New Non-BOSS Pedals

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

This was one of the Christmas miracles. Found this yesterday... $100 US. Not on the radar, but the price was right.
1979 MXR Envelope Filter. Has the box, manual and sticker!
Works as it should, but I'm currently cleaning up the rotted foam.

Wow! Absolute gold. Hard to find at even three times that amount and certainly not with all the box/papers tc. What a score!

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

Here are the assembled KORG Nu:Tekt DIY kit pedals. The OD-S Overdrive was the first model, introduced in 2019, and this is the only model that takes a few steps to assemble it. The other two models simply need the pedal bottom to be attached with four screws and the potentiometer knobs to be pushed onto. I guess the DIY Kit thing must be an attractive distribution model for some reason.



I'm going to give a full report once I have explored what the trimpots of the Power Tube Reactor do in combination with my Stratocaster. So far I can tell that I was heavily surprised and impressed by the sound of the Over Drive. I hadn't expected falling in love with the simplest model of this triple.

I love the "clean" look and layout of the Overdrive. I'm interested to hear your feedback. That's probably the one I'd acquire.

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

Here's one of the builders in Japan who built using the nu-tube. There was some form of promotion/competition to see who could implement the tech the best.

I noticed one of these units for sale at the weekend used.

Here's one online:

https://reverb.com/au/item/11683918-sou ... -overdrive

[laurie]

Eyewatering sell price...

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

Eyewatering sell price...

Yes, that is quite ridiculous. It would be cheaper here. Iirc about 25,000yen new or thereabouts.

[Pepe]

I visited my parents and my youngest brother yesterday. I took the KORG Nu:Tekt pedals there so my brother had a chance to try them out. He was very impressed by the instant tube sound that came out of his Fender Champion amp (he also has a modern VOX AC15, but we wanted to try the Nutube pedals through a transistor amp). But he was especially blown away by the sound of the red Harmonic Distortion. He loves the synth-like sounds that it can produce at fully cranked settings. He now wants to buy one as well.


On Wednesday I received a defective Pearl AD-33 Analog Delay that simply needed new tactile switches (that I had at hand). Nice sounding MN3005 delay with a filter so that short delays are very clear and long delays are a bit muffled. Once the trimpots were finally properly adjusted (factory settings were awful), the pedal does a really nice job. Sadly, switching the two modes only results in the effect signal being stopped for about half a second, before it starts with the other knob settings. There is no funky special effect that results in pitched sounds or something similar. But a good pedal nonetheless!

[laurie]

That's a good looking pedal.

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

I visited my parents and my youngest brother yesterday. I took the KORG Nu:Tekt pedals there so my brother had a chance to try them out. He was very impressed by the instant tube sound that came out of his Fender Champion amp (he also has a modern VOX AC15, but we wanted to try the Nutube pedals through a transistor amp). But he was especially blown away by the sound of the red Harmonic Distortion. He loves the synth-like sounds that it can produce at fully cranked settings. He now wants to buy one as well.


On Wednesday I received a defective Pearl AD-33 Analog Delay that simply needed new tactile switches (that I had at hand). Nice sounding MN3005 delay with a filter so that short delays are very clear and long delays are a bit muffled. Once the trimpots were finally properly adjusted (factory settings were awful), the pedal does a really nice job. Sadly, switching the two modes only results in the effect signal being stopped for about half a second, before it starts with the other knob settings. There is no funky special effect that results in pitched sounds or something similar. But a good pedal nonetheless!

That looks very clean Pepe!

I'll have to check mine out once again.

I'd love the chorus from that series.

[Pepe]

This week I received a quite low-priced Coron HD-520 Heavy Distortion in good optical condition and with the original box.

The Japanese brand Coron has first been copying the MXR effects in the late '70s and then in the '80s they have had two pedal series that look like genuine products. Our dear fuzzbuzzfuzz told me that he liked the re-branded Chorus from this last series that was marketed under different names, just as the pedal series from Aria, Daphon, etc.

These units are a bit wider and longer than BOSS pedals, but they are quite flat. They have the same switches as BOSS pedals, so they have some sort of buffered FET switching. The buffer sound is terrible. Worst - bypass - ever! Completely muffled and dull. Putting a pedal with good sounding buffered bypass before it is a solution and a must. And then this certain distortion sounds terrible, too. It makes my 50W Marshall tube amp sound like those cheap and bad sounding 10W amps that come in no-name electric guitar pedal bundles. To quote Laurie: "It sounds like arse." Definitely one of the worst sounding pedals that I have ever tried. It might very well be that other models from this series are better, but this one is absolutely underwhelming and I cannot recommend it at all. Nice looking '80s unit, but utterly useless.

One of the battery contacts was corroded, so I took a metal strip of a loose-leaf binder to replace it. That doesn't look too great, but it has full contact again. The build quality is overall really good. The pedal has a full metal enclosure, only the battery compartment and battery lid are made of plastic.

[bigtone23]

Love the absolute NON recommendation for the Coron!
It's like an Applause Super Distortion I got over 30 years ago from a pawn shop. It was $5, so I got it to just see what's up. BOSS-esque build, but sounded pretty bad. It sat unused for a year or so, I plugged it in to see if my perspective changed. Wait, it sounded pretty cool. The battery had dropped to about 6V, the starved circuit took on a more mushy and Muff-y character. Give it 9V and it's underwhelming. That alone made it worth keeping.
I don't have a picture of mine, but it's this model...