Feeling a bit under the weather today, so I’m just kind of slowly working on organizing some stuff as I feel up to it. Here is a photo of the things I got over the weekend.

I spent some time this weekend doing a little bit of organizing and I decided to give my hand a go at PHP. After a few hours of fiddling, I’ve rewritten the ‘Fuzzy Reviews‘ page to include a sortable gird where you can sift them by category or ranking in any of the score areas (or overall). I’ll probably continue to tweak it to make it more ‘fun’ in the future, but it seemed like a decent benchmark/start. If there is anything you would like to see, drop or a line or a comment.

I took a little time and updated both the ‘Wishlist‘ and ‘Grygrx’s Closet‘ for the curious.

After selling my D*A*M Fuzz Rong (the collector in me didn’t really like that) and my Silicon A:ssmaster I reinvested the money in some new pedals and I’ve got the following coming in:

• Nano Bassballs
• Blackstone Appliances Mosfet Overdrive 2SV3
• Frantone Bass Sweet
• Tonality Effects “Anemonia”

I love the design of the Blackstone from an aesthetic and usability standpoint, and I found a pretty good deal on a used one. Even though I’ve had a conversation with the builder awhile back who suggested it would suck on bass, I figured… why the hell not. I don’t think I will loose my shirt on turning it over and the bass players of the world will have more information.

The Anemonia was a lust/impulse buy, and I had to do some hard work in translating german to make it happen. That said, the glowing lure of tube goodness sucked me in. I’m nothing if not a whore for a good looking stompbox.

I got monster deals on the other two which have been on my ‘keep on eye on for a good deal’ list for awhile.

I’m also been working on a ’secret project’ to produce a very small run of pedals (10 is the starting point). I might have some more detailed information to share soon, but I thought it was far enough along to at least share the idea a little wider. Basically the idea is to tweak a classic circuit for flexibility and bass tone while incorporating a few modern features and keep it in a fairly small package. I have enlisted the help of a talented individual to make my dream happen and should be fiddling with a prototype before to long. Details later…

That said, I’ll be selling some of the “fringe pedals” from my collection in an attempt to make sure everything is fully funded up front. For the new stuff, unless something just blows me away, I’ll be turning them over quickly to keep the project funded.

Next reviews:

• D*A*M MKII – High Gain
• Devi Ever – Torn’s Peaker
• Zvex – Wooly Mammoth

From the maker:

Description:
Harmonic Octave Analog Distortion Pedal

The Malekko Barker ASSMASTER is inspired by the original Maestro Bass Brassmaster octave pedal. Hand-built by us, this modern version delivers the same octave overdrive/harmonic generation effect in a quiet, fully controllable pedal. It features a recessed LED indicator, a pop-free true bypass switch, and a tough lexan face. The 5 controls provide complete control over the tone, overtones, harmonics and mix of the dry and wet signal.

We now offer an expression jack for the sensitivity control. Very cool! Get an expression pedal for hands-free sensitivity freakouts!

The pedal is powered by a 9v DC adaptor (neg tip) or internal battery snap.

The ass volume controls the volume of the distortion signal
The ass switch selects the tone of the distortion
The bass volume is the dry signal control; also provides massive gain to the dry signal
Harm selects the harmonic spectrum of the effect
Sensitivity controls the depth and response of the effect from subtle to excessively saturated

The Malekko Barker ASSMASTER GERMANIUM has all the same attributes as the original Barker ASSMASTER, with the addition of germanium components creating a smoother, more “vintage” feeling face-peeling distortion. Comes with sweet blue LED. Moms love it!

The silverburst edition has two germ transistors instead of one and also also has a enhanced frequency range. The original maestro design didnt allow super low frequencies to pass…this one does.

Editors note: names have been changed to protect the innocent.

1- When did you get started with electronics?

Well Todd, mind if i call you Todd since i dont know how to pronounce gry-gry-gry-g-r-x? Back in the mid 1980s i caught a bug, not the kind of bug that makes you throw up every time you eat your moonpie snack, the kind of bug only a synthesizer could cure…the problem, i was too poor to have one. But a great thing was on the horizon…the yamaha DX7, the keyboard that started the digital revolution and making all those keyboardists ditch their sweet sweet synthesizers for that crappy rhodes sound the DX7 would produce. Whew, I’m a little winded, mind if I sit down Todd? Will you hand me that Shasta? Thanks, now where were we…oh yes, so now it’s the early 1990s and synths that were once $5000.00 were now a mere $150.00, i snatched them up faster than…well you get the point. Thanks for having me here by the way, i really like what you’ve done with the place.
What were we talking about? oh yes, come sit on my lap and we’ll finish this up. All was well until i started getting synthesizers that “work perfect” and the ones that used to work perfect are now not working so perfect…will you take off that shirt? The color offends me…i didn’t want to mention that earlier but now my eye sockets are starting to hurt.

Um…oh yes, luckily i have a father that is an electrical engineer and helped me diagnose and sometimes even fix my poor battered synthesizers…i tried to do most of them myself so i could learn the ways of electricity and electrical whatnots…I’m not proud to say, but i’ve left many a synth worse off than when i got my hands on them…will you hand me that box of tissues Todd.

2- Where did the name of your company come from?

Wow Todd, were already on question Two? i was unaware that there would be more than one question. Okay, in 2004 or 5 i dont remember the EXACT year, my close friends and very talented musicians Adam Grossman, Dwayne Dassing and I were in a band…oh and some previously unheard of guy named Paul Barker wanted in on the project. The project didn’t have a name at this point so we consulted many a magic 8 ball to see what we would be called…i was up late one morning watching jewelry television, trying to get a deal on a new pair of cubic zircon earrings when my poodle stepped on the remote control…it was a show about Mark Chapman, he told his wife he needed to go from Hawaii, to New York for inspiration to write a children’s book called Malekko the Gecko…but then he got all sidetracked with killing John Lennon and the book was never published or something like that. I called up my music buddies and they agreed, Malekko it was. Mal in Latin is Bad and an ekko is sort of a sound….so it is bad-sound. The band dissolved, mostly because of Pauls out of time playing.

During the band time, Paul asked me if me or my father could replicate his “secret weapon” he relied on in some band “Ministry” and “REVCO”, i know, i’ never heard of them either..due to the fact that the other “clones” although nice in their own regard weren’t actually “CLONES”…I’m so sorry Todd, look at me ramble on…music project failed, pedal company emerged, name stayed the same. I’m so sorry for going on like that…it just brings back some wonderful memories…

3- What’s your favorite effect made by someone else?

Oh Todd, that’s a tough one, there are so many great effects out there, where do i begin, the Foxrox TZF is great, anything Skreddy…I’m just gonna stop there, you know how long winded i can be! By the way, are your shorts ultrasuade? they are H-O-T!!!

4- What’s the favorite effect you make?

Gosh, This is tough, it changes so often, if it’s a effect that has been officially been released, the E600D, but if it’s a yet to be released effect i’d have to say the Throbbing Mass…oh wait i’ve said too much!

4.5- Favorite Fuzz

Todd, as you well know, Favorite fuzz depends on sooooo many variables, the Silicon B:ASSMASTER is my favorite on a stringed Bass, but the Germ B:ASSMASTER is better on a bass synth, but ones that i dont make are the cognitive dissonance by Skreddy, the Mingebox and I have a Haunting Mids fuzz that also blows me away!

5- What instruments do you play? Skill level at each?

I’m a synthesist, on a level higher than Yanni!

6- Is making effect pedals your primary gig? If not, what is?

yup. What’s with all the questions? Oh, i forgot…it’s an interview

7- Do you think about bass players before or after you prepare a circuit?

It depends on a circuit, for example we are about to release an analog octave divider, most analog octave dividers work fantastic on a guitar but we have yet to find one that is Great with a bass…even from “bass effect manufacturers” So we set out to make one, and months and months later, i believe we have it. Realistically Todd, we think about all types of musicians, i think how is a bass gonna sound, how would vocals sound etc. we actually TEST our designs on synth, guitar and bass guitar to see how well they respond.

8- How many pedals do you sell a month?

Todd, I’m not a salesman, i dont sell any…why, do you want to buy one? Because if you do i will sell you one…or maybe trade you for those loafers you got on.

9- Triplet :

• E-bay: Savior or Curse?
  Well before Ebay it was a LOT harder to find an Original Bette Midler autographed VHS tape of “beaches”…now i can get one 7 days a week. But i do hate how Ebay is killing the Pawnshop, i used to go “pawnshopping” at least once a week…i haven’t done that in years..because i think if people need money, they just sell something on Ebay instead of taking 1/16 the price from a pawn shop.

  But i do think Ebays fees are a little high, and PayPal is the devil…i’ve been ripped off as both a buyer and a seller…and Paypal does nothing.

  Also theres a fella named Karim in Australia that found a “sweet” loophole in Paypal resulting in him getting a free Swankbox B:ASSMASTER…that blows because a small company like ours really feels that kind of loss.

• Bassplayers: Foreground or Background?
  both.
• Color: Chartreuse or Magenta?
  My favorite colors are clear, pink, and Glow-in-the dark. Speaking of pink your thong is sticking out of your shorts…you may want to fix that…or not…

10- Any cool products in the pipeline you want to share?

Well, I already mentioned the Oct Down for Bass, we have a sequencer coming along, i believe there are some youtube videos of the prototype out there…the first video is long and boreing, but the pt 2 and 3 start to show where the sequencer really shines, there are a few features that have never been done before..other than that, we have about 4 or so other designs we’re working on so stay tuned

11- Anything else you want to add?

Todd, it’s been a real pleasure spending this time with you, i feel as though we are close friends now and have shared so many facets of our lives with each other.

Will you point me in the direction of your bathroom, i really have to pee, ya know, my pee has been smelling a lot like coffee lately, even when I’m not drinking coffee. Does yours do that sometimes?