jimmarchi1's Reviews
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41028
I gave these away
These speakers sound great but the 5" woofer is just too small even with the clever cabinet design. I had nothing but trouble mixing on these. The bass was really hyped up in an unnatural and I could never get used to it. I wasn't as good a mixer then but the mixes I did on these NEVER translated to another system. Wound up back with NS10Ms and Tannoys even though my space was tight and untreated. I used them on my home entertainment setup briefly and then gave them to a girlfriend for her setup. When she was living with someone else who was also a musician (surprise surprise there) she gave them to him to use with his DAW setup and I thought everything he mixed on them sounded like garbage... then again I wasn't too into his 7 string guitar noodling and modern electro-industrial programming anyway so maybe he made go use of them. I've used the 6es and 8s and like them a lot more. The TR8s are even nicer than the older model 8s I have. There are so many great options though, why fiddle around?
41028
pisses me off
I hate when pedal guys put pelxi in a pedal's name... it just pisses me off. This would be a decent distortion by another name. The high notes hold together pretty well. I suspect its a guv'nor based design or something. Got mine in a big trade+cash deal for one of my actual plexis (oh the irony) and sold it right off. Its just cheesy to name your pedals this way. its a distortion, there's no such thing as an amp ina box.
41028
it is what it is
I had one of these at one point.... never bonded with it as a DI or a dirt box. I vastly preferred the GT2.... also, the dip switches on this thing were so irritating. Skip.
41028
a great one
another pedal I prefer to the CE2... sounds the same, has rudimentary stereo. I wish I had kept this pedal but I was really down on the bypass sound at the time and I had this idea that I needed a d-time control on a chorus back then. I dunno. The reissues of these sounds great too as does the mini version.
3982
I think it's the John Squire/Stone Roses chorus sound from the first album. My mate had one in the first band I was ever in and it sounded really nice.
41028
I think you're right... the rcuit is really similar to a CE2 though, I banez just kinda tweaked it sorta like they massaged the OD1 into the TS88. anyway, having owned a zillion analog choruses, this was a real keeper, although the the D-time control on the FL9 flanger can get out to 30 seconds so the FL9 is pretty much the same pedal with variable delay time and feedback... I had one of those quite recently and for some reason I took it in my head to sell that too, I must have been thinking I preferred my electric mistress. I dunno.
41028
rarest pedal
I got to borrow this from a friend of my old drummer's.... I was really sad to return it, but the guy never did me any harm so I gave it back when asked. This guy ahs the low output and level drop of most early flangers and phasers, but apart from that tis one of the 3 top flangers of all time in my book (the other 2 being the electric mistress and AD/A). This is the roundest toned of the bunch with the warmest feedback effect. It does an excellent chorus-like sound that's so much more inviting then the andy summers Mistress chorus tone. Its other amazing trick is that apart from a bypass button it has a footswitch to disable the LFO and activate the treadle so you can control the sweep like a wah. You can get silly with this and I never actually recorded with it, but I did use it live once in a while. The other nice touch is that it includes 2 controls for the depth, so that rather than having a knob for the center of your LFO sweep you can set the top and bottom extremes individually. Very precise tones can be dialed in this way and its an excellent feature that's shared by AD/A's famous flanger… but the Mu-tron takes it further because the two depth knobs also dial in the heel and toe response of the treadle! So you can make it a really tight and subtle foot sweep or a total freak out depending on your needs. YES! I wish I had scraped up $1000 and bought this guy from the owner. God knows what tis worth now. I've never seen another one, ever.... its on the cover of Analogman's book. RARE. And rightfully hyped just like the bi-phase...mu-tron gear is fabulous.
41028
one of the best phasers ever
other than the low output and top-end suck in bypass common to many pedals of the era this version of the smalls tone is absolutely EHX's best phaser.... this is the wide-sweep, clean guitar phaser to beat. I often regret selling mine, but it was either that or the mu-tron phasor II. I really needed some extra cash!
41028
fuzz face clone
a Friend of mine got one of these for peanuts at a guitar show and we couldn't get it to make a fuzz sound. It was laid out just like a fuzz face but it was wired up wrong so it just passed a clean boost LOL. I figured they were all this way and that's why no one had heard of this Fuzz Face copy. I alter scored one that DID make fuzz. It very much sounded like a the Fuzz Face it was copied from. Pretty much an early Arbiter with Japanese parts. I alter found out from Analog Man that these were made by Guyatone... wow! Guyatone's first pedal as far as I know. These can give you a nice vintage fuzz face sound on the cheap, but beware getting on that's wired wrong. Try before you buy if the asking price is more than $50
41028
low output, even by 60s fuzz standards
this was a kit you could order and build your own fuzz box... like the first fuzz, the FZ1, it runs on a pair of AAs. The effect sounds really great but it has a massive volume drop even with both knobs dimed. I've encountered more than one of these so I am positive that the one I owned was built correctly. In tone it will remind you a lot of the Sam Ash Fuzz Box (if you know that one) but it has even lower output (and the sam ash one is pretty wimpy, barely reaching unity at 10). Someone with a mind to modify one of these could probably get it to sound amazing. I had so many fuzzes when I owned this that it felt silly keeping it and it went to another enthusiast... I always had the policy that I sold stuff that didn't get used.
41028
zang!
a rebranded sola tonebender mk 3.... just as excellent.... at the time I got this the burns was lesser known and more affordable. Tonebenders were getting pricey but my burns cost me about $100. These have a great , big muff sort of tone control that interacts in interesting ways with the germanium transistors. I used this guy and my MJM brit-benders pretty extensively when I was in UYB... that record is dripping in buzzaround tones. My 3 knob brit bender had the same vibe as this guy, but having slightly different transistors it had its own voice. This circuit is pretty sensitive to the semi-conductors in it. Just like the Professional Mk2, Vox and even fuzz face you can own a lot of these that all sound different, even from the audience point of view. I sued to select my fuzzes based on what guitars I felt like playing on any given night.
41028
like playing your guitar through a chainsaw
this is the Jesus and Mary Chain fuzz.... unless you're in that band you might want to use it sparingly. I never bonded with it, I much prefer shin-ei's super fuzz circuit. There's something dissonant about the overtones from the Companion even when you only play single notes whereas the super fuzz is rather euphonic. Some people will really like this pedal because there's nothing else like it. They're getting pricey and hard to find though. Someone gave me mine during my fuzz collecting days.
41028
sweepable chainsaw
This ahs a wah in it but when the wah is disengaged its like a volume pedal in front of a Companion fuzz so you can like gain swell the chainsaw distortion. I think a similar Kay branded pedal was used to create the sound on U2's Elevation. Only the edge could find a use for this in actual music, for me it was just a novelty item that quickly went up for sale.
41028
meh
the lower voltage little brother of the FZ1. After satisfaction took off in the charts Gibson guys revised the original circuit that Snoddy and Hobbs walked in with to run on a single AA battery. it lost something in translation. The thing really has no sustain compared with an FZ1. It goes beyond gated and is only good with both controls maxed, but when they're maxed it does the FZ1 thing okay. These are common and can usually had for under $1000 US. Still more then its worth. They were also reissued in the 90s and those RIs use the right texas instruments germanium transistors and do the business... while I really like the EHX satisfaction fuzz for these sort of early Maestro tones, its really a tweaked bosstone, so it'll never interact with your guitar the way the Fz1 and 1a do... that said, I got rid of all my maestros as I almost never found a use for them, even in the studio.
41028
a classic
I had a blue 70s arbiter for a while... it had silicon transistors, BC109s maybe? I forget... my particularly unit had a really gated zippery sound like a Maestro combined with a Mosrite.
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41028
ampegy
these 1x12 combos are no gemini II when it comes to jazz and clean 60s pop, but they have a certain vibe.... plus you can get them to break up, unlike their 15" loaded siblings.... and that breakup is this harsh, can't you hear me knocking rasp! the power tubes are vailable again from JJ so these are fun amps and still relatively affordable.
41028
meh
my least favorite maestro fuzz.... most user friendly one, sure, but it ahs the least character
41028
jumbo, supa, muffin, whatever
the jumbo and supa are pretty similar... both are like a big muff with only 1 pair of back to back clipping diodes.... or like silicon transistor mkIII benders with a pair of clipping diodes added... however you wanna look at it. These are valuable and not worth keeping when they are very easy to clone with any old parts…. or get a current production big muff and clip the first pair of diodes out, boom, instant jumbo. 99% there with no other mods needed.
41028
gah
everything you hate about the big muff now with extra low end swamp, less midrange and a really unreliable switch! I used this as a bassist for years though and loved that sound, but the switch gave out... my black Russian never sounded as full for bass.
633
have to say i agree, loved mine on bass while i had it really didnt get the appeal on guitar much preferred my rat
41028
@skytimesfive I had to dock it a couple points for being close to useless on guitar and I can't give any big muff a full five stars... th er y all swallow your dynamics and touch. Only Gilmour can make them work but his fuzz face tone was still better.
41028
I gave this to Jace from Alright Junior, he's still using it in that band for some reason.
41028
meh
early boutique rangemaster clone... this was the most affordable thing going when I got interested in rangemasters in the late 90s, the originals were impossible to find and the screaming bird I got was way different in spirit.... this aramat version had the right parts and had a nice tone but was easily the noisiest rangemaster clone I've ever had, and we're not talking about a hiss free circuit here LOL I think I left this at a studio I used to work at.
41028
a classic
the all time classic bipolar silicon transistor boost... before the microamp there was this guy! came in a bass and treble boosting version, the screaming bird and mole respectively.