Demedash 112+ – Super Versatile Distortion

I’ll be honest, whilst I had heard of the company, prior to getting my hands on the 112+ I wasn’t really aware that Demedash produced a drive pedal. This had completely slipped under the radar for me.

And what a pleasant surprise it was. The 112+ has been designed to stack with other overdrives and distortion. This is how I used it and how to my ears it sounds best. It has a lot of versatility and enough options to satisfy most players. A three band EQ, (which is a welcome addition on a distortion) makes it very easy to tweak the 112+ to work with any other drive pedals. The voice selection switch which essentially boosts or cuts the bass is a good starting point, select the voicing that appeals to you the most and tweak the EQ and Drive to suit. I personally prefer the left voicing option with drive at around the 2-3 o clock position this gives a gnarley punchy overdrive, that with the utilisation of the EQ is still able to cut through the mix.

If required the 112+ can get very heavy indeed. Whilst not fuzz it is definitely in the distortion category. It doesn’t conform to any usual categories, it’s not a tube screamer or a bluesbreaker, but a sound all of its own. I guess this is because it has its origins in a pre amp circuit. It’s refreshing to see something unique. I guess it can’t be pigeonholed as it is very useful. There are enough combinations within that one box that you are bound to find a distortion sound that works well with your rig.

The 112+ is handmade in Canada, and it’s a beautiful presentation. I’ve yet to try any of Demedash’s other effects but so far the 112+ has impressed. Top mounted jacks and power socket mean that it will fit on the smallest of boards.

Internally the 112+ boosts the 9v input to 32v for tons of headroom. Honestly there aren’t many drive pedals I can think of that have an active three band EQ, versatile voicing options and an internal voltage boost. I would highly recommend the 112+

This one is short and sweet. If I am being completely honest, the 112+ didn’t grab me quite in the same way that the Thorpy FX Bunker did. But after spending a little more time with it, I would say that it has won me over with its versatility and the way that it plays with other drive pedals. Give it a try if you’re missing something on your board.

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New content incoming.

Unfortunately this week I have been very busy. I have however recieved the second monitor and together with the Neunaber Iconoclast my board now sounds amazing. With the exception of the drop. I can still hear my guitar strings even at moderate volume so I’m thinking the drop will be, well, dropped.

I’m not 100% what I would put in its place yet but I do have a care package from Northern Stompboxes on the way. So next week I will have a lot of new pedals to look at, and that means plenty of new content in the coming weeks. The arrival of the second speaker also hopefully means even better sounding videos.

Sorry that it’s a short one, I promise I’ll make up for it next Friday.

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Foxrox FR 100 Dual Stacked Overdrive.

I’d been speaking to Joe from Joe’s pedals and asked him to send me some pedals he thought I would enjoy. He decided that the FR-100 required looking at. This isn’t a paid review, I will be sending the pedal back regardless.

I’d not heard of Foxrox before receiving this. So I didn’t have an preconceived notions of what the FR 100 would be like. First impressions are that it is built to last. It is in an enclosure that as far as I can tell is unique to Foxrox. Probably a custom design. Which makes it stand out in a heavily saturated market of rectangles.

So what is the FR 100? It is an overdrive pedal first and foremost. A soft clipping overdrive. When turned on, the pedal is in drive mode and the green LED comes on. The drive mode of the FR 100 is similar to the vintage tube card used in the Foxrox ZIM pedal. It is a very easy to use overdrive. It reacts well with the guitars volume knob and also to the dynamics of your playing. There’s enough gain on offer here to please most players. A pedal like this is never going to get into super high gain territory but I wouldn’t expect it to. There’s a simple 3 knob control section for the drive mode; Volume, Drive and Tone. These will be pretty self explanatory to anyone at all familiar with effects pedals or amps. Volume controls the overall volume, drive controls the amount of gain in the drive section and tone is like a single EQ knob, down for more bass, up for more treble. Not every overdrive pedal has a tone knob, but i’ve always found it useful when they do have.

So far a pretty regular and good overdrive. The other features of the FR 100 really make it an excellent overdrive. The first of these that i’ll talk about is the voice switch. A three way switch with high, mid and low. The high setting tightens the low end and adds resonance in the mids, it really helps cut through a mix. Mid is the overdrives natural sound, no additional tone shaping. Low fattens the low end which can avoid some harshness found with a bright amp, it made my set up sound a little muddy so I primarily used it in the mid or high setting, depending on whether I was using an already trebly strat with single coils or a humbucker laden Gretsch. The second fantastic feature of the FR 100 is the Lead mode. The additional footswitch turns on a red LED and inserts and additional drive stage before the main drive section meaning even more gain, sustain and midrange.

The lead mode really helps you cut through especially when used in conjunction with the tone knob and voice switch. It’s worth saying that the lead mode does increase the volume, and this can be adjusted internally. I left the pedal in it’s natural state. I also tried the pedal being powered at 9v and 18v. If you have a power supply capable of powering it at 18v I would highly recommend it. The additional headroom is excellent. What else can I say about it other than it is clearly made to last. Top quality components, a bomb proof enclosure and an extremely versatile overdrive pedal. Definitely one to consider. It being in a vertical format means you will likely be able to fit it on a board where a traditional dual switch pedal would be too wide and it does help the footprint having the input/output jacks and power socket on the top. Seeing as the FR 100 has two very similar circuits to those you can get in the Foxrox ZIM pedal and is much smaller and costs less its a good alternative to the ZIM especially if space is an issue on your board. The layout might look a little odd to begin with, but I really like what they’ve done. The main footswitch is a standard latching switch but the top switch is a soft press, so when hitting the top one it would be very difficult to also hit the lower switch as you don’t as much pressure to activate it and it’s on the taller section of the enclosure. A good deal of thought has gone in to this and it certainly seems easier to use in practice than a pedal with two switches very close to each other.

Foxrox offer a 5 year warranty but unless you’re throwing this in a river and then setting it on fire I don’t see how you’re going to break it. Honestly it weighs a ton (1.4lbs to be exact) and looks like it could stop a bullet.

Would I buy an FR 100? Possibly. If I’d not already got a number of overdrive pedals I already loved using it would certainly be considered as it does a lot in a relatively small package. I think It would be best used as an always on and then the lead mode for that boost. What do you think? Do you have a Foxrox pedal that you love using? Let me know in the comments below.

The Bucket Brigade – Strymon Brigadier

After getting the Neunaber Immerse (see previous post) I had put my previous reverb up for sale. There was someone interested in the GFI Specular Reverb that I was selling. They wanted to trade a Strymon Brigadier and a deal was done. I wasn’t looking for a new delay at the time but the Strymon appealed to me for a number of reasons; a true stereo signal path, tap tempo with subdivisions, long delay times (up to five seconds which is impossible with a true analogue delay) and a really useful tone control. These features are not normally found on analogue delays, but the Brigadier is not true analogue, it is Strymons digital recreation, and it’s a very faithful one. One issue people have with analogue delays is the darkness of the repeats but with a tone control this is no longer a problem.

I will admit I haven’t used the brigadier all that much. I am not a huge fan of delay. But I think a lot of that stems from not knowing where to use it or how. A lot of the music I find myself playing doesn’t benefit from delay. I have probably had the brigadier for 8-10 months at the time of writing this and I can honestly say I’ve used it less than any other pedal on my board. But I have started using it a lot more in the last month. I have predominantly used a very short delay, not a slap back but still a fairly short time. I’m not a fan of modulation on delays so have kept that turned down and the bucket loss only on maybe a quarter, so there’s some degradation but it’s still clean enough to hear most of the repeats. I find myself enjoying using delay like this. It’s not very obvious that there’s any on until you turn it off and realise that there is something missing.

Aside from the aforementioned tone control (which is accessed by holding both footswitches down and turning the bucket loss knob) the brigadier has only 5 knobs and 2 switches to control it. So it is quite straightforward to operate. You have knobs for: time, mix, bucket loss, repeats and modulation. Time is the delay time, which can also be tapped in using the tap tempo switch. How long a gap there is between the original sound and the repeat. Mix is the amount of affected signal blended into your dry signal and can go 100% wet ie only the delay, none of your original signal. Bucket loss is the amount that the algorithm mimics the delay getting passed over various capacitors and losing fidelity. In a true analogue delay you would need to use more capacitors for a longer delay time, but each time the signal passes from one capacitor to the next there is some signal lost and some noise and distortion is added. The more capacitors the signal is passed between the noisier and more distorted the repeats become. This is what makes for that quintessential analogue sound and the bucket loss knob does an excellent job of introducing those artifacts into the repeats but in a controllable way. If you wanted a warmer but still clear delay that had some character without this loss of fidelity the Brigadier can do this. Repeats is self explanatory. It is the number of repeats. Turn this down low and you will have a single repeat of what you have played a set time apart from when you played it. Turn this up and the sound starts repeating indefinitely self oscillating for some weird sounds. And modulation again affects the delay by giving it a form of LFO modulation, the amount and speed of which is determined by the modulation knob, the repeats sound wobbly. I’m not a fan of too much modulation. I don’t mind them sounding like they degrade as they disappear but I have chorus and tremolo amongst other modulation so It can to my ears sound a little too much. If the delay has further wobble.

I haven’t mentioned the switches. They are labelled mode and tap. Mode switches between three different time lengths; A, B and C. A being the shortest, C being the longest. There is quite a lot of overlap between the three. It’s not like on mode A with the time knob all the way up is the exact same time length as mode B with the time knob turned down. The second switch labelled tap is the 3 different tap tempo modes; quarter, dot and triplet. So depending on which you have selected the tapped in delay time will be either quarter notes, dotted eighth notes or triplets. Again this is a very useful feature that you wouldn’t find on a more traditional analogue delay.

I made myself a favourites switch. So I can save 1 preset which is definitely a useful feature to have. It means I can have one medium length delay saved and a shorter delay that just thickens the overall sound dialed in.

I didn’t need this particular delay and I still don’t think I use it all that often. But now that I have it i’m certainly glad that I do. Part of the appeal was that it was a Strymon pedal. I’d never used one before, let alone owned one. But their reputation for making excellent quality effects is well known. So I may have got swept up in the hype. But I don’t particularly regret it. There may be other delays that either do more. Or cost less. But I think this one sounds amazing.

I’ve never owed a true analogue delay, but I do like the sound from the brigadier. And I believe what strymon say, it sounds like an analogue delay with none of the drawbacks. It has tap tempo, it has a tone control so the repeats don’t have to be dark it can be a fairly clean delay, never as crisp and precise as a true digital delay but it does have some character. I can’t imagine swapping the brigadier for anything other than to save space if strymon ever created a smaller one. And for a while at least I’ve not looked at other delays so that must mean I’m happy with this one.

In conclusion, it sounds fantastic. I get to have the warm characterful repeats associated with a true analogue delay with tap tempo and none of the signal loss or distortion, if I decide I don’t want that. Admittedly I probably wouldn’t have purchased it brand new for the retail price, but that is partly because I am not a huge delay user. So I can’t really comment on whether it’s good value for money or not. It is somewhat of a one trick pony. If you wanted a pristine delay this is not the one for you, there are many other delays out there. But that one trick it does have is an excellent analogue delay. Had I been shopping for something to replace the delay pedal I had prior to this I probably would have bought something like the Boss MD200, but I would have ended up with option paralysis and most often left it on whichever delay type was my favourite. The additional functionality of a pedal like that isn’t necessary for a bedroom player like myself. For me the Brigadier is probably overkill but I do enjoy using it. The only very minimal negative points I have are firstly the size, it is a large pedal and my board is already very full. Secondly having a preset on the pedal itself would have been preferable. It’s not a deal breaker if you’re looking at buying a Brigadier or any of the smaller strymon pedals in that case. Having an external footswitch for a preset does take up space on a board although it is a small amount of space. For those using a looper/switcher having an external favorites switch is probably preferable to one on the pedal itself as the pedal can be tucked away out of reach and the favourites switch within tapping distance. It also means that you have to choose between a favourites switch or an expression pedal (which can be plugged in to affect any of the parameters). I don’t have an expression pedal so for me it was an obvious choice. Also as the stereo input is a single socket, this means you need to use a TRS connector which for me means using a couple of adaptors to make everything fit neatly. Minor quibbles as the pedal has been designed to please as many people as possible, what might be perfect to fit on my board would not be perfect for others. I wanted to point these things out because if you were interested in the Brigadier you might find that these things that I have said are quibbles could be a deal breaker for you. I will say where possible if you are looking at buying an analogue delay definitely consider the Brigadier I think it will surprise you.

Until next time.

Luscious Reverb – Neunaber Immerse MK2

My pedalboard has recently had a bit of an overhaul. Firstly I altered the drive section quite substantially. Then I came across a Neunaber Immerse at a price I really couldn’t say no to. I had been looking at getting a Source Audio Collider to take care of reverb and delay, effectively reducing three pedals to one. Seeing the Immerse put a spanner in the works. I had played the MK1 and enjoyed it very much. The shimmer was excellent, a real standout. I couldn’t however find one at a price I was happy to pay. I then got my hands on the GFI Specular Reverb, which is also excellent and has an outstanding shimmer mode. The Specular did all of the ambient washy reverbs that I like and I had a Boss RV-6 for the more standard plate and spring that I used all of the time.

The Immerse can do all of this in a box smaller than either of the two reverbs that it has replaced. The shimmer mode on the MK2 is as good if not better than the previous version. That being said, I don’t find myself using it on shimmer all that much. My favourite setting is the W3T algorithm Neaunabers flagship reverb. The main reason I prefer the Immerse over other reverbs that I have tried is the ease of use. The Specular sounded fantastic but was a pain to use. It does have pre sets, but I am more a set and forget kind of person. I don’t need lots of different pre sets, I play in my spare room. I can fiddle with the settings to my hearts desire.

That isn’t to say that it wouldn’t be nice to have 1 pre set on the immerse, so you could find your favourite sound and save it safe in the knowledge that you can flick through the other reverbs on offer and recall that same sound. I guess I can just take a picture on my phone of the location of the knobs and set it back to my preferred settings, but a pre set would be nice, maybe on the Mk3.

What of the other settings on the immerse? The other algorithms on offer consist of the usual spring, hall and plate then some more unusual offerings; sustain, echo, detune and shimmer. The plate hall and spring are exactly what you would expect if you have ever used any other reverb. They are excellent algorithms and I find myself if not using the W3T using the hall for a wide cavernous reverb.

The Immerse can do full wet which when used with something like the hall setting can be perfect for ambient soundscapes. There are a couple of switches on the top for trails, when engaged this will keep the trails of the reverb going when the pedal is turned off until they fade out. And a kill dry for if running it in a parallel effects loop. I don’t so I haven’t turned this one on. I have trails turned on but I very rarely turn the pedal off so I haven’t really used this feature.

The spring and plate settings are perfectly usable but they aren’t my favourites so are probably the least used. The detune setting adds a detuned double of your dry signal into the reverb this can if used subtly be quite a good sound thickener. One of those sort of effects that you don’t realise that it’s adding much to your sound until you turn it off and can’t quite put your finger on what is missing. It can sound quite broody, it’s not a typical reverb but it has its uses. I imagine it would sound excellent with a baritone guitar and some ambient playing.

The sustain algorithm is an odd one. It can be configured as a sustainer or an infinite reverb. I think I have only used it in the sustainer mode and need to try it in infinite. As a sustainer it only sustains the notes as you play them and once you move to another chord or note it cuts out, this could just be user error, but it wasn’t something I explored further. Echo is more of a reverb with a bit of delay, which could be useful to make a sound even vaster. It’s again not an algorithm I’ve spent much time with.

I will say that the MK2 is much improved over the the MK1 Immerse. For a start the labels are a lot easier to read. It goes 100% wet which the MK1 didn’t. And it has a few extra parameters to tweak with combination of the pre delay/modulation/blend knob, and the tone/echo time/hold time knob which differ depending on the effect being used. This is a quite a powerful combination and can create some very interesting full reverbs. The other two controls are mix and depth.

A lot of the complaints about the MK1 was the quietness of the reverbs on offer, although I don’t have one to compare it to I don’t have any complaints in this regard with the MK2 and would gladly recommend it to anyone who wants some massive reverb sounds or fairly traditional reverbs. It really does cater for a wide variety of effects. I think it would take something truly special to kick it off my board.

It’s worth noting that it can be run at 9-12v DC for some additional headroom. I run mine at 12v as my power supply allows it. It’s also full stereo ins and outs and nice and compact. Build quality is fantastic, it sounds the part and looks the part. The components used are top quality as would be expected at this price point. The footswitch is a soft press kind and all of the jacks and pots feel solid.

Positives:

Plenty, sounds fantastic, loads of options without being too much, easy to configure, compact, not too power hungry at 80mA. Stereo, top quality parts.

Negatives: no presets, it’s on the pricey side especially when you consider that it doesn’t have presets and a lot of reverbs in this price range have them. An option for a favourites switch like strymon have would be nice even if it meant the pedal was wider or taller as it’s already very compact. This is quite a minor gripe, but hopefully something that might be remedied in a later version.

I guess Neaunabers expanse and exp system (which I believe is now discontinued) catered for presets. Whereas the Immerse is more of s standalone multi reverb unit without the need for an additional footswitch to switch between algorithms 

In conclusion I really like the immerse. I recommend it regularly to people. I’m very happy with it and I encourage anyone who’s looking for a reverb pedal to give it a go.

Covid & Gas

I last updated the blog nearly a year ago. A lot has changed regarding my pedals, board and gear in general.

The beginning of lockdown gave me a lot of time to refine my pedalboard. I decided that I wanted a 1 plug solution, just one mains plug into the wall rather than the 2 or 3 I had due to some of my pedals having power requirements my budget power supply couldn’t handle. The second thing I wanted to change was that I wanted a case for my board so that I could safely put it away when not in use/ when we wanted to use the spare room as a bedroom.

There were very simple solutions to the two problems I had. Firstly a new power supply that could handle all of my effects pedals. Secondly a new board that came with a hard-case. The power supply I settled on was a Truetone CS-12, it was relatively affordable compared to the Stymon and Phoenix offerings. It is small enough to fit under most of the pedalboards I was looking at. And each output is fully isolated with a slew of other interesting features.

The board I purchased to compliment this was a Pedaltrain Novo 18. I created a layout on the pedaltrain website and was pretty confident that everything would fit. It did, but it was a little like playing tetris. I like the corner i’ve backed myself into. It limits what I can buy in the future, already having changed the layout a few times within the last few months.

I’ll write some separate reviews for the new acquisitions. The first was a Fredric Effects Blue Monarch, a fantastic interpretation of a blues driver, with a really useful treble boost. The tube screamer mini has been on and off but was largely unnecessary so has been sold. I had swapped the Blue Hippo chorus for the Zoom MS-70CDR to try some different chorus effects then put the Blue Hippo back on. As fantastic as the Stone Deaf Tremotron is, I found that I used the most basic settings. So I sold both the Blue Hippo and Tremotron to fund a Boss MD-500. This was originally going to be an MD-200, the smaller Boss multi modulation. I got such a good deal on the 500 that I couldn’t really say no. It has the added benefit of being capable of using 2 algorithms simultaneously, which as it was replacing 2 pedals is a bit of a necessity. The MD-200 is only capable of the one algorithm. So overall my board has had around 4 or 5 variations within the space of 6 months.

The final huge change to my gear is the guitar that i’ve just bought, but that is a longer story for a different post.

The images below show my original wooden pedalboard. The back of the new board with some nice neat wiring, and then the new board with different configurations.

Goodbye for now.