Whitestrat
New member
I stumbled onto a godsend this weekend. Thought i'd share some info.
I've been hunting for something that gives me a very very slight amp-like break up at low volumes for the longest time. I've tried all sorts of OD pedals and drive pedals. They all either had too much gain (at "0" even) or were too smooth sounding. I was after that SRV sort of vibe. I know SRV primarliy got his sound from running his amps at high volumes, and that's of course the best way to do it. But you know we bedroom players can't really drive the amps that loud, especially if you got a 1 and a half year old kid sleeping nearby.
I came across this pedal. It's made by Belcat (Chinese).
It basically is a drive pedal, though I was surprised how little gain it has. It's got just enough to break up your sound, but not enough to kill it or turn it into mush. It's also got a little EQ character to it that adds a bit of a box-like nasal drone to the tone. At volume level 1.5 on my Fender Princeton Reverb, I was jangling and jiving away to "Cold Shot" and it basically NAILED the tone! It works great with a TS9 boosting it as a gain boost. Couple it with a TS9 and you got all you need to sound like SRV. It's the most accurate SRV-ish tone-in-a-pedal I've managed to find.
The best bit? It's dirt cheap... Something like $60 SGD.
It's pretty much a one trick pony, but being that cheap, it happens to do it's one trick better than many pedals I've found. The one problem I have with it is it's output level. I wish it could boost the signal a bit louder or at least a bit more volume would be nice.
I'll probably never use it at a gig since I can play loud enough, but I got it so I could nail that tone at low volumes.
Available at Guitar Connection. I also tried the other pedals from Belcat. The Distortion might appeal to some of you, since it's pretty hairy. But this was the only pedal I walked away with. The minute I plugged it in and strummed, I knew.
I've been hunting for something that gives me a very very slight amp-like break up at low volumes for the longest time. I've tried all sorts of OD pedals and drive pedals. They all either had too much gain (at "0" even) or were too smooth sounding. I was after that SRV sort of vibe. I know SRV primarliy got his sound from running his amps at high volumes, and that's of course the best way to do it. But you know we bedroom players can't really drive the amps that loud, especially if you got a 1 and a half year old kid sleeping nearby.
I came across this pedal. It's made by Belcat (Chinese).
It basically is a drive pedal, though I was surprised how little gain it has. It's got just enough to break up your sound, but not enough to kill it or turn it into mush. It's also got a little EQ character to it that adds a bit of a box-like nasal drone to the tone. At volume level 1.5 on my Fender Princeton Reverb, I was jangling and jiving away to "Cold Shot" and it basically NAILED the tone! It works great with a TS9 boosting it as a gain boost. Couple it with a TS9 and you got all you need to sound like SRV. It's the most accurate SRV-ish tone-in-a-pedal I've managed to find.
The best bit? It's dirt cheap... Something like $60 SGD.
It's pretty much a one trick pony, but being that cheap, it happens to do it's one trick better than many pedals I've found. The one problem I have with it is it's output level. I wish it could boost the signal a bit louder or at least a bit more volume would be nice.
I'll probably never use it at a gig since I can play loud enough, but I got it so I could nail that tone at low volumes.
Available at Guitar Connection. I also tried the other pedals from Belcat. The Distortion might appeal to some of you, since it's pretty hairy. But this was the only pedal I walked away with. The minute I plugged it in and strummed, I knew.
:mrgreen:
