mercoledì 21 novembre 2018

new pedals from joyo

Joyo has annonuced some new pedal series: the REVOLUTION. They are not small, but they are good and cheap.

What do we have?

JOYO Tauren Overdrive, undoubly a Klon clone

JOYO Taichi Overdrive, a zendrive/dumbler clone

JOYO zipamp overdrive, it is sayd to be a BBpreamp in the Andy timmons flavor. actually joyo already had something similar in the Ironman AT

JOYO Maximum mosfet overdrive, the second take on the fulltrone

JOYO Uzu Distortion: it has full stack EQ and is sold has a metal pedal that goes from British to american with high gain. It has a suspect BIAS control (should be a blend between the 2 flavors). Many beloive it it a Boss Metal zone clone. I hope is not, may be a future purchase.

My new love for the zoom MS50g

Now that i have spent again some time with my multistomp, using it the right way and as a stomp i am really digging it.

I am not saying that its models are perfect but they have enough "flavor" and are usable.

First of all i really like the sensitivity of the autowah. Far better than the donner. Does not need to be fine tweaked. Cannot say a lot about the tone since i am not a wah wah expert.

Then the point on the whole overdrive section is the unity gain. You HAVE to set it right. 50 is far to high on a lot of models.It distors the highs
I already knew that the MetalZone was good for me. But i discovered that also MB Throttle is a nice toy. It is not identical to the tone of my Mustang but is very usable. I think that the main differences are that i scooped the mids on the Zoom and the Mustang has a TSish Overdrive. But it is ok because i like to have same different flavro at hand. The good thing is that i can use the Zoom in place of my Boggie channel in the amp and use the amp channell for a something else like mild bassman drive.

I also found a way to make the RedCrunch sound similar to the Plexion for the setting that i use for high gain and marshall.

I still find the plexion better but is good to know that i have a backup options or that i can move some of my mine tones all with the Zoom.

giovedì 15 novembre 2018

the wah conundrum

So, my Donner Dynamic Wah has suddenly stop working...

Since it was bought brand new and Amazon fully refounded me, i saw it as an opportunity.

I made a little research to see what could fit better to me.

As a side note, since i have a Multistomp in the board, i can do without, my only limit is that i need to pair it with an overdrive from the MS itself, since the MS is at the end of the chain...

Anyway.. after i did my homework i have con for this one:

MOOER MOD FACTORY (MK I)
I read some review that said that this is not an high wuality effect, but i really dont care, i am not that picky on chorus and phasers right now, they are just option to experiment in different positions. but i really like the fact that is both touch and auto and also the size. I still hope to like it more than the donner. The donner was ok but i think i could find something better, but keeping the small format.

AURAL DREAM DIGITAL WAH
This was promising, a lot of options and maybe good  tone, but it was big and looks like it has an annoing click so the MOOER won

JOYO WOW WAH
Looks like it has some very good tone, but not a lot of options and also pricy

MOOER ENVELOPE
Maybe it sound better than the Mod Factory , but i found a mod factory for the same price....

MOOER WAH DIGITAL
That was pretty interesting,, but also pretty pricy

ENO TC-61 AUTO WAH
It is named auto wah but i think it is a touch wah since it has SENS control. It is the cheapest of the bunch.

Maybe at dome point i will buy another one for my little collection....

martedì 30 ottobre 2018

The plan (pedal speaking!)

I have an idea to expand the numer of pedals in my ikea mini board, this is the layout:


This is near or less the plan: the Zoom is coming, with also a bb preamp from mosky, the rage slot should be an high gain pedal, would like to test that if i find an used one at a price. Or maybe i will use the Zoom for the high gain pedal and free that slot for another permanent ODDS. The upper, rised slot are the swappables ones. The mosky pictured is already in house, the crazy tone may be the next purchase since i love the plexion i would like to taste the Riot clone.

sabato 27 ottobre 2018

another pedalboard update

Here is today status:


I sticked the amp footswitch on side of the pedalboard with velcrum to make some room for the comings stomps.

I wanted something to do extra delay and modulation at the end of the chain so i let myself get a good deal on a ZOOM MS50g that is coming someday next week (i hope). I used to own one but sold it to try something else (the G1xon). I see zoom multistomps in a lot of board for chorus delay usage and i digged the idea. So the final chain wil lbe something like:

1) Guitar
2) Mooer GE100 when i need a wah
3) first slot of the pedal board, the floating one, usually the Donner Dynamic Wah but may be swapped with other spare pedal (the lovely Mosky Golden Horse in the picture, or the Mooer Pure Boost just below, the Mosky BB preamp that will arrive some day or any of the other pedals that i will buy in my journey)
4,5,6) fixed position for the greenizer, the plexion and the bleckteeth
7) here is supposed to lie a Metal Distortion, sooner or later
8) the above mentioned zoom Multistomp for extra delay and chorus, but also the Metalzone until i get something that i liked better. Now and then any thing that is inlcuded with the pedal, maybe not the amp models...
9) Fender Mustang I v1

lunedì 15 ottobre 2018

Mooer GE 100 first impressions

I bought a mooer ge 100 to use as a cheap wah pedal. Since i am not too much in to wah pedals i dont feel to spent 100€ or more on this device. I use to have a crybaby but i sold it because the engage button was far too hard to push for me.

The mooer Ge 100 as no button and use a strange pressure system in the pedal itself. There is no button is just the gesture that engage the effect. I like it. Maybe i would not rely on it for a live situation but for a couch situation is very good. I think i will make a video on this.

But this is not the point. How do the Mooer perform on its proper function?

I did some test, especially on the overdrives. This is preliminar but... The tube screamer just does not sound like a tube screamer. I cant feel the mid bump compared to a tube screamer clone. Not that is a bad overdrive sound. It is just not a TS feel. The juicer on the other side was an interesting flavor.

I did not test the heavy stuff but i made some test of the amp emulation and they did not sound good in my opinion.

lunedì 8 ottobre 2018

Keeley D&M , the overdrive from that pedal show

I've seen the D&M in a lot of boards. It is a versatile thing, nice sounding in the first half of the scale of the OD/DS.

I read that the boost side is a mix between a tube screamer and a klon, with less mids.

The overdrive side is like a modded OCD.

So, we can get somethings similar with some chinese knock off:


You see, it is not an exact match, it has some pros and some cons.

The cons:

- looks less cool
- does not do exactily the same job
- a pre and post boost (with different properties) instead of a single boos with moveambe position

The Pros:

- cheaper
- 3 pedals/flavors instead of 2
- more combination (like you can stack the klon and the ts!!!)

Why this is interesting? Because if you, like me, trust the skill and the experience of Mick and Dan, then this pedals are nice combination to cover a lot of ground in the overdrive territory. And this is a vital information!

Metal settings from my allround pedals

This are the settings i used this weekend:


From right to left:

The Black teeth (RAT) is in a "not to extreme" settings that is good for metal rythm, It can be used for solo's like Kiko's No gravity but you need some more gain to neal that solo tone.

The Plexion (crunch box) is set for High gain with lots of treble (3 PM). The point is: if i cannot tame the pushed mids of the plexion, all i can do is rise the other frequencies. It works, i like it.

The Greenizer (Tube screamer) is set as a boost (but not in the boost mode) with the purpuse to cut basses stacket with the other 2 pedals.

The wah is set for a nice solo thing.

This settings was used to play some megadeth and metallica riffs and solos.

mercoledì 3 ottobre 2018

Mooer Pure boost first impressions

Pre Boost arrived yesterday and i played a bit with it.

I wasnt impressed. Not that is not good, just it does not match well with the rest of my setup and the way i use pedals.

I am ok with the fact that it can add some spank to the cleans but it is not enough for me to keep it.

If i raise the drive to push the 57 model i dont get nice result, just like raising the gain on the amp itself. The 57 is not the best tool for this job and i am ok with it.

I will keep it for a while and test it with othe rmodel but i think i wil lbe better trading it.

lunedì 1 ottobre 2018

Next pedal: high gain metal XII degree possibly scooped!

So after the landing of the Klon clone (Mosky Golden horse) and the imminent landing of the Mooer pure boost, i felt i should concentrate on the high gain thing. I am not completely naked in this department: the amp footswitch is giving me the pedal platform (57 deluxe) and a prog tone (American model).

I'm making a list of the pedals that could fit the job:

Tom'sline Holywar: i dont know whats after this one but looks interesting and i may discover what's inside with a nice screwdriver

Mooer Rage Machine: has a nice tone and it is another pedal that may be opened

TC electronic fangs: i am curios to see a TC pedal and this looks like a good option in this ballpark.

venerdì 28 settembre 2018

My take on the klon

So yesterday the MOSKY GOLDEN HORSE landed.

I like it!

It sits exactly in a void slot.

I dont hear that magic but i like it quite a lot. It goes from a boost to a mild and quite transparent drive . It tops almost where a tube screamer starts. you can imagine. i guess. But to be quite honestit is a real complement to the other overdrive i have.

I ordered this pedal randomly, it was on the list and was pretty cheap but i am quite happy, so i will concentrate on the search of an high gain thing and i will add the missing spots on the low gain later.

giovedì 27 settembre 2018

My 12 degree of distortion version

My Klon clone has just arrived and i've made a picture of where i am heading:


If you want to understand more just go here:

https://www.guitarpedalx.com

I think i will do some change, the more i listen to the Metal muff clones the mor ei think this is not for me, althrough i have developed the idea that i need to try by mysel f before make some mind.

domenica 23 settembre 2018

Eric Johnson Cliffs of Dover with the Plexion

This is my 2 minutes attemp on this really nice tone.

Set the tone between 10 and 11 the gain between 10 and 12 in normal mode.

The thing is (to my hears) that you should have more basses than trebles so you need to tame the highs with tone knob.

Also i noticed that the TC Electronic dark matter is a marshall in a box. The interesting thing is that it looks like it has less gain than the MI AUDIO CRUNCH BOX clones, so it could be an interesting purchase to complement with the plexion.

sabato 15 settembre 2018

notes on my stomps

I will try go in the same order i've found it:

1 - low gain, british middish bluesy stratty solo tone: plexion gain very slightly above 9, volume at noon, tone at 11
2 - my texas blues tone: greenizer, gain at 10, volume as usual (1-2), tones at 1-2
3 - mellow fuzz tone: black teeth volume at noon, filter at 3 and dist maxed
4 - mesa/prog/petrucci: plexion in bright mode same as setting 1 but with with gain at 11 boosted by the greenizer setting at 2

also as if stated before the plexion in normal mode and drive at noon is good for iron maiden, switching to bright it goes Satriani but need time to tweak it!

The things with stomps is that one stomp can do many, especially the ones with switch, to have all at your feets you will need more of the same model with different settings.

venerdì 14 settembre 2018

The Overdrive stomp inside the mustang

I'm talking about the venerable and only overdrive included in the Mustang V1.

Recently i've been affected by a sort of pedal mania. It has geven its fruits but i still play with my amp too and apply my findings to the inner soul of our beloved stang.

So i made some easy test to answer to 2 basic question: how do this pedal color the guitar signal? How can i set it to use like a transparent boost?

So, here we can see how to set the pedal to be totally transparent:


As you can see the level is set around 2 o'clock the get unity gain, the gain is obviosly set to 0, the low are set to noon so i will say that basses are near or less untouched by the pedal.  We have to fully cut the mids so either the pedal is pushing the mids or the knoq is an active eq (in a real pedal would likely be the first but this is just a dsp algo so all is possibile). The High pot need to be set fully crnaked so we can guess it is a passive filter. My guess will be that all the knobs are passive filters and pedal is pushing  a bit the basses and al lot the mids.

After you set the pedal this way you can boost by rising the level.

What if we want to to overdrive while keeping it neuter like the fomous Klon Centaur will do?
That's it:


As a general rule, while you rise the gain you always roll back the highs, so here it is.

If you push it further you need to push back a bit the basses and free some of the mids.


Hope this will be of inspiration for some experiment.

giovedì 13 settembre 2018

About the greenizer from tom'sline - how to use the boost mode

I was tweaking a bit on my pedals, tryng to understand how they color the sound.

How a tube screamer works is pretty obvious, but the greenizer has that switch into boost mode that i did not fully understand until today. If you just switch from your TS setting it does not works well.

2 reasons.

First: like many green clones, the greenizer need the volume to be set at at least 1 o'clock  to get unity gain. In boost mode this is way too much. Noon is is sweet spot.

Second: the tone control is high passive, so to get a trasparent tone at low levels you need to crank it to the max. Then as with every gain control you compensate the high frequencies of the rise of the gain by rolling off. Noon is the extreme left limit in my opinion.

So, switch in boost position, volume at noon, tone at max and just a tiny tiny bit of gain you are in fully transparent position. Rise another tiny bit the gain and you are getting that kick without driving the sound to the overdrive. The brakup zone. Very nice. I think this is exactly what many player search in a transparent booster. Over there you are in the overdrive territory, but without the colors of the TS. However, extreme settings will not be so easy and nice.

mercoledì 5 settembre 2018

about crunch and plexi pedals

I really like my tomsline plexion so i digged some information about this kind of pedals.

First thing the majortiy of the plexi clones (TC electronics Dark Matter, Mooer Cruncher, Joyo ultimate drive, ENO Classic DS, Valaton LA Charger) are based on the MI AUDIO CRUNCH BOX design.

The crunchbox is based on the Marshall guvnor (some will say Blues braker that is an evolution of the guvnor...) stealing some design tips from the Fulltone OCD .  The guvnor  is based on the Marshall Plexi.

Also the famous Analogman King of tone and the JHS Morning Glory are based on  Bluesbreaker.

Then there is the Suhr Riot and all its clones that are based on the Crunch Box but with more bite.

The Plexion is something slightly different to the rest of the Crunch Box clones. This is a clone of the MI AUDIO SUPER CRUNCH BOX. The main differnce are the switch that allow a hotter setting that was called the "Josè mid drive". I suggest to lower the level when the switch is engaged. Obviously the SUPER CRUNCH has some more control. Maybe other trimmer are inside the Plexion, but i did not open it.

The conclusion: unless you are a plexi maniac just buy only one of this plexi ballpark pedals since they are all similar flavor.

mercoledì 29 agosto 2018

My Mustang Pedalboard today


This is the work done up until today. The white pedalboard is an ikea stuff that has almost the right size for me.

The neewer is a footswitch to change the 2 channels of the Mustang. The 2 preset i am actually using are:


  1. a 57 clean with chorus that i use both as a main clean and as pedal platform. Works really good for both
  2. the MB CRUNCH 1 that is the latest tweak of this preset of mine: https://fuse.fender.com/mustang/presets/mordor74-erotomania-ts63/
The pedals are (from right):
  1. the dynamic wah from donner
  2. the tom'sline black teeth set for a lead tone similar to Kiko Louriero on No gravidty
  3. the sweet tom'sline plexion for a britsh overdive that goes from blues (rolling back a lot the volume on the guitar) to Iron maiden (less rolled back volume pot, neck PU for creamy solos) and up to vintage metallica with full pot and the kokko to tight basses
  4. the kokko overdrive set to tight up every other tone or to get that bluesy tone using it alone
I am happy with the combination i've found except that as you can see the placement of the connectors does not allow to get the stomps perfectly in line. I've ordered different connectors and i plan to buy the TS clone from tom'sline.

I will be buyng some other pedal to have some fun but i really dont need it.Just curiosity and fun.

lunedì 27 agosto 2018

Kiko and the rat

I've always been a fan of Kiko Luoreiro (actual Megadeth solist and ex Angra) and his music, especially the album from 2005, "no gravity". I learned half of the title track.

I always wondered about the tone of that albun, i like it a lot.

I did some research in the past but did not find anything really relevant.

But...

I felt like there is something in common betwwen that tone and my Pro Co Rat clone, the tom'sline Black Teeth. So i did the inverse research: kiko louriero and pro co rat.

It comed out something really interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89CC56krbB8

I linked the brazilian review of this NIG shred pro, a brazillian made signature pedal that i think is a revisitation of a Pro Co Rat.

mercoledì 15 agosto 2018

Musiwewe stomps

Today i discovered the Musiwewe lines of pedals.

They looks like digital clones. Maybe, because of that they work good with the mustang. I may never know.

If you look closer:

You can see 3 critical details:

1) they are made of plastic
2) the switch is more a videame button
3) the power connector is on the side

That given it is really hard that i will one in future.

PS: out of curiosity the orange drive should be a guv'nor or a mi audio clone

martedì 14 agosto 2018

The Mooer Ultra Drive MK II is going back to Amazon

I've tested this pedal extensively thoose days and i think i will send it back.

It is not that i did not manage to make it work, it is just that it work good only with certain settings and not so good with others. Surprising the DS1 emulation on the ZOOM pedal board works better. I think it is not a pedal fault.
The Zoom thing is doing some sort of post EQ, while the Mooer Ultra drive has a peak in the low freqs that does not work well with the mustang. It works well with the notes from 5th fret but i really dont like the E5 chord.

The pointis that when i use the KOOK OD (TS clone), i can kick it in in any patch, while the Ultre Drive can be kicked in only on certain clean tones. Since i want something more flexible i'am going to try a RAT clone, and maybe another one too, since the rat clone costs half the price of the mooer.

lunedì 13 agosto 2018

Paul Gilbert tone on Alive and Kickin

If you dont know the song here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BaoEHNbyA

The intro is really lovely and while the main theme these days is me struggling with the Mooer Ultimate Drive II and the pedalboard in general, i also had a ride on some less used amp models, like the Marshall 80 clone. I wanted to ear how it sing with drive to the minimum and the result is that it is a really nice tone to play this Mr Big song, really close to the one on the album, to me.

Here is a screen of the amp settings:


As you can see is a fairly simple setting, where the trick is the subtle gain that will just push and compress the tone that bit.

The rest of the things are pretty casual, i will refine it and the publish on the fuse site.

mercoledì 8 agosto 2018

Expanding the Mustang Capability Pt.3 - Update

So, now i have my Ikea pedalboard with actually installed the Donner Dynamic Wah, the Kokko Overdrive and the Mistang footswitch.

I had plenty tested the role of the Overdrive in the chain and i must say that i am not shure anymore that it can work as a mid boost. Not the way i expected it.

I find myself using it more to get a nice lowmid gain tone from the clean presets. It does this job very well and match very well with the wah also.

So i am not totally unhappy of having my TS clone onboard.

I also did some test with the Zoom distortion to find the one i may like.

Log story, short tell, today i will recive a Mooer ultre Drive II. The contender was the ProCo Rat but there where 3 main reason that lead me to choose the DS1 clone:

1) Steve Vai

2) the DS1 har plenty more gain (versatility)

3) the character of the Rat is really close to my Satriani preset, so i really dont need it


venerdì 3 agosto 2018

ProCo Rat clones video

I just posted this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC0XZ03xSIo

It's a video version of the list.

I plan to make other in the next days!

mercoledì 1 agosto 2018

Expanding the Mustang Capability Pt.2 - A schema

I've made a simple schema to explain the idea i'm pursuing right now:

Nothing fancy and also nothing new, but explain a different approach.

It is not complete. Not all combination are listed, only the ones that i consider of graeather value.

As you can see in this schema the Distortion Pedal is use only once. Shurely it can be layered with the boost and the wah but i would like to test it on our digital amp before writing about it. Anyway for as much as i can see the named LEAD2 tone is a valueable addiction by itself.

lunedì 30 luglio 2018

Comments to the stomp clones list

So i've already published the list here

https://ridingthemustang.blogspot.com/p/list-of-pedal-clones-for-overdrive-and.html

I will be updating since it is an unfinished work.

First comment is about Tube screamer clones: there are plenty and they have difference. I will not go into deep in that, just look at the switch some of them has to find the more versatile. Or buy one of the cheap ones like me and be happy with it.

There is a count of the number of clones per model, as you can see the most cloned stomps are near or less the most famous/used ones:

IBANEZ TS
PROCO RAT
SHURE RIOT
BIG MUFF
BOSS DS
MI AUDIO CRUNCH BOX
FULLTONE OCD

If you consider that the Shure Riot is an evolution of the Mi Audio Crunch Box and this one is based on the  Marshall Govnor, we have a total of 17 clones of the Marshall Guv'nor. I dont have one ut if you are in for a clone of one of this pedals, as far as i've read the a Suhr Riot clone is your best bet.

Anyway if you want to built a collection i suggest to start from the list above.

The list has some error, i will provide to fix while i review them.

I have included a "ZOOM" column due to the fact that i own a ZOOM G1xon. Zoom has other emulation spread in other product but this ones are included in almost every products.

The list is based on a mix of internet research, specs and info from the makers and some personal guess/intuition. Thanks to everyone who shared informations that help this list.

List of Pedal Clones for Overdrive and Distortion

ORIGINAL MOOER CALINE BEHERINGER MOSKY JOYO ROWIN ENO DONNER ZOOM valeton AROMA DANAELECTRO KOKKO STAGG BLAXX BIYANG NUX MUZIZY AMMOON N.CLONES ORIGINAL NOTE CHIP
IBANEZ TS GREEN MILE MIDLANDER TUBE OD/VINTAGE TUBE OD MINI SCREAMER VINTAGE OD/GREEN LEGEND 602/LEF-302B/LN-328 TUBE DRIVE - TUBE PUSHER
ln-323 AMP PUSHER/302A OVERDRIVE I
ES9 tc-17 BLUES DRIVE TSCREAM TUBE ENGINE/TUBE REFINER GREENIZER PRIDE OF TEXAS FOD3 OVERDRIVE OVERDRIVE PLUS/OVERDRIVE OD-10 MAD DRIVER  x drive OVERDRIVE OD3 ULTIMATE DRIVE 17 IBANEZ TS rowin+DONNER+STAGG ha hot/warm JRC4558
PRO CO RAT BLACK SECRET HEAD ROOM DISTORTION MODELER BLACK RAT DIST III/301C MYMORPHA SQUEAK DARK TALE BLACK TEETH MOUSE/MAX DISTORTION 10 PRO CO RAT bright-normal-warm sul biyang LM308
SHURE RIOT SOLO CRAZY TONE US DREAM DIST II 601B/ 301B/201B MORPHER MANIC DISTORTION DISTORTION PLUS DISTORTION 8 SHURE RIOT natural tight classic - BASATO SU MI AUDIO BASATO SU GOVNOR
BIG MUFF TRIANGLEBUFF VINTAGE DIST lef-305 HOLY WAR / LEF 605 HEAVY METAL / LEF 205 CARALY BMF STYLISH FUZZ GREAT MUFF FIRECREAM METAL 8 BIG MUFF ROWIN/STAGG HA HI/LOH/OFF -early santana
BOSS DS ULTRA DRIVE DISTORTION MODELER DIST IV 301d TRINITY/DA-3/TC-12 DS-10 DISTORTION FDS2 DISTORTION 7 BOSS DS rowin ultra extra original
MI AUDIO CRUNCH BOX CRUNCHER SANDSTORM CRUNCH DISTORTION CRUNCH LEF 601A CRUNCHBOX/LEF 301A TC-15/CLASSIC DS LA CHARGER 7 MI AUDIO CRUNCH BOX BASATO SU GOVNOR
FULLTONE OCD HUSTLE DRIVE LEON DRIVE OBSESSIVE ULTIMATE DRIVE TROUBLE/DSO2 TC16 COOL CAT DRIVE DISTORTION 7 FULLTONE OCD TONO SUGLI ALTI-SOLO CANALE DISTORTO
METAL MUFF BLADE CP-15 TANTRUM EXTREME METAL METALISTIK GIANT METAL 5 METAL MUFF donner ha hi/low/off
XOTIC RC BOOSTER PURE BOOST HIGHWAY MAN XP BOOSTER ROLL BOOST BOOST KILLER 5 XOTIC RC BOOSTER
BOSS BD2 BLUES DRIVER BLUES MOOD BLUES OVERDRIVE BD-10 BLUE 4 BOSS BD2 BLUES DRIVER VALETON CON FAT
TIMMY PURE SKY TM/MM SILVER TRANSPARENT OVERDRIVE 3 TIMMY
MARSHALL PLEXI CRUNCHER PLEXI DISTORTION LN 302 HUNK 3 MARSHALL PLEXI
MARSHALL BLUES BREAKER BLUES CRAB BLUES LN 301 lef 321 LEF 602A BLUESY 3 MARSHALL BLUES BREAKER
MARSHALL GUVNOR GOVERNOR DADDY-O OVERDRIVE 2 MARSHALL GUVNOR
CARL MARTIN PLEXITONE ENGLISHMAN HOT PLEXY DRIVE 2 CARL MARTIN PLEXITONE
ELECTRIC MISTRESS ELECLADY JET CONVULTION 2 ELECTRIC MISTRESS
KLON CENTAUR PEGASUS GOLDEN HORSE 2 KLON CENTAUR
XOTIC BB PREAMP ORANGE BURST BB PREAMP 2 XOTIC BB PREAMP
WAMPLER SUPER PLEXI RED DEVIL PLEXI DRIVE 2 WAMPLER SUPER PLEXI
BOSS OD1 OVERDRIVE OD-10 2 BOSS OD1
MARSHALL SHREDMASTER HIGH GAIN DISTORTION HIGH GAIN DISTORTION 2 MARSHALL SHREDMASTER
BOSS MT2 ULTRA METAL POCKET METAL 2 BOSS MT2 SWEDISH DEATH METAL
FULLTONE FULLDRIVE 2 CRAZY CACTI 1 FULLTONE FULLDRIVE 2
MXR D+ DIST+ 1 MXR D+
WAMPLER TRIPLE WRACK CP-15 TANTRUM tantrum 2 WAMPLER TRIPLE WRACK
DOD OD PREAMP WHITE HEAT 1 DOD OD PREAMP
BOSS SD FOD5 SUPA DRIVE 1 BOSS SD
DUMBLE GUMBLE LN-315/lef 315 1 DUMBLE BRIGHT/NORMAL SU ROWIN
RAMS HEAD FUZZ MOO 1 RAMS HEAD
MAD PROFESSOR SWEET HONEY SWEET BABY 1 MAD PROFESSOR SWEET HONEY
WAMPLER PLEXIDRIVE ROCKFACE 1 WAMPLER PLEXIDRIVE
DIGITECH DEATH METAL RAGE MACHINE 1 DIGITECH DEATH METAL
DOD 250 OVERDRIVE D250 1 DOD 250 OVERDRIVE
MAD PROFESSOR LITTLE GREEN WONDER GREEN DRIVE 1 MAD PROFESSOR LITTLE GREEN WONDER
BOSS HM2 HEAVY DISTORTION 1 BOSS HM2
BOSS OS2 OVERDIRVE DISTORTION 1 BOSS OS2
BOSS OD3 OVERDRIVE 1 BOSS OD3
BOSS PW2 POWER OVERDRIVE 1 BOSS PW2
BOSS HM3 SUPER METAL 1 BOSS HM3
BOSS DS2 ULTRA DISTORTION 1 BOSS DS2
BOSS XT2 DISTORTION X 1 BOSS XT2
DEC BUFFER OVERDRIVE DEC BUFFER BUSTER 1 DEC BUFFER OVERDRIVE
ZENDRIVE RUMBRLE DRIVE 1 ZENDRIVE
16 15 14 13 11 9 7 6 6 6 5 5 3 4 3 1 1 2 127
BULLET METAL
METALHEAD
HUSKY DRIVE
OLD SCHOOL
LION ROAR

The right way and the wrong way

Either if you look at guitar gods or at your friends that plays guitar in the basement or in some local stage, you may see a number of different approaches to gear/tones.

Here some sample for you:

1) The primitive guitarist: a guitar, a cable and an amp is all he need. Most of time i does not even use the reverb from the amp, preferring the ambience. You keep it simple, but you cannont archive anytone with that simple and you are down to 2 or 3 tones to do everything

2) The basic guitarist: add to the recipe a low number of stomps: distortion, delay, chorus, wah. With 3 or 4 pedals you can get almost everywhere exept for exotics like harmonizer

3) The stomp maniac: he has alarge pedalbord built with severalstomps and an even larger collection of stomps in his arsenal. With this type of approach you can go almost everywhere! It is not rare to find more than one pedal of the same type in this pedalboards, like 2 distortion, that may be the same model but with different settings. It looks like a cheap way but it is not cheap at all.

4) The multieffect guy. He is the evolution of the stomp maniac. The single stomps are replaced by a floor unit that can do everything and combination of effects can be recalled with a single foot strike. Very comfortable and also cheap.

5) The rackguy: the high end version of the mfx guy. Some use only a midrange rack unit, other may be in the range of the stomp collector. High quality, high flexibility, high control.

Ok, so, where do we go from here?

If you are reading this you probably own or plaw to own a Mustang amp.

Where do we place our beloved stang in this scale?

Obviously you can use the mustang like a primitive guitar player, but how far you can go from there?

Fender gave us a "limited" amount of flexibility, if you consider the number of effect and the number of symoultaneus effect. The basics are all covered, you also have the ability to manage combination so i think we can get in the real of the multieffect guy, but you need a bit of immagination to compensate the lack of flexibility.

3 Examples:

1) you have only one overdrive pedal, but you can compensate using different amp models. I think you can go really far, especially compare to a setup where you have 3-4 overdrive/distortion stomps but a regualr 1-3 channel amp

2) you cannot have wah and overdrive togheter but there is a pedal that do wah and fuzz together and you can twak the fuzz to act very much like an overdrive

3) you cannot have 2 delay in the chain, but you can use the pitch shift with no pitch as a simple delay

That said, what's the point here?

You my be asking what's the best way between the 5 above. Simply there is no right or wrong, it is just witch one works better for you. I may suggest you to keep it simple, or at least the simplier you can, but not too simple. One side you will risk to taste overprocessed on the other one consider that no reverb is ok only if  your room has a good natural reverb.

Another thing to consider is the organization. Let me explain how i see it.

1) The primitive switch only betwwen the 2 or 3 tone offered by the amp, i've seen some tweaking the amp between one song and the other, someone using more than one amp to get different tones (same amp with different setting or totally different amps)

2 and 3) Manage a tone change with this board may be tricky, just like a dance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk6-H9Xu9Io

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz2-wO6vBIo

4 and 5) Management is pretty similar, all that change is, eventually, the quality of tone you get.



Expanding the Mustang Capability

AS i've posted recently, i'm appily staying with my 'stang for now.

But i am planning change a bit my approach.

It all started with the idea of using a boost in front of some channell/preset to change/expand what the tone availables with my feets.

An easy task, i already own a KOKKO OVERDRIVE, that is a tubescreamer clone i bought for a cheap a while ago to experiment. But i really dont use it since i have overdrive already on in most of the preset where i need it.

I have read about the usage of a TS and i think it may work for me as a boost just by rolling the drive off, also rolling the tone off the make it a MID boos and then adjust the boost with the level.

So if i have a clean and a crunch tone in the mustang foot switch, by activating the boost i should have a blusy dirt tone and a middish solo. A nice range of possibility.

I also had another situation that may be solved in a similar way. When i play Satriani and Slash/guns'n roses stuff i usually need a clean, a dirt and a (auto) wah tone. So i need 3 presets. This are actually the only 2 wah presets in the 24 stored in the amp. If i externalize the wah function i will free to memory slot in the amp and i will have better access to the thing. As a plus i could engaged the wah in any preset and experiment with this will be a lot of fun.

I choose the cheap donner dynamic wah for this. The Moer @Wah was the best choice but the Donner looks both cheap and good.

But when i started the search i found that there is much more than this that can be done to expand my tone galaxy. The next move is adding a distortion pedal. If you have a v2 'stang you have access to models of Boss DS1, ProCo Rat and Big Muff.

But i have a v1 and this is ok since i want it to be "out" of the amp.

Anyway thes led me to a complicate search to find the right distortion for me. Actually i think that a Boss DS clone will be my choice since i am actracted by the VAI lead tone and also i see i lot of options in this pedal, especially in the Keeley modded clones like the Mooer Ultra Drive and the ENO TRINITY.

In the next post i will share with you the map i made of the cheap overdrive/distortion clones, how to use stomp boxes in front of the mustang and how work the stomps i will test.

Meanwhile here is a picutre of the stomps i choose in the order i plan to use it:


mercoledì 18 luglio 2018

The dance of the guitar player (AKA the footswitch dilemma)

The main limit to me in the Mustang I has always been the footswitch.

From the single footswitch i can access to only 3 preset: the green one and the red one. I can select witch one from the 24 saved on the 3 banks. But still i am limited to 2 preset.

Many songs i play need a 3rd tone to make it complete tonewise (and somme other nned only one...).

I've thinked about this problem in a million different ways, this is the last one.

Just imagine the average Joe with an average valve amp and a decent set of somps. No rack, midi or multieffect.

He as 3 channels: one clean, and 2 overdrive, usually a crunch and a lead channel. So 3 basic amp sounds, a clean, an overdrive for the rtythm (maybe less mids here) and a "more overdrive" for the leads (maybe more mids here).

From this basics he add the stomps, say a Tube screamer to doubles the number of channels (giving a bluesy crunch from the clean and overdrive with different characters from the other 2), one or 2 delay and a reverb in the effect loop, something like a chorus where you like better and so on.

But lets get back to campare the 3 channel valve amp with my digital amp.

How many channell will i need?

I have 5 clean preset actually, using 2 different models: a Fender 65 and a Fender 57. And there is a reason for it. Giving that i have 2 preset based on the same with or without corus, i can nail it down to ONLY 4 diffrent BASIC clean tones:

1 - Metal Clean, that is basically a dark but well defined and acustic clean
2 - The piezo, very acustic with a lot of attac
3 - The Deluxe reverb, with gain compression and middish tone
4 - A clean that i call stomper that is shaped for the best tone with pedals like the metal zone

I can, near or less imagine that i could compromise on a "Metal clean" channel and get "The piezo" with a good compression, but there is no way to get The Deluxe Reverb from the same channel with the same EQsettings.

See the problem?

The Dirty tone situation is not that much different. I use the American 90 and the Metal 2K in equal mesure, and i have some patch with the British 80. But all the patches have different EQ.

Fender Mustang (the old ones) vs Mustang GT (the new ones)

I've been thinking about "upgrade" since ever the new mustang line appeared.

2 things really held me back:

1) i spent really few time playing so it was not a wise money investment

2) i should have worked out all my presets in to the new amp

On the other side i am really happy with my actual preset, they sound as i like, and, afterall, if you are happy with the result there is no real reason to change.

But there is more. Or , if you like me to say so, i found more about this.

Dont get me wrong. I think that the GT is a very good tool, but maybe is not the tool for me...

1) the direction of the new amp is obvious: this is more like a studio amp, less like a practice/performance amp. Just look at the speakers. Many people are unhappy with the GT speakers. Maybe they expect something different to what the amp was designed for.

2) 40w is too much for me, i am ok with my actual amp power, if things where different i would have bought a mustang 3

3) the old footswitch configuration of the GT is a step back the one in the III IV V

And since footswitch limit in the MI is my only concern i decide to try to find a different solution.

I'll be back with another post!