The famed drummer worked with the company to create a signature fuzz/envelope pedal.
Sebastopol, CA (March 1, 2019) -- West Co Pedals has announced the release of their first signature pedal, the Curt "Kirkee B" Bisquera "Grease Juicer" - an envelope filter pedal with attitude. The Grease Juicer features a unique analog signal path with knobs making it easy to control its complex chain of fuzz into an envelope filter with a sidechain. Two versions are available-one pedal is voiced specifically for bass and another tuned specifically for electric guitar. If players want a little extra grease and grit this pedal delivers, but it can also function solely as an envelope filter for a clean sound. The envelope filter was designed to accommodate a massive dynamic range-everything from very quiet playing on a guitar with low output single coil pickups, all the way to thumpin' n' pluckin' on a bass with active pickups. The Grease Juicer also sounds incredible on synths, electric piano, and clavinet. To get the kind of sounds and control that the Grease Juicer offers, it would normally take 2 or 3 separate pedals. The Grease Juicer is available through Clif Jones' LA Vintage Gear store in Burbank, CA, or through the West Co website directly at www.westcopedals.com for $329.99 USD.
One of the most "in demand" drummers, Curt Bisquera came to West Co Pedals to collaborate on an envelope filter for bass players to use while recording and performing. Bob Daspit, the founder of West Co Pedals, was able to realize Curt's vision-and then took it to new heights by adding the guitar pedal version. "I have been designing and building pedals on my own for several years, and now it's been incredible to work with a great musician like Curt to bring the new sounds of the Grease Juicer to life. We've been getting great responses from our artists," says Daspit.
John-Paul McLean, the bass player for Melvin Seals and JGB (Jerry Garcia Band), tried the Grease Juicer recently and immediately exclaimed, "This is exactly what I've been looking for!"
"I've been using the Grease Juicer on this latest tour with John Legend," said bassist Kaveh Rastegar. "I've also used it in the studio. It sounds great and is super dependable. I love this thing!!"
West Co Pedals has been building its reputation and product line over the past few years, mainly offering limited quantities of hand-built analog guitar and bass pedals, using top quality internal parts, knobs, and switches. West Co offers a host of analog pedals in addition to the new Grease Juicer, including its unique Blue Highway transparent boost and overdrive, Prickly Pear classic fuzz, Silver Spur treble booster, El Coyote 'CMOS' overdrive/fuzz, and the limited edition Goldbricker pedal: a spot-on re-creation of one of the most famous overdrive pedals ever developed. Visit the West Co website for more information and video demos.
Bisquera noted, "For 30-plus years I've been playing with the most world-renowned artists and musicians - it just made sense for my first collab to create something for bassists, guitarists, and synth players that I knew I wanted to hear when I'm playing drums!"
For more information:
West Co Pedals
The final day is here! Enter Stompboxtober Day 31 for your last chance to win today’s pedal from Keeley and finish the month strong!
Keeley Octa Psi Transfigurating Fuzz Pedal with Polyphonic Pitch Shifting
Meet the OCTA PSI Transfigurating Fuzz – The Ultimate Combination of Pitch-Shifter, Octave Generator, and Tri-Voiced Analog Fuzz! Key features include: Instant Effect Order Switching, Flexible Output Configuration, Momentary or Latching Octave/Pitch, and more! Each pitch shift mode includes an up, down, and dual setting, resulting in 24 different modes.
Does the guitar’s design encourage sonic exploration more than sight reading?
A popular song between 1910 and 1920 would usually sell millions of copies of sheet music annually. The world population was roughly 25 percent of what it is today, so imagine those sales would be four or five times larger in an alternate-reality 2024. My father is 88, but even with his generation, friends and family would routinely gather around a piano and play and sing their way through a stack of songbooks. (This still happens at my dad’s house every time I’m there.)
Back in their day, recordings of music were a way to promote sheet music. Labels released recordings only after sheet-music sales slowed down on a particular song. That means that until recently, a large section of society not only knew how to read music well, but they did it often—not as often as we stare at our phones, but it was a primary part of home entertainment. By today’s standards, written music feels like a dead language. Music is probably the most common language on Earth, yet I bet it has the highest illiteracy rate.
Developed specifically for Tyler Bryant, the Black Magick Reverb TB is the high-power version of Supro's flagship 1x12 combo amplifier.
At the heart of this all-tube amp is a matched pair of military-grade Sovtek 5881 power tubes configured to deliver 35-Watts of pure Class A power. In addition to the upgraded power section, the Black Magick Reverb TB also features a “bright cap” modification on Channel 1, providing extra sparkle and added versatility when blended with the original Black Magick preamp on Channel 2.
The two complementary channels are summed in parallel and fed into a 2-band EQ followed by tube-driven spring reverb and tremolo effects plus a master volume to tame the output as needed. This unique, signature variant of the Black Magick Reverb is dressed in elegant Black Scandia tolex and comes loaded with a custom-built Supro BD12 speaker made by Celestion.
Price: $1,699.
Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine is one of the loudest guitarists around. And he puts his volume to work creating mythical tones that have captured so many of our imaginations, including our special shoegaze correspondent, guitarist and pedal-maestro Andy Pitcher, who is our guest today.
My Bloody Valentine has a short discography made up of just a few albums and EPs that span decades. Meticulous as he seems to be, Shields creates texture out of his layers of tracks and loops and fuzz throughout, creating a music that needs to be felt as much as it needs to be heard.
We go to the ultimate source as Billy Corgan leaves us a message about how it felt to hear those sounds in the pre-internet days, when rather than pull up a YouTube clip, your imagination would have to guide you toward a tone.
But not everyone is an MBV fan, so this conversation is part superfan hype and part debate. We can all agree Kevin Shields is a guitarists you should know, but we can’t all agree what to do with that information.