Guitar
I gave up using any kind of overdrive/distortion/fuzz unit back in 1994, immediately after I got my first really toneful guitar: my 1993 Gibson ES-335 (featured in many pictures and videos on this blog). At that time two significant things happened: a) I had a guitar that sounded so pure and sweet that I just wanted to hear more of that, and b) I had stomped my beloved Ibanez 60's Fuzz (FZ-5) into little pieces in the throes of my mid-twenties, gen-x angst-rock trip. Also, my focus in music had turned away from rock and I was beginning to discover (and rediscover) a world of more traditional tone and harmony.
I've owned/worked with several amps that offered channel-switched overdrive, produced in the Mesa-Boogie "roast the preamp" fashion, and I just don't like that sound or feel from an amp; I inevitably use the clean channel exclusively. I've also fried a couple of Blues Jr.'s, pushing the power amps all the way; I like this sound, however the Jr.'s build quality isn't up to pro duty (endless issues...), and they're still too loud for a lot of smaller venues. And don't get me started of MDF enclosures or the Fender Special Design speakers...
The upshot of all this is that I finally broke down and went dirt pedal shopping for the first time in about fifteen years. Thankfully, I have a solid ally at my local music emporium who always looks out for me (thanks, Andre), and he helped me hone the search down to a few contenders. (Hey, I coulda' sat there all day and tried out all the pedals, but I'm a family man and I don't have time for such luxuries.) Out of the ones we tried out (names of losers omitted out of sense of sportsmanship) the Fulltone Plimsoul quickly stood out. Although I find it a tad over compressed and midrangey for my ideal world, I still can't find a bad sound. Although the clean boost thins out your signal a bit, this isn't necessarily a bad thing a lot of the time (particularly with humbuckers).
For those of you who have not tried one of these little tonebombs, the Plimsoul works much like an amp: it has a clean boost stage (up to 30db), a sustaining even-order overdrive stage and a second odd-order distortion stage (with a cool reactive LED that tells you how much it's in use) that sounds and feels much like a good fuzz pedal with the fuzz rolled right down, and gives your tone a bit of old-Marshall power-amp thump and urgency. There is also a very musical high-cut knob: fully clockwise is largely transparent, fully counterclockwise darkens up your tone considerably without turning it into mud.
The beauty of this pedal is that it really feels like a cranked amp; there's no artificial envelope of gack around your note and it's very dynamic. You can run this puppy at 9 or 18volts- it's definitely saggier at 9volts, tighter with noticeably more headroom at 18volts, and absolutely ravishingly sloppy and nasty at any setting with a dying battery- keep one around for special occasions, I'm not kidding. It's really flexible as well; there is everything from straight clean boost to full saturation in here and it all sounds good.
The unit itself is quite attractive with groovy lettering and beautiful deep violet paint. Battery access is both convenient and ingenious; one boggles as to why no one else thought to use a little door like that!? There's true bypass switching (of course) through a sturdy, authoritative feeling footswitch. The pots inspire confidence with smooth action, predictable sweeps and zero noise.
I've had great results with this box, using it for a variety of different tasks: as a straight clean boost, as a Tubescreamer-type overdrive (using the even-order Sustain knob), and to make my Deluxe Reverb sound smaller, like a Champ, not overdriving, just insistent (using the odd-order second-stage knob). The Plimsoul is extremely touch sensitive and dynamic, going from clean to scream with a little extra picking velocity or a twist of the volume knob. It's easy to coax feedback at reasonably polite volumes without cranking the sustain knob up past noon. All in all, a real swiss army knife for your rig.
As for drawbacks, it could be a little more transparent and a little less compressed. Many would argue that these traits are what makes it sound and feel so good, and they may be right...others would tell me to go buy a Timmy and shut up already. Other than that I have nothing but superlatives for this little box. There have been many gigs when it was on all night, imperceptible at times, in your face at others. It's the first time since the mid-nineties that I've used a dirt box on stage; it was not without reservations, believe me, but I think I chose a winner in the Plimsoul.
Enjoying the gear-geek articles? Fear not, dear rig-pigs, more are on the way! I'll be giving my buddy's Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker the going over soon, my brother's Kay Effector Les Paul with built-in-effects needs it's time in the spotlight, and how about a recording done exclusively with a Smokey amp (using the internal and external speakers, of course)- ooh! maybe with the Effector! Any other ideas? Any sick pieces of gear you'd like me to torture for the edification of the world at large? Let me know, I'm game!
- Mellifluous Pussy Mp-1 Review
When Erik from Inductor Guitars proposed me to review his MP-1 pedal, I was interested right away because it had already attracted my attention last year when Fuzz Box Girl released a video about it. But I'll have to do the review my own way because...
- Huge Lot Of Hand Wired Custom Guitar Pedals In Oshkosh Wi Area - At Good $
This seller has been building some nice pedals and he is offering them for a pretty good price. Note that he doesn't do any screening on the pedals so the knobs are not marked and there are no logos - still he's got some cool DIY pedals...
- Joe Gore Pedals Codpiece: The Embiggener
What's in a name? A hell of a lot, it would seem... There's nothing quite like receiving a package that you've been waiting for, semi-patiently anticipating the joyous christmas-morning like rush of tearing open a parcel containing...
- Big Muff Pi With Tone Wicker- A Review
First off, I'd like to thank my good friend Big Joe Burke for lending me this sick little puppy. The Electro Harmonix Big Muff is considered to be one of the classic fuzz tones, and countless players have embraced the thick wooly...
- Marshall Class 5: My New Amp.
I bought a new amp yesterday. I've been using an early Fender Pro Junior for several years, lately with a Hughes and Kettner Red Box between the speaker and the amp so that I can run a signal out to a small powered PA speaker for more headroom on...
Guitar
The Fulltone Plimsoul -from subtlety to saturation
I gave up using any kind of overdrive/distortion/fuzz unit back in 1994, immediately after I got my first really toneful guitar: my 1993 Gibson ES-335 (featured in many pictures and videos on this blog). At that time two significant things happened: a) I had a guitar that sounded so pure and sweet that I just wanted to hear more of that, and b) I had stomped my beloved Ibanez 60's Fuzz (FZ-5) into little pieces in the throes of my mid-twenties, gen-x angst-rock trip. Also, my focus in music had turned away from rock and I was beginning to discover (and rediscover) a world of more traditional tone and harmony.
I've owned/worked with several amps that offered channel-switched overdrive, produced in the Mesa-Boogie "roast the preamp" fashion, and I just don't like that sound or feel from an amp; I inevitably use the clean channel exclusively. I've also fried a couple of Blues Jr.'s, pushing the power amps all the way; I like this sound, however the Jr.'s build quality isn't up to pro duty (endless issues...), and they're still too loud for a lot of smaller venues. And don't get me started of MDF enclosures or the Fender Special Design speakers...
The upshot of all this is that I finally broke down and went dirt pedal shopping for the first time in about fifteen years. Thankfully, I have a solid ally at my local music emporium who always looks out for me (thanks, Andre), and he helped me hone the search down to a few contenders. (Hey, I coulda' sat there all day and tried out all the pedals, but I'm a family man and I don't have time for such luxuries.) Out of the ones we tried out (names of losers omitted out of sense of sportsmanship) the Fulltone Plimsoul quickly stood out. Although I find it a tad over compressed and midrangey for my ideal world, I still can't find a bad sound. Although the clean boost thins out your signal a bit, this isn't necessarily a bad thing a lot of the time (particularly with humbuckers).
For those of you who have not tried one of these little tonebombs, the Plimsoul works much like an amp: it has a clean boost stage (up to 30db), a sustaining even-order overdrive stage and a second odd-order distortion stage (with a cool reactive LED that tells you how much it's in use) that sounds and feels much like a good fuzz pedal with the fuzz rolled right down, and gives your tone a bit of old-Marshall power-amp thump and urgency. There is also a very musical high-cut knob: fully clockwise is largely transparent, fully counterclockwise darkens up your tone considerably without turning it into mud.
The beauty of this pedal is that it really feels like a cranked amp; there's no artificial envelope of gack around your note and it's very dynamic. You can run this puppy at 9 or 18volts- it's definitely saggier at 9volts, tighter with noticeably more headroom at 18volts, and absolutely ravishingly sloppy and nasty at any setting with a dying battery- keep one around for special occasions, I'm not kidding. It's really flexible as well; there is everything from straight clean boost to full saturation in here and it all sounds good.
The unit itself is quite attractive with groovy lettering and beautiful deep violet paint. Battery access is both convenient and ingenious; one boggles as to why no one else thought to use a little door like that!? There's true bypass switching (of course) through a sturdy, authoritative feeling footswitch. The pots inspire confidence with smooth action, predictable sweeps and zero noise.
I've had great results with this box, using it for a variety of different tasks: as a straight clean boost, as a Tubescreamer-type overdrive (using the even-order Sustain knob), and to make my Deluxe Reverb sound smaller, like a Champ, not overdriving, just insistent (using the odd-order second-stage knob). The Plimsoul is extremely touch sensitive and dynamic, going from clean to scream with a little extra picking velocity or a twist of the volume knob. It's easy to coax feedback at reasonably polite volumes without cranking the sustain knob up past noon. All in all, a real swiss army knife for your rig.
As for drawbacks, it could be a little more transparent and a little less compressed. Many would argue that these traits are what makes it sound and feel so good, and they may be right...others would tell me to go buy a Timmy and shut up already. Other than that I have nothing but superlatives for this little box. There have been many gigs when it was on all night, imperceptible at times, in your face at others. It's the first time since the mid-nineties that I've used a dirt box on stage; it was not without reservations, believe me, but I think I chose a winner in the Plimsoul.
Enjoying the gear-geek articles? Fear not, dear rig-pigs, more are on the way! I'll be giving my buddy's Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker the going over soon, my brother's Kay Effector Les Paul with built-in-effects needs it's time in the spotlight, and how about a recording done exclusively with a Smokey amp (using the internal and external speakers, of course)- ooh! maybe with the Effector! Any other ideas? Any sick pieces of gear you'd like me to torture for the edification of the world at large? Let me know, I'm game!
- Mellifluous Pussy Mp-1 Review
When Erik from Inductor Guitars proposed me to review his MP-1 pedal, I was interested right away because it had already attracted my attention last year when Fuzz Box Girl released a video about it. But I'll have to do the review my own way because...
- Huge Lot Of Hand Wired Custom Guitar Pedals In Oshkosh Wi Area - At Good $
This seller has been building some nice pedals and he is offering them for a pretty good price. Note that he doesn't do any screening on the pedals so the knobs are not marked and there are no logos - still he's got some cool DIY pedals...
- Joe Gore Pedals Codpiece: The Embiggener
What's in a name? A hell of a lot, it would seem... There's nothing quite like receiving a package that you've been waiting for, semi-patiently anticipating the joyous christmas-morning like rush of tearing open a parcel containing...
- Big Muff Pi With Tone Wicker- A Review
First off, I'd like to thank my good friend Big Joe Burke for lending me this sick little puppy. The Electro Harmonix Big Muff is considered to be one of the classic fuzz tones, and countless players have embraced the thick wooly...
- Marshall Class 5: My New Amp.
I bought a new amp yesterday. I've been using an early Fender Pro Junior for several years, lately with a Hughes and Kettner Red Box between the speaker and the amp so that I can run a signal out to a small powered PA speaker for more headroom on...