$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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Digitech Whammy Ricochet Pitch Shift Pedal

With the trend of shrinking pedals, Digitech has graced us with the smallest Whammy pedal ever. It raises a few question with its release. Is a whammy a whammy if it doesn't have a rocker? Do we need another pitch shifting pedal with everything else on the market? Does it still have the same mojo as the original? Well, I guess that's what we are here to find out.

Haven't We Seen This Before?

Yes. Yes, we have. The EHX Pitchfork, the BOSS PS-5 (and others), even Digitech had a similar pedal with the Drop, so why come out with this. Well, the size is one reason. The original Whammy pedal is huge. As large or larger than your wah pedal. This pedal makes pitch shifting in a manageable box. Although if that's all you wanted then the Drop would be enough. So what sets this pedal apart. Like the Dirty Robot, what sets this apart is control. The effects other than your basic pitch shifting are what need to be stressed here. The speed of the shift can be adjust independently. This allows for unique and flexible effects. While it looks like something we seen before, it has some new feature under the hood.

It's New And Old

Yes, it has a lot of new features and the pitch bends are smooth and track well. But there are some that are fans of the original. It had tracking issues that made it an effect in and of its self. That voice is still in this box. You can switch between the polyphonic tracking or the original tracking of the old whammys. This is a smart move. This pedal can replace your old clunky whammy rocker for good. Not to mention, it makes recreating the exact pitch-bending speed super easy. No longer do you have to develop those killer ankle muscles.

There Is Still A Little Room From Improvement

Yes, this pedal is a solid offering from Digitech. It is well needed and timely, but it seem to have overlook something. There is a interesting LED arrangement on the left. I don't dislike this. It is a visual reference that might be helpful, but what would be more helpful is an expression out. Yes, there are other Whammy pedals that can help you out, but why not make a pedal with a bit more flexibility. It would be a welcome replacement for the column of lights in my opinion.

Conclusion

Although their is some room for improvement, this is still one of the best pitch-shifter pedals. It sounds great, and you can still get those old sounds out of it. You can emulate a trem-arm and make other cool sounds with it's flexible controls. This is pedal is a welcome addition to the whammy line, and it might be just what you need if you can live without using the rocking motion to control the pitch.

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Ugly Truth: MXR Reverb

Can you believe that MXR has been making pedal for a million years and they've never put out a reverb? Ok, So maybe not a million years, but for a company that has been around as long as I've been buy pedals, its a wonder that they haven't made some type of Reverb just so that they have an option for the MXR loyal. Now they have, what do we think about it?

It's Limited

With features like 6 different types of reverb (with 2 shimmers!) you might not call it limited right off the bat, but look a little closer and you realize that when you compare it to the BOSS RV-6. It comes up wanting. This pedal is not stereo (unless it has a stereo input... which it does! So disregard) and there is no expression input(Edit: there is one! JK everybody.). Yep, looks like the RV-6 mops the floor with this pedal. Looking online and the only price I can find is $199. Seems like a bit much for a pedal that comes up lacking compared to the $150 RV-6 (or, you know, covers its bases compare it it...)

Other Things

Look, I like MXR. They have provided us with some great pedals, but sometimes you feel like some things are left overlooked. The power jack typically found on the top of most pedals are found of the side of most of MXR's (and not always the same side) The selection of the reverb type is done by pressing a button. This isn't a major make-it-or-break-it thing, but it is out of the ordinary. It's not like you can't fit six modes on a rotary switch (BOSS has 8!). So, what gives? Don't want to stray away from the three-knob motif established by the Carbon Copy? I mean, I dig motifs as much as the next guy, but this just doesn't make sense to me.

Conclusion.

I dig it. I want to hear these shimmer settings. They might be the only thing that saves this pedal from being too little too late. Reverb pedals are always exciting to try out. A subtle setting is important, but just as important is the limits of these pedals. Most any reverb will give a little verb, but they distinguish these pedals. The EHX Holy Grail adds a bizarre metallic sound when full tilt. The RV-6 by BOSS will drone and swell. Let's wait and see what this pedal will do when pushed.

Edit: I did here these two shimmers (pad and epic) They sound amazing... is it worth an extra $50... pretty darn close...

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Hands On Review Of The Electo Harmonix Crayon Overdrive

There has been a lot of talk about this little pedal. Most web-stores don't even have the Crayon on there sites yet. A local store selling through Reverb.com was able to hook me up with one. The main thing is that everyone wants to know what other pedal it sounds like. Well I've tried it out and I can now tell you. However, that would be blowing my load a little too soon. So here's what owning and using this particular pedal has shown me.

It's Pretty Good. 

A lot of people liked what they heard from the EHX video demos. The Soul Food was a huge hit, so when they debuted a new light/medium overdrive peoples ears perked up. The Four knobs are a departure from most of their small drive pedals. Giving us Bass and Treble to manipulate is a step up. The clipping is musical and satisfying. The Bass and Treble are responsive and flexible. The Gain take you from clean to filthy with a twist. There is plenty of meat on these bones too. Playing a Tele through a Vox AC15 you'd expect twangy and spanky, but with this pedal engaged you plenty of grunt to thicken up that Tele sound.

The Name Is A Little Silly, Considering...

This pedal is one of the best clean boosts with the gain dialed back. It really preserves the sound of your guitar when playing through it. It doesn't jack with your tone in a bad way. Tube screamers will always add that mid-hump, but this pedal, when set correctly, will give you your tone right back to you, only louder. But not much louder. Much of the volume remain hidden until you start to add gain. But that is the reason to buy an overdrive, right? Besides being named after a childish art utensil, "coloring you tone" is considered a no-no, so when the hype video said the pedal did just that, well, it was a little bit of a face-palm moment.

It Gets You Close To That Sound With Minimal Effort

If you look at my pedal board, you will see that I like stacking my gain pedals. I have a Soul Food almost always on and cranked up to push the next pedal (Tube Screamer/OCD/Super Badass). Some times I'll run the TS into the OCD to get really noisy. I like combining Overdrives with other pedals to simulate the effect of a overdriven amp while keeping to bedroom levels. Not to say that other pedals need  a another in front of it, but this pedal has gotten pushed-a-little-too-hard (in a good way) sound all by it's self. There are a lot of things that I like about the Soul Food in this pedal, but mixed with better EQ and great clipping section.

In Conclusion

If you are in the market for a single pedal to do must of the heavy lifting of your dirt section and don't want to full with stacking different pedals, then this might be right up your ally. What the Soul Food lacks in flexibility, The Crayon Does rather well, with the bonus of being transparent in the best way possible. This pedal is a little more than just the "pre" section of you gain section. It has the grunt to be your entire overdrive section. It does play well with other though. Especially if the other pedal is heavier. All in all this pedal is a great box. Even if it turns out to be heavily "inspired" by another pedal, this pedal is a great addition to an already pretty stellar list of pedals in EHX's line.

The Ugly Truth About TC Electonic's Dark Matter Distortion

If there is anything in the world that gets my attention, it is guitar gear that's cheap. I'll rummage through a whole heap of junk to get to a great pedal that is reasonably priced. There are tonnes of great options in the $150-200 range, but lets get real, I got about $50 to spare, so I'm looking a lot lower than a car payment when shopping for pedals. That being said, I came across TC Electronic's Dark Matter Distortion for $50 and did a double take. Normally priced north of a hundred US bones, the Dark Matter is one of only 2 distortion boxes made by the highly praised effects company. These people put out quality stuff, but they are more known for their Hall of Fame reverb and Dito Loopers, than their dirt.

If you watch their promotion video about the Dark Matter Distortion, then you notice that they came how uncompressed the pedal sounds. This was great news because the only real complaint that I had about my current distortion pedal is that it tended to get rather compressed when the gain was turned up. If you've read about my adventures with back-orders, you know that I originally ordered this pedal online. It never came, but I was able to find it at a local music store. I ran through a clean fender amp and used a double humbucker equipped guitar. Setting the EQ flat on the amp, I started the pedal off with low gain. These sounds are nice. Compared to the Rottweiler, this pedal can actually clean up quite a bit. It's not going to be a very "clean" boost, but if you want to punch up a lead with more volume and a bit of dirt, this could do it.

Where this pedal comes alive is when the gain is past noon. It wants to rock. I found myself messing around with heavy metal riffs and chunking along like I knew what I was doing. The clipping is smooth and natural sounding. It doesn't get hissy when pushed. The pedals "noise" level is very low. Open chords ring out rather nicely, and the voicing option is really nice. It takes this great sounding distortion and gives it a little more flexibility. I did start to notice that there was something missing from this equation though.

Even though this pedal is a steal at $50, (if it is still at that price) there is a trend right now that a lot of guitarist, including myself, are really enjoying. Pedals are being designed with transparency in mind. More and more guitarist are relying on their guitars and amp for the majority of their tone, and when they turn a pedal on they want that sound to still be the bones of their tone. Many pedals tend to hijack the sound. Chief among these are one that alter the sound the most, like Distortions. Active EQs and lots of saturation will take over most any guitar, but there are some pedals being designed with Blend knobs that mix in clean signal to the effect. This is a bit of electronic wizardry, and it is wonderful.

In conclusion, I like this pedal. It is worth the $50. If you are looking for a great distortion for minimal investment, then look no further. For what you'd spend on a Boss DS-1 you can pick up a better sounding and more flexible pedal. If you have a distortion that you are satisfied with, but looking to expand you sound, then maybe this one isn't for you. It does do nice things, but it's probably not different enough from your current rig for you to go running out and buy one. It's got, but not exactly "standout".

The Ugly Truth About TC Electronic Rottweiler

Ever on the look out for pedals that are stellar, I was browsing in one of my local music stores and noticed a TC Electronic Rottweiler. TC Electronic is more known for their filter and modular effects, but they do have dirt boxes as well. I decided that I needed to give them a try. What I learned surprised me.

My set-up was a Fender Tele Deluxe, into the Rottweiler, to a Peavey Classic 50. The Deluxe and the Peavey tube amp was a great combo. Great American sounds came chiming out. Que the record scratch because when the Rottweiler was turned on, everything changed. Before engaging the pedal I tried to achieve the "on the edge" sound with the amp. No go. If I wanted to sit in front of the amp and not have my ears bleed that is. (even with a master volume) So on came the pedal. Distortion is an understatement. I'm not much of a Metal player, so I won't claim it's great for Metal, but the tones were there. I rolled the gain all the way back and there was still no sign of letting up. There was no sign of my original sound either. The tone and dynamics were completely hijacked. Like a dog with a bone, this pedal was carried away.

The Ugly: Not Transparent, Little Gain Control

The Pro: True Bypass, Solid Construction

The Conclusion: The Pedal doesn't share. The tend in pedal have been to mix clean signal in a mix with dirt, but this pedal didn't get the memo. If you want the Rottweiler to keep some of your guitar's tone in the mix, then you'll probably get bit.

The Ugly Truth About TC Electronic MojoMojo Overdrive

I took a trip to my local guitar Mecca and had a look around. I had been feeling like I need to get something out of the ordinary. Something that will challenge and inspire me in certain intangible ways (I wanted a new piece of gear). So, armed with a tiny budget and a little bit of trade-stuffs I ventured forth. What I found was something that caught my attention. It was the TC Electronic MojoMojo Overdrive. Four knobs and a micro toggle on an OD pedal was enough to temp me. Nearly all my dirt are three-knob-jobs, so I wanted to see if this could offer something that I currently cook up with my rig.

First I ran Modern Player Tele through the Mojo into a little Yamaha lunch box amp. My first thoughts were not good. I fiddled with knobs and ran through pickup selections and nothing was good. Of course this could have been due to the 2.5 inch speaker on the Yamaha amp so I changed to a Fender Deluxe Reverb. Clean sounds were great (duh) but this is about a pedal. I fiddled and fiddled with the pedal, looking for the sweet spot that would make the sound that is currently unavailable to me. I never found it. There was some nice voices that I found in the pedal, but nothing that made me want to commit. The best tones of the day were found running straight to the Deluxe. Here is how you know I was underwhelmed, it was new and half price.

The Ugly: It was generic, bland, didn't control low well, not very transparent.

The Pros: It was cheap(ish) and had great build quality

The Conclusion: The MojoMojo lacked just that, Mojo.

The Ugly Truth About The Hardwire DL-8 Delay Looper

In search of a possible alternative to my trusty DD-20 Delay from Boss, I sat down with the Hardwire DL-8 Delay/Looper. In many repects the Hardwire pedal is the equal to any from the boss line. Offering a load of useful features, that you can read in full detail elsewhere, The DL-8 closely aligns its self to the Boss DD-7. It outshines it with more delay time and a few extra settings, such a Lo-Fi and Slapback that allows you to really scrutinize the delay time of your slap. Lo-Fi is an intresting setting. It allow the trails to get covered by the guitar's dry signal allowing you tone to remain unmuddied by delay trails in busier parts of the song. All in all its a solid little pedal. But its not all so pretty...

Its Awkwardly Sized

This pedal was thought through. The packaging is definitely a step above the rest. It comes with pre-cut velcro and a cover to keep your knobs from turning. I like that they have thought about these things. It makes it easier for those that run pedalboards and need to secure their settings. The wide footprint, however,  is evidence that these pedal were designed before the "micro" fad really hit its stride. EHX and Line6 both had large delay boxes that were doing very well, so when this had come out it was considered middle of the road. I like the sturdy feel, but  I also have a small pedalboard. I don't know if they needed the extra room due to pedal design, but it is a little bit of an odd shape for a single button pedal. Maybe they couldn't fit all that delay into a "standard" size box.



It's True Bypass-ish



 There is a hidden switch they've included. Which I'm sure does something. However, knowing what I know, I can feel pretty sure saying that the switch does little in the way of bypassing the entire pedal. Like most of the pedals built in the "Boss" style, it has a momentary switch and that corresponds with a flip flop circuit and that by nature is not "true" bypass. I believe that it might bypass the buffer, or even the whole delay circuit, but that pedal wont switch without running though that flip flop. But the option to have a truer bypass is nice. I wish Boss would follow suit. This is a great feature and out of the box thinking, but before we praise them too much for their features, there is one feature that is such an oversight that Homer Simpson called them to tell them they were idiots.



There Is No External Tap Tempo Out



Sweet mercy! This is this the mother of blunders! To their credit, The Hardwire series that Digitech designed was put out just before everyone went crazy about tapping their tempos. Some of the bigger boxes like the Line6 DL4 and Boss DD-20 had either a disignated tap tempo button or jack for an external pedal. The DD-7, the most comparable pedal to this one, has nearly every feature plus the external tap tempo for the same money and less space on the pedalboard. However these pedals were most like designed at the same time by different people, so it is not like that had something to compare themselves to. Actually when you compare this pedal to the Boss DD-6, the Hardwire DL-8 beats it on all fronts. The DD-6 has less delay time and no external tap temp out. Too bad Boss upped the ante with the DD-7 and supplied a feature that was actually in demand.




Looper Might Be A Bit Of An Exaggeration.




To be honest I bought this pedal for a delay, but the Looper feature was surprisingly useful. I'm not a particularly enthusiastic fan of loops, but they can be useful. I use a Digitech JamMan for a band that was the only guitar player for. The looping feature is similar to the Sound On Sound feature found on most Boss delays. In fact, Boss could call all of their delay pedals delay/looper if Hardwire can call this pedal a looper. If you are looking for a delay and don't have great need of a superlative looping pedal, then this works for you. The best feature of the loop setting is that it is triggered by the input, making the beginning of the loop easier to start than timing the perfect stomp. This works at a great practice tool, but I wouldn't buy this pedal for the Looper portion of it name.


In Conclusion


Buy a Boss DD-7. I find it very hard to use delays much longer than a few seconds, so the difference, to me, in the max delay time means little. The setting are almost exactly the same and an external tap temp option means a lot. Hardwire might be going the way of the Dodo so there are chances to get these pedals at closeout prices. Digitech, the makers of Hardwire, played their hand wrong. Everything about the pedal says "quality" but its just a little too underdeveloped. Its not a bad pedal, but it can't compete with the other options in its bracket.

The Ugly Truth About Joyo Pipebomb Compressor Pedal

If you've looked at any music gear website, or have been inside an actual music store within the last few years, you have probably noticed that pedals are getting smaller. Even the larger pedals that we see coming out are compact. Pedals like the Fuzz Face and Big Muff Pi are considered huge and bulky next to most of Boss' line, next to this new wave of ultra small effects, pedals like those are mammoth. Joyo has put out a line that is no longer than my thumb and not much wider. A pedal with a footprint that small is crazy. When looking for a compressor pedal for my already cramped board, I found these and thought that I'd give it a try. Comp isn't an effect that I use a lot, but is something I want on hand for when I do. I've had several compressors, but none of them have really filled that specific niche in my sound I'm looking for. The Visual Sound Rout 66 was a great OD slapped together with an OK comp. At least, the comp was just not what I was looking for. I've played the Boss CS-3 and found a vintage CS-2 that really didn't fit the bill. So I wanted something with a knob to blend wet and dry signal like some of the high dollar jobs, and I wanted it to have a small footprint to squeeze onto my board. So the Joyo fit the bill, as long as it did it's job in a manor of my liking. So here's what I found out:

Joyo has thought this through.

If you read about these pedals or watch videos on YouTube about pedals, then you might have seen that these pedals come in a nice box with some extra stuff. There is no rubber on the bottom of the pedal and the screws that hold the bottom plate on are countersunk so that the bottom is completely flat. In the box is a standard "anti-slip" 3M rubber mat and a precisely cut piece of Velcro. To me this means that Joyo totally gets that these pedal are meant to live on a board. If you lay all your pedals on the floor then you really don't need tiny pedals. The whole floor is your board! The knobs have a interesting cover to protect them from when your foot hits the switch. This is a nice touch considering the knobs are no larger around than a pencil. The stems on the pots must not be much larger than the lead of a pencil. I've seen regular pots get snapped off, so a wayward foot could probably do some damage.

The sounds are familiar.

To sum up this pedal you need two words: subtle and transparent. With the comp all the way up you notice the effect, but it's not really "in your face". In fact, that is one of my favorite positions. Although, I play with compression like it's an effect that is supposed to do something special instead of using it to "shape" my tone. For the most part, it is hard to tell when the pedal is on, but in a kind of good way. It doesn't color your sound or dampen your high-end. The pedal can be dialed in to let your clean signal in along side the compressed signal. This is a subtle pedal when its set to 100% wet signal. When you dial that back, it gets difficult to hear the effect at all. I know that I'm not an expert at compression pedals, but it seems like you should be able to tell when it is on.

It starts to get ugly.

So the pedal does what it says. Although, sometimes I find myself wanting to turn the knobs past their stopping points. That is until I start hearing the hiss that comes from this pedal. I put this pedal on my board for a set with the group I play with. I was excited to hear this pedal in the mix with a whole band. Everything was fine until someone said, "What's that hiss?". I was running through a Fender Blues Junior at stage levels. The hiss was more than a little annoying. I don't normally run into this problem so I don't have a noise gate on my board. That meant that the compressor had to either be dialed back, or turned off. The whole thing left me a little underwhelmed. I dialed the levels back and continued use until something developed a hum. It only stopped when I turned that Pipebomb off. That is the way it stayed until I had time to address the issue. The problem might have been something knocking the power jack around. It is located on the side of the pedal instead of the top of the pedal like most other pedals. Another black mark on the pedal is how it clips when in the signal path of a guitar with hot pickups. I played at many different levels and amps while trying to attribute the clipping to something else, but the only consistent thing was when running through a hot humbucker, this pedal acts like an OD. The sounds are not terrible. Actually it was a nice soft clip, but I couldn't get the signal to clean up. I turned the volume down, but it had to go way down to clean up. This was the biggest bummer of the entire review. I only got this effect when running a very hot humbucker. Other guitars did just fine. Strats with your average single coils really benefit from a little compression and had none of the clipping from my hotrodded Tele. This might be a common thing with compression in general, but it is a little underwhelming.

Is it worth it?

Joyo is an imported brand that has a reputation of copying other pedals and selling them at a value price. This doesn't seem to be the case with this pedal. Even if this is a copy of another compression pedal, the price isn't necessarily rock bottom. At nearly $70, its a sizable investment for a pedal with the reputation of being a budget brand. There are things that this pedal gets very right, and other things that miss the mark. Packaging and design are the selling points here, but the very subtle effect, odd placement of the power input, higher than average price tag, along with the downside of these ultra-compact pedal inherently have, the price might warrant looking elsewhere for a similar unit.

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 The EHX Satisfaction Fuzz

Electro Harmonics' Satisfaction Fuzz

Recently I've spent some time at my local music store playing with their selection of fuzz pedals. I personally am not a huge user of fuzz in my sound. I love the over-saturated sounds that some pedals can get. I don't use much in the applications that I currently play, also I am notoriously cheap, so I haven't whipped out the cash to get a pedal that I don't use much. So when Electo Harmonics came out with the Satisfaction Fuzz my interest was peaked. EHX makes my current favorite fuzz, the Big Muff Pi with Tone Wick. So I'm a fan of what EHX can do with a fuzz circuit, but the satisfaction fuzz was made with a particular sound in mind: the guitar sound in the Rolling Stone's Satisfaction. If you subscribe to rock and roll folk lore, the sound in question was made when the amp Keith Richards played through busted a speaker, creating a nasty buzzing sound. They decided they liked the change and the rest is rock and roll history. EHX set out to make a pedal that recreated the sound of Richards' amp.

Was I satisfied?

With that in mind, I plugged into a Fender Super Sonic amp and started playing with a Blacktop Telecaster. The sounds the pedal made were good. There was a lot of top end. This pedal refuses to be covered up in the mix. I cut the highs on the amp to recreate some of the other fuzz noises that I like. Thinking that I could recreate some of the Big Muff Pi sounds. No dice. With the highs at 10 o'clock and the bass almost pegged, the sound was nearly the same as before. I cut the tone knob down, but nothing really produced the kind of sounds that I was looking for. I'm not trying to say that there is no way to produce other tones with this pedal, but from the beginning this pedal had one thing on its mind.

Who's really in control?

The lack of control is explained in the fact that it only has two knobs: Volume and Attack. You'll notice that neither of those knobs control tone. Compared to the Big Muff Pi this fuzz is very one sided. If you are looking to recreate those famous tones that the Stones played decades ago, then you have your pedal. If you are looking for an all-around fuzz that you can use to create different tones, look elsewhere. The ugly truth, The EHX Satisfaction Fuzz is a one-trick pony. To some it up, I didn't get no satisfaction.

New Pedals Are Something We Can All Get Excited About. (EHX Glove)

So back it October Electro Harmonix debuted a new line of Overdrives and Distortions. Being a fan of the brand (mostly the Big Muff and derivatives there of) I was interested to see what they had done. The features are attractive. The range of the new pedals span the whole range of OD and dirt pedals. EHX released their new pedals: Glove, Hot Tubes, Soul Food, and East River Drive (not to mention the Big Muff Pi nano). I'm really looking forward to taking a close look at each of these pedals. I've spent some time with one, and this is what I've found:

The Glove pedal is a mosfet drive in the vain of the famous OCD from Fulltone. My personal experience with this pedal has won this pedal a special place in my heart (and possibly my pedalboard). There has huge possiblities with unit. Reported to be able to clean boost. I won't know. My amp is very easily overdriven. A set of hot humbuckers and a boost will send my clean channel into breakup. So I don't know about "clean" boost. It definitely has some boost. The tones possible are great, but whats get my attention is the options on this pedal. First you notice the big three knobs. Everybody know the three, no matter what they are called, they do the same function. Drive, Tone, and Volume are present and accounted for, but take a closer look and you notice a mini-toggle. At first I thought it was a switch that bypassed the tone circuit, it isn't. It actually changes the tone stack. "On" is a high-mid boost and "off" is a flatter mid section with a little focus on the low-mids. Both ways produce some nice tones. Your tone and guitar's character still shine through with this pedal. But thats not all. On the inside there is a switch to change from 9 to 18 volt operation. Modders have been adding this function to their pedal for as long as I've been aware of modding, its nice to see some forward thinking. This pedal is a breath of fresh air, and you can find this for less than $60. The design may not be 100% original but I really like what they did with this pedal

Now the Ugly. To get to the internal voltage switch (or change the battery for that matter), you have to open up the box (screwdriver not included). The slight inconvenience isn't my may concern. I have the habit of cracking open my stomp boxes as it is. I did happen to notice that EHX have turned to the darkside in the name of profits. There is heavy usage of micro-sized passive components. This is bad news for modders and boutique snobs. If Boss can sell a $50 dirt box with real sized resistors and caps, then it serves to think that so can EHX. Oh wait, they are made in the USA.

So I dig the pedal, Love the features, and the price outstandingly low. It looks like a win in my book, just don't look behind the curtain.

Boss BD-2 Blues Drive Mod

So I've been talking a lot about Boss pedal mods lately... there is a reason. Its because I've done a lot of them recently. I really enjoy messing around inside those little boxes and seeing what I can get out of them. It really is a lot of.... fun? Anyhow, Moute Allum has gotten me in a lot of trouble lately. He is putting out a lot of great stuff that I just have to have. I've posted a lot about OD pedals, like here and here, so you know I like a good dirt box. So when I finally got around to actually buy a Boss Blues Driver it was only a matter of deciding what I was going to do to it. I went with Moute again. I chose the H20 mod because it seems to offer what I would like in my little blue box. I took my time with the mod. I thought that this was going to really wow me like the GE-7 I had done before this one. Here is where the pattern breaks. I was able to side-by-side test this pedal with an unmodded twin and the differences were so slight that at times I was unable to identify which was the modded pedal. Now this was far from scientific. I ran both pedal in series so they had to pass through each others buffers, but as far as the great difference/improvements I have had in the past, there was no one thing I could point to and say was much better. Maybe some further testing is in order...

Here is what Mounte has to say:

Boss BD-H20 DIY Pedal Mod Kits - When searching for a name to call this mod I chose H2O because it's the symbol for water. Water can be clear or transparent and it can be light or heavy. This mod transforms the BD-2 into an almost completely transparent pedal letting the true character of your guitar, pickups and amp shine through. Not only is it almost completely transparent, it's also extremely Dynamic. As you turn the Gain knob up on the pedal you can control the amount of gain using the volume control on your guitar. The BD-H2O will react exactly like a tube driven amp. The shriek highs and splaty gain of the stock BD-2 are completely removed. Compared to our regular BD-2 mod this mod has a much flatter EQ.

My regular BD-2 Mod has a slight mid boost and a little less gain than the BD-H2O Mod. Both mods remove the shriek highs and splaty gain of the stock BD-2. The splaty gain of the stock BD-2 is a common gripe I hear about others that offer mods for this pedal. We have removed this issue with this pedal. We also include a Super Bright 3mm White Clear LED. We also modify a resistor to increase the brightness of the LED X3. You can use the LED as a flashlight on stage after the mod, it is that bright, almost blinding. I will boldly state that this is undoubtedly the best mod on the planet for a BD-2. And the really cool part is we won't break the bank with the price of our mods. We offer top quality parts and expert craftsmanship at very reasonable prices.

Visual Sounds VS-XO Dual Overdrive Update.

A little while ago I posted about the new pedal being released from Visual Sound. This is the pedal that has so many of us waiting in uncontrollable fits. Now I've learned that the powers that be have postponed the release of this pedal even longer! I once had hope that it would be released by mid-October. That date has come and gone. Visual Sound had given themselves a window of mid to late October, but recent rereading of their official article on their website reveals they have pushed the date back to mid-November. I've seen some independent music retail website have the pedal for sale for as much as $400. I am very skeptical of these listings and anyone else should be as well. They may be trying to capitalize off the buzz made by the all the pedal-hype and selling the hope to get the pedal (but really pre-selling) the pedal for much more than the actually retail price... Shady stuff...

Still can't wait to actually get one of these pedals to try-out. Once again, if anyone out there has one and would like to send it to me so I can give it a review, then feel free to let me know.

Boss TR-2 Tremolo Guitar Effect Pedal Mod

A good while back I picked up a Boss TR-2 Tremolo. I like the pedal. I have a Vox Cambridge amp that has tremolo built in but I wanted to be able to switch the effect on and off, hence the pedal. As many people have commented on this particular pedal, there is a little drop in presence when switching the effect on. Go figure right... So I search for a mod that would help with this issue. I found Moute Allum. He offered a cure for a reasonable price.

Here's what Moute says:


Well, you asked for it and here it is. The stock TR-2 is noisy and has a volume loss when engaged. With this mod I have fixed each issue. I have also incorporated my new Dual Stacked Chip Adapter Mod using a very high quality Burr Brown OPA2134PA and RC4558P Chips. The effect is like lifting a blanket off the pedals tone. I can boldly say without a doubt this is now one of the best Tremolos available in a stomp box at any price point.

With this mod I have incorporated a pot that not only solves the volume loss issue but also now allows the pedal to be used as a clean boost with the depth knob all the way down. I also modify a resistor which increases the brightness of the LED. A Super Bright White LED is also supplied.
With this mod I have incorporated a pot that not only solves the volume loss issue but also now allows the pedal to be used as a clean boost with the depth knob all the way down. I also modify a resistor which increases the brightness of the LED. A Super Bright White LED is also supplied.
I'm so glad that I did. The pedal is excellent now. It does add a knob on the side of the pedal. Keeley has a similar mod that replaces the depth knob with a concentric knob. Super sleek. The mod includes some "hi-fi" parts and replaces a in-line op-amp with two 8-pin IC's. I really recommend this mod or one like it if you own this pedal and think you may benefit from it. All the changes it makes are good one. It makes a good pedal great. 

Boss DS-1 Distortion Guitar Effect Pedal Mod

       So there is a lot of mods out there and I would be lying if I told you that I tried them all but I have done a few. Some turned out to be big improvements and others were even bigger disappointments. So how do you know which mod is right for you. Well, I can't really tell you. Maybe you want something completely different out of your pedal, I can't tell you that a mod makes a pedal better or worse. I can tell you which I've done and what I've liked.

       A few months ago I found my self owning a Boss DS-1. Picked it up in a gear trade. I've never been a fan of the pedal. It puts dirt on your signal like a box with the word "distortion" should, but there are complaints with the way it does this. I'm not technically gifted. I'm not going to tell you that it compressed my tone, or sucked it dry, or had some kind of mid-hump/scoop I didn't enjoy. It did seem like the mid frequencies were scooped and that no matter how I turned the "tune" knob I couldn't find a sound that I liked. I've tried the pedal in (bedroom)studio and life setting. I did not like what it did for me. So I then turned to mods to make it do something I did like.

      Research. (Google) so looking into what I should do with this big hunk of orange took some time. I had to find something that I found appealing and seemed like I was capable of. (also the first step could not include "throw pedal away and buy -enter boutique pedal here-") I dismissed anything that said "Metal", or "Crazy", or "Super". I did find a mod that seemed to fit the "make it not sound like crap" requirement. Described  plainly as "vintage mod"

The Mod:

Boss ds-1—Vintage 
Mod Location Mod value 
D5 Led 
C3 .033uf 
R16 1k resistor 
C11 .01uf 
C1, C5 .1uf

     Simple enough. 6 pieces. It took less than half an hour. It made all the difference. The Eq was evened out and the nasty, fizzy distortion was lightened into a more mellow, overdriven amp-type sound. Side by side test proved that the mod had turned a hunk of junk (in my opinion) into something that I'd actually use. The change of the diode really changes "type" of distortion and the resistor and capacitor change the "shape" if that makes any sense. (probably not) The tone knob seems to "work" better. The Drive actually controls the amount of gain the unit produces, unlike before were it just went from a little fizz to a lot of fizz. Level kinda works the same, but the sound sounds more transparent. I even had my non-music playing wife listen and she confirmed the mod made it sound "clear-er" 

    So, if you have a DS-1 That you hate and want something that you don't hate, then do what I did and make your own vintage-y overdrive boosty thing

Boss GE-7 Graphic Equalizer Guitar Effect Pedal Mod

If you are at all familiar with the line up of boss pedals, then you've probably notice their equalizer pedal. If you've used then you may know that it can get a little noisy. Some of this noise is the pedal just amplifying your guitars signal which is going to have a little noise just by its nature. Using a Equalizer is a great way to boost certain frequencies to shape your tone without doing anything else to your tone. It may not turn your twangy tele into a moody jazzbox, but it wouldn't hurt to add it to your chain to fatten up a rhythm section. This pedal has enough flexibility to make you stand out on leads or have a big fat bottom end. No matter what gets moved or replaced on my pedal board I always keep my handy GE-7 around. So if this is such a great pedal, then why the mod? Well, I did mention the noise. The kit that got from Mounte Allum included no less than 6 opamps. As with most of his mods, this kit included some "hi-fi" passive parts. After I installed this kit I was actually surprised at the difference it made. It turned a good little tool into something great. HOWEVER, I'm not 100% sure why, but this mod makes it so that a 9-volt battery is drained in seconds. So If you are looking into this mod, then be sure to have a power supply on hand.

Here is what Mounte Says:

This is very handy tone shaping tool to have on your pedal board. This is actually a very nice sounding EQ right off the shelf. But it suffers from excessive noise as a result of the cheaper components Boss uses. With this mod we replace the cheaper noisy op-amp chips with low noise higher quality chips.

Lower quality capacitors are also replaced reducing noise even more and also adding a more focused Hi-Fi tone to the circuit. Noise is substantially reduced and the signal is passed through preserving the original tone of your guitar. The bypass circuit is also much improved. You will not find a better mod than this anywhere for the GE-7! You'll be shocked at the improvement this mod will make on this pedal.

5 Overdrive and Distortion Effect Pedals that I Can't Live Without

Let's pretend that the last couple years didn't happen, OK? ...OK! Here is a little bit of what I've learned: Children will change your life in every way, people won't pay me to be awesome (yet) and there are somethings that I can not live without. If you are a guitar player then chances are that you at least own some type of pedal or effect. Maybe you can't decide. The truth is, neither can I. That is why I have 5 dirt boxes that I will always have around.

5. Boss DS-1.

The Orange Box! I know what you are thinking, but don't right me off yet. I agree, this is a total noob pedal. (people still say "noob" right?) I agree. It is the obvious choice for those who have no idea what they are doing. They are cheap, $50 or so, and they are part of the most recognized line of guitar effects ever. I actually never owned one of these until I did some gear swapping and ended up get one of these thrown into a deal to "sweeten the pot". I've done some looking around and there are some pretty interesting mods out there for these. One of which is the "vintage mod" I worked on mine myself and the result was great. Sound very little like the original pedal. Much clearer. I play through this pedal just as much as the others on the list. The next one being:

4. Boss SD-1

Ok, another cheap stomp box. I don't even have a good reason to like this pedal as much as I do. Its not the best pedal on my list, and not the cheapest either. It does tie for the cheapest, but that is no reason to keep it around. What makes this pedal a keeper is that it feels the void. Not getting the grit from your rig that your looking for? This pedal steps up to offer a little different OD than the rest. Super simple knobs make it easy to tweak and the Boss compact sized doesn't hurt. There are tons of mods for this pedal too... I run one with just the C6 removed. Adds a little presents to the tone but doesn't change the overall tone much.

3. Ibanez TS-9 DX

So far Pretty Standard, Boss and Ibanez Tube Screamer. Kinda predictable. There is a reason that these pedals have been around as long as they have. They make good sounds, they are affordable, and they are available. You don't have to shell out big bucks to have a handmade box (that probably is a clone of a TS anyways) to have that great tone that you can hear in half the songs on the radio. They do still play songs with real instruments in them, right? Anyways, the DX is a great TS because of all the different sounds that your can make with addition of the mode switch. The "Turbo" setting is not all that usable with my rig, but you might disagree... I dig my Boss pedals, but Tube Screamers have a great sound that is very unique. Speaking of Boss pedals

2. Boss BD-2

Surprise! Its a Boss Pedal... My relationship with the humble Blues Driver is complicated. At first I hated it. Nothing I did seamed to get me what I wanted. I would later come back to it years later in a drunken attempt to rekindle a flame that never was. Then something magical happened. With a little help from guys at Monte Allums, my Blues Driver and shared a blissful reunion of some pretty great tone. After my pedal went under the knife, it was true love. And then disaster. The pedal died and my love was lost. It would over a year before I could replace her. Sure there were other pedals, but nothing I was committed to. Wistful affairs with dirty little boxes that always ended in regret... except

1. Velvet Umble

Handmade in Greece, its almost like you're sending a bailout to their economy. But really there aren't that expensive. $160. They are based on a circuit from the guys at Runoffgrooves. After studying the magical and mystical Dumble Amplifier, the pedal was designed to emulate the tone stack used in the actually amp. The dirt is obtained by actually overdriving the circuit. (turning up the Level and adjusting the Master) It basically acts like a preamp you can overdrive. The guys at Velvet go on to add a boost feature that make this pedal really hard to beat. Really great stuff!

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.