I finally got my new guitar pedal this week. It is the MXR Classic Overdrive.  It is in a special anniversary edition housing, changing the original housing color from green with white lettering to tan with green lettering- that adds no sound enhancement, but its neat because its different.

The sound: awesome.  It creates a warm, bluesy feel that is insanely easy to tweak.  I'm a fan of simple- and 3 knobs is simple.  Right now it is in front of the Line 6 POD, which I'm using for the amps and delay. But I cannot wait until I get a new delay pedal and start building my board! (looking for suggestions!) I really like the Carbon Copy, but don't a pedal board filled of MXR's, and I won't have a very big board.  Also thinking of the Memory Boy Deluxe, because of the Tap Delay.

This pedal is a steal.  The 'Retail price' is $149- but I have never found it anywhere for that price.  I have always seen it for around $40-$50 bucks.  For the money- it is an amazing pedal.  And in my opinion (the opinion that hasn't tried every pedal out there)- the MXR Classic Overdrive is an amazing pedal that would be a staple on any pedalboard.

The BBE Sonic Stomp is my favorite pedal (well- for now its my only pedal, but you get the point).  It adds massive clarity to the overall sound, cleaning up the sounds that [normally] are a bit distorted.  It is a pedal for the perfectionist.

Apparently (because I am no sound expert), sounds are automatically distorted when going through speakers, and this pedal takes it and does a bit of 'space magic' to it and produces a slightly boosted (not enough to be a boost pedal) that is cleaner in both the highs and lows.

It features Lo contour and Process knobs, which allows you to really dial in a great tone- but, as you can see- I leave mine both up straight, because it always give a better tone!

If you are a guitar player- you should check this out.  I use it for my acoustic and electric.

Sorry, dropped the ball yesterday apparently.  Just an update on the worship EP demo I'm doing.  Using the best studio in my entire apartment! ha!  Ok, so apartment quality recordings don't normally sound the best, but I'm not really going for amazing sound as much as just getting out the songs that God has given me.  If He wants an amazing quality recording, He'll give me the opportunity.

But so far it sounds like 'We Are Free', 'Open Up Our Eyes', and 'Fly Again' are done.  I'm really excited about 'Open Up Our Eyes'.  'We are Free' was the most frustrating song to record, because I had to completely start from scratch at least twice.  I know I have one more I want to record ('You Reign') and probably a new one that I'm pretty stoked about 'A Call To Rise'.  

Hopefully I'll find an easy way to post them soon.

Just in case you are curious, here is a listen at one of the new songs I wrote that I really like.

 I have been singing these words for a month now, and it still is insanely powerful to me.  Maybe not to you, but who knows.

I don't know about you, but because my mind loves to think of new and exciting ways to look at things, it freaks out and can't see simple solutions.   I have found that to be true with many creative type people.

Grace

Last, while restringing my electric guitar (named 'Grace'),  my bridge pickup fell into the body of the guitar.  Uh-oh.  Freak out.  Not even the 'screaming' freak out, the kind where you just sit there, sweating.  What's worse- I knew what was wrong- the screw had somehow come unscrewed and just 'let go.'  At least, I hoped so.  It was either that or the screw snapped, and silly me- I don't keep extra screws for pick-ups laying around, haha.

So here I am, band practice in 2 hours.  I quickly tried to see if I could fix it, but what happens when you freak out- your muscles go nuts.  I knew I would probably end up breaking something else.  I also knew Guitar Center closed at 7.  It was 6:38.

I sprint from the music room into the living room, throwing on shoes and jacket and keys, yelling 'Broke my guitar- taking it to guitar center, love you!'

I was freaking out.  Because, as a 'creative person', I see all the possibilities of failure and what could go wrong.  Well, maybe that's just me.  But once it was fixed (thank you to the people of Guitar Center Greenville for helping me out), I realized how simple of a solution it was.  That even if I couldn't fix it, Guitar Center was only 5 minutes away.  But I freaked.  Not the good kind where your adrenaline goes, but the kind where after you could cry for days for no reason.

Do you freak out like that when little things go wrong?