themaddalton's Reviews
5 reviews Back to themaddalton's Equipboard
79
Mainstay
Hours of fun. From simple analogy delay to faithful reproductions of effects that are now veritable antiques & impossible to obtain -it can be a complex pedal but great to have this array of options in one stomp box thought it does take up a lot of real estate.
Have owned mine since 2000, no issues but I believe some people are not faring so well w/ older version of theirs.
79
Not For Me
After considerable deliberation & research in the optical compressor market, I gave this a whirl, primarily w/ a view to using in conjunction w/ an acoustic. It is VERY subtle tool & did not change or help fatten my acoustic tone as i had hoped ( the LR Baggs Session DI did!). I was also intrigued how it might work w/ my electric but again it was once again way too subtle for my taste so I reverted back to a modded BOSS CS3 (see my review). This pedal is a bit of a pain to power in that it requires an additional adaptor to a standard BOSS plug to operate. To install a battery you need to take the whole casing off & there is a tricky trim pot at the side of the unit to adjust input gain.
Not for me but I sold it on to a bass playing friend who says it is working out well for him so... :)
41028
I thik your problem is that the 'fattening' from classic optos isnot about the LDR detection circuit but about the gain staging surrounding it! some old optos are not fat at all while others are thick as hell, particularly tube ones... the opto thing is a studio thing, its about the more relaxed curves on the time cosntants, when someone uses a tube opto to thicken things in a mix its more for the tubes in the signal path, particularly the make-up amplifier after the compressor, the actual compression is typically used pretty subtley. This is a question of mistmatched expectations because people don't really explain the components of famous circuits and their effect on source material and instead make things like "opto compressor" into marketing buzzwords :-( not your fault.... you might prefer the Cali76 that gets near an 1176 Fet compressor in a pedal, the 1176 is super 'grabby' and definitely adds more girth from the other parts of the signal path than a lot of other solid state compressors.... also remember that if 'fatten' involves big low end, ALL comrpessors tend to reduce lows when working hard un;less the makeup am compensates for this through a flattering design. I hope this has been informative.
79
One Of A Kind
These are now discontinued & other than a similarly styled Hughes & Kettner tube pedal was I believe the only tube-based pedal that I was at least aware of for awhile. It sure cost a lot a the time & it weighs a ton. It's a got green, red & blue LED's for clean, solo & blues settings respectively.
I'm not a metal guy, so I wasn't after a MESA tone, but I do value it as a pre-amp to warm & help sculpt my clean tone as it has some cool knobs for dialling in bass, middle & treble. Obviously it offers some pretty scorching high-gain sound if that's what I'm after too.
I'm not sure that i'm getting as much out of this pedal as other's might & I have strongly considered selling it several times but have held off from doing so for some reason. It's unique & I figured i regret it so while may not be a permanent fixture in my chain at the moment it could easily work it's way back in in the not too distant future. After all it has been called one of the most indispensable pedals of all time so... ;)
79
I bought this V-Twin pedal in 2000. Dunno if the Hotbox was about at the time but I i didn't have the internet then. ;) The Blackbird & Firebottle from Effectrode look like sweet tube-based pedal options available these days though.
41028
I think it was discoed then, but the original was a 90s product and was since reissued
41028
oh yeah, the effectrode in the green housing is pretty flattering to most guitars for most genres and really loves fender amps... forget which model it is but I like it
79
A Sleeping Giant ( if you get the mod! )
Monte Allums put it best himself when he said that this pedal is a "fizz factory". So there it was sitting in it's box & I heard about a mod for the pedal. I had nothing to lose, it wasn't being used & I wanted a functional overdrive so why not.
I opted for the Monte Allums Tri-Gain mod & man am I ever glad I did! No only is it now a useable pedal but it transformed from what it was & SMOOTH w/ a range of tonal options. Not a fan of the "top"setting of the new toggle but the middle & bottom are pretty special & in the zone of grit, punch & gutsy roar that I'm after & the bass/mid/treble pots now seem more effective than they ever were. Highly recommended!
79
Going Strong With CS3 15+ Years
This BOSS CS-3 was one of the first pedals I ever bought & I still have it...! I'm not sure I had any idea what it would do for what was then an untested sound, but it has served me well & is an indispensable part of of tone.
People seem to have love/hate relationships w/ compression & I bought a lot of my current gear in Canada & attitudes do differ from one side of the pond to the other.
I keep my CS3 as the first pedal in my chain & follow it up w/ any number of pedals. I keep the settings generally about the same depending on the environment, where I may adjust level.
I took a bit chance last year when I decided to experiment w/ some other units & went through my first foray into optical compression (transparent). The CS3 pedal may be accused as a "tone sucker" by some as it is anything but transparent but i happen to like the warmth & "squash" it can impart to my sound, particularly when I have some overdrive in the chain. The optical compressors didn't work for me but I did get a Monte Allums mod done to the pedal & it has seems to have really improved what was already a great pedal by reducing noise.