TC Electronic has been announcing new pedals all day. They are no frills, toneprint-less, mostly analog (save for a reverb and a delay) models. Pretty much every effect is covered: chorus, phaser, flanger, compressor, overdrive, distortion, metal distortion, delay, reverb…
I haven’t seen any retail prices yet but according to TC, these will be priced very competitively.
Here is the Grand Magnus distortion in action, it sounds pretty good!
Two new pieces of gear from Roland/Boss caught my attention at summer NAMM.
First, the CE-2 Waza craft version, aka CE-2W, is an all analog updated version of the sought after Chorus pedal from the 80s. It sports the regular CE-2 mode but also a CE-1 mode, a vibrato mode, and it has got stereo outputs which the original CE-2 didn’t have. At the time, it prompted Boss to release the CE-3 which did not encounter the same success but was stereo.
Secondly, Robben Ford, who is known for using one of the most elusive and probably expansive amps out there, a Dumble Overdrive Special, has collaborated with Roland to produce a “Tone Capsule” for its Blues Cube series of amps. This capsule gives the Blues Cube a Dumble type of sound which is very accurate according to Robben Ford himself, despite it having no tube at all. I must say the sort demo on this video sounds pretty good, but then it’s Robben Ford playing…
Ibanez have just announced a trio of mini pedals at NAMM: a chorus, an analog delay and a distortion. They seem to be modelled after the old AD-9, CS-9 and SM-9.
As far as I know, the SM-9 was never reissued and I wonder if this mini incarnation sounds exactly the same. It bears the same EQ settings labeled Punch (bass), Attack (medium) and Edge (treble) on top of the classic Drive and Level. The SM-9 was sometimes called a “Tube Screamer on steroids”, I don’t know about that but there is definitely way more gain on tap, and lots of bass.
For reference, here is my battered SM-9:
Novelty is rare in the world of effects if I judge by the number of “Fuzz Face Clones” that seem to be released every day.
Hologram Electronics is a new company which is off to a ripping start with a pretty interesting pedal, allowing guitarists to create “sequences”. There is a handful of pedals exploring the concept but the Dream Sequence seems very polished, to say the least.
As Ryan Schaefer from Hologram Electronics puts it: “It’s based around a pattern sequencer and ADSR that does octave up/down pitch shifts. It comes with 24 pattern presets, and you can create your own via MIDI or on the pedal itself when put into pattern recorder mode. It also has a digitally controlled analog drive and tone section at the output, so those settings (as well as all the others) can be saved as part of a preset. It also has a “hold” section, that’s similar to a “freeze” type effect, sampling a note and sustaining it indefinitely. You can feed that into the pattern sequencer and create all kinds of drones in addition to arpeggiator style effects. You can also record/play back the knob movements of the shape (ADSR), drive, and tone controls.”
Demo right here (but be warned, you’ll want one after seeing this):
