See these jam-happy ganders soar with one guitar each and a stockpile of Strymons. Plus, why Rick Mitarotonda embraces random changes to pedal settings.
“Are you guys with the band?” A pleasant passerby asked while we were loading out camera gear near the Goose tour bus parked outside Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl.
“No, we’re just here to do an interview.” I responded.
“Oh man, tell the band that last night’s concert was uh-mazing,” exclaimed the joyous fan. “We’ll be talking about it for years to come.”
And with that sort of impassioned, infectious positivity, Goose is following the freeform footsteps of the Grateful Dead, Phish, Dave Matthews Band, and Umphrey’s McGee—where polished, recorded albums are secondary to improvisation-rich, snowflake-unique performances that illicit exchanges like that above. (Adding to their jam-band credit, they livestream most shows, and guitarist Peter Anspach mixes the band’s gigs for release shortly afterwards.)
Formed in 2014, the quintet currently includes: Peter Anspach (guitar, keys, vocals), Jeff Arevalo (percussion, vocals), Ben Atkind (drums), Rick Mitarotonda (guitar, lead vocals), and Trevor Weekz (bass). The Northeast-based crew has released two albums (2016’s Moon Cabin and 2021’s Shenanigans Nite Club), an EP (2020’s Night Lights), and Dripfieldis on the horizon, for release on June 24.
However, the recorded songs are just guideposts and mile markers. It is all about the live experience. The band often performs two sets, without an opener, and keeps fans on their toes with natural, symbiotic excursions and unlikely, progressive covers. The first evening of their sold-out, two-night run in Nashville saw them flex their musical adeptness and vocabulary with covers of Wes Montgomery (“Switchin’”) and Steppenwolf (“Magic Carpet Ride”).
Their word-of-mouth growth has elevated them to cross several milestones in 2022. They sold out their first arena (Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut) and followed that with sell-outs at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre and historic Radio City Music Hall. So you can plan on seeing these birds fly high for years to come.
Before Goose’s second sold-out show in Nashville, PG was invited onstage to catalog their current setups. In this Rundown, guitarists Peter Anspach and Rick Mitarotonda show off their all-night 6-string costars, detail the pedals that help them warp space and time for organic odysseys, and Mitarotonda explains how a looper helps him from hitting mental walls and getting cornered in redundant guitar-playing boxes.
Brought to you by D’Addario XPND Pedalboard.
Suhr Is Pretty
Goose guitarist Peter Anspach has always loved humbuckers, but he felt the huskier tones on ’bucker-equipped guitars had a few shortcomings—primarily lacking the 2- and 4-position squawk of an S-style instrument. The solution was switching to this Suhr Mateus Asato Signature Classic that threads the needle with an Asato Custom Humbucker and a pair of ML Standard single-coils. He rocks D’Addario Classic Celluloid picks (1.0 mm), NYXLs (.010 –.046), and Original Fuzz straps.
The Backup Beauty
Sitting close by in the bullpen is this Fender American Vintage ’62 Stratocaster that pulls its weight as a backup.
A Reliable Deluxe
“It’s just so full, clean, and reliable, and that’s what you need on the road. I can’t emphasize its reliability enough,” says Anspach of his Fender ’64 Custom Deluxe Reverb. “I have a ’70s silver-panel Deluxe Reverb at home that gets blown out of the water by this one.” He plugs his guitar into the normal channel, while putting his clavinet into the bright channel.
Peter’s Pedal Playground
Quickly glancing at Anspach’s pedalboard, you see that he has his feet in the analog and digital worlds. The industry standbys include a Moog Moogerfooger MF-101 Lowpass Filter, Electro-Harmonix Small Stone phase shifter, Keeley Compressor Plus, Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer (with Analog Man mod), and an Analog Man King of Tone. The modern juggernauts include a trio of Chase Bliss boxes (Dark World, Tonal Recall, and Mood) and a pair of Strymon stomps (TimeLine and Flint). A Dunlop Cry Baby Classic GCB95F sits in the lower righthand corner and a TC Electronic Polytune 2 Mini keeps his guitars in check. Underneath is a Strymon Zuma to power his noisemakers.
One for the Birds!
During his formative guitar-playing years, Rick Mitarotonda’s father took him to the House of Guitars in Rochester, New York. He tried a bunch of instruments that day, but the cream of the crop for 13-year-old Rick was a PRS. And ever since he’s been partial to the birds. His main ride for some time has been this PRS Hollowbody II Piezo. The hollowbody features PRS’ 58/15 LT (low turn) humbuckers that work alongside the LR Baggs/PRS proprietary piezo electronics. And similar to his guitar mate, Mitarotonda employs D’Addario NYXLs (.010 –.046).
Bird of a Feather Flock Together
Rick’s 6-string insurance plan is in the shape of another PRS Hollowbody II Piezo, but this one technically still belongs to Anspach, who has settled into his Strat-osphere.
Blast Off With Boogie
Rick has been plugging into Mesa/Boogie combos for 10-plus years. He started his journey with the smaller Express 5:25 Plus 1x12 combo with EL84s. He’s since graduated to the Express 5:50 with 6L6s. He’s stayed loyal to the brand because he enjoys how the amps naturally compress his guitar sound.
V Formation
Mitarotonda has some serious pedal power at his feet. The first board on his far right is dedicated to vocals. He has a TC Helicon Play Electric vocal effects processor that integrates and is controlled by the TC Helicon Switch-3. (The Play adds an octave-up harmony. The three buttons on the Switch-3 toggle engage hardtune, delay, and reverb for his vocals.)
Moving left, we have his first board for guitar. He has a Dunlop Cry Baby 535Q wah and DigiTech Whammy at his disposal before hitting a Lovepedal Eternity Fuse. Then he goes into a Mu-Tron Micro-Tron IV envelope filter, Strymon OB.1 compressor and clean boost, and a MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe. The top-right corner holds a TC Electronic Polytune. Strapped to the bottom is a Truetone 1 Spot power supply.
The third and final board has a MXR Analog Chorus. And then things get serious with a 5-pack of Strymons that include a Deco tape saturation and doubletracker, El Capistan dTape Echo, TimeLine, Flint tremolo/reverb, and a NightSky time-warped reverberator. Off the board to the left is a TC Electronic Ditto X4 that Rick leans on to peel open new textures to help him get out of his head during improvisational parts and see his instrument with a fresh lens.
A flexible, chimey overdrive and an aggressive, high-gain distortion from Lovepedal are reviewed.
Sean Michael at Lovepedal is clearly a busy man. In this month's print issue, we reviewed four of his new line of ultra-compact pedals, and now we’re back to check out a pair of very different new offerings, the Kalamazoo and RedHead.
Both the Kalamazoo and RedHead are housed in die cast aluminum cases the same basic size and shape of an MXR Phase 90 (4.37” x 2.37” x 1.07”). The battery compartments are accessed via the back panel by removing four machine screws. For those who power their effects with a power supply, there is a 9VDC input located on the left side of the pedal. Each pedal also features true a true bypass stomp switch with accompanying blue LED. The input and output follow tradition with the input jack on the right and the output jack on the left.
I tested both pedals out with a Gibson Les Paul, Fender American Standard Strat and a Hamer Korina Special into a 3rd Power American Dream combo (blackface and brownface-inspired channels) and a 1970 Marshall Superbass through a Mojave 2x12 with Eminence Governor and 70s blackback Celestion G12M.
RedHead
Download Example 1 Les Paul, hard rock rhythm tone | |
Download Example 2 Les Paul, sharp, focused high-gain tone | |
Download Example 3 Strat, Ritchie Blackmore tone | |
All clips recorded through a 3rd Power American Dream combo with an SM-7 into a Summit Audio TPA-200B tube mic pre, direct into Pro Tools. |
In Play
Once again I began with the Les Paul/Marshall combo and set all controls midway and the Mids switch in the left (off) position. This is clearly a different beast than the Kalamazoo, and I mean “beast” in the best way. The tone went from a dirty clean to a volatile monster with a downright irreverent mid sound that Billy Gibbons would be proud of. All the honk, grease, and gain you ever wanted came screaming right out of the gate.
Backing the Volume down and pushing the Sustain up resulted in a screaming, fiery sound with a pronounced pick attack that added an aggressive quality to the already aggressive tone. Pinch harmonics were never so easy to achieve, until I switched on the Mids switch. With the Mids on, there was a good amount of volume boost as well as a boxy tone that had honk and bite at the same time. Boxy isn’t a word usually used to describe a desirable sound but in this case it is—total character.
On the RedHead, the Tone control is the reverse of the Kalamazoo in that it adds bite and presence to the sound. I found myself constantly tweaking it to achieve various sounds from biting and angry to smooth and sustained. Backing the Sustain off to around noon and cranking the Volume resulted in the thickest, most badass attack I’d heard through my Marshall in years, and I loved the sound of the amp acting like it was going to give way at any second. This is not a subtle pedal!
The Strat ended up being my favorite guitar with the RedHead. As a huge Ritchie Blackmore fan, I loved how it easily conjured up Rainbow tones like “All Night Long.” Blackmore’s tone has always been a favorite of mine because it was aggressive yet clear, and when he hit chords hard you could tell the amp was ready to explode. Even in relatively low volume settings on both the Marshall and American Dream, it was easy to recreate that vibe.
The beauty of this pedal once again lies in the interplay between the controls. Much like a master volume tube amp, when you push up the Volume the tone resembles the thickness of power tube distortion and the Sustain acts very much like preamp distortion. With the combination of the two and setting the amp up to clean or slightly dirty there are a huge range of distortion tones available. Add in the ability to dial in extra mids or bite through the Tone and Mids and the possibilities are endless.
The Verdict
If you bought this pedal only for the ability to create aggressive and cool harmonic feedback it would be worth the price of admission. The fact that the RedHead offers up everything from vintage-inspired gain to modern, aggressive distortion made it a winner on every level for me.
Buy if...
you want aggressive yet musical gain with killer mids
Skip if...
you’ve never made a pact with the devil and don’t plan to
Rating...
Street $199 - Lovepedal - lovepedal.com |
Kalamazoo
Download Example 1 Strat, slight overdrive with chime | |
Download Example 2 Strat, Funk with hairy overdrive | |
Download Example 3 Les Paul, dark sustained drive | |
All clips recorded through a 3rd Power American Dream combo with an SM-7 into a Summit Audio TPA-200B tube mic pre, direct into Pro Tools. |
In Play
Admittedly I cheated a bit and checked out the fantastic clips on the Lovepedal site before the Kalamazoo arrived, so plugging in there was a relatively high level of expectation already set. I began with the Les Paul and Marshall dialed in to a slightly dirty clean tone and set the pedal controls midway. Aside from the boost in volume, the first thing that struck me is how the Kalamazoo added its own signature while leaving the Les Paul/Marshall sound distinguishable. This setting was slightly darker than I anticipated, so I dialed back the Tone to fully counterclockwise, which opened up the sound significantly. Hearing how wide the sweep was, I decided to crank the Glass control, which added a good deal of bite without sounding brittle or harsh. This is where the beauty of the Glass control comes in. Most pedals don’t retain bass the same way when you crank up the treble control, and I appreciate the fact that this didn’t erase the “knock” I so love about Marshalls. Bringing the Drive up to higher levels increased sustain and harmonics while slightly compressing the sound more. It made everything denser and more complex, yet I could still hear every note clearly in chords—no small feat. The real treat came when I dimed the Level and pulled the Drive back to around 11:00. This setting became my favorite because it pushed the front end of the amp beautifully to make notes explosive and percussive. Surprisingly, even in the most extreme settings there was a negligible amount of noise added to the overall hum of the Marshall. In fact, it was downright quiet by any pedal standards. Rolling off the guitar’s volume knob didn’t totally clean up the sound, but it didn’t matter because the tone was killer even if there was some residual grit leftover.
Moving on to the Strat/Marshall combination, the Kalamazoo proved that it isn’t a one-trick pony. All the Stratiness came through and the guitar’s chime turned into a buttery and luscious tone that retained the majority of top end while somehow not sounding shrill. My beef with Strats is also their strength, that sparkly top end, but sometimes it can get a bit ice-picky with the wrong amp. Not to worry with this pedal, as any harshness was gone just by stomping it on. One setting that floored me was the Level up to around noon, the Drive down all the way, the Glass cranked. While slightly overdriven, the note definition was incredible and notes sweetly sustained before effortlessly feeding back to a beautiful bloom. Everything just sounded bigger and it gave my playing an instant boost of confidence. Nice!
The Hamer/American Dream combination fared equally as well, barking out big chords with the P-90s and feeling powerful and bold. With just a bit of extra Drive, the P-90s sounded like massive humbuckers while never getting overly grainy or undefined. And oh, the dynamic response…it’s amazing. You can go from a whisper to a roar with just the touch of your hand, which was truly inspiring.
If there was anything I wanted it was probably just a hair more treble response. There were times when I wished the Tone would go to -1 and the Glass went to 11, just for that extra push over the cliff. Then again, my amps weren’t set to be neutral, so it would be possible to dial in more brightness on the amp end of things. Either way, the tone was always stellar and inspiring.
The Verdict
The Kalamazoo is a winner. It imparts its own signature tonal stamp and has enough flexibility to go from slightly overdriven to blooming gain that sings like there’s no tomorrow. Anyone looking for gain and beauty (in tone and looks) in one pedal will very happy with it.
Buy if...
sweet sustain, chime and touch dynamics are what you want
Skip if...
you need more bite and treble in your overdrive
Rating...
Street $199 - Lovepedal - lovepedal.com |
Lovepedal''s mini''s bring the company''s quality tones to ultra-compact packages
Chances are good that, like many guitarists,
you suffer from Gear Acquisition
Syndrome and lust after every cool new
stompbox that hits the market or appears
on the forums. A side effect of this disease
is a pedalboard that looks like an overflowing
bowl of M&Ms, with brightly colored
effects spilling out over the edges and
onto the floor. If this describes your plight
(it certainly does mine), you’ll welcome the
new line of ultra-compact effects designed
by Lovepedal’s Sean Michael.
Each stompbox comes in a rugged, diecast
aluminum case that measures 1 1/2"
x 3 5/8" x 1 1/4". Yeah, you read it right—
that’s roughly half the size of an MXR
Dyna Comp. Of course, this leaves room
for only one knob per pedal—along with
audio input and output, a 9-volt DC input,
one or two LEDs, and the odd mini toggle.
Michael has come up with a variety of
approaches to the control issue, while continuing
to focus on the stellar sound that
has helped establish his reputation in the
stompbox community.
We checked out four flavors of these little
morsels, so read on as we throw down the
lowdown. I tested these pedals with a 1965 Stratocaster loaded with DiMarzio Virtual
Vintage pickups and a Reverend Reeves
Gabrels model played through an Orange
Tiny Terror and an Egnater Rebel 30.
Echo Baby
Download Example 1 |
The bright blue Echo Baby offers up 760ms
of delay. Delay effects usually come with
a host of controls, including blend, time,
feedback, modulation depth and speed, and
tap tempo, so how do you make a delay
pedal with only one knob? Lovepedal has
assigned that knob to control the length of
the delay time, adding two trim pots accessible
with a small screwdriver through holes
on the bottom of the pedal for adjusting
the feedback and dry/wet blend.
In addition to delay, the Echo Baby offers
modulation. To set the amount of modulation,
you hold down the footswitch switch
for two seconds and then twist the pedal’s
chicken-head knob. Once you’ve set the
modulation amount, the pedal automatically
adjusts the modulation speed and
depth according to the chosen “time”
setting—that is, as you decrease the delay
time, the modulation speed and depth
increase slightly.
Unless I wanted a sick warble at longer
delay times, I found a relatively low modulation
amount suited my tastes. At this minimal
setting, the pitch waver adds a simulated
analog-tape flutter to the echoes in
both long and short delay settings. If you
don’t want modulation, you can shut it off
by holding the footswitch for two seconds
and turning the knob all the way down.
The Final Mojo
I didn’t plan on getting out my little screwdriver
in the middle of a gig to change the
delay amount or feedback, so I set the unit
for just a couple of repeats occurring well
below the original signal. With the delay
set on the short side, the Echo Baby created
a reverb simulation that added warm
depth to my Strat through the reverb-less
Tiny Terror. Longer delay settings added
a subtle sustaining tail to the notes. For
me, this setting offers the maximum bang
for the buck. It also allows you to dedicate
another more-programmable or fully controllable
delay to ambient or heavier slapback
effects. However you choose to set
up and use the Echo Baby, it will deliver
gorgeous sounding, studio-quality delay.
Buy if...
you want a small-footprint delay that offers great analog-style sound.
Skip if...
you need full control at your fingertips.
Rating...
Street $219 - Lovepedal Custom Effects - lovepedal.com |
Babyface Tremolo
Download Example 1 |
Tremolo replaced chorus as my modulator of
choice quite a while ago—sorry, maybe it’s
my roots-music upbringing or the fact that
something about chorus screams “last millennium”
to me. The lone knob on this tremolo
pedal controls the rate—from extremely slow to near-ring-modulation ping. A mini
toggle lets you choose between the opto
sound (sine wave) of a blackface amplifier, a
sawtooth wave that recalls the tremolo of an
Ampeg amp, and a full square wave, which is
suitable for stutter and chopper effects.
To access the Babyface’s depth and volume
trim pots, you need to remove four screws
and the back panel. Though Michael says
he is considering drilling a hole to allow
quicker depth adjustment, ultimately
you’ll probably find yourself sticking to
one setting. I chose to set the depth for
a subtle tremolo level and pretty much
stayed with the sine and sawtooth waves,
as the square wave cried out for increased
depth settings. However, I could easily see
myself cranking the depth and turning the
Babyface into a dedicated chopper pedal.
Whether you go for subtle, amp-like trem
or more extreme sounds, once the pedal is
attached to your board, you’re not likely to
be adjusting the depth very often. It might
make sense to add a second mini-toggle
that offered three depth options.
The Final Mojo
Depth adjustments aside, at all settings
the Babyface sounded warm, analog, and
chock full of low end. The internal level
trim ensured that I didn’t suffer from the
psycho-acoustic volume drop that happens
with some tremolos. If you need just one
trem-type modulation, be it vintage opto
or modern chop, this could be your pedal.
Buy if...
You’re looking for that one greatsounding volume-modulation effect.
Skip if...
you need a number of different trem tones quickly.
Rating...
Street $139 - Lovepedal Custom Effects - lovepedal.com |
Pickle Vibe
Download Example 1 |
The Uni-Vibe is a classic effect, but unless
you perform in a Robin Trower tribute band,
you’re not likely to use this watery sound
more than a couple of times a night. So why
sacrifice a lot of pedalboard real estate to get
it? Slotting neatly between two existing pedals
on my board, the Pickle Vibe produced
huge, inspiring vibe tones.
As with the Babyface Tremolo, the pedal’s
single knob controls the rate. A blue LED
flashes the tempo of the vibe, while a
red one indicates the effect on/off status.
There’s a sensitivity trim pot inside, but
don’t bother unscrewing the back. I tried
other settings and none sounded as good
as the factory one.
The Final Mojo
As with most Uni-Vibe emulations, the
Pickle Vibe responded best between the
guitar and some sort of grit, whether
an overdrive pedal, the slightly broken
up Orange, or the lead channel on the
Egnater. According to Lovepedal, rather
than using an exact copy of the Uni-Vibe
circuit, the Pickle Vibe generates those
classic tones with a unique circuit. Clone
or not, from slow psychedelia to fast Leslie
blues, this pedal sounded so good it could
increase the number of times I go for the
vibe on any given night.
Buy if...
you want great-sounding vibrato effects in a tiny box—and at a great price.
Skip if...
you perform in a Robin Trower tribute band.
Rating...
Street $139 - Lovepedal Custom Effects - lovepedal.com |
Amp 50
Download Example 1 |
Sean Michael made his bones largely on his
“Church of Tone” pedal, the COT 50 Boost/
Overdrive. Lots of players agreed that it
nailed certain classic-rock sounds associated
with guitar icons like Jimi Hendrix and
Billy Gibbons. For the mini version, Michael
has modified his original design to afford
cleaner tones at the bottom of the gain/bias
sweep and dirtier tones at the top.
The Amp 50’s single knob adjusts the bias
of the circuit, which causes some noise
as you turn it. I found that, by putting a
volume pedal or a muting tuner after this
pedal, I could mute the noise—a good
thing, as I could see using a number of different
settings throughout a set.
With the gain/bias down all the way, the
Amp 50 added a buffer-like sparkle to the
clean sound of both the Tiny Terror and
Rebel 30. Between there and 12 o’clock,
a small amount of grit entered the equation—
more so when using the hot-humbucker
equipped Reverend than with my
Strat. From noon to 3 o’clock, the Amp 50
became more overdrive-like, adding sustain
to solos and crunch to rhythm chords. From
3 o’clock to full on, a fuzz effect started
creeping in. Turned fully clockwise, the control
produced a sound like an amp on the
verge of destruction (in the best sense).
The Amp 50 is all about response. In its
cleaner modes, it added a dynamic “give”
to what would otherwise be an unforgiving
clean amp tone. Backing off the guitar volume
at almost any setting cleaned up the
sound quickly. The pedal added a whole
array of British sounds to the Egnater’s
American-toned clean channel, while
interacting much like a classic treble booster
with the British-voiced Orange.
The Amp 50 also played nicely with other
overdrive pedals. It was no surprise that
it worked well in front of a Lovepedal
Kalamazoo, but it also matched up delightfully
with a Maxon OD-9, not only adding
sustain but injecting a new British character
to the tone. In either combination, the Amp
50 effectively turned my single-channel Tiny
Terror into a three-channel amp.
The Final Mojo
Given all the ways the Amp 50 can enhance
your sound without adding significantly to
your gear load—or subtracting much from
your pocketbook—it’s hard to imagine not
picking up one of these mini-monsters.
Buy if...
you want to give your sound a character- laden kick in the butt.
Skip if...
you have all the tones you need.
Rating...
Street $129 - Lovepedal Custom Effects - lovepedal.com |