whereismyyymind's Reviews

Puzzled about the legend

I rarely had such high expectations of a pedal and was rewarded with such a mediocre result. What I really appreciated was the reproduction of the high frequencies, the sound crystal clear with a slight tendency towards harshness (probably also due to the internal buffer), the chorus effect itself sounds a bit artificial to me. Unfortunately I can not say the same about the lower spectrum: An HPF sets in, cutting any punch and also a bit warmth out of clean single notes and turning overdriven signals into a lifeless mass. Maybe that's what people refer to as 'hifi'? I don't know but in my eyes a EHX Small Clone or a Boss CE are much more capable pedals in this regard. I found the Flanger to be unusable (I really like flangers), the pitch modulator is a nice addon I would have liked to keep.

Build quality is fine with this one!

Top notch!

Boss quality. High-grade jacks and cables, easy to work with and superior signal quality. Never failed me nor had any contact issues.

Sturdy board

Sturdy pedalboard with height adjustable feets and holding brackets for power supplies. Have mine for years now and will probably keep it for another decade. Modified it here and there for different reasons like mounting patchbays or cable routing. The included bag is rather cheap so better get a proper case for it.

Thick, warm and versatile

The FL-9 always comes out on top when it comes to flangers. It sounds so warm and dynamic and is so flexible that you don't necessarily think of a classic flanger effect, because it masters a room-filling chorus just as well as the classic floating sound of an Electric Mistress.

Boss in Mistress territory

The HF-2 is more or less a Mistress from Boss but with a few exceptions: It lacks the range filter but has a manual control to adjust the delay time. And in contrast to the Electric Mistress the flanging effect is quite subtle and it is as often mentioned more 'above' the tone due to the shifted octave. I really like it but personally couldn't stand the boss buffer. (i see the need for gain staging and use buffers a lot)

Authentic 80s chorus

Really nice chorus especially for 80s tunes! The metallic voice which gets mentioned often was not recognized by me. The only thing I could not handle was the quite drastic volume drop.

The vibrato mode is fantastic and justifies the acquisition solely for this!

This is fantastic!

Great, great 80s analogue flanger from Yamaha that does wonderful warm and open flanger and chorus sounds without the heavy metallic shime. Keeps the bottom frequencies intact and really shines when used with light overdrives. Quite rare but still available at a reasonable price!

Great tube distiortion...not thought through to the end

The MTG's distortion sounds so good and feels so right but in the end it's the extra features that just don't make it score. The frequency response of the pedal and the EQ range hardly allow any adjustment to amp and guitar and the built-in compressor, called tightness, compresses so dumb and plain that dynamic playing is no longer possible at all.

I really wanted to like it but in the end it just didn't fit into the setup.

Quite good for a shimmering chorus

If you like those shimmering choruses than this one's for you. The EQ makes it very versatile and it's easy to adapt to different playing styles be it overdriven or clean. As I have experienced Boss's buffer circuit it tends to make everything sound a bit harsh and this one is no exception. The CH-1 lacks a bit of depth compared to let's say a Maxon CS9 but shines in signal clarity. Neither is better than the other, just two different styles.

The analogue version (blue or pink label on bottom) sounds a bit rounder to my ears but the difference is really marginal.

Bland

It offered neither good distortion with a solid midrange nor did it offer a unique sound that encourages experimentation. Found it to be bland and boring.

Average pedal, overpriced.

It's an average sounding Green Ringer with a slight volume boost. There are better ones out there, though most are embedded in other circuits (e.g. MXR La Machine or MXR Sub Machine has a very good one built into it). The standalone concept is apparently the advantage of the Tentacle.

Plain sounds with a nice artwork.

I found it rather artifical and not very natural sounding, probably good for experimental stuff. The price definitely did not match with it's performance and I would recommend e.g. Boss' RV-Series to everyone who wants to go one step further.

Not really a step forward from v1

Bought the Okko Diablo v2 Single to do a step forward from v1 as various articles stated that the tone control on this one is even better plus you get a smaller enclosure. I don't think so as Okko skipped the internal presence control and Diablos tend to sound a bit harsh with some amps. In the end I liked my old big box Diablo v1 better even tough the gap between them was quite small. By no means is the Diablo v2 a bad product, in fact it is one of the best and most versatile drive pedals available.

Cool.

It's just a very, very satisfying silicon fuzz: Aggressive, but not harsh. Thick, but not muddy. If you don't like the form factor and can live without the mojo go for the MXR108 Classic Fuzz which is exactly the same soundwise.

Tight & versatile fuzz

A lot of people describe this as some kind of a hybrid between a rat and a muff but I think this is more in the territory of a fuzz face as the base tone sounds similar to my Dunlop Fuzz Face FFM3 (silicon BC108). While the FF sounds darker and more organic, the Fireburst on the other hand is much more defined with stunning clarity and also extremly versatile because of the added EQ. The mid boost is a nice feature for lead lines as it immediately puts your guitar at #1 place.

Awful 4x12 cab

One of the worst cabs I ever used, really heavy for it's size. Tonewise like a blanket in the top end and without any bottom end at all, the speakers seem to be just an imbalanced mess. Better leave this one out and get a used 1960A/B if it has to be a Marshall cab.

How cool is that?

Highly usable octave up silicon fuzz that complements all kinds of fuzz faces really good and also goes into sputtery-gated fuzz territory when cranked. Freak out riff machine!!

Mixed feelings

The Vahlbruch compressor is a open and smooth sounding optical compressor with useful features such as true bypass/buffered bypass switching and series/parallel compression. The ratio is fixed (likely 3:1 or 4:1) and the knobs give you control over the threshold (compression/sustain) and the output volume. That's quite limiting and I do not understand why this is the case for a lot of compressor pedals, maybe ease of use. What I liked about the Vahlbruch in comparison to it's competitors is the parallel compression for a tight but still airy, very open sounding tone especially with single coils, a wonderful and very dynamic setting. What I did not like and why I sold it is the exceptionally soft attack combined with a high rising noise floor when ringing out. It is the nature of a compression circuit to add some noise but there are plenty of devices that can do this much better. The soft attack could still be used for some jazzy or softly played bass pieces but the noise floor was in no way acceptable for me. Maybe this is negligible in a live setting, but it was a pain when playing fragile und near silent parts in a recording enviroment. Expected more from a product with such a price tag.

Absolutely fantastic Fuzz Face

As a gainy silicon fuzz face it as all the edge and grind but most importantly it gets not lost in the mix due to a proper midrange boost. The internal buffer gives it not only all the flexibility you need to place it anywhere in the signal chain but also changes the tone, the build quality is as good as a pedal can be. Does not need to hide behind much more expensive fuzzes in any way!

Some people in certain forums think this is a good entry into the world of fuzzes. My opinion is rather that the MXR Classic 108 is to be regarded as a Tubescreamer, a stable standard in the big world of fuzzes. You can go on and on searching for so called boutique fuzzes, but you can also just stomp on a used MXR Classic 108 and start writing a song. And I'm pretty sure it's going to be pretty good song.

Preferred Settings + Usage:

Quality product and a good base for a custom cab

Changed the speakers to G12H Creambacks, did a open back conversion and changed the grill cloth to something more classy. Now it's a really great cab!