For/Against The Elements

[DarkAxel]

I admit, i've never used Elements for low gain, I had a Fuck and now i have a Mini for that

[O Drones]

Oh noooooooz, so conflicted opinions

Appreciate all the help folks, I'll have a think about which way to go

[Achtane]

Listening to Joy Sores made me have to get an Elements.
I only started using the high gain settings fairly recently but it shines there as well.
As far as downsides go, I only notice the mid switch having much of an effect if I'm also running it with the highs way up, but I think that's due to the way my crap is set up. I also leave the diode switch alone most of the time 'cause it already sounds compressed to me and any more is a little too much. However, it's also nice to use it every now and then.

[ChetMagongalo]

the answer is that you have to try it for yourself, otherwise you will never know and will always be wondering 'what if'

Completely agree!

[sylnau]

It has kicked the Musket out of my board.

[DarkAxel]

Listening to Joy Sores made me have to get an Elements.
I only started using the high gain settings fairly recently but it shines there as well.
As far as downsides go, I only notice the mid switch having much of an effect if I'm also running it with the highs way up, but I think that's due to the way my crap is set up. I also leave the diode switch alone most of the time 'cause it already sounds compressed to me and any more is a little too much. However, it's also nice to use it every now and then.

nah, man, it's very subtle... that's because the mid controls are actually before the distortion whereas bass and treble are after... I remember Ryan explaining that in his subforum somewhere

[sonidero]

Try the switches like this, gain = down, clip = up, bass cut = down, and mid freq = middle... Adjust gain, vol and mix to taste and EQ till it sounds cool...

[O Drones]

It has kicked the Musket out of my board.

That's quite interesting, cos I have a Musket that I'm not using right now, would I be able to cop Musket tones with The Elements? Would be good to know I didn't have to keep the musket around if I don't use it.

[goroth]

A note about the EQ on the Elements.

You can cut or boost each band (bass, mid, treble) by a dickload. Can't remember exactly, but it's at least 15 db. All knobs at noon is neutral, add or subtract to taste. Bass is around 100hz, mid is controlled by the mid switch and treble around 3000 hz. If you can't hear a 15db boost then it's got to do with your overall setup, rather than the boost not being present or disappearing in some manner.

Here's how you can think about the Elements. It's a really deceptively simple pedal.

Pre gain, you've got a bass cut switch. Lots, a bit, or none. Lots tightens up the distortion a lot, none flubs the distortion out in an old school loosey goosey manner and feels more fuzz like. So the bass cut sets the character of the distortion. You then compensate by adjusting the bass knob (which comes after the distortion).

The mid knob is pre gain, so it affects the gain structure of the pedal. If you boost it, it's basically like goosing your distortion with a tubescreamer or something. It's fucking awesome. Slam the mids and you may need to cut back on the overall gain (to compensate), cut them and get all Cannibal Corpse anno 1991 and you'll need to crank the gain a bit to even things out.

Treble is treble!

There are two gain stages - the first goes from totally clean to fairly fucking heavy. The second goes from relatively tame distortion to "how the hell am I ever going to use this much gain". The first gain stage cleans up well and has in my ears less saturation for a given level of distortion. The second doesn't clean up so well (but still does a bit), but given that the gain stages are stacked the distortion is a little more saturated and complex. Both settings work well live.

The clipping selector - you've got symmetrical, asymmetrical and no clipping diodes. If you like the sound of op amps being slammed, you can go with no clipping. If you like the sound of diodes clipping, you can roll with that. Bear in mind that this thing has so much gain, that if even though no diodes is way cleaner (and louder, of course), you can still get pretty brutal with it. I like to think about this as choosing a flavour of distortion, then using gain to get the right distortion level (LEDs are the most distorted, Si less so, none even less so) then use the volume control to sort out your overall output level.

As long as you think of it in terms of flavours and compensating for the peculiarities of that flavour, then you're fine. If you start thinking "oh rad, this song needs LED clipping to be a hit, and this next song needs a bit less clipping, I'll flip it over to no diodes" then you're in a world of hurt because you have to set up the pedal differently for different selections. Same thing with the bass toggle, and the mids switch.

The mids switch gets you around 400, 800 and 1200 hz. The way I hear it, 800hz is kinda classic rock, Marshally, 400hz gives you a modern low-mid punch, 1200 is great for the cleaner stuff.

The Elements was designed to replace to the Cleanness, so if you want to use it as a clean boost, or an EQ you can do that.

Oh yeah, then you have the mix knob. I have found no use for this on higher gain settings (it just sounds stupid on guitar) but low-mid gain it's awesome. You could even use it as a why of dialing in a pretty drastic eq, then using an expression pedal to control how much eq you feed into your signal. That could be rad. Theoretically the mix knob should also allow some good stacking possibilities, but I haven't really gotten around to stacking anything with it.

So whatever you choose, you can pretty much find a way to get that sound to a certain end point by understanding how the pedal is constructed and where to "compensate".

The Elements is pretty much the reason I joined ILF and started buying pedals from the dudes here.

[goroth]

It has kicked the Musket out of my board.

That's quite interesting, cos I have a Musket that I'm not using right now, would I be able to cop Musket tones with The Elements? Would be good to know I didn't have to keep the musket around if I don't use it.

I had the Elements for ages before trying a Musket recently. Low gain I thought the musket was fun, it got kinda raggedy and textured without being too overbearing. But mid to high gain I found myself just wanting to play the Elements. The Musket when you get it wound up has a lot of saturation. You can definitely get the elements to that point of saturation. The focus control on the Musket does the same thing as the Elements, just cuts the bass going into the circuit. And the first knob up to the left, whatever that was, is kinda like the mid control on the Elements - it's a simple boost (LPB-1 ish IIRC) that gives the fuzz circuit a bootfull. Musket has a bit more... fuzz, whereas the Elements has more zing to it. The decay of the Elements puts it more firmly in the distortion camp, while the decay on the Musket hints more at it's fuzzy heritage.

Ended up flipping the Musket as it was overkill to keep it for a low gain fuzz (I dialed in pretty much straight up Muff settings anyway, no pre gain, relatively loose focus), and anything it could do in the high gain world was done better by the Elements (for what I was using it for). But I could see a world where you could take the Musket over the Elements - it's a rad pedal, the tones were tasty, and it's got its own mojo. But to me it always sounded like a muff, whereas it was easier to find my own sonic ideal with the Elements.

[sylnau]

It's not exactly the same, but high gain with lots of bass can cope some of the Musket tone.

[DarkAxel]

Goroth said it all

just a few vids of mine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8cL4xblqD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkP0UBdDYVE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lv6BSRNPG8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erH6jTSkftk

all on fairly low volume, all with singlecoils on a jazzmaster... gig volumes and this thing sounds just so RIGHTEOUS

[theavondon]

The Elements is the only pedal my bass player has ever used in my gaze band. And, that's the only reason it's not on my board in that band.

Dunno if that helps, but really, it can do so, so much.

[D.o.S.]

The Elements is the only pedal my bass player has ever used in my gaze band. And, that's the only reason it's not on my board in that band.

Dunno if that helps, but really, it can do so, so much.

Duly noted. Better-Ride-than-Ride has some tasty basstones.

[O Drones]

Ok, I've did it. Bought the Wilderness Elements in BST that Jake was selling

Thanks for all the help duders Hopefully this ends well