SolidGoldFX TourBox Reviews & Demos CLOSED

[BassIsBad]

The Agent 13 is a really fat fuzzy awesome dirt pedal on bass.

[skullservant]

Agreed! It sounds huge. I love it.

Here's my second take that I recorded tonight. Formula 76 on guitar in one ear, Agent 13 in the other. I also tried to do some fast stuff with the fuzzes to show you CAN play fast with them without them turning to mush. The Agent 13 is such a great example of a hybrid of fuzz that you can chug with. I also used the Electroman Delay on the solo in this track:

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/skullservant/solidgoldfx-tourbox-take-2[/soundcloud]

[skullservant]

Third take is all bass!

'Main' bass is Formula 76, 'guitar' basses are Agent 13 with Electroman Delay, Stutterbox in Electroman Delay FX Loop.

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/skullservant/solidgoldfx-tourbox-take-3[/soundcloud]

[Helter]

So I just got done with the tourbox and I'm about to send it off today. Thanks to solid gold for doing this!

Formula 76 - It's a new fuzz sound for me personally. I don't know what or if it's based on something but its a really interesting fuzz. When the tone switch is off it's a pretty thin sounding fuzz, but not in a bad way. It actually is what made me like this pedal so much. The tone switch turns the pedal into a monstrous, huge, sexy sounding fuzz. It was really fun in a jam context because you could go with the pedal on but no tone switch clicked for parts without drums and then just explode when drums come in. It was my favorite of the group, I would have to say.

Agent 13 - This felt like a jack of all trades fuzz to me. It has a lot of sounds in a tiny box. All the "tone" modes from the little switch are unique and usable unlike alot of fuzzes where I can't even tell a difference in sound with non-audiophile ears. The bias knob gets more sputtery at the left and as you turn it right gets smoother. Which is a cool feature because it can change the type of fuzz your looking for kind of without having to have another pedal on your board. I would say this one is a great bang for you buck.

Electroman - I don't have an ear for repeats or anything like most the other guys on the forum and I tend to be pretty easy to please with delay. I'm also a huge fan of modulation which this doesn't have but it does have the effects loop which I think might be better actually (I couldn't use it because I didn't have a cable and didn't want to buy one for a tour box). I do love the tone knob which I think is something more delays should have.

Stutterbox - I played with it a little but me and tremolo just don't get along. I really don't feel like I could do it any justice so I'll leave the stutterbox to my trem loving amigos, but it seems like it has alot of usable features for a trem junkie.

Thanks again to solid gold fx, it's always fun to try new pedals, but it sucks when you wished you owned the majority. Oh and the pedals all look fantastic too!

[AxAxSxS]

So tourbox #2 should be in my hands by saturday. I have a few folks coming by allready but if any other Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia Ilfers want to come by, let me know and I'll PM you my address.
Bring beer

[AxAxSxS]

Tour box #2 is here!
I have not had a chance to spend some time with it but will dig in later today.

[AxAxSxS]

I finally got a chance to make a bit of a demo. These pedals have a TON of different sounds in them and I wish that I had more time to really jell with them.
Also my better camera seems to be broken so this video wont do the paint jobs justice. they look really great in person.
All sound is through two condenser mics into a 2i2 and is completely unaltered.

First up is the If 6 was 9 fuzz and the Apollo phaser. The phaser seems like it would be a noise players dream. so many different options and I realy wish I could have tried it out with an expression pedal.
The Fuzz I really enjoyed and again, the options were impressive. I probably would have been happy just playing with this one the whole time I've had these.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA_Vj0IZvWc[/youtube]

Here's the Zeta overdrive and the Surf Rider reverb. The overdrive is the most simple of these, it's a great overdrive that turns a fuzz into massive sounding gain heaven. the surfrider was hard for me to demo as I don't really use much reverb. it's lush and can go from subtle to extreme. very nice!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G67xXFGijbU[/youtube]

Out of all of these the fuzz is my favorite, of course I tend to fixate on dirt and that's kind of where I dwell in the effects world. ALL of these impressed me with the sheer variety of tones and textures each pedal could get. very cool!

[SolidGoldFX]

Thanks again to all participating in the Tourbox action currently underway. The feedback is great! I wanted to put out a general reminder regarding shipping. Since there are now two different Tourboxes circulating at the same time it is very easy to send a Tourbox to the wrong recipient. Everyone should have a designated list and contact info for the next member in line with instructions outlining what Tourbox goes to what recipient. If any of you have questions about shipping please feel free to shoot me a PM. I am more than happy to help sort anything out.

Alex

SGFX Team

[blanket]

Got tourbox #2! reviews up this weekend...

[AxAxSxS]

Glad to hear it made it to you ok. Hope you have as much fun with it as I did

[blanket]

OK, so I took the day off work yesterday and got a chance to play the Tourbox 2 pedals for a few hours. I want to thanks SGFX for hosting the Tourbox and for including me. No video/audio clips, but here are my initial impressions, using a Reverend Jetstream 3-P90 guitar through a Fender Princeton-style amp.

First of all, I want to mention that all of the pedals look great and seem to be well designed and constructed. I also appreciate the small not-too-bright LEDs, a lot of built-in flexibility (like expression control), and the inclusion of detailed instructions (although I always explore before reading any directions).

If 6 Was 9
Of course, ILF4LYF, so I started here. Believe it or not, but this was my first exposure to a true Fuzz Face circuit, although I've played and owned many pedals that take inspiration from the FF or have FF-like voicings. I'm not sure how faithful this pedal is to the original, but I was very impressed with it, and I'm sure the modern updates like the Tone switch and Bias knob play a big part in that. I found it to be somewhat distortion-like, particularly at the low-to-med settings on the Fuzz knob. I spent most of my time with the Fuzz around 11-12, Tone set to bass-cut and Bias set around 12-1. A few thoughts about the Tone and Bias: while the Tone settings are labeled normal and bass-cut, the normal setting sounded more like a bass-boost to me [edit]; and the Bias knob was interesting in that it sounded most normal around noon, with a thin splat when turned CCW and a thicker splat when turned CW. Initially, I played the pedal by itself, then compared it with some other fuzzes from my collection: Blackout Effectors Fix'd Fuzz, Basic Audio Zippy and Fredric Effects Harmonic Percolator clone. It definitely could hang. I appreciated the classic FF qualities in the pedal like the cleanish tones from guitar volume roll-off and the dynamic responsiveness to pick attack. I also had some fun with the pedal's self-oscillation with Fuzz set to 4:30-5, Bias between 7-2, Tone set to bass-cut and the guitar volume rolled all the way off.

Surf Rider Deluxe
I have limited experience with reverb pedals, having just one Swiss Army knife verb pedal I pull out occasionally. That said, I definitely had fun with this one. It has to be one of the most versatile single voice (spring) reverb pedals around, with the Tone, Resonance, Boost and Expression controls. The boost really seems to set this reverb apart from others, giving the ability to go from typical levels of verb sitting below the unaffected signal to super washy almost 100% wet with a single stomp. I had a lot of fun with most of the knobs set high, boost engaged, and then working the expression pedal for dramatic swells. Not a fan of the pointer style knobs used on this one compared to the others, though - they always get bumped too easily.

Zeta
I've heard a bit about the SuperDrive, which this is based on, but never tried one before. I am familiar with some other Marshall-voiced pedals, though, and while it's not my favorite distortion tone (prefer Tweed-like tones), this one seemed like one of the better variants I've heard. I preferred the the Gain and Tone around noon for the most harmonic character, lowish-to-med gain. You definitely want to work the Tone knob in conjunction with the Gain knob, as the treble increases quite a bit as you increase the gain.

Apollo
I also have very little experience with Phasers. Like the other SGFX pedals in this tourbox, though, this one has a lot of well thought-out features that made the effect more interesting and useful to a non-phase guy like me. The 8 different patterns available from the Mode knob were interesting, as was the ability to sweep the phase wah-style with an expression pedal. But the setting that I connected with most was the Randomizer, which generated some very musical and inspiring phased rhythms. It was cool how the prominence of the phasing in relation to the unaffected signal changed based on picking dynamics, too. I do think that a better implementation of Mode would have been a knob with 8 detents for each Mode rather than a full range sweepable knob that you have to align to different pedal markings to get to each of the 8 settings.

Thanks again! I'm going to play with the pedals some more before sending them to the next participant on Monday. While they're all very flexible, musical and inspiring pedals, I think the If 6 Was 9 fuzz was my fave.

[SolidGoldFX]

Hello Blanket,
Thank you for the review. I just wanted to clarify that although it is possible to dial in some Germanium-esque sounds the the NOS BC183 transistors in the If 6 Was 9 are indeed Silicon. We went with these transistors because they offer a great musically aggressive character and are more reliable and less subject to some of the variance and drift associated with Germanium transistors. Looking forward to more feedback from everybody

Thanks,

Alex

SGFX Team

[blanket]

Thanks Alex. I edited my review to avoid any confusion.

[Ghost Hip]

HEY DUDES. Here is my first video of the tourbox, all four pedals at once. I am mighty impressed with these guys. Especially the fuzzes. I was thinking I was set on fuzz for awhile... but damn do I want a Formula 76! I made a video for each individual pedal as well, I'll upload those later this weekend. Anywho, hope you guys enjoy the sounds I made in this video for the mean time.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wREITdpCPS8[/youtube]

[lapsteel]

Umm. I wants a formula 76 too.
That was a great demo. I wet myself when the formula 76 was full on with agent 13 oscillating after it (8:00 in or so). Truly epic sounds. Thanks for this.