ANALOG MAN - Key Persons
David Gilmour got another pair of our Sunface Pedals for his ON AN ISLAND tour in 2006. The bass player, Guy Pratt, was using the BC108 silicon on his bass. Here is more info and pictures . I heard from an Italian customer that Gilmour had TWO (?!) Sun Face pedals on the side of his board at the Venice gig in 2006 and used one on Comfortably Numb.
Doug Blais at Juggling Reality Studios in Toronto, Canada got some super cool red dot tones with his Les Paul SG. Some of the tones were very horn-like, like Jeff Beck gets. The Sundial was set to 12:00, fuzz up full, and volume at 3/4, into a JTM45/100 (KT66's) full stack set to a volume of 1 to get a clean output and hear what the sunface could do on it's own. Doug used a Beyer M500(C) ribbon mic 2 inches away and at 45 degree angle, with a Rode NT55 Omni about 5 feet back pointing at the stack. He changed the tones exclusively with volume / tone pot control and pickup selections during the improv.
Hey Mike...got the silicon SunFace last week...this thing is killer Brutha!... I wasn't sure if I'd like the silicon or not...but it turns out I like it alot!... better than the germanium in some ways...this thing is very quiet too!.... and cleans up really wells..I'm glad I got the sundial added because I can crank down the voltage/bias and make it sound very close to germanium if I want to...I'm going to carve my name in it now like I do all your pedals becase I know I'm going to be keeping it forever!....Thanks for your fine pedals Mike!..... Hope to get some sound clips soon!
Jim's Project Percolator played at Levon Helm's studio for a great show on 11/12/05. Here are some pictures.
Here is an excellent interview article with Jim from modernguitars.com online guitar magazine.
Jon Carin (Floyd, The Who, Roger Waters, etc) contacted me in 2012, looking for a fuzz that sounds like the giant lap steel on One Of These Days by the Floyd. I recommended the BC183 Sun Face for him and I think he likes it! I got to hear it live in 2017 with Roger Waters and it was great. I also sent him one with BC109B as I think those have a little more cutting edge which might work well. Jon wrote:
Michael Katon, from Hell, Michigan, is constantly touring Europe playing Detroit blues/rock and boogie. He has been using old fuzzfaces for years with his Marshall Plexis and old Fender Super Reverbs. Michael loved his first Sun Face so much that he ordered another one in case something happened to his first one. Then he had one changed to the NKTs. He wrote me in late 2002:
I had a chance to use the NKT the other Nite through two 100watt Marshall half stacks...I think I sterilized most men in the club and ended up having to sign a few bare breasts (girls of course)...so it's definately doing a good job for me!!!!!!!!
Sid McGinnis got one in early 2005 and is having a blast with it. He used it at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and you should have been able to hear it nearly every night when he played it on the David Letterman show. Sid wrote me: Sunface has been tremendous at the show. Level at 11:00, Drive full or just under, and Sunface at 3:00 or less if I really want FUZZ. Effect on all the time (even on Al Green tune). It's Jimi, Cream, and American Woman in a box!!