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I grabbed a couple of new toys on the weekend:
Vox cooltron big ben overdrive.
-I tried both the big ben and the two stage British bulldog, and was impressed by both.
The bulldog is much more of a high gain rock distortion, with more top end bite and a bunch more gain. I was particularly impressed with the high gain channel's mid sweep and the treble response of the unit had a nice, distinctly Van Haleny character to it.
I chose the big ben because it had a certain subtle warmth, transparency and fatness that the bulldog didn't have. It has a decent amount of gain, but it excels at low to mid gain settings. Overall, compared to my G2D classic, I'd say it tends to colour the tone a tad more and has more of that SRV clang to its mid gain tones.
I also got an Award-session JD10 Jerry Donahue preamp:
This guy is a bit or a rarity outside of Britain (though Morley briefly made them in the states), and the only one I'd ever seen in NZ. The pedal is a stomp version of a direct recording unit used in places like Abbey rd. Jerry Donahue liked the rack unit so much that he asked for a stomp version to take on his travels.
Basically, it's a bit of a Swiss army knife. You can use it in bypass mode as a line driver, as a stomp od/distortion in front of an amp, direct to PA or as a direct recording unit. It even says it's a humbucker emulator, which it apparently achieves by leaving the speaker simulator on while running into an amp. It also does your tax return and walks your ferret.
The JD10 excels as a line driver, giving a fatness and clarity to the amp tone. It also is a really good sounding distortion unit, with a very wide eq and gain range. The eq is pretty extreme but still very musical. It also sounds good directly into a recording unit, though the high gain tones are perhaps a tad fizzy. I bought it as a backup rig and recorder, but it may well have a permanent place in my live effects chain as a line driver...
I also tried an SD tweak fuzz. My friend, who is a fuzz freak and collector, grabbed one, and I heard it into his Ampeg reverberocket reissue. I was very impressed. All kinds of versatile, and some really badass molten sludge tones that border on synth filter madness. I'm definitely getting one of those bad boys. Well done on that one, SD.
Vox cooltron big ben overdrive.
-I tried both the big ben and the two stage British bulldog, and was impressed by both.
The bulldog is much more of a high gain rock distortion, with more top end bite and a bunch more gain. I was particularly impressed with the high gain channel's mid sweep and the treble response of the unit had a nice, distinctly Van Haleny character to it.
I chose the big ben because it had a certain subtle warmth, transparency and fatness that the bulldog didn't have. It has a decent amount of gain, but it excels at low to mid gain settings. Overall, compared to my G2D classic, I'd say it tends to colour the tone a tad more and has more of that SRV clang to its mid gain tones.
I also got an Award-session JD10 Jerry Donahue preamp:
This guy is a bit or a rarity outside of Britain (though Morley briefly made them in the states), and the only one I'd ever seen in NZ. The pedal is a stomp version of a direct recording unit used in places like Abbey rd. Jerry Donahue liked the rack unit so much that he asked for a stomp version to take on his travels.
Basically, it's a bit of a Swiss army knife. You can use it in bypass mode as a line driver, as a stomp od/distortion in front of an amp, direct to PA or as a direct recording unit. It even says it's a humbucker emulator, which it apparently achieves by leaving the speaker simulator on while running into an amp. It also does your tax return and walks your ferret.
The JD10 excels as a line driver, giving a fatness and clarity to the amp tone. It also is a really good sounding distortion unit, with a very wide eq and gain range. The eq is pretty extreme but still very musical. It also sounds good directly into a recording unit, though the high gain tones are perhaps a tad fizzy. I bought it as a backup rig and recorder, but it may well have a permanent place in my live effects chain as a line driver...
I also tried an SD tweak fuzz. My friend, who is a fuzz freak and collector, grabbed one, and I heard it into his Ampeg reverberocket reissue. I was very impressed. All kinds of versatile, and some really badass molten sludge tones that border on synth filter madness. I'm definitely getting one of those bad boys. Well done on that one, SD.
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