maddnotez
Banned
Well-known member
I am torn between two of the VFE pedals. "The Scream" and "The Pale Horse"
I have never played either and I am going nuts trying to decide.
Not sure if any of you guys have tried both but I will be using it as an always on pedal in front of my VHT Ultra-Lead for an Overdrive. I play metal and like the modern metal tones.
I really like the Maxon version of the 808 vs. The Ibanez version if that gives any indicator of what I am after. (I could get another Maxon but kind of want to try something different. Who knows? I may like it better.)
I talked to the builder at VFE for a little more comparison than what the website describes and I could not find any good videos that use these pedals for my application. Here is what he said:
"Here is some more info on the overdrive pedals you asked about:
The Scream - This is a TS808 tubescreamer on steroids. It's a clone of this circuit, with the following modifications. #1 - extended gain range, both low & high. #2 - Added control over pre-gain bass structure (FAT) and post-gain treble cut (FILTER). #3 Variable HCC to fine tune the dynamics & harmonic character of the pedal. #4 - Extras like trimpots to adjust input impedance, frequency response of the tone knob, and DIP switches to select different clipping options.
The Scream is the best pedal in our lineup for compressed, mid-rich drive tones. It also does dynamic & transparent stuff, but it's that tubescreamer style sound that it really does well - especially because it allows the player to fine tune many details that were inaccessible on the original.
Pale Horse - While the Pale Horse has the same control layout as The Scream, it's approach was to have MUCH greater dynamic response, and as a result, be better at dialing in transparent drive tones. There are a lot of internal differences, but the two that make the biggest difference are:
#1 - The Pale Horse uses a charge pump & hi fidelity op amp for better dynamics & transparency (and a huge boost in volume output).
#2 - The clipping components have a much higher threshold point than a tubescreamer (3-4 times higher), which means it doesn't squash the signal, yielding a more open, response drive tone.
I hope that helps!
Thank you,"
On paper The Scream sounds better to me because well, TS808 but as sad as it sounds I do not know if I would like a "squashed signal" or extra compressed tone or a "more open responsive drive tone". I know I like that particularly the Maxon version, do you guys consider the Maxon more squashed or more open? I was a little scared that he said 808 on steroids because I owned a Maxon 808X and did not like it at all. Here is what he said about that:
"From what I can tell the mods done to the TS808X made it a distortion type circuit. The mods I did to the Scream kept it an overdrive like the TS808, but with just more tonal control. But the Pale Horse is probably a more user-friendly drive to work with."
The only other thoughts I can add are that I do not mind a little tweaking to get what I want so being more user friendly does not seem like a huge problem to me but as some people may agree, sometimes too much tweaking can hurt you and it is sometimes best just to do it simple.
I can not try them both, I found decent deals on both but I found a Pale Horse about $30 cheaper than The Scream which makes me lean towards that however I would rather spend an extra $30 to get the one that is right for me and be done with it.
I could also go back and get another Maxon808 and probably be happy.
Sorry for the long post, any info or feed back is appreciated.
I have never played either and I am going nuts trying to decide.
Not sure if any of you guys have tried both but I will be using it as an always on pedal in front of my VHT Ultra-Lead for an Overdrive. I play metal and like the modern metal tones.
I really like the Maxon version of the 808 vs. The Ibanez version if that gives any indicator of what I am after. (I could get another Maxon but kind of want to try something different. Who knows? I may like it better.)
I talked to the builder at VFE for a little more comparison than what the website describes and I could not find any good videos that use these pedals for my application. Here is what he said:
"Here is some more info on the overdrive pedals you asked about:
The Scream - This is a TS808 tubescreamer on steroids. It's a clone of this circuit, with the following modifications. #1 - extended gain range, both low & high. #2 - Added control over pre-gain bass structure (FAT) and post-gain treble cut (FILTER). #3 Variable HCC to fine tune the dynamics & harmonic character of the pedal. #4 - Extras like trimpots to adjust input impedance, frequency response of the tone knob, and DIP switches to select different clipping options.
The Scream is the best pedal in our lineup for compressed, mid-rich drive tones. It also does dynamic & transparent stuff, but it's that tubescreamer style sound that it really does well - especially because it allows the player to fine tune many details that were inaccessible on the original.
Pale Horse - While the Pale Horse has the same control layout as The Scream, it's approach was to have MUCH greater dynamic response, and as a result, be better at dialing in transparent drive tones. There are a lot of internal differences, but the two that make the biggest difference are:
#1 - The Pale Horse uses a charge pump & hi fidelity op amp for better dynamics & transparency (and a huge boost in volume output).
#2 - The clipping components have a much higher threshold point than a tubescreamer (3-4 times higher), which means it doesn't squash the signal, yielding a more open, response drive tone.
I hope that helps!
Thank you,"
On paper The Scream sounds better to me because well, TS808 but as sad as it sounds I do not know if I would like a "squashed signal" or extra compressed tone or a "more open responsive drive tone". I know I like that particularly the Maxon version, do you guys consider the Maxon more squashed or more open? I was a little scared that he said 808 on steroids because I owned a Maxon 808X and did not like it at all. Here is what he said about that:
"From what I can tell the mods done to the TS808X made it a distortion type circuit. The mods I did to the Scream kept it an overdrive like the TS808, but with just more tonal control. But the Pale Horse is probably a more user-friendly drive to work with."
The only other thoughts I can add are that I do not mind a little tweaking to get what I want so being more user friendly does not seem like a huge problem to me but as some people may agree, sometimes too much tweaking can hurt you and it is sometimes best just to do it simple.
I can not try them both, I found decent deals on both but I found a Pale Horse about $30 cheaper than The Scream which makes me lean towards that however I would rather spend an extra $30 to get the one that is right for me and be done with it.
I could also go back and get another Maxon808 and probably be happy.
Sorry for the long post, any info or feed back is appreciated.
