Franklin's Garage to Stage

Inside Tom’s Pedal Demos: Making Great Tone Affordable

• Franklin's • Season 3 • Episode 3

Share episode

Great tone shouldn’t be a luxury purchase, and Tom Miles is here to prove it. We invited the creator behind Tom’s Pedal Demos to talk about the sounds, strategies, and small choices that help players build inspiring rigs for a fraction of boutique prices. Tom lays out his clear budget tiers, explains why “less talk, more pedal” is his guiding motto, and shows how context—pickups, guitars, and amps—matters more than brand hype when you’re choosing a stompbox.

We get specific about signal chains and tone stacks, from the muscular synergy of a Boss OS‑2 pushing a Marshall JCM800 to the sleeper wins that happen when you put certain guitar pedals on bass. Tom walks us through his rotating test rigs, the reason he’ll re-demo the same pedal through different amps, and the practical Boss board he’d gig with tomorrow. If you’ve wondered whether a multi‑FX unit like the Boss ME series can hang next to a spread of individual stomps, you’ll hear why durability, speed, and simplicity often beat menu-diving and massive price tags.

Beyond gear, Tom opens up about rebuilding his chops, finding the right online teacher to unlearn bad habits, and booking gigs with a deadline to create momentum. We trade “oh no” gig stories, build a punch‑list for a trustworthy gig bag, and talk honestly about band dynamics—why singers can be both your edge and your headache, and how preparation saves shows. Expect shout‑outs to Joyo, Donner, Boss, and Peavey, plus a fast tour of influences that runs from Elvis and Kiss to Metallica and Slayer. If you want practical pedal advice, budget‑friendly tone tips, and a boost of confidence to keep playing, this one’s for you.

If this conversation helped you, follow the show, share it with a bandmate, and leave a quick review—tell us your favorite budget pedal and why it stays on your board.

Please text us and please supply us with your email so we can keep you updated with additional information

Support the show

Thank you and please visit our social medial sites to leave feedback and or support our project.


https://franklinsgaragetostage.buzzsprout.com

https://franklinsgaragetostage.com


Rob:

Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to Stage podcast. My name is Rob Wardrums Franklin, and my co-host is Dana Thunderbase Franklin. How you doing, man?

Dana:

I'm doing good. Yourself? Really good. Thank you.

Rob:

Hey, we're gonna start this episode with a little quote, which I'm gonna start doing at the beginning of these episodes. And the reason I do it is I consider a band kind of like a sports team. And me and Dana grew up doing sports. And what you always hear is uh not only do you have to be physically prepared, but you gotta be mentally prepared. And so these quotes are kind of an inspiration for me, and hopefully they'll be an inspiration for you as well, uh, when you're jamming. And this one's by Frederick Nietzsche, and it basically says, without music, life would be a mistake. How true, huh?

Dana:

Oh yeah, I love that.

Rob:

All right, Danny, you want to introduce uh the guests we have today?

Dana:

All right, yeah. So today we have with us Mr. Tom Miles, who is a uh you know a musician and also a fellow podcaster. How you doing, Tom?

Tom:

Not bad, man. Glad to be here.

Dana:

Good, glad to have you on. So um let's get this started with you know, it's uh kind of like an introduction to uh your your podcast, which is called Tom's Pedal Demos. Tell us what that's all about and how you got going with that.

Tom:

Well, um a little while back, I just uh got into the collecting pedals. I don't know why I've always collected stuff, and uh I got back into guitar, as you guys know, uh a little while back, and um started collecting up all these pedals and amps and guitars and got to looking around, was like, I need to do something with these things. And I watch a lot of YouTube, uh let me tell you, and that's I watch y'all's show or listen to it. So I saw a lot of people doing these YouTube shows, but the thing that bothered me was they never talked to the guy that needed that was on a budget, everything was the most expensive gear, you know what I mean? I mean they're trying to sell you the top-of-the-line stuff, and their questions were never what what would answer my stuff. It was always, you know, megahertz and ohms and this and that. And I was like, I don't know all that stuff, I don't care. What's the pedal sound like? So I started putting together all these cheap pedals and thought, you know what, let's do a show where I can talk to people that are new or older gentlemen like me that are getting into guitar or back into guitar, and uh, you know, got families in that, and don't spend three four hundred dollars on a on a streaming pedal or uh, you know, a uh uh Evan Tide stuff like that. You know, let's let's see what we got out here. So I started doing it and uh it's done really well. A lot of people have told me they appreciate the fact that I'm not trying to sell $300 pedals and I don't talk a lot in my videos, so this is gonna be fun. I get to actually talk now. I kind of just let it run and let them, you know, my motto is less talk, more pedal.

Dana:

No, I like that.

Tom:

So, you know, that's kind of the way we run, and uh, I've gotten all over social media, kind of like what you guys have done, and uh it's starting to take off a little bit, and I'm very happy with it. And it just makes me feel good when people tell you that you know you've helped them, you've helped them find pedals that they didn't know existed. So that's kind of how it all took off.

Dana:

Cool. Well, yeah, I mean, we we've watched quite a quite a bit of your demos there, and you know, some of those pedals do sound awesome. Now, do you have a parameter as far as you say they're budget pedals? Is there like a certain price point that you won't go over?

Tom:

I mean, yeah, absolutely. You know, it's funny you say that because I just had to reiterate this on my ex channel with some guys, you know, kept asking me to do all these Stryman pedals that are like 450 bucks, and I had to tell them I demo cheap and affordable pedals. Cheap, one dollar to $29.99. More than cheap, a little more than cheap, $30 to $69.99. Affordable, $70 to $100, a little bit more up to about $120. And then after that, you got to loan it to me if you want me to demo.

Rob:

Well, that was actually one of my questions. I was gonna ask you if uh any companies supply pedals to you, but apparently not, huh?

Tom:

No, the uh none of the companies yet, but I have had some people send me some pedals, which has been really cool. One that they trust me enough to send them, knowing I'll send them back. And you know, two, that you know, that they just I don't know, maybe I'm just trustworthy. I don't know. When you look here me talk, but you know, I have gotten three or four pedals. I've had some people just give me pedals, which has been really cool. You know, hey, I got a pedal I don't use. I thought you might could use it for your show. They send them to me, and uh so that's been really cool too to find people that trust you like that.

Rob:

Yeah, it is. Now, do you use the same guitar and amp setup when you're demoing the pedals, or do you use different variations of setups?

Tom:

No, I have um I have a crate excaliper, I have a Marshall JCM 800, I have a Bos Katana Gen 3 100 watt, and I have a Bos Catana 50 watt combo Mark I, and I have a Marshall MG 100 HDX FX, and I have a Line 6 Spider 4, I think it is. And then I have about 23 guitars, and I what I try to do is match pedals to different pickup configurations and different guitars and amps, and then later on, it also allows me the freedom to do the same pedal again later, even though I do have a good bit of pedals that I can do the same pedal again later, different setting, different amp, different guitar, different pickup configuration.

Dana:

Oh, cool. Cool. So you mentioned a lot of a lot of equipment you got back there. Um, so what's what's your address and when are you not home? Exactly.

Tom:

Uh I hope there's nothing behind me you guys can see.

Dana:

So what what inspired you to do this podcast? I mean, what was the number one reason you're like, you know what? Shit, I'm gonna go on YouTube and and show this shit off. How did what exactly how did that come about?

Tom:

That's twofold. One of them is kind of kind of greedy, is that I'm getting towards retirement age and I wanted to do something that I enjoyed doing that maybe I could have some sort of small income to continue to to you know dwell in the music stuff. And number two, like I said earlier, I just wanted to help people that not every guy can go out and drop $300 on a pedal. Yeah, you know, not every guy can just go out and spend $15,000 on his setup. I mean, we're not all young guys anymore without families, without grandkids, without, you know, the the whole the whole thing. You know life.

Rob:

We sure do.

Tom:

And uh I just I wanted to help those guys. Plus, I run into so many people that also thank me that I don't throw big words at them. I don't throw all these things about the electronics in them and that. All I do is turn the knobs, let them see where they go, tell them what the pedals hooked to so that they know what pickups and that are being used, and then they can go out there and hook it up themselves.

Rob:

Okay. Now, for the people uh that don't visit our website, we're gonna put links and everything on our website to your uh different social medias, but can you uh basically say where you can be found at?

Tom:

Yeah, a couple places. Um I'm definitely on YouTube at Tom's at Tom's Demo pedals. Pedal Demos, sorry. Um you can also find me X. I have a huge following on X all of a sudden. In the past two months, I've put up about almost 1,300 followers. And I just made it clear that we only talk guitars, pedals, amps, drums, bass, that is it. You talk about anything else, I'll have you, you know, I'll block you. And uh it has gone very well. I I I have a huge following there, and we discuss a lot of things, and that's where a lot of my loaners and that have come from, people getting in touch with me. So I have that, and that's it. Also, everything is Tom's pedal demos, whether it be my Instagram, my uh buy me a coffee, my ex my YouTube threads. You guys know the deal. You gotta get on all of them if you want to. And they're all the same.

Dana:

Cool. Like so, um, how how long have you been playing guitar and tell us a little bit about like band situations that you might have been involved in, you know, earlier on in your career?

Tom:

Well, again, I'm one of those guys that spent more time in the bedroom playing than I did out in real life, but because of just you know my background of working and that, but I started when I was about 13, 12 or 13, and had a lot of fun. Of course, as a kid, you're trying to meet girls and you figure guitar is the quickest way to it. So, you know, I learned to play guitar then. My first band was uh seventh grade, 13 years old, uh, which I'll have a story for you about that later. But uh you know, and um off and on through the years, I joined the army, quit playing, you know, left my equipment with my mother and father, and then I hit the road working on aircraft as a contractor and just got to play off and on. Then I got here to where I live now, and uh everything kind of fell into place. And I had a friend that wanted me to teach him guitar, and I was like, dude, I'm not a teacher, I can't teach you nothing. But I said, I tell you what, I will do if you'll learn to play bass, I will put you in a band and get you on stage within six months. And this is a guy you have to understand that if he puts his mind to do something, there's nothing in the world that he can't be good at. And he came back four weeks later with all 30 songs that I had given him and was ready to play. Very cool. And so I went and booked a gig with no band. I gave us three months. I went and found a guitar player, a lead guitar player, a drummer, and a singer. We put it all together and went out and played. And I got him into three gigs. He played three gigs live, and then he was done. He was like, That's it. So then I was done. So from 2002 to just before 2004, we played there in that time, and that was about it. And then I put it all up, sold my PA, sold a bunch of gear, was done with it. I didn't want to deal with singers no more. And then about a year ago, two years ago, I picked it up. I I forgot all my bad habits, I let them all go. I got online, I found a guitar teacher. You know, you you got these hundreds of guitar teachers online, oh yeah and on YouTube, and I found one that I liked the way he talked, the way he taught, and tried to learn relearn everything, all the bad habits that I had, and then uh just started playing again, and now I'm enjoying it again, and that's the main thing. I'm having fun with it. So I'm considering maybe getting back into something. I thought about it about a year ago, six months, eight months ago, and the time just wasn't right with the new job and everything, which we finally got that straight, got a new schedule. So now I'm back, but now this YouTube thing's got me so busy. Oh my god, well, I ain't gotta tell you guys trying to run a podcast and a channel is uh it's a it's a it's a job in itself, but I hope to actually put something together and go play live at least one more time in the next year or two.

Rob:

There you go, cool. Well, getting back to your shows, uh, do you have an average length of time you try to keep your shows to, or is it kind of very no, no, that's a good question because that was another thing.

Tom:

You try to watch somebody and they talk for the first 20 minutes before you ever get to it. I try to keep them at first. The first few, if you go back and look, will be between six and seven and a half, eight minutes. And I thought that was too long because people's attention spans just not that long when it comes to watching somebody just turn knobs. So I've got it down now. The the last seven or eight I've done, I've tried to keep under five minutes. I've kept them in the four-minute area, but some pedals just have so much on them, man.

Dana:

Oh yeah. Okay, so with all your pedals, uh now how what's the quantity? How many pedals you got exactly?

Tom:

Right now I'm at 103. I just counted them the other day because I took a big group picture. I laid them all out and took a picture and put it on my X for some for some people that were asking, and it was 103.

Dana:

Oh, impressive. I like it. Okay, so out of those 103, uh, which is your favorite?

Tom:

Uh you know what? I knew you were gonna ask this. I knew you were gonna ask this. I went in there just to make sure I had my stuff straight.

Dana:

Yeah, I mean that that's a tough question, of course. It's like asking what your favorite guitar is. I get it. So you know, if you had if you had to narrow it down, you know, somebody's putting a gun to your head and it's like, you know, you take one of these motherfuckers, you're dead. Which which one is it?

Tom:

You know what? I think that if I was using my JCM 800, which is my my main ant, the ant that I love, if you touch my JCM 800, there would be problems around the house. It would have to be my OS2, which is my um boss overdrive or distortion pedal, and that pedal fits my JCM 800 to a T. So distortion-wise, it would just have to be that because it pushes me right over the edge that I'm getting the perfect distortion sound that I want right now.

Rob:

Cool.

Tom:

Uh, what kind of thing just so you know, whichever one you got? I've the bass player here. Oh, yeah. You know, they can't see you in that. Yeah, I just want you to know that I found some guitar pedals because people asked me to do this stuff on bass, and I only have three bass pedals, so I had to start using some of my guitar modulation pedals. And man, let me tell you, I've got some pedals that are way better on bass than they are on guitar.

Dana:

Oh, well, we're gonna have to talk about that.

Tom:

Yeah, that Joyo Vision, if you haven't tried it yet, man, you might want to throw that thing on, and it's less than 80 bucks.

Rob:

Sweet. Cool. So, Tom, what kind of feedback have you had from your viewers?

Tom:

Uh, you know what's it it's it's been really great because you know, when you go into this, and I'm sure you all have heard the good and the bad and the ugly, and people try to put you down because people don't want to know that want you to know that you're doing a good job or that you know that they like you. That I would have to say out of the three months, four months that I've been running this, you know, really, really hard, you know, like it means something, I've only had two people out of probably a few thousand that have given me any problems that have, you know, been smart asses or tried to put me down. And I've actually had a guy that tried to do that on my ex, and I didn't even have to say anything. My entire ex family jumped him, and I've never seen him again since. Oh, that's cool. That's very cool.

Dana:

Yeah, that's cool. And you get the people that are backing you up. It's like, hey, you leave this shit alone.

Tom:

Yeah, so I've had really good feedback, you know, for the most part. I'd say about 98% of it has been really, really good.

Dana:

Cool. And are you getting any um getting any response like internationally from overseas?

Tom:

Um I have gotten a few people. I got a guy from Bulgaria actually is sending me a pedal, but from Bulgaria, it's a slow boat from China. Yeah, and uh I'd like to give him a shout out because if nobody's ever seen his pedal stuff, he's a little bit more expensive. I mean, he's got a few in the affordable range, but a little bit of his stuff because that's he's a boutique uh builder, but SBI Sounds builds some of the wildest looking stuff you'll ever see in your life. It's almost steamboat looking or steampunk looking. I'm sorry. Yeah, and uh I'd like to give him a shout-out. And there's been a few from uh oh, I have a bunch of people from England that talk to me regularly.

Rob:

Nice.

Tom:

So that's that's going really well. And then, of course, I have a couple from Italy, and I can't understand what they're trying to write to me, but it's nice because it they got smiley faces after it, so I'm guessing it's good.

Dana:

Cool, cool. Yeah, we've we've noticed that, especially you know, from the UK, that you know, those people they know their music out there. That's all it's too. They've got their shit down.

Tom:

Oh man, you're not kidding. You're not gonna put you're not gonna trick them either. You're not gonna put something out thinking that you're you know getting over because they will call you out in a minute. Oh, hell yeah.

Dana:

Yep. Okay, so we talked about your favorite pedal. What is there a pedal that you would say is you know, any negative negativity about? Would you just be like, you know, people don't waste your money on this shit, it's not worth it. I mean, uh what's the extreme there?

Tom:

I try not to say that because maybe it is a pedal that's so cheap that that's the only thing that they could afford, you know, and I don't want to I don't want to put them in a position to where they don't, you know, where they feel like they can't buy a pedal because it's only you know 20 bucks or something. But I tell you, I got a pedal that I was really high on. A guy sent me from California called um, I guess I'll throw it out there, the K-line ghost uh oh god, ghost rain. Sounds cool, beautiful pedal, all white with a little ghost on it and everything. And I swear to God, I can't throw that thing at a wall and make it do anything. But you know what? That's another pedal though. I hooked the bass up to it, and it did get a great reverb on the bass. The delays was sorry, but the reverb was great.

Rob:

Cool. All right, well, Tom, we've always got a uh a little segment we call Oh shit. Where it's basically you've done something either in your show or when you during a live performance or maybe even a practice where something's just gone terribly wrong where it's uh oh shit moment.

Tom:

Oh man, I'm gonna go way back. This is a story I was gonna I was telling you. This is this is so far back, this is the very first time I ever played in front of people. And this is how bad it was. We were a four-piece band. I played guitar and sang. We were playing at school, junior high. They had allowed us, I don't know why, but they allowed us to come play in front of everybody at the at a uh pep rally, and we were doing cat scratch fever. And we got there and started unpacking all of our gear and found out they only had two plugs where we were playing at. So I didn't even get to yes, so I didn't even get to play guitar. All I did, I had and we couldn't hook up our little bitty PA. I had to plug into the other guitar player. You know how the older amps had two plug-ins that were that you could run. And uh our bass player took one plug, the other guitar player took the other plug, and I had to run the microphone into his extra, his low game and sing through his amps while he was playing. And I mean that I tell you what, that taught me a lot, and that's another thing aspect I've added to my show is Gear Talk, where I do as a brand new, and this fits right into what you guys do here and what you're talking about. The 10 biggest things as a new gigging musician must have in your gig bag.

Rob:

Cool. Good idea.

Tom:

Because you're gonna you're gonna find out you need it sooner or later, like duct tape.

Rob:

Hey, that's a great idea.

Tom:

So I'm I'm working on that one right now. I gotta put the bag together so you know I have everything right there. But uh yeah, that's I I remember that, and I remember after it was over with all I could think is I didn't even get to play guitar in front of all these people.

Dana:

Yeah, a lot of our oh shit moments or just talk to other musicians and band members have been, you know, our our number one rule is you gotta be prepared because you know, if you haven't thought about it, you know, look it up or be prepared for every instance or circumstance because the shit won't happen at the worst possible spot, and you know, you won't be prepared for it, and people are gonna look at you like you're just an idiot.

Tom:

You know what, you know, and this ain't a shot at nobody because I know you guys are I think a drummer and a bass player.

Rob:

Yes, right.

Tom:

And I found as the guitar player that half the stuff in my bag gets taken by my drummer and my bass player because they don't have it. Hey man, can I get your duct tape? Hey man, can you can you take my symbol up up here? Hey man, can I get that right there for my amp? Hey man, my cores are here. Hey, you got an extra pick? All the time. You got a battery? My my back my power pack went out, man. Can I get a battery?

Dana:

Yeah, we've we've said we've said many times on our our shows, it's like you know, band members are they're family, and you just gotta deal with it because they're gonna they're gonna act like a family and be like, dude, give me that shit. I I need it. You know, what do you mean you don't have that? I need that.

Tom:

And you know, that's why I just threw it in my bag because I figured if if if I have it, at least we have it.

Dana:

Yeah.

Tom:

If I don't have it, and then you don't have it, well now we got bigger problems. We're tripping on shit, we're falling over stuff.

Dana:

Well, you know, this you know the singer, and this is no no no shit against singers, but the singer ain't bringing shit. Oh, he's bringing oh, he's bringing his attitude and his stage presence.

Tom:

That's all his attitude, and and if you're lucky, he brought his own microphone. You know, because half the time you got to buy the mic for him to use too.

Rob:

Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. TA sometimes. Yeah, we've been through all with singers. Yes.

Dana:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we've had an audition where the singer just came with without even a mic. We're like, dude, what the fuck? Are you serious?

Tom:

Man, you know, I that's don't even get me started on singers.

Dana:

But you know, you gotta have them, and the good ones are worth their weight in gold. Oh, yeah.

Tom:

Yes, they are. When you get a good one, you're your band will take no matter how the rest of the band performs, just about if your singer is good and can keep people interested, you're good, you're gold.

Rob:

Yeah.

Tom:

I mean, that's after the show, you just want to take him in the back and strangle. Because he ain't helping you load, he ain't helping you put stuff in the truck.

Dana:

So with the new music stuff, what are your uh what are your big influences? I mean, how did you get started in music to start with? That you know, at what age? I mean, I know everybody's I think I was like eight or nine, and listening my brother here play the drumps got me going, but he started playing some early like Blue Oyster Colt and Ted Newtons. Like, oh, I love this shit. So what was it for you?

Tom:

You know, it's funny because my actual very first musical influence, and you guys may laugh at me, but I was a huge Elvis fan when I was about five to eight.

Rob:

Hey, nothing wrong with that at all.

Tom:

I I owned every Elvis, every Christmas birthday. I was like, I want this album, Mom, and she'd buy me, you know, because she loved Elvis too, so she had no problem buying it. And then about fourth grade hit, fifth grade, we came back from Germany, and I saved up ten dollars and I got Kiss of Life too, and I was done. And uh dressed up like KISS, had to be Kiss, you know, did the little shows out front pretending to be Kiss. And then all of a sudden, it was like a guy hit with the with the Southern Rock thing moving to Georgia, and I got into Molly Hatchet and Leonard Skinner. A lot of Skinner, like a lot of Skinner growing up. Uh the Outlaws, man, I loved all, and I still don't think any of those guitar players get the credit they deserve. No, Dwayne Holland and all of them from Molly Hatchet, none of them they don't get any credit for what they accomplished. And then, of course, you know, you get into the 80s and uh Hair Rock hit, and uh I was a docking fanatic, and then I heard Metallica's ride the lightning, and it was done.

Rob:

There you go, cool.

Tom:

So now you know it's it's even today. I'm still Metallica. Slayer is probably my favorite band besides Kiss ever. Kiss will always be my band, but Slayer, old Metallica from Elvis Presley to Slayer.

Dana:

I like it. Yeah, huh?

Tom:

Well, dude, you have to see my iPod. You say that, but I've got everything from Prince to Elvis to Slayer to Metal Church to Michael Jackson. All right, that's a stress. That's all right. You know, if if if they play something, I want to hear the beat, I want to hear what the what the bass player is doing, I want to hear what the drummer's doing, I want to know what the guitar player is doing to carry it, you know. So I I listen to it all now, but yeah, kiss, then into southern rock, and then Metallica.

Rob:

Cool. Okay, well, we always ask uh fellow musicians like, what would you say to new musicians coming up? What would be your inspirational words to them? And and uh also like let's sell some more on your show.

Tom:

Oh, okay. Um, I didn't know you were done there. No. Uh my the one thing I would tell all the young guys that I meet and young kids is um don't let nobody tell you that you can't do it. No matter what you're playing, even if you're not good yet, it you're not gonna get good unless you're back. I'm not I'm 58 years old and I'm still not good. I mean, I can get by, I can play with people, I can I can make it happen. If you give me the song, give me long enough, I can learn anything just about. I'm not a lead guitarist, I'm a rhythm guitarist. I know that, I've lived with that. I've played with some of the best lead guitar players I've ever met, so I'm I'm good with that back seat. But don't let nobody tell you, hey, you can't do this, or you're not good enough, or you're never gonna be good enough, because that's all bullshit. It just takes practice. Take the time to play, even if it's only 20 minutes a day. If you have a job or something as a young guy, and you know, your parents expect you to do other stuff around the house. Just take that 20 minutes and run your scales, run some chords, you know, run your finger exercises.

Rob:

Good advice.

Tom:

But uh, that would be the main thing, and and and also don't think you have to own the most expensive equipment in the frickin' yard, you know, building. You don't have to own the most expensive equipment. Let me tell you something. The best amps I still say to this day ever built were PD amps.

Dana:

Yes, thank you, brother. Oh hell yeah.

Tom:

Anybody can tell me, try to tell me different, but there's nothing that beats the old, you know, chorus amp and the renown and and the deuce. Man, them, yeah, you could kill somebody if you dropped it on them, but them, they were bulletproof and they did everything you needed, and they take pedals as well, if not better than almost any ant built to this day.

Dana:

See, now you're you're you're a man right in my world. I I still play through a PB Mark Mark IV base head, and I've had that thing for 40 years. And it's like I said, yeah, I can kill somebody with it because it weighs about 80 pounds. But the thing is indestructible. I mean, I've it's played through hundreds of live shows, been beat up, thrown in U-Hauls and back of cars, and probably been pissed on a few times. But I mean, that thing is is it's like you said, oh hell yeah.

Tom:

Yeah, you can't do nothing to a PV and destroy it just about it. I mean, you really have to try to destroy one. And to this day, right now, I'm still trying to buy an old PV amp, but people are starting to realize it, let me tell you, because I tried to buy a backstage 30 a few weeks ago, and that guy wanted 250 bucks for that thing.

Rob:

Yeah, I've got to do that.

Tom:

And I was like, No, I'm good with that. Hey, and and speaking of your amp and that, I forgot to tell you at the beginning of this, I have a base amp and base now, and I have an Ivanz SDGR four string, and I have a Hartkey model 2000 head on top of a Hartkey 115 cap. That's my base setup for that.

Dana:

Hey, you know, it's got the 15 inch, it's dumping, I hear you.

Tom:

But uh yeah, that's all that's the main thing I would tell even, and I say young people, but even the older people like me that are just now getting into this, just do your thing. Don't worry about what everybody else thinks. And if it's and if you got a hundred dollar amp, play a hundred dollar amp. That's all you need until you get to the point if you're gonna play live. And that's the other thing. Unless your gear is paying your bills, you don't have to have top of the line. Yeah, you don't have to have the best stuff. I can I can play in my bedroom and use any one of those hundred pedals I have in there and find a sound that I can sit in there and jam to and enjoy. Well, except for that ghost ring.

Dana:

There's always one in the trout, right?

Tom:

I can't find nothing for that thing, but the rest of them, but uh, there's a lot of brands out there people need to keep their eye on. They had Joyo. Joyo is making great stuff now. Their 1030 series, man, that that stuff is hardcore, and then their new Revolution series is great. Donner for the mini pedals, man. You can put 15 of those on a regular size board, you know, because they're small, great sound. And and none of that stuff costs more than 60-70 bucks a shot, and a lot of those donors are 30 bucks, you know. Get them. And the Joyo 1030 series are running 20 to 30 dollars.

Dana:

Yeah. So what do you think about some of the um some of the pedal boards that have all these different presets and individual you know channels where you can make your own sounds, you know, I have Oh, you know what the fractional, the fractional sticks and the line pod and all those things? Yeah, I've got, you know, I mean, I, for example, you know, my my setup is I play through a boss eme 60, and it's got you know like 64 presets and 32 more sounds that I can make. And of course, it's got the chorus distortion, flanger, the wah, you know, all that built into one. Um, I mean, there are times I wish I had individual pedals because you gotta, you know, mess around with a couple different things to get the right sound, and then you gotta remember how many times you gotta push that button to get to that sound. So it's a little bit a little bit more technical, but how do you feel about those all-in-one systems?

Tom:

Well, you know, that ME60, I have the ME50 for my guitar. Okay. And I swear by that board. If you told me tomorrow, Tom, we need you to come, we got about five songs here, we need you to know, and we need you to come out and play tomorrow. I take that ME50 and not lose a minute's sleep over using it.

Dana:

Nice.

Tom:

I think those boards I I use my I don't know how your board's set up because it's a bass board, but mine has over 22 distortion sounds. I've got a compressor built in, I've got a built-in noise gate, I have chorus modulation, flanger, and octave up and down. Everything's in mine.

Dana:

Yeah, yeah.

Tom:

And I'm sure yours is the same way.

Dana:

Same deal, yeah.

Tom:

Then you so I would and I, you know what, and I tell people to get that thing when when people on X and S say, hey, how do you because they ask the same question, how do you feel about these boards? Because I don't care for the fractals and all that. Yeah, they're top of the line, but they're fifteen hundred dollars, they better do everything you want them to do, they better do more. But uh these uh these boss and digitech boards and that, if you can figure out how to use some of them, because some of them digitech boards, you got to have a college degree to get them. Oh yeah, I mean, they are but uh I would put that boss board, I would tell anybody get that boss FX uh all in one FX and and take it out and use it, take it on the road. I could I could kill you with mine, buddy. I hit you in the head with it and knock you out. It's so heavy and so big. Yeah, but I also know I've had it since 2003 and have never had a problem with it.

Dana:

Cool, yeah. Same with. Me, I I love the boss stuff. I mean, I always have, even when I had individual pedals, they were mostly the boss ones.

Tom:

So cool. But you can't beat them for the price and the way they're built and the sounds you can get. I just built a boss board actually. I uh I built a board because I'm trying to build some boards and you know, so people can see how you run the cabling and all that when you build one from scratch. And uh I built a boss board the other day. It's got nine pedals on it, or seven nine pedals on it, and I love that board. It's got all the basic boss pedals, probably the same ones you're talking about. I got the OS2 and the DS1. I've got an SD1 on there, the BF3 flanger, the DD6 delay, you know, NS2 noise suppressor, the EQ7 for my boost in that. And I love that board. And I can tell you right now, that board wouldn't cost more than $300 with all nine pedals, the board and the power supply.

Dana:

Yeah. Nice. All right, so um to close this out a little bit here, I you know, you know, Rob opened up this whole episode with uh with the phrase, and I'm gonna do the same closing it. And the mine is you know, music is life, so keep listening so you can stay among the living. I mean, nice how does that not fit every musician in the world? Exactly.

Tom:

No, that that that should be that should be how you live your life because I tell you what, music has helped me and tons of friends that I have out just during bad times, have something to sit and listen, whether you're sad or you're happy or you're angry, exactly, or whatever it may be. You know, you throw something on, you sit back, close your eyes, you listen to it, and just let the world kind of melt away for 30 minutes or an hour, you know, while you while you're jamming.

Dana:

Hell yeah.

Tom:

And if you're gonna do that, do it to Slayer's raining blood. It's only oh, there you go.

Rob:

Very cool.

Tom:

And uh it'll get you going again. You'll be ready to go out and and punch yourself for something.

Rob:

Well, Tom, it's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you today. And uh uh keep going with your with your YouTube videos that because they're they're outstanding. But in closing, what would you like to say to your viewers?

Tom:

No, um, I'd just like to first of all thank all everybody that's jumped on the um the pedal train with me, you know, right here from the beginning. Um I hope they stick around and hope they know that everything I do, you know, I try to do not just for me, but for them. I know it sounds corny, but you wouldn't do this if you weren't trying to reach people, if you weren't trying to uh help them out.

Dana:

So that's exactly why we do our show. I mean, we're not in it to get rich or to fame and fortunate, but just to help out, you know, fellow musicians who are either just starting out or maybe in a little bit of a rut and they've got a band, but they don't know how to get any, you know, any farther as far as playing on stage, or even once they're on stage, you know, how do you get you know lawyers and everything else involved? So you know, just here to help everybody through every step in life in the musicians' world.

Tom:

And y'all keep it up because uh what you do is is helpful. If I was a younger guy and actually trying to you know make a living at this, a lot of the stuff you guys put out is stuff that I would need to know then. And uh that's good.

Rob:

Cool, thank you. Appreciate that. All right, well, Tom, well, thank you and to everybody, thank you for listening and being loyal listeners and peace out. Yep, love y'all later. Bye.

Tom:

See you guys later. Bye bye.

Head Shot

Dana and Rob wearing swag

Host
Head Shot

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin

Host
Head Shot

Dana (Thunder Bass) Franklin

Co-host
Head Shot

Tom Miles

Guest