I stumbled upon Tone Box last night and it took me a little while to realize that their pedals are actually skull shaped with the leds in the eyes of the skull. They have one model called Skull Crusher but it is available in Stainless Steel, Aged, Gun Metal or Ancient. I thought that would be a gimmick until I watched this demo by George Lynch. The little things you see on top of the amp are the pedals. The Skull Crusher is more versatile than it looks and offers four different voicings. It can go from slightly distorted to blistering metal, check this out:
And here is another demo by Phil X and other L.A. musicians (inclusing bass players):
Even if Boss pedals represent the anti-thesis of handmade boutique pedals, most of us are still using at least one of them. This is why the release of new models is always an important event.
This September, Boss is adding two new pedals to its arsenal: the ST-2 Power Stack and the PS-6, a long overdue replacement to the PS-5 Pitch Shifter.
The ST-2 is a modeling pedal which emulates the sound of a big amplifier and features a “sound” knob that changes the character of the tone. The PS-6 is a pitch shifter pedal that can do two part harmonies and it seems the tracking is just spot on.
Metal guitar virtuoso Marty Friedman demonstrates these two pedals here. The only other effect I hear is a delay and you have to admit the tones he is getting are killer:
A little while ago, I posted here a video made by Don Wrixon in which he encouraged all of us to seek our own tone.
Don has released his first DVD dedicated to beginners (but not only) and I thought it would be nice to review it here, on Guitar Tone Overload. It is entitled “The Components of Tone” and is the first volume of an upcoming series of “Tone Secrets” DVDs.
DVD cover for "The Components of Tone" by Don Wrixon
Don follows a very logical approach and the DVD consists of the following sections:
Tone History: gear milestones since the 30s.
Guitar Body Styles: hollow body archtop, solid body, flattop acoustic, etc. In this day and age of modeling and guitar software, people often forget that the Tone starts with the guitar itself and Don does a very good job at showing the differences between all the classical models (Telecaster, Stratocaster, Gibson ES 175, ES335, Les Paul…). I wish I could have had access to that kind of information when I was a beginner!
Driving a Tube Amp: Don demonstrates how to achieve many tones by using just a good tube amp and the volume knob of your guitar. Again, this seems to be often forgotten nowadays but as Andy Summers of the Police once said when asked how to get a great tone: “get a good guitar and a good amp”. I would add “learn how to use them” which is what this DVD is all about.
Distortion Pedals: Don’s approach here is to show how overdrive/distortion pedals are an extension of any guitar/amp combination.
Pitch Shifting Pedals: a bit of a misleading title for this section, I might have called it “Tone Shifting”. Anyway, this is a great section where Don shows what modulation, delay and reverb can do to your tone.
Putting It All Together: Don wraps it up with some final and very useful advice.
A lot of top notch gear is shown in the DVD, superb guitars and amps, boutique effects, etc. I must also say that there is just the right amount of information, you will not drown under too much of it.
So I’d say don’t forget to pay a visit to Don’s Tone Secrets Website where you can purchase the DVD for USD 20 + shipping. Considering that you often get less information out of books that are sold for way more than USD20, this is pretty good value!
Source Audio is a little company formed by former Analog Devices VP of of Engineering Jesse Remignanti and Kurzweil Senior Engineer Bob Chidlaw. After spending 5 years scrutinising every distortion pedal on the planet, they have come up with the “Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion” pedal which aims at digitally recreating the tones of well known pedals such as the Electro Harmonix Big Muff, the Fulltone Distortion Pro, the Proco RAT, the Ibanez Tube Screamer, the Fuzz Face, etc. There are 12 models in total.
I know what you are thinking: “this has been done before”. Yes there has been a few attempts but the Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion could very well set a new standard due to its tonal qualities and unique features.
First of all, it sports a 7 band equalizer whose settings can be stored with each of your 6 presets. I think this is a pretty neat idea and frankly, I don’t know why most distortion pedals stop at 3 or 4 bands. Secondly, using an external expression pedal, it is possible to morph between 2 distortion models and get a huge number of variations. I am not just talking about mixing the tones of two pedals here, what happens is more a “fusion” in the digital domain between two models, creating entirely new “hybrids”. So what should a RAT morphing into a Big Muff be called? A Big Ruff? Third, the Soundblox Classic Distortion has a MIDI input allowing it to integrate with complex rigs and be remotely controlled. And last but not least, it looks like a hot rodded space ship from outer space which is always a bonus.
Here is Earl Slick (of David Bowie’s band) trying out the Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion and getting some sweet tones out of it:
The Classic Distortion is not the only pedal in the Soundblox Pro range at Source Audio, you will also find another model aimed at creating more “modern” tones called the Soundblox Pro Multiwave Distortion (which also exists for bass). And let’s not forget the “Hot Hand” series of products such as the Phaser/Flanger where you can control the amount of wobbling by shaking your hand (using a special ring, take a look at the video). And the good news is that the hot hand ring can also be used to control the Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion.
I think it is pretty cool to see some innovation in modeling !
The Boss DS-1 is one of the oldest distortion boxes on the market. Released in 1978, it is revered by some and loathed by others. Being a distortion, it offers more gain and more “hair” than a traditional overdrive pedal. Is it often used with a clean amp but it can be used to boost [...]
There is a lot of effects that fall under the “modulation” category on the ground that they send your tone swirling or oscillating. In this series of posts, I will try to unravel the mysteries of effects such as phaser, flanger, chorus, leslie/univibe, vibrato or tremolo. These effects, if used well, can spice up your [...]
Question: what do David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and Jack White (the White Stripes, The Raconteurs) have in common? Answer: they are all avid users of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff pedal and a lot of their recordings would not have been the same without the raunchy, dirty, gritty, fat tone of “the [...]
I thought it was about time to write my take on the most famous overdrive pedal ever: the Ibanez Tube Screamer. This little green machine and its clones are ubiquitous because they do two things extremely well: Used against a clean amp, a Tube Screamer will go from a bluesy to classic rock tone that [...]
I would like to introduce this “Timeless Classics” series about effects with a pedal that I discovered quite recently (about two years ago) after trying and owning a lot of distortion/overdrive pedals: The Proco Rat-2. The Rat 2 is the granddaughter of the RAT, released at the end of the 70s and whose 1985 reissue [...]
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