RMA TOURBOX : First Review On Page 4

[BetterOffShred]

I think he's still planning on a USA tourbox too .. I hope.

[crochambeau]

I think he's still planning on a USA tourbox too .. I hope.

Indeed I am, this whole process was upturned by my wanting to get the hardest leg of the journey sorted first.

I'm aiming to have a domestic box underway soon - I can get away with sticking them in a sectioned wood crate within the box so long as international borders are not in the mix. I figure that way there's less likelihood of shipping damage.

[frodog]

Hell yeah, can't wait to try these things!

that wood crate idea is great, understandably that can't be done here but hopefully they still get to me intact.

[Eivind August]

They are intact now, so chances are they will! Been busy lately, but have fucked around with them a bit, which was tremendous fun. Will post a review when I've had a bit more fun/before I hand them over to the one known as Kent.

[crochambeau]

I'm glad you found the time/energy to jump back on the tour!

[Eivind August]

I'm glad you found the time/energy to jump back on the tour!

You know it, man!

Some thoughts:

Tetanus Booster
Surprised to say that this might very well be my favourite of the bunch. Used it as a fuzz, mostly with the first switch up and gain around one o' clock. Got a great fuzzy drive sound that way, which is very responsive to dynamics. With both switches up, it turns into a wild beast perfect for the sort of heavy psych solos I often end up doing when testing pedals. Didn't expect it to get this heavy, great work! Only drawback is that it doesn't oscillate.

Stone Splitter
Had no idea about this apart from D.o.S raving about it. But it is a lovely, dirty octave down synth fuzz thing with fun intermodulation and feedback and stuff. Got some ridiculously fat octaves that tracked well for faster, more melodic lines (no idea whether tracking is even an issue with analog octave pedals?), and I enjoyed that it still sounds very much like a guitar. It gets rather noisy, but with a sound like this I think that just adds to the character. In short, it sounds mental, and pushing it with the Tetanus gets you straight into bat country.

Monobius
I have to say that I usually like my ring mods fairly simple, but this pedal is a lot of fun simply because there are so many sounds to be explored. Rhythmic bleeps, broken bells, quasi-tremolo, and even some more standard ring mod tones if you fiddle around a bit. I didn't bother to look up a manual, as it was more fun to just tweak stuff and get an intuitve understanding of it. If you like weird harmonic content that leaves you playing the same chords for minutes in sheer awe, this is for you. Beautiful in a strange way.

Crustacean brick
Fun little noise synth thing. Not really my thing, but we had a good time together. (Also not sure I ever really got it to work right, which often is the nature of these things.)

So, to sum up, you make some great pedals, man! The Stone Splitter and Monobius are probably a bit too deep to be something I'd consider to use regularly, but they are really impressive pedals with loads of amazing sounds residing within. The textures, man. Teh teXtures. The Tetanus is a winner. Glad I got to try them all, thanks a lot for that!

[UglyCasanova]

Did a quick video testing out 3/4 of the pedals.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIGSv7pZJAs[/youtube]

[Chankgeez]

You got some nice sounds out of the Stone Splitter.

(Why's the video unlisted?)

[UglyCasanova]

(Why's the video unlisted?)

Because it's for your eyes only, baby

[Chankgeez]

OK. :surprise:

The range on the Monobius is pretty wide. Definitely not a plug & play pedal.

[crochambeau]

Thanks for shooting some video!

Yeah, it also sounds like the Monobius might be out of whack, further research on my end may be needed. It's difficult to say for sure though, because the knob orientation has been changed so I can't take in the settings at a glance. I've been mulling over a bunch of stuff I consider design flaws in the Monobius that will be resolved in the Polybius. It seems that the reception of the Monobius builds has been mostly lukewarm, with the exception of the built out ones that are even less user friendly and of course my fellow weirdos . Ah well, I may just treat that as a customizing platform for now.

Note regarding the Stone Splitter, those volume controls were plumbed in after the fact, so they interact with each other poorly (I noticed that being run into in the video). I'm also thinking the feedback network (upper left switches) will definitely benefit from foot switch actuation (per vidret's suggestion). I am EAGER for any suggestions on this one, as it's slated for a complete re-draw of the circuit board.

The last item in the video is the crustacean brick, which is *just* noise generation offering a white noise, rumble, and variable crackle. Not everyone's cup of tea for sure, though certain sections are excellent sleep/study aids in the right circumstances.

[codetocontra]

Too late to get on the US tourbox? UC's demo made me moist.

[crochambeau]

Too late to get on the US tourbox? UC's demo made me moist.

Not at all! I'll shoot you a message for details once it's underway.

[codetocontra]

Excellent. Thanks!

[crochambeau]

I feel it merits mentioning, the fuzz mode on the Monobius benefits from both input and carrier channels being cranked. I'm currently working on an alternate switch configuration to resolve that, but if the output takes a nose dive when the lowest toggle is thrown "up" on this unit that is why.