FM-3 for your face. demo!

☟
Here's a demo of the Acetone FM-3.

I hope to find one in the near future...
Maybe if I post this demo it will send out those good, positive mojo vibes into the universe and I will be reciprocated with one of these evil machines as an offering from the gods?
(maybe?)



thanks for watching!
-ed

I don't normally do this, but...

☟
For all of you pedal freaks out there, some rare RARE birds just showed their faces for sale on the D*A*M forum:
Right Here

The "Stars and Stripes" fOXX Tone Machine is the rarest of all the color variations they did, only about 25 were made!

and yes, that is a real MK I.5 Sola Sound Tonebender///

thanks!
-ed

Guyatone Bazz Box demo time!

☟
Yo!
This dude has been posting some cool effects demos on his youtube channel lately, so I couldn't pass up the chance to show you all this one; of one of my white whales...

The Guyatone FS-1 Bazz Box///



Thanks for watching!
-ed

Orange fuzzes do it best!

☟
Check out this kick ass demo of two of my favorite fuzzes, the Univox Squarewave and the Kay Fuzz Tone.

Straight Outta Seattle///




thanks for watching!
-ed

Giannini Super Fuzz demo

☟
Olá Brasil


Giannnini is a pedal company from Brazil who came out with a set of effects in the mid-70's.
Most of them were copies of American pedals, but they all had their unique thing going on. In Brazil, Giannini stompboxes are actually pretty common, sort of like vintage Electro Harmonix pedals are in the US. But it's getting them out of the motherland that is the challenge...

So as you guessed it, this is their "version" of the Univox Super Fuzz. It sounds pretty damn nice from the video and I wouldn't mind procuring one for myself. : )  So if any of my Brazilian fuzz brothers or sisters out there could please contact me and let me know if you could possibly help me find one, I would greatly appreciate that!


thanks for watching!
-ed

Aria PE-10 Parametric EQ (1983)

☟
No, trust me... This will be a good one!

In the early 1980's Aria, a guitar and pedal manufacturer out of Japan, decided to follow suit with their fellow countrymen Boss and make a set of compact effects. Although they did have an earlier pedal effort in the 70's (first with the Aria Diamond series, and then later with the Aria RE series), it wasn't until the early 80's, when they decided to scale things down a bit, that Aria put out some really interesting and cool sounding stompboxes.

In 1983 they released the XX-10 Super series of effects. Which included a wide range of really cool sounding pedals, some of my favorites have been the Digital Flanger/Chorus, Flanger, Analog Delay and the Digital Delay. The FL-10 Flanger definitely stands out  as one of the coolest sounding effects I own, and in fact I have 2 of them! But of all the pedals from that series the one that I use the most and has become the secret weapon of my arsenal is this one, the PE-10 Parametric EQ.

When I first started my journey into vintage effects I was automatically and initially drawn to the Japanese ones from the 70's and 80's. Brands like Pearl, Locobox, Coron, Univox, and Aria all had something a little weird and slightly off about them; something that was totally alluring... and also the low price-tag was a nice little incentive.

After tracking down a good amount of these stomps and falling in love, I for some reason, really wanted to find this pedal, the PE-10. It proved to be a surprisingly hard task, and from what I can tell this is the most rare of the Aria XX-10 series. But luckily, patience has its way of rewarding you when you respect her, and about 2 years ago I snagged this little guy on ebay for a humble amount... :)

The Aria PE-10 is a parametric eq, which on the surface doesn't seem like it would be a very cool effect, but when you combine it with other pedals (especially fuzz) you quickly realize what a powerful tool it can be. I have had a few other parametric eq's in the past, but this is by far my favorite. It's just so easy to use, sounds awesome and you can completely turn your sound inside-out if you want to!

So let's start first with the Low-Cut setting.
This may be the one I use the most as it can have a HUGE impact on your live sound. What I personally like to do is use it either in the very beginning of a song or at a break in the middle; running something like a Big Muff into it. Chopping the low end will make it sound tiny and sort of like an old radio, but when you kick the Aria PE-10 off you are left with your original and bOOMing Muff tone, pummeling everything in its path!
It's a pretty cool effect.

Next is the Mid-Hump/Cut setting.
First, a brief description of the knobs is in order. The "Gain" knob is used to either boost or drastically reduce whatever frequency you are trying to affect, the "Freq" knob simply selects that frequency, and the "Width" knob adjust the Q, or how wide or narrow that frequency band is. So when using the middle switch position you can get really crazy with all of the different settings. I like to use it in one of two ways; First I love to use it as a Mid-Cut. So let's say for instance you have a fuzz and feel as though it has too much midrange going on, and you would like to get that real scooped Muff-type tone. Well all you have to do is set the "Freq" knob where you like and turn the gain all the way down. This will get you that super fat sound. Another way you can use the Mid switch setting is to actually boost the mid range, this will also simultaneously reduce the high and low frequencies giving you that old telelphone type of effect.

Lastly, a brief word on the Hi-Cut setting.
Although I personally use this switch position the least of the three, it still has a pretty powerful affect on your sound. Obviously, on this setting you are controlling how much treble is allowed through the speakers; which is an effect that has been made popular and used thousands of times in electronic dance music. You know the sound, the music dips down and all you hear is the rumbling of the bass and a faint garbling of vocals and melodies. Then the frequency is slowly adjusted upward, until BANG! You are blasted with an entire bandwidth of music and the crowd goes wild. I think for this pedal, this would be a cooler setting if you could connect an expression pedal to it, but as it stands, you either sound like you have a blanket over the speakers, or not...

I know a big thing for players now is "True Bypass", and even though the PE-10 has a switch buffer, like most Boss and Ibanez pedals, I have found that it only really changes the tone of a few of my older 60's type fuzzes. And to tell you the truth, I would never use this pedal with one of those anyways, so it doesn't really matter?

All in all, parametric eq's are rarely utilized little nuggets of gold that are not often found on pedal boards. I definitely recommend at least trying one out. They're just so simple, but the payoff is well worth the small investment...


Well, I hope you guys dug it!
The Aria PE-10 Parametric EQ, is on///

Thanks for reading!
-ed

Shin Ei FY-2 demo, for your love...

 ☟
So after all these years of collecting pedals I have finally snagged myself a Shin-Ei FY-2!  
I'm not sure what took me so long, but it's better late than never right?
And in honor of this fuzz-most-fuzzy, I decided to post up this here demo I just found on youtube.

So check it out///



thanks for watching!
-ed

Orange Phaser Prototype - Gary Hurst?

☟
I can't remember how long ago this pedal was on ebay, but I thought it was kind of cool looking, and I had also never seen one before...

This is labeled as an Orange brand phaser, and on the inside is a sticker stating it was made by the Tonebender man himself, Gary Hurst,  in 1972. It has a pretty standard set of knobs for Depth and Speed, but it is hard to tell just what this was based on?

What strikes me as weird about this pedal is that in 1972 there were not very many phase shifting effects out there at all. The only one that comes to mind actually is the Maestro ps-1, which was HUGE in comparison and was a completely different set up than this. The MXR Phase 90 didn't arrive for another 2 years... So who knows?


With all of that, I can only assume that this was not a proper "production" unit for Orange or Color Sound, but some random prototype the ended up in the hands of that eBay seller years later?  The other possibility is that this phaser that was supposed to actually be part of an Orange amplifier and was never intended to be a pedal at all?

Either way, it's a mystery! and we love those here.
So check it out///
(and if any of you know anything more about this pedal, please email me or post a comment)

thanks for reading!
-ed

Holy Wow! Binson Echorec demo

☟
Thanks to our good friend Ema, from the Vintage Stompboxes blog, we have this really nice demo of an original Binson Echorec.  This is probably, well not probably, this is THE BEST delay I have ever heard.
hands down.


check it out, and fall into an ocean of space and wonder ................../




thanks for watching!
-ed

Blue Ram's Head Big Muff demooooo

☟
The Blue Muff is a pretty awesome pedal, most likely from 1973.
These are apparently the same circuit-wise as the highly prized "Violet" Ram's Head Muffs, but in the more rare blue print. This is a new(ish) youtube demo, so maybe you haven't seen it yet?

Check out the creamy milk tones///




thanks for watching!
-ed

Muffdom

☟
In my own personal Super Bowl of Fuzz, it was a draw...

1972 PNP Triangle Big Muff (left)
1972 Sekova Big Muff (right)


thanks!
-ed

Electronic Sounds Flanger, this is cool!

☟ 
While everyone gets ready for some Super Bowl action tonight, I figured we would show the often hated and misunderstood flanger some love...

This is the Electronic Sounds Flanger, designed by Gary Hurst in the 1970's. It's another Italian born pedal and can do some insane sounds.  In my random youtube-pedal-demo searches, I came across this one the other day.

enjoy///




thanks for watching!
-ed