Hi guys, I don't really write much about gear stuff but I just want to share to you about one of the best finds that I've found.
I've always been a marshall-y tone kind of guy as, most of the time, it cuts thru the mix easily especially if you have a band that at least has 4 intrumentalists. But one thing I find lacking in most marshall-type pedals is that they tend to have a thick-sounding tone in strings 3-6 of the guitar but they tend to thin out on strings 1-2. That's where they usually exhibit their "transistor-ness". Suddenly the airiness/sponginess(softness of response in relation to your picking) you get from the 3-6 strings will suddenly turn ice pick-y on 1-2. If you try to roll the spikiness with the tone knob or trim pots, the next problem is you lose the spank of the bass strings. It's quite frustrating. Those who have/had a Crunchbox may agree with me.
Then I found out about the Dirty Little Secret(DLS) on TGP. I was very impressed with the official demo vid but also quite skeptic coz i was thinking it could be studio wizardy at play as most of the gear demos are. But I figured for its asking price(240sgd at TYMC), it's quite irresistible if it will live up to what it has been hyped up to be. That is, 2 marshall eras in one box. Quite a tall order for a small pedal I guess. And so the day came it arrived at the shop....
I just plugged into a craftsman strat and a behringer and still, I was very impressed with the way it sounded. It's like there's no way a pedal less than 250sgd can sound and be dynamic like this in my experience before. There are 2 modes, ROCK and RAWK.
Rock mode = 70's JMP's, Rawk mode = 80's JCM's. Rock gives you some AC/DC, Led Zep live tones, while the Rawk mode(more gain) exhibits tones from the 80's hair metal and guitar instrumentals era.
As I've said it's a dynamic pedal. Very dynamic. I got to test this when I got home to try in my Edwards Strat with Bareknuckle Apache pu's and my THD flexi-50 amp. I thinki it could be it's best trait compared to the other marshall boxes. Guitar's volume pot on 5 gives you the Little Wing kind of clean. Between 5-10(assuming you have a good pot like CTS) and depending on pickup selector position there are a lot of tones to be had. On 8, it's the marshall rhythm tone. A bit loose and middy in a good way. On 10, it's marshall-on-steroids lead tone just as I've always wanted.
One more thing I like about this is its simplicity. It's small yet feels so solid and it has a simple control layout. The aesthetics are nicely done and classy as well. No gaudy designs whatsoever to make it look like a trendy, fancy-looking, electronic brick. It runs in 9v up to 18v and it's not noisy at all. Havent tried the 18v though. Compared to it's higher priced counterparts, this could really be an eye-opener for guitar players to realize that they don't need to spend so much to get a balanced, dynamic, and ballsy marshall tone in a box.
So there it is for now, I hope other guys who have tried/will try can also chime in about this topic.
I've always been a marshall-y tone kind of guy as, most of the time, it cuts thru the mix easily especially if you have a band that at least has 4 intrumentalists. But one thing I find lacking in most marshall-type pedals is that they tend to have a thick-sounding tone in strings 3-6 of the guitar but they tend to thin out on strings 1-2. That's where they usually exhibit their "transistor-ness". Suddenly the airiness/sponginess(softness of response in relation to your picking) you get from the 3-6 strings will suddenly turn ice pick-y on 1-2. If you try to roll the spikiness with the tone knob or trim pots, the next problem is you lose the spank of the bass strings. It's quite frustrating. Those who have/had a Crunchbox may agree with me.
Then I found out about the Dirty Little Secret(DLS) on TGP. I was very impressed with the official demo vid but also quite skeptic coz i was thinking it could be studio wizardy at play as most of the gear demos are. But I figured for its asking price(240sgd at TYMC), it's quite irresistible if it will live up to what it has been hyped up to be. That is, 2 marshall eras in one box. Quite a tall order for a small pedal I guess. And so the day came it arrived at the shop....
I just plugged into a craftsman strat and a behringer and still, I was very impressed with the way it sounded. It's like there's no way a pedal less than 250sgd can sound and be dynamic like this in my experience before. There are 2 modes, ROCK and RAWK.
Rock mode = 70's JMP's, Rawk mode = 80's JCM's. Rock gives you some AC/DC, Led Zep live tones, while the Rawk mode(more gain) exhibits tones from the 80's hair metal and guitar instrumentals era.
As I've said it's a dynamic pedal. Very dynamic. I got to test this when I got home to try in my Edwards Strat with Bareknuckle Apache pu's and my THD flexi-50 amp. I thinki it could be it's best trait compared to the other marshall boxes. Guitar's volume pot on 5 gives you the Little Wing kind of clean. Between 5-10(assuming you have a good pot like CTS) and depending on pickup selector position there are a lot of tones to be had. On 8, it's the marshall rhythm tone. A bit loose and middy in a good way. On 10, it's marshall-on-steroids lead tone just as I've always wanted.
One more thing I like about this is its simplicity. It's small yet feels so solid and it has a simple control layout. The aesthetics are nicely done and classy as well. No gaudy designs whatsoever to make it look like a trendy, fancy-looking, electronic brick. It runs in 9v up to 18v and it's not noisy at all. Havent tried the 18v though. Compared to it's higher priced counterparts, this could really be an eye-opener for guitar players to realize that they don't need to spend so much to get a balanced, dynamic, and ballsy marshall tone in a box.
So there it is for now, I hope other guys who have tried/will try can also chime in about this topic.
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