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

Fulltone Plimsoul

The Plimsoul is the latest offering from Fulltone in the realm of Overdrive pedals. "Plim" means full.

The main idea behind it is to bridge the gap between Soft Clipped and Hard Clipped overdrives.

Soft clipped are typically found in lower gain overdrives, those that add a little grit, typically some compression, usually a smoother sound. To learn more about clipping you can go to the below links.

http://www.gmarts.org/index.php?go=217

http://www.tyquinn.com/2009/lead-tone-part-3-distortion/

Hard clipping is mostly found in distortion pedals.

This pedal offers 2 channels, one for each type of clipping. These can be controlled seperatly. But you also have the ability to combine these 2 types of distortion in any ratio you want. The Plimsoul offers symetrical Hard Clipping which gives a little more focused sound. The pedal offers all the other typical great characteristics of overdrive pedals. It cleans up on lower volumes and softer picking. It distorts as you play harder.

So lets get down to the controls.

Level: This controls the volume and there is a lot to be had with this pedal. Unless you are insane (which you may be) You wont even crank this up half way. I usually keep mine between 8 and 11 o'clock for an even/slightly boosted volume when the pedal is engaged.

Sustain: This controls the soft clipping portion of the pedal or "stage 1" This stage provides aysemetric clipping. This enriches harmonics and overtones which is great for lower gain overdrive. Even in stage 1, this pedal gets awfully dirty. I'd probably keep it definatley below 11 o'clock for a soft clipped overdrive sound. With the Stage 2 knob turned all the way counter clockwise, it isolates only this stage of distortion.

Hi-Cut: This controls the treble frequencies. Basically a tone control, but with less control on the bottom end. I can say, for my ears, this is all you need since the most you are usually looking to do is roll off the treble anyways.

Stage 2: This little knob controls the second stage of distortion, the hard clipped. This offers a tighter low end response. You can roll back the sustain knob counter clockwise all the way to isolate this channel. The Stage 2 LED shows how hard you are hitting the second stage of the distortion when you're blending the two, or even if your not.

Power: You can run this on a 9v or 18V adapter or 9V battery. I love this about all Fulltone pedals OD pedals as running either gives different dynamics.

This pedal offers a slight boost on the mid-range. Not overbearing, but it is noticeable. This increases the presence. There are several good demo's of this pedal online. However as I've found out. Nothing compares to live application.

Official Site

http://www.fulltone.com/plimsoul.asp

gearmandude

demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCwA0Ho8Tvw

gr8bluesgtr

demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3zGMagIS48

Some Other Online Reviews
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2010/Oct/Fulltone_PlimSoul_Pedal_Review.aspx

I really love the fact that every Fulltone OD/Distortion pedal I've bought all sound natural and works with my guitar. It sounds like a very natural distortion as oposed to just using a distortion pedal to click on and off. I love all of the Fulltone OD pedals I've bought, so I wont be stating this is any better than the others. But I will say, if you're looking for a gainier pedal, this is the one I'd suggest going with if you are debating between the others.

The variations of Soft and Hard clipped distortion is very fun to mess around with. I'm typically a guy that likes harder clipped type distortions, with more gain. So having this ability is pretty priceless to me.

Sample Settings:

Fulltone OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Drive

This was my first overdrive pedal, so I didn't know how it would react with my amp. The first concern I had when buying the Fulltone OCD was how well it would work with my Peavy Vypyr. Typically overdrive pedals are made to take tube amps and push them into overdrive.

You can learn more about transtube technology at the below link.
http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/hartley/chapter_3.pdf

Given the rave reviews of the pedal. I decided to give it a shot. I'd watched a couple demo's on youtube and the thing seemed to have pretty good sound.

Anyways, here are the controls.

Controls:Volume: yea...
Tone: Shapes your tone, treble vs bass.
Drive: Amount of distortion, you can roll it all the way down for a clean boost.

Toggle:
High Peak: This mode gives you Vox/Marshall type sounds. Increased bottom end to give a "British" feel.
Low Peak: More vintage sounding, very transparent. Less volume.

This pedal is awesome. Thick rich creamy overdrive. Just like the paint job ;) This thing has the ability to be very very subtle, as well as in your face. I'd read reviews that it was thin? I haven't seen this at all. I also haven't been able to dial in an un-usable sound on it. It is very transparent on both the guitar and amp tone. Had my Vypyr emulating a Fender Twin on the clean channel, and this pedal just made my amp its bitch.

The first cool thing about this pedal is that you can run it on any adapter up to 18V. Apparently doing so gives this pedal even more tones and possibilities. Running it a higher voltage gives it more "head room" IE different dynamics when rolling back the volume, more clean sounding etc...

You can roll back the volume and your sound cleans up. The pedal also works with your playing dynamics. If you play harder, the more signal your pumping into the pedal, the more distorted the tone will become. If you back off the volume, it cleans up.

With overdrive no longer is distortion just on and off, now it adjusts. So its like an orgy of tone between your guitar, the pedal, and the amp.

This pedal is also small, about the size of a smart phone which is a definite plus. It is also True Bypass.

It's simple. You can plug and play, I haven't found an un-usable setting yet. I literally sat down for 2 hours and just got lost in playing with this thing. Absolutely love it.

I stacked this up with a Fulltone Catalyst on both fuzz settings and clean boost settings, and man does this sucker sing. I typically dislike the Catalyst for the most part, but teamed with this pedal is a winning combination. It adds just that little extra umph to give you TONS of harmonic saturation and sustain.

Pros
It cleans up well with the volume knob, and it responds to your playing dynamics very well.
Runs on 9V Battery or Adapter
Can run at 18V with adapter
Small footprint
True bypass
2 Modes of operation: High Peak/Low Peak
Can be used as a clean boost.

ConsNONE!

Ibanez TS-9 Tubescreamer - Keeley Modded Franken Screamer

I was lucky enough to find one of these. Keeley had a limited run of these pedals. This pedal contains both the "Mod Plus" and "Baked Mod" in one pedal. You can switch back and forth between the two with the toggle switch. The only other Keeley Mod to offer this is the TS9DX 4X12 Flex Mod. I've also owned that pedal, and lets just say it doesn't hold a candle to this pedal. Again, a rehash of what is offered with these 2 mods.

Mod Plus

1. They replace the T9 circuit with the TI RC4558P, this is the same circuit that was in the old vintage TS-808's. I believe the 808 sales for more than double the price of a tube screamer, and even more for a vintage one. So the fact your getting the vintage circuit in here at the price is a steal. Not to mention it sounds like the same circuit is in the stock 808's as is in the TS-9. So why are you paying double again?

2. They replace the old saggy red LED with a bright blind you blue LED.

3. They change the "IC" Apparently better than the "JRC" No idea what that means :)

4. Change the output resistors from carbon comp to metal film which make the circuit less noisy. Also offers a more consistent sound from pedal to pedal.

5. They increase the bass response which is a typical complaint on any stock Tubes Screamer.

6. They improved the bypass circuitry so it sounds better when bypassed. This obviously refers to those they don't modify for true bypass.

7. Improved the tone circuitry a bit taking a page from the "Sparkle Drive" again don't know what this means.

8. They made the cleans cleaner and gave it 2 X the gain.

Baked Mod - In addition to the above minus step 8.

1. Use of high quality sockets with gold inserts.

2. The drive circuit is further pushed by lowering the resistance a notch.

3. All metal film resistors and capacitors. (Makes the pedal less noisy)

4. Raise in one resister to affect the impedance a slight bit. (Up from 510k to 610k)

5. Change of input transistor to MPSA18 for lower noise.

6. Drive range shifted from 0 - 10 on a stock TS-9 to 4 - 14. (More dirty)

This in and of itself makes this the absolute best Tube Screamer to own. You can have your clean and dirty OD all in one box. But, they went even further with this one.

Say it with me kids...extra features...

1. True bypass switching.

2. They added a BOOST circuit. The normal footswitch, rather than being dead now acts as the switch for boosting the volume.

3. They added a knob on the side to control the amount of volume boost. Yessir, you can control how much boost you get! The boost adds some second order harmonic distortion which makes it sing to!

4. They also added an LED which allows you to tell if the boost is on or off. Like you needed an LED to tell you that!

5. They modified the pedal to run at 18V internally giving it greater dynamics and better character. You can still run it off the standard 9V adapter or battery.

Just absolutely pure magic to this sucker. You really need to play it to truely appreciated it. I've owned every Keeley Mod for the TS-9. This one by far exceeds all of them. Unfortunatley you'll probably never get your hands on one.
http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=1754

Wampler Leviathan Fuzz Pedal

Before I go into my speal about what I think, lets get to the controls

Treble: Controls the treble

Bass: Controls the bass
Volume: Controls the volume
Gain: Amount of grit

Toggle:
Roar: Less Compressed, a bit less gain, More open sounding, more cut. This mode uses germanium diodes.

Rumble: More compressed, gainier. This mode uses silicon diodes.

This is a new fuzz pedal by Brian Wampler. He spent a month designing and tweaking this pedal. He created it to be the meanest fuzz out there. (Good try, but nothing will ever beat the Fuzz Factory, its plain and simply as insane as anyone is gonna want to get.) However this pedal has a lot more useable and practical tones than the Fuzz Factory. He was going for a big thick rich sound like you hear on Smashing Pumpkins "Geek USA" Brian is quickly emerging as my favorite pedal designer. Every pedal I've tried of his has been golden. Also aparently Leviathan is a sea monster. Which is where the pedal got its name.

This is just about everything you could want in a fuzz pedal. Most of the controls are pretty standard. Except for the toggle switch. This allows you to do something I've never seen in another fuzz pedal. That is to switch between Germanium and Silicon diodes. Typically you buy fuzz pedals based on this. This pedal allows you to switch on the fly. Germanium is more open sounding, has more high end, and cuts through the mix a bit better. It also sounds a bit raspier to me. Silicone has more gain, is more compressed, sounds a bit smoother and thicker.

The EQ controls are very useable, although I would have liked to see a mid range control. It has tons of bass, like most wampler pedals. You can take it into ridicioulous territory.

Barely cranking the gain in rumble (Silicone) mode, you have nice thick gain. This is what I love, I tend to not like fuzz pedals that offer "low gain" fuzz. That's not what fuzz is about in my opinion. It's about being over the top. This is the reason I like EHX's Big Muff. And also the reason I love this pedal. You want thick? You can get it easily.

But, this thing somehow retains clarity of the notes. And it just sounds absolutely awesome. Dime it, keep it subdued. Either way you're gonna be happy.

Germanium gives you more cut so you can stand out in the mix. Its more open and "Throaty" Sounds more raspy to me as well.

I wont bore you with technical jargain. However, I will also mention that they made this pedal to stack with other effects. Some fuzzes you cannot do this with due to the impedances.

The only thing this thing doesn't do that I wish it did, is get that nice breakup on the tale end of notes. If only they'd added a control to starve the voltage, this could have been my perfect fuzz pedal.

Pro's

True Bypass

Stacks well with Wah's and other pedals

Choice of Germanium or Silicon diode operation

Thick and Rich

Very useable EQ
9V Operation via battery or standard power connection

Great sound all around!

Con's

No control for fuzzy breakup

Honestly the best place to check out demo's is right from Wampler's site.

http://www.wamplerpedals.com/fuzz/leviathan.html

There are plenty of demo's on youtube. Most good ones are linked there.