PREAMP- TUBESTEADER Gainlord ___NEW ___ convincing real Marshall from a box

$350.00 USD

 TUBESTEADER

   GAINLORD 

It is not unlike the FRIEDMAN IR-X or the TONE KING 

Royalist. You get a pedal when teamed up with pedal- 

board amp you get the same portability as a Modeler 

without giving up the sound of your stack.  

           CONCLUSION __

If the Tone King is a 10 out of 10 then this 

is a 9 and the Friedman is a 7. Add to that 

the obvious. You can pay as much or more 

for dozens of MIAB transistor pedals.  

_____

 

  

IR LOADER- TC ELECTRONIC Impulse... a parachute if your amp dies ??? YES!!!

 tc electronic 

IMPULSE  IR LOADER

$110.00 USD

What is it? It crates the sound of a speaker cab and/or an amp 

pushing that cab with it. It can go direct to PA board at a gig 

replace a mic on your cab, It can go direct to a pro or home 

studio setup to do likewise. bit I am interested in it as a pedal 

guys alternative to a Modeler which has this built in. I recently 

had my rig go down. It is a Friedman IR-X tybe preamp. It goes 

into a straight studio type power amp into a single 12"celestion 

speaker cab. I simply used a pedal EQ pedal as a preamp going 

into a similar SHIFTLINE A+ Cab Zone IR box into my amp

and carried on, getting 

all sounds from my pedal board. No problem.

                    CONCLUSION __

This has a sonic spec as high as the best. Others 

equal have more features but WTF you do not need 

them to get shades of grey in the tone. The 12 key 

sounds in this were made by Celestion. If they can 

not get a good sound then who can. The BOSS IR 

2 pedal is twice the price and is good but not even 

close to being better.  

 

FUZZ- ROWIN G-Fuzz ...a 60's germanium Fuzz at a 60's price 😎

Rowin 

$25.00 USD
AliExpress/free shipping

G-FUZZ   

This is a rebranded Mooer Germanium Fuzz that has been 

sold but labeled with numerous brands monikers & graphics 

for already 10 years ...& probably 10 more. Why not ???

The Layout is simply Volume and Gain.

          CONCLUSION __

Not very exciting. It lacks any spit and sputter 

one looks for with a Germanium Fuzz. That said  

it has a very fat classic grainy sound. It still makes the bottom rung of the Pro ladder and is 100% 

usable for beginner and veteran alike. Stack 

it on an overdrive for more punch, grit and 

breadth. Small enough to fit on the corner 

of your board & cheap enough to take a chance.

WHAT's THE POINT ??? ___Good idea? ___Or is it a bandaid?

 THE ALWAYS ON PEDAL   

My alway on is the Caline Pure Sky. It is a very accurate 

clone of the Timmy V1. Note ...NOT the V.2.  I scoop the 

Treble and Bass and have the Gain barely on and the 

Volume at unity gain. It simply removes mud tightens 

the lows then pushes the whole sound forward 

with better clarity and a nice crisp sound. 

Last but not least it stops my sound from getting thin  

and weak when I am forced to turn my volume down. 

The Bonus is it is $35.00 USD. Not much even to 

just check it out. 

...some guys want $800.00 USD for a V.1 Timmy, WTF!!! 

PREAMP- TUBESTEADER Lightkeeper V.2 ...Dumble Overdrive Special-in-a-Box

TUBESTEADER

 Lightkeeper 

$300.00 USD

This is the clean channel of a Dumble Overdrive Special. A bit silly 

to say but with 72 pedals on my board and 4,400 + pedal reviews 

I am all about pedals. Pedals and tube amps are the 11th 

commandment Thou shall not let any digital guitar amp simulator 

come between them, 😇.

At 80 I have kept my old Plexi but its days gigging with it are more 

than less over. I have been using a Friedman IR-X to replace my 

Marshall but only its clean channel. It is adequate but ....

The layout is Volume, Gain, Bass, Treble and Mids. A 3 way 

toggle gives you Deep and another does a 3 way for Boost. 

CONCLUSION __ 

The voicing for a clean sound is spectacular. 

Add a bit of Gain to get some Crunch and 

the Boost adds the balz. I will try and talk 

myself out of it,😟....oh no !!! 

BOOSTER- SUHR Brighton Treble Boost___NEW ___ Rangemaster on steroids

 Shur 

$150.00 USD

B R I G H T O N    

Before the Tube Screamer any single channel Brit amp really, 

really needed a Rangemaster. In fact a guy buying a new 

stack bought one that same day.

Like the Tube Screamer it is all about the upper mids NOT 

per se the highs. It is the always on pedal of both Brian May 

and Tony Iommi. Both now use a custom pedal. The layout 

gives you BIAS, Body and Volume and a toggle chooses 

classic for dark sounding amps and or smooth for others. 

    __ CONCLUSION __ 

I think this version really nails it for a modern player. 

It keeps the vibe but knows we all have incredibly

varied gear to amplify and need a Swiss Army Knife 

version. This is on my short list.