Tour without bringing your own gear!... sort of

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to perform at the CMJ Music Marathon in NYC...  The only problem was that I didn't find out my band The Sour Notes were officially selected until the previous week, meaning the band would have to jump on a plane last minute and travel across the country for a 'one off' show without our gear.  The venue we were playing did have a minimal backline, though not accommodating (speaker cabinets without 'heads')... so, since we couldn't make a tour out of it and drive our gear up there in the van, we had to come up with an alternative to 'checking in' our precious tube amps at the airport.  Luckily, Electro Harmonix has a nifty line of portable guitar amplification that fits in your carry-on bag called the 22-Caliber & the 44-Magnum, which my band-mate Chris and I both used instead of our amps.  We plugged them straight into 4-10 cabs at the venue and were amazed at how great they sounded.  The 22-Caliber & 44-Magnum power amps are easy to use, having just a volume knob and a bright/normal switch that gives you two tone options.  In my opinion, these little boxes of magic sound just as real as a guitar amplifier and can even 'break up' a little when dialed right.  So, if you're already a minimalist pack-er and want to travel even light-er, look into renting the EHX 22-Caliber & 44-Magnum power amp magic boxes from us at Rock N Roll Rentals!!!  They, like us...  are show-savers!!!

by Jared Paul Boulanger

Electroharmonix Memory Toy vs. MXR Carbon Copy

The Memory Toy is an analog delay pedal made by Electroharmonix. It is one the Nano series pedals so you can expect it to be pedal board friendly. It also runs on the standard 9V power supply, which given the history of Electroharmonix power supplies, is a plus. It is similar to the MXR M-169 Carbon Copy Analog Delay pedal. I happen to have a Carbon Copy in my arsenal of pedals and had the privilege to do a shoot out with both pedals. Both have the same simple controls and are easy to dial in: Delay, Mix/Blend, Regen/Feedback, and Modulation. Both of these pedals have a great analog warmth that will make you forget about ever using a digital delay pedal ever again. I will have to say that the MXR Carbon Copy does offer a bit more clarity and warmth. Where the Memory Toy does win is in the price. It is about half the price of the Carbon Copy. For those musicians who are financially challenged, which most of us are, it is a small sacrifice in sonic quality for a great analog delay pedal.

by: Oscar Reyna

note: both pedals are available at Rock n Roll Rentals for sale and/or rental

The V256 Vocoder pedal

Electro Harmonix made some smart decisions when designing the v256 vocoder pedal. One of the best features is the Reflex-Tune mode, which is the t-pain/kanye style auto-tune. You do not have to be a great piano player to acheive these tones either.

The pedal has an xlr for the modulation input, and either a guitar or the internal synthesizer can be used for the carrier. This means you do not have to be a guitar player in order to get good tones out of this pedal.

The vocoder also has drone and vox-robo modes. The overall tone and shape can be adjusted through the 5 knobs which include blend(wet/dry) knob, Bands(decides how many bands of vocoding are done, which from the name i would guess it goes up to 256, and the tone, gender bender and the pitch knob which all kind of work with each other.

The v-256 has phantom power as well as a hi/lo mic gain switch, and a midi input. A preset can be saved and recalled at a later time.

Buy or Rent here