Pedals and Effects: Dirt Pedals

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Pedals and Effects: Dirt Pedals

Today on Pedals and Effects, we’re doing a dirt pedal shootout! We’ve been hella busy with our touring schedules, but we finally found the time to catch up with some new dirt/distortion pedals as well as ones we finally got around to checking out. We’ve got a great lineup today of Chase Bliss, JAM Pedals, Spiral Electric, and Death By Audio! It’s 2019, more and more dirt pedals are starting to have MIDI and expression options. It’s a very unique take on a staple in effects but, you never know if you can reinvent the wheel unless you try. Not quite a fuzz war, but you know how we roll at Pedals and Effects.

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Gamechanger Audio: Plasma Pedal

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Gamechanger Audio: Plasma Pedal

You want crazy? We got crazy. Straight out of Latvia, it’s the Gamechanger Audio Plasma Pedal! This might be one of the most unique distortion pedals we’ve ever encountered. It’s hard not to notice the vibrant electrical charges shooting through the Plasma Pedal’s tiny window, turns out there’s a whole lot more going on under the hood. Unlike typical distortion pedals it does not use transistors, or clipping diodes, but rather a unique process that converts your signal into electricity, then back out as sound. It’s a science experiment of a pedal and we love it. You have to hear it, to believe it!

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Fender: Pugilist Distortion

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Fender: Pugilist Distortion

Diving deeper into the new Fender effects pedal line, today we're checking out the Fender Pugilist Distortion! The Pugilist has not one, but two distortions, which you can A/B, stack, or even blend. Like a pushed Fender amp, the distortion is well defined, but you can absolutely get gnarly when you start to stack the distortions. In case you were curious "Pugilist" means "boxer", and this pedal is a knockout!

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Vintage Marshall Pedals: The Guv'nor, Shred Master, and Bluesbreaker

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Vintage Marshall Pedals: The Guv'nor, Shred Master, and Bluesbreaker

As you might imagine, GuitCon was very productive for Nick and I! We shot some dope videos, were joined by great people, and surrounded by great gear. While over there, Reverb debuted their European web shop and happened to have some vintage gear on hand. One of the many cool things we got to check out were some vintage Marshall distortion pedals.  

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Demo: Eradicator by Satellite Amps

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Demo: Eradicator by Satellite Amps

Hey guys, Nick here, recently I had seen that Adam, from Satellite Amps, was getting into the pedal world. His amps are simple and super rock and roll. He hand builds 'em all and they come in all sorts of cool colors. His first pedal is basically one of his loud ass amps in a cool mid century-lookin' custom steel box. The casing is just a bit bigger than your average pedal and that's because it's got a dang 12AX7 tube in it!

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Demo: Source Audio's Stingray Multi-Filter & Multiwave Distortion

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Demo: Source Audio's Stingray Multi-Filter & Multiwave Distortion

It’s always exciting when Nick Reinhart comes through 5starr Sound Labs to demo pedals. Nick has such a unique approach to pedals that is very different from my own. He often utilizes a pedal in ways that may not immediately occur to me. This time around, Nick came through with a couple of Source Audio pedals that have been revamped for today’s touring musician. 

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Review: Ibanez DUE300 Multi-Effects Pedal

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Review: Ibanez DUE300 Multi-Effects Pedal

Kicking off your Monday, Pedals And Effects style! While on tour with Deltron 3030 during our Portland, Oregon stop I had to stop by Old Town Music. Old Town Music is one of the best music stores in the country, so of course I had to drop in. During this particular visit they had an 80’s Ibanez DUE300 Multi-Effects pedal at a steal of a price of $75.00! This multi effects unit is great for several reasons but I would have to say the most unique thing is the delay hold button on the board gives you 2.2 seconds of hold time! Back then, that must have seemed like eternity.

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Review: Ibanez MINI series / Delay, Distortion, Chorus pedals

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Review: Ibanez MINI series / Delay, Distortion, Chorus pedals

A few years back, pedal builders became increasingly aware that more and more musicians were responsible for lugging their gear through airports, and flying with their own gear. Pedal boards were becoming essential for the traveling musician, so making smaller pedals allowed for having multiple sonic options on boards already tight for space . Ibanez, known for making some of the most sought after pedals in the 80's, has decided to make some of those pedals into the mini format with the CSMINI Chorus, ADMINI Delay and SMMINI Super Metal Distortion. 

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