Some questions about The Elements...

[Tsetse]

Hey there, I'm new here and I've decided to bother you all with some stupid questions about the "The Elements" pedal !

I'm starting this thread because I can't simply hit a store and try one of these myself - I can order one, but "try before you buy" is sadly
not an option in this case. However, the last pedal I bought sight unseen was a Tremolessence which to me is the absolute bee's knees when
it comes to trem pedals so I do have faith in Dr Scientist pedals!

So, without further ado, here goes: I'm playing an ancient Jazzmaster (tuned down a full step) into a '74 Twin Reverb (which has got a MV, but it's not one of the UL ones)
turned into a head plus 2x12" (closed back) cab loaded with two JBL E 120s. So it's basically a Dual Showman Reverb now. I really dig the clean tones I'm getting,
not to mention that it works really great with all kinds of time-based and modulation effects. The tricky part is finding "dirt" in pedal form to work with this amp -
the reasons are numerous - typical Fender scooped mids, zero dirt from the amp itself, exaggerated "fizz" in the treble with certain dirt boxes, too much of a bass cut
with other dirt boxes.

The key to making this amp work with OD/distortion/Fuzz of all kinds seems to be having excellent control about the EQ functions on the pedals - I want to retain the massive (but not loose)
low end from the amp or better yet, have full control about how much bass I want to cut, I usually want to cut a little bit of treble and I want to boost the mids substantially. On paper,
The Elements ticks all these boxes but I still have some questions about it:

- I would want to use it as a dedicated low to medium gain overdrive in live / rehearsal situations because I'm sorted out when it comes to boost, fuzz and distortion options, would you recommend it to be used in that role and in front of my amp? I'd really like to hear from people who are using this pedal with "big" clean amps / in band situations / as their "go-to" bread and butter OD pedal (rather than a full-blown distortion)... not that I "mind" the flexibility of this pedal (I'm sure this would come in VERY handy as a "swiss army knife" pedal in recording situations), but I'm actively looking to fill an OD-shaped hole on my pedalboard .

- How well does it clean up with dynamic playing (varying the pick attack etc.) / rolling back the guitar's volume knob?

Thanks,
Tsetse

[backwardsvoyager]

The Elements is a pretty dynamically responsive pedal, it does quite well cleaning up with the guitar volume knob rolled down. Maybe not as drastic when varying pick attack but the dynamic response is still there.

You're right about the EQ, its very extensive and you shouldn't have an issue tailoring it to your amp. The switchable mid frequency and bass cut switches will be your best friend

I can't speak as much about the first point because I generally use it as a medium to high gain distortion. I don't exactly know if the timbral character of the dirt itself might fit what you desire in an OD (it's quite smooth and doesn't really get crackly or grainy like many OD's which could be good or bad depending on what you want) or but because of the EQ options it's hard to go wrong as far as getting a sound at the right level of aggressiveness to sit well with your amp.
Maybe someone else can chime in about using it as an OD anyway.

[Bellyheart]

I think with the eq you might be fine. I think the scooped mods are more severe on newer models.

[goroth]

I've got one on my board as an od, and one as a distortion. As Backwards says, it is a really nice smooth OD. If you want it a bit more hairy you can use a slightly higher gain setting and then blend in some of the clean signal. The clean makes it sound less gainy, but the higher gain will give you a bit more bite.

Cleanup: As long as you are using the low gain setting it cleans up really well.

Bass - the circuit is setup so that you have the toggle for how much bass is cut into the gain stages. More bass cut gives you a tighter distortion/OD, less bass cut is looser and more raggedy. The bass EQ knob is post clipping, so you use the toggle to decide what character you want to your OD then use the bass knob to compensate. So if you want a really loose OD then set the toggle to let through lots of bass. You can then dial back the bass until you get the actual level of bassiness down to the level you want. Same thing works the other way - cut lots and compensate afterwards by cranking the bass.

Re fizz: If you have a chance, you can always record your current gear with a fuzz or distortion that has too much fizz. In your recording program (like Logic or whatever) you can try and apply some EQ around 3000hz. That's where the Elements will start to cut treble. I think it's the right place EQ wise to have a treble cut. I find a lot of the information that I consider "treble" is between 1200-3000hz (even though that's probably more correctly upper mids). I think you should be able to dial out the fizz without losing this "treble". But it'll depend on your rig and how you hear music/sound.
The different clipping choices also have a (much smaller, but still...) effect on fizzyness. No diodes is less fizzy, asymmetric more so and LEDs even more. But these differences are quite subtle. (LEDs rule btw).

I say go for it... but I'm biased because I think the Elements rules.

What sorta OD sounds do you like?

[Tsetse]

Thanks for your replies, I really appreciate your input!

The Elements is a pretty dynamically responsive pedal, it does quite well cleaning up with the guitar volume knob rolled down. Maybe not as drastic when varying pick attack but the dynamic response is still there.

That's what I wanted to hear, thanks a lot!

"Smooth OD" is basically what I'm looking for... with regard to the following -

What sorta OD sounds do you like?

- I think it's easier to talk about the dirt pedals I'm already using and what "niche" I'm looking to fill with the Elements in the context of my board:
1. Blackout Effectors Twosome: I'm using the Musket (tweaked Big Muff) side for lead, I've compared it to other Big Muffs (clones and vintage originals) and
with the exception of exactly one particular vintage OP-amp Muff (which the owner doesn't want to sell), this is my favourite Muff out there,
mainly because it can be tweaked to sound "in the ballpark" of a lot of different Muffs and at the same time cut through a very dense mix. I use the Fix'd side for crazy stuff occasionally and
I tend to have another "Fuzz du jour" on the board depending on what I want to hear. None of this sees any use for rhythm.
2. Throbak Overdrive Boost: Used for stacking certain Fuzz pedals into, either to make them work better into my amp or for adding a little dirt / volume boost for leads, also used for "almost clean" rhythm sounds on its own.
3. Old Marshall Shredmaster: My go-to distortion pedal, used for "heavier" rhythm and also lead sounds. This has got very powerful EQ functions which (the way I'm using them) result in a very punchy low end, a slight treble cut and a considerable mid hump which helps a lot in getting through a mix. A perfect match for my guitar / amp combination, however, to my ears it sounds best at higher gain settings and it doesn't clean up well (if at all), preventing this to be used for more "moderate" OD purposes.

I'm basically looking for something which is flexible enough to be EQ'd in a similar way to the Shredmaster (fat, punchy bass, slight treble cut, "mid hump" to get through the mix) and, when talking about gain, fits in between the Throbak (set to almost clean) and the Shredmaster (set to distortion). I think the "Mid Freq" switch / mid knob on the Elements could just be the ticket to achieve this - with lower / higher gain, it makes a lot of sense to give the user the option to choose exactly which mid frequencies to push (or scoop).

(Btw, I'm sure the Elements has more gain to offer than the SM, but I don't normally use that much gain unless I'm using a Fuzz.)

Now, when it comes to "nice smooth OD", I would need the Elements to play nicely with open / sometimes rather complex chords, so "crackly and gainy" is not what I'm looking for in this case, rather for some
clarity and string separation and yeah, a smooth kind of overdrive is what is needed, since this would be my new "basic" overdriven sound and would probably most often be used for chording and rhythm work.

@goroth: Thanks for laying out the EQ functions and how they work!
To elaborate a little on the "bass side of things":
I was using an old Bandmaster Reverb through a 4x12" cab up until about 2 years ago - really cool sounding amp, VERY pedal-friendly, very nice clean Fender sound and also relatively easy to overdrive, which became a problem with my current band because I need massive amounts of clean headroom. To give an example, I never knew that a RAT cut THAT much bass until I slammed one in front of this Twin running through those old JBLs. Sounded like a broken transistor radio whenever I stomped on it. Tubescreamer? Don't even mention it...
Now it's usually a good idea to cut some bass when running a dirt pedal through an old Fender amp (at volume), but THIS amp doesn't get flubby in the low end at all - if I wanted to, I could use this as a bass amp for club gigs no problem. Doesn't quite sound like you'd expect a good bass amp to sound, but it sure works...
To make it short: Too much bass from a pedal usually results in "mud" when used with a "typical" Fender amp, but if that amp (and the speakers) have enough power to cleanly reproduce the bass content, it's not such a good idea to have a hard-wired bass cut in the pedal. The Elements can also be used for bass guitar, has a bass control and a three-way toggle to cut bass (or leave it in the signal) which gives me some reason for hope .

[goroth]

Ok, based on what you've written I think it's a given. Grab an Elements!

There is very little unwanted intermodulation when using it as an OD, so you can play chords as complex as you like without a problem.

[t-rey]

The Elements made me buy a clean amp and believe in non-fuzz pedal dirt. There are few certainties in this world, but one of them is that you will not be disappointed with The Elements.

[Tsetse]

You know, you guys are not helping my wallet any...

...that is to say I just pulled the trigger on a brand-new white, nifty, shiny The Elements!
(Is that the actual circuit that's printed / painted on the enclosure?)
I'm REALLY looking forward to trying this!

I'll also let you know how it works for me and my rig once I have spent some time with it.

Thanks all for your help, much appreciated!

[goroth]

Hope you love it dude!

[Tsetse]

Well, my Elements arrived on Friday and I've spent the best part of this weekend noodling with my new pedal (which is also
the reason why I haven't replied until now).
Even if it might still be quite early to fairly judge it - I still feel like I've only scratched the surface of what it can do -
I have to say that this is truely an incredible pedal!

I spent most of Friday just toying with the pedal, trying to get familiar and seeing what I could come up with, yesterday I
first tried to mimic my favourite Shredmaster setting (which I came rather close to) and then trying to work my way "down" from
there to a similar, but less gainy OD sound and I've been able to exactly dial in what I've been looking for. Low gain mode, no clipping
diodes, gain at 10-11 o'clock, mix almost on full, slight mid "push" at the 800Hz setting, moderate bass cut with the bass knob on the other hand turned relatively high, slight treble cut results in a rather low-gain, low-sustain, warm, clear yet very "full" OD sound that also cleans up really nice with the pick attack / volume knob. I'm still toying with the mix knob, trying to decide between moderate bass cut + bass knob set high / no bass cut + bass knob set low and between no diodes / LED mode. I'm also having lots of fun in the process and all of these "decisions" are just intricacies - I'm getting extremeley useable sounds anyway and, I almost forgot, my Jazzmaster / amp still sound like they're supposed to, only dirtier.

On another note, I'm really surprised how exceedingly well it works with all kinds of settings, I've had a blast with some extremely heavy sounds (with a Jazzmaster and a Fender amp, no less), I really like it as a clean boost and I was really surprised to find some low-gainy "faux trumpet" fuzz sounds going on in certain settings when in the asymmetrical mode and toying with the guitar's volume knob.

This is a balls-to-the-wall crazy gain laboratory and I love it...

[goroth]

So happy to hear it man!

I was almost nervous when I saw you'd replied to this thread...

[Clean Channel]

I finally got an Elements earlier this year, and I too was just blown away by the power and versatility of it. I will never be without one from now on!

[Tsetse]

No sweat, goroth! I can understand being nervous when recommending something to someone, but this pedal
IS outstanding and I think it would be extremely hard to find a rig somewhere where it couldn't be put to some use (and
potentially being able to fill a LOT of roles).

I admit to being a bit skeptical before I came here and started this thread, and honestly, who wouldn't?
I (like pretty much all guitar players I know) have fallen for "snake oil", false advertising etc. before and there's this pedal
that is supposedly good at ANYTHING you throw at it, yeah, sure!
I mean, the whole concept of the Elements IS crazy, after all - who designs a pedal to be used as a clean boost / OD / distortion / fuzz with 3 active EQ knobs, bass cut and mid frequency switches, 3 gain options, 2 selectable gain ranges AND the option to blend it all with your clean signal?

The funny thing is that it works and at that, it works absolutely great for all of its intended uses. I now also understand why there's people running
two of these things on their boards. Speaking of pedalboards, this pedal gets along with other pedals with zero problems and I've only today started
to experiment with stacking it with other dirt pedals, which also seems to work incredibly well (both ways) and opens up even more options.

I'm really happy that I took the plunge and got myself one of these - as I said, it fills its intended "niche" in my rig perfectly and once my band
hits a studio, I have a distinct feeling that this will prove to be an invaluable tool for recording as well.

So thanks again to all of you who posted in this thread - you were absolutely right to recommend this pedal! I'll also visit this place more
often in the future, you've got some really nice forums going here!

[Ryan]

Hey Tsetse!

First off, I'm sorry for my slow reply to your posts here! I haven't been on ILF as much as normal lately and I didn't want you to think I was ignoring you! And hey, welcome to ILF!

Thank you very much for entertaining the idea of an Elements, for ordering an Elements, and for loving the Elements! Your experience here is really wonderful and I really appreciate it, thank you again.

And thank you to my pals in here for so skillfully answering your Elements questions!

Hope you're still having fun with it now that the honeymoon is over and thank you again for taking the chance on the Elements! Super pumped it's working so well for you!

[Tsetse]

Thank you, Ryan!

The honeymoon is NOT over, because the possibilities are pretty much endless with this pedal - there is an incredible number of great sounds in there and
I'm pretty sure I haven't found half of them yet! To sum it up, there really isn't a valid reason not to own one of these pedals.

I have a distinct feeling that the Elements will accompany me for a good long while, it's just so flexible that I think it can be made to work with any number
of guitars, amps and music styles.

Both the Tremolessence and the Elements are pretty much everything I could ask for. Keep up the great work, Ryan (and maybe design a flange in the future?)!