Post
by bigtone23 » Thu Jan 11, 2024 6:30 am
Played one the other day. It's really cool! I might just get one, as I can see this being useful with bass guitar, too.
What's really nice is the gain and volume knobs. Being able to dial in a little grit/harmonics is especially cool pushing a dirty amp, which is how I tend to use overdrive pedals as boosts. The grit generated in the modes, upon this initial listening, has a sort of an aggressive wave form, but let me plug into a few more amps and make a more educated determination from there. I played it into a Marshall Lead 12 and Fender Pro Jr. It needs to see my bigger Marshall and Mesas for a final test.
--The Standard vs Vintage buffer is only noticeable if you plug directly in and have passive pickups. Vintage does load down/smooth things up a little bit with passives, barely noticeable, if at all, with actives. Par for the course.
--Natural mode is nice, uncolored boost. It's also slightly hotter than the other two modes. If you push it into grit, it's sort of like a Klon that's lightly cracked into the gain knob. I need to dig out my old MXR Micro Amp and compare to this mode. This is the mode for just adding volume boost.
--RE is smoother, took the edge off my single coils. This mode, with vintage buffer and the gain around 1 o'clock was pretty darn similar in tone and gain to my MXR Timmy settings used to push a dirty amp. This mode was my favorite for pushing a dirty amp.
--CE is brighter, adds a nice sparkle to the tone. The grit makes for a cool edge of breakup over a clean tone. Cool for airing up darker humbuckers.
None of the modes are anywhere close to a SD1 type boost. They are all considerably flatter. Even a Klon(e) has more mid content. That what makes this cool, it gives that color those preamps had, or it can be a pretty darn neutral sounding boost.