So, this is coming a bit late as I got the pedal at Christmas time and the amp a couple of days ago but I figured now is as good a time as any.
First up, the pedal is the TC Electronic Nova Drive pedal. For anyone who doesn't know, its a twin pedal with an overdrive side and a distortion side and they both cover their own range of tones. The overdrive seems to have a bit of a mid boost, although I haven't really played around much with TS type pedals so I'm not sure if its as significant a boost as those tend to have. I think it works nicely it fattening up single coils a bit, although so far I haven't been as thrilled running humbuckers through it. Both sides can be routed either OD > DS, DS > OD, or in parallel. And its an all analog drive path, but with digital control so you can store presets of your favorite settings.
I don't really have enough experience with distortion pedals to know what to compare the distortion side to (usually I've just used the amp's overdrive channel) but I've been quite happy with it. For me, it works much better with humbuckers than the overdrive channel but I also like it with single coils. Again, I'm not sure what to compare it to...but I like it.
Most of my impressions of this pedal have been made through my Blackstar HT-5 so it will most likely work differently with different amps. I think part of the reason I wasn't thrilled with humbuckers through the overdrive is because it got a bit muddy sounding and I kind of had issues with my amp getting too muddy with too much mids so with a different amp it might be better. I'll have to let you know soon...
Which brings me to the second part of this post: new amp day! Several days ago I became the proud new owner of a new Vox AC15C1! First off I have to state that I haven't really had a chance to run the thing through its paces with my pedals and such yet because most of the time I've had it I've simply gone straight from guitar to amp. The tone from this thing is just amazing...beautiful cleans and glorious driven tones. I especially like the low gain, bluesy sorts of tones I can get from it, absolutely amazing.
I really liked my HT-5, but one thing that drove me crazy about it was I felt like it was generally pretty thick sounding without much in what I would consider the "presence" range and with pedals and such I felt like I was always trying to compensate for that with an EQ boosting the highs a bit and such, and the tone felt a little forced, like it wasn't quite natural. This thing is the exact opposite! Everything sounds and feels somehow more natural. I feel like my guitar is more useful now too because I can actually use the tone control to cut the highs a bit if I'm looking for more of a thicker tone and don't want to touch the amp. This compared to the HT-5 makes me feel like I've graduated from a pedal pretending to be an amp to a full on real amp!
Basically, I like it.
Now I just need some time to see how my pedals (like the Nova Drive above) work with it...its a ton of fun. Definitely check out this amp if you haven't before!
First up, the pedal is the TC Electronic Nova Drive pedal. For anyone who doesn't know, its a twin pedal with an overdrive side and a distortion side and they both cover their own range of tones. The overdrive seems to have a bit of a mid boost, although I haven't really played around much with TS type pedals so I'm not sure if its as significant a boost as those tend to have. I think it works nicely it fattening up single coils a bit, although so far I haven't been as thrilled running humbuckers through it. Both sides can be routed either OD > DS, DS > OD, or in parallel. And its an all analog drive path, but with digital control so you can store presets of your favorite settings.
I don't really have enough experience with distortion pedals to know what to compare the distortion side to (usually I've just used the amp's overdrive channel) but I've been quite happy with it. For me, it works much better with humbuckers than the overdrive channel but I also like it with single coils. Again, I'm not sure what to compare it to...but I like it.
Most of my impressions of this pedal have been made through my Blackstar HT-5 so it will most likely work differently with different amps. I think part of the reason I wasn't thrilled with humbuckers through the overdrive is because it got a bit muddy sounding and I kind of had issues with my amp getting too muddy with too much mids so with a different amp it might be better. I'll have to let you know soon...
Which brings me to the second part of this post: new amp day! Several days ago I became the proud new owner of a new Vox AC15C1! First off I have to state that I haven't really had a chance to run the thing through its paces with my pedals and such yet because most of the time I've had it I've simply gone straight from guitar to amp. The tone from this thing is just amazing...beautiful cleans and glorious driven tones. I especially like the low gain, bluesy sorts of tones I can get from it, absolutely amazing.
I really liked my HT-5, but one thing that drove me crazy about it was I felt like it was generally pretty thick sounding without much in what I would consider the "presence" range and with pedals and such I felt like I was always trying to compensate for that with an EQ boosting the highs a bit and such, and the tone felt a little forced, like it wasn't quite natural. This thing is the exact opposite! Everything sounds and feels somehow more natural. I feel like my guitar is more useful now too because I can actually use the tone control to cut the highs a bit if I'm looking for more of a thicker tone and don't want to touch the amp. This compared to the HT-5 makes me feel like I've graduated from a pedal pretending to be an amp to a full on real amp!
Basically, I like it.
Now I just need some time to see how my pedals (like the Nova Drive above) work with it...its a ton of fun. Definitely check out this amp if you haven't before!