OVERDRIVE- COLORTONE Parasite Overdrive- turns a Fender into a convincing Marshall

$215. USD

COLORTONE

PARASITE OVERDRIVE

Nothing new but the devil is in the details. The layout is active EQ in the

treble and bass controls with the usual volume and gain. A toggle brings a boost in the lows at around 130 Hz that beautifully imitates a 4x12 half stacks resonant thump. Another toggle clicks on a boost in the highs where it adds poke. Especially good for lower gain settings like a crunch sound. 

CONCLUSION 

It sounds like we are hearing a real half stack 

Marshall amp not a pedal at all. Damn impressive. 

Add to that it would be a life saver playing thru 

a small combo in a club at 'mouse levels' because of enforced restrictions on how loud you can play.  

This ones on my short list.

OVERDRIVE- TWA EFFECTS SH-9 Scott Henderson ___ NEW ___ Susumu Tamura's new Tube Screamer

TWA EFFECTS SH-9  SCOTT HENDERSON

$300.00 USD

TWA got together Susumu Tamura creator of the Tube Screamer and Scott Henderson to create a NEW Tube Screamer. 

The highs have nice searing sharpness. The most noticeable difference is in the lows. From the lower mids thru the bass the pedal is much fatter and fuller. The level also has a higher output.

Based off of the Tube Screamer TS9 with a 4558 OpAmp. You can also run it from an 18v power supply if you wish more headroom and a more open less compressed sound. Like the original it has the standard volume, tone and gain setup.

CONCLUSION

It does it's classic thing thru a Fender Combo left clean. A modern Metal guy with a stack would hate it as it will not tighten the lows but make 

them worse.

Did you note the price. WTF!

SCOTT HENDERSONS PAST RIGS

OVERDRIVE- HORROTHIA FX Triage Discrete Transitor Pre-Amplifier ___ NEW ___

HORROTHIA FX TRIAGE DISCRETE TRANISTOR PRE-AMP 

$230.00 USD

Going to the Tom Oakes Horrothia site is like going to Apple. The magazine type
artwork and the hype is laid on with a trowel WTF. Cascading FETS is the best way to create a tube sounding distortion. I look for it but those that do it that I buy from dispense with the bullsh*t and talk about the sound they have aimed to nail with the pedal. This is not a MIAB and with guy like Lawrence Petross of LPD Pedals even telling you the year of the the actual amp they have attempted to clone. This pedal you like or hate as it is a guy tinkering until he finds something that pleases him. In other words it is not a Ferrari but a car. If you like this  

Tom's car than get one.

It appears to be a basically a transistor clean boost with an Op Amp for distortion.

The layout is volume gain and mid switch that changes the resonant point. Finished with a knob for high frequency balance (whatever that means)

CONCLUSION

Ok, Ok, what about the pedal?

It appears to be a transparent OD with a pleasing Klon vibe that on a Klon, 

and as with this pedal is faded off as you blend in the dirt. Pushed it moves 

into a medium gain with a bit of hair that is a bit Tonebender Fuzz like. 

It's ok ...but a bit of a yawn. If you like the basic idea of this pedal than 

check out the Harby Pedals Centauri. It's a part for part real copy of 

the Klon using the same NOS parts. Best of all $150.00 USD :-) 

OVERDRIVE- BROWNE AMPLIFICATION Atom OD ___ NEW ___ Nobels ODR-1 clone

BROWNE AMPLIFICATION  ADAM OD

$220.00 USD

The company is best known for their award winning Protein drive. it was part of the recent pasts fixation of offering a King of Tone alternative. The KOT is literally to gourmet Blues Breaker pedals in one box. Other put in one Bluesbreaker but teamed it with some other classic. Browne put in the Nobels ODR-1 which this pedal is. 

The Carbon also taken from the Protein is also basically the Bluesbreaker half of the pedal. Many reviewers put the Protein on their own board but found in time they were only using the Bluesbreaker side, lol. Hence the Carbon.

The layout is dead simple with volume, tone and gain.

All 3 pedals have incredible clarity, silly levels of overhead and the tone is very detailed. No one makes pedals 'more' transparent. 

CONCLUSION

Browne's pedals do not just deliver but over deliver 

on your expectations. 

When I got the carbon I was cautiously hopeful but 

I was not expecting to be blown away 

after just a minute with it.

 

FUZZ- IDIOTBOX EFFECTS Ron Swanson Super Fuzz ...Super Fuzz clone ..tight or tame ?

IDIOTBOX EFFECTS

RON SWANSON

$130.00 USD

SUPER FUZZ

The maker calls himself Atarimatt, WTF. His company has been around since 2011 and this is one of his early offerings. He has a very large following in many of the Metal genres and I expect a few very happy Shoegazers as well. the original is very open and dare I say messy. The pedal is famous for it's massive sound. It has thundering lows and a general tear your face off sound. The Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz clone is perhaps as famous for making one that puts some control to the sound yet even fattening it more. Alas it has come and gone. The Idiotbox is more about cleaning and tightening it up. I expect in a band it would instantly win your

respect by still slamming your audience but nailing it in the mix.

CONCLUSION 

I have heard and reviewed dozens. None were bad. Some are more open and others tight and could poke thru a mix better. The Behringer FC-2 Super Fuzz take on the Boss version sounds as good as any of them and it is $30.00 USD.

FUZZ- BLEAK DISTRICT ELECTRIC Antistatic Fuzz ___ NEW ___ CMOS Fuzz?

BLEAK DISTRICT ELECTRIC|

ANISTATIC FUZZ

$175.00 USD

It is a CMOS FUZZ There are 2 types of FETS(Field Effect Transistors) that are meant for logic functions, like CPU's in a chip used a in computers. In a Fuzz you get a square wave from it that is used a lot in Synths. 

The stream of modulation can be sped up or slowed down by choosing 2 different fixed speeds from a toggle. A small looper is added to the pedal that can be controlled by a footswitch that acts as an expression pedal or it can be left on to loop endlessly like a regular looper. Keep in mind these loops are nano in length. You can not loop a regular riff. It works best used like perhaps a whammy bar hitting a note or a chord and 

giving that sound a musical/noise wobble, lol. It does sound good 

used as standard Doom like Fuzz pedal. The big knob changes the 

timing of your loop and the small knob is for volume.

CONCLUSION 

It's crazy but dead cool and can be made to be very musical in a Hendrix 

like way. Used as a straight Fuzz it has Sunn Amp-in-a-Box vibe or even 

a Hudson Broadcast Preamp thing.  

 

FUZZ- KINK GUITAR PEDALS Retribution Fuzz ___ NEW ___ useful Fuzz & OD sounds

$180.00 USD

KINK GUITAR PEDALS| RETRIBUTION FUZZ 

The circuit started with a Rat which is indeed an OD but the gain is takes it into Fuzz territory very quickly. It has an early Fuzz vibe.

The layout is volume tone and gain. A toggle gives you a cut and boost and a second gives you a mid boost. You can get a Muff vibe or a very straight forward OD sound.

CONCLUSION 

In some ways not very exciting but is 

definitely versatile and useful for the 

guy that is song orientated.  

D.A.W. ___FLAMMA F10 mixing console ___ ASUS TUF F15 Laptop ___ Cakewalk DAW

My goal is to build a rig I can add to without upgrading that will give me entry level PRO. A rig I can put out a recording that has the potential of literally putting on the worlds, __iTunes etc. for the public to download.

$150.00 USD

FLAMMA F10 MIXING CONSOLE

I did an introduction review on July 4/22 when I ordered one. 

The idea with this unit was to give you entry level Pro mixer and digital
interface at an affordable price.

It's first purpose was for the individual player to record basic tunes etc; using it's internal programs. Secondly to allow you to even record a small band. It is excellent for an audio interface to make YouTube programs and even to do 'Streams.' Finally it is ideal for an interface to a PC to be part of a D.A.W. In short make recordings that with patience and creativity could be put out with the best of them as product  for sale to the public on all the popular services like iTunes etc, etc.

Yes a lot of use for such modest mixer/interface.

IT IS ALL ABOUT ME

I did buy one in July 2021. I had a stream of incidents some good and many bad to hold me back. Most important was my incompatible Chromebook Laptop 

that even new was a $260.00 USD special, lol. May it R.I.P.ieces

$1000.00 USD

At any rate just yesterday I got a ASUS TUF F15. It has an Intel Core i7 CPU a processor which has a faster clocking speed better than the 'mega' jobbies have. Yes those in the know will tell me one can do this and that with more ....or enough with less by hot rodding their PC/laptops etc. BIG BUT ...they are often not glitch free and definitely not for the computer illiterate. This checks the boxes for small live bands or just yourself to give you trouble free use. RAM is 16 GB once again just enough for small scale applications to be glitch free. 

It would be indeed be prudent to buy a hard drive or SSD with a healthy capacity even for small applications once you get past the basic rookie stage. I am a toddler at all this so until I get out of my musical playpen I will investigate  

what I require. 

Free

In short I need some serious 'hands on' first. As for D.A.W. recording software that will do a Pro job than Cakewalk wins hands down. 

Once again it is user friendly & glitch free. Again a small amount of money from  competitors like Reaper can get you much more.

BIG BUT ...it gives you a big learning curve as well. 

If Cakewalk were a pedal it would be MXR, not a 

Mooer mini pedal but not Strymon either. 

.

the fine print

A well respected expert on all this told me that if you own or get a 

medium price PC made in the last 10 years you can get the

same results with your finished results all else being equal, 😇

My choices are based on reasonable longevity, ease 

of use and a generous amount of operational reliability.  

 

One size does not fit all. For only using it personally or for a few guys working together working on ideas, or for a rough cut a small band it's great. If each member of a group records separately listening to what was done before his turn you could indeed make sellable finished tunes. 

MICS

Shure SM57

You will need mics and they will be govern by application.

If you have none the best minimum all rounders  

most recommended are the $120.00 USD Shure SM58 

dynamic for vocals & $100.00 USD SM57 dynamic 

all purpose and the $200.00 USD  Rode NT-1A condenser 

all purpose for vocals, acoustic instruments or 

recording a whole band, choir or orchestra with one mic. 

 

Shure SM58

The Shure have decades of use for both voice and instrument recording and the Rode is a convincing clone of the king of mics the $3700.00 USD Neuman U87. The Rode has been the poor mans choice for 12 years. 

The Shure is a dynamic with a tight polar pattern that picks up what is both close and in front of it. It is good at keeping other things like other players and amps out of it better than most mics out there.

The Rode being an omni will pick up everything in front and on both sides and things like a whole choir a good distance away. 

All work very well on vocals. If budget makes push comes to shove  

just get the Shure SM57. 

HANDS ON

FLAMMA FM10

The FM10 hook up is simple. It comes with 2 cables.

It is powered by a good ol' Smart Phone AC/DC adapter and cable. It comes with the cable but you can get those adapters at the f.ing Dollar Store, lol. The hand shake is a bog standard USB cable.

You need to download the manual from the site and update the operating system.

A must watch HOW TO

the fine print

WARNING

The Windows drivers down load is NOT in English but in Chinese ??? 

The Mac download is in English and so is the manual.

I spent weeks trying to fix the problem. The help from Flamma

was pathetic, amateur and cause me endless crashes and f-ups.

The unit will not interface with DAW like Cakewalk. I got very 

generous help from Cakewalk. They went out of their way to help.

They said that there is zero reason for this to happen and they never had

problems that they couldn't sort out with the makers of any other interface!!

In short they did not say but in all probability feel that Flamma are a 

junk pedal con artists.

I did get it finally working through hours of trial error simply clicking boxes that 

I had no idea of their function. It shows up on Cakewalk with the same names 

for their routing but in a simplified form.  I did a track and it was clear and audible

even if I played like an amateur as my desk chair forces me to play with the guitar 

so high it hits my chin , LOL.

OVERDRIVE- MR BLACK Orro OD ___NEW ___ Brit Box

$200.00 USD

MR. BLACK |ORRO 

It is an overdrive with very much a Brit vibe. Designed in 2011 

It got put on the back burner and overtime forgotten. 

It is only know in production 

The layout is simply the standard level, volume and gain.

CONCLUSION

It is a medium gain pedal with a nice chunky, 

punchy and meaty sound. It has a very 

natural untampered sound.

SYNTH- ELECTRO-HARMONIX Micro Synth ... 14 years old ...still relevant

ELECTRO-HARMONIX

MICRO SYNTH

$325.00 USD

In the 80's I worked for Ibanez as a product specialist. At NAMM they
called a big meeting to tell us that if sales of young guys choosing a Synth over learning a guitar kept up they planned to shut down. Yes, it was that bad and this really happened. Fortunately the new guys doing virtuoso Metal and the Floyd Rose changed all that. My reaction at the time was if it did happen I could beat becoming redundant by learning all about Synths. I did just that. 

I teamed up with a Roland product specialist as his free assistant and it got me a free pass to both Roland and Sequential Circuits R&D guys. All this is a lot of blah to let you know that I know how to program synths and when I look at the E-H it all makes sense. It is also good to know learning functional basis with analog synths is not hard to do. It is all very linear. Understanding tube amps is 10 times harder.

In plain old guitar pedal speak you get a auto Wah. In synth doublespeak it is an envelope filter follower. You get a swell-in effect like you get hitting your strings with your volume knob on zero then turning it up, in synth you are slowing the attack on the envelope filter. You get a gate ...in synth it would be cutting back  on your release time. You get an octave pedal effect in synth it would be tuning the frequency to a specific note. The voicing is square wave but for us it's a Fuzz, lol.

CONCLUSION 

It is very expressive and works very well. It is dynamically sensitive to triggering in a note or chord to do what you want takes a bit of practice to get a feel for it. You can play tunes with it so it it is not all shoegaze and Star Wars.

OVERDRIVE- GREER AMPLIFICATION Black Mountain Crunch ___ NEW ___ Orange ?

$200.00 USD

GREER AMPS| BLACK MOUNTAIN CRUNCH

Described as an amp just post of a Plexi with a metal panel. Orange? 

The layout is basic. Volume, tone and gain

The original Orange amps were much less Fuzz like than this and the 

newer ones have gritty lows but nothing like the exaggerated ones 

in the Greer.

CONCLUSION

When pushed hard it becomes more like a mediocre Fuzz. It lacks bite on it's attack on any low notes and makes them a bit muddy and is overall very dark. It will sound best thru a clean Fenderish amp. There are definitely a couple of punchy good settings if you don't get to crazy with the gain and push up the highs.

I feel the CALINE High Peak Distortion is much closer to an Orange amp.  

Better still it is only $40.00 USD. 

AMPLIFIER- BLACKSTAR Amped 2 ___NEW___ 100 w Pedal Amp, Marshall/Fender voice

BLACKSTAR| AMPED 2

$650.00 USD

A full 100 watt pro amp with Marshall and Fender sounds. It is simply the Deluxe version of the impressive Amped 1. At this moment Pete Thorn is on tour using his signature Suhr amp but for backup he uses the Amped One that he raves about. 

The guy is anal about gear. 

Everything must be (zero excuses).

Except for an added delay the unit is very much the same as Amped 1. You can check out my Post on that. The Amped 1 also made it onto my 12 Best for 2022.

CONCLUSION

The delay is very impressive but even so the idea from the get go was to make 

the ultimate pedal board amp. I recommend getting the Amped 1 it is smaller 

and cheaper at $500.00 USD. Just add your pedals.

SO BAD IT IS BRILLIANT!

JOE MAPHIS

Best know as a session guitarist in the 50's Country music scene and an early pioneer of the early Blues & Country blend better known as Rock-a-billy. His choice of using a Mosrite guitar helped get this small brand to survive. 

He was one of the first to move into Television to present Country music with his own Show to a wider audience. I stumbled onto this video of a young Larry Collins in this old cut from that show. It is corny, cheesy and sentimental and sooo... bad it is brilliant 😎

PREAMP/BOOST/OD- JV EFFECTS Transmission ...Hudson Broadcast Preamp ...clone

JV EFFECTS TRANSMISSION

$95.00 USD

Yes again I have gone back to JV to look at their other product. This is a bit tricky as their only site is Reverb and although you can have what acts as a store you can not display 

a product if you have run out of stock. The most I know is that they have 2 products 

and this is not one of them. But it is. It is simply not being made while the owner 

is busy making other models.

During the early days of broadcast radio it was normal to broadcast most programs live 

so at minimum a very small station needed one mic and a preamp to feed into all the whatever to send out a signal to a transmission antenna often built on the roof of the studio. It pretty much had only an input knob and a high impedance mic input. Just what you need to stick a guitar into. Over the years guys here and there bought them used or abandoned and used them as a boost pedal. Hudson wisely cloned one and put it in a pedal. Buyers were soon to want more gain, lol. So many versions later that is what 

it has got. You get level out, gain, a switch for levels of gain and a low cut as once 

cranked the lows literally howl.

$295.99 USD

CONCLUSION 

Does it sound like the original. Yes! No, Maybe. 

This is the only review and below is the only 

video. It sounds enough like it that I want one. 

The low gain which is totally transparent except  

for the killer bite. No other pedal gives you balz 

on a dead clean sound.

HANDS ON

I did finally get one. It took awhile as the NOS parts are very difficult to source. It exceeded my expectations. The Sound is beyond killer.

It replaced 2 pedals on my board. What really blew me away was the quality . The fit and finish. The feel of really high end knobs everything screams at being a pedal at 3 times the price. This pedal is a keeper. In my wildest dreams I can never imagine a board of mine without one.

On a final note even the packaging to ship it was brilliant. Made to be mishandled and yet very compact so it fit in my mailbox and was not some bulky thing leaned up against ny door to attract thieves. Trust me I lost several packages because of that including one from Sweetwater. It was an item smaller than a pedal sent in box you could bring your groceries home in, WTF