- Yes, I look like Quasimodo on drugs. That's how I always look when getting new pedals. The doctors say it's incurable. Don't judge me!
In my hot little hands, I held 1 (one) McSpunckle And Aardvarks! overdrive (as discussed in DIY), and 1 (one) McSpunckle Gnomeratron Mini... being McSpunckle, he gave me my choice of diodes for the MiniGnome, and I don't remember what I picked... LED & Schottky, I think. Anyhow, I've been messing around with these two guys, and I think they're pretty damned badass. I even went so far as to change the strings on my bass to record the demo! Now, for a bass player, that's dedication!
In terms of how the pedals sound & stuff... man, they sound gooooooooooooooooood. I've never been an OD guy, so I didn't really know what people were talking about when they discussed "transparent" ODs. Well, now I know. And Aardvarks! is fantastic on bass - it adds a nice heft to my signal without losing the original feel. And it's got three levels of clip (one mostly clean, one more cutting & buzzy, and one nice & full & bordering on fuzzy). The MiniGnome is a more focused version of the Gnomeratron VTF. I believe there will be many different permutations, but mine has knobs for Clean(ish), Fuzz and Gain, as well as a Gate control on the side, and an octave/muffy fuzz switch. Since I'm pretty sure that this is the LED/Schottky version, it's a little more tight & buzzy than my big Si/Ge version.
I recorded a single quick clip of the two - first the And Aardvarks, then the MiniGnome, then AA into MG.
[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/thewyrrejimes/mcspunckle-and-aardvarks-plus-mini-gnome[/soundcloud]
Deets: Fender Jazz (passive) into McSpunckle And Aardvarks! into MiniGnome into M Audio Fast Track Pro into Garageband
0:00 - clean tone
0:09 - AA! Cleanish boost, tone + gain max
0:20 - AA! Cleanish boost, tone noon, gain max
0:30 - AA! Cleanish boost, tone + gain noon
0:41 - AA! Trebly OD, tone + gain max
0:55 - AA! Trebly OD, tone noon, gain max
1:09 - AA! Trebly OD, tone + gain noon
1:19 - AA! Full OD, tone + gain max (mah fave of the ODs)
1:34 - AA! Full OD, tone noon, gain max
1:48 - AA! Full OD, tone + gain noon
2:00 - MiniGnome Muffy Fuzz
2:18 - MiniGnome Muffy Fuzz - less cleanish, more gain
2:31 - MiniGnome Muffy Fuzz - more cleanish, lower fuzz
2:48 - MiniGnome Octave Fuzz
3:01 - MiniGnome Octave Fuzz - more cleanish
3:19 - MiniGnome Octave Fuzz - more cleanish, higher gain
3:37 - MiniGnome Octave + AA! Full OD
3:59 - MiniGnome Muffy Fuzz + AA! Full OD (might be my fave of the two stacked)
4:20 - MiniGnome Octave + AA! Full OD gate down... with a side of sloppy noodling & a squeal of feedback at the end (this might also be my fave of the two stacked) (What? I can have more than one favorite! You're not the boss of me!)
So yeah... I loves 'em!
EDIT: per bronzetalon's suggestion, I recorded a clip of the Gnomeratron Mini pushing the And Aardvarks! Definitely some fun stuff - you can get insanely crunchy, insanely saturated, insanely insane... Since I did the more formal bit yesterday, I noodled through this one. And just to be a dick, I didn't write down my settings. HA! The first riff / segment is just the Gnomeratron for reference, the rest is all Gnome into Aardvarks.
[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/thewyrrejimes/aamg-noodling[/soundcloud]
