Help!I'maRock!
Mediocringly Derivative
I've been to this at Main Drag Music the past few years, and it's been cool. I got there today at about 1pm, and it was packed. Many, many more people than I've seen there before, and lines for every manufacturer.
They way they do it is companies will set up their pedals and run everything into a headphone amp. So it's super noisy, but everyone's plinking away through headphones. I didn't see everything today, but I did check out DOD, EHX, BOSS, Drybell, Source Audio, and Fuzzrocious. I didn't buy anything, though I came very close on a Foxrox Aquavibe that Main Drag had used, until I saw it had been repaired.
DOD
If I were looking for a new reverb, the Digitech Polara would be at the top of my list.
The Gunslinger is an awesome mosfet distortion but I liked it on the lower gain settings more than high gain.
The Carcosa deserves all the hype it gets, and my Tele sounded fantastic with it.
The Looking Glass sounded great, and is apparently their take on the Dumbloid sound.
I forgot to try the FreqOut.
I did like the Rubberneck delay, but my EHX DMB sounds just as good.
The Ventura Vibe sounded terrible in every setting.
EHX - I really liked the Auto setting on the SuperEgo. I'll probably wait for the Plus version coming out eventually.
I did ask about the Switchblade Pro, and the guy didn't know when it's coming out. But he did tell me EHX is getting into the programmable switcher game, and that's definitely interesting to me.
The Russian Muff is the best Big Muff I've tried and it puts the regular Nano to shame.
The Hot Wax, which is a Hot Tubes and a Crayon, doesn't fix any of the issues I had with either pedal.
The Blurst is a cool auto wah
The Synth 9 sounds I can pretty much do with my Pitchfactor.
The Lester G sounds great, but it's completely overwhelming. Oh well.
BOSS
All the talk about the JHS collaboration got me interested in the BD-2w. It's been a long time since I tried one and it sounded much better than I remembered. I even liked the standard setting better than the custom setting. And the guy and I had a good laugh about the reactions on TGP.
We talked a bit about the differences between the BC-1x comp and the CP-1x. The frequency ranges are "optimized" for bass and guitar respectively, but we've both used the BC-1x on guitar and agreed it sounds great. I also like that the attack is digitally controlled, whereas the release is controlled on the guitar version. So I'll keep my bass version.
The MD-500 sounds as good as I had hoped. The menus are a bit unwieldy, but nothing too outrageous. The rotary sounded great, as did the univibe. I'll try it again before committing and look out for one used.
The CE-2w still sounds great. But...
Source Audio
The Gemini's dual chorus setting cops a the best faux rotary I've heard. It sounds great slow and fast. I'm not sure if that was their intention, but I liked what I heard.
The Vertigo tremolo sounded good, and the harmonic trem was nice.
Drybell
The Vibe Machine is a top notch univibe clone. I'd like to know more about the expression out, and if I can use a regular expression pedal with it.
Fuzzrocious
All of Ryan's pedals sound great and they have super weird capabilities too. I wish I needed another dirt pedal. I thanked him for his help dialing in the MXR Bass Distortion he designed. It's one of the best RATs I've played and I'm glad I got to tell him how much I love it.
They way they do it is companies will set up their pedals and run everything into a headphone amp. So it's super noisy, but everyone's plinking away through headphones. I didn't see everything today, but I did check out DOD, EHX, BOSS, Drybell, Source Audio, and Fuzzrocious. I didn't buy anything, though I came very close on a Foxrox Aquavibe that Main Drag had used, until I saw it had been repaired.
DOD
If I were looking for a new reverb, the Digitech Polara would be at the top of my list.
The Gunslinger is an awesome mosfet distortion but I liked it on the lower gain settings more than high gain.
The Carcosa deserves all the hype it gets, and my Tele sounded fantastic with it.
The Looking Glass sounded great, and is apparently their take on the Dumbloid sound.
I forgot to try the FreqOut.
I did like the Rubberneck delay, but my EHX DMB sounds just as good.
The Ventura Vibe sounded terrible in every setting.
EHX - I really liked the Auto setting on the SuperEgo. I'll probably wait for the Plus version coming out eventually.
I did ask about the Switchblade Pro, and the guy didn't know when it's coming out. But he did tell me EHX is getting into the programmable switcher game, and that's definitely interesting to me.
The Russian Muff is the best Big Muff I've tried and it puts the regular Nano to shame.
The Hot Wax, which is a Hot Tubes and a Crayon, doesn't fix any of the issues I had with either pedal.
The Blurst is a cool auto wah
The Synth 9 sounds I can pretty much do with my Pitchfactor.
The Lester G sounds great, but it's completely overwhelming. Oh well.
BOSS
All the talk about the JHS collaboration got me interested in the BD-2w. It's been a long time since I tried one and it sounded much better than I remembered. I even liked the standard setting better than the custom setting. And the guy and I had a good laugh about the reactions on TGP.
We talked a bit about the differences between the BC-1x comp and the CP-1x. The frequency ranges are "optimized" for bass and guitar respectively, but we've both used the BC-1x on guitar and agreed it sounds great. I also like that the attack is digitally controlled, whereas the release is controlled on the guitar version. So I'll keep my bass version.
The MD-500 sounds as good as I had hoped. The menus are a bit unwieldy, but nothing too outrageous. The rotary sounded great, as did the univibe. I'll try it again before committing and look out for one used.
The CE-2w still sounds great. But...
Source Audio
The Gemini's dual chorus setting cops a the best faux rotary I've heard. It sounds great slow and fast. I'm not sure if that was their intention, but I liked what I heard.
The Vertigo tremolo sounded good, and the harmonic trem was nice.
Drybell
The Vibe Machine is a top notch univibe clone. I'd like to know more about the expression out, and if I can use a regular expression pedal with it.
Fuzzrocious
All of Ryan's pedals sound great and they have super weird capabilities too. I wish I needed another dirt pedal. I thanked him for his help dialing in the MXR Bass Distortion he designed. It's one of the best RATs I've played and I'm glad I got to tell him how much I love it.
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