ZVEX Super Duper Pedal (2 IN 1) Gentlemen/women, start your engines. This pedal is so dangerous that I’m sure I’ll be getting a lot of complaint emails that people have blown up their amps using it. So let’s just start this off by saying I WARNED YOU TO BE CAREFUL. When using this pedal, start …
ZVEX Instant Lo-Fi Junky Pedal The Lo-Fi Loop Junky remains among the most unique pedals in Zachary Vex’s pedal line, which is saying a lot. It didn’t fill many common needs when it debuted, even by the adventurous standards of loopers. But it produced one of the most distinctive ranges of tones you could ever …
Electro-Harmonix Small Stone Phase Shifter EH4800 Pedal The Electro-Harmonix Small Stone phase shifter pedal features a single knob for Rate and a Colour switch for stronger phasing. The Electro-Harmonix Nano Small Stone phase shifter is identical to the Electro-Harmonix Small Stone, only smaller, generating the Electro-Harmonix traditional thick, sweeping phase shifting with liquid transparency and …
With its responsive gain structure and warm/punch double-team of 12AX7 and EL84 tubes, Classic® Series guitar amps are revered by gritty blues benders, chicken pickin’ country cats and nouveau-Stones rockers alike. These amps are available in vintage tweed with Blue Marvel® speakers and knobs straight out of the rock ‘n’ roll revolution. – Fan cooled …
Gentlemen/women, start your engines. This pedal is so dangerous that I’m sure I’ll be getting a lot of complaint emails that people have blown up their amps using it. So let’s just start this off by saying I WARNED YOU TO BE CAREFUL. When using this pedal, start off slow, and monitor your amp for potential damage. Don’t have too much fun! OK, have too much fun, but don’t blow up your amp in the process. Unless that’s what you want, of course, and well, gosh darn it, it’s your right. Good ol’ Pete Townsend did it. Well, at least he poked his speakers out. All right, I’ll try to stay on track here.
Ahem. The SUPER-DUPER 2-IN-1 (TM) has two of my infamous but rather delightful Super Hard-On(TM) pedals in one small box, with two switches and LED indicators. HEY! I responded to your multitude of complaints that I don’t put in LED’s! Also, in this SUPER-DUPER 2-IN-1 (TM) (gosh I love saying that) is a Master volume control that lets you use it as an overdrive/distortion with any output volume. My my! How conventional, you say! Well, suffice to say, if it weren’t there, you’d go deaf with both of those channels cranked up. This pedal is dangerously loud. Don’t do what I did, and lean over in front of your speaker cabinet while turning it up. Ouch. Dang.
The Lo-Fi Loop Junky remains among the most unique pedals in Zachary Vex’s pedal line, which is saying a lot. It didn’t fill many common needs when it debuted, even by the adventurous standards of loopers. But it produced one of the most distinctive ranges of tones you could ever use for looping—a mixture of compression and vibrato-warble that gave loops the character of warped records, warbling tape, and other very lo-fidelity treats. And while its merits weren’t as obvious to straight-ahead players, looping players that wanted to add a little more character—well, in this case a lot more character—to their loops without tap dancing around three other pedals fell in love with the Lo-Fi Loop Junky.
With the Instant Lo-Fi Junky, Z.Vex adapts the effects that make the Loop Junky’s loops so, well, junky and puts them in a stomp box without the looper. The result is a tone-tweaking tool that very happily strays from the ordinary.
Instant Gratification
Engineer Joel Korte designed the Instant Lo-Fi Junky by reverse-engineering Vex’s original Lo-Fi Loop Junky circuit. But the Instant Junky isn’t just the Lo-Fi Looper’s circuit minus the looper. Instead, the Instant Lo-Fi Junky uses a different set of components with a combination of compression and vibrato effects to replicate the tones you get using the original Loop Junky’s recorded tone.
While the effects can be radical, the pedal is among the simplest to operate in the Z.Vex product line—with a set of knobs for Volume, Tone, Vibrato Speed, Vibrato Depth, and a Mix control for moving between full-compression and full-vibrato. There’s also a tiny, 3-way switch at the top of the pedal’s face that changes the vibrato shape from sine to triangle or square waves. Either a 9V battery or a standard Boss-style power supply, drawing less than a miniscule 20 mA of power, powers the analog, true-bypass circuit.
Clean Up This Junk!
For all intents and purposes, the Instant Lo-Fi Junky houses some of the wackiest tones in the entire Z.Vex line. But there are also very usable and more conventional sounds within. Rest assured, the Loop Junky’s strange, vibrato-laden murk is perfectly preserved here, along with the option of mixing in some out-of-this-world compression.
Before I delved into the lo-fi emulation aspects of the pedal, I plugged it in between a Fender Blacktop Telecaster and Fender ’65 Twin Reverb reissue, and turned the Comp/ Lo-Fi knob all the way to the left. Playing the opening passage to “The Wind Cries Mary” had me twitching in my seat—the compression is staggeringly good—reminiscent of Z.Vex’s brightly-voiced Super Hard-On booster, but with an unbelievable amount of sustain and smoother response. It’s nearly worth the price of admission alone.
Moving the Comp/Lo-Fi control clockwise brings the pedal’s lo-fi processing into play. With the mix full-on, the tone is just as gloomy and warbly as the Z.Vex’s looper, with the added bonus of being able to drastically change the waveform from smooth rises and falls to sudden, immediate pitch-changes. Pulling the Mix control back gave me a warm, heavenly chorus that was reminiscent of a beloved vintage Boss CE-1 that I once owned, but with more clarity and a wider scope. Chorus may be one of the more conventional and familiar effects out there, but Z.Vex managed to put their own stamp on it in this case.
The Verdict
Those aching to apply the Lo-Fi Loop Junky’s granular tonal-qualities to their direct guitar sounds will be extremely satisfied with the Instant Lo-Fi Junky. The Instant Lo-Fi Junky’s tone sounds much like its looper counterpart, and has an incredible compression tone for cleaner playing to boot, in addition to some of the coolest chorus tones available on the market. A lo-fi star to be sure, but one you can use in proper company too.
This pedal was donated to the show from my friend James – Please check out his music online, he’s a killer musician.
Electro-Harmonix Small Stone Phase Shifter EH4800 Pedal
The Electro-Harmonix Small Stone phase shifter pedal features a single knob for Rate and a Colour switch for stronger phasing. The Electro-Harmonix Nano Small Stone phase shifter is identical to the Electro-Harmonix Small Stone, only smaller, generating the Electro-Harmonix traditional thick, sweeping phase shifting with liquid transparency and tingling feedback control.
Powered by an internal 9-volt battery or external DC adapter, the Electro-Harmonix Nano Small Stone switches between a full and robust phase shift when the COLOUR switch is DOWN to a more pronounced phase shift with in the UP position with the Nano Stone carving into the frequency spectrum hollowing out the sound.
The RATE control adjusts the speed of the phasing sweep, clockwise rotation for a faster rate. COLOR switch up carves into the frequency spectrum, hollowing out the sound. Fundamentals and harmonics glide in and out for an extremely pronounced shifting effect. Return the COLOR switch to the down position and the fullness returns. In the non-color position, with the sweep speed at minimum, the effect is not as strong and if the slowest sweep is desired the COLOR switch should be in the up position.
Phase shifting works by taking the input signal and delaying it, and then mixing the delayed signal back with the original non-delayed signal so that certain frequencies of the audio are in or out of phase with each other. The time delay is modulated via the Rate control knob so the delay changes with time. As the delay changes, different frequencies of the audio waveform will move in and out of phase with each other in the mix of delayed and non-delayed signal. This creates the characteristic sweeping sound of phaser effects pedals.
ELECTRO-HARMONIX NANO SMALL STONE PHASE SHIFER PEDAL FEATURES
Highly adjustable phase shift effect.
Rate control.
Colour switch.
Die cast casing with rounded corners.
Small size conserves pedalboard space.
With its responsive gain structure and warm/punch double-team of 12AX7 and EL84 tubes, Classic® Series guitar amps are revered by gritty blues benders, chicken pickin’ country cats and nouveau-Stones rockers alike. These amps are available in vintage tweed with Blue Marvel® speakers and knobs straight out of the rock ‘n’ roll revolution.
- Fan cooled
- Four EL84s and three 12AX7s
- 2-channel preamp
- Normal and bright inputs
- Pre- and post-gain controls on lead channel
- Active presence control
- 3-band passive EQ (bass, middle, treble)
- Master volume control
- Standby switch
- Reverb level control
- Effects loop
- External speaker capability
- Footswitch selectable channel switching and reverb (included)
Fuzz God II by Red Witch is the insane silicon brother of Germanium Fuzz God. It’s wilder, it’s crazier, it’s the loose cannon sonic brother that you wouldn’t introduce to your girlfriend, cause you know he’d try his luck with her.
The Fuzz God II guitar pedal allows you to create fuzzyness of epic proportions (think red seas parting, burning bushes, pillars of salt etc). From your classic fuzz tones of the sustaining, soulful, singing kind through to those of utter chaos – encompassing suboctave madness, parasitic sustain and out of control fax machine dial lunacy.
Controls
Volume – This controls the output Volume – convert the masses quietly or with blasting trumpets (err, guitars)
Fuzz – From a gentle break up to a singing beam of fuzz – you decide!
Wrath – All gods have it and the Lord of the Fuzz is no different – click this only to smite the most brazen of unbelievers. When engaged (by depressing the lightning bolt footswitch) you can dial up all manner of destruction; SubOctave thunder, eternally sustained notes, squealing high frequency note corruption and a myriad number of other terrifying tones.
Sputter – Choose from a smooth singing fuzz to a ragged, rough, sputty gated mess and anything in between. This control will crackle when turned – it’s changing a dc bias – and that’s ok.
Awaken – A super sturdy true bypass switch to engage the Fuzz God effect.
Engage this footswitch to incur the wrath of the Fuzz God – crazed oscillation and octavization effects.
Lightning Toggle switch – Engage this to double your gain.
Ear Toggle switch – Engage this switch to boost treble frequencies.
Internal trim pot – Inside the Fuzz God II effect pedal is a small blue trim pot which enables you to adjust the master bias on the transistors – make it smoother or more sputtery – it’s all down to you.
Power
The Fuzz God II effect pedal can be powered from either a nine volt battery or an external nine volt dc adapter (the Boss PSA style is ideal – though anything with 2.1mm barrel plug with a negative centre pin is fine. Unlike Fuzz God, Fuzz God II doesn’t need any flim flammery with powering it up – either the battery or the dc supply will enable the unit to crank (including the LED). Sweet.
The Fuzz God comes finished in vintage pearl with Gold text. The LED is a brilliant diamond white. All components are top notch; Switchcraft jacks, alpha pots, through – hole double sided circuit boards with groundplane shielding etc etc. What more could you want?
This pedal was donated to the show from my friend James – Please check out his music online, he’s a killer musician.
Back in 2005, Electro-Harmonix unveiled the original POG, a polyphonic octave generator that enabled guitarists to conjure everything from the surreal jangle of an 18-string guitar, to rich, thick walls of symphonic sound.
The POG2 will take you even higher. Use the new attack control to fade in lush, smooth swells. Tune in the new second sub-octave to reach deeper than ever before. The 2-pole resonant low-pass filter now includes two additional Q modes. Slide in the newly enhanced detune to further refine your sound.
The POG2 delivers unrivaled tonal variations—and now you can save your favorite settings, and recall them with a click. The POG2 just plain sounds better, thanks to an enhanced algorithm that delivers a more focused and in-the-pocket harmonic performance. And all this is now packed into our rugged and pedalboard-friendly diecast chassis.
Get the most out of your POG2 Polyphonic Octave Generator with these suggested settings!
Quick Specs
True bypass
Totally programmable 8-preset memory with instant recall
four polyphonic mixable voices + your guitar
Attack delay slider controls the fade-in speed of the octaves
Low Pass filter with selectable Q
Dry signal can be routed through the Attack, LP, and Detune faders
Flawless polyphonic glitch-free tracking
Can be daisy chained with other pedals and power supplies
9.6DC-200 power supply included
This is the pedal John Mayer used when recording the song “In Repair” off the Continuum Album.
This is video #1 of this, my first day playing around with it.
Here’s a pretty cool little pedal by the good folk at Behringer. It’s an EQ pedal that does exactly that, gives you more EQ settings and alternatives. It really makes a big difference to your tone as you can tell from this video demo. The Behringer EQ700 is not a bad pedal for the price, it can add a “little noise” but it’s not as bad as some of their others.
GRAPHIC EQUALIZER EQ700
Ultimate 7-Band Graphic Equalizer
Shape your sound and eliminate feedback with 7 bands of equalization
This BEHRINGER product has been designed to compete head to head with leading products on the market
Wide frequency range from 100 Hz to 6.4 kHz with a powerful 15 dB boost/cut per band
Blue status LED for effect on/off and battery check
Runs on 9 V battery or the BEHRINGER PSU-SB DC power supply (not included)
First-class electronic on/off switch for highest signal integrity in bypass mode
High-quality components and exceptionally rugged construction ensure long life
Here’s a video demo review of the Behringer Compressor Sustainer Pedal CS-100. It’s not a bad little unit minus the fact the “Sustainer” part adds a whole lot of noise to your signal.
Check it out and as always please let me know what you think
COMPRESSOR/SUSTAINER CS100 (The new model is the CS-400 pictured here)
Ultimate Dynamics Effects Pedal
Get super-smooth compression and endless sustain
This BEHRINGER product has been designed to compete head to head with leading products on the market
Compress loud and boost low signals without degrading the original sound
Dedicated Level, Tone, Attack and Sustain controls for awesome sound shaping
Blue status LED for effect on/off and battery check
Runs on 9 V battery or the BEHRINGER PSU-SB DC power supply (not included)
First-class electronic On/Off switch for highest signal integrity in bypass mode
High-quality components and exceptionally rugged construction ensure long life
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