Joey's New Board | Golden Age of Gear Ep. 52

In this week’s episode of Golden Age of Gear, Joey walks Derek through a brand-new pedalboard build — not just what’s on it, but why it’s there, what’s likely to change, and how his approach to gear has evolved.

This isn’t a “perfect Instagram board.” It’s a working, modular rig built around inspiration, portability, and real-world use — something that can do fun, creative sounds without getting in the way of actually playing guitar.

We talk about:

Why this pedalboard is intentionally less precious and more flexible
Choosing pedals that inspire you instead of chasing hype
The balance between “want” vs “need” on a board
MIDI control, stereo rigs, and avoiding tap-dancing
Transformer-based boosts and subtle tone shaping
Travel-friendly pedalboard design and airline realities
Why some pedals stay forever — and others are always up for replacement

Joey also breaks down his new Pivotal Pedal Boards setup, loop routing, power choices, cable decisions, and how this board is designed to change over time instead of being locked in forever.

This episode is less about rules and more about permission — permission to experiment, pivot, simplify, and build a rig that actually serves the music instead of slowing you down.

👇 Let us know in the comments:

Are you constantly rebuilding your pedalboard or do you lock it in?

What’s the one pedal you can’t seem to take off your board?

If you enjoy honest gear conversations, real-world rigs, and slightly unhinged pedalboard philosophy, hit subscribe, ring the bell, and come hang with us every week.

Revv Dynamis D40 | Golden Age of Gear Ep. 51

What’s up, friends? We’re back this week with a proper look at the Revv D40 — an amp that’s been part of the Revv lineup for a while now, but one Joey hasn’t really spent meaningful time with since the early prototype days. After hearing how incredible Dann Huff sounded through it earlier this year, it felt like the right time to finally plug in and see what this thing is all about from Joey’s hands-on perspective.

We get into how the D40 grew out of the original Dynamis 740, what changed, what carried forward, and how Shawn Tubbs and Dan worked together to reshape the drive channel into something with more bloom, more feel, and more of that vintage-inspired character players kept asking for. It’s still undeniably a Revv amp — tight low end, punchy response, super clear articulation — just with its own vibe and personality.

And of course, it wouldn’t be Golden Age of Gear without some wandering prairie philosophizing, truck talk, and general guitar-nerd joy along the way.

What’s Inside This Episode

🎛️ Clean Channel Tones — bright switch magic, tons of headroom, reverb in the loop, and why this clean channel loves pedals.
⚡ Drive Channel Breakdown — voicing updates, note bloom, and how Shawn Tubbs helped dial in the feel.
🎸 Real Playing — slide tones, boost stacking, cleanup tests, sustain experiments, and Joey’s take on the “Revv punch” vs. the looser feel of vintage amps.
🔧 Design Notes — dual masters, Two Notes Torpedo reactive load with IRs, pedal-platform behaviour, and where the D40 sits in the Revv family.

If you’ve ever wondered how the D40 actually feels under the fingers — especially compared to the 740 or the Generator — this episode should paint the full picture.

👇 Let us know in the comments:
Are you gigging a D40? Still rocking a 740? What should we run into this amp next?

Thanks for hanging with us — like, subscribe, ring the bell, and we’ll see you next week.

Bob Burt Gr8t Distortion Pedal | Golden Age of Gear Ep. 50

Welcome back, friends! Today we’re diving into a seriously cool piece of boutique distortion history — the Bob Burt Gr9t Distortion, a pedal from one of the OG custom cabinet builders turned pedal-maker. This thing looks wild, sounds wild, and has one of the strangest compression controls we’ve ever used… in all the best (and sometimes weirdest) ways.

In classic Golden Age fashion, we go down the rabbit hole: RAT circuits, boutique builders from the ’90s, Alan Hinds’ tone secrets, compression controversies, used pedal bin glory, and even a little family history involving Derek, Luke, and budget-stretching Canadian Kijiji hauls.

What We Cover in This Episode

🎛️ Bob Burt Gr8t Distortion — Volume, tone, gain, and the bizarre-but-cool compression knob.
⚡ RAT vs. Gr8t — How close it gets, what’s different, and why it sounds the way it does.
🎸 Real-World Use — Slide tones, cleanup behavior, mix placement, and dynamic feel.
🧰 Boutique Pedal Quirks — Odd enclosures, one-off layouts, and why weird old pedals are often gems.

If you dig boutique distortion, RAT circuits, oddball vintage clones, or gear with real builder history behind it — you’re gonna love this one.

👇 Let us know in the comments:
Have you ever played a Bob Burt pedal? What’s your favorite RAT variant? And what weird, obscure pedal should we track down next?

Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and ring the bell to help keep the Golden Age rolling.

Kernom Pedals | Golden Age of Gear Ep. 49

In this episode of The Golden Age of Gear, Derek and Joey dive into some truly wild sonic territory with three next-level pedals from Kernom — the Ridge, the Moho, and the Ellipse. These French wizards have been making a quiet but VERY loud splash in the guitar world, and today we dig into why their analog-driven, feature-packed designs have so many players talking.

We’re exploring how these pedals blend analog tone, clever digital control, and deep tweakability to create everything from classic overdrive flavors to gritty fuzz madness and rich modulation textures. Whether you're chasing transparent drive, thick vintage fuzz, tri-chorus dreaminess, harmonic trem, or a super-flexible overdrive that can mimic your favorite pedals from across your board — these boxes kind of do it all.

What We Cover:

🎛️ Kernom Ridge – An all-analog overdrive that can emulate your favorite ODs using its “mood” knob to switch clipping types on the fly. MIDI, presets, tone shaping, AND a unique enclosure? Yeah… it’s a thing.

⚡ Kernom Moho – A fuzz machine that goes from vintage, spitty, gated tones to modern high-gain fury. Octaves, ring mod, smooth transitions between textures… Derek even likes it, and he’s famously “not a fuzz guy.”

🌊 Kernom Ellipse – Modulation galore. Harmonic trem, rotary, flanger, phaser, vibe, tri-chorus — all analog-driven with beautiful control over shape, blend, and movement. Not stereo, but ridiculously deep and insanely musical.

Along the way we get into:

How the “mood” knob actually alters clipping components

Pre/post EQ tricks for shaping drive the way amp builders do

What really matters with harmonic trem

Univibe purism (Joey has opinions)

The surprisingly impressive design choices in Kernom’s enclosures

Why these pedals feel like an analog counterpoint to modern multi-FX units

As always, we’d love to hear from you — what Kernom pedal impresses you the most? What should we check out next? Drop your thoughts in the comments and hit that subscribe button to help keep the show rolling.

65' Deluxe Reverb vs D25JL | Golden Age of Gear Ep. 47

This week on Golden Age of Gear, Derek & Joey nerd out on vintage Fender amps and put a 1965 Deluxe Reverb (blackface) up against Joey’s Revv D25 JL. We dig into what makes tweed / brownface / blackface / silverface circuits feel different, why bias-vary tremolo hits different than opto trem, and how much “neutral pedal platform” is myth vs reality. Plus: backline survival tips (hello Hot Rod DeVille), stereo tricks, and a few road stories.

👉 In this episode:

’65 Fender Deluxe Reverb tone tour (vibrato channel, spring reverb, trem)
A/B: Deluxe Reverb vs Revv D25 JL (mid focus, low-end feel, headroom)
Tremolo talk: Opto vs bias-vary (and why Joey prefers the latter)
Era breakdown: Tweed vs Brownface vs Blackface vs Silverface—what actually changes
Backline reality: Why pros often ask for a Hot Rod DeVille and bypass the preamp
Stereo pro tip: One amp wet, one amp dry = instant width

💬 Question for you: What’s your desert-island small Fender—Princeton, Deluxe, or something brownface? Tell us why!

🔥 Love weekly deep dives? LIKE, SUBSCRIBE & ring the bell 🔔 so you never miss Golden Age of Gear.

#GoldenAgeOfGear #FenderDeluxeReverb #BlackfaceFender #BrownfaceFender #PrincetonReverb #BiasVaryTremolo #GuitarAmps #RevvAmps #PedalPlatform #StereoRig

Fuzz Faces | Golden Age of Gear Ep. 46

This week on Golden Age of Gear, Derek & Joey get fuzzy with a table full of legendary and boutique fuzz face pedals — from an original Arbiter England Fuzz Face to custom builds from Dominion Fuzz and DanDrive.

They talk about why old carbon-zinc batteries make fuzz pedals sound different, how small tweaks change tone, and whether obsessing over cables, batteries, and power supplies actually matters once the drummer starts playing.

In this episode:

- Vintage Arbiter Fuzz Face vs modern boutique builds
- Dominion “Crocus” Fuzz & DanDrive Vocooder demos
- Why “bad” batteries and messy circuits sometimes sound better
- Fuzz tone myths, power supply talk, and real-world playing tests

It’s equal parts tone nerdery and comedy — the perfect hang for anyone who loves guitar pedals, fuzz history, and gear rabbit holes!

This week, Joey and Derek dive into one of their favorite pedal brands — Mythos Pedals — and talk about the story, the sounds, and the friendship behind them.

Joey shares how his connection with Zach Broyles (founder of Mythos) goes all the way back to the very first Brothers Landreth show in Nashville, and how that led to his own signature Mjolnir and High Road Fuzz pedals. The guys plug in multiple versions of the Mjolnir, compare tones, talk NOS germanium diodes, and joke their way through what “scrungy” really means.

They also get into how feel changes everything — why the Mjolnir reacts differently than you’d expect, what makes the High Road fuzz so unique, and how subtle tweaks can make a pedal feel more alive.

There’s plenty of tone talk, nonsense, and accidental product promotion along the way.

🎛️ Pedals featured:

Mythos Mjolnir (various versions)

Mythos High Road Fuzz

Bonus: references to Hendrix, Ghostbusters, and the “Maillard effect” (don’t ask)

🎸 Guest shoutout: Zach Broyles — Mythos Pedals
🟣 Amps: Revv D20 MKII

Grab a coffee (or a LaCroix), settle in, and hang with us for a good laugh and some great tones.

💬 What’s your favorite Mythos pedal or Klon-style drive?

#GoldenAgeOfGear #MythosPedals #JoeyLandreth #DerekEastveld #GuitarPedals #KlonClone #Mjolnir #HighRoadFuzz #RevvAmps #GuitarTone

EQ Pedal Shootout | Golden Age of Gear Ep. 44

This week, Joey and Derek go deep on one of the most underrated tools on your board — EQ pedals.
What started as a “clean boost side quest” turned into a full-blown shootout between classics, mods, and a few surprises.

The guys compare the legendary Boss GE-7, the XTS and Analog Man mods, the bargain-bin Behringer EQ700, the Earthling Designs Preamp, and of course the wild Chase Bliss Condor.
From subtle tone-shaping to straight-up sonic surgery, they find out which one actually makes your rig sound better — and which one just adds noise.

Along the way there’s LaCroix, shameless self-promotion, some serious nerding about frequencies, and one or two jokes at each other’s expense.

Grab a drink, turn it up, and hang out — because it turns out EQ pedals are way more fun than anyone admits.