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Tech 21 Steve Harris Fly Rig
- Thread starter wintremute
- Start date
Where'd you order? Anyone know if Prymaxe is giving discounts on new units? I have a coupon code but it won't work...
there was one shop on reverb that had one onhand. no discount, but i already had the reverb bucks sitting out there... (i'm not the guy you asked but figured it would be a relevant added answer)
FYI, Prymaxe has them in-stock and will offer 10% off, effectively saving you $30.
This I can confirm! You have to ask them for it though.
Ordered mine on Friday... still haven't gotten a shipping notice.
Normally Prymaxe is quicker than that, but I'll try to hang tight.
Ordered mine on Friday... still haven't gotten a shipping notice.
My bad! It's on the way, ETA tomorrow, so I'll have it in time for my Friday gig.
Mine arrives tomorrow as well
- Oct 16, 2014
- 6,942
- 29,551
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Langstrom Carrot Farms
Can't wait to hear some new impressions/observations/reviews.
Didn't get a chance to try it yesterday BECAUSE I WAS TOO BUSY WATCHING MY TEAM WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!! (USA baseball)
^^^not me, I'd be too chicken
Apologies for putting my priorities out of order.
Anyway, got home from work today and tweaked it with my favorite passive P-bass. Less than an hour spent so far, haven't yet RTFM. Even right off the bat it sounded pretty darn cool. One issue: with volumes matched, cleaner setting (blue knobs) sounded bigger/phatter than dirty setting (Bite switch engaged because I love clank -- and it's awesome). My first thought: okay, another situation where it'll be tough to set the universal EQ so it's perfect for both clean and dirty.Then I decided to try the speaker sim. Whoa, it fattened up the dirty channel without killing the bite. I then compared dirty to clean, and dirty was suitably phat. Interestingly, the sim seems to work on dirty channel only, because the clean channel did not become overly phat -- in fact the two channels were now a great match!
I then started precision tweaking. As usual for Tech 21 devices the EQ bands are highly interactive, but I was now having a lot more fun having discovered the speaker sim. Within minutes I got a John Wettonesque tone and my reaction was OH HOLY CRAP THIS IS A GREAT PEDAL! Then came the acid test: compare it to my Oxford. I dialed in one of my happy tones on the Ox, then went back to the 'Arry...
...okay. Deep breath. I'm not going to say that the Harris is an Oxford-killer, because it didn't quite clone the Oxford magic. That said, it's well in the ballpark, and the SH-1 definitely has its own magic! Also, some advantages. First, the EQ: two Mid controls and a more bass-friendly Low. The bigger advantage for me: Blend**! For me, it made the SH-1 easier to tweak (both channels)... and again, it can get really close to that cool Oxford vibe, as well has having a bunch of other cool vibes, as you've heard in GeFilter's vids.
Any complaints? Jeez, tough crowd.
None so far... only tiny nitpicks. First, not a big fan of the color scheme. Also, the EQ is ordered High, Low, Mid 2, and Mid 1. 
But that's all right now, and neither are important to me. This pedal works great for me, and I'm sure I'll only get happier as I get to know it better! TL;DR: I've owned the pedal less than an hour, I'm not fully familiar with it, have only begun to explore the possibilities, but I already know it's a keeper.
**I know, the Oxford can be modded for Blend... I'm just not into mods.
I've been using a 1x10 combo amp, no tweet. After further testing, the sim works on both channels. It just seems to have more of an effect on a channel set up for high gain.
Also... wasn't right for me to imply that the blue channel must be clean and red must be dirty. Either can be either.
Didn't get a chance to try it yesterday BECAUSE I WAS TOO BUSY WATCHING MY TEAM WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!! (USA baseball)
^^^not me, I'd be too chicken
Apologies for putting my priorities out of order.
Then I decided to try the speaker sim. Whoa, it fattened up the dirty channel without killing the bite. I then compared dirty to clean, and dirty was suitably phat. Interestingly, the sim seems to work on dirty channel only, because the clean channel did not become overly phat -- in fact the two channels were now a great match!
I then started precision tweaking. As usual for Tech 21 devices the EQ bands are highly interactive, but I was now having a lot more fun having discovered the speaker sim. Within minutes I got a John Wettonesque tone and my reaction was OH HOLY CRAP THIS IS A GREAT PEDAL! Then came the acid test: compare it to my Oxford. I dialed in one of my happy tones on the Ox, then went back to the 'Arry...
...okay. Deep breath. I'm not going to say that the Harris is an Oxford-killer, because it didn't quite clone the Oxford magic. That said, it's well in the ballpark, and the SH-1 definitely has its own magic! Also, some advantages. First, the EQ: two Mid controls and a more bass-friendly Low. The bigger advantage for me: Blend**! For me, it made the SH-1 easier to tweak (both channels)... and again, it can get really close to that cool Oxford vibe, as well has having a bunch of other cool vibes, as you've heard in GeFilter's vids.
Any complaints? Jeez, tough crowd.
TL;DR: I've owned the pedal less than an hour, I'm not fully familiar with it, have only begun to explore the possibilities, but I already know it's a keeper.
**I know, the Oxford can be modded for Blend... I'm just not into mods.
Nice, man!
I've been waiting on your review. Nice to hear those comparisons to the Oxford(I've been thinking of sending mine to Putnam for a blend and a few other things). How did the SH-1 do with top-end clank? Like, the real metallic stuff? ( And I think I was under the mistaken impression the two channels can be cascaded on that pedal.)
There's so many cool drives coming out, I swear. From Damnation teasing a new one, to Tech21, to Orange and their new preamp, to that Hamstead Subspace.
And I really love my YYZ/Oxford combo a lot! I can dial in the grunt and midrang ewith the XD
Congrats on your team, btw
Oh yeah, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone.
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So it seems the speaker sim on the Steve Harris works the same way as on the VTBassDI. On the VTBassDI, the speaker sim is really just a steep high frequency roll off that lops off the frequencies that would otherwise go to the tweeter. Turning the speaker sim on is basically the equivalent to turning the tweeter off. I like it because it doesn’t try to overwrite the natural sound of the speaker/cabinet. It makes sense that you’d hear it more on distorted tones as the distortion generates more high harmonics that sound nasty if they reach the tweeter. I’m just wondering if they added a little something to the Steve Harris speaker sim to emulate his particular EV speakers. Or if it’s just the high frequency roll off like the VTBassDI.
I should really not have watched the video demos in this thread...I literally just bought a new Q Strip and a new YYZ...and now I find myself needing this, too.
