Craig Smoot

Over the last decade or so, I have been on a quest to find the perfect fuzz for my needs, but every one I tried was missing that certain something. I'm a die-hard EMG guy, and so I Googled something like, *"Fuzz Pedal Demos with Active Pickup Guitars,"* and accidentally came across a TDPRI thread that mentioned Amptweaker's "Guitar Style" technology that automatically adjusts the input impedance according to the guitar's output. **BRILLIANT!** The buffered, low impedance signal from active pickups can be brutal and too much for vintage-style pedals to handle (*and still behave correctly, that is*), so it makes perfect sense. Upon delivery of the Tight Fuzz Jr. (TFjr), I plugged my Epiphone Les Paul w/ EMG-89s into the TFjr and then into my practice rig [*a ZT Amps Lunchbox powering a Rivera 2x12 cab*]. Straight from the get-go, the TFjr's tones were buttery, beautiful and inspiring, but best of all... they were "useful" tones! Hands down, it's **THE BEST** fuzz I have ever played through, period! In fact, I have a hard time classifying the TFjr as a mere "Fuzz" pedal, for its usefulness and range far exceeds any fuzz I've ever owned or dinked around with. Lemmie put it this way... a good way to tell when a new piece of gear has the "It" factor is when you start dinking around, and then lo and behold 1+ hour later you find you've moved on from wanking thru standard riffs and licks to creating brand new ones--drawing inspiration from this cool, new musical tool. Honestly, I had a hard time making myself *stop* playing. Even when I used the TFjr in conjunction with my Rivera Knucklehead's Rhythm and Lead channels, the unit still performed beautifully without slamming the amp's input and over-fuzzing everything. IOW, the TFjr plays well with others--pedals *and* amps!

Compact size and many killer features that I have always wanted in a wah: footswitchable modes, switchless activation and a dedicated footswitch/pot for wah lock (*"cocked wah"*), so I couldn't pass this one up when I saw it on MF's SDOTD. That and the fact that George Lynch is and has remained one of my biggest influences since my teens probably had a little something to do with my purchase, but after my Vox Clyde McCoy's wah pot crapped out on me for the second time I decided to go the optical route for a change. As for the Mini Dragon's two modes, I prefer the tonal sweep of the 'Wah' mode, but the 'Wow' mode is cool and useful in its own right (*think '70s Funk/Disco vamping*). But the cocked-wah-on-tap ability is the icing on the cake! I do kinda wish the Wah Lock mode's sweep was user-tweakable based on my own tastes, but there are a few useable spots that work well enough for my needs (*solos, especially*). Another thing I absolutely love about this unit is Morley's switchless activation which comes in handy for quick and seamless in/out wah accents. Hell, even the treadle's dragon logo glows in the dark, which is definitely useful on dark stages, and it just looks too frickin' cool! And the tiger stripe graphics--despite its "LSU Tigers" yellow-and-purple color scheme (*War Eagle, baby!*)--takes me back to the days of my youth when all I wanted was an ESP Sunburst Tiger more than anything in the world. All that said, and despite its namesake, this is hands down the best wah (*aside from the Clyde*) that I've ever owned, and I'd buy another in a heartbeat!

I'll keep this one short 'n sweet: This pedal is the **"Secret Sauce"** of my entire effects chain and overall tone! I *never* turn it off. The day I added it to my pedalboard was like the proverbial clouds lifting and the sunlight breaking through! When other cats we'd gig with asked about it, I'd always tell them that it's like removing a huge blanket covering your speakers--it's night and day difference. I used to run it in front of the amp, but after seeing some studio cat run his through his amp's effects loop, I tried it in there and haven't looked back. Sounds so much better (*and bigger*) in the efx loop! And even though the "RC Booster" stands for "Really Clean Booster" (*and it really is super-clean*), this stomp allows one to add a little hair to their signal via the 'Gain' knob if you don't like your cleans too pristine. Would buy it again in a heartbeat, and won't leave home without it!

Always been a Tech 21 NYC fan since my earliest days of attending NAMM shows back in the mid 90s--great people, and great products! I first discovered the "Character Series" pedals when I worked at a local music store that carried Tech 21 gear. The British pedal I bought was a V1 edition, so there is no pushbutton option to disengage the sansamp speaker emulation on mine, but that's cool with me since it's the emulation that's the "Slice-of-Fried-Gold" factor. (*Why have a button that emasculates the unit, yanno?*) I was looking for a pedal that would grok/cop a tone similar to my Rivera Knucklehead Reverb (*e.g., hot-rodded Marshall tones*), and this one fit the bill better than anything else we had in the shop. I also dig the fact that if my rig were to ever crap out on me, I could literally run this pedal **direct** into the PA and it would sound like a mic'ed Marshall, but thankfully I've never had to go that route. Runs the gamut from Bluesbreaker breakup to Plexi prowess and all pertinent points on the Marshall map. (*I like the 'Character' knob dialed in somewhere between 2:00 and 3:00 for a more modern tone, personally.*) My only qualms, however, are with the easy-to-knock-around knobs that I'd keep bumping every time I engaged the damn thing (*hence the foam rubber to hold them in place*), and the overly-sensitive 'Level' knob that goes from a whisper to a ROAR with the slightest tweak--like there's no "Sweet Spot" between too quiet and too loud. Oh yeah... and the Tech 21 footswitch can be FLAKY as f*ck, and if the internal spring ever shifts in the *slightest*, it will cause intermittency issues when trying to turn it on and off! Talk about a royal pain in the ass, especially in the middle of a gig. Had to take it to a guy to have it fixed once, so I wish Tech 21 would ditch those effin' switches already and find a more reliable solution. Other than those issues, it's been a great pedal to have for rehearsals and small gigs where I didn't have room for my full rig. Would I buy again? Possibly, but definitely not if they keep using the same lame switches in them.

Another workplace discovery when I worked at The Fret Shop (Hsv, AL). Loved most of the downloadable effects--in particular, "Angelic Choir" and "Octaver", which have permanent residency on my board, they are **that** damn cool and unique!! [*Other noteworthy mentions include: Double Cross Delay, Freeze Wah, Xul, Unplugged, Dirty Robot, Snake Charmer Tremolo, Phaser Beam, Jet Flanger, Glimmer Drive and Amp Driver.*] For an All-In-One stomp, I was surprised to find as many useable effects as there were. Make no mistake, though, as there were plenty effects that sounded like garbage as well. The only drag is that Digitech went headlong with the iPad-exclusivity thing, and then it wasn't long before the next version of the iPad featured different connectors. So Digitech had to try and scramble to renegotiate their deal with Apple to make adaptors readily available to new iStomp buyers, but by then the damage was done. The pedal was quietly phased out of production, and any tech support for iStomp owners slowly evaporated into thin air. All that said, I love these damn things and wish I had at least 2 more!

The cats at TC Electronic are freakin' geniuses! Not only does their online library offer a ton of killer Artist Toneprints (*"Viagra Substitute" by Satchel is my fave for gigging*), but their free Editor software takes it one step further by letting you customize said Toneprints and/or create your own! And while you'd think that its single knob design only allows you to tweak a single parameter at a time, the Editor software can let you program the knob to, say, ramp up the reverb's decay time while simultaneously decreasing the Wet/Dry mix as you turn the knob from 7:00 to 5:00, for example. [*If memory serves, the software lets you assign 2 to 4 parameters to the knob, so it's definitely not just a one-trick pony.*] With so many great Toneprints to choose from and its tiny footprint, it's hard to go wrong with the HOF Mini--I'd definitely buy it again (*and again*)!!

As most of us have had a Chorus pedal or two (*or twenty*) in our lifetime, I can wholeheartedly say that the original V1 H2O Liquid Chorus and Echo is my hands-down favorite! And despite its funky, clunky housing that takes up **way** too much pedalboard space, I still love the damn thing regardless. **CHORUS SIDE:** It absolutely **nails** Jake E. Lee's *'Bark At The Moon'* tone, as well as that of many 80s Chorus-loving stalwarts like Alex Lifeson, Vivian Campbell, Ty Tabor, et al. It's so damn versatile with its 3-knob controls for Speed, Width and Delay Time--the latter really expands the sonic landscape of possibilities. My *only* beef with the unit (*aside from its size*) is that it's not the most transparent of stomps when using it in *front* of the amp's input. It almost sounds like a Flanger at times, and can get a tad noisy too, so I typically run it in my Rivera's buffered effects loop which tames it nicely. **ECHO SIDE:** Visual Sound says that the Echo side is *"Analog Voiced"* even though it's digital, so take that descrip of theirs with a grain of salt, as it doesn't sound that analog-esque to my ears. My unit has also had some flakiness issues with the 'Short/Long' switch in that it would sometimes **swap** functionality--i.e., the 'Short' side would become the 'Long' side and vice versa. Not sure why that happened, but I was able to take it directly to VS (*they're only an hour North of where I live*) and they fixed all of its issues while I waited for **FREE**, no less! Now that is what I call Customer Service, baby! All that said, I would love to try out the V3 box sometime to see how it compares sonically, but for my money, the V1 has been an integral part of my sound for a couple of decades now, and I'd buy it all over again in a New York minute.

Everyone here has already sung its praises, so I'll defer to those reviews and add a little of my own perspective. I run through a Rivera Knucklehead Reverb, and while the amp does have good natural compression when utilizing the 'Half Power' and 'Modern/Vintage' switches, I wanted a nice, transparent compressor for my clean channel (*and for slide playing*) like the Ross or Keeley versions I've played in the past, but housed in a mini-stomp to take up less room on my board. After an exhaustive quest, I finally decided on the Xotic, based in part on the pure awesomeness of their RC Booster that I also own and love. I really dig the switchable levels of compression--I leave mine set on 'Lo' for minimal squash and maximum headroom. I've owned an MXR Dyna Comp and a Pedalworx McSqueeze, but neither came anywhere close to the transparency and flexibility of the SP. Buy it again? You're damn skippy I would!

The Dano Cool Cat Trem is a great little chunk that's chock full o' 60s surf vibe! Can't beat it for the low cost and dual-mode [Hard/Soft] coolness, although I wish the knobs and power input had been placed in pedalboard-friendly positions instead of crowded together on the back/side. Oh, and the footswitch can be a bear sometimes, requiring you to really press down hard to engage/disengage, but other than those annoyances it's probably the best-bang-for-your-buck pedal that I've ever purchased!