Last night and this evening, Faith spent time with Dorcas and the Special 6.
The setup was simple:
Faith → Dorcas → Special 6 → PPC108
Faith was on her neck pickup, with her DiMarzio Area 58 pickups. DynaTrem’s reverb stayed on throughout.
Each evening session lasted 20 minutes. I worked through the four gain pedals one at a time:
Beano → Tchula → Special Request → Acapulco Gold
Faith’s volume knob was part of the process whenever necessary, allowing the guitar itself to shape the amount of gain.
The first thing that struck me was how quiet Faith is.
Her Area 58 and Chopper pickups produce dramatically less hum than Lady and Joy. Even the Acapulco Gold, which can reveal plenty of hum and hiss with the Fender guitars, was remarkably quiet. With Faith, the background noise was virtually unheard.
That made it possible to concentrate almost entirely on the pedals.
And one by one, every pedal sounded wonderful.
The Beano was musical and responsive. The Tchula pushed the Special 6 beautifully. The Special Request remained touch-sensitive and useful. Even the Acapulco Gold, with its heavier character, sounded excellent.
Then I paired the Beano with the Acapulco Gold.
The combination produced some particularly nice tones — and, importantly, without the hum I have become accustomed to hearing when using the AG with the Fender guitars.
It reinforced something I have been discovering with Dorcas: the guitar makes a tremendous difference to the behaviour of the entire rig.
Faith’s quiet pickups allow the pedals to reveal themselves without electrical noise getting in the way.
Lady and Joy are different. Their Fender single-coil character brings more hum, particularly with the Acapulco Gold. But I don’t necessarily regard that as something that needs to be eliminated. Some of it belongs to the Telecaster and Stratocaster experience — part of that raw, vintage Fender charm.
Faith gives me one kind of experience: quiet, controlled and revealing.
Lady and Joy give me another: raw Fender electricity.
Neither needs to replace the other.
The encouraging part is that Dorcas sounds wonderful with both.
Over the next few days, Regent and Alma will get their turn with the five-pedal Dorcas. That should complete the next part of the experiment — bringing P90s and hollowbody character into the same setup.
For now, though, Faith has made one thing very clear:
The pedals aren’t necessarily the source of the noise. Sometimes the pickups simply change the conversation.