jezgramusic's Reviews

STUPIDLY VERSATILE - AN ANALOGUE NERD'S FAVOURITE DIGITAL SYNTH

This can sound like basically anything. Want PM sounds? You got it. Want analogue modelling? Got that too. Want to fool around with preset wave sample sounds that go from "piano" to "alien MIDI chirps"? Now you can. Only downside is you can't back up yr own patches onto anything external, as far as I know, just save them to internal memory. The default synths are pretty great, actually, but you'll get sick of them pretty quick as soon as you actually have a look in the manual and start to figure out the extent of what this thing can /really/ do. Ridiculously versatile vocoder mode, can sound like old Kraftwerk robo-voices or Italodisco warbles, or anything really. Comes with its own mic, etc., has thinly veiled Mellotron/Chamberlain fakes built in that are almost indistinguishable from any several-thousand-dollar 'Tron clone you can find. Essentially, an analogue nerd's favourite digital synth.

IT'S A FAKE PRECISION BASS

It's a fake precision bass, made by some company that I don't think even exists anymore. If I were a rich man, (la da dai di dai) I'd have a fretless with a glass neck or whatever, or a short-scale five-stringed whatever, but this does the jorb.

A STEAL OF A GUITAR

Let me count the ways... Fer starters, it came in its own big gag— sorry, gig bag, and not a bad steel for around $550-$600. Lovely tone, 3-way pickup switch, sounds silky smooth thru clean signal and barks like a beast when coupled with a nice tube amp or fuzz pedal. Sadly, the one I currently own has a nasty crosswire in its active circuitry, which results in the occasional extra unpleasant signal noise and the dials not working like they should... but if I turn the faulty pot all the way down and put the tone controls in the right places, it still sings like it's fresh from the factory. Hopefully my circuitry issue was a one-off, 'cause I'd recommend this to any intermediate 'steel player, with its comfy Weissenborn shape and decent weight... and no matter how many freaky tunings I put it in, I've never snapped a string.

A ROOMFUL OF TAPE RECORDERS IN A BOX THE SIZE OF A POCKET DICTIONARY

Named by EHX as a sly reference to their bigger "Memory Boy" (itself named as a sly reference to their even bigger and earlier "Memory Man"), the EHX Memory Toy only lives up to half of its name - anything but a "toy", it /is/ an effects pedal you'll hardly forget. To paraphrase mega-corporation heir Douglas Renholm from britcom "The IT Crowd", this pedal "sounds like it comes from space". A simple analogue delay which, with only three controls, is ridiculously versatile. Contains chorus modulation which, while it can't be controlled, definitely takes your guitar sound that little bit further out past Pluto. All it's missing is, perhaps, the expression pedal support found in the bigger "Memory ___" units, so y've still gotta Ben Dover if you want to change the delay speed.

Analogue Delay: 5 (possibly one of the single most versatile effects in the history of electrical musical instrument treatment, and done just right) Chorus: 4 (not a great big shiny chorus with lots of settings, but spaces out yr guitar signal a comfortable amount - no settings beside on and off, tho', which costs it a star)

Overall: 5 (for most, a complete package, and the beginner psych player's dee-lite, but if you really want to vorp that gee-tar, save yr pennies and buy a proper chorus to stick in front of it)

HOLY STAIN - THE "HOLYSTIC" GUITAR EFFECT

The full "newbie's" pedal row, for the price of one. Tasty EHX fuzz isn't exactly Muff, but it's good enuff. Only disadvantage is you don't have v' much control over the standard FX' parameters, the distortion & tone-colour only have three selectable presets each, and the pitch shift is more of a detune than something like, say, the Pitch-Fork (also by EHX) or the Boss Super Octave. Lovely trem tho, almost comes close to a couple Hofner trems I've used, and that's saying something for a tremolo included as part of a friggin' multi-FX whose focus is mainly on dist and reverb.

Room Reverb: 5 Hall Reverb: 4 Pitch Shift: 3 (only goes up/down a third, so useless except for a little chorus-y detune, unless you enjoy sounding like Primus) Tremolo: 4 DIST (overall score; good if you can't afford a schmancy tube amp or proper fuzz/compression unit): 4 --Fuzz & Distortion: 4 & 4 (does the job, but always the same sounds) --Colour Presets: 3 (fairly basic, not very versatile)

Overall: 4

MAKE SURE TO HAVE A COMPRESSOR FIRST

If y're gonna get this (admittedly, very lovely) guitar device, I suggest that, if y're playing on any mode other than "Poly" AND using a compressor/fuzz/distortion, put this /after/ it, or you're going to get a sh*t-*ss nightmare squelch that sounds like a robot farting into a granular synthesis module.

Signal cleanliness: 4 "Poly" mode: 4 "Drive" mode: 3 "2 Oct" mode: 5

Overall: 4