Ugly Guitar Truth: BOSS Waza Craft DC-2W Dimension-C

I don't think I get this one. I understand that it's a vintage pedal that BOSS has released under the Waza label, but other than the vintage appeal, there just isn't anything here that I'm stoked about. I ran a little long in the post about the Waza Metal Zone, so I think this will be shorter.

Ugly Truth in: 3... 2...

1. Presets

I'm a knob tweaker. I love to twist knobs. I like to fine tune all the settings. The biggest reason that I don't own a Strymon pedal is that I would probably be found dead from dehydration next to it because I tried to adjust all the parameters. So the fact that this is a "set it and forget about changing it" type of pedal is a little detracting for me. I get the appeal, but I'd be screaming for a Blend knob right off the bat. I mean, it is a cool pedal with a lot of vintage appeal. Also, you can rig it up in a loop with a blend if you are that into it, but it sounds like a lot of trouble just to run a special pedal with some cool vintage cred. 

2. Premium

This pedal isn't for me. The whole Waza line has a particular customer base and 9 times out of 10 I'm not interested. (actually, it's 2 of out 8 so far...) This is the most expensive Waza pedal at 229 USD. No doubt there will be those that buy and love this pedal. Those people probably already know that they will love this pedal before they buy it and they don't mind paying that premium. I'm not cool enough to really "get" this pedal, so my money is better spent on a used MD-500. You get 20 presets with the Dimension-C, but your options are nearly limitless with the MD-500. 

3. There is no 3

Conclusion

No doubt there are some cool sounds in this box. If you were stoked when BOSS announced it, then you are the type of person that BOSS made this pedal for. I, however, didn't. 

Ugly Guitar Truth: EHX Green Russian Big Muff Reissue

Those that follow the history of the Electro Harmonix Big Muff know the pedal has had a long and complicated past. Starting life in New York City, the pedal has seen many revisions spanning decades and continents. Those casually aware of the pedal may be familiar with words surrounding the pedal like Ram's Head, Triangle, Civil War, and Russian. I won't get into all of those in this post, but I will take a close look at Electro Harmonix's latest muff, the Green Russian reissue.

What Does A Green Russian Sound Like?

Well, those unfortunate enough to be unable to find/afford a vintage Green Russian Big Muff (like my self) have to settle for finding clips on the internet. An excellent source for all things Bigg Muff is Kit Ray's site devoted to the accumulation of accurate Big Muff knowledge. According to the site's research, all Russian made Big Muff pedals (Green Russian, Black Russian, and Civil War) all have similar components and sound (Fatter Bass, Brighter and less-scoped Mids, and Less Gain) These features made it a natural for bass players looking to add a fuzz to their tone.

A Russian Spy?

It is speculated that maybe, just maybe, the Green Russian has been operating undercover for years and we just haven't noticed. Some suspect that the Nano Bass Big Muff has been a Sovtech Spy all along! Actually, there is a rumor that the Green Russian reissue is just a Bass Big Muff in a new coat of paint. (admittedly, that new coat of paint looks awesome.) The strongest case for this being the EHX website! From the Nano Bass Big Muff Page: "With voice inspired by the battle tank, GREEN RUSSIAN BIG MUFF" (emphasis mine). Well well well... I'll just leave this here:

Placebo Mojo

Expert wine tasters have been fooled into describing a white wine with typical red wine characteristics because it was made to look like red wine with food dye. Similarly, the same experts praised inexpensive wine when led to believe it was more costly, and dismissed top-shelf wine when told it was inexpensive. Why am I talking about wine? Because the same effect happens to guitarists. The Boutique Boom was born out of people wanting more expensive looking pedals. It's no coincident that re-boxing BOSS pedals became a big thing around the same time. You could pick up a used BOSS pedal and put it in a boutique looking box for less than most boutique builders ask for their pedals. I'm not better. I'd spend time swapping out the LED on a BOSS pedal and become the proud papa of a custom/modded pedal. There is something to be said for enjoying the way your pedals look. You always want to be proud of your rig, but remember to use your ears first.

Conclusion

It is well-documented that the Big Muff has had numerous variations. Each one of those variations having a different effect on the sound produced. Many variables come into play when discussing tone, perhaps none more hotly debated than mojo. Some tout the Green Russian as the superior Russian Big Muff others believe the Civil War Big Muff the best, but in all honesty, the circuits are nearly identical. All components have tolerances, some as much as 20%, so there is some truth to the "this one sounds different than that one". Is this the golden goose of tone the EHX has been reluctant to put out until now? No. This is a way for Electro Harmonix to offer a genuine Green Russian Big Muff... clone that was made in the far east, assembled in NYC and has already been on shelves for years under a different label (probably). But it looks really cool!
Also, just to point out, that according to NWinther of tdpri.com, the Cyrillic letters spell out "Overdrive". Which could be a shout-out to the Red Army Overdrive, the pedal that Mike Matthews of EHX produced before regaining control of the EHX brand and Big Muff name.

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$10 Overdrive vs $200 Overdrive

I've had a small credit sitting around at a music store. I honestly had no idea what I was going to use it for. I'm fairly well off on picks and strings and all that, so it has been sitting their. I noticed they had marked a Behringer Tube Overdrive right in my price range. I purchased the pedal with zero money down. Armed with a new pedal. I took it home and wondered what I was going to do with. I hadn't even tried it out at the store. It hit me. I'll put it out against my vintage Ibanez TS-9. Similar pedals sell for $200+. I thought it would make for a great "David vs Goliath" (kinda like how the Anderton's YouTube channel does) show down.

Long story short, There was a noticeable difference. The difference was present, but surprisingly small. the pedals made similar sounds. The Behringer was directly related to the Tube Screamer if not directly cloned. The biggest difference in the sounds was the amount of bass. The Vintage TS-9 was just a lot fuller sounding. The low end got left out for the most part when the Behringer overdrive was on. Also, the buffer in the Behringer sucked a little top end off. Putting the Behringer in a bypass loop, I was able to hear a little high end loss when it was kicked on. (This was confirmed in a bind sound-test) 2/3 I was able to tel when the pedal was in the loop. I blame the single time I was able to do so to the fact that my tone controls were tuned down accidentally.

The biggest shock of the whole test was the fact that the 30 year pedal was actually more reliable than the brand new one. Turn the Behringer was a hit or miss affair usually taking a few attempts. The Ibanez had no such problem. I have had to replace the switch in the Vintage pedal, but there really isn't any reason to have to repair a brand new effect.

Conclusion:

Did the more expensive pedal sound better? Yes. It also worked better in general. Did it perform 20 times better? No, but there are many pedal that do an excellent job of sounding like an iconic Tube Screamer and performing reliably.

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Ugly Truth: Boss Waza Craft CE-2W Chorus

Boss announced that they are issuing a new Waza pedal. This time it is the Boss CE-2 that is getting the Waza treatment. The CE-2 is probably the most iconic chorus pedal. Many of the pedals that we have now are based off the CE-2. As with most (if not all) Waza pedals, it features a switch. In this case, it switches between CE-2 and CE-1 settings. There are added features as well. Original CE-1 did not have depth. This pedal adds that function to the CE-1 circuit. Also added is the stereo out puts. A function that is highly sought after by chorus enthusiasts.

Waza's main flaw has been that they are a little too impressed with themselves. I've only seen what I'm guessing is the MSRP of this pedal. At 180 British Pounds Sterling it's a little steep. I'm guessing that it will be somewhere north of $200 in the states, but street price probably settling down the an average $149.99 street. When you find decent CE-2 clones by Mod Tone and BBE (not to mention the boutique clones and kits out there) for less money, it makes it hard to justify this pedal. Vintage Boss fan may be waiting with bated breath, but the average user probably won't be wanting to pay more for a pedal that has less features.

I all honesty, this is probably a great pedal. There are plenty of more expensive choruses out there. I've owned a cheap Lyon chorus for ten years that does 90 of what this pedal does and I can't give it away. This may not be the best selling pedal, but it will have it's fans. 

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Artwood Vintage Guitars From Ibanez At Summer NAMM 2016

 For the first time in my memory, Ibanez has product distressed folk sizes acoustics. I'm not sure how I feel about a oversea company making 'aged' folk instruments. But when I look at these guitars, I want to play them. They might have everything you'd want, but I am digging the finishes.

 The Line up is pretty solid with a '000', '0' and dreadnaught. The prices on these are sub 800 making it appealing to the serious cowboy acoustic playing. No electronic that I know of, and Ibanez doesn't have the greatest reputation with acoustics, so I wouldn't expect these selling like hotcakes. I'll keep an eye out when they show up on the used market in a couple years though...

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DigiTech Ventura Vibe

This pedal was brought to my attention lately. It seems that Digitech has rounded out their boutique-y pedal line with a Vibrato. Again, this pedal is pretty. Hotrod Red and chrome all over, it is a looker. What about on the inside? Does this pedal have what it takes to be the best vibe out right now?

As of this posting, this pedal does not seem to be released for sale. However, we can learn a lot the guys over at Pro Guitar Shop and their review. The controls are pretty standard-fare. Speed, Depth, Mix and Tone. The stacked knob on the bottom right adds Drive. This is interesting for a Vibrato pedal. What stands out the most is the switch on top. This pedal has three settings: Vintage, Modern and Rotatory. Easily making this an extremely flexible pedal. Add true-bypass, Stereo In and Outs, and Tank-like build this is a lot of pedal in a little box. If you stick an expression pedal input on this pedal then I'd say it would be unbeatable.  

Ugly Truth: Vintage TS-9 Tube Screamer

Some time ago I was going through the bargain bin at the local music store and found a Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer. I already had a TS-9DX and wasn't all that impressed by it, but I figured that I would compare the two and see if there were any major advantages with one or the other. On a lark I traded bit of gear for a $0 transaction. One home I played the two Tube Screamers side by side. The TS-9 did seem to have a little more high-end on tap, but the two were very close. Weeks past and I wanted a project, so I decided to do some mods to the TS-9. The bottom plate was covered in Velcro covering the bottom. I peeled the Velcro off to access the screws and the bottom label came off. Usually I don't care about such things, but I stopped and peeled the label away from the Velcro. To my surprise it was not a contemporary label. To the internet I went to find out when this pedal was made. It could be vintage. So using the label, battery door, and some of the actually PCB components, I was able to determine that this pedal was made in 1983. It was one of the earliest TS-9s ever made. I was holding a $200-300 pedal. I was excited by the find, and I also decided that I would mod it, obviously. The picture isn't always pretty though.

Pedals Don't Get Better With Time

There is a big to-do about vintage pedals, but the reason that vintage pedal are popular isn't really based on fact. We owe most of our desire to vintage effects to two things: discontinued effects (the real reason) and vintage instruments. For as long as I can remember, people have said that violins better with age. The oldest and finest violin was Stradivarius. Fast forward a few hundred years and people still clamor over Pre-CBS Fenders. So people apply a subjective thought about violins to modern instruments and that spills over into other gear. There are some reason that some people go up in value. The Boss Slow gear is a pedal that has gone out of production and are hard to come by. They can be seen as high as $500. But people who care still rave about replacing passive components with vintage counterparts, spending time and money to replace something with objectively no difference. The truth is that many of components worsen over time. Metal rusts, Pots get scratchy, years of exposure cause degradation.

Much Of The Difference Is In Our Heads

I did a shootout with several Tube Screamer and Tube Screamer like pedals. After A/B-ing each combination with each pedal in its own loop, I was only able to discern slight differences between the pedals. They ranged from a $40 Bad Monkey to EHX's East River Drive to my vintage TS-9. I'm not saying that I could replace one for another and there be no difference, but the difference there was made little impact to the overall sound. No one casually listening would be able to tell the difference from the cheapest to the most expensive. Just knowing which pedal I was playing probably accounted for most the difference that I "heard".

The Coolest Thing About Owning A Vintage Pedal Is Owning A Vintage Pedal

The only time that people know that my TS-9 is vintage is when I tell them, and every I do, I feel like that guy. There is nearly no reason to own vintage gear than to brag about it. I wouldn't have picked up this pedal if the seller actually knew it was vintage. I do run a TS pedal on my board, but it's not the vintage one. I run an East River Drive because it sounds good and it has True Bypass and a brighter LED (and the pots aren't scratchy(and yes, I've tried contact cleaner)). I've considered sell a number of times. It would be nearly all profit, but I've decided that having a somewhat rare pedal around isn't a bad thing. Its more like a neat collectible than a pedal that I use. On the one hand, it's a good working pedal that deserves to be used, on the other hand, it is a semi-rare and valuable piece of gear.

Conclusion

The thing I like most about the pedal is the story that I get to tell of how I acquired it. I also like to see people reaction to the value of the pedal. Yes, I brag a little bit, but mostly I just think it's cool.

The Ugly Truth about Fender's new Rumble V3 Series

The other day I was in my local music store and I had some extra time. I wouldn't normally sit down with a bass when spending time at the music store (just too much other stuff to look at). But I did see something that caught my eye. It was the new look of the Rumble series amps. I was surprised by how much I liked it. Fender's bass amps have been somewhat of a eye sore. I love their classic line of their guitar amps. The tweeds and silver grills add something to the mojo of the tone that a modern looking amp just doesn't seem to have. I've played Fender's Rumble amps before. In fact, a band mate of mine use one of the larger combos for his bass rig. No only did I play through it pretty often, but when he snapped off a knob, I took it in and worked on it. I really spent some time playing with all the features and finding out what it was capable of. There is nothing that I can really rant about. It wasn't very standout. Everything have very simple and everything worked as advertised. All in all, I'd call it a "safe bet". It was relatively inexpensive and decent sounding. It was heavy. It was a combo with a 15 inch speaker. Fender also offered the same set up in a head/cab form. When moving this thing I wish my band mate would have decided to go that route.

The new Rumble:
.

When you look at these amps you think "Fender Twin". Its hard not to. Black tolex, silver grill, but it has an odd shape so maybe its more "Vintage Bassman". Despite the throwback looks, the real beauty of these amps are the modern features. Forever the bass player has had little in the way of features. Sure there are "options" in bass amps, but most of those center around EQ. There may be a "Bass Boost" or "Ultra Bass" button, but often these features don't really add to the function of the amp. The V3 Rumble has added a real feature that has really been missing from the bass amp game for too long. The most notable addition to these amp is the overdrive. Finally something that most bass player can use the expand the range of sounds in a useful way. I'm not a huge fan of over saturated bass sounds. Many times a bass can loose the very nature of the bass sound when overdriven or distorted too much, It can start to sound hissy, or worse, like a guitar. The V3 Rumble has struck a good balance between adding a useful feature and making something novel. It is easy to add a little gain and get a little bit of grit while still sounding very much like a bass. I sat down with the 40 watt version of this amp and was surprised at what I could get out of it.

The Ugly side:

Pretty exterior, useful and modern features, lightweight make this amp sound like a dream boat, Well I wouldn't call it a ten out of ten just yet. Lets look at the small combos in this line. After all, these are priced to appeal to the beginner and hobbyist. The smallest model is the 15 watt with a 10 inch speaker. Sounds exactly like what a beginner would buy. With a street price below $100 it is a deal, but no one it their right mind should buy one of these. Why? Because for twenty dollars more you can get the 25 watt combo with the same speaker. That is 2 dollars per watt, not a bad deal for just under $100. What I can figure out is why the next step up in this line (another 15 watts up) is double the price! You still have the same 10 inch speaker with a little more power, but they tack on an extra 80 buck to let you control the overdrive and have a couple buttons to push (nothing special there). Really the price jump is more like due to the fact that this unit might appeal to someone who would actually play outside the house, meaning they might be willing to part with a little more money. So for a $20 upgrade you wind up paying $100. Not cool. Speaking of cool, The new compact, lightweight designs are nice. They are great selling points when considering the other options. Both of those things paint a positive picture when imagining owning a piece of equipment. Keep in mind why those other units are big and heavy. The old Rumbles were tanks, but these new one are untested. Thinner sides to the cab and less bracing might account for the weight loss. Also, amps make heat. That compact design is going to trap that heat. I don't remember seeing a fan on any of the units I tried. sorta scary when planning a purchase.

In closing, These amps are really a step forward. It meets all of my part-time bass playing needs. If there was a tuner on this thing, all I would need is a bass and a chord and I'd be ready to rock. However, when looking at amps in this price range its important to consider how they are able to offer these product for the price. Chinese manufacturing doesn't hurt. These are great little amps. I really enjoyed playing through them and for a bedroom combo these are a solid option. Are they perfect? No. But they are a step above most of what is out there at the price range. At a glance these are pretty little amps, but look hard enough and you'll see the ugly truth.

Music Store Finds Are What Give Me Hope...

All of us that are lucky to live near a great local music store know what greatness can await us in the discount bin. Lately I had a great find in my local store. I've been looking for a deal on a pedal I could tinker with, so when I noticed an Ibanez TS-9 sitting in the used gear bin I got a little excited. The guys at the shop gave me a fair shake on the price so I came home with the pedal. After giving the pedal a good going through. I decided to tweak it. So I sit down with my new find about to get busy with a soldering iron and, on a whim, I peel the velcro that had covered the bottom plate. Of course the label peels off. I decide I want the label on my pedal so I try to separate the two. This is almost impossible. Just getting a corner start was frustrating enough, but I kept going. I notice that the label read, "Made In Japan". Interesting, most pedals are made in china, except the vintage ones of course. So now I look up the history of the TS-9 and how to tell if it is vintage or reissue.

Step one: The Label

If the label is black then it is the oldest edition of these pedals, meaning it was made in the very early 80's. This doesn't mean that a silver label is not vintage, just that its is made after the first ones with black label. The Silver label has a couple clue to the age of the pedal. If it says "Made in Japan" then your off to a good start. In the upper right hand corner there should not be the familiar "CE" symbol. This was added later, and its a dead giveaway that the pedal in more recent. The more recent reissues' serial number begin with "00", vintage units should not. The first number in the serial number should be close to the year of manufacture, ie 3xxx means the pedal is made in 1983.

Step two: The Guts

Getting into the pedal, the inside of the battery cover should say "MAXON". Looking at the PCB the capacitors should be green in color and the IC may be a few different types, but the JRC4558 is the one that most people look for. If all these things check out then you can feel pretty confident that you are in possession of a vintage Tube Screamer. Congratulations!

This was the case with my find. I couldn't believe it. I found this pedal in the discount bin and come to find that it is actually worth several times the price I paid. Sometimes it pays to do you homework.

Bugera V22 22W 1x12 Tube Guitar Combo Amp

This is only a teaser. I don't own this amp, but I have given it a fairly good run through and so far I'm impressed. It has two channels running through an all-tube amp. These amps are cheap and china-made, but the sounds they produce don't lie. The sounds are good, but some what limited. The 22 watt version breaks up a little too early to play much outside the bedroom. It will get volume but at the cost of your clean tone. Serious musicians would be advised to get the heavier-watt model. As for a bedroom/recording amp aimed at getting nice vintage "brown" tones, this is a solid contender. (of corse you can add pedals, mod, and tweaks and a whole world of options opens up) Its not the greatest amp I've played through, but it has some serious bang of the buck. If you are interested then I would suggest finding one and playing through it. The quality control may be and issue since they do descend from behringer. I'd like a 2x10 or 2x12 model combo, but then again I'd end up replacing the speakers in the cab any way.

The sounds are nice and the potential is there, plus it looks cools...