OVERDRIVE- AIRIS EFFECTS Rhino Zeta Preamp/Dist ... Metal for even a practice amp?

$200.00 USD

AIRIS EFFECTS 

RHINO ZETA

This Canadian company has been making dirt pedals, boosters and problem solvers etc, 

for Metal players in every genre. They NEVER stop improving on their pedals nor giving 

you better and better choices. My impression is they are second to none.

They did the Savage Drive that did a tip toe into clean amp territory but this is is there 

first attempt to go for the serious MIAB into clean amp guy and actually win 

him over to a seriously pro Metal pedal that could even be used with his bedroom rig.

The layout is level, gain, treble and bass. In its lower setting it has a grainy but amp 

like vibe. Pushed it can go all the way to Doom sounds 

and everything in between.

CONCLUSION

Sign me up. It took a long time but I must 

say there are no half measures. 

This was done right!!!  

. 

the fine print

I have had a word with Richard

If you want the pink one just

let him know  😇

 

OVERDRIVE- DEMEDAH EFFECTS 112+ Preamp Distortion ...cool on paper but is it ???

DEMEDASH EFFECTS 

112+ PREAMP DISTORTION

$200.00 USD

A Canadian company owned and operated by Steve Demedash situated in Winnipeg Manitoba. An Engineer by trade but a pedal designer by passion.

This his take of an AMP-in-a-Box. It is kind of a 'best of' from gourmet amp 

makers in one pedal. 

The layout is gain,level,low, mids and treble. A switch gives you 3 voices. 

Vintage, Modern and Heavy with overkill gain. It runs on 9v but has an 

internal charge pump so get 32v which means it will have actual 

amp like headroom.

CONCLUSION

It definitely has an open sound and when backed off a bit it sounds very good but if pushed I find it too damn buzzy for my taste.

____ WHEN DOES A PEDAL BUILDER THINK HE HAS A GREAT PEDAL ???____

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN A PEDAL IS FINISHED ??? 

Several pedal builders from across the 

planet tell you their story about when

they think they have finished designing 

a pedal.

___ 40,000 Years of Music Explained in 8 Minutes___ Rock explained with 2 Performances

40,000 Years of Music Explained in 8 Minutes 
Michael Spitzer 

Most musicians have pieced together most of 

what's here but in bits and pieces over the years. 

It is fascinating to get the big picture. 

.

ROCK MUSIC EXPLAINED WITH 2 RECORDINGS

Talking about where a genre of music starts from goes to infinity. I picked 2 artists. Hank Williams and Muddy Waters.                                      

Elvis and others created their Rock-a-Billy/R&R from two sources Hank Williams and his imitators and listening to Country Blues artist outside of clubs that were only frequented by black clientele. Hank gave us the more European melodic approach to Rock.

Across the metaphoric tracks in the black community were guys like Chuck Berry. He would hear gospel music in church that had some of it's core melodic roots from white churches even during slavery . He also was aware of the new electric blues played in the Chicago bars. In fact he was signed to the record label that Muddy was signed to. Muddy gave us the high energy and the way we use the electric guitar. Muddy himself played a Tele. Muddy was a Country Blues player from the South that moved to Chicago where he could find work and literally only went electric to be heard over the noise in the bars. The style was invented out of the need to make small cheap 50's amps played dimed just to be heard. Straight Country Blues styles with a lot of flat picking needed simplifying but then expanding on what worked by doing that.

the fine print

In researching early country blues I noticed that most players 

kept a continuous rhythm on the low open E and sometimes on the A 

They then added other chords or notes sometimes using bottle neck 

slide. It occurred to me they had invented 'chugging' long before it 

became a high gain Metal thing.

FUZZ- SPIRAL ELECTRIC Demhe Fuzz ... reinvent the wheel ???

SPIRAL ELECTRIC

SPIRAL ELECTRIC DEMHE FUZZ

$150.00 USD

Tom Cram was the designer and operator who personally ran the whole of DOD  hands on with a one to one with all those making pedals and running the shop. However the company was just a small branch of a bigger company that bought out small companies like JBL speakers etc. It including home entertainment brands etc. They were bought out by the even bigger Samsung. Samsung saw DOD and pedals in general as too small time to invest in. So they closed it down and put it on the back burner as they still own the name and the designs of the DOD and Digitech gear. After nearly 3 years Samsung sold the company but I will not go down that rabbit hole, lol.

SPIRAL

Tom decided after checking around for a job with other pedal makers that 

it was crazy to join someone else's mad house. why not make your own?

Spiral 'is' Tom Cram. The Demhe is a unusually modified DOD Caracosa 

which was designed by him in the first place. You might call this the V.2 Caracosa. 

Nanalog a Canadian company tried to reinvent the wheel. They wanted something to replace a transistor but designed not like a transistor in that it is actually designed for 

a vast amount of both audio and non audio applications For example garage door openers, lol. 

Nanalog succeeded in coming up with 2 different chips that can work together or separate to do something incomprehensible to all but an engineer. Chips made specifically for audio. 

They made their own pedals to both offset endless research and to show other  pedal makers what can be done with the tech. The chips are cool but bug ridden. The company shut down making pedals and just get by with guys like Tom who want to make something that really is NOT same old sh@t.

Tom makes 8 pedals but they tend to be 'way out there' This how ever totally Rock & Roll not mostly for 'Star Wars' soundtracks.

DEMHE FUZZ

The layout is gain, level and BIAS. A toggle and a knob labelled 'detail' are not explained in any meaningful terms. I suspect they are application of the Nanalog tech. It does still however use some Silicon transistors and diodes. 

 

CONCLUSION

If it sounds good it is good. It certainly sounds like my kind of Fuzz . Massive, 

balzy, lots of sustain, zero mud and as tight as great OD.

 

FUZZ-LOE SOUNDS Super Fuzz ... it is as good as it looks?

LOE SOUNDS SUPERFUZZ 

$275.00 USD

The company is a partnership of Fiona and Aisha. They make all old style point to point hand wired pedals.

The Superfuzz is their take on the classic Super Fuzz. No pretensions with the name or cartoon graphics just exquisite craftsmanship and using near impossible to fine NOS electronics. In this case it is the Sylvania 2N176 germanium transistors and TDL Nichicon gold diodes and SGS Thompson capacitors.

CONCLUSIONS

It sounds as good as it looks. It looks gorgeous. It is a bit past the "I give in" price of $200 ish.  It is rich, sumptuous, as tight as a good OD, great sustain and is usable from it's lowest gain thru to dimed. I can not imagine anyone ever dumping 

it for 'any' new and improved.

OVERDRIVE- ORIGIN EFFECTS Halcyon ___NEW___ WTF ?? a Tube Screamer ??

ORIGIN EFFECTS HALCYON 

- GREEN OD - 

$245.00 USD

I knew they would let me down. There are 751,698  pedal makers on the planet and all but one hadn't made a Tube Screamer. Does the world need another one. NO!!! Are they getting this plus another one from a pedal maker who is going pro next week? YES !!!

Ok ...here it is the Origin Tube Screamer.

The layout is standard ts with volume, tone and gain. A switch lets you pick ts or their idea of a hot rodded one. Another switch fixes the dynamics problem and the weird thinning out thing you get if you turn your guitar's volume down. 

CONCLUSION

I have the only ts I need. The Caline CP-75 Emerald Night. Side by side with 

a brand new Ibanez ts9 not only can I not hear any difference.  

I paid $35.00 USD.

What I hear on the video is a very crystal clear and sparkling OD. 

It is also a bit thin and lame.

The market world wide, is world wide and there there are millions of players.

If your brand name has a high profile and makes a luxury product there are 

those will buy the product to noodle around on it  on a Saturday afternoon. 

They will spend 10 times the price for new golf club to use the next day. 

My basic point is if you want a ts this is overkill and will not make you 

sound any better than my Caline. If getting something assuring  

seems best then buy the Ibanez ts9 for $110.00 USD.

 

 

 

FUZZ- MAESTRO FZ-M Fuzz Tone ....if it's not the original FZ-1 ...is it any good ???

MAESTRO

FZ-M FUZZ TONE 

I bought the Gibson/Maestro FZ-1 in '64. Except for a volume pedal even a Pro shop did not have any pedals back then.

They had a good reason. There weren't any to buy. Yes you my here different but in those cases the pedals mentioned had no distribution. Maybe Sam Ash might buy 'one' to check it out and if it sold he might get 2 or 3 more. 

Unless you live in NY or LA or perhaps London you wouldn't know that even the Fuzz Tone existed. In fact I got mine by accident. A small store sold Gibson Amps so to get some pedals out there they gave one free if you bought their best amp. I was in the store when a country guy bought an amp. He tried the pedal out. I heard 2 things, A cool new sound and the Country guy yell loudly "piece of shit !!!" So when he went up to check out I offered just the money I had for it. I was just a kid so $14 in change was all I had, lol.

I think Maestro made a smart move. they made it sound like the ToneBender. It was a modded FZ-1 that came out in '65. Doing so it sounds Pro not garageband, lol. They added atone control a switch to bring in a boost.They made it much more FZ-1 like with it's raspier sound than a ToneBender. 

CONCLUSION

It simply a damn good Fuzz. If they named it something else I think much more Pro's would try it and indeed buy it. But there are more guys who just want for a hobby etc. and the name Fuzz Tone brings them in to buy the myth. The bottom line to me a Fuzz is a Fuzz you can cill it Tinkerbell and if sounds great ..it is!!! It sounds great!!!!

OVERDRIVE- GREER AMPS Soma Vintage Preamp ...nice and nasty!

GREER AMPS SOMA VINTAGE PREAMP 

Allen Greer started the company in 1998 and not unlike most small gourmet pedal makers made pedals for friends. About 5 years ago the company were for the most part a regional maker of small amps. You made an order and when your amp was done you picked it up. The pedals seem to fill the down time. Some pedals were designed in house, some were bought from others and one pedal was designed and the guy made the circuit board but had them build it into the casing and sell it as Greer. They had 4 pedals that all sounded more or less like a Tube Screamer. Each one was just a bit more dirty than the other. There was no uniformity to the enclosures look or graphics. The big turn around came with the Lightspeed OD which originally sold as a kind of vintage Fender-in-a-box. It took off by word of mouth within the Indie, Blues and Americana crowd. For awhile it even looked like it was going to be another Klon.

A BIT OF THE 'WHY'

$230.00 USD

The Soma is based from the preamp section of a 63 Fender 'brown' amp right down to including the  transformer. The key ingredient is the transformer. 

Think of a transformer as a bucket of electricity being filled up by a hose and everytime you hit a chord you turn on the tap and empty some. However if you take out more than it can refill your amp distorts more but starts to clean up when you back off and lighten up slamming those strings.  An amp with a big bucket in which I mean transformer does not run out so it stays clean. The transformers are the secret sauce of a Plexi. They have a medium size bucket, lol. 

Putting one in a pedal is not a new idea. The Supro Pre was designed to be a Supro-in-a-Box. The guy nailed it. I have one and my ears soon remembered the sound. One day I walked into a store and I heard a guy playing one. I decided to go chat with the guy. When I got to where he was he didn't have the pedal. He was playing straight 

into a Supro amp. 

THE PEDAL

The layout is volume, gain, bass treble and presence. The company has always had a rep for quality parts and early buyers for their pedals were weekend warriors that kicked the sh@t out of their gear. Yes, Greer pedals were carefully stored under a milk crate full of the old Atlas mic stands with the cast iron round base, lol. 

CONCLUSION

I quite like it but to my ears it sounds like the pre out of a 50's broadcast board 

not a Fender amp. The 'brown' amps had a sweet creamy distortion and this pedal 

is as nasty as a Fuzz.

OVERDRIVE- SOUND STELLAR Katra Drive- ...it gave me a WTF moment!!!

 SOUND STELLAR   KATRA DRIVE  

$215.00 USD

A small mysterious builder in Gabrovo Bulgaria.
The pedal is sold on Reverb but there only Walmart style ad copy nothing to even tell you what bite, scratch, growl and scream mean other than what Webster's would have us believe.
Thanx to Josh Scott I can guess we have volume, tone, presence and gain. The switch gives a choice of 3 voices with more gain and compression or more headroom.

CONCLUSION

It appears to be a JHS Andy Timmons V.1

WTF ...A brand new JHS Andy Timmons V.2 

with a control for boost that is foot switchable 

is $219.00 USD. I repeat ...WTF !!!!

OVERDRIVE- ANIMALS PEDAL Push & Pull Distortion ... Brown sound ?? & ?

ANIMALS PEDAL PUSH & PULL DISTORTION 

$170.00 USD

This Japanese company was started years ago by two young guys who loved pedals but everything they wanted they could not afford. They decided to try and make their own clones. The idea from the beginning was to get good sounding 'Budget Pro' pedals. 

This is something that has only recently caught on 

by companies like JHS.

Eventually they hired companies like Skeddy and very good excellent designers so the line grew. It took off but they couldn't meet the demand so they did what TC Electronic did and set up a company in China to keep the price low but not lose the quality by 'farming' it out to the lowest bidder. 

They claim that this pedal is a Brown Sound pedal with a 70's 80's Hard Rock 

early Metal vibe.

CONCLUSION

WTF !!! It is NOT even close to a MIAB! 

It sounds like a modded Boss SD-1. Not 

a bad thing but the Boss is $50.  

The company has some good pedals like 

there Skeddy designs but this you should 

pass on.  

If you like the sound than get the Boss. 

OVERDRIVE- AURA AMPS Diamond Pre-Amp ...Dual-Rectifier-in-a-Box ...Killer !!!

AURA AMPS DIAMOND PREAMP 

$200.00 USD

Aura Amps are in Santo Andre Brazil and they do indeed make amps. They make 8 different ones and one is called the Diamond it is there own 40 watt take on a Dual Rectifier. Their pedal is done in the best way. They simply or perhaps not that simply make a 'Dual' pre-amp but replace the tubes with jFETS this ain't no budget approach. It is much cheaper and easier using OpAmps and clipping diodes.

The layout is like the amp with level, gain, treble, mids, bass and presence. A switch gives you a choice of tube or solid state rectifier, just like the amp. It has bags of gain so it does not need a boost. It is fat tight, punchy and has balz to spare. The attack is faster and more percussive than my best low gain pricey pedals. It definitely has that open grainy sound if type f model that is 'old standard' of the Rec!!!

The real amp by modern standards was very open and indeed a bit muddy. Most players dealt with this by using pedals like a Tube Screamer or pedals designed by Metal specialty companies that use filters to tighten the sound etc. The Diamond has taken the liberty to voice their pedal so those things are in effect built in. This has happened ever since treble boosters and Fuzz pedals were used on Marshall stacks. 

Those that never played a stack expected that MIAB pedal didn't sound like the amp 

without the sound of those pedals being included in its voicing.

In practise it really makes sense. 

CONCLUSION

I love the pedal for exactly what it is. The sound of a modded Dual Rec not a 

dead pure clone. In short you get that Dual Rec sound you hear on recordings 

of guys you admire for a great sound. 

the fine print

It was this video that sold me on getting mine

The guy goes on about getting the pedal for $100.00 USD

Not only is Brazil dealing with all the recent inflation. The 

government puts export duties on the pedals that inflate the 

price. In reality Aura made more money when they sold the 

pedal for $100 then they do now.

OVERDRIVE- TONE INK Raven ... 5150, Dual Rec & Bogner-in-a-Box

$125.00 USD

TONE INK 

RAVEN 

The pedal is all about giving you 3 classic gourmet amps but in one pedal.
The layout is volume, gain, bass. mid and treble. A toggle labelled punch gives you 3 mid cuts and another choses which amp.

The pedal is made in Brazil and ships direct from Tone Ink. Brazil gives tax breaks to the small manufacturers to help both them and the country's consumers get not just good prices but hopefully employment with more businesses starting up. It all seems very good. BUT ...they make up for this with export tax. So I have found in the past that pedals from Brazil by any maker are more in the $200 to $225 range. The products are not just well made but over made. Throw their pedals at a wall and the wall comes down, LOL

CONCLUSION

Impressive idea. The problem is none of the videos available are in English. Without showing each or the 3 amps so you can compare you can not tell 

what you are supposed to listen for. I pick videos with as little chat as  

possible and ones where each guy set the pedal in the genre he plays in. 

You can hear things very much in a Modern Metal style but other things 

have a bit more the 80's Hard Rock/Metal. 

_____DEEP DIVE____ WHAT MAKES A KLON A KLON ___

THE MYSTERIES SOLVED 

A real Klon sells for the price of some small houses. WTF! What makes it
so special? It isn't rocket science but understandable simple analog tech. 

Arguably put together in a unique matter but certainly in a logical one.

FUZZ - DAZATRONYX AC 128 Arbitrary Fuzz ___ NEW ___ a 'real' Fuzz Face!!!

 DAZATRONYX AC128 ARBITRARY FUZZ 

$210.00 USD

Not much to explain. ol' Darron Thornbury has found some more NOS AC128 transistors so he can make a few more 'real deal' vintage spec germanium Fuzz Face pedals. Think Jimi Hendrix's first album.

The layout is volume and gain. Yes you get the entire 10 parts needed 

to make this holy pedal :-)

CONCLUSION

It sounds killer ..it is a couple of hundred the going rate for most reasonable price gourmet pedals. It is also the real deal cheap too because it uses the 'REAL' transistors and it's competition for this kind of pedal is another

$100 and more. Even the trapezoid casing is dead cool. 

When Darron runs out of transistors it will get pulled 'again' until he finds more. Usually a long wait ...and one day ...it will be game over ?

FUZZ- DEMONIC MACHINES Dragonaut V.3 ... Henry's favorite Muff!

DEMONIC MACHINES DRAGONAUT V.3 FUZZ

$195.00 USD

The whole idea from the get go was to create an OpAmp Fuzz with the highest output. 

To the rescue comes the the LM306 OpAmp. They don't make anything louder, lol. This unit uses 2 of them that you can stack.

The layout is volume, gain, tone and foot switchable boost. A toggle switches off the EQ allows you to turn off the stack for a conventional Muff output. Since the basic topography is a good ol' Muff. In fact the pedal is like being able to stack two Muffs. Insane, LOL. 

CONCLUSION

A Muff is on the whole a very tight Fuzz. It also cuts like a knife. It means that as big as this sound gets it won't get lost and buried by the band. You don't get that thing where the guitar has a dark lava like sound that simply melts into the bass guitar. It's one serious noise maker!!!

Henry was so excited

by the Fuzz that he asked

his Mum to buy him one!

 

OVERDRIVE- EARTHQUAKER DEVICES Special Cranker Distortion __ NEW __ $99

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES 

SPECIAL CRANKER DISTORTION

$100.00 USD

You could see this as version two since they did a one knob version. That one needed 

this V.2 ...LOL

The basic idea is to give you the sound of an amp cranked so hard it breaks up your speaker cone, lol. 

A familiar sound with a garage band using a single channel practice amp trying 

to be heard. The point is they nailed it. The layout is level, gain and tone. 

A switch lets you choose germanium or silicon diodes for 

a warmer or brighter tone.

CONCLUSION

The damn thing works and has a very 

unique sound. I expect you could stack 

it with an OD and add a little bit of terror 

to your sound, lol. Backed off it very similar  

to what others sale as a Tweed sound.  

Love it!!! Love the price ... 

...I ordered one and paid for the cheap shipping

 It had at least a 200 mile journey. It took maybe 

 18 hours to arrive from the second my order went in ??? 

 

OVERDRIVE- CRAFTROS Trident ____NEW ____ serious sh*t ???

CRAFTROS TRIDENT OD 

$245.00 USD

From Japan comes a serious all FET ..tube like designed OD. Not an OpAmp or clipping diode in sight,lol.

The layout is gain, volume, fat (It adds both lows & more dirt) then treble and presence is on a switch.

The sound is open with not a lot of compression. It is what? Semi transparent? It lets the sound and your guitar and it's dynamics come through. The company seems to be trying to give the pedal a Dumble vibe. Dumble started out modding amps and his specialty was a Fender Deluxe Reverb mod that was popular with session guys.

CONCLUSION

It is well done but not my 'thing'. I am definitely a MIAB guy. 

Quality made pedals are always welcome so it is

still great to see another new maker.

OVERDRIVE- GUITAR SLINGER 87 MKIII ...a MESA Boogie Coliseum-in-a-Box :-)

GUITAR SLINGER 87 MKIII 

$250.00 USD

Designed by Santiago Alvarez an amp designer who has worked with modding amps for players like Malmsteen, Slash and Satiani. The key here is not the tech but a guy with an 'ear' for what we expect. What we get is this monster 200 watt guitar amp as a pedal.

The layout is volume, gain, presence and a bass boost switch. The pedal has been 

voiced to do one thing well so it is pre equalized to the sweet spot.

CONCLUSION

Success! one thing indeed done well, in fact very well!

OVERDRIVE- SUMMER SCHOOL ELECTRONICS Gus-Drive ... 50's, 60's budget amp vibe

SUMMERSCHOOL ELECTRONICS GUS DRIVE

$150.00 USD

Mark Turley of Syrcuse NY  like most pedal builders played in local bands for years and 

was fascinated by pedals etc. What he has given us here is simple classic hard clipper OD.

Just volume and gain with the EQ fixed by him at it's sweet spot.

I the early 60's I had my first guitar a Harmony Rocket single cut semi and a National Amp. The amp was a small class A. Meaning it had a preamp tube, a power amp tube and a volume knob, lol.

Hell ...I was Rockin'!!!  My friends all had similar small tube amps. Often from the Sears Dept store. Made by Valco, Supro, National etc. Most were made in and around Chicago.

The Gus drive whether deliberately or by dumb luck captures that whole vibe. Great sound for Alternative, Blues or Americana.

CONCLUSION

Totally simple and unpretentious and it's hard not to love it.😊

EQ- SOURCE AUDIO Toolbox Programmable EQ ...a shapeshifter ...for shaping sh*t

$175.00 USD
or less !

SOURCE AUDIO TOOLBOX PROGRAMABLE EQ

In 2020 the EQ2 came out but even now a few of the Toolbox ones never sold are available at good prices. 

What's the difference? For a start $300.00 USD for the new one. Old stock for the Toolbox is about $175.00 USD. I just ordered a used mint one for $85.00 USD.

The new one has another higher and another lower frequency to choose, storage for 8 settings and a tuner. Other features are bells and whistles. Both have MIDI. You can store 4 settings in the Toolbox so how many more do you need? 

WHY?

A good EQ can turn a single OD or Fuzz into another one or two sounds that to get otherwise you would need to buy a couple more pedals. By nature analog EQ's will put a boosted frequency out of phase. In plain 'guitar speak' make mud. With the mids and highs this is very often more like a bit of warmth added. The big but is analog can turn lows to pudding. It is why even with the best tube amp one usually rolls the lows back. Yes some of it is sound shaping to keep out the drummers and bass players way. The thing is though if there weren't any smearing, sometimes you can go for a monstrous sound and get away with it. A digital EQ is as we know a computer and will fix this. You can get some seriously tight clean clear lows. 

CONCLUSION

You can tighten up, or fatten up your sound. You can boost mids on a Fuzz without any or scoop any dirt pedal. If you use Humbuckers you can EQ them to have a single coil sound. It is not a total pain since you can save your sounds. For me it is all about adding needed cut or massive lows that have no mud. I was able to eliminate 3 OD's from my board and get a better sound on everything at the same time. 

Old & New

the fine print

I can give this my highest compliment. 

I got it dialed it in to do it's thing and 

the word - 'BUT' - never came to mind.