I bought this wah because of the price. I have owned a Crybaby aand a Vox V847 in the past. This new Vox wah blew me away right out of the box. The tone was incredible and a bit darker than my other wahs which was great for rhythm playing. It really sounds classic and wonderful with my strat.
Then again, you can’t go wrong with Vox. I’m such a Vox fan these days. It’s kind of my thing, but turns out it’s a lot of people’s secret tone company.
The size is the key on this guy. If you want a fully featured looper with loads of options look at different products that cost at least twice as much and take up at least four times the space. If you do minimal looping and just want to stack things on top to set up for some freestyle soloing this is your guy.
I highly recommend using an expression pedal for stop/tap tempo. It really makes it more simple to do some basic things. I actually built my tap tempo switch right into the pedal so it doesn’t take up any extra space on my pedalboard.
The pedal is really as easy to use as a looper can get. It’s a cakewalk to start laying down grooves that you can solo over.
The one thing that could really be improved for a simple looper like this would be the ability to go backwards in the pre-recorded phrases using an external switch. You can only go one direction right now and that’s kind of a drag. Doesn’t bother me too much as I usually just set up a layer and let it sit while I solo over the groove.
Sound quality is decent in front of the amp or in the effects loop. Put it after all of your effects (including delay) or you’ll get undesirable results.
For the money it’s a killer deal. If you want to test the waters of looping this is the way to go.
Reader Submission: Mark
Full disclosure: I am very biased toward KATANASOUND pedals, as my brother-in-law crafts each one by hand, and bases his creations on vintage pedals while at the same time improving their sound.
These pedals are not for the faint of heart, but for those who can appreciate quality they are a godsend!
KATANASOUND sells their pedals wordlwide to everyone from Grammy Award winning major artists to amateurs looking to find and express their our sound. Check out their website sound clips and contact them if you are interested. -Not a lot of people are creating original Fuzz pedals designed for Bass players, etc.
Visit their Website.
I like this pedal. It’s an overdrive pedal that can really push pretty heavy. I was always a Muff guy, but this is a great alternative. It’s not very noisy unless you really turn it up (but hey, it’s still just an overdrive pedal), and it holds it’s character within a wide volume spectrum. This is Eric Johnson and David Gilmour’s distortion pedal (well, this one is a continuance of the schematics that built the original pedals - that’s right, this thing goes pretty far back. Think “Young Lust” tone). It’s pretty clear too - hammer out Young Lust through this and you can tell it still has that sound.
This pedal has been through some changes through the years with apparently different developers. I google’d and found a 3 knob version and a custom 5 knob version. The original designer B.K. Butler still makes these things on his own. Worth a look.
I found this pedal in a box at a friend’s rehearsal room. I played it through a Fender ‘65 Twin Reissue. That amp has no overdrive and needs something that can color. I really was impressed when I tried it. It’s a tube preamp (per the name) so I swapped around some tubes to see what I liked better. Personally, I stuck with the original. It’s a strong box, and pretty heavy. It needs to be plugged in instead of taking batteries (this distortion pedal is using a lot of electricity to keep the bulb on). The controls are as limiting as any stomp box. I’m really happy with the high end and gain control, but I think it gets kind of muddy for me with the lows and mids. The other tubes I tested didn’t help that out.
It’s an overdrive pedal with a lot of character. It’s not your run of the mill box. Definitely worthy of high marks in my book.