Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

[B2D]

My pedalboard rarely stays in the same setup for very long, and I'm still dialing in sounds for the band that I've joined recently, but I think I've found two pedals that are going to stay with me for a very long time; my EHX Micro POG and my ISP Decimator II G-String pedal.



It took me a few practice sessions to really get the hang of the Micro POG and where to put it in the chain, but man I just love this thing. It gets quite a few variations of sound depending on how you dial it in, what effects are running with it, and how/where you're playing notes on your instrument.

It's polyphonic too so chords come out night and sweet sounding. But I love kicking it on and turning single note lines into these fat, nasty, awesome sounding walls of notes, haha. Love this thing. It's easy to overuse, so I have to be judicious with it, especially concerning that there's a 2nd guitar player in the band with a POG2.

As far as the Decimator is concerned, I was reluctant to get it but I'm so glad I did. With my pedals and my Marshall JVM, noise can pile up and we're a loud band, so being able to control feedback was a concern. Usually for breaks and stops I'd just ride my volume control, but occasionally there'd be some hiss from certain channel or effects combos that got a little unruly. The Decimator IIG stopped all that.

Unlike the standard version, this one allows you to drive the detector trigger directly with a guitar input infront of the amp and then put the noise suppression circuit in the effects loop so that my delay/mod pedals don't put echo or chorus on noise. This means I can leave it on 90% of the time and it doesn't cut off soft picking or clean channels. The suppression circuit is buffered as well so it did help stuff in the loop sound a little better - it made the whole rig sound a lot tighter and more controlled. I knew I needed to use one of these, but I was so concerned that it would negatively affect my sound, and it did the exact opposite and helped me get my rig under control while leaving my tone alone. I would've gotten one a long time ago if I knew it'd be this good!

Anyways, just thought I'd share. Anyone else using these?

[stevie_bees]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

I've been thinking about a Micro POG for a long time. I've actually been gassing for the EHX Epitome that has the POG, Stereo Mistress and Holy Grail Plus. I don't currently use a reverb, and the Mistress would be a swap for my MXR 117R Flanger and the whole thing would occupy the same slot on my pedalboard. I'd be looking at getting keyboard-esque sounds and doubled lead lines without going as far as a synth of some sort.

[Gainstage]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

I though the POG was novel when I first got it, the lower octave sounds pretty good, tracking is good, the upper octave sounds very synth like and not really a true note octave compared to other such pedals.
A couple NEW pedals out recently really take the whole octave thing to another level. What I liked on the POG was the cool organ like tone you could get, since its day there are some new entries into the arena which are pretty much heads above the EH tech.

Seen this puppy?
Big Daddy on the block-
Walrus Audio Luminary Quad Octave Generator Pedal $319 not cheap but few things can hold a candle to its 4 octave and attack control params, tracking is ridiculously good, this thing is a monster. Also can use an expression pedal.
http://www.zzounds.com/item--WLRLUM1

or lower priced:
TC Electronic Sub 'N' Up Octaver Pedal with TonePrint $130 killer price on this one
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SubNup
Mike Hermans takes the tc for a test drive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8OF...ature=youtu.be
He seemed to spend more time messing with the upper octave thing but for me the low is what is cool.

I was very fond of the ability to do not just do octaves but amazing 5ths on my Whammy V which is polyphonic tracking. Down side is only one octave or interval at a time, upside is amazing harmonizer modes which track very well and no set key or scale issue like most other harmonizer pedals. The Whammy is often over looked with the worn out Weeeeeooo thing, if you use the harmonizer modes and just leave it fixed on an interval it is superb tone, it does 5ths and other intervals which are just too cool. I used to use the octave up and octave down to do these amazing foot pedal sweeps from one 8va dwn to 8va up wicked cool.

I always preferred the pedals to be up front for best tracking but my big rack unit does a decent harmonizer thing after everything which seems contrary to note tracking but seems to work.

[B2D]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

I found out about both the Luminary and the Sub'n'Up recently. I'd like to try them out in person and see if the sound quality justifies me swapping out for one of them. I do like the fact that the Luminary has the eq filters and presets available but it's very expensive. I'd want to see how it stacks up against a POG2 for that kind of thing.

I has a 5th-gen Whammy for a bit and while I really liked the basic effects for the pedal, I couldn't really use that type of sound for my current band and not sound like Tom Morello.

I think if I ever wanna go that route I'll use an EHX Ring Thing and and expression pedal.

[B2D]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

I've been thinking about a Micro POG for a long time. I've actually been gassing for the EHX Epitome that has the POG, Stereo Mistress and Holy Grail Plus. I don't currently use a reverb, and the Mistress would be a swap for my MXR 117R Flanger and the whole thing would occupy the same slot on my pedalboard. I'd be looking at getting keyboard-esque sounds and doubled lead lines without going as far as a synth of some sort.

Have you looked at any of the EHX 9-series pedals? Those get keyboard sounds pretty much out of the box in a compact format.

I tried the Mel9 and thought it was too grainy sounding thru my rig, no such complaint on the other ones though I would prefer the B9 over all of them.

[stevie_bees]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

Yeah, I've had a look at them. I love some of the sounds that they make, but I'm not sure I want something that's too 'keyboardy'.

[B2D]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

Yeah, I've had a look at them. I love some of the sounds that they make, but I'm not sure I want something that's too 'keyboardy'.

See, I tried to get some synthy sounds with my Whammy but I figured out what I really wanted was a synth and the werewithal to actually play it.

I don't know what it's called but I love that monophonic synth lead tone that glides smoothly from one note to the next I'd love to get that on a guitar but the closest approximation I can find is with a really smooth neck pickup sound with high gain and the tone rolled all the way back with some whammy/slide work.

[Gainstage]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

I found out about both the Luminary and the Sub'n'Up recently. I'd like to try them out in person and see if the sound quality justifies me swapping out for one of them. I do like the fact that the Luminary has the eq filters and presets available but it's very expensive. I'd want to see how it stacks up against a POG2 for that kind of thing.

I has a 5th-gen Whammy for a bit and while I really liked the basic effects for the pedal, I couldn't really use that type of sound for my current band and not sound like Tom Morello.

I think if I ever wanna go that route I'll use an EHX Ring Thing and and expression pedal.

That is exactly the opposite of what I was saying about the Whammy V harmonizer modes NOT the typical whammy modes that have been done to death. There is more to the pedal than moving the treadle doing Weeeoooo things. I personally hate that sound. Using the Harmonizer modes you just set the pedal to the harmony interval and no need to move the pedal like a wah at all.
Works amazingly. EHX had always left me wanting in their designs and tech and I have had most of their pedals. The Walrus and tc are a generation ahead of their tech. By all means compare the Luminary to the POG, it kicks anythings ass in the octave dept. The tc is far superior as well. While I had always been disappointed in EHX pedals in the past never really living up to the sales hype or tone, I recently got a new Mel9 and it is a very unique pedal but also some of their new tech update. The POG stuff is well over a decade now and there are many things that are better these days. So if they come out with anything new it is worth a look but I left the POG and whatnot years back.

[frankfalbo]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

PSA, I was talking to the guys at NAMM and trying the new Soul POG which has a Mode switch. The Mode selects between two different octave algorithms. What I found out was, the Micro POG and Nano POG represent each mode, and the one I liked is the one in the Micro POG. So...if any of you Micro POG fans ever have the urge to get the Nano, don't because it's not the same. That also goes vice versa. If you like the Nano....

That said, I tried the Luminary and it's great as well. My problem with ALL of them is that I like analog octaves that have no latency, like the old Boss and DOD. Even if they're glitchy, I like that better than the delay.

The only one I didn't try was the Sub 'n Up, and was told by a friend that it tracks very fast. So that's on my list now. I tried the T-Rex Quint Machine, didn't do anything for me.

[B2D]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

I actually don't really notice any latency when I'm using mine live. In the studio things may be different. But I'll take a teeny weeny bit of latency in order to get the Polyphonic properties.

And yes, Micro and Nano do not have the same guts. I much prefer the Micro.

[BloodRose]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

ive been curious to add a Decimator to the chain. Any negatives to using one? it would replace a noise gate right? Also, whats the diff tween the reg one and the G string? besides the G string having a cooler name? haha

[Demanic]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

I am G.A.S.ing for an ISPII. I
sometimes use a ridiculous amount of gain. Being able to shut it down for odd rhythms would be very useful. I've heard it does a good job of that.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

[geetard]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

I used to use a pedal similar to the Decimator, an MXR Smartgate, which vastly improved my sound in the same way as it does for you. I then discovered that the cheaper Zoom MS50G has an even better noise gate AND has tonnes of other chainable effects besides, so I sold it and bought the Zoom and never looked back. No negative effect to clean tone or dirty, no cutting of the sustained notes, all noise eliminated, all unwanted sounds like finger sliding are either eliminated or greatly reduced, and I can chuck on an amp sim, digital distortion, modulation, EQ, compressor, delay, filter, pitch shift or reverb (or any combination of those) at the start of my chain too. It was a no-brainer, really.

[PFDarkside]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

Interesting about the Micro POG and Nano POG. Is the Micro closer to the full sized POG and POG2?

[B2D]

Re: Two pedals I've been using lately that have been awesome...

ive been curious to add a Decimator to the chain. Any negatives to using one? it would replace a noise gate right? Also, whats the diff tween the reg one and the G string? besides the G string having a cooler name? haha

As far as I can tell, the Decimator IS a noise gate, albeit an extremely good one.

I've not experienced any real negatives. I tend to turn mine off only if I'm in a situation where I need to ride the volume for specific tones or get sustained controlled feedback, which might come up one or two times in a 30-40 minute set with the band I'm in at the moment. In other words, as long as I treat it like just another pedal for the effect it has on my sound I'm fine.

Here's a very handy video explaining the difference between the two: