Joe Meek Pedals

Post by **Mike** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:17 pm

http://www.joemeek.com/

[youtube][/youtube]
[youtube][/youtube]
[youtube][/youtube]

James · Post by **James** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:21 pm

I don't know the story properly, but it's roughly something like

Original Joe Meek - awesome
JM dies and Ted Fletcher runs it for a bit - awesome
Ted sells to someone else and starts a new company, TFPro - JM no longer awesome, TFPro awesome

I don't know if they've upped their game but there was CBS style period where they were all about cutting costs in any way possible, and often at the expense of quality. There were quite a lot of products with a noticeable difference in the TF and post-TF days. so it might be the case that these are good, but they might also be balls.

A lot of the Joe Meek stuff I've used has been fantastic. I'd like to believe these were good but I'd also be a bit skeptical.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:24 pm

They fuck up the sound a lot on the second demo video of the floorQ but you can sort of tell it's a nice thing.

I heard similar things about the Meek family history. I have used original stuff in Studios back in the day and it was pretty hot shit. I remember singing some vocals through a Meek compressor and when it was engaged it just sounded brilliant and gave me a tangible confidence boost when tracking. That's quite a powerful endorsement as far as I'm concerned.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:35 pm

A fella I work with has a Joe Meek compressor and loves it, positively waxes lyrical.

James · Post by **James** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 4:17 pm

Most of my recording lectures at uni were with a guy who was a close friend of Ted Fletcher and there was also quite a bit of Joe Meek stuff, as well as a TFPro compressor so I heard quite a lot of the Joe Meek back-story. Ted came to the studio during one of my sessions and I spoke to him a little about his gear. I'd like for the current Joe Meek stuff to be as good as the old SC2.2 compressors and things. A Joe Meek compressor in a pedal would be a good thing.

Rayjaysonic · Post by **Rayjaysonic** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:27 pm

Can't go wrong with the guy behind Telstar....(ok we will gloss over the fact that he shot his landlady....then himself).

Love the idea but they are not cheep bits of kit.

Gavin · Post by **Gavin** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:26 am

Christ, I never knew he was such a loon.

Meek was obsessed with the occult and the idea of "the other side". He would set up tape machines in graveyards in a vain attempt to record voices from beyond the grave, in one instance capturing the meows of a cat he claimed was speaking in human tones, asking for help. In particular, he had an obsession with Buddy Holly (claiming the late American rocker had communicated with him in dreams) and other dead rock and roll musicians.

His professional efforts were often hindered by his paranoia (Meek was convinced that Decca Records would put hidden microphones behind his wallpaper in order to steal his ideas), drug use and attacks of rage or depression. Upon receiving an apparently innocent phone call from Phil Spector, Meek immediately accused Spector of stealing his ideas before hanging up angrily.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:45 am

That paranormal audio thing is nothing new at all: Edison, and most of the Victorians, were convinced that you could use this new fangled technology to listen to the dead - feedback was at first called howlaround because they thought it was the wailing of lost souls. Got a big essay about this somewhere.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 9:47 am

Fucking hell I'm building a pedal called the 'howlaround'.

Dibs!

Post by **Mike** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 9:52 am

You can have it. That's a wank name.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:02 am

Playground Bang-A-round

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:17 am

timhulio wrote:Playground Bang-A-round

someone's been watching brasseye on 4 Od