Out & about

Did something different yesterday, being the new year & all, with the looming urge to tread spaces outside my comfort zone. Brought the guitar out to the Botanic Gardens with the following sound supplements (no pun intended):

• Speaker. Portable / pocket JBL GO2
• Effects. Korg Pandora mini, Animals Pedal Distortion
• Cables. George L (2m), Ibanez (patch), brandless 3.5mm i/p for the speaker

Guitar chosen for the occasion - NK Headless. Why? Because it's light & less wieldy. I had not been playing the Pandora mini for a long while but it's proven its worth in terms functionality; it still works. The Animals Pedal distortion was included because there's a fresh battery in there & it's the most proximate when I was packing stuff before leaving. Ditto cables. The JBL speaker was a 2021 Christmas gift that somebody wanted to discard. It was sold to me for less than half the price; was still sealed in its original box. 

Outcome

• Having portable items is the way to go. My JBL speaker & Pandora didn't take up much space in the guitar bag pocket. Even the unwieldy guitar contributed to the joy in travelling & playing. 
• Manage expectations when dealing with compromises. Tone on offer wasn't that great but the JBL is not a guitar-related item to begin with so the driver wasn't conceived to manifest fantastic guitar tones but it's not trashy either. The JBL however, did very well when it comes to modulation & reverb. It's just not build for distortion. Also, the speaker rattled excessively even when bass was set at the halfway point (5); had to re-set bass to 2 for a decent, working tone. The Animals Pedal's presence was confined to the role of a boost, tone tweaks contributed marginally to the overall tone. 
• Having a spare battery helps. But I had forgotten to include one. Not worried about the JBL or distortion dying out but the KORG died after about 40min of use. Battery was drained rapidly because I activated the drum beats / samples throughout. Lesson learnt. 

Pandora MINI (Part 2)

The Pandora Mini sounds appealing through my Kurzweil monitor; that's quite expected because its predecessors are all great monitor performers. Digital signals are such that they won't let you down through non-amplifier non-guitar amp drivers with its clarity & precision. But not all of us are fans of such manifestations, this would be deemed too angular & lacking in warmth but let's not get too critical here because they are both naturally different. I'd give the Pandora Mini a thumbs up for this appeal.

Pandora MINI (Part 1)

I've been a fan of  KORG's Pandora series of multi-effects processor for their simplicity & a jolly serving of useful tones. The Pandoras were made to be a compact unit, a hand-friendly device which serves the user on the move. The MINI is a moderation exercise as the manufacturer had chosen to do away with features deemed excessive, in terms of practicality. My intention of putting the battery there was to give an idea of how 'mini' this device is & it is indeed the smallest manifestation of a Pandora unit thusfar. Coincidentally, a single AA battery is all that is needed to power the MINI. I thought after doing away with the PX5D, I'd be Pandora-free for a while but I guess that's not gonna be the case.

Compact

While the KORG people are busy reducing their Pandora (new 2011: Pandora mini) to a compact unit...

...the ZOOM camp is expanding their G1 series into the G3 unit (also new for 2011).

Regardless of the manifestations, I'm waiting to hear what's in store tone-wise.