CyanideJunkie
New member
Earlier today, I took a little gander down to Sound Alchemy for a little test drive of their new Brown Sugar and Punch Tone effects pedals. Now as some of you know, Sound Alchemy has recently released the aforementioned pedals as the start of their new, in-house brand of effects units. Hopefully, this review will give you an idea of what these pedals are capable of. I will follow up with a review of the Punch Tone tomorrow.
Guitar:
Orville Les Paul Custom with WB Vintage Tuned PAFs
Amp:
Carr Rambler
1. 'Brown Sugar' OD ($220)
Features:
True Bypass switch, Volume, Gain, Tone, Toggle switch for soft/hard clipping
Sound:
This pedal was engineered to provide a 'transparent' sounding overdrive, and it does just about that. Now, I know that some people will assume this pedal to be another Tubescreamer clone, but it's not. The lack of a mid-hump and it's options in clipping distinguishes itself from that particular crowd.
The sweep for the gain and tone controls are impressive. Gain-wise, it can range from an on-the-verge-of-breaking tone to a saturated crunch heaven. For the tone control, fully counter-clockwise, it sounds like the tone knob for you guitar is disengaged, giving you a velvety dark tone which jazz players would love. Full clockwise though, you get a fizzy, almost hi-fi sounding tone.
As the name suggests, this pedal excels at giving that classic rock n' roll overdrive, being able to deliver on the Stones' song 'Brown Sugar'. I also managed to coax a convincing Black Crowes tone ala 'Hard To Handle'. The soft/hard clipping switch seems to add a slight compression effect when engaged; note attack rate is faster, more pronounced, giving a seemingly chunkier effect.
When used as a clean boost, the 'Brown Sugar' adds an inherent sparkle to your lead tone, which would undoubtedly prove useful in cutting through a live mix.
Conclusion:
The 'Brown Sugar' pedal is an efficient overdrive unit, capable of churning out dirt tones hailing from the 50s to the late 70s. To put it simply, think of a Fulltone OCD with the gain threshold scaled back, and you got the 'Brown Sugar'.
Guitar:
Orville Les Paul Custom with WB Vintage Tuned PAFs
Amp:
Carr Rambler
1. 'Brown Sugar' OD ($220)
Features:
True Bypass switch, Volume, Gain, Tone, Toggle switch for soft/hard clipping
Sound:
This pedal was engineered to provide a 'transparent' sounding overdrive, and it does just about that. Now, I know that some people will assume this pedal to be another Tubescreamer clone, but it's not. The lack of a mid-hump and it's options in clipping distinguishes itself from that particular crowd.
The sweep for the gain and tone controls are impressive. Gain-wise, it can range from an on-the-verge-of-breaking tone to a saturated crunch heaven. For the tone control, fully counter-clockwise, it sounds like the tone knob for you guitar is disengaged, giving you a velvety dark tone which jazz players would love. Full clockwise though, you get a fizzy, almost hi-fi sounding tone.
As the name suggests, this pedal excels at giving that classic rock n' roll overdrive, being able to deliver on the Stones' song 'Brown Sugar'. I also managed to coax a convincing Black Crowes tone ala 'Hard To Handle'. The soft/hard clipping switch seems to add a slight compression effect when engaged; note attack rate is faster, more pronounced, giving a seemingly chunkier effect.
When used as a clean boost, the 'Brown Sugar' adds an inherent sparkle to your lead tone, which would undoubtedly prove useful in cutting through a live mix.
Conclusion:
The 'Brown Sugar' pedal is an efficient overdrive unit, capable of churning out dirt tones hailing from the 50s to the late 70s. To put it simply, think of a Fulltone OCD with the gain threshold scaled back, and you got the 'Brown Sugar'.