Note - New and Revised Article - [Here]

So another chapter of the Tone Quest is nearing its momentary end-point. In the ongoing efforts to arrive at the perfect Tone, I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time experimenting with and researching overdrives, fuzzes and distortions. Being somewhat eclectic in my tastes, there are a number of the deemed key / core sounds I like. Some players sit squarely within ’Blues’, ’Rock’ or ’Metal’ or ...

With the last couple of pedals in the series due to be released this week in theory, I thought it opportune to do a proper overview of the Mooer Micro PreAmp series / range. I am a fan of Mooer pedals in general and have a handful in my collection - albeit none in the current active pedal-chain, but I have always been really impressed with the Black Secret, Blues Mood, E-Lady, Hustle Drive and Trelicopter in particular. In any case, when these pedals were first released there was a slew of just...

UPDATE - Based on feedback and input I’ve tweaked some of the pedal placements - the core methodology still stands, while relatively positioning of certain pedals can be fairly nuanced!

This subject matter has become the most popular of all the different articles I’ve posted. And the original piece went up in February 2017 - so I felt it was opportune to revisit, review and revise that original methodology. I’ve tried to strip out the more branded naming conventions ...

It’s really cool that Eventide in its PitchFactor workstation pedal - has a big box equivalent to the usual modulation, delay and reverb types. Yet Eventide is alone in compiling / combining such a full range of pitch-shifting and harmonizing effects into one pedal - there really is no other equivalent to that collection of 10 modes - Diatonic | Quadravox | Harmonic Modulator | MicroPitch | H910 / H949 Harmonizer | PitchFlex | Octaver | Crystals | HarPeggiator | Synhonizer. Everyone else ...

Before this current fuzz tone quest, I was not that familiar with the Tonebender style of fuzz and its 5 different iterations - MKI, MK1.5, MKII, MKIII and MKIV - much like the Fulltone OCD - each version sounding different to the other. This is a rather raw sounding fuzz - which I really like, at it’s most aggressive in the MK1 version and then sort of evolved and smoothed out somewhat as it progresses in later versions. I recall seeing these large wedge-shaped pedals in guitar stores - ...

This is essentially the last piece I will do in a while on the Wampler Pantheon - which I am so enchanted by currently. I honestly feel it’s Brian’s best pedal to date, and I was a huge fan of both the versions of Tumnus and Euphoria. The Pantheon comes into a pretty crowded arena where there are already a number of stellar pedals present.

There’s a lot of debate about whether a pedal is a clone of a certain circuit which I always find kind of overly academic - and I ...

When I got back into guitar, Modulation was not an area I was overly familiar with initially. I understood overdrives, distortion and fuzz, and had a good handle on delay and reverb, as well as a touch of tremolo. For the longest time I thought tremolo was my favourite modulation effect, but I was often confusing that with vibrato, high oscillation chorus or stuttery phaser even. It’s only been relatively recently that I’ve fully got to grips with all the different flavours of ...

Note : updated 2018 version [here]

There’s a lot of players out there who are big fans of ’analogue’ delays (analog in USA). These were originally developed back in 1969 using a new type of Capacitor known as a Bucket-Brigade Device (BBD). Each BBD capacitor can store approximately 200 to 300 milliseconds of signal - and most of these Analogue Delays use a pair of BBDs for a maximum of around 600ms of delay. Deluxe versions of analogue delays typically use 4 or more -...

There have been 3 legendary analogue tape-style delay engines that everyone agrees on:

• Binson Echorec 2 (1961-79)
• Maestro Echoplex EP-3 (1970 - 1991)
• Roland RE-201 Space Echo (1974 - 1990)

All those 3 have a significant influence and impact on many if not most of those featured here - which are either direct simulations of those former classics, or pay some sort of lip-service to them. T-Rex have a full-size faithful modern reproduction of the Echorec in the works which is imminent for ...

So within my pedal chain I have 4 key low-to-mid-gain overdrives ranging from Klon Style, to Tube Screamer Style, to Dumble Style and onto Blues Driver type - the way I have it each gets progressively gainier, in fact I have a 5th medium gain overdrive - which used to be an OCD, but has now been displaced by the Hamstead Intergalactic Driver. The idea is to have the most suitable pedal in each slot - one that combines superb dynamics, tone, versatility and smart form factor and features.

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