Wicked indeed! I had no idea what to expect from this pedal but it turned out pretty darn genius. Not a real surprise if its based on a Frank Zappa-favorite! You can found out why I think it’s genius at http://www.effectsdatabase.com/reviews/twa/triskelion
After testing these 2 pedals for a couple of weeks, I can only say that you as a player will be the winner. Both pedals sound very good but are very different as well. As a team, they can get you a huge amount of killer tones. Whatever pedal you decide to buy, you will get a top of the line pedal for sure!
Both the RR Amps FatDrive and the GuitarSystems DriveTool are related to a certain sought after pedal but they take things into a different direction. The FatDrive stays closer to the original but were the original works best as a transparent booster, the FatDrive also sounds great as a standalone OD. It can kick any amp into that smooth chewy compression that is very rewarding to play. It can be very transparent and although it only has a treble control, it provides plenty of tweakability.
The DriveTool is the love-child of 2 well known pedals with a very different outcome. It can be used as a booster but works better as a drive pedal in my opinion. Tonally, it definitely reminds me of the Red Lama that it is based on but with a couple of twists. The result is a very dynamic and in your face tone that takes no prisoners.When playing alone, I struggled dialing it in but take it to a band/live-situation and it comes alive. With this pedal, you WILL stand out in the mix so you better get your act together!
I will be posting more in depth reviews of each pedal on effectsdatabase.com in a few days.
Here are some clips with the FatDrive into my plexi with my Tyler Telecaster and Tokai LP.
The FatDrive works equally well as overdrive as it does as booster, it can seriously kick your amps ass. I recorded 3 clips with each guitar,1st one is for reference and without the FatDrive engaged. The 2nd clip has all controls on 12:00 on the pedal, the last clip has Level and Treble at about 1:00 and the Gain at 9:00.
As I posted last week, I am testing 2 Dutch pedals: The Guitarsystems Drivetool Jr and the RR Fat Drive. Different pedals that seem to have a couple of tricks up their sleeve!! Full reviews will be coming soon but I can already reveal that I really love them both. So the only winner in this battle is…ME, as I’m having all the fun playing them!
If you were wondering why it took me so long to write about the interesting guitars I checked out at the Musikmesse, here’s your answer: I tried a good amount of guitars but not many that really tickled my fancy.
The absolute highlight (again) were the James Trussart guitars. Love ’em or hate them and I’m squarely in the 1st camp, but these are fantastic guitars. They ain’t cheap but they are also not your bog-standard plank.
Close second were some Ruokangas guitars. Their feel and tone was amazing, some are just a bit to blingbling for me but damn good stuff. And of course, the Huber Krautster II, I have been GASsing for one ever since trying one last year and I got to play 3 different one’s and they were amazing.
I played a couple of nice Carvin guitars. The folks from Loopersparadise had Gilmour guitars at their booth. No relationship with David Gilmour but these are some nice guitars.
Finally, the Egnater/Bogner-booth had some really nice Haar guitars to test out their amps and pedals. Erik Van De Haar has been building guitars for some years now and they keep getting better!
I´m currently testing these 2 Dutch pedals. They are having a fight to the death!! Reviews of both pedals will be coming up soon!!
The amount of new interesting amps was a little low this year, or maybe I missed some. There were some real treats though so here’s my thoughts on a couple of them.
Elmwood had their new Modena20 on display. Last year it was still a prototype but now it’s in production. You get the same layout as the Modena60/90 but this one is loaded with KT66s and is voice differently. I own a Modena60 so I was really curious about this one. And it did not disappoint. The clean channel has a really nice chime and when pushed gets into that dirty Fender territory, awesome for bluesier stuff. The boosted clean on the Modena60 is an amazing sound and I think the Modena20 actually does it even better. This is so responsive and big sounding and it loves pedals. The gain channel doesn’t have as much gain on tap as the M60/90 but there’s still plenty for some serious rocking out. Overall, the M20 is voiced a bit more vintage/rootsy sounding and I loved it.
I finally got to play the Bogner GoldFinger, sadly only at low volumes but I really liked what I heard. This amp has a real nice set of features and is more oldschool sounding than the other amps in the Bogner catalog. It’s very responsive to your playing and different guitars!
My buddies from MarkL had their Subzero amps ready to rock at the Loopersparadise booth. There are 100w and 60w versions loaded with either EL34s or 6L6s. I got to play different versions and wow, I absolutely love these amps. The clean channel is very simple but effective, it sounds really good. The gain channels share the EQ but their voicing is different so this isn’t an issue. More importantly, both the crunch and lead channels sound absolutely FAT. Even with the gain WAY to high, it’s responsive to playing dynamics and rolling off the volume on the guitar gets you all shades of killer tones.
Finally, I played the latest in Egnater’s Tweaker range, the 88. I really dig those amps and they offer amazing value for money. The Tweaker88 is no different, it just packs more punch and headroom. You got to applaud Bruce Egnater for bringing his stellar tones in affordable packages. Check them out!!
Check out Effectsdatabes.com for an overview of the pedals that were released at the Musikmesse 2012. I played a bunch of them and here are my highlights in random order!
The 3 new Bogner pedals sounded fantastic. You can expect from Reinhold that he won´t release anything up to his high standards and there DELIVERED! I personally loved the Red one the most but all 3 of them sounded great. Their price isn´t set yet but will be around or below 250euro. I´m pretty sure these will sell very good.
Bogner was sharing the booth with Egnater and they also had 2 pedals on display. I really liked the Overdose, very cool layout with an OD and a booster pedal, they can be used independently and you can set the order of them. The Jones control and Tight switch add plenty of versatility!
The guys from Elmwood already had the prototype of the Woodpecker at the Musikmesse 2011 and were now showing the production version. It sound big and fat into their new Modena20 head (more about that later). They also had their first distortion pedal on display. It´s still being fine-tuned but it sounded really promising, delivering that Elmwood crunch tone and a lot more. The Distortion should be available later this year.
TC Electronic added another pedal to their TonePrint range although this one does´t come with a TonePrint-option. From clean to not so clean boost, the Spark Booster delivers a great kick in the nuts. The Fat/Clean/Mid toggle adds a lot of versatility and gets you 3 different flavours.
And finally there was Paul Lenders/Guitarsystems who were showing their entire range of pedals. A lot of great stuff, my personal standouts were the brandspanking new Drivetool, the Vibetool and the Trebletool. These pedals are easily spotted as the come with their own design footswitch, it looks great works perfect and should give you many years of stomping pleasure.
The 83 Fuzz from El Musico Loco is a repro of one of the most sought after and rare fuzz pedals out there. If you are looking for a fuzz that’s outside of the box, you need to do yourself a favour and check this out!!
Check out what this non-fuzz-lover thought about it at http://www.effectsdatabase.com/reviews/elmusicoloco/83fuzz#ixzz1onXQMshU
The Filtron Pro wah is, at the moment, the only music-related item from Gough Electronics. You can only buy it occasionally on Ebay. So was it worth reviewing this? Oh yes because this unknown and very basic looking pedal has a LOT happening and Gough Electronics needs to be encouraged to produce more!
Check out what I liked about it at http://www.effectsdatabase.com/reviews/gough/filtron#ixzz1onX4DM5T
