NPD x 2: Malekko Sneak Attack & Headrush E2

[Winston Psmith]

I'd been looking for a Malekko Sneak Attack to replace my old Guyatone Slow Volume, and saw a used one at my nearest GC, nearly new, in the box, for a good price, so I grabbed it. It's . . . tricky is the kindest word. I saw a lot of reviews from pissed-off folks who could not figure it out, even after consulting the Manual. Once I got it to behave, all good, but it's not a plug-&-play device, by any means.

 

I figured I'd had my lucky find for the month, when I went up to my FLMS (not GC) to get some oddball cables for the upcoming Robotfest, and made the mistake of asking one of my friends behind the counter if anything cool had come in.

 

"I've got a used Headrush for $59."

 

"Which one?"

 

"The blue one, the E2; its right over there."

 

Originally, they went for $199+/-; used ones are still turning up on Reverb & Ebay for $100-170. This one looked unused, not a mark, not even any dust on it? It may as well have had a sticker reading, "You'd be a fool not to buy this!" so . . .

[Dannyalcatraz]

Sooo...something called a Sneak Attack was not straightforward in its controls?

 

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING!!!

 

 

Whats the Headrush? I dont know that one.

 

(PS: nice score!)

[Winston Psmith]

Sooo...something called a Sneak Attack was not straightforward in its controls?

 

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING!!!

 

 

Whats the Headrush? I dont know that one.

 

(PS: nice score!)

 

The Sneak Attack is completely counter-intuitive; just screwing around with it is likely to get you anywhere but where you want to go. Moving on . . .

 

The Headrush is a deceptively simple Delay/Tape Echo Emulator/Looper. This is probably more fun than having me try to explain it -

 

No MIDI, no memory, no Reverse Delay nor Reverse Looping, but I like it. Runs off a 1 Spot, no problem, with power to spare. Sometimes, I just want a nice long Delay, nothing added, and for that, I prefer the sound & feel of the Headrush over the Boss DD-20.

[Dannyalcatraz]

Play em like you stole em...cause apparently, you damn near did!

 

Are you going to incorporate them to your board in time for Robotfest? More importantly, will you be sharing any of your performance here?

[Caevan O’Shite]

Niiiiice. Great deal on the Headrush. And... d' ya think I'd have too much difficulty in sussing the charms 'n' wiles of the Sneak Attack... ?

 

Overall, I am extremely pleased with my VFE Bumblebee, which does "attack delay"/volume-swell duties with great aplomb, to say the least- it's genuinely one of the absolute best pedals, and even all-around gear purchases, that I've EVER made, it serves my needs for my own individual signature sound and style so very well, virtually intuitively. The Sneak Attack looks to have a LOT of parameters, features, and controls, so it just might have even greater capabilities to serve my touch-controlled volume-swell wants and needs... There's very little that I could ask for that the BumbleBee doesn't deliver...

[Winston Psmith]

@Dannyalcatraz - The price for the used Sneak Attack was reasonable, but yeah, that price on the Headrush?!?!? Makes me wonder what they gave the poor devil who traded or sold it?

 

I'm assembling a really weird rig for Robotfest, based around a concept in EM called "Noodles": no idea where the name came from, but it basically describes a randomizing self-playing system. I start out with an EHX RTG, running into a Dwarfcraft Happiness (Resonant Filter w/LFO & S&H), then into a Korg Mini-Kaoss Pad (Looping & FX). Not sure what else I'll throw in the mix, right now, trying to fit it all onto one Pedaltrain 'board. I may use the Headrush, but might also bring my compact JamMan Express XT as a Looper. No Guitar & no Keyboard this time out, but I'll have some video of the system more or less playing itself.

 

In a way, a Synth Noodle is an answer to the (as yet unasked) philosophical question, "If a Synth is playing in a room, and there's no one to hear it, does it make a sound?" It's highly appropriate to Robofest, in that once I turn it on it really will just play itself, until I turn it off. Yes, I have some influence over the sound, by adjusting parameters on the outboard FX, but there's very little control over what comes out of the RTG. It's cheap & fun, you should get one . . .

 

[video:youtube]

 

Niiiiice. Great deal on the Headrush. And... d' ya think I'd have too much difficulty in sussing the charms 'n' wiles of the Sneak Attack... ?

 

It's pretty damned weird, Caevan: to be honest, it took me a while to figure out. The Sneak Attack is built around a circuit much like an Attack-Decay Envelope on a Mono Synth. Can't tell you how many posts I found in another Forum, where people just could NOT get it to work the way they expected; to be fair, the Manual isn't much help in that regard, especially for players like us, hoping to use it as a Swell effect. Seriously, a lot of players gave up on it and returned them, thinking they were defective?

 

I can't say it would give you anything you're not getting from the Bumblebee, unless you want of need a kind of weird Tremolo effect, too. I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone just looking for a Slow Gear replacement. The folks who seemed most unhappy with the Sneak Attack were clearly looking for a Slow Gear-style effect, and were unable to decipher the instructions for getting that sound. It's entirely possible to spin the knobs, and hear NOTHING coming out of the box, because of the settings, and no, that's not a defect.

[Dannyalcatraz]

I keep coming thiiiiiiis close to buying a RTG. (And a KAOSS pad of some kind,)

 

Part of the reason I havent gotten a RTG is that I dont want to do a full-on Noodles rig. Ive seen them before- especially when looking at things like the Skychord Glamour Box- but as much as I love EM, that isnt my particular thing. At least not from the standpoint of my performance.

 

Ummm...so to speak.

 

BUT...a RTG remains on my G.A.S. list because there are certain things floating around in my head that I think it would be perfect for. For example, Black Sabbaths e5150 has a certain...skittery qualify Ive alwau enjoyed. I know how they achieved it, but I also believe a RTG in my own rig would be a great way to travel down a parallel path without using the same techniques and tech.

 

[video:youtube]

[Winston Psmith]

Almost any effect or Synth with a Sample-and-Hold feature will give you a sound much like the RTG; the RTG is just so cheap, portable and fun, it's hard to pass up.

 

I got the original little yellow Kaossilator and its companion, the red Mini-Kaoss Pad, when they were still available and affordable, before the ugly V.2 models that looked like phone pagers.

 

I appreciate the improved feature set of the newer models, but I'm not dedicated to beat-driven Dance Music nor instrumental Onanism.

 

While the "Noodles" experiment is purely for Robotfest, I will say that there is a certain challenge in trying to accompany the RTG, or anything like it, while playing a conventional Instrument. It's not going to do what you might expect, it's not going to pay ANY attention whatsoever to what you're doing, and, given that it can be Atonal, as well as Arrhythmic, trying to construct any sort of Melody around it . . . well, if you're into Harmolodic Music, you've got a head start.

[Dannyalcatraz]

All of which makes the RTG Really Terribly Great!

 

I want to partner one with a Ringer pedal, as well as something like an Arpanoid, Rainbow Machine, AntiChthon, etc., with distortion & fuzz. Maybe a Lastgasp Sandstorm.

 

Strike some chords...instant Ragnarock. Moorcockian Chaos triumphant.

[Winston Psmith]

All of which makes the RTG Really Terribly Great!

 

I want to partner one with a Ringer pedal, as well as something like an Arpanoid, Rainbow Machine, AntiChthon, etc., with distortion & fuzz. Maybe a Lastgasp Sandstorm.

 

Strike some chords...instant Ragnarock. Moorcockian Chaos triumphant.

 

Ah, another early Hawkwind fan . . .

 

Bear in mind that the RTG has no Input jack, so while you can send it to/through other devices, or blend it with other Instruments via a Mixer or multi-channel Amp, there's no Thru option.

 

It's less interesting than you might think, run through a Pitch Shift, although the Arpanoid or Rainbow Machine might be worth the experiment. Running it through a Flanger or LFO-swept Filter is fun. Delay either smears the sound a bit, or sounds like a Noise hailstorm. Running it in tandem with a Ring Modulated Guitar, hell yes! To go completely wild, plug into a small mixer with an FX S/R, and send both the Guitar and the RTG out through the FX Send to a Ring Mod, then back into the Mixer; blend to taste. (A multi-channel Amp with an FX S/R would allow you to do the same trick, so long as you can have both channels on at once.)

 

FWIW, I have used the RTG live for a piece involving the Kaossilator and my MicroKorg. Somewhere, there's even a video of the performance? I used a similar rig for a piece on one of my albums.

[Dannyalcatraz]

That lack,is another reason I dont have one yet. Im still operating with a fairly linear connection sequence.

 

But if I wanted, I could give it a home on Ye Olde Octa Switch and let it do its thing.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Moorcockian Chaos triumphant.

 

Thematically, at least...

 

__________________ [video:youtube]

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hawkwind, BÖC, Tangerine Dream...all a big yes!

 

(Yes, too.)

[Winston Psmith]

That lack,is another reason I dont have one yet. Im still operating with a fairly linear connection sequence.

 

But if I wanted, I could give it a home on Ye Olde Octa Switch and let it do its thing.

 

Sideways thought - The Dwarfcraft Happiness pedal will self-oscillate if you push the Rez knob just past Noon. You can get it to do pretty much what the RTG does, and so much more, even without plugging in your Guitar. Check out the video from Knobs again. For at least part of the demo video, there's no Audio Input going through the Happiness; the pedal is playing itself. However, you could buy 4 RTG's and a 1 Spot for the price of one Happiness pedal. Don't tell me you can't put a price on Happiness . . .

 

Still listen to BOC, and I'm FB 'friends' w/Nik Turner from Hawkwind . . . how'd you get the Umlaut over the "O", BTW?

[Dannyalcatraz]

On an iPad, Ö happens when you hold your finger on the letter O instead of doing a typical keystroke, which pops up a menu of other options: Õ, Ø, Ō, , Ò, Ô, Ö, and Ó. Whether its capitalized or not depends on whether you had chosen to or not.

 

Other keys have similar options, not just the vowels. $ has a variety of other currency symbols under it.

 

Edit: interesting- the third option didnt render properly. Its supposed to be an O with a long vowel bar over it.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Hawkwind, BÖC, Tangerine Dream...all a big yes!

 

(Yes, too.)

 

I just thöught is was damned cööl that you referenced Michael Moorcock.

[Scott Fraser]

how'd you get the Umlaut over the "O", BTW?

 

On a Mac, Option + U brings up the umlaut diacritical mark without advancing to the next space. Then type in any letter under the umlaut.

[Caevan O’Shite]

how'd you get the Umlaut over the "O", BTW?

 

On a Mac, Option + U brings up the umlaut diacritical mark without advancing to the next space. Then type in any letter under the umlaut.

 

"S0O0O0O0ME~WHEEERRRE, UNNDERR THE ÜMLAAUUT... !"

 

 

____________

 

 

________

[Dannyalcatraz]

I läüghëd!

[p90jr]

Touché.

[p90jr]

I love my Headrushes... use them mostly as loop generators... have one of the 1s (silver) and a 2. Bought the first one new from a broke bandmate seconds after it was delivered for $100 (I think he paid more)... caught a sale on Amazon for the second one for $99. Good for recording, patched into consoles.

 

My pedal habit (which I need to stop, really...) has caused me to not be able to resist a SIB Mr. Echo Plus on sale for $99, A DOD Ring Modulator that was on sale for $39 (Funky), one of those nifty new Danelectro Billionaire Big Spender Leslie Simulators I found new for cheap just in time for a Tom Petty tribute show ("You Don't Know How It Feels..."), and I have to admit I've been scooping up every Lizard Leg Flying Dragon clean boost that pops up for a reasonable price, because Steve quit making them and they're more vital to me in electric and acoustic rigs than my own kidneys. Really... you can keep your Klon, I need my Flying Dragon. I've given some buds and bandmates first chance to get them when they pop up... I think I should be safe with 5 for the time being...

[p90jr]

Oh, and a Supro Boost just because some guy was selling them new for 1/3 of the normal price, and I have a couple of Supro amps, so I thought why not... which reminds me I need to open it and try it out... it has an input for an expression pedal, like the Vertex (formerly Michael Landau Boost), which was actually a basic idea a bandmate tried to get Steve to try with the Flying Dragon... he asked him if he could house one in a volume pedal, like a Morley with an on/off switch, because most people don't want to turn the Flying Dragon off once they turn it on... I actually just have a volume pedal at the end of my board so that solved my problem.

[Winston Psmith]

I love my Headrushes... use them mostly as loop generators... have one of the 1s (silver) and a 2. Bought the first one new from a broke bandmate seconds after it was delivered for $100 (I think he paid more)... caught a sale on Amazon for the second one for $99. Good for recording, patched into consoles.

 

It's a nice box, simple enough to operate, despite having a decent feature set. At $59 for one that looked all but untouched, I couldn't pass it up.

 

Which DOD Ring Mod did you get? The RI Gonkulator? You can dial in the RM Frequency on the RI, which makes it more useful.

[Caevan O’Shite]

A DOD Ring Modulator that was on sale for $39 (Funky)

Which DOD Ring Mod did you get? The RI Gonkulator? You can dial in the RM Frequency on the RI, which makes it more useful.

 

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0H Rrrrreeeaalllyyy.... .___.____._____.______.

[Winston Psmith]

A DOD Ring Modulator that was on sale for $39 (Funky)

Which DOD Ring Mod did you get? The RI Gonkulator? You can dial in the RM Frequency on the RI, which makes it more useful.

 

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0H Rrrrreeeaalllyyy.... .___.____._____.______.

 

@Caevan - the original Gonkulator had a fixed internal Frequency of about 500Hz, so you couldn't 'tune' it. It also had some serious "bleed-through" of the RM signal, which manifested as a high-pitched 'ringing' noise. Imagine if one of your pedals had tinnitus . . . that kind of sound.

 

Like with many oddball pedals, no one was interested in the Gonkulator until DOD stopped making them, and suddenly, they were 'collectable'? (Well, almost no one - my wife bought me one as soon as they came out, because it was the only affordable Ring Mod on the market at the time.)

 

A couple of years back, DOD re-issued the Gonkulator, with a Frequency control this time; they also took out all the 'funny' names for the control knobs; the original had a "Suck" knob. Of course, it's been dis-continued, once more, but there are probably some to be found in various Music stores where they never sold out?

 

If you want a nice, compact Ring Mod, where you can 'tune' the RM, get the mini-Moogerfooger RM, or one of the EHX RI Frequency Analyzer pedals.

 

If you like, I'll re-post "How to tune your Ring Modulator"?

[Dannyalcatraz]

...and theyre not pricey, either.

https://reverb.com/p/dod-gonkulator-ring-modulator

[Winston Psmith]

...and theyre not pricey, either.

https://reverb.com/p/dod-gonkulator-ring-modulator

 

?!?!? Some of those prices are more than a new one cost, just a little while ago when they were still available? Nuts . . .

 

At those prices, I reiterate my previous advice; get one of the new mini-Moogerfooger RM's. The mini-MF has an Exp. In jack, which allows for an even greater range of Frequency shift, and they're on sale right now at MF.

 

Mini-Moogerfooger Ring Mod, sale price.

 

Just do it . . .

 

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hey, when people figure out that a discontinued pedal is good, prices ARE going to rise as surely as prospective blues guitarist be recommended to buy a Strat.

[Winston Psmith]

Hey, when people figure out that a discontinued pedal is good, prices ARE going to rise as surely as prospective blues guitarist be recommended to buy a Strat.

 

Agreed, but in this case, neither one was really a great pedal?

 

When my wife got me the original Gonkulator, it was well under $100, and the only other readily available Ring Mod was the full-size Moog, at just under $300; easy choice.

 

The original Gonkulator was noisy, anarchic, and overall, kind of ugly-sounding, an acquired taste, at best; of course I liked it. The RI managed to tame some of the noise issues, and allowed you to dial in different RM frequencies, but it was still "neither fish nor fowl" as a very old saying would have it. At $99US, you can't pass on the mini-MF, if you're looking for a RM.

[Scott Fraser]

My fave ring modulator is still my old Maestro Ring Modulator, built by Oberheim, bought new in '71 or '72, & still sounding better than any of the digital ring modulators in any of my rack devices. But it's a table top unit, not pedalboard friendly, so really only gets used for studio purposes anymore.