Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

[Gr8Scott]

I've received the Echo Park and the Space Chorus modules from Sam Ash plus two of the stereo docks from Amazon. I expect the Constrictor (compressor module), the crunch module and the uber metal module to show up soon. I have two more mono docks coming in from back-order eventually and plan to buy two more stereo docks from Amazon soon since they are the same price. I haven't had a chance to play with the two I have now just yet. I'm hoping they will work well enough to replace my Arion SAD-1 and SCH-1 so I can stick them up on Ebay.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

Is it true Line 6 is discontinuing the tone core line, Or is that just another internet rumor ?

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I think it is true, but it's all speculation at the moment.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

One thing I have learned is you really have to stomp these pedals to make them work. You can't give it a half hearted little tap like you would with a plastic stomp box. You have to really step on it like you mean it. I actuated it with my hands when plugging them in and I didn't deactivate the effect with just ordinary hand pressure. The green blinking LED would wait three seconds and then resume (as it's supposed to). I thought something was wrong with both pedals until I stepped on them with my feet good and hard. I'll get back to this thread once I wring them both out and compare them to my analog Arion units. I plugged the Tonecore pedals in line with my comparable Arion SAD-1 stereo delay and SCH-1 stereo chorus. I have them both running through my blackfaced Bassman on one side and my Vox AC30CCH on the other. I'll be running a fender strat with Bill Lawrence noiseless single coils through this rig.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I've put the Echo Park and Space Chorus pedals through their paces. The echo park is a keeper for me. It's definitely a great sounding and flexible piece of gear. Heads and shoulders above my Arion SAD-1 Analog Delay. The Space Chorus is good and is also very flexible. It's just not that much better than my Arion SCH-1. I prefer the Arion in the head to head because you can turn down the tone knob and still manage to keep most of the highs while shedding the snarky upper mids that most chorus pedals are famous for. The mod effect on the Space Chorus is a little more severe in turning down the highs. It's a cool pedal and could be very useful at times. The tap function is awesome allowing you to go from a very convincing leslie effect with a fast speed then turning into a slow chorus when you tap again. It's very useful and it could gain a place in my lineup yet. It just hasn't earned that place as of now.

Both Line 6 pedals are great pedals. My Arion pedals aren't slouches and they put up a pretty good fight. Real analog delay and chorus pedals are quite hard to beat and the Echo Park pedal beat out my analog delay. The chorus pedal has also done very well in my shootout and it was facing what I consider to be the best true analog stereo chorus pedal out there for less than $150. Sound quality on both units was unmatched IMHO. They are dead quiet and the pedals don't tone suck when bypassed.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

The Crunchtone, Uber Metal and Constrictor modules made it in today. I'll be checking them out soon. Thinking about putting the Uber Metal head to head with the Demonizer to see how well it fares against what I consider to be the best medium to high gain distortion pedal on the planet. The constrictor will go head to head with the Boss CS-3 I have. My CS-3 has been modded ever so slightly to not alter the tone at all and still deliver a huge amount of compression if I want it (with a little noise swell at the end of long notes). It's a really good compressor because it doesn't change my tone in any way. I think the constrictor's stomp box models will alter my tone, but it could be in a pleasing way. It has a smooth tube/opto compressor model that has a flat frequency and only a slight squish, which could be great for more expressive playing while slightly evening out the overall balance of the notes. It also has a built in gate, which is really a godsend in a compressor because it knocks out the noise below a certain level to keep your silent parts silent. That may just put the constrictor over the top and make it far superior to the CS-3. I might need to get more docks for these modules...

 

[B Bent]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I am still waiting for my $19.99 Verbzilla module to go in the $30 Constrictor base I found. Anyone want a free constrictor? LOL I hate compressors.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I am still waiting for my $19.99 Verbzilla module to go in the $30 Constrictor base I found. Anyone want a free constrictor? LOL I hate compressors.

I actually really want a Constricter

The BYOC OptiComp is too noisy for me, and the BOSS CS-3 isn't bold enough for me.

PM sent!

P.S. Anybody found a deal better than $49 for the Line6 Mono Dock?

 

[B Bent]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I actually really want a Constricter

The BYOC OptiComp is too noisy for me, and the BOSS CS-3 isn't bold enough for me.

PM sent!

P.S. Anybody found a deal better than $49 for the Line6 Mono Dock?

I bought the Constrictor @ GC used for $30. There is a distortion at another GC for $29. I should have bought that one too.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

It does seem to appear Line 6 IS Discontinuing their module's, But not the tonecore line. I can't wait to hear Gr8Scott's review or the Uber Metal? I just realized that Just in case a Metal gig should pop up? I got no dirt box to handle a contemporary crushing type tone. Got a 'Zilla and octo filter to use as docking stations . For $20 I can have all my sonic bases covered.:friday:

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I need to get my girlfriend out of the house so I can properly wring out the Uber Metal and Crunchtone. At the moment I can't turn the amp up enough to give it a proper run down.

I used them at low volumes with a daisy chained power source. NOT the best conditions to use such a pedal. I found that the pedals didn't seem to like the super distortion equipped Kramer I used with them. The strat fared better, but I really didn't give the pedals a fair chance to shine due to the volume and power source I gave them. It just wasn't fair to any dirt pedal to judge them under such conditions. I'll hook them up to two separate DC converters and throw the Demonizer in the chain with them to see how they compare to it once I can crank the bassman up and really hear these pedals as they were intended.

 

[B2D]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I might pick up one of the Roto-Machine modules.

I'm recording an EP right now and I'm using some sort of rotary speaker effect for about 1/3 of the clean sounds on there... never expected to really gel with that effect until now.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I just ordered a uber metal for $19.99 All sold out! only 4 left a Amazon.com! I have a Octo filter I will swap out for it. I doubt you would ever need a Envelope Filter in tandem w/t a Uber Metal? Let ya's know how it sounds?

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I have an Echo Park and a Constricter on the way!

:headbang:

 

[B2D]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I've put the Echo Park and Space Chorus pedals through their paces. The echo park is a keeper for me. It's definitely a great sounding and flexible piece of gear. Heads and shoulders above my Arion SAD-1 Analog Delay.

The Echo Park is a great pedal... it booted my longtime trusty DD20 Boss Gigadelay out of my pedalboard! I found the EP to have slightly better sound quality. The EP takes up less space on the board, too.

I still have my DD20, because I like having access to presets. I need something with presets that sounds as good as the EP. Maybe a Keeley modded DL4 is in order...

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I just ordered a uber metal for $19.99 All sold out! only 4 left a Amazon.com! I have a Octo filter I will swap out for it. I doubt you would ever need a Envelope Filter in tandem w/t a Uber Metal? Let ya's know how it sounds?

Just got a email from Amazon, My order was canceled!:banghead:
Snooze ya lose.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

B2D - The space chorus has a very convincing leslie effect in stereo. You have to get the speed up pretty high and use the "TRI" mode and have the mod effect turned down to 9 o'clock roughly. Sounds like a really good leslie doing it's thing with that setting.

Still no luck with wringing out the Crunchtone, Uber Metal and Constrictor modules. No time here lately.

 

[andrizzle]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

Still waiting to hear on my Verbzilla... Would like to find another dock on the cheap... $49.99's the cheapest I can find also Hunter.

 

[B2D]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

B2D - The space chorus has a very convincing leslie effect in stereo. You have to get the speed up pretty high and use the "TRI" mode and have the mod effect turned down to 9 o'clock roughly. Sounds like a really good leslie doing it's thing with that setting.

Still no luck with wringing out the Crunchtone, Uber Metal and Constrictor modules. No time here lately.

The space chorus ain't bad, but my Boss DC-2 takes care of all my chorusing needs these days. I'm such a picky bastich about chorus pedals, and I LOVE my DC2.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Anyone got their closeout tonecore pedals yet?

I plugged my Yamaha Weddington Classic with P-Rails into the crunchtone and the uber metal tonight. I gave the crunchtone and uber metal their own AC converters to eliminate any ground loop issues that might cause problems with the sound of the amp. I also put the damage control demonizer in the loop as well for a head to head with the uber metal.

Right off the bat, I had a major problem with my guitar's bridge pickup. The single coil side of the P-Rail pickup had died and prevented any signal from going through the pickup in standard humbucking mode. My switching isn't dialed in yet on this guitar, so it was thin and very bright sounding even on the P90 coil also when I switched over to parallel mode. My Kramer Focus 1000 has a Dimarzio super distortion in it and it's excruciatingly bright with these pedals. The Crunchtone in particular just didn't like anything I plugged into it and seemed too bright. I left my strat at work, so I need to run it through because it has slightly fatter pickups than everything else I have at the moment. I'll have to fire up the soldering iron and install the original Dimarzio pickup back into the Yamaha and also give it a run through.

The uber metal didn't fare too well in the comparison with the demonizer. The demonizer was a touch bright also, but it fared much better than either of the two line 6 dirt pedals did in that regard and it sounded much more organic and warm while doing so. The line 6 pedals will probably sound better with more balanced pickups. The strat will be much better with it and the Yamaha will be better once I get a fully functional bridge pickup back into it.

So my initial testing wasn't good for owners of floyd equipped guitars that have Dim super distortion bridge pickups. That being said, these pedals did respond predictably/correctly to the addition of a overdrive pedal and they showed some warmth through the sea of cutting treble that just cut your head clean off and couldn't be dialed out due to the bright guitar. With more balanced pickups, they could be good pedals but I won't know until I can run some more guitars through them. One guitar is at work and the other needs a new pickup...