Juan Alderete, perhaps best known as the bassist for The Mars Volta and Racer X, dropped by Reverb HQ to show off some of his favorite pedals and tell us how he dials in some of his more unique sounds using the Strymon Ola, the Moog MF Drive, and EarthQuaker Devices’ Tentacle and Grand Orbiter pedals.
The Strymon Ola, a chorus/vibrato pedal that currently sits near the top of Juan’s favorites list, feeds into the Moog MF Drive, which has a filter Juan likes to control using an expression pedal, to build a modulated synth-like sound. But when he adds the EQD Tentacle to the end of his signal chain things get crazy as his tone takes on a ton of grit. Just using the Ola, Juan shows us a classic vibrato that creates a super-fuzzy, wobbly sound as soon as he switches on the Tentacle.
Though Alderete typically jams the Tentacle at the front end of his pedalboard, he stuck it at the back based on a suggestion and loved the result. In his final demo, however, he puts the EarthQuaker Devices Grand Orbiter at the end for an even crazier synth sound. Watch Juan switch up this signal chain and jam out with his dirty, synthy tones, then click below to shop the pedals.
Pedals Featured in this Video:
