Hoss
Joyfulnoiseologist
Well, the AC-Tone Special came in Friday!!!
initial impressions: Well, firstly when you hold it in your hands you know that you've really got something. Very well made, solid construction...very smooth when you tweak the knobs! Rid put in a personal letter, telling me he used the guts from the original AC-Tone that he designed all the pedals from (too cool!), and he signed the bottom and one of the sides says AC-Tone Special for "Hoss"-SD giveaway...it is a VERY nice personal touch to say the least!
plugging in: so i break out Petey and my Jr and begin to get everyone aquainted. i turn the master down on my amp (wanting to hear as much of the pedals voice as possible) and my actual amp volume to around 4 or 5. i put the pedal on the AC channel and set it up clean to see what kind of chime and warmth i can get playing some open chords with the middle and neck positions on my guitar and the tone rolled off a bit...WOW!!! this makes my cleans a whole new animal now...so full and rich, yet unbelievable clarity and chime, but not a brittle or trebley chime, but the jangle that i've always wanted in my cleans that still retain warmth and depth. now kick in the drive and adjust to taste...you can tweak it with just a bit of grit that is ever so responsive to pick attack or you can crank it and really get a nice drive going that is very VOXish! it has plenty of range on tap and it even has a cut switch to adjust the amount of bite you want!
now for channel two: the AC-Tone normally comes with two identical channels but this one is "Special", and it lives up to it's name with channel two. Welcome to the Plexi palace...this channel will crunch your heart out and grind it into the ground!!! i'm in overdrive heaven with this sound...i mean i really liked the overdrive i was getting from the Tech 21, but this is something altogether different...i don't really know quite how to explain it but to say that it's just BETTER, it can get so heavy and thick, yet it still retains clarity and harmonic richness...it still retains Godly tone...and with this channel you can also really tweak the amount of drive to taste...and really that is a huge benefeit with this pedal...the amount of or the sweep and range of the gain that's on tap...it's a wide parameter!!!
i really honestly couldn't be happier with this pedal!! i put it into action last night at the youth service and i dialed in the dirty Vox channel and totally ROCKED THE HIZZY!!! seriously...it sounded phenominal and my playing greatly fed on it!!! i was able to squeeze out stuff that i normally wouldn't be able to do due to having this serious tone at my fingertips!!! the best thing is, the more i get to know this pedal the better it's gonna get...i'm only at the tip of the iceburg right now!!!
A HUGE THANKS goes to Rid and his wife for blessing me with this gift...i can't thank you enough!!!
later,
mike
ps i'll get some pics up this week...i'm waiting for my washburn to get here to borrow a friends camera and take pics of it all!
initial impressions: Well, firstly when you hold it in your hands you know that you've really got something. Very well made, solid construction...very smooth when you tweak the knobs! Rid put in a personal letter, telling me he used the guts from the original AC-Tone that he designed all the pedals from (too cool!), and he signed the bottom and one of the sides says AC-Tone Special for "Hoss"-SD giveaway...it is a VERY nice personal touch to say the least!
plugging in: so i break out Petey and my Jr and begin to get everyone aquainted. i turn the master down on my amp (wanting to hear as much of the pedals voice as possible) and my actual amp volume to around 4 or 5. i put the pedal on the AC channel and set it up clean to see what kind of chime and warmth i can get playing some open chords with the middle and neck positions on my guitar and the tone rolled off a bit...WOW!!! this makes my cleans a whole new animal now...so full and rich, yet unbelievable clarity and chime, but not a brittle or trebley chime, but the jangle that i've always wanted in my cleans that still retain warmth and depth. now kick in the drive and adjust to taste...you can tweak it with just a bit of grit that is ever so responsive to pick attack or you can crank it and really get a nice drive going that is very VOXish! it has plenty of range on tap and it even has a cut switch to adjust the amount of bite you want!
now for channel two: the AC-Tone normally comes with two identical channels but this one is "Special", and it lives up to it's name with channel two. Welcome to the Plexi palace...this channel will crunch your heart out and grind it into the ground!!! i'm in overdrive heaven with this sound...i mean i really liked the overdrive i was getting from the Tech 21, but this is something altogether different...i don't really know quite how to explain it but to say that it's just BETTER, it can get so heavy and thick, yet it still retains clarity and harmonic richness...it still retains Godly tone...and with this channel you can also really tweak the amount of drive to taste...and really that is a huge benefeit with this pedal...the amount of or the sweep and range of the gain that's on tap...it's a wide parameter!!!
i really honestly couldn't be happier with this pedal!! i put it into action last night at the youth service and i dialed in the dirty Vox channel and totally ROCKED THE HIZZY!!! seriously...it sounded phenominal and my playing greatly fed on it!!! i was able to squeeze out stuff that i normally wouldn't be able to do due to having this serious tone at my fingertips!!! the best thing is, the more i get to know this pedal the better it's gonna get...i'm only at the tip of the iceburg right now!!!
A HUGE THANKS goes to Rid and his wife for blessing me with this gift...i can't thank you enough!!!
later,
mike
ps i'll get some pics up this week...i'm waiting for my washburn to get here to borrow a friends camera and take pics of it all!
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