renanbeltrao's Reviews

The best bang for the buck

Great finish, extremely versatile, nice top, excellent pickups!

Perfect and twikable

Its just sounds perfect. there is no other word to describe it in more detail. It's Perfect.

The new Black Cat Mona Wah was designed with the help of DIY guru and wah master, Joe Gagan, and features a revolutionary breakthrough in traditional wah-wah design. The Black Cat Mona features a special custom tuned Black Cat inductor, as well as the newly engineered Black Cat wah pot, which is like nothing else on the market. These features allow the Black Cat Mona to be used as a sophisticated tone-sculpting tool instead of a mere novelty quack machine.

Designed by Joe Gagan, the Black Cat wah pot features a new taper and redesigned gear which yield a subtly of expression never before possible with any other wah. This unique new design allows for a totally smooth, even sweep that covers the entire range of the pot, which places it in a league above the compromised design of the ICAR and other condensed or “S taper” pots.

The Black Cat Mona wah is available in two different models – Vintage and Modern:

The Mona Vintage uses carbon comp resistors and NOS vintage capacitors (tropical fish, orange drops, etc) and is voiced more like a vintage Vox wah.

The Mona Modern uses Dale precision resistors and Wima film capacitors, and is optimized for a clean, full frequency response.

Each model is available in Standard and Deluxe editions. That means there are a total of four variations of the Mona Wah: Standard Mona Modern, Standard Mona Vintage, Deluxe Mona Modern, and Deluxe Mona Vintage.

All the standard Black Cat Mona Wahs have three internal trimpots (Frequency, Q, and Volume), plus a built in buffer with an external mini-switch that allows you to bypass the buffer completely. The Volume control is for the output level when the buffer is engaged.

The Q and Freq controls are for adjusting the Q (resonant peak or sharpness) and the Frequency range. By experimenting with these controls you’ll be able to achieve a number of subtle and intriguing tone-shaping effects, including passive tone control and pedal-steel type swells. Of course, when a good old-fashioned wah-wah is what you need, the Black Cat Mona can wakka wakka with the best of them.

FEATURES: •Durable powder-coat “Holographic Sparkle” finish •On-board tone-shaping controls •Bypass-able buffer for compatibility with low-impedance effects •Lighter weight, more “pedalboard friendly” design •Dual LED indicators: (red for Vintage, blue for Modern) •3PDT true-bypass switch and Switchcraft jacks •Uses 2.1mm Boss style power jack or internal 9V battery •Hand-wired, Boutique quality, Made in USA

Product Description

In a world full of reverb pedals we are proud to offer up a highly tweak-able, versatile, inspiring and cost effective solution for any situation your gig might throw at you. The heart of the Alpine's design is the idea that you can have a reverb pedal that is straight forward, easy to use, but also extremely powerful in its functions all while still very approachable without requiring a degree in computer engineering to dial in a great sound.

Switches & Knobs The Alpine features two footswitches. The left footswitch turns the pedal On/Off and the right footswitch is the "Shift" footswitch (which we will explain a bit later). The knob controls start with the "Reverb" control. The "Reverb" control is essentially a wet/dry mix knob that lets you set the perfect balance and feel to how saturated the effect feels. The "Highs" control functions like a high-pass filter. Highs roll off and let you darken or brighten the overall effect when its engaged. The "Highs" control plays a big part in the actual feel of the reverb, how it decays, and how it reacts in your overall rig. For example a setting that may feel over-the-top or a bit wild can be tamed into a very usable and more subtle texture simply by rolling back the "Highs" control. This also works in the opposite way as a simple room/slap sound can be brightened into a more dramatic sound. The "Depth" control adjusts the size or space of the reverb. Think of the "Depth" control as a knob that lets you change the depth of the canyon you are playing guitar in. The "Length" control adjusts the tails/decay time of the overall reverb. At low "Length" settings you feel like you're in a bathroom, at full tilt you feel like you're in a space cave that transcends human perception.

Shift Knob & Footswitch The "Shift" knob is possibly the most useful of them all as it basically allows two settings on the fly. When you engage the "shift' footswitch on the right you also engage the "Shift" knob that is a second "Reverb" control. This lets you set the standard "Reverb" control to one setting and the "Shift" to another for on the fly adjustment between two preset sounds.

Jacks You will find The Alpine has two top-mounted 1/4" Input/Output jacks like most pedals. On the left side we also include a TRS EFX Loop jack just like what is found in the JHS Panther Cub Analog Delay. The EFX Loop allows you to insert any pedal or effect unit you want within the reverb signal itself for infinitely tweak-able sounds.

EFX Loop Using a TRS Splitter Cable you can insert your favorite octave pedal to create a Shimmer effect. Insert a delay for huge ambient pads or even an EQ for fine control of the frequencies and shape of the reverb effect. On your splitter cable the RING goes to the output/return of the effect you are using in the loop and the TIP goes to the input/send of that same effect. Inside the Alpine you will find a small switch that says (EFX LOOP) and two positions labeled (SHIFT ONLY) and (ALWAYS ON). All units are shipped with this dip-switch in the (SHIFT ONLY) position. When the switch is on "Shift Only" the EFX Loop only engages when you engage the "Shift" footswitch setting. This allows you to have your normal reverb setting and then hit the "Shift Footswitch" to activate your "Shift" knob setting and your EFX Loop at the same time for two very different sounds on the fly. If you want the EFX Loop to apply in both the normal "Reverb" and "Shift" settings, simply flip the dip-swich to the (Always On) position and the EFX loop will always-be-on-all-the-time whenever the Alpine is turned on or the "Shift" is engaged.

Trails & Buffered Bypass The Alpine uses a high quality buffered bypass that restores lost signal in your rig by correcting impedance and driving the load of your signal to your amp. Using buffered bypass also allows for "Trails." Trails is the feature that lets the reverb signal to gradually trail off when (instead of cutting off abruptly) turning the pedal off.

After years of requests JHS Pedals finally caved, and by caved we mean you can now sound like you are now playing your guitar in a cave with JHS Pedals style. The Alpine is what we believe to be the complete package in reverb. It does the simple as well as the complex and is easy to use. If you want a realistic and believable Spring reverb or even washed out ambient layers, the Alpine does all of these tones and more.

Special thanks to Jim Coleman of Sky Pedals for giving us a great foundation to build on. The Cloud 9 lives on in the Alpine. Click HERE to watch a short video about how/why JHS Pedals acquired Sky Pedals and re-designed and improved the Cloud9 to bring you the Alpine Reverb.

This pedal requires standard 9V DC Negative power, consumes about 100mA, and measures 4.7"x3.7"x1.2"

The Dr. Z Remedy has been updated for 2013 with Master Volume and EQ/Tonestack Bypass!

That's right! For 2013, Dr. Z has added a very effective PPIMV (post phase inverter master volume) to the Remedy, as well as a footswitchable EQ/Tonestack Bypass. We're assuming you know what a Master Volume is, but in case you're wondering about the EQ Bypass, this allows you to take the EQ curcuit (Bass, Middle, Treble) out of the circuit by using the supplied footswitch. This will make your signal hotter, giving a bit of a volume boost as well as noticeably increasing the gain. Your mids will also be increased giving a bit of a thicker midrange tone. The only caveat is you'll not have tone controls while the bypass is enabled.

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Winner of the 2010 Guitar Player Editor's Pick Award, The Dr Z Remedy Head is one of the most in demand amps out there. If you're looking for the unmistakenable tone of a all-tube hand-wired Plexi style circuit, then you've found it. Dr. Z chose a 4 x 6V6 power section running at a LOUD 40 watts to deliver the goods to you and everyone in a ten mile vicinity! Nah, it's not that loud, but trust us, you WILL NOT be begging for more. In fact, The good Dr. even included a half power switch (drops to 20 watts) to reduce the bleeding. After all, he is a Doctor, right?

Anyway, the Dr. Z Remedy uses a "blended volume" layout as opposed to a Gain/Master Volume you see on most amps. Remember the old Marshall Plexi heads with multiple inputs that you would jumper to get the tone and crunch you were looking for? Well, no worries here since Dr. Z has taken care of that internally. This setup is MUCH easier to work with. In fact, it could be argued that it's the way Marshall should have done it back in the day, but we'll save that argument for Facebook or the like.

JHS Double Barrel

Low to Mid gain heaven.

The morning glory side is just perfect to beef up your tone, and the ts 808 side, well, its 808 sound with plus stuff.

Both turned on creates quite a lot of magic.