Re: Hermida Mosferatu
Alright, time for my first thoughts on the Mosferatu. First off I fired up the amp and played through the Zen for a bit (haven't played in a few days, needed a refresher). When I switched over to the Mos, I noticed that they are voiced similarly which I expected, but that the Zen is a bit warmer and fatter. Not to say the Mos is thin, but it's more aggressive sounding, more cutting and in your face. Plenty of gain here for any of my higher octane leads. It sounds great when chording as well, you can hear every string and it doesn't flub out.
A bit on the controls:
Volume - simple stuff here, 9:00 - 10:00 seems to be just about unity volume, so you can get plenty loud.
Tone - still simple, very useable throughout the sweep. Down to zero isn't mud-city, and full blast isn't icepicky, I like it around 1:00 so far.
Gain - last knob, another simple one. 9:00 on the Mos feels about like the Zen's gain at 3:00, so there's a good amount on tap (though not as much as the Spina DS-1 I have, for comparison). The Mos is more compressed to my ears and has some killer sustain, leads can scream and chords still say nice and clear. I can definitely hear why people make comparisons to Robben Ford's tone, though if it was in front of a Fender blackface amp it would probably be even closer. The thing I really like is that it doesn't mess with your EQ that much or sound like a pedal, it sounds like your guitar and amp (and the settings you've dialed up on each) with gain added.
The REAL treat was when I turned both the Mos and Zen on at the same time. The Zen doesn't just add a bit of gain here as much as it takes the signal in, smooths is out, and fattens it up. When I first turned them on, I wasn't touching the strings at all and got no howling or feedback. But the first note I played and held stopped sustaining after a couple of seconds and bloomed into feedback (controllable feedback at that). The two working together yields a very thick, creamy, fluid tone that still retains clarity and dynamics. Exactly the fusion type lead tone I've been looking for.
I'd be totally confident running these two pedals and a single channel amp for a gig. I'd have clean, slight OD, crunchier rhythm, and blistering lead tones all covered.
