NEED TO KNOW ____WHAT IS AN ____OpAmp with diodes doing in a Dirt pedal. ????

WTF IS AN OpAmp DIRT BOX

First I am going to over simplify. All needless jargon and rocket science surgically
removed, This a need to know explanation. 

OPAMP

First an OpAmp is basically a little preamp that takes the guitar signal and makes it louder. Like anything there are different qualities and ALL will color the signal. Some sound a bit better than others but in the real world of Rock guitar the differences are negligible. In guitar folk lore a really old shity OpAmp is better because it highly colored and that color is prized. 
The reason old all prized OpAmps were discontinued as they were meant for the consumer products like a radio where the buyer wants clarity first. If a manufacturer could make an OpAmp, 

smaller, cheaper and cleaner, they did.

For our purposes consider them nano amplifiers with only a clean sound. 

Lately the 'most transparent' OD is the fashion. These use state of the art OpAmps beyond dead clean and color free. So what's better? Vintage crap or NASA/Military spec. I own both, LOL.

WHAT YOU USUALLY GET

Nearly all pedals including the made in China ones use a 'reliable' well made OpAmp with a spec much higher than needed for the mid range voice of a guitar PU. 

 Why ??? Simple, most of these products are now made by high tech machines that can boot out up to 2000 pedals a day and the product HAS to be reliable or you can hundreds of failures. Low return rates are OK ...high ones will sink the company.

DIODES

Diodes are meant to cut the signal going thru. So if you have your OpAmp up full you
and it goes through an Diode that is rated too low for it it will chop off the top of the signal and distort it. More small equals more dirt. Add to that different diode types are more nasty then others.

Finally, the signal has a positive and a negative signal. You need a pair of diodes to make it work. If they are the same value you get a more transparent sound but if they are unequal you get more dirt. Real tubes are more like a pair of unequal diodes. Tubes do not make the kind of distortion that matched diodes make. 

Surprise, surprise, 99% of all matched diode OD's are Tube Screamers no matter what bullshit name is printed on the enclosure, lol. 

All the others with mismatched diodes are basically a Rat if high gain or if medium gain a Boss SD-1.

The only other OD/Distortions of consequence are made by using a tube amp design and substituting the tubes with JFET transistors.

Fuzz pedals use germanium or silicon transistors or they too can use an OpAmp. There are rare exceptions but they all sound like crap.

Endless new pedals come out all the time.Most are same old. They add new high tech NOS parts or blend designs together, go crazy with EQ or give you switches to swap out diodes or add a pre amp for a boost.  Considering analog is a  very limited tech it is surprising with a lot of ingenuity some new pedals really sound better than others.

FUZZ- STACKS FX Acid Cat Fuzz/Distortion ...hybrid that got it right

STACK FX ACID CAT FUZZ/DISTORTION 

$160.00 USD

I have several Fuzz pedals that I never use on their own. I love that crazy spit, sputter and splat of a really high gain Fuzz. I only play my own tunes, and for me, the tune comes well before the pedal. I can not have a pedal that I have to rewrite the tune to fit the pedal. I solve this by stacking the fuzz on an OD. The OD will tighten the sound and the notes and chords will come thru even when the Fuzz wants thin out or drop out for a moment here and there will poke through where without the OD you have a dog's breakfast LOL.

One thing I like straight off is basic voicing between the the extremes of a high gain OD and a Fuzz is fixed. You can easily go to extremes between a hard clipper to a Doom Fuzz and all in between with simple switches set to meaningful and above all useable voicings.

The layout has the obvious volume control. An input gain control allows both boost or indeep can be a trimmer. A switch gives you 3 levels of bass from normal to stupid, lol. Another is a low pass filter to cut highs for a total massive Doom like sound.

CONCLUSION

The damn thing sounds great. 'In short it just works' Others would have turned it into 2 pedals in one. Big but. You would have got 2 mediocre pedals instead of one killer pedal.

OVERDRIVE-KING TONE Heavy Hand ...a Blues Breaker ...is the BB the new ts ???

 THE BLUES BREAKERS 

It all started with the Analog Man King Of Tone pedal which took 2 Blues
Breaker pedals and put them in one box with one voiced with more gain than the other.

Now we have a half dozen high end boxes putting 2 pedals in a box though the one less assertive is often a Tube Screamer or facsimile rather than 2 of the same pedals. 

I think love it or hate it the King of Tone got it right with BB. The nobrainer being the BB is better sounding 'transparent' pedal. Do you need 2 of them though??? I like many think not. The thing is when pedals are separate you can pick two different pedals and two different brands and come out with better choices to suit your needs. So of late those with the duel pedals are taking the BB side of the pedal and offering it as a stand alone.

TONE KING HEAVYHAND

$265.00 USD

I have noticed that the biggest fans of any BB pedals whether they are separate or paired in the new 'wonder' boxes already own a KOT. They don't sell it but the damn thing soon becomes the conversation piece paper weight on their desk. Why?? The KOT uses very old tech. It was even very old tech when they made the first one 2 decades ago. 

The reason was they deemed that the old parts give you a warmer tone. The problem is old parts are inferior tech that can create unwanted smearing or the harmonics which can make the tone muddy. Keep in mind the early fans of the pedal were club musicians many semi pro using single channel overly clean Fender amps. Yes, amps like the silver face jobbies with a very crisp clean sound and the bright switch turned on that

a bit of mud hardly was a problem. 

I borrowed a friends KOT and I indeed found it muddy.

Yes it had a pleasant vibe but in my band it got buried.

DUELIST ?

So one of the new wonder boxes has been the Tone King Duelist. It has done very well with a big fan base for several years.The B. side is the Heavy Hand. The A. side is a Tube Screamer.

It is obvious that there is demand for a BB with more guys running thru small amps left clean and the BB is replacing the Tube Screamer which made its original mark more as a booster overloading the input tubes by running that ts with the level cranked. You can do that with a BB but the point is you don't have to. Left on lower settings gives you a punchy clean sound that can make an amps real clean sound seem lame.

The Heavy Hand layout is comprehensive. You have the standard level, drive and tone but also another knob that adds girth by fattening the mids.

A toggle lets you add some edge or glass which is more of a presence thing. Another toggle lets you add a  bit of compression.

CONCLUSION

A lot is going on to tweak your sound but once you get 'that' sound then like a lot of pedals they are never touched again. 

My thing is for a Strat sound is I like to hear the glassy chime and bell like attack of the Strat. This seems to work best with a BB pedal and I can hear a lot of that peeking thru with the Heavy Hand. That said I hear more transparency from my Browne Amplification Carbon which is the BB half of their Protein Dual OD. At $220.00 USD for the Carbon it is not enough cheaper to sway me in either direction if I had to pick between the two.

But if I want some of the more aggressive features of the Heavy Hand I would go to one of my MIAB pedals so for me it is not about features but having that permanent fixed sound in the pedal and just a couple of knobs to tweak it so it works with my rig. Except for more sustain and some of the kind of comp you get from a power amps sag you get from cranked tube amp I do not want any of that preamp like distortion. My Carbon may yet be beaten, but so far it is in the lead until the race is over.

FUZZ- LYNX FX Thunder Cloud ...impressive pro Fuzz & cheap'

LYNX FXTHUNDER CLOUD FUZZ

$100.00 USD

A company from Poland doing their take on few of the  Fuzz pedals and a couple 

of analog delays. The Thundercloud is an OpAmp Fuzz using a powerful LM386 chip but more gain comes from a FET pre. In short it sounds 'all' Fuzz but the FETS will give it some faux tube like richness and puts you into hard clipper OD territory. In other words you get a nasty Fuzz but it also can be more focussed like an OD.

The layout gives you controls for tone, volume, gain and bias. A toggle gives 

you 2 voices and a second 3 clipping choices.

CONCLUSION

A basic everyday Fuzz with a generous amount of sound shaping to take things over the abyss. Versatile is bull unless all the sounds are useable and this is 

BS free pedal. Great for the guy wanting to explore some crazy stuff but be able 

to use for tunes in many genres. In short a real work horse. Stacked on an OD it would add a lot of beef and inject a bit of in your face lovelys. 

Very impressive !!!

OVERDRIVE- SIREN PEDALS Etana ...Lindsey Ell signature pedal/ Klon clone

SIREN ETANA OD 

Signature pedals usually totally miss the point of getting a pedal. I am not the that person so I need a pedal that works for me and my music. That said if you try and make a pedal fit everyone than if a pedal was ice cream we would only get vanilla, LOL. Actually the best pedal is the one made by the guy who after designing it jumped in the air screaming eureka!!!

So what you get is a basic Klon with that low to medium gain transparent type pedal with 3 clipping stages.

CONCLUSION

Not bad but a Klon is now like a Tube Screamer if you don't like the ones they have at the moment just wait an hour.

FUZZ- GROUND KING FX Halo Fuzz ...killer take on a Colorsound Fuzz Box :-)

 GROUND KING HALO FUZZ 

$105.00 USD

A new kid on the block. There is zero info about the guy except the address is in Lappeenranta Finland. It appears he has only one pedal. WTF everyone has to start somewhere.

Well Mr. G. King has come up with a good idea. "Why not do a take on the original Colorsound one knob Fuzz Box?" 

The layout is a single knob to change the bias to add or tame the growl, spit and sputter. 

A 3 way switch lets you boost either the highs, mids or lows.

CONCLUSION

If you are a Fuzz guy you gotta love it. It really has a recognizable Colorsound Fuzz Box vibe. At its time in the 70's there was no such thing as genres like Doom but 

it certainly found it's calling years after its demise.

It looks cool and best of all is reasonably priced. Damn impressive!!!

It certainly is on my 'BUY ME' list of Fuzz pedals :-)

the fine print

I got curious. I thought there must be others cloning the 'Fuzz Box'. The few I found are no longer made. Some companies that specialize in Doom and other related genres have 'one knobs.' But like many pedal companies think that their 'Amazing Illuminating Construct' is not actually a Colorsound light bulb. In short they are not better than the Ground King but are more pricey. WTF!!!!

____ FENDER GUITARS ARE NO LONGER MADE IN THE USD ???? _____

 FENDER the GLOBAL MONSTER

The video below is fascinating. It compares Fender guitars that are made in Mexico, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, China and 'sort off' in the USA :-)

OVERDRIVE- THIS HEAVY EARTH Flesh Rot ...Ampeg VH-140C-in-a-Box ....1x3=which one

THIS HEAVY EARTH FLESH ROT PRE 

$190.00

This is the 3rd maker to do a take on the infamous Ampeg amp that was the King of Hard Core and Death Metal inthe 90's. i do not have one but it kept ending up on my shortlist at a bad time over and over again.

I love the sound of this because it has the vibe of a massive Fuzz but without all the hassle of the best ones that tend to be germanium. In other words you get all the advantage of the tight control of the best MIAB but with rip your face off Fuzz sound. Never a problem with the sound having uncontrollable rough edges or get in a nasal sound in some settings.

CONCLUSION

What's not to love? The SNK Pedals version is said to be the most convincing when actually used by passing your amps pre and using just the pedal though it sounds fine either way. The Master Effects Misanthrope is made by a gut famous for his anal thoroughness and has a bitmore snarl to it. I find 'Flesh' to be down the middle. 

All 3 seem are damn impressive. 

Note: the green is just a Ltd. Ed. paint job :-) 

Check out the video below
the ME vs. the snk

FUZZ- SUMMER SCHOOL ELECTRONICS Stone Thrower ...impressive early effort

$150.00 USD

SUMMER SCHOOL ELECTRONICS 

STONE THROWER

This company was founded in Sept 2021 by Mark Turley in Syracuse NY. He has 5 pedals and this Fuzz is the most recent. Except for being a 2 transistor silicon Fuzz it has no published spec. On one hand the vibe is late era Brit but in practice it seems at its best when dialing in a Doom thing where many Fuzz pedals are a tamed octave Fuzz and this one shares the same territory. The layout is a basic gain and level with a very, very good but fixed voice.

CONCLUSION

It sounds very good. The look is fun but tastefully done. I will certainly being exploring his whole line.

You know I am big on the independent makers with small shops handmaking great pedals. Big But! I can not help but compare the just released Keeley Moon. I will not argue that one could say they are different. I can argue that if you had a tune needing the Stone Thrower fat round massive sound that the Keeley will do it as well, if not better and 

yet can be dial in other sounds that the Stone Thrower can't do.

The prices are literally the same. So ??? 

DELAY- TONE CITY Blue Crystal Echo ...an analog delay but ...

TONE CITY

BLUE CRYSTAL ECHO ANALOG DELAY 

$75.00 USD

This is a welcome pedal as there are many cheap ones but few with a good spec.The layout has the usual time, repeat and mix but it gives you a switch to go between the standard 600ms delay time and the longer 1100 ms. That said an analog delay is not the usual choice for the all bells and whistle modern Star Wars plus type thing a Digital delay does that much better.

An analog delay is best at subtle delays that fatten up the guitar and stay out of your way. In short you get a bit of echo on your guitar with no fear of getting guitar on your echo.

CONCLUSION

The biggest thing that makes an analog delay great is the total vibe of it's tone. MXR were great at it and it could argued that Boss and Ibanez were even better.

Not that you have much with what we have to listen to

but the Tone City sounds quite good and having double the delay time is bonus. 

BUT

Unfortunately I have one of my big buts. The NUX DCP-3 is a clone of the Ibanez classic the AD-80. It even uses the recently reissued old Panasonic chips. I have one and it is a serious keeper. At $60.00 USD it is a steal, what's not to love!!!

Check out the NUX

OVERDRIVE- TONE CITY Noisy Boy Distortion ...

$75.00 USD

TONE CITY NOISY BOY DISTORTION

The debate over what this pedal is a clone of includes a Marshall Bluesbreaker and it sounds nastier than a Muff, LOL. Others say MIAB? Wrong!

I have 2 BB's of which one is true clone and it ain't that. A BB is mostly low gain unless dimed and then it is medium gain.  The company describes it as an 80's Hard Rock pedal. If so I can not think of one with the vicious rasp this puts out.

The layout is volume, tone, gain and presence.

CONCLUSION

It is nasty, but with a Strat it does let a bit of chime thru which is nice. I do not see it is the ideal for a particular genre if you don't have a great pedal to cover that. BUT! as an extra pedal for a lot of aggression it could be used where you might want to use a Fuzz. It could be stacked on a lower gain, or a medium gain OD to add some smack and serious aggression.

FUZZ ___TONEBENDERS ____WHICH ONE DO YOU PREFER ???____

TONEBENDERS
The video shows examples of all the germanium ones. They are not the Sola Sound originals. They were made by JMI around 2008 as faithful replicas. They do very well in showing the different characteristics of the different versions. A fourth Tone Bender has a very similar circuit but the germaniums transistors were replaced by silicon ones. More on that later.

Purist in general only accept the TB1, TB1.5, TB2 and TB3 as the only pure TB's. I own a part for part clone of a TB3 but I took it off my board. It is so sensitive to temperature changes it can turn the sound into a thin nasal sounding mess. It can also cut out at random or even shut completely off and stays off until the pedal is left in a room with a moderately cool temperature. None of this is unusual. This is just typical of any germanium transistors. They also react badly to having a buffer in front of them or in some cases even after them but that is more unusual.

GERMANIUMITIS 

I still use a SolidGold '76 octave Fuzz which has been designed to minimize some of the germanium problems. Even so sometimes it needs help. I found a trick where I leave my Keeley Compressor on but turn the blend control down to zero and kills 95% of the compressing but leaves my Fuzz in tack. If I turn off the comp I get a weak, nasally and thin sound.

COLORSOUND TONEBENDER JUMBO (TB #4)

The last TB is the Colorsound which simply swapped out the germanium transistors to silicon ones. It still has a very heavy TB sound and vibe. It does NOT have issues.

Big Knob pedals make the Colour Jumbo. The damn thing is

a totally 100% convincing clone! Better still it's only $130.00 USD.

OTHERS?

These were all made at the by Sola Sound  but rebranded to be sold by other brands. It was done as they felt if they didn't they would get cloned anyways ...they were certainly right about that. In this case you get to check out several MKIII versions. 

the fine print

One must keep in mind that pedal makers in the 60's were very, very small time. For example the early MXR pedals were made by buying discontinued entire circuit boards from IBM and desoldering the parts off of them. Sola Sound bought whatever was the cheapest or even available. It is not sarcasm if you said that nothing is better than their Script Phase 90 that if I lined up 30 of them and simply said "Which one???"

Many of these pedals were meant to have two matching transistors did not have 2 that are even the same brand let alone being matched electronically. 

Makers saw much of what they made as like any electronics that these pedals would become redundant in a few years and be scraped for a shiny new better one. On the whole they were right. Why would I keep my Big Muff when I could buy a Rat and why would I keep the Rat if I could ...etc. 

At least the new modern stuff is  consistent no 2 are made or sound different. 

The truth is there are many excellent new Fuzz pedals but still more that are merely OK. 

If you want the best, buy a pedal using your ears not your eyes. 

FUZZ- KEELEY ELECTRONICS Moon OpAmp Fuzz___NEW___ just released !!!

$150.00 USD

KEELEY ELECTRONICS MOON  

OP AMP FUZZ 

It is an OpAmp Fuzz but not particularly a clone or take on one specific Fuzz. It has 3 voices flat, full and scooped though overall the emphasis is a heavy low larger than life tone. A kind of Doom pedal but with some reigns to pull it back with, lol.

The thing with a Keeley pedal is love or hate it you get a well made product at a reasonable price that always does the job and does it really, really well.

It is not a very specific Fuzz with that one perfect very identifiable unique sound with loads of character. The thing is one would not hear it and think Keeley. If Keeley made only ice cream it would only come in vanila. A great tasting vanilla but you you would not think "Why it's Keeley." when you tasted it.

CONCLUSION  

All that said I really like it. I can see it working well on many of my tunes. It has a great heft in the low end and good control over the spits a sputter things. It is very similar to the Solid Gold 76 but without it's warts and foybiles but with the '76 you get loads a character.

I would probably recommend the Moon over the '76 because no one would scream out WTF!!! as it just does it's thing without complaining or frightening small children.

THE BAND MUSIC FROM BIG PINK ....who took their place???

KING BISCUIT BOY 

When the Band brought out Music from Big Pink after a stint with Bob Dylan it was a massively hot seller. These guys originally came from Canada where they were the back up band for Ronnie Hawkins and were known as the Hawks. Ol' Ronnie the boy from Arkansas on the advice of Conway Twitty went to Canada in 1958. He found in the early days of Rockabilly that he was more popular there and could make 4 times the money and be continuously booked in the Toronto area of Canada. 

In fact he did so well about 10 years later he walked into a Rolls Royce dealer and bought the car paying for it with cash, LOL.

Once the Robbie Robinson and the other guys left for Dylan he simple took his pick of equally good players in the Toronto area. 

Richard Newell and his band were indeed in the Hawks as well. So I thought you would love a quick look at the calibre of playing considering this cut is from 1971 it is quite impressive. 

FUZZ- MXR Brown Acid Fuzz ... a Colorsound Tone Bender ???

$150.00 USD

MXR 

BROWN ACID FUZZ 

This is the MXR take on a Tone Bender and since it is a silicon Fuzz by default it is a Colorsound Jumbo ToneBender. It was final sibling in the Tone Bender family and some critics say it is a Big Muff rip off. I find that nuts as it has some decent mids instead of F,all mids. In fact it sounds very much like all Tone Benders. 

The layout is a simple volume , gain and tone. This pedal is from the Custom Shop line and they only made 500. At the moment Prymaxe are blowing them out at $113.00 USD.

CONCLUSION

It sounds very good but not impressive. I have been spoiled. I have the Big Knob Pedals Coloursound Jumbo. It is scary in how close it sounds to the original. If your back was turned with them side by side don't bet you can tell any difference :-)

At $130.00 USD it is a steal!

Compare it to the Big Knob

who nailed the original

FUZZ- DUSKY ELECTRONICS Soniashnyk Fuzz ___NEW___ sustain? ...you just found it!

DUSKY ELECTRONICS 
SONIASHNYK FUZZ 

$225.00 USD

Dusky are not new they have been around for at least 7 years. They started with amps and moved unto pedals very shortly after. 

This Fuzz is based from an octave Fuzz but octave has been emphasized so you get a very massive sound with those just right highs but not all the spit sputter or drop outs. they have done this exceptionally well. I have 2 octave Fuzz pedals but I love this. It has a totally different vibe and borders On the best properties of a killer high gain OD.

CONCLUSION
It is a damn impressive pedal. Even if you have a hot octave pedal this really shines in a whole new way.

75% of the money from all the sales goes to charity. DUSKY are made in Ukraine. I need not say more :-(

As I have said often and I will finish with saying it again.

The world needs to know what guitars players already do.

The difference between one player AKA human being and another 

no matter from anywhere ...is the color of his Strat.

_____REVEREND GUITARS FACTORY TOUR _____

 REVEREND GUITARS FACTORY TOUR 

Love them or hate them they have been around for over 20 years and are here to stay. They were the first to move to Korea so you could get American spec but a very healthy discounted price. They are the only company to use Korina wood for their bodies because it is the closest sound to no longer available Honduras old growth mahogany. They all come with a treble bleed so your volume control doesn't suck off your highs. They are to only company that gives you body styles that are original but have a traditional vintage vibe instead of some Sci-Fi overkill. They are the only serious guitar beside Fender and Gibson that are not niche oriented. All others specialize in one genre or another. Fender, Gibson and Reverend show up used by players in many diverse styles. Country, Rock and even Billy Corgan uses his for very high gain applications. Reverend are not a one trick pony.

COMPRESOR- CARL MARTIN Honey-Comp ____NEW____ killer comp trims down

CARL MARTIN HONEY-COMP 

$200.00 USD

C.M. has been around forever. One of the first gourmet pedal makers.
Definitely the first to make a serious studio style comp. the original was the 'go to' before the Origin Cali76 came along. They still make the very big full size Comp as well as the Andy Timmons handmade in Denmark, but pricey.If it's not broke don't fix it was the motto with this new more board friendly model. 

This is part of their newest line of pedals that are made in Asia but nothing is dumbed down. Even the casing is a custom made steel enclosure built like a tank.

The layout is simple with comp, level and dry to bring on the attack.

CONCLUSION

C.M. took the 'but' out of 'It's great but...'

This will be very popular with those that want a great 'tone' from their comp, simple to use and reasonably priced for a pedal that definitely has a high end sound.

PHASER- VAHLBRUCH FX... 6-PHI-4 ... luxury old school ...very, very nice :-)

VAHLBRUCH 6-PHI-4 PHASER

$250.00 USD

This German company has been around along time and are all about an exquisite build and classic sound that rival the classics for tone but have zero old school problems with reliability, noise or frustrating artifacts and unwanted side effects.

The unit uses six matched vintage NOS 2N5952 transistors. 'The' bullet proof choice for tone.

You have a choice of a classic 4 stage voicing but also a usable and not overkill 6 stage. The layout has the usual speed and depth and a switch to chose your voicing. Another knob for the volume of the effect is really a welcomed feature.

CONCLUSION

The price is a bit' ouch'. If you use a Phaser a lot it is worth it as an antique MXR P90 will not ...and I seriously mean NOT be better and it will cost you lot more! 

That said if you only want a Phaser for a couple of tunes then I would and have gone straight to the MXR P95 mini. The Vahlbruch is the Ferrari but the P95 is a Corvette and no one trashes a Corvette. In short you get a totally pro sound $100.00 USD.

OVERDRIVE- FORTIN AMPLIFICATION Tempest ___ NEW___ more than an OD

FORTIN TEMPEST AMPLIFICATION

$230.00 USD

This company caters to Metal players. The guys with Metal stacks playing at ear bleeding levels with maximum gain. They make such amps but also pedals.

The Tempest was originally a custom pedal for the Metalcore band Architects who needed a pedal to get a consistently usable sound from the many amps they were using in the studio and when touring without taking their own amps. 

I have found by buying their mini Fuzz that you can stack it on a MIAB or even another Metal pedal and get very similar results of the gourmet Metal amp stacks. In other words playing thru a clean amp at low volumes is not a problem. Unfortunately I have the same problem as guys with these amps. More on this in a bit.

The pedal is simple to use. You have simply volume and gain. The voicing is probably based off of the Metal player's companion OD and booster the Ibanez TS9. You then have a variable high pass control that literally slices off the lows so you can get a very precise cut on the really low, lows. Another control is a low pass filter that cuts the highs in the same way. Any high fizz, hash or ice picky sounds simply vanish.

This is not a new idea. The first was the Pro Tone Attack Drive. I have been using one for years. The Attack has 5 presets for the high pass filter and does not have the low pass filter.

To me if you are a pedal guy this is really much more a tool. It's a Booster with gain and EQ. Without a good OD, Fuzz etc or amp with a fairly high gain channel etc. on it's own it is pointless.

CONCLUSION

I love the idea of being able to have variable the low and high pass filter on sweepable controls. I will probably stick with the devil I know, the Pro Tone, but if I did not have it I find this simply a better idea.

OVERDRIVE- J ROCKETT El Hombre ___NEW___ Easter release 2022

J ROCKETT EL HOMBRE 

$200.00 USD

The company makes a lot of pedals that are well made and prototypes are always handed out to a few very busy Nashville players. This makes everyone very serviceable in one way but dumbed down in another. In Nashville the guys that are kept working can always find a different take on the obvious but they are not hired to stand out. The standing out is saved for the vocalist only. Bill Finnegan worked with them on making a replacement for his Klon and they ignored everything he wanted. When you need a Klon on a Nashville session the damn J Rocket fits like a glove. So I am very skeptical as to what anything new will be. I bought their analog delay because I needed a 'Godilox" one ..not to hot not cold but to extent virtually bland and only noticeable if I turn it off, lol.

The layout is volume, gain and 'bite' that pushes the highs but slightly rejoices the pedal without messing with its excellent fixed EQ. The pedal was designed to capture Billy Gibbons tone on his early recordings which often a cranked Fender combo with a Rat pedal or anything that had that vibe.

CONCLUSION

I have a particular interest since I have a Bill G. PU in my Lace Cybercaster. When I say the PU is a B.G. I mean it literally I was not the first owner.  Lets just say certain people on the planet are saints in spite of such heavy proof to the contrary.

What I hear is lot of definition with a near germanium type vibe framing the sound even when the gain is low. What do not hear is any non musical hash. Best of all it does not eat and swallow the chime and bell like tone on a Strat. I use a Strat sound but not often but when I do I am more anal than a guy who only owns a vintage Strat!!!

WTF ...I am too poor not to think this one over :-(

the fine print

On those old recordings Billy uses a Bixonic Expandora

Decibelics Pedals makes the Reverend a killer clone 

using the original parts. Check out the Blog on it.

OVERDRIVE RED WITCH Xenia Overdrive Engine ...one knob Brit sound ?

RED WITCH

XENIA OVERDRIVE ENGINE

$150.00 USD

A big name for a small pedal with one knob. This New Zealand has a rep
for great sound. they go for years without bringing out something new. They are under most guys radar. They are not about new, better v.5 or limited edition color. They are bullsh't free. They are all about rich sweet tone and their one knob has a sweet spot where ever you leave it.

The layout is simple. You have just a gain knob, but if the volume is not right for your rig you can pop of the bottom and set it. If like me you run everything at unity gain this is important. The sideways build can be difficult to fit on a board but with one knob it easy to deal with it no matter where you put it.

CONCLUSION

It just damn well sounds excellent. I can not find any lint to pick with the sound. It sounds great across it's whole rang and has a lot of 

definition even across a full chord. Impossible not to like.

SWITCHER- LAA CUSTOM Smart Switcher ....wireless, leave your board on a stand.

LAA CUSTOM SMART SWITCHER 

An idea long overdue. Why not make a wireless switcher so yo can have your pedalboard off the ground where you can easily adjust your pedals plus easily keep them safer and clean. You could put your board on top of your amp or better yet a stand with a lamp. The LAA even come with a remote hand held unit to program your switcher. 

You get 6 mono and 4 stereo outputs. It has midi and all the typical routing functions that have now morphed into a what we all basically perceive as standard.

$900.00 USD