DELUXE MEMORY MAN, NOW WITH SOUND CLIP

The holy grail of analog delay pedal is now finally available for review. I won't talk about it for too long, I'm just going to mention some of the best features from the pedal that I think is very interesting to know. Read on!

Dimension?

I've mentioned earlier about this pedal's ability of adding a certain "dimension" to your guitar sound. It is true, the myth is confirmed and it also increases the warmth of your tone even without any delay being added. The chorus on this pedal is amazing, it really pleases your ears with the super lo-fi wabbling lush repeats.

Booster
This pedal also has an adjustable level knob that can be set to match your amp's output. You can also use the level knob to make this pedal as a booster if you want to. It will sound similar to an Echoplex preamp I suppose, since it does not add any gain but push your amp to a near break-up when you dial the knob at its max. Sweet, isn't it? You got a pedal that functions as a delay, boost, vibrato and chorus.

Blend and feedback
It's a little bit too loud sometimes, the mixing between the dry and the wet signal is a bit weird because you'll get repeats that are actually louder than your original signal if you dial the blend too much. I had to find a spot where it doesn't sound too loud to keep it as subtle as it should be. The feedback knob is also a bit too short in my opinion, you don't get lots of repeats in my opinion even if you dial above 12 o'clock. They're just small things and they're very personal, but they don't really bother since you can tweak a bit to get your desired sound.

Memory Boy? Digital Delay w/ Analog Emulation?
This thing really shines and for its price it's really worth the money. But now, people might still ask, why do you still buy this thing if a Memory Boy can also do the same job with less price? I tell you, try playing with your earphone plugged to your ears and hear carefully how this pedal enhance your tonal space, a Memory Boy did that too but there's something unspeakable that comes out through this pedal that really makes it what it is. Until today, I can be certain that there is no digital emulation of analog delay that can sound like a real Memory Man. We're still lucky I guess, because Electro Harmonix still makes this thing. I don't know how long will this pedal still be available, so if you can get one of this, get it ASAP.

Sound clip of just the Memory Man: CLICK HERE (Andy Timmons - The Prayer/The Answer)
A comparison of Memory Boy and Memory Man, Memory Boy being played first: CLICK HERE

Thank you for checking out this post, hope you find what you're looking for and hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I enjoy writing it.

Cheers and God bless :)

MXR M234 ANALOG CHORUS

Finally, the pedal that I've been waiting for is here! It's the Analog Chorus by MXR! I can't believe I'm actually using a chorus pedal now, I've been living without one for years and I thought I won't need it until some days ago haha!

First Impression

Good pedal so far, not really true bypass but the buffer switching in this pedal isn't bad at all. In fact, it increases my signal volume instead of eating my tone, so I'm pretty grateful for that. Comes with EQ knobs that you can control to adjust the amount of bass/treble cut on the chorus; also it has a level, rate and depth knobs to adjust the basic chorus functions as in other pedals. It has a stereo option, the second output will carry the dry un-chorused signal.

The sound, the feel

This is not boutique pedal, doesn't have a sky-rocket price tag and it's not really something that people look around too much in the forums. I don't know how it compares to other chorus pedal yet except to a Boss Dimension C chorus. Boss chorus pedals are known for their wide open spacey lush layering effects that bring lots of air around the notes or chords that you play; that's exactly what I've heard from the Dimension C chorus.

But fear not, this pedal is not bad at all. In fact, it's pretty good and it's comparable to its rivals. Just hear the sound clip that I posted on the bottom of this post to get an idea of how it sounds. It's pretty flexible and you can adjust the kind of chorusing effect that you want from the knobs but it works best when you don't over-do the depth off the chorus.

What it lacks

It's a perfect chorus pedal if you want to layer your tone nicely just like in the '80s. It doesn't work well on a heavily distorted tone although it sounds perfect on a clean channel. It also doesn't bring out the dimension of the notes that you play as much as Boss DC-2. I'll try to compare this pedal with other well-known chorus pedals and see what will happen.

Worth the price

Yes! For a hundred bucks, this is the best chorus pedal for its price range!

From 0 to 10

10!

Here's a sound clip, beginning with dry signal, the pedal turned on and the pedal turned on with a touch of delay and reverb: CLICK HERE

Cheers and God Bless ! :)

NO OCTAFUZZ FOR ME, MXR ANALOG CHORUS ON THE WAY

Sorry for the very lack of update everyone.

Bad news and good news, here we go

I changed my mind, I don't really want the octave fuzz pedal anymore, I don't really see how it will fit on my playing style. So with the same amount of money that I already saved, I turned the budget to an analog chorus by MXR. It's on its way now, hopefully by tomorrow I'll get a chance to put it on my pedalboard.

What really draws me to this analog chorus pedal is the lush layering sound that it's capable of. I haven't personally tried this pedal on a local guitar shop, but from the videos on Youtube and from some reviews, I can be sure that this one will satisfy my needs for a clean, lush, wide, spacey chorus effect.

Those of you who doesn't really know what does a chorus pedal do, here's a short lecture about it.

Sometimes, a guitarist needs to add some layering to its guitar sound to recreate the effect of some number of guitars playing together. This can be done easily by stacking together multiple guitar tracks on the recording, but for live situation, this is where a chorus pedal will shine. It's a time based effect(mostly), it creates a slightly out of tune sound on a certain period of time and by doing this, it simulates multiple guitars being played together.

A chorus pedal will thickens a clean sound, will add some harmonics quality on dirty tone and it will help lead tone to layer up the notes even better.

Stay tuned!

Hopefully my MXR will arrive tomorrow, I'll have some time to post stuffs after that :).

Cheers and God Bless

MEMORY MAN VERSUS MEMORY BOY

I just got a chance yesterday morning to mess around in my local Guitar Center and compare side by side a Deluxe Memory Man and a Memory Boy. Man, this is the greatest delay pedals comparison that I've ever done. Sorry, there will be no audio clip available for this comparison since I don't have a chance to have the Memory Man in my home for recording.

Let's start with the Man

It has extra Level knob to adjust the output of the pedal which is great. It also has two options of output: one for direct output, one for FX out. This is great since you can use both output for stereo kind of effect to get the dry vs wet signal to whatever configuration you like.

The sound that I'm getting is actually pretty subtle, nothing too dramatic or surprising. The knobs aren't as sensitive as the Boy, but this one is fine tuned for perfection. I can see why the price range is pretty high, this pedal is meant to last forever and there is indeed some feeling that the pedal naturally adds warmness to your signal.

That's the best 10 minutes I've ever had while testing this pedal. I didn't use anything fantastic: just a cheap Ibanez Artcore guitar plugged straight here onto the amp. The delay sound is very very classic, you can easily nail anything with this pedal. Furthermore, the chorus effect offers a very subtle slightly out-of-tune repeats that don't get too far; that's good since you don't want people to think that you're out of tune. This pedal also has slightly longer delay time compared to the Memory Boy.

I don't really have anything to complain from this pedal except that it's BIG, almost the size of a Memory Boy combined with a Memory Toy. Price range around $320.00. From 0 to 10, I give this one a 10 ! It's worth every penny you spent

How does the Boy compare to the Man?

To be honest with you all, after I compared this baby to the Man, I have to say that this is actually VERY CLOSE to the Memory Man. Really, if you're looking for something more basic that has the same power as the Man, this is what you're looking for. What are lacking from this pedal:

- Output Level adjustment

- Multi output option

- Overly sensitive knobs(especially the chorus depth knob...compared to the Man)

- Not so natural added warmness(I'll explain more)

What I mean by not-so-natural warmness

The pedal doesn't have output level adjustment, so it adds the most amount of warmness that you can get without the ability to reduce it at all. This is good enough for me, but keep in mind that when you turn on the pedal, there's gonna be a slight increase of volume(that doesn't necessarily alter your tone besides added warmth). It's not artificial though, the internal construction of the pedal is based on full analog circuitry.

Therefore, I can surely says that the Memory Boy now gets a 10 out of 10 for it's ability to almost match the Memory Man. Well, actually if I may add, the price of the Memory Boy is a bit "steal" for something this good, but if you want something more between the Boy and the Man, there's a Deluxe Memory Boy with Tap Tempo adjustment, just in case you want more flexibility of setting the delay time.

Good job EHX for making this great pedal at a very cheap price. Surely this one beats everything on its price range!!

Cheers and God bless :)

IBANEZ AIRPLANE FLANGER AF2

Pablo Gilberto

I am a big fan of Paul Gilbert's work and been checking out his guitar setup and try to incorporate his ideas into my setup. This pedal just came out by the time I checked his youtube video explaining what it does, and of course it was still pricey back then so I just kind of let it slipped away from me. But I got blessed with so many caring friends around me and they bought me this pedal for me as a birthday present(thank you guys :) ).

Two buttons?

Yes, two buttons, one for on/off true bypass switch and one for mode selection. This cool pedal has two modes: taxi and take off. Taxiing, you can get normal flanger sound that I will explain below; take off-ing, you will get a super crazy self oscillation mode with just speed knob to control the speed.

Organic flanger pedal

On the Taxi mode, let me say that this thing is not your average flanger pedal. This thing packs a lot of organic quality; the flanger timing is a little bit random to a certain degree and while it colors your tone, it still let the majority of your signal to be noticed transparently. The knobs have broad range of controls so you can make the pedal acts as transparent as possible with almost chorus-like quality to the most heavy tone-coloration you can possibly get.

My personal setup is to have all the knobs at the very minimum to aim for that chorus-like sound that I really like. Personally, I am not really a flanger guy like Paul Gilbert, I don't really have the skill to tame the non-precise timed flanger sound but this pedal really makes things become interesting without making me struggle.

4 knobs with strange names

Manual is for controlling the delay time, Speed is for controlling the speed of course, Range is for controlling the frequency range of the flanger and Enhance is for controlling the amount of coloration.

Cabin crew take off position

The Take Off mode really sets your pedal to generate crazy auto whammy sound that will never stop. It will just go up and down like a police siren with some degree of original signal replication. I can hardly hear my original tone AND note when I'm in Take Off mode. You can get down and play with the speed knob to get even crazier slow-fast-up-down self-oscillating skull-cracking auto whammy.

It's a flanger, how often do you use it?

If it's normal flanger, I don't even want to have one, I tried one many times before but it's not my type of FX. But this one? I can turn it on on every channel: clean, dirty, lead, whatever channel and I can have that shimmery effect that enhance the 3D-ness of my signal and add some organic quality to my tone. I don't turn it on all the time though because some songs requires simpler more straight forward type of sound, but when I want something cool, this pedal is always on.

Value for its price

A true bypass pedal with a unique sound and organic quality, this pedal is worth the money. I think now the price is not as expensive as before and you can get it for less than $150.00 for sure. This is not too pricey for something this good, and considering that this is a signature pedal, this thing is probably a steal for that price :p.

Like it so far

I find this pedal is almost flawless.....except that it's BIG. May or may not cause any space related problem to your pedalboard. Powered with 9V standard adapter, does not accept battery power.

From 0 to 10

10. Period.

Normal sound clip: HERE, it contains three different settings: first no effect, second with chorus-ey flanger, third with more straight forward flanger.

Takeoff sound clip: HERE, it contains original overdriven sound with the takeoff mode in the middle, you'll know it from how it sounds!

Cheers and God bless :D

p.s. check out Silence Followed by A Deafening Roar album by Paul Gilbert to hear this pedal in action during Take Off mode. Paul also used the Take Off mode during live gig when performing an older Mr. Big song called Alive and Kickin'.