# Just Ordered my first custom pedal



## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

In my never ever search for good dirt at apartment levels I broke down and ordered my first custom pedal.

Greg at Sold Gold Sound Labs is making me a customized lower gain Super Drive with a clean blend. We are are going for Neil Young/Tweed tones with great picking dynamics (Kind of like a Lovepedal Woodrow with more options and a clean blend). The pedal is designed for use at low levels through a small tube amp; I wanted the clean boost because I find pedals completely take over the tone at low volumes.

Its a fairly big expenditure for me (broke student), but I am hoping this really does it for me. Greg's customer service has been amazing and he has REALLY gone out of his way to help tailor this pedal towards my needs.

Now the painful wait begins . . .

TG


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

Paul said:


> You know, you can get those tones with a 5E3 kit amp.


I've got two great amps that can do this type of tone. However, if you read my post, the problem is getting these tones at apartment levels. A 5E3 amp is not quiet! 

The price of the pedal is nowhere near the price of an amp. Actually, it's not _that_ much higher than the price of a stock SuperDrive. Greg's prices are pretty amazing considering it is boutique stuff.

TG


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

jroberts said:


> Cool. Greg's making me a lower gain version of the High Octane. Sort-of a "Low Octane". My dirt pedal obsession is really getting out of hand.


Is the Octane his take on the Tube Screamer? I looked at that but to be honest, my cheap little Bad Monkey sounds so good I haven't looked into many other Tube Screamers. My only complaint with the monkey is the loss of low end but all TSs seems to do this.

I hear you about dirt pedal obsession. I've got the SuperDrive, a Monte Allums Rat (2?), and an early 80s Keeley moded rat on the way. Oh yeah, I just bought a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive a couple of weeks ago! 

TG


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## ne1roc (Mar 4, 2006)

jroberts said:


> That's mild interest. Here's obsession...
> 
> Analogman NKT275 Sunface
> BJF Honeybee
> ...


Well, I'm not sure if you can see this or not, but I noticed you have an 
HBE Ultimate Fuzz Octave and the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory. I've been contemplating between the two pedals for months now and finally decided to go with the Zvex (haven't bought it yet)

Any preference between the two?


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

jroberts said:


> That's mild interest. Here's obsession...
> 
> Analogman NKT275 Sunface
> BJF Honeybee
> ...


I thought I had issues. Holy S....! 

At my peak I only had about half as many OD's/Dist. This is what I discovered...I was spending waaaaaayyyy more time researching gear than actually playing. So I dumped a bunch of OD's and now only have a select few - about 6....soon to be 5. Now I tend to play/practice waaaaayyyyy more. :food-smiley-004:


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

No fair, you included fuzzes! 

Wow, before you let some of that stuff go let me know. OR, we need to have a pedal geek fest.

I've always wanted to hear the Prescription RX and Sunface. It would be cool to compare your stock SuperDrive against my Custom.

TG




jroberts said:


> That's mild interest. Here's obsession...
> 
> Analogman NKT275 Sunface
> ...with a SuperDrive and a custom High Octane on the way from Solid Gold. I've got to start purging some of these soon. I have a bit of a tremolo pedal obsession too, but I actually turn those over. I have a hard time letting go of dirt pedals.


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## ne1roc (Mar 4, 2006)

Rejection really hurts. :frown:


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

http://www.bodenhamer-electronics.com

you want a good TS? joe does good TS. and he'll probably take the time to tweak it to perfection for you as well


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## ne1roc (Mar 4, 2006)

jroberts said:


> Totally different creatures. The Z.Vex is completely insane. The HBE is more of a classic fuzz/octave. Two of my favorite guitarists, Doug Pettibone and Nels Cline, both use the Z.Vex. I've never quite been able to figure out how to tame it like they do, though. If I had to choose one of those two pedals to take to a desert island, I'd take the Z.Vex because it would keep me really busy figuring it out, and after a ton of tweaking I'd ulitmately probably prefer the sound of it. If I had to pick just one to grab and go for a short-notice gig, though, I'd take the HBE.
> 
> Does that make any sense?


Thanks for the info. I'll go with the Zvex for sure.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

jroberts said:


> The trick is to do all your gear research at your day job. Then it doesn't cut into your playing time.



...i have this down to a fine art!



-dh


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

traynor_garnet said:


> I've got two great amps that can do this type of tone. TG



...im hoping to get this kind of dirt and response from an amp, as opposed to pedals..

what amps do you have, tg?

-dh


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

My practice amp is a 3 watt Garnet. I can actually crank this in my apartment without being instantly evicted, but it is still too loud and it isn't all that enjoyable because I keep waiting for my landlord to knock on my door. This is the amp I want to install a light bulb attenuator in.

My jamming amp is a very early Traynor YGM-1 Guitar Mate. I had the eq section put to "normal" values (the mids were ridiculous) and put in one of the Guitar Warehouse V30 clones. No, its not a dead on Tweed but it sounds great and like a Tweed has a bit of Fender and Marshall going on. It sounds awesome for Neil Young and rock/blues and it very response to picking dynamics. The guitar's volume knob is my main "effect": clean to roar with the roll of a finger.

Both are still fairly cheap (even the Traynor only costs the price of a couple boutique pedals), just set aside a few bucks for a few minor mods and you will be rocking. I'm getting the Custom Solid Gold pedal simply to get these tones at low volume; if I lived in a house I wouldn't be interested in pedals.

TG




david henman said:


> ...im hoping to get this kind of dirt and response from an amp, as opposed to pedals..
> 
> what amps do you have, tg?
> 
> -dh


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## Guest (Oct 4, 2007)

jroberts said:


> The trick is to do all your gear research at your day job. Then it doesn't cut into your playing time.


Where was that "Music Quotes You Like" thread...I want to add this one!


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## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

traynor_garnet said:


> My only complaint with the monkey is the loss of low end but all TSs seems to do this.


Yeah - they generally do but there's a very simple modification to help that. Just a swap of one tone cap (assuming the monkey is fundamentally a TS circuit). I just did this mod (among others) to my BYOC TS-808 clone with good results. 

I don't know what the value of that cap is in the monkey. It was a .047uf film cap in my 808. I changed it to a .22uf film cap. That's a BIG difference in the bottom end, but that's what I wanted. A .1uf might be better for most folks. The bigger you go the more bottom end you get (and less mids I think), but anything much beyond the .22uf will sound like pure mud based on how mine sounds with that mod engaged.

But with that said, nothing's cooler than a custom shop toy built specifically for you!


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