Post by Abandoned on Feb 18, 2013 19:32:46 GMT -7
So Ive had the chance to play around a lot with the Bearfoot EGDM the last few days and I really like it. The intent of this pedal is to sound like an AC30. One of the great things about this pedal is that it's not just one tonal aspect of an AC30... It contains all of them. You can achieve a darker, full bodied clean tone that's nice and thick, but also narrow it out and add chime if you want to. And not only this but you can do the same thing with overdrive and distortion... You can have it full and thick and dark all the way through to bright, midrangey and jangley... And anything in between. And with the "Voice" knob, it also allows you to either have tight bass or looser bass depending on what you want/need for your specific application. It also makes the tone smooth or brash. On certain pedals it can be hard to tell what the knob your turning is doing, not with this pedal. The knobs you turn you definitely can hear and feel the difference.
This is how the "Voice" knobs works according to DonneR (this is directly from DonneR):
"The 'Voice' knob full left is - clean vox eq, full bottom .... as you turn a vox up the bottom gets flabby, gets more middy and then full right the treble rolls off like it runs out of head room..."
So basically full left is full bottom end and a thicker, darker voiced tone. As you turn the voice knob up the bass is gradually trimmed down to a slimmer sounding tone, while at the same time it'll get more midrangey and brighter and more brash and unfocused as you turn the "Voice" knob up further. When you turn the "Voice" knob all the way up it rolls off high end while still retaining a more narrow bass voice and strident, vintage midrange... very much cranked, rippin' Vox AC30 tone. But don't think all out aggressive, the tone it's producing at these settings is still VERY toneful and vintage and very amp-like.
Now it's important to remember here that there is still a Treble knob. So don't think your stuck with the voice/tone of where the "Voice" knob is set. This is what I mean when I say there are sooooo many tones available cuz no matter where the "Voice" is set, the "Treble" knob allows you to darken or brighten your tone. And the voice knob is about EQ but also about attitude.
So you can set the "Voice" at 9:00 or lower and get your big bass, with less mids, and a smooth tone... and while the tone is darker with this particular "Voice" setting you can brighten it up by turning the "Treble" knob up. And vica versa, you can have the "Voice" turned up to get a more narrow, midrangey and brash sounding tone like a rippin' AC30 with all that high end... yet still darken it up with the "Treble" knob so you don't have those irritating, piercing high frequencies.
Also - there's a "Distortion" or "Drive" knob that literally takes you all the way from clean, to edge of break up, to overdrive and all the way to distortion. But what sets this pedal apart is not just merely it's range of gain but also that wherever the drive is set, (for clean, overdrive or distortion) it still FEELS amazing underneath your fingers. Most distortion pedals or pedals that go into distortion territory feel sterile and flat and lifeless underneath your fingers. This pedal does not - even though it goes into distortion it still feels like overdrive (I hope that makes sense). Those edge of break up and overdrive type tones feel so good beneath your fingers when you play it - but a lot of times distortion does not feel that way, it feels ... flat and sterile. That's what I really appreciate about this pedal is that is always feels authentic and amazing whether set for clean, edge or break up, overdrive or distortion.
A lot of this "feel" factor is due to this pedal's compression characteristics. I feel like the PGC V1's compression character is slightly built into this pedal. It's not over compressed or too "squashed". And it doesn't sound or feel like pedal compression flatness or lifelessness. The compression in this pedal's tone make it come to life and feel like an amp that's really crankin'.
And the "Volume" knob has plenty off boost in its range. I general have to run the "Volume" between 9-10:00 otherwise I'm really boosting things volume-wise.
This pedal impresses me on so many levels:
1.) Best Amp-like tone and feel (out of any pedal I've tried from any manufacturer)
2.) Authentic AC30 tone
3.) Wide Range/Every kind of AC30 tones
4.) Extremely versatile... Voice/EQ & Range of Gain
This pedal delivers extremely amp-like tone and feel like no other pedal I've tried (even from Bearfoot, and IMO all their pedals are more amp-like than any others). And it's attempt at achieving the AC30 voice/tone in a pedal is unparalleled. Every tone it produces is so authentic and real. IMO this pedal should be on everyone's "must try" lists. I still look back and laugh why It took me so long to try this pedal.
Ok now into the stacking capabilities. I also have a Bearfoot SBEQ & HBOD... both of which I really like. I liked the EGDM stacked best with the SBEQ after it. It allows me to add EQ'ing options after I'm done setting up the EGDM the way I like it. So I can have the EGDM set up for that great classic, midrangey type tone of an AC30 and then stack it into the SBEQ for a more full bodied version of it with the SBEQ's bass turned up slightly past noon and also adding a bit of sweet bite and clarity with the Treble turned up slightly as well on the SBEQ. This is perfect for me tone-wise and sets me up perfectly for playing live.
