February 2008 Archives

5) Digitech Multi Chorus: Ok, now it's on to the modulation effects i like to kick in every once in a while. I'm not sure what turned me on to Digitech's pedals, but as you can see i'm running 3 of their X-Series pedals. These are digital effects pedals so no pedal mod guy wants any part of them. Me being a TUBE/OLD SCHOOL/ANALOG guy, it's suprising that the fact that these are digital effects doesn't wig me out...LOL. But they don't; i've tried a way more expensive chorus pedal and it didn't blow my skirt up at all. The thing that i like most about this pedal is that it seems to work the best IN FRONT of the rig. Alot of effects pedals require you run them in the FX loop, which means more cables to run and trip over. The Digitech pedals work better in front, and this chorus effect doesn't sissy out either when i need it for my dirty channel. So it's not a subtle,fluffy effect. It's very deliberate and the different voicings allow you to dial it in to your taste. The only issue i have with it is a slight tonal change when it's in use....not big enough to ditch it though. For the money, i think Digitech makes a good pedal. Check out our tune "LIVE FREE", i'm using the chorus for the majority of the song. ENJOY!! JD  

After doing some research, i decided to purchase one of these wah pedals. I've never been big on buying artist signature products because of the obvious price increase; but a) this pedal got great reviews b) I've used Morley stuff before c) in my opinion an optical wah is the way to go d) if i'm going to support an artist by buying his gear, Mark Tremonti seems like a good guy and i like what he stands for and writes about; so with all that, i bought one. The Morley wahs are optical; no clicking it into action. Right away i took mine apart and went into the circuit board and adjusted the pot that changes the wah on/off delay time to the minimum. Then i plugged it in first on my effects chain and jammed for a while. It's a great wah; i'm not big into the "classic" sounding wahs, so this was right up my alley. Nice agressive sweep to it and an adjustable boost dial as well. Mine seems to sound good with the boost dialed in at 1/2 way. The neat thing i found out about this pedal is that you can stomp it all the way down to get the full effect of the wah, or you can just put a little pressure on it and get a different attack. Nice. It is a little treble-y when fully depressed, but not bad enough to make a fuss over it. Couple the wah with a heavy chorus on your dirty channel and it sounds bad ass : )  The diamond  plate pattern on the pedal is a nice visual aspect of it to. If you dig on wahs, you might want to try this guy out.

Here is a review of what my board currently looks like updated with the George L's pedalboard cable kit (we'll chat about that soon): 4) BOSS TR-2: This is a cool pedal. You don't hear alot of guitarists use a tremolo effect too much it seems these days. You can adjust the velocity of the modulation, the shape of the wave form and it's depth. I like to keep it adjusted as deep as possible with the harshest cut-off (personal preference of course). I used this effect on the verses of our song ALONE and it added a nice enviance to the mood of the song. Sometimes between songs at a show, i'll purposely get a little feedback, then activate the tremolo; creates an eery kind of sound that provides filler while our singer is trying to pimp our merch..lol. I read up on a DIY mod for this pedal and tried it out. All that had to be done was to clip off a big capacitor on the circuit board; it worked. No volume loss anymore when you stomp the effect into action. I bought this used on E-Bay for a nice price and modded it myself. Good deal. Try one out if you can find one.

3)BOSS SD-1 Overdrive: Ok, here's where it gets a little "abstract". If you want to sit down and enjoy some interesting reading sometime, go to the HC forums and research the threads dealing with "overdrives" and "boosting".... you'll easily have your afternoon filled. Here's how i see it. Think of overdrive as a very light distortion; transparent however. In otherwords, unlike distortion, it doesn't replace your original sound, it colors it; kinda like adding thin layer over top of your base sound. You can hear alot of overdrives being used by blues players; they can keep the benefits of their clean channel and just add a little OD to color up the sound. Guys like me use OD to boost the signal going into your amp. This works really great with tube amps. It is hard to explain. Bottom line, it allows you to have the benefits of a totally cranked tube amp at lower volumes. Those of you that know tube amps understand the difference between tube breakup-type distortion and fake processed distortion. The OD boost in front just brings out that throaty, broken-up tube gain that we've all come to love about tube amps. It really enhances picking attack and just gives you a more aggressive sound (done within reason of course). If you dig on pinch harmonics you might want to look into an OD in front. I wouldn't suggest any "stock" pedal if you want to do this right. You'll find most stock pedals aren't really transparent, and they change the overall tone. You want the OD/boost to just layer on top of your base tone. My pedal was modded by Mike @ Analogman; they do nice work. If you were going to buy a pedal and not have it modded, i'd suggest going with one of the members of the "tubescreamer" family. Possibly the Maxon OD-808 (my buddy Matt likes that one in front of his Vox.) ; )

I recently took delivery on a new rolling road case for my Framus 2x12. I purchased this through Tim Marsh of X-CASE. His units are built extremely well; it's obvious that they put time into the craftsmanship of their cases. My cab fit nice and snug inside the case's thick foam which was great because it was a custom order and i had to provide the dimensions. The casters that came with the case are heavy duty and seem like they will last forever. It was also great to see all good quality grade 5 bolts and lock washers included to fasten the casters to the base of the case. Overall, a great deal; I highly reccommend X-CASE for gigging musicians that want to protect their gear properly. Don't be tempted to get the cheap-o cases you see on EBAY, there's no way junk like that could offer the same protection to your expensive gear. Thanks Tim; BXN will be looking to X-CASE for our future road case needs; definitely. Below i've attached a picture of my Triple Rectifier head and 2x12 cab in X-CASES all ready to hit the road for the next show. Peace. JD