New Pedal: Purr Vibrato

About frickin’ time! I announced this new Vibrato pedal at NAMM 2018. Now it’s time for NAMM 2019, and Purr is finally available and in stock at Vintage King.

Why so long? As soon as we finalized the prototype and designed the new circuit board, a crucial part suddenly became unavailable. ARGH!

It […]

Loopocalypse Day 7 (of 17): “Lujon”

I’ve been obsessed with Henry Mancini’s music for decades. Here’s an example of his “tropical” exotica side.

My Mancini loved deepened after I joined Oranj Symphonette, a ’90s band founded by cellist Matt Brubeck (Dave’s son). It’s fascinating how accessible and catchy all his tunes are, even though you realized they’re incredibly weird and […]

Introducing Cult Germanium Channel

I’ve just tested the first final production model of my long-promised Cult Germanium Channel. As usual, it sounds even better than my funky hand-built prototypes. These will be available in just a couple of weeks from my distribution partners, Vintage King.

There core circuit is the same as in my Cult overdrive. I’ve added […]

Tom Wheeler, R.I.P.

I just learned that longtime Guitar Player magazine editor Tom Wheeler has died. No details have been disclosed yet. [UPDATE: Apparently Tom succumbed to a heart attack while leaving a family gathering.]

Tom not only gave me my first job in guitar journalism — he gave me my first proper job ever. When he hired […]

Get In the Van!

So I get to do a little West Coast tour with Elettrodomestico, a new band led by my pals Jane Wiedlin and Pietro Straccia, a fine guitarist, singer, songwriter, and gentleman. Plus my longtime musical partner Dawn Richardson is drumming.

The album came out great. Jane and Pietro have such vocal chemistry together. And […]

Introducing Elettrodomestico!

I’ve so been waiting to share this! My dear pals Jane Wiedlin and Pietro Straccia have a new band called Elettrodomestico, and Yahoo Music is previewing the first single, “Aloha.” Jane and Pietro finished their debut album, If You’re a Boy or a Girl, earlier this year, and they let me play on it. […]

Be My Friend, Friend!

I haven’t been able to post much here at tonefiend.com recently because I’ve been overwhelmed by two big-ass projects that have occupied most waking hours, plus some sleeping hours as well. (I’ll share the details as soon as I’m allowed.)

Yet somehow, I’ve found time to post various things to Facebook. I know […]

NAMM and Not NAMM 2016

How to tell holiday season is officially over: It’s time for NAMM 2016! And this will be the first time I attend not as a music magazine writer, but as a guy trying to sell guitar pedals. Or as Ray Liotta put it in Goodfellas: “Just another schnook.”

Not like I can afford a proper […]

Instagramarama!

Name That Gear!

I just started a Tonefiend Instagram feed, ’cause I know there’s not enough junk in your inbox. If you’re an Instagram user, feel free to follow. (Or just friend me on Facebook, where all the Instagram images also appear. I’m not picky—I’ll friend anyone, at least till they start posting […]

Croque-Monsieur

So much for demoing my new-fangled guitar and its new-fangled tone circuit this week.

Pro tip: Just because your cheese grater looks like a Flying V and is called “The Shredder” doesn’t make it any less dangerous! However, the croque-monsieur was delicious (once I’d scraped away the blood and bits of flesh).

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