Stompbox Walkthrus

Imagine a pedal so big and sturdy it makes you feel like you're driving a semi, combined with a cute little psychedelic lightshow that makes shoegazing even more fun than it is already. Add in the fact that it's also a functioning phaser pedal, and you have the Fender Classic Series Phaser. See and hear it in action, courtesy of Owen O'Malley's great big dogs, in this video.  

When you have so many effects you sort of need a glossary to even find them all, how are you supposed to access them onstage? Feet are not known for their punch-button finesse, at least not for those of us without prehensile toes. In the third and final video on the Eventide PitchFactor, Owen O'Malley shows us how to tame this effects-laden beast, making it your musical slave. Turns out, taming the beast is pretty straightforward and clearly outlined in the manual.  

The Eventide Pitchfactor pedal-a-gogo has so many effects, Eventide ran out of real names and had to start making stuff up. Like, what's a "Harmodulator," anyway? No matter; when you hear what this pedal can do, you won't care if they start naming effects after Josie and the Pussycats.  

The Eventide PitchFactor has options aplenty! In the first of a three-part demo series, Owen O'Malley bravely dives into the daunting but rewarding array of goodies in this new pedal. Actually, "pedal" doesn't seem to do it justice, so let's think of another name for it. Suggestions?  

Owen's vast and diverse knowledge of musical genres can sometimes vex him in the Gearwire studio. Today he overcomes his intelligence, and manages to make only one snarky comment about Coldplay while demoing the Vox Satchurator. See if you can find it!  

Owen O'Malley and His Itchy Trigger Finger preview the Seymour Duncan SFX-05 Lava Box in this installment of Gearwire Stompbox Walkthroughs. Hear words like "ridiculous," "huge," and "sludge," all used in the most positive manner.  

Hiding his beardless face in shame, Owen O'Malley brings out the glorious Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress to try and make it up to us. The shiny black and silver temptress surprises even Owen with her many secrets . . . let's listen in.  

The DigiTech HardWire CR-7 is like Taco Bell's Seven Layer Burrito. Of course, instead of questionable meatstuff, the CR-7 is loaded with seven types of chorus. Check them all out here.  

Usually, we're a little bit skeptical when a big name effects company mass produces a "boutique" line. Find out why the DigiTech HardWire left our doubts assuaged, and give this demo a listen.  

Since compression isn't the most fun a guitarist can have with effects, many might be cautious before diving into purchasing a tube compressor like the Black Finger. Owen O'Malley is to show you what you're paying extra for.  

How does the Gearwire staff maintain such full, rich facial hair? Ancient Russian Secret™: liberal application of the Electro-Harmonix Russian-Made Big Muff Pi will keep your guitar tone dirty and your jawline obscured.  

We put five amps from different walks of life all together in one room to see what happened when we connected them to the five outputs on the Akai E2 Head Rush. Next season on the Real World.  

Most guitarists don't think immediately of Akai when they think of stompboxes and guitar effects, but maybe they should. Owen O'Malley shows that BOSS and DigiTech have some stiff looping competition with the Akai E2 Head Rush, which also doubles as a normal, dedicated delay.  

We try out the Tonebone Classic Trimode distortion from the consistently impressive Radial Engineering. While counting true bypass as a single mode is kind of cheating, the Trimode makes up for it with an effects loop on the high gain channel.  

Owen O'Malley, himself, tests out the Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Octave Fuzz based on the Roger Mayer pedal Hendrix was so fond of using. Owen also pairs the Octave Fuzz up with a Tube Screamer to show how you can really make the most out of this effect.  

The BBE Green Screamer has been on the market for a bit, but BBE just updated this overdrive with graphics depicting a Soviet Mig going all Khrushchev on your guitar tone. Owen plays JFK and calls in an Ibanez TS808 Reissue for tactical support.  

Sick of paying some guy to spin around in circles carrying your cabinet to get that desired rotary effect? I bet he's getting pretty dizzy anyway. Check out the BBE Soul Vibe instead.  

We're back with part two of our look at Electro-Harmonix Holy Stain multieffects pedal. In the first video we heard the reverb and distortion types. Here we get into pitch shifting and tremolo.  

In Owen O'Malley's first look at the Electro-Harmonix Holy Stain pedal he tries keeping his lunch in his stomach, remembering some of the gruesome things he saw in his previous job as a garbage man in Philadelphia. Of course, that was before he was signed to the Eagles.  

Owen O'Malley puts his foot down on the ZOOM B2.1u bass multieffects processor to see what this little red machine can do. It packs in the features for the price, so we look into how they do it.  

If you made the embarrassing mistake of buying a guitar when you really wanted a synthesizer, don't admit to your mistake. Buy a Line 6 FM4! Furthermore, it comes in handy if you're a guitarist just looking to add some effects from another realm completely.  

Does your wah-wah pedal sound more like a hungry geriatric than the psychedelic wail you paid for? Maybe it's time to check out the Gig-Fx MEGA-WAH. If you can't find the wah-wah sound you're looking for in this pedal, then you were probably looking for a chorus pedal.  

Owen O'Malley doesn't get carried away too often -- well anyway, he really likes this one setting in the Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler called "Spin Cycle." Hear his rapture and clear details on how to become enraptured yourself, in this convenient Gearwire video.  

Trying hard to forget the crushing disappointment that was the JM4, Owen cleanses his palette with the tried and true Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler. You may think it's jam-packed full of vintage synths and auto-wahs, but remember, as Patsy said, "it's only a modeler."  

In the final part of this thrilling trilogy -- this "thrillogy" -- about the VOX ToneLab LE, Owen O'Malley enters the worlds of modulation, delay and reverb. Then, Owen finds the identity of his true father.  

In our continued look at the VOX Valvetronix ToneLab LE walkthru (see Part One here), Owen takes a moment to check out the distortion effects, as well as the amp and speaker cabinet emulations on this multi-talented multi-effects floorboard.  

Owen O'Malley examines the VOX ToneLab LE -- a Valvetronix based multieffects pedal with a tube inside. It sounds pretty killer, but be careful when you're carrying it around!  

While surface-scratchers can stay content with their Dunlops and Morleys, the gig-fx KILO-WAH is for serious wah-wah artists. It offers four wah-types and some other nifty features for sweeping through frequencies like a dirty floor of funk.  

I guess the point here is that the JM4 Looper is missing an "A" and it has an extra "4 Looper." Not that it's not a looper, but it's both more and less than a looper at the same time. Watch this demo to see if it really suits your needs, which it might do more or less than you think.  

Bassists know they can't use any old distortion pedal to get good overdriven tone on their instruments, and the butt of all our in office bassist jokes, Owen O'Malley, checks out the Ibanez PD7 Phat-Hed. It'll preserve your bass tone when overdriven, but if it's worth its salt, it should do a lot more than that, right?