Orange’s new Getaway Driver Overdrive Pedal is something straight out of a Columbo car chase with plenty of funk in the trunk to backup all those hurling hubcaps and ’70s soundtracks.

Video: Orange Getaway Driver Overdrive Review and Demo

Function:

Performs excellently. Sound is a dirty kind of grit that moves in-step with other boutique ODs. Perfect OD for Southern Rock, Blues, Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Doom Metal, Classic Rock. It’s not precise, but it’s not trying to be. It’s got a vintage vibe that rocks socks.

The Headphone output is a fantastic idea. The Cab Sim is brilliant. As a pocket-sized 9-volt headphone practice amp, it’s fantastic. Recording as a DI (Cab Sim) was just as good or better sounding than running through a tube amp. The sound was distinctly different, which broadens the tonal range of the Getaway Driver.

Knobs are easy to read and use. Standard OD layout makes for intuitive use. The position of the AC input is a good choice. Top mounted AC is the industry standard, but mounting the AC input on a side with an instrument cable is a no brainer, and should be the standard. Mounting it above the input is maybe the best place I’ve seen yet.

It scores high for tone, ingenuity and ease of use, while losing a peg for accessibility. There is a switch inside to tame the top end for certain amps, like a Rockerverb, and it is accessed (as well as the 9v) by opening the pedal.

Form:

As a former racer and auto/moto enthusiast, I really dig the design concept. The artwork is kitschy and cool. The colors are questionable and awesome. It’s got a vibe just looking at it. The lack of Orange branding on the top and sides of the pedal is an interesting design choice. I kind of like that it isn’t a little Orange billboard on my pedalboard. It adds a lot more of the boutique feel to the pedals by leaving the brand as a secondary feature, as is common with high end pedals. Making a visual statement is a huge part of what powers the boutique pedal market. I think the Orange Getaway Driver Overdrive does just that.

Getaway Driver

But I don’t want to learn scales and chords.

When I first started playing music, I was a young lad not long out of diapers and now able to stand tall enough to power on the organ.  Still, some time would come to pass before I would be of such gargantuan size that I’d surely be able to climb upon the bench and reach the white and black keys.  In the meantime, I was relegated to the lower pedals, usually reserved for the organist’s feet.  I pushed away at the pedals and listened to them each as a whole being.  A voice that spoke only one word.  I would need at least a few of them to make a sentence.  This is where my study of music theory began.

Fast forward another four years, where I’m not just of such mammoth proportions as to be able to climb the organ bench, but I now have access to a piano, while I’m also now wrangling this new monster I’ve been given: a clarinet.  At this point, I have had no formal lessons, just years of diddling with keys and a deep desire to learn to make them do something with a purpose.  I had my own notion about how music worked and how it should be done.  Who could know better what I like than me?

All along the way, there were a few pieces of sheet music laying about, and on one of them someone had written the letters GABCDEFGA up the bass staff, and EFGABCDEF up the treble staff.  It occurred to me that beyond reaching out and finding sounds, there was a way to write sequences of notes down that was incredibly detailed.  Piano gave me the freedom to blend melody with harmony and simply play music that is texturally rich, even if it sounds marginally bad or worse and even if simply by chance.  As a young woodwind student, the clarinet did not pose such a simple task to create something pleasing from nothing.  The fingerings of a clarinet require a decisiveness that the piano does not.  You can literally reach “over there” and a note will come out on a piano.  You don’t need to know what it is or was.  Every note on a clarinet is specific fingering that requires an intention to play a specific pitch.  This leads to having to study scales, so you know which pitches are jibing and which pitches are jive.

Guitar immediately followed the clarinet. I decided to tackle all three at the same time.  It was when I started playing Beethoven on the piano that I came to the conclusion that as much as I cried about the chords and the scales, it was coming together and making me feel exactly what I was seeking.  I realized scales and chords weren’t unnecessary or elementary… they were key to the kingdom.  Behind each scale, chord or mode is a mood or a feeling created by the grouping of certain pitches or the removal or certain pitches.  I began to see that I could continue to search the sounds for the feeling I’m after, or I could learn the sounds that create the feeling I’m after and then the task becomes focusing on what I want to say.

Chords though, I don’t need to know those though,right?  Wrong.  See, harmony is the blending of pitches to create textures.  Multiple layers of feeling combined into new and more specific feelings.  The harmony exists to support and elaborate the melody.  So, once you have a melody, your knowledge of chords will be the bottleneck that stops you.  How you understand what you’re capable of is how you will do it.  If you function with just triads, you’re leaving a lot of emotion on the table.  If you only use power chords (or 5ths), you’re leaving a ton on the table.  Understanding harmonic theory gives you such an edge when writing, because you will know what should work and what shouldn’t before you choose a note or a chord.

Is it absolutely necessary to know how to read music, scales, chords and all that junk?  No. It’s not absolutely necessary to use a knife to cut a tomato.  You can do that with a hammer, but you will probably get better results with the knife.  Take this in closing.  Beethoven studied music at an early age and studied under Mozart.  He went deaf over time and still wrote music.  He would lay his head against the piano and feel vibrations from it.  His final symphony was written to be loud enough that he would be able to feel it. (Which is why I contend every time I’ve seen it performed that it was not loud enough).  His genius is in that even though he could not hear his music, he continued to compose incredible works.  Had he never learned his theory, and simply hunted and pecked for notes that worked, when he lost his hearing, we would have lost a master.

Orange Micro Dark Amp Demo and Review

I picked up an Orange Micro Dark to add to my amp stable and decided to share my thoughts on this amp.  As an owner of the Micro Terror, I was particularly excited to try the Micro Dark.  I do love my Micro Terror, but I had concerns about its true usefulness.  It seems Orange heard what I was thinking and packaged it up in the Micro Dark MD20 20-watt micro amplifier.  Check out the demo of some of the various sounds that come out of this tiny package and my thoughts on the Micro Dark.  Be prepared, it packs a bit of a punch.

A tour of a pedalboard and pedal basics discussed.

Discussing what pedals I use on stage, some insight into pedal signal flow or pedal chain dynamics and the FX Loop.

Pedal signal flow or pedal chain:  Describes the order in which pedals are connected to achieve the desired sound.

Example:

Good:  Guitar -> Distortion/Overdrive -> Reverb -> Amp

Bad: Guitar -> Reverb -> Distortion/Overdrive -> Amp

By placing the Dist/OD before the Reverb, this allows the Reverb to add warmth and space to the distorted sound of the guitar.  This creates a natural sounding space.  If you place the Reverb before the Dist/OD, this will distort the sound of the reverb.  This creates a very unnatural space, sort of a banging or clanging sound.  This is evident with many configurations.  As your signal passes (or flows) across your pedalboard, each new effect will change the signal going into the next effect.

Basic Music Terms

Basic Music Terms every musician should understand.  If it’s your first day or week on the instrument, or you have heard some commonly used terms and don’t know what they mean, then this is the video for you.  From Quarter Notes to Legato, this covers a few of the words every player should know.

Cissy Strut in Russia with Deacon Jones, guest musicians from Russia and the Charlie Brechtel Band.

We traveled to Russia recently to perform for the 2 Days Fest Music and Custom Culture Festival to headline the event with special guest Deacon Jones on the Hammond B3 Organ, as well as special guest appearances by Russian musicians Yuri Novgorodsky and Alexei Teeshan. This is an excerpt from rehearsal just hours before the show in a private rehearsal studio in Moscow. Among the great house amps available was the Orange Rockerverb 100. Heaven. Just heaven.

Acoustic Guitars: Steel Strings versus Nylon Strings

I find myself asked often enough about the differences between the steel string and nylon string guitars that I put this video together to offer up some information and some audio samples of the two styles of acoustic guitar. 

Strats and/or Teles.

I used to own a Fender American Standard Telecaster and a Fender American Standard Stratocaster. Why did I own both and which one did I sell?

Fender Guitars make arguably the most popular guitars in the world. Of their many offerings, two models have stood out as clear favorites among players everywhere. With a combination of playability, unique and delicate tone and affordability, Fender became the choice of professional musicians around the world. The first electric, solid body guitars mass produced were the Fender Telecaster in 1950, the Gibson Les Paul in 1952, and the Fender Stratocaster in 1954. These three founders of the world of electric guitar have retained their popularity over the years and still remain among the most sought after guitars by musicians of yesterday and today.

Fender’s two primary designs offered a similar set of features with a few notable differences. The Stratocaster (Strat) is a double cutaway, alder or ash body with a bolt-on one piece maple (or maple with rosewood fretboard) neck adorned with 21-22 jumbo frets, and loaded with three single coil pickups. It’s older brother, the Telecaster (Tele) features an alder or ash, single cutaway body, 21-22 jumbo frets pressed into a one piece maple neck or a maple neck with rosewood fretboard, a single coil bridge pickup and a lipstick neck pickup. Both of these suckers hum while idling.

The stats on these guitars are similar, and their sound is uniquely Fender. Both guitars sound similar, and are distinguishable from just about every other guitar out there. There are some subtle differences that add up to bigger differences later, as you form a relationship with a guitar. There are two ways to discuss the differences of these guitars. One is all mathy and sciency. The other is all spacey and abstract. We’re going with the latter, since the comparison of their specs is mind numbing and ultimately not nearly as useful as experience with them. So, here we go.

Let me start with Strats and Teles are both genuinely great guitars. They have a modest price for professional level gear and offer consistent performance and reliability. Both guitars are incredibly versatile and can excel in nearly any style of music.

Stratocaster – 1998 Am. Std. Olympic White, Alder, One piece maple neck.
The best thing about the strat is definitely the huge sweep of tone from the bridge to the neck pickup. You have a ton of options at your finger tips at all times. The neck feels good and it’s pretty stable. I put 5 springs on the bridge and anchored that S.O.B. down, and she stays in tune for weeks on end. The bridge pickup sound is biting and hard, articulate and bright. With distortion coming from the Mesa/Boogie DC-5, it has a punchy and cutting sound. And a ton of idle buzz. The neck pickup provides a brilliant tone that is sweet and buttery, while being articulate and thin in the high end, but gritty and warm with the low notes. And a ton of idle buzz. The five-way pickup switch offers settings in the 2 and 4 positions which will drop the buzz almost entirely, at the cost of some of the tone you had on the extreme pickup settings. My solution was a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor pedal. If nothing else, it stopped the idle buzz with the noise gate between songs. The contour body shape of the Strat is both comfortable and snappily stylish. With strategic cuts on the back and front of the body, the Strat allows the guitar to fit the geometry of a body very comfortably. If the sound of the Strat were teeth, it would have sharper teeth than a Tele. But don’t underestimate the Tele’s appetite.

Telecaster – 1999 Am. Std. White Blonde, Ash, One piece maple neck.
Teles were the first mass produced, solid body, electric guitar. A simple design with now vintage appeal. The bottom end sound of a Tele is much thicker than its younger brother. The guitar itself is a little heavier, which puts a little more resonant wood in your tone. Teles require some man handling. They don’t feel all buttery. They’re more raw and muscular. Both guitars are classics, but the Strat is like a ’60s Corvette and the Tele is more like a ’57 Chevy. It takes a little more finesse to get what you want out of the ’57, but it’s not inferior in any way. The Tele has its own issues with buzz, though in my experience the Strat is worse for buzz overall, but both are worse than any humbucker loaded guitar. This Tele is a hard tail, so tuning is not an issue. Stays in tune no matter what I put it through.

So, they’re very similar, yet totally different. In a perfect world, I can get the Strat bridge pickup sound for distortion and the Tele neck pickup sound for clean. But that doesn’t exactly exist. The good news is that the Tele bridge is still a great sound, and the Strat neck is a good sound, too. So it came to priorities. The hard tail Tele holds better tune and is less buzzy with a more rich clean sound and healthy bridge sound. They aren’t redundant, but almost.  At one point, I realized I had not taken my Strat out of the case for almost two years, and I sold it.  The Tele can almost imitate the Strat.  The Strat really can’t imitate the Tele.  I got the Strat first, and then the Tele.  I wanted a Tele first, but the Strat was the right price at the right time. Over and over, year after year I reached for the Tele over the Strat. And now the Tele sits among the guitars the will be passed on through my family, because it’s never going up for sale. Still considering putting a Strat back in the collection though, though the call for it doesn’t ring too often.

Silence, Percussive Rhythms, Fireworks and Mind Control

Musicians spend countless hours learning an endless sea of chords, voicings, scales and progressions in an effort to make sure every sound they make fits the music, but often overlook that though it may fit, it may not belong. Two things a guitarist should master are the use of rhythmic percussive sounds and silence. I plan to discuss these two concepts in this article and perhaps open the discussion.

Percussive rhythmic sounds can be made in a massive number of ways on electric, steel string acoustic, and nylon string classical guitars. From muted strums and pick slides to body slapping and knuckle tapping, the guitar is an incredibly versatile instrument capable of an incredible array of percussion. When filling the air with chords, fills and melodies, it’s important to remember the rhythm and your part overall. In a band, your percussive sounds must play into the rhythms around you as part of one single piece. As a soloist, you become your own drummer by using the sides and top of your guitar to simulate a bass drum and a hand drum, or many other sounds depending on how you choose. The heel of the hand on the top makes a solid bass tone, and finger tips against the top can offer a snare like sound. Additionally, wrapping your fingers around a corner and rapping on the side of the guitar can give you a few extra colors to add to your options. Crossing the 5th and 6th strings on a nylon classical at the twelfth fret allows the strings to be played sounding similar to a snare drum. Muted strums are when a player lays all the left hand fingers relaxed and flat across the strings, preventing them from making any discernible pitches. Muted strumming creates a rhythmic effect that will vary with the guitar being used in tone quality and percussive sound. The point here, however is where these ideas go. My intention is to give you some ideas to experiment with while you explore the world of rhythm, a delicate balance of land, sea, air and space.

When adding rhythmic percussive sound to your guitar lines, always keep in mind where your down beats are and accent variations of the downbeat. The backbeat is a good place to stab a chord, right along with the snare drum and you “chuck” out a sixteenth/eighth note pattern of percussive strums. Remember that the absence of the guitar shines a brighter light on the guitar when it does play a chord. It’s a simple and effective way to bring more emphasis to the guitar by playing less of it. Empty space in a song is seldom truly empty. The listener’s mind is on the journey from beginning to end, including the parts where there is only silence, which brings anticipation, excitement and tension. On a roller coaster, the most tense moment is reaching the top of the first hill just before the coaster takes the first drop. This is when the beat drops. At the top of that peak, your stomach is starting to do some gymnastics and you’re on the slowest, least interesting part of the ride, but somehow it’s maybe the most intense. In a song full of sound, empty space can be necessary to let the audience take a breath. Just like watching a movie of someone underwater, you inadvertently stop breathing. When music pulls you in tight enough, you may forget to breathe as you wait for a pause to take a breath. Melodic music starts with the voice. Stravinsky referred to the organ as an “infernal monster that does not breathe.” Because music is representative of voices, it’s important to breathe even if your instrument doesn’t require it. Guitar can assault you with non-stop sound for hours, bound only by he endurance of the guitarist. This doesn’t mean it should. Try to write with the mindset of allowing your instrument to breathe. This creates a natural sound that is universally understood as a musical voice, that a human is behind it and it carries a meaning.

Music is a comparative art form, in that you judge each piece against the existing body of work and you understand a song by the notes’ relation to each other. Those without perfect pitch can still follow a melody or progression by listening to how far each note moves, as opposed to trying to identify each note individually. Most listeners listen by relativity, rather than absolute pitch. Another part of this comparison is in the balance of dynamics. No one says, “This song is 125dB.” They say instead, “This is loud!” They are making a comparison to their expectation of the volume of music. They have a mark for their preference and all other volumes are comparatively too loud or too soft. The use of sound and silence is an important parallel here. More sound is better, because more is better, right? Let’s consider dynamic balance like this. Somewhere in the sonic spectrum between the solitary sound of a pin dropping and the ambiguously busy rush of white noise lies music. Some would argue that music extends even beyond these constraints, and they would be right. But for most of us, these two extremes represent noises rather than music, based on our expectations of what constitutes a song and what does not. A waterfall is music to my ears, but it is not a song in and of itself. It may be part of a greater orchestra formed by the surrounding environment, but alone is just a beautiful noise. In order for the audience to miss you, you must leave. In order for you to know, you must return. One of the greater moments in a song is waiting for the beat to drop, rather than when the beat actually drops. No matter how glorious our composition may be, the unfettered mind is the greatest instrument. You must play the mind of the audience with your instrument. The greatest fireworks you can imagine are only in your head, it’s our job to show them to you there.

Performing in Moscow, Russia for the 2 Days Fest with Hammond B3 legend Deacon Jones.

This shot was taken at the 2 Days Music and Custom Culture performing with the Charlie Brechtel Band featuring hall of famer and blues legend of the Hammond B3, Deacon Jones. June 14, 2014.  Photo credit: Sergei Tishin.