florian_tennstedt's Reviews

Versatile Chaos Application

Thats what I Think the VCA truly stand for. The Kassandra has Tons of useable Waveforms which all Sound very pleasant or threatening just as you wish. From the classic orange Box to complete chaos: everything is possible. Plus Tap Tempo. I'd call this the most versatile and best sounding Phaser I ever have and probably will ever have met - and I met a few by now.

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All hail the king of cats!

This is an insane and absolutely unique pedal combining a Tonebender MkII and an oldschool rat in one pedal. Great for 70s rock but also for punkrock and stoner/doom. I got it quiet cheap and I very much love this pedal.

I've waited for something like this..

.. and I wasn't disappointed. At least not too much. Unfortunately, you always have to make some compromises with such cheap guitars. In my case it was rubbing pot knobs. I don't think the plastic internals were cast straight the potis themselves appear straight to me. But that's it about flaws. The neck feels good, is straight and the fret job is done very well for that price tag. It came setup ok for beginners, but since I didn't like the strings it came with I lowered the strings a little before putting on new ones. No buzz no dead spots. This guitar plays great and it sounds great too. The humbucker is pretty hot at 14kohm and I might change it sometime. For a cheap guitar this surprised me in a good way over all. I always wanted a Tele with a Humbucker, but couldn't afford a DLX and I only wanted one PU, because I really like guitars with only a single pickup. It stays in tune and I have fun playing it, what could I ask more? I give it 5 stars because the poti thing only was a minor issue to me, I just pulled them out a little and they do their job properly now. For its price you get a decent beginner guitar or modding platform.

The classic wah sound for reasonable money

This does what you expect from a Wah pedal. Funky licks and Kirk Hammett style soli alike and more. Sturdy construction and red fasel. When on a budget and in need of a trusty wah, try to get one of these on the used market. You won't be disappointed.

The amp your band members say will be too quiet for rehearsal..

..then telling you to turn down the volume. I recently bought this from a local dealer (support them) and tested it in different situations. Many people say that the PPC08 box you'll often see as recommended doesn't sound good and that there is not enough low end etc.. I've not experienced that duo, but as far as my experience with orange amps goes, they like open backs more than closed ones, especially when they are V30 loaded. I played the MT with an vintage 8" EHX Speaker in an half open chassis and cannot confirm any missing low end. It sounded nice and it could go pretty loud, just ask my neighbors. This amp should be connected to a 4x12, that's where his power can be fully harnessed. Some folks say that it is not loud enough for practicing with a drummer or gigging. Well if your drummer is a 7foot lumberjack playing whole oaks that might be true. Also if you are dialing this amp in to be clean af, which it isn't really meant to be. This thing is for crunch, but even high gain distortion can be achieved if paired with a dirt pedal. I like to dial in an kind of edge of break up sound (settings below) and it does this fine. Someone mentioned that you can plug it into any cab with an impedance of 4ohm or greater, which is true (I have it plugged into a FM412SL with 4ohm) BUT you should be aware not to fully crank it up then because it might result in the amp doing an emergency shutdown. This is why older versions are labeled with 4ohm min. speaker out, newer with 8ohm, because the amps did shut down when cranked too much, so Orange rated them for 8ohm. In my opinion you can get it loud enough to compete in a mediocre loud band/ with mediocre loud drummer, it won't be Fender clean but still clean and loud enough. I will gig with it soon, it might be too quiet for a non miced gig with an 8" cab, but for a gig with a miced 4x12 cab and a good PA it is absolutely sufficent imho.

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Good chorus, great Toneprints

This pedal has three modes to select from, one "normal" chorus (from what I heard an Emulation of the 80s TC Chorus/Flanger), a Tri-Chorus (pretty selfexplanatory) and Toneprint. Well the "stock" modes are pretty decent but didn't quite get me where I want to go (having a chorus which sounds good clean and with a lot of dirt in the signal chain -> Rat/Katzenkönig). The Toneprint mode was a good help with that. I was able to try out a lot of different prints from a ton of different artists, using the app it took no time to switch from one to another, because you can beam your sound to the pedal in no time (like three steps/seconds). You should turn your amp down or mute it, because the sound that occurs while beaming is pretty nasty. I stuck with the Brian May Chorus, because it was very warm and smooth with clean tone and got slightly into flanger territory when hit with the dirt pedals. With the "stock" modes one of these two things weren't as I wanted, they are good, but just didn't do both jobs the way I want them be done. The Toneprint option was what saved it from reselling, I wanted a chours which sounds good with cleans and distortion and which can take the place of my vintage analogue Boss chorus.

The best compact spring reverb pedal there is

Soundwise it captures the original Fender Springtank Unit from the 60s perfectly, I do not have the direct experience for comparison but that's what many say on the net. It takes some time to get to know the conrtols but then you can have the most authentic spring reverb sounds. The surfy bear might be a little more versatile and better in sound quality, but that thing is a pedalboard on its own. If you can grab one of these, do it. You won't need nor want another spring reverb ever again.

There might be better Tremolo pedals..

..but these do cost a lot more than this one. With the vibrato option this pedal is very versatile. As someone mentioned the depth could be bigger for rather extreme sounds, but you can get pretty authentic trem/vib sounds with it, at least enough to play covers of some 60s songs etc. It's built like a tank.

Mighty EQ - lots of sounds to be achieved

I just can't chime in with the Babydistortion lullabies and meme stuff with this one. The truth is, it doesn't sound that good in front of a clean amp, despite you can get some good sounds from it in this setting as well. It's best used as a pre amp in the FX Loop of an amp. Then you can get quiet many different sounds from it. The distortion is always on so there is no clearing up with the volume pot, I'd like it when it could be set to no distortion at all and only be an EQ-pedal, but I am sure there's mod to achieve that (I think it's from Brian Wampler). The range starts at dadrock distortion and goes up to the often quoted angry bees in a can. I use it with a Mooer Radar and got some nice sounds out of it, for example I simulated the sound of an EQD Acapulco with it. You can hear a little difference but it's not much. I will try out some different settings but with the mighty para-EQ it is pretty much the Bad Monkey of High-Gain distortion.

Versatility has a new name..

The Mooer Radar is one of the most versatile pieces of gear I have ever come across. It is mainly a cab sim, but also features a power amp section, an EQ and mic simulation. You can choose between 30 stock cab sims (Fender, Marshall, Vox, Diezel, Soldano, and more) in total, 5 of which are Ampeg Bass cab sims, and upload more third party IR's in a total amount of 36 user presets. I didn't bother with that because the stock presets are already great. You can choose between 4 different power amps (by tube, there are 6L6,6V6, EL34 and EL84) which are the most common power amp sections today. The Radar also provides 11 different microphone simulations and an EQ section (one parametric and two graphic, one for guitar and one for bass). You can adjust in- and output-levels, the presence of the chosen power amp, the mic placement (in relation to the cab in the room) and position (in relation to the speaker cone). There are almost endless possibilities only with the stock presets. There are many possible uses: you can use the Radar for recording as well as for gigging when you don't want to carry a big amp and just plug straight into the PA. I haven't tried the last one, but for the next gigs the Radar will be on board for when the amp breaks or there is any need for a DI signal. The Radar also features a headphone output which is nice to have for playing late at night with great sound and without bothering your neighbors or the girlfriend you don't have ;-)

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Best practice Amp ever!!!

This amp is an absolute gem. It features volume, master, treble, mid and bass pots, has a 6" Speaker (Eminence I think) and 10W of power. It is a solid state amplifier but boy this thing gets you some sounds you'd only expect from a tube amp. When turning up the volume you can get very tube-like overdrive-sounds at a very low level too (depending on the master level setting). This also can get unexpectedly loud for its size, still maintaining a very nice sound. The most fender solid state amps are known for their good clean tone, but this one also provides very nice overdriven Sounds without crumbling or any other unwanted features. This also makes it a great secret weapon for recording. I played a lot of Fender solid state practice-amps like the Frontman Series or Champs and what not. None of these can even slightly compete with this brilliant howler cube. Prices on Reverb vary from 150 to 350, if you can get one for under 200, just do it because you won't be disappointed at all.

Decent home cooking Wah

This wah pedal tonewise is like home cooking, nothing too fancy but nothing too unexpected either. The plastic enclosure is nothing I'd worry about, it seems sturdy and durable. The activation switch is a bit stiff, which may get better with age, otherwise some WD-40 could help. The range of the effect could be a bit bigger, but you can get some funky tones out of it as well as some Kirk Hammet soloing stuff.

Best low/mid gain OD

It has all been said, I just wanted to add my two cents and share my experience..

I was looking for an overdrive pedal that doesn't, like many others, start to crumble at the end when chords fade away and I tested many and many more. This one is what convinced me. It can be set as the main drive hence to its amp-like tone and be boosted with other pedals and vice versa be a boost for Amp-in-a-Box-Pedals (I currently use it to push my mildly driven FDR-1 a bit further). I tend to say it's nearest living relative is the SD-1 (you can get very similar sounds with both), but the OD-3 doesn't have that mid-hump which is typical for TS-style Drive-Pedals. It has a nice and tight bottom-end and is most certainly what is referred to as a "transparent" overdrive because it keeps the sound of your guitar and amp intact and just adds a little grittyness when the gain is set moderately. You get a lot of pedal for not a lot of money.

Good powersupply

This Powersupply is indeed very good when you look on its pricetag. Some people say that the both outlets that can provide higher voltage than 9V are not really isolated, I can't confirm that because I only use 9V Pedals. What I can say is that this item can power more than 5 Pedals for example when using an Y-cable or, like I do, powering another pedal with the output of a TU-3. The only thing you need to consider is that the total amount of power consumption per connection does not exceed the specified amount (300/500mA). No humming or other problems have occured with this, so I can recommend it for boards with not to many not to hungry pedals.

Jack of all trades Preamp / OD

This is a gem. I use it in two slightly different ways. a) on my Board at the very end of the signal chain in front of a clean amp (FM100H or Sidekick 10) for getting that vintage vibe for my sound when playing live. b) as a Preamp together with the Mooer Radar (with 65DLX setting), which simulates the Power-Amp and cabinet for recording. Both ways it sounds great. Some folks mock the integrated Tremolo/Vibrato and Reverb. To set the Speed of the Tremolo you need to hold the footswitch for 2 sec and than tap in the Tempo which some people find annoying, but I find it more practical to do so rather than trying to find the right speed fiddling with a knob. Another "problem" you can read about on the internet is regarding the reverb effect. It simulates the reverb tank of an original '65 Deluxe Reverb and people are saying it does an arbitrarily "Sploiiinggg" like you would get by kicking the amp. I found out that this is not occuring arbitrarily but can be triggered by picking dynamics, especially in high reverb settings. I experienced it to trigger more when there are more overtones in the signal, for example when using another drive-pedal in front of it. I really like this pedal, it provides the same possibilities as three separate pedals in one compact enclosure. It's my main sound pedal for gigging and I am really happy that I could track one down for a reasonable price, because they are out of production and sought after so the price for this almost doubled on the used market compared to its original price.

Versatile Flanger

It does what you would a flanger expect to do. I tried it with a bass and with a guitar as well, my experience was that the effect is a little more subtle with bass. Sounds good and I got it dirt cheap. Because it is out of production and there are not too many in the used market the price for this is rather high, even higher than it's original price.

Decent drive pedal

The advertisement for this is a bit too promising. You can't set the drive to max and then play clean sound only by using a very soft pick attack (even when playing with a feather it would still overdrive the signal). Nonetheless it reacts very good to picking dynamics and volume pot setting, just not as good as the ad suggests. The sound is kinda tube-ish, but I found it hard to find a tone setting which is not too muddy. Took me some time but finally I got it. I'd rather suggest to use it as a stand-alone drive in front of a merely clean amp than boosting an already driven amp, but you can do both. I read somewhere that this pedal simulates the drive channel of the Roland Cube30X or sth likewise, can't confirm that because I've never played one.

Vox in a Box

This is a great pedal. I use it in two slightly different ways. a) on my Board at the very end of the signal chain in front of a clean amp (FM100H or Sidekick 10) for getting that voxy vibe for my sound. b) as a Preamp together with the Mooer Radar (with a AC30 Alnico Blue setting), which simulates the Power-Amp and cabinet. Both ways it sounds great. You can have it rather clean or dime in some drive (even more than an actual AC30 would provide). It has a lot of sounds in it and I am not nearly finished exploring them.

Classic Vintage Tone OD / Preamp

I really dig this gem. I use it in two slightly different ways. a) on my Board at the very end of the signal chain in front of a clean amp (FM100H or Sidekick 10) for getting that vintage vibe for my sound. b) as a Preamp together with the Mooer Radar (with a 59 BM setting), which simulates the Power-Amp and cabinet. Both ways it sounds great. For guitar I recommend the bright Input. I am waiting for my FRV-1 Reverb to arrive and pair up with this.

Decently operating Comp

It does what you expect from a compressor, but doesn't squish the sound too much. The Hi-Lo emphasis control is very nice to have because it offers the possibility to use it as a treble or bass boost or anything in between. Makes it a very unique pedal. These series of marshall pedals deserve more attention, because they are very affordable on the used market and offer good quality.