Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Ugly Truth About The Eletro Harmonix MEL-9 Mellotron Emulator

So Mike Matthews and company have been at it again. Offering us yet another pedal that we didn't even know that we wanted, EHX have served us a new polyphonic pedal that emulates... Mel... Gibson? Wait, that can't be right...



That's Right, It's a Mellotron Emulator... Whats a Mellotron?

Not only is this a pedal that we didn't know that we wanted, it is a pedal that emulates something that we don't know what is. The description provided by EHX never says "mellotron" outright. I'm guessing that it is trademarked by its makers. So, the suggest it. A mellotron, as I have recently learned was a type of keyboard that reproduced different voices by looping sample that have been recorded to tape or disks. So no one knows what a mellotron is, so why emulate it? Turns out that the sounds of this antiquated beast have been used by bands such as Genesis, Beatles and The Grateful Dead. Chances are, you've heard one of the those bands, or you may even like these bands. More importantly, bands around the country, and probably the world, are paid good money to cover these bands, so now guitarist are able to emulate the actually instrument played rather than play the riff while sounding like a guitar...

Another 9 Voices

If you have followed EHX's theme with these pedals, There are 9 voices in each box, this isn't surprising. It is a little frustrating. At this point, it's like buying a keyboard with 9 voices only for another keyboard to come out 6 months later with another 9 voices. The hardware in the pedals are staying the same. It's the software that gets the revamp. Why can't we shove a few more one and zeros in there to hook us up with a few more voices, or all the voices, or let us edit and create the voices... Come on Mike.

There Is A Pattern Here

It now seems like there is going to be a "9" pedal every 6 months or so for the rest of our lives. As long as we keep plopping down $200 for these things. Electro Harmonix is going to keep selling them to us. I'd love to see something like TC Electronics' Toneprint tech in EHX's polyphonic emulators. Let us edit and customize the 9 voices that we get to play with.

In Conclusion

I was impressed with the video that EHX released with this pedal. They have the promotion for these pedals really nailed. Show someone playing the pedal and make it sound great. If you make it recreate an iconic lick 'spot-on' then that's a bonus... There are several sounds in this pedal that sound great on the video. The Choir voices are pretty stellar. Also, I was impressed with the last little bit of the video where they strummed a acoustic guitar and made a guitar+fill sound. Making this a pedal that has a range of applications other than 'make you guitar sound like ________".



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Monday, March 14, 2016

Ugly Truth: Jet City Buffered Line Driver

I picked up a pedal a while back because I was temped by the price. For less than $40 I picked up a Jet City Buffered Line Driver. I've always been interest by Jet City's offerings. The designs are pretty impressive and the costs are rather low, so of coarse they are interesting. Jet City doesn't seem to design very much. What they seem to do is take a licensed circuit and lower the manufacturing costs by taking to the far east. This seems like a rock solid plan to sell gear to cash strapped musicians. However, few guitarist are using their stuff. Why is that?

The Line Driver Is Designed By Non-Other Than JHS

Yes, no matter how you feel about them, there are tons of people pay top dollar for JHS pedals. The average price of any pedal is about $200, some go for more than $300 and yet a $40 pedal design by the same minds that brought you the Color Box (one of the most heralded pedals of the recent past) gets overlooked. The JHS buffer sells for over $70. Considering that the Jet City pedal is a buffer, boost, and A/B, it seemed to be a whole lot more pedal for your money. JHS designed both of them. They may even share the same buffer circuit.

The Boost Is Clean...ish

Yes, it is a very simple boost. One knob is all it takes. No tone control, which puts you at the mercy of the circuit. This one is voiced a little fat. It's very transparent but it tames the highs. When using pedals like the Klon and other treble heavy pedals, a boost can send your tone into 'ice pick' territory very quickly. A single knob makes it foot-friendly. I paired this pedal with an AC15 with a Top Boost channel. It was practically the only thing you'd needed to have a load tones at your disposal. The A/B switches channels and the boost hit the pre-amp to add some overdrive. The fact that it's buffered lets you travel far from the amp without worry about your cable's impedance

Conclusion:

This pedal plays nice with a pedal board and all by it's self. It's a useful tool and one that has found a steady place on my board. With the popularity of true bypass pedals, buffers are becoming something people are starting to consider. Before, Boss and Ibanez pedals provided the buffers. Now, people get very particular about where and what kind of buffer they use. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact,. it's good that people are taking control over their tone. It's important to under just what happens to your signal as it passes through all those feet of cable. I can't speak for everything that Jet City makes, but this pedal is solid choice.



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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Ugly Truth: Fulltone Catalyst

Lately I noticed that a couple of the Fulltone pedals have been marked down to a reasonable price. $80 for a Fulltone pedal used to be unheard of. The Catalyst and Fat Boost have both been marked to a discount price. I don't keep tabs on Fulltone, so I don't know when this happened, but everything looks like it has been recently. Used prices are still floating around previous levels. I was reading about the Catalyst on some forums and found where someone was over the moon to find one used for $99. I had a little experiences with the pedal a few years ago. I was playing some sessions with a group of guys, and used some borrowed gear. I dug the pedal then, but it was traded/sold. I haven't thought much about the pedal since, but when I saw that it was so affordable I decided to visit it again.

It's Flexible

You read the description on the Fulltone website and it makes this pedal sound like it can do anything. Boost, Overdrive, Distortion, and Fuzz. There are tons of pedal that want to do "everything" but few actually do more than one thing very well. Once you start to play with this pedal, you notice that it achieves several sounds. You might not like all of them, but there is probably a few you might. I ran this into my Vox AC15. It wasn't magic right away. I am a pretty big fan of the Vox on its own, but I did like the Catalyst as a Boost/light OD. It thickened up the sound and acted like a nice EQ. It sounded nice with Chords, but I think this pedal is more flexible than articulate.

It's Underwhelming. 

For a pedal that debuted well over $100, it kinda under-preform. This pedals actually acts better when the front of the pedal is hit pretty hard. I put a Klone in front of this pedal and it really opened up. This pedal seems to have plenty of head room, which is odd for a dirt box. So I'm guessing that it's a holdover from it being capable of a clean boost. However the boost isn't very "clean". It colors the tone in a very noticeable way. I liked it with my Vox. But I found that heavier gain setting were better with my American voiced amp.

I Like It

But I don't love it. It comes up a little short of awesome. My biggest complaint is that is not articulate enough. Chords sound thick and rich, but the single note runs don't translate well. Also, picking patterns get muddy. That's my biggest complaint, but you don't buy a fuzz to be clean and clear. But you think that your fuzz could be a boost, or work as and overdrive... So maybe Fulltone didn't really hit it out of the park with this one.

Conclusion

Fulltone may be clearing out the Catalyst and Fat Boost. They aren't the most popular pedals. They haven't been updated. Mine still say V1 on the PCB. This pedal is a little confused, but it still has a some good sounds. Its flexibility and versatility are what set this pedal apart. Would it be better if you had single pedals that did fantastic jobs of each one of the things that this pedal can do? Of course. However, this pedal is enough to do several different functions, and it has a voice that is unique. If you considered picking one of these up, then it may be time to grab one.



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