cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/39235955

Who knew that franchise-branded electric guitar peripherals were becoming a thing?

A Godzilla pedalboard would have been fantastic for garage bands back when GenXers were young…

Playing mostly through an Orange OR30 these days with a Mojotone 2x12 (Celestion Neo Creambacks). I use a Tone King Gremlin too sometimes, but to be honest I have more fun playing that one straight into the amp with no pedals. This board is super versatile and covers most of what I’m playing - mostly Pixies type stuff but also a lot of classics (Hendrix, Zeppelin) to punk (NOFX, AFI, Pennywise). The standout pedal here for me is the Mas Effects The Expanse - the power plug is a little wonky but the pedal sounds great.

https://www.chasebliss.com/big-time

Big Time revisits the mixed-up circuitry of rackmount delays from the early 80s, where advanced analog engineering was used to prop up crude digital systems. It includes both a stereo analog preamp at the input stage, and a stereo analog limiter within the delay’s feedback loop. Inside you will find misbiased modulations, dissolving loops, sequenced echoes, and all of the space stuff you could ever want. The anything-is-possible of digital, the everything-sounds-good of analog.

It also comes with a big time price tag of $999 (US).

In this video, I sit down with ChatGPT and quiz it on guitar pedal history - the Tube Screamer, the Big Muff, the Maestro FZ-1, DOD, JHS, Jimi Hendrix's rig... the works. And what you're about to watch is kind of alarming. It hallucinates pedals that don't exist. It agrees with things I KNOW are wrong when I push back. It confidently states dates it can't actually source. And then when I ask it to prove anything... it can't.

Sounds neat but I worry you need to run it in stereo to get the full effect.

Hendrix didn’t speak in decibels and ohm values, but he collaborated with engineers who did—Mayer and Kramer—and iterated fast as a systems engineer. Reframing Hendrix as an engineer doesn’t diminish the art. It explains how one person, in under four years as a bandleader, could pull the electric guitar toward its full potential by systematically augmenting the instrument’s shortcomings for maximum expression.

This is another one that’s been on my list for a while. It’s a good delay, maybe not as prominent as I would have liked but I’m still messing around with it. I have it set to a pretty crunchy tape delay here.

I want to get my expression pedal set up for the intensity knob so I can manipulate the self oscillation without bending over.

Hi all, as the title says, what is my best bet for a Big Muff cheaper alternative? I see a number of pedals on AliExpress, is any of those acceptable?

Thx!

If the onboard memory of a looper has gone bad, is the looper still fixable?
I don't care about any phrases saved, just hoping to still make use of the looper.

I got a boss RC-3 pedal secondhand, and because it flashed (still does) Er, I followed steps per the Boss rc-3 manual (page 19) to reformat it. No dice. Instead of flashing Fn for a reformat, it flashes dn, which is apparently the code for "contact ur dealer." Can I still replace the memory and use the pedal?

Things I've already tried:

• the above method for formatting, according to the boss rc-3 manual
• connecting to PC following the manual's instructions:
  • on Linux, shows up in lsusb with the device name, "Roland rc-3" or something like that, but not in lsblk. Not sure why that was, and I wasn't sure of what effective search terms to follow up with to troubleshoot further
  • on windows 11, doesn't show in disk manager nor file explorer, but does show as "mass storage device" among my usbs. Updated my USB drivers, tried the "uninstall device, and restart" thing from Device Manager.
    Nothing's changed. Properties of device from Device Manager also show a "device cannot start (code 10)" error
• I also tried to connect to pc in update-firmware mode, according to the manual. I still get the same results connecting to pc as above. I believe the looper data storage is shot.

All that said, is it worth prying open to fix it or nah?
If nah, what's the most "budget" looper you would recommend that includes:

• fake drums
• a count-in feature
• a tap-tempo button
• and undo-redo?

I have a cheap looper for practice, but it's a basic one-loop + overdubbing looper. It overwrites the one loop to an SD card, too, but I wouldn't mind trading in that feature for the above list. Once I tried an RC-2 with the count-in, I couldn't go back to using my cheap one. The rc-2 functions though felt way too crowded to use just to pick out a rhythm or write to memory, so I sold it and got this rc-3.

UPDATE:

No local help found: No boss-authorized service centers in Hawaii, except on the Big Island. I'm not flying out there for a pedal. I didn't reach out very far in Oahu, but, like, the few guitar-sources I could message asking for pedal-repair references - they didn't have anyone they could recommend.
The pedal's serial number is... Gone, so I couldn't submit an online ticket through Roland/boss. Their service request page requires a registered product, which requires a serial number.

So, I figured, I didn't want to disappoint the guy I bought this from and return a junk pedal.

I opened it. Found a 4GB micro SD card inside. Covered in a pea-size's worth of fucking GLUE. It looked and felt like wood glue because it was a BITCH to peel off.
Besides the glue, there's a bracket around the SD card also permeated with glue on three sides. The bracket had to to be slid upward & tilted up to release the SD card. See picture of opened bracket

I'm gonna see if replacing the SD card with the default folders & update-files in place works. The smallest replacement I have is only 16GB. Wish me luck.

Update: I'm still getting the "dn" code, but all I really did was slap a folder named ROLAND & the v1.6 firmware files on a blank 8GB micro SD I found.

I can't get to whatever was on the old 4GB SD card to copy files because my pc won't detect it. The flat pins are tinged in green stuff

In case it's relevant - anyone with a Boss loop-station here able to share what filesystem format it is when plugged in as a USB? Or share the file structure and whatever files should be in /ROLAND/DATA?

In this episode host Adam Wakeling speaks with Analog Mike Piera, founder of Analog.man.

Teaming up with pedal maker Brian Wampler, Synergy has introduced the Wampler Pedalhead. This pedalboard-friendly, 240-watt stereo power amp (equivalent to 60 tube watts) is designed to be the “engine” for players using digital modelers or preamps.

Danish Pete checks his hearing with help from Brian https://youtu.be/QVasjTEwXUQ

The Encounter Ambient Delay+Reverb is a fully-loaded vessel of atmospheric discovery, thoughtfully designed to explore swirling celestial tones and deeply immersive soundscapes

I hadn't heard of this pedal but saw it in a recent TPS challenge episode (or skip to here to hear Mick's track using it).

Hi everyone! I want to recommend this video, showing the qualities of NAM profiler even compared to expensive solutions. There are a lot of good profiles for pedals available! Great for achieving specific tones or even trying pedals out before buying physical.

I’m an electronics engineer and a guitarist. Like a lot of people, I grew up as a bedroom musician, recording through an interface, a DAW, and plugins — dialing tones that sounded great at home, then completely falling apart once I plugged into a real amp in a rehearsal room.

At some point, the question became unavoidable: Why can’t I bring the same plugin chain I use on my computer into a pedal?

This is the story of how I spent two years building the guitar pedal I always wanted.

From here, the project will move into software: open-source plugins and amp modeling.

If you want to follow the development or future updates, you can sign up here: https://node97.com/

EarthQuaker Devices has partnered with guitar amp expert Dr. Z for the ZEQD-Pre – a tube-loaded preamp that might just be the pedal that digital modeler users have been dreaming of.

It’s a pretty big collaboration. On the one hand, you have one of the gear world’s pre-eminent effects pedal makers. On the other, you have a boutique amp manufacturer whose builds have been championed by the likes of Joe Walsh.

The ZEQD-Pre Tube Pre Amp, then, is enticing indeed. Effectively, it aims to replicate the sound, feel, and response of an all-analog tube amplifier. Simple on paper, but there’s more to it than that.

EQD Product page

Hi everyone! Recently I was wondering how muff-style pedals would sound through a Peavey 6505 or similar amps.

I'll do my own tests as soon as I have the chance, has anyone of you guys tried? Do you have any favourite settings?

Thank you very much!

This has been on my “to buy” list for a very long time and they announced it was being discontinued a few days ago so I finally decided to pull the trigger.

Unfortunately this pedal is getting returned because I’m immediately not impressed with it.

My big gripe is that the Intensity, Throb, and (for some reason) Rate knobs barely seem to do anything.

With intensity it’s either non-existent or overpowering. There’s like a tiny sweet spot where the effect sounds good.

Throb is barely noticeable even with the neck pickup and/or distortion on.

I’m honestly not sure if my rate knob is broken or if it’s supposed to be this way. The first 1/3rd of the knob does not change the speed at all. I can hear the pulse moving at the same rate. At about 11:30 you start to hear the pulse increase and then you get into flutter territory after 2 o clock.

When you dial it in just right it sounds okay. I’ve had the MXR Univibe and the EHX Good Vibes before and the Good Vibes sounds better but requires its own power supply for some reason.

I also have a Phase 90 mini and the Phase 45 mode on that just sounds so much more lush and expressive than this pedal.

My experience with EQD is that most of their pedals are very good all around, or are very good at doing one particular thing ( ex. Data Corrupter). The Depths isn’t even the best at the one thing it’s supposed to do, sound like the intro to “Breathe” so it’s going back.

Apparently there are 6,000 units of this mystery pedal ready to ship.

In this episode host Adam Wakeling speaks with Jamie Stillman, Founder of EarthQuaker Devices about the impact of tariffs on small US businesses; why Jamie is not concerned about the current generation of digital modelers like the Quad Cortex and Helix, as well as how EarthQuaker Devices approaches product development at the company.