archer avenue studio

I wanted to take a quick minute to write a post about a company that I have quickly grown to love.  Whether you're a guitar player, or know someone who is, you need to know about Caroline Guitar Company.  Not only does this company make GREAT products, they are right here in Columbia, SC.  This is a chance to not just support a top quality company committed to hand-crafted and creative excellence, but also to support a group of people doing business in our "backyard".   You owe it to yourself (and to our SC) to give these pedals a chance!  Of course if you don't play guitar then these fine stomp boxes make great Christmas presents...

So I now officially own all three of their pedals and can in no way
quantify my excitement about this company and these fine products.  I
literally have two boxes of wonderful guitar pedals at my disposal, but
when it came to deciding what would live on my pedal board, there was NO DOUBT that all three of these had found their home.  

 The first pedal Caroline released was The Wave Cannon.  This pedal puts all my other overdrive/distortion pedals to shame.   More of my clients and friends have bought this pedal, after playing it here in the studio, then any other pedal I own.  It's  is extremely versatile in the best way possible.  I find myself using it mostly for low to medium gain settings, but this thing also excels at high gain and even fuzz sounds.  Trust me, I'm not the only one loving this thing.  It is getting high praise all over the place.  Watch the Guitar World demo video here.  

The Olympia was the next pedal released by Caroline.  It is a transistor-based fuzz that has really caught my attention.  Think of a Big Muff on steroids (but in a smaller housing!), without the need for a tone knob.  We all love fuzz pedals but sometimes it's hard for me to commit to putting one on my pedal board. Let's face it, they have a very specific sound that is not always usable, BUT this fuzz is versatile enough that I immediately knew I could find uses for it and it now sits nicely on my PT-2.   

The third (and quite possibly my favorite) addition to this fine line of pedals is The Icarus.  This is a clean boost pedal but to put it in the words of the designer; "Here at Caroline, we think there’s a distinction to be made between clean and plain".  I couldn't have said it better myself.  This pedal has a personality that does nothing but enhance your tone!  I'm currently, most often, using it to drive  one of our fine tube amps into a smooth breakup, but I seriously have a hard time turning this pedal off at all.  Since I got it, The Icarus has been on about 90% of all the electric guitar tracks I have recorded...  I may be obsessed...
 
All three of these pedals are so responsive that as I'm playing through them I feel like I can take them wherever I want to go and they happily oblige.   Do yourself a favor and get one or all of these fine pedals immediately!  Click here for a list of their retailers, or of course you could come check them out here (AAS) and get them on your new record!