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NAMM 2014 Picks – Pedals Part 2

January 31, 2014 romain Leave a comment

Here is more from the NAMM, there is a lot of new pedals, some rather classic in their design but also some innovative ones.

Lots of new pedals at Dunlop:
- Back to the basics with the CM95 Clyde McCoy, a reproduction of the first wah design, with some modern features.
- The DVP1 XL, a cool volume and expression pedal with full rocker adjustment.
- The Echoplex Preamp fits the preamp of the famed Echoplex echo in a compact pedal (Something that Xotix effect has done before actually).
- The Uni-Vibe finally arrives in a compact pedal. The Leslie simulator favoured by Hendrix actually has a sound of its own and will now fit into small pedalboards.
From Italy with some help from none other than Eddie Kramer (aka Jimi Hendrix’s sound engineer) come some very innovative pedals that are wirelessely powered, see the F Pedals website for more info.

Fender introduces a line of Yngwie Malmsteen accessories (I did not expect this) including an overdrive pedal. Surprising since the swedish maestro had a Dod signature overdrive released not that long ago. From Fender as well, The FVP-1 pedal is an all metal volume pedal. There seems to be a resurgence in volume pedals, interesting trend.
Suhr introduces a smaller version of its popular koko boost and also a Fuzz, the Rufus. There is no shortage of Fuzz pedals on the market so it’ll be interesting to see how it fares against the competition
Lots of new pedals from Electro-Harmonix, I have covered the Soul Food extensively but there’s more, most notably the “TORTION”, a top of the range overdrive. They are on fire at EHX!
Finally, Digitech introduces the next generation of their floor multi-effect units, the RP 360 and RP 360XP

Effect News, Guitar news

NAMM 2014 Picks – Pedals

January 23, 2014 romain Leave a comment

There’s been quite a few interesting announcements pertaining to effects and amps at NAMM.

Here is a small series of posts dedicated to NAMM 2014 announcements.

This is not going to be an extensive list by any stretch but those products have caught my attention.

Two original pedals to start with:

First, the Logidy EPSi convolution reverb pedal: convolution reverbs are usually found in high-end studio reverbs or in software plugins. This pedal can receive new “impulses” and firmware upgrades via an SD card.
Secondly, the Sonuus Voluum is a pedal combining volume, tremolo, compressor, limiter and equipped with an expression pedal and MIDI/USB capabilities. The signal path, however, is entirely analogue:

Next on my list: Boss. A NAMM show would not be complete without new pedals from Boss. The Boss DS-1X and OD-1X are digital recreation, or rather “augmentation” of the classic DS-1 distortion and OD-1 overdrive pedals. They use the MDP technology pioneered in pedals such as the DA-2 distortion or the TE-2 Tera Echo. This basically means they precisely react to their input and will, for instance, try to keep high notes fat and bass notes “focused”. The DS-1X and OD-1X also feature a two band EQ, unlike their illustrious namesakes which only featured a single “Tone” knob.

Here is the official Boss Demo for the OD-1X:

More cool stuff:

The Simble Overdrive pedal from Mad Professor is a transparent Overdrive
A number of new Keeley pedals, I think I have counted 6 so far, including two secret ones.
Randall releases three pedals: RGOD, a two channel FET preamp, Facepunch, an overdrive pedal and MOR, a clean boost. I am actually quite curious about those.
Three new Bogner pedals (the details are a bit scarce at the moment).

Effect News

Happy New Year and more Soul Food Action

January 9, 2014 romain Leave a comment

First of all, Happy new year filled with cool guitar tones!

The Soul Food from Electro-Harmonix continues to intrigue, the sub 100 dollars Klon Centaur clone has been attracting a lot of attention.

Mike Piera aka Analogman himself shows in this video the difference (or rather the lack of) between the two models. The effect guru is even giving some insight as to how the pedal is built at the beginning of the video, very cool:

Effect News

A Klon Centaur clone from Electro-Harmonix

December 17, 2013 romain Leave a comment

I must say I did not expect this! The Klon Centaur, holy grail of overdrives for some, overhyped piece of junk for others, is not made any more and fetches ridiculous prices on ebay (close to a thousand american bucks).

Electro-Harmonix has just released the Soul Food, a self-proclaimed Klon Centaur clone which is supposed to give you the same sound for a fraction of the price.

Here is the first Electro-Harmonix sanctioned demo (my opinion after watching it only once, I am not too impressed with the single coil sound but I really like the humbucker tones!):