stephen_owen's Reviews

Some cool sounds but nothing more.

I bought this second hand and it is little more than unremarkable. Some sounds do however occasionally excite.

Positives: The sounds are all passable at least. The step phaser provides an interesting and unique effect that is enjoyable to use, if a little volatile. In addition the pedal also has some interesting extreme settings including Electric Mistress like fixed flanger sounds.

Negatives: The effects are all highly sterile and do not interact well with other pedals. The pedal itself seems quite fragile as the knobs on them seem quite liable to breaking. Some sounds are at times a little tricky to hear such as the vibe.

All in all, one of the least interesting and bland multi-modulation pedals out there. For a bit more money a Line 6 M5 would provide more odd ball and better common modulation effects along with reverbs and delays.

A great budget gigging or practice amp

After getting this amp recently I must say I am very impressed in many ways.

Positives: The first positive is the way the amp was designed. It has great power scaling options allowing for greater versatility. In addition, the acoustic channel also adds another function to the amp that works surprisingly well. The tilt stand does a good job directing the sound in a pleasing way and many of the onboard effects are actually very convincing and sound very nice such as the chorus, the delay and the reverb. In terms of pure amp sound, the clean channel sounds very clear and pristine and is a fairly good platform for pedals. It has a more trebly sound which would be great for cutting through in a live context.

Negatives: The clean channel is excellent however the rest of channels leave a bit to be desired. They are all highly bright and lack bass end, making them highly un-compelling. In addition, many of the effects are useless and some sound good alone but don't work well with pedals. In addition, the speaker itself definitely has issues working as both an acoustic and electric guitar speaker as it often exemplifies the highs too much with electric guitar.

All in all, it is a great amp for £165 and certainly ticks all the boxes as a gigging work horse and a worthy Cube replacement.

A fantastic simple looper

A pedal that really is a TC Electronic masterpiece.

Positives: The simple interface means it is unlikely to be confused and in addition, the addition on a USB allows you to store loops on a computer to play back, a handy tool for live use.

Negatives: There are a few negatives but really it isn't the end of the world especially for a pedal of this size. One would be the way in which you pause the loop. The double press of the footswitch could be a challenge but in a practice context it doesn't matter. The other issue would be a lack of the comforts of other loopers such as fade outs and overdubs beginning at the start of the loop. These again are just wishful thinking for a looper of this size.

Overall, I would recommend this pedal for just doing the simple thing you want, looping. Nothing more, nothing less.

Very versatile but slightly flawed overdrive

This was a pedal I bought primarily for a clean boost but has morphed into my main distortion sound. This I think exemplifies the first major positive of this drive.

Positives: The drive is highly versatile and can do anything from a responsive bluesy drive to a huge compressed distortion sound. It also is very reactive to the volume pot, how hard you hit the strings and your pickup selection, allowing for a tiny bit of dirt on the neck pickup of my PRS to a raunchy vintage crunch on the bridge. This all stems from the touch control which acts as both a tone and almost a compression control, with the drive becoming more compressed and trebly as the knob is turned clockwise and darker and more responsive as the pedal is turned anti-clockwise. This to my mind also has its drawbacks.

Negatives: The touch control is the most notable issue for this pedal. The merging of the compression and the tone means that you have an issue of the pedal not quite being able to get the sound you may want. I was looking for a responsive sound that wasn't highly dark, something that would be possible with a tone and a touch control. The variation in tone is less of an issue than other cheap overdrives but is still prevalent.

All in all, this a great budget drive pedal that does have a significant flaw that sadly a little bit undermines the pedal. A possible upmarket option is the pedal it is based off, the Mad Professor Sweet Honey, the deluxe version of which has separate bass and treble controls along with the touch control.

Not bad for £40.

This pedal is great for the money but it definitely isn't likely to be a permanent fixture on a board if you want clean phaser sounds.

Positives: A positive is the range of sounds you can get from it. As well as the regular phaser sound, you can turn the rate anti-clockwise and have a range of mid heavy filter tones by manipulating the depth and feedback controls. In addition when the controls are in good positions it can sound very nice.

Negatives: There are however tangible negatives. One is the frequencies the pedal seems to focus on. It is largely focused, from what I can hear on treble and high mid frequencies making it difficult to make it work with some of my pedals. In addition, the pedal is very temperamental, meaning that one sound is often achievable only once with the controls set a certain way.

Overall I would say get it if you want an introduction to phaser or something a bit gritty and characterful but if you want something reliable I would say go for a Phase 90 or an EHX Small Stone.

Cheap and decent

I got this for £24 so I wasn't expecting it to be remarkable. It is dreadful as a clean boost but over my TS Mini it makes it really scream so that is a positive. I am aiming though to upgrade to a Spark or an MXR Micro Amp to improve my sound.

Honestly incredible for £65

I have used both the TS9 and TS808 along with this and this is the pick of the bunch in my opinion. It has a bit of a rawer feel to it with a good amount of drive and full volume. It is honestly fantastic and if you don't want to stump up double for a TS9 or risk spending less on a cheap copy, this is the choice!