NAMM 2018: Outlaw FX Cactus Juice 2-Mode Overdrive

If you are a fan of inexpensive compact guitar pedals, then you probably already know about Outlaw effects. They hit the scene a couple years ago and they have been expanding their line steadily since. Also, if you like your effects western themed, you are defiantly a fan of Outlaw. The Cactus Juice Overdrive is a pretty typical mid-humped Scream-type pedal. The one thing that sets this pedal apart is the switch. Labeled Juiced/Normal, what the switch actually does may be up for debate. But at least we get something more than another tube screamer clone. I'd like to put this next to my other TS pedals and see how it stands up.

From Effects Database:

Classic warm, creamy screamer-inspired drive is tonic for your tone
JUICED/NORMAL toggle switch offers additional versatility, with higher gain setting accessible with a flick of a switch:

• NORMAL: Traditionally warm and creamy breakup, great for rhythm parts, blues guitars, etc
• JUICED:  Ups the gain dosage to extra strength, and lets you tear through even the densest of mixes.

Level, Gain and Tone knobs give you complete control over your sound


More than 23000 guitar effects pedals from 4000 brands:
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/outlaw/cactusjuice

Ugly Truth: Outlaw Effects New Pedals

With Summer NAMM coming around the corner, we have some new products coming out of the woodwork. As I was running through my Twitter feed, I noticed that Outlaw Effects has four new products coming out. Outlaw makes effects that competes with the more inexpensive effects, but hold their own with the most established pedals on the market. So what's new with Outlaw Effects? Well, for the most part, it's not effects.

More Power!

 

 

Two of the new products that Outlaw have out are power related. This is a little surprising, but not a bad idea. This helps to round out their line and helps the Outlaw faithful to fully equip their boards with more Outlaw. The first is the Kerosene power supply($69). It's dressed up, so it can be on top of your board if you like. It features eight 300 milliamp 9 volt power. This is plenty to power most if not all of Outlaw's effects (not sure of the power consumption on their reverb or delay). What isn't here is something to power the more hungry effects. Most digital delays and reverbs are going to want around 500 milliamps, so you may have to look elsewhere to power those. But fear not. Elsewhere is only as far as the Iron Horse tuner/power supply($75). Instead of 8-300 milliamp spots, we get 2-500 milliamp and 6-100 milliamp outs. This makes these two a pretty sweet package. No word on whether these are isolated outs, but my money is on not. If it was, then I would expect that would be highly publicized.

Solid Choices

Outlaw are also adding the Lasso Looper($79) and updated Six Shooter tuner($39) to their fold. The tuner sounds like it was sorely needed. Some reviews reveal that the functionality of tuner 1.0 may have been less than some of the competition. Personally, if it doesn't perform at least as well as my trusted TU-2, then it doesn't work well enough. I owned Fender's pedal tuner for a short time. It was awful and probably never actually tuned a guitar. I returned it and bought my TU-2 and it has been faithful ever since (considering the TU-2 was replaced with the TU-3 several years ago, that says quite a bit). Hopefully they have improved whatever may been wrong with the original. The looper seems like a faithful clone of TC Electronic Dito. One knob, one switch, hardly could mess that up.

Conclusion

These guys know what they are doing. I think they have rounded out their collection of pedal quite well. The truth of the matter is that these are affordable, tiny pedals. I've been impressed with everything that I've used from them. The best thing is that they are very customer service oriented. I have connected with them over social media and some direct messaging. They are friendly, polite and located in Canada (not France). There aren't a sponsor, they just make some decent stuff. I'm excited to see things in action.

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

There should be an ad below:

Five O'clock Fuzz by Outlaw Effects Review

Recently the fine folks over at Outlaw Effects released two new pedals to their line of ultra compact pedals: The Boiler Maker Boost, which not only acts as a clean boost but also acts as an adjustable treble or bass boost, and the Five O'clock Fuzz. I was given the Five O'clock Fuzz to review by the guys at Outlaw. Here is what I found out:

It's Got Some Hair

This fuzz is not exactly subtle. Yes, there are settings that aren't "over the top", but you are not going to find "just a hint of fuzz" here. Even with the sustain knob rolled all the way back, you get a nasty (in a good way) fuzzy sound. It only gets better from there. The more you roll the sustain up, the more hair this pedal grows. Every step along the way there are settings that are useful and enjoyable. The effect gives a slight compression and heaps of sustain. Its squishy, but not too squishy. My favorite thing about any fuzz pedal is its ability to cover up many of my mistakes. Sloppy playing just adds more nasty (again, in a good way) noise. As long as your fingers find the right notes most of the time, you aren't just noodling around, you will start channeling your inner Jimi.

Its Not Just a Muff Clone

If there was one pedal that I'd compare this pedal to, it would be the Muff. The familiar three knobs of EHX's Big Muff Pi are here. The thunderous, fuzzy grunts are definitely more Muff than Fuzz Face. I'm not the expert on fuzz pedals. There are only a few that I really got to know well. I've run through the gambit of the MXR line of Jimi fuzzes. I've only messed around with the big red Fuzz Face and the signature models. Not a big fan of those. The moment I sat down with a custom strat and a vintage voiced tube amp and the EHX Muff Pi w/ Tone Wicker, I was in love. The original Big Muff sounds are some of the best (in my opinion), but the tone wicker circuit and tone bypass switches make the white BMP my favorite choice for fuzz. So this pedal is much more in the vain of a muff, but its tone knob actually matters. With a sweep of the tone, you get classic muff-ish sounds to crunchy, fuzzy, super-distorted (almost Metal Muff) sounds, to crisp (as crisp as a fuzz can be), bright and piercing tones.

Its A Killer Deal

So the Five O'clock Fuzz is one of the better fuzzes that I've had the privileged to play through. What might surprise you is that it is also one of the most inexpensive fuzzes as well. Most the EHX fuzzes are over 50 bucks, and the MXL/Dulop pedals all look to be about 80 or higher. There is the Satisfaction that runs about $55, but I was slightly underwhelmed by what I could do with it. There are some options for fuzz under $50, like the Danelectric FAB and the Cool Cat fuzz. EHX also make a Micro Muff (with just a volume knob). If you look at eBay, you also find Donner/ENO/Mooer pedals that might rival this one for cost and function, but that is purely speculation on my part. There are also brands like Joyo and Biyang that offer fuzzes under $50. I can't speak for those. I can say that I was surprised by what all I could do with this little pedal.

The Ugly Side

I can't speak too harshly of this pedal. I had a great time playing it. The remarks that I've made about this size pedal still stand. However, I can't fault the sound and functionality of the pedal due to the space-saving design. The foam rubber pad lost the Velcro off the bottom as soon as I tried to move it on my board. That is honestly my biggest gripe. So maybe Outlaw can learn something from Joyo in this case, by including a precisely cut piece of Velcro to attach to a flat, bare and completely smooth bottom of the case. Speaking of the case, the graphic on this particular one is a little silly. The stash is trendy, I get that, but the "stubble" just doesn't do it for me. Honestly, I think a stencil of a grizzly cowboy or something would have been preferable to literally giving this pedal a Five O'clock shadow. Other than that, good job on this pedal guys!

The Ugly Truth About Outlaw Effect's Dead Man's Hand

A little while ago, I wrote a post about Outlaw Effects. Turns out I got some of the details wrong. This led the guys over at Outlaw to politely respond. Turns out they are from Canada and not France, so I guess these guys are more into hockey and beer than... French... stuff. These guys are more likely to say "aye" than "ooh la la" than I previously thought. When the guys were setting me straight I figured I'd slip in a request to try out some of their pedals, which goes to show you what can happen if you just ask because they actually said yes. Let's take a look at the Dead Man's Hand from Outlaw Effects.

Standard micro pedal setup. I've already spent a good deal of time describing the physical pedals here, so now we will mostly look at the sounds this makes. I spent a lot of time with this pedal. I used it as my primary OD on my pedalboard for a set I played a few days ago. It kicked my East River Drive by EHX. I played my 72 reissue Telecaster through my board and into a Fender tube 1x12 amplifier. I found it to be very usable. Most sounds that the ERD made the Dead Man's Hand can follow while taking less than half the real estate. If space and weight are an issue, and when is it not, then the Dead Man's Hand is a great pick. Also consider that the Outlaw's OD is less expensive than the EHX's pedal and you have a real competitive product. In practice, the Dead Man's Hand was able to serve just as well as my main Tube Screamer clone. But how does in stack up against other Tube Screamers head-to-head?

TS Shootout:

Above is a picture of the competitors. From left to right: Digitech Bad Monkey, Outlaw's Dead Man's Hand, a 1985 vintage Ibanez TS-9, and Electro Harmonics' East River Drive.

Round 1: DMH vs ERD

On paper, these two stack up quite well. Both have true bypass, bright LED, heavy duty switches, nice sturdy metal cases, and comparable prices. When played they are very similar as well. They are both chock full of the classic tube screamer type sound. Warm, gritty, tube-like break up at home with lead and rhythm roles. Both pedals matched each others' sounds. This is until I flipped the switch. My assumption was that the switch was there to flatten the mid-hump. It does a lot more. It acts almost like a frequency boost for the highs and lows. There is a big difference in the output when put into the "Aces" mode. The level is boosted as well as the lows. In fact, the biggest notable difference was with the bass. The lows were much more prominent. The ERD left the bottom end behind when the tone knob was cranked. When in "Eights" mode, so does the DMH. But when put into the "Aces" mode, this pedal reaches a territory that the ERD couldn't follow.

Round 2: DMH vs Bad Monkey

The Bad Money is a pedal that many hold in high regard, and yet others dismiss at a cheap copy of a tube screamer that doesn't stack up. I would mostly be in the second camp. This is actually one of the first pedals that I ever bought. It was inexpensive enough for me to afford, and sounded like something I could use. Love it or hate it, this pedal actually stacks up with the other in this list. The biggest noticeable difference with the Bad Monkey is that instead of a tone knob, it has adjustable highs and lows. Set at 12 o'clock the DMH is much more transparent, but with adjustment (lows at 2 o'clock and highs nearly pegged) the Bad Monkey was brought close enough that I had to try hard to hear the difference between the two. Needless to say that there was a lot of territory that the Bad Monkey couldn't explore like the DMH.

Round 3: DMH vs Vintage TS-9

So, it's time to bring out the big guns. Many collectors and modders hold the vintage pedals as a bench mark, something to shoot for. That's why no test is complete without putting the real deal beside the up and comer. Again, both pedals went blow for blow, producing very similar sounds at nearly the same settings. With everything dimed, the TS-9 had a little more high end and transparency. But the same problem was present with the lows. The bottom end just wasn't there anymore. It's the same story with the DMH until you hit the toggle.

The Conclusion

The Dead Man's Hand is a great pedal from Outlaw Effects. I have stated some of my dislikes about how the pedal is put together, but for the sound this pedal is an amazing value. Great Tube Screamer like tone at a fraction of the cost and space, plus the added benefit of a useful boost feature. Don't dismiss this pedal for its affordable price, it easily stacks up to anything in its class.

A (Ugly) Hands On Review of Outlaw Effects

In a world that seems to be filled with reissues and clones of everything, we have very little in the way of genuinely new products. While Outlaw Effects may not be exactly breaking new ground, their line includes the standard overdrive, distortion, reverb, delay, and chorus type pedals but, the way they approach each one breaths a little bit of new life into something that we are all very familiar with. Outlaw Effects have also done this with keeping costs very low. I honestly don't know how they make money selling these boxes for what they do. These aren't one trick ponies. They have more features than you'd see on your standard (and larger sized) three-knob-jobs. So, when Outlaw Effects reached out with an offer to review a couple of their effects, I jumped at the chance. Because the only thing I like more than getting to the truth about the gear that we use is to play with new toys!

First Impressions

The pedals come in handsome boxes. Matte black, slick labels, and magnetic closures all seem like something you'd see on a boutique box. However, mine were shipped in a padded mailing envelope that got beat up along the way. The boxes aren't fully sealed and allowed some of the recycled material used as filling in the shipping envelope to coat the pedals. No big deal really, but the smaller knobs are directly mounted on the PCB and have small gaps between them and the case. Again, not a bad thing, you need these gaps so that you can actually turn these knobs, but they don't seem as "sealed" as their bigger brothers. Upon opening the cases, I discovered the same dust from the bag had worked it's way into the pedal. I don't think that will have any effect on the pedals performance, but lets just say that these pedals aren't impervious to the elements.

Upon Closer Inspection

These pedals are manufactured in China. No surprise there. They also seem to share the same case design as many of the other micro pedals on the market. Maybe even from the same manufacturer. I will go on record that the foam rubber pad on the bottom is not to my liking. It doesn't seem like that would facilitate a hook and loop (Velcro-type) strip very well and cleaning that pad off might become somewhat of a chore. Compared to the line of Joyo micro-pedals that come with a nice flat bottom to attach either an (included) 3M hook and loop strip or rubber pad, it would be a nice consideration. (Those Joyo Pedals run 10-20 dollars more than most of Outlaw's offerings.) Not only that, but the screws that secure the bottom plate protrude, so that if you were to remove the foam pad, you may not have a sure fit to your board. These pedals are basically meant to live on a pedal board. Their long and narrow shape do not bode well for them being a stand alone unit. Anyone with a clumsy, or over enthusiastic, foot might twist their ankle on these things. Having said that, I have not attached one of these pedals to my board yet, so we will just have to test them out and see.

Looking Forward

I've received two pedals to test drive: Dead Man's Hand and Five O'Clock Fuzz. I'm looking forward to giving them a thorough run through. The Dead Man's Hand looks to be a Tube Screamer with an extra toggle at the top. It's marked "Aces" and "eight". I'm not a betting man, but I'd wager that it has something to do with leveling out the mid hump. The Five O'clock Fuzz seems to be a pretty straight forward fuzz of the three knob variety. It's difficult to tell without playing, but I hear that it is closely related to the EHX Big Muff. If that is true, then I am going to be rather happy with this pedal. My current fuzz pedal of choice is the Big Muff Pi with tone wicker. The Big Muff sound is iconic fuzz with a little bit of tweak-ability. This could prove to be a home run since a notable downside to the Big Muff is it's size. I'll keep you updated as I clock some time with these pedals. Each one will get a detailed review and maybe some video. I'm very excited about these two.

The Ugly Truth About Outlaw Effects Pedals

Right off the bat, sorry for the long break. I'm sure that all my readers are just holding their breath for another post, but on the list of important things to do blogging falls pretty low. Sorry guys.

To the point... I was online the other day and I saw this new brand of pedal. Excuse my latency, I don't get time to check out every little new thing as it comes out as much as I would like. So I did a little digging and found some neat facts about this odd, little (literally, the pedals are tiny) pedal brand.

Ok, so there is nothing new about micro pedals. Malekko has been making tiny pedals for years. There are all sorts of imitators out there now Mooer is a an import pedal that has gained some traction. They have been value priced but now have climbed out of the bargain bin and became a solid option for a guitarist looking to save stage space. This is due to the fact that they closely resemble some of our favorite pedal and aren't outrageously priced. Along with these there are several "bigger" pedal makers doing compact versions of their already established pedals. This gives a guitarist the option to trade-up and slim-down. All good things, right?

Well... Maybe.

Every Description of these Pedals is Extremely Ambiguous 

When I first saw Outlaw pedals, the first thing that I was attracted to was the price. Make a nice looking overdrive pedal for 49.99 and you have my attention. If you make a nice looking, great sounding pedal for 49.99, then you'll get my money. The fact that these things are tiny did make an impression on me, but I've seen these kinds of pedals before. The fact that there are 4 different dirt boxes (2 ODs and 2 Distortions) is exciting for me. I might have something of a weakness for them, but I'm not going to buy a pedal by cool-sounding name alone. With the Outlaw pedals, that's about all you have to go on. The thing with new pedal brands is that you have to give the customer some idea as to what you are going to get. You have two OD pedals, but how are they different? They are even closely colored (red and orange-ish-red) One does have a toggle, but besides that they look exactly alike. Even the description is vague. The only thing I can get from any description I've read is that the Dead Man's Hand might be a tube screamer clone with a toggle to flatten the mid-hump. The distortion come in two flavors as well, metal and... not metal? If these pedals sound as generic as they are described, then I'd stay far away, but there is really no way to tell.

They are micro Pedals

So I know that you might be thinking, "Duh", but hold on. There is a reason that some of the first micros where compressors and reverbs. That is because those are "set-it-and-forget-it" pedals. You usually use those pedals to set your overall sound. But the popularity of the smaller pedals led to making a wider range of pedal with tiny footprints. This isn't a horrible thing, but if you are like me and you like to change and tweak and fiddle with everything, then doing so with tiny knobs and buttons can be a challenge. For the regular person this become an annoyance, but with someone with larger than average digits or size 15 feet this becomes something more like a guessing game. My foot can easily cover a boss-sized stomp box. Now imagine going to turn on your delay and three of your pedal disappear under you shoe. So you can't see your pedal when you turn it on or off, but you might be able to work around that. Lets talk about the knobs. Most of the pedal are set up with a "large" knob in the middle and two smaller knob above and to the flanks. The large knob is about the size of the top concentric knob of a Boss Metal Zone. If you're not familiar with that pedal just look a pencil and picture a knob slightly smaller than that. The other two knobs are slightly larger than the lead in that pencil. Not exactly something that you can fiddle with on the fly. I'm not saying that all pedals this small are bad, but they come with some down-sides.

They are Made in China 

I know that a lot of things are being made overseas now. I also own a lot of things that are made overseas. I like a lot of the things that I've bought that were made overseas. So why am I complaining that these are made overseas? Well, there are some of the stereotypical thing that you think of when you hear "made in China": Bad quality control, poor assembly, cheap parts. But let me remind you that the same remarks are made about Electro Harmonix and they are USA made... I haven't had any problem out of the EXH pedals I own, or any of the one that are made in China. So what is the deal with the ding for being Chinese? First, Poor quantity control. If you order parts from china then you have to order huge amounts. That order takes weeks if not months to arrive. Sometimes the trip half-way around the world is not a kind one. So if something is out of stock then it might be a change of season before you can get that item. Also the company is french*. Nothing wrong with France, but costumer service might be less that speedy.

(Woops, sorry to the guys over at Outlaw Effects. The company is Canadian, not French, The only evidence I based my assumption on is the fact they offer a English and French langue web-site. You know what happens when you assume!)

Everything Is Small... like tiny

These pedal are small, but all we really notice is the box. If we take a look at the inside, then we'll most likely see tiny parts. Resisters and Caps that are that small are nearly too small to do anything with. Are you a modder? to bad. Want to change diodes? Not going to happen. Knob broke and want to replace? Tough luck. All the standard size parts are not going to work with pedals this size. Not to mention that working with parts this small can be a pain when you have all that parts. Lets say that you brand new pedal goes dead and you need a part. What do you do? Call costumer service, right? You do that. I person with a French accent and a working knowledge of the English langue answers the phone. Let also say that you are able to communicate with customer service and they are willing to send you the part. Hazzah! So they send you the part... From China. Three weeks to forever later, the part arrives. You've probably replace the pedal. So you get your package and remember that you own this pedal. You open up your box and go about the tedious assignment that is repairing small consumer electronics only the parts you are messing with go from children's aspirin to a grain of rice. Have fun with that.