Source Audio TOUR BOX /// Experiences with the Nemesis, L.A. Lady & the Kingmaker

Hello Gearheads! Today's post is fueled by the fine folks at Source Audio and their recent 'Tour Box', a traveling set of pedals that I had the chance to check out and share with you! 

Included are the L.A. Lady Overdrive, Kingmaker Fuzz and the mighty Nemesis Delay.

Without any further ado, let's dive right in.... I tested these pedals on my studio pedalboard, which is always in flux and to be quite honest, in need of a major re-haul... clean up on aisle 4 anyone? All the pedals sounded great and integrated quite nicely on the board. I do run a specific interface (PI-01) from LA Sound Design (who has done all of my boards) that has a very good sounding buffer system, and I didn't experience any issues in tonal coloration or changes at all with the Source Audio pedals in line. You might ask, why is that a big deal? Because a lot of pedals when inserted into an existing system (largely due to their own propriety buffer bypasses) really can alter the existing tone and the tone of other pedals after them.

Important to note, all three Source Audio pedals contain a magnificent amount of secondary control via a iOs or Andriod APP. You can alter the pedal in many ways not limited to deeper settings, new drive, or delay engines ultimately creating your own personal effect pedal. Tweakers and deep sea tone divers rejoice!

The L.A. Lady is a formidable overdrive and boost pedal. It immediately hearkens back the favored pushed tube amplifier tone that we all love, all the way to hot-roded Marshall-Esq distortion. The EQ section on the pedal only includes a two band treble and bass, which makes it so easy and useful - IMPORTANT! While I love to get into the minutia of EQ'ing a pedal, it's nice to just have simple tools to get the tone you're after.

I preferred the 'Classic' mode on the L.A. Lady which offered the richest tone to my ears in my rig. I'm running a clean 'pedal platform' rig with a 120 watt Blankenship Twinplex and a 2x12 Kerry Wright diagonal Marshall style cabinet loaded with UK made Celestion Vintage 30's. I could see however, that if you were using a lower wattage amp for example or a Marshall set to stun, you might be drawn to the other less wide tonal choices.

Check out the demo below of the L.A. Lady with the Nemesis Delay mixed in to taste...

The Kingmaker Fuzz boasts 3 different Fuzz tones - a Big Muff, Fuzz Face and Octavio engines. They are all quite musical and could work well with a variety of genres. Ask any guitar player and they will most likely agree that fuzz pedals are a mysterious (often difficult, yet rewarding) experience. They are very suspect to tonal changes based on temperature, grounding, and noise, and can even transmit radio waves.... AM radio anyone? The Kingmaker being digital doesn't have any of those issues and is quite easy to dial in and most importantly sounds great. I enjoyed checking out the 3 different engines and thought the Fuzz Face setting or 'Normal' setting was warm and could cut in a band mix very well. My favorite however was the Octave engine, simulating the Tycobrahe Octavio. Rich, and full of the crazy on-the-verge-of-blowing-up tone that can create some very cool soundscapes as well as conjure up your best James Marshall Hendrix impression.  

Check out the demo below of the Octave engine with the Nemesis Delay mixed in for taste...

Lastly the beastly Nemesis Delay was a joy to play. In similar fashion to many digital delays on the market currently, there are a bevy of available engines and options including: presets, vintage to modern delay tones, tap temp, and flexible controls. That last bit was my favorite aspect to the Nemesis Delay... the ability to easily get a sound you like with minimal control and knob twisting! While the Neuro Mobile APP allows you to get into much detail and damn near infinite control, I'm happy to say the controls on the box itself are easy to dial in, useful and toneful. Another nice thing I noticed about the controls are that when you cycle from each engine, the controls (including delay time, feedback, rate, etc) stay the same as your last adventure. It's helpful when trying to dial in a sound that you're maybe unsure of, without having to start over each time you switch --- this is NOT standard on many other delays, and something I found extremely useful. It is handy to have everything at your fingertips, but (especially when in the studio environment) dialing up sounds quickly is incredibly important.

I tend to prefer natural delay tones: vintage tape and Deluxe Memory Man Bucket Brigade types are usually my favorite and what I gravitate towards. They sounded fantastic and WARM on the Nemesis. The dry signal of my guitar along with the effected delay tone was very pleasing and organic, no weird artifacts or loss of tone here. I can honestly see this pedal as a big solution for anyone seeking a powerful delay system without a huge footprint, and an interface that can be as in depth as you'd like it to be. That's the thing with Source Audio... as a company they seem to want to give the player as much or little control without sacrificing on either end of the spectrum. Very, very cool indeed.  At this very moment, they're working on the finishing touches of their new Reverb pedal the Ventris Reverb which debuted at this past Winter NAMM, which ultimately has been created alongside Source Audio customers and players with their valuable input in mind. I look forward to reviewing the Ventris once it's finished.

Check out the demo below of the Nemesis Delay...

Shin-Ei Vibe Bro /// Vintage 60's Uni-Vibe

Picture this: you're a hunter and you've been searching for a mythical beast -- ever elusive and challenging. A beast so hard to find that you've had to search high and low, sifting through the mire to attempt to not only find the four-leaved clover -- but to grab onto it and hold it for dear life. Sound crazy!? Well, maybe slightly -- but this is what the new offering from Shin-Ei/Honey are bringing to the table with the Vibe Bro.

Many guitarists will attest to trying to find the elusive 'perfect' Uni-Vibe pedal. Whether you're looking to bring back the tones of Hendrix, Gilmour or Trower -- or simply to find that elusive tone you've always heard in your head and what you remember those records sounding like, it's a momentous occasion when you finally nail that beast to the wall. With all hyperbole aside, this is how I felt when I first heard the Shin-Ei Vibe Bro.

The Uni-Vibe itself is such an interesting effect. In an age when guitarist's didn't have many effects or sounds to choose from, there was the Shin-Ei Uni-Vibe. Designed to emulate a Leslie rotating speaker system, and while it never really did sound anything close to those Doppler shifting cabinets, it did however sound very, very, very cool.

Check out this link for some deep technical information http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/univibe/univtech.htm

Trusting itself into the hands of players like Jimi Hendrix who loved it's deep otherworldly underwater tones --- Phasey, warbly, spacey and straight up trippy. It's pretty safe to say that without Hendrix's prefixed obsession with the Uni-Vibe, it probably wouldn't be very much on any guitarist's radar or pedalboards today. I for one am incredibly grateful for his obsession for the Uni-Vibe and of course his never ending quest (no matter how short it was) to find NEW sounds. That's the truest irony of the Uni-Vibe as a voice in modern music on the guitar. It's essentially a 'vintage' effect --- but I'll be a monkey's uncle if I'm not inspired every single time I hear that incredible pitch and tone warble, glassy and ALIVE!

That brings me back to the offering from the folks over at Shin-Ei, who have not only resurrected the Uni-Vibe, but the Shin-Ei name itself. Here's a bit from the company:

About Us

Over fifty years ago, Shin-ei® began as a Japanese based company manufacturing electronic devices for musicians and consumer use. Over the years they produced the Uni-Vibe, Special Fuzz, Uni-Fuzz, Psychedelic Machine and many other popular pedals and effects. 

Originally, the Uni-Vibe was first produced  in 1968 by "Honey Company Limited", a small Japanese company who closed its doors in 1969. Shin-ei assumed the reins and began producing the Uni-Vibe and other former "Honey" products well into the 1970's generally branding them as Shin-ei or Shin-ei/Companion.

In the 1960's and 70's, Shin-ei also produced many of their pedals and effects under private label brands such as "Jax", Companion, Shaftsbury, and Sekova to name a few.

In recent years, Shin-ei focused on producing industrial electronics and shut its doors after being acquired by a U.S. corporation.

In 2015, trademarks for the original Honey, Shin-ei and Companion brands were filed by Honey Shin-ei LLC with the sole intention of "carrying the flame" and bringing back to life the great products these wonderful companies produced back in the day. We are huge fans and didn't want their work to be forgotten over time.

The Japanese history and heritage of Honey, Shin-ei, and Companion is very important to us. Great care will be taken as we move forward to faithfully reproduce the vintage historic Honey/Shin-ei products and create exciting new ones as well.  

We are committed to producing products with the same spirit, dedication and creativity shown by the original Honey and Shin-ei design teams of the 1960's and 70's.

Here's a less traditional example of how I enjoy using the Vibe Bro.

Working in some new #univibe #tones with the incredible Shin Ei Vibe Bro. #xacttonesolutions #winforddrive making an appearance #shinei #vibebro

I've personally always loved the Uni-Vibe as a guitar effect. I love it's otherworldly sounds and undulating elements that hearken to another place that I've yet to explore --- inspiring me to create new and interesting sounds. The Vibe Bro is a welcome addition and while it could be thought of as only a 'vintage effect' and seen in the video above, a sound or effect is only limited to it's perspective. In fact, it's incredible for synth, keys and drum machine sounds -- adding an element of space and grit that you just can't find with a plug-in or typical effect.

I choose to see beyond what is typical and search for that which inspires me to keep going! It's the eternal quest for new sounds, new moments, new feelings --- FEELS!

It's safe to say that living in this age of remarkable technology, being able to use the benchmarks of our musical history and apply them creatively in present time yields incredibly exciting creations. Now, I'm off to go undulate in the deep and mysterious tones of what's left of this year 2016. Happy New Year, Gearheads!

Shin-Ei Vibe Bro right at home on my LA Sound Design recording board. This picture is from a recent Brian Buckley Band tracking session at Grandmaster Recorders in Los Angeles, CA.

Ibanez Mostortion MT10

Find an original Ibanez Mostortion MT10 if your life depends on it. An incredible find in the wild as it's no longer made and sounds unreal -- unlike any other boost or drive on the guitar effects market. Partly, due in fact that Ibanez used IC Chips that are no longer made and the pedal is 20 years old. You can find them on many a Nashville touring and session board for a reason.

I tend to prefer overdrives that offer a unique feel that emphasizes what I'm doing at the guitar's end. Everything I choose whether it be on a studio pedalboard system or a live/touring system, I'm always looking for the best tool to emphasize what I'm playing and how I'm playing. The MT10 Mostortion is exactly that. I use two actually, one on my live pedalboard and one on my studio board. They're both rehoused as the originals are not true bypass and between the jacks, pots etc... they could use a bit of beefing up to live a longer life. I mainly prefer them being rehoused as one may find out that having a few non true bypass pedals can really alter your bypassed tone as well as how other pedals in your chain sound... which is an entirely different can of worms I'll discuss further in another Gearheads post! 

You might be wondering how I use these rare birds in both situations... you also might not, but I'll be happy to tell you! Shortest answer is two ways.

My studio board I use the MT10 as a medium, bold yet with pleasing compression drive tone. The Thru-Tone version does sound different from the XTS version. Another future post! I find that this particular version really cuts well in a recorded piece of music. In other words it tracks well, which is why I use it for sessions. The 'right' amount of presence mixed with mid range content and compression makes it really pop in a track.

On my live board I use the XTS version as an extension of other pedals, specifically the Maxon SD-9. I use it after the SD-9 as a sort of EQ/midrange boost. Not boosting the volume necessarily, but more along adding more mids, more presence more of what you need in a moment of solos, or crazier parts where you need to jump above the band in a live mix but not change the inherent character of the initial tone. This is something that's very important to me. In fact my live board is basically based around the Maxon SD-9. I use other pedals either boost it before or after it for more tonal options. Look forward to a post on the SD-9 as well. 

So, there you have it! Now go and scour Reverb.com & Ebay and get yourself one!

Ibanez MT10 Mostortion rehoused by XTS Xact Tone Solutions. Live LA Sound Design pedalboard

Ibanez MT10 Mostortion rehoused by Thru-Tone in Nashville, which lives on my studio LA Sound Design pedalboard