Years ago when I had the opportunity to watch Richard Shindell play for the first time, he got into a fun, jaded bantering with the sound guy. During a quiet moment in the show, Shindell calmly asked, “do you think you can turn down the SUCK knob on the board?” The crowd slightly gasped…even moreso when the sound guy replied, “Sure. Should I turn up the talent knob, too?”
Without missing a beat, Shindell said, “Okay. But only in the monitor”. We then realized that they knew each other quite well and were getting a kick out of the whole exchange. Who’d a thought someone would actually package all that angst into a convenient little pedal called the Talent Booster ?
Of course, you can’t buy an actual Talent Booster pedal, but you can browse a list of similar imaginary pedals (such as the Ego Compressor, 60 Cycle Hum Boost, and my favorite, the Intermittent Shorter) over at a page called Red Teletronix Custom Pedals.
I’m still on the hunt for a pedal called the Crappy Ground with Built-In Buzz effect…though many of the places I play seem to have that built into the building.
Hey Michael — I got a mule kick out of this one. But every good pedal should also have a fill-in button for when you forget the words, a la Christina Aguilera. Would consist of perhaps a few catchy up-beat percussive phrases, and in Christina’s case, an over play of Hendrix guitar from “Woodstock”. — Wes