FUZZ- HOLY ISLAND AUDIO Mountain Mover ___NEW___ Muff & other Stuff

HOLY ISLAND AUDIO   

 MOUNTAIN MOVER |||

$245.00 USD

The pedal according to Holy Island is a Muff and a Ring Modulator. A Muff Fuzz is the basic pillar topography that holds up 99% of all silicon based Fuzz pedals and arguable a few OpAmp wannabes. The layout is Volume, Tone and Gain for the Fuzz and pot to dial in an interesting noise from Ring Modulator and a Volume for that. Three toggles give 3 different voces, like a mid scoop or boost, another blend bypassing some of the raw sound from the input pass the tone control. The last adds a bit of near Octave Fuzz like sound. 

CONCLUSION ___

All of these tricks have been used in many Fuzz pedals over the decades. They can be effective but it soon can be like having more toppings and syrup than you have ice cream. 

That said using the 'extras' as spice you can dial un a

good standard Muff sound and add a bit of sweet 

and sour to give it a bit of WOW. Too much 

and you have a WTF. Yes that was cruel, 😇  

___ It has the potential to a be total killer pedal. 

 

COMPRESSOR- SHNOBEL TONE Compressor ... understated but impressive!!!!

 Shnobel Tone ||COMPRESSOR

$280.00 USD

This is an original design optical comp. This one got me very interested as my favorite sounding Comp is my Pigtronix Philosophers Tone. All Comps have one or more probs but Optical Comps have a very nice warmth. 

It is very similar to the warmth of a Fuzz that has germanium transistors. 

The layout is Volume, Tone, Blend ...of your clean and compressed signal.

Then ...Compression, it not only adds more comp but if it is pushed it 

will swell the decay just like a loud amp can lift your notes into 

feedback especially if helped if you turn your PU's towards a speaker. 

CONCLUSION ___

It blows me away!! A full warm rich sound and getting that swell thing without needing to play loud to get speaker feedback. 

I play a lot of high gain things that NEED gating or the noise floor would be unbearable. The gate can be set to decay and not chop off the notes but the decay really could use this units swelling effect to not die and leave dead air that will create an 

un-needed rest before the next chord is hit.

This Comp is not for everyone ...but I am not everyone.

     NOTE: 

The first video has the Compressor at the beginning. __A very big BUT! 

At 13:00 in the video you can hear how stacking it on a dirt pedal can swell the note. 

The big Cali and the Compact have been discontinued. 

Both replaced by a new compact version of the big Cali used in this shoot out

OVERDRIVE- DRIFTWOOD AMPLIFIER Hatchet Distortion... Duel/Rec on steroids

$300.00 USD

   DRIFTWOOD AMPS   HEAVEY HATCHET 

Driftwood make amps as well as pedals. This pedal is loosely based 

on a Duel/Rec with added boost and a gate. 

The layout is Boost, Volume, Gain, Treble, Sharp adds presence, 

Mids with a switch to chose low or hi and Bass with high pass filter 

to tighten it. A toggle lets you switch from an open classic sound

to a tighter modern sound. Another toggle sets the pedal to use 

as a preamp if you want to bypass your amps pre. 

CONCLUSION ___ 

This is a serious piece of kit. It is not just another color of tone 

on your board. I could well be used on a small board with just Delay and Verb. The pedal is well priced when one considers 

how little else many players need. 

OVERDRIVE- JHS PEDALS The Hard Drive ___NEW___ 80's thru 90's Metal

JHS Pedals| The Hard Drive  

$200.00 USD

 

According to Josh Scott it is basically a full blown 90's thru 2000's

Metal pedal meant to cover as many sub genres as possible in 

one pedal.  Good luck, LOL. The layout is Volume, Bass, Treble 

with mids and a mid boost or scoop. 

 

CONCLUSION ___ 

It does sound very good. A nice full, full, full wall of sound. 

It does not have the cut, aggression or punch of a more

modern Metal OD. 

Big but. In fairness it was never meant to. I do like it, 

but I borrow sounds from every single decade since  

the first Fuzz. 

 

OVERDRIVE- INTENSIVE CARE AUDIO Death Drive... expect the unexpected

INTENSIVE CARE + ||| -DEATH DRIVE- 

$200.00 USD

A small Brit builder in London's Stoke Newington Hackney area. Made by Patrick a

guy determined to make pedals that are literally their own unique sounding thing. 

He has been with Rainger Effects for a few years. They are the reigning King of the crazy pedals. Having had a Rainger pedal I can say that they make pedals that in spite of crazy twists you can do with them they are actually usable in a conventional tune. The layout is Drive, an input gain stage, Destruction appears to be a high output gain stage, mood is a tone control, Ego is simply the level. 

 

 C ONCLUSION ___

Not your Dads Doom Metal pedal as one would expect. You get a wall of sound but with more definition than a clean boost pedal, lol. Impressively different but 100% usable in dozens of genres. Very well made with 

attention to detail. Reasonably priced for the quality and

not a 'take' on anything. Refreshingly different.

OVERDRIVE/BOOST- BENNET CUSTOM AUDIO Weather Man OD/Boost

  Bennett   

||Custom Audio

WEATHER MAN

$205.00 USD

Mark Bennett is from St. Johns Newfoundland an island/Province off the East coast of Canada. The guy is an Electrical engineer, a player with an M.A. in music Technology. This amp-in-box is his best seller. A FET type Overdrive with a septate boost. the layout is Volume, Gain, Bass and Treble for the medium gain OD side and level for the Boost. A toggle lets you go from a very even fixed voice to a scoop or mid boost. All are kept in the range of a real tube amp's voicing's. Internal trim pots let you change the voicing to a symmetrical voicing, in short give it a Tube Screamer vibe.

CONCLUSION ___

It nails an excellent tube driven tone. It both wins but sufferers from not nailing a specific real world amp. It is not trying to be a Marshall, or Vox or, or, or. So it stands or falls on it's own. All and all an excellent sound regardless.

FUZZ/DISTORTION- KROZZ DEVICES Albino Rhino ...

$210.00 USD

  KOSS DEVICES 

  ALBINO RHINO

Founded in Brazil in 2018 by Murilo Carrozza and Joey Mello. In 2020

Bruno Martin joined the team to keep up with demand.

The layout is Volume, Tone and Gain. A toggle boost the lows or you 

can boost the lower mids for punch and breath but tighten up the 

sound. A second toggle switch allows for mid to a high gain Distortion OD sound or for it to go into a Fuzz.

CONCLUSION __ 

The pedal has average crunchy sounds with a lot of bite. 

The extra low switch can put it into Metal sounds but

not much like those we expect. It has some character

and does its own thing. But ... It fails to have any 

WOW about it. For $50 I would give it a passing grade. But ...

FUZZ- TA PEDALS Vampire Fuzz V.2 ...Doom without gloom :-)

TA Pedals

 VAMPIRE FUZZ     V2 

$180.00 USD

From Shady Point Oklahoma comes a small builder with it appears 3 pedals to check out. The Fuzz seems like a good candidate. It is an OpAmp Fuzz with 8 clipping diodes to choose from. The layout is Volume, Tone which in this case is a low pass filter. Gain and Rotary switch with a choice of no diodes or switching from a symmetrical to asymmetrical circuit. You also get Silicon, Germanium, FET, Schottky, Blue LED and Red LED diodes.

 CONCLUSION ___

It is clearly aimed at the Doom and related genres. It's best feature is it has meat clever attack which gives ever note a tight sharp edge. 

Like any dirt pedal if it can give you a total massive 

wall of sound then most genres can use it like a 

seasoning on a verse in one tune, a chorus 

in another and for solo on many.

This is definitely a contender.

OVERDRIVE- DemonFX Z-drive ___ NEW ___ part for part Zen Drive clone :-)

Demonfx ||| Zdrive 

$30.00 USD

This is DemonFX take on the classic Zendrive that was the 

first ever Dumble-in-a-Box pedal. A pedal that got its voicing 

from a Robben Ford record so it is cloning how the amp 

sounded after its post production changes.

There have been several clones since. The Warm Drive at 

$100 is the most recent. The layout is Volume, Gain, 

Tone and Voice. The Voice being a Bright Cap added. 

CONCLUSION ___

The company boasts of using the same parts and even 

makes a list of them. My first impression is it is certainly 

in the ballpark. I must admit I am impressed. I was 

never a fan of the original but never say, never, LOL,   

...lets not overlook the price 😏

....sorry about the video but this is the only one and it was quicker 

   writing the whole review than finding the damn thing and add 

   to that it would not load onto my site in a conventional manner. 

 

BOOST- CARL MARTIN Tone Tweaker ___NEW___ high quality clean boost

 CARL MARTIN 

||Tone Tweaker 

$160.00 USD

The company has been around forever making high quality handmade product. A few years back they like many companies offered a new line of pedals using modern methods of high end production to maintain our expectations but with a considerable 

drop in price.

The layout is simple with Teble, Mid, Bass and Level. It has an

overall 12dB boost. The mids have an upper mids sweet spot not unlike a Tube Screamer. It is however truly transparent yet with 

a very smooth velvet like warmth.

 CONCLUSION ___

It is all about getting more when you already 

have enough. In short if you already have a

great sound you can make it a just right,

bigger and better one with this pedal. 

REVERB- MOSKY AUDIO multi-Spring Reverb ... Earthquaker Vintage Voiced Reverb clone

 MOSKY AUDIO|Multi Spring Reverb  

$45.00 USD
AliExpress w/free shipping

This is Mosky's take on the old Earthquaker Vintage Voiced Reverb. 

It was a simple 3 knob jobbie so this seems a bit irrelevant. It is 

I expect a modulation circuit from their delay recycled with some

verb voices to give them 2 products with one R&D budget. 

The layout Attack, a pre-delay to have the verb come in after you 

hit the string, Dwell, is a sustain to the effect, Depth controls the 

wet dry mix. Modulation, is rotary switch gives you 4 types, 

A toggle gives you a gain boost.

Conclusion ___

What it is, is an ambience reverb starting with a vague shot 

at a Spring Reverb. 99% of guys are looking for a Spring are looking for a serious take on an Accutronics Spring verb in a Fender amp. This ain't it. 

The Mosky Spring Reverb mini pedal is a Malekko clone it is a sqeaker, in short pro but bottom rung of the ladder pro. 

___