VFE Standout + Butterslax

[DeathbyButterslax]

I figured I would do a review. This year I've gone through a Maxon 808, a Friedman BE Pedal, a Fortin Grind, a Horizon Devices Precision Drive, a Fortin 33, a VFE Focus, a Walrus Voyager, and I've also tried a lot more in store, at friends etc (I'm an overdrive junky ahh well).

The VFE standout was by far the greatest, it does what the Fortin 33/Grind/PD does if you like, but most importantly while tightening up the amp it keeps the bottom end of the Butterslax in tact, allowing for that nice thick grind to come through. It also doesn't add any of those harsh treble frequencies that I found with the 33/grind, I would keep the tone knob on my guitar at less than half because of this. The Precision Drive was good but I found there was some kinda battling going on in the middle frequency area, something the amps natural "kerannngg" did not play well with, making the sound a lot more nasally. the Focus was my go to of the bunch, and it worked great so I decided to test my luck on the Stand-out, and it was definitely worth it. The amp keeps its natural characteristics, feel, while allowing for more attack/clarity.

Sooo I know you Butterslax users are typically anti-boost pedal, I'm recommending giving it a try! Can do the tight Meshuggah thing, while retaining some nice thump

 

[errrrrl]

Thanks for the heads up... If I ever clear space on my board I may give a Standout a try. As for the Grind and 33 I agree not the best match with the Slax overall... but LunatiBSW's idea about using the 33 with channel 1 is pretty cool... that way you can adjust your settings on channel 1 with the 33 without messing with channel 2 & 3's settings. Worth checking out if you haven't already

 

[LunatiBSW]

I’m a huge fan of the airis savage drive If I want extra from my amps, or late night with volume lower.
With the slax it’s hard to beat as is. But it sounds pretty kickass with the 33 also, if I wanna get that metallic karrang

 

[errrrrl]

You guys ever tried running a 10 band eq in the loop for the slax? I seriously never turn it off man

As for the 33 and the Grind, the only amp I have that transforms completely (in a good way) with those two pedals is my Rivera K-Tre. If I tweak the amp with the 33 its insane how bad ass that amp will sound and not even that metallic. It's the only reason i'm holding on to those pedals... I think the key for the pedals are amps with extreme bass response... when I click the 33 off, my god does it sound like the muddiest, shitty, muffled, bassiest POS amp you ever heard

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

Sooo I know you Butterslax users are typically anti-boost pedal, I'm recommending giving it a try! Can do the tight Meshuggah thing, while retaining some nice thump

That sounds good. Most of these pedals (like the ones you mention) kill off or constrain too much of the natural lows of the amp... making it sound weird or fake to me.

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

I’m a huge fan of the airis savage drive If I want extra from my amps, or late night with volume lower.
With the slax it’s hard to beat as is. But it sounds pretty kickass with the 33 also, if I wanna get that metallic karrang

+1 on the Airis SD.

 

[DeathbyButterslax]

You guys ever tried running a 10 band eq in the loop for the slax? I seriously never turn it off man

As for the 33 and the Grind, the only amp I have that transforms completely (in a good way) with those two pedals is my Rivera K-Tre. If I tweak the amp with the 33 its insane how bad ass that amp will sound and not even that metallic. It's the only reason i'm holding on to those pedals... I think the key for the pedals are amps with extreme bass response... when I click the 33 off, my god does it sound like the muddiest, shitty, muffled, bassiest POS amp you ever heard

not a 10, I had a one of those Mark style mesa ones in the loop and it was pretty cool not quite my thing, I do need to get an MXR 10 band though....
and yeah I did try the 33 with channel one, pretty cool! Nice tight and aggressive, and while it made channel 1 awesome as a gain channel I prefer to use it is a very low gain/clean channel with reverb/tremolo. I just wanted something to tweak that beautiful thick channel 3 though, but it is so picky. channel 2 will take any boost out there I find, but 3 just doesn't behave the same way. Until the Standout, now its perfect for my style haha

 

[DeathbyButterslax]

Sooo I know you Butterslax users are typically anti-boost pedal, I'm recommending giving it a try! Can do the tight Meshuggah thing, while retaining some nice thump

That sounds good. Most of these pedals (like the ones you mention) kill off or constrain too much of the natural lows of the amp... making it sound weird or fake to me.

Or add way too much treble, to me thats where the fake sound comes from. I much rather use the amps presence knob if I need to increase brightness

 

[skoora]

... when I click the 33 off, my god does it sound like the muddiest, shitty, muffled, bassiest POS amp you ever heard

yeah, like a Rivera...

I have three OD/boost pedals right now and they'll excel with different amps I have. Kind of like knowing that whatever amp I have one of them will do the trick. A Naga Viper treble Booster, MI Audio Blues Pro (meatier, awesome boost using fuzz setting with gain lower) and a Sparkle Drive (for TS type applications)

 

[DeathbyButterslax]

I’m a huge fan of the airis savage drive If I want extra from my amps, or late night with volume lower.
With the slax it’s hard to beat as is. But it sounds pretty kickass with the 33 also, if I wanna get that metallic karrang

After the amount of boost pedals, i've seen come and go this year the last thing I should be thinking about is an Airis Savage haha

 

[Ventura]

You guys ever tried running a 10 band eq in the loop for the slax? I seriously never turn it off man

Started with the JJ and now is on my Slax and seemingly gaining traction with most of my amps!!
MXR M108S and a Whirlwind Perfect 10.
That's a lot of EQ

 

[stephen sawall]

Any of you people try the VFE Dragon. I borrowed a friends for a week. I ran it with the gain 10 o'clock or less.... Curious how similar it is to the Standout or other pedals. It's very dynamic for a overdrive. With the HPF you could tighten the bass similar to the Precision Drive attack.

 

[DET1973]

I am an Absolute Boost/OD Junkie...seriously need an Intervention. My Current Boost/OD Collection is:

1. Boss SD-1

2. T.C. Electronics Distortion/Booster (The Original)

3. T.C. Electronics Spark Boost (Not the Mini)

4. MXR GTOD

5. Amp Man Mods Boost Pedal

6. Way Huge Green Rhino Mark IV

7. Maxon OD-9

8. Ibanez TS9DX

9. MXR MC402 Booster/OD

10. Randall "MOR" Pedal.

 

[errrrrl]

You guys ever tried running a 10 band eq in the loop for the slax? I seriously never turn it off man

As for the 33 and the Grind, the only amp I have that transforms completely (in a good way) with those two pedals is my Rivera K-Tre. If I tweak the amp with the 33 its insane how bad ass that amp will sound and not even that metallic. It's the only reason i'm holding on to those pedals... I think the key for the pedals are amps with extreme bass response... when I click the 33 off, my god does it sound like the muddiest, shitty, muffled, bassiest POS amp you ever heard

not a 10, I had a one of those Mark style mesa ones in the loop and it was pretty cool not quite my thing, I do need to get an MXR 10 band though....
and yeah I did try the 33 with channel one, pretty cool! Nice tight and aggressive, and while it made channel 1 awesome as a gain channel I prefer to use it is a very low gain/clean channel with reverb/tremolo. I just wanted something to tweak that beautiful thick channel 3 though, but it is so picky. channel 2 will take any boost out there I find, but 3 just doesn't behave the same way. Until the Standout, now its perfect for my style haha

Here is a quick clip showing the difference i'm getting with the 10 band in the loop... to me this is the only thing channel 3 sounds really good with... to me at least. Also sounds great with direct/ loadbox/ IR recordings.

vid clip -> https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZuarX7Z2D6UvrIhoKR4WLvFrbH5vb92akt7

 

[errrrrl]

You guys ever tried running a 10 band eq in the loop for the slax? I seriously never turn it off man

Started with the JJ and now is on my Slax and seemingly gaining traction with most of my amps!!
MXR M108S and a Whirlwind Perfect 10.
That's a lot of EQ

Yeah man, I pretty much leave mine in the same configuration for all my amps, just a slight scoop adds just that little extra something that does it for me.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

I have been saying this about the focus and now the standout until I got blue in the face haha.

For pre distortion eq with boost the standout is the current king. I dumped grind immediately and have no desire to try 33. Paying almost twice as much to have zero variability is foolish.

No two guitar rigs are the same. FAR better when the eq can be tailored case by case.



Yes I had the dragon, didnt gel with it. The one thing i didnt like was the softness of the clipping, maybe mosfet? Dunno, for modern metal it just didnt have the edge the standout does. Was cool for leads but still preferred a TS808 without clipping diodes.

Can be set up for clean and used rhe same way a s standout. Was cool but the standout was still clearer for this application.



I really liked it set for full frequency on the clean channel however.

 

[apophis]

where can one buy one of these VFE standout pedals?

 

[Mailman1971]

You guys ever tried running a 10 band eq in the loop for the slax? I seriously never turn it off man

DUDE!!!
I just wrote this very same thing in the EVH thread!!!!

 

[moltenmetalburn]

where can one buy one of these VFE standout pedals?

http://vfepedals.com/standout.html

 

[moltenmetalburn]

You guys ever tried running a 10 band eq in the loop for the slax? I seriously never turn it off man

DUDE!!!
I just wrote this very same thing in the EVH thread!!!!

When I was MUCH younger i had a graphic in the loop. These days i prefer a paramteric but really wish there was something that was an active LP, two parametric bands, and a passive HP.

These eq pedals with boost though up front are about voicing the overdrive and also frequency selective distortion.