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Posts Tagged ‘guitar pedals’

Just Ordered a Paul Cochrane Timmy Overdrive

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on October 15, 2010| 10 Comments »

I’m not one to buy into hype; especially all the hype that you hear in the forums. There’s A LOT of hype associated with Paul Cochrane’s Tim and Timmy pedals. But after reading tons of posts over the last couple of years on how much people love these, and also after hearing one live in action, I decided to get on the waiting list.

As Paul puts it, the pedal was designed for a Strat played through a Plexi or Vox; in other words, amps with lots of midrange. He says his pedals don’t sound so good with “Black Face” amps. But since I don’t have any amps like that, well, it’s all good.

As for the waiting list, my position doesn’t come up until February. But that’s cool. I’m willing to wait. From what I’ve heard, this is a pedal that should fit right into my style of playing!

BTW, if you’ve got one, I’d love to hear about your experience with it!

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The Incredible, the Versatile, Heck the KICK-ASS Aracom VRX22!

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Aracom Amps VRX22 - First in the series

The Aracom VRX22 has been my primary amp for quite some time now – almost 2 years – and I’m still discovering the beauty of this wonder 22 Watt amp. It’s no small wonder that it has been my “Go-To” amp since I’ve gotten it. It sounds so killer both clean and dirty, and tonight, I realized just how great it is with pedals!

Since I’ve had the VRX22, I haven’t been using my overdrive pedals as much. I know, I used to be a real nut about overdrive pedals, and I have several. But this afternoon, I reconfigured my board, and placed my favorite drive pedals on it with the intention of using them. This included my Doodad Guitars Overdrive/Booster, Tone Freak Abunai 2, and my KASHA overdrive.

For my gig, I set the amp up in the clean channel, with the volume at a level where I’d have to dig in a bit with my Les Paul to get some grind. This would leave me with lots of headroom to work with, and not break into overdrive so early that all I get is more overdrive, and not volume.

Then I tweaked the overdrive pedals so I’d get different characters of overdrive, depending upon what I was after. I set the Doodad up for Tube Screamer like overdrive, at just over unity gain, but with the drive knocked up a bit so I’d get lots of sustain. I set the Kasha on “Classic” at just above unity gain for a more biting, trebly tone. Then I set up the Abunai 2 for a more thick, compressed overdrive.

The one thing I love about overdrive pedals is that as opposed to providing all the distortion as with a distortion pedal, they are meant to interact with the amp so what you get is a combination of distortion characteristics from both the pedal and the amp. This combination doesn’t always work so well. I’ve played many amps and some just want to overdrive by themselves. Using an overdrive pedal with those amps just muddies the tone. It’s not pretty.

Not so with the VRX22. I’ve thrown all sorts of pedals at it, and it handles them all without a hitch. It’s especially good with overdrive pedals, and in my gig, I just kept smiling because it sounded so damn great with them! And with second channel on the VRX22 that has another gain stage that acts as a built-in overdrive, I had yet another overdrive voicing to use, and I used all four either individually, or in many cases, I’d stack two or more together. And that’s a key thing with the VRX22. It can deal very well with stacked overdrives, retaining its touch sensitivity and note separation. Other amps I’ve used when stacking just can’t deal with the stacked overdrives very well.

In any case, this kick-ass amp is something you should consider. At $895, it’s simply tough to beat for a true hand-wired, boutique amp. And for those of you who already have Jeff’s PRX150-Pro or -DAG attenuator, you already know the build quality that goes into Aracom gear. It’s simply killer!

For more information on this wonderful amp, check out the VRX22 product page at Aracom’s web site!

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Great News! Mad Professor to Offer Less Expensive Versions of Their Pedals!

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 19, 2010| 2 Comments »

As you may know, I recently purchased the Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay, and wrote about how much I absolutely LOVE this pedal! While I can’t say enough about it, I anguished over getting it for a long time because of the price. At $335, it was so difficult to justify buying the pedal. But though I’m very budget-conscious, and a lot of this blog is about getting great tone without spending a lot of money, sometimes great tone just costs what it costs.  I’m glad I finally did break down and get it because it is by far the best delay pedal I’ve ever used!

So what’s the big news? Well, one of the biggest complaints about Mad Professor pedals is that they’re super-expensive. People who have purchased them, like myself, are very happy with them, but their price still smarts a bit. So in response to that complaint, MP made a great move: They added a line of less expensive pedals that mirror their current line. But instead of being hand-wired, these pedals are built using PC boards. Also the case they’re using is much less expensive. The net result is that you can get into Mad Professor pedals in the $200 price point range as opposed to the $300+ price point. Nice.

In any case, here’s what Mad Professor has to say about their new offerings:

Mad Professor was at Summer NAMM 2010 in Nashville 18-20 June 2010. We did show there the first redesigned pedal, a new Little Green Wonder.

Same tone, same look, but we did design a new pcb that helps us build these lot faster and for better price. The quality is the same, same parts but now pcb mounted pots, jacks and switch.

The box is also not the same Made In Sweden Elfa box that is made for heavy industry but a high quality pedal box that is bit lighter but very durable. That helps us to save a lot of money.

The only complain we have heard about the pedals have been the price, this is our answer to that.

We still make the handwired pedals for those who prefer them. Coming soon new Deep Blue Delay and Sweet Honey Overdrive.

Conceivably, if the circuit is the same, the tone should still be the same, but based upon experience, different build materials create different tones. They may be slight, but there’s always a difference. My only concern with the less expensive line would be response. As long as the response and dynamics remain the same or as close to the same as the original hand-wired pedals, these pedals should

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Review & Gig Report: Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay

Posted in delay, delay pedals, effect pedals, Effects, GAS, gear, gear reviews, guitar, guitar effects, guitar gear, guitar gear reviews, guitar pedals, guitarists, Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 14, 2010| 7 Comments »

While I did a “mini review” of the Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay a couple of months ago, that was in a shop in a controlled environment, and though I played it for almost an hour, there’s no better test of gear than using it at a gig where nothing is predictable.

After I originally auditioned the pedal, I anguished for the last couple of months about getting it. Why? Simply because of its price: It is NOT a cheap pedal by any means (I got it for $335), and it was always easy for me to reason why not to get the pedal. However, I’ve been a bit disappointed with my VOX Time Machine when using it with my acoustic rig. I thought that since it performed so well with my electric rig, that it would translate well to my acoustic rig. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Truth be told, while the Time Machine simply kicks ass with my electric rig, my tone feels and sounds “processed” with my acoustic rig. The net result is that I stopped using it for my acoustic gigs.

I knew I had to get a good delay that would work well with my acoustic rig, and I also knew that after auditioning quite a few digital and analog delays at the shop, it was the Deep Blue Delay that spoke to me. But the price of the pedal made me shudder, so I put off the purchase for the last couple of months.

Then yesterday, in a moment of weakness, I purchased the pedal on my lunch break at work. Jordan, the sales guy I’ve been buying gear from at Gelb Music for years, swears by this pedal, and he just said, “Dude, I know the price is steep, but there’s none better than the the Deep Blue Delay. It’s always on my board, and it’s almost always on. The VOX Time Machine is a killer pedal (he sold me that one as well), but you know how the Deep Blue sounded with the APX900 (Yamaha – I bought that one from him too – though he didn’t make a recommendation that time 🙂 ) when you tested it a couple of months ago. Believe me, you won’t be disappointed.” Mind you, I trust Jordan’s advice implicitly. I’ve been buying gear from him for years, and have learned that when he raves about some gear, it’s not bullshit because he owns it or has gigged with it. And with the Deep Blue Delay, I’ve never witnessed him rave so much about a pedal!

So I am now the proud owner of the Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay, and like Jordan, I can’t rave enough about it! What about my Time Machine? It goes back on my electric rig board. I love that pedal because it has such a great sound with whatever electric guitar I use on it. But for acoustic, it’ll be the Deep Blue from now on.

Fit and Finish

With a gorgeous, shiny, blue powder coat finish, this is simply the most gorgeous pedal I have. I’m partial to blue, but the gloss is like a mirror, as the photos below show. If I have one nit, the blue LED is a bit difficult to see in bright lighting conditions, but that’s just small nit. Other than that, the pedal is solidly built. The knobs have good resistance without being tight, and the toggle switch is heavy duty. I’m not sure what kind of jacks were used but connectors snap into place nicely, so I’m assuming they’re fairly high-quality jacks.

Taking the back off the pedal, there are LOTS of wires connected to a foam-wrapped circuit board (that I didn’t want remove), so it’s clear that the Deep Blue Delay is completely hand-wired, save for the circuit board. The wires are all fairly heavy-gauge with thick shielding, which speaks to the quality of components used in the pedal. I didn’t want to lift the foam pad because the wires were so heavy and I didn’t want to have to deal with putting them back into place. 🙂 Mad Professor could’ve easily used thin-gauge wires for this pedal, but I like the fact that they opted for the heavier gauge.

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How It Sounds

I know that I use the words “awesome” and “incredible” on this blog. After all, this is a “best of breed” type of site. So let’s just assume that the pedal can be described with those words, and I’ll take a different tack and describe what that sound does to me.

I know a piece of gear is incredible when it just makes me close my eyes and soak up the sound it produces. That’s the effect the Deep Blue Delay has on me. The delay effect, even at high levels is always smooth, and amazingly enough sounds so natural. There is nothing processed about this sound. And unlike other analog pedals I’ve played, the Deep Blue Delay doesn’t get dark, which is what has kept me from getting analog delays in the past.

At last night’s gig, I turned a disaster into a way to fully evaluate the Deep Blue Delay. With my acoustic rig, since I don’t have too many pedals, I use my BOSS TU-2 to power up the rest of my pedals. But last night, I had forgotten that I removed the TU-2 to use at a gig last week, so when I opened up my pedal bag, I was shocked to see my TU-2 missing. Luckily, I had left my 9V plug in the bag, so I figured that it was a great way to use the Deep Blue. So I plugged my guitar into the pedal, and it went straight into my Fishman SoloAmp.

I set up the pedal with the Delay and Repeat knobs at about 2pm, and the Level at 9am so I could get a nice, ambient sound that didn’t dominate. That created a hall-like effect that was simply delicious. I kept it at that setting for several songs. Then just as an experiment, I upped the level to 11, and then the skies parted and a voice rang from the heavens, “You have found s a sacred tone!” 🙂 Seriously though, I was completely blown away by what the pedal produced. The repeats were on the speedy side and the decay was a nice tail without being overbearing, and at that level, the wet/dry mix was just perfect!

The wonderful thing about the Deep Blue is that it seems like there’s a pre-delay built into the pedal. The one thing that sets this apart from other delays I’ve used is that at anything greater than low level settings, you get delay going right away. But even at 11am, whatever I was playing, whether finger picked or strummed, didn’t start repeating until there was space – or at least that was what it seemed like. Of course, at higher levels, the delay kicks in right away, but despite that, what you’re playing is invariably clear and doesn’t get washed out by the repeats.

Overall Impression

In other words, this truly is an incredible pedal. I’m still smarting just a little from the price, but as I haven’t played a delay for my acoustic as good as this – ever – it is well worth the price! I originally gave the Deep Blue pedal a 4.75 Tone Bones rating because of its cost. But my thinking now is that if that’s what it costs to get this kind of delay, then that’s what it costs, and I’m so much happier playing with this pedal in my signal chain. I’ve re-rated it as a 5 Tone Bones pedal. If you can afford it, this pedal will not disappoint; in fact, I’ll wager that it’ll make you practically squeal with joy!

About the Photos

Another hobby of mine – and no, I don’t sleep all that much – is photography. With this hobby, I don’t aspire to be a professional photographer, but I do like to take good photos. These photos were taken with a Nikon D40 with a f1.8 35mm fixed-length lens. All shots were taken in manual mode. I don’t remember the settings, but I shot about 60 photos and picked what I felt were the best shots. Then I used Adobe PhotoShop Elements to crop the photos and did a minimal amount of color correction on a couple of them. I believe that unless you’re going to make artistic enhancements to photos, you should set up your shots so you can “print” them immediately without color manipulation; that is, set up your camera so you don’t have to compensate later.

I know, this is a guitar gear blog, but going forward, I will be doing my own photos of gear. What I love about this particular set is that my camera caught the wonderful reflections off the shiny powder coating of the Deep Blue Delay. I find that marketing photos tend to be a bit too sterile. This is the best-looking pedal in my collection, and I wanted to do its look justice.

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New Gear: Aracom-DAG PRX150-DAG Power Attenuator

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 29, 2010| 2 Comments »

The venerable “Destroy All Guitars” shop has teamed up with Aracom Amplifiers to come up with a new version of the fantastic Aracom PRX150-Pro. Sporting a smaller cabinet (sorry, not reduced weight), and a couple of very cool new features, the $785 PRX150-DAG is the answer to anyone who wants to go to the extreme in transparent power attenuation.

Here are the features:

* Proprietary SRT Power Attenuation Technology
* Six levels of step attenuation, plus a continuously variable attenuation control (bedroom mode)
* 40dB of attenuation–attenuates 150 watts down to .015 watt
* 150 watt power rating
* Independent input and output impedance selector switches:
– from the amplifier and into the attenuator, select from: 2, 4, 8, 16 ohm
– from the attenuator and to the speaker cabinet(s), select from: 2, 4, 8, 16 ohm
– uniquely allows 16 possible Input and Output impedance combinations
* Hi Frequency Cut Filter with a True Bypass Switch
* Features a Load setting and is equipped with a Line Out Jack and Line Out Level Control
* Rack Mount Option
* Handwired in the USA

The two notable features are the Hi-Cut Filter, and the increased attenuation down to -40dB attenuation. With respect to the high-cut filter, some people had mentioned that they heard a high-frequency artifact coming through when they hooked up the original PRX150-Pro. I myself have never heard it, though I suppose anything’s possible. In Jeff Aragaki’s (of Aracom Amps) words:

The PRX150-DAG is equipped with a High Frequency Cut switch, that rolls off the highs above 6KHz, that some users might find useful with amplifiers that have a pronounced high end frequency response. Some guitarists go to great lengths to control the high end response of their amplifier, by carefully selecting speakers, tubes, and other components to roll off the highs. Now with the PRX150-DAG, a guitarist might not need to rely on changing these components; the high cut filter switch allows the flexibility of rolling off the high end or not. The true bypass switch allows the filter to be completely bypassed, providing the full frequency response of the attenuated amplifier to pass through to the speakers.

The other great feature is the Min/Max variable attenuation modes Jeff has introduced. Minimum attenuation mode is the traditional -16dB down to about -30dB variable attenuation, whereas the Maximum variable attenuation mode goes from -27dB to -40dB. With a 100 Watt amp, that’s taking down the output power to .015 Watt!!! Wanna have full dynamic response at bedroom levels with your 100 Watt amp? Look no further!

The Aracom-DAG PRX150-DAG is available exclusively through Destroy All Guitars. Check it out!

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New Gear: Maxon ST-9 Pro+ Overdrive

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 21, 2010| 8 Comments »

Click to enlarge

“Guitar Player” mag took a recent poll asking: If you could only have a single pedal in  your rig, what would it be? Overwhelmingly, and actually not too surprising to me, most pollsters chose an overdrive pedal. I personally didn’t take the poll, but I would definitely fall into the majority. You know me, I just can’t enough of overdrive pedals!

So much to my great pleasure, Maxon has released the new ST-9 Pro+ Super Tube Screamer Overdrive. Based upon Maxon’s classic “808” circuit, and building upon the original Ibanez ST-9 and its ability to control the amount of “midrange hump,” this “reissue” adds features that have the potential of making this a truly great Tube Screamer-class pedal.

  • First of all, the ST-9 Pro+ sports 9V or 18V operation. 18V mode adds more headroom and warmth. This is controlled by a slider switch in the battery compartment.
  • In addition to the Drive, Level, and Tone Knobs, the ST-9 Pro+ also has a “Mid-Enhance” knob which controls where the mids are boosted. Clockwise moves the boost towards the high mids, while counter-clockwise moves the boost to the lower mids. To me, this is probably the most useful feature, as you can dial in the mid boost to adapt the pedal to different amps.
  • The ST-9 Pro+ also has a switch that selects either “Classic” or “Low Boost.” Low Boost gives a 12dB boost at 100Hz and a 4dB boost a 500Hz. This can be quite useful for fattening up single coil guitars!
  • Finally, the ST-9 Pro+ has true-bypass switching.

OMG!!! I love the features on this pedal! Were I to consider getting another pedal in the Tube Screamer lineage, this pedal would be at the top of my list! However, with a street price of around $206, it’s not a cheap proposition. But with it’s features, it certainly warrants a close look; and based upon my experience with Maxon pedals, their build and sound quality is undeniable. While I don’t use it much any longer, my CP-9 Pro+ compressor is a testament to that quality (I paid $250 used for that pedal), and it’s a pedal I’ll always have. As for the ST-9 Pro+, I’ll see if I can find a place where I can audition it.

Finally, here’s a great demo video that shows off the ST-9 Pro+ quite nicely:

For more information, check out the Maxon ST-9 Pro+ page!

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Mini-Review: Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 1, 2010| 3 Comments »

This is a “mini-review” only because I wanted to provide feedback on it after using it, and because I only used it in a limited way. The Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay is a digital/analog delay pedal meaning it is a digital delay with an analog direct signal path – or as Mad Professor puts it, the direct signal path is made of analog amplifiers with no filtering. In other words, it’s supposed to be transparent with no tone coloration.

Okay, I’ll just cut to the chase. This is about the sweetest delay pedal I’ve ever played through! It can do really subtle, ambient stuff, but also nicely textured “The Edge-” like delay. But no matter where you set it, the delay never turns to mush. It retains your tones, and is super-sweet.

At first glance, you might think this is a typical analog delay pedal, but it is a digital delay, and thus nowhere near as dark as I’ve heard analog delay pedals, which has kept me from getting an analog delay in the first place. I just don’t get into the really dark, brooding type of delay. But I’d easily consider the Deep Blue Delay. It’s simply killer!

I only used it with a Yamaha APX900 acoustic to add some subtle ambient textures to my finger picking. I was also running the signal into a nice little Genz-Benz Shenandoah JRLT. Level was at about 10 am, Delay about noon, and Repeat at about 11 am. I wanted to get just a subtle hall-like echo. All I can say was that it performed astounding well! Combined with that sweet ToneCandy Spring Fever reverb pedal, and I was awash in ambient heaven!

I did play with higher levels of each setting, and was amazed at the overall clarity of my tone. No mush or mud. My signal stayed nice and clean, and the note separation was always retained. And with this delay, smooth is the name of the game. There’s nothing harsh in the delay the Deep Blue produces.

Apparently – and I still have to corroborate this – the Deep Blue was designed to be place in front of or in the effects loop of an amp, and can be used either before or after distortion. Pretty amazing, as most time-based effects only work well in a loop and after distortion only. The folks at Mad Professor really put a lot of thought into this pedal. The guy at the shop where I tested it at – and someone whom I trust implicitly – plays the Deep Blue in front of an old Traynor amp, and loves it.

But there is a down side to this pedal, and that’s its price. At a street price between $325 and $350, it’s an expensive proposition, and like the Spring Fever, is probably the only thing that keeps me from getting this pedal. It’s tough to justify spending that much for a pedal, but that’s just me. Once a pedal gets in the $250 range, I start getting a bit antsy. But that said, if I had the scratch to get one, I’d run out right now and grab that pedal! It’s that good! (Damn! Knowing me, I’ll probably end up getting it… 🙂 ).

In any case, it gets 4.75 Tone Bones

Pros – Absolutely fantastic delay! Decay is perfect, and note clarity is like nothing I’ve heard.

Cons – Pricey

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Gear Review: ToneCandy Spring Fever Reverb

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 23, 2010| 4 Comments »


ToneCandy Spring Fever Reverb

Summary: Just about the sweetest spring reverb pedal I’ve ever heard, plus the pedal sports a nice, transparent clean booster that you can even use on its own!

Pros: I’ve heard simulated spring reverbs before, and they’ve been nice, but not THIS nice! Supposedly modeled after the original BOSS spring reverb sound, but takes it way ahead!

Cons: Very very pricey for a just a reverb with boost. Also, doesn’t run on batteries

Features:

  • Volume knob acts as a transparent clean boost
  • Reverb knob acts as a “dwell.”
  • Mix knob controls the amount of wet/dry signal (this is a very nice feature)
  • True bypass
  • All analog except for the simulation chip
  • Can do the full range of spring reverb from adding a tinge of grease to heavy surf.

Price: $275 Street

Tone Bone Score: 4.5 ~ I was completely blown away by the sound of this pedal, but the price completely scared me away. If cost isn’t an in issue for you, you’ll find none better than this!

Being friends with guys at a music shop can be incredibly useful, since they’ll show off their new stock; plus, knowing that I may buy it if they show it to me, they don’t hesitate to show it off. 🙂 Luckily, I usually have enough self-control to not buy most of the stuff they demonstrate.

I have to admit, though, that I was VERY tempted to get this pedal because I haven’t heard one like it – ever! It can slather on the ‘verb quite nicely and note clarity is retained at any setting along the reverb knob sweep. Obviously ToneCandy figured out some great values for pre-delay and trail. I just couldn’t get over how great it sounded with chord progressions and single note picking!

In fact, A/B’ing it with a Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue just blew me away! It sounded even better than an actual spring reverb! Fender spring reverb, at least to me, is the gold standard in spring reverb, and for a pedal to sound even better than that, well, needless to say, that made a compelling case to get this reverb pedal. Add to that a completely transparent boost, and you’ve got a great pedal that you can put at the end of your signal chain and get all sorts of usage out of it! I could feel the GAS really starting to build up.

Then I asked the price, and my eyes bulged! At $275 for the pedal, that made my GAS go away pretty quickly. If price wasn’t an issue for me, I’d totally go for this pedal, but unfortunately, at that price, I started thinking, “I could get a couple of decent pedals, or even a nice Squier for close to that price.”

Needless to say, I didn’t get the pedal, though I do have to applaud ToneCandy for coming up with a fantastic spring reverb tone. Maybe if I can find one used in the future for a lower price I’ll get it. But for now, I’ll just gaze at it in the glass case when I go to the shop…

Here’s a sound sample:

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First Impressions: Boss RC-2 Loop Station Pedal

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 19, 2010| 4 Comments »

I’ve been playing a solo acoustic gig for about 7 years now, and in all that time I’ve wanted to do lead breaks in various songs. But being a solo artist, and not having all that much time to spend on backing tracks, needless to say, lead breaks were out of the question – until now.

I just picked up a used Boss RC-2 the other day, and since playing with it, I just know that it is going to change the way I do my solo gigs forever. Even if I don’t keep this particular unit (which I probably will for quite awhile, as it does everything I need for now), I’m a total convert to using a looper!

Not that it hasn’t been challenging. Consistent tempo is tantamount to creating loops on the fly. Playing solo, I’ve gotten used to doing rhythmic embellishments, which don’t quite work all the time with a looper, and I’ve had to practice cutting off the record at just the right time. That has probably been the biggest challenge so far. But I’m starting to get the hang of it, and I’m just loving the possibilities it opens up for me!

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Gear Review: Doodad Guitars Check-A-Board RED Overdrive-Booster

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 11, 2010| 2 Comments »

Click to enlarge

 Doodad Guitars Check-A-Board RED Overdrive Booster

Summary: Two independent, true-bypass pedals in a single “bastard-proof” enclosure that can be used standalone or together. Overdrive is based upon the classic Tube Screamer, but has a voice all its own, and the booster is nice and transparent.

Pros: Fantastic overdrive tone! The overdrive is super responsive, and the sustain at high drive settings is killer!

Cons: I just keep the tone pot wide open. But the cut can be dramatic when you want to reduce some highs. Just a nit.

Features:

  • Both overdrive and booster are true-bypass.
  • Runs on a single 9V battery
  • Overdrive controls: Drive, Tone, and Volume
  • Booster controls: Boost (gain)

Price: $139 street

Tone Bone Score: 5.0 ~ I admit it, I’m partial to overdrive pedals, and while I love every single one that I have, I just never get tired of them. This pedal is going on my board! I’m buying the eval unit!

Holland Produces More than Just the Dire Straits

I’ve been wanting to review gear from European companies for awhile; that is, European companies that don’t have much of a US presence, so TC Electronics was kind of out. So when I discovered Doodad Guitars by accident through some research on Marble amps – another Dutch company – I knew I had to find a way to check out their gear. So hooking up with Mal Stich of the The Alternative Guitar and Amplifier Company in Southern California got me the Check-A-Board RED overdrive/booster. I’ve been having TONS of fun with this pedal since I got it for review. So much fun that I’ve decided to keep the pedal. 🙂

Gig Report

Not wanting to lug my full rig to the church this past Sunday – which usually includes an amp head, cabinet, PRX150-Pro attenuator, my pedal board, plus a couple of guitars – I opted to go a bit more sparse. This time, I loaded up my Champ 600, a 1 X 12 cab, my Squier CV Tele; then threw the Check-A-Board RED pedal and my TU-2 tuner in a gig bag. Setup time: Less than five minutes. 🙂

This past Sunday, my drummer was traveling on business, but even without a drummer, I like to have a little dirt at my fingertips. And since I wasn’t using an attenuator, an overdrive pedal was my only option, so what better way to test the RED pedal?

I needed to pop in a 9V battery, and I have to say that I dig the battery compartment in this pedal! As opposed to many pedals that have a separate lead wire that you have to attach the battery to, then place into the battery housing, the RED pedal’s housing actually swings out completely! You just slide the battery into the compartment, swing the housing back into the pedal, and you’re off to the races! Nice and convenient!

For volume setup, I first adjusted the Champ’s volume to my normal gig volume which, in a church as most worship players will attest, isn’t very loud; especially when you’re sans a drum kit. By the way, my guitar was also set to just above half-way on its volume knob, so I’d have some wiggle room. Once I had that dialed in, I set the RED pedal’s drive to about 2pm, tone wide open, and set volume at just above unity. That gave me a nice rhythm grind, and with the drive set where it was, if I added more volume on the guitar, it wouldn’t produce too much more volume – just more dirt, which is what I wanted.

At those pedal settings, the RED pedal really sustains. That’s what you’d expect from a Tube Screamer-like pedal. But as I mentioned in my “first impressions article,” it has a voice all its own, foregoing the huge mid-range hump, and presenting a much  flatter EQ response that brings out the highs and lows a bit more (just so long as you keep the tone wide open as it is a high-cut filter).

While it responds dynamically much like a Tube Screamer, its voicing is darker and has more “balls.” That’s a great combination, especially when you’re playing through a naturally bright amp like the Champ 600. It provides an overall tonal balance, and that’s very pleasing to me. 🙂

There were two things that struck me during the service about the RED pedal: First of all, even when I was wailing on the strings, the string separation was phenomenal! This pedal doesn’t know how to get mushy! Even on our closing song where I cranked the Drive – and we could play with more stage volume because the congregation gets LOUD 🙂 – my sound never turned to mush, and I was able to weave in and out of power chords and little fills and not worry about producing just a wall of sound. KILLER!

Secondly, where I had the pedal set up for most of the service, the RED pedal’s dynamic response was much like an amplifier’s, and it responded incredibly well to volume and knob and pick attack. For instance, there was one song near the beginning of the service where I stepped into the aisle to egg on the congregation to sing with the band. When I stepped out, we were in the middle of a nice, driving section of the song. I kind of got a bit carried away 🙂 and lingered there a bit too long and couldn’t get back to the RED pedal to switch off the overdrive before the softer verse section. So I turned my guitar volume down just a bit, and used some light hybrid picking for the verse section. The pedal cleaned right up, and had just a tad bit of dirt on the high-end which served as some shimmer. Needless to say, I pretty much kept the pedal on for each song we did, with the exception of a meditative, prayerful song where I had to play absolutely clean.

Funny thing, while I set up the booster, I didn’t even use it this past service. I’ll definitely use it when I use my regular rig, as I’ll have my attenuator and can set my amp to its sweet spot. Then I can take advantage of slamming the front end with some gain. 🙂

I DIG THIS PEDAL!!! At $139 from The Alternative Guitar and Amplifier Company – and I don’t say this often – but this is a must-have pedal for me! Looks like I’m going to have to buy the evaluation unit! Yeah, I know, I’m adding yet another overdrive pedal to my collection, but as Tony Stark said in “Iron Man,” “I gotta have it.” But unlike Stark, I won’t box it up and put it in storage. This pedal is going on my board!

How It Sounds

I’m using the clips I recorded for my first impressions article again. I’m actually working on a video review of the pedal, so I didn’t want to record more clips. But here’s a sampling for your listening pleasure. For this, I’m using my Aracom PLX18BB 18-Watt Plexi clone.

Aracom PLX18BB By Itself

Overdrive Engaged

Booster Engaged

Here’s a video to whet your appetite:

For more information, go to The Alternative Guitar and Amplifier Company and talk to Mal Stich. You will not be disappointed!

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