artifex_adrift's MXR Pedalboard

While this pedal is far from being a one-trick pony, it definitely has it's left and right lateral limits as far as where you can go with it. As much as you can chalk it up as "just a really expensive ring mod", the quality of the pedal itself as well as the sound is amazing. I can dial in tremolo sounds or get really high-pitch laser gun noises all by just adjusting a few knobs. And the knobs are not in constant need of adjusting by hand to keep things interesting, there are dedicated inputs for foot controllers. That way with a small string of expression pedals, you can sit on a stool and take this thing for a ride. The sine and square wave switch as well as the low and high grant you the ability to completely shift the parameters of a given setting. The LFO is a a nice touch, as you can dial in just the right amount of effect from one of the signals you have dialed in. Great control over what some see as a single dimensional effect. Word of caution: like a lot of ring modulators on the market, this one "bleeds" into the bypassed signal when disengaged, so I used a home-made loop bypass pedal to take it completely out of my signal chain when not in use.

I'm sure there have been some industry-standard improvements in these types of all-in-one pedalboards over the last 12 years, but my SKB PS-45 hasn't given me a reason to look elsewhere.

Between enough on-board power for 11 pedals, and the fact that it's stereo output with independent external FX loop relays for each channel, this has served my purposes for over a decade. The ability to plug your guitar in and pass the end of your pedal run back to the patch deck, a handful of velcro cable ties means I can keep things neat and in place without it looking like a plate of spaghetti.

The locking latches for the case cover have lasted me over the years, and I can cram this thing anywhere and know my setup will show up at the destination ready to snap off the lid and plug it right in. That's the type of convenience I have come to depend on using this thing. The fact that it has an in-line fuse to protect your setup means you can plug this thing up to a surge protector and know you're hiding your gear behind dual layers of defense should the power situation become unstable.

This is one of the best investments I have made, and while I have other smaller pedalboards that I Frankensteined with external pedal power supplies for other setups, this pedalboard is on my main rig and likely won't be going anywhere any time soon.

While there are chorus pedals out there that are feature-rich with 20 knobs, 7 jacks, and an array of switches, this pedal is a straight-forward all analog chorus pedal that's easy to use and has some tonal options. Matching the line level of your signal chain and dialing in just the right amount of chorus is easy, plus you can either shave off or boost highs and lows. This allows you to experiment with the chorus effect and given that it's a stereo-out, you can get some really amazing sounds out of this thing. I love MXR's modular effects, and for my purposes this is the perfect chorus pedal when I need to add some icy overtones to my sound.

That's right, I loved the first MXR M300 Reverb I purchased so much, I bought another. Why? Because running a stereo setup and being able to dial in two different types of reverb that compliment the amp-cab combos they run on allowed me to sculpt dreamy sonic soundscapes. Being able to blend the dry signal (like in some on-amp reverbs) allows you to help pull back on the leash a bit when you're trying to maintain control over the base signal. However, if you're into the whole "lost at sea" thing with really washy reverbs, there are settings you can dial in with this pedal that can create other-worldly sounds. The more conventional plate and spring settings are absolute gold, MXR did an excellent job at capturing the nuances of these tried and true reverb modes. If you're looking for more synth-like sounds, you can leap across the divide and obtain a totally unreal effects that can hardly still be considered "reverb".

If I bought two, you should buy at least one.

I've built several unbuffered ABY pedals and used a few different buffered ones in the past, but this is the best one yet. It's built with that typical Orange tank-like quality, and the buffered aspect doesn't deplete tone for pedals I have running in front of it. I ran some pretty rigorous tests to get measurements off of a Walrus Audio Deep Six v3 compressor pedal, and there was no remarkable change in signal quality. The phase button on this pedal is the perfect compliment, especially when you're splitting your signal between two larger, high-end amps and don't need any signal anomalies diminishing the quality of your sound. If i ever need to do another dual-amp setup, I'll be buying a second one of these for sure.

I was surprised not only by the diverse, punchy-yet-rich sounds this thing was capable of producing, but realistically the simplicity of the circuitry. Built around the LM308 opamp, it's the quality components and overall craftsmanship that makes this pedal so great. The three-position switch that swaps out what diode combo path is used is actually really interesting, you can tell a major difference between all three if you use a lot of dynamic picking with varying levels of pick attack in your playing. The distortion setting will actually over-saturate a higher gain amp really early, but when you can tame some of the unwanted warms that start to blanket the sound with the articulate tone knob on this pedal, you can reach some very unique tonal regions of your amp you didn't think existed.

I've only tried this on lower wattage tube amplifiers (20 watts max), but it has earned a permanent place on my pedalboard, even through amps that are "too good for pedals".

DISCLAIMER: I use this pedal with guitar, not bass, so your experience may differ.

I actually came into this pedal by happenstance. I had originally ordered the MXR Sub-Machine to fool around with when I was going through a fuzz cycling phase, and was sent the MXR Sub Octave Bass Fuzz by mistake. Just before I initiated the return process for the item, I decided to give it a test drive. I'm glad I did, because I think this is much more what I had in mind when I was shopping around for fuzz pedals that have more boom-and-doom.

Since I used this thing for guitar and not bass, I know the circuit architecture doesn't accommodate some of the frequencies I'm passing through it. With that being said, I don't really get a lot of range from the 'Mid-Level' knob, and the 'Bass' knob eventually stops giving at a certain point. These aren't really "downsides", per se, but it's functionality I can't fully utilize with a guitar.

The rest of the features are outstanding and give me a lot of options when dialing in fuzz from all angles. There is a "Fuzz" and "Gain" knob, which is actually switchable to a "Distortion" mode from a push button. This can help you either go for that tinny, fizzy original fuzz sound, or dive bomb way down on some Sabbath sounding riffs. I prefer to keep things at the lower end and use this pedal as a really deep fuzz. The Octave setting helps generate a cool double octave vibe, and is footswitchable. So if you are using this as an always-on type of pedal, you can toss a dash of that in with a single stomp.

All in all I keep this thing around, and swap it between my smaller pedalboards for giving practice rigs around my house a heavy fuzz option, especially when I'm experimenting with different tube combos in the amps. There are plenty of sweet spots to be found, and while I'll never ditch my Big Muff Pi, I can say this pedal is certainly high up on my list.

I actually sold my original full-size Carbon Copy so I could gain some space back on my main pedalboard. This thing has all the features of the original, and takes up far less space.

It's an analog delay, so there are functional limitations to the delay effect itself. One example being you cannot summon up the infinite blackhole looper-like delay that you could with a digital delay, but that's not a downside. That's not why you want to toss one on your board. Those mild, more musical types of delays that guitarists have used throughout history is what this reminds me more of. It makes it so much more desirable for my purposes, because I'm not the kind of guitarist that strings together 19 different pedals to essentially make my guitar play itself.

There's a certain tactile connection with this delay, you can get a really tight, short ricochet effect, or draw out the longer trails and create really interesting soundscape for those lead moments. It just really responds to more of a "guitarist's guitarist" style of playing versus the cosmic arcade drone playground style.

So I have traditionally used a Boss CS-3 that I performed the Monte Allums mod on, and even gave the Keeley 4-Knob Compressor a shot, but there was something lacking in both. I held out long enough for Walrus Audio to craft this masterpiece, and I'm glad they did. You have the same perceived ailments as most compression pedals as far as higher output pickups, non-isolated power supplies, and untamed settings giving you grief, but take 5 minutes to noodle around with this thing and you'll be glad you did. Where this pedal really fills the void is the amount of precision control over your sound in regards to picking dynamics. Having the level to help achieve unity gain in your signal chain, tone, attack, and sustain are all expected, but the concept of the blend knob helps to precisely control how much of the dry signal you want to preserve. Some setups are near-perfect, and just need that little extra coat of sonic polish to really tighten them up. Others are a dismal and anemic, and require something with the robust amount of tonal control offered by the Walrus Audio Deep Six V3 to give them some life. Regardless of your use-case, you should try to drop one of these in your signal chain to see what it can do that your existing compressor comes up short on.