42 posts
Got some new toys last week and made time yesterday to take a test drive with them. I bought an Aiz Zone pickup to replace a Tone Zone...you'd think the difference would be subtle as the DiMarzio site suggests, but that's not the case, I'm really liking the AZ, it's a little more vintagey for starters.
I also picked up a new pedal from some local guy I never heard about until the GC manager offered me a chance to meet with him. His line of pedals is called "Jetter Gear", hand wired, true bypass, blah, blah....they sound fricken incredible! I picked up the "Red Shift" which sounds very Dumble-ish in one setting and very Marshally on the other. The clip below is way straight forward: guitar > Red Shift (with super basic settings, tone and volume at noon, gain at 3:00) > Carmen Ghia > 4x12. I think I could've used less gain for a smoother tone but yeah, I still like this sound.
This is definitely not my style of music, never been good at it, I sound stiff as a board, lol, zero flow, but hey, someone here posted this BT and I thought it was ideal for tone testing because there's no gainy stuff to mask lead sounds, etc.
Jetter Jam Testing / Download
Great playing, sounds very good indeed.
Wow, that's awesome! I love that tone!!!! I'm very familiar with Jetter (anyone who goes to the pedal section at TGP probably is). They are very highly regarded there, but I haven't heard of this one. Wow I like that tone though.
I have to admit, I've gotten more and more away from pedals as I get amps with better gain. Still use them, just a lot less. I will be RUNNING to find out more about that one though.
The Dr. Z stuff gets lots of press as being fantastic with gain pedals. Even when I was shopping for my Budda, several guys tried to push me to "Dr. Z plus pedals" as the best most versatile platform. Killer cleans, then find the boutique pedals for whatever tone you wanted from there.
I've got to listen to this tonight with the headphones. Sounded incredible here at work!
p.s Thanks for putting that up D. I'm hoping my Tweaker can sound close to this with that pedal! :)
"I have to admit, I've gotten more and more away from pedals as I get amps with better gain."
man, same here! and I don't mean uberschall gain, there was no way to do that with a pedal really - but once I got the flexi to sound like a fuzz... it was all over for OD/drive/fuzz pedals.
still use the BB though... I could only drop that if I found a pickup with the same eq, it's just exactly right for certain things.
That sounded great Derek, no idea what you mean about having no flow... The nuances of your playing really jumped out with this tone (in a good way) all the slidey, bendy stuff.
Seemed to have really nice sustain for not a lot of gain. Really really nice.
Thanks dudes!!! Such a cheap setup, tracked at lower volumes and yet it delivers the goods...well, good enough. The pedal was a little pricey @ $180 but I had to have it, that tone grabbed me right away.
DTR - guess what, the pedal through the Tweaker sounds every bit as good...that was the tester amp I played it through! I first tried to get the amp as clean and balanced as possible, then I hit the pedal and I was instantly happy, the amp completely becomes a new beast. Once home, the Dr. Z was just a tad bit warmer than I recall from the Tweaker, but it was definitely a great pairing as well. I can't wait to mess around with the pedal some more. Haven't even tried it with the other amp. :)
I kept the BB as well, it just works too sweet with my high gainer.
Thanks Paul! It's possibly just me today, lol...when I listen to my playing in this type of "pockety" backdrop, all too often I hear what I don't like in too many other dudes phrasing, changing ideas and phrases right along with the chords. Not that it's a bad thing, hell, that's music. I just wan't to be able to have ideas flow through and across chords into 'bigger melodic statements' I guess (think Scott Henderson, Greg Howe, etc). Some day, lol...
sorry, left out "sounds good to me!" earlier!
lately, when I have nothing to add to what's been said (great playing, cool tone, etc), I just don't say anything... it's become a bad habit.
ironsheep — Feb 20, 2012sorry, left out "sounds good to me!" earlier!
lately, when I have nothing to add to what's been said (great playing, cool tone, etc), I just don't say anything... it's become a bad habit.
Yeah man, I was like "That's great but what about teh toanz?" ;D ;)
Thanks!!
haha, D, My next question was going to be "have you tried that pedal (perhaps backing off the gain some) as a solo pedal with one of your gainy amps?" Man, that voicing could KILL as a solo pedal with a a crunchy amp!
Sheep, I have gotten more away from them as my "base" tone. I still use them ;). The OCD is perfect for adding a nice cut and some crunch to even higher gain tones. Still working with the Plimsoul for different things. But boost pedals can be the bomb. I LOVE the SHO clone. I need to whip up a few of those and send them to you, Paul, D, etc to try out. It along with the OCD are my main two "character" pedals on already overdriven tones.
Down to "just" three Metal Zones in series yet Howie? :D
Tone sounded great Schills Kabala Derek! :) ;D
Metal, Brutal, and CraigonSteroidsMetal. Those are the only three I have left.
Thanks Craig!
Hopefully in the next day or two I'll have time to do another clip, something more simple and with no backing, like a few seconds of the pure amp tone, then step on the pedal in one setting, then the other, etc.
Howie, I'll eventually give it a whirl in front of the high gain head, no doubt! And I hope you're right, hope it has the same mojo I'm hearing with the Z. The Ghia has such a light drive, I mean it'd have to be dimed to get really crunchy on its own. But then again, I don't need that out of it anyway, I've been running it about halfway up, where it stays mostly clean, just a hint of brake up, then use a drive pedal. The BB Preamp does not sound like the Jetter w/the Ghia, not even close. The Cameron modded head on the other hand has shit tons of gain, lol, absolutely no pedals needed, but maybe this Jetter pedal set for a clean boost into it while set at a medium crunch will be another useful tone. The BB works great for that w/that amp. Between the couple amps I have and the couple pedals, shit, I just don't have any amp gas now other than for one of those nifty 1watt Marshalls, which from the clips, have their own thing going on.
Really a good, good sound ! ( I'm also convinced that the playing helps a lot !!! ;) )
Thanks Lwb! I read somewhere once that the amp/cab makes up 90% of the tone, the guitar and pickups must carry the remaining load...leaving us out of the equation, lol! ;) ;D
Howie, here's a really short take over the same backing with the other pedal voicing. Definitely has less sharpness to it, not as aggressive, just warm, round and chewy. I like it better so far. I backed the gain down from 3:00 to 2:00 for this, but otherwise, the volume and tone were still at noon. Sorry it's not longer, getting late for me...
Jetter Sample II / Download
Kabala — Feb 22, 2012
Thanks Lwb! I read somewhere once that the amp/cab makes up 90% of the tone, the guitar and pickups must carry the remaining load...leaving us out of the equation, lol! ;) ;D
Howie, here's a really short take over the same backing with the other pedal voicing. Definitely has less sharpness to it, not as aggressive, just warm, round and chewy. I like it better so far. I backed the gain down from 3:00 to 2:00 for this, but otherwise, the volume and tone were still at noon. Sorry it's not longer, getting late for me...
Jetter Sample II / Download
I love this! I like the other clip too but I'm a sucker for low gain creaminess.
Their website is a bit short on information, any chance next time you change the battery you can take a gut shot? I'd like to see what they are doing in this pedal.
Thanks Charger. I got to try nearly every pedal they make and this was the star. The "Jetdrive" was really nice too, but I heard more of the dumble-ish vibe from this one, especially on the "red" setting (second clip).
I'm glad I made these couple samples....the youtube clips I saw don't do it any justice.
Zero help with this shot, but the board is really secured on there, I'm not seeing an eay way to get to the goods, prolly have to remove all the pots and toggles on the top side...if it was a $30 pedal and not brand new, I'd have no fear in tackling that this eve, but with my luck and shaky hands I'd fuck something up I'm sure.
Very interesting. Sure the component side would be more interesting but, correct me if I'm wrong, I see some unpopulated component spots in that board. Polarized, even. Which tells me he uses one board and builds several different fx from it, very cool.
board is soldered to the footswitch. You wont get it out without un-mounting the footswitch.
That sounds great. I really like it. Think I need one. :)
That is a very tempting pedal. What the hell has become of me? LOL
Hehehe...same here, spend way too much time pondering about new pieces of gear while all the while I already have more than I could've ever hoped for at my disposal to make music. We've developed a disorder. I didn't even bother mentioning the new guitar I also picked up used in these clips w/the pedal, it's too embarrassing to make another "NGD" thread. :-[
Pics or it didn't happen!!!
Hey, ok then, that works for me...it didn't happen! ;D
I love pedals. Especially, making them. Working on #9 and #10 right now...
I think a great drive pedal of some sorts in front of an amp just adds another flavor, nothing wrong with that!
Another nice thing about this particular one - they're definitely designed to stack with other pedals. I tried the bb preamp into the jetter last night and there was yet another great tone.
ah, so I am NOT a freak of nature after all! LOL
Muhuwhahahaha! ;D
Man, I'm tellin ya, the bb > jetter > Z thing is just killing, at least to me! There's that throaty warmth of the jetter plus added saturation from the bb (set for traditional clean boost) making for some drippy playability while staying creamy (as charger put it). It's different with those two pedals stacked vs just the Jetter and its gain cranked. With the two on, it's sounding more or less like the tone in the second clip but with more sustain and grunt. The Ghia (set farily clean) is vital because the same combination of guitar and pedals is totally different sounding in front of the Cameron amp (set for a light crunch), which is not bad at all, but that amp is such a different animal altogether, entirely different character. That amp sounds best straight in and also with just the bb. I think what I'm hearing is, the jetter pedal is damn near its own amp, it sounds so amp like, more than any pedal I've ever owned, so another pedal in front of it, one that does not sound amp-ish, just boosty, really works as you'd think, a clean boost pushing into an amp 'on the edge.' Toss in a solid clean amp at the end and its a great chain. A hot little fusiony rig! Yep...I'm happy I picked up the Jetter, lol. ;D
Anyway, I'm getting a nice wide range of tones now from a few guitars, two amps and a couple of pedals....cool.
I'm off tomorrow so I can really do some recording for a change.....unless the rain is a no show, then the yard duties will kill all the fun.
FWIW, the guitar in the clips is
THE RG, a '99 RG3120 (second year of production, before they started skimping ;)) in excellent condition, especially the frets. Mahogany body, AAA maple top, Lo Pro Edge trem, Air Zone, PAF Pro, etc. Sorry Nate, 'I' did not always = G, they have made some killer fiddles at times, the J. Customs for example have always been on par with some of the best stuff out there. :D
woah that's a beauty Derek... grats on all the new gear!
Nate himself said Ibanez made some tasty stuff, I forget what his exact beef with them was... Think he hated the mid to low end stuff, and the general perception that Nez was really great no matter what.
Lol too bad he's not here to lay the smackdown on me for that. But he did say the tasty part - I should have taken a screenshot.
Thanks! I litterally could not wipe the smile off my face when I found this thing! Shit, it's still there. :)
The color is tricky...in some light the guitar looks blueish, in other light it's kinda greenish/teal.
Too bad you didn't think to nab that quote - the thread it was posted in could've been made into a hall of fame sticky. ;D
I have the S/sabre 7 string version in (i believe) exactly the same color... Was made in 00 according to the serial number. I remember one like yours in the store that matched it.
Heh looks more aqua in this picture.... This picture does not do my guitar justice...
DAmn! Sweet. Very similar! IEG would approve. :)
The story behind my guitar, I was in a buying frenzy of studio stuff back in 99. As I was waiting for GC to ring up more and more stuff, I saw one of these 7 strings on the wall. So i grabbed it and started playing it. I really liked it, but it had a few too many dings for a brand new guitar. So the manager said, take it with you, we'll order a brand new one for you and when it gets in you can swap them. So I thought that was cool. Well, 29 days come by and no sign of my new guitar. They call the factory and they hadn't even started a new batch yet, so no guitar in sight. I was a bit leary of the verbal agreement so i got my money back and cancelled the order. Then I got married and then my son was born and new gear was much harder to come by, lol. So around the end of 2004 I'm looking around ebay and spy this one listed, said it had a couple dings but otherwise in great shape, and the price was crazy low. So I snapped it up. Couldn't believe it, it turned out to be one that sat in a GC for that many years, basically had never been played, absolutely no wear, just 2 very small dings on the sides (seems common on these S guitars, btw) otherwise brand new, for a 5 year wait I saved about $600 bucks, lol. I love this guitar, it never goes out of tune no matter what I do to it.
D, what happened to the second clip? Linky no worky. Was going to send the clip to my guy at GC so he could hear the pedal...
I clean my ftp out pretty often (only holds 200MB).
I'm actually playing around with the Jetter into the Budda (clean channel) today...will post a short noodle clip later. 8-)
My second clip in the current FNJ is the Jetter boosting the Budda's drive channel. You might likey...
EDIT: well, I'll get a clip up this weekend anyway, lol! Fiddling with another take over that same funky BT I did for the previous clips.
YUMMY!!! can't wait to hear it.
Welp, here's another Jetter clip fwiw. Didn't spend too much time with the Budda dialing in its clean channel here, just put all the tone knobs close to noon and the hit the Jetter pedal (on its 'red/Dumble-ish' setting).
The two clips in this thread sound different largely because of the two different pedal positions, not from the Dr. Z vs Budda thing. I have both of these heads right here side by side, testing them into the same cab even, and both being EL84 driven amps, their clean channels are very similar, only with the Budda you can crank up a bit more dirt there (and a shit ton more on the drive channel 8-)). Howie - what I'm getting at is I think already owning a Superdrive, you can scratch the Ghia off your dream amp list!! It does everything the Z does and so much more.
The "Jetter Jam" clip is with the pedal in the 'shift' (Marshall) setting and clearly has more bite. The clip below has more gooey thickness and warmth. I could live with either of these tones into the Budda! The only place I find the Jetter pedal lacking, and it's not the pedals fault as it was not designed to do this, is for pure clean boosting an already crunchy tone. Even with the gain on the pedal all the way off, there's still a little dirt, as well as the volume knob not raising/boosting the amps input much at all this way (as you raise it beyond noon). Definitely need a seperate pedal that is more suited to "boosting" for use with a crunched up, heavier tone. But for an 'amp like' drive pedal into a clean amp, the Jetter is stellar IMO.
Bujetta Jam / Download
That sounds great D! Where did you have the gain set on the pedal, and on the amp, for this clip? I know the Budda clean channel can get crunchy real quickly with the gain up much at all. Mainly wondering how much gain you had dialed in on the pedal. They say the Dumble setting can really sing AND be touch sensitive when the gain is not cranked. I think I needs me one of them there Jetter Red Shift pedal thingys. ;)
How about a video demo of the pedal?
Thanks! For this clip the master volume on the Budda is at 10:00 and the rhythm/clean knob is at 1:00. It's just a slightly grit/breaking up tone. All that juicy 'real' gain is the pedal. And yep, "they" are dead right, was the first thing I learned with this pedal, there's loads of gain, but it has its sweet spot for touchy, open sound, I'd say between 11:00 and 2:00. Anything beyond 2:00 and well, the gain just starts masking all the good stuff and you start losing that chew factor. On the Marshall setting it's a whole different story though.
All three knobs on the Jetter were at 1:00 in my clip. :)
The other thing I realized that is different on this clip is I've since switched back to a single mic on a single speaker whereas the first clip is with 2 on 2. This was a Greenback FWIW.
I'm not a pedal video demo guy, it would be horrible, lol, shaky hands, puny voice, scary toenails :P, etc.
LOL, i get the shaky hands when I hit "record" and that's WITHOUT the camera running. :-[
My toenails are good though, and always covered. :)
Seriously though, I'd love to see you play to watch how you phrase all this stuff.
Oh man, don't get me going on the hand trembling thing, lol. I try to have fun with it when friends kid me, but in reality it can be VERY embarrassing in public, mostly because I've long since stopped caring about it, not remembering that my hands are on "auto-pilot" all the time. :P I remember on a first date with this girl one time, she actually asked me out of left field "do you do drugs?" I asked "why?" She said "your hands are lightly shaking like someone who uses drugs." I told her "I actually DO take drugs and love 'em! I've had severe asthma since birth and need to take meds daily, so you know, I can breathe!!! And the main side effect of the medicine happens to give you the jitters." Sure she felt stupid but that was the goal...hey, she asked when most people would've simply made note of it and kept quiet. Since that day, in situations like that I try to mention it first!! ;D
Anyway...I did slap one video together not long ago, came out pretty solid. I'd do some more if I had all the nifty "proper" gear, like a REAL camera, lights, tripod, etc. I won't let myself go down that road though, I'm a tweaker and all that shit would do is distract me even more from playing...no thanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu-OXHd_PgI
By the way, I picked up an OCD for use with the Budda. Sounding great with the drive channel!! Much better match than the BB.
