danielmetchells's Reviews

More versatile than you think

Picked this up for £30 used with no box from a top guy who got it as part of a guitar trade but felt it wasn't for him.

Plugged in and the first thing that struck me was the sheer power within the controls. The gain and volume knobs are extremely interactive with your amp's preamp section and the eq controls are similarly wide-ranging - from a quick internet search it mentions 12db on each and 100db of gain on the bumph from the release date. Of course, your own mileage may vary depending on how you set your amp.

In practice and using a Gibson SG with low output humbuckers into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, I found my favourite tones were keeping the volume around the same level as my clean tone and the gain low and slightly backing off the highs and lows got me a great 70s style rock rhythm tone which reacted well to being pushed by a TS-9 or Prince of Tone into heavier drive territory.

With a Fender USA Stratocaster into the same amp, I felt the treble needed some taming, but after a few tweaks I was able to get a beautiful crunch that bloomed upon the use of the neck pickup.

Whilst it can do the metal thing, and even branched into a fuzz-like territory it seems the strength of this pedal is in adding an extra channel to your amp type situation, where in setting the controls with sensitivity can really give you a lot more variety when used in conjunction with other effects. It'll take some shifting off my board.

Never sell it

I had one, sold it, then had to buy another. Tells you the whole story! There’s not enough said about the Comp Cut mode, especially using the limiter/boost switch to goose the signal going in to it. Fantastic pedal.

Always on

I never turn this off. Set on the boost, it adds a bit of grit to my cleans and stacks incredibly well with the Fulltone Fulldrive in front of it. Very tempted to buy a second one!

Preferable to the Dyna Comp

I have both. This is brighter, louder and the attack knob gives you more control. When faced with a choice between the two, this is the one to go for.

This Rat has Teeth!

The Keeley mod adds volume, dynamic range and above all else, wonderful wonderful attack. Used as a "tip over the edge" after a Tube Screamer in my signal chain, and this thing strips paint without dialling the gain past 9 o'clock. If you see one, don't think, don't wait, just buy it. Thank me later.

The chorus pedal to end all chorus pedals

To start with, it's probably best if I frame my background with chorus pedals. I dislike them. Immensely. They sound either cheap and abrasive or muddy and indistinct. Or more accurately, like the 1980s or the worst parts of the 1990s. However, very recently I acquired an MXR Carbon Copy Bright for my back-up board, and loved the modulation on the delays, so I thought I'd forgive chorus all of its past misdemeanours and set out to find the right chorus for my rig. I settled originally on the Ross Chorus, but disliked its lack of brightness in attack but loved its warmth. The Chorus Waves has two outputs, one bright and one less so: problem solved! I now have depths of chorus and the attack of my guitar stays intact. Perfect! Having had a conversation with the wonderful gent in Sounds Great near Manchester, it came down to a shootout between this and Jam Man's Flood, which this pedal won hands down for my ears. It came across as more versatile, ranged from more subtle to more extreme and had the advantage of two outputs which can be run in stereo. As a fan of versatility, imagine my delight when I got the pedal home and discovered that under the hood of this little gem hides two tiny potentiometers, which adjust the level of both the input and the output separately, meaning you can use the effect as a boost: a handy trick for those 80s guitar solos! All in all, this pedal has earn it's place on my number one board, and will take something extremely special to shift. The gauntlet is down. I don't see anybody picking it up.

Mine's actually a late 80s/early 90s Platinum series...

...and it was my first "proper" guitar (if I exclude the Squier I learned on). Sadly it fell into disrepair over the years, although I recently put her back together and she really does play as well as I remember. Lovely low action, wide fretboard and easy access to all 24 frets: she is a shredder's delight! Now sadly, I won't be able to crack her out at the weddings I play (unless the couple who had Slayer as their first dance ask us to play an anniversary party), but from a sound perspective, she is more than versatile enough. Both humbuckers are coil-tapped, and so with a couple of tidy Duncans in there, I'm certain she'll definitely be studio-ready!

A must have for all gigging guitarists

Admittedly, I've not even scratched the surface when it comes to tone matching, or indeed explored many of the amp models provided, but considering that I use it as a back up for when I'm gigging, insofar as I have set up a clean, dirty and louder dirty sound that I can plug into the PA should I encounter a significant equipment failure or be having issues with sound limiters, it really does the job perfectly. I have used the Bluetooth connectivity to practice with, and found this useful when learning songs for weddings and corporate functions (no one wants to hear my 15 minute jazz odyssey at those events). I'm not a great fan of the App used to modify the sounds on my iPad though, as I find it a bit cumbersome when saving changes and can't work out how to A/B the changes I've made in a quick fashion.

Loud and portable: do we need anything more?

Picked up a second hand Blues Junior having gigged with it last weekend on a whim. I'm not a fan of its bigger brothers, but wow am I happy with this little monster. For the time being, I don't see a need for any other amp.

Swap the speaker!

Not a massive fan of the Celestion Seventy80, so I replaced it with a Vintage 30. The sound is much more punchy with a lot more clarity, but the trade off for this is a massive difference in weight: with the stock speaker it's very easy to cart around, but less so with the Vintage 30.