That90'sGuy
DyzaBoyzologist
Just got this one in the other day for a fair price thanks to Cyber Monday. This pedal is way better than what I gave it credit for from the early clips of it. I've read a lot of positive praise about the Bogner pedals and given all of the years I owned a Shiva, I really wanted to have a good medium-to-high gain tone around since I use pretty much Fender-only circuits these days (a SF Vibrolux and Tweed Deluxe clone). Reviews online are typically that the Blue doesn't have much gain, but it's open sounding and the Red is darker, more compressed with a lot more gain. I haven't tried the Red, but I can tell you that the Blue has plenty of gain with the right switch settings.
This pedal is capable of so much tone shaping. I like the variac switch, with it on you don't have quite as much gain, but you get some more sag and compression; if you like tighter sounding overdrive then simply turn it off and every note you play comes out instantly. The plexi/blue switch makes a big difference in the character and amount of gain in the pedal. The plexi side has a lot less gain, but sounds the most like a Bogner to me; the blue side has a lot more gain, but the character of the distortion is a little bit more scratchy on the high end. The b1/n/b2 can be thought of as a bass boost and mid cut setting, a balanced setting and a mid and treble boost setting. I'm a big fan of mids, so I usually toggle between n or b2. The mode settings are also very interesting, I hear more bass with the 101 setting, the 100 setting has a mid cut and the 20th ann. setting is much more aggressive and has a lot more gain than the other two. If you want a medium crunch tone with lower output single coils through a clean amp on the plexi setting, you'll need the 20th anniversary mode on.
If I were to criticize anything on this pedal it's the boost side. I've found the volume turned all the way down is still a hair above unity gain and the gain pot is useless IMHO. There's so much gain added with the boost on with the boost gain pot turned off that I can't imagine ever wanting the red pedal (if you're an 80's shredder who thrives on pinch harmonics, you'll find your home just fine with this pedal). I find keeping the standard overdrive settings conservative and keeping the boost down as low as possible makes for a good lead tone, but the range on both of those boost pots are anything, but practical from my perspective.
I sold my Kingsley Jester to fund this one and overall, I'm glad I did. I really miss the boost settings of the Jester (that was where the pedal really shined), but the character ended up being a bit too smooth with my Fender-esque circuits. This Bogner pedal sounds the most like an actual "added amp channel" than any pedal I've ever owned. Bogner did an overall exceptional job of condensing down the character of their bigger amps into a handy stompbox and honestly this pedal makes me no longer miss my Shiva. That's not to say I can get the exact amount of compression and warmth that I used to get from my Shiva in this box, but I get some of that notable compression, warmth and bite while still being able to enjoy the sounds I love so much from my other amps. It really feels fantastic to play and it's very responsive to your pick attack, which you very rarely find with effects pedals. I try not to "gush" too much with gear these days and this pedal isn't perfect, but it's the best overdrive in a stompbox format that I've ever heard and if you're looking for more versatility out of your rig and don't mind the price tag, I feel it should be a strong consideration.
For anyone who plans on trying this pedal out, make sure you have a 200mA 9VDC power supply for it. I initially panicked when the LEDs freaked out when I tried powering the pedal via my PP2+ 100mA output. After putting 2 of the 100mA outputs in parallel, the Ecstasy Blue powered up normally and works great. I couldn't find the current requirement anywhere, so hopefully I saved someone some headaches.
Also, if you want to buy one of these, I suggest you stay away from 8th Street Music. Mine arrived with some light wear on the packaging box and it was open (not sealed like I've seen in some videos). For all I know mine could have been a demo box, so needless to say this was my 2nd (and last) shopping experience with them. When you buy a "new" pedal online, you expect it to be brand new, but given the fact that the pedal sounds good and I got it for a fair price on Cyber Monday, I'm not going to complain too much.
This pedal is capable of so much tone shaping. I like the variac switch, with it on you don't have quite as much gain, but you get some more sag and compression; if you like tighter sounding overdrive then simply turn it off and every note you play comes out instantly. The plexi/blue switch makes a big difference in the character and amount of gain in the pedal. The plexi side has a lot less gain, but sounds the most like a Bogner to me; the blue side has a lot more gain, but the character of the distortion is a little bit more scratchy on the high end. The b1/n/b2 can be thought of as a bass boost and mid cut setting, a balanced setting and a mid and treble boost setting. I'm a big fan of mids, so I usually toggle between n or b2. The mode settings are also very interesting, I hear more bass with the 101 setting, the 100 setting has a mid cut and the 20th ann. setting is much more aggressive and has a lot more gain than the other two. If you want a medium crunch tone with lower output single coils through a clean amp on the plexi setting, you'll need the 20th anniversary mode on.
If I were to criticize anything on this pedal it's the boost side. I've found the volume turned all the way down is still a hair above unity gain and the gain pot is useless IMHO. There's so much gain added with the boost on with the boost gain pot turned off that I can't imagine ever wanting the red pedal (if you're an 80's shredder who thrives on pinch harmonics, you'll find your home just fine with this pedal). I find keeping the standard overdrive settings conservative and keeping the boost down as low as possible makes for a good lead tone, but the range on both of those boost pots are anything, but practical from my perspective.
I sold my Kingsley Jester to fund this one and overall, I'm glad I did. I really miss the boost settings of the Jester (that was where the pedal really shined), but the character ended up being a bit too smooth with my Fender-esque circuits. This Bogner pedal sounds the most like an actual "added amp channel" than any pedal I've ever owned. Bogner did an overall exceptional job of condensing down the character of their bigger amps into a handy stompbox and honestly this pedal makes me no longer miss my Shiva. That's not to say I can get the exact amount of compression and warmth that I used to get from my Shiva in this box, but I get some of that notable compression, warmth and bite while still being able to enjoy the sounds I love so much from my other amps. It really feels fantastic to play and it's very responsive to your pick attack, which you very rarely find with effects pedals. I try not to "gush" too much with gear these days and this pedal isn't perfect, but it's the best overdrive in a stompbox format that I've ever heard and if you're looking for more versatility out of your rig and don't mind the price tag, I feel it should be a strong consideration.
For anyone who plans on trying this pedal out, make sure you have a 200mA 9VDC power supply for it. I initially panicked when the LEDs freaked out when I tried powering the pedal via my PP2+ 100mA output. After putting 2 of the 100mA outputs in parallel, the Ecstasy Blue powered up normally and works great. I couldn't find the current requirement anywhere, so hopefully I saved someone some headaches.
Also, if you want to buy one of these, I suggest you stay away from 8th Street Music. Mine arrived with some light wear on the packaging box and it was open (not sealed like I've seen in some videos). For all I know mine could have been a demo box, so needless to say this was my 2nd (and last) shopping experience with them. When you buy a "new" pedal online, you expect it to be brand new, but given the fact that the pedal sounds good and I got it for a fair price on Cyber Monday, I'm not going to complain too much.
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