http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7430823

Just what i've been looking for

THAT is FAT, yZe! Nice fat, round, full, warm tones without sounding muffled. And very "natural", too! I like how softly-picked, gently squeezed little notes kinda subtly morph in tone as they fade.

That's the kind of clean-tone I'd want to be heard wearing!

Do you get that kind of clean tone "live"? Does the Blonde pedal figure into your live rig at all?

I bet that putting the Blonde after some overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals would sound nice, too, fattening 'em up and adding more depth of complexity...

Give us the full bird's-eye low-down on the caper, what was the signal-chain, from the guitar to the software and EVERYTHING in-between?

I'll be experimenting w/live apps at a duo gig this wknd. I'll keep you posted on live band apps w/bass and drums

I did test it out through the pro audio dept main pa rig direct at Sam ash, and that's why I bought the pedal

The signal chain

yZeAxe>Blonde>Tascam USB 144 interface>MacBookPro>Garage Band w/Matrix Reverb

thanks for listening

This the Blonde you're hangin' with?



Here's a Jazz Times review of the Tech 21 Blonde that I ran across; I think you'll find that their reviewer agrees with you and your application of the pedal...

That Tascam USB-interface sounds like a good piece of gear to have, too.

Is there any sort of guitar-amp and/or speaker/cab modeling going on in Garage Band there, or are you using it strictly as a virtual recording-console?

Off the path of clean tone you were going for, but I betcha that it'd sound good having

fuzz/octave-fuzz > overdrive/distortion > Blonde

pedals in that order, in various combinations of what was on and what was off...

I've been really enjoying running my (J. Everman) Octave-X and (Radial Tonebone) Plexitube pedals together, in that order, into a squeaky-clean but tubey amp-model in my DigiTech GNX4 that I tweaked to my liking. Beautiful! Fat cleans, fat overdrive/distortion, crisp and tinkly but never tinny Octavia-style octave-fuzz, and fat pillowy-smoothed octave-fuzztortion, all there on-tap! It's like those two pedals and that program were made for each other! Serendipity, actualized...

I bet that Tech 21 Blonde pedal would be another good "clean-amp" unit to put after the Plexitube, like I'm using the GNX4... Could be a good alternative...

Sometimes I also kick in an MXR Blue Box in front of the Octave-X AND Plexitube for some monstrous multi-octave buzztortion; and I've usually got my Sustainiac Model C "pedal" on for feedback on-tap, effectively upstream of everything, which beautifully enhances all of the above. (Even the cleans.)

there are amp models, but i don't believe that they are segregable from any speaker simulation, if there is any. The only Garage Band plug-in I used was reverb, that's it. Everything else was 100% the Blonde

wow, your config sunds like fun, particularly since I have slowly developed the desire to want a fuzz !

Hmmmmm, the sustainiac gig sounds pretty cool. I'll check it out

I think the next thing I will try is the Ep-Pre into the Blonde
http://www.clinchfx.com/ep-pre


in the meantime, here's an OD clip
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7430921

all direct

Hehh-hehh... y'should've called that clip "Dirty Blonde"!

Niiiiiice... the usual, come to be expected yZe course of action... Pretty smooth sounding.

I see that the Blonde has its own, on-board, always-on Jensen-colored speaker-simulation. And , that the Blonde is essentially a SansAmp that's been tweaked and optimized to favor vintage Fender flavors; good idea.

That Clinch EP-PRE sounds like a brilliant idea, and definitely one of those "why didn't anybody think of this before" concepts! (As much as many people go on about the tonal benefits of TUBE Echoplexes used effectively as preamps, I'd think that someone would have come up with a similar idea for a tube-based preamp or preamp/pedal.) Very interesting... And, yeah, that should go nicely with the Blonde. Might getcha a touch of that Dumble/Fuchs sheen...

To give you an idea of some of what the Sustainiac can do in a completely D/I application, here's a "rhythm guitar" track from a work-in-progress (transferred to my PC by less than ideal means), going-

LP > Sustainiac > GNX4

-using that clean-toned model/program that I mentioned before, and originally recorded on the GNX4. I'm not sure if I was using the bridge-pickup, or the neck-pickup through a floored Fulltone Clyde Deluxe... Can't remember which and it sounds a little like either!! (It was a semi-improvised test-run pass that I decided to keep, "live"/first and only take, untouched.) Sustainiac used somewhat mildly for a loud/clean-amp feedback sort of thing (the 'verb and ping-pong echo are the GNX4).

Li'l Brother Midnight

It's no shred-fest, and it has its clams, but it has its charms, as well!

I'll get some lead-tracks using the Sustainiac, Plexitube, and Octave-X up soon...

geez Kev and yZe awesome direct tones.
i am thinking the British Tech21 would be my ideal toy.
i just love the Marshall crunch. even though those tones are sweet from the Gnx4 and Blonde. really sweet.

ha, ha - WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT. I will change the title after this post - LOL!



I checked the clips. Pretty original sounding concept. I really dig the feedback interspersed w/the jazz chords - kind of a juxtaposition

I am wondering how that would sound w/a cmbo of volume swells w/a vol pedal plus longer reverb &/or delay

Nice rich cleans ya got goin

Okay, all Sam Ash had was the British, so I checked it direct through their PA system, and I was stunned. It sounds just like a 4-12 cab pumpin out that sound. Goes from medium to JCM gain no prob. Since i was needing a clean amp for gigs in order to spike w/pedals, I had to special order the Blonde. If I had the cash lying around, i would get the British in a heartbeat. Excellent direct crunch.

i definitely need one of those. it would make my Mon night jam super easy to carry gear to my buddy's house.
not to mention tracking tones on the micro br.

Oh, I love all manner of volume-swells, from "pinky"/volume-knob fiddlin', to volume-pedals, to what I call "misguided noise-gates", to my Guyatone SV2 (think improved & shrink-rayed Boss 'Slow Gear' style auto-swell pedal); and that sort of envelope-manipulation often sounds great swingin' a tail made from a trail of echoes and reverb-erations. Throwing feedback generated from any source into that mix only enhances the whole thing; been there, done that.

Now, that Sustainiac gizmo (this is the one that clamps a vibrating transducer on your headstock to induce acoustic feedback, not the pickup/magnetic string-driver type) can really push the feedback; I have to use an extra amount of damping and muting with my hands and fingers to keep it controlled feedback. I often roll-back the guitar's volume just a smidgen to tame it, and back up again to let it take off. Sometimes it's all I can do to shut the damn thing up short of turning it off, if I've got it dialed-in to an aggressive setting!

I'll have to try to make a clip of such noodlin' for ya. If ya promise you won't laugh too hard at my less than shredderiffic technical prowess! (My nails got trashed recently, as well, and that's like you losing or mangling your only pick...)

So what'll it be, clean or dirty? Chords, leads? How many ms of delay?

yes.

Smart-@$$!

i couldn't resist.

So... yZe? What's yer preference?

Or, should I just shootcha this perverse piece o' sonic sleeze that I stepped in tonight?

Go for the same thing in the original clip, just with tapped 8ths or 1/4's. If no tap mode, then a reasonable "arena delay" ?

swells w/the volume pedal to boot

wel, just did a 3-nighter as a duo

I tell ya, as somewhat of A corksniffer, I did not miss my tubes using this pedal. I had high headroom cleans all night, and the pedal was not dull or un-interesting

It went guit>Boss TU2 (as a buffer)>Clinch FX EP-Pre>Tech 21 Blonde>Line 6 M 13> Mixer

Setting the mixer w/eq's at noon was the ticket

the EP-Pre really gets this pedal sizzlin'

so nice to not have to lug an amp

The verdict is out now on these things

A. How it cuts w/ live drums & Bass
B.How to set up OD pedals w/ it when going direct

Awesome tone and great recording and performance! I briefly owned this pedal but it's only fault was that the Tech 21 Character Series British pedal was able to get a very similar clean tone. Since I already owned the British pedal, I sent the Blonde pedal back. Great pedals though, and there's really not a bad sound in the Blonde pedal. So, if you can only afford one pedal, I would recommend the British one.

With all respect justly due in that you have tried both pedals, I will have to dissent:

I too demoed both pedals EXTENSIVELY through a big FOH mixer/speaker config at Sam Ash. I was looking for the character pedal that delivered the best high headroom cleans & the Blonde was NOTICEABLY better at that WITH Low output HUMBUCKERS

Your clean tones are no doubt sparkly clean WITH A STRAT, but you have no clips w/buckers.

THe cleans for the British lacked the high end sizzle while being able to stay clean at the same time, and also broke up too soon as far as attempting to reconcile the unity gain volume of the mixer when the pedal was off.

NOW, for some killer @$$ meaty low to high overdriven marshall tones the British is a Godsend !

Since, I "could only afford one pedal"; I had to pic the blonde because all of my tests were solely based on looking for the right clean tone

My tests were based on playing hard funk rhythms & Bebop jazz stylings, both of which require high headroom cleans with brightness, and hard pick attack. The british just could not achieve those things that the Blonde, w/minimal effort, could

I should have mentioned that I bought and tested my pedals exclusively in the direct recording realm. While it would be similar to connecting to a mixer for live sound, there are differences. I have had nice results recording with the British pedal w/ humbuckers with a clean tone setting. Check out "Symmetry Samples" on myspace page, especially around the 1:00 mark: http://www.myspace.com/chrismanning3

Glad you are enjoying the blonde pedal. One of the best line of pedals to come out in a while IMO.

awesome songrwriting, and playing chris ! Very inspiring

Yeah those cleans w/the bucekrs at 1:00 are good for rock cleans, as I had discovered. The thing is that I was looking to get some deep jazz clean and spanky funk w/the buckers, which I couldn't get w/the British.

It's like the cleans were "woodier" w/the Blonde

I still want all 3 character pedals, because I like to rock, too

How does the Brit perform going through an amp as a stompbox?

Sems like the cab sim could get in the way

Which is how I'd characterize the diff between clean tones from "tweed" and "blonde" Fender style amps, and clean tones from Marshall style amps. Which is pretty cool for you to find in a pedal like that.

I'm more likely to check one of those out for myself sometime after reading this thread.

Alright, the latest blonde clip
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7612593

Rig Details on that page

I love the Liverpool... used it this weekend, ridiculously enough, through an AC30. I was playing a party in a small rented hall, and the AC30... when it hit the spot where I was getting "in" to the amp, where it was opening up to sound good, it was making people hold their ears. So, I used the Sansamp to get the tone and backed down the amp. I'll probably just get the Blonde and the British eventually, too.

Nice

there's a newer clip a few posts up, but the ghetto-ized software here won't allow me to edit the first post

Hey man...nice lines at :38 and 1:13.

]

Ha ha, the :38 is a VERBATIM RIP-OFF of a Robben Ford line in "Rush Hour" on the out chorus !

THe 1:13 was from the hip, though

Check the original a few posts up, I wasn't able to add it in the first post, because this forum blocks editing after a while

Yep I listened to both, still excellent tone and very good playing.

Really nice track! Love that lead sound you get at about 1:29 - yeah! So, if I read the notes on that page correctly, that lead sound is acheived with a Maxon ROD881 Real Tube Overdrive pedal?

Yhup; yZe's direct-recording signal-chain for the solo was:

Guitar >Real Tube Overdrive Pedal >Clinch FX EP-PRE >Tech 21 Blonde >Tascam USB 144 Interface >Mac Book Pro >Garage Band

His guitar for the solo is a custom, the "yZe axe".

He hasn't been around here for a while, so I PM'd him about your recent reply-post here, on your behalf...

Hey yZe, you may have solved a problem for me...if you plug guitar> blonde> small pa/or mixer would you be able to leave the amp at home? does the Blonde work as a direct-in using speaker cab simiulation protect tweeters/horns or do you have to watch your volumes??? anyway thanks for the info and nice job on the demo!!!

Whoa - missed this - yeah, the input levels on the blonde is super hot , and it is not balanced. You definitely have to be careful with the controls on this as it is hair trigger. I think the best way to go is to go into a DI and get a balanced out

thanks for listening guys - it was a BK Butler Real tube into the pedal - but w/some help from the EP-Pre - ha ha

Don't you mean the output level of the blonde?

If you did use a DI in addition to the blonde, where would you put the DI in your signal chain? I thought the Sansamp was designed to replace a DI - they advertise it as being able to go straight into the mixer.

It's weird there seems to be two (maybe more?) pedals with the name Real Tube Overdrive!

I'm pretty sure that, for this application with a PA, a DI would be best placed last in line, right before the PA's mixer input.

Otherwise, placing it in-between any other NON balanced devices, you'd completely lose the benefits of the DI.

Note that the Blonde DOES have a speaker-sim; it has its own, on-board "Jensen"-colored speaker-simulation that is always on- it can't be turned off or bypassed, AFAIK.

And, you could easily use the Blonde WITHOUT a DI, that's essentially what it's for- you would just have to be careful when setting its controls. It's a SansAmp that's been tweaked and optimized to favor vintage Fender flavors. But having a balanced output via a quality DI interface wouldn't be a bad idea.

yeah, i haven't used the DI yet (not sure waht to get)

but there is a loaded signal comin out of that thing, it definitely can be troublesome in the PA live or recording

I'm wondering if going balanced will solve that

As Is, though - it can be tweaked w/o much difficulty - you just have to be ready for it !

Can be used as DI, though - but it is not balanced out

Hmn; maybe a little compression/limiting after the Blonde would help with that?

lookin in to the General Guitar Gadgets Orange Squeeze kit - that is the baddest ass comp in guit history

I just tried out the blonde at a buddy's house, we both have the same T5 guitars and are going into the blonde and then to a fishman solo amp...it works great...found a guy doing the same thing only he's using an Ibanez big body double humbucker jazz guitar johnhorneguitar.com....

we used an A/B swith and set the adjustments to match a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and can leave the amp at home...the blonde gives a nice boost for leads and clean amp sounds and when kicked off you automatically are back on acoustic so you can leave the A/B switch at home also...did use a whirlwind direct in after the Blonde just to be on the safe side as the blonde can really put out some heavy volume and electric sound if cranked up or on the blues drive settings...

setting the blonde drive down and level up gives a really clean jazz sound...so I'm ordering a blonde for christmas and may take my strats and try them out in the future...thanks for the info.

I've run the Liverpool direct into a PA with no problem, but I think in reviews it was the easiest one to deal with both amp-wise and direct. It comes with me to every show and practice as an ass-saver, and it's been used as such... when things blow, crap out, or the guy who borrowed my amp and was supposed to bring it to practice the next city over forgets and I have to play through an ancient unused bass amp... a Blonde and a British are on the inevitable list.

I also picked up a Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic last week for $125. Was just curious... and that was cheap for one that was practically new. I'd been watching some Marshall Crenshaw clips and he gets great sounds from an old Ampeg M 5 or something (he bought it as a kid, says it sounds crappy except for the tremolo) and was using a Siegmund Micro-tube preamp to spruce it up. I have an Ampeg Jet that's alright (it's small and light, and I needed an amp that was cab-friendly) but doesn't hold its own with a full band. A speaker upgrade and some tube experiments are in order... but anyway, the Siegmunds don't seem to turn up used often (and when they do people want more than they cost new) and they're pricey. The twin tube seems to be Seymour Duncan's version of his preamp, using the military microtubes. Haven't spent the time with it yet to feel it out that much.