takes the “natural”
approach to stompboxes
and tone quite literally,
which is something I always
like to see. It doesn’t have
many controls, and they
are incredibly simple to
understand. Basically, think
of the Canaglia as having
three gain stages: a pregain, a post gain, and
general gain. There is no
tone control here, which
means the Canaglia relies
on your amp and guitar’s
natural tone and timbre. It’s
got two footswitches, one
engages the pedal (without
the added gain stage),
and the other engages the
additional gain stage. The
sound is a subtle EQ lift
across the spectrum, tuned
specifically for guitar. It
doesn’t sound sterile like an
EQ pedal, but adds a very
subtle midrange and highend warmth. The pedal isn’t
super bottom heavy, but
switching to humbuckers or
Filtertrons would add some
bottom end fur. Cranking
the pre-gain also adds a
good bit of bottom end
warmth, while cranking the
post gain adds some high
end throat and sparkle. This
is not a high gain pedal,
and really excels at low gain
overdrive tones. It’s got the
clear grit of a tube amp,
and I couldn’t tell if it was
my amp or the Canaglia
that was generating those
spongey and dynamic tube
overtones.
CHOPPING WOOD
With the additional gain
stage added, you can really
hear what the Canaglia
sounds like on its own.
While on first listen my ears
were telling me “Klon,”
getting to play it revealed
something completely
different. Yes, it does have
the high end throatiness that
Klons are known for, but it
has less focus on specific
frequencies and more focus
on the guitar sound as a
whole. It operates more
like a booster with a bit of
bite; adding just a hint of
character while letting your
guitar and amp do most
of the work. While I didn’t
have a Marshall on hand,
I imagine running it into a
JTM45 or DSL-100 would
produce some incredible,
violin-like sustained tones.
I found myself actually not
using the second gain stage
as much, instead running
a compressor set to boost
before the Canaglia, giving
me more control over
the dynamics. If I had to
complain about one thing,
it would most likely be the
incredibly annoying switch
pop on the unit. But, I will
give Lollygagger the benefit
of the doubt here, because
it seems like it was only this
unit that suffered from it.
All in all, a real winner in
my book, both in looks
and sound!
WHAT WE LIKE
Dynamic, responsive, and
clear. EQ is warm and
enhances your tone. The
wood enclosure is beautiful
and unique.
CONCERNS
Switch pop. Added gain
stage can be a little
aggressive on the high end
if you’re not careful.
ToneReport.com
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