GEMINI PICKUPS || TONE RANGERS || TAKING THE WIDE RANGE TO NEW HEIGHTS

Hello Gearheads! Today I’m excited to bring you a slightly different type of Gearheads Feature, taking a break from our usual pedal-centric programing, I’ve got a killer new set of pickups to share!

Gemini Pickups, is a handmade pickup winding company out of Newburgh, NY led by the venerable Rob Banta. Gemini Pickups are decidedly a smaller, cottage industry compared to the giants that may line your brick and mortar shops… well for the time being that is. Banta is making some big waves with his creations and getting them in the hands and well, bodies of some music talent’s best sounding guitars.

Gemini Pickups flagship designs appear to be in the once niche market of Gold Foil pickups, that are incredibly popular now, well again that is after their resurgence. Gemini does not seem to led by the usual mentality of stocking their shelves with copies of every typical pickup design as many of their peers seem to do. Call it more of niche interests, call it a distinct instinct on what else could be made really well other than your 9 variations of a “Patent Applied For'“ humbucker… I simply see it as putting out what makes you happy.

Well, happy it is indeed gearheads… the pickups are fantastic! No need to read any further… oh wait? I haven’t even mentioned anything about what I said I was going to mention!? Ah yes, the Tone Rangers!!! Onto the pickups at hand for criminy sakes!

The Tone Rangers are Banta’s take on the Fender Wide Range Humbucker. Fender’s Wide Range’s were original designed by the historical Seth Lover, the man who designed the Gibson Humbucker.. someone had to help buck that hum! In the early 1970’s Fender was looking to compete with Gibson, since Fender was mainly considered a ‘Single Coil’ guitar manufacturer Seth Lover was brought in to help revitalize their vision and their guitars. The Wide Range Humbucker was used in Telecaster Deluxes, Telecaster Thin-lines and the Starcaster, a space age shaped semi-hollow electric. The Wide Ranges themselves were more clear, open and “stringy” than the Gibson counterparts, while still ‘bucking’ hum and reducing the 60 cycle noise guitarists were dealing with (and still deal with to this day!). Used until around the end of 1979, they would be reintroduced in various different incarnations over the years but without the same core materials and most importantly the tone.

“The legendary Wide Range Humbucker. Brainchild of the same Seth Lover that designed the Gibson humbucker. If you want a great-big, bad-ass humbucker here it is. Big humbucker sound, but with more of the attack and articulation of a single coil. Tight bottom-end, smooth clear highs and all the great mid-range these pickups are known for. The challenge for me was creating a unique take on the WRHB at a decent price point. No small challenge, but I’m incredibly happy with the finished product. 10.7k bridge, 9.6k neck. These guys also make great candidates for our DualBucker wiring. In which case the single coil outputs are 6.2k/5.6k.”
— Rob Banta, Gemini Pickups

Gemini’s Tone Rangers offer various different pickup sizing, I opted for the traditional humbucker route as I did not wish to change anything on my guitar other than the pickups. The original size of the housing on the pickup itself if wider and taller, making a body route a must. Gemini also offers them in a Jazzmaster style pickup housing. The Tone Rangers use a very similar alloy in the core materials as the original CuNiFe magnets making these pickups very close in feel, tone and performance.

Tonally the Tone Rangers are rich, fat and clear. They speak with a certain presence that you’d normally get from a single coil but have that added girth and roundness that we want out of a humbucker. I installed these pickups in my Tyler Studio Elite Retro. I love this guitar, it’s a very light Ash bodied resonate guitar that has a lot of vibrational information. While I liked the original pickups, I found the guitar initially a little too modern for my tastes in the tone. There was a very large EQ curve available and I wanted to clear up some of the mud that can happen with any PAF style pickup.

The Tone Rangers offer essentially every bit of fat, rich PAF tone but with the essence of a single coil. The neck pickup is clear and open while still retaining that round neck tone and the bridge pickup is cutting, snappy and present without being harsh or too bright. They are a great match for this Tyler, which is in it’s unplugged, acoustic nature a very snappy and resonate instrument. This Tyler also has an onboard midrange boost preamp circuit that plays very nicely with the pickups. Initially I was concerned the boost wouldn’t sound that great with a pickup set like the Tone Rangers, but it truly melds with them.

I’m very happy with these pickups and to say that they won’t cost you years on a waitlist or thousands of dollars is just the icing on the cake. Gemini is charging roughly around $250 a set for these which is an absolute bargain considering what the originals and the newly reissued CuNiFe branded Fender Wide Ranges can run. This will definitely NOT be the last set of Gemini pickups I try that’s for sure… most likely their Gold Foils are next on my list! The tone chase is real pals, who am I kidding… if you’re reading this feature you already know that!

Thanks for checking this Gearheads Feature on the Gemini Tone Rangers. If you’d like to learn more about Rob Banta and his work please do check out these sites for more information.

https://www.geminipickups.com

https://www.geminipickups.com/tone-rangers

https://www.instagram.com/geminipickups/


Until next time Gearheads, please take a moment to Like, Subscribe & Share this Feature and I’ll see you all very soon!

STACKS FX || ACID CAT FUZZ/DISTORTION

Hello Gearheads! Today’s Gearheads Feature is brought to you by STACKS FX, a fantastic operation based in Long Beach, California Co-Founded by Miguel A. Vasquez and Brian Frederick. I met Miguel some years back buying gear of course! I bought a big box Deluxe Memory Man he had from some previous stock and have kept an eye on his company since. The STACKS FX Acid Cat is one of the 2 current pedals in their “OHMS Series” and it is by no means a tender pedal… this cat has some teeth! Like many fantastic newer offerings in the effects & pedals market, Miguel worked up the Acid Cat during the time spent in lock-down during the Covid-19 closures - what better way to spend that time than cooking up killer circuits!?

The Acid Cat at it’s foundation is a brutal, thick and saturated fuzz. I believe it’s circuit was birthed in the Fuzz Face genealogy but beyond that it’s totally it’s own thing. With just 4 controls there’s quite a big world of tone in this kitty. You can garner anything from thick Big Muff type fuzz and distortion to jangly British overdriven amp tones all by adjusting the controls on the pedal as well as your volume knob on your guitar. Much like the Fuzz Face, there is great clean up at pretty much even the highest gain settings. There’s a nice dance between your guitar volume, the Acid Cat’s volume and input/gain trimmer. I found that adjusting those 3 elements to be quite rewarding tonally.

“An original circuit that takes your signal and sends it into brutally heavy territory. You can also achieve some classic blues/rock tones by rolling back the input control. It is very dynamic and responds really well to your guitars volume level. There’s loads of output volume available for driving the input of your amp or stacking with other pedals. This pedal can sound radically different with different guitars. Let’s your instruments character shine through while saturating to your taste.

Controls are;
-Volume: Lots of output!
-Input (small trimmer): Acts as a gain control.
-Fat: 3 way toggle switch selects between 3 levels of bass response.
-Tone: 3 way toggle switch selects between 3 level of lo-pass filtering”
— From STACKS FX

Control wise, I found the input/gain trimmer to be the most tactile and immediate control on the pedal. It moves from medium gain structures all the way to Smashing Pumpkin-esq saturation. You never lose sight of the clarity though, which is key element to anything that has this much gain on tap. I typically find that fuzz boxes and distortion pedals that get in this territory of gain usually fight with sounding thin or undefined. Not the case however with the Acid Cat… it straight up smacks you across the face and you retain all the precious harmonic content your guitar delivers.

Both 3 way toggles offer additional elements of control over the response and tone. I found most settings to be pretty subtle but useful. It’s the kind of thing that if you’re auditioning the pedal by itself (especially at bedroom volumes) you probably won’t hear much, but when your using it in a band mix either on stage or in a track it becomes quite present. Subtle EQ and feel shifts that nestle the tone right where you want it to be. Much like the important moves we make when using a studio quality EQ or compression. Small, incremental movements make the biggest overall compensations.

In my demo, I used some different instruments and amplifiers to showcase the versatility of this pedal. I really enjoyed using it on all the guitars for light, medium and higher gain tones. Even though the Acid Cat has a formidable voice of it’s own, I dug that you can really hear the intricacies of each element. This is a great circuit that would make the blues dude as happy as the modern metal maven. Capable, clear and immediately awesome! As an homage to our first meeting, I couldn’t pass up using that Deluxe Memory Man I bought from Miguel…

Thanks for checking this Gearheads Feature on the STACKS FX Acid Cat. If you’d like to learn more about Miguel and his work please do check out these sites for more information.

https://stacksfx.com/

https://stacksfx.com/collections/ohms-series/products/acid-cat-fuzz-distortion

https://www.instagram.com/stacks_fx/

Until next time Gearheads, please take a moment to Like, Subscribe & Share this Feature and I’ll see you all very soon!

DryBell || Vibe Machine V-3 || A 10th Anniversary Surprise!

Hello Gearheads!

Today I’m happy to bring to your attention a new and very cool offering from the awesome folks at DryBell Musical Electronic Laboratory - The Vibe Machine V-3! DryBell have been making incredible sounding Uni-Vibe pedals in small, pedalboard friendly formats for quite a while now… and they’ve just hit their 10 year anniversary! To mark that special occasion they set out to take their Vibe Machine circuit a step further and see what new and interesting tone shaping tools they could bring into the pedal world. After some experimentation, the Vibe Machine V-3 was born! You can read more about their story and how it happened below:

“It’s hard to believe that 10 years has passed since we started our journey into the wonders of the beautiful Uni-Vibe. Looking back to the time when we started our experiments with that three-dimensional sound, everything was very different from today.

It was a simpler time in the pedal world. There were several big, well-known companies that produced most of the classic pedals and a handful of smaller boutique builders. At that time, most new pedals could easily get into the spotlight, to be explored and talked about. It was the beginning of a golden era for the world of guitar pedals. Back then, only a few Uni-Vibe clones existed, most following the same circuit recipe as that used by the wonderful Shin-Ei, they were mostly big, bulky and rather expensive.

When we decided to take a shot with our Uni-Vibe, we wanted something different and more practical. We wanted The Sound, but we also wanted to make ours much smaller than any other Uni-Vibe on the market. In 2011, when the Vibe Machine V-1 was born, it was the smallest ever photocell-based Vibe pedal in the World retaining all the features of the classic Uni-Vibe. People loved it, and they still do.

A few years later, after extensive development, with tons of new experience, and with feedback gathered from our amazing customers, forum members, reviewers, demo guys and fellow musicians, the Vibe Machine V-2 arrived. It looked very similar to its predecessor, but it was much more complex under the hood. Besides all those added features, The Sound was greater than ever and it rocked the vibe community around the world! As one of the best Uni-Vibe effects available today, the Vibe Machine has received many awards from the Music Industry and we’re extremely proud of it!”
“The V-3 version

Several months ago, we wanted to find a special way to celebrate our upcoming 10 Year Anniversary and we decided to pull out our Vibe Machine breadboard. We played extensively with the complex opto-system and one specific setting sounded out of this world. We tried tons of different settings, but we kept on coming back to this particular one.

It was like re-mixing your greatest album. You know it’s great, but you wanted to add some magic touches to make it even more special. We didn’t expect that our breadboard experiment would result in a completely new version of our Vibe Machine, but this one is really something else and we couldn’t just keep it to ourselves. We wanted to share it with the World.

V-3 has its own colorful magic going on. Is it better than its predecessors? With such a unique sound presence, it’s really a matter of personal taste. V-3 is simply different and it sounds beautiful.

The main difference between V-3 and V-2 is in the modulation EQ. V-2 modulates just a slight part of your main tone (mid-range focused modulation), while V-3 blends in nicely with your main tone and modulates it without changing the EQ. V-3 has a wider modulation and brings you more depth. The Intensity’s character has also changed.”

Simply put, the new Vibe Machine V-3 is a great sounding Uni-Vibe pedal. It’s familiar yet enables much further exploration of the tones we all love as Vibe enthusiasts. As soon as I plugged the V-3 in I noticed wider boundaries, richer low end and a more available top end. I found that you could nail the vintage Uni-Vibe tones we all love but also get more modern focused tones that if you heard them in a track, you might not be able to pin down what was making that cool tone - that’s one of the biggest selling points in my experience with great gear… does it instantly recall a stereotype or does it bring forth something new, something exciting? The Vibe Machine V-3 straddles that line of familiar yet boundary pushing. You can hear in my demo below at the end of this Feature, the undeniable vintage Uni-Vibe “chorus” tones are there in spades as well as more modern sounds that swirl and swoosh in perfect harmony to the tracks they accompany. This revision is a vision!

Tonally, I enjoyed the wider “bandwidth” of the Vibe Machine V-3 in all the modes available. I also have been personally using the Vibe Machine V1 and V2 for years in both the Chorus and Vibrato settings. It’s always been a staple on my stage pedalboard to get amazing Hendrix style swirls and low key pitch vibrato shimmers. The Pitch Vibrato setting on the Vibe Machine has always been a personal favorite, pulling out anything from the tones of a Magnatone combo to the venerable Boss VB-2. Many of us Gearheads out there forget about the Vibrato setting on our vibes, concentrating on the pulsing magic that Hendrix influenced us all with… but there’s some massive mojo in the Pitch Vibrato section the circuit and the new Vibe Machine V-3’s version is fantastic. Remember to always explore these tones Gearheads… something beautiful awaits you!

Vibe Machine V-2 on one of my pedalboards

There are of course many full features hiding in plain sight on the Vibe Machine V-3, which is amazing considering the small stature and ability to slip into any spot on your pedalboard. I personally experimented with all of the fine tuning mini trimmers and I luckily marked the manufacturer settings and suggest you do as well only to come back to stock. You may of course find that you want more of ‘This or That’ and that’s why these options are here!

I will say that while I often not only fall, but happily jump down the rabbit hole of being a tried and true Gearhead - the idea of TMKS… or “Too Many Knobs Syndrome” (Yes, I just made that up) yields option anxiety and distress like no other… HOWEVER, the WAY the folks at DryBell design and engineer these pedals are nowhere near that experience. They are a unique interaction between simple, elegant and deep. That’s the magic recipe here folks… make something easy to use and to dial in - IF you want to get your mini screwdriver in hand, this pedal can bend to your will. The truest form of Yin and Yang in pedal form.

Here’s some more on those additional options from the horse’s mouth…

“V-3 features the same versatile custom sound options as V-2. There are 6 ‘set and forget’ side trimmers: CHORUS, GRIT, CUSTOM, SYM, RANGE and VOLUME. All these controls come with initial factory settings. Check the manual in the support tab for more detailed descriptions, but to begin playing you don’t need the manual or to adjust anything, just plug in and enjoy!

The CHORUS trimmer adjusts the depth of vibe modulation so the user can adjust the swirl/watery/chewy character of the Chorus sound. The CHORUS trimmer also affects the low end frequencies of the Chorus throb.

With GRIT you can set the overall brightness, it acts as a low pass passive tone control and also defines the output impedance. Try a fuzz/dirt pedal or just an amp after the V-3 and with GRIT you can find your tonal sweet spot with whatever is next in chain.

The CUSTOM trimmer adjusts the input impedance when the three way ORIGINAL/BRIGHT/CUSTOM switch is set to the CUSTOM position. If you switch guitars on stage, sometimes you may want to flip this switch to balance your guitar’s brightness.

The SYM and RANGE define the light bulb bias and character/response of the Vibe movement.

With the VOLUME trimmer at its maximum setting, it boosts your volume above and beyond unity gain.

The V-3 can be used with any passive expression pedal with a linear pot. Also, the V-3 has several functions that are controllable with the DryBell F-1L footswitch or any other simple footswitch. With the footswitch you can engage the CANCEL function, TAP TEMPO feature, Fast/Slow with adjustable Leslie® ramp delay or a Two speed function.

CANCEL function – Just like on an original Uni-Vibe®, a warm & darker sounding preamp (Cancel on original Uni-Vibe®) is available using an expression pedal. Please refer to the Options manual for more information.

Just like on V-2, there are a couple of ‘set and forget’ options like different footswitch type compatibility, expression pedal pot taper adjustment and more. Check the V-3 options manual to see all of its features.”

Check out my video demo below for the DryBell Vibe Machine V-3… I enjoyed using both the Chorus and Vibrato settings throughout the track and really dug how responsive the tone was. Clean, cutting, vintage, soupy, swirly and succinct… it’s all there! I brought in an old favorite for the overdrive and distortion portions… ‘The Engine’ Foundation Preamp from DryBell as well. You can check out my past Gearheads Feature on ‘The Engine’ here: CLICK ME!

As always, thanks for checking out the new Vibe Machine V-3 and my experiences with it. I’m always so happy to see friends in the industry making killer new pedals and taking their creations to new heights. I’m excited to see what the mad geniuses at DryBell cook up next!

To learn more about DryBell and the Vibe Machine V-3 check out these links:

http://drybell.com/

http://drybell.com/vibe-machine-v-3/

Until next time Gearheads, please take a moment to Like, Subscribe & Share this Feature and I’ll see you all very soon!

Komet Amplification || Komet 29

Hello Gearheads! I’m happy to share with you another completely mind blowing piece of gear… none other than the incredible Komet 29. If you are not familiar the amplifier company Komet, out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana - you absolutely need to run, not walk right over to their website and take a gander at the wonderful rage of toneful machines they produce.

Komet Amplification is the teamwork of both Holger Notzel and Michael Kennedy, two very experienced and worthy individuals who are not only incredible technicians with a history of circuit repair but also musicians themselves. Having that first hand knowledge and massive experience while also being players themselves, makes a huge difference in what Komet produces and the quality of the work (more on that later…) Holger and Mike both being friends of legendary amplifier designer Ken Fischer of Trainwreck fame, brought that magic to Komet in the design and production of their Komet 60. Without getting too deep into the Trainwreck world, and I highly recommend you take a deep dive into that history yourself - those amps are rare, massively renowned professional amps. The ideology of the “magic” that’s in those circuits is in a nut shell taking the void that exists between the player and the tool away. It’s like you’re connected to the source. It’s truly magical. That lighting in a bottle is not lost or missing from any amplifier in the Komet catalog - they’re incredible and I’ve never experienced anything like it personally.

The Komet 29, which I’m showcasing today is deceptively simple and deceivingly detailed… an oxymoronic experience of total bliss. Weighing in at roughly 29 watts with only 3 knobs and 1 switch, the Komet 29 is about as far away from a ‘one-trick pony’ as it could possibly be. One thing that you never lose, that’s always present is a very tactile and immediate response to YOU - the player. It’s not stiff, it’s not modern, it’s not vintage, it’s too saggy, it’s not, it’s not…the list goes on. What is this Komet 29 then!? It’s the player, the guitar, the strings, the pedals… you get the idea. This amplifier sounds like you, for better or worse the Komet 29 lets everything you do as a player shine and in the best of ways. There’s a common saying in the gear world, where we talk about a piece of gear being an instrument itself and that rings true with the Komet 29. In fact it allows the player to take their whole rig into a different dimension of clarity and tone. It’s priceless stuff here folks.

The Komet 29 the deadly simple aforementioned EQ controls, which are Volume, Thrust, Tone and a 3 position bright switch. I found the control set instantly intuitive and very dynamic.

There’s a wide range of headroom available with that volume control. I typically found setting it around 8:00 the perfect place for a clean pedal platform, yielding the most headroom with all types of guitars and pickup combinations. Moving the volume up a bit and up to about noon yields an expansive amount of grit and natural tube saturation. You can goose it all the way to 10 and get some very saturated fuzzy tones due to how hard the amp is getting hit, but I found the sweet spot to up to about 1:00-3:00 for the hottest of gain. No matter where the volume is set, no matter how gain is happening in the circuit, you never lose clarity or punch. Again, this amplifier is not a stiff or modern amplifier, but it does not “fart out” or get mushy on you. You hit it hard it digs in deep and you lay back and play with a tender touch, the Komet 29 rewards you. This amplifier is a living and breathing extension of your touch. It’s not surprising that using your volume knob on your guitar yields a whole other expansive world of tone - available to you right at your finger tips. The Komet 29 is the kind of amplifier that works WITH your gear and also makes you realize you could go on a solo adventure with just guitar and amp in hand.

The Thrust control is a very useful a cool knob. It really shapes the character of the amp in a unique way. Here’s Komet’s description of the Thrust control…


“ Its unique and proprietary “Thrust” control fine tunes the amplifier’s response to your guitar’s output and personal tonal preference. Lower settings allow for maximum clean headroom, while turning the Thrust up thickens the tone and increases harmonic distortion for a more saturated lead tone. It also helps anemic guitar pickups to drive the amplifier’s output stage into natural compression.”

The remaining controls are Tone and a very useful 3 position bright switch. The Tone control is interactive with the 3 position switch and I felt they worked well together. Depending on your rig and guitar, you could set those controls to finely tune what you want to hear and how it responds to your touch. None of these controls in any way shape or form have any weird tonal spots, it’s amazing that even at the most extreme settings the tone is still musical and usable. That’s a true testament to the workmanship of Komet.

Before leaving you all with my video demo of the Komet 29, I’d like to take moment to just showcase the brilliant and exhaustive workmanship Komet employs in these amplifiers. Simply put, Komet could easily be manufacturing military spec tools that are made to withstand the worst of atomic disasters. While many companies choose their transformers, chassis’ and components with the bottom line in mind, Komet choose perfection and attention to detail first and foremost. What you end up with is a rock solid and beautifully hand crafted amplifier that no one other than Komet could produce. They don’t pump them out on assembly lines, they don’t retail them in big box music stores or in catalogs - these amplifiers are not even in the same universe as their contemporaries. No slag on anyone else, but it’s undeniable the workmanship that goes into these amplifiers. Here’s a bit on the craftsmanship and what sets Komet apart in their own words:

“Each Komet® amplifier is meticulously hand built in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.A. The greatest attention to detail is given to each product before it leaves our shop. Our transformers are of a custom proprietary design and are 100% built in California. Our chassis are laser cut, welded aluminum and are 100% manufactured here in Louisiana. Each amplifier is hand wired with silver tinned Teflon wire on a glass-epoxy circuit board. We assemble all of our amplifiers with stainless steel screws and bolts. Our control panels are 100% made here in the U.S.A. and are of the absolute highest in quality. We use only the best in quality of capacitors and switches. These are just a few of the details you will find in every single Komet amplifier.”

Well, thanks for taking a deep dive into the world of Komet and the 29. I took a good amount of time to get to know the amp before sharing it with you all here, and I’m so glad I did. It’s become like an old friend to me in the short amount of time I’ve owned it and look forward to using it not only on stage but in sessions for a wide variety of genres and content. If ever there was a “Goldilocks” of an amplifier, I think the Komet 29 is first in line. I hope you enjoy the demo below, please be sure to like, subscribe and share both this Gearheads Review and Demo… and I’ll be seeing you soon!

To learn more about Komet Amplification and the Komet 29, take a look at these links:

http://www.kometamps.com/

http://www.kometamps.com/products/amplifiers/komet-29

https://www.facebook.com/kometamps/

https://www.instagram.com/kometamps/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLseouPC2oQ5XSsat6X8Z_Q

Sarno Music Solutions || Earth Drive

SARNOEARTHDRIVEYOUTUBECOVER.jpg

Hello Gearheads! As we fade into the uncharted territory that is the year 2020…. (yikes) I’m happy to report another incredible gear find to share with you all! Brad Sarno has been crafting studio quality effects for musicians for many years via Sarno Music Solutions. His wide list of clients and artists include Jeff Tweedy, Nels Cline, Lee Renaldo, Greg Leisz, Bob Weir, Andy Summers, Mike Gordon, Ben Harper… the list goes on and you certainly get the point! Sarno is building top notch circuits for a wide variety of musicians. His products range from system buffering solutions to beautiful tube preamps, circuits built for pedal-steel and of course overdrive and boost pedals for us Gearheads! One of those is the Sarno Earth Drive, which I’m showcasing today!

The Earth Drive is both familiar and unfamiliar at the same exact time. The enclosure is a friendly green hue, but not quite the tender hue of many screaming tube circuits. The size of the enclosure is juuuust a tad bit longer than your ordinary overdrive pedal - but rather than making your pedalboard an origami nightmare, it just looks distinctive in it’s own special way. The Earth Drive just fits, man… you know, in a “It really ties the room together” kind of way. Visually, simplistically and sonically.

With just three knobs and one footswitch, the Earth Drive is quite formidable in reaching wide vasts of tone sculpting in any rig. Sarno comments…

“The Earth Drive is the ultimate boost/overdrive pedal, designed to retain your instrument’s natural character while providing an organic, full-bodied, yet transparent sound. Use the Earth Drive as a clean boost to add warmth and smoothing, or turn up the drive knob and get a wide spectrum of overdrive harmonics and singing sustain. The Earth Drive has a huge range of boost control with its volume knob, while the tone knob helps you perfectly dial in the treble response. Whether you play bass, pedal-steel, electric piano, electric guitar, organ, whatever, the Earth Drive is quite possibly the most useful and versatile drive pedal you’ve ever heard. ”

I too found that Earth Drive was easily capable of moving from subtle unity smoothing and EQ tuning (at unity volume mind you, so no audible gain boosting) all the way to full audacious roar just with small incremental movements of those three knobs.

Volume, Tone & Drive. Simple. Dead simple… yet so powerful. These are the tenants of my gear minded happiness folks - simple and great sounding tools. The quickest way for me to take a “cold shower” on my creative flow is to become a technician of my tools. Having to adjust a bunch of controls to get to a sweet spot to work in a track and before you know it - you’re toast. The juice is loose and you’re left wondering why you even started to record that funky double stop skank overdub in the first place! You then transition to picking up your smart phone and start surfing the web for lack of motivation. Sound familiar? Hyperbole aside, the Earth Drive is just chock full of those aforementioned sweet spots. Sarno’s voicing is so dead on that I can’t find any settings that don’t bring me happiness. All goldilocks moments here!

I found the Earth Drive to work really well with all my guitars including Bass Guitar and Lap Steel. I could see using the Earth Drive even on electronic instruments, like Synths and beyond, due to the high headroom that’s available in the circuit. I tended to prefer the volume up pretty high (around 1:00) most of the time, pushing the front end of each amplifier a bit and using the Tone and Drive knobs to achieve the rest of the tonal stew. All of my amplifiers worked great with the Earth Drive, but the happiest camper in all of Tone Land was my ‘76 Marshall JMP. It was a literal extension of the gain range… it just sounded and felt perfect.

The Earth Drive is one of those pedals that I had seen kicking around for quite some time and never had the chance to try. Like most of those venerable pedals that are still around, they’re here for a reason. They sound great! I’ve read some iterations on how the Earth Drive compares to other circuits, especially uber rare and well argued over… ahem… Klon anyone? I can see some of those comparisons of course, especially in the midrange content and how it thickens the overall tone, but at the end of the day pals the Earth Drive is it’s own deal. A dead simple and immediately pleasing boost, overdrive and tonal sculpting device that just plain makes me happy. I can absolutely see why Sarno has the client list he does and definitely recommend checking out the Earth Drive - I sure am happy I did!

Until next time Gearheads, stay safe, healthy and happy with good tone!

Take a look at the links below for more information on Sarno Musica Solutions and the Earth Drive.

http://www.sarnomusicsolutions.com

http://www.sarnomusicsolutions.com/products/ed.html

https://www.instagram.com/Sarno_Music/

https://www.facebook.com/Sarno-Music-Solutions-162539807232802/


DryBell || THE ENGINE || FOUNDATION PREAMP

DRYBELLENGINEYOUTUBECOVER.jpg

Hello Gearheads! If there’s anything that can quench the mighty thirst of a dyed in wool pedal aficionado, the mystical “AMP IN A BOX” pedal could be a top contender. Since the dawn of time we’ve been trying to figure out how to get the loudest sounds… well, less loud. We want what we want and we want it NOW! Humor aside, the pedal market boom is chock full of circuits claiming to be a wide variety of “In a Box” scenarios. Many are good, enjoyable and some are great. The Engine Foundation Preamp from the beautiful geniuses at DryBell in Croatia fall into the latter category.

Simply put, The Engine is an incredible sounding and feeling pedal. It offers a wonderful range of gain, volume and EQ options - all surprisingly easy to use and you can quickly dial in to your needs. While most Amp In A Box or “AIAB” type pedals seem to offer massive amounts of control over the gain structure, the EQ, the compression and so on - The Engine has a very intuitive and simple layout. It’s reminiscent of the most familiar pedals even though there are indeed 9 knobs and 2 footswitches. What you’re left with is one fantastic overdrive and distortion box that not only sounds like a vintage British tube amp… but feels like one!

You might be asking, so what exactly separates The Engine from the piles of other pedals claiming to do the same thing? Well, that answer is simple… It just does! The Engine immediately felt like a real amplifier, a late 60’s British juggernaut of an amplifier to be exact. The familiar midrange oomph and “Karang”, the low end chunk that doesn’t feel bloated but somehow feels like there’s a 4x12 cabinet right behind your heels, the singing high end that’s not piercing in the slightest… this IS, in my opinion, the closest thing I’ve felt and heard to a real deal vintage 4 hole Marshall mid to late 60’s amplifier. The way the pedal feels under your fingers, the way the notes bloom into subtle and beautifully harmonic rich undertones… it’s a thing of beauty!

This thing of beauty is of course accompanied by a boost! Yay! We all love boosts, right!? Well, it’s not just any ordinary linear clean boost. It’s a perfectly voiced boost circuit that allows you blend in a Rangemaster circuit. The Rangemaster of course being the sound of so much fantastic music… Queen, Clapton, Sabbath, Rory Gallagher, the list literally goes on. DryBell have incorporated their Rangemaster circuit from the fantastic “Unit 67” Rangemaster/EQ/Compressor pedal. The Boost circuit in The Engine allows you to really dial in anything from thin, mean and raspy all the way to full range clean boosting. What’s great is the folks at DryBell have given you a button to flip/flop the Boost circuit to allow you to either (put it before) boost the overdrive portion and create more gain and saturation, or (put it after) and boost the whole pedal creating a major volume jump if needed. This is specifically helpful if you’re running a lower wattage amplifier that doesn’t need any extra saturation or compression and could really just benefit from a volume jump for those solo moments.

The control set on The Engine is quite possibly my favorite aspect of the design element. Nothing is frivolous here, everything has it’s purpose and does so much with so little. It’s a very valuable trait in any gear that I own or find interest in to have a simple yet powerful design. Nothing can utterly destroy a moment of creativity more than option paralysis or having to switch your mindset from art to tech. It’s never fun and almost always ruins the momentum. Many of the greatest producers and session players live and die by this rule for very real reasons. Always keep the momentum.

Here’s a bit from DryBell on their explanation on the two channels…

“Side A is very carefully tuned to capture the sound, feel and dynamic response of a real 60’s British NMV amp. It’s open sounding and very touch sensitive so the amount of dirt on tap is easily controlled by your pick attack. Besides familiar controls such as Level, Gain and Tone, we have added a special feature called Shape. It is a unique control which helps you adjust the overall character and level of the mid frequencies. It’s a key feature for adjusting the voice of your foundation tone and it can really help you fine tune the tonal details in your sound on any amp that you’re playing.
 
Side B‘s most powerful feature, Range(master) is our take on the Treble Booster from the 60’s. Range controls specific mid-frequencies whose complex overtones are great for pushing through the mix, whilst also adding some of the nicest sounding sparkle to your tone. Besides that, high headroom and distortion-free Clean Boost (thanks to the high internal power supply voltage) and versatile Low & High EQ will help you even further in tailoring your tone. For those of you who are familiar with our Unit67, think of this section as a Unit67, but without the compressor.
 
Both The Engine’s sections share a high headroom ultra-low noise buffer, designed to have no signal loss. Given that we use only long-life highly reliable components, your Engine will be running for years and years to come.
 
We wanted to give you that Tube-amp saturation which cleans up nicely with your guitar’s volume knob. Special attention has been given to the note separation and clarity at every stage of The Engine, even at its Hi-Gain settings. You will find that the signal-to-noise ratio is excellent for such high-gain tones.
 
Although The Engine has these two completely separate sections, it really shines when they are working together!
 
Stacking these two sides can yield some incredibly rich sounds. To help you answer the million dollar question: “Boost in front or after OD/Distortion?”, we created what we see as an essential feature called Order.
 
With the Order switch, you can choose the stacking order of the A&B sections. If you choose the right side B to go into left side A, the result will be much more distortion and complex overtones, depending on your settings. If you choose the left side A to go into B, the final result will be much more volume (if your amp has enough clean headroom) and much more sparkle and detail in your tone. It’s a really fun way to explore your tone with different settings and really helps in terms of pedalboard position.”


In the video demo below, I’ve used The Engine on all the stringed instruments including the bass guitar. The Boost or B section of the pedal offers a wide variety of tones that sound great in the track. The solo tone is both the A & B sections of the pedal, with B (set to Rangemaster at about 2:00 - 3:00) boosting A. The tones are rich, full and very dynamic. I’m looking forward to using The Engine for a long while to come.

Lastly, The Engine not only reacts exceedingly well with your guitar’s volume control (something that if you’ve read my Gearheads content before, you know is important to me) but it’s also one, if not the quietest, dirt box I’ve ever come across - the noise floor is essentially non exisitent. I’m not sure how you crazy cats at DryBell accomplished that one… but I’m sure happy you did. I’m looking forward to putting this on my pedalboard as soon as possible!

To learn more about DryBell & The Engine click here: http://drybell.com/the-engine/

CHASE TONE || FUZZ FELLA BLUE BC108C EDITION

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Hello and welcome back to another edition of Gearheads Demo’s & Reviews! Today I’ve got a very cool offering from Kyle Chase at Chase Tone. Some of you might remember the previously reviewed and demo’d ‘68 Red Velvet Fuzz, a rich and fat BC183 transistor based silicon fuzz face. To my ears, Kyle took that platform and ran with it, resulting in more gain availability and functionality with all types of guitars - including humbuckers! More on all of that later… onto the new Fuzz Fella!

Right from the start, the Fuzz Fella is a well voiced and easy to dial-in circuit. It shines with all kinds of guitars, whether they be single coils or humbuckers, which are usually very hard to use with a fuzz face type circuit due to how wholly they can get tonally… taking over the sound without any definition. The Fuzz Fella reacts well to the fatter humbucker tones immediately due to the refined circuit, which is even more tailored by the EQ controls. Single coils sound big and familiar, humbuckers sound fat and clear… what’s more to want right? The Fuzz Fella is not a one-to-one clone of a vintage unit or a replica in any way (in my opinion, of course) and I don’t think it’s being made or marketed for those types of needs. What the Fuzz Fella is however, is a very good sounding and feeling fuzz face that works with pretty much any setup you throw at it. It’s pedalboard friendly, has top input and output jacks, runs off of a standard polarity power source (in lieu of batteries if you so choose). If you’ve tried fuzz faces before and never got on with them, the Fuzz Fella is an excellent choice to reacquaint yourselves with the magic of the fuzz face.

While I typically don’t prefer a lot of controls or knobs on a fuzz circuit, the controls on the Fuzz Fella are simple, elegant and very useful. You’ve got the typical “Volume” and “Gain”, and then the addition of “Mids” “Feel” and “Bass” . Those three mini knobs control the EQ and feel but also effect how the gain of the circuit interacts with the guitar. I personally found the “Mids” control best around noon to about 1:00 and the “Feel” was to taste, being a bias control you can thin out or fatten up the tone of the pedal precisely. The “Bass” control was the most effective and useful for matching humbucker vs single coils and at the same time being another point of control over the gain of the circuit. This is a common misunderstood idea, but EQ and especially bass or low end will effect your gain. The more low end frequencies enter into field, the more gain you’ll get. Having control over this in a fuzz face circuit is always useful and helpful.

All in all, as a certified fuzz nut I find the Fuzz Fella a fantastic choice for any type of player. Beyond it’s voice and functionality, it’s pedalboard sized, as Kyle Chase puts it, making it easy to swap with most standard sized pedals. The price point is also quite attractive for those who have been wanting to get into the fuzz face world but with less of a budget in mind. I will say that regardless of the price point, it’s a killer pedal that I really enjoyed demoing. Take a look and listen to the demo video below. I’ve used the Fuzz Fella on all the guitars, including the bass! I used single coils and humbuckers and 3 different amplifiers on this track.

As always thanks for watching, please like, subscribe and share! Pass the tone forward! Stay safe and healthy out there and until next time Gearheads… Cheers!

To learn more about Chase Tone & the Fuzz Fella - Blue BC108c Edition take a look below:

https://chasetone.com/fuzz-fella-blue-bc108c/



KINGTONE PEDALS || THE OCTALAND MINI

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Hello Gearheads and Happy New Year! 2020 is upon us and the tones are ruling more than ever!

Today, I’m happy to bring to your eyes and ears the wonderful Octaland Mini from Jesse Davey at Kingtone Pedals. Davey has managed to squish all of the tone and wizardry from his full sized enclosure Octaland in a very small and extremely pedalboard friendly enclosure. Davey has been kicking out some amazing pedals over the last few years, namely his Duellist Overdrive, Germanium and Silicon Fuzzes, Boosts and Uni-Vibes… the man is a non-stop tone hound with a penchant for making killer pedals for the gear connoisseur. One important thing to note, Jesse Davey is not only a pedal designer and builder but also a very impressive professional musician himself with years of touring and music under his belt. Davey was most well known for his work with the seminal British band “The Hoax” and has been making amazing blues and rock music since.

Davey’s lets call it… experience, has yielded a very special brand of musicality to his creations finding their way rapidly into many professional guitarist’s rigs and multiplying at an impressive rate. I’m sure trying to keep up with the demand is something nothing short of a intensive balancing act. Just as an example you will see Kingtone Pedals on such great players pedalboards such as Doyle Bramhall II, John Shanks, Joe Perry, and the list goes on. We LOVE these pedals and for good reason. It’s almost as if Davey’s muse is part and parcel within each of us.

I’ve had a blast putting The Octaland Mini through it’s paces. It’s very much familiar and very much just a little different than what you might be used to. I mean, essentially you can get all the familiar blues-rock Octavia Fuzz tones we’ve all heard on records and in the halls of rock history… but you can also get modern and unique tones out of this small little box of joy. With just 4 knobs and one 3 position switch there are decades of sounds ranging from light boost all the way to full out raging Octave Fuzz. Davey has been very crafty with the options here, allowing for a wide variety of feel via the EQ settings.

Full Fat - Very satisfying and round. This option gives you the most gain available and is killer for a huge guitar sound or for using with bass. In the demo below I used the Octaland Mini on all the bass parts and it’s perfect.

Glass - This EQ option gives you a very cutting and up front tonality. It’s the brightest of the options and is really good for dark guitars or amps or for dialing in a really nasty nasally Octave fuzz tone. Perfect as an effect for a special moment in a track.

Vintage - Old school Octavia tones man! Hendrix, Bramhall… it’s right here. A little bit more biting and some low end shaved off. It’s the familiar feel and voice of the Octavia pedals we all love. Davey has released a setting sheet specifically to nail the ‘Band of Gypsys’ Octavia tone and it’s ruling… You can check that out below in the image gallery.

The rest of the controls are quite simple and effective. Volume and Gain are both interactive with each other. Mix is very useful for getting a gritty and fat clean boost, Doyle Bramhall II Prescription Electronics C.O.B. tones all the way to full blast Octavia. Mix is very effective and super simple to dial in. The tone control is one of the best inventions on an Octavia style pedal. This allows you to really tailor not only the brightness, but how the Octave Fuzz sits in the mix. If you want to get more of a warm and wholly tone, it’s there… if you want vintage Octavia it’s there. These controls, as a whole, interact very well with each other - both musically and most importantly, easily!

Davey has managed to make The Octaland Mini one of the most versatile and pedalboard friendly Octave fuzzes around. Top mounted power and input/output jacks make fitting it on a tight pedalboard super easy. It’s almost as if they’ve thought about it all! Intelligent and toneful design… this is what makes these pedals special.

It was an absolute joy to work with The Octaland Mini in this demo below. I’ve used it on all the guitars and bass in the track. Everything from gritty boost all the way to full vintage Octavia glory.

I HIGHLY recommend this pedal. It’s going straight to my pedalboard… that’s for sure! To learn more about The Octaland Mini and the rest of the Kingtone line, take a look at the links below for more information.

Until next time! Much love & tone!

https://www.kingtoneguitar.com

https://www.facebook.com/kingtoneguitar

https://www.instagram.com/kingtoneguitar

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