Guitar Pedal Review

MXR M169 Carbon Copy Analog Delay Pedal

Guitar Gear — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:07:59 +0000

This is a solid pedal. To start the casing is thick and the pedal is heavy in hand, making you confident that its not going to flop over if it gets tugged by your cable. It has a cool green sparkle finish; but that is neither here nor there. Three simple knobs, Regen(number of delays)/ Mix(how wet or dry your notes come through)/and Delay (0-600ms of delay time). The Mod button on the top adds a little swelling which can be likened to a bit of a chorus effect. There are internal switches for adjusting the Mod only. I have used this pedal for the last three months at bedroom levels and in live settings. The tone is great with this pedal. The amount that your guitars tone is limited through this is sooo minute that, unless you’re incredibly picky (snobby), you will not notice. There are two things that I find a problem; 1. the light, when you switch the effect on and when the mod button is depressed the blue light is incredibly blinding. Ive had laser surgery on my eyes and this light gives me the biggest starbursts and if used alot there have been a couple times I got a headache. A little piece of scotch tape or another dark tape cuts that down though. 2. There is no volume level knob. Many other MXR pedals have multiple knobs on them so there shouldnt have been an issue adding one to this. Ive found that, although the tone is great, in live settings it is very quiet. If you’re going for a light effect its great, but if you want some serious U2 delay its lacking big time. Im not sure why, maybe i got a lemmon. No one else has commented on the effect volume so maybe no one has an issue with it. Other than that, this is a great pedal.

Learn More About The MXR M169 Carbon Copy Analog Delay Pedal

Blackstone Appliance Overdrive Pedal Review

Guitar Gear — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:43:43 +0000

I bought a Blackstone the other week. It was built very quickly (within a week mine came in the mail). My favorite amp is a Fender Twin, and I was looking around for some suggestions on pedals for this amp. The Twin has no distortion, and really needs to crank to get the full sound out of it. Most pedals I tried with it just sounded, well, muddy. They weren’t really sounding like they were part of the sound.

So people kept recommending this pedal on forums. I took a chance. I was victorious. This sounds great with my amp. It has technology that tones out differently as you turn your volume. It is such a nice sounding box - it beats the hell out of my Tube Driver. It has some punch, but if you’re looking for a screaming metal distortion, you need to layer it onto this. But for the first time in a while, I feel like I have a guitar tone to be proud of.

From the site: ”The Blackstone circuit is also unusual in that it interacts with the inductance of your guitar’s pickups to get its unique dynamic response. It is very sensitive to playing dynamics, but translates them into changes in waveform distortion, rather than passing them on as changes in output level. This gives you a greater range of expression in your picking technique, but at the same time evens out volume differences. Because the guitar’s pickups and controls are actually part of the input stage, you can get anything from a juicy, harmonic-laden lead sound to a barely-breaking twang with just the guitar’s volume control. “

BOSS OC-3 Super Octave Guitar Pedal

Guitar Gear — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:25:29 +0000

This is an outstanding pedal. I really think it’s a must have for any arsenal. Why? Well, it’s the subtleties of this pedal that can really give you an edge. I used to think it was hard to justify spending money on something that just adds a little character, but after a while I realized that the subtleties are where the magic of tone lay. Like an EQ pedal, or even a wah pedal envelope slightly being pushed, I like to use an octave pedal in that cool, Hendrix kind of way.

I used to have a Boss OC-2, but decided to upgrade to get the extra functionality of the OC-3. Not only does it give you independent control of your main pitch, but it can also cut it out. With that kind of control you can add a thickening layer to your tone (which is my favorite - very Zappa-esque), or you can crank that thickening layer for a unique CKY type sound. If you’re into Pantera solos and what Satriani does, you can even get some of the same quirks here. If you want to really go into Tom Morello territory, you can pull the Whammy pedal type sounds out too.

Different “outs” let you split the signal to different amps (which is really cool depending on your rig - it’s unnecessary if you’re only cranking out of one amp). A couple different mode selectors give you good presets to tweak. The pedal doesn’t break in chords very often, and is improved over many other octaves. But for better quality there expect to pay $350 dollars. This pedal at $120 is incredibly worth it.

Learn more about the Boss OC-3 Octave Pedal

Vox Joe Satriani Time Machine Delay Guitar Effects Pedal

Guitar Gear — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:59:35 +0000

I have a large rig. I am running two Fender 5150 III Heads and three cabs. One Cab has Greenback 30’s and the others are those Krank cabs with those Eminence Texas Heat speakers. I like to blend the two speakers since my signal is so dirty anyway. In my Rack I have 1 Korg SDD 1000 and I had an old Vintage Roland SDE 1000 and a 3000 digital delay. Those units in their day were the units to have. I have also owned a MXR 113 Digital delay but it made a little bit of noise and I didn’t have the other memory cards for needed memory. I not too long ago bought an Eventide Time factor stomp box. It was too complicated and it seemed to mess up my amps sound or it seemed to have a bunch of stuff I didn’t need or couldn’t access when I needed to. I even owned a Line 6 Delay modeler and it seemed to mess with my amps sound too.

I didn’t spend that kind of bread on amps to then go buy another item that would restrict it’s tone or energy. I tried this Time Machine by Joe Satriani, and I am just literally floored! I can’t believe the quality of sound and simplicity. For me honestly,the only thing better is a tape echoplex and from what I am hearing it is not too too much better. It is ok but not for the $$. Easy access here too with this green Time machine. I ran the other line out from the Time Machine’s Dry output and into my other Fender 5150III and Holy Cow Andy!! I really don’t need my other delays anymore. The action,the sound and tap tempo feature!! I love it! Im running a Deja Vibe 2 into my Clyde Delux Waw and then into the Vox Saturator and into my Green Time Machine and into both amps. I sold my Vintage rack delay to buy this with absolutely no regrets!! In fact I want to buy two more of these just to save new in their boxes.

Learn more about Satriani’s Time Machine Delay Pedal

Electro-Harmonix Voice Box and Vocoder

Guitar Gear — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:12:48 +0000

So why is a voice box on a guitar review? Because, well, I like space guitar effects and anything bizarre. The art is figuring out how to get that into a song and have it be a value-add (and not insist upon itself, as Peter Griffin would say). So, being up to the challenge, and loving all things Electro Harmonix, I checked out the EH Voice Box Machine and Vocoder. So yeah, this thing works as expected on the voice with its own slight take. Some reviews I read were split on how this does for vocals. It’s good for thickening the sound.

But on the guitar, this thing is kind of cool, especially if you play very loose leads with a lot of bends. Gender bender is hilarious! And the vocoder is unique! Skank it up with something like a Big Muff pedal, and go for a screaming ride, or chill it out with a clean tone to squeeze out the harmonic tones. Like all EH pedals, its an acquired taste for experts. It’ll take a little time poking around to find the right tone, but it really helps on the space rock sound.

Get more info on the EH Voice Box and Vocoder here.

Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer Guitar Pedal Review

Guitar Gear — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:52:17 +0000

The Ibanez TS-9 overdrive trumps every other dirtbox I’ve ever owned in every category–except maybe versatility, but more on that later.

I run the pedal between my Fender Telecaster and Vox AD100VT amp, which I normally leave on the “AC-30″ emulator setting. The amp’s many models have great overdrives sound on their own, but it’s difficult to program the 2 channels so that one is clean and one is distorted without having a serious volume imblance–not to mention the small dropout in sound that occurs when you stomp on the Vox’s footswitch.

The TS-9 neatly solves this problem by providing a nice, crisp overdrive sound that blends perfectly with every amp setting I can come up with. I won’t say that the signal is transparent, but it’s awfully close–the only addition to the sound (so far as I can tell) is a slight midrange increase. In my experience, this frequency bump actually makes my tone better at higher volumes anyway. I can see why someone might not like it, though.

I’ve heard stories about the TS-9’s footswitch giving out, but since I’m not the type to slam my jackbooted heel down on my pedals, it seems to be a nonissue thus far. The pedal seems at least as well-constructed as my Boss pedals, which means it’ll outlive me.

The only possible concern I can see with the pedal is that it kinda only does one thing. Don’t buy this pedal if you’re looking for a highly-tweakable unit with a variety of tones; DO buy this pedal if you’re looking for a badass crunch tone that responds really well to your playing without sounding overly muddy nor overly crisp.

Check out more Tube Screamer Info and Reviews Here

Moog MF-105 Moogerfooger MuRF Analog Pedal

Guitar Gear — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:37:36 +0000

This little box has enhanced the sonic qualities of my tracks. Although the MuRF is analog, it is fairly clean sounding, some color is added to the tracks, but the color that is added is not over the top or overly ambitious. Excellent piece of equipment, would recommended to all the “lap-toppers” out there…excellent way to add some “weight” to your tracks.

Even if you aren’t using the filters, just running a sound through the MuRF while it is in ‘Dry’ mode will do wonders!

My only complaint is that it is a bit noisy, not much…

Learn more about the Moog MF-105 Moogerfooger Murf

George Dennis GD100 Wizard Distortion / Volume Pedal

Guitar Gear — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:23:56 +0000

The George Dennis GD100 Wizard Distortion guitar pedal offers a switchable combination of distortion effects (including metal distortion) and volume control. Sort of a useful two in one package that lets you get a little more control on the fly. If you like to tweak things as you go (maybe you’re an experimental guitarist), this novelty of this pedal is kind of cool. And useful.

The GD100 has noise-free optical control for smooth effects changes. The tone is good but didn’t really knock me out until I started putting eq and other overdrive on it. I got a really good sound when I used it, so now it’s really in the toybox. Depending on the gig, I don’t bring it out much, but if you’re the kind of guitarist that is innovative on stage, then this might be worth checking out.

Check out more on the George Dennis GD100 Rock/Volume Pedal

MXR M116 Fullbore Metal Distortion Guitar Pedal Review

Guitar Gear — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:45:07 +0000

A lot of tone shaping options here in a very small tough enclosure. I like the compact size and the 6 knobs. This most certainly is a METAL pedal and trying to get toned down smooth distortion out of this more than likely will not be possible without running it into another drive pedal. I have a lot of pedals on my board and find that running a Barber LTD Silver after the Fullbore is just what the doctor ordered, this gives me the option of just the Fullboar in its grand and knarly state or when switching on the LTD (tone stacking) smooths it out. I am running the Fullbore with the gain at half way which still gives a lot of raw crunch when used alone but does not send the LTD into clipping when using both together.

Before the Fullbore I owned the Digitech Hardwire Metal pedal and the Electro Harmonics Metal Muff. I actually used the Muff for a couple of years but when I saw the size and tonal capabilities of the Fullbore I had to switch over. I am running my pedalboard into a GenzBenz El’Diablo combo (tube amp.) I don’t need a lot of time when auditioning new pedals for my board, I know what I want to hear.

I lean more towards smoother overdrives and distortions but I also knew That to have a complete pedalboald I had to fill the tonal space on the extream end of things. I can’t imagine anyone needing any other metal pedal than the Fullbore but then again it comes down to how it incorporates into your rig and the tones you are trying to attain. This one tonally is a 10 for me. Now if I could just get MXR to build me a low gain pedal with the 6 knobs and switching options there would be not much left to be desired.

Check out more details and thoughts about the MXR M116 Fullbore Metal pedal here.

Electro-Harmonix XO Big Muff Pi Guitar Pedal

Guitar Gear — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:09:14 +0000

I bought this pedal the day it came out. I am a long time fan of the big muff sound. The tone control on this new one seems slightly more even and responsive, could be just my experience with older ones, but it’s a good thing.

Smaller than it looks, so it fits easily among others. Solid build, no pops, etc. As claimed, does old school muff, with a switch to drop out the tone control. This creates an immediate signifigant increase in overall volume/perceived gain. Maybe they should have called it a “Hulk” switch…transforms the old muff into a raging wall of raw fuzz distortion beast, then your amp eq does the rest. The “tone wicker” is much more subtle, adds brightness and presence/trims out the attack mud that originals had at bass tone settings, but retains that low end presence/grind. Makes finding that sweet spot much easier. Produces some strange ultra raspy fuzz at odd settings, not ugly, just bizzaro cool. This isn’t like a Tube Driver as much as its like a gutsy vintage distortion.

I really can’t find a down side with the tones twekaed out so far. For fans of the big muff sound, punk/grunge/rock/heavy music in general this is a great pedal to own. I love mine so far.

Check out more thoughts and specs here

There’s also a bass Big Muff here.