h_pr

h_pr

GearIQ 1359 Joined Jul 2019 Contributed to 2 artists

Ambient/drone/experimental musician

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Guitars 4

Pedals 18

Everything that the manufacturer's description says is true. It's one of the few Dyna Comp variants that still use the now discontinued CA3080 chip, and components have been optimised so that it has a lower noise floor than on the standard model. The result is indeed the same classic warm Dyna Comp sound and quieter operation. Don't buy if you want a compressor that doesn't colour your sound, but that applies to every Dyna/Ross-inspired compressor. The two internal trim pots are a welcome addition to further tailor the sound. Excellent product.
It's the classic RAT tone in a bigger box with bigger buttons, a bass boost switch, silicon diode or mosfet clipping, 9V or 18V operation, and a socketed opamp that can be replaced with a different opamp of your choice. The pedal is made in USA rather than China, which explains much of the price difference. Apart from the added options, the main differences to the cheaper RAT 2 are: - I haven't tried too many Fat RATs, but overall, my impression is that there is much less difference in sound between individual pedals. While some RAT 2s sound great and others not quite as great, all Fat RATs I tried sounded great. It appears that ProCo pay better attention to parts tolerance than at the Chinese factory and not use components (especially capacitors) that are too far off the actual specs, resulting in more consistence. - The sweep of the Distortion pot allows more shades of clean and low-gain sounds. It may not be what most people buy RATs for, but it adds versatility. On my RAT 2s, I have about three millimeters between no sound and fairly crunchy distortion, whereas my Fat RAT has an area between 8 and 10 o'clock that goes from clean boost via light overdrive to crunch. Definitely better quality components here too. - The larger knobs feel nice, and the pots move smoothly. Good quality feel. - 18V operation offers a bit more headroom, but not a radically different sound. The socketed opamp caters for those who want the mojo of the LM308 chip (which, for all intents and purposes, sounds near identical to the supplied OP07. BTW, if you shop for LM308s, beware of counterfeits and only buy from reputable dealers). Is it worth the extra money? In the US, the Fat RAT ($199) costs twice as much as the RAT 2 ($99), which seems okay for the better build quality and extra options, but in Europe, the Fat RAT is currently sold at €268, which is a fairly ridiculous price tag and more than three times the price of the RAT 2. I only got mine because a local dealer was offering a substantial discount to clear out old inventory, and I wouldn't have bought it a the regular European price as I dont think it's three times better than the RAT 2.

Amps 4

This evolved out of the Vox MV50 series of small amps and seems to be an improved (and different sounding) version of the MV50AC in a much more attractive enclosure. The whole stack is actually much smaller than you'd expect and looks incredibly cute, but sounds pretty big. It's based on Korg's NuTube technology, so it's also very lightweight. There's some debate as to how it approximates a real tube sound; my take on this is that it's a fine sounding amp that sounds much more organic than any solid state or modeling amp I've owned, but obviously, it's no contender for an AC15. As I want a bit more oomph than the 10" speaker in the cabinet gives me, I've combined this with a Vox BC112 cabinet (the same that Vox recommends for the MV50 series) with very pleasing results. With a 4Ω cabinet, it's actually very giggable at smaller venues, surprisingly more so (and better sounding) than my Katana 100 Head.

Other Gear 2

Had 65

Apparently this is a clone of the Nadine's Over Drive, an extremely rare and obscure pedal made in Japan for a music store in Hollywood called Nadine's. It sports a thick, muscular distortion sound with a slight mid hump, but less high end than a Tube Screamer. It sounds a bit too muffled for my taste, and it's a weird choice for a sub-€20 overdrive, but usually you get worse pedals for the money. The main drawback isn't the sound, which is actually okay, it's the cheap plastic look, even though the build is more solid than you might expect.
This is the revised version of Danelectro's Cool Cat Drive, made after they discontinued the first version because it was a bit too similar to the OCD. Like version 1, this is a MOSFET overdrive, but tuned differently and sounding somewhat more generic, lacking some of the guts and warmth of the first version. There's a "lo-fi" switch in the battery compartment that makes it sound a tad more interesting. It's a good overdrive, especially for the money, but if you want the fabled Danelectro OCD clone, you need to look out for version 1, not this one.
Maybe one of Danelectro's best overdrive designs. This has been designed to break up your tube amp rather than provide much distortion by itself, so it gives a ton of volume to your sound. There's also a subtle, well balanced mid boost that adds presence and a touch of warmth to the guitar tone - I like this a lot, so much that for a while I used the PoT on a lower volume setting just to color the guitar sound a bit. This would easily have been a 5-star pedal if two of them hand't given up on me (fortunataly still within the warranty period). After a few months of regular use, both started to make scratchy noises while and briefly after switching them on; later, one eventually started to switch itself on and off at random, wile the other one died completely. This seems to be a tragic case of a fantastic pedal manufactured under insufficient quality control.
This may be the best digital delay that you can buy for under €30. Clean, pristine sound, noise free, and well balanced tone. The form factor and the knobs take some getting used to, and the plastic enclosure is probably how they got to the price point, but it's more solid than it looks. If you need a digital delay and are on a very tight budget, you can't go wrong with this one.
This is a clone of the classic Dyna Comp, not the current version, but rather the original design, down to the CA3080 chip. As a result, it adds warm compression with a vintagey tone, easily on par with MXR's more expensive variants of the Dyna Comp, making this an excellent pedal for the money. The downside is the overall build quality, not so much the plastic enclosure (which is actually sturdy enough), but rather the somewhat flimsy footswitch and the poorly situated 9V jack, which quickly broke on my unit. I got a MXR Custom Comp to replace it, and it sounded absolutely identical.
Decent enough modeling amp with lots of options such as built-in effects, stereo input, an effects loop and cab sim output. It's just about loud enough to play gigs in small venues, and it's not too heavy for its size. My main problem with it was that I felt it sounded a bit nondescript. Maybe I should have played a little with the built-in effects to get a better sound from it, but with just my pedals, it left me a bit underwhelmed. Of course it's at a price point where you wouldn't expect the epitome of sound, and there's no doubt that you get a lot of amp for your money.

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GearIQ 1359

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GearIQ 1359

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