Warning: this post doesn’t only contain the usual software dev stuff, but also some serious guitar-geekiness.

This morning, I was shocked when I found out how much the development of my pedalboard went through exactly the same stages as the way I’m building ASP.NET web applications. First let’s see where I’m coming from:

In the picture above you can see a large yellow device. This is the Line 6 Distortion Modeler. It claims that it can produce all the classic distorted guitar tones that you’ll ever want and to a certain extend this is true. The sound is alright and the possibilities are huge. But also: the output (sound wise) that this device produces is always less than the original pedals that it’s trying to emulate. Also, the switches are a little bit unreliable and cause a little gap when changing sounds. I tried to fix this, but the device is very inaccessible and doesn’t lend itself very well for modifications or extensions.

Less is better

These days I’m back to where I came from: two simple pedals that don’t have a gazillion options but just do their work and are very efficient:

On the left we have the Proco RAT and on the right it’s the Digitech Bad Monkey (‘told you we’d have some guitar-geek talk in this post, remember?). These guys are simple, reliable and their output is just the way I want my distortion to sound without losing dynamics and tone. Full control!

So, what does this have to do with ASP.NET web development?

Nothing of course It just struck me that at about the same time I switched from ASP.NET Webforms to MVC, I also changed my pedalboard to accomplish the same result: making the end result better with a more simplistic approach. The yellow monster in the first picture is like Webforms with ASP.NET AJAX where I have a love-hate relationship with. The two pedals in de second picture feel like the MVC and jQuery combination (loosely coupled, only connected with a little patch cable), that brought a lot of fun lately and work very well for me.

Yeah, great analogy, NOT! I didn’t subscribe to read this blah about some guitar thingy.

Well it just something that went through my mind this morning and writing about it also gives me a chance to post some crappy gear pictures, like it or not. Here’s another one for free:

P.S. the empty spot above the pedals is normally reserved for my Electro Harmonix Memory Man Deluxe but this drama queen is broken at the moment and deserves a single post of its own.