Thursday, October 31, 2024

OVERDRIVE- MOVALL Jump Space ___ NEW___ MI Audio Tube Zone clone

movall audio
JUMPSPACE
$30.00 USD
This pedal is a MI Audio Tube Zone clone made around 2010 in Australia. 
It was made famous by Gary Moore.
The layout is Bright, Mids, Char a high end sibilance, Volume, Tone and Gain. 
    CONCLUSION ___ 
It has a rich full and open tone. That said the MI is much, more aggressive. I find all Movall pedals well made and with very
nice detail in the harmonics. Never muddy but they lack a bit of 
punch. Hell I own two Movall and they are keepers. I am not looking for their replacements. Like a zillion pedals out there this one sounds very much like it started life with the topography of a Tube Screamer. 
The airiness in the overall tone sounds like it has a symmetrical voicing and it has upper mids poke. Oddly it has so much gain if pushed it gets fuzzy. It sounds better backed off a bit.
My main point is like most Movall product there are hundreds of OD's that cost over $200 and are not as good. 
 

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

___FRIEDMAN IR-J, IR-X & IR-D Tube Pre Amps ...comparison/application & expansion

FRIEDMAN MODIFIED MARSHALL PRE-AMPS 
They are an alternative to Modeled amps. Perfect for guys that want the real sound and real feel of playing tubes. All 3 are variations of modified Marshalls. From classic near clean and Crunch to all out shred.  
The answer to >What About Effects???< Watch the second video.

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

FUZZ/SYNTH - EVENTIDE Knife Drop___NEW___ another Jack White pedal, LOL

Eventide  
 Knife Drop  
$375.00 USD
It is in every way a convincing synth. It has an ADSR to shape your overall sound but also guide the rise and fall of the modulation. 
It has a waveform, a square wave, aka Fuzz, a pitch control aka 
Octave, the pitch control also allows for glissandos. Oh yes,and modulation. Finally an enveloped filter follower aka Auto-Wah. 
___ So ends my Synth bafflegab, lol
It makes very cool analog Synth sounds and the best are already 
in it as a pre-set. 99% of all keyboard Synth players mod presets. 
No one actually starts from scratch. If you do hours later you get a 
great sound but soon find there was a preset virtually the same, 😇 
So stick with the Pre's and wiggle the 3 knobs. 
    CONCLUSION ___ 
It sounds dead cool, and larger than life. A little goes a 
long way so if you want to get serious with Synthesis, 
buy a keyboard and start from there. I did that back  
in the late 80's and hung up my guitar for about 10 years.
The best thing is I also had  many Synths attached to a
sequencer and I learnt how to orchestrate and arrange
hands on.

OVERDRIVE- EVIL EYE FX PALADIN Drive Pedal VII... YAMAHA OD-10 MII clone

EVIL🅞EYE 
$150.00 USD
PALADIN Drive Pedal VII
In the 80's Yamaha got into the pedal biz with one of everything Boss and Ibanez were making. The only one that took off was the OD10 and more so the OD10 v.2.
It is a OpAmp/Silicon diodes OD. It has it's own voice but it certainly using a BOSS OD like type of topography. The Paladin layout is like the Yamaha with Volume, Tone and Gain. A toggle switches the Yamaha voiced Silicon for an LED giving you more gain if required. 
___
     CONCLUSION ___ 
What can I say? If you love it buy it. 
It is no better or less than my 
Boss or Ibanez just a bit different. 
The price is certainly reasonable. 


Monday, October 28, 2024

OVERDRIVE/PRE- ELECTRON BROTHERS 228 Pre .....what is it, high tech or magic box?

E l e c t r o n  BROTHERS
$240.00 USD
The company is from Australia and it is 3 guys with an electronics and a military background. They are big on borrowing tech from high end studio gear and using high voltages to get control of headroom allow the input of the dynamics of the players touch.
The layout is Gain/level, and using high and low frequency shelving. Then finally a second more conventional Gain 
to color the sound a control any saturation. 
___
     CONCLUSION ___ 
It is easier to use than understand but in effect 
the basic sound is shaped and fixed and you 
get to play studio engineer with the sound. 
 

OVERDRIVE- POGOLAB Distortion ...eenie meenie your money goes? ...or no?

PogoLab DISTORTION
$20.00 USD
The company that makes these is Lekato who make budget electronics for both consumers and musicians. They boast a quality product but cheap. Many of their products are impressive. If nothing else they build a 
robust product. 
The layout is Volume, Gain, Treble and Mids. 
___
     CONCLUSION ___ 
It is not a high gain pedal as the word Distortion 
suggests. It is medium gain overdrive. It has 
a pleasant voice though a bit feeble but full. 
The Bass is non existent. Perhaps ... 
a bit bland, but usable. 
 

Saturday, October 26, 2024

OVERDRIVE- M-VAVE Dist MT-1.... 4 years & still in uniform

$30.00 USD
AliExpress shipping incl.
M-VAVE DIST- MT1
This branch of M-Vave was once called Cuvave. 
I will not go into the 3 divisions I know other than to say they are now all branded M-VAVE.
This is a generic modern Metal pedal. It is not unlike classics like MESA Dual/Rec or many small independents that regardless of who makes them the buyer usually have one or more pedals slamming the front end. 
In short it does the job. 
The layout is basic with Volume, Gain and Tone. 
___
    CONCLUSION ___ 
The pedal is voiced with lots of heavy Bass. It ...like even a real Marshall JCM 800 makes a bit of noticeable fizz in the highs. 
You can cut it back but or if like me you use a gate, no problem. 
Drop tuning makes a big difference so keep that in mind when 
listening to any demos. 
On the whole it is usable and in context sounds very Pro.


Friday, October 25, 2024

PREAMP/BOOST- WEM CCB-1 Copicat Boost __NEW__ surprisingly cool!!!

$80.00 USD
wem CCB-1 
++++++++++++++++
It is quite simply the Preamp out of the WEM Copicat tape echo. 
A heavy boost is added and the pedal acts as a nasty but nice 
hard clipping friend.
The layout is Level and Frequency ...the tone control pulls 
out some gritty clipped but very rich overtones. 
It can be run at 9v or 18v for more headroom.  
 
  CONCLUSION___ 
It would be great stacked 
with other dirt pedals.
 

OD- TONE CITY Double Durple___NEW___ a-double-of-a clone-of a-clone-of-a-clone-of a Gibson amp

 TONE CITY    Double-Durple 
$120.00 USD
Lovepedal made the Kalamazoo that is a take on an ancient 
8 watt Gibson EH-100 amp made by Chicago Musical Instruments at the Gibson Kalamazoo factory from 1932 to 1945. It is known for its transparent dirt sound. Tone City made a clone of it they call the Mandragora and then Andertons Danish Pete Honore had them mod it and it became the Durple which is now offered as the Double Durple. 
The layout is Gain, Volume and Tone for both sides. A toggle gives you Smooth and Bright for the more transparent side and on the other side you get a Mid boost. 
    
Conclusion __ 
It sounds very good. I think when pushed 
the Double Durple goes into a Marshall JTM 45 vibe. 
The basic Durple is $55.00 USD or you can get the
Mandragora for $55.00 USD.  It all started 9 years 
ago when Tone City decided to confuse us all 
...or maybe we should blame Gibson?

The Double Durple is demoed at 20:20    
The second video lets you hear where it started with the LovePedal Kalamazoo.
 

thefineprint
...damn confusing, What started as a pedal so transparent you 
can hear the chime of a Strat became the Crunch like Marshall, lol. 
I think the Mandradora wasn't broken, so why would they fix it, 😇

NEW VIDEO 

REVERB/TREM- KEELEY ELECTRONICS Zoma___NEW___ too big? too little? too much?

K E E L E Y ELECTRONICS
  ZOMA 
$230.00 USD
It became a 'thing' when Fender put it in their amps. The Tremolo less than the Reverb as the Trem became more in your face so it became in and out of fashion. The Spring Reverb was very effective when used like a frame on a painting that enhanced your sound not a thing that became your sound. It was always on but used sparingly. Modern Verbs have become total Shoegaze 
and Star Wars. They are now relatively cheap to make and there 
is a massive glut of choices. Like too much of anything it becomes yesterday's news and even the idea of it is on its way to become dated. Is the Zoma too little too late?
The layout is Depth, Rate and Level. A toggle lets you choose 
3 voicings. Spring & sine Tremolo (the classic Fender thing). 
Plate & Harmonic Trem. and Plate & Pitch Vibrato. 

   CONCLUSION ___ 
The whole marketing vibe is vaguely Indie Alt aimed at the Premier Guitar Magazine bands. The cool players in that crowd use an always on Spring & either no Trem or the occasional Trem. Think Robben Ford not Dick Dale. 
The Tone City Little Spring v.2 does a stellar job and it's just $55.00 USD.