Copperhead and Grandaddy!
Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:40 am
Here is my latest creation from David - arrived earlier this afternoon and Ive spent hours AB/ing the 2 pedals - WOW what a wonderful creation - and it absolutely nails the tones of the original BUT in my opinion more as well - it has certainly got more overall volume on tap - and there are still areas where the unsuspecting will imagine that something has gone wrong! The raw early tone of Gary Hursts mk1 Tonebender is a long way from the guaranteed smoothly sustaining distortions and reponses of the subsequent Tonebender circuits -It's going to challenge the unsuspecting until they get the hang of dialling in the sweet spots for any given rig.. But I'll put something on about that tomorrow - tonight I can't resist adding some pictures and having been in the position to make detailed comparisons to my original Mk1 (which is generally considered to be amongst the nicest sounding and "best behaved" of those still around) can give my initial thumbs up - as if David would ever let them out not perfect !!!
I spent several hours running a range of guitars through several amps with the two pedals shown linked together with just my beloved DM-2 Delay in between the Tonebenders and the amps - just to give the signal a bit of slapback in the absence of a reverb amp. I was mainly using a couple of beautiful old Watkins combos on Mullard el84's and a litle Vox AC4 (my standard indoors fare - playing a very high quality '59 LP Standard "Burst" clone with "Bulldog" vintage spec humbuckers and a similar quality pair of Teles loaded with Bare Knuckles '50 flatpole Blackface and Seymour Duncan Antiquities pickups.
Proper review tomorrow as promised elsewhere:
Pics:
This is a thing of great beauty - not only from the evident skill and perfection of its construction which as wev'e come to expect is quite flawless - check out the heat shrunk ends to the wires and the way the whole circuit has been dressed - a masterpiece !! BUT IT GETS BETTER!!
If you want to get hold of an original Sola mk1 in todays market - you better have several grand to spare - they are as rare as gold hens teeth!! So finding a dead on playing clone is something special - Well here it is!! If the pedal is beautiful on the eye its doubly so on the ear - yes - just like the originals there's some setting up and fiddling with the controls (both the pedal and the guitars controls affect the end result dramatically! to get that exact tone dialled in - But oh my god - once it's there, sonic nirvana!!! You can go from a chopped and gated "nasty" fuzz - I use the term Nasty in its most desirable meaning - through to that smoothly singing sustain found on so many early classics from the mid sixties - smooth but always on the edge of breaking up - and with enough volume/level - the perfect tool for pushing a cooking amp into overdriving through all the way to a wonderfully rich harmonic feedback - Yes Sir !! I have had fun tis aftenoon - didn't get much else done thats for sure
Graham the grateful one
I spent several hours running a range of guitars through several amps with the two pedals shown linked together with just my beloved DM-2 Delay in between the Tonebenders and the amps - just to give the signal a bit of slapback in the absence of a reverb amp. I was mainly using a couple of beautiful old Watkins combos on Mullard el84's and a litle Vox AC4 (my standard indoors fare - playing a very high quality '59 LP Standard "Burst" clone with "Bulldog" vintage spec humbuckers and a similar quality pair of Teles loaded with Bare Knuckles '50 flatpole Blackface and Seymour Duncan Antiquities pickups.
Proper review tomorrow as promised elsewhere:
Pics:
This is a thing of great beauty - not only from the evident skill and perfection of its construction which as wev'e come to expect is quite flawless - check out the heat shrunk ends to the wires and the way the whole circuit has been dressed - a masterpiece !! BUT IT GETS BETTER!!
If you want to get hold of an original Sola mk1 in todays market - you better have several grand to spare - they are as rare as gold hens teeth!! So finding a dead on playing clone is something special - Well here it is!! If the pedal is beautiful on the eye its doubly so on the ear - yes - just like the originals there's some setting up and fiddling with the controls (both the pedal and the guitars controls affect the end result dramatically! to get that exact tone dialled in - But oh my god - once it's there, sonic nirvana!!! You can go from a chopped and gated "nasty" fuzz - I use the term Nasty in its most desirable meaning - through to that smoothly singing sustain found on so many early classics from the mid sixties - smooth but always on the edge of breaking up - and with enough volume/level - the perfect tool for pushing a cooking amp into overdriving through all the way to a wonderfully rich harmonic feedback - Yes Sir !! I have had fun tis aftenoon - didn't get much else done thats for sure
Graham the grateful one
