The Electra Forums

I want one of those pedals now! Let us know how well it works!

Matthew

Works great!

The only reservations I have are that the cable is a little short. It's probably ideal for most things but I can see wanting a little more reach. The cable itself is like a coil of piano wire, like the stuff inside a speedometer cable, just exactly- in fact i bet that's what it is. THe fittings are little aluminum things and they're a little cheesy, but so far they've worked fine. The guts of the pedal is exactly a pully and big rubber band- it's 100% erector set-era technology. WHich is actually a good thing, there's nothing to break and you'll always be able to replace the belt 100 years in the future.

The big question I have is what control to apply it to. A variable Q-filter on a wah pedal is really nice, and if you were into gain and distortion it would be nice to ease up into overdrive that way. I think the biggest usefulness will be in adjusting delay or tremolo time.

Or... it jasut occured to me, I could attach this thing to the Edit 1 knob on my DA-5- that or the effect depth.

As a newbee to the list I guess I can revive this discussion.

My only electra, so far, is an X290 workingman. I put it through an old Acoustic Control G60T which is their tube version of their 60 watt 1 12" combo. By the way Acoustic briefly put out an instument line with a guitar and a bass that were made by a few different manufacturers including Uncle Matt.

For pedals I use a Morley volume, a Univox Uniwah, and occasionaly a Boss super overdrive. I like the amps natural distoration way better than the Boss for most things though.

I can modify my list big time

Crate Powerblock with Crate 1x12
Fed by a Line 6 Pod XT Live (yep, another kick at modeling for me)

Fender Super Champ

Variax 300 Guitar
1981 Les Paul Heritage 80
Couple of Strats
Couple of Westone Basses

Jasmine, Vantage, Seagull & 2 Yamaha acoustics

_________________
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." - Groucho Marx

No Electras at the moment, but I am searching for another Super Magnum 2258, as far as amps and effects go, well, I run first through a Morley Wah/Vol/Fuzz pedal, from there into my rack, which comprises of.........

An Audio Technica ATW3110G 3000 Series UHF guitar wireless



Behringer BTR2000 rack mount tuner


An ART PS 4x4 power conditioner




A rocktron Replifex Effects processor



A Rocktron Pro-Gap Preamp



and a Rocktron Velocity 150 power amp (pic is of a 100, not 150)



and finally everything is controlled by a Digital Music Corp Ground Control Midi Pedal



All of this runs into a custom made 2 X 12 ported cab, loaded with Peavey Sheffield Pro 1200 speakers.

Thats my entire Amp rig. as far as guitars go, to many to list

I recently picked up a pedal that I'm very very happy with- a Nick Greer handmade Green Giant. It's a boost with variable distortion, and it's very very sweet. It's the only thing that sounds at least as good as a zen drive :)

It's got two knobs, volume and clean mix. the clean mix is effectively like blending how much distortion is in the mix, but that's not really what it does- it's actually a bypass to the MOSFET which breaks from a (very!) clean boost into distortion in a very beautiful and smooth gradual way. I am a player who likes to play clean most of the time, so I like my distortion smooth and gracious- this thing is just beautiful, I couldn't be happier. Best $142.99 I've spent on a pedal.



It's available from Nick Greer (a boutique amp builder) who made these pedals as a one-off for the artists that endorse his amp. Or you can get it from PedalGeek, which is a really cool distributor of amazing and strange boutique pedals.

http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new_sh ... link--nggg

I have a Peavey Heritage VTX as well. It has the Black Widow speakers which makes it extremely heavy to cart around. 130W is more than I will ever need and can scarce tell the difference between half power (65W) and full power (130W). Fact of the matter is no one would ever need that kind of power! Last band I played with the guitar player was playing out of a 15W "Blues Junior" mic'd through the PA system - great tube tone and easy on the ears!

OK the rest of my gear:

In addition to the Peavey, I have a Crate MXB-50 bass amp that I have also used for my guitar for smaller gigs. My bass rig consists of a Behringer 450W head and two Gallien-Krueger 4x10 cabinets. I am kinda light on effects right now with a Digitech RP-80 and a Behringer Xenyx four channel mixer/preamp for my acoustic.

I'm quite ashamed of my amp....so I'll tell you about my pedals.
A Boss Flanger BF-2, Ibanez PH7 Phaser, and a Morley Bad Horsie wah.
All work on my guitar and bass.
It's really a hobby at this point, I'll need a real bass amp before our band goes anywhere.

_________________
Addicted to Matsumoku.

As my name would imply I normally play blues. I play a new Fender Standard Stratocaster through a Peavey Deuce II amp. Effects are a Korg G3, and a Danelectro DaddyO pedal. I turn up the gain on the amp, this is a "vintage" tube amp with 4 8" speakers. It has tremolo built in which I use occasionally when the song requires it. The gain on the amp, Korg, and the DaddyO all do the trick for me.
I'm just a Clapton fan, far from being close to him in talent.
New to the forum and loving it.

_________________
Without Chuck Berry we would all be members of the Saxaphone Forum!

I thought I would jump in on this one:

My current rig is a Peavey Classic 30 head with the 2x12 cabinet. I have a Hagstrom Super Swede and a BC Rich Mockingbird (NJ Classic) and waiting for my X710 Outlaw to show up. The Peavey Classic 30 has such a wonderful native tone so I don't really color it with anything. It has a great warm 70's type of distortion (Thin Lizzy) and I love it. The only pedal I currently use is an MXR Micro Amp boost pedal. Awesome for a bit more volume for solos.

I like to keep things simple...

_________________
"Well, I'm sure I'd feel much worse if I weren't under such heavy sedation. " ~ David St. Hubbins
http://www.myspace.com/hailsuperchief

As long as its still on, I use a Yamaha B212 with my mpc. Its old. I bought it new in 79. The reverb and distortion with the middle control give it a nice warm blues sound and it blasts out the rock and metal too. I like using the trebble/bass booster and phase shifter moduals with this combo. Lately I've been playing with an RP-1 board my brother dropped by. I like the flanger combos. my 2255 sounds great on the 212 also.

_________________
SlmGuy

I believe that this subject is still open for anyone's equipment post;

Slmguy - I concur that most of the 212's out there are the way to go for a real punch; the Electra MPC pickups sound great through a 212 amp;

I still use a mint (second owner) Peavey Heritage VTX212 as my main amp; it's a 1984 130 watt (high) / 65 watt (low) switchable model that I acquired in a trade in 1994 or so; also have the rare footswitch; have had the tubes matched and replaced, along with the speakers; a local sound man went through everything on it about 1996, and it needed it; still sounds great; it is just so heavy that for small club gigs I just use my Kustom Lead I 35 watt;

Was thinking about getting rid of Peavey Heritage VTX212 a while back, but changed my mind; it's a keeper - heavy or not.

I like the tone, and it would be hard to replace it; although a Mesa Boogie small combo amp would be nice as well;


RCSBlues

_________________
RCSBlues

I like amps that have high low switching mode. I would think that 130 watts would be a bit much for some situations but being able to switch down to 65 would keep you going for a lot of conditions. I have never tried a two 12 combo but put my one 12 through a second 12" cabinet from time to time and like the sound.

130 watts IS a bit much; using the high switch I have never used it past about 4.5 on the master volume, guitar master volume about 5 and BOSS EV-5 volume pedal at max - while playing on stage at an outside gig - didn't want to be over playing every one else; inside - using the low switch - about 2 on the master volume - again guitar master volume about 5 and volume pedal at max.

And then line out to a mixing board is a whole other issue with completely different settings - especially not so much volume on high.

RCSBlues

_________________
RCSBlues

Did someone say Mesa Boogie Combo..? I've been wanting to post to this thread for a while, and frankly don't have pictures of all my amps but here's a cross section of my partners in crime. First up, a Hardwood Mesa Boogie Mark III with all the options:



Pictures don't really do it justice, but here is a side view of the exotic wood flame cab:



Here's a Uber Cool '68 Silverface Bassman (still has the drip edge) that has been modified to Blackface power section specs and a 'Dumble' style overdrive channel:



As radical as the front looks, the power section is basically stock, here's the back showing the NOS RCA Blackplate 6L6 power tubes:



Next up is my experiment in Boutique Amps, a John Nau Custom that he built for me, has a London Power Scaling section built into it which allows it to run full out without making your ears bleed. Dual Channel, footswitchable Mid Boost with matching extension cab:



Lastly, here is a great little amp (22 watts, I think?) that is quite possibly the ultimate bedroom amp, a Marsh Princeton Reverb clone in Brown Tolex, 12" Jensen, Mercury tranny, and built in Bias Adjustment. I use a Attenuator even on these little amps, which allows me to run it full out at conversation audio levels. I've even gigged with this bad boy, at 30 lbs, it's the lightest amp you can buy that will keep up with a energetic drummer volume wise:



Not pictured is a '82 Mesa Boogie Mark IIb combo (bought factory direct back then, probably my favorite live amp) a '88 Mark IV rack mount head with a 4x12 Mesa Cabinet (what a tank, also bought new, been in the same rack for twenty years, this was my stage rig for about ten years) a Epiphone Galaxie 10 (single 6L6 10 watt modified screamer) and a hand built dual single-ended Sleeper built into a Bell and Howell 12" Theater Extension cab. So you can see I'm heavily into tube amps, run full out. I usually run either of my 4 output tube amps at half power, which is plenty loud enough (Mesa rates them at 15 watts class A.... loudest 15 watts you'll ever experience) as the 75 watt setting is too much for any situation I've been in! The Mark IV has a cool 'tweed power' option that basically is a built-in variac, running the amp at like 90 volts instead of 117, which makes the tubes a little 'lightheaded' and causes them to break up earlier.

As far as effects, well there was a time when I had a full pedal setup, but the older I get the more stripped down I like the sound. I have a Clark Gainster, which is a fairly high end gain box, the idea is to boost the natural sound of your guitar without adding any transistor distortion. I have a reissue Vox Wah, that frankly I seldom use. A Digitech 300a multi effects unit for those times when you want to have fun, it has pitch transposing, Flanger, chorus, delay, etc. etc. again, don't use it much. Also a Midiverb in the Mark IV rack that is a multi effect device.

The Altair attenuator is something you put between your amp and speakers, and basically converts surplus sound energy into heat, allows you to run your amp hot without smoking your ears. These are very early and crude attenuators, and I wouldn't advise using on an amp that wasn't stoutly built. I've never had a problem with any Fender or Mesa amp, but I've heard of them frying Marshall's and Ampegs for lunch. I have three of them that I keep at different places, I still look for them on eBay!

The Mesa Combos are like 70lbs, and forget moving that Mark IV 4x12 rig around, so a few years back I went on a search for something I could carry around that wouldn't be such a drag. The Nau custom weighs in at about 40 lbs, the princeton at 30lbs is quickly becoming my favorite carry along amp. Hope this wasn't too long a read, Enjoy, Mike.

_________________
Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch