Post by skinvoyager on Nov 22, 2013 11:23:26 GMT -7
I have been obsessing recently with getting my pedalboard finalized, as a recently purchased my second M12 after mistakenly selling the first.
Pedals I'm definitely keeping:
• TC Electronics Polytone Mini tuner
• Xotic SP Compressor
• Diamond Memory Lane Jr
• MXR Carbon Copy
• Carl Martin Plexitone
• Strymon Flint not pictured)
The Boss EQ is being replaced by a Source Audio Programmable EQ
Now, to get to the topic of the post. The drive pedals have been the hardest for me to nail down, but I've finally got my setup (at least for now!)
Here are the drive pedals I've recently owned or auditioned with the M12:
• Rockbox Boiling Point
• CMAT Signa Drive
• Cmat Super Signa Drive
• Way Huge Green Rhino
• Xotic SL Drive
• Xotic AC Plus
• Xotic BB Plus
• MXR Modified OD
• MXR Super 78
• MXR Super Badass Distortion
• Catalinbread DLS MKII
• Fulltone OCD
• Fulltone GT500
• Fulltone Fulldrive
• Mad Professor Mighty Red Distortion
• Mad Professor Stone Gray Distortion
• Mad Professor Little Green Wonder
• Ibanez TS9
• Wampler Sovereign
• Suhr Riot
• Bogner Ecstasy Red
• Jetter Gold Standard
• Lovepedal Kalamazoo
• Lovepedal OD11
…and a few others.
I need to have the following tones:
(1) Strumming and Funky clean
(2) Barely dirty (Mike Campbell-ish)
(3) Blues grind
(4) Classic rock
(5) Hot-rodded Marshall
For (1) The M12 clean and with the SP Compressor work beautifully. I tried over ten compressors, and the SP worked best for me...and it's so easy to get a great sound.
For (5), I'm keeping the PlexiTone. Absolutely beautiful high-gain Marshall tones. (I talked about the PT in a previous post, so I won't go into detail here.) That leaves the middle-ground tones...
I purchased a Rockett Blue Note, a Barber Gain Changer, and the new Visual Sound VS-XO. Let me say these are all good pedals. But for me, the BN and the GC together are PURE MAGIC. The VS-XO is being returned.
Rockett Blue Note
The BN gets me that just-barely-breaking up tone as well as blues tones (obviously). NOTHING I have tried to date sounds as natural as this pedal. It really, really, sounds like an amp. I paid $169 with a 15% discount, but I didn't want to pay that much for the pedal. But it's worth it. Just beautiful. It will get fairly gainy, but I like it just barely cooking.
Barber Gain Changer
If I had to have ONE drive pedal, this would be it. Simply amazing in its versatility. It will get almost as clean an natural as the Blue Note, and almost as thick and bold as the Plexitone, but not quite. It EXCELS at medium gain, classic rock tones. It can be a clean boost or a high gain pedal as well. I normally hate mini-toggles on pedals. The GC has two, and it's the first pedal I've ever used where the switches create noticeably different, yet completely usable tones. On the right, it's a hi/low gain switch, and it does just that. In a live situation, you can reach down, flip the switch and have two great tones without having to adjust the knobs! The switch on the left takes you through three EQ curves. To the far right it's flat, perfect for more modern tones. In the middle, the mids are pronounced, which is great for copping TS tones. To the left is my favorite position: just a bit of mids and highs boosted to help you cut through the mix. I love this pedal. And it was only $129 shipped!
Blue Note > Gain Changer
So now I have the barely dirty BN and the mildly dirty GC. When they're stacked, I get a beautifully saturated semi-high gain tone. Amazing. I've stacked a lot of pedals, and these two together are perfect.
Visual Sound VS-XO
I got this a few days ago...probably the first batch that shipped. I REALLY wanted this pedal to work. I can still return the BN and the GC, and if I did (and kept the VS-XO) I'd save about $150. I just can't. Let me say this: if I didn't already have the BN and GC, I'd probably love the VS-XO. It's a good, versatile pedal and a great value. I got the right channel in the ballpark of the BN, but it sounded gritty by comparison. The left channel had a good medium OD, but I had to crank the tone to get it close to the GC, and it didn't sound anywhere near as dimensional. In short, for me there were only one or two sweet spots on the VS-XO, where the BN and GC didn't have a bad sound to be found. When I stacked the two channels of the VS-XO it sounded pretty darn good, but nowhere near as good as the BN and GC stacked. Perhaps the biggest nail in the coffin for me with this pedal was the way it interacted with my SP Compressor. As soon as I engage the SP with the VS-XO on, the tones became extremely squashed and muffled, and I lost all my dynamics. I know that's what compressors do, but the SP never acts that way. And when the SP feeds the BN, I don't lose anything, in fact the tone gets better. I'm not sure why the VS-XO behaves this way with a compressor, but the resulting tones and feel were downright bad.
Source Audio Programmable EQ
I bought one of these on a whim. I had been using my old Boss GE-7 to boost solos. I've tried boutique boost pedals, but they never did as good as the Boss for me, believe it or not. Usually they added more saturation but didn't bump up the final output volume. I like having a little boost in certain mid freqs as well for solos, so the GE-7 worked great. But now, with the Source Audio, I can get that solo boost plus three more programmable options. Right now Preset 1 is my solo boost, and Preset 2 is the opposite-- it's a "V" curve which nails the Fender Blackface tones. I'm going to experiment this week with a setting to approximate an acoustic guitar as well, and I'll still have a fourth preset left over. All in all, a very useful pedal. I never really considered the tonal possibilities of an EQ pedal, but man, it can dramatically shape your tone.
Hope all this helps. I know this was a long and disjointed post, but that's exactly how my search for pedals has been, and I'm finally getting to a happy place!
Pedals I'm definitely keeping:
• TC Electronics Polytone Mini tuner
• Xotic SP Compressor
• Diamond Memory Lane Jr
• MXR Carbon Copy
• Carl Martin Plexitone
• Strymon Flint not pictured)
The Boss EQ is being replaced by a Source Audio Programmable EQ
Now, to get to the topic of the post. The drive pedals have been the hardest for me to nail down, but I've finally got my setup (at least for now!)
Here are the drive pedals I've recently owned or auditioned with the M12:
• Rockbox Boiling Point
• CMAT Signa Drive
• Cmat Super Signa Drive
• Way Huge Green Rhino
• Xotic SL Drive
• Xotic AC Plus
• Xotic BB Plus
• MXR Modified OD
• MXR Super 78
• MXR Super Badass Distortion
• Catalinbread DLS MKII
• Fulltone OCD
• Fulltone GT500
• Fulltone Fulldrive
• Mad Professor Mighty Red Distortion
• Mad Professor Stone Gray Distortion
• Mad Professor Little Green Wonder
• Ibanez TS9
• Wampler Sovereign
• Suhr Riot
• Bogner Ecstasy Red
• Jetter Gold Standard
• Lovepedal Kalamazoo
• Lovepedal OD11
…and a few others.
I need to have the following tones:
(1) Strumming and Funky clean
(2) Barely dirty (Mike Campbell-ish)
(3) Blues grind
(4) Classic rock
(5) Hot-rodded Marshall
For (1) The M12 clean and with the SP Compressor work beautifully. I tried over ten compressors, and the SP worked best for me...and it's so easy to get a great sound.
For (5), I'm keeping the PlexiTone. Absolutely beautiful high-gain Marshall tones. (I talked about the PT in a previous post, so I won't go into detail here.) That leaves the middle-ground tones...
I purchased a Rockett Blue Note, a Barber Gain Changer, and the new Visual Sound VS-XO. Let me say these are all good pedals. But for me, the BN and the GC together are PURE MAGIC. The VS-XO is being returned.
Rockett Blue Note
The BN gets me that just-barely-breaking up tone as well as blues tones (obviously). NOTHING I have tried to date sounds as natural as this pedal. It really, really, sounds like an amp. I paid $169 with a 15% discount, but I didn't want to pay that much for the pedal. But it's worth it. Just beautiful. It will get fairly gainy, but I like it just barely cooking.
Barber Gain Changer
If I had to have ONE drive pedal, this would be it. Simply amazing in its versatility. It will get almost as clean an natural as the Blue Note, and almost as thick and bold as the Plexitone, but not quite. It EXCELS at medium gain, classic rock tones. It can be a clean boost or a high gain pedal as well. I normally hate mini-toggles on pedals. The GC has two, and it's the first pedal I've ever used where the switches create noticeably different, yet completely usable tones. On the right, it's a hi/low gain switch, and it does just that. In a live situation, you can reach down, flip the switch and have two great tones without having to adjust the knobs! The switch on the left takes you through three EQ curves. To the far right it's flat, perfect for more modern tones. In the middle, the mids are pronounced, which is great for copping TS tones. To the left is my favorite position: just a bit of mids and highs boosted to help you cut through the mix. I love this pedal. And it was only $129 shipped!
Blue Note > Gain Changer
So now I have the barely dirty BN and the mildly dirty GC. When they're stacked, I get a beautifully saturated semi-high gain tone. Amazing. I've stacked a lot of pedals, and these two together are perfect.
Visual Sound VS-XO
I got this a few days ago...probably the first batch that shipped. I REALLY wanted this pedal to work. I can still return the BN and the GC, and if I did (and kept the VS-XO) I'd save about $150. I just can't. Let me say this: if I didn't already have the BN and GC, I'd probably love the VS-XO. It's a good, versatile pedal and a great value. I got the right channel in the ballpark of the BN, but it sounded gritty by comparison. The left channel had a good medium OD, but I had to crank the tone to get it close to the GC, and it didn't sound anywhere near as dimensional. In short, for me there were only one or two sweet spots on the VS-XO, where the BN and GC didn't have a bad sound to be found. When I stacked the two channels of the VS-XO it sounded pretty darn good, but nowhere near as good as the BN and GC stacked. Perhaps the biggest nail in the coffin for me with this pedal was the way it interacted with my SP Compressor. As soon as I engage the SP with the VS-XO on, the tones became extremely squashed and muffled, and I lost all my dynamics. I know that's what compressors do, but the SP never acts that way. And when the SP feeds the BN, I don't lose anything, in fact the tone gets better. I'm not sure why the VS-XO behaves this way with a compressor, but the resulting tones and feel were downright bad.
Source Audio Programmable EQ
I bought one of these on a whim. I had been using my old Boss GE-7 to boost solos. I've tried boutique boost pedals, but they never did as good as the Boss for me, believe it or not. Usually they added more saturation but didn't bump up the final output volume. I like having a little boost in certain mid freqs as well for solos, so the GE-7 worked great. But now, with the Source Audio, I can get that solo boost plus three more programmable options. Right now Preset 1 is my solo boost, and Preset 2 is the opposite-- it's a "V" curve which nails the Fender Blackface tones. I'm going to experiment this week with a setting to approximate an acoustic guitar as well, and I'll still have a fourth preset left over. All in all, a very useful pedal. I never really considered the tonal possibilities of an EQ pedal, but man, it can dramatically shape your tone.
Hope all this helps. I know this was a long and disjointed post, but that's exactly how my search for pedals has been, and I'm finally getting to a happy place!