New Release 2024: WEM Copicat Preamp Pedal

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fuzzbuzzfuzz
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New Release 2024: WEM Copicat Preamp Pedal

Post by fuzzbuzzfuzz » Sat Sep 21, 2024 1:10 am

A new release this morning it appears, $79 on Reverb.

https://reverb.com/item/84745463-wem-co ... oost-pedal

Quite curious.

Very much a trend of the last few years with the Echoplex boost circuit, Roland Space Echo etc adding some sort of “magic” to one’s tone.

Anyone here have a favorite?

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bigtone23
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Re: New Release 2024: WEM Copicat Preamp Pedal

Post by bigtone23 » Sat Sep 21, 2024 5:09 am

My only preamp in a pedal is the BP1W. Really like Normal mode best. RE is 2nd. CE is great, too, but it's just not as integrated to my signal as the other modes, as it's slightly too bright. It's cool to use this pedal as a substitute for a TS/SD/Klone with my dirty amps, as setting it with just a touch of grit is just right.

Though I'm primarily a single coil (or EMG "single") guy, I don't find that I need a preamp/boost always on, unlike the time before the late 70s, when amps and pickups were not quite as capable of the gain levels achieved in the early 80s. It makes sense lots of players back then had some sort of preamp turned up, or Dimarzio Super Distortions, or a dirt pedal of some kind pushing their amp. Most every amp I have is capable of at least medium-high gain levels*.
That said, It's not that I don't primarily need a gain boost, but I really lean on an onboard mid-boost with my main players**. These are my favorite on guitars with single coils or lower wind/brighter humbuckers (like FilterTrons). I can get all the nice, bright, spanky stock tones, or ramp up the knob and get mean, fat, pushed 'humbucker' type tones. Win-win! The mid boosts do push the gain level of my crunchy tones, but it also sounds like a humbucker, so it's really as much of a tonality shifter as a gain boost.

* Another thread topic, but can you imagine taking a Marshall DSL50/Mesa MKIIC+ or III back to 1975? It would be sorcery!
**I have two guitars with the EMG SPC, and other guitars with a Jackson JE1200, Jackson JE1200 copy, Demeter MB1 and the Fender MDX circuits. They all are doing the same thing, but with different curves and Q of the mid boost. The Demeter has a really wide Q and the fattest sounding, the SPC a little narrower Q and more focused, the Jackson and MDX right in-between those two.

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fuzzbuzzfuzz
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Re: New Release 2024: WEM Copicat Preamp Pedal

Post by fuzzbuzzfuzz » Sun Sep 22, 2024 6:55 am

Interesting!

I will get the BOSS eventually when a deal is on.

Just bought a second Les Paul copy and experimenting with boosts and preamps to get a little sparkle or push. Enjoying experimenting with various things, inc. a SHO clone, Klon clone, 32 Pedals Germanium boost etc. Very amp dependent of course.

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