simplified version of the Pork
Loin. That said, it’s the lone
pedal in this list that does not
allow the user to control the
amount of clean signal blended
into the signal. Rather, the
Saucy Box “automatically
balances the optimum ratio”
between the clean tone and the
distorted tone. What this
means in practice, is that by the
time you get the gain cranked
up beyond 1 or 2 o’clock, you
will be hard pressed to hear
any of the clean tone. The
positive side of this design: The
Saucy Box is extremely easy to
dial in. The negative: You lose
the multi-amp effects as you
crank the Gain. For me, the
sweet spot of the Gain control
is between 7 and 10 o’clock. As
I noted when I previously
reviewed the Saucy Box (http://
tonereport.com/reviews/wayhuge-saucy-box), “it has a
combination of sparkle and grit
that’s perfect for rhythm
playing.” It’s a description
that still holds.
VFE MERMAN
For those that don’t already
know, the VFE Merman is
based on the Klon Centaur, but
gives the user control of the
various signal paths that make
up the circuit. Like the Saucy
Box mentioned above, the
Centaur uses a dual-ganged
pot to control the blend of a
clean signal and a distorted
one. With the Centaur, the
presence of the clean tone is
extremely subtle. Thanks to
VFE, the user may now adjust
the blend of clean and dirty
tones via the Warm and Bottom
controls on the Merman. This
pedal behaves a little
differently than some of the
other “true clean blend”
overdrives in the pack; rather
than having a single knob for
blending in the clean tone,
there is one labeled Warm that
adds in an accurately-described
warm and clean tone, and one
labeled Bottom that cuts bass
frequencies as one turns it to
the right. However, with the
Merman, the Treble control
adjusts the treble frequencies
of both the clean and the dirty
tones. What this means is that
while you have control over a
wide range of frequencies,
the resulting tone tends to
come across as a single
cohesive sound rather than
two layered signals.
“WHY, AFTER
DISTORTING MY
TONE, WOULD
I WANT TO ADD
A CLEAN TONE
BACK IN?”
ToneReport.com
13