Another 3-knob Afterlife and Fatpants, with van Gogh inspired art :)

[midwayfair]

My friend Michael Friedman came over to mess with some pedals and really, really liked the Fatpants and Afterlife. He asked me to make a couple. I made sure Brian was cool with this and he was, so I built these:





I have a print of Cafe Terrace at Night in my dining room, and Michael commented that it was one of his favorite pictures. He said that a French Cafe is the "best gig in the world." I really like to cook, too, so I took some inspiration from the van Gogh painting "Four Meager Onions" for the Fat Pants, added some sunflowers, and put my recipe for French Onion Soup on the side. (I bake my onions for an hour rather than fussing over them chained to the stove. The end result is identical to not messing up the traditional way -- perfectly evenly caramelized onions.) I thought the aluminum knobs looked like stock pots.

The French Press is another three knob Afterlife (sensitivity knob added), this time with a VLT5C1 after a little bit of experimentation (between the Silonex, C3, C3 substitute from Smallbear, and C1). The attack is a little faster but with a harder knee. I'm glad it had the sensitivity knob, because it can get a little percussive in the extreme upper comp settings. It's a little more limiting in the upper comp settings (the C1 has a MUCH faster on than the C3) but the middle travel of the knob is extremely similar or identical, especially with the Sens rolled off a little. The C1 also has a longer light memory, so the decay is a little longer overall. It's an interesting variation but not so different as to sound like a completely different pedal. So anyone wondering if those $2 C1s from Apex Jr. will work, there's your answer.

The Fatpants was built completely stock again. So good in every setting ... there's no reason to change anything.

[nzCdog]

Love em... great art man.
I had to double take that you weren't bjuilding for Marty Friedman! 

[midwayfair]

I had to double take that you weren't bjuilding for Marty Friedman! 

It would definitely be interesting to hear Marty Friedman call a French Cafe the best gig in the world.

[GrindCustoms]

I wish i was able to hand paint...........the most artistic i can be with paint...is doing splatters....

They look fantastic!

[Bret608]

You are really speaking to me with these coffee and food themed pedals! I have used the onion roasting technique you described--I got it from Jacques Pepin. I used it for a sauce for steak I believe. My Pepper Spray was intended to be curry-themed, but that's not as obvious as it could be due to the lack of graphics/labels.

Is Michael Friedman in a band we might know? I believe you are in Baltimore, and that always makes me think of Beach House right away. When I lived in Maryland I heard of other good Baltimore bands but can't recall names at the moment...

[midwayfair]

You are really speaking to me with these coffee and food themed pedals! I have used the onion roasting technique you described--I got it from Jacques Pepin. I used it for a sauce for steak I believe. My Pepper Spray was intended to be curry-themed, but that's not as obvious as it could be due to the lack of graphics/labels.

Is Michael Friedman in a band we might know? I believe you are in Baltimore, and that always makes me think of Beach House right away. When I lived in Maryland I heard of other good Baltimore bands but can't recall names at the moment...

Mike just plays solo guitar. He does fingerstyle arrangements of things like Beatles covers and Bach. So far as I know, he's not in a band.

I'm indeed in Baltimore. Some other good bands from around here: Wye Oak (shoegaze), Future Islands (new wave? I have no idea what to call them), June Star (alt country http://junestar.bandcamp.com/), Fancy Face (70's countryish rock fancyface.bandcamp.com), Brooks Long (http://brookslong.bandcamp.com), J Roddy Walston and the Business (they might have moved away, though), ilyAIMY (acoustic grunge http://ilyaimy.com/), GoatFish (world pop), Time Columns (excellent math rock), Strum the Fox (instrumental trio with electric guitar, violin, and drums), Letitia VanSant (http://letitiavansant.bandcamp.com/), A Cat Called Cricket, Soul Cannon (live hip hop --- with no bass) ... I could go on. You could stay busy for days just listing to the good projects recorded at Beat Babies Studios (http://www.facebook.com/BeatBabiesRecordingStudio) and Mobtown (http://mobtownstudios.com/).

Baltimore has a really strange music scene. It's almost impossible to make a living at it here, which kind of changes the dynamic, but it's in a densely populated area and within driving distance of DC, so there's still a lot of people and

[juansolo]

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