There are lots and lots of garden-variety effects pedals available — fuzzes, flangers, phasers, and the like — but how many truly unique pedals will you come across out there? We set out to find a few pedals that may have escaped your attention but that probably deserve consideration.
We settled on a combination of hand-wired boutique and factory-assembled stompboxes: the Akai C2M Hexacomp multiband compressor, the Blackbox Oxygen compressor/limiter/gate, the Electro-Harmonix (EH) Hot Tubes distortion, the ISP Technologies Decimator noise-reduction system, and the Roger Mayer Vision Wah, well, ah, wah.
What makes these pedals special? It's different in each case. The Hexacomp is the only floor-based multiband compressor that we are aware of. The Oxygen crams three studio-quality dynamics processors into a standard stompbox. The Hot Tubes is EH's first foray into tube pedals. The Decimator is the latest in single-end noise reduction. The Vision Wah offers 16 wah sweep patterns. Also, most of these pedals can be used with a variety of instruments, not just guitars.
This article is not a “shoot-out” or even a “roundup”; the pedals have nothing in common whatsoever; even the two compressors are entirely different from each other. Actually, these five units do share two attributes: each is the product of innovative — in some cases, very innovative — thought, and each offers something that sets it apart from its more pedestrian peers. So put on your stomping shoes, and let's go.
AKAI C2M HEXACOMP ($299.00)
This sturdy pedal sports six independent compressors, all tucked under an impenetrable metal exterior. What's inside appears to be as solidly constructed and cleanly assembled as the housing itself, without a single wire out of place on its two large circuit boards. As an extra bonus, it features true bypass switching, so it won't suck your tone when it isn't on. Also, a couple of roll bars on the panel protect the Hexacomp's 12 mini sliders from all but the daintiest feet.
The Hexacomp's documentation, which is available in four languages, is pretty minimal. For example, though it may be useful to know that the In jack is where you plug in, it would have also been nice to know the frequencies of the six compressors, particularly because they are not indicated on the pedal. The six Compression sliders range from low to high in frequency, and the corresponding Mix Level sliders can be adjusted over a range of 0 to 10. However, unless the Compression sliders are up at least a little bit, the Mix sliders have no effect, because the Compression sliders actually control gain as well.
Normally, when you increase the compression of a signal, it decreases in gain, and you use a makeup gain control to raise the level back to unity gain. In this case, counterintuitively, raising the Compression controls increases the gain for that band of compression. For instance, if you have the two lowest frequency bands of the Compressor off, the Mix Level sliders for those two bands do nothing, and all of those low frequencies are removed from the signal. In that way, the unit performs more like a parametric equalizer.
This unusual pedal produces a fairly wide range of sounds. It sounds best on bass; we used it to compress the bass's upper frequencies while leaving the lower ones uncompressed. We had less success using it on electric and pedal steel guitars, where getting a clean sound was difficult.
If you are looking for a compressor that is easy to operate and makes a couple of good sounds, this isn't it. But if you're a bassist looking for more control than is normally available with a stompbox compressor or you're simply looking for new sounds, this extraordinary little box may be exactly what the doctor ordered. Give it a listen.
BLACKBOX OXYGEN ($340.00)
The Blackbox Oxygen is hand painted light blue with white specks and has silver and dark blue handwritten lettering. Its six black knobs are labeled Gain, Gate, Limit, Comp, Release, and Dirt. The knobs have a tight feel to them and are firmly attached to the casing. The pedal uses photocell technology — when used properly it's dead quiet — and features true bypass switching. The Oxygen can be powered with a 9V battery or a power supply. A small LED lights when the effect is engaged.
The Comp knob simultaneously adjusts the compressor's ratio and threshold, increasing the squash factor as it is turned clockwise. Release is a five-position switch that adjusts the release time for the compressor and the limiter while also adjusting the noise gate's attack time. Because it controls a combination of functions, it can take a little getting used to. To set it correctly, use your ears because there are no “stock” settings.
Limit sets the threshold for the limiter, and Gate sets the threshold for the noise gate. Dirt is supposed to warm up the signal by adding a bit of distortion, but the effect is subtle — more like “lint” — at least until you really crank up the gain. Dirt doubles as a soft-knee limiter at lower gain settings. Gain is makeup (or postcompression) gain. Its primary purpose is to restore lost gain resulting from the compression process, but it can also be used as a boost to drive the front end of an amp, a job it does almost too well.
We were both absolutely knocked out by the Oxygen. It produces an astonishing variety of sounds, from subtle leveling to singing sustain to brickwall limiting, all of which we found useful. If you've ever dreamed of having a studio compressor in a stompbox, check this out.
ELECTRO-HARMONIX HOT TUBES ($278.00)
The venerable EH company pioneered a huge variety of transistorized effects boxes starting in the late '60s and has only recently ventured into tube territory. The Hot Tubes is constructed out of lightweight folded aluminum with a protective “machine gun” tubing grille covering the two 12AX7 tubes. The build quality is quite high, the wiring is cleanly executed, and the knobs and switch are solid. The proprietary power supply also is quite robust.
It's not a pedal for the faint of heart or the weak of intellect — its highly interactive controls are capable of producing a wide range of sounds. It can add a little tube warmth to a clean sound, induce crunchy but subtle overdrive, saturate a signal with Second Order harmonic distortion, or push whatever you run through it into wholly unmitigated sonic meltdown, with sustain for days.
The Hot Tubes has five small knobs labeled Master, Drive, Gain, Bass, and Treble. The Master, Drive, and Gain controls interact critically. For example, with Gain turned down or off, the Drive control does very little; crank up the Gain just a bit, and suddenly Drive comes alive, easily pushing the signal into saturation. As you adjust the three controls, particularly Drive and Gain, the response characteristics of the others change.
The Bass and Treble controls are not at all straightforward. They perform more as filters, with the Bass adding massive amounts of low frequencies over a given range and the Treble sweeping across the highs like a wah pedal. However, the response of both tone controls changes as you change the gain structure using the Gain and Drive controls.
Confusing? Yes, but it's rewarding to the persevering user. If you like set-it-and-forget-it pedals, forget it. But if you don't mind doing some work, enough combinations are possible for you to get a personal tone out of the Hot Tubes.
ISP TECHNOLOGIES DECIMATOR ($149.95)
The Decimator is constructed as solidly as a Mercedes, and its 24-ounce mirrored chrome housing would be right at home as an ornament on one. The pedal reduces noise with downward expansion and employs ISP's proprietary Time Vector Processing to track the envelope of the input signal, resulting in improved response over previous single-end noise-reduction systems. Speaking of previous systems, the Decimator was designed by James “Buck” Waller, the man who created the popular Hush noise-reduction system.
The Decimator couldn't be simpler to operate, but it does require careful adjustment to achieve optimal results. A single knob labeled Threshold (adjustable from +10 to -70 dB) determines the point at which the gatelike processing is triggered. Although the response on the unit is more sensitive than on most gates, particularly stompbox gates, it still clips the tail end of the decaying signal of a ringing chord or sustained note in a way that is not entirely graceful. Also, if the Threshold control is not set correctly, the Decimator slightly attenuates the overall signal.
Unless your style requires very subtle decays, however, you probably won't encounter any problems. For example, if you play a guitar that has single-coil pickups, you can cut the hum out while the strings are idle. You can also patch the Decimator into an effects loop and effectively control the noise floor of the system. In comparison to other single-end noise reduction systems, rackmounted or otherwise, the Decimator performs extraordinarily well. In other words, it's about as good as this sort of device gets.
ROGER MAYER VISION WAH ($369.00)
Like all things Roger Mayer, the Vision Wah sports a nontraditional design. It falls roughly into the Ed Wood spaceship category. The sleek black pedal bears little resemblance to run-of-the-mill wahs; it has a sort of herringbone pattern on its upper surface and lays low to the floor, and the usual potentiometer and footswitch have been replaced with custom magnetic proximity circuits. Two short wings jut out on either side of the pedal; one contains the instrument input and Wah Blend control, the other contains the output jack and the Output Level control.
A four-button switching mechanism on the pedal's rear selects the wah sweep. The 16 possible combinations of buttons, ranging from all in (low) to all out (high), determine which frequencies are affected and how. Two trim pots located inside the pedal, behind the bottom panel, adjust Range and Bias. Also, a third pot that can be accessed through a tiny hole in the bottom panel adjusts the footswitch's sensitivity.
The Vision Wah is clean and quiet, and it uses sealed relays for 100 percent true bypass switching. The pedal's action is precise and fast, allowing dramatic changes with relatively subtle foot movements. Sounds range from a biting jet engine scream (all switches out) to a bullfrog eating peanut butter (all switches in), with lots of possibilities in between. We loved the sound of this pedal.
LISTEN UP
As we said before, each pedal is unique in its way, and each deserves a listen. Sound can be an extremely subjective thing — the two of us certainly didn't agree on everything — so decide for yourself how they sound. We posted some audio samples on our Web site (www.onstagemag.com), but seek these little wonders out and take them for a test stomp using your own gear.
