Category: Play

Always loved Larry Carlton and Robben Ford’s tone, and even tried to build my own Dumble clone at one point. It didn’t sound good, and I didn’t have the expertise or time to make it sound good. Anyway, 13 years later and I’ve moved on in the music I play, but I still get GAS for that tone. Recently there have been more and more pedals trying to get that sound, and some of them are starting to come close. Here’s a list of the ones I know of:

• Zendrive (Robben Ford uses one of these)
• Zendudo (Larry Carlton uses one of these)
• Simble (One of the closest)
• Ethos Overdrive (Expensive and long waiting list)
• Fishbone Overdrive Special (Zendrive clone)
• Dumbloid
• Stampede SOV-1/SOV-2
• Fuchs Plush Drive (From the makers of Dumble clone amps)
• DMBL Overdrive
• Van Weelden Royal Overdrive
• Retroman Dum-box
• Amplified Nation Bloom
• Wampler Euphoria
• Jitter GS 124
• Velvet Pedals Umble
• T1M Punch Driv (Also used in The Pearl)
• Quinn Amps Hot Butter Scotch (Discontinued)
• Weehbo Effekte Dumbledore

I’ve owned both a Fishbone (Zendrive) and an SOV-1. When I compared the two the Fishbone sounded closer to me, less saturated and more touch sensitive. It was also smaller and didn’t run off mains voltage, so I kept it. Having heard demos of the Simble I was tempted to get one of those, however recently I’ve just bought a Fulltone Fulldrive 3 to replace my Fulldrive 2. I found that with the comp-cut mode, I could get close to the Dumble sound too. I hope to put up a comparison soon, but first impressions are, the FD3 comp-cut sounds more open and transparent (something I wanted out of the Simble) and is even more touch sensitive than the Fishbone, but a little bit more saturated when playing harder. The fishbone has a more pronounced midrange, making it to my ears sound more like Robben Ford, and the FD3 comp-cut more like Larry Carlton.

Update: Here’s a demo of the Fulldrive 3 (Comp-cut mode):

Oh I almost forgot, there was also the infamous Freekish Blues Joyo Alpha Drive

A list of some of the low cost pedals coming out of China these days. In some ways its a good thing, but Bill Finnegan of Klon Centaur fame, and some interesting things to say about when any company (not just Chinese), just clones a pedal, rather than offering their own unique interpretation. Anyway, on to the list:

• Mooer – One of the first, famous for their micro pedals
• Joyo – Super cheap, especially their TS clone
• Caline – Make a Fulldrive 2 clone
• Biyang Pedals – Again pretty cheap, unique enclosures
• Eno – Micro pedals similar to Mooer
• Moen
• Beta Alvin
• Bel Cat
• Nux FX
• Artect

In addition to the effects pedals, Joyo make tube amps, as do Bel Cat sometimes branded as SubZero. An “honourable mention” also goes to Behringer, while a German company, are made in China and compete in terms of value.

I’ve been searching for a single-pedal sized multi effects pedal to fill the last spot on my pedal board. Personally I want something that could do octave up/octave down (like an EHX Pog, but in a smaller/cheaper pedal) and the be a delay or chorus if I need it. After Googling, I didn’t find much of a definitive comparison list, so here’s a list of what I found. Let me know if you know of any others.

Update 1: I realised the iStomp Shape Shifter plugin doesn’t do chord/polyphonic tracking very well, so that’s now out. There is the Z-Cat Poly-Octaver 2, which also has Reverb and Chorus, so that’s almost multi fx – 3 pedals in one. There’s also the Mooer Pure Octave (and other mooer pedals) which are so small, you can get more than one for the same space on the board for different effects.

Update 2:
Polyphonic Dual Octave Harmonizer List:
– EHX Nano Pog
– EHX Pitch Fork (More features than the POG)
– Z-Cat Poly-Octaver 2 (has a 20ms delay)
– Earthquake Devices Organizer (turn the octaves down to have less woble)
– Earthquake Devices Pitch Bay (has a little distortion even with gain turned down)
– BOSS PS-6 Harmonizer (tracking issues with Chords)
– Mooer Pure Octave (doesn’t sound like it tracks well)
– TC Electronic Sub-n-up (and sub n up mini)

Update 3:
Neunaber technology just announced their Stereo v2 pedals, which while only doing a single effect at a time, can have up to 4 effects switchable with 2 presets each. I recently bought a Slate v2, and if you’re looking for something more high end than everything else on this list check them out at neunaber.net.

Update 4:
A few other multi effects pedals:
– Nux Mod Core (Modulation only)
– Hotone Xstomp (and Xstomp mini)

	Digitech iStomp The iStomp itself is one of the cheapest around, and Digitech recently made most of the iStomp pedals free. I’ve owned one of these before, and it does have an octave up/down effect. Main disadvantage is that it requires an iPhone to change effect, and its also a little wider than a standard pedal.
	Zoom Multistopm MS-100BT / MS-50G Unlike the iStomp, this pedal has more editing features onboard and can do more than one effect at a time. Like the iStomp the MS-100BT can be updated with new effects via an iPhone (MS-50G is standalone), but there is no octave up/down sound yet. Update: I’ve just seen that this has a pitch shifter, so you could at least get octave up or down, but because you can run more than one effect, you might be able to add it twice and get both up and down. It also has a Z-Organ patch which seems to a polyphonic up/down effect Update 2: I bought one of these, none of the pitch effects including the Z-Organ track well at all, and while its a fun pedal to own, its not good enough for nice ambient swells.
	Korg Pandora Stomp This pedal does tons for the price, but seems a little complicated for live use. It does have pitch shifting effects, but I’m not sure if it can do the octave up/down thing.
	Behringer Digital Multi-Fx FX600 Behringer make great value stuff, and this pedal seems to have a really straight forward interface. I’ve heard bad things about the sound quality on this one though.
	Beta-Alvin Multi Effects ME-100 One of the new low cost pedals to come out of China, but I’d never heard of this brand before. Seems to have a nice simple interface, but a limited array of effects.

Current Pedals
Custom 4 in 1 Overdrive/Compressor
TC Electronic Sub n Up
Besbeco Weeper Wah (converted into switchable volume/expression pedal)
Empress Reverb
DMC.Micro MIDI switch
BOSS RC-3 (rehoused with second footswitch)
Fishman Aura Spectrum DI (Acoustic Pedal)
Cioks DC-5
Empress MIDI Box 2

Amps
Mesa/Boogie DC-5
Fender Tweed Pro Jr.
Trace Elliot TA-50 (acoustic amp)
Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue
Fender Super Champ XD
Fender Blues Jr. with Billm mods
Two-Rock Jet 22 Head (sold very quickly)
Victory V40 Viscount Combo (current amp)

DIY Pedals
Custom 4 in 1 Overdrive/Compressor (Flip-Flop switching overdrive)
Custom 3 in 1 Overdrive/Compressor (Similar to Keeley Tone Workstation)
Custom 2 in 1 Overdrive/Compressor (Similar to Wampler Dual Fusion)
Custom Smaller Two-Rock Footswitch
Custom Neunaber ExP (x2)
Blues Jr. Footswitch (x2)
Mini Expression Pedal
Empress Tap/Hold footswitch

Previous Pedals
Digitech RP1
Alesis Volume Pedal
Alesis Nanoverb
Crybaby 535Q
Ayan Smooth n Slim (Twice)
Line6 POD (Twice!!!)
Marshall Blues Breaker
Crybaby Wah
Homemade Fuzzface Clone
Digitech RP100
Ernieball Stereo Volume Pedal/Pan
Little Lanilei Spring Reverb
Analog Man Stereo Chorus
Fishman Aura 16 (Acoustic Pedal)
Digitech iStomp
Fulltone Fulldrive 2
Maxon AD-80 Reissue
Fishbone Overdrive Special (Zendrive Clone)
TC Electronic Flashback Delay
Fulltone Fulldrive 3
Neunaber Slate v2 (Wet Reverb)
TC Electronic Alter Ego v2
Electro Harmonix Pitch Fork
TC Electronic Stereo Ditto Looper

Pedals owned for a short time just to try
Zoom MS-100BT
Behringer GDI-21
JOYO 6 Band Eq
JOYO Sweet Baby
Electro Harmonix Soul Food
JOYO JDI-01
Diago Little Smasher
EHX Caliber 22
Chase Bliss Gravitas
Line 6 Pocket POD
Korg Pandora Stomp
Nux Mod Core
TC Electronic Dark Matter (2 because one had a fault and was replace in warranty)
Carl Martin Headroom Real Spring Reverb
Line 6 HX Stomp

I was looking into moving my Fulldrive 2 circuit into a smaller pedal enclosure (Hammond 1590BB) so that it took up less space on my pedal board. While I was looking into it, I realised that my Fulldrive 2 was one of the few pedals that could easily be moved into a smaller enclosure.

There seem to be 3 main variations:

Short circuit board – hand wired (early original edition)	Long circuit board – hand wired (late original edition)	Printed circuit board (MOSFET edition)

The really early Fulldrive 2s seem to have shipped in Hammond 1590BB enclosures:

The original Apogee ONE for Mac was USB audio compliant and could be made to work with the iPad with the iPad camera connector and a powered USB hub (see video).

I just tried the the same thing with the new Apogee ONE for iPad. It is USB audio compliant and does work natively with its own cable to the iPad, but I couldn’t get it to work with the USB cable through a powered hub in the same way as the original ONE.

Has anybody else managed to get it to work?

I’ve dabbled on piano since I was about 6, and even though I’m still not very good, I do know that you simply can’t match the feel of a real live grand piano.

But…after 26 years of playing, I’ve finally found something that comes close. There are lots of great sounding piano modules / samplers out there, but Pianoteq with their velocity curve calibration, simply feels amazing.

Some of the sample based plugins like Imperfect Samples might sound more realistic, but without calibrating the velocity curve I can’t imaging getting the same feel as Pianoteq. (Pianoteq is great for live too with its low memory/cpu usage.)

You’ll see from the difference in my calibrated and original curve below, I wasn’t even able to get close to playing a sensitive quiet note until I calibrated:

I’ve been having issues with my M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R on Apple OSX Mountain Lion (probably ever since Snow Leopard in fact). It would work the first time I boot up, but if I put my Mac to sleep or powered on and off the interface it would no longer be detected by the OS. I’d have to restart to solve the problem which was very annoying.

After not updating the driver for a couple of years I was very distressed when they had removed the old driver from the M-Audio site altogether. After some Googling though I found that they’ve transfered the product to be under their parent company Avid. They now have updated drives on their site:

http://www.avid.com/US/products/fast-track-ultra8r

It no longer has the sleep / power off problems and the new control panel is a nice update. It does seem almost impossible to contact to Avid support, but maybe you can still use M-Audio support?

Update 10/10/2013:
A whole year on and apparently they’ve fixed the issue, but they are giving away all but one of the iStomp pedals away for free!
https://www.facebook.com/digitech/posts/660173050674577

Update 11/03/2013:
Digitech explain things at their link here:
http://www.digitech.com/en-US/istomp_lightning

Update 15/02/2013:
Digitech have just sent a push notification to all their users saying that if use the iStomp with the lightning connector it can render the iStomp unusable. They should have tested this a long time ago when people like me originally emailed them. I’m glad I didn’t try and test it for them with mine!

Update 25/09/2012:
Here’s the latest they sent me. I still don’t quite see how hard it could be to actually buy one and test it themselves:

"Apple is telling us they have an adaptor that will work. I personally have not seen it yet.
Regards,
Digitech Support"

Original:
I’ve been interested in maybe getting an iStomp for a while now. I was a little concerned whether it would work after Apple introduced the new iPhone 5, with its new lightning connector. I was already sad that they took away video output which I loved.

So I contacted Digitech support about whether the Lightning to 30-pin adaptor would work with the iStomp. I couldn’t find any other information out on the interweb, so while I can’t guarantee it will work (it won’t work), here’s the reply I got:

"Thanks for your interest in our products. Regarding the cable, we don’t anticipate there being any problems but since the adapter is not available yet, we cannot verify any compatibility problems at this time.
Regards,
Digitech Support"

So I hope it will keep working, and I hope it works for things like the iRig midi as well. We should know soon though!

I love the simplicity and that things are just. Love the Michael Kelly Hybrid Special and the Fender Super Champ XD.

Details
– Input/output jacks wired into the Pedal Train Mini
– Stereo input, one side goes to the Fulldrive 2, the other to the Fisherman Aura – a must for anyone using a piezo pickup.
– The Fulldrive is pretty old, ’99 model, serial number around 2000.
– Built in Footswitch for the Fender Super Champ XD.
– Straight jack-jack connector between the Maxon AD-9 and the Fishbone Overdrive Supreme, a Zendrive clone.
– 1 Spot power supply with right angle daisychain – these really make the wiring neat.
– Custom stereo cable from Acoustic Engineering Hong Kong with Amphenol connectors.
– Changed the stock pickups to Dimarzio Air Classics on the Hybrid Special.

Links:
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=379147&page=2
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=793223&page=34