Boutique Gear: When did you fall for them?

[ShredCow]

Guys,
Recently I got a Tonefactor Hellbilly fuzz/od pedal from Malcom.

OH MY GOODNESS.

I had NEVER NEVER EVER heard such a pedal before. It simply put, amazing. It had only 3 controls, but those 3 controls ALL interact with each other so you have virtually an endless amount of variations to tweak with! And what rocks so hard is.. nothing sounds bad. Nothing. Everything is usable. You can get hard, heavy fuzz out of it... then turn the "tone" knob and it goes into OD territory. Every slight movement of the gain knob opens up a whole new bunch of tones... its so sensitve! And the level.. why in the world does the level knob make an impact on the tone?!?! Oh yeah... might I add, the pedal has superb articulation/dynamics, very little (if any) compression. It cleans up extremely well... even on hi gain! Its something that opened my ears and eyes.

I bought it, sold off my Analogman DS1.

And the sheer amount of dynamics and articulation in the Hellbilly has made me reconsider my playing totally. The TS9DX I have sounded like a crushed can (compressed) of tone to me when compared to the Hellbilly.

Amazing amazing stuff. Next up is a Skreddy ScrewDriver. Will be placing the order later tomorrow.

I seriously don't know how long my TS9DX and Tri AC will remain on my board... sheesh... why didn't I go this route from the start!?!

Thats how my foray into boutique-dom started. How about you guys? How did you start? What do you have and why did you get them?

 

[ShredCow]

P.S. This thread is for GEAR discussion and sharing. Please do not come in here with exclaimations of "why-booteek-when-XXX-just-uses-a-ds1".

Instead, I hope SOFTies will be open and do learn what else is out there... out of the boss/ibanez/digitech/line6 world that many of us are in.. There's so much more tone out there!

 

[dric]

Dude, mind uploading some of the stuff using the pedal..would really like to hear it.

 

[gapple88]

Hi Shred....

I was eh.....poisoned by Malcolm too...

ordered a screwdriver last week from Marc, and Pic wah from misse.....

gonna get rid of my boss pedals soon...

 

[edo83]

My 1st step into non mainstream pedals was a Keeley DS-1, wasn't really boutique to me. Though overrated to my ears, but a substantial improvement to the stock tone through upgraded components.

Then decided to look around for original designs by other ppl, stuffs by Xotic, Zvex, Barber Elect...etc. I think what really amazes me most of the time are the EQ controls and Gain if applicable. For instance, very useable EQ tweaking and your low end does not break up at high gain. A pedal shouldn't have really just 1 or 2 sweet spots......like the DS-1 where the tone knob really sounds good at certain settings only, imho.

Some OD pedals by those independent guys are pretty nice , either as a low - med od or turn off the gain and it's a clean booster with quite high headroom to even kick your tube amps into slight breakup.

If i have the spare dough, maybe would like to get the Zvex Wah Probe, Barber Tone Press and TC Electronic SCF (not boutique but shiok nonetheless). I call them toys & tools, it's good to try them out and who knows what might affect how you play/approach music

 

[berukblue]

Yeah i had a listen to those pedals when malcolm set-up my guitar. Amazing stuff....but i only tried the hellbilly with my guitar. I decided to leave malcolm alone with the screwdriver since it just arrived when he was doing my guitar. :wink: I honestly never liked fuzz pedals but like you said shred, it even went into OD territory and that impressed me a lot. 8O

I have always been into boutique stuff but have only been able to afford stuff like Keeley and tonebone. I would really like to try the menatone overdrives. Heard rave reviews about those. Oh and the fulltone choralflange...tried it n loved it. And the barber tonepress seems very interesting...compression with a mix knob? Cool. I could go on but i don't think you guys want to hear what i think about every pedal i want :lol:

 

[Writer]

MALCOLM IS POISONOUS.......HAHAHAHA.....

 

[ShredCow]

Hi Shred....

I was eh.....poisoned by Malcolm too...

ordered a screwdriver last week from Marc, and Pic wah from misse.....

gonna get rid of my boss pedals soon...

AWESOME. The Skreddy peddals are something... the Screw Driver threw my TS9DX out of the window... thrashed the Analogman DS1 in terms of sheer dynamics and tone... and I know Skreddy's unique, 3 dimensional tone which as a booster, it translates to your tone... very very unique.

I'll be ordering mine ASAP. What graphic did you get?

 

[ShredCow]

. I think what really amazes me most of the time are the EQ controls and Gain if applicable. For instance, very useable EQ tweaking and your low end does not break up at high gain. A pedal shouldn't have really just 1 or 2 sweet spots......like the DS-1 where the tone knob really sounds good at certain settings only, imho.

Very true man. When you told me that last night, I realised thats one thing that kept bugging me.... I always liked the DS1's unique character but it had so many draw backs and limited sweet spots that ugh, I had to find mods and stuff... I guess this is where the boutique dudes come in and rebuild a pedal that actually is useful the whole travel of the knobs.

 

[ShredCow]

I have always been into boutique stuff but have only been able to afford stuff like Keeley and tonebone. I would really like to try the menatone overdrives. Heard rave reviews about those. Oh and the fulltone choralflange...tried it n loved it. And the barber tonepress seems very interesting...compression with a mix knob? Cool. I could go on but i don't think you guys want to hear what i think about every pedal i want :lol:

Eh, if you can afford Keeley and Tonebone, you can surely afford some of the boutique stuff! Do a search... or go to tonefactor.com ...

Eh, the Barber Tonepress is something VERY cool. There's a vid of it in action, and it sounded superb!

What are your thoughts? Share lah.

 

[gapple88]

I got the multi coloured version. But i told Marc to come up with psychedelic colours e.g hendrix or cream posters...

 

[DarknessFury]

Instead, I hope SOFTies will be open and do learn what else is out there... out of the boss/ibanez/digitech/line6 world that many of us are in.. There's so much more tone out there!

I agree...sometimes, not so well known products actually sound good.

 

[jony]

Errm.. actually, its not so well known products generally can sound alot better.

Way more than those that sound bad.

 

[jony]

GASsing for a VHT pitbull..

 

[brundisium]

most of the time, the not so well known product are only in here, but not other forums.

just an observation. No hard feeling

 

[Phil]

Where does one start with knowledge of the boutique stuff? Tonefactor.com?

 

[jony]

Thats true man...

There must be something contributing to it.

Thats price point and availibility..

Why are so many more people gassing for tubescreamers than fulltone OCD's?

 

[ShredCow]

most of the time, the not so well known product are only in here, but not other forums.

just an observation. No hard feeling

Eh... I don't really get you... rephrase?

 

[ShredCow]

Where does one start with knowledge of the boutique stuff? Tonefactor.com?

Thats one. Or hunt for forums that talk abt such things.

 

[novocaine]

I think that's the point exactly ain't it? Boutique pedals remain as themselves because players do not have widespread knowledge about them. They're not marketed as aggressively unlike tubescreamers what not.

So be glad that only a handful realizes the beauty (eye of beholder subject, i am for one not a boutique lover) of these pedals and that they're obscure from public recognition. If more ppl requested for it, mass-production ensues. And you won't expect them to hire tons more ppl to handsolder all the boards. It will be pressed. And though controversial, some ppl can miraculously 'feel' or tell the difference between such methods of production. And i'm sure boutique purists wouldn't want that.

So it's all good that they're all kept under wraps, stay unaffordable, not easily available and unknown. So all who have interest in will still enjoy the boutique-ness of owning them. Thanks.