Hi there all you Ghouls and Ghoulettes,

As promised I am posting some soundbites of the new custom Spook-Reverb Pedal.

I am hoping to post some video also but am afraid it will have to wait as we continue to tour relentlessly for the Suzanne Vega “Queen of Pentacles” record.

As we tour and I get to re visit Prague and Czech Republic I have been fortunate to become friends with Pavel Horkey, the genius electronics wizard behind “Hot Amps” and now a line of killer stomp-box pedals.

(If you look closely you will see he also makes a Fine Walnut Liquor which makes the it ultimate combo)

 

When he showed me his reverb pedal last year, we got to chatting and I told him about my idea for a momentary reverb effect. The idea is very simple, its a kind of reverb that will just engage when you step on the momentary foot-switch and cut off when you let go. Pavel asked me a few pointed questions and then said he could build it for me.

Lo and Behold this summer when we played Prague, he presented me with the pedal.

He went further and made a pedal that behaves like a regular stomp-box on one side; click the switch and you have beautiful reverb that you can adjust from short to long with a single knob. We called this “Spooky”. However on the other side you have the “Ghoost”* button, which is the momentary reverb. Again you can vary the length from short to long with a dedicated single knob but the reverb only sounds when you step on the foot-switch. The reverb also cuts off abruptly when you let go the switch. so you can have single note or phrase drenched on reverb and the rest of the riff or melody dry.

*The term Ghoost came about as a translation error between Czech and English, but I loved it and wanted to keep it, it’s like a combination of “Ghost” and “Boost”, what could be wrong with that !

Here are some clips demonstrating the effect:

I call this one the “Peter Green Effect” after the brilliant English bluesman Peter Green, one of the founders of the original Fleetwood Mac (and by the way in my humble opinion the best British blues man there was). But you can go there and back again without waiting for the drugs to kick in …(Sorry Peter, bad joke)

But it seems to have nice possibilities…

 

Here is another:

This is something i would have loved to have on my record in the 80’s

Remember when we were into those nice big long sad chords, but with a twist,

It also has a nice western landscape feel … you yourself can choose your era !

 

Last but not least almost my original thought to have it as an accent in a percussive loop …

 

 

 

Okay there you go,

A few more credits:

In some clips I also used the Ronno Bender Fuzz (Custom)  and the Lo Fi Looper from Z-Fex

Here is a picture of Pavel and I when he presented me with the pedal…

 

Here is a picture of the two amps he loaned me for the Summer 2013 “Czechomor” Tour of Czech Republic and Slovakia …

 

And yes thats my white custom “Liberace Ghost” Les Paul from the Bowie Reality Tour.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed

Best Ghost