Effects Bay

Sunday morning coffee and nerd-surfing led me to the Pigtronix PolySaturator Distortion. I was corresponding with the winner of the Trumpet Fuzz, and we started talking about some Pigtronix pedals so I definitely have it on the brain lately. I’ve see the PolySaturator on a few boards, but wanted to take a closer look this morning.

Here is the official description:

The PolySaturator distortion pedal from Pigtronix takes the original design even further, adding a Class A J-FET booster stage to the front end and re-voicing the gain structure to provide an even wider range of sounds. The PolySaturator produces everything from subtle grit to blue velvet sustain inspired by our favorite tube amp lead channel.

The PolySaturator excels at gritty, edge-of-overdrive tones, but crank up the gain and you will be assaulted by face-melting ultra-high gain sounds that will please shredders and shoegazers alike with impressive string to string clarity and F.A.T. tube sound. Our JRC4558D powered EQ circuits provide 12 db / octave active filtering over three distinct audio bands. This powerful EQ structure combined with a state-of-the-art approach to tube emulation, allows the musician to dial up wildly diverse and satisfying textures of analog distortion. Unprecedented touch sensitivity and overall range of distortion tones is achieved through multiple gain stages, and active EQ, perfectly balanced to give the musician enhanced control and expression using picking dynamics alone.

The PolySaturator guitar pedal presents a flexible and affordable alternative that will outperform any other boutique or mass production distortion effect available.

I found another great video by gearmanndude demo’ing this pedal. Seems like the pedal definitely has wide range of tones, and has the ability to compress or get “flappy”.

You can pick up the Pigtronix PolySaturator distortion pedal for $169.00 at Musician’s Friend.

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Popularity: 5%

Today, I wanted to talk about the Tech 21 SansAmp Character Series Oxford Distortion pedal. I heard a few people talking about this, so I wanted to take a closer look. The Tech 21 Sans Amp takes some of the characteristics of the classic Orange amp and dropped that in a pedal. There is a ’speaker emulation’ button which is meant to take some of the high end off of the tone.

Here is the official description:

Experience T-rextacy with the greasy grit of ’70s London glam, or take it deeper and darker into paranoid vintage metal grind. Dime the gain to experience the sludgelicious roar of contemporary stoner rock pumping through a Vintage 30-style 4×12 cab. From sweet cleans to crushing distortion, the Oxford is one juicy pedal.

The level and drive controls work like a traditional, well-equipped amp. Low, mid, and high are active, providing a wider array of tonal possibilities. The character knob is a continuously-variable control that moves seamlessly between different model voicings, covering vintage, high-gain and face-melting lead tones. The character and mid controls, and the speaker emulations, are all engineered to personify the specific amplifier traits and speakers associated with each amplifier type.

The SansAmp technology captures the warm, rich, natural tones of the most sought-after tube amplifiers. Within the parameters of each model’s particular design, the controls provide you with access to specific tone-shaping characteristics within the tube amplifier sound spectrum.

SansAmp products are designed to work seamlessly in both recording and stage environments. They can be used with almost any instrument, for any music style, and for multiple applications. Record directly to tape and disc or enhance previously recorded tracks. For live performances, they can drive a power amp and speakers, augment your existing amplifier set-up, or run directly into the mixer of a PA system.

I found this great video showing what this pedal does (including what it can do for bass) by bubu245

I also found another video from premeireguitar where they visited the Tech 21 booth at NAMM 2010. They go into more detail on this pedal along with their other pedals.

You can pick up the Tech 21 SansAmp Character Series Oxford Distortion for $189.00 at Musician’s Friend.

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Popularity: 6%

I really enjoy how Twitter has connected me to various musicians and pedal builders out there. With the numbers of pedal builders rising, there is no better place to connect with them on a more personal level. A few months ago, @Goosoniqueworx and I started following each other and asked if I’d be interested to look at their high gain distortion pedal and of course I agreed.

Goosonique is based out of Singapore and they have the Seventheaven distortion touring the States from one blog to the other. I thought that concept was quite cool. I received the pedal from Bobby DeVito and after we were done, I shipped it off to Blake of WhatsThatDudePlay.com. Okay, enough of this, and let’s get to the pedal.

Here is their basic break down of the pedal and functions:

DUAL CHANNELS
Seventheaven comes with dual channels toggle switchable gain channels where the Green channel is more of a low gain offering primarily but gets into heavy distortion with the boost engaged. The Red channel starts of distorted and gives much head room and variety in tweaking the saturation. Both channels cleans up with a rolling off guitar volume knob.

EQ
The EQ onboard, Bass, Mid and Treble all responds sensitively and gets very versatile for the player to archive different amp tone. They mimic high gain amp tone controls which are place after the gain stages thus giving a post dirt tone stack. Very interactive! Together with a presence and feedback switch, allows the user to tweak make some final adjustments in different amp situations to get a more darker tone with added bass, or to brighten his tone up.

BOOST
It also features an In-line boost which is not a gain halve switch, but works in boosting your settings to archive a notch up on your overall setting. it’s not pre/post standalone and only activated when the pedal is engaged.

DYNAMICS
As it’s pick sensitive, it allows flexible dynamic control either by the playing style, again, roll it off nicely with the volume knob on the guitar. Another great feature that i need to add is that it plays well with other effects thus eliminating any pedal board conflicts.

POWER
The Seventheaven powers up via a DC power jack for 9VDC, up to 18 VDC power. 2.1mm plug negative center. This unit does not operate on batteries.

This pedal is incredibly versatile going from clean boost to full on metal tones. With the the two channel option (green/red) you get two different gain levels. Having the boost is excellent for leads with plenty of gain. The versatility really comes into play with their three band EQ and the ability to dial in the mid-range. You can scoop them or bump them which gives you the ability to really shape your tone to a particular style or need. Both the channels of the pedal are very transparent with very little tonal change. The red is the same but with more gain.

There are two footswitches on the pedal. Right switch engages or disengages the pedal. You need to switch the toggle for green or red channel. The left switch is a boost switch, where you can leave that on (but is on activated if the pedal is on) so you can go right to lead tone (boost on) or stage it by stepping on the pedal.

Additionally there is a feedback and presence knob/switch to help shape the tone.

This pedal has the ability to stay ‘tight’ at high gain.

For this demo, I asked my long time friend and fellow guitarist Jimmy Rolle to take it for a ride.

This first demo is using his ‘light’ gain channel of his Matchless DC-30 (12ax7 channel). His guitar is a Les Paul Gold Top with P90 pickups. SM57 mic on the Green Back speaker and Audix D3 on the Vintage 30 speaker.

This second demo, Jimmy is switching to the higher gain setting of the Matchless DC-30 (ef86 channel). Same guitar.

I also have higher quality audio from the above videos here:
http://www.effectsbay.com/files/seventheaven1.mp3
http://www.effectsbay.com/files/seventheaven2.mp3

Having contact with the builders, I also like to interview them and see what they were thinking when they created and designed the pedal. I think a little insight can be quite useful when searching for the right pedal for your line.

What were you trying to achieve and/or avoid when you put this pedal together?

To develop a decent high gain amp-like in a stompbox and to breakaway from the usual op-amp pedal distortions.

What were you going for with the presence/feedback selection

For amp voicing variable which helps with various amps and its speaker types. Primarily, Presence mode for extra presence/brightness when using darker sounding amps, and Feedback mode that provides a bigger bass response when using brighter sounding amps.

What are the differences between the green and red channel? Diode clipping, etc?

The Seventheaven has a cascaded Jfet circuit thus NO Clipping diodes.

What was the deciding factor for going with the 3 band EQ vs. just a ‘tone’ knob. We both thought it was great to have mid control.

Most smaller clean amps for home practice come with one or no tone control. Secondly, since it was designed to mimic a high gain amp, a traditional three band EQ will allow user to sculpt tone further and not be limited by a single tone control.

Have you considered adding a footswitch to handle the channel selection?

Yes, but adding another foot-switch will narrow the distance between each other considering the current box size. What we wanted was gain control via guitar volume knob not pedal switching which may be fun for bedroom but not so when performing. We also did a field test and found that most who prefered a channel switch, later, decided to go without, since both channels can go dirty cleans up very well with the roll of guitar volume knob.

What style (if any) of music (or guitarist) were you tailoring this pedal for?

Anyone and and everyone who wants something different out of the good ‘ol stompbox.

The Goosonique Seventheaven pedal can be yours for $299.00 USD + Shipping (they accept PayPal). There is currently no wait list. They sell them each week as they build them.  For more information or if you’d like to purchase a pedal, please check out the links below:

Main Site : http://gsonique.webs.com
Youtube : http://www.youtube.com/user/gworxTV
Mailing List : http://gsonique.webs.com/apps/auth/signup
Twitter : http://twitter.com/Goosoniqueworx
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/pages/goosoniqueworx/204563740960

Popularity: 17%

Lately, I’ve been looking at some ‘tube’ based pedals. Today I wanted to talk about the Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic Preamp / Distortion pedal.

Here is what Seymour Duncan has to say about this pedal:

The SFX-03 Twin Tube Classic preamp pedal delivers all the gain and smooth tone you’d expect from a high-quality tube preamp. The high-plate voltage and 100% vacuum tube signal path allow the 2 – 6021 dual-triode tubes to operate at their fullest potential and provide maximum dynamic range. Two channels expand the tonal possibilities of this preamp even more, from glassy, smooth clean tones to warm crunch with tons of bite. Power supply included.

Seymour Duncan SFX-03 Twin Tube Classic Preamp Pedal Features:

* Uses two premium, military-spec, subminiature, USA-made Philips-Sylvania 6021 dual-triode tubes
* High-plate voltage
* 100% vaccum tube signal path
* Two channels
* True bypass
* Fully encapsulated toroidal transformer for quiet operation
* Heavy-duty steel chassis

I found this great video by ProGuitarShopDemos showing what this guy is all about:

You can pick up the Seymour Duncan SFX-03 Twin Tube Classic Preamp Pedal for $219.95 at Musician’s Friend.

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Popularity: 9%

The following is a guest post by Christian Moraga (@cubisteffects). If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

After reading Part 1 of the M.I.Y series: Tools and Techniques, you should have a good grasp of what is required to get into your pedal and start modding. But before we flick on the soldering iron, I thought I’d write a few points about the diode, the key component to Part 2 of the M.I.Y series: Diode Clipping.

A diode is an electronic component that allows electricity to flow in one direction, much like a valve does letting water go one way but not the other. Diodes can be seen in nearly all effect pedal schematics and are noted as this symbol (left). They are integral in creating that overdrive or distortion sounds in your favorite dirt pedals, and come in different packages, materials and sizes. Each diode has a positive side (anode) and negative side (cathode). This polarity is what resembles a valve, and dictates the flow of electricity.

But how does a diode contribute to that overdrive sound? If we look at an audio signal (represented as a sine wave) we can distort the signal by “clipping” the tops and bottoms of the wave. This clipping produces harmonics that we hear as overdrive.

Image source: www.geofex.com

If a signal is clipped evenly on both top and bottom of the wave, this is referred to as symmetrical clipping and is used in pedals such as the Ibanez Tubescreamer. If a signal is clipped more heavily at one peak than the other, this is called asymmetrical clipping as heard in the BOSS SD-1 Overdrive. The more heavily a peak is clipped, the more a sine wave moves closer to a square wave, and closer to distortion and fuzz.

Image source: www.diystompboxes.com

The location of clipping diodes has an effect on the sound as well. Soft clipping involves having two diodes connected on the feedback-path of an opamp or a transistor (Tubescreamer). Hard clipping is when two diodes shunt to ground, creating distortion as in the ProCo RAT. The material of the diode also affects the clipping. Silicon diodes have been described as being “sharper” and “tighter” whereas germanium diodes are described as being more”compressed” or “spongey”. You can also use LEDs (light emitting diodes), Zeners, Schottkys, MOSFETs etc… the experimental possibilities are endless.

So with all of that in mind, let’s crack open a pedal. We will need [1]:

• A pedal (I will be using a BOSS SD-1),
• A selection of diodes,
• Single in-line break away sockets (purchased from any electronics store),
• The schematic of the pedal (that can be found at the resources listed in Part 1 of the series).

Firstly, unscrew the back so we can get to the PCB. You should be able to see a trace side, full of tracks and solder joins [2]. Carefully lift up the PCB so we can see the component side, and look for a set of diodes [3]. The markings (e.g D3, D4, D5) should correspond to your schematic. Desolder these diodes, marking down their original orientation, and clear the holes. Solder in a socket for each hole from where the diode was removed [4] and place the PCB back into the pedal. We can now experiment with different diodes, and combinations of diodes, and immediately hear the difference between them.

Place the diodes (using the same polarity as you marked down earlier) back into the sockets, power up the pedal, plug in and play. No need to close the pedal back up, it will just be a bit noisier. Now remove the power, remove the diodes and try another combination. Power, plug and play – hear the difference. Now try a symmetrical configuration, then asymmetrical.

In the place of one diode, try a MOSFET like an MPF102 (note in [1] how I bent only the ground pin to remove). Or you could try germanium and silicon diode in series, a silicon and LED, two silicons in series, two germaniums in series etc. To solder diodes in series, ensure that the cathode is soldered to the anode [5]. Using diodes in series increases headroom and volume but sacrifices a bit of gain. Use MOSFETs for “tube-like response” and LEDs (reds are great) for crunch and higher gain. When you find a combination you prefer, desolder the sockets and solder in your killer selection. Close the pedal back up and you now have a diode clipping modded pedal. Common mods include placing different diode combinations on switches, or a symmetrical/asymmetrical diode switch. But we may leave that till next time…

Happy modding,

C.

About the author.
Christian Moraga is the owner of CubistEffects.com located in Sydney, Australia. Christian repairs and mods most brands of pedals like BOSS, Ibanez, EHX , Arion, MXR, Danelectro, Marshall, Dunlop, VooDoo Labs, Digitech, DOD etc and specialise in Big Muffs and ProCo Rats. He also makes custom switching and loopers for your pedalboard needs. A/B, True Bypass, Tap Tempo etc.

A note from EffectsBay.com
I found Christian while doing some research on the Line 6 DL4, where Christian has some great mods available!

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Popularity: 16%

I wanted to talk about the Red Witch Famulus distortion pedal. I’ve talked about Red Witch in the past, they definitely make some great gear and the Famulus is a new pedal in their line.

Here is their description from the web site:

Servant to the Sorcerer
“Alchemy is a bridge between Earth and Heaven, matter and spirit, the solid and the fluid, the visible and the invisible, bringing the horizontal and the vertical together.” ~ J. Ramsay.

The Famulus is a distortion/overdrive pedal with two totally separate, parallel circuits inside.

Each circuit has it’s own distinct voicing. You are able to blend between the two for any conceivable combination.

I found a great video on the Red Witch Distortion by ProGuitarShopDemos:

You can pick up the Red Witch Famulus Distortion for $299.99 at Musician’s Friend.

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Popularity: 7%

Will Cady of Source Audio sent me a email today and let me know about some great videos for their new SoundBlox Pro Multiwave distortion. I have to say these videos were quite great and really shows the versatility of the multiwave. Very interesting. You bass players out there should really enjoy this first video!

The next video goes into additional detail on the SoundBlox and shows what it can do with guitar. You can find out where to buy the SoundBlox Pro MultiWave at their newly updated website (http://www.sourceaudio.net).

You can also find some good deals on other Source Audio pedals at Amazon!

Popularity: 9%

A few days ago, @worshiprocker on Twitter was asking about the Tech 21 DD3X Double Drive 3X Distortion and the Fulltone Fulldrive pedals. I know I’ve talked about the Fulldrive in the past, so thought it was a good opportunity to talk about the Tech 21 DD3x Double Drive 3x distortion! This definitely seems like a interesting pedal, and please watch the reviews by Tone Factor!

Here is the official pedal description:

The uniquely designed DD3X Double Drive 3X Distortion Pedal from Tech 21 captures the lush, muscular power amp distortions of both Class A and Class A/B tube amps. The tones can be used individually or you can feed one into the other for massive cascading’ distortion and limitless tonal variations. The 100% analog Double Drive 3X is a 3-channel, fully programmable version of its single channel predecessor and features active 3-band EQ. The expanded tone section gives you even greater flexibility to create incredible and original tones. You can store three custom sounds, even on the fly, by simply tweaking the knobs and double-tapping on a footswitch. How easy is that? And, with both Drives at minimum, you can program a clean boost up to 10dB for blazing solos.

DRIVE A controls the amount of Class A power amp output stage distortion (like Vox AC30®-style amp), rich in even harmonics. The amount of harmonics is dynamically controlled by the input level and their ratio by how hard you pick.

DRIVE A/B controls the amount of Class A/B power amp output stage distortion (like Fender®/Marshall®-style amps), rich in odd harmonics.

The signal path of Drive A runs into the signal path of Drive A/B. This results in an electronic multiplication, rather than addition, of the amount of distortion to achieve a cascading effect.

Now, I found a great series of reviews on this pedal by Bobby Devito for ToneFactor!

You can pick up the Tech 21 DD3x Double Drive 3x Distortion pedal for $179.00 at Musician’s Friend.

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Popularity: 12%

Viewing Amazon deals this evening, I came across an interesting listing of pedals that I’ve not personally heard about. These are Eagletone pedals. If you have any experience with these pedals, please let me know about them! I couldn’t find any YouTube videos on these either??

Anyway, there are some great deals on these pedals at Amazon:

Eagletone Chorus Pedal – Lists at $189.00 is on sale for $49.95
Eagletone Delay Pedal – Lists at $189.00 is on sale for $54.95
Eagletone Distortion Pedal – Lists at $189.00 is on sale for $49.95
Eagletone Flange Pedal – Lists at $189.00 is on sale for $54.95

We’re looking at 70%+ off list price on these pedals. Love to hear your experience with these pedals and how they sound, please comment to this post!

Popularity: 18%

Today I wanted to talk about the Fulltone GT-500 FET Distortion + Booster and Overdrive Guitar Effects Pedal. This pedal uses the FET, and since I’ve been personally interested in building pedals, I wanted to see what FET was.  Basically FET is a type of transistor, it stands for Field Effect Transistor. There are two type of transistors, FET and bipolar. FETs come in two different types (MOSFET and JFET). MOSFET should sound familiar to some of you. Okay, so I have a definition, but I’m still confused on why one is preferred over the other? My basic understanding between FET and bipolar shows that they basically do the same thing, but why is FET preferred in pedals?? If you can enlighten me, please feel free to comment.

Okay, enough nerd talk, we have the Fulltone GT-500 FET Distortion, Booster and Overdrive, so let’s look at it more closely. I’m a big fan of Fulltone products, and this pedal seems pretty special. In a sense it’s two pedals in one enclosure allowing you to control what pedal is in front of the other with the selection switch. This is a pretty cool concept.

Here is the official pedal description:

The GT-500 Effects Pedal from Fulltone is a discrete FET Hi-Gain Distortion and Overdrive Booster in one box. You could think of them as 2 separate pedals, or think of them as stages to be linked together for endless combinations. The Hi-Gain side has Volume, Distortion knobs, Bass, Mid, and Highs minipots. Its Booster Side has Volume, Overdrive knobs, Bass and Highs minipots.

Hard-clipped distortion—the way most guitar pedals achieve distortion—at one point in a circuit can be cool, but stage after stage of FET (GT-500) is very real, very amplike, and has ridiculous amounts of sustain even at low volume. It does the great chunky low-string rhythm stuff and cleans up incredibly well when you turn down the guitar’s volume. The Fulltone GT500 contains 9 FETs, 2 Mosfets, and 1 Transistor with no opamps or clipping diodes used.

What’s special about the EQ? The Hi-Gain side has a discrete Inductor-Driven Midrange circuit—never been done in a pedal before. There’s a wah-wah inductor inside the pedal that gives the Midrange control its ability to drastically increase or decrease the entire Low Mid, Mid, and Hi-Mid frequencies, to comical proportions. All this is done without any opamps—this has 100% discrete matched FETs.

This Mid control mixed with a strong Bass and Treble control help give the Fulltone GT-500 the ability to dial in more variations than a simple tone control, which can only roll off the Highs.

The Series Select Switch allows you to choose which pedal comes first (allowing you to instantly change the order of the 2 circuits). For example: A clean boost slamming into the front end a Distortion sounds way different than a Distortion followed by the clean boost, and when the EQs of the respective sides come into play, it’s a wide-open canvas. Regardless of which side of the effects pedal is designated as first in line, you can still use each side by itself, completely independent of the other side.

I found a great video by Tone Factor going into some great detail of what this pedal can do.

You can pick up the Fulltone GT-500 FET Distortion + Booster and Overdrive pedal for $199.00 at Musician’s Friend.

Remember, if you like reading about these pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

Popularity: 17%