DEMO Shut up and play yer guitar Vol. II - Son of Ben

This post contains an audio or video demo

MichaelW

Well-known member
@PedalPCB Not sure if this thread belongs in the Build Report forum, please feel free to move it. (Technically it's a Build Report in my sometimes angular logic since it's a pedal demo:)) Actually, it would be cool to have a dedicated forum for pedal demo's all in one place, I'd love to hear how some of these awesome pedal builds sound from everyone.

So as you can tell from my Build Report activity, I've been on a bit of a tear lately, building a boat load of pedals. I think my parts and PCB ordering reached a point of critical mass that I had enough standard components in my inventory that I could just pick a board off my shelf and build it without worrying too much about whether I had the right components and needing to place yet another order.

This project has been sitting in my DAW for months because it was such a pain in butt. When I ripped the stems from the original recording I could not separate the keyboards from the guitars. I find this is true for a lot of older recordings that were mixed with a lot of compression for radio airplay.
Anyway, I wound up using only the bass, drums and vocals from the original recording. The keyboards are from Bobby's Backing Track. That's where the "pain in the butt" part comes from. He played it at a slightly different tempo and accent than on the original and I had to manually quantize the track to make it work. (Never doing that again....)

I recorded two rhythm guitar tracks panned left and right. Main guitar track and bridge instrumental mixed in the middle.

Also in full disclosure: I faked the feedback part on the opening chord. I can't get my monitors to feedback so I mixed in a little of the original feedback tone.

Pedals making an appearance:

Son of Ben Preamp
As I mentioned in my build report, I was not familiar with Benson amps or this pedal and built it solely based on the enthusiasm from this forum for it. I was not disappointed! It's a great sounding pedal. Very amp-like with lots of rich harmonic content when pushed. I've read some other reviewers talk about this pedal as a VOX-like pedal but I am definitely not getting that. To me, it's reminiscent of a pushed Tweed/Brownface deluxe. Which is what inspired this clip. It was pretty easy to dial up a Royal Scam era Larry Carlton's famous 5E3 tone.

Clandestine Preamp
I used the Clandestine in "aging EP3 unit" setting (volume at around 5 o'clock" to give the Son of Ben a slight boost on certain sections (you can see me reaching over turning it on and off during the clip) I love this thing for the subtle boost/tone shaping capabilities.

AionFX Oceanid
This is my first experience with an optical compressor and I have to say I really love it. It may be too subtle for someone looking from a more traditional Ross style squash but it works for how I use a compressor. For the main guitar part, I used this compressor to tighten up the overabundant transients of the the Son of Ben so that it would be a bit more defined in the mix.

SeaShore Overdrive
Man I love this thing! Such a great low gain pedal. I used it on all the rhythm guitar tracks to add a little "hair" and fatten up the tone. Also used on my Strat for the bridge instrumental section. Actually, all 3 guitars on the exact same settings, I just plugged in a different guitar for each track.

Dark Rift Delay
I'm using this in a pretty subtle way and nowhere near some of the craziness it's capable of. With the modulation dialed low I definitely get a bit of the Memory Man Deluxe vibe in a much more compact and reliable package. It's a great sounding delay although I am looking forward to my Hydra build coming up.

Spatialist Reverb
I just got my custom eprom for this which is 1/2 Radium Springs and 1/2 Spatialist. For this track I'm using the "Glimmer Reverb" patch but dialed way back. Really like it.

AionFX Cephus
Final pedal in the chain, turned off. I was just using this for the buffer after the delay and reverb pedals. I really really need to build some kind of a loop switcher to keep the modulation pedals on their own buffered loop. But this worked well for this track.

All the above going straight into my Apollo Twin X using a very clean amp model to let the pedals do all the heavy lifting. The main guitar is using a Friedman 1x12 cab IR and all the other guitars using my favorite Pete Thorn 2x12 cab IR.

Guitars:
Nash T-63 Tele
Eastman TM185MX - main solo and fills
M-Line Tele Thinline - rhythm guitar mixed left (I might have this backwards)
Gretsch Jet Junior - rhythm guitar mixed right (Still pretty much stock except I installed a bone nut)
Partscaster Strat

 
@PedalPCB Not sure if this thread belongs in the Build Report forum, please feel free to move it. (Technically it's a Build Report in my sometimes angular logic since it's a pedal demo:)) Actually, it would be cool to have a dedicated forum for pedal demo's all in one place, I'd love to hear how some of these awesome pedal builds sound from everyone.

So as you can tell from my Build Report activity, I've been on a bit of a tear lately, building a boat load of pedals. I think my parts and PCB ordering reached a point of critical mass that I had enough standard components in my inventory that I could just pick a board off my shelf and build it without worrying too much about whether I had the right components and needing to place yet another order.

This project has been sitting in my DAW for months because it was such a pain in butt. When I ripped the stems from the original recording I could not separate the keyboards from the guitars. I find this is true for a lot of older recordings that were mixed with a lot of compression for radio airplay.
Anyway, I wound up using only the bass, drums and vocals from the original recording. The keyboards are from Bobby's Backing Track. That's where the "pain in the butt" part comes from. He played it at a slightly different tempo and accent than on the original and I had to manually quantize the track to make it work. (Never doing that again....)

I recorded two rhythm guitar tracks panned left and right. Main guitar track and bridge instrumental mixed in the middle.

Also in full disclosure: I faked the feedback part on the opening chord. I can't get my monitors to feedback so I mixed in a little of the original feedback tone.

Pedals making an appearance:

Son of Ben Preamp
As I mentioned in my build report, I was not familiar with Benson amps or this pedal and built it solely based on the enthusiasm from this forum for it. I was not disappointed! It's a great sounding pedal. Very amp-like with lots of rich harmonic content when pushed. I've read some other reviewers talk about this pedal as a VOX-like pedal but I am definitely not getting that. To me, it's reminiscent of a pushed Tweed/Brownface deluxe. Which is what inspired this clip. It was pretty easy to dial up a Royal Scam era Larry Carlton's famous 5E3 tone.

Clandestine Preamp
I used the Clandestine in "aging EP3 unit" setting (volume at around 5 o'clock" to give the Son of Ben a slight boost on certain sections (you can see me reaching over turning it on and off during the clip) I love this thing for the subtle boost/tone shaping capabilities.

AionFX Oceanid
This is my first experience with an optical compressor and I have to say I really love it. It may be too subtle for someone looking from a more traditional Ross style squash but it works for how I use a compressor. For the main guitar part, I used this compressor to tighten up the overabundant transients of the the Son of Ben so that it would be a bit more defined in the mix.

SeaShore Overdrive
Man I love this thing! Such a great low gain pedal. I used it on all the rhythm guitar tracks to add a little "hair" and fatten up the tone. Also used on my Strat for the bridge instrumental section. Actually, all 3 guitars on the exact same settings, I just plugged in a different guitar for each track.

Dark Rift Delay
I'm using this in a pretty subtle way and nowhere near some of the craziness it's capable of. With the modulation dialed low I definitely get a bit of the Memory Man Deluxe vibe in a much more compact and reliable package. It's a great sounding delay although I am looking forward to my Hydra build coming up.

Spatialist Reverb
I just got my custom eprom for this which is 1/2 Radium Springs and 1/2 Spatialist. For this track I'm using the "Glimmer Reverb" patch but dialed way back. Really like it.

AionFX Cephus
Final pedal in the chain, turned off. I was just using this for the buffer after the delay and reverb pedals. I really really need to build some kind of a loop switcher to keep the modulation pedals on their own buffered loop. But this worked well for this track.

All the above going straight into my Apollo Twin X using a very clean amp model to let the pedals do all the heavy lifting. The main guitar is using a Friedman 1x12 cab IR and all the other guitars using my favorite Pete Thorn 2x12 cab IR.

Guitars:
Nash T-63 Tele
Eastman TM185MX - main solo and fills
M-Line Tele Thinline - rhythm guitar mixed left (I might have this backwards)
Gretsch Jet Junior - rhythm guitar mixed right (Still pretty much stock except I installed a bone nut)
Partscaster Strat

That was epic!!! I love Steely Dan. Looking forward to hearing your demo of Kid Charlemagne ;)
 
That was epic!!! I love Steely Dan. Looking forward to hearing your demo of Kid Charlemagne ;)
Here's a KidC play through I did for the PRSGuitars forum. This was Pre-DIY-Pedals, so it's all retail pedals and mostly amp models for the overdrive sounds.

Here's a Paragon clipping demo I did with just the guitar parts for KidC
I think the Paragon version sounds better but it might be that I was using the Eastman instead of my PRS Vela.
 
Here's a KidC play through I did for the PRSGuitars forum. This was Pre-DIY-Pedals, so it's all retail pedals and mostly amp models for the overdrive sounds.

Here's a Paragon clipping demo I did with just the guitar parts for KidC
I think the Paragon version sounds better but it might be that I was using the Eastman instead of my PRS Vela.
Just like that!!! [mind blown emoji]
I learned the first part of that solo. It scores me points at music stores :) But that coda is so good! 🔥
 
Just like that!!! [mind blown emoji]
I learned the first part of that solo. It scores me points at music stores :) But that coda is so good! 🔥
Knowing the notes and being able to play it is a world of difference hahaha. I have to woodshed the crap out of this before trying to play it and I still very rarely nail it cleanly. I've read Larry Carlton talk about how they comp'd the main solo in the studio but the whole coda was improvised in a single take. It just boggles the mind how creative Larry Carlton can be with just the pentatonic blues scale.
 
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Of course this belongs in the build report forum, nice! I like your idea about a section just for video demos, just might have to implement that.

I don't know a lot of Steeley Dan (mostly the ones that get played on the radio), but I couldn't help but take the opportunity to post this.

Who's that little blue guy on the top row there? :love:

1652273587432.png
 
Of course this belongs in the build report forum, nice! I like your idea about a section just for video demos, just might have to implement that.

I don't know a lot of Steeley Dan (mostly the ones that get played on the radio), but I couldn't help but take the opportunity to post this.

Who's that little blue guy on the top row there? :love:

View attachment 26178
Nice! I read that Becker was a crazy gear collector. Like he would go to Namm and buy every single pedal!
 
Whoa, the Daydream? Did you build that for him? That's so cool! (and add another board to my wishlist hahahah)

Walter Becker is one of the most underrated guitar players. He's generally not flashy but his harmonic approach is really the offbeat path, reminds me a little of a "slicker version" of Zappa hahah.
 
Whoa, the Daydream? Did you build that for him? That's so cool! (and add another board to my wishlist hahahah)

Walter Becker is one of the most underrated guitar players. He's generally not flashy but his harmonic approach is really the offbeat path, reminds me a little of a "slicker version" of Zappa hahah.
Totally. I did a master class with Frank Gambale in the early 2000s and he mentioned Steely Dan as one of his biggest influences when it came to learn and hear harmony. He said that whenever a new Steely Dan record came out he would spend weeks in his room transcribing all the songs and figuring out the harmony.
 
Nice! I read that Becker was a crazy gear collector. Like he would go to Namm and buy every single pedal!

Yeah I think it was something like that. I don't think he personally picked it up, I believe it was his guitar tech who bought it back when they were available at 30th Street Guitars in New York.

That came to be when a friend was in the store showing his custom Daydream to one of the employees and Al Anderson (played for Bob Marley) overheard it and wanted it. He told him where he could get one... No, he didn't want "one", he wanted that one, because it was pink.

Ended up having to build my buddy another one, and 30th Street put in their first order that afternoon.

Shameless self promotion did bite me a little bit one time though... back when I first started building them I sent a message on Instagram to two of my guitar "heroes" offering to send them one. I didn't hear back immediately and forgot all about it as time went on. A couple years later, after I had stopped building them, I happened to login to that Instagram account and they both had replied and wanted one. 🤦‍♂️

Time to fire up the old soldering iron one last time. :ROFLMAO:
 
Yeah I think it was something like that. I don't think he personally picked it up, I believe it was his guitar tech who bought it back when they were available at 30th Street Guitars in New York.

That came to be when a friend was in the store showing his custom Daydream to one of the employees and Al Anderson (played for Bob Marley) overheard it and wanted it. He told him where he could get one... No, he didn't want "one", he wanted that one, because it was pink.

Ended up having to build my buddy another one, and 30th Street put in their first order that afternoon.

Shameless self promotion did bite me a little bit one time though... back when I first started building them I sent a message on Instagram to two of my guitar "heroes" offering to send them one. I didn't hear back immediately and forgot all about it as time went on. A couple years later, after I had stopped building them, I happened to login to that Instagram account and they both had replied and wanted one. 🤦‍♂️

Time to fire up the old soldering iron one last time. :ROFLMAO:
Great backstory. Thanks for sharing.
 
Yep, that's correct.

You can also add the prefix to your existing threads by clicking the "Edit Thread" option in the "More options" menu at the top of the page.
1652313022217.png
 
@PedalPCB Not sure if this thread belongs in the Build Report forum, please feel free to move it. (Technically it's a Build Report in my sometimes angular logic since it's a pedal demo:)) Actually, it would be cool to have a dedicated forum for pedal demo's all in one place, I'd love to hear how some of these awesome pedal builds sound from everyone.

So as you can tell from my Build Report activity, I've been on a bit of a tear lately, building a boat load of pedals. I think my parts and PCB ordering reached a point of critical mass that I had enough standard components in my inventory that I could just pick a board off my shelf and build it without worrying too much about whether I had the right components and needing to place yet another order.

This project has been sitting in my DAW for months because it was such a pain in butt. When I ripped the stems from the original recording I could not separate the keyboards from the guitars. I find this is true for a lot of older recordings that were mixed with a lot of compression for radio airplay.
Anyway, I wound up using only the bass, drums and vocals from the original recording. The keyboards are from Bobby's Backing Track. That's where the "pain in the butt" part comes from. He played it at a slightly different tempo and accent than on the original and I had to manually quantize the track to make it work. (Never doing that again....)

I recorded two rhythm guitar tracks panned left and right. Main guitar track and bridge instrumental mixed in the middle.

Also in full disclosure: I faked the feedback part on the opening chord. I can't get my monitors to feedback so I mixed in a little of the original feedback tone.

Pedals making an appearance:

Son of Ben Preamp
As I mentioned in my build report, I was not familiar with Benson amps or this pedal and built it solely based on the enthusiasm from this forum for it. I was not disappointed! It's a great sounding pedal. Very amp-like with lots of rich harmonic content when pushed. I've read some other reviewers talk about this pedal as a VOX-like pedal but I am definitely not getting that. To me, it's reminiscent of a pushed Tweed/Brownface deluxe. Which is what inspired this clip. It was pretty easy to dial up a Royal Scam era Larry Carlton's famous 5E3 tone.

Clandestine Preamp
I used the Clandestine in "aging EP3 unit" setting (volume at around 5 o'clock" to give the Son of Ben a slight boost on certain sections (you can see me reaching over turning it on and off during the clip) I love this thing for the subtle boost/tone shaping capabilities.

AionFX Oceanid
This is my first experience with an optical compressor and I have to say I really love it. It may be too subtle for someone looking from a more traditional Ross style squash but it works for how I use a compressor. For the main guitar part, I used this compressor to tighten up the overabundant transients of the the Son of Ben so that it would be a bit more defined in the mix.

SeaShore Overdrive
Man I love this thing! Such a great low gain pedal. I used it on all the rhythm guitar tracks to add a little "hair" and fatten up the tone. Also used on my Strat for the bridge instrumental section. Actually, all 3 guitars on the exact same settings, I just plugged in a different guitar for each track.

Dark Rift Delay
I'm using this in a pretty subtle way and nowhere near some of the craziness it's capable of. With the modulation dialed low I definitely get a bit of the Memory Man Deluxe vibe in a much more compact and reliable package. It's a great sounding delay although I am looking forward to my Hydra build coming up.

Spatialist Reverb
I just got my custom eprom for this which is 1/2 Radium Springs and 1/2 Spatialist. For this track I'm using the "Glimmer Reverb" patch but dialed way back. Really like it.

AionFX Cephus
Final pedal in the chain, turned off. I was just using this for the buffer after the delay and reverb pedals. I really really need to build some kind of a loop switcher to keep the modulation pedals on their own buffered loop. But this worked well for this track.

All the above going straight into my Apollo Twin X using a very clean amp model to let the pedals do all the heavy lifting. The main guitar is using a Friedman 1x12 cab IR and all the other guitars using my favorite Pete Thorn 2x12 cab IR.

Guitars:
Nash T-63 Tele
Eastman TM185MX - main solo and fills
M-Line Tele Thinline - rhythm guitar mixed left (I might have this backwards)
Gretsch Jet Junior - rhythm guitar mixed right (Still pretty much stock except I installed a bone nut)
Partscaster Strat

Sounds like you're getting up to speed
 
Knowing the notes and being able to play it is a world of diffefficultyrence hahaha. I have to woodshed the crap out of this before trying to play it and I still very rarely nail it cleanly. I've read Larry Carlton talk about how they comp'd the main solo in the studio but the whole coda was improvised in a single take. It just boggles the mind how creative Larry Carlton can be with just the pentatonic blues scale.
I had a guitar teacher years ago who did some session work, he went to a session once and looked at his chart and the chart of the other guitarist that hadn't arrived yet, seeing the difficulty of his chart he took the opportunity to swap with the tardy guitarist. Turns out it was Larry Carlton walked in tuned up nailed it from the chart one take
 
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