Spent the evening profiling pedals

[stratotone]

'72 Marshall plus '76 blackback 55hz Marshall cab plus pedals = exciting evening ;0

Kinda a weird assortment of pedals...

Eric Johnson Fuzz Face
Rig-Talk Plank Cranker pedal! 03/30
Seymour Duncan Pickup booster
Stock Ibanez TS9
Boss Super Overdrive I modded
Danelectro 'Cool Cat' Overdrive - this one was the copy of the Timmy pedal
FullDrive 2 Mosfet
Clone I built of a Way Huge Red Llama pedal (hence the red pedal with a pic of a Llama)
Self modded TS9

I'll probably post a few small sound clips just for comparisons sake. It was old school as heck - pedals into the front end of a cranked marshall!

 

[university81]

'72 Marshall plus '76 blackback 55hz Marshall cab plus pedals = exciting evening ;0

Kinda a weird assortment of pedals...

Eric Johnson Fuzz Face
Rig-Talk Plank Cranker pedal! 03/30
Seymour Duncan Pickup booster
Stock Ibanez TS9
Boss Super Overdrive I modded
Danelectro 'Cool Cat' Overdrive - this one was the copy of the Timmy pedal
FullDrive 2 Mosfet
Clone I built of a Way Huge Red Llama pedal (hence the red pedal with a pic of a Llama)
Self modded TS9

I'll probably post a few small sound clips just for comparisons sake. It was old school as heck - pedals into the front end of a cranked marshall!

sounds like my kind of fun

 

[blackba]

Very cool, looking forward to checking out the clips. Surprised I am not the only one who still has a plank cranker pedal....

 

[Rogue]

Heard the clip on TGP. That's the coolest boosted marshall pedal comparison I've heard. I'd like to know which ones were which. A few I'd be interested in, and you know, you don't need them anymore.

 

[tweed]

Can you talk a little bit about the Cool Cat Pete? I'm looking for a pedal to replace my sd-1 as the switch is getting cranky and wondering if that would be a good one. I have a bad monkey as well.

Also have you modded your sd-1?

 

[stratotone]

Heard the clip on TGP. That's the coolest boosted marshall pedal comparison I've heard. I'd like to know which ones were which. A few I'd be interested in, and you know, you don't need them anymore.

Thanks man! Here's the pedals in order - I didn't want to list them at first just so people would listen to it on it's own merit. Not really a shootout, just hadn't heard anyone really do the boosted marshall thing with kemper clips so much. It's kinda nuts using 2012 technology to recreate 70s and 80s state of the art.

1) none
2) Ej Fuzz face
3) Red Llama
4) Duncan Pickup booster
5) Cool Cat
6) modded TS9
7) stock TS9
8) tube screamer emulation that's built into the kemper
9) modded super overdrive
10) Fulldrive II
11) Plank Cranker

I kept the Marshall settings the same for all clips (so you could compare how hard the pedals were hitting the front end) and the pedals were generally kept around the center of the controls. I didn't use the 'boost' part of the cranker or the Fulldrive, just the regular overdrive side. one thing I will give the Kemper kudos for is the noise gate works GREAT and it's a lot quieter than the 'real' marshall with a boost pedal in front - much less hissssss. No batteries, 9v adapter except for the fuzz face which is battery only. I'm surprised Eric Johnson doesn't have some circuit in his fuzz face that only allows the use of ray-o-vac batteries.

 

[stratotone]

Can you talk a little bit about the Cool Cat Pete? I'm looking for a pedal to replace my sd-1 as the switch is getting cranky and wondering if that would be a good one. I have a bad monkey as well.

Also have you modded your sd-1?

The Cool Cat is a v.1, which is said to be a clone of a Timmy pedal. Nice thing is that you get a gain/volume, along with bass and treble controls, so it's a little more tweezable than a Tube Screamer or Super Overdrive. I left all the controls at flat/middle, but if you were boosting a marshall you could dial in a little more warmth or grit than the pedals with just a passive tone control that most have.

Regarding the SD - I had a point in time where I was doing a lot of amp and pedal mods. I always swapped out the caps for better ones, and I always liked fattening up the pedals a little bit. I'd have to look to be sure, but I generally socketed my IC chips so I could swap out chips without too much trouble. So in a TS or SD design, you could try 7558s, Burr Browns, etc. Usually what they came with stock was best though. It's pretty amazing how close a Tube Screamer is to a Super Overdrive, a lot of the difference is in the buffer Boss used and style of diode clipping. One had a balanced style of clipping where you had the same number of diodes on each side, the other had an uneven number. The modded TS I had in the clip has a three way switch where you can go with three different styles... I think I used Landgraff clipping on one of the settings. I can't remember which I used for the clip, but it will do three slightly different tones.

Pete

 

[Rogue]

1) none
2) Ej Fuzz face
3) Red Llama
4) Duncan Pickup booster
5) Cool Cat
6) modded TS9
7) stock TS9
8) tube screamer emulation that's built into the kemper
9) modded super overdrive
10) Fulldrive II
11) Plank Cranker

Cool. Thanks for that. I liked the Duncan Pickup booster and Cool Cat the most. I don't know anything about the Duncan, but I know the Timmy (Cool Cat) is a fairly transparent pedal. The Duncan seems fairly transparent. I guess I lean that way.

 

[stratotone]

1) none
2) Ej Fuzz face
3) Red Llama
4) Duncan Pickup booster
5) Cool Cat
6) modded TS9
7) stock TS9
8) tube screamer emulation that's built into the kemper
9) modded super overdrive
10) Fulldrive II
11) Plank Cranker

Cool. Thanks for that. I liked the Duncan Pickup booster and Cool Cat the most. I don't know anything about the Duncan, but I know the Timmy (Cool Cat) is a fairly transparent pedal. The Duncan seems fairly transparent. I guess I lean that way.

The Duncan is just like goosing the gain knob on your amp a bit, but leaving everything else alone. Cool cat I left with all the controls neutral, so if you wanted to add/cut lows and highs you could do so easily. It's a really good pedal. Both are fairly cheap too, just be sure the cool cat is the v.1.