tone report weekly - issue 68 - 2015 - march 27

TONE REPORTW E E K L Y

P L A Y T I L Y O U R F I N G E R S B L E E D

M A R C H 2 7 T H , 2 0 1 5

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TABLE OF CONTENTS ISSUE 68 MARCH 27H

42 KEELEYELECTRONICS COMPRESSOR PRO

46 VFE PEDALS TRACTOR BEAM

50 SCHUYLER DEAN APEX HUMBUCKERS

54 BOSS WAZA CRAFT

DM-2W DELAY

18

8 28 36

5446 50

42

8 TONE TALK 5 DIRTY, SEXY DELAYS

18 INTERVIEW THE WONDERFUL WORLD

OFROBERTKEELEY 28 TONE TALK

DEMO VIDEOS DOS AND DONTS 36 TONE TALK

THE FRUGAL PEDALBOARD

FEEDBACK

Normally at Tone Report, we do the writing and you do the reading. However, we get so many comments that weve decided to turn the tables: you write, we read. We offer you a chance to sound off; a chance to submit feedback, praise, criticism or anything else. How are we doing? How can we improve? What did you think of a particular article? Please submit all letters to [email protected] KORRECTION for last weeks Tone Report Weekly Issue 67

In our article titled History of the KLON, we mistakenly stated that the KLON KTR was not manufactured in the United States. We apologize for the error on our part. Bill Finnegan, was kind enough to correct our mistake. To quote him exactly, Fact: since the beginning of KTR production in 2012, every single KTR unit produced has been manufactured here in the U.S., and my intention barring anything unforeseen is to continue with U.S. production of the KTR. We try our best to be 100% accurate, but mistakes occasionally slip through. Were honored and appreciative to have an audience that pays close enough attention to bring errors to our attention. With regard to this matter, the attentive audience was large and loud. So while were not happy to make a mistake, were thrilled to know that so many guitar and effects enthusiasts are reading Tone Report Weekly.

Tone Report, First of all, awesome publication! The only thing that could make it better is if I actually won the Free Pedal Friday contest one of these weeks!

Anyways, all four of the Tweed Clone builders featured in last weeks Tone Tips make some very solid, high-quality amps; but the one thing that none of them do is build a Fender Pro clone with the 5c5 circuit. In fact, Ive searched the internet high & low and havent found anybody that does. When it comes to all things awesome, you guys seem to have vastly more knowledge than I do, so Im hoping that youll know of someone that builds a 5c5 clone. If not, I think a great article for a future issue of Tone Report would be advice on how to build your own amp from scratch. Keep up the great work! Matt

Hello, I was receiving Tone Report in my iPhone Newstand but it has stopped at Issue 61. Any ideas why the new issues havent shown up in my Newstand? Thanks

First and foremost, thank you for reading TRW and writing in. The new app is almost ready and should be active in the next few weeks. Please stay tuned.

TRW

6 FEEDBACK // Letters to the Editor

8 TONE TALK // 5 Dirty, Sexy Delays

In the early days, analog delay was the only game in town. It all started with tape echo devices like the Echoplex, but before long these relatively large, clunky contraptions were replaced with compact solid-state units like the Memory Man from Electro-Harmonix and Bosss DM-2. These first solid-state analog delay pedals were designed around bucket brigade (BBD) chips, so named because they created a delay line by moving the signal along a series of capacitors, a method analogous to the way early firefighting brigades moved water from bucket-to-bucket to douse a fire. BBD-based analog delay pedals are coveted now for their warm tones and musically degraded regenerations, but

this characteristic is actually the result of the technologys limitations. As the original signal moved from capacitor to capacitor, noise, distortion, and loss of fidelity increased. As delay times were lengthened, more buckets had to be added, further increasing noise and degrading the original signal. The solution to reducing this accumulated noise and signal hash in BBD delays was filtering. Filtering decreased noise, but the original signal still degraded noticeably with each repeat, and the end result was the sort of dark, dirty tone that modern guitar players have long associated with classic analog delay effects. Today, with endless colors and varieties of delay at our feet, the gritty repeats

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of vintage BBD circuits remain highly revered. Creative designers have even begun exploiting their naturally occurring signal deterioration, employing different kinds of filters (or just less filtering) to let the grimy, noisy qualities of bucket brigade delay shine through unrestrained. In short, what was once a limitation has now become an asset. Some have also created digital circuits that mimic these kinds of sounds, or incorporate distortion, compression, and modulation to further expand upon them. This new category of delay is commonly referred to as lo-fi, and several companies have released pedals that make the most of what was once the delays worst quality. Here is a selection of our favorite modern dirty

delays, both analog and digital. MALEKKOLOFI EKKO 616 MKII One of the first deliberately dirty bucket brigade delays available was the LoFi EKKO 616, from Portlands own Malekko Heavy Industry Corporation. Now in its second incarnation, the LoFi EKKO 616 extends its BBD delay line out to 650 milliseconds, while abandoning much of the filtering that would have previously been deemed necessary to make an analog delay of this length usable. The result is a pedal that can give a nice, warm slapback when set to shorter delay times, but gradually becomes more haunting, nasty, and discordant as the delay time increases. With its excellent


onboard modulation, the LoFi EKKO can generate long repeats that sound like theyve been mangled by a bit crusher or ring modulator, fading away gradually into grainy, warped pixel degradation. And it oscillates like a champ, making it the perfect choice for any guitarist that loves those B-movie spaceship landing sounds. FAIRFIELD CIRCUITRY MEET MAUDE Quebecs Fairfield Circuitry is known for artfully squeezing every last drop of dirty, creative potential from an analog circuit, and the companys Meet Maude analog delay is a perfect example of the peculiar niche the company has carved out for itself. Maudes design is much more refined and devious than a simple BBD delay with less filtering. It incorporates switchable random

modulation and compression circuits to emulate a tape echo run amok, and it has a tone knob for making the repeats brash and distinct, dark and a little moldy, or somewhere in between. It even has a CV control jack that can be set up for expression pedal control of time or feedback, or as an external effect loop, depending on the settings of its internal switches. These features lend Maude incredible potential for making all sorts of grimy delay tones, otherworldly squeals, low-frequency burps, washed-out moon landing oscillations, and whatever else the aural sculptor manning her controls might dream up. Fairfields Meet Maude also does a nice, standard analog delay tone, but that almost seems to be a waste of its many talents.

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DEATH BY AUDIO ECHO DREAM 2 Not all dirty delays are analog, as many companies have begun utilizing the superior processing power of digital chips to realize the dream of truly vulgar sounding repeats. Brooklyns Death by Audio takes this notion to the extreme with its Echo Dream 2, an updated version of one of the companys most popular pedals. It incorporates 20 to 1200 milliseconds of delay, combined with fuzz and pitch-shifting modulation, to generate tones that range from warm, fairly well-behaved echo, to varying degrees of dirt, drive, and lush modulation, to hideous fuzz-bomb repeats fully awash in modulated chaos. 918 volt power provides for further variations in response, clarity, and headroom, based on how you power the Echo Dream, and its Wet/Dry toggle

makes it a cinch to get a 100 percent effected tone for use with effects loops. DR. SCIENTISTBITQUEST Much more than a simple delay, the BitQuest from Canadas Dr. Scientist is really a compact multi-effect pedal, but one of its best features is its ability to produce genuinely unique, and genuinely filthy, delay tones. It features eight different effects, including flange, a couple of filters, reverb, pitch shifting, ring modulator, bit crushing, and delay. Each effect has a clean and dirty version, selectable via its Dirty/Clean toggle switch. This pedals distortion potential is beastly, and when a dirty delay sound is selected, the distortion comes after the repeats. This can result in some high-gain, fuzzed-out echo the likes of which I have not heard in any other pedal. Even


on the clean setting, the BitQuest can wreak havoc on repeats, with delay tones than range from pleasantly lush to glitchy, stuttering, and completely warped. Rarely has such a compact pedal yielded such incredible potential for the adventurous, dirty delay-obsessed guitarist.

CAROLINE KILOBYTE LO-FI DELAY The Kilobyte, from Columbia, South Carolinas Caroline Guitar Company, sets a new standard in lo-fi delay tones. The heart of this pedal is a pristine analog signal path married to a boost/overdrive preamp and a low-res digital chip, which was originally designed for consumer audio products of questionable repute. The preamp only affects the repeats, and its +21dB of grunge can be used to smash the chips low fidelity echoes into little bits of hairy audio shrapnel. As gruesome as that seems, the Kilobyte can also be used for lovely, warm sounding slapback and delay. Its true lot in life, however, is creating washed-out oscillations, violent repetitions, and grainy, swirling ambience. Illustrious modulation master Jack DeVille collaborated with Caroline on the Kilobytes modulation circuitry, and it is sublime, adding a gentle sway to the pedals gravel-throated vocalizations.

CREATIVE DESIGNERS HAVE EVEN BEGUN EXPLOITING

THEIR NATURALLY OCCURRING SIGNAL DETERIORATION,

EMPLOYING DIFFERENT KINDS OF FILTERS TO LET THEGRIMY, NOISYQUALITIES OF BUCKET

BRIGADE DELAY SHINE THROUGH UNRESTRAINED...

WHAT WAS ONCE A LIMITATION HAS NOW BECOME AN ASSET.

ENTER TO WIN

FREEPEDALFRIDAY

Winner Announced Each Friday in Tone Report Weekly

C L I C K H E R ETO VISIT WEBSITE

C L I C K H E R ETO WATCH DEMO

FEATURES

REVIEWS

CLICK ON THE IMAGE AND

BASS DRIVER BB-1XPRESENTED BY

J. R

OC

KETT

AUDIO DESIGNS

MADE IN USA

18 INTERVIEW // The Wonderful World ofRobert Keeley

TONE REPORT WEEKLY: You have a huge legacy in the field of pedal modding and a quickly growing one in original designs. How long have you been building pedals and how did you get started?

ROBERT KEELEY: Ive been building pedals as a business since 2001 and the first pedal I built was in 1999. It was a digitally controlled analog delay with a built-in tuner in it. For a first guitar pedal, that was it. Come 2001 is when the compressor took off and then after that, some of the mods. TRW: Interesting. Given the popularity and ubiquity of the Keeley-modded Tube Screamers, Blues Drivers, etc., I just assumed that you started with mods.

RK: I think a lot of people think that the mods were the primary focus regarding what happened first, and thats simply not the case. The Compressor came first because of my interest in Trey Anastasio from Phish. And he was a big user of Tube Screamers and they caught my attention as well. The compressor came about because I couldnt find a Ross Compressor so I built my own using a schematic off of the internet. Then the mods came, and people were saying

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hey, you made that TS9 sound good, but I dont like TS9s. I like Boss Blues Drivers or I dont play blues, I play hard rock. From there, along came Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. TRW: So Steve Vai contacted you directly to mod his DS-1? RK: What happened is pretty funny. Dave Wiener had called and said that he was going to send some pedals for Steve Vai. And I thought this is just awesome! Ive been a Steve Vai fan since his days with Zappa, then his work with David Lee Roth, and then Alcatrazz. So I was anxiously awaiting his pedals and days and weeks go by. And one day, this pair of DS-1s show up. They were a mess. They had Velcro all over them, they were glued to a piece of wood, they just looked horrible. And I thought, man this is the bottom of the barrel. Were not working on these. The guy who sent them didnt even put his name on them! And the whole time Dave Wiener is calling asking if I got Steves pedals, and I just keep saying no, not yet. So finally, Dave checks the tracking number and confirms that the pedals were delivered. So I start looking around, and I look in the box that the two nasty DS-1s arrived in, and sure enough, buried under the pedals is a check from Steve Vai! So to the two guys that were in the shop with me, I said Stand back, dont you dare touch these pedals! Im modding Steve Vais pedals!

TRW: Thats hilarious. RK: So at the same time I was working on these mods, I worked with David Szabados and we formed a little company called Legendary Tones, or he had a little company called Legendary Tones, and I designed a pedal with him and it was the Time Machine Boost. And in that Time Machine Boost was my first original design, the Katana. And as the Time Machine boost went on, people wanted either the modern side or the vintage side. I told David that I was going to split the two apart and do a Java Boost for the vintage side and a Katana Boost for the modern side. And so that pedal was split into two as a Keeley product and then I eventually bought out Legendary Tones. Then my first fuzz was the Fuzz Head. The mods kind of increased and grew at the same rate as the original designs so it has always been funny to me that people have me down as the mod person. I think its because its where people get their first taste of honey. You know they have a TS9 or DS-1 sitting around and they can afford to have it modded. And then they get it and theyre blown away at the improvements in tone and features and from there they try another pedal, maybe a compressor, and they either fall in love with it and keep riding the wave, or so on. There was a time where we didnt release any new pedals because I didnt want to release


anything that wasnt a 100 percent original design. It was 2009 or 2010 until I did the Luna Overdrive which was an original overdrive. And then in 2012 or 2013 I just said forget it, there is no longevity in these legacy products. Ive got my own takes on all of these circuits, I can twist these circuits around in new ways, lets get busy and lets do this right. I dont mean to get ahead of your questions, but I hear this Robert Keeley, hes the mod guy, and its just like, dang it, Im not the mod guy. Im an electrical engineer that designs pedals! (Laughter) TRW: Alright, well set the record straight from here on out! Lets talk about the Blues Drive and the White Sands for a minute. Do both of them share their roots in your mods of the Boss SD-1 and BD-2? RK: Thats a great question, especially on the Katana Blues Drive. The simple part of the question is that the White Sands is a very low-gain Tube Screamer. It has changes to the bass response to keep it nice and full and we keep the gain just down on off the map. Its been a sleeper pedal. They guys at the office here come back week after week and say hey I recorded in the studio with it or hey, I took it to a gig, and its my favorite pedal. The Katana Blues Drive is not based on the Boss Blues Driver. Its probably more akin to our Luna Overdrive. It is a FET-based pedal and thats why I called it the Katana, because the Katana clean boost is a FET design. I designed it to sound similar to the Blues Driver, because its one of our most popular mods along with the Tube Screamer. I wanted something to sound like it, but I didnt want to copy it. I wanted the same flat response and the dynamics with your volume

control and your pick attack. So its an original design, but crafted to fill the same space as a Blues Driver. The dual tone control also sets it apart, and people have been really happy with it. TRW: The concept of the Psi sounds very cool. I like the idea of stronger mids in that circuit. How else does it differ from other Muff-inspired fuzz pedals?

RK: I think a lot of people try to address the midrange of the Big Muff through the tone control. You know, there are Big Muff gurus out there and theyve done everything with them and they always seem to work with the transistor-based Big Muff. What I wanted to do was work from the op-amp Big Muff and go after that Smashing Pumpkins thing. So I took that one, and it breaks down into four stages, and I either inverted each stage or changed the stage in one way or another so that no stage remained the same. At the very least, they were inverted. Or it was longer tone shaping sections where it carves off the high end. I made it my own and it was a great learning process. There are some filters in there that are really fun and unique and will show up in future projects, so keep an eye out for that. And then lastly, how I approached the midrange was to put a germanium transistor on the end. They dont have the greatest frequency response, but they have a certain character to the midrange that just about every guitarist finds pleasant. The way they break up in the midrange just sounds so good. TRW: Ive always loved the Fuzz Head and the way in straddles the line between fuzz and OD. The Son of Fuzz Head sounds like it takes this design to the next level. Can you walk us through the circuit, the controls, and the variety of tones it can produce?

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RK: In the beginning, the Fuzz Head was my way of taking a couple of those guys that didnt like the bass response of a Fuzz Face, and making something for them that wasnt so bombastic and bassy. I wanted to create my own fuzz that had the characteristics of a Fuzz Face, the warmth, the attack, the clean-up, but something you could still strum chords on if you wanted to. Not G, Em, C, D, but at least some power chords. You cant do that with a Fuzz Face! So it had to have low intermodulation distortion. Thats the stuff that makes complex chords sound bad. I started playing with this thing called a differential pair. A differential pair is just two transistors arranged to face each other. Its something I hadnt seen done before. Only later, I learned that Ibanez or Shin-Ei had done a differential fuzz before. So that differential pair was the main part of it. It was sort of like a treble booster at the front, set for full range. Then into the differential pair and then the output section of a TS9 so that it had an output buffer to play better with effects down the line. So thats the Fuzz Head. And every year, Id go to guitar shows, and Id plug it in after not playing it for years and it would sound fresh and great still. So now that Craighton Hale and I are doing these design things, in the middle of redesigning the board for the Fuzz Head, we decided we needed to move the tone

control to the outside. We wanted to add an input buffer so that it wouldnt have to be first in line. We wanted to crank up the gain so that it could do full fuzz, so here comes an extra gain stage, and so on. So the heart of the Son of Fuzz Head is the same, its just been ramped up into more tone control and better, higher impedance buffer. But its still in that Fuzz Head realm. TRW: Lets talk about the Phase 24. Im one of those weirdos that prefers the old Phase 45 over the Phase 90. It looks like the Phase 24 is capable of the sounds found in both of those pedals but also offers a blend control. I like the Phase 45 because it feels more organic, like a cross between a Uni-Vibe and a phaser. I take it the Phase 24 can create those tones as well as the EVH Phase 90 tones and everything in between? RK: Thats exactly right. There isnt much on that Phase 24 aside from convenience and the fact that we wanted to use FETs that we knew would sound good, match well, and allow us to make a consistent and great product. Craighton was the one that raised the idea for the blend control so that we could have it be as subtle as wanted. And we hadnt seen anyone that was doing a 45/90 thing, so we felt like we added value by offering both. While its really simple in nature, I think its really cool that we have a few ideas that havent

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been done elsewhere. TRW: Yeah. And the blend knob certainly makes it more tweakable and more subtle if you want. With the 45 setting, if you push the blend up beyond 50 percent, Im guessing it will do some cool Uni-Vibe and pitch vibrato sounds? RK: Yeah, it does. I like having it because its likely gently rocking a wah. It doesnt have to sound like a phaser, but for clean lead work, it can add a subtle and cool movement to the sound. Theres stuff like Zappa in the 80s, where it has this brighter sound. And granted that was done from mic placement and transducers in the guitar, but I was still able to get those sounds from pushing the frequencies around. It just allows you to get some great sounds that are fun to solo with. TRW: Which of your pedal designs are you most proud of? Why?

RK: Im most proud of the work that Craighton and I did on the Compressor Pro. It challenged us the most. A compressor isnt something that you sit there and say it sounds good or has great midrange. None of those things apply if youre making a tool that we wanted to make. Weve lived off the Two Knob and Four Knob Compressors. But here, we wanted to build a tool for working musicians. And in the process of doing so, we realized that there are lots of

specifications that a true, quality compressor has to meet. We had to measure thresholds and compression ratios to make sure that it was compression and a certain threshold at a certain ratio and that you were getting a specific dB of cut. Going through the math and then the circuits aligning, and the LED readout aligning to give you precise control, we had to get it perfect. We knew that if people compared our compressor to a compressor in the studio and our light comes on and theirs doesnt, they would call us out on it. We wanted to move out of the stompbox world and build a precise instrument. Measuring really fast attack times and long release times took a lot of work. Thats definitely what Im most proud of. You know, Im still waking to it today and going dang, this is cool! People arent going to realize how cool thing is for years to come. TRW: Keeley is hugely respected in the world of compressors. Can you compare and contrast the Keeley Compressor, the Four Knob Compressor, the Pro, and the Paisley Compressor?

RK: There isnt much unique about the Two Knob and Four Knob. They are Ross/Dynacomp clones with a few changes to make them more stable. What I did in the beginning is simply use the best componentseverything is metal film resistors, metal capacitors. Thats the claim to


fame. For the Four Knob, we added the Attack control which allows it to be punchier. And both of those are OTA compressors. OTA stands for Operational Transconductance Amplifier. It has severe limitations. It has high distortion because it cant handle a high input. So active pickups and old style compressors just dont get along. It will overcompress and it will distort. Any design like mine, Wamplers, anyone that puts out an OTA compressor is going to be faced with those challenges. The great thing is that if you put a Stratocaster or a Telecaster, or other small signal into it, and it just blossoms and blooms. It sounds fantastic and you get tons of sustain and it works perfectly in that regard. After that came our GC2 and Bassist. Those are set up as program dependent attack and release times. The Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA) in there is low noise and we get a product that you just cant distort. And its a feed forward design, so it looks at the signal as it enters and determines the compression rate. OTA works the opposite that sound goes through, gets compressed (maybe with an error) and is then fed through the circuit. Its almost like there is a lag time that makes them sloppy, but in a good way. There are two types of compression.

Compression as an effect and then compression as a tool. The compression effect is perfectly valid and sounds good and the same can be said for compression as a tool. It doesnt have to sound like youre using a compressor for a compressor to sound great. TRW: So a limiting-type compressor is better for cleaning up your playing and making you sound better than you really are? RK: Yeah, they really do that. You can relax your right hand technique, have a guitar with a less than perfect setup, etc. You can use a limiter to get a better sound. The Compressor Pro takes that GC2 and Bassist format and allows for Attack and Release so it stays compressed much longer and get the long release time. You know thats the difference. One is an older style OTA compressor and the other is a VCA compressor with super high fidelity components. TRW: The mini Katana is great! And I think I saw a mini Red Dirt as well. Should we expect any other minis?

RK: There are going to be other minis. Weve been talking about doing mini pedals forever and it seemed like one of those things wed finally get to. And well, we got to it! Craighton is a monster draftsman and it doesnt take him long to get a design from concept to paper, get the boards ordered, and in three or four days Im looking at a prototype. So getting to the mini Katana or mini Red Dirt was just about effortless for him. TRW: Do you foresee a time when you will phase out the mod side of your business and focus only on designing and building pedals?

RK: For years I dreamed of phasing out the modding side of things. But you know, they are

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popular. The problem with the mods are, I buy a pedal with Ibanez or Boss and I have a much higher cost up front. Its two or three times the cost for me to build a Red Dirt, made in America, made by hand, etc. Its not a great return on investment. But theres just such a demand for it. There on a lot of pro boards out there and people just love them. I just dont want to do it because I really enjoy making our own pedals that stand up to anything we mod. Ive thought of a couple of ideas on completely revamping how we do mods that will allow my technicians to get in and out of the pedals quicker, but adds many more features to the mods. So as soon as we have some more breathing space, instead of killing off the mods, I think Im going to unleash a dozen new mods! Ive come up with a way that is less time involved and adds tons of flexibility and control to the end user. Just when I thought I was getting ready to be the guy who doesnt mod anymore, Im going to find a way to be the guy thats in it big time. TRW: Whats on the horizon for Keeley Electronics? Any new pedals we should keep an eye out for? RK: Some of the next things were going to look at are a mini reverb and a mini envelope filter. Id like to make a mini envelope filter for guitarists and bassists that might not want a full featured filter but want the effect for a few songs. And theres not much that wouldnt be great about a mini reverb. Throw just a great plate reverb sound on there and it works with rock, blues, country, just about everything. Were playing with some ideas on trying to capture some Van Halen sounds. Maybe something that does the ping kind of sound in

Cathedral where you have two delays that pop up and then something that might be just a plate reverb. TRW: Thats it for me. Do you want to add anything in closing? RK: Theres a new IC weve been playing with, the FV1 from Spin Semiconductor. Youre going to hear about it so much, its going to make you sick. It was designed by Keith Barr, the guy that designed the reverb chips for Alesis. He actually founded Alesis and was a founding partner of MXR as well. He was an incredible engineer that designed his own ICs and put them out there for guys like me who dont have a ton of experience in digital signal processing, but need some tools that are audio specific. Even though I took DSP classes in college, its still difficult to create all of the things you need for manipulating sounds. He built in all of these ramp, modulation, and other functions that are needed for guitar processing. The analog to digital converters are built in, and writing to delay is built in, so you can really just program the chip to do what you want. Were going to be working with pedals based on this chip for the next year or maybe a little longer. Well be using it to create some killer sounding effects that would be impossible to do with just standard analog circuits. After designing stuff for 15 years in analog, moving to digital with a tool thats set up for it, Im like a kid in a candy store.

28 TONE TALK // Demo Video Dos and Donts

We here at Tone Report and Pro Guitar Shop have been in the video demo game for quite some time (since 2007 to be exact), and I think its fair to say that, in that time, we have contributed significantly to the effort to make guitar gear demos better sounding, better looking, more useful, and more entertaining for the average viewer. Most of the credit for these improvements should rightfully go to our chief video guy, the illustrious Andy Martin, whose playing, personality, and production skills have long been our greatest asset. In recent years, we have noticed that many other professional gear demonstrators have followed our lead, and many of them are also making video demos of excellent quality. However, despite the overall higher standards that have been set in the current gear demo scene, we still see an awful lot of terrible demo videos out there in YouTube land, and not just from enthusiastic amateurs. There are a number of paid professionals producing gear videos that sound atrocious, look a fright, and contain more tongue wagging and aimless noodling than useful, appropriate

product demonstration. Thus, as a community service, we would like to impart to everyonepaid professional and bedroom amateur alikea few friendly pieces of advice for making better video demos. These tips are based on years of our own accumulated production experiences, feedback from our millions of channel viewers, and countless hours watching and listening to the videos of others. MAKE IT SOUND GOOD It should be obvious that the sound of the video is, by a large margin, the most important aspect of it. Players primarily watch gear demo videos to hear how the gear sounds, either to educate themselves before making a purchase, or to satisfy some curiosity about a product they cannot try out for

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themselves. In our experience, there are a few major missteps that we see frequently in videos of low quality: GUITAR OUT OF TUNE: An out-of-tune guitar can quickly ruin an otherwise great demo video, so start at the very beginning of the signal chain, and make sure the guitar is in tune before you hit the Record button. Use an actual tuner of some kind, because your ears probably arent as keen to tuning anomalies as you think they are, and even small tuning problems that might be hidden in the context of a full band can become glaringly apparent when playing solo. Tuning

only takes a minute, and it can make even the worst video much more bearable. TURN THE AMP UP: If youre using a tube amp, especially a non-master volume model, you must turn it up enough to get the power tubes cooking a little. It doesnt have to be on eleven, but most tube amplifiers will sound anemic and brittle with the volume just barely cracked open, at so-called bedroom levels. This will not make for a good, useful demo. Find the sweet spot, which is usually just where the amp begins to break up. If this is still too loud for your location, then consider purchasing a power attenuator, or recording your demo somewhere where you can turn the amp up. POOR MIC TECHNIQUE: There are a number of complicated techniques than can


be employed to mike a guitar cabinet, and countless fancy, expensive microphones that sound fabulous in front of a cab, but none of these things are necessary to get a good, basic sound for a demo video. One serviceable, inexpensive dynamic microphone placed roughly an inch off of the center of the speaker cone, or just on the edge of it, will do the job well enough in most cases. Small changes in placement can make a huge difference, so take a few minutes to move the microphone around and ascertain the best sounding position for it. The payoff will be more than worth the small amount of time invested. AVOID CAMERA MICROPHONES: The previous tip was made under the assumption that a proper recording microphone is being used to capture the sound of the amplifier, but unfortunately, this is often not the case with gear demos. Many are recorded with built-in video camera or (cringe) smartphone microphones, and the results are rarely useful. Besides not sounding acceptable, these mikes are typically easily distorted. They also tend to pick up more of the acoustic sound of the guitar being strummed in the room, rather than the actual sound of the amplified guitar emanating from the speaker cabinet. Weve

noted this phenomenon in more than a few paid, supposedly professional, gear videos, and it has become a huge pet peeve, as well as a handy litmus test of overall production standards. Please use a real microphone for the amp, and mute the camera audio during the playing portion of the video. The improvement will be substantial, and your viewers will thank you. MAKE IT LOOK GOOD Though secondary to sound quality, the appearance of the video is important as well. A video that is pleasing to the eye certainly increases the entertainment factor, as well as the overall perception of quality and competency. In our experience, there are a few areas where many aspiring demo makers go wrong:

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LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: We see a lot of demos that look like an episode of Hoarders, filmed in dingy, poorly lit basements and bedrooms, often with piles of filth and random household flotsam and jetsam lurking in the background. This is not cool. Its not a cool way to live your life, first of all, and second of all, many potential viewers are going to be grossed out and will quickly move on to something else. Not making people feel icky is a crucial element of producing a good gear demo. PERSONAL APPEARANCE: Speaking of icky, if I see one more homemade pedal demo where the demonstrator is barefoot, turning knobs with a big, dirty toe, or has a stained, stretched-out tube sock hanging half off of his foot, I swear, someones going to pay. Also, avoid terrycloth shorts at all costs, and in general, maybe dress like youve got a little respect for yourself and your viewers. It may be your day off, but the least you can do is put on some pants. Get yourself together, man. LIGHTING: The key to professional-looking video is, for the most part, all in the lighting. Lighting will make or break you, more so than the camera, editing, or any other factor. Unfortunately, quality video lighting is not

within everyones budget, but there are steps that can be taken to make the most of the light on hand. The best option is to film near the biggest window in the house, where the most natural light can come in. Natural lighting is superior (though direct sunlight should be avoided), and should be used whenever available. If necessary, it can be supported by whatever artificial lighting is handy, but mixing light types often complicates the process of achieving accurate color and white balance. Whatever you do, be sure to avoid backlighting, and get very familiar with your cameras white balance settings. CREATE INTERESTING, USEFUL VIDEO CONTENT Now that weve addressed the audio and visual aspects of the gear demo making process, let us examine the content aspect of it. Even well-produced videos are often lacking in useful content, either because the demonstrator doesnt really know the gear very well, cant shut up long enough to play a few chords, or just noodles aimlessly with no regard to the intended function of the product being demonstrated. Here are a few content considerations to take into account prior to venturing into your gear demoing career:


SHUT UP AND PLAY YER GUITAR: No matter how hilarious and personable you are, I can assure you, no one on the Internet wants to hear you talk any more than absolutely necessary. Make a quick introduction, if you must, and then get to playing the guitar. People want to hear the gear, so let them. Few things are more annoying than an eight-minute pedal demo with six minutes of talking preceding it, or worse, interspersed throughout. Covering basic functions of a fairly complicated piece of gear can be informative, but keep the explanation under a minute. 3045 seconds is optimum. PLAY SOMETHING APPROPRIATE: One does not have to be a virtuoso to make a high quality, informative demo video. Foremost, be sure that the musical choices are appropriate to the gear and its intended use. Playing a favorite Gorgoroth tune in a Tube Screamer demo, for instance, would be an example of a poorly considered pairing of

demo product and musical selection. Secondly, play a song, rather than several minutes of wanking and noodling. A short solo section, played well, can be helpful and appropriate to the viewer, but make sure its in the context of an actual piece of music. Thirdly, play within your abilities. Obvious mistakes and bum notes will be incredibly distracting, and will take away from any other positive qualities the video might have, so get your chops together prior to hitting record, and make sure the chosen piece of music is within your present skill level. I hope you have found these tips illuminating in some way, and that if youre a maker (or aspiring maker) of gear demos, they might help you improve the quality of your productions. In summation, I would encourage you to always keep the wants and needs of the end user in mind, and when in doubt, keep it short and sweet, with both the playing and (especially) the talking. Good luck, and well see you on the Tubes.

36 TONE TALK // The Frugal Pedalboard

If one were to glean all of his or her knowledge from the gear forums around the Internet, they would soon stumble into the mindset that pedals are a rich persons affair. Indeed, pedals can be financially intimidatingif someone were to ask for a good delay on a forum, they may be met with a 90 percent return rate of Strymon! Of course, one of these pedals may end up costing more than an entire board full of budget effects. As a player ponders what to do in this situation, they should perhaps consider that they got into guitar playing itself without buying a ten thousand-dollar Les Paul. Cheaper alternatives always exist, and this extends to pedals. Dont let your dire straits restrict your creativity; your pocketbook didnt stop you from getting to where you are now. Here are a few ways to build up a pedalboard on a shoestring budget. DECIDE WHAT YOU NEED Going out and buying a ton of gear all willy-nilly is certainly the antithesis of the frugal ethos. No responsible torrent of spending was ever facilitated by blind,

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wanton abandon. Before you stroll into a gear shop and start filling your arms with toys, you need to sit down and have an honest conversation with yourself about your wants, needs and expectations. There are a lot of factors that go into the construction of a quality piece of gear such as this, and you need to be equipped to deal with all of them, doubly so on a budget. The first question you need to ask yourself is if you need a board at all. If youre the type that knows that you will either never, ever play anywhere but your house, rehearsal space or what have you, then maybe an actual pedalboard just isnt for you. Most of this article will assume that you may play shows and/or travel with your gear at some point. Are you looking for an all-in-one genre pedalboard, or will you be looking to start small and then expand later? It isnt very frugal to buy a chorus pedal just because you think you may need one somewhere down the line. Its important to analyze that

sound in your head and take reasonable steps to replicate it. If it doesnt sound chorused, then perhaps its time to leave that particular pedal on the shelf. While youre at it, deciding just how many pedals you want to start with will then dictate powering options, as well as patch cables and some type of fastener, be it Velcro, zip ties or whatever else. PEDALBOARDS IN UNLIKELY PLACES There are several ways to go about creating the board itself. One of the most common methods is the Ikea Gorm board. In short, the colloquial Gorm means standalone shelves for Ikeas Gorm shelving system. They come in packages of two, and you will likely need both just to make one board.

38 TONE TALK // Top 10 Tonewoods38 TONE TALK // The Frugal Pedalboard

WHAT YOULL NEED: 1x two-pack of Gorm shelves 2x roll of Velcro (one hooks, one loops) 4x small L-braces with screws (optional) 4x rubber feet (optional) Fine-grit sandpaper (optional) Some players like to have their pedalboards sit towards them at an angle, for better viewing and for the ability to mount a power supply underneath. Since isolated power supplies dont exactly espouse the spirit of frugality, you may choose the angled option for viewabilitys sake, and if this is what you desire, youll need the L-braces and the rubber feet. If not, you can skip it. Since the Gorm shelves come in two packs, set the better-looking of the two aside. If you dont care about your pedalboard being tilted toward you, congratulations, youre almost done, just skip to the next paragraph! If you do care about the angle, youll have to disassemble the other Gorm. Because both Gorms are the same length, you need only remove one of the horizontal slats and mount it to the rear edge of the Gorm you set aside. Fasten it using the L-braces, then affix the rubber feet to each corner. Thats it! Some people prefer to use the remaining slats as vertical supports by placing them

perpendicular to the existing horizontal slats underneath the board and screwing them in. Now, measure the length of the slats and cut an appropriate swath of Velcro. If desired, use the fine-grit sandpaper and smooth out the surface of the Gorm. Peel the backing from the Velcro and lay it across a slat, and repeat until each slat has a strip of Velcro. Youre done! There are appropriate sibstitutes for the Gorm, of course. Some people have used wire-rack shelving (using zip ties instead of Velcro), skateboards and cutting boards. Using whats cheap and available is the essence of frugality, so dont feel married to the Gorm pedalboard. NEW OR USED? Its time to fill er up. You need to ask yourself if youre the type that needs brand new gear or if youre content with used gear. Truly, shopping for used gear is the embodiment of frugality, as sellers can play hard and fast with the prices at will. New gear adheres to a company policy in which one dealer cannot sell a product for less than another dealer, so what you see is what you get.

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In the interest of true frugality, there are several Chinese brands out there such as Mooer, Caline, Joyo, Moen, and Xvive that are nice on the pocketbook. Some of the pedals from these brands, such as the Mooer Mod Factory are outstanding deals, offering several pedals worth of effects in one box. Some, such as the Moen Fuzz Moo and Uni-Comp are actually very acclaimed by pros and amateurs alike. Electro-Harmonix also makes a handful of inexpensive pedals as well, including the excellent Bad Stone and Soul Food. An original Big Muff can also be had for very little. Behringer and BBE also make very diverse lines of pedals geared toward the budget-minded. Buying used and adhering to our miserly mantra can be a crapshoot, especially with lofty expectations. For example, if youre a huge fan of The Cure and absolutely need that sound, finding an inexpensive Boss CE-2 may prove a year-long task. That said, do some research as to appropriate substitutes for legendary items. eBay, Craigslist and your local shops are your friends here, and you can use eBay as the arbiter of good deals. Find an approximate going rate and seek out deals. When buying

from a pawn shop or Craigslist seller, dont be afraid to haggle for a little extra price breakage. Some pedals exist in such large quantities that their values on the used market are significantly lower. Line 6s DL4 Delay Modeler has been around forever and finding a used specimen isnt difficult. The same goes for most other big (MXR, Boss, Ibanez, Electro-Harmonix, et cetera) manufacturers, and it goes without saying that items that were recently released will hold their value significantly better than say, a Fulltone OCD, which has been in circulation for over a decade. As far as power is concerned, the undisputed champion is still the Visual Sound 1Spot. Its inexpensive, costs around $30, and will power most everything youll put together. If you hook it all up and your rig doesnt work properly, you may need another 1Spot, as the unit is incapable of supplying the required milliamperage. Finally, there are cables. On a shoestring budget, its pretty tough to beat CBIs eight-pack colored cable bundle; you get eight cables for less than $20. Making your own cables (see below) might be a better option,

40 TONE TALK // Top 10 Tonewoods40 TONE TALK // The Frugal Pedalboard

but even DIY cables are going to cost more than these. Theyre excellent for a starter package and earn the gold seal of miserly approval. DO IT YOURSELF! We must, at last, address the electronic elephant in the room: DIY. As in most walks of life, learning to roll your own, as it were, can lead to tremendous and immediate savings. However, if youre a very busy person, the undertaking of new skill acquisition plus the cost of investment may well deter you. That said, the truly frugal will find a lot to like about DIY work. Aside from building character and a more emotional attachment to your gear, theres a deep well of knowledge from which to draw, and the well deepens every day. In short: nows a great time to start. Once youve mastered a soldering iron (not gun, they get too hot), the sky is the limit for frugality. Given the abundance of DIY projects available on the Internet, you could conceivably craft an entire board worth of

effects and cables (as for the power supplies, thats still best left to the pros). Theres not a lot of mystery behind the guitar cable. For a simple cable, there are three basic ingredients: the cable itself and two ends. Thats all; theres no fairy dust or anything of the sort. Patch cables are one of the simplest builds for the novice. Look for an upcoming issue of Tone Report for my DIY cable rolling treatise. Tim Escobedo and Jack Orman are two DIY deities that have provided a kings ransom of schematics and board layouts for budding builders. However, the circuit most people start with is a simple fuzz/distortion called the Bazz Fuss, designed by Christian S. back in 2000. These days, its a DIY staple and its not uncommon to find Bazz Fuss-like gain stages in some popular stompboxes. Hopefully this article has shown you that you dont need to be living like a king to have a formidable array of effects. The most important rule of thumb in the land of frugality is one I learned long ago: Use your ears. If it sounds good, it is good.

42 GEAR REVIEW // Keeley Electronics Compressor Pro

SAVOR THE FLAVOR OR DISH THE SQUISH The new Compressor Pro from master of the art Robert Keeley, is all about infinite control with minimal head scratching. With a rack-like control set that includes every crucial compression adjustment parameter, Keeley has managed to cram a studio-grade compressor into a robust little stompbox. Everything from soft knee string singing for Johnny Marr-peggios to clawhammer clicking hard knee Knopfler-style limiting

is achievable, with every shade of compression in between.

One of the first things I noticed that sets this compressor pedal apart from the pack is the visual reference onboard. This comes in handy (particularly in more subtle applications) for signal sweetening that maintains picking nuance integrity while evening string volumes within chords and adding sustain. The Keeley Compressor Pro allows one to control and monitor the signal digestion process from input to output for the most fine-

tunable and piquant tone pumping emissions possible.

A CERTAIN RATIO OF PURE SIGNAL SWEETENER One of my favorite features of the KCP is the Threshold control. It functions like a stoplight that lets the unaffected signal through when the corresponding LED is green, and stops the signal information from peaking and decaying when red. When used in conjunction with the ratio control, one can achieve every finite push-pull increment of attack and

REVIEW BY FLETCHER STEWART STREET PRICE $299.00

KEELEY ELECTRONICSCOMPRESSOR PRO

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decay from blooming, to pumping, to constant hard limiting and chicken-pickin. The attack and release controls will be more familiar to compressor pedal tweakers as they can be interactively set for the perfect amount of holding and releasing of the signal. The former can be set to kick in slower for maintaining picking dynamics and the latter can be set for release times that range from 100 milliseconds to an astonishing three seconds of slow sustaining release. This is great for whipping out the slide and letting the tone glide without choking out.

Though the aforementioned features would be more than enough to keep folks happily tweaking their compression to perfection, Keeley has added three unique features to round off the KCP experience: The gain control can be used as intended to compensate for the volume loss that results from some heavy compression settings, but it is also possible to use

the KCP as a 20db booster when the ratio is set to 1:1. Then we have the Knee switch, which brings on an obvious signal squeeze arch in Hard mode, or dynamically enhances the silky sustaining overtones of the guitar in a more transparent fashion when set to Soft. Last but not least, the Auto switch can disengage the attack and release controls and automatically find the perfect enhancement balance based on the frequencies coming into the unitpure genius.

WHAT WE LIKE Keeley has long been the word in top shelf compression pedals and this Compressor Pro is the monument atop the market mountain in this category. It has the ability to be as simple or as comprehensive as the user needs, and can be used for any instrument, vocal or studio application. There are a million ways in which this machine could prove useful.

CONCERNS Those in the know can ignore this statement, but compression newbies might scoff at a comp pedal that costs three big ones. But, this is more like a studio-grade high-performance rack unit that fits on a pedalboard. When you take a peek at some examples in the rack analog compressor market, you will quickly realize just how affordable this unit is considering it can hang with (and even surpass) some vintage gear that fetches over twice the price.

2015 HARMAN. All Rights Reserved.

The DigiTech TRIO Band Creator pedal listens to what you play and automagically generates bass and drum parts that match your chord progressions and rhythmic feel. Simply connect your guitar to TRIO, press the footswitch to teach TRIO the chords and rhythm, then press the footswitch again to immediately begin rocking with your own Power TRIO.

Ive been hooked on phase shifting since the early 90s (my teen years). I enjoyed hearing them employed on grunge albums, but it was the phase shift effects on Axis: Bold as Love that really blew me awayand then there were the awesome phase shifter tones on Dark Side of the Moon. Of course, now I know those tones were actually achieved via Uni-Vibe. Because of my love of phase shifting, Ive owned quite a few phaser pedals over the years. My favorite had always been a Mu-Tron Phasor II that I purchased new old stock for $125 in 1994 and sold in 2007 for enough money to

buy an amp.

I missed that Phasor II for a long time. Not anymore. The Tractor Beam from VFE Effects has filled the void. Like all VFE pedals, the Tractor Beam offers enough controls that it verges on option overload. You get full-sized pots for Speed, Center, and Feedback, a mini pot for Mix, and switches for Stages and Mode.

What, you havent seen a phaser with selectable stages and modes before? The switch for stages allows you to choose between two stages (think Phase 45), four stages (Phase 90), and three

stages (this one is inverted, the phasing sweeps in reverse). The Mode switch is equally cool. It switches between classic phasing (P), a more throbby Uni-Vibe-esque sweep (V), and finally, a cross between phasing and vibe (PV).

Speed and Mix are self-explanatory, although its worth noting that the Tractor Beam can bet set both slower and faster than most other phasers I have encountered. Center is an interesting control; set to the left, it emphasizes the low-end and adds to the throbby Uni-Vibe effect. Turned to the right, it de-emphasizes the throb and

46 GEAR REVIEW // VFE Pedals Tractor Beam

REVIEW BY PHILLIP DODGE STREET PRICE $219.00

VFE PEDALSTRACTOR BEAM

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instead imparts a glassy shimmer to the sweep. And of course, in the middle is where you find the most traditional phasing tones. And finally there is Feedbacknegative to the left, positive to the right, and zero feedback when set to center. Well talk about this control more later.

As mentioned previously in my review of the Merman, VFE recently launched an online custom shop that allows you to select the paint, knobs, LED-color, and more for your pedal. You can even design your own artwork and have it printed on your new pedal. For the Tractor Beam, I went with the Black Starlight paint, and orange graphics and LED. Because of course, an alien spaceship would use an orange tractor beam

So how does the Tractor Beam sound? It really depends on where you set the controls and even more so on the number of stages engaged. In the two-stage mode, the Tractor Beam emits a mellower phase tone reminiscent of the Phase 45

and the old DOD Phasor. Ive always loved the slightly less swooshy sound of a two-stage phaser, and in this setting the Tractor Beam doesnt disappoint. Its great for adding subtle movement to lead lines and very cool at higher speed where it does a surprisingly good Leslie simulation. Set to three stages, the Tractor Beam sweeps in reverse. Combing this mode with the V setting and dialing in the low-end throb with the Center control achieves a very convincing Uni-Vibe sound. I dont know why this setting sounds so much like a Uni-Vibe, since the original Uni-Vibe was a four-stage phaser. This brings us to the four-stage setting. This sounds like the little orange box that most people think of when they think of phasers, and this is the setting that reminded me most of my old Mu-Tron. Its thick and chewy and sounds just about perfect.

So yes, the Tractor Beam can cover a ton of different phase tones and can even do a very convincing Uni-

Vibe impression, but its also capable of some otherworldly sounds. As you crank up the Mix and push deeply into positive or negative feedback you can start to dial in extreme filtering sounds, warped LP effects, and just general craziness.

WHAT WE LIKE The build quality, versatility, and 40 plus years of phasing tones in a box this size and this price is a thing of beauty. The ability to customize the look of the pedal is an added bonus.

CONCERNS Like so many pedals with tons of options, its easy to get caught up twiddling knobs and tweaking.

50 GEAR REVIEW // Schuyler Dean Apex Humbuckers

With the Apex pickups, Schuyler Dean set out to create a balance between the Fender Wide Range Humbucker and the Stratocaster pickup. For the short version of this review, know this: the Apex Humbuckers are bright, bell like, articulate and generally awesome. For the long version, were going to need a little in the way of back story

Chances are, if you know the name Seth Lover, you know it from U.S. Patent 2,896,491. The Patent Applied For in 1955 for the Gibson humbucker pickup. What you may not know is that after many years at Gibson, Mr. Lover left Kalamazoo, MI for sunny, Southern Californialittle town called Fullerton, to be exact. It was

here, that he went about designing an equally awesome humbucking pickup, the Fender Wide Range Humbucker.

The Wide Range was designed to sound more like Fenders bright and twangy single coils than Gibsons thick (and some would complain, muddy) humbuckers. It achieved this by utilizing individual CuNiFe (Copper/Nickel/Iron) pole pieces rather than the metal screws over an AlNiCo bar magnet construction of the Gibson PAF. As such, guitarists that love the Wide Range Humbucker, love it for its bell like highs and rich, but articulate mids. Fender used CuNiFe rods because the process for machining AlNiCo into threaded, screw-type pole pieces was costly and difficult.

Fender re-issued the Wide Range Humbucker on more than one occasion, but they have never been the same as the originals. As such, vintage Wide Range Humbuckers increase in price every year.

Luckily, Schuyler Dean Electric Guitar Pickups is around to pick up (pun intended) where the Wide Range humbuckers left off. The new Apex Humbuckers are intended to strike a perfect balance between the Wide Range Humbucker and a Stratocaster pickup and do what Fender could not by utilizing individual AlNiCo pole pieces. This means they get even closer to Fender single coil territory, and with four-conductor wiring, they can each be split into a single coil pickup.

REVIEW BY PHILLIP DODGE STREET PRICE $140.00 (Black)$145 silver/nickel/brass

SCHUYLER DEANAPEX HUMBUCKERS

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I recently had the pleasure of installing the Schuyler Dean Apex Humbuckers in my Reverend Roundhouse. To make the most of the versatility offered by the four-conductor wiring, I paired the Apex Humbuckers with a push-pull tone potentiometer as a coil tap. I considered using individual switches as taps for each pickup, but I didnt want to drill extra holes in the guitar. I should also point out that in split mode, the active coils are reverse wound/reverse polarity and therefore hum cancelling when in the combined, middle position.

So how do they sound? The short description is that they are fat like a humbucker, but with more clarity and definition. The neck pickup sounds full and round without any mud. The bridge pickup is bright and twangy like a good Tele pickup but with a little more heft. If I were to compare the Apexes to pickups you might have encountered; in humbucking mode, the Apexes sound like a cross between a PAF and a Filtertron.

Splitting coils is a different matter. If youre like me,

trying to get multiple tones from a single guitar, Im sure youve experienced plenty of awesome humbuckers that sound anemic when you split the coils. Luckily, this is not the fate of the Apex Humbuckers. When split, they sound shockingly similar to a good Stratocaster pickup. Case in point: Ive been on a bit of a Pink Floyd kick lately. I blame the VFE Tractor Beam Phaser Ive been using and how close it gets to the Uni-Vibe tones from Dark Side, but I digress. When pairing the coil-tapped Apexes with a Skreddy Lunar Module Deluxe into a Catalinbread Echorec, I was able to dial in a tone that just about nailed David Gilmours Dark Side- and Wish You Were Here-era tones.

The Apex Humbuckers are the ideal humbucker for people that favor Fender single coil tones and are especially well-suited to the guys who are chasing Hendrix and SRV tones. Thanks to the lack of mid-range congestion, they sound beautiful when paired with a Tube Screamer into a Fender amp. And with a Fuzz Face circuit, they sound sweet,

clean up easily, and dont tend to overwhelm the input the way so many humbuckers can. It might all be perception, but the combination of slightly lower output and the more present high frequencies appear to increase the available headroom in low-wattage amps. Where my little 1965 Vibro Champ used to distort at 3 on the dial with the stock humbuckers in my Reverend Roundhouse, I can now turn it to 5 before it distorts. I had similar results with my Princeton Reverb and my AC15HW.

Did I mention that these pickups are beautiful and generate the what are those pickups? response from fellow guitarists? You just cant go wrong.

WHAT WE LIKE Bright, full tone without the mud or the hum. The ability to sound like a Strat pickup. They have an original design that looks cool as heck!

CONCERNS These are for guys that want classic PAF tones. And what you gain in clarity you lose in fist-pumping bridge pickup riffage.

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54 GEAR REVIEW // Boss Waza Craft DM-2W Delay

THE DM-2 FUKKATSU (RESURRECTION OF A CLASSIC) Finally. Boss answers the call and a classic is reborn and improved by the same Japanese engineers who created the all-time benchmark analog delay pedal. No more paying $400 for a beat up old 300-millisecond bucket brigade delay. I have used the original extensively and can say without hesitation that the tone is intact with this DM-2W. Forget about hype, MN3005 chips and mojo for a minute and lets remember what we loved

so much about this specific circuit.

The repeats of the DM-2 never seemed to get in the way and sat perfectly in that sonic safety net that catches notes and chords so beautifully. I used to always leave it on for a little flattering smear of ambience. When I wanted longer delays, I used to have to roll back the repeat rate knob with the side of my foot, which made a lovely characterful pitch bend into 300ms of thick padding for hazy, psychedelic leads.

That scenario leads me to the first obvious upgrade the new Waza Craft DM-

2W brings to the tablethe rate can be controlled with an expression pedal. Now I can take the tone from the whacky faux reverberated bathtub to full on dub-style King Tubby treatments with a simple sweep. Another thing I loved about the original DM-2 is that it sounded great in front of the amp; it just blended into clean and overdriven preamps so well, unlike some delays that get all messy without being exiled to the effects loop. The new DM-2W sounds just as warm and clear out front as its predecessor, but took a little hint from the old DM-3 and added an additional

REVIEW BY FLETCHER STEWART STREET PRICE $179.00

BOSSWAZA CRAFT DM-2W DELAY

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direct out for even more up-front options.

TWO PATHS TO ANALOG RIGHTEOUSNESS Before I even hit a note, I noticed something different. I do remember the old DM-2 sucking a bit of tone out of my old setup, so I did a little buffer test. Low and behold, the DM-2W not only kept my tone in tact, but also added a little smidge of fidelity to the long cable run I used for the review. A quick confirmation with my friend at Roland revealed that the buffer has indeed been overhauled and improved. Now lets get stuck in stock mode

Thick, rubbery warm repeats that saturate pleasantly in that soft limiter style way when I dig into the strings? Check. The clear, yet never congested slapback setting by which all other slapbacks are judged? Check. The 300ms ambient halo of sound, that magically never needs to be beat-synced with a drummer or rhythm track? Check. It is all

there, sounding and feeling as alive as ever. Moving over to custom mode seems to add more of everything. More clarity on shorter settings, twice as much delay time and a touchier intensity for those sci-fi self-oscillation moments that my dog loves so much.

WHAT WE LIKE The extra features, extra delay time, dual outputs and better buffer take an often cloned, but never dethroned pedal out of the 80s and into the 21st Century. There are a lot of boutique variants of the DM-2, but most of them have a loud popping true bypass that repeats hideously upon engagement. Not so with the real deal. Plus, this is a great end of the pedal chain driver and sounds as chewy as the original.

CONCERNS I want more classic coveted Boss pedal Waza revamps. I love modulation with my delay, so here is an idea I think about a million of us can get behind Combine the CE-2 and VB-2 into one pedal and call it the Waza Craft CV-2. Keep the VB-2 control set and simply add a CE-2 setting to the mode selector. We are all waiting to be unlatched

TONE REPORT

Copyright 2015. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

Tone Report Weekly has no association with the monthly publication ToneQuest Report.

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Luke Currano, Rebecca Dirks, Phillip Dodge, David A. Evans, Sarah FitzGerald, Ian Garrett,

Brett Kingman, Nicholas Kula, Nick Rambo, Sam Hill Eric Tischler, Fletcher Stewart, Jamie Wolfert

ART & DESIGN ART DIRECTOR Richard E. Jones

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tone report weekly - issue 68 - 2015 - march 27

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