Effects Bay

I’ve posted a few Visual Sound pedals recently, and they really seem to get some great responses from the public, so I thought I’d post another one. Today, I wanted to talk about the Visual Sound Liquid Chorus pedal. It’s basically the chorus section of the Visual Sound H20 but in a single pedal. It’s a pretty great sounding chorus.

Here is the official description:

The V2 Liquid Chorus incorporates the chorus channel of the V2 H2O in a single pedal, with a Depth knob added to the Speed, Width, and Delay Time controls for everything from subtle to lush to underwater. The Liquid Chorus pedal also has two 1/4″ outputs, normal and inverted, for running in stereo.

Wonderfully voiced for electric, acoustic, or bass guitar, using pure analog circuitry, the Liquid Chorus pedal will make your sound stand out from all the rest. At the heart of the Liquid Chorus circuit are custom-designed Visual Sound bucket brigade chips. Use the Depth knob to set the overall style of Chorus (from light to lush) and the user-friendly knobs to adjust how you want your chorus to sound. Unlike H2O, the second output of Liquid Chorus is a true stereo output for extremely spacious sounds when used with two amps, a PA system, or when recording.

From the V2 Series, the Visual Sound V2LC Liquid Chorus is a guitar effects pedal that features a die-cast aluminum housing, ultra-reliable 10 million cycle switching, easy battery access and circuit protection from AC adapters.

Visual Sound V2 Series V2LC Liquid Chorus Guitar Effects Pedal Features:

* Voiced for electric, acoustic, or bass
* Speed control
* Width control
* Delay time control
* Depth control
* Dual 1/4″ outputs
* Diecast aluminum housing
* 10 million cycle switching
* Easy battery access
* Circuit protection

Here is a video by VisualSoundUSA:

You can pick up the Visual Sound V2 Series V2LC Liquid Chorus Guitar Effects Pedal for $119.95 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!

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A couple of days ago, I mentioned the Visual Sound Angry Fuzz, so I wanted to start looking closer at the other Visual Sound pedals out there. So here is the Visual Sound H20 Chorus and Echo pedal. Talk about a ‘wet’ pedal.. wow.

Here is the official description:

The V2H2O is a chorus and echo guitar pedal that has the same great tones that the H2O guitar effect is famous for, with a Normal/Lush switch added on the chorus channel. You get liquid analog chorus via the rare NOS BBD chip that is shaped by Speed, Width, and Delay Time controls for everything from subtle to lush to underwater. The Echo channel offers up to 800ms of analog-voiced digital echo. You can change echo time on the fly with the Echo Time knob. Controls also include Repeats and Effect levels. A second output jack lets you send a dry signal to a second amp. The pedal is easily modified to send an effected signal to a second amp. Effect channels can be used separately or together.

Warm! Liquid! Lush! All words that accurately describe the V2 Series H2O from Visual Sound. The new H2O gives you all the same great tones guitarists have come to love over the years. Whether it’s Chorus, Echo, or both… use each channel by itself, or combine them both just as you would two separate pedals! The Chorus channel is a wonderfully voiced effect for electric, acoustic, or bass guitar, using pure analog circuitry. At the heart of the Chorus circuit are custom designed Visual Sound bucket brigade chips. Use the Norm/Lush switch to set the overall style of Chorus and drift away on the H2O’s incredibly rich chorus. H2O’s Echo channel is a hybrid digital and analog circuit for the best of both worlds… you’ll be amazed at the long delay times with their warm, natural repeats. Add to it a second (non-effected) output jack for stereo amplifier setups and you have the best of all worlds in the H2O.

The Visual Sound V2 Series V2H2O H2O Chorus and Echo Guitar Effects Pedal features a diecast aluminum housing, ultra-reliable 10 million cycle switching, easy battery access and circuit protection from AC adapters.

Here is a video by VisualSoundUSA demonstrating what this pedal can do:

You can pick up the Visual Sound V2H20 H20 Chorus and Echo pedal for $189.95 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!

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Today, bouncing around YouTube, I came across some Visual Sound product demos, and wanted to talk about the Visual Sound VS Series VSAF Angry Fuzz Octave pedal. I’ve mentioned Visual Sound in the past, and definitely like some of the things they’re doing (should read the post about buffers!).  It looks like they’re taking the traditional octave fuzz to the next level with additional handling. Here is what they say about the Angry Fuzz:

The Angry Fuzz is a totally original guitar stomp from Visual Sound that will blow away any other fuzz pedal you’ve ever tried. Although it has an octave circuit that can be blended in with the fuzz, it is not at all like the Octavia or other vintage pedals for that matter. You can set the Volume and Fuzz levels as well as turn the Bright switch on or off for your basic fuzz tone. Blend in the Octave circuit with the Anger Level knob and voila—the most incredible sound you’ve heard that tracks with every single note. On single notes it will give you one octave up. Play a two-note chord and you’ll get the octave up plus some wild lower octave artifacts.

Blend in an octave up with the Anger Level knob and get crazy low octave overtones to boot! Octave tracking is flawless even with the fastest shredding imaginable. With Volume Level, Fuzz Level, and Anger Level knobs; wide and sturdy stomp button; 1/4″ jacks in and out.

From the V2 Series, the V2AF Angry Fuzz Octave guitar effects pedal features a diecast aluminum housing, ultra-reliable 10 million cycle switching, easy battery access and circuit protection from AC adapters.

Visual Sound V2 Series V2AF Angry Fuzz Octave Guitar Effects Pedal Features:

* Octave circuit
* Volume level
* Fuzz level
* Anger level
* Bright switch
* Die-cast aluminum housing
* 10 million cycle switching
* Easy battery access
* Circuit protection

Here is a video by VisualSoundUSA:

You can pick up the Visual Sound VS Series VSAF Angry Fuzz Octave for $119.95 at Musician’s Friend!

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The following is a guest post review of the Visual Sound One Spot Combo Pack by Lee Chavez. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Visual Sound has sent us yet, another great product from their line of quality products. Let me introduce you to the Visual Sound “One Spot combo pack“. A completely reliable way to power up to eight 9V guitar pedals, without the hassle of several bulky power adapters.

The “One Spot combo pack” is a combo pack indeed. Including their “Space Saver” power adapter, one “Visual Sound Multi-Plug 8 Cable”, two “Visual Sound Battery clip converter”, two “Visual Sound L6 converter” and one “Visual sound 1/8th” converter”. That’s quite a lot, and plenty to power your pedals!

Now you may read mixed reviews on this product. Some say “If you like noise and hum, get this”. Others say “It works great! I would recommend this to anyone! With that said, I’ll give you my opinion.

As a professional, gigging guitarist, I play out a lot, and in bands. I don’t always have a lot of time to set up. I have absolutely no problems with this product, and think it is a no brainier. You would be crazy not to own one of these!

With all of that said, this is one professional, easy to use, quality product, that I would like to personally say “Thank you Visual Sound” for making it available to us!

On behalf of Effectsbay, I’m Lee Chavez, thanks for reading!

Please check out Lee Chavez at Twitter, YouTube and MySpace.

You can pick up the Visual Sound One Spot Combo Pack for $34.95 at  Musician’s Friend.

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So yesterday I had a chance to view @josephdickens‘ pedal board (he should submit it for Pedal Line Friday) and I noticed the Visual Sound Route 66 Distortion/Compressor on there. Today, I thought I’d take a closer look at it.

I’ve been a fan of Visual Sound and talked about a few of their pedals in the past on this site. They make quality pedals and good prices, with excellent components.  The Route 66 is basically two separate pedals in one enclosure. On the left you have the distortion, and on the right you have the compressor.

Here is the official product description:

The Visual Sound Route 66 multi effects pedal gives you the great tone guitarists have come to love, plus an added noise reduction system that gives you that quiet ride you’ve always wanted. Classic compression combined with classic overdrive-these two effects sound great on their own, but combine them, as the Route 66 pedal has, and get the ultimate combination in a single pedal pedal.

The V2 Route 66 pedal features redesigned noise reduction on the compressor channel, and additional low-drive range on the overdrive channel. The great-sounding overdrive channel is modeled after the sound of the original Tube Screamer, but it also has a bass boost switch. The compressor can be set for classic squash or clean boost with the unique preamp stage and gain knob. This allows for a truckload of clean gain. The compressor even has its own tone control. The 2 effects can be used independently or combined to complement one another.

In 1999, Visual Sound made the statement “Our Route 66 is sure to become as legendary as its namesake.” With countless great guitarists using it ever since, the Route 66 pedal from Visual Sound has become just that, a legend!

The V2RT66 Overdrive and Compression Guitar Multi Effects Pedal features a diecast aluminum housing, ultra-reliable 10 million cycle switching, easy battery access and circuit protection from AC adapters. Wide and sturdy stomp switches designed by Bob Weil himself. And a redesigned, noise-free experience. This version of the Route 66 pedal has raised the bar for years to come.

Here is Visual Sound’s official video of the pedal by VisualSoundUSA

You can pick up the Visual Sound V2 Series V2RT66 Route 66 Overdrive / Compressor for $149.95 at Musician’s Friend

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

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Yesterday, I posted a review of the Boss TU-2 Tuner which I mentioned had buffered bypass. Eric commented and provided a fantastic link to a article by R.G. Keen which works at Visual Sound Pedals. My post about Visual Sound’s Route 808 pedal is what started my tangent / interest in buffered bypass.

Here is a great explanation of the differences between True Bypass and Buffered Bypass:

Once guitarists noticed that their CLEAN sound suffered from having a bypassed effect in the line, they demanded better bypasses. This came in two flavors, true bypass and buffered bypass.

Buffered bypass is the technique of designing a high input impedance amplifier to go ahead of the actual effect circuitry. The input impedance of this buffer is high enough to avoid tone sucking, and it has an output impedance low enough to drive the rest of the effect with no loading even if the effect proper has a low input impedance. This also allowed electronic switching from dry to effected signals, and became a favorite of several Japanese electronic companies. The best example is probably the Ibanez xx-9 series, which includes the fabled Tube Screamer 808 and 9. These effects do not get a lot of reports of tone sucking, although purists sometimes demand that they be converted to true bypass.

True bypass is the standard of clean signal quality against which all other bypasses are measured. True bypass means that when the bypass switch is in the bypass position, the effect circuit is entirely disconnected, input and output, from the guitar’s signal, and that the signal passes from the effect input to its output going only through wire and switch contacts. To see how a true bypass works, we can make up a hypothetical set of single pole, single throw (also know as simple make/break) switches and concoct a true bypass. For this, we only need three simple switches and some timing. Clearly we need two switches to break the path from the input jack to the effect input and from the effect output to the output jack. If these two are simultaneously opened or closed, they connect or disconnect the effect from the jacks.

I’m going to do some personal experiments with true bypassing and adding a buffered item in line. I’ve been so use to my tone, that I need to shake things up a bit and see I hear a difference with my current set up. Or at the very least, if I can replicate a complete true-bypass signal path to see if things darken.

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Lastnight’s band practice we had our general gear tear-down, which always leads to gear talk. The interesting topic lastnight was about true bypass vs. buffered bypass. Many of the pedals promote they offer true bypass, and there are various loopers/switches that indicate buffered.  I wanted to learn more about this, and specifically about cable impedance and how it can dull your tone with true bypass pedals in your line.

So this morning, I started searching for some sound clips or videos related to the subject, and I came across this great video by Visual Sound that clearly describes the differences.

As you can see and hear that the buffered bypass provided a brighter tone vs. the true bypass pedal. It totally makes sense that the amount of cables (guitar to pedal and pedal to amp) can add large amount of capacitance to the signal.

I wasn’t too familiar with the Visual Sound stuff, and noticed that it was a Route 808 pedal in that demo. Since I just recently wrote a post about the TS9 which included a TS808 in there, I wanted to learn more, and found another video by Visual Sound (same demo) but a shoot out between the following pedals (TS808 TS original, Klon Centaur, Keeley Mod’d TS9, Fulltone Fulldrive 2 MosFet, Visual Sound Route 808). I thought how they did the shoot out was great, played the same piece, each pedal configured to be generally the same tone settings and drive.

I was quite impressed with the video. You can pick up a Visual Sound Route 808 on Musician’s Friend for $99.95 (list price is $148.00.. so that’s a 32% savings over list).

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