Category: Pedal Reviews

Analog Vs. Digital Delay

Today’s topic will be on Delay pedals, specifically which is better: Analog or Digital. I’ve played on a variety of analog and digital delays, and have really heard the difference.

I want to say right off the bat that an Analog Delay is much much better than any digital delay could ever be. Why? Well when your put your guitar signal through digital circuitry, it loses the warmth and purity of the tone. Think of it as putting your guitar through a computer and altering the sound that way. If you own nice tube amps and electric guitars, I wouldn’t even think of putting anything digital in between.

Lets look at the pros and cons of Analog and Digital Delays:

Analog Delay

Pros: Warm, Hypnotizing, 3-dimensional
Cons: Notes are not as clear

Digital Delay

Pros: Clarity of notes, longer delays
Cons: 1-Dimensional, Thin Sounding, Fake Sounding, Computerized sound

So as you can see, the Analog Delay is the obvious winner in my books. If you are looking to purchase an analog delay, my recommendation would be an 80s’ made-in-japan Ibanez AD-9 Analog Delay. I wouldn’t bother with the newer Ibanez reissues.

Hope this helps persuade you in your delay endeavors! Also check out this related article: Best Delay Pedals

Earthquaker Devices Organizer Review

The moment I saw the PGS demo for the Earthquaker Devices Organizer, I was immediately intrigued. The fact that you can make your guitar sound like an organ got me thinking that I could play some Doors songs without a real Vox Continental. So without further redo, here’s my review..

Okay so this pedal has a lotta knobs. Lets do a quick run down:

Up – Controls the upper octave
Down – Controls the lower octave
Choir – Multi-Octave blend, aka more churchy
Lag – Delay time between dry and affected signal
Tone – dark or bright
Direct – Controls guitar signal volume

So, is this a great pedal? Well, I only own analog pedals and this is my first pedal with digital circuitry. Yes, thats right, this pedal is that good that I bought it even though its not all analog! That should say alot.

So lets talk about sound. You can easily get a hammond organ kind of sound, or complete church bells. Then you can get some completely weird sounds when you really implement the lag knob. I personally prefer it as a B3 Hammond sound as I love the blues. I was playing some green onions in no time. Very cool sounding pedal. Even though its new, it feels remnant of the past. You can get some very eerie, horror-movie-esqe sounds as well.

So I really really recommend this pedal, as it is definitely staying on my board. View the EQD Organizer on Amazon.

EarthQuaker Devices Organizer Sound Clips:

Blues Organ with a Strat

Awesome Settings on the EarthQuakerDevices Organizer:

Hammond B3 Organ:

Up:  Full
Down: Full
Choir: Off
Lag: Off
Tone: to taste
Direct: Anywhere between half and full

Church Organ:

Up: Full
Down: Full
Choir: Full
Lag: None or a little
Tone: to taste
Direct: Anywhere between half and full

Crazy, insane futuristic past:

Up: Full
Down: Full
Choir: Full
Lag: Full
Tone: to taste
Direct: Full

FoxRox Aquavibe Review

As promised, I said I would post my Aquavibe review. I finally got it, and have had a chance to play with it for about a week now, and I must say, I am very impressed. I also own a BBE Soul Vibe, and after some comparing, really there was no competition. The Aquavibe is far better. Enclosed in a cool blue casing with green LED, it sure looks as awesome as it sound. So lets get to the features, as well as some tips and tricks!

One thing to note is that the Aquavibe definitely sounds better with single coil pickups, compared to humbuckers, but thats just my opinion. Another thing I noticed is that the Aquavibe is extremely quiet! I found my soul vibe to get annoying when stacked with other pedals. Definitely not the case with the Aqua.

In terms of tone, this pedal really cops some Hendrix vibes. I was able to dial in Machine Gun settings, and Hey Baby settings in the vibrato mode. I also got some nice Pink Floyd sounds as well (Breathe). But whats great about the Aquavibe is that it does much more than the other vibe clones out there. With the Center knob, one can dial in variations of the sweep. Since the original Univibe varied from unit to unit, this Center knob helps to get a different range of vintage Univibes! Very awesome, especially if you wanna tweak it a bit so no one else has your exact vibe tone.

I like how the speed dial is big enough to control with your feet. I however still prefer to use an expression pedal, but if you don’t wanna spend the extra cash, you really don’t have to. The speed knob has an incredible range going from really slow phasey sounds to super fast underwater tones. The width knob controls how pronounced the effect is. You can go from a very subtle effect, to an exaggerated sweep.

Chorus Mode: So this is your typical univibe mode. I found the chorus on the Aquavibe to be very nice, and not too overpowering. Based on the clips, the Megavibe may have a slightly better chorus sound, but its hardly noticeable. And when you have Randy Hansen doing clips for you, of course its gonna sound good! Still, the aquavibe does some impressive vintage univibe tones.

Vibrato Mode: Probably the best I’ve heard in terms of Univibe clones. This mode is really great and can get really psychedelic! What I really love is how well it keeps your original guitar tone, especially in vibrato mode. If you put in a a subtle sweep, you can’t even really notice any tone coloration!

Awesome Aquavibe Settings:

Chorus mode

Great authentic univibe: Speed: 12:00, Width: 1:00, Center: 11:45

Great underwater tone: Speed: 3:30, Width: 3:30, Center: 12:00

Vibrato Mode

Psychedelic vibe: Speed: 2:00, Width: 1:00, Center: 11:45

Aliens have landed!: Speed: 5:00, Width: 5:00, Center: 12:00

As you can tell, I’m having a lot of fun with this pedal. Every time I play it, I find a new sound. The FoxRox Aquavibe scores a 10 in my books. I find that its a very inspiring pedal, and really helps in the creative flow of things. If you are planning on getting one, get on the waiting list now.. its about a 1 year wait, but totally worth it!

If you already have an aquavibe, post some settings you like (along with a description) in the comments section.

TC Electronics Polytune Review

I know what you are saying, what does the TC Electronics Polytune have to do with tone? Well, in a way, keeping your strings in tune has a lot to do with how you’ll sound. While I like to tune by ear, its nice having a tuner pedal to kick on, and get the tuning perfect. As well, this pedal works with different tunings. I think the main feature that makes this pedal stick out from the other tuning pedals is that you can strum all the strings at once, and the Polytune will tell you which strings are out of tuning. No more having to go through each string. Now that I’ve owned this pedal for about a year, lets get to the review…

Many have said that the feature about finding out which strings are out of tune is a gimmick. While I disagree with this, I do find that this feature isn’t alway 100% accurate, but it still works. It still lets you know which strings are out of tune. I think its a good feature, but not perfect. Good thing you can still tune one string at a time, as the Polytune auto detects if you are playing all strings at once, or just one string.

The LED light on the Poly is really great. It’s nice and bright and it also adjusts to your environment. No more straining your eyes to while tuning. It extremely clear to read.

Many have asked what happens when you turn on the pedal.. does the guitar still sound, or does the pedal mute the guitar? The answer is that it mutes the guitar, which I think is a good feature. You can easily tune between songs without anyone really even knowing. As well, if you are a lead guitarist who only plays solos in a particular song, you can tune while the band is playing, before your solo starts.

A note on battery life. Its not great, but its decent. I would opt for an AC adapter. Also a note on size, its a fairly small pedal, like all TC Electronic pedals. Very easy to take around.

I shouldn’t forget to mention that this pedal is true bypass, so there is no effect on tone.

All I can say is that if you are on the market for a tuner pedal, I would opt for the Polytune. Why? It’s tunes in any way you like, have additional features than regular tuners, and at $99, its hard to beat the price. View the TC Polytune on Amazon.

Xotic EP Booster Review

Today’s review is on a pedal that I’ve now owned for about a year, the Xotic EP Booster. Extremely simple to use, this pedal only has one dial. So what does this pedal do exactly? Well its a pre-amp, but not just any pre-amp. This particular pre-amp is modeled after the one that would be found in an old Echoplex. Truth be told, many great guitarist like Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen would use an Echoplex, minus the echo. Why? Well it coloured the tone a bit, gave it a boost, and all around just produced an extra shimmer or sparkle if you will. Just take a close look at the features of this pedal…

There are many ways to use the Xotic EP Booster. One way is kick it on for solos to give your lead a little extra boost and thickness to stand out in the mix. Another way is to leave it on all the time, making your tone fatter. Other people like to stack the EP Booster with overdrive and fuzz pedals to make the sound a bit more powerful. Personally, I like to use it as a clean boost. Really there are a variety of ways to use the EP Boost, you just gotta experiment.

If you are a strat player who plays through Fender amps, you know that sometimes you would love a Marshall because of the great midrange it provides. But you are not willing to give up those glorious Fender cleans. Thats where the EP Booster comes in. Give its that Marshall style fattening, while maintaining the great cleans of the amp.

If you open up the EP Booster, you’ll notice that there are two internal dip switches to customize the tone a bit. The first switch (1) is a bass boost, and the second (2) is a bright switch. I found having the bright switch on really made a Les Paul come to life. Many like the bass boost for a Strat. Also I forgot to mention, that the main dial on the EP Booster controls the intensity of the effect. Cranking that dial means more output.

Overall, I must say that I really like this pedal. I especially like its small size, making it really easy to travel with. Sometimes when I’m going to small jams, I pack this pedal right in my guitar case, so my tone stands out a bit at the jam, without the need to carry a huge pedal board. Also, I should mention that this pedal has a pretty great price at $115US (see it on Amazon). If you haven’t already had a chance, try an Xotic EP Booster.. you might find it’ll add that extra punch that your tone was looking for.

RMC Real McCoy Teese Picture Wah Review

I’m not gonna lie, the RMC4 Picture Wah by Geoffrey Teese is probably one of the best wah pedals on the market! Lets take a look at what this pedal has to offer..

As you can see, it has a blue sparkle encasing, with a white foot pad. Pretty cool looking if you ask me. I’ve owned this pedal for 2 years now, so lets get on to the review.

I plugged in my strat into a nice clean amp. I pressed the wah down to turn it on, and immediately I was getting some watery wah tones. In the clean mode, it is not very vocal, rather more of a funky type of vibe.

I really wanted to have the vocal-like vintage wah quack made famous by Hendrix and Clapton. Once I put my amp into overdrive, I quickly got that tone! Very vocal like, and miles ahead of any mass produced wah made today. Like any person testing out a wah, I went right into the intro of Voodoo Child. This wah definitely gets you there.

Another good application of the wah is to turn it on, leave it in a position, and just play your guitar with that tone. You can get some very bright trebly tones that work great for solos, or some really bassy, smooth tones that I’ve actually also solo’d with.

Now whats really great about the RMC Picture Wah is pairing it up with a Fuzz pedal. The Picture Wah has encorporated a buffer in order to make it work properly with a fuzz, which most wahs aren’t capable of doing. When you really crank your amp, and your fuzz,the wah can really help when trying to have controlled feedback. Very cool to play around with, as it adds another dimension to your tone.

Basically the RMC Picture Wah is an excellent pedal, and really captures some authentic vintage wah tones.

The Best Univibe Pedals on the Market

If you are a fan of Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, or Robin Trower, I think you are well aware of the famous Univibe pedal. You know, the original Shin-Ei/Univox, with the foot pedal, and how acquiring one today is rare, and quite expensive. You also probably know that it is tough to find a clone pedal that recreates the authenic vintage univibe swirling tone. However, there are some great pedals out on the market that get really really close to the original. Lets take a look at what those pedals are..

1) KR Musical’s Megavibe

If you are familiar with univibe clones, you know the Megavibe. Many argue that the Megavibe gets the absolute closest to Hendrix’s Machine Gun, at least on the chorus setting. Randy Hansen (also known as the Hendrix Clone) uses a Megavibe, and many say that his tone is closest to Jimi’s. The only downside of this pedal is that they are extremely hard to obtain. You may be only able to find a used one on Ebay at inflated prices, as KR Musical seems to have been out of the scene for a little while now.

2) FoxRox Aquavibe (Review Here)

Dave Fox is known for building quality boutique vintage-esqe effects. His Aquavibe is no different, producing that vintage univibe tone, while also adding more flexibility to create different vibe tones such as the ability to change the position of the sweep. The Aquavibe has also been known to have the best vibrato out of all the univibe clones out there. Only downside is that there is about a 1 year waiting list.

3) Sweetsound Mojo/Ultravibe

Built by the late Bob Sweet, the Mojo and Ultravibe have been around for awhile, and have been a benchmark for great univibe tones. These vibes are right up there with the aqua and mega vibe.

 

4) MJM 60s Vibe

Around the forums, many have been raving about the MJM 60s Vibe. Over at MJM, the 60s Vibe has been modeled after an original univibe. Some really great tones coming from this pedal. Best part is, the MJM 60s Vibe is readily available with no waiting list.

 

5) Fulltone DejaVibe

Word around the street is that the original Deja Vibe (gold unit) has some pretty authentic univibe tones. Some have argued that this pedal is closest to the original.

 

I really believe any of these Univibe clones will make you happy, as all are close enough to the original.

Lovepedal COT 50 Burst Review

A couple years ago, I was watching some videos from ProGuitarShop on youtube. They demo many different pedals that they sell in their online shop, and I came across the Lovepedal Cot 50 Burst. I became very intrigued as Andy (from ProGuitarShop) started playing ‘Them Changes’, a Band of Gypsies track. I was sold. Right away, you could see why this pedal was packing mojo. So lets take a closer look at what this pedal is all about.

As you can see from the picture, there is just one dial, making this a very simple pedal. This IMO, is a good thing, as if there is too much tweakability, there would be a ton of time spent tweaking, and less time spent playing. The dial on the COT 50 Burst controls the drive.

Just so we’re all on the same page, the COT 50 Burst isn’t just a simple overdrive pedal, rather its more of a preamp so to speak. Its goal is to cop tones from a late ’60s Marshall Plexi loaded with 6550s. While this is a pretty big claim to make, I think it does a pretty good job, especially for a pedal.

I hooked up my strat (Fender MIJ ’68 Reissue), and played the COT 50 Burst through a pretty clean amp. Once I engaged the pedal, I was greeted with some favorable tone coloration. It gave my guitar more texture. As I turned up the dial, I got some great overdrive tones, very subtle, sounding more like a cranked marshall amplifier. When I turned the dial all the way up, I was almost in fuzz territory. When I turned the dial all the way down, it really kept the actual sound of my guitar, with a slight coloring as if I was playing through a different amp. At this point, I can say, the pedal is doing what it says it does. Awesome!

I then tried stacking it with other pedals, and started to see just how great this pedal was. I was playing a fuzz pedal straight to my amp, but since my amp has EL-84s, the fuzz wasn’t really sounding the way I was hoping it would. I wanted a good 60s’ style Hendrixy fuzz tone, and I just wasn’t getting it. Then I added in the COT 50 Burst right after the fuzz pedal, and immediately I was in Hendrix territory. Also at this point, I was getting some great controlled feedback at low volumes. Very awesome!

So basically, if you really want a Marshall Plexi sound, but can’t afford the amp itself, just get the Lovepedal COT 50 Burst, and you will be close enough to the sound that you are trying to catch!

Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz Review

As one of the most sought after pedals of all time, the Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz has become an instant classic since Jimi Hendrix used it on his album Axis: Bold as Love. I remember the day I went to Moog Audio in Toronto, Canada to try out the pedal. I a/b’d the axis fuzz against many other fuzz pedals, such as the OX Fuzz, the Zvex Fuzz Factory, and the Fulltone ’70 Fuzz. Right off the bat, I knew the axis fuzz was a clear winner. Why, you ask?

It’s quite simple. The axis fuzz has more textures, more depth, and more tonal variation. I was able to get a wide variety of distinctly different tones, just from the the two knobs on the pedal. One knob controls the volume output, and the other controls the fuzz/drive. My first instinct was to crank both knobs, and instantly I was in fuzz heaven. Infact it was so over the top, that my amp was feedbacking like crazy!

After playing some purple haze on my strat with an extended out-of-control solo, I decided I needed to calm things down a bit. I turned the fuzz knob pretty far down, so there was just a touch of fuzz, but kept the volume knob fairly high, around 3 o’clock. This put me into the chimy-ist, bell-like tone I’ve heard from an amp! I was getting amazing clean tones that had added texture from the touch of fuzz I had on. Also the guitar was more touch sensitive, letting me do hammer-ons and pull-offs with complete ease, while maintaining that sweet clarity. I now realize how Hendrix got some of his great sound clean tones. It was crazy to hear a marshall amp have fender-like cleans, but with more mid-range.

I decided it was time to get back to fuzz mayhem. I set the knobs high, but kept my guitar volume low. I was surprised how clean the tone was with my guitar volume down, and as I turned it up, it just got dirtier and dirtier. As I got into really fuzzy territory, I could get some great harmonics, sustain, and controlled feedback. The best is when you bend a really high note with plenty of vibrato, and wait for it to change into a screaming upper harmonic feedback tone. What a great way to end a song. My final thoughts on this pedal.. amazing!

Here are some helpful hints that will help you use the Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz better. Since it is sort of an instrument in itself, there are a few things you need to learn to get it working the way you want it to:

1) Crank your amp! This fuzz needs a cranked amp in order to sound good! Otherwise the fuzz with sound thin and shrill, which is very unpleasant to the ears. If you can’t go too loud, try stacking the fuzz with an overdrive or preamp pedal.

2) As mentioned, control the fuzz with your guitar’s volume pot. This will ensure the smooth transition between rhythm and solos.

3) Tweak the pedal a bit and find a great setting that works with your rig.

4) Use a strat! Single coils seem to work best with this fuzz. In addition, having a whammy bar just adds to the fun. Dive bombs become super powerful with the axis fuzz.

5) Let your guitar sing. Hold notes longer with the fuzz while using vibrato. With the extra sustain on tap, you can really fill the space, and the vibrato will help add some nice overtones.

If you haven’t already played an Axis Fuzz, try it out. You will not be disappointed! View the Axis Fuzz on Amazon.

Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz Sound Clip (Recorded on iPhone)