Gain at your feet

[hydro]

Re: Gain at your feet

Absolutely you could - and really that's what you'd have to do to make it work.

I guess it would be more accurate to say that a volume neutral gain control is difficult to implement within a distortion pedal, but if you add a compressor/limiter it's possible.

My bad for the misstatement.

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing, if you had a compressor after it with a tuneable threshold. Now if you had it built into the same pedal, that would be cool. So you would have a treadle that would control the gain, a knob to set the gain floor in the treadle heel position, and a knob that would change the compression threshold as the gain increased. Or something like that. The bypass switch would be under the toe like a classic wah pedal.

Now someone needs to build it for me and call it the Hydro-Tone, and give me the first prototype!!

 

[blueman335]

Re: Gain at your feet

Now someone needs to build it for me and call it the Hydro-Tone, and give me the first prototype!!

If someone goes to all the effort to make one, I suspect that you won't be the one getting pats on the back or the one who gets to name it. Although, if you want to hang around your mailbox waiting for a prototype...

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Gain at your feet

This may be a stupid question, but does anyone know of a gain/OD pedal that has a wah-like treadle?

Like a volume pedal, but at heel position it would be at unity gain; at toe position, some max threshhold of gain/overdrive.

I realize people do stuff like this by using their volume knob or volume pedal to clean up from some max gain setting X to X-Y. So this is more like an ergonomics thing. Imagine a tube screamer with the drive knob hooked to an expression pedal, for example.

Jim Dunlop Way Huge Fat Sandwhich does just that, IMO

 

[blueman335]

Re: Gain at your feet

Jim Dunlop Way Huge Fat Sandwhich does just that, IMO

Does what? It's a stomp box with an on/off switch, without a treadle.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Gain at your feet

Does what? It's a stomp box with an on/off switch, without a treadle.

Oops lol I misunderstood, thought he was asking for a gain pedal that nails the sound of a Wah at different positions. The Way Huge gets some incredible tones between the tone, presence and resonance that sounds like different positions of a Wah pedal. But I misunderstood the OP's question. lol

 

[jtougas]

Re: Gain at your feet

https://reverb.com/item/93346-rare-akai-d1-shred-o-matic-tube-driven-distortion-pedal

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Gain at your feet

https://reverb.com/item/93346-rare-akai-d1-shred-o-matic-tube-driven-distortion-pedal

Awesome find!

 

[hydro]

Re: Gain at your feet

Whoa! That's cool. Exactly like what I was talking about.

Maybe I can try to find one of these used somewhere. I bet it would be fun to play around with.

 

[hydro]

Re: Gain at your feet

Ok I found one used for $40. Let's hope I get $40 worth of entertainment out of it!!

 

[vinta9e]

Re: Gain at your feet

Find a better amp - one that actually cleans up well as you roll back the guitar's volume knob - then hook up a passive volume pedal of choice for foot control.

 

[jtougas]

Re: Gain at your feet

I remember seeing that Akai pedal in a Musicians Friend catalog waaaaaaaaaayyyy back in the '90s. Never actually saw one in person.

I also kick @$$ at Trivial Pursuit.

 

[hydro]

Re: Gain at your feet

Find a better amp - one that actually cleans up well as you roll back the guitar's volume knob - then hook up a passive volume pedal of choice for foot control.

Oh my amps are fine, I have lots of different ones, and I can clean up with my volume knob, etc. This is really just for fun, to play around with - and kind of a curiosity thing more than anything else.

That Akai pedal has mixed reviews. It actually has a 12ax7 in it and tube or diode clipping. Pretty amusing for $40. The name is classic - "Shred O' Matic"

 

[jtougas]

Re: Gain at your feet

From the reviews, it sounds like it might be worth cracking it open to check for modding possibilities.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Gain at your feet

Oh my amps are fine, I have lots of different ones, and I can clean up with my volume knob, etc. This is really just for fun, to play around with - and kind of a curiosity thing more than anything else.

That Akai pedal has mixed reviews. It actually has a 12ax7 in it and tube or diode clipping. Pretty amusing for $40. The name is classic - "Shred O' Matic"

Dude, for $40 I would say it is worth a shot!

 

[jtougas]

Re: Gain at your feet

More specifically, I'd change that drive type switch to a blend between tube & diode...

 

[hydro]

Re: Gain at your feet

More specifically, I'd change that drive type switch to a blend between tube & diode...

I may have misunderstood the online manual, but I think it has a setting which does this. I will find out here shortly...

 

[jtougas]

Re: Gain at your feet

It looks like an either/or/blend... I'd just get rid of the either/or portion, and make it a full on blend.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Gain at your feet

Hmmm. How about something similar (tube + diode) where the tube drive is always on when the pedal is on, and the treadle activates the diode clipping as a variable boost for the tube. You'd have your rhythm crunch and your variable solo boosting in one pedal. Alternatively, if the pedal were made so you could set the amount of drive for both individually, you could go from lightly-broken-up sputtering tube cleans at 0 to pushed tube at 5 and then max tube + diode boost at 10.

 

[Hank-]

Re: Gain at your feet

Wonder why this was discontinued & no one bothered to make a clone of it or improve on it either. Well it looks like fun, cool find.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Gain at your feet

Cast-off tech is often up for grabs, especially if Akai dumped it like they did Jackson guitars.