Guitar Gear

Being sick sometimes has its advantages because even though I’m half brain-dead with a head cold, I can take some time to surf the web in search of gear. This morning, I read a press release on Harmony Central about the new Toadworks Fat City Dual Overdrive. Being a big fan of overdrive pedals, I went to the Toadworks site to read about this new pedal.

I had tried a Mr. Ed distortion awhile back – it was okay – but I wasn’t thrilled – but I’ve always dug dual overdrives and stacking, so this looked promising. I read about the pedal, and it sounds really cool. All hand-wired with high-quality components. Also, a little out of my price range at around $300. Still, it looks like it’s worth checking out just to see how it sounds.

While I was on the site, I started looking at all the other pedals Toadworks offers, and the one that REALLY caught my eye was the Toadworks Ajax. Rather than try to explain it (since I’ve never even used one), here’s the product summary from the Toadworks site

Ajax is essentially a 2-channel line mixer, combined with a buffered Y-splitter, with the ability to invert (180°) the phase of one input signal, as well as one of the output signals.

– Two-channel mixer – With independent input level controls, Ajax can act as a simple 2-channel mixer.
– Multi-guitar interface – Ajax has two buffered inputs, allowing you to connect (and play) two different instruments at the same time.
– Input phase correction – When combining two signals, there is always the possibility that the signals may be out of phase with each other. Ajax can invert the phase of one input to eliminate unwanted frequency cancellation.
– Multi-amp interface – Ajax has two output jacks, allowing you to send the signal to two different amplifiers simultaneously.
– Output phase correction – When connecting the two output jacks to two separate amplifiers, you may find that the amplifier outputs are out of phase with each other. Ajax can invert the phase of one output to eliminate unwanted frequency cancellation.
– Stereo expander – when using two amplifiers (or recording direct to a stereo interface), it can be desirable to invert the phase of one of the amplifiers, creating an ‘expanded’ sound – this is especially useful with modulation effects such as chorus, flanger, etc. The output phase inversion is performed using the stomp switch, so this can be done on the fly.
– Effect Combination – If you are lucky enough to have two Ajax devices, you can split the output signal of the first unit, applying varying amounts of effects to each signal indepentently, and recombining the signal using the second Ajax. Using this method, you will have access to new sounds and effect combinations that are otherwise impossible.
– Simple buffer – Putting Ajax first in your signal chain will provide a simple buffer, eliminating concerns about signal loss in true-bypass effect chains.
– Clean boost – Both the input and output Level controls are capable of linear boost, making Ajax a simple clean boost with no frequency attenuation.

This pedal is very intriguing to me, as I’ve recently been experimenting with playing two amps simultaneously. I know, you can do that with an ABY pedal, and I do that, but I really like the phase inversion and the input and output boost. This has lots of possibilities. Funny though, this pedal has been out for a year, and there is very little information or reviews on it.