Showing posts with label D&M Drive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label D&M Drive. Show all posts

Thursday, January 4, 2018

5 Worst Pedals Of 2017

Just as there is best of the year, there is also some pedals that didn't really seem to hit their mark. This isn't to say that they don't do the job their were meant to do, its just that sometimes the fact that they even exsist is a a head-scratcher. Let's take a look at some of the worst pedals of 2017.

EHX Blurst

I wanted to like this thing when I saw it. EHX has the habbit of bringing unexpected and fun products to market, but the Blurst was flirting with line between junk and genius and fell right over to the junk side. This is a pedal that dares you to try and use it. There is are some interesting special effects in this box, but I can't see that anyone could find use for it other than a noise maker. Some may need weird and interesting noises and this will provide, but for many of us, this is a waste of space.

DOD Rubbernecker

This pedal is actually a solid delay. It has some unexpected features and it expands of what you are capable of with analog delay. However, it suffers from timing. The Rubbernecker is now in the shadow of its big brother, Carbon Copy Deluxe. These two delay may possibly share some DNA, but given the choise between the two, most are going to go with the pedigry that the Carbon Copy brings with it.

BOSS/JHS AngeryDriver

This pedal came straight out of left field. The Angery Driver is a colaberation between JHS and BOSS. It combinds the Angery Charlie and Blues Driver. Both pedals are outstanding in their own right. So the decition to combind the two comes as a big surprise. Although, the pedal works on a technical level, it robs itself of some the best qualitiest that come with each respective pedals.

Keeley D&M Drive

What is basically a signature pedal, the D&M Drive actually works against itself. I understand why this pedal happened. These two brits that talk about pedals on the internet have the capability to sell plenty of pedals if they recomend them, so why not give them an endorment deal? Well, the whole perpuse of their show is to help guitar experience many differnent guitar product and maybe help with purchasing choices. If it turns out that they just shill for whoever is lining their pockets, then it doesn't help their credibility.

TC Electronic Rush Booster

This year we saw a whole slew of new pedals from TC Electronic. It's no coinsedence that this come after the buy out of TC by Behringer's parent company. What make the Rush booster worse than most other pedals in the same line is that TC already make a great boost for the same price. The Spark Boost is great and compact. For a one knob boost, you don't need a huge, heavy enclosure. This seems like some kind of oversight.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Ugly Guitar Truth About Keeley Eletronics D&M Drive

NAMM showed us lots of interesting pedals and gear, but something stuck out like a bad pun about British dental work. I'm talking about the Keeley D&M Drive. Sadly we can't call this the DM Drive because then we could pretend that it was some allusion to a D&D dungeon master. I mean, nerdy table top RPGs are better than out-and-out product hocking. Yes, this pedal in question is specifically designed for That Pedal Show's host's D-name and M-name. What does this mean and why is it ugly? Ehh... let's see:



Let's Face It


Basically this is a three knob drive pedal glued to a three knob boost pedal and sold as a custom(?) pedal. They did do something right. They made the pedal order switchable. You will be able to boost into the drive circuit or drive into the boost. That adds a great deal of range to the sounds this pedal is capable of. However, they'd be able to do more if you allowed for a loop in-between the two sides, but that is a little over-the-top for a drive boost combo. However, with a G2 system you can have full functionality with the press of a button. So, There's that.


Speaking Of Faces


Just that. You have D-name and M-name looking at you from the top of the pedal. It looks like that got the same guy that did the Rhett and Link logo, but they paid him in high-fives, and he was hung-over... from meth...(you get hung over from meth, right? you know what, don't answer that). It's not that bad. However, if you didn't know that D-name and M-name had a YouTube show about pedals, then you'd probably wonder why there is a bald man in front of a setting sun and a reject Doug character on the pedal.


It's Hard To Find


Right now there is little information about this pedal. Just finding an image is tough to do. In fact the most information right now is the actually video that D and M did at NAMM for Keeley. In the video, They quote the old joke about NAMM: NAMM, Not Available Maybe May... So, we might be looking a few months off before common folk like us can get our hands on it.


Conclusion


Based on the very little information that is available, it is very hard to come to any real conclusion. But what we can here in the NAMM video is pretty telling. There isn't anything objectionable in the video as far as I can hear. The drive is officially described as 'Tight' and the boost is called a 'mid-boost'. The best thing is to take a listen to That Pedal Show, and if you like their tones then this might be up your ally. So, when 'maybe-May' get around here and you have $229-249 to spare. You can have you're very own D&M.



Support the blog by shopping on Amazon by using my link!


There should be an ad below: