$130.00 USD HAGARMAN
TSAR OCTAVE |
Good ol' Jim Hagerman from Hawaii makes high quality pedals not by cloning but finding a way to turn a genre of them on their head yet get damn usable but unique sounds. The layout is very simple with just Volume and Tone.
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CONCLUSION ___It is a 'Must be Heard' pedal as it is not a clone.Fortunately the video does it justice.Other makers would want double the price.A damn impressive value for money buy!!!
Diamond PEDALS
PHASE
$340.00 USD It is a long story. Diamond Pedals was Michael Knapp's one manoperation where there wasn't anyone to handle the volume of sales
so the site would literally have to close down to catch up.
Michael Knapp has had many innovative ideas that were ripped off
and are now literally in Compressors and Uni-Vibes of hundreds of
makers. On the verge of bankruptcy SolidGold FX jumped in to
take care of everything and leave Michael to just design. A win for
both companies and indeed the end user.The secret of this unit is not just the features will executed but the
hand picked JFET transistors that convince you the pedals preamp
stage is actually tubes.
CONCLUSION __
I have but rarely use my MXR phase 95 that good
ol' Dave Freidman himself uses and recommended
me I do the same. If I did use a Phaser a lot I
would bite the financial bullet and get this.
SONICAKE
THUMP PROG DIST
The 'Cake' have been highly proliferate the last couple of years. They started as a company that went to Mooer and
$40.00 USD
got them to re-brand the Mooer mini pedals but paint them black and the sold them for less than half the price of the exact same pedal. I do not know who makes their big pedals as Mooer has never re-branded their pedal's in large steel casings. The new mini pedals come in different colors and most are positively not re-brands. OOPS, I am digressing again.Well we get a high gain pedal aimed at Modern dirt sounds?
Or is it? The layout is Volume, Gain, Bass, Mids and Treble.
A toggle gives you a Classic or Modern voice. This unit also
gives you a Boost and much desired Gate.
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CONCLUSION ___
Well for a start the Prog name is at minimum misleading.
Playing triplets at 230bpm and getting a tight well define
attack on even some of the pricy pedals is a non starter
let alone a cheapie. In fact the attack on this is soft and
near muddy. The whole sound of the pedal has a dark
sound, it lacks any punch, balz or aggression.
The last pedal I bought was the Sonicake Cowboy mini.
It blows this one out of the water!!! That said, to be fair
you can dial in a very pleasing medium gain Brit sound.
If it was in their new mini pedal line I would be tempted
to get one.
MOSKY AUDIO |
Super Amp
You get 4 Amp types of voices in this box. They are a Vox AC30, Brit aka Marshall, American aka Fenderish and Californian aka high gain hybrid's. Mosky has made many
$70.00 USD
of each separately over the years to simply clone their
own product. The layout is Level, with active EQ for
Low, Mids and Highs.
CONCLUSION __
It sounds good but the difference from one sound to
the other is barely noticable.
I hate these all in one pedals at any price. One sound is always better even if you get 2 let alone more. With one sound like a Dumble or a Marshall you are not
paying for what you do not want. You also can clearly
hear a difference not just different shades of grey.
dpFX
Thrysallis|| GERMANIUM BOOST/OD
$135.00 USD
A one man show in Greece that has 44 pedals listed on his site,
yet can find the time to make you a Custom pedal, 😇 The layout
is Volume, Gain 1, Gain 2, Bass. A toggle lets you cut highs or add
clipping diodes to the 2 transistors.
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CONCLUSION __It has a wide range from medium to high gain.
With some serious very gritty and raspy,
nasty trashy growling sounds. In spite of that
your notes and chords still have definition, unless
you dime that Bass knob and drop an A-bomb on us all.
$170.00 USD
BESERKER ELECTRONICSSASQUASH NATURAL COMPRESSOR
It seems lately everyone is offering a new take on the ROSSclone of the MXR Dynacomp. This version has been modifiedto create a natural attack and retain dynamics of your touch.The layout is volume, Intensity, Presence and Clamp. Clampgiving control over the balance between an intensesqueeze of the sound or more open.CONCLUSION __Check out my conclusion of the Westminster Calvinthat is attempting the same approach andcompare the sounds.
WESTMINSTER EFFECTSCALVIN COMPRESSOR
$170.00 USD This is an old school OTA type that was literally invented by MXR with
their DynaComp and cloned by ROSS. The ROSS circuit's topography
circuit is simpler, more elegant and more transparent and 99% of all
clones use it as a starting point.The layout is Ratio, Level, Release and Attack, a toggle switches in
a second voice.CONCLUSION ___
All compressors like all Overdrives have a 'sound' plus acompromise in their dynamic range which gives them adifferent feel. As for this ones tone it is very pleasing inthe demo. I have never found one in the serios budgetrange that could pass the smell test. The biggest seller
is the Keeley Compressor+. The Origin Cali76 is the most
coveted. All others are pretty much even in popularity
but most have cult followings.
Since you asked my fave is the Universal Audio UAFX 1176 pedal that has a 'stacked'
setting. It is literally a clone of Jimmy Page's studio Comp rig of stacking
2 Rackmount Universal Audio 1176 Comps.
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