In 2018, the group released their second double album, Let it Wander, and followed it up with a completely improvised EP featuring drummer Joe Russo. Sadly, a week after tracking their self-titled album Casal took his own life. Casal urged the group to carry on without him. The group recruited Eric Krasno and Scott Metzger for various tours before settling in with John Lee Shannon in July of 2021. Shortly before a gig at Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville, John Bohlinger caught up with Shannon and bassist Dan Horne to talk gear.
[Brought to you by D’Addario XS Strings: https://www.daddario.com/XSRR]
The Lone Ranger
John Lee Shannon tours with a single guitar: a 2017 Fender Custom Shop 1969 Journeyman Relic Strat. It’s outfitted with handwound ’69 pickups in the neck and middle with a Texas Special in the bridge. “It’s really barky,” mentions Shannon. “It’s not a ‘tame’ Strat,” He puts D’Addario NYXL (.010–.046) strings on it and uses Pick Boy Vintage Celluloid Rainbow .75 mm picks.
Amp on the Run
Due to somewhat complicated logistics, Shannon had been looking online at various Nashville guitar shops for an amp he could pick up at the last minute and use on this run. After flying in from Brooklyn the morning of the show, he headed straight for Rumble Seat Music to check out this 1968 Sunn 100S and matching 2x15 cabinet. Shannon put down a deposit before getting to town hoping the amp would work for him. Obviously, it did. Later he found out this amp was on consignment from Nashville session king Tom Bukovac.
The Mothership!
After experimenting with various pedals on the band’s West coast run, Shannon shifted some things around and even took inspiration from Casal’s board to form this mothership. The centerpiece is the Road Rage true bypass looper which allows Shannon to individually bring each pedal in and out of the signal flow. Right before the looper is a JAM Pedals Wahcko, which was custom ordered solely based on the finish. Other highlights include a Greer Amps Super Hornet, Strymon Lex, a trio of Catalinbread stomps (Belle Epoch, Echorec, and Topanga), a Walrus Audio Monument, Lovepedal Rubber Chicken and a pair of BearFoot FX (Pale Green and Honey Beest OD).
Vintage Vibes
Circles Around the Sun take plenty of musical risks, but that fearlessness stretches over into their gear choices as bassist Dan Horne also takes a single bass on the road. This 1978 Alembic Series 1 has an unusual setup. Although you can power the active pickups with batteries, Horne uses an Alembic DS5 power supply to provide power via the cable. (The DS5 also has dual outputs, but Horne only uses the bass output.)
Tower of Doom
The Grateful Dead’s “Wall of Sound”-era speakers served as the inspiration for Horne’s triple-cabinet tower. The top cabinet was built by Bag End while the bottom two were DIY affairs created by a friend. All three cabinets feature a Weber speaker.
Under the Hood
The engine behind Horne’s sound is this rack, which includes an Alembic F-1X tube preamp—powered by a 12AX7—and a Crown XLS 1502 power amp. All of Horne’s effects are behind him on the pedal drawer and he controls them via a Voodoo Lab PX-8 Plus.
Horne's Tone Zone
Horne’s pedal rack includes a Sonic Research ST-300 tuner, Boss BF-2 Flanger, MXR Carbon Copy, MXR 10-Band EQ, a vintage Electro-Harmonix Small Stone Phase Shifter, MXR Bass Envelope Filter, and a BearFoot FX Pale Green compressor. He wrangles them all with a Voodoo Lab HEX loop switcher that’s controlled by a PX-8 Plus.
Any amp in pedal form begs an obvious question: If the pedal imposes amp-like coloration, aren’t you undercutting the effect by running it into a real amp, which imposes its own coloration? Well, yes. But in practice, players either pair pedals of this type with clean, relatively neutral-sounding amps, or use the pedals as quirky, colorful overdrives. Either way, the Model G evokes the flavor of a funky little Gibson combo, if not the exact tones. It’s a loose, vibey sort of distortion, well suited to bluesy roots-rock and scrappy indie sounds.
Strictly Handmade
The Model G is strictly handmade. Inside the hand-painted “B”-sized enclosure is a tidily soldered circuit board. Only the connecting wires secure it to the enclosure, though it’s insulated with a strip of stretchy fabric. The results look home-brewed, but reliable. You can power the pedal with a 9-volt battery or a conventional barrel-type adapter.
The drive and master volume controls are straightforward. And it’s a reasonably loud circuit whose higher settings provide a virile solo boost. The core overdrive sound is a bit Screamer-like, but with a brighter, less compressed character. There are many attractive tones throughout the drive control’s range.
Mother Nature and the Deep Mysterious “C”
Most of the Model G’s character resides in the controls labeled N (for “nature”) and C. (BearFoot doesn’t say what C stands for, though we could easily call it “compression,” since that’s one of the things it controls.) The amps that inspired the Model G tend to have one-knob tone controls, but that’s not quite how things work here.
Ratings
Pros:
Vibey overdrive with a ’60s attitude. Extremely dynamic. Many sonic variations.
Cons:
Tones can be excessively bright with some guitars and amps.
Tones:
Playability/Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$223
BearFoot Guitar Effects Model G
bearfootfx.com
The arrangement can seem counterintuitive at first. Bass-heavy sounds produce more distortion, so the Model G tends to sound biggest with N at its minimum setting. But it’s easy to get used to the arrangement—just use N to dial in the desired amount of lows, and then fine-tune C till the highs feel complimentary.
Those highs may require a little finessing. Like many old Gibson amps, the Model G checks in on the bright side. You may encounter harsh, brittle tones, even with humbuckers, let alone single-coils. Maximum bass settings approach the fatness of a good Fuzz Face, but without the corresponding treble attenuation. Still, I finessed nice tones from the bright bridge pickup of a pre-CBS Stratocaster through a Divided by 13 CJ11 (a Fender-inspired combo, also on the bright side). Meanwhile, that extra bite did nice things to the vintage-style PAFs in an old Les Paul.
Regardless of pedal settings or pickup type, the Model G is extremely dynamic. Even at maximum gain setting it’s easy to summon crispy-clean tones by rolling back the guitar’s volume.
The Verdict
Players with a taste for primitive distortion will dig this vibey, amp-inspired overdrive—especially if they favor bright, articulate tones. There’s no shortage of lows, though—the Model G would shine in a rough-and-tumble guitar/drum duo. It would be especially appropriate for a guitarist using a modern, relatively neutral-sounding amp, but who sometimes craves an injection of pawnshop punkitude.