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Post by ke4unr on May 19, 2006 8:43:51 GMT -7
Does anyone have any?
I just bought a Voodoo Boost online. I've been searching for a boost (quite a few out there!) for my Maz Jr and decide to give this one a try. I should get it soon.
But, I just stumbled on this one and realized that RM doesn't seem to get much attention when effects pedals are talked about. I've never owned any of his gear, but he used to have a solid reputation.
All the reviews I could find are very positive about this pedal. Of course, I know to take those with a "grain of salt."
Thanks, Ray K.
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Post by Telemanic on May 19, 2006 10:53:23 GMT -7
Hey Ray, Yes i owned a Voodoo Vibe. It had some great vibe sounds in it, but it was ultimately not for me. Its a very tweakable unit (lots o parameters!), and i'm more of a step on it and go guy. The other thing that bugged me about it was that it has a full time buffer, and with my short signal chain i always had this high end "sheen" goin on that i couldnt dial out without losing my amps sweet spot. What i think interesting and cool about mayer is that hes not afraid to go off the beaten path in his circuits. His Vibe is not even close to the original circuit, but with great results. And i believe that his current octavia circuit is different from the original,... and he invented it!! So he is apparently pushing the envelope and not just cloning the old standards! Kinda cool.
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Post by ke4unr on May 26, 2006 9:28:51 GMT -7
Well, I got my Roger Mayer Voodoo Boost yesterday. It is a nice looking pedal, well built and has some nice sounds on it's own. It doesn't have much "clean" boost to it. In fact it has plenty of Drive. It starts to breakup just before 12:00 and goes to pretty extreme from there on out. The Fat control does a good job of...well, fattening up the tones, but I needed to max it out for my taste - my Maz Jr is set clean with a bit of "hair" when the guitar volume is rolled up. This is a nice sounding pedal, but not quite what I'm looking for. I'm getting the nice cleans to slight breakup from the amp. Nice crunch to mid overdrive tones from my Barber Direct Drive or Keeley BD-2 Phat Mod. All pushed with a Humphrey Audio Atom Smasher compressor. I'm still trying to find that nice singing lead tone. Ahh, so the search continues... Ray K.
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Post by Telemanic on May 26, 2006 12:25:46 GMT -7
hey again Ray, I'm not quite clear, are you looking for a "clean" boost with lots o volume ? or are you looking for a different flavor of overdrive than you have already. I almost read it as a negative for you that the voodoo didnt have much clean. If thats the case you might check out a Lovepedal, it is a mosfet boost , and it is VERY clean and loud ! But it also has this cool fatness to it, but NO gain. Extremely tranparent. It will pound the front end of your amp if you set it high and therefore add some "sing", but thats a pretty subjective area to make recomendations in. If your looking for more of a gain/boost pedal check out Lovepedals COT 50 ( two versions, high gain or low gain). This pedal sounds more like a part of the amp circuit than any ive tried, Outstanding !! Or maybe his Eternity pedal, its more towards a fat woody overdrive, but VERY nice. His pedals are at the top of my go to list now.
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Post by ke4unr on May 26, 2006 14:59:00 GMT -7
hey again Ray, I'm not quite clear, are you looking for a "clean" boost with lots o volume ? or are you looking for a different flavor of overdrive than you have already. I almost read it as a negative for you that the voodoo didnt have much clean. If thats the case you might check out a Lovepedal, it is a mosfet boost , and it is VERY clean and loud ! But it also has this cool fatness to it, but NO gain. Extremely tranparent. It will pound the front end of your amp if you set it high and therefore add some "sing", but thats a pretty subjective area to make recomendations in. If your looking for more of a gain/boost pedal check out Lovepedals COT 50 ( two versions, high gain or low gain). This pedal sounds more like a part of the amp circuit than any ive tried, Outstanding !! Or maybe his Eternity pedal, its more towards a fat woody overdrive, but VERY nice. His pedals are at the top of my go to list now. Well, I can clearly see how I didn't make myself clear... First, I was just pointing out or making an observation that the RM Voodoo Boost was surprisingly quite "gainy." Nothing wrong with that, but if someone were looking for a strictly clean boost, they might want to go another route. The pedal is really quite nice, so if my take on it sounded negative, that was not my intent. For me, no I'm not looking for a super duper "clean" boost. You put it rather well "a different flavor of overdrive" is what I'm looking for. Actually, that's what I think I need. Let me explain. I was using my Barber Direct Drive and Keeley BD-2 Phat Mod, each set rather mild (gain/drive around 1:00). I would use each separately for crunch and both together for my lead tones. This was with my previous rig, a Peavey Classic 30. For some reason, the Maz doesn't seem to take too well when both are used in tandem. At least so far, I'm still tweaking and ringing everything out. But, I lose all clarity and it really sounds like the front end is getting overloaded. Not clipping, just not pleasing to my ears. This is not a knock against the Z. I love the tones and I know I've just got to put the time into it, and find what pedals it likes best. Maybe I'm even going down the wrong road looking for a boost. Instead I might out to see if there is an overdrive that can give me that singing solo drive that I'm looking for. That seems to be the only musical territory that's missing at the moment. Btw, thanks for the info on Lovepedals. I'll look into them. Also, I did get to try out a HBE Germanium and a Xotic BB today at a local shop. The BB sounded great hands down. The HBE might be fine for a clean boost only. Thing is, of course, you never know until you get it hooked into your own rig! +1 karma for your kind help! Thanks, Ray K.
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Post by ke4unr on May 27, 2006 8:45:18 GMT -7
And there it was...right before my eyes... I've found the magic lead tone that I was searching for just yesterday! It is in my BD-2 after all. Just gotta crank those knobs! I've been looking at tubes, boost pedals, etc. All I needed to do was adjust the Gain ever so slightly and use this pedal by itself. I was too hung up on trying to get it and the Direct Drive working together. So, yet again, this Dr. Z amp is causing me to think outside of the box - which has been a good thing. Ray K.
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Post by skydog958 on May 27, 2006 11:43:48 GMT -7
somtimes the solution is much simpler (and much less expensive!)
For my 2 cents, I own an old RM Octavia, and it just wan't for me. I did get it to work well with my Fuzzbender, but it was still tricky. I'm selling it, in fact. If I ever go the Octavia route, I'm going to get the Chicago Iron Octavian Plus. I've been dying to try that one out.
Mayer's stuff is sort of hit and miss from what I heard. If it suits your taste, you love it; if you don't you don't. I owned a Vox wah with the 9090A mod and it just didn't work for me at any real setting. I'm much happier with my new Teese Picture wah. The only one of his toys that I've heard notably negative feedback is the Vision wah (some had reliabilty problems, others didn't like the sounds, some didn't think the price was justified, etc.). Lesson is, try before you buy. I am guilty as charged at buying things I've never heard (like my Z, but that went quite well!)
Happy Travels on your Tone Quest!
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Post by ke4unr on May 29, 2006 10:21:11 GMT -7
somtimes the solution is much simpler (and much less expensive!) For my 2 cents, I own an old RM Octavia, and it just wan't for me. I did get it to work well with my Fuzzbender, but it was still tricky. I'm selling it, in fact. If I ever go the Octavia route, I'm going to get the Chicago Iron Octavian Plus. I've been dying to try that one out. Mayer's stuff is sort of hit and miss from what I heard. If it suits your taste, you love it; if you don't you don't. I owned a Vox wah with the 9090A mod and it just didn't work for me at any real setting. I'm much happier with my new Teese Picture wah. The only one of his toys that I've heard notably negative feedback is the Vision wah (some had reliabilty problems, others didn't like the sounds, some didn't think the price was justified, etc.). Lesson is, try before you buy. I am guilty as charged at buying things I've never heard (like my Z, but that went quite well!) Happy Travels on your Tone Quest! Yes and I'm glad it was something simple and inexpensive! Well, I had to give it a try. I've never used any of Roger Mayer's gear and found a great deal. Unfortunately, I don't have any dealers anywhere in my vicinity. And, besides, I much prefer to try it with my rig since pedals are going to work differently with whatever you're playing through. But, even though this is a solid and well built pedal with some great sounds, it's just not for me. Much like your Octavia. I understand! I saw the Vision Wah on his site. At first glance it didn't look like something I'd want on my pedalboard. But I read the specs on it, and it started sounding good. So I go and take a look. Oops, the price and the reviews solved that itch! Thanks, Ray K.
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