BBE Acoustimax Sonic Maximizer

If your wonder why I've blogged three times in one day, well, its because its my day off and I've been busy.

Here is one of my favorite pedals, The BBE Acoustimas Sonic Maximizer. I know that it sounds cheesy, but it really does the job quite well. The first thing I thought when I saw the pedal was, "Thats for an acoustic?" I mean, you'd think that a pedal with that many knobs to turn would be for a tone-tweaking gear-head lead guitarist, but you're wrong. Its really a DI box with the works plus a sonic maximizer thrown in for good measure.

The best view of this thing is from the rear. Its like a swiss army knife, safe for the cork screw. Its got your Ground life and DI Out, phase, pad like you might expect to find on a regular DI but it also features and extra line out, FX loop and tuner out. For tone purist that don't have a tuner with analog true by-pass then this gives you an option get that tuner out of the chain.

The only down side is that it doesn't fit in your case. I mean, it needs a case of its own. This thing is large and heavy. But its about the only thing you really need to carry with you, besides your guitar that is. The sounds are great and the features can't be beat.

Another reason I like this thing so much is that I got it cheap. I paid less than half price for mine and it was new. Although I think it may have been a 2nd, or remanufacture. I started having trouble with it powering off unexpectedly. I thought it could be a short in the PS but turns out that the ribbon on the circuit had broke right at the adaptor port. A little extra solder and its as good as new, well almost. I have to switch the jacks around. When I reassembled the pedal I switched them around. The inputs in the output kinda of thing, but it back up and working, thus the reason for the post.

Modtone Vintage Wah vs Dunlop Original Wah

So if you are a fan of the Wah then you probably know all about the dunlop wahs. They range from the simple Original that will cost you $70 to the rack-mounted unit setting you back 600 bucks. They have all sorts of signature wahs and ones that make you sound like Jimi Hindrix, but what about the good old original.

I like to kick it old school. I am not a fan of modular this or signature that, so when I look at pedals I like analog and true by-pass. A wah can "funk" up you sound really well, but when its off I want it to stop funking around with my tone. Fans of the original Dunlop wah have often complained about the lack of true by-pass. There are lots of places to find kits and direction on how the mod your original wah, but why buy something that you have to mod. Price? well lets see...

The Modtone. I like Modtone, I'm just going to lay that out there. They make good pedals, of which I own three. Chorus, Volume, and Wah. The Modtone wah is almost identical to the dunlop. Save for one thing, the LED. The LED is one of the major complaints about the Dunlop Wah. You don't know if it is on or off unless you play through it. This can be kind of impractical in a live situation. When it comes to features, the Modtone Wah wins.

Lets break it down and see which pedal is better.

Features: Modtone
(as we mentioned before, the whole LED thing)
Tone: Modtone
(The Dunlop make a nasty nasally sound when the toe is down and there isn't a whole lot of bass when the heel is down. The Modtone does a nice job of keeping it even)
True By-pass: Modtone
(honestly, the Modtone has True by-pass circutry, not exactly true mechanical by-pass but more so than dunlop)
Sweep: Modtone
(The Dunlop wah almost jumps to one side or the other. This doesn't produce a good sweeping wah sound. The Modtone gives you a pronounced wah, almost like someone saying "wah" huh, go figure.)
Price: Tie (same price $69.99)

As you can see, the Modtone takes the cake for the exception of price where they split the cake.

Time To Learn

I've Spent a good bit of time away from this blog, and for that, if anyone still reads, I'm sorry. I know that there isn't a huge following of this blog but still I should keep it up to date.

I do have a little tidbit of knowledge for anyone that cares. I was killing some time this morning and I came across a video that was very helpful. It explained some thing in a way that made it very clear to me. Its about scales and leads and whatnot. I hope that it helps you, I know it sent me into the other room for some jam-time.

Enjoy.


Blues Guitar Lesson: Major Pentonic Blues Licks

ps... I couldn't stop it from auto-playing so now I just posted the link so that those who visit the page wont be greeted by an add for reboks or a shotgun or something. Check it out just the same!