[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE]

OWEN O'MALLEY: Welcome back to Gearwire.Com. We’re checking out the Radial Tonebone. It’s called the Classic Trimode. There’s a couple of different distortion pedals that Radial has in their Tonebone line, a couple of different pedals, and this one is the classic Trimode. It’s called the Trimode because there are three different modes.

We are in the first mode now which is bypass, which is a true bypass. This basically just means the pedal is off, and we’re hearing our clean, unaffected tone right here.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, BYPASS MODE]

We’re playing a Telecaster loaded with Duncan P90’s into a Fender Bassman ’59 reissue.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, BYPASS MODE]

I’m on the bridge pickup right now. Let’s go to the first mode. Toggle here and then turn off bypass

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

Now, the distortion tones here are provided courtesy an actual 12AX7 tube. There is an actual vacuum tube or valve in the Trimode, and there are just a ton of EQ and shaping and distortion options on the front of this pedal. Let’s just start by checking out stuff in channel 1. Drive 1, as you can see right now, is cranked. There quite a bit of range.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

And you affect the actual gain or the drive gain in two ways. There’s the drive knob here, one for each different channel, and then there’s a drive gain range switch basically which we can bring you down to low gain.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

And have a very, almost like a low-wattage amp sound.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

Even if that’s cranked.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

Now, the drive gain affects both drives 1 and 2 but drive 2 is actually a slightly hotter channel. We’ll get to that in a second. First, let’s check out the EQ. Now, these are also sort of master controls here, a high and low EQ and a filter sweep. The high EQ just...

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

...treble. The low is...

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

...usually how much low end there is, and as you could hear, quite a bit of range on both of those controls. And then there’s an additional top-end control, a switch right here.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

Which just is another sort of like another pre-shape control along with the mid boost. Now, the top end affects both channels but there are separate mid-boost toggles for channels 1 and 2. Right now, the mid-boost on channel 1 is out.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

But we can boost it to 7 dB...

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

or ...12 dB.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

And then there’s also a filter sweep right there which is independent from the mid boost. Mid boost is I, you know, I’m not sure where it’s detented at. I don’t want to guess right now. Anyway.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

There you can see the filter switch. It’s just another sort of like an EQ shaper. Let’s move on to channel 2 here, which is a higher gain channel.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 2 MODE]

As you can hear, it’s a very different sounding channel form channel 1. Both channels have separate master volume controls, so you can also sort of have one channel be your rhythm channel. It’s probably going to be, you know, level -- Or channel 1 is going to be your rhythm channel because it’s got to sort of a lower gain structure. Channel 2 would be your lead channel. The other cool feature on channel 2 is this insert. Channel 2 has its own effects loop. Let’s hook something up and check it out.

So now as you can see, I’ve got a Danelectro Cool Cat hooked into the insert for channel 2. You are going to need a little insert cable, you know, TRS on this end splitting out to, you know, left and right or ring and tip sends and receives. We’re or channel 1 right now.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, BYPASS MODE]

Or rather we’re on bypass right no. So now we’ve got basically a clean channel, a distorted channel for rhythm, and a distorted lead channel that’s got an effect that’s on right now. So, let’s go to our rhythm channel.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 1 MODE]

Or our lead channel.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH THE RADIAL ENGINEERING TONEBONE CLASSIC TRIMODE, DRIVE 2 MODE WITH DANELECTRO COOL CAT CHORUS INSERTED]

So there you go. You get the idea. So, a really, really versatile distortion pedal, just a wealth of different overdrive and distortion tones, everything from blues to classic rock to metal to heavy metal stuff plus an insert, effects loop, it’s just it’s a very versatile pedal. It’s from Radial, a company that can basically do no wrong. It’s called the Classic Trimode. It’s from the Tonebone Series. I am Owen O'Malley, and you’ve been watching Gearwire.Com.