OVERDRIVE- JOHNNY ROCKGEAR Pop Corner ....old amp dimed

JOHNNY ROCKGEAR

POP corner|*

$135.00 USD

I can remember hearing about his pedal 9 years ago. 

I wanted this pedal but the guys site was either sporadically up or down 

and it sent you to stores in Montreal Canada. Add to that most info was in French, lol. It is along story in which I believe health issues were involved. The company is know owned by a neighboring company, Guptech. Both companies are French Canadian with the same cultural vibe and attitudes 

of offering the new, different, fairly priced and well made. The layout is Volume, Tone and Gain. A toggle adds more distortion. 

      ____

      CONCLUSION ___

The pedal sounds like a dimed vintage amp edging into feedback. The description is not a figure of speech, it actually does this 

very convincingly. What's not to like??? Damn impressive!!! 

If I had to compare it I would say it sounds a bit like a 

Crowther Hot Cake but with more bite.

OVERDRIVE- MXR Jail Guitar Doors ___NEW___ Wayne Kramer tribute pedal

 MXR 

 JAIL 

 GUITAR DOORS 

$210.00 USD

The pedal is designed by Johnny Waton owner and builder of Daredevil pedals. He and his Trio are big fans of the MC5 and

their music is original but reflective of it. Wayne Kramer is part 

of a charity to help released prisoners to get both a fresh start and assistance with it. The pedal has both Daredevil's specs 

and a MXR micro amp as part of it.  

CONCLUSION ___ 

The pedal is voiced to give you

the impression of two dimed 

100 watt Marshall stacks. 

Perhaps debatable but it is

indeed a very good hardclipper 

overdrive.  

FUZZ- SUPERCOOL 77 Fuzz Lite... a 70's Big Muffish leading candidate

  SUPERCOOL     

 '77 Fuzz Lite

$150.00 USD

A Muff is a Muff. You can add some mids or more gain but after that 

it  soon becomes just a silicon Fuzz with another funny name. There 

is nothing wrong with that but then it gets down to ones application 

and ascetics not some goal real or mythical. The layout is straight 

Muff with Volume Tone and Gain. 

     CONCLUSION ___

The voice is full do to a boost across the mids that 

is not exaggerated so you have some Bass and 

enough highs to give it some definition. It is 

very full but laid back. Usefully assertive but 

not aggressive. It has excellent, attack & definition. 

The perfect tool when others have too much or too 

little to fit very many tunes.

OVERDRIVE- W. A.T. Ranges___NEW___ Mortician-amp-in-a-Box

WONDERFUL AUDIO TECHNOLOGY

 RANGES

$265.00 USD

What if you made killer Fuzz pedals and you decided to make

an Amp-in-a-Box. __Don't even think about it!!!

The layout is Volume, Gain, Presence, Treble, Mids and Bass.

You get Tight a high pass filter to cut any flub in the lows.

Another toggle adds a bright switch, still another lets you

have a second Voice and lastly another switch for a Boost. 

   CONCLUSION __ 

W.A.T. have provided us with a full range pedal that when 

not pushed has a lot of character if kept in the medium gain range. However it gets very nasty and harsh pushed past that. It becomes like a horror movie with no comic relief. 

If you want that buy the W.A.T Fuzz Lands pedal that came before this & captures the high gain terror but without without ear-bleed. Check it out!! 

Their Fuzz Lands is, dare I say? A much better choice. 

 

GUITAR- HILS NEXT HN6___NEW___ the headless guitar brand for ALL!

HILS NEXT HN6 |L

$960.00 USD

SBS POLICY 

Regular readers know this is a pedal site primarily aimed at analog pedal players. But many of you also use Modelers. As such I try and keep you up to date with new ones but I do not go into a deep dive since every make has Youtubers that specialize in all that to 

the point of featuring new sounds you can buy etc.

The site is also not a Guitar site but truly or totally missed out on 

new guitars or new companies that need to be brought to all our attention.  

Headless guitars are here to stay. The problem for thousands of players is they need something that if they play a Strat they 

can learn to be comfortable playing it right out of the box. 

It must be Pro, but affordable.

HILS NEXT

The most important move they made is selling them thru stores. It means if you need service  

over time or new parts they just won't discontinued your model and or leave you stranded. 

These guitars use bridges and nuts etc. that are proprietary. It is not a Fender where 

you have a hundred replaceable bridges on offer from a  hundred different companies.

So do not ask me about companies that ONLY sell on line. If a month after you buy 

their guitar they could discontinue it as it is a poor seller.

Even something as small as a fine tuner that some how became totally loose and 

fell off could be next to impossible to get replaced by a company running on really 

low profit margins.  

HILS NEXT has the goal to be the real deal like Strandberg but sells at 

affordable prices. They think just like Ibanez did in the 60's.  

            ____

HILS NEXT HN5
$550.00 USD
The budget version. It comes in green or orange.
Think of it as just like you think of the made in Mexico
Strat, gigable but without many of the extras
of which a lot are merely cosmetic and
do not make any serious difference
in sound, build or reliability.

CONCLUSION __

There are 2 guitars I do not have that I would like. 

One with a Floyd, Another headless and with a 

conventional neck. BIG BUT!!! Affordability. 

The HILS NEXT HN5 covers it all in one guitar.  

FUZZ- MOJO GEAR Staccato Machine... a Bender with attitude

 MOJO GEAR  

$225.00 USD

STACCATO MACHINE MK1

It is a good ol' Tone Bender Mk1. With vintage Germanium 

transistors. 

The layout has Volume, Gain and Tone. Yes they added the 

blessed BIAS control that every Fuzz should have. 

 

   CONCLUSION __ 

It is the most raw of the T.B. Because it is so 

open it is the fattest and has thick of those

rich overtones. I have a Mk2, I love. But both

versions are a must have!!! 

 

OVERDRIVE- BROWNE AMPS Ethane___NEW___Tube Screamer & Bluesbreaker

Browne  A M P L I F I C A T I O N

 ETHANE 

$360.00 USD 

They took their The Gritidor ...Tube Screamer and paired it with their Carbon Bluesbreaker clones. Partly on the advice

of That Pedal Show.

The layout is simple with with Level, Gain & Tone each and 

the Screamer to the right stacked on the Bluesbreaker. 

                       

CONCLUSION ___ 

The Gritidor is a very serviceable 'Me Too' sounding
Tube Screamer. Out of the thousands out there it could unlikely be otherwise. The Carbon however is an OD that is cleaner than the boost section of a Klon. 

I own one and find it the very, very best of the 

transparent OD's. I use it as my mildly boosted 

clean sound or as bit of transparent kick to a 

Amp in a box pedal. It replaced my JHS Morning 

Glory after about one minute of comparing them. 

I use the Carbon to the point of it being a 'can't be 

without' necessity. 

CARBON   $180.00 USD 

FUZZ- KING TONE FUZZ V.2 ...best all-rounder for 15 years

   KingTone _

 F U Z Z  V.2

$300.00 USD

You get a Fuzz Face that can be set to for either Si and Ge transistors.

You also get a Zonk Machine Fuzz.

The layout is Volume, Tone and BIAS. A toggle lets you decide on germanium or silicon transistors. The sound cleans up beautifully 

when you pull back on your guitars volume. 

            CONCLUSION __ 

Mr. King Tone, Jessy Davey loves to play live. Some say he 

is better than SRV. I thought it was total marketing & media Bull Sh*t.     But ??? 😧

He has the timing & feel thing all tied up with excellent composition. A thing that can never be learned by just 

nailing the right notes. 

He had SRV 's problem. Players love him and and number in the thousands. Big but. You need the general record buying 

public to buy or download millions of your recordings. 

So for 20 years he gigs literally most of the time and stops 

to build pedals when he needs to pay the rent. He also uses 

the pedals he makes so they have to be bullet proof and 

sound killer. They damn well do. 11 out of 10!!!

OD- ARIS EFFECTS 51-Fifty___NEW___a Peavey 5150-in-a-Box ...with a hidden MIAB too

ARIS EFFECTS 

THE 51-FILTHY  ||  

$160.00 USD

I just finished doing the just released The Spec-Defier. A scary good take on a MESA Dual/Rec-in-a Box. Four months back came this pedal a Peavey 5150-in-a-Box. Check on the Dual/Rec Post for all about the company etc.

The layout is a simple affair with Bass, Mids, and Treble with the obvious Gain and Level. 

           CONCLUSION __ 

How close to the amp is in my 

book neither here nor there. 

The pedal has a killer voice that 

can go from modern Metal 

gains yet back off to a slightly

beefed up MIAB sounds.