WhiteStrat
Don't stare at the eye.
I've got 5 amps, 4 of 'em tube amps, but only one with high gain channels. One of the others has decent breakup at full volume, but it's still just "crunch." So in spite of the high gain amp, and all the modeled pedals in my PODxt Live, I've been on the lookout for a versatile distortion pedal for a while.
As a fan of Joe Satriani, I was curious about the Satchinator (?) and finally saw one hooked up for testing at GC today. It was in front of a clean tube Fender--a good test since I've got a Blues Jr. I'd likely throw it in front of.
Joe's namesake pedal had a really nice tone--as in ONE really nice tone. It was nice enough, that in spite of it's noisiness, I almost bought it. But then I noticed the Jekyll & Hyde was out. So I put it in place of the Satchinator and put it through it's paces.
I left the store with a Jekyll and Hyde.
I really liked the dual pedal (overdrive on left, distortion on right) approach. The left side is apparently a TS808 clone (I can't vouch for it's accuracy; don't have a TS808) and the right side is a much higher gain saturated sound. I gotta tell ya, I can't decide which side I like better! The TS side has a bass boost besides drive, tone and volume controls. In between my Strat (w/overwound vintage pups) and the Blues Jr. I can dial in some great gritty sounds.
The high gain side has gain, mid, treble, and volume knobs. It also has a selector switch labeled Sharp/Blunt--sharp is bright, and blunt is darker and compressed. I gotta say, I'm surprised at how sweet this high gain side sounds with the simple tube amps (old Harmony, Blues Jr, Valve Jr, etc). I also threw it in front of my larger tube combo (the one with high gain channels) and added it to the amp's gain, and also just drove the clean channel with it. Both worked really well. In front of the clean channel, I like the Blunt setting better, and with the power amp section cranked a bit, I dare say the pedal sounds better in many ways than the amps own preamp gain. The TS808 side works well as a boost in front of the amp's gain channels as well.
My overwound pickups on the Strat are bright--almost to a fault. Sometimes it bugs me, but they're so sweet for funk and blues, I can't bring myself to change 'em (yet again!). So the high gain half of the pedal wasn't as successful with the Strat as the overdrive half. But the Evo humbuckers in my Epi LP, and the Jazz humbuckers in my Studio semi hollow absolutely love the high gain part of the pedal. And the high gain portion of the pedal is surprisingly quiet.
Much of what I found I've seen in other reviews (of distortion/OD pedals in general), but I guess I'm kind of excited finding it out for myself. And given all the flavors I already had, the new pedal may have been overkill. But I can't get enough flavors. And considering that this pedal delivers really great sounds of its own, as well as really adding to my existing flavors--I'll take overkill.
As a fan of Joe Satriani, I was curious about the Satchinator (?) and finally saw one hooked up for testing at GC today. It was in front of a clean tube Fender--a good test since I've got a Blues Jr. I'd likely throw it in front of.
Joe's namesake pedal had a really nice tone--as in ONE really nice tone. It was nice enough, that in spite of it's noisiness, I almost bought it. But then I noticed the Jekyll & Hyde was out. So I put it in place of the Satchinator and put it through it's paces.
I left the store with a Jekyll and Hyde.
I really liked the dual pedal (overdrive on left, distortion on right) approach. The left side is apparently a TS808 clone (I can't vouch for it's accuracy; don't have a TS808) and the right side is a much higher gain saturated sound. I gotta tell ya, I can't decide which side I like better! The TS side has a bass boost besides drive, tone and volume controls. In between my Strat (w/overwound vintage pups) and the Blues Jr. I can dial in some great gritty sounds.
The high gain side has gain, mid, treble, and volume knobs. It also has a selector switch labeled Sharp/Blunt--sharp is bright, and blunt is darker and compressed. I gotta say, I'm surprised at how sweet this high gain side sounds with the simple tube amps (old Harmony, Blues Jr, Valve Jr, etc). I also threw it in front of my larger tube combo (the one with high gain channels) and added it to the amp's gain, and also just drove the clean channel with it. Both worked really well. In front of the clean channel, I like the Blunt setting better, and with the power amp section cranked a bit, I dare say the pedal sounds better in many ways than the amps own preamp gain. The TS808 side works well as a boost in front of the amp's gain channels as well.
My overwound pickups on the Strat are bright--almost to a fault. Sometimes it bugs me, but they're so sweet for funk and blues, I can't bring myself to change 'em (yet again!). So the high gain half of the pedal wasn't as successful with the Strat as the overdrive half. But the Evo humbuckers in my Epi LP, and the Jazz humbuckers in my Studio semi hollow absolutely love the high gain part of the pedal. And the high gain portion of the pedal is surprisingly quiet.
Much of what I found I've seen in other reviews (of distortion/OD pedals in general), but I guess I'm kind of excited finding it out for myself. And given all the flavors I already had, the new pedal may have been overkill. But I can't get enough flavors. And considering that this pedal delivers really great sounds of its own, as well as really adding to my existing flavors--I'll take overkill.
I do know this: I tried a couple of my humbucker guits through it, and it sounded best with the Evo set--those are really thick, hot pups, very prone to quick breakup on their own. Those just jumped with the Distortion side.