REVIEW, HOW TO SAVE YOUR EFFECTS PEDALS FROM LEAKING BATTERIES

 by Mark King

MY EXTERNAL 9-VOLT BATTERY COLLECTION

Why remove your 9-volt batteries? The simple answer is; to save your pedals from being ruined by leaking battery acid.

WHAT ARE THE BEST CHEAP EFFECTS PEDALS?

 by Mark King 

This is my first bargain effect pedal round-up. These are favorite pedals I use all the time. To be included here in this review they're all priced less than $100 each when purchased new, many are less than $50 with pro sounding pedals starting at only $19. I broke the pedals down by their effect type, here are the overall effect categories:

01 DISTORTION

02 REVERB 

03 CHORUS

04 DELAY/ECHO

05 WAH 

06 COMPRESSOR

07 EQ

08 TREMOLO

09 ENVELOPE FILTER

10 PHASER

11 UTILITIES 

12 ALL IN ONE 

WHAT ARE THE BEST INEXPENSIVE EFFECTS  PEDALS?

REVIEW EHX ELECTRO-HARONIX BIG MUFF PI DISTORTION AND FUZZ PEDAL

 by Mark King

BIG MUFF PI, CIRCA 2014

My very first contact with the Electro-Harmonix brand happened one day when my older brother brought home a "Big Muff Pi" fuzz pedal sometime around 1970. It was a large chrome, folded metal box with mushroom shaped knobs which looked like they'd been harvested off my fathers vintage Zenith TV. 

That EHX distortion shaped one of my earliest distortion-pedal concepts; "the amp you connect a fuzz to ultimately determines how it will sound". 

REVIEW ELECTRO-HARMONIX EHX LPB-1 LINEAR POWER BOOSTER

 by Mark King

MODERN LPB-1

I have used and enjoyed Electro-Harmonix gadgets since the company became known in the very early 70's. The first guitar effect I ever bought was an LPB-1 which stands for "linear power booster". It was a small folded metal enclosure that plugged directly into the output of my Les Paul custom. 

VINTAGE LPB-1

REVIEW MXR 5150 OVERDRIVE PEDAL BY EVH

 by Mark King

I own a lot of distortion pedals, A LOT. For me everything changes constantly. For every song I write I test out distortion tone vs clean tone vs acoustic guitar tone. Getting these three very different guitar sounds to all sit right next to each other in a composition can be difficult and requires trial and error to get them right. 

I have a couple of new compositions I'm working on and have not been able to get the overdrive tone I want for these songs. I slowly worked my way through all my usual pedal options, then I read about the 5150 Overdrive and decided to give it a try. 

REVIEW MOSKY TAP SWITCH BUTTON FOR TAP TEMPO

 by Mark King

HEAVY DUTY BUTTON, METAL CASE AND OUTPUT JACK

The Mosky Tap Tempo pedal is a sturdy cast metal enclosure with a quality momentary, normally-open button. A single female 1/4" jack is provided to connect the Tap Tempo. I purchased these for under $20 each and currently have at least five of them in my pedal inventory. These work great with every pedal I've tried them with. 

REVIEW MARSHALL 20 WATT ORIGIN HEAD AND COMBO AMPLIFIER

 by Mark King

20 WATT MARSHALL ORIGIN HEAD AND COMBO AMP

The Marshall 20 watt Origin series is a bargain. It's a versatile vacuum tube guitar platform that complements a huge variety of tones ranging from jazz to blues to rock. These amplifiers are designed by Marshall engineers in England and they are manufactured in Viet Nam. The build quality and reliability have been equal to my Boogie and Fender products.