Canadian Musician - September/October 2020 | Page 22
ROAD
TEST
Diamond Pedals Comp Jr., Memory
Lane Jr. & Nine Zero Two Effects
By Omar Shabbar
I
think it’s safe to say that we’re living in the
golden age of guitar pedals. It feels like if
you can dream up a sound, you can find a
pedal for it, and find it in your price range.
While the pedal market is largely dominated
by American companies, there are a few
Canadian pedal makers who are really holding
their own in this rapidly-growing category.
One of my all-time favourites is Diamond Pedals,
based in Dartmouth, NS. I recently had the
chance to play a few of their pedals, and here’s
what I found:
Comp Jr. Compressor
Compression is Diamond’s bread and butter and
the CPR-1 (Comp Jr.’s predecessor) put Diamond
pedals on the map for a lot of people. The Jr. is a
bright yellow, standard single-switch pedal with
top-mounting jacks that runs in true bypass. It
has three knobs: compression, volume, and EQ.
I’m someone who is easily confused by studio
compressors but this pedal is laid out exactly
like your other gain pedals, which makes it easy
to dial in the perfect amount of compression. I
will admit that I don’t use a compression pedal
live; I don’t like the way it feels and it’s just not
my cup of tea. While this pedal didn’t convert
me to a comp player, I do love the way it can
drive a gain pedal or lead channel of an amp.
I can see why this pedal has ended up on so
many boards and has been such a big success
for Diamond.
Memory Lane Jr. Analog Delay
I have played the Memory Lane Jr. before and
I can safely say it is my favourite delay pedal…
of all time. (Well, at least top three.) Just like the
Comp Jr., this all silver, two-footswitch analog
delay is extremely intuitive. There’s an on/off
switch, tap tempo, delay knob, feedback knob,
mix knob, and a mod knob, which adds a lush
warble-y feel to the delay trails. There’s also a
time subdivision switch, which allows you to
switch between three divisions and a “variable
delay time” that produces those great pitchshifting
sounds. You can plug-and-play with
this pedal no problem, but if you want to dive
deeper, there’s a ton of customization available
by holding down switches or adjusting
dipswitches inside the pedal. You can switch
between true or buffered bypass, cut or add
delay trails, enter kill-dry mode, and enter
double time.
Controls aside, it sounds incredible. It’ll give
you those quick slap-back delays to round out
your sound, a nice pronounced short delay to
thicken your solos, all the way to lush shoegazing
delay that washes over you. It’s pure
analog delay goodness.
Nine Zero Two Overdrive
Named after Diamond’s Nova Scotia area code,
this drive pedal is the one that surprised me
the most. I had never played any of Diamond’s
overdrives so I didn’t know what to expect,
and the sea foam blue/green chassis made me
think it wasn’t going to suit my sound. As they
say: don’t judge a book by its cover. I was very
wrong. It, like the Comp Jr., is a standard, single
foot-switch pedal with top-mounted jacks. Just
as you’d expect, there are three knobs: gain,
volume, and tone. What makes this pedal so
great is the wide range of tones. If the gain is
around 9 o’clock, you’ll get some light to mid
overdrive that, to my ears, sounds like a Blues
Driver with a little bit of that Tube Screamer mid
bump. It’s perfect for indie and blues. At noon,
you’re already in distortion land and from here
on up, it sounds like a saggy saturated Rat: lush,
silky drive with some bite. I normally gig with
an overdrive and a distortion/fuzz but I think
this could easily replace both of those pedals.
The tone knob is really interesting as well. I hear
it more as a treble knob because as you turn it
up, you don’t lose that thick low end. The sign of
a good drive pedal is the amount of tones you
can get out of it and this pedal has that in spades.
On top of the Comp Jr., Memory Lane Jr., and
Nine Zero Two, I’ve had the chance to play Diamond’s
Tremolo and Vibrato and I’ve noticed a
few things that all of these pedals have in common.
They’re all analog and true bypass, though
some will allow you to switch to buffered bypass.
The design is sleek and simple and always
features a quirky solid colour. The pedal itself is
a rock. From the chassis to the knobs, switches,
and jacks, it’s as rugged as anything you’ll see on
the market. You don’t need to use a manual or
spend a whole lot of time with these pedals to
figure out how to get your desired sound out
of them and, most of all, they sound incredible.
MEMORY LANE JR. DELAY
COMP JR.
COMPRESSOR
NINE ZERO TWO
OVERDRIVE
The fact that they’re made in Canada isn’t the
reason I’m always recommending people check
out Diamond Pedals; it’s just the cherry on top.
Omar Shabbar is a gigging musician based out
of Toronto. He’s also an onsite guitar tech at The
Root Down Studio (www.therootddownstudio.
com) and a self-proclaimed gear head. In the
rapidly changing industry of modern guitar
gear, Omar attempts to discern innovation from
distraction. Check out his YouTube channel,
featuring dozens of gear reviews and performance
clips, at YouTube.com/OmarGearReview.
22 CANADIAN MUSICIAN