The Tiny Terror is 100% indicative of what its name implies. It’s both tiny and a terror, class A style.
The new Orange Tiny Terror ventures into the review chamber this month. From the company that is synonymous with British voiced tube tone comes a new class “A” all-tube mini amp. Packing a lot of punch in a small pouch, the Tiny Terror is the latest brainchild of Orange Senior Designer, Adrian Emsley. The company claims that it has been able to squeeze every drop of that signature Orange tone into the Tiny Terror, providing guitarists with an affordable alternative to the company’s higherpriced models. Sounds like a great idea to me, so lets grab a six pack and start terrorizing, Orange style.
No Bigger Than A Lunchbox
They say it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but rather the size of the fight in the dog. Obviously this was the theory behind the design of the Tiny Terror. Literally no bigger than a lunch box, the Tiny Terror measures just 6” high, 5” deep and 1 foot long, and weighs in at just over 12 lbs. It features a cool, retro-looking white metal chassis with vented top plate, and the traditional orange logo and insignia.
There are front panel controls for volume, mini tone knob and gain, two rocker-style toggle switches for on-off-stand by and switching the output from 7 to 15 watts, and one 1/4” input, that’s all! Rear panel features are much the same, providing three 1/4” outputs, two rated for 8 ohms and one 16 ohm output. There’s also an 115v VAC power input and a 250mA recessed fuse housing, but that’s it. The Tiny Terror was designed to simply connect a speaker cab, allow you to plug your guitar in and start throwin’ down. No complicated programming or confusing menus to scroll through. Guitar to amp to speaker; you get the idea.
Inventing Terror
The Tiny Terror utilizes class A valve technology with a 100% analog signal path that eliminates any and all digital clipping output characteristics. Driven by a pair of EL84 power valves and a front end that utilizes a duct of 12AX7 preamp valves. Switchable from 7 to 15 watts of output, Orange designers have designed the gain structure of the Tiny Terror to work in a very unique way; utilizing a dual gang gain pot, one side turns up the first gain stage to the point of very heavy compression, while the other side changes the impedance of the second gain stage so that it to compresses to the same degree.
It utilizes a five section fully filmed interleaved output transformer that is very closely balanced to primary. The EL84 output tubes are cathode biased to around 90% in the 15w position, and 96% in the 7w position. In short, the Tiny Terror is designed to produce as much gain as a four stage gain pot, but the output tubes are driven evenly all the way through. The tone control is also designed in a unique way, where the tone circuit is not on the preamp side, but actually part of the phase inverter (power amp) so the gain structure of the amp is unaffected by the tone control.
Raising the Terror Alert
For testing purposes, I utilized two different cabs: an older Marshall (1966B) 2x12 cab with stock 75w Celestions, as well as a Marshall (1960B) 4x12 cab, loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s. From the guitar garage, a Les Paul Limited recently acquired at the Arlington Guitar Show and a mid ‘90s photo flame Telecaster were put into service.
The setup was literally the extent of plugging in three chords: power, speaker input, and instrument input. Before you know it, you’re ready to rock. After all, the tried and true technique of “straight into the amp” is the source of the purest tone.
My first test was with the Telecaster. Using the 15w output setting, volume on seven, tone on eight and gain on three, the Telecaster sounded like a telecaster should after consuming a six pack of Red Bull. It was big, fat and ballsy, while still retaining an articulate high-end sparkle, supplying enough of the “twang thang” that we all love. I really appreciated clean tones that produce a fair amount of tube compression saturation. Though the tone is still clean and distinguishable, it’s got some nuts to it.
In experimenting with increasing the gain characteristics, the Tele really started to roar with the gain on six and reducing the main output to four. Don’t be fooled, fellow tone chasers, this is a loud 15 watts, and more than enough for most clubs. By engaging the 7 watt switch (lowering the plate on the power transformer), it was way cool to run the master on ten, tone on ten and gain on two. This provides a very nice power valve compression that is silky and smooth and breathes, all at a very comfortable output level that would be very desirable for recording.
With a quick change over to the 4x12 Marshall cab, and the new love of my life, a Les Paul Limited with an insane flametop in Santa Fe Sunrise (I had to throw that in), I am ready to let the rubber hit the road. Try setting the gain on six and the tone and volume on ten in the 15w mode, and the Tiny Terror transforms into a giant beast. Angus Young lives in this tone. Don’t let the small size fool you; the Tiny Terror is capable of producing a huge overdriven tone with an incredible amount of gain. It was pleasantly surprising, as I did not expect this amount of gain.With sustain forever, the Les Paul sings in this mode.
The Tiny Terror still retains that trademarked vintage-voiced Orange tone, but adds enough gain to satisfy hard rockers. I really dig a tube amp when the tubes heat up to the point you can smell them. Oooh, oooh, that smell, the smell of tone surrounds you. You can tell the amp is biased a little hot, and that’s the smell of Tiny Terror.
The Final Mojo Upside
The Tiny Terror is 100% indicative of what its name implies. It’s both tiny and a terror, class A style. Refreshingly simplistic and straight forward in finding a tone suitable for any style of playing, from highly compressed clean tones to an incredible vintage-voiced British overdrive, the Tiny Terror is a bad motor scooter. Great for recording and yes, more than enough for live gigs. Don’t let the size fool you, because in this case, size doesn’t matter. The Tiny Terror will kick your ass, but at a list price of $699 and a street price of $549, complete with custom form-fit padded case, the Tiny Terror will save your ears, your back and your wallet.
Downside
An effects loop would be a welcomed feature, but would understandably drive up the price.
Rating: Golden M
Orange USA
MSRP $699.00
2065 Peachtree Industrial Court
Suite 208
Atlanta, GA 30341
404-303-8196 www.orangeamps.com
Designed for bassists, this gain staged preamp/overdrive features Lounsberry’s eye-grabbing graphic appeal and pro-quality construction.
Lounsberry Pedals has launched the new Mo Bass pedal. Designed for bassists, it’s a gain staged preamp/overdrive featuring Lounsberry’s eye-grabbing graphic appeal and pro-quality construction.A bass guitar pedal for the working man, the Mo Bass delivers both overdrive and clean big bottom tones with mild natural compression and even-order harmonics, and can do both at the same time.
Features
Simplified, two-knob operation, The knob labeled "Mo" is the drive control, and theknob labeled "Less" is the level control.
The Mo Bass pedal is capable of all the grind, bottom end, and transparent overdrive ofthe one could ask for, layered with the clean sound of a tube preamp.
Allows for the growly top end favored by rock and prog rock players, while still delivering the round, fat bottom bassists are looking for.
The clean, fat sound is always present, but as the drive control (Labeled "Mo") is advanced, the balance is tipped more towards overdrive.
The Mo Bass provides an excellent pre-driver to help any bass cut through a dense mix, and enhance the sound of any bass amp.
Matt Bellamy designs his own signature Manson Guitar Works instruments and took ownership of the company when Hugh Manson retired in 2019.
Photo by Debi Del Grande
Muse returns to self-producing on Will of the People, an album teeming with formidable anthems that navigate themes of fear, politics, dystopia, compliance, corruption, and other topics concerning the world order.
Decked out in black ninja-like uniforms with mosaic mirrored masks obscuring their faces, Muse opens their current shows with the powerful, sing-along chant of “Will of the People,” the anthemic title track off their latest album. From that song’s infectious shuffle until the very end of the concert’s encore, people are jumping out of their seats, and appear to be completely mesmerized.
Muse’s guitarist/frontman Matt Bellamy describes the song’s concept: “‘Will of the People’”is a fictional story set in a fictional metaverse on a fictional planet ruled by a fictional authoritarian state run by a fictional algorithm manifested by a fictional data centre running a fictional bank printing a fictional currency controlling a fictional population occupying a fictional city containing a fictional apartment where a fictional man woke up one day and thought ‘fuck this.’”
Muse Won't Stand Down (Live at NOVA Rock Festival 2022)
This live version of “Won’t Stand Down” (the first single from Will of the People) from the Nova Rock Festival in Nickelsdorf, Austria, sees Bellamy playing exotic melodies unaccompanied on a drop-tuned guitar to open the song up. Bellamy’s early classical influences can be heard in the secondary dominants used in the chord progression of the song’s chorus.
Fictional, perhaps, but art imitates life, and the whole vibe is connecting explosively with Muse fans upon the return of being able to experience one of the best live shows around. After all, the trio of Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme, and drummer Dominic Howard view themselves as a live band, first and foremost, and the concert experience informs every aspect of their writing process.
“It’s unavoidable for us because we’ve probably connected to our audiences more through live performance than we have through pop charts or anything like that,” says Bellamy. “We’ve never been embraced by the mainstream. I don’t think we’ve ever had a Top 40 single or anything like that. We’ve always been kind of alternative outsiders regarding recorded music, but where we connect with our audience is onstage. I think it’s totally inevitable that when we’re in the studio, almost every song we’re creating—I mean not every moment, but almost—we’re thinking about that, rather than like, ‘Oh, this is going to be on X radio station, or it’s going to be in this film.’ We’re not thinking about any of that stuff. We’re thinking, ‘We’re making this song and we’re going to go onstage and play it.’”
Bellamy has been Muse’s main songwriter since the band formed in 1994, when they were originally called Rocket Baby Dolls. After the songs are drafted, the band collaborates on production, song arrangements, and the sounds to be used on each album. Over the years, Muse has tinkered with outside producers, but for Will of the People the band decided to keep it in the family.
“We haven’t produced an album since The Resistance in 2009 and The 2nd Law in 2012,” Bellamy says. “Then, we felt like we needed some outside input, and we went to Mutt Lange for the Drones album. On [2018’s] Simulation Theory, we worked with a whole bunch of different producers. But on this album, we felt like it would be good to get back to our original process.”
“I’ve always been anti-authoritarian by nature. If you read some of my school report cards, you’ll probably find that I wasn’t the most compliant student.”
Will of the People was recorded at Abbey Road, and the production process was very communal. “We actually all enjoy it,” says Bellamy. “Chris is really into the whole Pro Tools engineering side and Dom is really into the synthesizers and the production side of things. The songwriting, in terms of what the core song is—like lyrics and stuff—that’s me.” Muse drew from the different production techniques they learned from outside producers they’ve worked with.
Bellamy recalls, “Lange leaned towards the human side but wanted the humans to play their parts accurately rather than use computers to repair an inaccurate performance—a very humans-first approach.” Other producers “wanted to program a drum beat and just start with that.”
Muse doesn’t operate with a singular magic formula. “Songs like ‘We Are Fucking Fucked,’ ‘Kill or Be Killed,’ and, to some extent, ‘Will of the People,’ benefit from being a bit more human sounding, a bit more relaxed, and not perfectly tight in all the different spots,” explains Bellamy. “Sometimes you can tighten the life out of a track, and we’ve noticed with Muse that could be a problem. If we make it too tight, we lose elements that we like to tap into, like chaos or feeling slightly out of control.”
The sense of reckless abandon is huge in Bellamy’s music. “I grew up on things like Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, or Jimi Hendrix. Those are the two guitarists that I probably loved the most. And the element that they brought into guitar playing was, obviously amazing guitar playing, but also an element of chaos, an element of being slightly out of control. Sometimes When you edit it out, you end up losing a little bit of that chaos feeling. That’s something that we’ve been trying to balance a little bit. It’s difficult because it’s so tempting to try to tighten everything. There was a bit of that on certain tracks. Something like ‘You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween,’ for example, is much more on the tighter side.”
TIDBIT: Muse returned to self-producing on their ninth studio album, Will of the People, which was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London.
That is, until the blazing guitar solo enters. “When the guitar solo comes in, it’s really like, ‘Just let it rip. No editing,’” says Bellamy. “It was like, boom, whatever happens, happens. It’s just a balancing act with rock where you want to make sure you don’t erase the feel of it, if that’s part of what the song is trying to convey.”
Muse’s label had hinted at the band making a greatest-hits album. But for Will of the People, Muse wanted to create a new take on that concept. Rather than rummage through their discography looking for the “best” songs, Muse wanted to make all new songs for Will of the People,with the aim of making “greatest hits” in different styles. To that end, it seems like they’ve succeeded. Bellamy has said “Compliance” is the best pop track they’ve ever done, and “Kill or Be Killed” is the best prog-metal song they’ve done.
The latter will appeal to lovers of guitar pyrotechnics. It features a lethal whammy-infused, drop-tuned opening riff, Lydian pedal chords, and an over-the-top dramatic solo that could make envious shredders want to quit. But Bellamy cautions them to hold off giving up.
“If you listen to the Grace album by Jeff Buckley, you’ll notice the guitar sound is very glassy, very bright but very, very clear at the same time.”
“I’m plainly cheating in that solo [laughs],” he says. “I’m basically tapping and using a whammy pedal to do octave shifts. It sounds like I’m doing insane arpeggios. I’m not a shredder at all. I’ve never been a very good shredder, but I found ways to cut corners. On that one I’m doing a simple tapping technique, but the octave is being pitch-shifted as I’m tapping to make it sound like a really broad arpeggio.” Bellamy used this setup before to great effect on “Map of the Problematique” from Black Holes and Revelations [2006].
The Multi-Faceted Musician
Being a guitar virtuoso is far from Bellamy’s priority. “I’d say I’m a jack of all trades but not necessarily a master of one,” he confesses. Initially, in his formative years, Bellamy went down the road of trying to be a flashy, technical guitarist, but soon changed course.
“Trust me, there are thousands of guitarists on Instagram that are way better than me [laughs]. I see them all the time. I sort of realized I was never going to be like Steve Vai or something. To me, probably where my specialty is, is in playing guitar and singing at the same time. That’s something I’ve had to work on quite a lot because it’s hard—at least it was hard for me in the early years. Especially playing certain rhythmic parts or rhythmic patterns and detailed kind of singing. That’s what I focused on. Sometimes you have to work out where your upstroke is on the guitar and how that connects to which syllable of the vocal.”
Bellamy has always been less myopic than his peers in the guitar community. Starting in his late teenage years, he had a dual musical personality. On one hand he was in bands that were all about rock, U.K. Indie music, and grunge, but on the side, he would be at home listening to classical music. “I just loved it,” says Bellamy. “I was getting into the electric guitar, but in my school there was a classical guitar teacher. That was the only guitar teacher who was available, so I decided to just go down that road because I was already playing guitar a little bit. I learned about different modes and scales, and different ways of moving chords around. I studied a bit of [Heitor] Villa-Lobos and learned a little bit about that back then, but I never really became serious in the classical realm, guitar-wise. I did it for a couple of years and then, through listening to that stuff, it led me to discover great piano composers, like Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Liszt.”
Matt Bellamy’s Gear
Muse’s Matt Bellamy makes a point with his main axe, a Manson DL-1.
Photo by Hans-Peter Van Velthoven
Guitars
Manson 007 MB
Manson ORYX custom fanned-fret 6-string
Jeff Buckley’s 1983 Fender Telecaster
Manson MB Drone 003 with Manson PF-1 bridge pickup and Sustainiac
1966 or ’65 Gibson LG-0 acoustic
Manson MB Standard with Manson PF-1 Humbucker Bridge pickup and Sustainiac in satin “Matt Black” finish
Manson MB Standard with Manson PF-1 Humbucker Bridge pickup and Sustainiac in gloss “Red Alert" finish
TogaMan GuitarViol Bastarda
Microphones
Sennheiser MD 421
Royer R-122V
Neumann U67
Neumann U87
Shure SM57
Amps
Diezel VH4
Mesa/Boogie Badlander
Marshall Handwired 1959 Super Lead plexi (modded)
Orange Rockerverb 100 MKIII
Gibson EH 150 (1940)
1964 Vox AC30 Top Boost
Laney 100-watt Klipp head and 4x12 cab (1972)
Universal Audio OX Amp Top Box
Mills 4x12 cabinet with Celestion V30 8-ohm speakers
While Bellamy is the band’s sole guitarist, he is completely fine with not including the guitar on everything Muse. He’s made it a point to also showcase piano, and the instrument plays prominently on the new songs “Liberation” and “Ghosts (How Can I Move On).” The latter is the big piano number on Will of the People and opens with an arpeggiated keyboard figure similar to Adele’s mega-hit “Someone Like You.” This song indirectly spawned from a small solo side project Bellamy was working on over the last several years, which mostly saw him redoing Muse songs with just piano and vocals.
“That is what led to that song,” recalls Bellamy. “That was the first time I really tried to do a simple piano/vocal ballad. I guess you’re always going to be in the company of people who have had big hits with those kinds of things. For us it was a bit of an unusual move. I’ve always had piano here and there, but never really a song that’s just vocal and piano. To be honest, I played the song for the guys in the band, and we weren’t sure if it was going to be on a Muse album. But they really liked it and we thought, ‘You know what, this adds a little bit of color, so maybe it can be on.’ I’m not sure yet to what extent it will be played live.”
The Manson Connection
In his time away from the stage and studio, Bellamy keeps himself very busy. In 2019, he became the majority owner in Manson Guitar Works and is very involved in everything from overseeing all the new designs to going to the shop and meeting new employees. “It’s great. I love it. It’s a local business in the area I’m from in England. When I was growing up in Devon, South West England, there was a guitar shop in Exeter, which is the nearest college town. It was kind of the best guitar shop really,” says Bellamy, who, as a teen, lusted after a Manson custom build.
Muse - WON'T STAND DOWN (Official Video)
“I bought my first couple of guitars from there, but I couldn’t really afford the custom-made ones. We found out that the guy who ran the place, Hugh Manson, used to be Led Zeppelin’s guitar tech. He’s a luthier that makes his own guitars to whatever spec you want. So, as soon as Muse had any kind of success and I could afford to buy a nice guitar, around the year 2000, I went to him and said, ‘I’d love to have a custom-made guitar.’”
Bellamy’s first custom Manson was an aluminum guitar, with a finish similar to a DeLorean and a Z.Vex Fuzz Factory and MXR Phase 90 built in. “It became my main guitar from about 2001 onwards. Then I went back to him to get a couple of others that were similar in shape. I designed the shape. I wanted a unique shape that hadn’t been seen before. I worked with him on custom guitars throughout the 2000s and this just went on and on, to the point where all the guitars I use onstage are Manson guitars. Then, around four or five years ago, Hugh retired and wanted me to take over ownership of the company, to keep it running, and to take it to the next step.”
Manson sells a good amount of custom guitars, but the big seller is the Manson Meta Series MBM-1, which comes in at the lowest price point. “That was something I introduced to the company when I took over. I really wanted there to be a more affordable version available,” explains Bellamy. “We have some of those parts manufactured in Europe and some in Indonesia, and we have those parts brought to our warehouse in Devon where we put them together ourselves. The more expensive ones are handbuilt and handmade in the factory in Devon. Since the last 20 years, he’s employed a bunch of amazing guitar makers. There’s an amazing workshop where people hand-make these things.”
Matt Bellamy prefers an element of chaos in his music, which Muse mirrors in their thematic tours and potent onstage presence.
Photo by Jordi Vidal
While Bellamy is mostly a Manson loyalist, he employed a unique instrument called the GuitarViol for the pizzicato string parts in the verses of “Won’t Stand Down.” “It’s got a similar range as a guitar, only a few tones up from where a cello is based. When you play it, it sounds a bit like a cello,” he says. “I’m not a fretless player. It’s a way of adding string sounds to songs. I was playing it like I play a guitar or bass. It’s a cool instrument because, rather than using sound libraries, I just played that instrument.”
Bellamy also recently indulged in the purchase of a trophy instrument: Jeff Buckley’s 1983 Grace Fender Telecaster. Rather than store it away in a glass case, Bellamy uses the instrument quite often. “It appears a couple of times on the album and I love it. It’s a great guitar. Rather than just stick it on the wall, I think it’s nice to give it some use and keep it involved in music,” says Bellamy. “I used it on ‘Will of the People,’ on the lead part, which is the high bluesy bit. I may have used it on the verses of ‘We Are Fucking Fucked’ as well. It’s such a great instrument. It’s just a unique, strange-sounding Telecaster. I had it looked at by the Manson team and they were saying there’s something odd about the pickups. They seem to be slightly out of phase, and it causes this very glassy tone. If you listen to the Grace album by Jeff Buckley, you’ll notice the guitar sound is very glassy, very bright, but very, very clear at the same time.”
“If we make it too tight, we lose elements that we like to tap into, like chaos or feeling slightly out of control.”
Populism and Power Struggles
Many songs on Will of the People, such as the title track, “Compliance,” “Liberation,” and the closer, “We are Fucking Fucked,” revolve around matters of oppressors and the oppressed. “I think it’s a theme that you can find across Muse’s career. It’s part of my nature,” explains Bellamy. “I’ve always been anti-authoritarian. If you read some of my school report cards, you’ll probably find that I wasn’t the most compliant student. I’ve always been kind of skeptical of power structures and those that have power—the concentrated few who take advantage of their power over the masses and so on. It’s not one particular thing that I’m aiming at. It doesn’t matter where it exists, I have a natural inclination to feel like that should be always disrupted.
“You can apply that to anything from corporate structures, banking structures, economic structures, to political structures. Any structure where a concentrated few have incredible power over a large population. I’ve always been intrinsically questioning that and wondering about the quality of the people who are placed in those positions of power, and how did they get there? It’s been a lifelong fascination for me, and it’s obviously translated into the music and the songwriting, going back as far as songs like [2009’s] ‘Uprising’ and so on. It doesn’t matter where they exist. The fact that extreme wealth can be concentrated in a handful of tech entrepreneurs, for example. Or the fact that powerful lobbyists can have such an influence on senators.”
Having lived in L.A. since 2010, Bellamy gained new insight into the class politics that divide America, and this seeped into many of the songs on Will of the People. “During the troubled period of the crossover from January 6, and when all that stuff started to fall apart, it kind of played into this idea that populism can actually be quite scary,” says Bellamy. “When the masses do topple something, it can be quite chaotic and crazy as well. On the one hand, the masses overthrowing power structures is appealing, on the other it can actually be quite frightening. This album explores both sides of that.”
Muse - Map Of The Problematique [Live From Wembley Stadium]
Matt Bellamy employs effects in uncommon ways to achieve his musical goals. “Map of the Problematique” was the first time that he used whammy pedals. “I basically sent a program to make it turn on and off in a certain rhythm,” explains Bellamy. “So, it would make the octave change in a rhythmic pattern. For example, in ‘Map,’ I’m just playing a power chord, but it goes (sings fast arpeggiated repeating phrase) and that’s kind of a program telling the whammy pedal to change octaves. I used that same technique for the solo on ‘Kill or Be Killed.’”
Nicole Atkins and PG editors share favorite memories from the last concert they attended. Plus, current obsessions!
Q: What was the last concert you went to? Describe the best moment.
Nicole Atkins—Guest Picker
A: It was Spoon in Wilmington, North Carolina. I went to see them the night before in Knoxville, and their opener got Covid, so I hopped on their bus and opened for them the next day and just used Britt Daniel’s guitar. He let me sing “Jonathan Fisk” with them, and it’s one of my favorite songs!
Spoon "Jonathan Fisk"
Thank god I had the day off. It felt like my birthday! Spoon are one of those special bands that make every album and play every show like they did not come to fuck around. They’re very inspiring to me.
Nicole Atkins' Current Obsession:
Sam Cooke’s version of “Unchained Melody.” It’s low and slow and breaks your heart in the best way. Anytime it comes on, I’m completely absorbed in it. Also, a lot of Rodgers and Hart songs are entering my wheelhouse lately, and I need those feeling changes in my music right now. It makes me wanna scream!
Chris Laney—Reader of the Month
A: In April 2019, I saw Buckethead at the National in Richmond, Virginia. I took a painting with me, specifically for Bucket, hoping to hand it to him. I got a position in the front row, on the right side, and enjoyed the show from the best perspective possible.
About a third of the way into the show, Buckethead gave out toys to fans upfront. As he got closer to me, I edged the painting to where it was partially resting on the stage. He approached me and took the painting! He took it back to his amp setup, and P-Sticks eventually displayed it behind the amps where a good portion of the crowd could see it. After that, Buckethead came back and gave me a bag of magnetic letters and shook my hand. It was amazing to interact with someone I looked up to, literally and figuratively. I consider it the best concert experience ever, with meeting Joe Satriani coming in as a close second.
Buckethead - Full Show, Live at The National in Richmond Va. on 4/5/2019
This video of the concert shows the handoff at 53:14, and if you watch later into the video, you can see it on display behind where Bucket is playing.
Chris Laney's Current Obsession:
Sweep picking. Cramming so many notes into such a short space and making it flow is hard, but so big of a payoff when it finally happens.
Shawn Hammond—Chief Content Officer
A: As a longtime fan of Together Pangea, I was super excited to see them play the Maintenance Shop in Ames, Iowa, earlier this summer—especially after Covid’s long live-music drought. Their show was energetic and spot-on in every way, but even cooler was the fact that opening band Tropa Magica—which none of us had even heard of before—blew our minds.
Their hypercharged, incredibly nuanced blend of psych, punk, and cumbia alone would’ve made the four-hour round-trip drive worth it.
Tropa Magica’s David Pacheco on the Power of Distorted Delays
Tropa Magica’s David Pacheco on the Power of Distorted Delays
Best moment: Band founders/brothers David and Rene Pacheco holding their Tele and red Nord Electro keyboard, respectively, aloft behind their heads and playing a mighty fucking crescendo in front of the venue’s medieval-church-style stained-glass backdrop.
A: About a month ago, I caught Bela Fleck’s touring bluegrass festival that he put on with Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas. All three bands were loaded with all-star pickers, and seeing Bela, Sam, Jerry, Sierra Hull, Bryan Sutton, and Michael Cleveland at the same time was incredible.
Where else can you see bluegrass legends rip off solos over a 5/4 groove in Bb?
Béla Fleck - Wheels Up (Live)
One of the absolute highlights was Justin Moses, who stepped up and played Dobro alongside Jerry, banjo alongside Bela, and fiddle alongside Michael—and kept up with all of them.
Jason Shadrick's Current Obsession:
Fundamentals. Every once in a while, I need to go back and break down my technique, fretboard knowledge, and improvisation skills to their bare bones. I then turn to transcribing because it’s all about vocabulary and sound for me.
With a quick change over to the 4x12 Marshall cab, and the new love of my life, a Les Paul Limited with an insane flametop in Santa Fe Sunrise (I had to throw that in), I am ready to let the rubber hit the road. Try setting the gain on six and the tone and volume on ten in the 15w mode, and the Tiny Terror transforms into a giant beast. Angus Young lives in this tone. Don’t let the small size fool you; the Tiny Terror is capable of producing a huge overdriven tone with an incredible amount of gain. It was pleasantly surprising, as I did not expect this amount of gain.With sustain forever, the Les Paul sings in this mode. 
Tropa Magica’s David Pacheco on the Power of Distorted Delays
