Author Topic: It finally arrived... (Read 3588 times)

PhilKing · « **on:** February 09, 2008, 10:19:26 PM »

I have been waiting for this pedal for many years. It is a custom built preamp with power tube distortion. It is all valve, with 3 12AX7's and 1 EL84. The output is at pedal level, so it goes into an amp with a gain control with no problems. It has 5 amp settings and 2 fx loops (one for clean 1/2 and one for lead 1/2).

Clean 1 is a Fender tone with all the brilliant treble, controls are volume, bass, and treble.
Clean 2 is a Vox tone with a sweet midrange and more bass than clean 1, controls are volume, bass, and treble.
Crunch came out a little different to how I was expecting, it is more like a driven lead tone (I could nail the opening bars of Black Sabbath with it - complete with feedback!). Controls are Volume and a Contour tone control
Lead 1 is a really nice lead sound, with the tone set to a slight mid boost, I had a tone like Andy Powell's early Wishbone Ash and even got a Dave Gilmour tone from a Les Paul - of course we are talking PG Blues here!). This channel has Gain, Volume and Tone Contour
Lead 2 is an aggressive hot lead sound, like the tone a hot rodded Marshall gives. Really picks up the pinch harmonics and spits them at you (again using PG Blues). This channel has Gain, Volume and Tone Contour

Everything is footswitched using logic controls inside the pedal. The FX loops have individual switching and there is also a Mute switch.

John McIntyre built it for me. He has made a lot of amps for me, but is more famous for the Lexicon Signature 284 that is used in many studios and used by Dwezil Zappa and Shawn Lane.

I've been playing with it for about two hours, and love the tones, but I had to stop to do some work :lol: I will try it with a few more guitars later and see how it sounds with a Strat and with some higher gain humbuckers.

For now it is amazing, the ability to go from pristine clear tones to a searing lead sound without having it modelled or using lots of pedals is great, as is the ability to have the Fender and Vox clean tones. Putting power tube distortion into the pedal lets it sing with harmonics when the lead channel is cranked. I have to also try it with pedals yet, but I am sure that it will work great.

It is also very quiet, the screening is superb, there is no RF pickup or hum from it. All in all it was well worth the wait!

ailean · « **Reply #1 on:** February 09, 2008, 10:53:41 PM »

That looks very tasty, I am very envious. If I were more green I'd be a cabbage.

Will · « **Reply #2 on:** February 09, 2008, 10:57:41 PM »

Thats gotta take a lot to power it, does it have a nuclear reactor inside or something :twisted:

I like the green though. How long exactly did you wait for it?

viking · « **Reply #3 on:** February 09, 2008, 11:24:24 PM »

Woah!Looks awesome!But it's really huge...It looks like it's really built only for you,with your name on it etc.. 8) I guess it must be very expensive too...

hunter · « **Reply #4 on:** February 09, 2008, 11:58:59 PM »

Hooogla, looks like a 60s power plant control or sth. Seems a hyper cool unit and fits that amp/cab nicely.

But now you really owe us some clips dude, if that thing sounds anything as cool as it looks, it must be awesome.

38thBeatle · « **Reply #5 on:** February 10, 2008, 01:04:34 AM »

Sounds great from the description Phil.

Dakine · « **Reply #6 on:** February 10, 2008, 02:14:34 AM »

does it come with free tap dancing lessons? ;)

Seriously, serious bit of kit there!

opprobrium_9 · « **Reply #7 on:** February 10, 2008, 07:35:27 AM »

Quote from: Will

Thats gotta take a lot to power it, does it have a nuclear reactor inside or something :twisted:

I like the green though. How long exactly did you wait for it?

Not only must it take a nuclear reactor but it looks like it came out of Soviet Russia. OMFG ITS CHERNOBYL ALL OVER AGAIN!!!!!!! :twisted:

That thing is $%&#in beast, and i am sure you could kill off a lot of soviets with it! :twisted:

how much did it run by?

WezV · « **Reply #8 on:** February 10, 2008, 09:31:46 AM »

i really like the simple graphics on the pedal - the boxing around each section is pure vox!!

interesting bit of kit

AdamB · « **Reply #9 on:** February 10, 2008, 09:52:17 AM »

Bloody hell, it's basically an amp!

noodleplugerine · « **Reply #10 on:** February 10, 2008, 10:13:45 AM »

Amazing!!!

I didn't even know you could get Vox and Fender cleans in the same unit?!

Ted · « **Reply #11 on:** February 10, 2008, 10:45:36 AM »

Very nice Phil.

Whats the Amp in your pic?

Davey · « **Reply #12 on:** February 10, 2008, 11:25:07 AM »

how much did it cost you?
does it come with other paint options? like a bolted steel graphic, or a destroyed tank version? :D

AngusYoung01 · « **Reply #13 on:** February 10, 2008, 11:48:19 AM »

Looks awesome dude, is it similar to the Pete Cornish stuff?

PhilKing · « **Reply #14 on:** February 10, 2008, 01:23:35 PM »

The cost is hard to say because I started paying for it 10 years ago! Over the years it has probably gone well into the 4 figure mark, but this is because it was a work in progress.

It is not as heavy as it looks because it doesn't need all the transformers that a full power unit would need, though it is not going to move around easily when it is on the floor. He uses logic switching to change the gain stages of the preamp to get the sounds (though there is a lot of other stuff going on too).

The amp in the background is a home made amp that I bought on ebay and then had Ear Candy make me a Sweet Tooth 2x10 and a matching head cabinet. The speakers are a Lil' Buddy hemp cone and Ramrod (both Emminence). The amp is pretty neat, it has a Marshall style preamp, with the TMB tone stack and a gain and master. It uses 2 12AX7's. For the power section it can use any octal tube (EL34, 6V6, 6L6, etc.) or a Svetlana SY83, but you have to swap the tubes. I am going to fit a switch so I can leave both of them in, but for the moment it sounds really good with an old Groove Tube 6V6, so I have had that in for the last few months.

The green is John's colour (being that his family is Irish), though my BluesMaker amp is actually black! I have 3 of his amps (4 if you count the Lexicon - I have the McIntyre prototype as I wanted something to record in an apartment and when the guys from Lexicon heard it at NAMM, they approached John about making it for them). I also have his tube wah pedal (yes it really does use a 12AX7 in it!). He also has 3 or 4 other projects on the go for me (since he only does this part time now they take a long time).

The next one that I am hoping I get back is my bass preamp. I had it at home but sent it back to him about 8 years ago to get him to increase the output a bit. Now that I am collecting my custom 5 string bass at last, I really would like the preamp.