ScreaminFX Uverbia Review - First One With Red LED!

A Youtube Demo of this pedal is linked at the bottom of this page.

This is by far the biggest single pedal I own.

There is good reason for that. There is a real spring tank inside this thing.

The first thing that strikes you about the Uverbia is the sheer size and weight. It is a hefty pedal. Which is great, it is going to stay where I put it :) These are hand built in Texas. Seth at Screaminfx will make you one with Red, Blue, or White lighting. This particular model is the first to be built with a RED LED!

The looks are killer. From the shiny knobs, to the graphics on the front, to the striking lighting. This is gear porn if you've ever saw it.

But what makes a pedal great isn't the looks. It's the sounds. So how does it sound?

Better than any Analog reverb pedal that I've heard thus far. It sounds amazing. Nice warm analog REAL spring reverb.

There are a couple things that I find killer in this pedal.

 - I can quickly dial in the sounds I need.
 - The knobs are all interactive, so changing one will affect the response of the others. Small adjustments can yield great results. Its fun, it makes you want to keep tweaking.
 - You have the ability to go as subtle or as crazy as you want
 - You can also overdrive the pedal and your amp

If you are interested in these, check out the demos on youtube (including mine) and head on over to Screaminfx's website to pick one up!

Demo of this pedal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27lucbCEZlU

Mr Black Deluxe Plus Vs Strymon Flint - Spring Reverb & Tremolo Shootout!

This battle was surprisingly close on sound. I wont be able to explain the nuances, so just go watch my Youtube video comparing the two.

My Youtube Shoot Out: https://youtu.be/QoUbfb32fEM

The only thing disappointing me on the Mr Black was the switch. Its the hardest to engage switch out of any of my pedals and there is an audible pop when doing so in both the room and your mix.

Looks: Mr Black wins...Cause Palm trees.
Switch shootout: Hands down the Flint. Strymon switches are probably the best out there.
Mix Control Shootout: Flint allows you to get a wetter mix.
Speed Shootout: Mr Black goes both slower and slightly faster than the Flint.
Intensity Shootout: The Mr Black has a bit more intensity and a choppier feel over all.

I felt the Mr Black had a bit more attitude and I enjoyed the character of sound more than I did the Flint. But not by much.

The fact is on the control ability front, the Flint gives you a ton more options than the Mr Black.

Flint gives you the ability to:

Global
Turn on or off the tremolo seperatly (Can be done on Mr Black, but you must fiddle with knobs and there isn't a switch to do so)

Tremolo Side
Boost or cut the tremolo
Set tap divisions for the tremolo
Tap tempo
Effect order: Trem Into Verb or Verb Into Trem

Reverb Side
Boost or cut the reverb
Adjust the done of the reverb
Adjust the decay of the reverb

I liked the sound of the spring reverb more on the Mr Black. But, I wanted to dial back the decay just a little bit and could not.

For character of sound I'd go with the Mr Black Deluxe Plus.
For control ability, hands down the Flint wins.

Red Panda Context Reverb Review

I had my reservations about the Red Panda Context reverb.

The first thing I noticed is the lack of stereo ins and outs, which is not a smart descision on their part. But I put my reservations about this aside.

The pedal actually suprised me. It isn't to far gone from many other reverb "mode" pedals out there. As I was going through the different modes, I was suprised at how great each one sounded. Every mode on here sounds fantastic.

Even the gated mode sounds good when used with moderate settings.

The delay mode was actually my favorite. The first thing that hit me was I loved the decay on the repeats. It sounded very analog. Next, you could dial the mix of the delay up to decent levels. Also nice. It also had the ability to do infinate repeats and you could tweak with the time. But it never got out of control volume wise which was nice.

I would say the pedal is well worth the money, and worth forgiving the lack of stereo inputs. But, if you NEED stereo in your reverb, then this might be a deal killer.

I'm a bit disapointed they didn't try to go for "Spring" reverb. I would have loved to have heard their take on that. But they stuck to doing what they do offer well. I can't complain about that.

Empress Tape Delay

First I have to say. Empress...Impresses me. From their build quality, to top notch customer service, down to the way they take and implement customer feedback for new features. Just a solid company.

The Empress tape delay is in my opinion a "basic" solid delay. It'll do tape delay, but it is on the more subtle end of tape delay. Some will argue this is more realistic to what you will hear in real life. I think they are right.

But with our ventures into the digital age, staying true to the originals often limits from what you COULD do. I like a lot of range in my controls, so I tend to gravitate towards pedals that have lots of range. Ones that will go from subtle to all out whacky. This pedal does not get whacky.

The great! 

The ability to go full wet with the signal and cut out the dry signal is awesome.

Time warping your tape delay while fiddling with the knobs sounds really good in this pedal. It is fun.

The "Output" control is awesome, you wouldn't think a volume control on a pedal would be so useful, but it is.

HP/LP filter switch. I love this feature, whether you want your delays standing out or sitting back in the mix. You can have it here.

Both Modulation and Tape Age have very use-able and good sounding amounts of their respective effect.


The Decent 

Having toggle switches for Tape Age and Modulation. This would have been nice to have in knob form.

The pedal can go into self oscillation with the feedback turned up, but it gets very loud.

The Bad 

Unity gain on the mix knob is at about 2 ocklock. From about 3:30 on is full wet. This doesn't do louder than your original signal well with those mixes.

No stereo operation. If for nothing else, offer stereo to preserve stereo imaging. Delay comes late in the chain typically. I don't understand the descision to not have stereo here. This isn't exactly "off par" with other tape delay units however. So you can't knock them down to much.

This is going to be your standard fare workhorse delay. It is going to sound good. But aside from time warping, you are not going to get any "out of the ordinary" sounds out of this pedal. I only suggest getting it if the only thing you are looking to do is tape delay. If you are looking for more versatility I would suggest looking elsewhere.

Nuenaber Immerse Reverberator - The Good, Decent, And Bad

I had heard amazing things about this pedal. I figured I would give it a shot.

This pedal has some great features.

Kill Dry is awesome, though a lot of reverb pedals incorporate this simply by turning the reverb all the way up. The trails switch also nice to have but not that innovative. Stereo ins and outs are great but should be a given now days. It looks nice. The color scheme, graphics and box are awesome.

But in the end it is the sounds that define the pedal. So how did the modes stack up?

The Modes
Detune    - 7/10 - This could get pretty. It's not the best detune I've heard but it was alright.
Echo - 4/10 - The echo was weak. Not really inspiring.
Shimmer 1 - 10/10 - For the record, I hate shimmer. It is my number 1 most hated effect. But they actually did a damn fine job on this. It sounded amazing.
Shimmer 2 - 6/10 - This was darker and less defined. More subtle. I didn't find it inspiring
Spring - 4/10 - Didn't get up to "splashy", and I didn't feel it accomplished vintage warmth either.
Plate - 9/10 - Plate was great for ambient stuff. Also a standout on this pedal.
Hall - 10/10 - Even more ambient. Very ethereal.
Wet - 10/10 - Wet is just an awesome reverb sound. Very ambient. The algorithm gets a 10, the ability to not dial it up louder however hurts.

Total Score: 60/80    75% C

The Bad

• The FEEL of the construction. I'm sorry, but the neunaber platform just seems a bit tacky and "cheap" to me. I'm not saying it isn't quality, but it doesn't feel like quality. From the light weight to the kinda rubberyish knobs. It feels a bit cheap.

• The FX Level Knob Taper. Dialed up to about noon, you couldn't even tell there was reverb on the signal. You had to really crank it up to hear the reverb. This is partly because of the way they implemented the "mix". They keep your dry signal pure and present, it is not a "mix" knob like you are used to. It simply brings the reverb volume level up. Thus the NEED for the kill dry switch.

•  Depth - Depth controlled how long the reverb tail was. Decay would have been a better name, but the taper on that knob was very odd. Everything below about 2 was short and then ramped up super quickly after that to almost infinite (Not complaining about the infinite)

• The knob that controls various aspects on the respective reverb types I felt didn't have enough range. Neither did the tone.They seemed to me like play it safe knobs.

• No volume adjustment. Things sounded a bit thin and low in the mix in the reverb department, very apparent with kill dry. Thinking about it now what I mean by no volume adjustment is the reverb just didn't get loud enough. The FX level is the volume adjustment :)

• The Spring Reverb in my opinion just didn't cut it. I want my spring to go from vintage warmth to surfy splash. I don't really feel it accomplished either.

The Decent

•  Detune, Echo, Shimmer 2 - These did just ok at their jobs. They didn't really wow me.

The Great

•  Wet, Plate, Hall - These modes were awesome sounding

• Trails for days. No other reverb pedal decays like this pedal. It will go on forever if you let it. Very awesome.

The crap you don't think about

•  Kill dry switch being left on, and wondering where your dry signal is for 20 minutes while trying to record the demo :)

At first I thought I was being to critical of this pedal. Then I stuck this next to the Empress Reverb, and the decision to get rid of the Immerse was made almost instantly. With the lack of stand alone "proprietary" reverbs, it had to stand alone on the reverb sounds. And it does not do anything but perhaps "Wet" better than any other pedal. But that is a proprietary algorithm, so no real competition on that one.

I do recommend their Expanse series of pedals however. Simpler controls, much better mixes. The ability to go full ambient, and amazing sound. Everything this pedal should be.

If they ever released a new version with better tapers to the knobs, greater range, and an actual "Mix" knob, I'd be all about it. Most of the reverbs sounded great. But there were just to many things adding up to make me want to keep this one. I look forward to seeing what these guys put out next though.

If you are interested in a video demo, you can view mine at the below link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jic4z6Z0p6s

Boss DD-500 - A Realistic Review

When I first saw this pedal, I wanted to hate it. Why? I feel BOSS is a very mediocre company. In my experience they really do the bare minimum when it comes to supporting their customer base. For example, the lack of computer editors in their higher end products, and lack of central patch exchanges. Real amateur moves. There are other reasons that have soured my taste for the company over the years with their customer service as well.



When I saw a delay coming out that not only mimicked other delays for the most part for stock sounds, but also stole design ideas. I couldn't help but think they were once again "phoning it in".

After having spent a little time with the pedal, over all, it impresses me sound wise. Now let me clarify. I think there are a lot of GOOD sounds in this pedal. I DO NOT believe it does a great job of emulating what it says it emulates.

Does this dethrone other delay pedals? No..it doesn't. I can't say this pedal does any one thing a lot better than any other delay pedal I've heard, except for the unique sounds it has in it. It only does those better because it has no competition in those areas. But it gives you great sounding delays. Musical Delays. Delays you can work with, and so many sculpting options, you could get lost for hours tweaking to your hearts content.

I believe this pedal is a winner. But understand what it does well and does not. This isn't the "Holy Grail" some will tout it to be. I wont say it is going to replace any TC, Strymon, Eventide etc... They are different beasts. Depending on what you want will determine which you want to go with. Do I think it is worth the price? Yes. Do I think it covers every delay situation? If you want un-realistic emulations to your types of bread and butter delays, sure. They still sound good, but are not the best emulations. If you want actual great emulations of various types go with something else. You wont find perfect emulations here. You'll find good enough.

Ratings based on what delays are "Supposed" to be
Standard - 7/10 - Given it is supposed to be digital I find it a bit muddy. I've heard much more inspiring tones from other pedals.

Analog Delay - 6/10 - Seems completely un-natural on the decay for analog. This mode offers 1, 2, and 4 bucket brigade chips. Only the 4 mode sounds decent, but still not a good representation of analog here.

Tape - 7/10 - Tape is a hard one for me. With "Wow" and "Flutter" controls absent, I can't help but think Boss phoned this one in. However when playing around with the different tape head combinations in this one, you can get some very awesome sounds. With one tape head I was hearing very little wow and flutter. With mutliples it is more apparent. It is not the best emulation of tape I have heard, but it does sound nice.

Vintage Digital - 6/10 - Either models the SDE-3000 or DD-2. I'm not really sure it does a great job at either.

Dual - 5/10 - The ability to have 2 delays at the same time running in series or in parallel?! Sign me up! Except...I have to have 2 delays of the same type. Really? How hard would it have been to allow the selection of 2 different types Boss...FAIL

Pattern - 8/10 - Pattern mode is cool for rythmic stuff. Can't complain there.

Reverse - 7/10 - I've heard it done better, but it is what it is. When was the last time you obsessed over a reverse delay?

SFX - 10/10 - Completely original bit crushed sounds and other things. Uniq to this pedal and super cool.

Shimmer - 8/10 - I hate shimmer more than any other effect, but the amount of dialing you can do on this one is decent and sounds pretty good.

Filter - 10/10 - Very nice filter mode for uniq sounds and lots of control.

Slow Attack - 10/10 - The swell is awesome. Very musical. Very inspiring.

Tera Echo - 10/10 - Uniq effect to BOSS. Tera sounds fantastic.

Total Score: 94/120    78.3%   C+

The Great!

•  Very clean sound. I thought Strymons were clean, this is on par, almost more clear than that.
•  Great sounding delays. I find most of what I dial in pleasing to listen to.
•  Tera Echo, SFX, Slow Attack, Filter I found more of the uniq sounds awesome
•  Pretty small... I was expecting larger. Giggity
•  Stereo ins and outs. A must on delay pedals.
•  Super precise time - Milisecond adjustments and tap tempo
•  99 Banks by 2 Presets = 198 presets!

The Mediocre!

•  Effects in bread and butter types - Tape, Analog, Digital. They are simply not the best representations of what they are "supposed" to be. This doesn't mean they don't sound good. They do. They just aren't good at what they are supposed to be.
•  Shimmer - I would say shimmer is the effect I hate most out of any effect ever made. But you can dial in decent useable shimmer on this unit. If you love shimmer this might be in the great category for you.
•  Looper - While this may be great...Its been done in like every delay pedal of this caliber. So pretty much par for the course at this point
•  Operating the pedal is not that hard. I was going without the manual the first time I plugged it in. But menu diving gets annoying.
•  Ability to pan delay signal far right or left and leave the original on one side. This is actually really cool...But why the hell would you not include the ability to ping pong back and forth in stereo on everything?
•  Super customizable, lots of options to tweak, but does fall short on some tweakability. The lack of being able to choose which 2 delays in dual mode and wow and flutter controls on tape is unforgivable.

The Bad!

•  No computer editor
•  Preset Naming sucks on a floor pedal
•  Not a whole lot of distorted/saturated delay options

So to sum up. If you want a great sounding delay. This is for the most part a great sounding delay with a lot of control. If you are looking for spot on representations of the standard modes, I would suggest looking elsewhere. You are likely to be disappointed here.

Wampler Triple Wreck Distortion

Today we take a look at Wampler's Triple Wreck.

This is a high gain distortion pedal. It was designed to be bad ass, and that's exactly what it is.

Controls:
Volume: Controls Volume
Gain: Amount of distortion
Treble, Mids, Bass: EQ shaping

Toggle:
Vintage: Less high end and bite, more compression
Modern: Less Compression, more high end bite
Crunch/Cream: Controls the contour of the boost stage. Crunchy distortion vs creamy fuzz.

Even dialed down on tame settings you can get a decent overdrive sound. But quickly as you increase the gain, it saturates to pure distortion. I love having a 3 band EQ to shape my overall tone as well. As always, you can crank in WAY to much bass. Which is awesome, no complaints about losing the low end! This is also useful for thickening up strat/tele sounds.

The pedal also has TONS of volume, even cranking the EQ settings affects the volume. It can get very loud, real quick. This pedal sounds amazing. Easy to get good tones, lots of harmonic saturation, lots of distortion. But Brian took it a step further and added a boost switch.

Kicking this on allows you to blend in even more distortion, or you can crank on the thickest, most saturated and smooth fuzz you've probably ever heard and any blend between the two!

I admire Wampler for making pedals that sound amazing, but I also commend them for being inovators.

Pro's
True Bypass
9V Operation via battery or adapter
3 band EQ
Choice of Distortion shaping via Vintage/Modern toggle
Tons of volume
Anything from slightly overdriven to thick smooth fuzz
Remains articulate