TTK announced the winners of 30 Pedals in 30 Days – 2011

Congratulations to all the winners!

Bullet SLUG Connector Kit : ELISHA M. (ELISHAM****)
Bullet Coil Cable : JAMIE C. (JAMIEC****)
Dean Deceiver Guitar : ROBBIE B. (BAX6269)
Dime 2×12 Amp : JAIR R. (JAIR997)
ESP LTD Viper Guitar : ANDY S. (XADAWG)
Orange Tiny Terror Amp : ROBERT S. (SKOKED)

Prizes by Bullet Cable, ESP Guitars, Orange Amp, Dean Guitars and Dime Amplifiers!

Justin Longorio Playing Telecaster with Clear Coil Cable

While doing our monthly search for “Bullet Cable” on youtube.com we came across this video. JustNLongorio, You Rock!

Starting November 1, the “30 Pedals in 30 Days” promotion/give-away begins and is just around the corner. The Tone King has been getting everything in place for a month long review of pedals. Wired with custom length cables, part of his setup system uses the Voodoo Labs pedal switcher connected to multiple pedals so that pedals can be selected individually during comparisons. TTK hand made nine patch cords using the Bullet Cable SLUG Straight Connectors and Bulk Cable in a video demo that shows “behind the scenes” for the promo event. Via email from TTK, “I put all of the cables together – every single one of them tested out 100%. Really is amazing!”

There are going to be some killer giveaways: The Official 30 Pedals in 30 Days Page

Back Story

The Tone King approached us in September about a third annual “30 Pedals in 30 Days” promotion and asked if we wanted to be a part of it. We asked him, “Have you used Bullet Cable?” He said, no, but his interest was sparked by gearmanndude, and others online who were talking about us. We told TTK that he would have to get behind Bullet Cable as a LOVER of the product before we would get behind a promotion. To be fair, we sent him a cable and told him that if it wasn’t everything that we promised, we could part ways as two respective professionals. However, if it rocked, like we promised it would, then he could let us know what our part in the promotion would be.

So TTK constructed his version of a ‘scientific’ method to do cable comparisons as a way, we think, to make an informative video and a reason to test the Coil. The review went as we expected (great) and to the surprise of TTK (“better than expected”) and he pledged his allegiance to Bullet Cable. So, we will be co-sponsoring the “30 Pedals in 30 Days” along with our good friends at ESP, Dean Guitars, Orange Amps and Dime Amplification. For the full list of pedals being reviewed, click here.

For instant updates on cable giveaways, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Better yet, join our weekly newsletter via our parent company, Core One.

Bullet Coil Cable: The Return of the Coiled Cable, by Martin Berka
Photos: Tommy Posa

Coiled cables were extremely popular in the 60′s and 70′s. The main reason for this was their tendency to “follow” the player on stage, so the cables never got entangled in the players feet. Given enough time, however, the popularity of coiled cables steadily faded due to the non-existent mechanical endurance and the lack of decent shielding from noise.

A company called Bullet Cable, intends to change this trend with their recent line of high quality coiled cables. This time, they are promised to be durable, well shielded and of formidable quality overall.

Designed in the USA, the Bullet Cable Coil Cables feature a specifically designed jacket, multiple layers of shielding and gold plated contact spots on the plugs. The cable itself and the individual coils are considerably thicker and bigger than their 1960′s -1970′s predecessors.

The Coil Cable is being offered in ten different colors featuring an angled and a straight plug, and also in black with two straight plugs (Classic Coil).

Based on our tests, the Coil Cable feels exceptionally hefty and reliable, the overall worksmanship is on par with our first impressions.
Even though we didn’t get to spend a lot of time on the road with our Coil Cable, it proved to be a professional level instrument cable in a studio environment, being completely silent when it comes to internal static or external interference. Even its sound was on the level Bullet Cable promises it to be: Warm, dynamic and naturally open.

——–

Riffi is published in Finland. It is one of the country’s largest music magazines.
Published: May, 2011 (translation by J&K for Modulen Music Group – Bullet Cable’s Finnish Distributors ).

“Three of these things belong together,
Three of these things are kind of the same.
Can you guess which one of these doesn’t belong here?
Now it’s time to play our game.”
Joe Raposo and Jeff Moss, Sesame Street, 1970

By now you have seen these three coil cables online. Maybe you have even seen one of them in your favorite neighborhood store?

When it comes to coil cable by images alone, there are a lot of innocent misconceptions as to what you are actually going to get. When it comes to sales copy, written by each of our brands for marketing our products, claims sometimes look similar, but in a bigger picture are not always the same.

Bullet Cable took the time out this month to read what musicians say, to see how confusing marketing can be, and to claim our difference. We purchased a Vox Vintage Coil and a Lava Retro-Coil from one of our dealers and physically examined them against our Bullet Cable Coil and tested them against each other in listening tests.

For the purpose of this post, we are going to concentrate of the physical characteristics. Three coil factors seem to be most important to musicians: Design, durability, and performance. This post is not to say what is right or wrong. Best cable will always come down to personal preference.

Disclaimer: Like musicians who use our cable, we love our Bullet Cable Coil. We will share why we have made the design decisions that we did when we list the physical differences. Please keep in mind that we are very biased about our own product but in fairness, we will be fact based by the evidence of our own physical examination of the cables and by facts released publicly by the other two cables.

Size does matter when it comes to performance. On stage, you want to move around. In your bedroom, you want it to be compact. Bullet Cable is the longest, but retains a 12 inch footprint when you are in confined quarters.

Fact checker: Don’t let opinions lead you to believe that longer length coils equals signal loss.

“The new Retro-Coil cable is now 20-feet long — five feet shorter than the initial version to better minimize the choking effect of high capacitance common in all-coil cables due to the large amount of copper used.” Lava Cable marketing

The technology designed by Lava makes their 20′ foot cable claims accurate for their cable, but not necessary for “all-coil cables”. On the contrary, the over-all construction, audio engineering design, and quality of materials selected will contribute to the signal delivery. A shorter coil cable in general does not mean, ‘better’.

Bullet Cable offers the biggest coil diameter. Why? When Bullet Cable introduced the Coil Cable in 2004, it was our primary goal to bring back that thick retro style coil that showed up in old photos of Jimi and Pete Townshend. It took over a year of trial and error to get that large, relaxed coil, so that it wouldn’t lose its shape and would drape ever so sexy on the stage. We also spent enormous amount on R & D to improve the ‘high roll-off’ characteristic of the old cables. The result was an old-skool looking cable with crisp highs, punchy mids and defined lows. The Vox Vintage Coil Cable was introduced a year or two later. Lava, introduced the ‘Retro-Coil’ in 2007.

Bullet Cable artists claim that the Coil never tangles and they don’t trip on their cord, but they also tell us that other people in the band do sometimes step on their cable or equipment sometimes accidentally falls, hitting the cable. Because of this, we designed a durable cable with a thicker jacket that isn’t stiff and it keeps the coil movement slinky.

“I’ve been using your cables for 7 years now. I play bass for Nikka Costa, and Revoltaire (Rod Stewart’s daughter Ruby)
I’ve also played with Beck (3 albums), Jaunes, which I got a Grammy, toured with Lenny Kravitz, Prince, Britney Spears.
All that time I’ve been using your Bullet Cables (red curly cord is my favorite!) In fact I have many, but have been using
my same red curly for seven years! It hasn’t stopped on me yet!”
Shawn Davis, Bass Player

We have read a few comments from guys who claim the Bullet Coil is heavy. We thought rock n roll was supposed to be heavy? Our lady musicians have been performing with the coily for years without any whining.
In reality, the Bullet Cable Coil weighs less than 4 baseballs or two hamburgers.

How much stage movement you are going to get with each coil? Bullet Cable is going to give you more room to move around per foot in comparison. Coil cables are designed for stretch, but you will have a distance where it will come off the stage. Pulled far enough, it will pull out of your amp or drag your pedal board around on the floor.

As stated in the beginning of this post, your coil cable choice is personal to your playing experience. Yes, one of these things is not like the other…In this case, all three coils are not the same.

If you google “vox vs bullet vs lava” or any combination of the three, you will come across plenty of bulletin boards with plenty of musicians making claims to their favorite coil cable and why.
Music boards mentioned in this post:
Telecaster Guitar Forum
Marshall Forum
Vintage Amps

We are going to cover pedal order and layout in a general way as a starting place for your effects foundation and to cover the basics. Other sources will tell you, and I agree, that there is no ‘right way’ to order your pedals and set them up.  In fact, visit a few other sites, such as The Pedalboard Planner Blog and the layout might be  a little different than I am recommending, but the basic core effects will be covered.  At the end of this article, I have also included a very informative pedal layout video created by our good friend, The Tone King.

Pedal order and layout
using SLUG DIY Connectors, DIY Bulk Cable and a Bullet Cable Coil
as the line that runs between your setup

I recommend that you use the “Basic Pedal Board Layout” diagram as a starting point only.  After you have set up your effects, play and listen.  After that, re-arrange your board, and then listen again.  For example if the Wah is placed in position 2 and the distortion is switched to position 3, the Wah is working from a clean signal and the distortion from a Wah affected signal. All pedals act differently to the order of signal that they are being fed and that is why experimenting produces the best results.

Basic Layout Explained

Your guitar is the starting point for your signal.  After it travels down your carefully selected “main lead”, the signal will then travel throughout your board.  Each pedal will affect the tone as it passes through to the next one.  At the very end, another instrument cable will direct your signal to the Amp where you will then hear how this all went together.

The Pedals:

Directing our attention to the board, most likely you already own a tuner and this is usually the first shoegazing moment. A chromatic tuner is the best one to give you as many custom tuning options as possible.

The Wah is commonly the first on the board. Jimi Hendrix, known for mastering his unique and very defined tone, is said to have set the Wah after the overdrive.  But then again, this is debatable by many, so let’s remember that this is about what you hear and like.

Distortion and Overdrive is where the foundation of your tone starts. A distortion pedal allows you to scream, grind, fuzz and push the gain overboard. Overdrive will warmly push the sound you have and give you a gain control to drive it harder if you want. These signal conditioners also include compressors and tube pre-amp effects.

Pitch and Vibrato effects alter the pitch of the signal by adding octaves or bending the pitch.  Place your pedals here before duplicating it into different notes.

Modulation effects such as flangers, chorus, phaser, and octave pedals tweak the core signal you have so far  by some means such as a short delay that will combine back on itself to create or accentuate certain frequencies.

Level pedals control the volume or strength of your pedals like rapidly turn the volume control up, which is what the Tremolo does. When used with a reverb, you can hear that retro surf guitar sound. Other level pedals include volume pedal or compression pedal (which some like better up with the gain pedals).

Echo and Delay pedals would be last in our signal chain. A reverb effect also goes in this group. This is how we take all of this sound and localize it. The end of the chain would also be a good place for an EQ as well. You can tweak any of those odd tones or annoying sounds that you might want to get rid of. Again, like other pedal placements, this place for the EQ is debatable.  Some musicians like to put the EQ before the Pitch claiming that it will sweeten up a sonic area. 

The Tone King Explains the Basics of the Effects Chain

“The songs are about losing yourself, your Ray-Bans, and your mind (over a beautify British girl you met in New York City).”

Next Summer by theBRIGANTINES

The Brigantines

Our relationship with John goes back to the early days of both of our businesses. We used to be competitors. We developed one style of pedal board and John developed another. The Pedaltrain pedalboard was always a great design. John and I actually met because I wanted to tell him that I liked what he was doing, and so when the opportunity to meet him at NAMM came up, I introduced myself. Actually, our first conversations were about skateboarding and skateboard parks. Being a native Californian and avid surfer, other activities tend to peak my personal interests and I am happy to share a conversation with other enthusiasts.

Years later, and after many years of focusing on perfecting our cables (and moving away from case design), and John perfecting pedalboard design (and moving towards case design) it looks like we are ready to share a few feet of ground space together.

With the DIY connectors and bulk cable, we promised dependability, ease of use, and transparency of tone. John shared that he had been testing other kits in the market and that although each had their own strengths, none had the combination of all three the way he desired for his pedal and effects set up when demoing his pedalboards.

I recently received this email from John:

“I just have to say that the Slug DIY kit is amazingly easy to assemble, sounds fantastic and looks good doing it. What more could I possibly want..? Actually I do know what else I want…. a lifetime supply!

If you don’t know Pedaltrain, or want to see other products that they make, visit Pro Stage Gear’s Site

Although there is a lot of information on putting that board you have together, we haven’t been able to find information about how to wire it all together. Sure, you can use a standard 6″ patch cable, but as we explained in the post, “When 6 Inches is Too Long and Shorter Is Better” using a standard cable is just a start, not a technique. If you mismanage your board with loose cable, you are going to have problems.

In our video, “SLUG Side By Side Jack Wiring Patch Cable How-To SHOTGUN TIP”, we go over the 3″ cable trick to get your pedals as tight as you possibly can. We also share a technique that we call, “the Tight Loop.” This one can apply to the standard six inch, but works especially well with the flexibility that you will get with our bulk cable.

Technique #1: Side by Side

What you will need: (2) Angle Connectors, 3″ cable

Screw your connectors with angles facing in the same direction. Plug one of the connectors into your first jack, and then bend the wire backward until the angle blocks touch and put this into your second jack.

Why use this technique? To get pedals really close without the common “kick loop” that usually sticks out and creates the potential problem of catching on your toe and pulling out. Also, makes the board neat.

Technique #2: The Tight Loop

What you will need: (2) Angle Connectors, 4″ cable (cable will be a 6 inch after you put it together).

Screw your connectors with angles facing in opposite direction on both sides. With this you will plug in your pedal on the left side of the board and then the pedal on the right, you will twist the flexible cable in a (good) loop and plug it into the second pedal.

Why use this technique? The cable loops under the connectors. This technique can save you an additional 1/2″ in between each pedal when pedals are stacked side by side.

Do you have a wiring tip to share? Share your technique and/or video with us.