New Non-BOSS Pedals

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

That's quite a tale Pepe!, persistence paid off!

Congratulations on some great examples and an almost complete collection!

I was thinking about this series the other day, you are quite right, the prices have shot up. Even the humble chorus is up to 17,000 yen and hunting about the regular used sites online the series has suddenly become scarce. (Isn't it always the way when your interest is suddenly piqued!).

On that note I do know where one PEQ-1 is residing at a reasonable price (I was thinking you didnt yet have one). Since I personally own a few different series, my collection is barely manageable, and my collector's bug will surely kick in to "get the lot" so I'm generally holding back...but I may just snap the PEQ up. They are oddly fascinating the Parametric and semi parametric EQs...and yet again they all seem to have risen exponentially in value. Somehow also the striking orange of the phaser looks quite inviting too....

Anyway fab stuff Pepe!

[Pepe]

I was thinking about this series the other day, you are quite right, the prices have shot up. Even the humble chorus is up to 17,000 yen and hunting about the regular used sites online the series has suddenly become scarce. (Isn't it always the way when your interest is suddenly piqued!).

Exactly that! I spotted the KORG pedals many years ago at ebay and a Dutch website and the prices were reasonable at that time. But back then I didn't know of the awesome sound quality. Laurie seems to like the Yamaha FL-01 Flanger which has the same (KORG-designed) circuit as the KORG FLG-1 which is so far my favourite flanger.

I wonder if KORG might want to release reissues of these pedals one day like Marshall recently did it with the Guv'nor, BluesBreaker, ShredMaster and DriveMaster.

[laurie]

Laurie seems to like the Yamaha FL-01 Flanger which has the same (KORG-designed) circuit as the KORG FLG-1 which is so far my favourite flanger.

Yes indeed. It has been on my board since the day I received it in one of the Christmas tours. Not even my MIJ BF-2 could displace it

And you saw my note about the compressor having an excellent circuit design?

[Pepe]

Yes, I saw that! Sorry, if you expected a reply.

[laurie]

Yes, I saw that! Sorry, if you expected a reply.

All good. Was just interested to see the design of the Korg compressor is "unusual" (literally - not the usual CA3080 that everyone does). Some good engineers over there at Korg

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

Here's a recent purchase that will stick around. The Toadworks Asynchronous Redux Delay.
I bought it mostly on a whim and out of curiosity, an appealing colour scheme and I was intrigued by the design/functionality. (I also have a hankering for pedals that have fallen off the radar somewhat!).

When it first arrived, I genuinely thought, "this is terrible!", and a few old forum posts confirmed a similar view at the time of its release way back whenever. The big issue is one of noise, when turning the mix up past 1/2 way, where the delay becomes audible, and there's a wave of white noise behind the signal, particularly prevalent by using any delay time that was lengthy, say over 300ms.

So, my first thoughts were not good!

But it sat at the end of my board for a while and rather than flipping it I persevered over the weekend, first brainwave being the power supply. I rooted through my box of every 9v supply I had and tried them all. Finally, I found one that quietened the noise of the pedal substantially. Lesson learned - not all power supplies are equal (or indeed putting out the right voltage).

Secondly, I began fiddling with the "Offset", a second delay line that can be placed around the main delay. In doing so at moderate delay lengths I suddenly got tape echo vibes, reminiscent of my Ace Tone EC-20, with (occasionally) stuttering additional repeat. Once I had my mindset fixed to "arrr, this is a tape delay vibe", i.e., stick to shorter times and explore the "2nd head" I really began to enjoy it. You can get some very reggae atmospheric stutters and a really cool tape echo vibe, especially with a fuzz in front.

So now I'm trying to squeeze it on the board and love it. The offset and the initial delay speed are very interactive, and there's some creative possibilities in the weird rhythms that can emerge. But basically, I'm happy to have a Tape Echo feel delay with slightly longer times that my others, in a simple package that's visually appealing. Not a million miles from a few stacked DD-3s.

[Pepe]

Hey, that looks indeed very cool! Good to know that you solved the issues with it.

[Pepe]

It's only a few weeks later - and I have completed two KORG series!

I received the two very clean PME-40X modules Ext Selector and Noise Gate in a trade for a Distortion and a Digital Chorus of the same series. I was missing the Noise Gate so I created a search ad - and a very nice guy offered his modules.

• KORG PME-40X collection completed!

I told you that I would purchase the NGT-1 as soon as I sold one of my pedals. That happened a few days later, so I bought the "boring" but very effective Noise Gate with box and manual. I also created another search ad for the missing LIM-1 and another nice guy offered me two mint Limiter units, each with clean box and manual. He lives in the near and I picked the pedals up for a reasonable price.

• KORG Effects Series collection completed!

On top of that I bought a bundle of a very clean CHR-1 Chorus with box and manual and a BOSS OD-2 (MIJ).

[Pepe]

Our dear member BearBoy helped me purchasing this rare Seppuku Fuzz Overloader at a British ebay auction. Yesterday the people at the local post office found the parcel somewhere in the back of the building. I only had the chance to give it a test run for under ten minutes. Like all the pedals by this maker this one is no exception when it comes to producing unorthodox sounds, but there are also a lot of useful and rather "normal" sounds under the hood. To my ears it is a single octave-up fuzz that handles chords really well - it doesn't produce dissonant overtones like other octave fuzz pedals. Seems like it can be used with a bass guitar as well (tried it for a minute), because one of the switches can enhance (or remove?) the low-end. The other switch does somehow increase the fuzz gain. It can sound really wild in extreme settings.

Thanks again, BearBoy!

[bigtone23]

I recently picked up a used TC Impulse. It was $50 and still had the box, manual, etc... So it was easily flippable, if need be.
However, it's staying! It's above and beyond my expectations.
I wanted to get a better cab emulator for those rare occasions I need one. I was doing more JamKazam stuff during the viral lockdown, but I may get back at it again as one of my good friends and bandmates is moving a state away this summer and playing online will be the only way to continue to play.

To keep it simple, effective and quiet via headphones, I was using my old, trusty Mesa V Twin with it's 90s era native lowpass/inductor cab emulator, which is better than no speaker simulator, but doesn't really sound so good. I tried my other options: an old Peavey EDI box and H&K RedBox Pro, but both are pretty much the same passive technology and result in a similar compressed tonality. This TC, though sounds sooo good! It's much more open and natural sounding and feeling. I can't wait to try it with the guys, I know they will notice.