PDC
Well-known member
I’ve recently had a great time cycling several Amp in a Box pedals through my collection of gear. I have an old, single channel solid state practice amp behind the sofa in the living room that I use every day for chops / scales stuff. Just about everything I have tried sounds ‘good’ through that little amp - a couple have sounded really good. For more serious playing, I feed my AIB pedals through my old reliable 73 non-master Marshall. I have posted about that head before - it has a super warm, dark, almost Federish clean tone that really works well with AIB stuff. I’ve never played another Marshall that sounds quite like it. Up until now, the 2 very best sounding AIB pedals that I have found are the Pinnacle Deluxe and the BE OD deluxe.
A few weeks back, I scored a Suhr Eclips from a fellow forum member. I had tried one at the local music story and thought it sounded ‘OK‘ but also thought I could find better sounds through one with my own gear. Through my silly little solid state pracky amp, it sounds decent, but not as good as the Pinnacle or the BE pedal. But - feeding the Marshall is a totally different thing. The Eclipse is now no. 1 on my depth chart. It is SO dynamic and ‘touch sensitive’ through the Marshall. I’m sure that‘s because I’m winding the Marshall up enough to get the power tubes working and to get a bit of speaker compression from the 20 watt GBs In my 4x12. Back to back, the BE sounds noticeably more compressed and almost ‘fizzy’ compared to the Eclipse. Of course, you can dial some of that out of the BE - and its still a killer sounding pedal - but definitely more modern sounding. The Eclipse just sounds so dam good through the Marshall. Even with the gain all the way up on the pedal (which is more than you need for a gorgeous lead tone) you can still get beautiful ‘edge of breakup’ cleans with the volume knob on the guitar. That’s a really hard trick to accomplish with a solid state AIB pedal. But the Eclipse nails it in spades.
My takeaway is this: if you have a so-so amp to work with, you want an AIB pedal that does more on the front end - like the BE. (That’s why I love the BE feeding that silly little solid state pracky amp I keep in the living room) The better sounding amp you have to work with, the less you want going on in front of it. So a pedal with less gain and compression like the Suhr really lets a good sounding clean amp shine.
Anyway - that‘s what I’ve got today. Grab an Eclipse - feed a loud, clean tube amp pushing 4 of your favorite speakers and have a great weekend!
A few weeks back, I scored a Suhr Eclips from a fellow forum member. I had tried one at the local music story and thought it sounded ‘OK‘ but also thought I could find better sounds through one with my own gear. Through my silly little solid state pracky amp, it sounds decent, but not as good as the Pinnacle or the BE pedal. But - feeding the Marshall is a totally different thing. The Eclipse is now no. 1 on my depth chart. It is SO dynamic and ‘touch sensitive’ through the Marshall. I’m sure that‘s because I’m winding the Marshall up enough to get the power tubes working and to get a bit of speaker compression from the 20 watt GBs In my 4x12. Back to back, the BE sounds noticeably more compressed and almost ‘fizzy’ compared to the Eclipse. Of course, you can dial some of that out of the BE - and its still a killer sounding pedal - but definitely more modern sounding. The Eclipse just sounds so dam good through the Marshall. Even with the gain all the way up on the pedal (which is more than you need for a gorgeous lead tone) you can still get beautiful ‘edge of breakup’ cleans with the volume knob on the guitar. That’s a really hard trick to accomplish with a solid state AIB pedal. But the Eclipse nails it in spades.
My takeaway is this: if you have a so-so amp to work with, you want an AIB pedal that does more on the front end - like the BE. (That’s why I love the BE feeding that silly little solid state pracky amp I keep in the living room) The better sounding amp you have to work with, the less you want going on in front of it. So a pedal with less gain and compression like the Suhr really lets a good sounding clean amp shine.
Anyway - that‘s what I’ve got today. Grab an Eclipse - feed a loud, clean tube amp pushing 4 of your favorite speakers and have a great weekend!
