Tonight was another short session—just twenty minutes with Lady, the Phil Jones Bass X4C, and the DT 770 Pro. Nothing planned. No goals. Just making music.
The guest pedal on Dorcas this evening was the VOX Cooltron Bulldog Distortion. After rediscovering her over the weekend, I wanted to spend more time understanding what she really had to offer.
Most people would probably look at the Bulldog and immediately think of thick, aggressive distortion. And to be fair, she can absolutely do that. With the gain sitting between two and three o’clock, a hard strum produces a massive, raw wall of dirt that would feel perfectly at home in a heavy metal song.
But that’s not my music.
I strummed gently. I picked softly. I ran notes. I varied my attack constantly, letting my fingers decide how much gain should appear. And the Bulldog followed every little instruction.
That’s when the magic happened.
Through the headphones, paired with the Infinite’s pseudo-slapback ambience, the Bulldog became something entirely different. She wasn’t barking anymore. She was singing.
There was sustain, warmth, and articulation. Notes bloomed. Chords retained their character. The distortion remained thick, yet somehow musical and responsive.
The experience reminded me once again that good gear often reveals itself slowly. Sometimes we place equipment into neat little boxes—metal pedal, clean pedal, fuzz pedal—only to discover years later that there was much more hidden beneath the surface.
The Bulldog has returned to Dorcas as a guest, but tonight she felt like an old friend with a new story to tell.
And she sang.