This is my first posting of clips and my first review of a pedal. Any feedback would be appreciated.
The Pedal
The clips and the review are for the AMT Communist Pig.
My review is of the pedal pictured above. There is a different version of this pedal at
www.musiciansfriend.com.
I say it's different. The pedal may be identical except for the paint job. I just don't know. In either case, the price is the same -$120 USD.
The Communist Pig has four knobs - Level, Low, High, and Oink (labeled as "Dist" in the MF version). Level, Low, and High are self explanatory. The Oink knob adds in distortion.
The pedal is, as we say, built like a tank. I also performed the world famous Grygrx "shake test" and no rattling occurred.
You can power the pedal with either your standard boss-style adapter or a 9V battery. There is battery compartment that requires the removal of one screw. This is nice because you don't have to take the whole bottom off to change the battery.
I don't think the pedal is true bypass.
My Review
My review is based on playing with the pedal at home. I have not had the chance to use it with my gigging gear or use it with the band. Once I do, I can update the review if necessary.
This pedal is quite amazing. I'm in a three piece band and am constantly looking for a pedal that will make the bass sound like a bass/rhythm guitar. This pedal does it.
There are three points about this pedal that impressed me - maintainance of bottom end, the clarity maintained on the notes, and the different ranges of distortion you can get.
First, the bottom end. We as bass players are constantly worried about losing low end while using distortion/fuzz pedals. This is not a concern at all with this pedal. The low end is maintained perfectly. Plus, you can dial in more or less low end as needed with the "Low" knob. There were even points where I felt there was too much bottom end. This is a nice problem to have.
Second, the pedal maintains note clarity. This is not a pedal that just blends everything together so that it sounds like one big wall of sound. The note definition is maintained quite well. You should be able to hear this in the clips. I do an arpeggio and even with the most insane distortion dialed in you can distinguish between the notes. Very nice!!!
Finally, you can get almost any distortion sound you want out of this thing. You can get your basic grindy sound by keeping the Oink knob turned down or very low and just tweaking the low and high knobs. Or, you can get crazy distortion by cranking up the Oink knob.
In conclusion, I find this pedal amazing and highly recommend it. This is especially so if you are in a three piece band like myself and need to fill up some space when the guitarist goes off on his solo.
Soundclips
The sound clips can be found at this link -
http://www.box.net/shared/ief3lxokvm. I tried to use putfile and soundclick but there were too many problems. If you have issues with this link, let me know.
The clips are all of the same riff - the bass part during the solo of Enter Sandman by Metallica. Sorry for not being creative. I wanted to play something people would know rather than just noodle around. The timing may not be perfect. I didn't use a click track or anything. Again, sorry.
I used a P/J style passive bass. I had the volume knobs up on both pickups and the tone knob was set in the middle.
I play a combination of the bass part/guitar part for a a couple of reasons. First, it's just the way I play it in a three piece band to compensate for not having two guitars. Second, it gives a complete range for you to see how the distortion reacts. The range is all the way from the low E to a high (but not highest) A.
The file names are based on the settings. For example, a filed called "07 Low 3, High 12, Oink 7" indicates that the knobs were at the 3 o'clock position for the low knob, etc. The "07" is simply my reference to the track. Please note that the Oink knob will show settings ranging from 7 o'clock (minimum) to 5 o'clock (maximum). The Level knob was always set at around 10 o'clock.
I did a ton of clips. However, if there is a particular setting that you are wanting, let me know and I'll add it to the list.
Have fun!!!
Edit: To listen to the clips click on the link above. You then click on the AMT Communist Pig folder. I've found that you can't listen to the clips by simply clicking on the file. You need to click on the download link. You can then either save it or open it.
