GEAR
PEDAL SNAPSHOT � Phil Traina
This winter NAMM 2017 was a crazy week. We started out wild and crazy. It felt like more people showed up on Thursday this year. Then Friday was the Inauguration. That was new, and maybe that’ s why Friday seemed a little slower than usual. Then the floods came … Sunday especially. It was raining inside even!! Walking through the halls, I had to pay close attention not to trip over garbage cans being filled with water coming from the ceiling. That was an adventure. Not to mention the NFL playoffs, which I’ m sure had an affect on attendance. After building my Ark, I had some time to checkout some really cool new pedals.
is simple, effective, and fantastic. It’ s a single stage discrete boost with just the right amount of hair. Overall, this is a pedal every guitar player should have in the arsenal. I could get through a whole gig with a Milkman Creamer amp and this pedal. www. JHSpedals. com www. MilkmanSound. com
SoloDallas Storm Street Price $ 335
amp just the right amount of compression that allows it to sing, and the boost doesn’ t have to pummel the input of your amp to get some love out of it. I have been hoping SoloDallas would do a version of the pedal like this. Fil … Thank you. Caio! www. SoloDallas. com
Daredevil Pedals Supernova Street Price $ 159
The JHS Milkman Street Price $ 179
This pedal is a collaboration between JHS pedals and Milkman Sound Amps. Tim Marcus, of Milkman, is a simple man. He craves only a few things: killer tremolo, killer reverb, a good boost, and some slap back delay. His amps, if you haven’ t played them( and you probably should) cover the reverb and them in spades. The boost and slap delay were another story. That’ s where the relationship with JHS comes in. Tim was telling Josh about his quandary. He wondered why most delay pedals only have 1 / 2 % of the dial for slap back? He wanted a pedal where the whole dial was slap or short delay, and a great simple boost that could boost or cut. The controls are simple and useful. Slap is the delay time, all short delay kids. Mix is the wet / dry mix, I enjoyed the mix when run rather high. Repeat goes to 3 repeats. Lastly, the EQ knob that dulls out or darkens the repeats. The boost
The TSR pedal was the start of the SoloDallas modern legacy of pedals. I reviewed the original about a year or so ago. That pedal was one of those pedals that had its own thing going on, with gooey compression and hammering boost capabilities. The only thing lost in the new incarnation of this pedal, dubbed the“ Storm”, is size. SolloDallas set out to get all the tone( and more, in my opinion) into a pedalboard friendly enclosure with standard 9v power. Other than the size, the biggest addition is the SNAP control. It’ s a vintage style limiter that somehow adds dimension to the 30db of boost. I’ m a fan of the SoloDallas brand, and everything they are going for. With that said I want to take a minute to say something some people may not believe: This is not just an AC / DC pedal. Ok, I got it off my chest. My favorite application of this pedal is through a crystal clean amp with single coils. Polar opposite of cranked Marshall with humbuckers, right? The Storm delivers. It gives the open clean
The original Nova pedal was an original design from the guys at Daredevil pedals that was aiming for a good mix between a 60’ s biting fuzz and a 70’ s fuzz face. Flash forward a bit, and enters the Supernova. This is an original design, silicon based fuzz that packs a punch. It goes from the biting, cutting tonebender style fuzz to a 70’ s fuzz face with all the depth, all with the turn of a knob. The purpose of the Supernova was to be a great lead boost style fuzz that cut through the mix live. The issue I have with many fuzz pedals is that they get lost in the mix and just aren’ t loud enough. Johnny at Daredevil Pedals solved that problem for me and many other players. Another great feature that the Supernova has is that at lower gain settings you can get great rhythm tones... almost overdrive. The reason I say almost overdrive is there is still a hint of hair on the notes. The Supernova is one of those fuzzes for people who don’ t like fuzz. For the people who do like fuzz, this is a great pedal that comes with quite a bit of versatility. www. DaredevilPedals. com
14 Mar � Apr 2017 CollectibleGuitar. com