ludwik_jahn's Country Pedalboard

It's the perfect mini-board. You can fit 5 or 6 pedals there. There's everything you need to make it work. I like the ability to extend the feet of the board, as to place a power supply down there, something which you can't do with similar Pedaltrain boards that are more expensive. I know it does not work for everybody but it definitely works for me: clean, practical, professional ... and cheap!

This is the pedal version of an amp designed for Guthrie Govan. It was developed in collaboration with Adrian Thorpe, of Thorpy FX, a made in the UK boutique pedal brand. Personally, I knew neither the brand nor the artist for whom it was designed. And that's okay because what matters is just the sound that comes out of this little box and it's absolutely killer. Owner of a Wampler Plexi Drive, I wanted to add an additional amp-in-a-box but one that was more saturated. The Jack V1 does this but not only. In fact, it's the most versatile overdrive/distortion pedal I've ever tried and yet it has a very particular sound, which the EQ knobs and the gain range will allow you to sculpt very finely. On the EQ side, don't hesitate to push the highs because they are quite discreet. On the other hand, the bass can go very, very far and the same goes for the mids. My "sweet spot", for now, is bass at a third, mids barely above half and treble at two thirds. With that, I have the impression that the notes come out very precisely, especially the single notes which go into singing leads. From a gain point of view, it will go from a barely dirty and very mellow clean sound to super silky sounds with infinite sustain. The grain of this pedal is indeed really special. It's fatty and absolutely incomparably soft. For rhythm, it delivers something fat, chunky, seemingly not ideal for palm mutes but in fact the EQ can fix that! I would describe the sound as retro-modern: it can be vintage, a little bluesy at low gain but in reality, although it does not venture into heavy saturated extreme metal, the sound that comes out has something very contemporary to it. For me, it's great for progressive, alternative metal but also post-rock and not too extreme post-metal. I really tried it out haphazardly. I had seen a quick demo but I thought I would opt for either the Sheriff (Marshall) or the Kraken (Mesa-Boogie). I don't know which amp the Jack emulates exactly (I mean, apart from the brand's amp of the same name, obviously!). Some speak of a Soldano, others of a Dumble... I can't characterize it but it's a sound that immediately grabbed my guts. The Kraken was great too, but I absolutely needed this one instead. I feel like I have both a Swiss army knife and a sound that really stands out from the ordinary. I add that the pedal is also quite silent, that it reacts to the volume knob and that therefore you can set it with the gain quite far and make all the possible sounds at the tip of your finger. It will obviously join my pedalboard but it could also be perfect for a light board, with just a delay, and I could play almost everything with that. Highly recommended!

The Way Huge Aqua Puss has a good reputation and for good reasons. It's a short analog delay, perfect for slapback, doubling, faux-spring reverb, etc. It does not do much else but it's very good, even excellent at what it does. Here's my advice for using it, though. While the delay time can be used all the way, going from extremely short to fairly short delays, the other two knobs need to be taken with caution, especially "blend". While at 0, you just get your dry signal, it become REALLY audible very quickly. For me, between 9 and 10, you get everything you need. More than that is for washed out delays and is probably useful if your tastes are somewhere between Dick Dale and, say, OhSees or Ty Segall. But for just a reasonable amount of delay volume, that does not mess with your sound, 9-10 is the max. In fact it can be even set at 8.30 and be fairly audible, albeit subtle. Same with the "feedback" knob because you have to keep in mind it's a very short delay (300 ms) max, so even at minimum, you're going to get a very audible first repeat and they multiply very quicly. As a result, that's the sort of pedal I love at 45 but had I bought it 15 or 20 years ago, I would have found it useless and would probably have sold it. It's useless for Shoegaze stuff or David Gilmour-kind of trippy stuff. It's perfect for a slight boost, doubling and all sort of slap backs.

I used to think Strymon pedals weren't for me. I have nothing against boutique pedals, far from it, but for me, Strymon was like a Rolex, a sign of success, no doubt, but not really the idea of something exciting, something gritty... especially since I like pedals with a maximum of three or four knobs where you can immediately find the sound you want and hardly ever change it.

But it turned out I was traveling in a mid-sized city in the United States, and the store right across from where I was staying was THE Strymon dealer in the region. Was I going to cave in? Well, yes: after trying an Ultraviolet (great), a Lex (also great, but not really for me), I walked out with this marvel on which I got a $50 discount (still quite expensive, though!).

So, what is the Zelzah and why did I give in? Well, in fact, while the pedal presents itself as a dual phaser (4 stages on one side, 6 stages on the other), it offers much more than that.

On the left, the 4-stage section. We're in Phase 90 or classic Small Stone territory. A typical '70s sound, but that's not all. Strymon offers some out-of-the-ordinary options. First, there's the mix knob, which ranges from unaltered sound to pure phaser (midway) to vibrato (the phaser sound, but not mixed with the clean sound). This already allows for a wide palette of sounds. But that's not all because there's also a selector that switches from classic phaser to a "barber" option (instead of going up and down, the phaser sound seems to eternally rise... like watching a drill bit spin endlessly, to give you an idea). Then there's the "envelope" option, where the phaser starts sounding like an envelope filter with the depth adjusting the filter sensitivity and the speed its range. So, you get a sort of auto-wah. On the right, the 6-stage section, there are even more options with a "voice" knob that shifts from phaser to flanger (12 o'clock) then to chorus (fully turned) and everything in between. It's absolutely incredible. There's also a "resonance" switch, reminiscent of the Small Stone, that enhances the phaser's feedback effect with different outcomes depending on where the voice is set. So, you get an infinite variety of modulation sounds, not just two phasers, but – to recap – flanger, chorus, vibrato, and auto-wah. Plus, both sides are independent and can be combined. Add to this stereo capability, a USB port for MIDI control, the possibility of adding an expression pedal, etc., and you have the modulation pedal to end all modulation pedals. I'm not saying you have a CE-2, a VB-2, and an Electric Mistress at your fingertips... but the range of possibilities is still very extensive.

And yet, the designers have done everything to make the settings intuitive so that it is easy to find highly satisfactory sounds. In addition, whatever the settings on the left and right, they naturally blend into each other. No position is ugly or too extreme. It's as if all possible configurations (hundreds, no doubt) were designed to remain musically relevant.

In the end, the only flaw lies in the very quality of the product: you switch from one sound to another and you always want to change (the auto-wah is, in my opinion, the most fun effect... it sounds like Jerry Garcia's Mu-tron, but it can also be set to make a kind of cocked wah for playing "Kiss" by Prince, you get the idea).

In short, apart from the fact that you need to shell out at least 300 euros for this type of pedal and my lack of interest in some of the possible options (yes, you can edit almost everything, update the firmware, etc.), I think I have the most amazing modulation pedal I've ever played. A real Swiss army knife and not just "the Strymon phaser."

This small pedal can add up to 20 dBs of gain. It's so powerful I can't imagine anyone using it above noon. Set just above 9 and in front of my dirt pedal, it's already nringing à good kick. People say that boost after dirt is for volume and before is for distortion but it is not completely true. I guess it dépends on how you set the dirt pedal and whether it has a lot of headroom but I can say that with my current senting both volume and gain are booster. It's not transparent as it brings some sparkle but for me it's a good thing. I guess you could set it at almost minimum and it would still bring something, like a good buffer.

I am really amazed by this little power supply which is not only practical but also complete and silent. In terms of characteristics, there are 8 sockets delivering 9 volts, as well as one 12 volts and one 18 volts. There is also a mini jack adapter and one for positive center pedals. There are small blue LEDs even if it's a bit of a gimmick because in reality they should have only indicated which sockets are on. It fits very easily under a standard pedalboard, it's exactly the size you need. I'm playing in an old apartment so there might be electrical problems. However, I have no background noise issue. So I'm very satisfied with it. I put one on each of my pedalboards and for €30, I don't see what could be better.