When I was 17 I went to a pub in Hereford (near the boarder of Wales) to meet a man about a pedal. At the bar I met an old east London geezer who felt more like a character from a Guy Ritchie film than an actual human being. Out of a massive bag he had slung over his back he pulled out a huge, plastic, display pedalboard made for a trade show or something. On it was the whole range of Dan Electro Wasabi pedals. He said to me "mate you can make any bloody sound you want in the world on these!" I said "Have you played them?" he said "No". Now I had never seen pedals that looked anything like this in my life, the board looked like a miniature model from Thunder Birds. He said "it's your's for 100 quid", I said "No" He said "come on geeza! 75?" I said "No'. Do I regret this decision? YES.
That Wasabi line weigh about 12lbs each. They double as weaponry. I have the distortion (which is super weird, like a Rat with 15 knobs) and rarely use it, but there are times when it’s the only pedal in the world that will do the job.
this is rapidly becoming my favourite RU-vid channel. I laugh. I cry. It moves me. Oh, yeah, and the pedals are pretty cool, too, especially the Double Drive. And Josh? It's gonna be okay.
I remember those wasabi pedals. The crowd that danelectro appealed to (budget players) thought those pedals were too expensive and everybody else wasn't interested in them bc it was a danelectro pedal
Josh, Honestly, you sound like a man who needs something in his life...something like... a new guitar, a new pedal...and a new amp. For sure. I mean, that makes me smile, you know?
I love that pedal! Picked it up the same week I found another Double Drive (had previously bought & flipped one). I also like the Rotochoir and the DLA V.2
Proud owner of a Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz (acquired it in a trade; said goodbye to the Big muff pi for the final time). I love how Josh uses the same setting that I use for the first part of the jam before the sad part
Love that Tweak Fuzz though I like the name Afro Fuzz a little better and I was oddly bummed when I found out Blues Saraceno didn’t create the circuit. Not sure why but hey good for his Dad. I’m sure he’s part of the reasons Blues is such an amazing guitarist. Guy probably has guitar chops to match his building chops. Why were all the pedals around 2005 so big? I remember my local boutique shop having one in the display case and wanting to buy it but I didn’t know if that was crazy expensive for a pedal or if it was worth it.
Reverb: Hey Josh, we're haven't sold any Klons this month, havin' trouble keepin' the lights on. Josh: OK. Gimme a list of you most obscure, most hard to sell, odd ball pedals. Reverb: Gotta pencil. Josh: One-sec, they have to have the box. Reverb: We'll call you back...
Lol … prices do tend to jump after each episode but they do down when the shine wears off. That Tweak Fuzz is a great one ! alchemy Audio does a great mod to it and gives it more hair. But great pick for a pedal that has been overlooked. - Rick / PureSalem Guitars
I think that hands down, THE most underappreciated pedal was, and still is, the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive. There was period where for years and years during the 90s and 2000's if you wanted the classic TS808 Tube Screamer you had to either buy the Ibanez reissue for $180, a vintage one for several hundred, or an overpriced boutique model. However, those who were willing to do just a tiny bit of research would have discovered that the Sparkle Drive was an exact clone of the TS808, but with a wet/dry blend control. Voodoo Labs advertised it as "being able to sound like playing through 2 amps." Now we know it really works to add your dry tone in for added clarity. Why no one bought these is beyond me, since it's really the perfect 808 Tube Screamer. Most use TS to add a little gain and push the front of the amp, as well as to add midrange for solos so you can cut through the mix. No one uses it as the "drive" channel on a single channel amp. Well, at least no one who's played long enough and have enough experience to know that it's not really designed for that. Using it for what people tend to use it for, you'd think that between the fact that it's half the price of the TS808 RI, and a LOT cheaper than the other options, combined with the ability to dial your clean in would mean that most people who use tube screamer would instead use one of these. Yet, I still rarely see them on pedalboards. I don't get it. They've changed the design and call it Sparkle Drive Mod now, I think it's the 808 with a couple of the more popular Keeley mods. They're still affordable and you can still but the old ones used for a song (literally and metaphorically), plus I predict these will be a pedal that inexplicably sells for was too much online at some point.
The JHS Moonshine is based off the Voodoo labs sparkle drive or a clone of it. Its a tubescreamer with the a clean knob to mix your gain/overdrive with your clean sound. Its also in the JHS Sweet Tea along with an angry charlie. He's talked about it a video and about the Sparkle drive.
@@mattdayne2585 I've played them, but he does a lot of oddball stuff, and they're $200. I was more talking more about at the time when you could them for less than half the price of a reissue 808, and they still weren't selling a lot. Plus there was a weird aversion to midrange for some reason, as least among the cord sniffers.
I have a couple of those Wasabi pedals, the one in the video and the Rock'a'bye (rockabilly style delay+distortion), both are pretty good but I have found the push switches to be a little on the delicate side compared to the tankesque outer build. The branding is weird: on the pedal, the box, the manual it would be easy to miss that they have anything to do with Danelectro as only the embossing on the sides of the pedal says it. Many thanks for increasing the value of mine, please do the mk1 Volvo V40 and my house next :-)
Hey Josh, loving the spring classics t-shirt. You may be the only other person I ‘know’ that shares my combined hobbies of guitar pedals, road cycling and Star Wars. Keep up the good work.
Is he celebrating P-R finally happening this weekend? Josh has a few cycling shirts... sometime he needs to tell us the back story. Fan? Racer? Wheelsucker?
@@3eyedfishy There are no coincidences in this world so it must be a nod to Roubaix. His cycling style? He’s a big guy and seems very generous so I see him up the front of the group taking the wind for the rest of us!
I bought a tweak fuzz for like 40 bucks a few months ago and at first it was ok, but then it kinda found it's rightful place on my pedalboard. It NEEDS to be the very first pedal in the chain. Direct from your guitar. Otherwise it sounds lame. Also this thing sounds excellent when I dime it into my Joyo AC Tone amp-in-a-box thingy with some light breakup on the amp. it's super fun, and quite moddable too! since it's sorta based on a fuzzface I believe
“Some of you are amazing, but it didn’t work out like you thought, but you know someday, someone is going to pull you out of a box and talk about you” wow thanks Josh I really needed to hear that today 🥲
FYI: I'm referring to Josh' shirt, which features a number of famous cycling races in Flanders (and 1 in northern France). 'De koers is van ons' (loose translation: 'cycling races are our thing') was a slogan used by a Flemish newspaper for a daily column discussing the various cycling races taking place during the season.
"And some of you are amazing." So Josh thinks that *some* of us need to get a life. Okay, buddy... so maybe I've been working on learning out to play Summerland off and on for a few years and still don't have it. WHAT'S THAT TO YOU!?!? NOT ALL OF US HAVE SCADS OF FREE TIME! SOME OF US HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES!!!! SOME OF US... er, uh, sorry about that. I should probably go practice guitar instead of watching RU-vid videos.
Grrrrreat vid Josh! You are a riot. Thanks for all the kind words about the Double Drive. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. It really did sound incredible. Maybe we should think about reissuing it...???
The Double Drive was one of the first drive pedals I bought when I got back into guitar after a 17-year hiatus. Stacked into an OCD v.1, or my AC Booster it just sounds ace. Does Led Zep II tones really well (and more :) ) Tech 21 is underrated, period. Their Rotochoir and the Boost DLA V.2 (the one with subdivision switch, trails) are fantastic. Any of the Vick Audio drive pedals (Mount Pleasant, Tree of LIfe, V-2 Distortion) should be famous.
Rotary selectors definitely make pedals gooder; add toggle switches (for like in-flange and out-of-flange and stuff like that), and it would be freakin’ awesome! Edited to add the hierarchy of pedal awesomeness: No knobs < 2 knobs < 4 knobs < (multi knobs + rotaries) < (knobs + rotaries + toggles) …and so forth. The more kinds of controls = the more awesomeness. Pretty straight forward…
man , if i was ever depressed, i'd start watching a bunch of jhs pedal-shows. i loved all the music, when i heard the last one i thought, hey, Josh has been listening to a bunch of nirvana just like me because it was on the news that nevermind has been out for 30 years now.
I'm glad you watch the news to find out how long Nirvana have been out. Just imagine! In ten years' time, it'll be 40 years. And in just a cenrtury's time it'll be, um, (I'll get back to you).
More likely someone someday will put me in a box and talk about how wonderful I was. (Most of it will be untrue; no one will correct them.) Then they'll go have a buffet dinner and talk about selling my guitars to pay for it... Thanks for taking me to a dark place on Friday, Josh. Way to start of my weekend.
I've reached the age where younger people putting me in a box is a way of life. Unfortunately, rather than rave about me, they're more likely to shove me to the back of the cupboard and forget I'm there!
I so love the Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz. Bought one on a whim when they first came out and haven't regretted the decision since... and I still have the box. 😁
Excellent episode, and at points I nearly cried. Especially in that first jam. Tour of Flanders is not my idea of a tour, and I haven't got the box but I've heard Travis and they were quite good, and while I never thought to buy one of their records, I'm now planning to check them out, especially as they're Scots and therefore better people.
Damn first time I've seen the tweak fuzz featured on anything other than that proguitarshop demo by Andy. That "I think I lost my headache" by Queens of the Stone Age intro sold me in a second, bought it second hand on craigslist like 12 years ago!
I started working at guitar center around 2010 in accessories and we had the full line of these first run Seymour Duncan pedals and I'm not exaggerating when I say NO ONE wanted these pedals - we ended up clearing out the full line and I got the Shape Shifter tremolo for $17 dollars, still got it
Sad Town's a suburb of Dad Town. LOL, as a pedal nerd Dad in a garage post rock band, this rang true! Josh's on-going existential crisis aside, keep doing what you do guys. You bring a lot of joy to the world!
Love my Tweak Fuzz! (the second pedal I ever owned) I had it modded to add a second foot switch that jumps from whatever the tone dial was set to (3 or 4), to max whoof position (6)
Nice jams, great video ! I have the SD Tweak Fuzz and i love it ! It was my first fuzz pedal, and every guitar player knows the importance of the first fuzz pedal :P
Josh, the videos are awesome, taught me a lot, but I'm mainly commenting to say your playing has gotten so much better since you started the show. Keep going man, much love.
YES, the Wasabi Delay! * insert 'The Office Thank You' GIF * Ok, the volume knob may be too sensible for some settings, but it's a great pedal and I love it.
I have a Dano Wasabi Reverse Delay… and I’m never letting it go!!! The high cut is worth the entrance fee alone… the reverse mode is the icing on the cake!!! And… “I have the box!!!”
The wasabi was really cool, that whole series was cool. My guitarists dad had this and an ibanez overdrive when I was a teen and loved playing it through his Mesa Studio Caliber .22. The double drive was cool from tech 21 too.
Definitely needed this video. In the last 30 days I buried one of my best friends, my wife ended up in the ER (still don't know what's wrong) and my mother went to the ICU for a week with covid and pneumonia. Oh, and my roof leaked. It has been warm and muggy in KC hasn't it...
I love the Tweak fuzz and still use it today. Really, I just used it today to play Manic Depression. I was talked into doing the volume mod on it but hated it. I modded it back. You want to use it as a boost and you’ll hate it but use it as a fuzz and it’s a very nice. I have the box.
Josh thank you for Record Time - it allows me a “two-fer” in the knowledge acquisition perspective. Might I suggest a video just breaking down the effects used on The Man Who? Never had exposure to Travis b4 Record Time - in your debt, this album transcends genres!
I had a Wasabi, probably my first Delay pedal. I think I bought it for the Reverse function and the tap delay. Always felt it made my guitar sound pretty muddy, especially when playing heavy distortion. Eventually I replaced it with a Boss DD-20.
Got the Tweak Fuzz and the Double Drive. Amazing sounding, inspiring pedals. I encourage anyone interested in them to try and get ahold of em while they're cheap.
Dharma Sound Phaser maybe. I'm joking really. I borrowed one in '73ish for the odd Jimi cover we were doing but can't really remember anything about it other than that it sounded pretty cool and it was the first pedal I ever heard that did that kind of modulation. Blackstone Appliances MOSFET drive? Barber Gain Changer! There we are - let's say Barber Gain Changer.
