Fortin NATAS Girth / Grind... In a Pedal?!

  • Thread starter Thread starter xXDaveyJonesXx
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JerEvil":26qyvxps said:
I dig what it is doing overall to the tone in the vids above but damn does it add some noticeable white noise! Or was it there and just more pronounced by the pedal? I assume there is still some good low end chug that the camera is just not picking up?
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I had the Randall Facepunch which yielded great Fortin attack tones, but at the end of the day I couldn't deal with the extra white noise, especially compared to my much quieter 808x. I hope this Grind is a lot better in that area. People are describing it as having a great low noise, but in some clips I hear white noise hisssssss when they stop playing.


xXDaveyJonesXx":26qyvxps said:
crankyrayhanky":26qyvxps said:
Oooohhhhh
Talk to me about that Grind>Cobra
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I'll let a clip do the talking. Won't be pretty (iPhone) but I'll get something together for you.
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Right on! I'm on the edge and need someone to push me over :yes:
 
TBH, I would much rather have a legit EQ in front of my amp (which this almost cerrtainly is) than one pre-dialed to someone else's taste.
 
I did a couple clips for some people with questions and though the quality is atrocious, I guess I'll put em up here, too.


xXDaveyJonesXx":rc9xf5bh said:
crankyrayhanky":rc9xf5bh said:
Oooohhhhh
Talk to me about that Grind>Cobra
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Hey there, Cranky!

So I put something together for you. Please excuse the poor quality.... And tone. And playing. haha!

The first vid is one I did for somebody a while back. The pedal I switched off near the beginning was a Bogner XTC Red running on the clean channel (Loooove that thing!) and from that point on, it was just the guitar and the amp.





The second one is the Grind pedal. I used some of the same riffs but unlike the last, I had the pedal engaged for the entirety of the video - even through the clean, which I bumped the gain up on quite a bit to get some grit in there and is controlled very well by touch sensitivity.

One of the first things I noticed about the pedal is that if you're an alternated rhythm picker, things are gunna get messy fast. Single downstrokes ring through much, much more present, which is bad news for a messy, lazy player like myself.





Let me know if you have any questions or would like another. I can try to get somebody else using it if you'd like to hear a different style of playing.


-Dave
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And a self noise video.


xXDaveyJonesXx":rc9xf5bh said:
crankyrayhanky":rc9xf5bh said:
Hey

Thanks, that is really cool! I'll need to listen to it a few more times, but I like it.
How is the noise floor as compared to a typical OD?
The Fortin attack seems to come from hi mids hi freq, so I now there has to be more, but is it acceptable?

Thanks!!!!!
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Alright, so I put another video together for you.

In this one, we're running though the pro rack decimator with the guitar signal gated because at this volume, the guitar feedback would've scramble my brains. We're running the crunch channel of the Cobra really hot as you can see, and to begin with, we're isolated on CH2 of the pro rack, which controls the gate of the pre amp section as that's typically where the "hisssss" is generated. I disabled it to conduct the test and enabled it at the end.

The grind pedal is running straight into the amp, as per Mike.

One factor to consider for this test is that electrical equipment and cables ARE running right on top of the amp. I need to pick up some more cables to do a proper setup.

But I hope this helps!







-Dave
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Now, all that said... Sweet jeebuz did the Grind just find a home on the lead channel of the cobra. I never used it by itself because it feels to over the top and out of control like its just running on the brink of ruin. But the grind tightens it up so nicely puts such a killer attitude on it - and forget what I told you earlier about the bottom end with it running on the crunch channel. It doesn't apply here, as the lead just becomes a fugg'n chug machine.

I'll try to get a better representation of that put together for you guys.
 
Awesome work!
Seems like the noise floor is acceptable as long as it is not cranked full tilt. Hmmm....
 
Holy LORD that Cobra on it's own on the first vid sounds awesome! The Grind probably isn't for me then, since I do a lot of alternate picked chubby stuff ala Iced Earth.
 
JerEvil":2bm133j7 said:
Holy LORD that Cobra on it's own on the first vid sounds awesome! The Grind probably isn't for me then, since I do a lot of alternate picked chubby stuff ala Iced Earth.
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Yeah, I've done some tweaking since I sent that out. I'm so used to running straight into the amp, maybe throwing some delay and the MK (another truly awesome pedal) when I'm feeling froggy that I have to realize that when trying out something like this, sometimes.... Less gain is more. It's cleared up quite a bit since then, but those down strokes really start carrying some massive power with this pedal. Particularly on the lead channel. It's hard for me to get away from, so much so that I find myself broadening my picking style, but not without strain and learning curve.

My buddy is a punk style down stroke master but I never felt the difference was enough to adapt to it. But man, the difference - and benefit of taking that style on shows with this pedal.

And I've always dug Jon Schaffer's playing, too. Probably my favorite rhythm player. As much as I like to alternate, I could never get on that level.
 
Killer Pedal!! :rock: :rock: :rock: Tried mine out last week as I was in India for 3 weeks and man this thing slays through the Gower Killer Kali++!!!!
 
Seems like the best amps the pedal is combined with are ones with somewhat loose bottom ends.
 
Grind ordered!
I'll report back on how it works with OR100 & Dmoll
 
Ok, this pedal is insane! :thumbsup: I had the Facepunch and that thing was a white noise machine
The Grind is actually very quiet. It must be all eq and have little gain going on because it even sounds good on clean channel settings.
It roars on the gain channel of my OR100, sounds like studio magic for getting those aggressive modern Fortin tones. I haven't tried it with the DMoll yet as I am having so much fun with this chain. I'll get some clipz soon if anyone is interested.
 
It is odd to me that guys are going crazy over this product that does one sound well at this price when the empress para EQ will do the same thing and MUCH more.

No disrespect meant to Fortin but the Empress is a far better deal.

It is simply that guitarists don't understand anything about their setups.

Ive been using EQs with boost in place of overdrive for modern metal for more then ten years while everyone else mucks about with TS808 derivatives...
 
I hear very good things about the empress. Was looking into them last night. Definitely going to pick one up.
 
moltenmetalburn":1f0ruicw said:
It is odd to me that guys are going crazy over this product that does one sound well at this price when the empress para EQ will do the same thing and MUCH more.

No disrespect meant to Fortin but the Empress is a far better deal.

It is simply that guitarists don't understand anything about their setups.

Ive been using EQs with boost in place of overdrive for modern metal for more then ten years while everyone else mucks about with TS808 derivatives...
Click to expand...

Can you explain your signal chain and settings a bit more? I'm interested to know this. For 5150/recto style amps I would normally pick a TS or variant to tighten it up. I like to keep the setup as simple as possible, with not to many knobs. A simple TS in front works in many cases. The Fortin pedal seems a great alternative. Although I must say that many clips are not impressive IMHO (I do like the recto/marshall clips on his site and the pissed off Cobra above).

I would not put a TS type pedal in front of any of the Mesa Mark series. The GEQ is powerfull enough to shape the sound you want. The IIc+ was set up loose in that clip IMO.
 
Laurens":ftmaoneu said:
moltenmetalburn":ftmaoneu said:
It is odd to me that guys are going crazy over this product that does one sound well at this price when the empress para EQ will do the same thing and MUCH more.

No disrespect meant to Fortin but the Empress is a far better deal.

It is simply that guitarists don't understand anything about their setups.

Ive been using EQs with boost in place of overdrive for modern metal for more then ten years while everyone else mucks about with TS808 derivatives...
Click to expand...

Can you explain your signal chain and settings a bit more? I'm interested to know this. For 5150/recto style amps I would normally pick a TS or variant to tighten it up. I like to keep the setup as simple as possible, with not to many knobs. A simple TS in front works in many cases. The Fortin pedal seems a great alternative. Although I must say that many clips are not impressive IMHO (I do like the recto/marshall clips on his site and the pissed off Cobra above).

I would not put a TS type pedal in front of any of the Mesa Mark series. The GEQ is powerfull enough to shape the sound you want. The IIc+ was set up loose in that clip IMO.
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Certainly though my setup change often lmao, however the application remains the same.

Look at it this way, when using a high gain amplifer we are boosting for two reasons, compression AND pre distortion EQ.

Every amp I have ever boosted had enough inherent gain for thrash metal.

The boosting is about compression and voicing the amp. A TS808 chops off bass and treble leaving a hump in the Mids that seems like a mid boost.

check out spice images here:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/i ... ic=75775.0


I started there by copying that pedal by trimming off bass and highs until I am happy, at this point I have a personal favorite formula though all is subjective/guitar dependent.

The added gain of an overdrive pedal is not needed because your boosting will push the ever important mid band into extra distortion right where it matters most. need more gain BOOST the input more albeit there is a cutoff point.

as for the guys saying post distortion EQ on the amp is enough. Nope that is incorrect, pre distortion and post distortion EQ are COMPLETELY different from each other, pre distortion EQ allows for multiband distortion, ( only pushing a certain frequency into more distortion leaving others the same).

The science of guitar sound is my obsession over the last 15 years. Ive made a career of it as a touring tech and obsessed until all my hair fell out.
 
moltenmetalburn":1zyn4vs0 said:
It is odd to me that guys are going crazy over this product that does one sound well at this price when the empress para EQ will do the same thing and MUCH more.

No disrespect meant to Fortin but the Empress is a far better deal.

It is simply that guitarists don't understand anything about their setups.

Ive been using EQs with boost in place of overdrive for modern metal for more then ten years while everyone else mucks about with TS808 derivatives...
Click to expand...


Please don't take this the wrong way ,but It s all a matter of Differences in opinion. I have an Empress para EQ and I personally think it's the worst piece of shit EQ I've ever purchased and I've been using parametric EQ's with guitar amps for close to 25 + years.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with you about using an EQ for a boost and picking your own frequency, but not everyone is a tweaker and this pedal hits the amp like a fixed EQ/ boost, so for guys who want to set it and forget it, It's the tits. All in my humble opinion!
 
Gainfreak":1z6tbc3n said:
moltenmetalburn":1z6tbc3n said:
It is odd to me that guys are going crazy over this product that does one sound well at this price when the empress para EQ will do the same thing and MUCH more.

No disrespect meant to Fortin but the Empress is a far better deal.

It is simply that guitarists don't understand anything about their setups.

Ive been using EQs with boost in place of overdrive for modern metal for more then ten years while everyone else mucks about with TS808 derivatives...
Click to expand...


Please don't take this the wrong way ,but It s all a matter of Differences in opinion. I have an Empress para EQ and I personally think it's the worst piece of shit EQ I've ever purchased and I've been using parametric EQ's with guitar amps for close to 25 + years.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with you about using an EQ for a boost and picking your own frequency, but not everyone is a tweaker and this pedal hits the amp like a fixed EQ/ boost, so for guys who want to set it and forget it, It's the tits. All in my humble opinion!
Click to expand...


i can definitely see that perspective also, some don't want to tweak at all.
The empress isn't my favorite EQ for guitar, I prefer overadvanced rack mount EQ setups as well . at this price point though the empress will do what the fortin does and far more.

I happen to like the empress, Ive scoped it and its true to its claims in the literature for accuracy and distortion.

I still see it as a better deal considering it isnt a one trick pony either.

Choose what works best for you always. I just added my two cents into the pot.

cheers!
 
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