temp trade pedal reviews!

[grindonomicon]

I got MiddleEarthCrisis' OXfuzz Dark and Mt King Megalith today...

OXfuzz dark I was expecting 'more' from. More bottom end, more overall fuzz control. It's only when the fuzz is maxed out that you get gnarly fuzz. Not much doomageddon going on, was an OK pedal for punk rockin' chords, and maxed out on the fuzz is reasonable 60's biker rock fuzz. Is this better with a boost in front of it?

The Megalith is a different story. I can probably get close to most of the Megalith's heavy chord sounds with a Cherry Pop or the meathead dark clone + Monarch that MEC is trying from me, but it's still a very impressive pedal. Dirtier + saggier than a meathead or swollen pickle v2, with a lot less volume roll off/ clean up... But I don't care about that so much, cuz it puts out totally crushing doom fuzz. The controls take some getting used to, but they're usable and have decent range, and the booster/ 'more heavy' works well too. I wouldn't be suprised if this was a muff variant+ booster of some kind. Gonna be a fun couple days with this one!

[MEC]

The OX is definitely tamer than the Megalith but it sounds great after the Pharaoh especially with the VI.

From grindonomicon, I received an EQD Monarch a Shoegazer a Meathead clone and a KatanaSound Thunder Cloud.

As expected the Shoegazer was not my cup o' tea. No offense meant, but I have yet to find a Devi pedal that I really like. The odd thing about this one was it didn't seem to have as much of a shoegazey sound as the name would suggest.

The Monarch is one of the best OD's I've used. I'm horrible at describing "tone" and feel stupid doing it so I'll leave it at that.

The Meathead clone was made by StupidDream88 and it sounds awesome and is well built. I've never played the real thing but I'd bet it doesn't sound $200 better. I will probably end up getting one sooner or later.

The Thundercloud is a smooth sounding muff and kind of reminded me of a Ram's Head clone I used to have. It also sounds similar in some settings to the Supercollider.

All in all 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

[phantasmagorovich]

I think the Megalith is not a Muff clone, if I rightly recall I opened it up to check and it was missing a transistor to be one. I think this guy has three and a Muff should have four, am I right? Something like that.

[grindonomicon]

I think the Megalith is not a Muff clone, if I rightly recall I opened it up to check and it was missing a transistor to be one. I think this guy has three and a Muff should have four, am I right? Something like that.

Don't know enough about pedal builds to know, and I'm not opening up a pedal that doesn't belong to me.

It just has that smoother fuzz + sounds I associate with a muff + EQing or running another pedal with it. Incredible doomfuzz in any case. I'll be sad shipping it out to Wes Mantooth tomorrow!

But there's a couple other ppl I wanted to arrange temp trades with... Might find something I like even more?

[hclapp219]

I am in the middle of a temp trade with kaboom. I sent him my Mellowtone Singing Tree and I'm trying out his Blackout Effectors Mantra. Here is a little demo I cooked up with the EQD White Light OD , the Mantra and the Culturejam Rat. I was going for a low gain trebly sound for this one and have a couple other sounds planned to record later this weekend.

Pedals are set like this:



Order of appearance in the demo is White Light, then Mantra then Rat. I was using the bridge pickup of my G&L Legacy Tribute into the Tweed B-Man model in Pod Farm 2. Hope you enjoy it!

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/hclapp219/you-dont-know-what-love-is[/soundcloud]

[MEC]

Awesome! Nice demo.
I'm glad other people are doing the temp trade thing too.

[hclapp219]

Glad you liked it Here is another one with some heavier sounds. This is with the Ibanez AS-73 on the bridge pickup into the same Tweed B-Man model in Pod Farm 2. Pedals are set like this and appear in the demo in this order:



[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/hclapp219/overdrive-pedal-comparison-2[/soundcloud]

[Jero]

Glad you liked it Here is another one with some heavier sounds. This is with the Ibanez AS-73 on the bridge pickup into the same Tweed B-Man model in Pod Farm 2. Pedals are set like this and appear in the demo in this order:

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/hclapp219/overdrive-pedal-comparison-2[/soundcloud]

I liked the rat in this one, then white light, followed by mantra. For the first clip you posted, I think I like the mantra best, but the white light sounded more natural to me. Just depends on what you're going for I suppose. Thanks for sharing!

[hclapp219]

I liked the rat in this one, then white light, followed by mantra. For the first clip you posted, I think I like the mantra best, but the white light sounded more natural to me. Just depends on what you're going for I suppose. Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, they all have their own thing going on. The Rat and the White Light definitely have a rawer edge while the Mantra is smoother (well, until you completely scoop the mids). The EQ knobs on the Mantra are really powerful and I'm definitely still learning my way around the baxandall style tone controls. I will definitely say the Mantra is darker than the White Light and Rat. You can get it trebly as you heard in the first clip but you have to really crank the knobs.

I've just been in a demoing mood, so for this one I used the neck pickup on the AS73 and the Multi-Head Dealy and Plate Reverb on the M9 after the dirt pedals, which are set like this:



[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/hclapp219/overdrive-with-reverb[/soundcloud]

[Wes Mantooth]

So I just played the Ox Fuzz Dark and Megalith, I'm extremely impressed with both, I now want to buy my own Ox Fuzz and Megalith

The Ox is a great warm crunchy fuzz and has a fair amount of gain on tap. It has a huge gain range as well and with the fuzz rolled back it sounds amazing playing chords, I'd like to have to use as a kind of medium-low gain overdrive as well as a fuzz

The Megalith slays everything, just wow. I dig the tone shaping options as well. Just a brutal, brutal fuzz.

Full reviews with clips will be up on EffectsWire today or tomorrow

[univalve]

Ah fuck man, that's not helping my gas!

[MEC]

The Ox is a great warm crunchy fuzz and has a fair amount of gain on tap. It has a huge gain range as well and with the fuzz rolled back it sounds amazing playing chords, I'd like to have to use as a kind of medium-low gain overdrive as well as a fuzz.

I never had the two at the same time but to me the OX with the Fuzz at midnight reminded me of the Doomidrive with the drive cranked.
I'm excited to see the blog review and demo.

[Wes Mantooth]

Ah fuck man, that's not helping my gas!

Does this?

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/mike-fetting/sets/high-gain-doomfuzz[/soundcloud]

Here's what I've been doing all afternoon, these clips will go with the reviews.

Hmm, looks like you can't select the tracks from the set, just listen to them in order. There's five, first two are Megalith, last three are Ox Fuzz.

[MEC]

You better quit posting these demos you're making me GAS for my own stuff.
Sounds awesome, I really like the 1st and 5th clip.

[Bassus Sanguinis]

...seems this turned out a great idea with good demos.