FUZZ- VOODOO LAB Superfuzz ... since 1986 and still doing it

VOODOO LAB

SUPERFUZZ 

$130.00 USD

This is Voodoo Labs take on the old 60's classic Jordon Electronics Bosstone designed by Randy California the guitarist for Spirit.

The company started in 1986 doing mods and repairs and by 1995 came out with 4 pedals. The current version has been around since 2015.

The first was a part for part copy of the original that Randy California 

gave them both the permission and the actual schematic and parts 

list to make it. 

The layout is volume, tone and gain with a resonance control that boosts the very lowest of the low end but keeps it tight.

Voodoo Lab are famous for being one of the first to make a pedal power supply and over the years has taken it to being as clean as a battery. Dead quiet and without any A/C fluctuation that comes from the wall current getting through.

The Voodoo pedals use NOS parts and from time to time is pulled from the site until more parts can be sourced.

CONCLUSION

It definitely has more than enough character and vibe with a big

history of being a booster for many players for years who used

it in preference  to a Tube Screamer as their booster. An American 

hand made pedal for $130 in 2023 ...WTF!!!! 

OVERDRIVE- MARSHALL ...re-issue of a classic

MARSHALL DRIVE MASTER

$250.00 USD

This was the 3th of 4 pedals that were pedals that in the 80's Marshall designed and built right at their amp factory. They sold really well but competition  from both the Japan and the U.S. made them unprofitable to make. They are now re-issued and made at that same Brit factory with only the pots and the jacks being different as it is the only thing no longer available from the original parts makers. 

The layout is gain, treble, bass and volume an a contour that refocuses the mids. It is voiced for the slightly hot rodded JCM 800 the 80's. The 4th, the Shredmaster is the same but a bit hotter.

CONCLUSION

It is what it is and what it does not do that the best 

modern MIAB pedals can do it makes up for with a 

lot of character and mojo thanks to Steve Greenwood's designs. Yes they were designed by one guy not the marketing team at head office, lol.

the fine print

Oddly by today's standards the worse seller was the Blues Breaker The coveted King of Tone is 2 BB's in a box, lol. Every one wanted to turn their old Fenders into a Marshall not a Blues Breaker which is at root a Fender Bassman. The biggest seller was the Gov'nor because it was meant to mimic a factory unaltered 

JCM 800. Judge for yourself. I posted a video so you can compare. 

 

OVERDRIVE- CALINE- CP-25 Highway Man .... Xotic RC Booster clone

CALINE CP-25 HIGHWAY MAN 

OVERDRIVE

$30.00 USD

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Yes it is called an OD even though it is a Xotic RC Booster. If pushed it goes into a low gain OD but kept around 5 to 12 O'clock on the gain the RC is warm sounding very transparent booster. It does a great job of adding a fuller sound with more breadth to the sound and gives the pedal sparkling highs. The lows when lightly added fatten up the sound without any mud. It qualifies as one of the first of transparent OD's. It is a rarity amongst OD's. It does not kill the bell like chime of a Strat and make your low notes sound you are using cheap humbucker PU's. 

CONCLUSION

There is a bit of a catch. It has been in the Caline catalogue for 6 years but just weeks ago 

they discontinued it. Yes there are enough out there new and used but for new they won't 

last. I got turned onto the Xotic by a half minute demo by Jazz Rock guitarist Oz Noy. 

Xotic discontinued it but just brought it back as a limited run.

At $30.00 USD___It is worth putting on my short list.

FUZZ- PEDAL PAWN Fuzz ... Hendrix, SRV tone nailed ?

PEDAL PAWN 

$250.00 USD

  | |    FUZZ  

Two Brit guys on a mission trying to nail 'that' Strat tone. So they a collected a massive collection of old pedals not least of which is the Hendrix/ SRV tones. they started a small pedal company and pedals came and went but those that stayed nailed the sounds they wanted. Especially this Fuzz a hot clone hot rodded fro Jimi's last Fuzz is really is impressive.

CONCLUSION

It is a bit of an ouch of a price but like thousands it sounds 

exceptional close to what I like 

a Strat to sound like.

GUITAR- FENDER JOHN 5 GHOST___ NEW ___ odd one off or ...shapes of things to come

FENDER TELECASTER| JOHN 5 GHOST

I expect it will not last. It offends everyone. The guys that want classic, want classic and the others that are just as conservative want a pointy guitar. Pointy guitars were only cutting edge when you could not buy electric automobile as a family car. No amount new of paint finishes will change that. It is the old adage ..you can put lipstick of a pig but ... lol.

It is all about marketing. Players will go out of their way to go to a shop to see one and thousands will come home with a standard Tele even though they never had it in their mind to buy a guitar. This guitar should have really been brought out as a MIM or better still a Squier for the obvious reason$.

$3000.00 USD

CONCLUSION

What I see in this guitar is really part of a trend to take the look of
guitars of the 50's Kay, Harmony, Danelectro and Supro Stateside and the European guitars of that era as well and borrow the shapes and vibe but update the neck carve, hardware pickups etc. for the modern player.

60,s Goya

I own 10 guitars and have found a few rarities that were re-produced or made as a new retro guitar. They however failed to upgrade the playability so I have done just that.

Lace Cybercaster

This Lace is a proto-type of a guitar designed by Grover Jackson and 2 were were made for Lace Pick-ups. They made a second with 2 Lace HB's as well. They decided to get 2 of each made for a show but no one wanted the one PU. So Chicago Music were given the one PU to dump for them. I got the second of the two. The pickup I wanted to put in is a Duncan Pearly Gates in red, handwound by the Custom Shop however any color other than black or cream was off limits. It was only used for Billy Gibbons personal guitars. I kept coming up with a way to get one and pestered the crap out of them for about 3 months. Seymour told Billy about me when he came by to scoop up his colored bobbin Pearlies  I was probably described as a crazy guy that would not give up. Billy laughed and told Seymour to ship me one of his. The PU is a hand wound Pearly Gates that sounds just like one you can buy but has more overtones in the high end that just shimmer.

GUILD 

Were first to sneak in the back door of a new trend.

What they should do is shock the world and put a Floyd on one. A guitar that some new young shredder will play and upset the status quo of the present Metal scene.

OVERDRIVE- NADY AUDIO TS-30 Tube Sound ... NOS Boss SD-1 clone (collectable)

NADY AUDIO| 

TS-30 TUBE SOUND OVERDRIVE

$30.00 USD
from Only Pedals

This is dead cool an old NADY pedal.

Yes this is the same NADY that makes the Pro Wireless rigs. The first ones were MIJ by Guyatone.The casing is definitely Guyatone. 

These are the last of a limited amount of new ones buried for a few years but new, and indeed rare. It is and isn't a Tube Screamer. It is really a Boss SD-1 which is a slightly modded with different clipping diodes. They give it very much a Crunch Brit amp sound. 

The layout is dead simple with gain, tone and gain. This pedal is usable through its entire range. Pull back the gain and beep up the level and you will get a really sweet Booster.

CONCLUSION

The cool metal casings are are enough to want one. Then the price :-) I have bought these NOS pedals with smaller brand names before. I used them for a couple of years and by then the 'Me Too' collectors get them and the price gets stupid. 

Maybe a bit small time but fun. I still have 2 old Danelectro pedals. Both are rising in price but one 

I use daily. The pedal is an 80's style hard clipper so you can't go wrong with these pedals.

_______________________________________________________  

Robert at Only Pedals gave me heads up so you are getting 

the first look at the this and the other nady pedals. 

CHORUS- EFFECTS BAKERY Melon Pan Chorus ... as good as a $260 pedal but $45 ???

EFFECTS BAKERY

MELON PAN CHORUS 

$45.00 USD

A classic Chorus is not rocket science. It is vibrato with a sort delay mixed 

with your input signal. 

The first Boss pedals had it nailed with their second one, the CE2.

Even today we use the same Panasonic chips because they were reissued by Panasonic a couple of years ago and they are cheap.

E. Bakery is a Japanese company with a MIJ tradition of quality. The layout is 

rate, depth and mix. Mix was fixed on the old boss but it is really nice to have especially when using the pedal to basically fatten a sound without 

all the pulse from the modulation.

CONCLUSION

Once again the company gives us a serious bargain. 

Many pedals for to 4 times the money are neither 

better or as good. The most impressive I have 

heard since the Jam Waterfall and it is $260.00 USD. 

I am convinced  this a clone of it, in fact it even has the 

Jam thing of cute toddlers toys look.

 

                                                                                                                    Go to 23:00

                          

the fine print

I Compared the Jam to the  Bakery. I am convinced these are literally Jam pedal clones. Even their Fuzz sounds like the Eureka Fuzz.

EVERYTHING- SIGNAL CHYNE pedals ...an American in France

SIGNAL CHEYNE

Another under the radar company. Brian Cheyne an American living

in Paris is making some very good pedals for reasonable prices.

I will of course address them each on their own in the near future 

individually but for now ..Why Wait ???

OVERDRIVE- WINNIPEG ELECTRICAL COMPANY Homework Series Distortion ...a Rat?

WINNIPEG ELECTRICAL COMPANY

 Homework Series Distortion 

$105.00 USD

I have no idea who this guy is. I saw the Video presented on the sidebar so I gave it a click. I tacked it down to a site with 4 pedals.

It appears we have another Rat. One of the first of the OpAmp in this case it is an OP07. The Rat is a hardclipper pedal. 

It has the usual Distortion, Tone/low pass filter and volume of a Rat II but a switch gives us the trusty LED that gives you a Turbo Rat sound. A 3rd click is just the OpAmp wide open.

CONCLUSION

It has a lot of great nasty sounds. Is it the best Rat? Well they are all good Hardclipper pedals. Some are very Nasty Rat like and others try to turn them into a Tube Screamer and fail to give you either. I have owned many and have settled on a the classic Rat II with no frills still in the funny lump of a box. Zero complaints. It ain't broke so I do not need someone's idea of how to fix it. Now in spite of my attitude this does 

indeed have good does of the big nasties.

FUZZ- SOUND SLICE FX I Wanna Be Your Dog ...Fuzzrite clone

SOUND SLICE FX 

  I WANNA BE YOUR DOG 

$170.00 USD

This is a take on the Mosrite Fuzzrite. Often called the garage Bad Fuzz :-)

This is the most accurate repro of the pedal and ones I found only months ago have vanished. It uses NOS BC107 and BC108 transistors. 

CONCLUSION

It does have its own vibe. A ballpeen hammer attack that makes a gritty fuzzy trail as it goes from note to note. It was Ron Asheton's pedal of choice in the Stooges. Very nasty, but dead cool. The same money but you must compare it to 

the DOD Carcosa Does this and more. 

Sample SUSTAINER- TC ELECTRONIC Infinite ___ NEW ___ impressive? very!

T C ELECTRONIC| INFINITE 

Mini SAMPLE  SUSTAINER

$120.00 USD

 

A simple but brilliant idea. Just hit a chord, or make a riff then hit the switch and it sustains so you can play over the sustain. I reviewed the full size pedal last May so 

a year later we get a mini. Better still it has all the same functions. 

I expect like there mini looper this will be the game changer. Easy to use and relatively cheap.

The layout is level, Fade In ...great for a faux string section sound. The 

last knob is for decay so it fades out smoothly and timely. 

CONCLUSION

It is not a new idea but those in the past charged the big minoy due to chip prices. Well it's on my short list. I am in a power trio and using for a bit of accompaniment on a solo would be cool. 

Unlike a looper I don't have to count on the drummer keeping 

time to a repetitive thing. 

In short it is not just a novelty or gimmick

FUZZ- ELECTRONIC AUDIO EXPIERIMENTS OxEAE ____ NEW_____ the fat ballerina

ELECTRONIC AUDIO EXPERIMENTS| OxEAE FUZZ 

$300.00 USD

An OpAmp Fuzz with 80dB of gain.

The layout tells the story. You have the standard Volume control. The Texture control that adds an octave up and boosts the second harmonics.This provides overtone that are sweet in contrast with nasty Fuzz thing.

The Gain provide a massive full 80 dB. Finally you have Weight that is a high pass filter to allow how fat the sound is yet cut of extra low end mud or even make tighter than tight.

CONCLUSION

The stuff isn't cheap but they make things that other do that are often only good for Shoegazers and Star Wars movies as they have no way of tailoring the sound to fit your rig or the dynamics of your playing. They also give you good attack and string definition. In other words you can use it for what your audience thinks of as tunes. Fat Fuzz, nimble dancer.

OVERDRIVE- BOSS OD-3 Overdrive ... still hanging in.

BOSS OD-3 Overdrive 

$110.00 USD

The first of the famous boss overdrives was the the OD-1. It was an instant bestseller as it was the beginnings of a pedal with a Brit amp vibe. It was followed by the SD-1 which is totally different pedal. The SD-1 was literally a hot rodded Tube Screamer. Yes cloning has always been part of the game. That was followed by the OD-3 which strangely was again a totally different ciucut. The SD-1 has survived because it is both great on it's own but it is an alternative to guys that play Metal through a proverbial stack as a killer Boost pedal. The OD-3 is still a killer for guys with combo's playing more of an early Metal or Blues rock thing. There is a new OD-3x but it is digital and to get to the point it has all the sonic problems of a cheap Modeled guitar sound.

CONCLUSION

I find it excels as an excellent Crunch sound when on some tunes even in Metal genres can get to busy or chord work is too dense sounding with other pedals. It tends to not get lost but not fight with the vocals.  

 

OVERDRIVE- IRIDIUM FX D++ Vintage Distortion ...Boss SD-1 clone?

IRIDIUM FX D++ VINTAGE DISTORTION 

$145.00 USD

 

Zachary Randall refers to this as a vintage old yellow box that the DNA is the basis of many pedals. It points to a Boss OD 1, the extra hint is it only has two knobs :-)

So giving you the layout I suppose is redundant, lol

CONCLUSUION

It bares comparison to the Boss OD-3. It is not in the 2023 catalogue but still easy to find new. Boss I find have got smart enough to wait until an old pedal stops selling in favor of a new one. In this case the 2014 digital OD-1x. (see the Post) The OD-1 and still available OD-3 ($115.00 USD) are totally different circuits but it does deserve comparing. 

The OD-1 and OD-3 are very similar in their overall vibe and really do suit the sae players. A lot can be done to the same circuit usually with diodes in an OpAmp OD to change the sound. In this case the D++ is very much in a Modern Metal thing with more gain and tight. It is not warm Crunch type pedal that the Boss OD-1 is. So check the OD-3 Post out. 

In short the D++ is it's own thing and worth considering. 

 

OVERDRIVE- BOSS OD-1x ...current replacement of the 1st Boss OD

BOSSOD-1x OVERDRIVE 

$190.00 USD

The 1977 OD-1 was a milestone pedal since it was probably the first pedal that had a Brit amp vibe. Dare I say Amp-in-a-Box. This not even the second version but the 3rd and most recent. The OD-3 seems to still be available but is not in the 2023 catalogue.

CONCLUSION

Occasionally an original pedal does indeed seem better that its replacement or has a more appealing sound than a new model. But old tech was noisy, and often created a muddier sound. Some pedals had a very limited range in the EQ or gain or indeed a weak output. BIG BUT ...this replacement is a digital pedal. Like all digital chips they have analyzing issues. A kind of nasty metallic like ghosting to the sound. Need I say more? 

NEED TO KNOW __ VIBRATO PEDAL | TREMOLO PEDAL | WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

VIBRATO? TREMOLO? WTF

On a casual listen they both can seem to sound the same. They both modulate.

They however wobble two different things.

Vibrato modulates the pitch just like a whammy bar. Push the bar down and E note heads to E flat and pull up it heads to F.

The sound is crisp and pronounced. 

Tremolo changes volume it makes your sound go loud, quiet, loud quiet, etc. 

The sound is mellow and tranquil.

TRIVIA

Leo Fender got it backwards. He called his Strat whammy bar a tremolo and the tremolo on his amps vibrato. This is the main reason over the years why many players became confused.

the fine print 

I prefer the Termolo.  I have a Uni-Vibe which is it's own thing but it does indeed  have a vibrato in it.  
I stumbled onto a Boss clone. The Axsess by Giannini Tremolo. __ $35.00 USD from Only Pedals

FUZZ- BYOC Large Beaver Triangle Fuzz ...pro ready made DIY ...Gilmour-in-a-Box

BYOC LARGE BEAVER 

TRIANGLE FUZZ

$125.00 USD

The DIY thing for pedals has been the start for companies like JHS, Wampler and many others grew from.

In the last 10 years it has become an industry and there is a large community that supports, helps and shares getting the 'new boys' up to speed. One of the very best MIAB comes from that community. Dazatronyx in Australia make the BSIA2 a MIAB that really does sounds like a late 60's 50 Watt Marshall. It has those rough edges and is not at all slick just like the real amp sounds at a club just a few feet away. 

BYOC (build your own clone) are a little more obvious. They licence builders to make the pedals. In short you can buy one made by a pro. OR ...indeed DIY.

The Large Beaver Triangle Big Muff is a convincing replica of the original pedal. 

It has a few mods that you find on the best pricy Gourmet pedals.

CONCLUSION

Well you get an American made pedal using the equivalent parts of a JHS or Wampler etc. pedal with the bonus of the good ol' 2N5133 silicon 

transistors for about $100.00 cheaper than the hand made gourmet boys. 

You get a classic design that you can love or like but seldom hate.

This was sound that Dave Gilmour started his rise to fame with 

and is on countless recordings ever since.