Blastronaut

I'm not familiar with Getty. Was he a referee or something?

If the buffered bypass experiment fails, take everything else out the equation and run just the Caverns (ideally with short cable runs). If it still noticably boosts volume when engaged it's likely an issue with your Caverns rather than a chain problem. You could fuck around with the internal "trails" dip switches that but they're quite fragile and would probably just confuse the issue. "Trails" mode seems to be referred to as "buffered bypass mode" in the marketing for this pedal but I don't really buy that. I'd bet my mortgage both modes are essentially true-bypass. Buffered bypass would need a fuckton of extra components for both the reverb and delay sides. "Trails" is just a clever wiring trick.

Scratch the bit about the internal control, I've just found a photo of the Caverns internals and don't see one unfortunately. Hopefully a buffer sorts out the issue. @Andrew

If you've got any pedals that are buffered bypass (like a TU-2 or basically any boss pedals) try sticking that before the Caverns, leave it plugged in but off to see if that makes a difference. Plan B: If I'm right that the delay side of the Caverns is the same as the Magnetic Echo, it should have an internal input level control you can adjust with a small screwdriver. Will look a bit like this and should be labelled "104".

Dont tell anyone I said this but I'm not sure the difference is really any greater, I think people are only aware of it more since there's more of an expectation for modulation to be more clean and precise than there is with overdrive, fuzz and distortion. My take on the digital/analogue debate: if Tom, Gemmill, Andrew and me all buy a JCM800 and Tom and Andrew don't like theirs, there's a massive chance theirs just sound radically different from mines and Gemmill's. If we all bought a Helix and I'm the only fucker that didn't like it, mines is either faulty or I'm just too thick to work out how to use it. Digital wipes out 95% of the unpredictability of of fully analogue gear. Tom's Helix will sound pretty much identical to Gemmill's and every other Helix. Your Rangemasters and Steel Stringers much less so.

From what I gather the Caverns is just Keeley's mag echo and his tri-verb in the same box. Not meaning to shit on it, I love the Magnetic Echo but it is quirky and a bit limited. Still the best pt2399 based delay I've ever played around with though.

Forgive my tinfoil hat, but the last 5 years of Tory politics seems seems like an exercise in limiting the spectrum of debate. Truss is inexplicably pulling off the impossible by making Boris look relatively competent, and the opposition is a Guy who has prurged most of the socialist Labour party members. Best hope is that Starmers game plan is just an unelaborate ruse to lull back in the the working class gammons that were conned into voting against their own interests.

Looks a sound choice man, definitely a massive upgrade. I'd probably do the same but I'm pretty sure me and Johnnie Walker would have regular fallouts with the stomp.

Largely agree with @Gemmill but I'm still torn between the logical side of my brain saying "this is undoubtedly lightyears better tech and a massive sonic upgrade" and the practical side thats screaming "I really don't fancy trying to dial in something in on that on the fly after I've had a few".

@Tom If by "on the way out" you mean it's faulty feel free to give me a shout, probably an easy repair. If you've just fallen out with it it might be time to go digital. Caverns was based on the Mag Echo echo circuit so it's a primitive bucket brigade device (pt2399) at its core. It's a cool chip to play around with but its biggest limitation is that the quality of the repeats starts to degrade (quite severely) at longer delay times. Next step up from the pt2399 is Belton Brick based delays and reverbs, but a Belton Brick is essentially just several PT2399 chips rolled into one oversized box. All that stuff has a sort of faux-analogue warmth that I really quite like at shorter delay times but fall apart a fair bit at longer delay times. I dunno exactly what to recommend. Looking at the caverns it's probably the most feature-rich of delays built on that tech (barring maybe tap-tempo? You can also get that with bucket brigade chips) I guess if you liked the sound/feel and found it easy to dial in you could stick with that technology but honestly you'll get longer delay times and cleaner repeats going digital. That said, I keep that side of my board really stripped back because and as simple as possible because I'm an idiot that can barely navigate the Deluxe Memory Man menus sober, never mind after a drink. I'm content with either a Carbon Copy or a simple 3-knob pt2399 based delay.

I rate a lot of these wee pedal sized amp "heads" fwiw. Haven't used this one but stuff like the EHX Magnum '44 are handy bits of gear to have around, and there's hundreds of similar stuff that's really feasible as beginner pedal building projects that all run off car radio power amp chips (albeit lower output and DC powered). I'm genuinely curious how it sounds, let us know how it works out man. On paper it looks overkill for two guys jamming in a room but for the price I totally get it. Really interested to know how it takes pedals/preamps.

My older cousin's man is the same (dunno about the lycra and bumming but wouldn't be massively surprised). Worked for him briefly years ago, before I really understood the link between stress triggering seizures and still feel like I massively let him down on a few occasions by not noticing the early signs on some really hectic days where he ended up unconscious and on his own. Glad you're well though man. Hope I'm not out of line asking if it bothers you that folk check in on you more than usual because they're worried about your epilepsy?

I'm not having any of this. Cardiacs "Dog-like Sparky" takes the crown here.

As an ebay seller I hate and actively avoid selling auctions. As a buyer I Iike them, especially stuff that ends early on a Monday or Tuesday morning.

Nice one, thanks. Seven Stories looks a great shout. Mostly thinking of stuff for my 5 yo, the older kids are also on the spectrum but generally cope a lot better when out and about.

Anyone able to advise on places in near the city center in Newcastle are tailored towards (or at least cater for) autistic kids? Also, less important but a heads up on the best local indy music stores would also be appreciated.

Must be massive ballache being a lefty guitar player. Cool that you're still always able to find guitars that float your boat though, despite the premium. I'm a bit of a metal-head but don't really keep up with most of the new scenes and I'm more inclined toward stuff that sounds like Motorhead having an amphetamine and alcohol fuelled scrap with Sabbath over a lot of the more modern, technical and perfectly polished stuff. I'm heavily obsessed with Carcass and High on Fire, still not over Des leaving HoF. Big soft spots for bands like BoltThrower. Loved the short lived de Grasso/Pitrelli era Megadeth (album was a bit limp but live there was a dynamic there that really floated my boat). Saw Hellripper recently too and was massively impressed, seriously good old-school thrash band that are making a few waves locally.

Not to mention Gibson have dropped the ball with their quality control in recent years. That said, I'd still probably trade ALL of my gear for a Zoot Suit SG.

Oh cool, these look great. If the price is right I might even look into getting on myself. Weird seeing ThorpyFx pedals in regular looking enclosures though. That's all I've got for now. I'll probably have more to say when I shake this hangover Edit: Holy fuck they're expensive. I'd hope at that price they had subminiature valves but looking over their website I'd doubt it. Also a little surprised to see they run on 9V (I'm guessing they have a chargepump in there to internally double the voltage) which probably means there's no tubes in there and they've went the old-school way and just used silicon transistors in a arrangement like the Fetzer Valve circuit. I'm a bit skeptical now. No doubt they'll sound good, wouldn't expect Victory or Thorpy to put their name to junk, but I can't see how they'll be anything more than just a solid-state approximation of the amps they're being marketed as. Also would be liked to have seen the Anderson's guys show them being pushed by a boost or a Tubescreamer to see if they respond more like a tube pre-amp amp or just another distortion pedal (maybe they did, I didn't watch the whole thing). I'd give it a month and these will be traced and cloned all over the place.

am I right in thinking that the HXfx has options for both buffered and true bypass modes? It could be that the Stomps front end just doesn't like the buffer. I'm not hugely familiar with either pedal but that's an interesting conundrum.

Betamax Boy could've been a halfway decent stage name that would've changed the course of your life (for better or worse) if you'd got into gabber in the 90s.

My oldest hit me with this same Jupiter stat after school today and was out in the garden excitedly looking at stars at the back of ten asking me which one was Jupiter. Bit shite having to break to her that even if we had a telescope and some coordinates, dad actually isn't that all that smart, but we had a cool 15 minutes gazing at stars and chatting about just how small our town is compared to the vastness of space. Bit of a reality check for me tbh and feeling like a shite dad for having nothing else to offer bar "aye, we're pretty insignificant in the grand scheme".

My other half keeps a close eye on the local scene up here, and most of the time I can't be arsed but the big stand out this year has been Dead Pony's War Tribes EP. Nowt new or overly original but they've got perfect pop choruses and earworm riffs for days and might be worth keeping an eye on. If Ginger Wildheart is on the ball he's already poaching their singer for the 3rd Hey! Hello album.

Long story short, they ripped off half a dozen Wire songs. When challenged Justine claimed she had never heard of Wire and was countered with "you personally named them as your biggest influence on the liner notes of your album". Stranglers (and others) also went after them over the waking up riff being lifted from No More Heroes. I do have a little sympathy for Justine, there's only 12 notes in the scale and smack probably blues the lines a bit.

Ha. Jesus, that's almost on par with Elastica debacle.