I remember well that at the time, it seemed to be the go for Wah pedal, there was some hype about it, and that’s probably how it got my attention. Still, the final choice was only taken after a lot of research. I tend to use  a lot of time finding out more about stuff I’m about to invest my money in, specially if that’s a relatively big investment.

Let’s face it, guitar equipment is a luxury by any standards. You simply don’t need it to get from one day to another. Yes, it sucks not to have it, but you won’t go hungry without it – it’s definitely less important than food!

So, considering it, yes, this pedal is a luxury. Even the name implies it. I suppose Clyde Wah (without “Deluxe”) cuts it just as fine, but for those like me who don’t hesitate to pay the little extra to get a little extra, there’s always the little extra to be gotten. So here it is. Deluxe.

Clyde Wah Deluxe fulfills all my Wah needs – except for auto-wah, of course (that I compensate with the WMD Super Fatman, my latest pedal at the time of writing. But setting the auto-wah aside, it does the “wah” thing, and it does it remarkably well. My favorite setting is “Jimi”, for obvious reasons. If you’ve heard it played in this setting, you already know you’ll be spending most of the time playing on this setting, even though the other two are decent in their own right.

If you’re looking for a vintage-sounding wah, have a go on Clyde Wah Deluxe. I’m sure those Cry Babies do their thing as well, but you’ve got to have  a listen. When you do, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

That said, I can add that Chris did a very good job putting it together. It’s a circuit with premium, top-shelf components that don’t compromise on anything. The unique paint job – which helped the pedal reach its celebrity status – is but another detail on a pedal that was built not only to last, but to collect. That’s right, some of this pedal’s components are so rare that you’ll become a “vintage gear collector” just by owning one, in spite of the pedal itself being relatively new.

Stacking gain upon gain leads to very powerful leads. Those could only be achieved by wealthy guitarists stacking drive upon drive until they got a fridge-like rack on stage. Rockbox Boiling Point might not give you all that effect by itself, but it will take you a long way.

I found Rockbox Boiling Point to be one of the greatest additions to my pedalboard, and I’ll be hard-pressed to find a substitute for it. Time will tell, but until then, Rockbox Boiling Point is and will remain a faithfull drive pedal in my tone palette.

The GT-10 was the perfect gear at the time for me, because it didn’t require an amp: I could practice with only the GT-10, my guitar and my headphones. I don’t know how many people are aware of this feature in GT-10, but for me it was one of the strongest selling points, since I didn’t have an amplifier and had no juice to get one anytime soon… I also wish I had known the GT-10 featured a sound interface within it. Though it was not as decent as the external sound card I had already invested on, it still offered enough quality to practice recording.

But somehow the GT-10 didn’t seem to appeal to my ears as much as I had expected, especially when it came to the drivers. I began to note that the “dynamic organics” (for lack of better words) were not there. It didn’t take long for me to invest some unexpected cash into a valve amp and a cabinet. I stuck with the GT-10 and the Blackstar HT-5H – which I still have – and used the 4CM cable connection with it. That way I could bypass the amp simulators in the unit and use the preamp of my valve amp instead. It worked very well, and I was happy for a couple of months.

In a process that was somewhat brief, I started to feel limited to the constrains of the GT-10, even though the architectural concept in itself is quite flexible. I started to spend so much time trying to find out how to do this and that with it that the fun started fading away, along with actual practice time. That and the obvious digitized aspect of the effects started to annoy me. Still, I tried to make the best of it. I kept telling myself that there were many great demos out there showing what could be achieved with the GT-10, and that I should focus on my playing, not dwell on details.

However, I also started to understand one very important thing. The guitar gear universe was getting more and more divided between those who choose to embrace digital technology fully and those who stick to the old analog way. Back in 2009, there was very little getting mixed up in a sensible way. There was a lot of amp simulation, guitar/pickup simulation and digital effects (which are a form of analog simulation). That trend is still quite strong and getting more and more realistic, but not quite there yet. Recently a lot of gear is mixing digital controls with analog signal paths, a very welcome change in my opinion. l find that hybrid solutions still have a long way to go…

The GT-10, with all its effects, guitars and amp simulators, excels when plugged directly into a PA system. The best demos I’ve seen of it are played through either PA or powerful pristine-clean amps like the Roland JC-120. That, and the limitation of two modulation pedals at a time started making me consider trying the analog way, because either way was going to cost as much to acquire and maintain – if you really want to go all the way. Well, the analog way can end up getting a little more expensive, but that’s probably because one has the freedom of keeping adding to it.

I started spending a lot of time watching videos on stomp-boxes, both digital and analog, to understand how different pedals worked and how they interacted with each other. I won’t imply I always do “a good job” at researching on music gear, but in this case I did go far enough to my own satisfaction. The whole idea was ripe when more unexpected cash came in (I was a freelancer at the time and you never know what you’ll have at the end of the month). My leap into analog stomp-boxes was a combination of both “education” and opportunity.

That was the end of my GT-10 experience, which was sold to help me finance a couple of analog stomp-boxes. I don’t regret that decision, but considering all the cables, heaviness and cumbersomeness of my current pedalboard, the GT-10 or similar all-in-one boards are *very sensible* alternatives for a gigging guitarist. With that in mind, I would definitely consider a multi-effects unit like the GT-10 as a convenient, mobile pedalboard. If you’re looking for ultimate flexibility, tone tweak-ability and don’t care about mobility nor fiddling with loads of cables, the analog stomp-box path is way more rewarding – in my experience.

Just one last observation, which is worth mentioning… The output of Digital-based effects are based on digital processing. Digital processing these days do feature high sampling rates, but the quality of converters is still questionable and varies a lot from manufacturer to manufacturer. In strict audiophile terms, if you want to achieve the highest fidelity possible, analog effects are the only alternative.

It’s like the classic example of the analog and digital photography. The resolution of an analog photograph is limitless – it can be blown to any size and remain just as “crisp”. But digital photography is still limited to its megapixel rate. After a certain point, it looses its sharpness as the pixels become more visible. But digital photography is way more convenient and affordable. This compromise is becoming more and more acceptable as the digital resolution increases, along with more accurate sensors and better loss-less file formats.

In an attempt to compensate for this discrepancy between analog and digital effects, Line6 released better A/D converters and less compressed sound samples in their relatively new Pod HD line. Boss has just released the GT-100, which is their take at “HD” amp modelling. I’m sure the Boss GT-100 is a fine product, but it I was to consider a multi-effect pedal in this class, I’d have a very close look at the most updated Line6 line-up.

Lovepedal Kalamazoo was one of the few drive pedals I tried that managed to loosen-up something inside my tone quest. It interacts with my guitars and pedals in such a dynamic way that I keep discovering tones even when I leave it set on a sweet spot for a while. It reacts to my picking, to my guitar pickups, their combination and their volume, in a way some of the driver pedals I have don’t. And that should mean something, for at the time of me writing this article (meaning, right now), I do own quite good drive pedals which are quite responsive.

Lovepedal Kalamazoo is a pedal that plays exceptionally well with other drive pedals. There’s something about the glass knob that makes all the difference to me. It gives me this overdrive bite that I find I had been missing until I turn it on. It could be that it’s a consequence of me having to play at very low volumes at home – so I don’t drive my amp hard enough to get the nuances/dynamics of the valves. Seemingly, that’s compensated by turning on Lovepedal Kalamazoo.

I don’t see it leaving my pedalboard in a very… long… time… Unless an amazing pedal like Ethos Overdrive falls from heaven!

It provides six memory slots, a welcome addition to a pedal that provides such a wide tone spectrum. The downside is that can only be accessed through a dedicated HOG extension stomp-box. This extension is huge, bigger than most of my average pedals, and costs more than $100. I got it online, and didn’t realize it was going to be as big as the Electric Mistress standard (not the latest “Stereo”). Too bad, as it won’t make it to my pedalboard, claiming all that space. As I already mentioned in my review of the POG2, when you consider pedal board real-state and your needs, the POG2 might become a better alternative to the HOG, which is more versatile but quite “expensive” real-state-wise (also price-wise, for the record).

I also have the Eventide PitchFactor, which many wrongly benchmark against the HOG. It’s important to remark that the HOG does provide basic pitch-shifting, but was not designed for that. It was designed to combine harmonics, bringing them together through tweak-able mixes.  The Eventide PitchFactor adds modulation and delay to advanced pitch-shifting based on specific user-defined scales, ie. “ C#m + 5th below “. The HOG doesn’t do that. On the other hand, the user interface of the HOG is more intuitive than the PitchFactor one, and some claim the tracking is arguably better. I wouldn’t be so sure about that, I think both pedals track nicely but can fail when given complex chords.

The HOG is quite expensive, but considering the return on investment (fun, fun, fun), I have no regrets there. I did flirt with it since the first time I saw and heard it (thanks YouTube!), but since I already had the POG2, it kept being pushed to the bottom of my wishing list. An unexpected tax compensation finally made it possible!

All that time I had waited on getting it, I secretly wished EHX would upgrade it in the meantime as well, perhaps by simply reducing the footprint on the pedal board. I guess they made heaps of these and are not overly preoccupied in fiddling with such an exclusive product just yet. But when they do come with an upgrade, I’ll be one of the first in the line. The pedal is pure awesomeness, I just wish it was a smaller awesomeness…

I won’t just assume that a tuner is a easy-to-put-together device, but I think it’s a fact that the technology behind a tuner has become undeniably accessible and affordable. That is, of course, an assumption taken on a very broad concept of a tuner as a device. That considered, tuners haven’t really seen a major functional evolution (that took them beyond their mere tuning task) in a very long time, except for occasional interface face-lifting and casing from different producers.

I guess the poly-tuning technology already existed, but TC Electronics were definitely the first ones to wrap it into a device that was both straight-forward and convenient to both guitar and bass players. TC Electronics Polytuner does not only delivers poly-tuning while strumming all the strings at once, but also present the concept through a very intuitive interface. The leds are bright enough to show even under strong environment light, only showing at all when the pedal is active. Some other tuner pedals feature big and bulgy LED tips that stick outside their cases, which can mislead the user depending on the environment’s lighting (due to refraction within the LEDs). Korg’s Pitch Black offers more or less the same high contrast concept, but the inactive pitch perks are still very visible when not on. The TC Electronics Polytuner remains literally “pitch black” when not active.

That was a very welcome addition to the range of already existing tuner pedals, and players flocked to try the TC Electronics Polytuner when it was first introduced. To everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t a product from the typical tuner makers (Roland, Yamaha, Boss and Korg).

This is a pedal that will definitely remain in my pedal board, unless someone else comes with a very good alternative. I don’t see how tuning can get much better than this, but am already flirting with its new version, the TC Electronics Polytune Mini.

I do have a suggestion to TC Electronics though: what about a tiny little microscopic device that takes only the space of the jack in-out, and that projects the TC Electronics Polytune interface to the floor through a laser beam? That way, the interface gets way bigger, with the freedom of being projected wherever the player points its laser beam at – like those geeky alarm clocks. The interface could get bigger than the over-bloated Boss TU-1000 Stage Tuner, without claiming all that pedalboard real-state (hint, hint)!

But there are several factors that make this book unique: the full story is told in less than a week. In fact, the core story is told within 3 days, and it’s all about pawns playing at winning battles in a war that is much bigger than themselves. Someone simply has to do the dirty work.

The main characters are others, not necessarily unknown from Abercrombies previous books. In a plot so tight and fast paced as this, many characters contribute to see the same chain of events from different angles, providing a rich, detailed and rewarding read. Recommended!

The characters being introduced in this story are complex and full of nuances. They mingle to create a very rewarding reading experience, specially for those who have already read a lot of fantasy and crave for intertwined intrigue, near death situations, plenty of casualties and high stakes.

Another nicety to this book is that it is not spanned through a trilogy. It is therefore fast paced and intense, very intense!

For those unfamiliar with Joe Abercrombie, be warned: this is no kid literature! No cursing is spared and it can get very explicit. But I can guarantee that if you don’t mind that, you’ll find it hard to put the book down.

But even jQuery can be challenging when we don’t take the necessary steps to make sure it will work optimally. In this article I will go through a short checklist, that explains how to load your jQuery in the most fool-proof way.

Make sure the jQuery library is being loaded before any custom jQuery

As with any other javascript library, jQuery has to be loaded before one can start using it. It can be a good idea to check if jQuery is already present in your system before you include the library. jQuery is, for instance, already present in many WordPress themes.

<?php
	/* Always include wp_head() before the closing </head>
	 * tag of your theme, or you will break many plugins, which
	 * generally use this hook to add elements to <head> such
	 * as styles, scripts, and meta tags.
	 */
	wp_head();
?>
	<script type="text/javascript">
		// check if jQuery is already present/loaded
		if(jQuery) {
			alert("jQuery library is loaded!");
		}
	</script>
</head>

If jQuery library is already present, you will get a browser alert where it stands “jQuery library is loaded!”. In that case you don’t need to load the library again, but if you don’t get an alert box with this message you will have to include the jQuery library manually. You can do that by doing the following:

<?php
	wp_head();
?>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/js/jquery.min.js"></script>
</head>

The file name will vary depending of the version you’ll be using, but for a production site I’ll always recommend to use the “minified” version (look for “min” in the file name). That will keep your bandwith lean and load the library faster. You also have the option to load jQuery libraries provided by CDNs (Content Delivery Networks). Click here for an updated list of CDNs providing jQuery libraries. Below are some examples, you will only need one of them:

<?php
	wp_head();
?>
<?php // Google CDN ?>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<?php // Microsoft CDN  ?>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-1.6.2.min.js"></script>
<?php // jQuery CDN (via Media Temple) ?>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.6.2.min.js"></script>
</head>

Avoiding conflict between jQuery and other javascript libraries

Sometimes you will notice that even though jQuery is working as it should, a slideshow based on another javascript library stops working – or vice-versa. This happens because of a conflict among two or more javascript libraries.

jQuery has a very handy way of avoiding conflict with other javascript libraries (Mootools and Scriptaculous, etc.). By using jQuery “noConflict”, you will be avoiding some of the most commom conflicts among these kind of libraries, which often use the same symbol ($) to invoque their functions.

<script type="text/javascript">
	// this line avoids conflict with other javascript libraries using "$"
	jQuery.noConflict();
</script>

That will solve most problems, but to be on the safest side, it is considered a good practice to use “jQuery” instead of “$“.

It is a good practice to include “jQuery.noConflict();” in every page you’re using jQuery in, for the sake of future compatibility. It should load immediately below the jQuery library itself, before any jQuery plugin or jQuery custom script is loaded.

If you still experience conflicts after taking these precautions, make sure that all 3rd-party jQuery code is using “jQuery” instead of “$“. If after taking these all these measures you still experience a non-responsive jQuery script, make sure that the loading order for jQuery is correct. Then have a look at your syntax.

Load jQuery plugins after the jQuery library, but before any custom jQuery

Plugins can be a great way to simplify tasks, by shortening the code necessary to trigger certain behaviors you wish to use often. It is a good practice to load jQuery plugins between the jQuery library and your own custom jQuery scripts.

<?php // UI Tools: Tabs, Tooltip, Scrollable and Overlay (4.05 Kb) ?>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdn.jquerytools.org/1.2.5/tiny/jquery.tools.min.js"></script>

It can also be smart to include a plugin only on the pages that require it to be loaded, by wrapping the includes within conditions on either PHP or on jQuery itself.

Load your own custom jQuery scripts

Now that you have taken all the precautions to make sure jQuery will load and function in the expected way, it is time to load your own custom jQuery scripts. It is considered to be good practice to load javascript by including external files, like so:

<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/js/jquery-custom-includes.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/js/jquery-custom-links.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/js/jquery-custom-toggles.js"></script>

Though it would be even better to merge these files into one, whenever possible:

<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/js/jquery-custom.js"></script>

Even though good practice determines that it is better to include jQuery through external files (like the one mentioned above), sometimes our variables are determined by values fetched from databases or through PHP calculations. In that case we need to use inline jQuery. The script will then look just like a javascript script, but have the syntax of jQuery:

<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
	// do your thing
});
</script>

Load your custom jQuery ONLY after the document has rendered

jQuery relies mostly on elements that need to be loaded before it can execute. Let us take an example:

jQuery('div.learning').hide();

In the jQuery above, all the divs with the class “learning” are getting the “display:none” CSS property. But if the divs with the class “learning” haven’t been fully rendered by the time the jQuery is triggered, it could mean that some of the divs with the class “learning” – if not all of them – will not get the “display:none” property and therefore still show after the document is fully rendered.

To avoid that, make sure that every jQuery script, be it external or inline, are invoked within the function below:

jQuery(document).ready(function() {
	// do all your magic here!
});

Wrapping it up

Below is everything put together (comments are within PHP so that they don’t render in the markup). Note that this applies for WordPress, but would be just as usable for other systems.

<?php
	wp_head();
?>
<?php // jQuery CDN (via Media Temple) ?>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.6.2.min.js"></script>
<?php // this line avoids conflict with other javascript libraries using "$" ?>
	<script type="text/javascript">
		jQuery.noConflict();
	</script>
<?php // UI Tools: Tabs, Tooltip, Scrollable and Overlay (4.05 Kb) ?>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdn.jquerytools.org/1.2.5/tiny/jquery.tools.min.js"></script>
<?php // custom jQuery ?>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/js/jquery-custom.js"></script>
<?php // custom inline jQuery ?>
	<script type="text/javascript">
		jQuery(document).ready(function() {
			// do all your magic here!
		});
	</script>
</head>

I hope you enjoyed it! This article is meant for beginners, but I’m sure I’ll find myself visiting it often enough!

Som webdesigner jobber jeg direkte i koden. Jeg kan ulike programmeringsspråk som er nødvendige for en effektiv webutvikling, og har jobbet med flere åpen-kilde og kommersielle systemer for å nå kundenes forventninger og mål. Jeg jobber raskt, pålitelig og har gode kommunikasjonsevner. Alle mine kunder har fått det de betalte for, med et kirsebær på toppen. For meg er det et spørsmål om ære at mine kunder blir fornøyde med sine nettsider!

Jeg behersker bildebehandling og illustrasjoner godt, ved bruk av Photoshop og Illustrator. Absolutt alt er mulig med Photoshop! Jeg har ikke bare et, men to øye for design (hehe) – og har kunnskap innen brukervennlighet, GUI, riktig bruk av farger, “call-to-action”, konvertering, osv.

For mine kunder betyr ikke det at de får kun en nettside lagt av en webdesigner som har peiling. De får det og følgende fordeler:

• En nettside lagt i følge deres villeste ønsker!
• En nettside som er brukervennlig og enkel å navigere i.
• En nettside som er behagelig å se på og ikke har grafiske elementer som påvirker brukeropplevelsen på en negativ måte.
• En nettside som er naturligvis optimalisert for søkemotorene, og som blir indekserte av de oftere og fortere.
• En nettside som er kompatibel med alle moderne nettlesere og utnytter alle de nyeste funksjonene de har.
• En nettside som er lagt med den siste teknologien innen webdesign for optimal ytelse og langvarig kompatibilitet i fremtiden.
• En nettside som bruker universale målkonverterings prinsipper – og derfor selger ditt produkt eller idé på en mer effektiv måte!
• En nettside som er velfungerende og klar for videreutvikling fra andre aktører i fremtiden.
• En nettside lagt av en webdesigner som har peiling. (har jeg nevnt det før?)

Alt dette er en selvfølge i alle mine webdesign prosjekter, så lenge jeg får grønt lys å bruke den tiden jeg må for å implementere det. Ellers har jeg alltid gode forslag på hvordan vi kunne få ting gjort innen en litt mer begrenset budsjett.

Jeg jobber på timebasis og har en fast pris per time for absolutt alle tjenester. Vennligst les detaljene om måten jeg jobber på, pris/time og fakturering her. Jeg fakturerer gjennom min egen enkeltmannsforetak, og pleier å sende fakturaer som PDF per e-post.

Ikke nøl å ta kontakt for en nærmere prat! Jeg bor i Oslo og kan møte deg sentralt hvis ønskelig. Tiden min er verdifull, akkurat som din, så jeg fakturerer for møter. Du får i hvert fall god råd, forslag på mulige løsninger til eventuelle problemstillinger og en bedre idé på hva du trenger for å gjennomføre ditt prosjekt, i det tilfelle du velger å ikke gå videre i prosessen.

Jeg kommer ikke til å oppdatere denne siden like ofte som de som er på engelsk, så jeg håper det er greit at dere besøker min engelsk portefølje og får en mer detaljert beskrivelse av mine webdesign tjenester på engelsk.

Håper vi høres!
Wallace