pope's Reviews

My home-made guitar

Looking forward to posting a less crappy pic!

Ash and maple-top body varnished with PU. 2 Mississippi Queen P90s into 1 Vol, 1 Tone, a built-in Fuzz Factory clone (Stab and Comp controls outside) and a killswitch.

Maple neck and head, rosewood board: all woods are from a local luthier, sourcing wood from one of the very few exclusively guitar-wood forests in France.

The neck is bolted on and I must say the sustain on this beast is quite something...

The overall equation is that you can put 400€, some freedom of imagination and a total 10 to 20 days of work to get the 1K+ luthier guitar you've always dreamt of.

:B

Got lucky, apparently

Now I've seen other reviewers on the Internet saying this power bank was prone to dysfunctioning, sometimes even dangerously! I could not say this of mine however ; I've had it for 7 years and not a single damn problem! I don't know if it was from a better batch than those they make today, or just that they're all made with less quality control, but anyway, very satisfied indeed not to have had to shell out huge amounts for a power bank.

Excellent

I actually made a clone of this pedal, but after having had the chance to compare it to the original recently I realized I could allow myself to review it since the clone sounds exactly the same.

All you need from a simple-controlled delay, there's actually not much I can say! I like the way the sounds decay very slightly with each repeat, it might sound imperfect to some but I find it gives it texture, makes it more organic.

Nevertheless, there's one thing I would love it to do : when you push the repeats up to maximum, I love it when a delay's feedback never ends, but this one does. It feeds back for sure, but it doesn't really grow and grow endlessly, it just fades after a while.

Oh and by the way, another cool feature: you can switch the pedal off, and the delaying will still be there when you switch it back on! Yeaaaaaah... Sometimes it's the small things.

So useful

Just plug in and play with an honestly more than decent sound, anywhere you like. I've even been using mine for guitar when the loud hours are over, just roll of the treble, fuzz it up, tweak it anyway you like and you'll be having fun for hours.

Yeaaaah

Just yeaaah.

My gosh.

I've fitted a pair of MQs on my homemade guitar (alder+maple), and it's been love at first play-on-a-decent-amp. The neck pickup, as you should expect, is simply PERFECT. I now undestand the guy who said it was like an overwound strat: all the best from that wonderful wooden tone we know, but giving it the thickness it so often wants. The neck pickup will have you bluesing away to the best tone you'll have ever heard. The bridge pickup has more bite on it than a bengal tiger. It just snarls and is barely on its leash, thanks to those punchy upper-middy tones that will make anything you were already doing on a single coil bridge sound BETTER. I can't post any clips at the moment but of you want to get an idea, listen to Muse's "Darkshines" at 3:15 for the neck sound, and "Micro Cuts" at 3:05 for the deliciously jangly middle sound. What shines out the most instantly is their exceptional quality. The definition is incredibly clear, and you must know that Tim from Bare Knuckle Pickups will answer any of your queries (whick pickup would be best for this sound?), magically perform any of your customizing requests (number of strings, finish, whatever!), and guarantee your pickups for life.

Just know that they are still clearly single-coils, and from time to time I do long for a little bit of fatter humbucker action, but they are just fantastic at what they do, and it's giving me a reason to order a pair of their humbuckers someday!

More versatile than you think

Seeing the artists generally associated with these strings might let you think they're only great for various kinds of rock. They're not. I've been slapping, thumping and picking away at these for most of my time on bass and they've never failed to deliver. The reason I first chose them was simply because they were among the cheapest on offer that day, but having tried Bass Boomers, Trace Elliotts and many more since, I must say that they don't have anything to boast about compared to the Rotosounds.

Never changing again

These strings have been my favorite ever since the first try, and I must admit they are so good that my current set has been on for almost a year now. Sure, they get used up just like ordinary strings, but slower and BETTER.

Great, multipurpose, all-in one.

Just don't think twice! Sooo many settings that are almost infinitely tweakable... Simply excellent for emulating most sounds out there sometimes pretty accurately, sometimes just perfectly, or even finding that tone you have in your head. I suppose the only thing it couldn't do would be a really big, organic tube amp sound... But hey, that's your excuse for getting a good amp!

Satisfying

Despite knowing this is a Behringer pedal, I find it to be very suitable for a wide array of synth sounds. You can nail Muse's "Time Is Running Out" on setting 1, and there is much fun to be had with the 11 different modes and an expression pedal. The problem is, of course, note tracking: to return to the Muse references, bear in mind you won't be playing Hysteria with this on, for the simple reason that the pedal is too slow to follow notes even at a medium speed. Unless you use an expression pedal to control the sweep yourself.

Not that clear-sounding...

Unfortunately, the $150 step between this head and its older brother, the HA3500, seems to make all the difference. The sound is suitable whan playing on your own, but in a full-volume rock formation it will only deliver a muddy sound. This is partially explained by the fact that to be heard over drums and guitar, you will have to push the low side of the EQ to the maximum. A practice amp at most.

Favorite bass head

Reliable is the word, and add to that the sweet compression and versatile settings allowing you to reach RATM territory as much as Muse or RHCP, without breaking a sweat.

Pure modern bass sounds

The funkiest bass cab I've ever tried, marrying beautifully with the high-end hartke heads for a transparent, shiny, popping sound.

Modern Bass Fuzz

Hard-hitting fuzz, with very complete controls (volume, bass, mid, treble, blend and gain), also including a "boost" switch and most interestingly a 3-well-chosen-positions Mid switch, allowing you to select the midrange frequency to be pushed. The pedal runs on 18 Volts, though if you run it on 9 Volts, it will sound surprisingly close to a ZVex Woolly Mammoth.

Classic

Everyone knows about this one, and I don't think anybody would be unhappy with it. It is slightly smoother, more sustaining, less fuzzy than the Black Russian.

Excellent high-gain distortion

Great pedal, thrashing sounds, and of course, it has no match for getting that harsh guitar sound on "Creep". Just note that this pedal is perfect for rhythm playing, it sounds a bit empty when playing lead parts and solos.

The only bad pedal from EHX

This Big Muff is a great crowd-pleaser due to its low price and authentic sound. Yet you will end up realizing that any older version of a Big Muff Pi will not only sound better, but actually last longer than 5 years. This pedal does deserve more than 2 stars, but this is just to tell you: might as well find an old one.

Classic

I won't say anything about this one, except that both jacks on mine have become faulty, and finding a replacement for Boss jacks sure is difficult...

Very complete

Just what you expect from a Boss pedal: first of all, it feels like it could withstand anything, and of course the sound is now a standard. It works just as an OC-2 (1 and 2 octaves down) in one mode, 1 octave and a 4th down in another mode, and also has a simple overdrive mode, for which you can adjust gain and add a lower octave.

Could easily have been better

The housing is surprisingly sturdy in comparison with other Behringer pedals: this wah is definitely well built and reliable. But the sound just falls short of what you expect: there is practically no sweep at all, so you can't get low "oow"s and high "aah"s on the same setting. Still, this pedal is very reasonable for its price.