ANSWER- & after 52 years it's Goodbye Dusty ...

The number 22 at the top of the list
ZZ TOP...LOL

RIDDLE 

DIDDLE 

DIDDLE

the cat with the fiddle ....

and the answer to the BAND- Post is ...

UNFORTUNATELY

I had no idea when I posted the bands photo from '69 that Dusty had just died. The best thing about the band was their obvious brotherhood and their 52 years of endless gigging with only one goal but to celebrate every breathing moment with just one simple message. "Isn't it great to be alive!"

Dusty Hill died in his sleep just 2 

days ago. No reason has been given.

Last gig together !!!

BAND- What band has remained together since 1969 with the same members?

 GUESS ??? 

HINTS

22  as an answer & a distraction

The color of hints

The Les Paul

The wrong glasses

Always used pedals

The number 22 at the top of the list

Go to the Post called ...ANSWER

zztop

OVERDRIVE- KMA MACHINES Guardian of the Wurm ...BOSS HM-2 taken to the ultimate level ?

KMA MACHINES GUARDIAN OF THE WURM

$300.00 USD

Nothing new. When Boss brought out the HM-2 it was a one size fits all
Metal pedal which was meant to simulate a JCM 800 with a few key mods and pushed by a Tube Screamer. Critics were not impressed it 

was a caricature of that sound. A toy for teens to use for fun with their 

3 cord compilation thru a 5 watt practice amp. In time some young Swedes found it could be used in much the same way as a 60's Fuzz 

and you could shape sounds to remove walls with a tone affectionately called the chainsaw sound. lol

The Wurm was the first clone to exaggerate what the BOSS did so effectively and remove or alter anything that was not usable. 

The Guardian simply takes it all to a new level with better EQ, a built in gate and a blend control add in somecleans to give the sound better definition.

CONCLUSION

There are many such pedals. Some even include a preamp which acts as an Amp-in-a-Box so if you wish you place it into the effects send and return of your amp and virtually use the pedal as your preamp.

The Wurm traded of a little mud for a lot of mass. Most of the competitive pedals are tighter and try to get a bit of punch as a trade off for mass.

There are those that love the Wurm thing or other 'wannabees' others feel only the Boss nails what is now considered a classic sound. Then there are guys like me that feel why not have them all. LOL

OVERDRIVE- BOSS ML-2 Metal Core ...in plain site but always under the radar!

 BOSS ML-2 METAL CORE

$105.00 USD

The pedal is still easy to find but it was discontinued in 2019. Having talked to several hands on reviewers we all agree it was never as popular as the Heavy Metal or Metal Zone because of it's name. By calling it 'Core' players thought it simply was meant for Hardcore Metal. If they disliked Hardcore or if they identified with another genre of Metal they would skip past it even at a Bricks & motor store where they came to try out high gain pedals. 

Another thing if you are into Hardcore you would see it as a serious genre and see a pedal labeled 'Core' as a toy for preteens that just got past 'air' guitar and learnt 3 chords and wanted to play Rock Star thru there 2 watt practice amp.

The damn thing is just a straight forward designed high gain pedal 

...maybe a bit overkill with it's high gain but it can fit what 

ever genre of Metal you want. When did Rock have rules you can not break ??? 

The layout is a simple level, lows, highs and gain. Dead simple to dial in.

CONCLUSION

On the down side it could use a 'mid' feature. On the plus side it has the best lows I have ever heard. 

No one just uses one OD anymore so there are places in any Metal genre where having 

crushing lows yet maintaining a biting attack is to die for.

or as Ola says "...sh@t, OK! ...Yeah!!! "

It covers all the bases check out the 'Will it Chug' video ...from 4:00 ..this is convention Metal type setting found it styles since the late 80's.

The second video shows you how you can use the pedal to venture in the opposite spectrum ...even sluggish slow moving Doom.

I'm convinced I ordered one for $82, free shipping from Japan!

FINAL THOUGHTS

I do tunes using triplets at 220 bpm ...but I also do tunes at 75 bpm. This the only pedal I feel could cover both. 

With tunes at a medium tempo I use a lot of different Marshall-in-a-Box pedals. 

I mix it up even using a Brit pedal on the verse but maybe sluggish heavy sounds in the chorus.

My rig is weakest at the extremes. Really slow and really fast tempo.

This just might be the cure.

I will let you know with a HANDS ON  ...when it arrives.

PREDICTION

Both the Boss HM-2 and the Metal Zone went from pedals despised by the critics to pedals you could buy at a garage sale for $15 to pedals that were competing with Klon and the King of Tone as stupidly high over priced 'Must Haves'. Trust me ...the Core is next. It is in it's despised stage!

Now is a chance to get a mint one relatively cheap. There never was a MIJ one so all are from Taiwan. Which keeps it simple ...what year it is made is irrelevant.

TOTAL CONFUSION

So just when you thought it was safe I just have to bring your attention to a clone. Nux make the Nux Metal Core. The voicing is not identical but it has two voices. One similar to theBoss and another that is a good take on a MESA Dual Rectifier. This pedal too is discontinued in favor of the the NUX Pedal Core Deluxe. It is not the new and improved it is instead the totally FU version. To the point there are lots of the originals still around at $42.00 USD.  Check the Post for the while scoop and give a listen.

HANDS ON

it's Friday ...my day off ...from rehearsal.I use it to try out new gear.

I usually have tunes I specifically want it for. The first was a Modern 

Metal quasi chunk thing. I did not like it!

I also just got the Columbo JCM 800 pedal that killed this tune so it 

isn't an issue.

I then tried it in a medium tempo tune and a 'grinder'. Killer!!! 

The medium tempo was especially good as I was looking for tight 

super aggressive sound that sounded cool thru a Flanger.

The 'grinder' needed just a bit more upper mids and 'chainsaw' 

so I stacked my trusty ol'  RAT II on it.

So as the cliche goes ...2 thumbs up!

OVERDRIVE- LPD PEDALS Embers... it's a Klon but not a clone!

 LPD PEDALS EMBERS 

The pedal maker with the golden touch. I have all three of LPD's Marshall pedals and not a day goes by that I do not use all three. 

They are simply beyond killer.

The Embers is one of Lawrence's Ltd. Ed. With Lawrence such a pedals is not just a paint job but a pedal that is not in the standard line. There is often as few as 20 pedals. Lawrence is old school true gourmet hands on. There are fewer every day. Many who you think are no longer and even many who had a small crew working with them have farmed even that out. They have just kept their mouth shut so we think nothing changed.

I am not a big fan old a Klon. I find their big resonant honk in the mids very unnatural sounding. It gives your sound a synth like vibe. Lawrence has managed to keep that great sheen the real Klon has yet kill the honk. All this may seem fairly academic but you have to ask yourselves how come no one has done it. The real Klon only has a gently honk, Lawrence has none and everyone else has a lot.

CONCLUSION

One of the very best transparent OD's on the planet!

Aug 4, 2021 

Sold out just as I warned! 

A waiting list started today ...sign on if you want one.

SWITCHER- JOYO PLX 4 ...4 loop swicher ..maybe all you need ?

JOYO PLX 4 SWITCHER

A switcher can be a beautiful thing  ..or a nightmare. Joyo do one with 4 loops another for 8 loops and another with 8 loops but also has MIDI functions. MIDI is useful for pedals with elaborate functions, or switching on amps and their various built in effects or triggering recording devices and their software. Keep in mind only devices that have MIDI functions and a MIDI input can be triggered. If all you want to do is have a few pedals turned on and off in groups or just one pedal at just one click of a button then you may find you do not need to pay for all the bells whistles.

The Joyo PLX in any case allows just 4 switches for on off but you can address either 4 loops or 8 loops depending on the model.

A loop being an output and input to attach either a single pedal or a group of pedals.

K.I.S.S.

In it's simplest form you would have 4 pedals and 4 switches. If you turn on a pedal the one you just had on goes off. Moving along you can make it so when you hit one switch any or all 4 of your pedals can be programmed to any of the switches.  For example you could have a Distortion, Flanger, Fuzz and Delay. You could have just Distortion on switch (1) and Fuzz and Flanger on switch (2) Delay on switch (3) and Fuzz and Delay on switch (4).

Next you have banks. A bank is a place to store the above. You get 16 banks. Your first tune may be great for the first arrangement but in your next tune you may want to have them different. You can then have your 4 pedals with different arrangements 16 times.

PLX 4 $180.00 USD to $220.00 USD for the PLX 8 Live

SOLUTIONS

The more pedals you have the more loops you need to run things in the traditional way. This of course gets both pricey and for many confusing. BUT! All this is a lot of work and if your unit takes an F. off pill you not only have to reprogram the switcher you have remember all the sh@t you did. Trust me ...you will not remember. lol

I use only 3 channels and run over 80 pedals and use only one bank :-) How???

Simple... 

I put several pedals in one loop. I have my clean loop, my Crunch OD loop,

my high gain and Fuzz loop. Between tunes I click on what I want and off what I do not. Over time each loop has become a separate board. Each board has it's own compressor, gate, delay and reverb. Modulation pedals are put where I find I prefer using them. Two loops have there own Chorus but only one has a Flanger, Phaser and Octave pedal as well. I only have to program what switch turns on and off which loop.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

These days you can do my 'One Board for Loop' thing cheaper than you think. I started with super cheap pedals. I kept most and added good ones. It then slowly replaced the budget ones. Over the span of a perhaps a year I would write new tunes and added pedals for them or if I simply found something exciting. 

After several years now I have found that I have created a writing style where it can extend in 4 different directions. You could even say I use 4 different styles. Even all 4 in a single tune. 

For example I may need a Marshall sound for the verse, a Doom Metal sound for the chorus but I will flat pick the the middle 8. So in one tune I use a medium gain OD then a high gain OD or a Fuzz followed by a very low gain drive to flat pick. Then add to that I may wish a Dirt pedal to do a solo that has better sustain or is fatter on single notes etc. 

I also use both humbuckers and single coils and some dirt pedals are great for one but not the other. Even with single coils I have Strat, Tele, P90 and Ric. I also use Gold Foil and Gretsch. They need to let their special character get thru the mix so I am matching different guitars to different pedals as well.

My music is a spin on Prog Metal. I have 15 pedals that are different makes and kinds of a Marshall-in-a-Box. Some work better with single coils others with hummys etc. Yes I take it to extremes so your rig can easily be simpler. But

I figure by knowing what I do some of it will fit your thing other things not. But

knowing the whole deal you will not be caught by surprise.

There are budget modulation pedals that are really good and mind blowing digital verbs and Delays for $40.00 USD. These days 2 excellent digital pedals can be as cheap as one. A lot of guys either do not know this or they do not believe it or simply still hear with their eyes. A $40 Flamma delay pedal has better spec than some Strymon favorites. FACT! My point is having a good delay and verb per channel is not crazy anymore. 

OTHER STUFF

At present I am down sizing by selling very excellent pedals ..even brand names that do something excellent but sometimes just a single tune. I have recently discovered pedals I feel could work on perhaps several tunes. 

I will be down to 72 once orders I made come in and I can sell pedals I still need for now. Only a few months ago I was up to one hundred ...some I used, others were great but did not fit my tunes.

FUZZ- HILBISH DESIGN Deathmizer Octave Fuzz... self destructs but can get up and walk away?

$195.00 USD

HILBISH DESIGN

DEATHMIZER

KING BUZZO

MELVINS

OCTAVE FUZZ

Yes that's what it's called ;-)  It rolls off the tongue nicely though. This is not your granddad's Big Muff. It spits and sputters, gasps and moans then falls on it's face but gets up just in time to finish the tune. I think?

CONCLUSION

First who cane up with the childish graphics. Did they think they think we were going to love this? What I want to know is ...how did they find out?

This is NOT for the musically inclined. But for the 

remainder of us lets get our flexible friend out of 

our wallet ...NOW!

Marshalls ....Small Cabs and Headaches ...You gotta take a stand!!!

 QUIKLOK BS 165 AMP STAND 

$72.00 USD

I have a Plexi head it is in great condition and I want to keep that way. Yes a Marshall head has a bit of weight but it is lot smaller than a combo so it is not hard to carry with both arms holding it against your chest & pretty much be sure you will not cause cosmetic damage let alone slam it and knock out a tube or worse. 

Quite often a nice tube head will show up for a great price as most guys feel with the overhead of moving gear and the small gigs they can find it just does not make sense to go amp and cab.

BUT! You can have it both ways with a great head and just use a small cab like a single 12". I use a Celestion Neo G12 Creamback. It has a neodymium magnet and because it is so powerful you can use a much smaller magnet to do the job.

All this results in a light weight. There have been 2 speakers that have been hot for decades. The Celestion v30 and the equally famous Greenback. 

Both are killer but v30 is underpowered and weak in the lows. 

The good news is this 'Creamback' in spite of it's name sounds 

like a Greenback, even better a vintage Greenback. Since 

you do not have the advantage of a half stack and are 

using perhaps even an open back cab for less weight etc. 

You want those lows. The Neo is ideal.

BIG PROBLEMS

Yes the problem is a Marshall head is big and a single 12 Cab is small. We have to turn them into a combo or the whole point of all this is ....'pointless.'

I actually had to make a stand for my Marshall that lets the cab sit underneath as a few years ago there were no elegant solutions. 

Today I stumbled on the Quiklok 625 Amp Stand. A cool Italian company that has been around since the 70's and many of their original equipment stands are still made. Because they work ...and they can take a bit of kicking. They fold up nice & small too.....Problem solved!!!

ORDERED?

The entire planet is out of stock. Since Covid the cliche ..."we can have it in stock in 4 days" ...does not even happen on Fender picks where one I wanted to try is still not in stock and a year has past?

So, I found a place with one! I ordered it and in the fine print it said Sept???

On the bright side. I needed a guitar stand and I like a particular Hercules one. It was on a blow out sale so I did order that which brought my shipping down.

NOV. UPDATE

I gave up. 

I decided to go old school and get a cab that fits under my amp.

The Canadian maker Traynor make the Custom Valve 60 . It has a Fender vibe to the look. The whole spec for the build is easily equal to a gourmet brands spec and build.  It includes a Celestion V30 speaker that I can swap out and sell in my present cab for $100.  The price is only $285.00 USD. WTF!!! A third of the big brands gourmet brands!!! Once I sell my present cab I am only in it for $185. It is a nobrainer buy!

AMPLIFIER- BLACKSTAR CORE: ID 40 ...the hard to believe it exists amp???

 BLACKSTAR CORE 40 

First this is NOT a review. This is a heads up of just how far this tech has come in just a few years. 

The amp has a clean and a dirty channel with a Marshall amp voice. It come with all the modulation sounds, a digital delay and digital reverb. It is a stereo amp. It is small but it's a full 40 watts enough for a gigging player.

It even has a pro vibe to the look.

Yes you could get such an amp several years ago.

BIG,BIG BUT!!!  

CONCLUSION

WTF !!! ....$200.00 USD

I bought a used Ibanez with P90's that can rip 

walls down for $280.00 USD. It needed a

2 minute neck adjustment and nothing else

The neck is dead flat, the frets are perfect 

even the paint looks new. I am sure the tuners & 

hardware are Gotoh. It is still killer three 

years later. In fact it is a life time keeper!

Sometimes you get lucky. But this amp

is new ...no luck required.

If needed I could gig with this guitar & amp setup! 

I could sell the amp for half price in a year 

and it would be cheaper than renting. 

So I say again... WTF !!! 

BUT

I don't have to. I have my Marshall & also have my old 1983 

Peavey Bandit 65. But all my life I have been up and I have 

been flat broke with just a guitar and suitcase. It is nice to know 

all the places where they keep the parachutes.

AMPLIFIER- EVH ICONIC SERIES 5150...designed by James Brown!!!! Cheap???

 EVH ICONIC SERIES 5150 III AMPLIFIER 

James Brown who designed the original amp with EVH ...making changes and demands from Eddy on endless tweaking for two years designed the remake. He even sod his own successful pedal company Amptweaker to join the EVH company.

A prototype was completed before we lost Eddy.

$900.00 USD

It uses 4 6L6 tubes and produces 80 watts RMS. Trust me anything over 50 watts can wipe out a loud drummer so there is zero dumb down on the power :-)

It will be available in Sept. 2021. At only $900.00 USD for the head getting down a preorder deposit ASAP is recommended!

Also on offer is a 4x12 cab with custom Celestions for $500.00 USD

You have a choice of black or cream vinyl covering.

40 WATT COMBO

The 40 watt single 12" Celestion combo is at that sweet spot for enough power.

Keep in mind 40 watts RMS is the magic number for playing in a band where only the singers have a mic and the whole band has a balanced sound. No one gets drowned out and the band sounds killer in a small to medium size club

$800.00 USD

CONCLUSION

Rumor has it there will also be a 2x12 cab and a 40 Watt head.

These days with most players using combo's used old Marshall cabs can often be picked up dirt cheap. I expect it will be popular route to take with the average player getting this is younger and it is probably their first tube amp. Guys that when you say clean channel think of local abandoned port good for swimming. LOL

On the whole this is dead cool. Those that do not think so are old enough to be my grandfather ....and i'm 74!!!  :-)

OVERDRIVE- TSAKALIS AUDIOWORKS Room #40 ...25 years of Marshalls in one pedal?

 TSAKALIS AUDIOWORKS ROOM #40 

$295.00 USD

This there take on classic Marshalls period. Unlike Columbo Audio Electronics Lead Trilogy The Tsakalis take is free hand one with the sounds of the popular mods of the time included in there approach. 

It tries to cover 60's 70's and 80's amps in one pedal. I am more drawn to a Marshall pedal that nails the sound of a Marshall like it came right off the factory floor. Luco Columbo can do this. That said I love pedals like this too :-)

Layout has level presence, bass, mids and treble. Added are 

volume bright and volume normal just like a real Plexi and a variac control which increases the saturation. A foot control lets you kick 

in a boost.

CONCLUSION

What's not to like this is a serious OD. As I said it suggests that it mimics certain amps and is in the ball park but it is not like Columbo 

or PedalPalFX that are both anal about getting the amp sound dead on. 

I find both kinds are important. If your playing is a lot about

improvisation or you want to solo or have things jump out in places 

than pedals like the #40 are killer. If you are backing vocals and in 

general doing the key parts of a tune than the authentic sounds really 

shine. This is however is the best of the Swiss Army Knife Marshalls.

One thing I find playing live changing complete sounds on any pedal

just doesn't work. My point is with a Marshall sound needing one pedal

for crunch and one for hi gain is a given. A Plexi pedal for crunch and 

an JCM 800 for leads etc. makes more sense.

In other words this pedal is killer please give me two. LOL

.

GUITAR- Gibson Les Paul ....listen to Les ...shred!!!

 LES PAUL 

In order to make living back in the 40's ol' Les would go from a Jazz gig to Country gig and back every few days. 

In the end he put the Country and the Jazz thing together into a single style. His real fame came when he married Pop singer Mary Ford and had an endless stream of Pop music hits.

Les was a gold top P90 thru a clean amp guy. 

A '59 going thru a Marshall stack wound make him cringe.

DISTORTION/FUZZ- MP CUSTOM FX Tesla Distortion Fuzz ...clean fill to patch the holes

MP CUSTOM FX TESLA DISTORTION FUZZ

From Belgrade Serbia comes Milos Popavic. When he started making pedals in 1986 it was all about inventing what you could neither buy or afford. It was probable that most sales would be word of mouth to players who never could afford a pedal at any price. So everything from circuit boards to casings would have to be hand made. The casing are literally cut from metal by hand and bent into shape with a hammer like 19th century blacksmith. Now it passes for cool gourmet but it was not anything more than survival at the beginning.

The workmanship on everything is very well done. If you did not know how its made your eyes could look at forever and it would not hit you. 

The artwork uses photography and is transferred to a vinyl from I suspect a 60's labeling machine bought used on the cheap. 

Being a hands on guy he demand everything be as robust as steel shovel and sees the best parts are those that can last. It would all be pointless if his pedals were nothing more than ornaments siting beside a toasted 60's Colorsound Fuzz with half the parts gone on a shelf 

$135.00 USD

Serbian/American Nikola Tesla invented
alternating current. Without A/C power
plants needed to be located every
few miles. A/C can travel across 
entire countries from one location.

pulled down after a few beers to entertain your friends.

In short every pedal has been perfected over decades using cutting edge tech with NOS Geranium transistors and other parts. Another cool thing is how small the pedals are. 

What looks like a headache of having the jacks on the front of the pedal usually finds a spot on your board that without this it would be unusable space. I have his Ganiac dirt pedal. I found it fit sideways leaving room on what is the top of the pedal for another pedal.

SO WHAT IS IT ?

There is no publish spec. or even a pic I can read the layout. You do have a volume, gain. treble. bass for OD and volume and gain for Fuzz. The Fuzz that acts much like a boost is foot switchable. The easiest way to think of it is Boss SD-1 that switches to a Tube Screamer and you can add a basic Big Muff into the circuit. LOL

CONCLUSION

Who can't use a nice thick and chunky dirt pedal with lots of balz and sustain? Most of us specialize into one basic style and it makes sense to pick a pedal designed for it. But the are always 'Buts'. Pushed hard or backed right off this pedal can take care of them :-)

GIBSON NECK PROFILE - What's the Best?

 NECK PROFILE 

There isn't a best as far as comfort and ease of playing. Yes a thin neck is great for speeding up and down the fretboard but if you rest your hand in one spot you have to use more pressure on your thumb to hold down chords. It is very noticable if you flat pick or finger pick. The arch created between your thumb and first finger is less stressed if it has somewhere to rest. The biggest advantage of fatter neck is it causes significantly less stress on your hand.

What about tone. A thinner neck is brighter and gives you more attack on the string. 

The fatter necks have a fatter tone and more sustain.

On the whole I prefer a fatter neck but I have guitars that go from Ibanez like thin 'Wizard' necks to a 1954 baseball bat neck.

One nice thing is probably obvious and it is fat necks are more stable. Both the neck twisting or arching are less likely. My 1954 has never had more than the set up it had when I got it years ago.

GIBSON NECK PROFILES

My LENARD F-4G has the 50's medium C profile
It took me about 2 weeks to get so I found it just a normal thing.
It does not slow me down even a bit .

NOTE:

It is interesting to note guys who play a vintage Tele. It has a fat neck, 

21 frets and the bolted on neck gets in the way to the upper access but they 

many can guys can play sh@t on it that we can only wish! 

I am 74 and most of my best guitars I bought online just because they 

looked cool. LOL Yes a few I sold but not one because I had issues with the feel.

OVERDRIVE- DEMON FX Freedman BE-ODx...no not a typo but a clone

 DEMON FX Freedman BE-ODX 

$40.00 USD

For about 5 years Demon sold a Tube Screamer clone. Or at any rate the label said Demon. The truth is this is tied in with Mosky and Mosky are tied in with Mogoo ...and Mogoo make forgeries .

These are very good forgeries because when put beside the real pedal they are at minimum sound about 98% dead on or thereabouts.

I bought an Fulltone OCD pedal...yes it came in a white casing and actually said Fulltone. I got it to review. Lucky for me it sounds great because I can hardly put it on Reverb. Clones and copyright infringements are unlawful but must be proven. Forgeries are criminal.

Mogoo will get a cease and desist letter from Friedman. Cloning the guts is not the problem but the copyright infringement on the box is. Mogoo got slapped on the wrist by the Chinese government a few years ago so they stopped selling forgeries for a few months and then popped up on an AliExpress store for 2 or 3 months then disappeared but popped up again a few months later. At the moment 

the US and Chinese government are not kissy, kissy 

so Mogoo will have a free hand.

This is all just stupid. No one is fooled. Most clones do not sound as good or are not accurate.They are these days at least good enough for pro use. In short you can gig with them and not have a sh@t sound. The guy buying this has no intention of buying a Friedman anyway. If  he can not get this he will get a Joyo or a Caline.

CONCLUSION

Well these are not the ideal by the book reviews but the pedal sounds impressive. They will likely be a bit noisy and definitely tad muddy but nothing you do not find in pedals at 4 times the price. I found the actual Friedman both muddy and a bit thin compared to the very best OD's like LPD Pedals, PedalPalFX, TechNtone and Colombo Audio. These pedals have great detail in their tone and killer dynamics that can be expressed by your touch. Big BUT! They all cost $200 or more. One really impressive thing as they appear to be hand made and use with thru hole construction. Great for mods and easy repair.

OVERDRIVE-COLUMBO AUDIO ELECTRONICS Lead Trilogy ....JCM 800-in-a-Box and more!

COLUMBO AUDIO ELECTRONICS LEAD TRILOGY

$270.00 USD

I have Luco's Plexi Breed with a JTM 45, a 1959 Super Lead and a model 1987 50 watt all in the same box. All 3 are totally convincing clones of the actual amps. 

It is a 'to die for' pedal for those wishing to nail the original sounds. 

The 'Lead' is the same deal but with the JCM 800 family of amps which include the 'Silver Jubilee' and the JCM 900.

To describe the pedal is to describe the amps. I will just stick to the layout.

You have a simple volume, tone and gain. A toggle lets you choose the voices. 

Luco nails the voices so you do not have to pizz around tweaking something to get them. 

CONCLUSION 

It is what it is!!! The perfect summary for all but the uninformed.

Most Marshall pedals are designed to sound like an amp cranked really hot and even include extra gain and EQ or whatever to sound like the Post production sound you 

here on a recording. 

Luco's Marshall pedals sound like the amp the guy recording is hearing standing in front of it on stage. To get the full effect you need a touch of feedback. Do not get me wrong  you do not need to crank your amp. A 30 watt amp even clean but set no louder than a drummer will do that. 

BIG BUT that is loud for use at home with others about. You can see in the video when the guy wants to shred 

All 3 of these gems
in a box!!!

he hits a booster pedal. It is not an issue just playing 

the songs verse, chorus etc. It can become an issue on soloing.

Now in a band you have a drummer so pushing your amp just even with the drums and you get it all. Great tone 

and a serious feedback.

Will I buy the pedal??? Well I have not yet. LOL

I just bought Luco's Plexi for F. sake!

HANDS ON:

The accuracy of the 3 tones is certainly nailed. In the end I liked the JCM 800 the best.

Columbo pedals sound and act like the real amps. A JCM 800 is a hundred watt amp 

and it was played loud and boosted with an OD or Fuzz usually a Tube Screamer.

I prefer the TS9.

CHESS RECORDS__a must know! __without Chess__rock guitar would not exist!!!

THE HISTORY OF CHESS RECORDS 

The Rolling Stones, Lead Zeppelin, Cream, Yardbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hendrix,

and an endless list all got interested in playing the guitar and forming bands because they bought and listen to primarily Chess Records. Even Jim Marshall was pushed by players to create amps that would capture the dirt sounds that came from primarily these records.

Even Sabbath were playing music from these records which morphed into their own thing. In short without Chess to start an endless chain Metal itself would not exist.

Without the black players being hired by Chess to make records you would not learn to shred because it all started with amps dimed and these Chess artists shredding on the blues scale.

NOTE: 

I expect this should be a 4 part series ...but I can not find 'Story 1' and 'Story 3' seems a bit abrupt at the end suggesting a 'Story 4'

OVERDRIVE- VOLTA "1987" v2 Hot Rod Dual channel Plexi ... maybe not? ...But does it sound cool all the same?

 VOLTA"1987" DUAL CHANNEL HOT RODDED PLEXI 

$215.00 USD

From Italy comes another Plexi. Yes  I am afraid Hot Rodded says it all. In short it is not like the Columbo Audio Plexi Breed which is a frighteningly good clone of the real amps but an impressionist take on the vibe of what we can call a Brit pedal.

For a start a '1987' Marshall is a master volume version of the JCM 800.

The layout is bit confusing to look at but 

it has the usual level, tone, and gain 

The 'eleven' control is virtually a foot switchable boost. A toggle switch appears to be a high pass filter to tighten the lows and a second toggle switch gives you a mid boost.

CONCLUSION

What it isn't is Marshall-in-Box. So we can only judge it on how it sounds. It definitely has great organic and fat sound and the general consensus is it beautifully dynamically sensitive to your touch.

the fine print

You should check out the Wheebo JCM Ltd.

The same idea but onto v3 after years of making it.

The sound can be dialed into the 1987 but

you also get Super fat earth shaking lows. 

Metal scoops, Classic sounds or anything 

in between it does it all without a nano 

bit of losing a Marshall tone.