sveinpedersen's Metal Pedalboard

I've never been a Strymon guy, and when I needed a super versatile reverb, this little handy box peaked my interest. Have had it for 1,5 years now and man - never disappoints. All the settings are super fun, and since I play everything from country with a slapback spring reverb kind of deal, to atmospheric black metal, the versatility of this pedal is taken to its limits - and it always holds up. The controls are super intuitive in the MK2, and a fast reading of the manual makes everything super easy to understand and remember. This pedal gets a bonus for its super lush chorus effect, the "detune", which pairs nicely with my chorus pedal - same goes for the delay effect (which I personally don't use too often because I never play with delay).

I have a Pedaltrain Nano Max where all the pedals are carefully selected to play everything from Elliott Smith to Johnny Cash to Rolling Stones to Black Sabbat to Kyuss to My Bloody Valentine to Darkthrone - this pedal absolutely fits that gig.

I have a Pedaltrain Nano Max where all the pedals are carefully selected to play everything from Elliott Smith to Johnny Cash to Rolling Stones to Black Sabbat to Kyuss to My Bloody Valentine to Darkthrone - this pedal absolutely fits that gig.

It does everything from a slight volume boost/EQ to overdrive to distortion to fuzz. Three clipping modes, EQs built in boost and shitloads of dB if you need it. Would recommend checking out the manual so you can unlock the full potential of this pedal, as the EQ works differently than expected. This has the overdrive sound of my band and all the bands I like to listen to - again, it can do anything. So for my usecase it's perfect. One of the funniest things to do with this is to max out volume, drive, and boost, and drive that into another overdrive pedal (like a Soul Food or DS-1) to absolutely overload it and create a weird glitchy 8-bit sounding fuzz. No overdrive can survive the power of the EAE Longsword being flodded into it.

Soft switches and top mounted jacks on the newest versions are just the cherries on top.

Really good gain stage on this pedal. It works as a clean volume boost so it can increase the volume of my fuzzes for solos etc. Turning up the gain it becomes a really nice overdrive pedal. Turning the gain all the way up it starts distorting in a nice way. I boosted some volume and slight gain from my an overdrive into it, and it turned into a super spitty sticky fuzz. Really awesome and versatile! The chorus side is also quite unique. It can do everything from the vinyl warp sound, to crazy spaceship synth sounds, and everything in between. The lag knob lets you control how far behind the modulated signal lags behind, up to a whole 1,5 seconds late. I have also found that with a small delay, medium mix, and no rate or depth, it actually works very nice as a sort of warm slapback delay (one short repeat).

Remarks: - Gain stage is AFTER the chorus section, so when using both you will be running modulation into gain - You can use either side of the pedal alone - you can use this only as an overdrive pedal or only a chorus (I would just buy a Siren instead). Really like that, because now I have a new overdrive pedal on my board after my fuzz, meaning I can volume boost fuzzes. - The LED in the middle, slightly to the left, shows rate AND depth by intensity of the LED and frequency of light.

New features on the v.2: - A "low" knob for the gain side of the pedal, letting you add some bass into your signal as chorus pedals often kill bass. - Soft switches - Quieter clock chip

A bit disappointed that some of the same downsides still exists on the v.2 though.

Downsides: - There's a great amount of dB loss when engaging the chorus side. I would turn on the chorus first and then set the overdrives and what not to taste after that. It kinda ruins it as a live-pedal, but great as a studio tool. - The chorus can become quite muddy with fuzz, instead of giving that ripping lead tone that one often associates with fuzz+modulation (listen to the guitar solo on "Cherub Rock" by The Smashing Pumpkin and you hear what I mean)

These last points are quite important to me personally, which is why it only gets three stars. I still have it on my "studio" board, but it has officially been retired from my band rig.