds stupid, I have no idea. I've heard people talk about it. Um, but then one is a statistic. Yeah, one's definitely a yes for sure.
RichardYeah, basketball is that original. Almost all of your gas stations, now I had to double check this, have gum, not gun. Gum.
BrianGum gum, G-U-M, yes. So this confused me because I literally that's true, but my question is don't all gas stations have stations have gum? That's like saying their grass has dirt underneath.
RichardAnd it was at this point that I started to think, hold on, wait a minute. This is clickbait. Any Chinese assassin squad will never think to look for you there. How do you qualify that as a reason to move to Indiana?
BrianI this one I I honestly thought there has to be something about like pop history or something. I just don't have a clue here. I have no idea what that's referring to.
RichardI have no idea what it is. Maybe there's a film that we're we're both supposed to have seen. Maybe so. You'll never have to worry about riots from fans celebrating a Super Bowl victory. Okay, fine. Okay. But here's one that resonates.
BrianAlso, you'll never have to worry about tidal waves. Yeah.
RichardSo fine. Or volcano eruptions. It's cities have nice, friendly names like Gary. Now that is something that does freak me out.
BrianGary is not known to be a nice friendly city.
RichardWell, Bri, I think it's time for you to now expand your land and create a new city. And I think we should call it Colin.
BrianSo, I mean, everything here's Villes. You know, you have the Martinsville, you have the Mooresville, you know, you have the Wamplerville. Actually, that's not here, but should be.
RichardThat's one of the worst computer games I've ever played, Wamblerville. Wamplerville. Yeah. You've got to feed a goat. You can only ever own one goat. Um world-class cuisine, like milk and salted eggs.
BrianSee, again, salted eggs, what are you talking about?
RichardWhat is a salted egg? Is that just literally an egg with salt on it?
BrianI have no idea. I mean, I would say, if anything, stuff like French toast, like the general bacon and eggs and hamburgers and hot dogs. That's that's what we hear. It's very rarely anything fancy. It's just it's foods that were popular 80 years ago. Do you sweeten your French toast?
RichardWhat do you mean you sweeten? Like syrup on it? Some people put powdered sugar on it, some people put powdered sugar and syrup on it, some people just syrup.
BrianI mean, people make it different ways here. The probably the most popular way is with powdered sugar and syrup. Wow, that's insane. That is insane. Yeah, as you can tell, it's like an 8,000 calorie meal.
RichardIt's a great meal though. You know? I mean, we we have it in England, only we go by the by the uh the more um workmanlike title, egggy bread. And we don't put any of that sugar or uh syrup on it. We generally put ketchup, which probably has quite a bit of sugar in it. But okay, all right. So um Sophie Cunningham, who's she? No idea. I was hoping you would actually let me know. She must be some attractive actress or whatever. I have no idea who that is. None of your relatives will ever come to visit. Is that a fact? I don't think that's fair to you.
BrianSo I mean I mean, I live next to all my relatives, so that's not true. But I would say that probably as much like if you live in Florida, everybody comes to visit you because you like live in a touristy vacation spot, right? But if you live in India, hurricane season. Right, right. But if you live in Indiana, like there's nothing here. There's hills. Like if you if you like forest, it's nice, I suppose. If you like camping, it's nice. Uh, if you like seasons, we have all four seasons. Yep. But other than that, there's really nothing, nothing else.
RichardSometimes in England we have all four seasons in one day. It's not a good thing.
BrianYeah, I have talked to you. I I was in shorts, now I am in a coat.
RichardYeah, no, it's it's turned here over. Right. Uh, so enjoy all the glamour of living in Ohio without having to actually live in Ohio. I don't understand that reference either.
BrianThat's such a slam, like like Ohio's so bad. It's actually not. There's great places in Ohio.
RichardYeah. I mean, I'm pretty sure there's great places in every single American state because it's a big country.
BrianUh yeah, I mean, there's there's I mean, I like I like the Midwest just because it's simple. It's simple life.
RichardYou know what? I would love to simplify my own life. It's the only state named after a dog.
BrianNo, that's not true. Indiana is named after Native Americans because this it was full of Native Americans. And at the time, we didn't call them Native Americans. Just like Indianapolis is the city of Indiana, you know?
RichardYeah. So I I think you're correct. I think that this um this Ten Reasons to move to Indiana is in furious. Yeah, I think so.
BrianIt was written by Gemini.
RichardYou know it was. I I like that though. The the Midwest version of Gemini appears to be Gemini. I like that. We're gonna call him Gemini. Gemini, yeah, nice. Good. Uh so yeah, that's the um the AI and Indiana portion of uh this over. Uh what what else has been going on with you this week, bro? You've been very busy.
BrianOh man, oh, it's been so busy. So we released Pedal Spice. I've been testing the pedal head before it goes to final production. And the instructions for testing the pedal head have been fantastic.
RichardYeah.
BrianUm, I was literally told, try to do, try to use this in the dumbest of ways to make the stupidest mistakes that anyone could possibly make. Okay. And I'm like, so you want me to pour beer down the down the amp input jack, output jack, right? Yeah, bro. Why are you setting light to it? Well, you did say. I throw it in the road and I run to Dover, you know.
RichardHave you tried plugging a tube amp into the wrong bit and a speaker into the wrong bit? Use it loner equipment.
BrianI mean, yeah, you say that, but yeah.
unknownYeah.
RichardDid it did it break it?
BrianNo.
RichardAmazing.
BrianNow hold on. Let me back up. That doesn't say try it yourself. No, this is me saying this is not usage. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, I did a lot of stupid things to um to try to break it. Yeah. Still in the process of it. Not completely done. Okay. Have to think of some more stupid things to do.
RichardWell, I'm full of I'm full of ideas that most people would consider stupid.
BrianDay one was like, act like you're drunk and use it. I'm like, all right, let me work on that first part. You know.
RichardUh I I had a very good cider over the weekend. Six and a half percent. So, um, okay, pedal head and pedal spice. Now, I'm disappointed to learn that pedal spice is not a drug that I can smoke that makes me better at playing music. But it was uh you obviously misread the brief.
BrianYou meant you've heard of spice girls, right? This was the additional spice girl, I guess.
RichardOh, have I heard of Spice Girls? Pedal Spice. Yes.
BrianNo, so I mean, Spice software is basically circuit simulation software.
RichardAnd and I'm a little confused about this because I thought Spice was like a brand name of a commercial piece of software, but it's not, it's more a type of software, is that right?
BrianYeah, so I forget what it stands for. It's an acronym. And it stands for simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis.
RichardOkay.
BrianSo, uh, which basically means circuit simulation. And there's there's a bunch of them. Most of them are made for engineers to do like legitimate engineering work on all different types of circuits. Um, the thing that I've complained about probably on this podcast as well, is that when you're designing pedals, you just need like this little tiny portion of it. You don't need all the other crap. Yeah, and so it's not, and it's not really made for like someone to just use it that way. I mean, it will work in that way, but it's just not user-friendly at all. You have to read tutorials and watch videos and install libraries, and it's just not user-friendly. So I'm like, look, I want something that whenever I have a question, I can go to my browser, put in the circuit in like 30 seconds, do whatever changes I'm making, like, ah, that's what I need to do. Okay, and then go back to work. So I kind of made the software that I've been wanting to make for years and years and years. It has circuit calculators in it with like all the popular, most common use uh types of circuits. And and here's what I mean by that. Like, let's say you want an EQ circuit. Generally, whenever you're trying to make an EQ circuit, you're like, all right, well, what frequency am I wanting? Probably about 700 hertz. So, what happens if I adjust this capacitor? Okay, that's the wrong way. What happens if I adjust this resistor? Okay, that's not doing that either. And so you're like trial and erring trying to figure it out. And I thought, this is stupid. I want a slider where I can move it. I want to move the slider to the frequency I want, move a slider to make it how wide I want, and another one for you know, how the the amount I uh of button uh boost and cut that I want. And then I wanted to just give me the values done. Super easy. And then I just like I click send a pedal spice and it puts it in my spice software. Okay. You know?
RichardI mean, because this does, you know, we were talking a little bit about this off air. This goes back to one of the earliest conversations you and I had when I knew nothing about how pedals were designed, but was coming from a kind of software engineering viewpoint. And I said to you then, I I remember the conversation, you know, isn't there some software where you can kind of like re-you know jig the components around and hear what it sounds like? And you're like, no, but how much would it cost for you to write that, Richard?
BrianRight, that's exactly what I've been wanting. How big is your checkbook, sir?
RichardUm, because it's which was true. Yeah, no, if you'd tried to do this 10 years ago, it would have been a you know, a proper, hard, research-led software project. Clearly, one of the strengths of AI, and it's no secret that you've used AI to help you build this software, is that it can do some of those heavy lifting parts when it comes to you know the maths, which you would have maybe had to have worked at, you know, worked out with some aid, but pretty much yourself in the past.
BrianAnd you know, being really honest, like everyone says, let's just slop. Dude, I know some seriously sloppy engineers. You think you've seen AI slop?
RichardDude, you're talking to a man who did a demo for a piece of software that was sold for two million pounds, and whilst that demo was being shown to somebody, there was a man in the server room manually adjusting tables in an SQL database to make it look like it was working. I know bad software. All right, the lord of bad software, but right, no, look, yeah, for sure. Of course, the minute you mention using AI to anybody, they're gonna freak out and have an opinion and and and tell you it. But no disrespect respect, Bri. I know an awful lot of people who I would call genius coders, and you ain't one of them.
BrianLike, no, I mean, uh, I never said I was, yeah, for sure.
RichardYeah, absolutely. But you have transformed into a kind of software engineer in like kind of in the last three weeks. Because people kind of think, oh, I want to write this, I'm just gonna type it all into one long paragraph, hit read. Return and clawed code will go and build it. That isn't how using software, you know, agentic coding works.
BrianSo this took me to get an idea of it. I mean, so let me back up. So there are a lot of actual coding engineers that will use Claude or something like that in order to write code now because it's just so much more efficient, so much faster, as long as you know what to ask. Um, and most, I would hope, most of them aren't saying build me X, enter. You know, like that's the wrong way to do it. So I started doing this three months ago. And when I say started doing it, I it's been running for about almost 24 hours a day whenever possible. So it's been running the entire time, even when I sleep, like I press run.
RichardAnd and I can confirm this because I've got up at six in the morning UK time, and I've observed Brian still being online many, many times. And I know I know he isn't gaming because I've also got his Xbox account.
BrianSo it's just the software running. Yeah, and the whole thing is like it's I I needed to be very precise in what I wanted to do. It also has to be very secure, which is a step that a lot of people who are quote unquote vibe coding skip right over. Uh, in fact, there was when I was making my own, two more came out that I saw. One of them doesn't work at all. I think I mentioned that. Like it just you click on the schematic editor, it just doesn't work. It looks like they spent about 30 seconds in replit or something like that making it. It's terrible or lovable or whatever. Um, and the other one's actually pretty decent, but it didn't do it doesn't do everything that I wanted it to do. And there's just some weird quirks to it that I wasn't fond of. So I mean, like again, I'm I made the thing perfect for for my use, and I'm hoping other people like it.
RichardWell, let's break that down a bit. What what is it about how you wanted to use the software that makes this unique? Why is this uh different than any other ones?
BrianSo I mentioned the the calculators, which is unless you're using the software, you're not gonna understand what I see what I mean. But they're basically slider bars, right? Well, I mean it's like a button that you pull up, it brings a screen up that has all the most common types of circuits that you would use for pedals. And then yeah, you can use slider buttons if you if you want to do this, you can use slider buttons to make your adjustments to EQ and gain and all that stuff very quick. And that way you're not drawing out of it, it's just a time saver. Then you just basically send it into the into the uh pedal spice software, and it it's already there drawn, completely like ready to go. And usually that's you know, that may be a 10 10-minute ordeal there, drawing out drawing out a whole circuit block. And it's done in 30 seconds, you know, so it's a huge time saver whenever you design a lot of circuits. And then you can also save those. So let's say you make one, you're like, oh, this works great in all of my different types of overdrive circuits. So I can now save that into another area called circuit blocks. So whenever I'm designing circuits, I just literally drag it in and boom, that's the whole front end of that particular circuit. Or EQ, if I use uh four different types of EQ stages, for example, um, then it's already saved in there. I can maneuver the frequencies and everything else, but the actual structure of a given circuit block is already in there. So it's it's just a huge time saver. And at the end of the day, if you want to hear what it sounds like, there you can kind of do this with LT Spice, but it just sounded trashy. Other softwares do it, but they don't they don't do it accurately because you have you would have to dumb down the the models. But I I incorporated the neuromodeling technology into it. So you basically send it through a neuromodel, and I have a couple different of my, you know, like Marshall, Vox, Fender style topologies with or without the cabinet, or I can run it or make a direct sound if I want, but I want to see what it's gonna sound like through my amp.
RichardTo give you an approximation, right?
BrianSo I made a neural model of my amp, so I know exactly what it's gonna sound like through that amp.
RichardFor me, that is probably like the killer app of this, is that you can hear it and and play around. I gotta say though, Bri, with at least three of the pedals I tried building, that they sounded like this.
BrianBut see, that's that that's another feature. I haven't quite understood it yet. I think uh I I think that was um I'm not even gonna say it. I think that was not what you think it was. Yeah, that was from a different different point of your life, I think.
RichardUh maybe. It's possible. It's very possible. No, it's it's a lot of fun. Like so I gave it the dummy test, which is I'm not even gonna read any of the tool tips. I'm just gonna go in, play with it, see what happens. And you can make it do stuff. If you have a vague idea of what a pedal should be under the hood, then you can get some great results really quickly. And and there are example schematics and blocks that you can already put in there, as you say. But it's it for me, it's super simple. But I think the killer app you've come up with is the now convert it into an IARD up sound, essentially, like something that sounds realistic. And made me think about creating my own product, which I'm gonna call pedal salt. And what that is, is you plug a guitar into your computer, you play it, and it draws the circuit for you and sends it to Brian's pedal size, and then creates you a schematic that it sends back out as an IR. Then together, Bri, we're we're almost like a classic, like you've heard of Starsky and Hutch. Here's Salt and Spice.
BrianThat's a good idea. That's a real good idea. I'd I'm surprised I didn't think of that earlier.
RichardYeah, why didn't you? Um no, I I I think it's a really neat piece of work. But look, I've also observed you getting a few people like make uh some negative comments about it online. So I mean, the first thing I'm gonna say to everybody is you don't have to use it if you don't want to. Like scroll past. If you if you just want to say bad things, scroll past.
BrianAnd I think but I I would say a lot of those, a lot of the negative comments come from people that I'm not really it's not really built for them, you know. So like I said, LT Spice works great, especially if you're if you're doing heavy engineering, and if you're looking at it from an engineering perspective where you kind of need some of those features that most DIYers don't need, stick with LT Spice, you know? But I mean that to me, this is like an extension of the creative side of breadboarding. So we're breadboarding, like it's very much like breadboarding in a digital realm, but you can do more things because it is in the digital realm.
RichardYou know, I I I have at least one other idea to give you, but I'll give you it off-air uh and and charge you a commission. No, I'm joking. Um, but it it made me think when you said, you know, people don't need like the full version of like spice for for just doing better. I thought, yeah, he's right. I mean, you don't need voltages beyond say 24 volts, um, and typically nine to eighteen. So there's probably stuff in all these spice simulators.
BrianAnd I just added that. That was the new update last night. I added a bunch of different voltages.
RichardThere you go. See, clever. That's all clever stuff.
BrianBut see, and this goes back to why am I paying for it? Because if you ask LT Spice to do something, they're gonna ignore you. Yeah, they don't care, they don't care if you use their software, they want you to buy their their parts. Yeah, that's the only reason the software exists. So yeah, that's part of what you pay for. When like, I wish it would do this. Fine, give me a day and I'll make that happen.
RichardYeah, and look, let's be clear. This is not free software, this is free trial software, and then you have to pay. I I'd forget, was it $150 a year?
BrianIt w it works out to I don't know, what's it 19 bucks a month or something like that?
RichardWow, okay, and and look, I mean, anybody that complains about paying for software like it's not even that much, I think it's more like 15 or something. Honestly, anyways, good luck, because this this is a very simple transaction. If this is useful, pay for it. You have seven days to use it. If you don't like it, then great. It it's not for you. But equally, you gotta like bring's having sleepless nights now. He is one 100%, all of the money that goes into this goes into paying for Brian to sleep. Nothing else, nothing more, nothing less. So, you know, this is a and and like I say, it's not easy. I've been involved in a number of AI coded projects, and like I say, one of my biggest clients writes software that sells for millions and millions of dollars a C, but they've started using AI to do all of the coding, and they've changed the way that their engineers work so that they can interact much better with the AI. AI slop. Well, look, there is AI slop, but you know what? There is also just slop too. Like, yes, it is easy to create AI slop, it's harder to create something good with AI, but it is possible. And like I'm you know, I I've sort of struggled a bit with this because we've created a lot of promotional material, and I had to use AI to make it, and I got called, you know, the worst things. In fact, I do believe at one point someone threatened my wife over this, and it was insane, right? I'm like, I was as they do on the internet, yeah. Like like they did the first time I used Adobe Illustrator instead of Coral Draw, right? So, like honestly, the the hatred for AI is in there. Do I like AI generated graphics? Not really. Do I see you don't you don't use them for all of our graphics? No, I don't use any. Um, do I see a use for them for like rapid prototyping? Yes, and do I see a use for them for one man bands like you, Bri? Because uh, you know, full disclosure, I have given Brian zero assistance with pedal spice. Not that he uh, you know, not that I refused it and and not that there was an issue. This is his baby, and he's gone off and he's created it. And quite frankly, I'm quite proud to see how it ended up looking. That and the pedal game, pedal biz, like Brian is not known for his visual finesse. So the fact that he actually came out with these reasonable looking things on his, I was like, yeah, this is this is growth. However, this is not AI slop, this is hard, hard graft. There are other things that should be looked at with the AI slop bucket. Um, so yeah, I mean, I think it's brilliant what you've done, Bright. I take my hat off to you. Um I I is it something I'm gonna use daily? No. Is it something I'm gonna use every time I come up with a new pedal? Yes. It's an incredibly useful tool for a DIY pedal builder or small, i.e. me, pedal manufacturer. So I think you you deserve a massive bit of kudos for it.
BrianWell, I mean, and again, it's not it's not really intended for everyone that would use LT Spice. I mean, I I do have another large pedal company that's already contacted me about using it within their organization, which I think is pretty cool. Yeah, that's very cool. And and then, you know, to be tailored towards everything they do because everyone kind of circuits a lot of it. I can't say who it is yet, but it's a it's a well-known one. Um but yeah, I mean it's the whole thing, like this is what I've always wanted.
RichardYeah, so I I think it's it's very, very cool. It but uh going back to what I was saying, when you started saying, you know, LT Spice comes with more than you need, I started to think, yeah, like you probably hardly ever need to use a like a thermistor in a pedal, and like LT Spice will have the schematic of that. And then I thought maybe what we need is a pedal that increases the gain the more it heats up because you're playing so many notes. So I think I may need you to bring that thermista in. We call that germanium, yeah, we call that tube technology from the 1950s. So no, it's brilliant, man. That's uh that's a good project, that's really well executed. Uh and look, I I hope it brings you a lot of success. Uh, but more importantly, I hope it brings me a lot of success because it is not hard to run a pedal company, it seems. It's hard to make a lot of money out of a pedal company, though.
BrianIt's it's easy to start a pedal company, it's hard to profit with a pedal company, dude.
RichardI mean, we're we're close to break even, but we're still a way off. Uh probably gonna run a little Black Friday sale, probably gonna run a little Christmas sale, I think. Uh, you know, so if you are listening and you've been thinking about buying a purple ohm fuzz from Oliver FX, then absolutely um you will get a discount of those times of year, unless I forget, which is 50% likely, let's face it.
BrianUm forget to um a second. Wrong pipe. Wow, sorry about that. Don't forget to put the link in the description as well.
RichardUh well, pedal space too, but yeah, yeah. You know, I will do. Um, but yes, um, I wrote a special little message for you inside yours, Bri. You're gonna have to open yours up to see what I wrote.
BrianOh, really?
RichardOh, yeah. I it's gonna be full of dung. Like, ha ha. No, I wrote a little message for you, Bri. And because it's you, I sent you twice as many pics as I send anyone else. So you're getting two. Two, huh? Yeah. I did think about putting some food stuff in there, and I thought, no, after Amanda's uh experiences, I I probably won't. Um, but that should be with you soon. So, what else has been going on? Oh, Keeney just released a Germanium boost, um, which I think sold out the minute he announced it. So uh that's nice.
BrianUm boost, a germanium katana, huh? He's had the katana circuits around a while.
RichardYeah, so it's a classic, right? Um, I've never tried one, but uh yeah, I I quite cool.
BrianUm I think there I thought the originals were JFATs, and they don't make like germanium JFAT.
RichardSo um I could be wrong, but I thought they were I'm more likely to be wrong than you bright because I get everything wrong, it seems. Um, I did not realize that Stu Mac actually stood for something, by the way. Like it's clearly like when you know that it stands for something, it's clearly just like I'm gonna guess Stuart McDonald. Something along those lines, yes. Uh it might be McCarthy, but it might be McDonald, it's probably McDonald.
BrianUm is so what what is do you know what the name is?
RichardUh no, somebody uh on my Facebook feed went to the factory and went, I've made a pilgrimage. I think it was uh uh Brett, and he said, I've made a pilgrimage, and it was like Stuart McDonald. I was like, Who's that? Oh Stu Mac, I get it. Stuart McDonald. I was right. There you go. There you go. Yeah, Scottish name, if ever I heard two. Um Love their burgers. Well, Big Macs.
BrianMcDonald's. Yeah, is that not as that Stu Mac not part of McDonald's?
RichardI assume it is. Everything in America is part of McDonald's, right? That's what we're led to believe in Europe. Right, brothers, no. Um but the reason I talk about Stu Mac is a friend of yours actually has teamed up with them to come out with his own uh boost pedal kit, the um uh which is based on a range master, which is uh Scotty Hill of Skid Row.
BrianYeah, yeah, that's awesome. He's been yeah, he's he's been working on circuits for a while. Um, and that's how I got connected to him because he's a DIYer, and yeah, I didn't know that, you know. So of course I said why don't why don't I send you everything I have and then I'll come over to your house and we'll hang out and be friends.
RichardYes, you know, best friends. You'd like to see my bike. Mrs. Hill, can Scotty come out to play, please? I bought I bought sandwiches, yeah. Exactly. I I I would imagine though, that like meeting someone like that for the first time and you being you is kind of like a boyhood play date. It is kind of like look at all these toys I've bought. I've bought my toys too, and you just spread them all out on the floor and start plugging them in. I did that once with this guy from McFly. And then when I walked out of there, somehow I was 14 pedals lighter and they never came back.
BrianThey changed their number at the second second you walked out the door, right?
RichardUnreal.
BrianOh, but yeah, like I think we should get Scotty on the show if we can.
RichardThat would be a good one.
BrianYeah, I would love to.
RichardI don't know. You should reach out to you.
BrianHe is such an awesome dude. We talk about people that are just amazing in the music industry, to you know, to me. Scotty's one of super, super good dude.
RichardDefinitely. I like when we were putting together the the roast of Brian Wompler video, his video like it was just so natural, stood out, made me absolutely sometimes have to kick myself and think, man, so many famous people were in that. Like we had Steve Vice, Scottie Hill, we had Vince Gill in there, uh, and me pretending to be Bob Ross. Absolute classic. Um, yeah, really, really good stuff, man. So yeah, we need to get him on, but it's a uh it looks like it's a multi-mode range master uh kit. So and it looked like it was using uh an IC, which I'm guessing the original range uh uh master was transistor based. So yeah, it should be.
BrianI uh I have not looked at the schematic yet.
RichardSo I don't know what the IC is for, whether it's just a controller or something, but it definitely I saw something black with legs and it wasn't a spider this time.
BrianWell, if it had legs on it and it looked somewhat like a spider, then it must have been an IC.
RichardYeah.
BrianBut I'm trying to find um I'm trying to find the schematic for it. I'm not seeing it. Oh, that's because I'm on primer guitar and not. Yeah.
RichardOh, well, then you won't see anything through the adverts. Yeah, yeah. You're gonna need to like push them aside. Oh, we should mention Blake isn't with us this week because he's in a meeting.
BrianWe forgot that bit right up front, Bri. Oh, yeah. So well, I did say there's just the two of us, and he said, don't sing. So I said I'm not singing.
RichardBut we didn't say he's busy making string.
BrianSo Bri thought, wow, they're not giving Blake a chance to talk at all this week.
RichardI do notice when I'm over caffeinated, I do tend to hog the mic. Uh Mrs. Oliver points this out to me, so apologies, listeners. Sometimes I get excited to see Bri. What can I say? You would too. He's such a handsome chap with his beard. You are.
BrianAren't I? My long beard, yeah, that's what I have.
RichardYeah, yeah. Trying to throw them off the scent, Bri. Uh I don't think it's working.
BrianWell, now you got me looking for this stinking schematic here.
RichardWell, Rangemaster schematic's dirt simple.
BrianIt's literally like I but you I'm so perplexed that you mentioned it has an IC though. Now I I am Well, if you click on the link to StuMac.
RichardYes. Uh well, in fact, there's a picture in the um there is a picture. Yeah, it's definitely got an IC. Shall I enhance it using computer technology and tell you what it is? Hold on. Hold on, hold on. Here we go.
BrianWhere do you see a schematic at? I do not see a schematic on this. I can't see. I mean, I see the circuit board, but I don't see anything else besides that.
RichardI mean if you're scrolling through the case, you should see a populated circuit board.
BrianOh, oh, uh maybe um I don't know. Oh I see you looking at the parse list, right? Yeah. Okay, so the I see I see a transistor, right? I do see an IC.
RichardOkay, I found it. I found it on the uh on the site. I've got the schematic insight, Bri. You do? Yeah, well, kind of. Kind of. I've got a bit of the schematic, because I only show a bit of it. Uh but it should have a full parts list here. So um is Scotty here.
BrianOh, wait a minute. You know what that is?
RichardThat is that's a charge pump. El Charge O Pumpus. I think it's a charge.
BrianI'm trying to read the the numbers on the circuit board. I think that's a charge pump, not an actual IC, not an like an op amp. Right. Which means that which means that it's the range master.
RichardYeah, yeah. Lots more voltage going on. Yeah. Uh let's see what it says. It says Brian.
BrianIt could be inverting the voltage. There's that's different things you can do too. But yeah.
RichardAlthough it does definitely say compatible with a nine volt battery or nine volt DC adapter.
BrianSo it's probably invert it's probably inverting it so it makes it into more compatible with a typical power supply.
RichardYeah, but what I'm saying is it doesn't say 9 to 18 volts, which if it didn't have a charge pump, it would have.
BrianIt could, yeah, not absolutely. Not absolutely, but sometimes companies don't do that just because like if you use 15 volt uh parts because they're smaller, yeah, yeah, then um, you know, you can cost even if you use like 22 or 25 volt parts, then um, you know, I could just it's so close to the edge, you don't want to take that chance.
RichardYeah, you know, yeah, I like it. So uh you might have to buy one of these kits, Bri. Yeah, absolutely. Uh give it a little run through here. I am thinking that my next pedal will be a boost, but I'm thinking of doing two boosts in one, like two flavors in one, so it's a little bit unique. Um my only worry is that boost pedals aren't the world's biggest sellers. Um you know, I think about what wise uncle Brian told me once, which is only make overdrives.
BrianBasically. I mean it's um that that's where the biggest majority of your sales are going to come from, is from a pedal company, is is dirt pedals. Fuzz, it basically goes and this changes for some companies, but usually overdrive and distortion are kind of one and two, and and then fuzz, and then then everything else. Yeah, except for us. A compressor is one of our most popular pedals.
RichardSo yes, but what a compressor, Brian.
BrianSo what the hell do I know? Ignore me.
RichardUh I gotta mention this as well. Uh uh, a friend of the show, I guess, but definitely a friend of Wampla, a guy called Sheldon Enns. Yeah, um he has just made his thousandth true north tweed drive pedal. And I remember when he started, and like he's on 1000 now, and I'm thinking that is inspirational. So, Sheldon, yeah, you are an inspiration to us other smaller builders who would like to see a hundred, let alone a thousand sales. So well done. Uh yeah, no, that is awesome. Uh, Gibson have just released a really nice new finish with some new guitars, Bri. It's called Ghostburst. I could have thought of some other names that that are not suitable for air, but I kind of like this finish in a way.
BrianIt it looks like a black and white image, kind of. It's hard, it seems like it's something hard to photograph.
RichardYou know what I mean? Yeah, uh, but it's it kind of I mean it it looks as if someone started to spray it white and went, no, I'm I'm not gonna do that, and just left it around the edge. So it's like gr graduated white, but it they actually look really nice, Brian. That Les Paul that says Brian Wampler's country bebop band all over.
BrianYou know, I'm into I'm into explores, man. Yeah, I'm into explore, yeah. Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, that's oh the 335. Hell, what the 335 is perfect too. That's nice. Um, I think I like the explore better so and a 335 better.
RichardHere's a bit of news. Have you heard about uh PRS's new range of heavy metal guitars they're coming out with? I have not. I forget what they're called.
BrianUm the superstat? No, no.
RichardThere is there is the greatest metal guitar. Uh they've teased something, and I forget what it's called. Uh, so this is the world's least useful bit of information on a podcast.
BrianYeah, that's fantastic.
RichardI also may have dreamt it, so it gets worse. Uh um am I right? My band should stop giving me songs with different tunings. Like, we're now gonna do it.
BrianYou need a you need a drop pedal.
RichardI've I've got a whammy pedal, all right, but I'm taking my down tune telecaster with me. I also need to use uh a capo to play the killers, and now they want me to learn everlong, which is a drop D. And I'm like, if you mofos give me one more tuning alteration for any songs, I'm quitting the band. I didn't say that bit. And I'm taking my PA with me, right? Oh, dude, oh dude, my drummer has got the greatest PA. We we've nicknamed him R2 D2 because it it's a cabinet on wheels with like a 20-inch touch screen at the top that runs all the mixing software for his mixer. Like he knows what he's doing, and the the beauty is they don't really know what I do for a living, and they don't know how involved I am with guitar, but they know I'm sort of something to so I play dumb to all of this, and it's great because they don't expect me to fix anything, but I'm also learning quite a lot. They know what they're doing. That's awesome. So uh I think we will paint him to look like R2G2 anyway. Uh our time has come to an end, I think, Brian for this week. I think we've we've covered everything, right? That's all I can think of. Yeah. Oh, it's prime day today. Go and buy a guitar that's cheap.
BrianOh, I missed it. I bought three way huge pedals. Totally. Oh, yeah. What was that all about? Which ones did you buy? Well, I started out with the red llama because I was doing some digging on the 4049 circuit, which is the red llama is, and then that led me down this rabbit hole, right? Like it always does. I'm like, oh, I don't have this one from Way Huge either, or this one. So I went on a reverb spree and what did you buy?
RichardPulled out the company card and just put them all on that, but yeah, I can't pull that trick off because I've got the reverse situation. I've been sent the Sin20 IR, and I know that if I say I want it, there'll be a bill. But the problem is, boy, I want it. I want it badly. The trick is to borrow it forever. Yeah, that's what I'm gonna try. That's what I'm gonna try. Um so uh so which other way huge pedals you get? Swollen pickle, surely.
BrianNo, I didn't get the swollen pickle because that's that's big muff based, right? Uh hang on, hang on.
RichardYou don't need one of those.
BrianDon't go anywhere. Let me see. Let me see.
RichardUh, strapped to my chair.
BrianI have the way huge fat sandwich. Oh I've not heard of that. Red llama. Yes, a cool it's a cool circuit. Uh the red llama and the super lead.
RichardOh, nice. So, what's the fat sandwich based on?
BrianOh, you are gonna ask me. Uh just did. Way huge fat sandwich. Is it overdriver distortion, is it? Oh, yeah, it's an overdriver distortion type thing. So here's a perfect example of how Gemini pisses me off. Uh Way Huge has never publicly released a fat sandwich schematic. Yeah, no shit. I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyways, so let me find the schematic real quick because this is important stuff that everyone needs to know because it's a really cool circuit.
RichardHeavy duty multi-stage harmonic saturator.
BrianGo again. Um, well, keep in mind, like, there's some markers. It's a fuzz cannot. Yeah. Oh, wait, this this schematic is like three pixels by four pixels. That is not gonna work.
RichardAI.
BrianUh, there's one. Okay. So it look that's a swollen pickle. Never mind. It looks like a big muff. That's not what I bought. It has like a president and resonance control on it. Interesting. Let's see. It is like is it like a pork loin?
RichardI mean, this is just food now at this stage.
BrianWell, so Oh, I can't log in on this computer. I so I'm on this forum and I can see the schematic. It's a little bitty, and but I can't get to it because I had to be logged in and I don't remember my login. Here, okay, so we have looks like two transistors into an op amp, into a funky big muff style stage, into a half a baxendal, into a 4049. So yeah, I love that. That's crazy. That's not that that's not like anything else. I love that.
RichardNo, I mean, so what what I'm reading about this is it it's a discontinued model that actually is quite sought after. So I think you've gone and bought something pretty cool there, my friend. Um now you need to reverse engineer it and we can make our own, but we'll change the name. We'll call it the Slim Jim.
BrianOh no, that's already been done. Slim the Slim Jim. I need to do is bite into it. Um yeah, I don't know about that. I mean, we're just there's a lot of things to depend on to make a pedal, you know. But I think that's yes. I think the thing that really interests me is just the fact that it's not like anything else. It's a unique circuit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I like it. And um, you know, to me, that's what if I see something like that, I'm like, I gotta buy it. Gotta buy that one. Yeah, I don't need another tube screen.
RichardThe plan with Oliver FX was always release kind of three pedals that would be a sort of staple of a Gilmore-esque pedal board, because that's you know, that's who I am. But then if I can establish some credibility with my first three pedals, then it's time to break out the wacky tobacky and start coming up with some new ideas. Right. And and and I had one on this show: the Thermista controlled gain pedal. The harder you chug, the more it lets the tone flow.
BrianYou mock me, but in a year, everyone's gonna have one. It's a good catchphrase. The harder you tug, no, it's not a good thing.
RichardNot tug, no, Bri, that's a very different product. That's the harder you chug, the more the tone flows.
BrianOh, never mind. That was that was not what I thought you said. Yeah, okay. I'm not interested then. Never mind. All right.
RichardWell, speaking of uh tugging, no, chugging, I think I should say a huge thank you uh to all our um executive producers, every single one of them. Sorry, I just got just saying that I got an email from a mutual colleague telling me that we're selling a bunch of a particular two pedals on reverb. I was like, that's nice. Um buy them now if you can get them. Um golden jubilees. Uh, Bill Bays, Andrew Adkins, David Tyndall, Dave Trombetti, Eric Wilson, Vida Frostad, Michael Freer, Sean Arbo of Gun Street Wiring, Rick Calhoun of Honey Picks, Patrice Fournay's Dylan Talks Tone, Missouri Electrical Box Company, Kevin Harrington, Berry from The Grez Guitars. The Grez Guitars. Tom Kelly, Jake Young of Man the Helm Podcast. Actually, very quickly, Man the Helm Podcast, his other podcast, which he does with his sister, the paranoia principal. I highly recommend it. It's about weird. I didn't know it.
BrianI didn't know he had a secondary podcast. Yeah.
RichardWell, this might now be the primary podcast. It's that good. Um, yeah, no, definitely check that out. Uh, my good friends, Pigsy and John O'Neill, Robert Carr, Hunter Hudson, Rob Stokes, Nick Spain o Sasha, Jay Stratton, Harry Post, Harvey Pedles, Allison, Carroll, Bum Laser, Anthony Stevens, Atta Plays Guitar, Philip Carter of the 40 Watt Podcast. It's the most English I could say that for you, Philip. Christopher Logan, Jason Engelhart, Dylan Lewis of Leeward Sound, Josh, James Thompson, Codden, Little John Machete of Odin, Derek Lyons, Darth Bagel. Wait, oh, I did say Bum laser. Did I? You did. You just went through it quick. You said Bum Laser. I was scared for a minute. I was like, Bum laser better not have left us. Derek Lyons, Darth Bagel, Dustin Romero, Wizard of Woz, Crappy Tom, Bud Coles, pharmaceutically enhanced ponytail, DJ Farnes, Kyle Viana, Robert Hahn, John Hill, Nick Cole, Kyle Ray, Your Face. We had such a nice run there. And then it gets to Dave, Evangelista of the Guitar Dads podcast. You break my run, man. Roxy Gwyn, Derek Howe, Churchill from Cam Girls Plus, Ross Edwards, and William Price. Thank you all. You are wonderful people.
BrianAll right. We'll talk to you next week. See you later. Bye. Thanks for listening to the Chasing Tone Podcast. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, shoot me an email at podcast at womperpedals.com and I'll personally get your email. You can reach Blake at infotonemob.com. Richard is Richard at WamperPedals.com. If you want to support the show, the easiest and free way is just to share this episode with a friend, leave a rating and review wherever you listen. Helps more than you know. Be sure to check out Blake's other podcast called the Tone Mob for even more guitar talk. If you love pedals, of course, check out WamperPedals.com. If you're curious about designing and building your own guitar pedals, head over to GuitarPedalCourse.com for step-by-step courses. And for bonus content, behind the scene discussions, and extra fun, join us on patreon.com/slash chastingtone podcast. Thanks again, we'll talk to you next week.