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GearIQ 202 Joined Jun 2021 0 Followers

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My Gear 52

Maybe I'm a little biased because it was one of my very first pedals, but as everything else on my board has slowly been upgraded I haven't had the heart to change this one. The gain and level knobs are so responsive that you have perfect volume control over your dirt. It's a pretty aggressive distortion, but very dark in tone so it doesn't sound too in your face or obnoxious. I recommend it for guitar personally but I have used it on bass and it certainly holds up (I would do this with a guitar amp however). Great to run parallel with a clean amp or as a grungy, ratty distortion on its own.
this has been one of my favourite pedals since immediately after I picked it up. At first I just used it for guitar, but have now moved it onto my synth pedal board as it sounds really great with that too. This thing is a perfect boutique ambient machine at a lower price than a lot of similar pedals. Great build quality you expect from Keeley, 5 year warranty and not a bad sound in it in my mind. Only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars is the pedal's not as versatile as I thought it could be, the modulated delay is great but somewhat limited in options.
Tremolo is one of my favourite effects but I have never really been interested in much more than just the standard effect - this trem is very affordable, has a lot of range in it's volume knobs and surprisingly good build & durability for the price (I've had it around 3 years at time of review, second hand, and it still looks & plays factory new). Perfect for stomp-n-play tremolo lovers who dont have time to dial in 15 specific perameters for an effect that essentially turns the volume up and down and aren't interested in the bells and whistles you get on these nowadays such as tap tempo etc. 4 stars because of the negligible volume drop off (I'm picky).
Great deal of functionality for such a small - and cheap - pedal. If you turn up the depth & mix you can clearly hear the distinctions in modulation of each setting (something of an issue on some other modulated-reverb pedals) and the tap-mod rate button is ingenious, but this pedal isn't for the faint of heart! Set the decay anywhere past 10 o'clock and you hear just how intense the reverb trails get as you turn the mix knob up - this thing will absolutely drown your signal, which is why I use it on one side of a split chain. That being said, it's great for ambient guitar and even better for pads, but don't play a lead solo with it - the volume drop off is pretty noticeable.
Like pretty much everyone else, I got this at the height of my Smashing Pumpkins phase, but it's stayed on my board ever since. Perfect kick-up when you already have distortion going and want to cut through without just throwing on more excessive loudness (though it will very much do that too if you wish). I've tried a couple other Big Muffs and stand by this as my favourite, but there is something to be said for it's limited number of tones - if you ever grow tired of its distinctive sound, you can't really do a lot to change it without involving other pedals.
I got this thing because I was new to guitar and wanted a chorus pedal I could use on both bass and guitar. I heard Peter Hook used this on most every New Order song and that was good enough for me (sure enough, you can instantly get those tones straight out the box). I wasn't looking to spend much so I got one second hand, but was surprised when it came with the original EHX battery bearing the sexiest man alive, Mike Matthews. What ensued was a Pixar-esque friendship between me and the vibrato setting, but the stereo chorus sound made for good competition. I wept real man tears when it's life was tragically cut short by the footswitch giving out (that's what I get for a cut-price second hand unit). I felt like I lost a part of me that day. All joking aside, it's a fantastic, simple and effective chorus/vibrato that still beats out a lot of today's best boutiques. Great value for money and a perfect first chorus pedal; I'd take this thing over the Small Clone any day of the week.
I was skeptical buying this because like many, I was questioning if I'd really use a bitcrusher enough to justify its purchase. I'm glad I did though - there's a lot of interesting, glitchy noises hiding in the sample knob, and if you don't like the harsh feedback noises you can just turn that knob down and go with the bit reduction on it's own. Aside from 8-bit videogame noises, it's great for authentic lo-fi guitar sounds and stacks great with octave-up effects. The synth switch works pretty nice for electronic stuff but I haven't really used this a whole lot to give a definitive opinion.
I've had this a while now and still find new uses for it. The reverse setting is uncharacteristically usable. Time is very tweakable and it's a bargain for a stereo delay pedal of this build quality. My favourite setting is the tape delay, you won't find any other digital delays with a tape delay setting this convincing in this price range. Modulated setting is also fun and the short looper makes for great little glitchy effects. And yes, it self-oscillates. Perfect OK COMPUTER-in-a-box delay pedal that still holds up in 2021.
I got this recently and I'm totally loving it. Was worried about replacing my no-longer functioning chorus/vibrato with a multimod with no dedicated vibrato setting since it's my favourite effect, however the mix knob goes full wet, so just turn this all the way with the primary effect set to chorus and you have yourself a mean vibrato - it's no Aqueduct, but the power of the rate and depth knobs might convince you it is. It might not be the most cost effective multimod out there (and the lack of stereo output might put some people off at this price range) but this pedal carries all of Old Blood's usual innovation: the regen knob lets you subtly blend in flange-y textures to your primary modulation, and the parallel signal routing really sets it apart from other modulation options. The expression output controls the secondary effect too, so if you're into the whole expression thing, you can swell in lush chorus or tremolo sounds on top of your primary modulation effects. Sounds as beautiful as the decor!
If you're looking at a squier telecaster (or even just a squier) for your first or second guitar, get this one. Let me start by saying that this thing really does play beautifully. Of course, things like string gauges and action height etc. will have a big sway over how the instrument responds to your playing, but I found both of these to be more or less perfect out the box. Sure, it's a squier and it won't be quite the same smoothness as you're meant to get from the full Fender (they need some excuses for the £400+ price difference) but I've done all kinds of styles of guitar on this and never found any difficulties with the fluid movement across the fretboard, the resonance of ringing out open strings, distance between the strings etc. I play a lot of jazz and math-rock stuff with awkward, unusual chord shapes that are made pretty attainable by this guitar, and it holds tuning really well which is a big plus for players like me who use a lot of alternate tunings. Then you have the electronics: there's a world of difference between the 3 pickup positions and I constantly find myself switching between them and hearing a different guitar. It's unbelievably bright sounding, and if those harmonics are too much for you the tone knob rolls off beautifully. Only negatives I can put on it are a few build quality issues, just things like the tip of the switch and one knob came off a while ago (both easily mendable and only happened once in about 3 years) and I had one issue with the signal out unscrewing itself. Great clean tones and durable build quality with about 70 years of telecaster tones hiding in it.
When i first wanted a bass it was the versatility of the jazz bass that drew me toward them over precision basses. This guitar embodies that versatility fantastically: the independent volume knobs and tone knob are responsive enough to get a lot of sounds out of this mean bass, from the bright slap tones every 15 year old RHCP would die for to dubby sub-bass excellence. it plays super smooth, and climbs the neck with almost unmatched consistency. build quality is certainly not bad too, I had an issue with fret buzz when I got it but this was easily fixed with adjustment to the action at the bridge. The neck is wonderfully smooth to run through; I was super into Rush when I started playing so I really needed that freedom of movement up and down the neck as well as the responsive pickups to accentuate those crazy rhythms. I have plenty more positive things to say - the open strings have great sustain, and at the right settings it responds very well to a pick. Only downsides are the obvious difference in build quality between this and a Fender Jazz Bass, but hey - it's as good as squier basses get (which is in my opinion, very good indeed).

guitars 3

If you're looking at a squier telecaster (or even just a squier) for your first or second guitar, get this one. Let me start by saying that this thing really does play beautifully. Of course, things like string gauges and action height etc. will have a big sway over how the instrument responds to your playing, but I found both of these to be more or less perfect out the box. Sure, it's a squier and it won't be quite the same smoothness as you're meant to get from the full Fender (they need some excuses for the £400+ price difference) but I've done all kinds of styles of guitar on this and never found any difficulties with the fluid movement across the fretboard, the resonance of ringing out open strings, distance between the strings etc. I play a lot of jazz and math-rock stuff with awkward, unusual chord shapes that are made pretty attainable by this guitar, and it holds tuning really well which is a big plus for players like me who use a lot of alternate tunings. Then you have the electronics: there's a world of difference between the 3 pickup positions and I constantly find myself switching between them and hearing a different guitar. It's unbelievably bright sounding, and if those harmonics are too much for you the tone knob rolls off beautifully. Only negatives I can put on it are a few build quality issues, just things like the tip of the switch and one knob came off a while ago (both easily mendable and only happened once in about 3 years) and I had one issue with the signal out unscrewing itself. Great clean tones and durable build quality with about 70 years of telecaster tones hiding in it.
When i first wanted a bass it was the versatility of the jazz bass that drew me toward them over precision basses. This guitar embodies that versatility fantastically: the independent volume knobs and tone knob are responsive enough to get a lot of sounds out of this mean bass, from the bright slap tones every 15 year old RHCP would die for to dubby sub-bass excellence. it plays super smooth, and climbs the neck with almost unmatched consistency. build quality is certainly not bad too, I had an issue with fret buzz when I got it but this was easily fixed with adjustment to the action at the bridge. The neck is wonderfully smooth to run through; I was super into Rush when I started playing so I really needed that freedom of movement up and down the neck as well as the responsive pickups to accentuate those crazy rhythms. I have plenty more positive things to say - the open strings have great sustain, and at the right settings it responds very well to a pick. Only downsides are the obvious difference in build quality between this and a Fender Jazz Bass, but hey - it's as good as squier basses get (which is in my opinion, very good indeed).

Keys/synths 6

There are some great features in this little unit - its loop functions are very usable, it does some lovely reverb sounds and caters to many styles of synth sounds. Ribbon keyboard isn't exactly the best but this is to be expected from such a small device. Overall, definitely a quality, versatile machine.

pedals 36

Maybe I'm a little biased because it was one of my very first pedals, but as everything else on my board has slowly been upgraded I haven't had the heart to change this one. The gain and level knobs are so responsive that you have perfect volume control over your dirt. It's a pretty aggressive distortion, but very dark in tone so it doesn't sound too in your face or obnoxious. I recommend it for guitar personally but I have used it on bass and it certainly holds up (I would do this with a guitar amp however). Great to run parallel with a clean amp or as a grungy, ratty distortion on its own.
this has been one of my favourite pedals since immediately after I picked it up. At first I just used it for guitar, but have now moved it onto my synth pedal board as it sounds really great with that too. This thing is a perfect boutique ambient machine at a lower price than a lot of similar pedals. Great build quality you expect from Keeley, 5 year warranty and not a bad sound in it in my mind. Only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars is the pedal's not as versatile as I thought it could be, the modulated delay is great but somewhat limited in options.
Tremolo is one of my favourite effects but I have never really been interested in much more than just the standard effect - this trem is very affordable, has a lot of range in it's volume knobs and surprisingly good build & durability for the price (I've had it around 3 years at time of review, second hand, and it still looks & plays factory new). Perfect for stomp-n-play tremolo lovers who dont have time to dial in 15 specific perameters for an effect that essentially turns the volume up and down and aren't interested in the bells and whistles you get on these nowadays such as tap tempo etc. 4 stars because of the negligible volume drop off (I'm picky).
Great deal of functionality for such a small - and cheap - pedal. If you turn up the depth & mix you can clearly hear the distinctions in modulation of each setting (something of an issue on some other modulated-reverb pedals) and the tap-mod rate button is ingenious, but this pedal isn't for the faint of heart! Set the decay anywhere past 10 o'clock and you hear just how intense the reverb trails get as you turn the mix knob up - this thing will absolutely drown your signal, which is why I use it on one side of a split chain. That being said, it's great for ambient guitar and even better for pads, but don't play a lead solo with it - the volume drop off is pretty noticeable.
Like pretty much everyone else, I got this at the height of my Smashing Pumpkins phase, but it's stayed on my board ever since. Perfect kick-up when you already have distortion going and want to cut through without just throwing on more excessive loudness (though it will very much do that too if you wish). I've tried a couple other Big Muffs and stand by this as my favourite, but there is something to be said for it's limited number of tones - if you ever grow tired of its distinctive sound, you can't really do a lot to change it without involving other pedals.
I got this thing because I was new to guitar and wanted a chorus pedal I could use on both bass and guitar. I heard Peter Hook used this on most every New Order song and that was good enough for me (sure enough, you can instantly get those tones straight out the box). I wasn't looking to spend much so I got one second hand, but was surprised when it came with the original EHX battery bearing the sexiest man alive, Mike Matthews. What ensued was a Pixar-esque friendship between me and the vibrato setting, but the stereo chorus sound made for good competition. I wept real man tears when it's life was tragically cut short by the footswitch giving out (that's what I get for a cut-price second hand unit). I felt like I lost a part of me that day. All joking aside, it's a fantastic, simple and effective chorus/vibrato that still beats out a lot of today's best boutiques. Great value for money and a perfect first chorus pedal; I'd take this thing over the Small Clone any day of the week.
I was skeptical buying this because like many, I was questioning if I'd really use a bitcrusher enough to justify its purchase. I'm glad I did though - there's a lot of interesting, glitchy noises hiding in the sample knob, and if you don't like the harsh feedback noises you can just turn that knob down and go with the bit reduction on it's own. Aside from 8-bit videogame noises, it's great for authentic lo-fi guitar sounds and stacks great with octave-up effects. The synth switch works pretty nice for electronic stuff but I haven't really used this a whole lot to give a definitive opinion.
I've had this a while now and still find new uses for it. The reverse setting is uncharacteristically usable. Time is very tweakable and it's a bargain for a stereo delay pedal of this build quality. My favourite setting is the tape delay, you won't find any other digital delays with a tape delay setting this convincing in this price range. Modulated setting is also fun and the short looper makes for great little glitchy effects. And yes, it self-oscillates. Perfect OK COMPUTER-in-a-box delay pedal that still holds up in 2021.
I got this recently and I'm totally loving it. Was worried about replacing my no-longer functioning chorus/vibrato with a multimod with no dedicated vibrato setting since it's my favourite effect, however the mix knob goes full wet, so just turn this all the way with the primary effect set to chorus and you have yourself a mean vibrato - it's no Aqueduct, but the power of the rate and depth knobs might convince you it is. It might not be the most cost effective multimod out there (and the lack of stereo output might put some people off at this price range) but this pedal carries all of Old Blood's usual innovation: the regen knob lets you subtly blend in flange-y textures to your primary modulation, and the parallel signal routing really sets it apart from other modulation options. The expression output controls the secondary effect too, so if you're into the whole expression thing, you can swell in lush chorus or tremolo sounds on top of your primary modulation effects. Sounds as beautiful as the decor!
I've had the Thrash Master (commonly misspelt as 'Trash Master', both intentionally and otherwise) on my board a few months now, and I think I've spent longer researching it than playing it. The circuit behind this fluorescent pink wonder is strange to say the least. The FX59 and its brother, the fluro-green FX58, are supposedly updated versions of Dod's earlier FX56 'American Metal', which was designed to compete with the holy Boss HM-2. But here's the thing: none of these pedals, at least to my ears anyway, sound remotely like the HM-2 or the countless "Metal" pedals based on the original HM-2. It has way more low end - like, more than any distortion I've ever seen before or since. It also lacks the heavy mids that made the HM-2 so special. The only similarity I could find is that I'm convinced the 'Distortion' knob does absolutely nothing. Regardless, this is a pink high gain distortion pedal so it's automatically awesome, and as an added plus it actually sounds pretty fantastic if you get the presence and level knobs just right;)
Im not a big EQ guy but I got this for my synth set up so I can better manage levelling going direct into a recording interface. It does this perfectly! No time-wasting, unnecessary features, and each fader is super powerful - you can cut and boost very specific frequencies effortlessly, perfect for rounding off the high end, bass-boosting or intricate & noiseless filtering. The volume adjustment is really useful for added control in preamp etc, or lowering the volume of your altered equalisation when running this parallel to a clean signal path (e.g. you could use a stereo splitter before this to put your clean guitar in the left channel and isolated high frequencies in the right). Overall it's a pretty unbeatable EQ for the price and something I'm finding myself using every time I go near it.
Let me start by saying how shocked I was by the clarity of the loops. I was very skeptical around this looper - especially considering I've seen at least 3 separate brand names at the bottom of the pedal - but figured that a stereo looper boasting 12 minutes of looping was easily worth it. I definitely made the right decision - the FX circuit is a welcome addition to any adventurous musician's arsenal, with a highly usable reverse mode & loop speed alterations. The independent volume controls are useful too and the overall build seems quality, though there are a few minor design flaws that irk me a little: for starters, the stereo outs only work if you use both stereo inputs. Mono works just fine, but you can't run 1 cable into the pedal and try and get stereo out, you just end up with one hard-panned channel. I had assumed it would work with only one input signal since (for example) the Boss RC Loopers allow for mono input to be split, whereas the Twin Looper's outputs can only read their corresponding inputs (L to L, R to R). Also, the speed knob moves in steps, which is good for setting specific changes to the speed when the FX is in bypass but it does mean you can't slow or accelerate your loops like changing the time knob on a delay pedal - small setbacks, but not much else wrong with it.
There are a lot of delay pedals that share the PT2399 chip - the iconic "Karaoke Machine" chip at the heart of all your favourite lo-fi delay circuits. I certainly haven't tried them all, but the Space Spiral's modulation has gorgeous character at every setting on the shape knob. It's the perfect delay for any sound chaser looking for continuous oscillation - countless delays offer infinite repeat feedback, but oil can machines capable of perpetually emitting that sound without letting the volume get out of hand are few and far between to say the least. Not to mention the way the modulation's depth and shape controls let you paint those oscillations exactly as you see fit. A beautiful textural addition to any ambient guitar or synth setup which offers excellent delay tones at practically every configuration - and with the reliable and revered build quality of an Earthquaker device.
Let's get down to brass tacks - if you don't have a favourite Boss Digital Reverb pedal you're just a weirdo really. Sorry, I don't make the rules. Mine though is easily the RV-5. Granted, it lacks the expression options of the RV-6 and RV-500, but it's a worthy trade-off: RV-5 has dual stereo input and output. Everything's got 2 outputs these days; it's easier to get mono the disease than a mono reverb pedal. But not a lot have stereo input - especially not this size (which by the way makes it much more viable as an alternative to the titanic RV-500). Next let's talk modes - the spring is great, the plate is gorgeous, and the hall might just be the best there is. turn the knob south-ways and we get an admittedly dull room reverb (it's a room, what did you expect) and the two defining features that rank this pedal superior to the updated RV-6. Edge of your seat stuff, *I know*. You see, for some reason Boss decided that the excellent modulation mode (based on Hall) needed to be changed for some reason, so many seek this pedal just for Boss' original modulated reverb sound. secondly, its successor dropped the fantastic gated reverb mode (I still haven't gotten over it) which makes it sound like Kevin Shields is trapped in the phantom zone and needs your help to escape with the power of friendship and great reverb tone. What was I saying? oh yeah, that's why this is the best Boss reverb, thank you for coming to my ted talk.

Amplifiers 4

mics 2

Interfaces 1

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