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blue.eyed.ash posted:If this makes it to market, it's gonna be amazing: Yeah, I'm paying a lot of attention to that. It's a different take on the Zvex Inventobox concept, kind of - the Inventobox had zero outside dev support and is super fiddly, but it allows a lot of power to do your own thing. Except people who are clever enough with electronics to do their own thing don't need the abstraction layer of all the Erector Set doodads to throw a circuit together on breadboard, and so all that extra stuff gets in the way, and without support from outside developers it just doesn't seem to be happening. Devi's approach here is really cool, keeping costs lower, getting good outside dev commitment beforehand, and most importantly making it less fiddly. She has a good read on the market for the product, I think - swapping cartridges around to roll your own pedal is a lot more tenable to the consumer demographic serviced by the ILoveFuzz crew, tweakable in a way that's accessible enough for anyone to do it but capable of getting some really far-out sounds as more stuff becomes available. And the aesthetic is awesome. Really impressed, she's been keeping this one close to her vest and just kind of hinting around at the idea but I had an inkling of what would be up and sure enough, very cool thing on the way. I guess I ought to go ahead and do this since now I'm talking about "other manufacturers" who also happen to be "just people I know and products I think are cool"... I'm not a reviewer anymore. I recently got a job for Wampler Pedals, recently as in over the holidays. Very pleased, lotta really cool folks, everyone seems to love working for Brian and he's an extraordinarily smart designer who has made some amazing pedals and, trust me on this one, will definitely be making some really cool stuff in the future. I've had really high expectations of every product they've released ever since I found out about them a couple years back through reviewing and have got pretty much all of them, and the stars aligned such that my skills and strengths meet a need for the company so I'm working for Wampler now. Of course I'm still going to buy pedals from all sorts of manufacturers (up around 45 again now, hooray) and I'll keep on having opinions about 'em and sharing them in a really long-winded fashion, but I believe in transparency about any potential conflicts of interest so I figured I'd best get it out there that I'm inside the business now rather than an external commentator, for what it's worth.
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Jan 3, 2011 08:38
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| # ? May 9, 2024 20:31 |
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Agreed posted:I recently got a job for Wampler Pedals, recently as in over the holidays. Couldn't have happened to a more suitable guy. Congrats dude 
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Jan 3, 2011 09:12
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Congrats, Agreed! If the console comes out and it works, I will be all over it. I'm just waiting to hear that it exists and is in supply before committing.
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Jan 3, 2011 18:56
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Thanks y'all I have to be pretty careful over at HCFX and TGP now, though, since manufacturers aren't allowed to say negative things about other products. Next time discussion of the Metalzone comes up, I'm going to end up biting my tongue off.  Seriously though, I'm stoked as can be, with my damned back I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to hold down a real job despite my education and everything, but here I am. All is very well.
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Jan 3, 2011 20:43
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I'm thinking about getting the Wampler Faux Tape Echo. I currently have no reverb or delay. Thoughts?
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Jan 3, 2011 20:45
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I thought I recognised this guy's name..I bought a pedal from him years and years ago when he had a much less professional looking website and i'm sad to say I absolutely hated the pedal. It was an early version of that pinnacle that's on his website.
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Jan 3, 2011 20:53
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moray cup
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rt4 posted:I'm thinking about getting the Wampler Faux Tape Echo. Here's a really great Tape Echo Pedal Shootout. For my money, I'm lusting over the El Cap (and trying to sell some gear to nab one at the moment), but the Wampler is pretty impressive, too.
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Jan 3, 2011 21:06
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Cross post from new gear thread: Shipped this morning.
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Jan 3, 2011 21:21
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northward posted:I thought I recognised this guy's name..I bought a pedal from him years and years ago when he had a much less professional looking website and i'm sad to say I absolutely hated the pedal. It was an early version of that pinnacle that's on his website. The Pinnacle has undergone a lot of changes since the earlier versions. I figure it as a great high gain capable pedal that's built around getting the brown sound and with a lot of setups really does that job, though its low frequencies also exhibit the underbelly of the brown sound which means not so tight. I think that makes some folks less pleased with it, though to my ears I hear the same low frequency character on the records it's aiming to get the guitar sound of (enough prepositional phrases?) But in any case I'm not going to take offense if someone isn't gaga for a Wampler product, different strokes for different folks. I just wanted to get it out in the open that I'm working for a pedal maker, since my biggest interest is in pedals and I want everyone to understand where I'm coming from so they can take my opinion for what it might be worth to them. Hopefully my long history here will reassure anyone who questions my integrity, but I want everything to be out in the open, you know?
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Jan 4, 2011 01:13
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Noise Machine posted:Cross post from new gear thread: Ugh want it so bad
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Jan 5, 2011 12:17
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I've added a small clone to my setup, it's now looking: Guitar--SC--dx86--BigMuff--Amp Which seems right in the logic I made up in my head, but is this true? I'm going to be adding a MXR blue box soon enough as well... I read through this whole thread earlier as well and drat Devi Ever's Dream Mangler looks loving insane. As you might guess, I'm a noise fan.
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Jan 5, 2011 20:50
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Delay goes last. It'll compress everything before it and drive everything after it. Before an overdrive it can make it muddier.
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Jan 6, 2011 02:28
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CalvinDooglas posted:Delay goes last. It'll compress everything before it and drive everything after it. Before an overdrive it can make it muddier. Okay, thanks for the tip, I'll re-arrange.
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Jan 6, 2011 02:34
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I've been thinking about picking up an EarthQuaker Devices Hummingbird II. Anybody have any experiences with this pedal? I know what it sounds like, I'm curious about build quality/durability/consistency, poo poo like that.
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Jan 6, 2011 16:04
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So. Oscillation. I feel like there's something weird going on in my effects chain, and I don't know whether it's a matter of my chain or the pedals themselves. I think I've decided that it's possible that I don't understand how oscillating fuzzes work, I've got them in a bad order, or I have some pedals that need repair (or some combination of the three). For starters, my effects chain: Guitar (MIM Tele or Les Paul Studio) > stock 90s Crybaby > EHX PolyChorus > Analogman TS808 Clone > Dwarfcraft Eau Claire Thunder > Take Flight Goose > Line 6 MM4 > Strymon El Capistan > Electrosonic tube amp Now, if I look at the demo video for the ECT or The Goose, it seems to me that I should be able to get momentary squeals from the ECT by stomping on the Feedback switch or wild pitches on The Goose with the Feedback knob. I'm not getting either of those things. If I kick on the Feedback switch on the ECT, I get a barely perceptible hum. The Goose has weird interactions when the knob is turned all the way up, but nothing like the video footage. I also own a Dwarfcraft Dream Mangler, which has an oscillation switch, and it works fine. I also just got rid of a Devi Ever Truly Beautiful Disaster, and the oscillation worked fine on it. Am I doing something wrong with my chain? Or is it more likely that I have broken pedals (both were acquired used, for what it's worth)? Is this a buffer issue? RE: PolyChorus - I realize that traditionally, modulation effects go in the end of a chain. I really like putting the analog flanger at the beginning and have it modulate before distortion. Putting the PC near the end makes the effect too pronounced for me. EDIT:It was in fact, some massive buffering issues that were keeping my noisemakers from doing so. Looks like I'll have to stick the PolyChorus at the end after all. Not sure what I'll do with my wah, because it's not true bypass either. Looks like I'll be doing some pedal reorganizing... blue.eyed.ash fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Jan 21, 2011 |
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Jan 13, 2011 22:49
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Does anyone have any opinions on the EHX Ring Thing? I was originally looking for a polyphonic octave pedal to do sub-octaves, so that led me to the MicroPOG. I really liked the attack delay and modulation provided by the POG2 so then I started thinking about that. It looks like the Ring Thing would give me the sub octave capability, modulation, and the ability to do whammy style pitch shifting with polyphonic capability, too. Compared to the POG2 it's $100 cheaper (figure $40 for a Moog Ep-2 expression pedal to enable the whammy stuff and I still come out ahead cost wise). I'd be giving up multiple octaves at once and the attack decay but I'd be getting the whole ring modulation bit (I don't have a trem, vibe, or chorus so that could be fun), pitch shifting to intervals other than octaves, and saving money too. What am I missing?
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Jan 16, 2011 03:43
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This may be a little basic, but what's the difference between putting your compressor and OD pedal in the send/return loop of your noisegate rather than just putting the noisegate at the end of your chain? I've been throwing my Boss NS-2 after my tuner, Dynacomp, and Tubescreamer and it works fine, but I know lots of people do it the first way. Assuming I use the loop on the gate, my chain should be Guitar->Tuner->Gate(Comp->OD)->Wah, right?
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Jan 21, 2011 16:30
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blue.eyed.ash posted:
The MM4 will probably buffer more than anything. Those Line6 pedals have serious compression/volume drop. You also need to experiment with feedback. It's a phenomenon caused by the actual acoustics of your setup and room, not just by volume/gain. You have to be up stupid loud to get instant feedback anywhere just by turning on a pedal. Unless you're blowing out your eardrums, you need to be close to the amp and facing it with the strings ringing. High saturation overdrives help, too. That ETC sounded really chunky and fuzzy, which isn't the same as other pedals that can apply a ridiculous amount of gain but compress enough to keep the volume reasonable. Check out some other distortion pedals that get more saturated at lower volumes so you can get feedback without being extremely loud or humping your amp. For the record, that ETC video is the by far the WORST product demo I've ever seen on YouTube. CalvinDooglas fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Jan 23, 2011 |
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Jan 23, 2011 02:22
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CalvinDooglas posted:The MM4 will probably buffer more than anything. Those Line6 pedals have serious compression/volume drop. Dwarfcraft demos are definitely a thing unto themselves. Here's a much more professional Eau Claire Thunder demo. I traced the problem to my Analogman TS clone - as soon as I took it out of the chain, the oscillation on The Goose and the momentary feedback on the Eau Claire Thunder worked like a charm. I have a BJFE Honeybee clone on the way, so I'm going to try that as my OD and see how it fits, as I'm assuming that it'll have be true bypass. These pedals (and others like them) have oscillators built into the fuzz circuit to generate feedback that you can manipulate at lower volumes - for example, my home amp is maybe 10W at most, I keep it at low volumes, and I can even get these things to work with my attenuator on and cranked low. Aside from my wah, I've lined up all my true bypass pedals before the buffered ones now, and worst case, I can move my Crybaby, too, but it sounds pretty good at the moment - I'll have to get my pedals with my "main" amp to see how it sounds. That being said, you aren't kidding about the MM4; that thing drops volume quite a bit. If I decide to keep it on my board, I'm gonna try to get it modded to help with the volume. blue.eyed.ash fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Jan 23, 2011 |
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Jan 23, 2011 04:13
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I think I killed my Big Muff. I dunno how, but recently the volume drop has been incredible, in a chain or alone. It absolutely dulls anything that passes through it, when of course I used to have to watch the volume dial. I was using some rather questionable (Frankenstein'd) AC adapters for a while, could I have somehow fried the thing? I didn't pay too much for it so it wouldn't be too bad but I'd be out my fuzz effect... augh.
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Mar 29, 2011 19:06
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big business sloth posted:I think I killed my Big Muff. I dunno how, but recently the volume drop has been incredible, in a chain or alone. It absolutely dulls anything that passes through it, when of course I used to have to watch the volume dial. I was using some rather questionable (Frankenstein'd) AC adapters for a while, could I have somehow fried the thing? I didn't pay too much for it so it wouldn't be too bad but I'd be out my fuzz effect... augh. EHX offers repair services if you don't want to take it to a local repair shop. The Big Muff is a pretty simple pedal and easily repaired (especially compared to the little big muffs). I imagine it'd cost more in shipping than the actual repair costs.
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Mar 29, 2011 19:41
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Hadlock posted:EHX offers repair services if you don't want to take it to a local repair shop. The Big Muff is a pretty simple pedal and easily repaired (especially compared to the little big muffs). I imagine it'd cost more in shipping than the actual repair costs. Oh that's great, I don't think there's anyplace near me that would fix it, unless I'm real out of the know. I'll research that, thanks.
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Mar 29, 2011 19:43
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Any 2nd year EE student will probably fix it for a six pack of beer as well.
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Mar 29, 2011 20:23
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I can guarantee that if you live in a medium-sized city there are several DIY-happy dudes who will fix it for cheap.
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Mar 29, 2011 22:25
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It never hurts to pop the thing open and see if it's something really obvious like a loose connection or gunk in the circuits. If it's an easy fix you might as well get your own repair experience, it really comes in handy.
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Mar 30, 2011 00:39
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Oh well yeah I was gonna pry it open anyway. Will report back.
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Mar 30, 2011 00:42
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big business sloth posted:I think I killed my Big Muff. I dunno how, but recently the volume drop has been incredible, in a chain or alone. It absolutely dulls anything that passes through it, when of course I used to have to watch the volume dial. I was using some rather questionable (Frankenstein'd) AC adapters for a while, could I have somehow fried the thing? I didn't pay too much for it so it wouldn't be too bad but I'd be out my fuzz effect... augh. Mine did the same thing. Open it up, and check the wires running to- and from- the switch (wiggle them around and see if anything changes). I ended up replacing the wire running from the switch to the output jack, and it 100% resolved it (YMMV of course).
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Mar 30, 2011 14:09
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It just dawned on me too that it could have something to do with me running my output through a mackie+headphones (because I'm living in a paper-thin-walls apartment) and that might not be translating the fuzz effect, uh, effectively? I don't remember the volume drop occurring before I set up this system, and now I'll have to check when I get home. If that could be it, I mean.
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Mar 30, 2011 18:10
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I got to the point last night where I almost put my guitar through the wall - years of dealing with a "feh, I guess that's good enough" tone finally got to me. I'm redoing my entire signal chain. Thinking of starting with this:  Reviews look good, Youtube video sounded good - anyone have any personal experience with it? It's going to serve two purposes. a) It's the first step in the new signal chain (editor's note: yeah yeah, pickups), so that's a great place to start. b) What sets me off with the fury of a thousand suns is my current lack of a good overdrive. My current set up gives me a fantastic clean tone (perhaps because everything gets the hell out of my guitar's way), and a passable distortion, but if I just want a nice bluesy crunch without this giant distorted mess, it's a disaster. This'll let me re-introduce some nuance to my tone.
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Apr 6, 2011 21:10
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After running straight into my amp for several classic rock/jazzy sets I'm back to using effects. I decided to rip everything off the pedalboard and play around with the order of the pedals. I'm currently playing an alt/indie 3 piece so I'm responsible for a lot of different sounds that we come up with. Especially since our guitarist plays keys sometimes and I need to keep the grit of the song going. Current setup Spector Euro 4LX \/ Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 \/ Effects Loop Send \/ Boss TU-2 Tuner (I know I have a tuner out, I just don't want another cable to deal with. If this is insane, let me know.) \/ Boss LMB-3 Limiter/Enhancer - Not a ton of limit, just keeps me evened out. I keep the enhancer part off and I'm still messing with the ratio and threshold knobs. This pedal is brand new to me. \/ EHX Bass Big Muff Pi - Tone at 3, Sustain at 1:30 \/ Snarling Dogs Blues Bawls Wah - This is one of my favorite pedals. It's technically a guitar pedal but sounds great with bass. I have the Wah type on "White Room" which gives it a Creamy (get it?) deep rounded out wah sound. It also has an overdrive circuit that I'm still playing with for the right balance. \/ Wasabi Trem/Chorus pedal - Both effects are very light. Noticeable but it's not in your face. I'll run the Chorus with the Fuzz a lot of the time. Sounds awesome! \/ Effects Loop Return \/ Avatar 2x10 and 2x12 Cabs Any feedback about pedal placement would be appreciated. Especially the placement of the limiter. Should I be limiting at the beginning of my chain like it is now or right between the Wah and Chorus/Trem? I'm having a bit of trouble hearing a difference but I'm currently in my apartment and can't make a ton of noise. I'll do some tweaking this Sunday at practice but I'd like to have most of the kinks worked out beforehand. Especially the pedal order. I want to tweak the knobs, not rip everything apart. I'll post pics when it's in its final order. I have a sweet home made pedal board that I made from a couple pieces of wood and a door handle. I actually drill the pedals in using bicycle chain links threaded through the screws on the back. Also, if you got to add one more pedal to this set (that's all I have room for!) what would it be?
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Apr 8, 2011 18:50
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gotly posted:After running straight into my amp for several classic rock/jazzy sets I'm back to using effects. I decided to rip everything off the pedalboard and play around with the order of the pedals. Personally, I'd place everything from the tuner to wah before your amp input and leave only the trem/chorus in the effects loop. Especially if you crank out a lot of gain from your amp. At the very least put the tuner before the amp. VVV - Well, I guess chorus and trem aren't that critical about whether they're in the loop or not. Do experiment. I keep my chorus in the loop, but then I only use it when playing guitar and the overdrive from the amp is probably hotter than what you have with the bass, considering you also have a big muff in your chain. Frank Caskelot fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Apr 8, 2011 |
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Apr 8, 2011 19:45
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I do keep the gain pretty high on the amp. I'll try running it straight into the amp. Is it really worth the hassle of running just one pedal through the effects loop? I'll play around with how it sounds but I keep the pedalboard pretty far from the amp head so I'd be looking at another 40 feet of cables.
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Apr 8, 2011 20:18
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gotly posted:I do keep the gain pretty high on the amp. I'll try running it straight into the amp. Is it really worth the hassle of running just one pedal through the effects loop? I'll play around with how it sounds but I keep the pedalboard pretty far from the amp head so I'd be looking at another 40 feet of cables. The effects loop bypasses the power tubes, it's a send/return in between the power and preamp tubes. For effects like delay, putting it there reduces the gain/compression caused by the pedal. It would likely reduce the fuzzing ability of your overdrive. If you like fuzzy tones you should put the overdrive in the regular input and turn down the gain on the amp itself. Higher gain settings on the amp reduce saturation from the pedals.
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Apr 8, 2011 21:44
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EDIT: Wrong thread
Boz0r fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Apr 10, 2011 |
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Apr 8, 2011 23:17
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gotly posted:Also, if you got to add one more pedal to this set (that's all I have room for!) what would it be? Moogerfooger Ring Modulator. Lots of fun on bass.
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Apr 10, 2011 08:43
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Current setup is something like: Modded SD-1 -> DD3 with the feedback knob cranked for swells -> PS-5 on harmonizer -> Mastotron -> Homemade Fuzz Factory (Self-oscillating) -> Modtone Tuner -> EHX Pulsar -> SMMH. Am currently in the troubleshooting stage of making a pedal-version of a ladder filter that I'm looking forward to adding to this chain.
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Apr 13, 2011 14:32
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I have a non-guitar effects recommendation request, I hope this is the right thread. I want to add effects to microphone signals -- vocals and miked acoustic guitars. I have a Mackie 802-VLZ3 mixer that has an AUX send I can use as an effects loop. I'm looking for some kind of effects processor that will add reverb, delay, chorus, etc., to whatever channel I send to it. Here's a scenario: our garage band is playing a barbecue. We want to cover "Special" by Garbage. It would be nice if our singer had some good reverb and delay so she sounds a little bit like Shirley Manson, not just Plain Jane and a microphone. Something ~$200 would be nice. I see rack-mount units like the Alesis Microverb 4 and Lexicon MX200, does anyone have any experience with something like this? Thanks in advance
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May 7, 2011 03:46
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RevusRangerous posted:I have a non-guitar effects recommendation request, I hope this is the right thread. Those Alesis units are okay and can handle a bit of throwing around; you could pick up an older generation Micro/Midiverb for little money. No need to spend a lot if this is your first multi-processor and you'll only use it for small live gigs.
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May 7, 2011 11:38
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I'm strongly considering a BuildYourOwnClone pedal. Is it fair to assume that the pedal is as good as I build it? Is it reasonable to expect it'll stand up as well as a normal pedal? What kind of solder and iron are best for these?
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May 8, 2011 04:38
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Disclaimer: I work for Wampler Pedals, a company that makes boutique pedals.  I think BYOC is a great way to ease into DIY. My recommendation would be to build the Bluesbreaker clone first, that's a helluva circuit right there and isn't hard to put together. They have prices that are totally fair, in my opinion, for what you get. The convenience fee of prepackaging the stuff and having what is generally a good and easy to work with PCB is alright with me. You can DIY for cheaper if you want and use better parts if that matters to you (eventually it should, I think, but if you're just starting out, going from "a bunch of parts and a PCB" to "hey, this is an overdrive pedal and it sounds good!" is pretty damned fun and cool), but it'll involve a lot more trial and error than if you're able to solder well enough and can do the simple and efficient approach that they take. Don't get in over your head, you can waste the whole kit if you try to do something too complex and aren't up to it as far as your soldering ability goes, but I like what they do and think it's a handy resource for DIYers who just want to get a bunch of parts in and make a pedal that'll sound good (as opposed to the more R&D oriented guys, REs, etc.) I don't have any real gripes about them because efforts are clearly made to keep costs low, but they do generally seem to shoot for price:performance parts rather than the really high end stuff. But they aren't using bad parts. As long as you have a good, hot iron and a steady hand you can put together a working version of a classic circuit (or a useful implementation of a modern device, like their reverb pedal that uses the Belton brick). Will it match the quality of a high end maker that puts their money where their mouth is? I can say with what I hope is an excusable bit of pride "no, not really," but then you aren't having to worry about super solid construction, extreme consistency and QA across a big lineup, or the built in costs of a transferable warranty - you're just putting together a pedal for you, and it ought to fit the bill. I say it's a good way to ease into it because it is pretty much the "paint by numbers" version of DIY. But there's lots of fun places to go from there. And they do a remarkable job of easing you into it, too. Agreed fucked around with this message at 07:23 on May 8, 2011 |
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May 8, 2011 07:17
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