Help me spend my pedal money!

[Mark Olson]

Ok so here's the deal. I sold some pedals. Now I want to invest the money into new pedals. I'm going to have a gift certificate so the pedal I buy HAS TO COME FROM pedalgeek.com. If you recommend me something that isn't up on their site, I will mock you mercilessly.

The other thing is, I sold off a couple fuzz pedals. What I wanted to do is buy another fuzz pedal, specifically something for leads, like I like to do. So I've got my eye on the Prescription Electronics Face Lift, a Fuzz Face clone with a very Jimi Hendrix style sound and a completely independant octave fuzz. I'm leaning towards this one since Fuzz is really what I need and I just got in two PE pedals and they both knocked my socks off so I want to try another, and I'm pretty certain I would love this pedal.

The other pedals I'm looking at are the Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive and the Barber LTD SR. I am tempted to get myself something subtler and brighter, more Tubescreamerish like those two (which I don't generally use Tubescreamer type pedals). BUT! I already have and love the Z. Vex Box of Rock and a Fulltone OCD, both of which can do lower gain sounds, not necessarily Tubescreamerish, but close enough, so there's a large chance (95%) that I'd put either of these pedals next to my Box of Rock and go eh, I'm sticking with the Box of Rock. But I do like to take those chances, you never know what's going to surprise you and end up as a permanent fixture on your board.

So anyways, that's the predicament. Go ahead and vote and let me know what you think.

[whoatherechunk]

have you heard/played the earthbound audio supercollider?

[Mark Olson]

Originally Posted by whoatherechunk

have you heard/played the earthbound audio supercollider?

If I'm going to buy a fuzz, it's going to be a Fuzz Face clone. I am 100% not interested in any Big Muff clone. Moreover, I stated very clearly that if anyone recommended anything that WAS NOT available on PedalGeek.com, I would mock them mercilessly. Next time try reading the post before you mindlessly recommend what you're currently gassing over or using. BLAH!

[whoatherechunk]

whoops. long day at work. sorry haha.

[Mark Olson]

No worries! Thanks for the recommendation. I'm just not a Big Muff kind of guy. I've had some Brassmaster clones too and as cool as the Depth Charge would be and how much I like the PE pedals I've got, that one's out too.

[bigchiefbc]

How about the Pigtronix Disnortion? That has separate overdrive, fuzz and octavia channels, and you can combine any and all of them. The only other one I can think of like that is the HBE UFO, which is a vintage fuzz with switchable octave

[Mark Olson]

Good suggestions, I have looked at those, and while interesting, neither was quite my cup of tea. I am very partial to the Fuzz Face circuit in a smooth application, and I've got some very specific ideas in mind when it comes to tone. Since I've tried those two octave fuzzes I got from PE, which can both track beneath the twelfth fret (especially the Experience, it's amazing), I don't see a point in trying any octave effects from any other company, I like what PE did with those. That does bring up the point that I've already got the Experience, and that's probably what's staying on my board, but I do think the Face Lift will most likely be better for leads.

But I am looking at some of the other Tubescreamerish stuff though, but I think in that case the Barber or Voodoo Lab would be preferable. The idea behind the Tubescreamer for me is that I'm looking for something with a nice shimmer in the top end to react with the vibe pedal my fiance ordered me for my birthday. I've looked around and I like the way Tubescreamers interact with vibe pedals, not that the fuzz face won't do that too, but a nice smooth fuzz face won't quite have the shimmer.

[RPIcka]

anything from Radial

[Mark Olson]

Unfortunately they don't have the JDI on there, I was looking for that earlier. The ToneBone could be cool but I'm not into fancy preamps or things like that, I'm a bass -> amp -> mic kind of guy.

[Mark Olson]

And here's some links with some clips, here's the Face Lift:

http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new...mand=link--pfl

Here's the Barber v2 clips, I'm not sure if I'd get the v2 or SR:

http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new...nd=link--beltd

And here's the Sparkle Drive:

http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new...and=link--dmsd

[andvari7]

Might you be looking for something akin to MXR's Classic 108 Fuzz, which pedalGEEK (or pretty much everybody else, for that matter) does not carry?

[Mark Olson]

Well, I had an Analogman Silicon BC108 Sun Face, which is basically the same premise, and it had a little too much gain for me with my high output SG Bass. That's what I just sold so I could afford something else (also a friend of mine really wanted the pedal and I wasn't using it so, you know), I was going to go for a low gain Germanium Sun Face, which I might still do eventually, but right now I'm going to have this gift certificate so I've got to spend that first.

[Ryan Mohr]

I think you should go with the Barber LTD SR. Also, you should know that it is not a tubescreamer style pedal, David Barber has confirmed this. It is a transparent overdrive pedal, with a smaller amount of gain than a TS pedal. This is gathered from what I have read and heard (http://www.proguitarshop.com/product...20&CategoryID=). Some other cool options: Way Huge Fat Sandwich, Lovepedal Plexi 800, Hartman Distortion, one of the Menatones, PE Yardbox, Emma RF-1, and Visual Sound Son of Hyde.

[dgelting]

I played with a Rhodes player who used the Sparkle Drive. I used it on my bass once long ago and remember liking it. It always sounded GREAT on that Rhodes....

[Mark Olson]

Right, the LTD isn't a Tubescreamer, but it does sound Tubescreamerish to me in so much as it has that shimmer I was talking about, which is what I like about it. It's also a little more smooth sounding, less nasty than the Sparkle Drive (I have used the Sparkle Drive before it was just a long time ago). I was also looking at some of the Marshallesque drives on there, but I do already have the Box of Rock and the more Marshall style pedals don't quite have that shimmer that I'm looking for at this particular moment to go with my incoming vibe pedal. Thanks for the suggestions!

Also there's the PE Outbox, which I read was used by the bass player for Ben Folds. I did see a demo of it on youtube and it sounded kind of cool.

[Ryan Mohr]

Originally Posted by Mark Olson

Right, the LTD isn't a Tubescreamer, but it does sound Tubescreamerish to me in so much as it has that shimmer I was talking about, which is what I like about it. It's also a little more smooth sounding, less nasty than the Sparkle Drive (I have used the Sparkle Drive before it was just a long time ago). I was also looking at some of the Marshallesque drives on there, but I do already have the Box of Rock and the more Marshall style pedals don't quite have that shimmer that I'm looking for at this particular moment to go with my incoming vibe pedal. Thanks for the suggestions!

Also there's the PE Outbox, which I read was used by the bass player for Ben Folds. I did see a demo of it on youtube and it sounded kind of cool.

Yeah that makes sense, since the Box of Rock is a fatter, "gruntier" Marshall-like overdrive/distortion. I'm kinda obsessed with the Marshall-style distortions, and PGS demos aren't helping, so that's why I was recommending based on the best sounding ones, and the ones that had nice bass.

[Mark Olson]

Right, ideally I'd like to try all that stuff out eventually, but for now I'd like to pursue something I don't have right now, which I don't have anything really Tubescreamery and I've only got one Hendrix Fuzz left, which doesn't satisfy me with my SG Bass.

As nice as the Fulltone Bass-Drive is it never really satisfied my want for a Tubescreamery sound, my brother being a guitar player has had tons and tons of tubescreamer clones and the Fulltone just doesn't respond to my playing the way some of those other pedals did. I'd also like to check out the TS9DX, maybe get it modded by Analogman, that would probably be the best way to go but that's the thing I hate about gift certificates, while they have more class than cash, cash is just more versatile (listen to me talk about money like it was a pedal!)

[Mark Olson]

Ok so right now it's a tie between the Face Lift and the Sparkle Drive. Somebody please vote and let me know which one to go for!

[Mark Olson]

Now it's a three way tie! That doesn't help! Keep in mind I will probably do soundclips for whatever I buy so go ahead and vote for something you'd like to hear clips of.

[Deluge Of Sound]

I voted Face Lift because its the first on the list.


And because I want soundclips.