Music

This is what 100 guitar pedals connected together sound like

by Richard Howard

Any musician that’s made the brilliant step/life-destroying decision of nabbing “a couple pedals to improve their sound” can tell you about the affliction known as GAS: Gear Acquisition Syndrome. One day you roll out of bed and realise you can’t see your floor due to musical gear and that your bank account balance is the negative inverse of your horrific credit score.

While a cycle of buying and selling is a classic symptom, so is a level of pack-ratting that would put the subjects of A&E’s Hoarders to shame. The truth is, oftentimes half the stuff we accumulate never gets used. We just hold on to it for that one imaginary situation where “it’ll totally be perfect for that one song I’ll definitely write one day.”

However, two musicians have stepped up and done what every player with a ludicrously large collection has contemplated doing at one time or another (but didn’t due to laziness/being too high/being too poor to afford enough cable). Watch Death Grips/Tera Melos guitarist Nick Reinhart and The Mars Volta/Racer X bassist Juan Alderete de la Peña find out what running a guitar through 100 pedals sounds like.

What’s cool about the video is that it’s two guys that really know their shit trying to (for as long as humanly possible) get a vaguely usable sound out of this mass of effects and avoid the usual result of such an attempt – basically, horrific white noise.

It’s pretty fascinating watching the build up and hearing the progress as they add more effects to the mix, utilising a wackload of boutique pedals and staple effects along with a couple beaters for good measure. It’s also funny seeing them run into the usual mundane problems such as figuring out how to power everything as they “daisy-chain the shit out of” the pedals. As for the final sound? Pretty much the opening of the gates of hell. Usable? Not at all. Fun as hell? You betcha.

If you’re wondering about the warped minds that decided this was necessary, think of The Mars Volta and check out Reinhart’s awesome/hella weird band Tera Melos. It’ll all make sense.

[h/t Dangerous Minds]