I’ve had two Gibson ES-335’s in the past, and I never kept them. It’s not that I didn’t like them; I actually loved my first one, Rusty, and even though I have remorse over parting with Rusty, I suppose I didn’t love either ES-335 enough to hold onto them. And frankly, I didn’t even have an interest in any hollow body or even semi-hollow body guitars until I laid my eyes upon and played my beautiful “Rose.”
There’s really something special about her; especially in the tone department as she can cop natural-sounding acoustic tones to really rockin’ out crunch. To demonstrate this, I created a few clips. Before I go on, personally, I love her clean tones, and I will be using her mostly for this. And note that her pickups are not very high-gain at all. In order to get overdrive, I had to use my Timmy pedal with the gain knob at about 3pm, which is close to wide open. But she plays VERY well with OD pedals as you’ll see. So without further ado, let’s get to the clips!
Bridge Pickup – This is a quick song that features the bridge pickup, which really sounds like an acoustic guitar. Even the lead sounds like an acoustic lead, but it plays like and electric – well, it is an electric. 🙂
Middle Position (both at equal volume) – This gives you the deepness of the neck pickup and the spank of the bridge pickup. With this clip, I copped the Police’s “Message in a Bottle” riff, and added some light chorus.
Neck Position – This by far is my favorite pickup position, though I will probably use the middle position more often. This has an eery, ethereal sound! In this clip, I just closed my eyes and started playing after hit the record button. This tone really inspires me!
Short Song (Rhythm: Middle position, Lead: Bridge position) – Here’s a quick song I put together. Again, both parts are clean, and I played the lead fingerstyle. This is just a purely fun guitar to play!
Rockin’ It – As I mentioned above, the Electromatic needs help to overdrive an amp, but hey! That’s what overdrive pedals are for! Here I’m playing my song “Strutter.” Just before the chorus, I stack my Tone Freak Effects Abunai 2 on top of my Timmy for some serious sizzle. Then I activate my wah pedal just for shits and giggles. Rose can handle it!
By the way, I played all the clips through my trusty Aracom VRX22.
What can I say, but “Wow!” This is an absolutely impressive guitar, and one that I’m so glad that I added to my stable. I’ll be using her mostly in my solo gigs, but she’ll also see some band time as well.
It pays to be a good customer of a local, independent retailer. When I first saw the Electromatic at Gelb Music in Redwood City, I fell in love with it; unfortunately at the time, I didn’t get it. I came back a few days later wanting to by it, and Jordan (the guitar gear manager) reported that he had sold it. 😦 In fact, he hasn’t been able to hold onto any of the walnut finish Electromatics for more than a couple of days. So I told him that as soon as he got one in to contact me. Well, after a couple of months (which was good because I could set aside some money for it), Jordan finally got one in, sent me an email, and I put a down-payment on it over the phone on Thursday. I picked it up yesterday and immediately used it at my weekly restaurant gig.
Jordan had even set up the guitar for me knowing that I might gig with it on Friday, and set the action and intonation perfectly! But that’s a testament as to why I’d rather deal with small-box retailers than big-box ones like GC. The folks at the small-box retailers get to know you, and over the years, you establish a great relationship with them, if not a friendship. I’ve gotten to know all the great folks over at Gelb, and if you’re in the area, you owe it to yourself to get to know these guys. They won’t steer you wrong! Anyway, enough of that, let’s get on to the guitar, shall we?
So, so pretty…
Usually, I’m less concerned with looks than I am with tone, but the finish on this guitar immediately drew me to her when I first saw her hanging on Gelb’s Gretsch rack. By the way, I’ve already named her “Rose,” for her rose-wine-hue, walnut finish. As with any Gretsch, it’s all about classic styling, but the finish on Rose is simply incredible, as it takes that classic styling and dresses it up with a gorgeous finish that immediately draws your eyes to it. The picture I’ve provided does not do her justice at all. Suffice it to say that the translucent walnut finish gives her a red wine hue that is so alluring – sexy, you might say. Last night, several customers commented on her beauty. I gotta tell you, it was like showing up to a party with the prettiest girl hanging on my arm! 🙂
In any case, I shot a few pictures of her this morning. Rose is AMAZING!!!
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…sings like an angel…
Playing a G5122DC at Gelb made my decision for me. While it doesn’t have the deep tone of a standard body Gretsch, it still has lots of depth, and as with any Gretsch, the tone is as smooth as silk, no matter what pickup you’re playing. I love the scooped, ringing tones (but not twangy) of the bridge pickup, and the neck pickup has an eery, ethereal, three-dimensional tone that’s perfect for finger-style. I used the middle selector last night quite a bit as well to blend in both pickups for certain songs.
Last night, I was plugged directly into my DigiTech Vocalist Live, that adds some reverb and chorus, then goes directly into the restaurant’s PA board. While it sounded great, coming out of the PA speakers, monitoring was an issue, as the restaurant only has a single 6″ monitor that just doesn’t give a good representation of the sound. But hearing it in the house, I was just blown away! The tone was rich and full, and seemed to fill the room, even at a lower volume. That kind of three-dimensional sound is inspiring! It floats in the air, and feels so close that you can almost touch it.
I’ll be recording clips really soon!
…and I could hold onto her all night!
Rose’s neck is very much like a 60’s Les Paul neck, so playing her felt immediately familiar. I had her set up with 10’s, which are on the light side for “acoustic” playing but provide a real versatility – and heck, with a four-hour gig, lighter strings are just easier to play. 🙂 The guitar is fairly lightweight – probably in the vicinity of 7 to 8 lbs., so prolonged gigging will not be an issue with Rose. Last night, everything about her felt so great. I love the position of the master volume, and with the pickup switch being in a similar position to a Les Paul, switching pickups mid-song was a breeze!
I didn’t quite like the action that Jordan had set on Rose originally, as it appeared to increase towards the bridge, so once I set up my rig, I made a couple of adjustments to the action on both sides of the floating bridge. What a different that made! It actually took me a few minutes to get used to how easy Rose was to play. And being that I’ve been playing this gig with an acoustic, I had to remind myself to really relax my left hand and not dig in. 🙂 That’s actually a good problem to have, and a testament to just how easy this guitar is to play.
A buddy of mine sent me a link to the latest in tone-improvement: Essential Sound Products’ MusicCord Pro, a six-foot, $179 power cord that they claim will improve your tone because of its more efficient power delivery. C’mon now! A power cord? I suppose that if you have a fluctuating power source a power cord will help, but you’d have to have some sort of built-in power conditioning to make sure the power you feed to your device is consistent. The MusicCord doesn’t have that. ESP simply claims that they use 14-gauge wire as opposed to their standard 16-gauge wire.
Frankly, I don’t know what to believe, though I’m leaning on the side of extreme skepticism; and even though some major trade rags such as ProAudio Review and Premier Guitar have weighed in with glowing reviews. I read through all the reviews that ESP provides and ALL of them are purely qualitative reviews. None include frequency response charts or RTAS charts to show that the sound wave is different using the MusicCord Pro as opposed to a standard power cord. Without hard data, it’s kind of hard to believe all the hullabaloo. Truth be told, I think it’s a crock.
Here’s an excerpt from the Premier Guitar review:
“The second stage of the test was less ambiguous. Are you going to hear a difference? Yes. Simply put, hearing is believing. Is it a big difference? For me it was. I tested the MusicCord Pro with a pair of EL34-powered amps (Goodsell Black Dog 50 and 50W Egnater hot-rodded. Plexi-type) and a humbucker-equipped guitar (Duesenberg MC signature); the improvement in clarity was immediate and unmistakable.
Imagine sitting in a convertible with the top up and the windows down all the way… adding the MusicCord Pro to your rig is like dropping the top-you get the idea. While you might not need it to power your practice amp, it’s an investment worth considering for just about any other application.”
The reviewer’s second stage of his test might’ve been less ambiguous than his first test, but his description of his second test is all qualitative and just as ambiguous as the first. I think the effect is more psychological than anything else… Another review that a friend mentioned from Vintage Guitar stated that the MusicCord Pro actually reduced the 60Hz hum from his single coil guitars. Now that’s really pushing it. Are you telling me that the MusicCord Pro actually modified the magnetic field of his pickup? Yeah… uhh… right… Wonder if he just happened to turn in a different direction once he plugged in that power cord, which usually solves the 60Hz hum. Methinks those two reviewers have been spending way too much time on The Gear Page forums. 🙂
All the reviews harken to the used car salesman who gives you a wink and winning smile and says, “Trust me.” Uhhh… no thanks… Like I said above, give me hard data, preferably in the form of charts and graphs that definitively show a positive modification of the sound wave, and I’ll take it a bit more serious. A graph may just show an improvement, but I think one reason why ESP nor any of the reviewers show them is that the improvement is meager at best.
But I will admit that my ears may not be as sharp as other folks’, so I’ll let you decide for yourself. I downloaded two clips of a song from the ESP site to compare where the sound engineer claims there’s a huge improvement in the quality of the recording due to the MusicCord Pro. Here they are (note the file are raw, unmastered WAV files so I have links to them as opposed to using the player):
Personally, I can’t tell a difference between the two, and I used flat-response studio cans to evaluate the clips. I would say that my hearing is normal, so if there is any difference, it’s subtle at best.
I think you could get by with a good quality power cord. Me? I use medical grade power cords for all my equipment. These are tested and certified for reliability. Also, I recently had a dedicated power source with its own breaker run out to my garage/studio to handle all the equipment I was plugging in, and I had the electrician also install a power conditioner so my power load would always be consistent. I think a consistent power load will do more for your tone than a cord.
But hey! If you want to buy into the latest snake oil, I have a couple of properties in Peru, Indiana that I could sell to you… 🙂
One of my biggest problems with Strats in the past is that while I loved their tone, the stock pickups never really satisfied me; being a bit too bright and not powerful enough. Plus, the Strat is not a guitar that sustains very well. With my new Strat, I’ve solved the brightness problem, and most of the power problem with the Kinman pickups that came with the guitar. But the sustain issue still exists. Mind you, this particular guitar has some very nice inherent sustain and resonance; still not as much as a Les Paul, but more than what I’ve experienced with other Strats in the past.
Among those in the know, a Strat really needs help in the sustain area, which is why overdrive pedals will never go away. They provide extra gain yes, but more importantly, they provide sustain. For me, as the title states, the Timmy overdrive has completely changed the game for me. Being a transparent overdrive, it retains my tone then gives me more of it, as well as giving me some extra sustain. Oy vay!!! I love this pedal! The note definition and separation is incredible with the Timmy. There’s nothing washed out at all.
There’s a song I recorded a couple of years back called “In the Vibe.” I liked the tune itself, but I was never happy with the guitar tone. I was using my old MIM Strat with a Tube Screamer, plus a cranked up Reason SM25. I just felt that the guitar didn’t have enough bite, and no amount of EQ was going to get me that. I even re-recorded the song using my Les Pauls, but the song was made for a Strat. So I just let it sit in limbo.
But last night, I thought I’d revisit the song and use the Timmy with my Strat, and I WAS BLOWN AWAY!!! The guitar parts have the bite I want, and the Timmy just adds tons of balls to my tone. Here’s what I recorded last night:
The first guitar part is played in the neck pickup. I love that pickup on this guitar as it has the real vowelly-like tone. The second part is in the bridge pickup that has a lovely drive and a Les Paul-like honk to it. Yummy! For that song, I set the pedal with volume at about 11 am, gain at 1pm, bass at noon, and roll off just some of the highs with the treble at 9am. My Aracom VRX22 was set with both Master and Volume at 1pm, which is on the edge of breakup for the guitar cranked up. I gotta tell you: The Timmy is absolutely marvelous!
What about the Dano TOD?
There has been lots of discussion about the Dano Transparent Overdrive being a ripoff of the Timmy circuit. From demos that I’ve heard, it’s close, but to me, the Dano doesn’t have near the amount of clarity that the Timmy does. Conceivably, you could get it close, and in a performance situation it may not matter. But in a studio situation, where you want as much clarity as possible, I don’t think I’d ever use a Dano. Yeah, I paid three times as much for the Timmy and waited for 6 months. But at $129 it is so well-worth the wait, and at that price it’s near the cost of a BOSS pedal.
So in my mind, the Timmy wins hands down, and as I’ve mentioned in the past, it will never leave my board.
Summary: Others boast transparency, but the Paul Cochrane Timmy overdrive is one of the very few transparent overdrives I’ve ever used, and to me it is the best OD I’ve ever owned!
Pros: Super-simple to dial in a great tone for the guitar you’re using. Bass and Treble cut knobs make all the difference in the world with respect to dialing in your tone!
Cons: None.
Features:
Separate Bass (pre-distortion) and Treble (post-distortion) cut dials
Gain knob to control amount of clipping
Volume/Boost to control output gain
Three-way clipping switch to choose between two types of symmetrical clipping (up, middle) and asymmetrical clipping (down)
Price: $129 direct (twice as much on ebay if you don’t want to wait 6 months)
Tone Bone Score: 5.0 ~ I’ve only played with this for a little over an hour this evening, and already I’m in love with this OD pedal! You know me, I love OD pedals, but this one was well worth the wait. I can confidently say that this will NEVER leave my board.
Like many, I had heard of the Tim and Timmy pedals from Paul Cochrane, but I had never played one. I had only heard accounts online, then heard one in action at a concert. After speaking with the guitarist (Dylan Brock of Luce), and hearing him rave about the pedal, I finally got around to ordering one from Paul Cochrane back in October 2010. I finally got the pedal today, and it is hands-down the best damn overdrive pedal I’ve ever played in my life – and I’ve played a lot of them.
I now have only two overdrive pedals on my board: My trusty Tone Freak Effects Abunai 2, and now, my Timmy pedal. They will never leave my board. The Abunai 2 is much more of a distortion pedal than an overdrive and I love the color and compression it adds to my signal. The Timmy, on the other hand, is truly transparent. It takes your tone and give you more of it. And while other pedals will give you a midrange hump or scoop your tone, the Timmy lets you dial in (actually cut out) the amount of bass or treble you want in your signal.
Volume and Gain are pretty standard, so no need to go into those features. What makes this pedal special are the EQ knobs. Both are cut knobs. Fully counter-clockwise, they let in all the bass or treble. As you turn the knobs clockwise, they cut out. It’s a little backwards, but it makes sense once you start messing with the pedals. Paul says he made these like that because of the taper of the pots and doing it in reverse avoided dead spots.
The bass knob functions pre-distortion or before the clipping circuit. Other pedals dial out bass at a fixed level to avoid the bass being too muddy. The Timmy allows you to dial in as much or as little bass as you want. The treble knob functions post-distortion. Again, other pedals have treble set at a fixed point after the circuit to avoid fuzziness. The Timmy lets you dial in as much or as little as you want. The net result is a finer level of EQ control than I’ve ever experienced with an OD pedal, and those two knobs make that pedal very special for me.
I thought I was done with Overdrive pedals…
I actually thought I was done with Overdrive pedals for the most part, and instead started relying on my clean boost and occasionally would fire up my Abunai 2 to add some color and compression to my tone. But that all changed when I got my latest Strat. Even though the Kinman pickups and the X-Bridge pickups have more gain than stock Strat pickups, even cranked, they don’t have enough gain to get my vintage Plexi-style amps into their sweet spot – even with the amp cranked. For instance, I had to use my clean boost and/or my Abunai 2 this past weekend to push my amp into its sweet spot.
The clean boost works great in giving me the gain I need, but it doesn’t give me much sustain. The Abunai 2 gives me sustain, but it colors my tone and adds compression (I like that only for certain situations). Enter the Timmy. With the Timmy, I can get the gain boost I need to push my amp into its sweet spot, and with its clipping circuit, I can get a bit of sustain – but without the compression, which is HUGE for me. Mind you, this is all for a Strat. It’s a completely different story with my Les Pauls, as they have plenty of gain on tap, and have LOTS more natural sustain than a Strat. With a Strat, you always need some help. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just it is what it is.
With the Timmy, I think I’m now all set for OD pedals for awhile. Notice I didn’t say I was done… 🙂
I know, I normally do some description of how it looks and how it’s built, but suffice it to say that the pedal’s built solidly, and the purple finish is cool. ‘Nuff said. It’s how it sounds that is important.
How it sounds…
As Paul explained to me six months ago, the Tim and Timmy were designed to be transparent overdrives; that is, they take your tone and give you more of it. Though the signal path does include a clipping circuit, unlike other OD pedals, the Tim/Timmy circuit doesn’t add any color. In any case, here are a couple of clips.
In both clips, I have my Aracom VRX22 set up in its drive channel with the master and and volume knobs set to about 1pm each. With a Les Paul, cranked up in its bridge pickup, this will give me a sweet overdrive tone with lots of harmonics. With a Strat, these gain positions set it at the edge of breakup, and I have to really dig in to get distortion out of the amp.
The first clip is just a raw recording switching between just the Strat cranked up in its bridge position, then playing the same thing with the Timmy engaged. I did add a bit of extra volume to the Timmy so I could make sure that the amp got pushed into its sweet spot. Give it a listen:
The next clip is a re-recording of the song that I used for my Strat review. This time, I play the first part with the raw Strat, then in the second part add the Timmy to finish the song:
Overall Impression
In my mind, there’s nothing not to like about the Timmy. When Dylan Brock said to me, “Man, I just love my Timmy pedal,” I really couldn’t understand what he was talking about at the time. I now understand, and I mentioned above, the Timmy will never leave my board.
Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster Summary: Finally a Strat that I love to play. This one has been upgraded with Kinman pickups and an L. R. Baggs Ctrl-X X-Bridge pickup.Features:
Alder Body with 3-Tone Sunburst Finish (my favorite Strat Color)
1-piece Maple Neck
22 Frets
Rosewood Fretboard with Abalone Dot Inlays
Nut appears to be synthetic tortoise shell – very cool!
Locking Tuners
L. R. Baggs Ctrl-X Drop-In Tremolo/Bridge Replacement
Kinman Noiseless Pickups
8.5 lbs
Value: ~$1500-$2000
Tone Bone Score: 5.0 ~ Wow! What a tone machine! The Ctrl-X pickup has tons of gain on tap, and will give you plenty of crunch when you need it! The Kinman Noiseless pickups really smooth out the tone, and flatten the significant midrange that tends to be in stock Fender pickups.
I love estate sales because you can find some real gems. A friend of mine happened to get a bunch of stuff at an estate sale recently, and picked up this fine specimen of a Strat. What drew me to it initially was the 3-tone burst, which I love. Of course I had to try it out, so we hooked it up to a cheapo amp, and I couldn’t believe my ears! I was expecting that typical bright Strat sound, but what issued – even from that cheapo amp – was a much smoother tone. The tone definitely spoke “Stratocaster,” but it was in another dimension. Of course, I had to take it home with me to bring into my studio and to gig with this weekend… 🙂
For me, I had all but lost hope with Strats. I just couldn’t find one that really appealed to me. But with the changes in this particular Strat, I’ve regained my faith. This is an absolutely killer guitar!
Fit and Finish
The previous owner tragically passed away a few years ago, and the dude was a total gear nut! As a result, he just didn’t play his gear all that much, and so the guitars that were in his collection were in absolutely pristine shape. This particular Strat has the most signs of usage, but there is absolutely no major scratches, and just a tiny ding on the neck. Other than that, the guitar is perfect. The rosewood fretboard is in particularly great shape, and still retains a gorgeous sheen. The abalone dot inlays are a great touch. Here are some pictures:
Playability
Unlike a lot of Strats that have really narrow nut width, this Strat’s 9.5″ nut radius is perfect. The neck is a gentle C and even with my short fingers, I have no problem reaching the lower strings high up on the fretboard. The shape of the neck is simply terrific, and provides a nice balance between solid-feel and speed. I could play this guitar for hours and never get tired. It’s really a player’s guitar.
How It Sounds
As I mentioned above, it sounds like a Strat, but it has a much smoother tone. This is due to the Kinman Noiseless Pickups that replaced the original “noiseless” ones on the stock Strat (don’t have the stock ones, but don’t want ’em). This Strat also has tones of sustain, which really surprised me. It’s not on the order of a Les Paul, but it sustains a lot more than other Strats I’ve played in the past. The Kinman pickups also add a lot of depth and complexity to the tone, picking up subtle harmonics that give the tonal presentation a real 3-D effect – it’s almost reverb-like. How cool is that?
On top of that, the original owner replaced the tremolo with an L. R. Baggs Ctrl-X system. This adds yet another pickup to the bridge that has all sorts of gain; very humbucker-like, but retaining the single-coil characteristics – there’s just more of it. The Ctrl-X system is cool in that you can switch between going fully magnetic to blend with Ctrl-X or fully Ctrl-X. The full-on Ctrl-X is great for soloing!
To demonstrate the gain differences, here’s clip I recorded this morning (actually, the two clips were included in my previous article that I wrote this morning). But here’s the first:
Finally, here’s the quick song that I recorded this morning that has the rhythm part in fully magnetic mode in the 4th switch position (neck/middle). The lead is played in the first position with the Ctrl-X system:
Both clips were recorded using my Aracom PLX18 BB Trem, a fantastic 18-Watt Plexi clone. I was originally going to record with my Fender Hot Rod because the guitar sounded great through it. But my problem with Strat tone came from switching to vintage Marshall-style amps like my PLX that have lots of midrange. Strats just didn’t sound right to me with these amps. But this one blew me away!
Overall Impression
It’s difficult being a gear freak and having so many avenues to evaluate great gear. I have to have this guitar. Period. It’s completely changed my view of Strats!
I started out as a Strat guy. Then when I moved over to vintage Marshall-style amps, just couldn’t stand the reedy, thin sound of my Strat with my amps. It sounded fine clean, but the overdrive sound was horrid. Well I finally came across a Strat that has much more balls than my old one. It’s an American Strat that has been hot-rodded with noiseless Kinman pickups and an L. R. Baggs Ctrl-X upgrade, which places a pickup in the tremolo bridge called the X-Bridge pickup. This includes a three position switch that functions similarly to a Les Paul switch: Fully up is magnetics only, middle is a mix of X-Bridge and magnetics, then all the way down is X-Bridge only, which is produces a fat, gainy tone.
I think that’s the problem that I had with my Strat and other Strats I’ve played. They don’t have enough gain to really push my vintage Marshall-style amps. But with the X-Bridge, I can get enough gain to push my amps to their sweet spots. I should say that that’s only for my non-master volume amps. It works great with my Fender Hot Rod; in fact, I was playing around yesterday and getting gorgeous overdriven tones with that amp using this guitar.
As an example of the effect the X-Bridge has on gain, here’s a comparison clip. The first part is just the magnetics, then the second part is played the same with the same chords and same pick attack. Gives you lots of gain. 🙂
I’ll tell you what: The X-Bridge seals the deal for me.
Next, here’s a short song applying both magnetics and X-Bridge. The rhythm part is played with just the magnetic pickups, and the lead is played with the X-Bridge. I have the amp set with the volume at 6 on Channel 2 of my Aracom 18-Watt Plexi combo and the tone at 3pm (optimum for a Plexi).
Where I had the amp set, it was just at the edge of breakup for the Strat in magnetics only mode. Then when I engaged the X-Bridge, I got a nice gain boost that pushed the amp over the edge. That gives me a nice, light overdrive that adds just a tiny bit of compression and sustain.
This is really profound for me because I had all but given up hope on Strats, even though I love their tone. My old Strat just doesn’t have the balls that this one has. It’s just way too thin and bright; which reminds me that the Kinman pickups are absolutely fantastic! They have a bit deeper tone than a vintage Strat pickups – I have the ’57 Tex Mex in my MIM Strat – and THEY ARE NOISELESS! No more 60Hz hum! 🙂 Frankly, I didn’t know too much about these pickups, but they’re apparently very popular replacements among Strat and Tele players. They’re not cheap at $300 for a set, but they’re well worth the money.
65 Amps Soho Summary: Super-versatile amp with LOTS of balls. Goes from AC30-like tones to cranked vintage Plexi. While definitely British-style in tone, it has a tone all its own.Pros: One of the very few amps I’ve ever played that REALLY responds to guitar volume knob changes. The Soho, while very versatile is also VERY efficient. The 20-Watt model I heard and tested had the feel of a 50 Watt amp! Very nice.Cons: None.
Features:Output: 20 Watts (SoHo) or 35 Watts (SoHo HP)
Tubes: Power amp 2xEL84 (SoHo) or 4xEL84 (SoHo HP), Preamp EF86-12AX7
Tone Bone Score: 5.0 ~ Yowza! I LOVE this amp! It is so versatile and expressive and responsive to input gain. As much as I love my Aracom amps, I think this is an amp that I have to have.
I really shouldn’t go to music stores. But then again, if I didn’t, I’d lose an important source for gear. Last week, I happened to go to my favorite gear store (Gelb Music in Redwood City, CA), and was just hanging out looking at gear. i was also in there to see if they had gotten their latest shipment of Gretsch guitars, as I want to get the Electromatic 5122DC. Unfortunately, it hadn’t come in yet. But Jordan (who’s the guitar dude at Gelb) said that Dan, the designer from 65 Amps was coming in to do a demo from 5-7pm. It was just after 3pm.
Just so happened that Dan had just walked in the door, and Jordan introduced me to him while he was setting up their back room with the 65 Amps they carried. Dan and I got to chatting about gear and gigging, and then I started asking him questions about the Soho, which is an amp that has continually gotten my attention because Andy at ProGuitarShop.com uses one for most of his gear demos. So a cool thing happened: I got a private demo of the Soho from Dan the designer himself.
Now as we were talking, my impression of Dan was that he was a very nice, straight-shooting guy. But I’ve also seen and tested lots of different amps, so I guess I’ve become a bit jaded about boutique amps. But as you’ll soon find out as you read through this article, my jadedness became completely irrelevant in this case…
Dan took me through all the features, and I was completely dumbstruck by the expressiveness and versatility of the Soho while he played. The response to input gain using the guitar volume knob was incredible! I confirmed this when I played through it myself. You can go from clean to dirty with just the knob, then get really nice driving, but not overly compressed hard gain. The tone was incredible!
Now the Soho might look like a two-channel amp from its control layout, but it doesn’t have two channels; rather, it has two modes: Normal and Bump, which gives you a “bump” in tone and gain which is controllable like a separate channel – but it’s not a separate channel. Believe me, it’s very cool!
The “Bump” feature makes the tone of the Soho thick and rich and incredibly expansive. I commented to Dan that when he had it cranked, the amp sounded as thick and loud as a 50 Watt Plexi. He just grinned, as he knew exactly what I was talking about. As I mentioned in the Summary section above, this little amp has BALLS!
Equally impressive is 65 Amps’ trademark “Master Voltage” which is a bit different from a master volume in that like a regular MV it varies the B+ voltage it also keeps the filament voltage up, so you can still break up at lower volumes. Not sure the tech behind this, and who knows, it might be hype. But hyped terminology or not, it works; and it works incredibly well! It acts like an attenuator, giving you all the grind you need at lower volumes, without the extra circuitry.
I didn’t get as much time to play with it as I would like, and I tend to be rather self-conscious in stores when I’m evaluating gear, so I didn’t try too much. But I took it through various things I might do in a gig, and all I have to say is that the Soho is a true player’s amp. It has everything you need to cover gorgeous cleans to hard-driving rock. It’s definitely not a metal machine, but for producing most rock sounds, you can’t do much better. It’s not a small wonder why a great player like Andy over at ProGuitarShop.com uses this amp for his demos.
Here’s another thing: The amp is absolutely unforgiving. You can’t be tentative with your playing when you play through this amp because every mistake will be picked up. I love that about this amp! That’s why I call it a player’s amp because you really have to play. When I first started playing around with it, Dan said, “Give yourself some time Brendan. It takes a little while to get used to…” Man, was he right! I twiddled knobs, found a setting I liked, then just closed my eyes and started to play (closing my eyes helps me lose my self-consciousness – beside if I suck, I know it’s not the gear). 🙂 Luckily, I didn’t flail too badly, and in the process, I fell in love with that amp. It simply rocks! I need to get this amp. Damn! There goes the GAS again!
Awhile back, I mentioned that one of the next pedals I was going to get besides my Timmy was an envelope filter. I was really digging the Electro-Harmonix pedals, but then got contacted by Jeff at Source Audio who was saying that they were working on a new guitar envelope filter, following the bass envelope filter they recently released.
If you’re not familiar with Source Audio, they build the SoundBlox line of pedals. What makes these pedals different is that they can be manipulated on the fly with a motion sensor ring called the HotHand Motion Controller ring. I’ve always been intrigued by these pedals, but haven’t had the chance to try any out. Until now. I hopefully will be getting a couple of their pedals for review soon, and I have to tell you, I’m excited!
The envelope filter has a TON of cool sounds, so you can get all sorts of vowel tones out of it. With the motion controller ring, you can even get variable wah sounds! THIS IS COOL STUFF!
In any case, here’s the demo video they just released of the new guitar envelope filter:
I’ve gotten to the point in my playing where I’ve pretty much established my base tone, so I’m extremely sensitive about the pedals I add to my rig; especially modulation effects. To me, they should only enhance my tone, and not define it. I should still sound like me whether I have a particular modulation effect on or off. In other words, if the effect is off, I shouldn’t feel as if something is missing from my tone. There are, of course exceptions to this rule of thumb, like my Boss CE-2, where I actually want my tone altered, but in general, I want my modulation effects to simply “fit” with my tone.
Such is the case with TC Electronic Corona Chorus. It simply “fits” with my rig. I’ve been playing with it for the last hour or so, and the more I get to know it, the more I absolutely love it. And all this for $129? This is a winner. In any case, I’ve recorded a couple of clips to demonstrate the pedal. Mind you, all these were done in the standard chorus mode. I haven’t started playing with the TonePrint or TriChorus much yet.
Subtle/Clean
The first clip has me playing clean fingerstyle with a short song. I do the song first without the pedal engaged, then play the song over with the pedal engaged, just adding some subtle chorus. The result is simply amazing:
Liquid/Clean
In the next clip, I do sort of a funky rhythm with a syncopated bass line. Here I’ve turned the FX Level to past 2pm, the Depth to 2pm and Rate to noon. What I get is a real liquid tone:
Swirling/Dirty
In this final clip, I add a little more depth and FX Level, then get into the dirty channel of my Hot Rod Deluxe. The result is a flange-like swirling tone. The interaction with the distortion of the amp is totally cool – at least to me:
I’ve had two Gibson ES-335’s in the past, and I never kept them. It’s not that I didn’t like them; I actually loved my first one, Rusty, and even though I have remorse over parting with Rusty, I suppose I didn’t love either ES-335 enough to hold onto them. And frankly, I didn’t even have an interest in any hollow body or even semi-hollow body guitars until I laid my eyes upon and played my beautiful “Rose.”
Guitar Gear 
