psychobilly_max's Reviews

The best noise gate I have ever used.

The thing about noise gates is that anytime you use them you loose some sustain. Even my ZUUL cuts down some sustain when playing solos, but the Lichtlaerm Key & Gate is an exception to that rule.

If you're worried about tone suck and let me be clear, this noise gate exhibits no tone suck whatsoever but that's not what makes it so special. The special quality of this pedal is the way it preserves the sustain. While using this noise gate I hear absolutely zero choppiness on sustained notes.

Now this quality of this pedal is kind of a double edged sword. On one hand it ensures that your solos and sustained notes never sound choppy, but on the downside if you rely on your noise gate for choppy rhythms then this may not be the ideal pedal for you. My style of music involves long bluesy solos where I need to make the notes ring out, and for me this pedal is the perfect noise gate pedal.

P.S. - I am not sure why this pedal is mark discontinued because Lichlaerm has resumed the production of this pedal.

The perfect alternative to old 300-watt EVM12L speakers.

I was never a fan of the 200-watt EVM12L Classic speaker, their sound always reminded me too much of the old 200-watt EVM12L Series II speakers. Even though Randall Smith liked them for the Mesa Mark series amps, I was never fond of them.

Maybe the Series II works better for the Mesa Mark series amps but for me the best Electro-Voice speakers ever made were the 300-watt EVM12L Pro-Line speakers. Not to mention the fact that the EVM12L Pro-Line speakers were used in the original Dumble amps too.

When I read about the EVM12L Black Label I was intrigued by them. Some guitar players did comment about them being re-issues of the old 300-watt EVM12L Pro-Line speakers but I have heard about such claims before, so I was skeptical.

So at first I ordered only one EVM12L Black Label and tested it side by side with a vintage 300-watt EVM12L Pro-Line speaker. To say that I was astonished will be an understatement. Electro-Voice has nailed it with the Black Label speaker. In my test those two speakers sounded indistinguishable from each other. I'm glad that my favorite Electro-Voice speaker is back. Needless to say, I ordered three more of them to put in my 4x12" cab.

Mark my words, if you have a Dumble style amp then forget about other speakers, these speakers are the ones you should get for your amp. They're pricey but they're worth every dollar. They'll make your Ceriatone clone of Overdrive Special sound like a million dollar amp.

A lesser known but great quality cab.

Found one of these cabs in mint condition albeit with the speakers unloaded for just $300. I wonder why the Super-Sonic amps and their cabs didn't catch up. I ain't sure about the amp, but this is a top-tier 4x12" cab. I have loaded mine with EVM12L Black Label speakers. So, far I'm highly impressed by it.

Closest you can get to a Neumann U47 without spending a fortune.

I use it as room mic while recording my guitars. The U47 lineage is darn clear in this microphone. Compared to a genuine vintage Neumann U47 it's a hair brighter but with right settings, it sounds darn close to the real deal. Compared to many boutique U47 clones it's way easier on your pocket too.

A terribly underrated active ribbon microphone.

I use this microphone as a rear mic for my amp when I use my speaker cab in the open back mode. You'll rarely find reviews about this microphone and not many people know about it. It's quite a shame because this microphone is a terribly underrated gem of a microphone. Along with the usual warmth of a ribbon microphone, its sound also has an almost three-dimensional feel to it. Due to its active nature, it's damn easy to drive this microphone. I have listened to recordings done with ribbon microphones that cost twice the price of this microphone but none of them have the smooth, three dimensional, and lively tonality of this microphone.

Best microphone ever made for recording guitars period.

I'm not some snob but once you try the M 88 TG it's almost impossible to go back to SM57 or other microphones. This microphone is perfect. The way it captures every minor tonal detail is unlike any microphone out there. I have tried Sennheiser MD421, vintage Shure 548 microphones, SM57 with TAB Funkenwerk T58 transformer, but none of them sound anywhere as good as this excellent microphone.

One of the most lush sounding overdrive pedal out there.

I know this pedal is based on the Klon and it does the Klon thing real good. When used as a boost it doesn't only add mid-hump but also enhances the beautiful harmonics of my amp. The final tone sounds smooth, lush and harmonically rich. I used to use a Tube Screamer clone before buying this pedal but after using this pedal I've retired my Tube Screamer clone. This pedal does some kind of magic to the tone. My guitar tone feels more alive with this pedal.

A hidden gem of a speaker.

The best way to describe the 10M600 will be as if EV and a Celestion had a baby and the baby is louder than either of them. They have a smooth, big and tight low end response of an EV but they aren't outright sterile sounding as the EV. They have an almost Celestion like character to their mids and highs but at the same time they are not outright colored as Celestion, they have some of the EV like linear response too. They work like a charm in the 4x10" cab I use with my Ceriatone OTS 100, and good lord they're loud.

Best spring reverb pedal that money can buy.

It's a pricey pedal but compared to many other real outboard spring reverbs it's hell lotta affordable. Make no mistake despite of its form factor it can give many top tier outboard reverb units a run for their money. I use it with the Le Truand long reverb tank and this thing drips like an old school outboard reverb unit. I have the tank mounted under my pedalboard, so it doesn't consume space on my pedalboard either. This spring reverb pedal is truly the next stage of evolution of outboard spring reverb units.

Fastest tracking speed.

This tuner ain't just accurate but also tracks my guitar signal way faster than any other tuner. It's as good (if ain't better) as those standalone strobe tuner units.

Lets me do the stutter effect without screwing up my guitar.

I wanted to do stutter effects but I didn't want to screw up my guitar in order to do so. So I got this pedal and I'm glad I got it instead of putting an onboard kill switch. This pedal lets me do stutter while bending notes or using my whammy. It feels more convenient to use than those onboard kill switches.

The brain of my pedalboard.

This loop switcher does a fine job in managing my effect pedals. The one I use has 4 loops configured to be used before the amp and 8 loops configured to be used in the amps effects loop.

Pretty rad tremolo pedal.

It has many adjustable parameters and sounds great with my amp.

A damn good expression pedal

This 10k Ohm linear taper expression pedal made for me by Saturnworks. It works perfectly with my effect pedals. They have cleverly utilised the cut-outs for the mini knobs. One of the cut-out has a push switch that reverses the polarity of the pedal, while other has a mini knob that controls the range of the pedal.

Fuzzy overdrive

It's too fuzzy for an overdrive. I use it like more like a distortion pedal instead of using it like an overdrive pedal. The expression jack control is nifty though, it helps me alternate between clean and dirty sounds.

Best pickups for a Tele.

These pickups just nail that classic Broadcaster sound without the annoying hum.

Classic Telecaster style guitar with a trem.

I frigging love this guitar. It looks like an old-school Tele but the Super-Vee Maverick lets me do whammy bar stuffs. It stays in tune better than Strats.

No tone suck whatsoever.

This pedal uses a good quality buffer and has no tone suck whatsoever. The output jack is a TRS jack, a TRS to 2xTS splitter can be used with the pedal for tuner out, however I use it for splitting my guitar signal and then feed the second signal to the key input of my ZUUL noise gate. This pedal also features gain and minimum volume control knobs. The CBM105Q enclosure proved to be perfect fit to this pedal.

Almost perfect way pedal

This wah by Dunlop has everything right. It's true bypass, it has numerous parameters to play around with and it's doesn't gobble up too much space on my pedalboard. However I call it almost perfect because the knobs to adjust parameters are too small and they take time to get used to.

Can't go wrong with JHS

Can't go wrong with the JHS Emperor. It perfectly replicates classic chorus and vibrato sounds and adds modern features like tap-tempo and expression pedal control to it.