For/Against The Elements

[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

[O Drones]

HA WE GOT YOU IT SUCKS!!!!!

[sonidero]

HA WE GOT YOU IT SUCKS!!!!!

It Sucks So Bad it's Brilliant...

[Dandolin]

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.

i just want to point out that this post is fecking ace - this is how you do it
but did you listen? well did you?

[coldbrightsunlight]

goroth is the sage of the elements. Even if he's deserted it for new distortion pedals

[Dandolin]

the elements is the path upon which we tread
all else is the bramble

[qersty]

elements is all

[DOSS BS-1]

I've never understood why people think of the Elements as a gain pedal. It's a full 2 channel amp in a box. I wonder what would happen if they marketed it that way?

Regarding that blend knob. I tried something recently where I had a dark low gain drive going into the Elements set to bright high gain. As I adjusted the blend it sounded almost like two guitars playing the same line. So thick.

[backwardsvoyager]

I've never understood why people think of the Elements as a gain pedal. It's a full 2 channel amp in a box. I wonder what would happen if they marketed it that way?

I think there'd be less complaining of option paralysis if it were. It's not the sort of thing you just buy to replace a 3-knob dirt pedal.

Could really benefit from a channel footswitch (or presets), though. It's been like 11(?) years now, Elements DLX when

[Jero]

I think it's about time I had an Elements in my life again. Foolishly sold my birthday one years ago...for like $100

[coupleonapkins]

Could really benefit from a channel footswitch (or presets), though. It's been like 11(?) years now, Elements DLX when

Ryan Dr Sci. has plans pre-pandemic to revitalize a few older pedals after the Frazz V3, but due to the parts shortage, it looks like it will be way into the future.

He also mentioned on an IG post that there are a few pedals in the pipeline this year, but I keep thinking he'll do micro pedals? I don't know why I keep thinking that, though.

A revamped Tremolessence was mentioned, too, before the world turned upside down, so then there's that, too?

I think it's about time I had an Elements in my life again. Foolishly sold my birthday one years ago...for like $100

One sold this past weekend for $130, but that was before this thread was bumped and I saw Le Grand Voyage Du Goroth'd and it finally made sense to 2022 me

[coldbrightsunlight]

I've never understood why people think of the Elements as a gain pedal. It's a full 2 channel amp in a box. I wonder what would happen if they marketed it that way?

Yeah I very often use it in an (almost) always on kinda way at the end of my chain, into a clean amp. Definitely fits that bill, just without actually aiming to emulate any amps. Plus it is also a pretty good gain pedal with a million options haha.

[Dandolin]

I think it's about time I had an Elements in my life again. Foolishly sold my birthday one years ago...for like $100

ugh - somebody got a great deal

i never got onboard, but i'm thinking about it, obvi

[goroth]

I’m using the Revv G4 because I want something that sounds a bit more generic. That’s the only reason!