I wanted to buy Freak Kitchen CDs... but each CD costs like 50 bucks. Geez.
Blackstone? 500 bucks? Odd. Aren't they 250USD direct from the maker?
The blackstone is an interesting pedal. It has 2 "channels". Yellow = lower gain, Red = higher gain and the option to tighten up the tone (gooder for humbuckers) or keep it fat & loose-ish (nice for singles). No hard & fast rule - just use what you want. The character of distortion is... beautiful. The yellow channel gets that amp-on-verge-of-breakup tone very very nicely done, in fact, I compared it to a Reverend Goblin amp and they sound very similar. The Red channel is... more gain and grinds well. People who have it keep throwing the "marshall" term - I dunno, its got grind & a hint of fuzz-like harmonic swirl. Has a bass cut (since I use humbuckers) and that makes it sound kinda... small at room volume. Since everything evens out at louder volumes - this was a blah point IMO. However, the Red channel in a band context - fits very well. Whether you cut thru or not, depends on your picking dynamics. Wanna lay back in the band mix? Lighter touch, done. It also has exceptional clarity.
The feel is very very different from an Op-Amp dirt box though... let's use a Rat or Boss SD1. The compression character is different. The thing sings differently. That can put you off.
Also, the Bstone is like Shredcow criticizing gear - its stupidly picky with what it sees. Buffered pedals will make the tone sizzle. There's a buffered mode switch in the bstone but I dislike how that makes the overall tone more compressed - but then you can run wahs/buffered stuff without any negative effect on the tone.
Finally, the bstone is picky about the guitar. You need to spend the time to tweak it to match ONE guitar. Use a different guitar with a different setup - the bstone wouldn't be sounding at its optimal.
That said, it just shines when I perform. Its clear, articulate, and really sounds good. Cleans up exceptionally well, which allows you to tweak gain levels on the fly via the guitar. Has a 3D like swirl to the tone - tube-like? Sorta.
Also, I bought it... twice. How's that for seller's remorse?
If you're into the whole jangly kind of dirt tones, the blackstone will suit you. If you like bluesy singing sustaining stuff... maybe not.
Google Bambasic and (translate the page) look for their NuPlex overdrive. That's a nice pedal for jangly stuff too.
Wow, that was long.
