In the ever-evolving world of guitar effects pedals, legends are born from the most unexpected origins. Today, we journey back to the roots of fuzz, where the “Way Huge Swollen Pickle” was not just a quirky name but a transformative piece of gear that left its mark on the world of rock ‘n’ roll. Like a myth waiting to be unearthed, this is the tale of how a simple stompbox turned into a legend.

The Origins: An Underground Legacy

Our story begins in the early 1990s when Jeorge Tripps, a musician and electronics enthusiast, set out to conquer the world of sound manipulation. Armed with a soldering iron and an insatiable curiosity, he started building custom effects pedals for fellow musicians in the basement of his house in the heart of the Pacific Northwest. Little did he know that one day his creation would be a cornerstone of the pedalboard community.

The ’90s were a time of upheaval in the guitar world. Musicians were pushing boundaries and seeking new, innovative sounds to set their music apart. Enter the Swollen Pickle, a fuzz pedal that stood out in a sea of imitators. Tripps had an insatiable desire to create something different, something that would let musicians explore uncharted territories. His creation was more than a pedal; it was an exploration of the uncharted regions of sonic possibility.

The Birth of the Swollen Pickle

The Way Huge Swollen Pickle, birthed in the late ’90s, was unlike anything guitarists had seen before. The instantly recognizable purple enclosure with quirky artwork and an even quirkier name attracted attention from the get-go. The pedal was more than just a novelty; it was a sonic powerhouse.

Tripps was determined to create a fuzz pedal that could capture the raw, unadulterated sound of a cranked amplifier. He experimented with various circuit designs and components, painstakingly fine-tuning every detail to create a pedal that would be an extension of a guitarist’s creativity.

The Swollen Pickle featured a three-knob control layout, which might seem modest compared to today’s multi-parameter stompboxes, but it offered a wealth of tonal possibilities. “Sustain,” “Filter,” and “Volume” were the three knobs, but the subtleties of their interaction turned the Swollen Pickle into an instrument in its own right. Guitarists could dial in smooth, sustaining lead tones or crank it to create a maelstrom of sonic fury.

The Pop Culture Impact

The Swollen Pickle’s impact on popular culture was swift and undeniable. It became a secret weapon for countless artists and found its way onto stages and recording studios across the globe. Musicians from all genres, whether it was garage rock, indie, or even mainstream pop, recognized the immense power of this quirky little box.

The pickling effect spread beyond music, too. It inspired custom artwork, t-shirts, and even fan clubs. Tripps’ design and branding tapped into a peculiar fascination with the absurd and enigmatic, turning the Swollen Pickle into an icon.

The Modern Era: A Legend’s Resurgence

The Way Huge Swollen Pickle, like many classic pedals, went through a period of hibernation. After its initial success, it disappeared from the market, becoming a coveted piece of gear, exchanged through word-of-mouth or online forums. Guitarists lucky enough to own one treasured it as a piece of musical history.

However, the story doesn’t end there. In 2008, the world got a delightful surprise. Jeorge Tripps, in collaboration with Jim Dunlop, resurrected the Swollen Pickle. This updated version retained the pedal’s original character while benefiting from modern construction and components. Guitarists who never had the chance to experience the Swollen Pickle in its prime now had the opportunity to get their hands on this legendary fuzz pedal.

What Makes the Swollen Pickle Unique?

So, what is it about the Way Huge Swollen Pickle that makes it a timeless classic? It’s more than just nostalgia; it’s the pedal’s ability to capture the essence of rock ‘n’ roll rebellion. It’s a conduit to unleash primal, unfiltered sonic fury or to explore uncharted territories of sound.

While other fuzz pedals may mimic vintage classics, the Swollen Pickle dares to be different. Its distinct tone is a testament to Jeorge Tripps’ relentless pursuit of innovation, setting it apart from the crowded fuzz pedal market. The Swollen Pickle is the embodiment of musical rebellion, where rules are meant to be broken, and sound is meant to be distorted.

Conclusion: The Swollen Pickle’s Timeless Legacy

The Way Huge Swollen Pickle, with its peculiar name and unforgettable design, has left an indelible mark on the world of guitar effects. It’s a symbol of the rebellious spirit of rock ‘n’ roll, capturing the essence of pushing boundaries and seeking new, uncharted territories of sound.

In the grand tale of guitar pedals, the Swollen Pickle is a legend, a mystical artifact that encapsulates the spirit of innovation and creative exploration. It’s a reminder that, in the world of music, the unconventional and the unexpected often lead to the most remarkable discoveries.

So, whether you’re a seasoned guitarist who fondly remembers the heyday of the Swollen Pickle or a newcomer curious about its legendary status, remember that this quirky purple box is not just a pedal; it’s an emblem of the endless possibilities of sound, a tribute to the rebel in all of us. The Way Huge Swollen Pickle may have started as a basement experiment, but it has grown into a legend that continues to inspire musicians around the world, reminding us that sometimes, the most extraordinary sounds come from the most unexpected places.

Ever wanted to download a YouTube video at the highest quality video and audio but didn’t know where to start? Here is the most reliable way that I’ve found that doesn’t involve using a dodgy looking third party website. To be fair, there are plenty of sites you can use that let you just paste the url in and download but often they’ll place limits or throttle the quality in terms of what you can download.

With that out of the way, lets get in to it.

YouTube-dl

YouTube-dl is an open-source download manager that allows you to download video and audio from YouTube and similar video hosting sites.

YouTube-dl is run from the command prompt so while there’s not pretty looking UI its super simple use. Before you start you’ll need to download YouTube-dl.

You’ll also need to download FFmpeg, another command line tool that converts audio and video. FFmpeg is used to combine the audio and video streams (this will make more sense later).

Step 1: Setup your folder

After you’ve downloaded both YouTube-dl and FFmpeg, create a new folder (that you want to download your videos to) and cut/paste the following files in to your newly created folder:

• youtube-dl.exe
• ffmpeg.exe
• ffplay.exe
• ffprobe.exe

The FFmpeg files you’ll need can be found in the ‘Bin’ folder of FFmpeg.

Step 2: Open the command prompt

Type ‘cmd’ in the Windows Search box and select Command Prompt.

In the command prompt change the directory so that you’re in your newly created folder (in my example I created a new folder called ‘Downloads’).

To check that you’re good to go, type /dir to confirm that you’ve got all the executable files you need ready to go.

If you’ve got the 4 files you need in there then you’re good to go.

Step 3: Run your command to download your video

Grab the full url for the video you’d like to save, eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmee9Yw2ovo

The most basic command you can use to save the video is below (replace the YouTube url with whatever it is you’re trying to save):

youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmee9Yw2ovo

This will just save the video in to the folder you’ve created. The screenshot below shows what a successful download looks like. You can see that youtube-dl downloads the video then the audio and them merges the two in to a single container (in this case an mkv file).

Depending on what you’re saving you may see a message (see screenshot below) that says ‘WARNING: Requested formats are incompatible for merge and will be merged into mkv.’

By default youtube-dl will download the highest quality audio and video streams and then join the two streams in to a compatible container. If the highest quality available streams are unable to work within an mp4 container youtube-dl will just join everything up in an mkv file. If however, you want to force youtube-dl to put the available streams together in an mp4 container you can use to following command (where URL equals the URL of the video link you’re trying to save):

youtube-dl -f bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a] URL

Other commands you may find useful

The two basic commands in ‘Step 3’ are probably enough for most people but there are a heap of other commands you can use depending on what you’re trying to do. Here are some that may come in handy.

youtube-dl -U

This will check to see if your version of youtube-dl is up to date, and if not, it will update to the latest.

youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 URL

Maybe you just want to save the audio and not the video, using this command you’ll save the audio as an mp3 file.

youtube-dl --playlist-start # --playlist-end # URL

If you want to save a whole playlist you can use this command, replace the ‘#‘ with numbers (where you want to start and finish within the playlist). You also need to make sure you use the playlist URL. In other words, if you have a playlist that has 4 videos in it, you can specify starting at video 1 in the list and finishing at video 4, you’d use this:

youtube-dl -x --playlist-start 1 --playlist-end 4 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3pOjQXSlwPJKlXkBiG4gZA9miU7ip6Ve

You can find the full list of youtube-dl commands on GitHub – there are a lot!

One final thing, it’s worth making yourself aware of the copyright rules and check the License details on the video before you do anything. License details will vary video to video so look for creative commons stuff for example.

So today I’m looking at what happens to a blog when you let it lie dormant for years and a warning to those statistically squeamish, it’s not pretty.

While this blog may have gone in to extended hibernation there were some fairly significant changes on the world wide web than influenced who and how people accessed this site. Over the hibernation years, the greatest impact felt on this site was as a result of the changes made by Google. Whenever Google tweak their search algorithm it’s usually a big deal for anyone maintaining a website. You could argue that the changes introduced by Google in the past five years – the Panda, Hummingbird, Pigeon and the mobile friendly updates – are some of the most significant changes Google have made to search in the companies history. The period between 2011 and 2014 were when there appeared to be the most volatility in search world. It’s definitely a period where I saw traffic to this site take a downward trajectory as you can see in the graph below.

The numbers

Over the five year period this site saw approximately 331,472 unique page views, which I think is probably pretty decent given the amount of effort (ie. none) I put in over that time and even the 2-3 years leading up to the hibernation for that matter.

In hindsight I should have spent some time working through the recommended changes/fixes that Google published and definitely could have switched to a mobile friendly template earlier. This may have helped address some of the slide. Standards and styles also changed quite significantly in the five year period and as browsers updated, this site didn’t move with them. Cracks appeared and things just flat out broke in some cases.

The spammers

While Google have spent – and will continue to spend – a great deal of time tweaking their search algorithm, spammers too are continually coming up with ways to promote whatever they can. During the hibernation years referrer spam seems to have really stepped up a notch, to the point where it can be difficult to get an accurate snap shot of how your site’s performing from an analytics point of view. For those that don’t know, referrer spam is a technique spammers use to make repeated web requests using the referrer URL they are wanting to promote.

You’ll also see spam referrers referred to as ghost referrers. So if you look in your analytics and notice a lot of seemingly random referrals from generally spammy sounding URLs then you’re being hit by referrer spam and your analytics are being inflated. There are a few online tools I’ve found that can help you filter them out and I’ve used Referrer Spam Blocker recently and it appears to have helped a lot (it’s free so that’s a bonus).

Comment spam was also huge. One thing I’ve learned is that while your site may be dormant, spammers are anything but!

Bottomline on the bottomline

Revenue wise, swollenpickles.com was not a dormant revenue making machine. Without adsense, I was totally reliant on infolinks. Infolinks was/is most definitely a viable alternative to Adsense – for context I was averaging $50-100 USD per month up until mid 2013 – however sometime in 2013 I must have broken something as my revenue flat lined. Lesson learned: if you break something, take the time to fix it!

Bottomline, you can’t expect a website to survive and prosper without maintenance. Even if you’re not updating content, the site itself will still require maintenance and patching – unless you’ve hard coded it all in static html without using a CMS. Effort equals reward. You might get luck and things roll along nicely for a year or two – as happened to me – but sooner or later the world wide web will move far enough ahead that you’ll be left a broken shell on the side of the digital highway.

For interests sake here are five of the most popular posts that continued to bring in traffic during my absence:

• Top 6 inappropriate children’s books
• List of the top rated players in NBA 2k7
• Top 5 most inappropriate logo designs
• Some really bad tattoos
• How I stopped a bandwidth thief

Raise your hand if you remember the 1980’s cartoon Silverhawks. Even though it wasn’t the longest running series in history, it still occupies a special place in my heart. As a young kid, I wanted to be able to sprout metal wings and fly. Amateur psychologists can make of that what they will.

For those unfamiliar with Silverhawks first hit TV screens in 1986, and developed by Rankin/Bass as a “space” equivalent of the mega-hit ThunderCats. The series focused on a small band of space police called… SilverHawks. The SilverHawks were a group of part bionic, part human heroes fighting crime and the evil forces of space crime boss MonStar and a whole bunch of far out crazy creatures and bad guys.

• 

• 

Both good guys and bad guys had some kick ass weapons. There was evil Melodica (or something similarly Melody related) that played a keyboard/guitar that would fire projectile music, and the country and western good guy Colonel Bluegrass who was the SilverHawks pilot and sonic guitar playing lord of rock.

Just in case parents questioned it’s educational value, each episode featured a ‘space’ fact.

SilverHawks has a kick ass theme tune that may get stuck in your head for days… or decades as in my case.

Designing a good logo is a tough task. It’s no where near as simple as it sounds. It’s fair to say I’ve had a bit of a fixation with graphic design recently, and I’ve posted about logos before (anyone remember the Phallic Logo Awards?). This latest crop of logos don’t quite fit into the phallic category, but they could be seen as somewhat smutty.

So here I count down the top 5 most inappropriate logo designs.

Number 1: Arlington Pediatric Centre

Well, I’m not exactly sure what the client was thinking when they approved this one, but I’m not sure this one tells the story they were going for.

Number 2: Kids Exchange

Kids Exchange also appeared in one of the earliest Swollen Pickles posts entitled, “Hazardous Domain Name Registration“. If you can’t figure out what is going on with the one, then you better go read that old post!

Number 3: Clinical Dental

Mmmkay, do you think that is the standard level of service Clinical Dental provide?

Number 4: Kudawara Pharmacy

Now if they had really intended that to be the letter ‘K’ why in the world would they add two dots on the top?… unless… unless they wanted it to look like two people…

Number 5: The Computer Doctors

Well, this logo speaks for itself. Clearly the Computer Doctors get very excited and passionate about their business!

As you may have read, a few days ago I found that I was having a few issues with bandwidth theft with people hotlinking to images on my automotive blog without permission. I decided I’d have some fun for a couple of days by replacing the hotlinked images with some non-auto related, border line inappropriate, images.

Yesterday I decided I’d had enough fun and started doing some research into how to prevent hotlinking through editing the htaccess file. I “google’d”, asked questions of people smarter than me, and scratched my head. All the usual stuff. I’d became quite partial to one of my bandwidth thief banners, and wanted to implement a solution that would incorporate the banner somehow.

The solution I settled on (see code below), was to block requests for images from outside sources, and serve up the banner of my choice in place of the actual request.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?domainName\.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ /images/bandwidthThief.jpe [L]

In other words, if anyone attempts to hotlink to any images (jpg, gif, bmp, or png) on my server, instead of displaying the requested image, they will instead display my banner of choice.

Simplifying it further, the bandwidth thief thinks they are getting an image of a Subaru WRX STi, but are instead served up a massive set of bulls testicles (see below). I love the internet. If you want to use the “Bull Balls” solution, feel free to copy the image below (NO HOTLINKING!!) 😛 A link back would be appreciated.

Well it’s been over 24 hours since I identified the ‘bandwidth theft‘ occurring on one of my other sites. It was the first time I’d found this happening, so I thought I’d conduct an experiment, firstly, to see what sort of images I could display on the offending site, and secondly, to see how long it would go on for before the dumb ass responsible figured out what was happening. Well that was 24 hours ago, my bandwidth theft images were still online, so, I’ve decided to raise the bar a little.

Five minutes ago, I replaced my bandwidth theft banners with all new, possibly even more disturbing, bandwidth theft banners. As you can see from the screen shot below, I decided to stick with an “animal” theme.

Yup, two rhinos humping, and a set of massive bull balls. All class. I’ve done the .htaccess research, so I’ll fix that up soon, in the meantime, I think I’ll leave the offender with the bull balls for a little longer.

As an aside, I’ve also learned another very valuable lesson from all this. Never do a Google image search for “bull balls” with “safe search” switched off.

NBA 2K7 is probably the most addictive Xbox games I’ve played in a long while. Compared to NBA Live 2007, NBA 2K7 is worlds apart in terms of realism and feel. Controls take a bit to get used to and don’t have the ‘arcade’ style feel of NBA Live 2007. I like to start with a rubbish team and then trade up. I like a challenge. One thing that bugged me was that without a good knowledge of real world stats, it can take a while to figure out who are the best shooters etc. without going through each players profile.

So what I’ve done is grab a list of the ratings for each player in the game (besides the free agent list) and sorted them to show the top players in each of my key categories. Firstly, I’ve got the best rated players by position, then I’ve got the list of the best rated players for three of the categories I think are most important if you want to dominate, 3 point shooting, dunking and offensive rebounding (clearly I’m not big on defence). Basically if you can stack your team with a few of the guys in these lists, then you wont have too much trouble taking out the championship. Without further or do, here are the lists.

Top Five Rated Point Guards (Overall Rating)
1. Allen Iverson (76ers): 94
2. Gilbert Arenas (Wizards): 93
3. Jason Kidd (Nets): 92
3. Chauncey Billups (Pistons): 92
4. Steve Nash (Suns): 91
5. Chris Paul (Hornets): 89

Top Five Rated Shooting Guards (Overall Rating)
1. Dwyane Wade (Heat): 98
1. Kobe Bryant (Lakers): 98
2. Ray Allen (Sonics): 91
3. Vince Carter (Nets): 90
4. Michael Redd (Bucks): 88
5. Richard Hamilton (Pistons): 86
5. Jason Richardson (Warriors): 86
5. Manu Ginobili (Spurs): 86

Top Five Rated Small Forwards (Overall Rating)
1. LeBron James (Cavaliers): 98
2. Paul Pierce (Celtics): 94
3. Shawn Marion (Suns): 92
4. Tracy McGrady (Rockets): 91
5. Andrei Kirilenko (Jazz): 88
5. Rashard Lewis (Sonics): 88
5. Ron Artest (Kings): 88

Top Five Rated Power Forwards (Overall Rating)
1. Dirk Nowitzki (Mavericks): 97
2. Kevin Garnett (Timberwolves): 96
2. Elton Brand (Clippers): 96
3. Tim Duncan (Spurs): 96
4. Jermaine O’Neal (Pacers): 93
5. Pau Gasol (Grizzlies): 92

Top Five Rated Centers (Overall Rating)
1. Amare Stoudemire (Suns): 93
2. Shaquille O’Neal (Heat): 92
3. Ming Yao (Rockets): 89
4. Marcus Camby (Nuggets): 88
4. Ben Wallace (Bulls): 88
5. Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Cavaliers): 84

Top Three Rated 3 point shooters (3PT Rating)
1. Richard Hamilton (Pistons): 91
2. Steve Nash (Suns): 89
2. Mike James (Timberwolves): 89
2. Raja Bell (Suns): 89
2. Leandro Barbosa (Suns): 89
3. Chauncey Billups (Pistons): 88
3. Ben Gordon (Bulls): 88
3. Tim Thomas (Clippers): 88

The Top Dunkers (Dunk Rating)
Kobe Bryant (Lakers): 99
Jason Richardson (Warriors): 99
J.R. Smith (Nuggets): 99
LeBron James (Cavaliers): 99
Vince Carter (Nets): 99
Tracy McGrady (Rockets): 99
Josh Smith (Hawks): 99

Top Five Offensive Rebounders (Off Reb Rating)
1. Jeff Foster (Pacers): 99
2. Tyson Chandler (Hornets): 96
2. Reggie Evans (Denver): 96
2. Michael Ruffin (Wizards): 96
3. Drew Gooden (Cavaliers): 92
4. Dwight Howard (Magic): 91
4. Emeka Okafor (Bobcats): 91
4. Erick Dampier (Mavericks): 91
4. Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Cavaliers): 91
4. Brendan Haywood (Wizards): 91
5. Ben Wallace (Bulls): 90
5. Joel Przybilla (Trailblazers): 90

Welcome to part one of a two part series, “Top 10 TV show theme songs that will change your life”. Today we will be counting down to number 6. These themes were all voted on by me. This is not a democracy. Swollen Pickles is a dictatorship. All ten of the themes listed here have touched me in a special way. Let’s hope they also touch you! So, let’s begin…

10. He-Man

He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe. Defending the secrets of Castle Greyskull? Now my memory must be pretty bad, but what exactly were the secrets of Castle Greyskull again? I didn’t think the fact that He-Man preferred guys was much of a secret at all. My favorite thing about the theme/intro is that it summarises the He-Man life story in under a minute! What does that tell you? He-Man really needed to get a life!

The He-Man theme is all about empowerment. Run outside, raise your arm in the air and scream “I have the pooooowaaahhrrrr”.

9. Silverhawks

The Silverhawks were the gang given metal bodies and hawk wings to stop organized crime in the Limbo galaxy. A classic and kicking theme tune. The hawk sound effect is a nice touch. Very classy. In case you care, the guitar playing guy is country singing Col. Bluegrass, and that’s no ordinary guitar! In the 29th century that’s what they call a sonic guitar. Awesome.

8. The Care Bears

This theme is a classic for all the right reasons. It is down right irritating. I challenge you to listen to it 20 times in a row and not want to jam a screw driver in your ear at the end of it. It’s sooooo cute I just threw up on my shoes. This theme will change your life through giving you a greater appreciation for the sounds of silence.

7. The A-Team

Just like the team themselves this theme is all balls and a worthy number 7. Sgt. Bosco Albert “B.A.” Baracus seemed to have a bizarre 1980’s case of tourettes. He was one crazy fool. This theme could only be better if Mr T busted some rhymes over the top of it. This one is complete with subtitles, granted, they aren’t english subtitles, but they are still subtitles!

6. Thundercats

Snarf Snarf. Even in the 1980’s the Thundercats had street cred. There theme proves that they were down with the biatches and ho’s from the beginning. Thundercats also taught me that it’s ok to have bad hair.

5. Transformers

Before Michael Bay dragged the Transformers brand through the mud, there was the original cartoon. Compulsory viewing. Any one that has seen the show knows that Transformers are so much ‘more than meets the eye’. This theme tune taught me that besides that the Autobots were waging a battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decipticons, you should also never judge a book by it’s cover.

Actually, I have a question… how come Megatron is as big as Optimus Prime when they are robots, but when he transforms he shrinks to the size of a gun? And another thing, if the Transformers come from outer space, why do they look like cars and stuff from Earth?

4. Walker, Texas Ranger

This theme rocks like a roundhouse kick to the balls. As you will see it features two types of music, country and western. This clip also demonstrates that more off road vehicle roll over in Texas than any other place in the world. It’ll teach you everything you need to know about right and wrong, as well as workplace safety.

3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The original is still the best, and the theme tune slams that point home. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the heroes in a half shell, the worlds most fearsome fighting team. Ever wondered why they could never cut Shredder no slack? Actually the ‘rap’ theme from the live action movie was a booty shaker as well. If I was a male stripper that might just be my performance music of choice.

2. Greatest American Hero

A teacher becomes a superhero after finding an alien space suit. things turn pear shaped when he loses the instructions and struggles to control his new powers. Who would have thought those events would lead to one of the most inspirational themes of any show anywhere in the galaxy? Believe it or not, exercise your personal freedom… just don’t wear a red lycra body suit!

1. Monkey

My clear number one, the Monkey Theme (often referred to as Monkey Magic). How could this theme not be a classic? Look at it this way, Monkey was performed by Japanese actors in China and then dubbed into English. The show itself was such pure gold.

As for the theme, there stand no greater in history. Check out the transcript below, filled with so much wisdom…

“In the worlds before Monkey, primal chaos reigned. Heavens sought order. But the phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four worlds formed again and yet again, as endless aeons wheeled and passed. Time and the pure essence of Heaven, the moisture of the Earth, the powers of the Sun and the Moon all worked upon a certain rock, old as creation. And it became magically fertile. That first egg was named “Thought”. Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, said, “With our thoughts, we make the World”. Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it came a stone monkey. The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!”

… “the phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown”… “With our thoughts, we make the World”. That speaks to me. Yes, the nature of Monkey is irrepressible indeed.