tim_harrison's Reviews

Best mid boost ever

Finally after a long search in the used market I managed to procure this pedal. It was kinda pricey for a used pedal but worth it. This pedal is just perfect for my amp. My BV150H has too much gain on the tap and tightening the low end with a Tube Screamer or similar overdrive just never sounded right with it. There was just way too much signal clipping with those pedals and thus it made the overall sound way too harsh. Finally this pedal solves those problems. It boosts the mids but doesn't clip the signal. With this pedal before my amp my guitar sounds damn tight, huge and beefy, and the harshness is gone.

Best overdrive pedal I've ever used.

I bought this pedal to replace my MXR GT-OD. It's not because that my GT-OD was bad, however the GT-OD never used to sound right with my amp. I used to use the GT-OD as an upper mid boost to tighten the low end of my amp, it did the job great but with one caveat. When the tone knob was dialled up it also used to do funny stuff to the highs of my amp, with it my amp sounded peaky and harsh in the high end. Turning down the tone knob was counterproductive because then it used to add too much low mids which used to make my amp sound muddy.

This pedal solved that issue. The EQ section of this pedal is like a godsend for me. With this pedal I can tweak the frequency response to specifically boost my amp in a way that the natural high end response of my amp stays unaffected and doesn't sound harsh, but at the same time the low end sounds tight. This pedal is the perfect overdrive pedal for my amp.

One of the best analog chorus pedal out there.

I bought it used and all I can say it's hands down one of the best analog chorus and vibrato pedal I've ever used.

Excellent noise gate.

I switched to this pedal from the MXR Noise Clamp and I'm genuinely blown away by the improvement in my guitar tone. I use this pedal in the same 4-cable X-configuration as the MXR Noise Clamp and I am stunned by how transparent it is. All I needed to do is to play around its knobs and that's it. No tone suck and tone coloration whatsoever.

Perfect clone of HM-2

After using my Airis Effects Merciless Distortion for some years I realised that my guitar tone doesn't have the same beefiness and girth as that produced by old Swedish Death Metal bands who used to use MIJ HM-2 pedals. I also realised that due to the low gain of the Merciless Distortion, it doesn't sound right unless boosted by an overdrive pedal. That's why I switched to this pedal.

There's nothing revolutionary about this pedal. The best thing about this pedal is that it is an exact clone of HM-2 albeit with true bypass and it sounds exactly same as the MIJ HM-2, nothing less, nothing more. This pedal has simplified my signal chain.

A gem of a guitar mic.

It's funny how they market it as a kick-drum mic but once you use it as a guitar mic you would realize that it is hands down the best guitar mic money can buy. It sounds perfect for recording amp cabs. Whoever designed this microphone must be an effin' genius.

Edit: I bought one more for me. Now I have a pair of these microphones. I am in love with this microphone. Mixing the sounds of the condenser and dynamic elements of this microphone gives me such a clear, detailed, and huge sound that I don't hear from other microphones. I'm not sure how they have designed their condenser element, because it works excellent for high gain recordings, and no in my case, it's not a normal high-gain scenario, think of Incantation and early Devourment level of high gain and you'll get the idea. Any other condenser microphone used at the same distance from the speaker cab as this microphone would have turned the signal into a muddy and incoherent mess due to the proximity effect.

Good quality interface

It may not be as good as those high end UAD, Apogee and RME interfaces but nevertheless it's a good quality interface which works well without issues and has lots of connectivity options.

Great quality

Good ole Focusrite. Sounds beautifully clean, plenty of gain and built like a tank.

Does wonders for my amp cab mics.

The compressor section is damn transparent, it lets me dial just the right amount of compression on my mics. Since I use it to record a heavily overdriven high gain amp I don't use too much compression, but nevertheless it provides me just the right amount of compression. The noise gate is a nifty addition.

Good quality parametric equalizer.

Got two of these babies from the used market. They work great for equalizing the microphones I use to mic my guitar cab. They even have 1/4" jacks so I can even run them in the effects loop of my amp if I ever need to.

Rack-mount VCA compressor stuffed in a pedal.

This compressor pedal is unlike any other compressor pedal out there. First let me make it clear, if you want a compressor for warm optical compressor style tones, or those biting FET or OTA compressor style tones, or those smooth Vari-Mu compressor style tones then this ain't the pedal for you. This ain't exactly an effect pedal, it's a high quality and transparent VCA mastering compressor stuffed in a pedal. It's meant to be a mastering tool.

It lets me get rid of the harsh transients produced while using my distortion pedal with my amp and master my final guitar tone. Usually in studio we do so with the help of VCA compressor plugins but with this pedal I can take my studio quality mastered sound live. All I need to do is put it in the effects loop of my amp and then master my guitar tone with it.

If y'all looking for a pedal to make you sound as good live as you do in studio then get this pedal. It's price is no doubt damn steep for a pedal but I have no regrets because this little pedal can put even rack-mount VCA compressors to shame.

Brutal sounding guitar speakers.

These speakers were designed for Crate by Eminence. They are similar to Private Jack but compared to the Private Jacks they sound fuller.

Excellent tuner but the display needs to be brighter.

The tuner is excellent. Its polyphonic tuning system is the niftiest thing I've ever seen on a tuner and its strobe tuning mode as accurate as one of those big strobe tuning units, but its display is kinda dim.

Better than EMGs

I have them on my B.C. Rich Beast NT guitar and this set of pickup did wonders for that guitar. The guitar used to sound muddy and mushy with the stock pickups but with these pickups it sounds excellent. They are more articulate than EMGs or any other active pickups but at the same time they have output like EMGs.

One of the best sounding active pickups in the market.

They came stock on my Agile Interceptor Pro, and they sound damn good.

Pretty decent quality guitar.

The Beast NT was my first guitar and I still use it. I bought it for mere $300 at a clearance sale at a local guitar store. From what I heard apparently the shape of this guitar shooed away most customers. The quality of the guitar was damn good even in its stock condition. It's a neck through guitar and the access to higher frets was excellent, the ebony fretboard was pretty uniform in coloration, and frets were nicely dressed. As for the trem, it's an Original Floyd Rose and has rock solid tuning stability.

However I didn't liked the glossy black finish of the neck, so I used a 1200 grit sandpaper on the top layer of finish to give the neck a nice satin black finish.

Another weak point of the guitar were the pickups, the B.C. Rich B.D.S.M. pickups were high output pickups but they were dark and muddy, sometimes fast played sections used to turn into incoherent mush on those pickups. So I swapped them with a pair of DiMarzio D Activator pickups and now the guitar sounds excellent.

Some people call the shape of this guitar immature but I like it. Even after so many years of use I've never faced any problem with this guitar.

Best HM-2, period.

I have compared this pedal to my bandmate's original MIJ Boss HM-2. The way this pedal works is quite different from a normal HM-2. It's tonally same as HM-2 but it has substantially less gain. Its less like a distortion pedal and more like a overdrive or tone shaping pedal that has same tonality as the HM-2.

However due to less gain it can be used before an overdriven high gain amp. With this pedal my amp does the heavy lifting for generating those distorted and overdriven sounds. What this pedals does is that it shapes and pushes my guitar tone in a way that when placed before my overdriven amp my amp produces the signature Swedish Death Metal buzzsaw tone. Unlike the usual HM-2 into the crunch channel set up, this set up sounds less compressed and the overall distorted tone sounds way more controlled. It isn't as thick sounding as HM-2 because it doesn't compress the sound but this ensures that the sound remains free of mud.

At $150 it hell lotta cheaper than other boutique HM-2 clones and used MIJ Boss HM-2.

Worth way more than its price

I'm genuinely amazed by the quality of this guitar at a mere $500. This guitar employs a nice neck-through construction and the neck profile feels fast. The quality of the ebony fretboard is indeed damn good and the color of the ebony is pretty uniform. Of course, the one I own is in a satin black finish and hence it lacks the flamed maple veneer, but it looks good in its own way. The Seymour Duncan Blackouts sound great for my needs, and the 27" fret scale is good for low tunings. Honestly, this guitar can put many pricier guitars to shame. The only thing I replaced on this guitar is the stock Floyd Rose Special trem, I replaced the whole trem system with an Original Floyd Rose 7-string trem system.

Best wah in the market.

It's hands down the most vintage sounding wah. It employs true-bypass switching and hence doesn't impact the guitar tone when bypassed. Its components are hand-wired. The quality of this wah is absolutely unbelievable for its price.

One of the best phaser pedal out there.

If you're looking for a traditional phaser than stop looking at this pedal and this review, this pedal ain't for you. However if you want a phaser which lets you experiment with different phasing effects then this is the pedal for you. This pedal has too many options to play around with, some of the settings can often sound disorienting and trippy when used with high gain set-ups (think of experiencing phasing effect while tripping on acids). Although I love to try out different settings but sometimes I hold back (especially while playing live) because some settings on this phaser can be brutally disorienting and can play with your head in a weird way (lets just say you won't want to experience that feeling while playing live).

Absolutely crazy phaser pedal, and the best part is unlike many boutique phaser pedals it's indeed pretty reasonably priced.