New Non-BOSS Pedals

[Dirk]

Picked up an MXR M87 Bass Compressor, it was like new and a really good deal, so why not? I have a 90s era Trace Elliot SMX Dual Compressor (on the big bass board) and a LM2B (on the small bass board), but figured it wouldn't hurt to have a 'modern' bass comp that's not boarded. So far, it's really nice. Sounds good, performs good...

Yeah, it's really good, but I found I was constantly tweaking controls, so I replaced it with a TC electronic hypergravity, which is a programmable dual band compressor. I looked up the parameters of the Trace Elliot dual band, which is built into one of my amps, and I came pretty close to the same kind of compressor vibe. I like the dual band cause it lets the low end breathe a little more.

[bigtone23]

Picked up an MXR M87 Bass Compressor, it was like new and a really good deal, so why not? I have a 90s era Trace Elliot SMX Dual Compressor (on the big bass board) and a LM2B (on the small bass board), but figured it wouldn't hurt to have a 'modern' bass comp that's not boarded. So far, it's really nice. Sounds good, performs good...

Yeah, it's really good, but I found I was constantly tweaking controls, so I replaced it with a TC electronic hypergravity, which is a programmable dual band compressor. I looked up the parameters of the Trace Elliot dual band, which is built into one of my amps, and I came pretty close to the same kind of compressor vibe. I like the dual band cause it lets the low end breathe a little more.

Same. Dual band is really nice. I also like how there is footswitchable bypass of the high band on the Trace.
For the most part, comps and limiters are mostly set and forget pedals for me.

[Pepe]

This week I received two Aria pedals, the AD-10 Analog Delay and the CH-10. I bought the FL-10 a few years ago already.

These pedals from the Aria Dual Stage series look very interesting on first sight. They have metal enclosures that are only slightly bigger than BOSS compact pedals. The treadles are made of plastic, but they are thick and very sturdy. The "Stage 2", that is activated by keeping the pedal depressed (bypass/effect can be switched with light pressure), allows for a second speed setting in these three pedals. In the case of the Distortion or Overdrive models, a different gain setting can be activated instead. A sixth model with a "Stage 2" is a Phase Shifter, which also features a second speed setting. This is obtained by a trimpot with the flat rubber cap that can be seen in the pictures.

But what counts in first place is the sound. And that's the weak point in two of the three models that I have.

The FL-10 Flanger is okay, nothing too special, but overall enjoyable. The sound is quite similar to that of the BOSS BF-2 and it comes with a bit more hiss at the longest delay rates. The possibility to abruptly change the speed with the two stages is really useful and can create interesting effects.

The CH-10 Chorus, albeit capable of producing very deep modulation, sounds surprisingly weak at the same time. The effect is definitely present, but you cannot really hear the rhythmic modulation. Due to this a speed change with the two stages is not as effective as in the Flanger. It doesn't do a nice rotating speaker simulation, it sounds muddy through and through.

The AD-10 Analog Delay (based on the MN3205) is lacking charm or character. The delay is quite clear sounding and it doesn't come with too many artefacts in the longest possible setting and it does also self-oscillate on demand at factory settings. But something is completely missing. I really love analogue delays, but this one leaves me cold. There are two more downers. The second output on the back does not split the sound of the effect and the original signal, it only adds inverted effect signal for faux stereo like in the Chorus and the Flanger. And even worse, the "Stage 2" that enables a second delay time setting, does not immediately change the speed, it pauses the effect for almost half a second and then starts with the second delay time after the break where only the original signal can be heard. Pretty much the same as the Pearl AD-33 (that I recently acquired) does it, but the crazy thing is that you have to keep the treadle depressed the whole time if you want to play with the second delay time setting. And when you take your foot away, the effect will again be silenced for a while before continuing with the first delay time setting. Utterly useless, if you ask me. I had loved to have an abrupt and glitchy delay time change. But no ...

So after having tried the half of the Dual Stage models I'm not too keen on trying out the three missing ones. The concept of the Dual Stage pedals looks so nice, but they don't all deliver what they promise. The later Aria pedals that came in plastic enclosures have a sound that is much more pleasing to my ears (with the exception of the dreadful Bass Distortion).

[Pepe]

And after a long time here is an addition to my Hotone Skyline series collection. The Hotone GATE is a very effective noise gate and very easy to use and just as all the other Skyline units it does a fantastic job. The possibility to cut the highs and the lows on demand is certainly a good option for some people. It was pretty cheap and it came with the box and the manual card, so I bought it on the fly despite having no urgent need for it.

[laurie]

These tiny pedals are hilarious - and that they sound Ok too makes it twice as funny!

[bigtone23]

These tiny pedals are hilarious - and that they sound Ok too makes it twice as funny!

SO TRUE!
I have two EKOs and Trem. I had the Trem on a small board, but it wasn't quite right for how I use trem. Therefore, I replaced the small Trem with a EQD hummingbird and therefore had to swap out the long chip DD3 with the EKO. Real estate forced me to have a one micro and one regular sized pedal...

Love the EKO, it's somewhere between analog and DD2 sounding. I liked it so much on the above board I got another for the IR2 board.

[bigtone23]

Ordered the NotADumble. Will probably have it midweek and assembled about 20 minutes after that.

The NotAKlon kit was fun and turned out to be a really good sounding pedal. Assuming the same with this one.
I don't have a "Dumble" style overdrive, and the "A Box Later" clean mode will be fun to experiment with, as cleaner boosts have become more useful for me in the last year or so.

[Pepe]

Last month I bought a Pearl F-601 Phase Shifter that had been for sale for quite a while. It is from the early series that Pearl made in the 70s.

When I received it I was a bit underwhelmed, because it had a very asymmetric waveform and it didn't sound too good. I ordered a tantalum and electrolytic capacitors of higher quality (mainly Panasonic and Nichicon) to do a full recap. Today I finally had the time for that and after a small calibration the first Pearl phaser model is doing a really nice job. Not as well-tailored as the popular later model PH-03 (or the double pedal PH-44), but it has a nice vintage sound. It can do the slowest phasing that I have ever come across. It seems to be not moving at all in the lowest setting. And it gets quite fast in maximum position. Overall really good sounding, so far I like it with clean sounds in particular.

I had rather liked a Depth knob instead of Intensity, because it sounds best with that knob fully maxed or at least at around 02:00. Low Intensity values result in a noticeable volume drop. In maximum position it is pretty much on par with the original signal. At least it doesn't have an overall volume drop like the very early Small Stone phasers.

Inside there are two trimpots, but one of these (the one on the right in the lower pictures) isn't doing anything at all. There are also two snapped wires and it looks like it was done factory-wise. I guess there has been an electrolytical capacitor and the people at Pearl cut it off for some reason. Whatever it was intended to do in the circuit, I guess that it didn't get the job done properly. The second trimpot might very well belong to the remains of that abandoned feature. I wonder if there are earlier models without the missing capacitor (?), but I haven't found any pictures of the circuit board.





Pictures before and after the recapping:

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

I recently resurrected a Dunlop JH1 wah - see these other threads:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=955#p10785
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=986

This is the finished pedal. I don't need another wah... but it actually sounds pretty good!

Even though I used a 3PDT replacement for the switch, I left it "original" non-true-bypass.

Work done:

• New Hot Potz II (100k)

• New switch

• New battery box

• New toe bumpers and full mechanical adjustment

• A good clean - the amount of tape residue on the base was next-level. I think the old battery door had failed years ago and the previous owner was keeping the battery door closed with duct tape.

• Straighten the badly bent and dinged baseplate

• Lube all moving parts with silicone grease

.
JH1 wah finished 1.jpg
.
JH1 wah finished 3.jpg

AH yes iirc correctedly this is a standard crybaby with a "vocal mod", I forget which resistor or cap, but it does certainly sound good. I had the version with the fuzz inbuilt too until recently.

[Pepe]

This Friday I had a meet-up with fuzzbuzzfuzz who is staying in Europe for a few days. We met in picturesque Augsburg, which is 450 km away from Duisburg where I live. For me that was a travel with two fast ICE trains that I had bought tickets for in the one direction - 5½ hours, with one hour delay - and seven slow trains back home with my monthly ticket that allows for taking any regional public transport in whole Germany - 13½ hours! I was awake for 31 hours straight and I am still very exhausted.

But it was such a nice day there and for about seven hours we were talking about so many things and had a proper stroll through the inner city of Augsburg with all the old Bavarian buildings. And fuzzbuzzfuzz had some things for me that he managed to stuff in his suitcase!

Four years ago Laurie had been building his ³²TB2 and ³²OD pedals and due to problems with the German customs (that had caused me some headache in previous years) he sent the ones that I ordered from him to a good friend of mine who is living in Los Angeles. My good friend was initially trying to include these pedals in a Christmas parcel that he wanted to send me in late 2021. But then he was having severe health issues and other problems, plus we all still had to deal with the pandemic situation and everything came to a stop.

There was a lot of radio-silence and I had almost given up getting my hands on these pedals. A few weeks ago my friend from L.A. suddenly replied again to tell me that his health issues are almost completely gone now (I hope so) and after a few days he gathered all the stuff that he has been hoarding for me all the time and sent it on to fuzzbuzzfuzz in Japan. There were no customs claims this way and also none when fuzzbuzzfuzz was leaving the plane here in Europe. As a parcel to Germany the customs could have been very strict, sending the two pedals back that aren't RoHS compatible. To my huge joy this way they slipped through and on Friday these were finally given to me:



I have only been able to give them a short test drive at bedroom volume level today (Sunday), but so far I'm very pleased with Laurie's pedals.

The ³²TB2 is the first Tone Bender style pedal that I have ever tried. Definitely another breed than the Fuzz Face. Doesn't get as clean with the guitar's volume knob, but still offers a great boost this way. And it sounds quite massive with more bottom, if I'm not completely wrong here.

And the ³²OD is pretty much how I expected and hoped it to be. A very nice break-up sound and the possibility to add a portion of the clean signal (unaffected by the EQ knobs, yay!) offer awesome transparent sounds.

The empty enclosures are for the two plain white "Fuzz Architect" pedals of my brother and me.

Then there was also one of two Hotone pedals that my friend in L.A. purchased for me. The tiny Phaze is an analogue four-stage (I think) phaser with the vintage sound that I love. Unsurprisingly remarkably good, like most of the small Hotone Skyline pedals that I have been collecting all the years! This one hasn't really been distributed in Europe and I simply don't know why. Maybe at that point it was already clear that the Skyline pedal series was not going to be continued anymore, which I think is a very sad thing. These are reliable and superb sounding units and I had loved to see more of them in the future.