NPD

[surfergirl]

Ordered an EHX Crayon today. Wasn't going to buy any more pedals, but found this open box for $65. I was in the 9th grade when this pedal came and I thought it was the coolest pedal ever, I just never got around to getting one till today. I have the perfect spot for it.

[Caevan O’Shite]

"I'm not buying any more pedals."  Haahh! Sooo very often, 'famous last words'...  

I can relate to both 'it was on sale/open-box/demo/blem/great deal on a used specimen'; and also, 'a really cool pedal that I'd really wanted for a very long time'...

ANYWAY, tell us more about that Crayon pedal! And your plans for it!

[surfergirl]

There are 6 different sound bites on the EHX website, plus a video of each with some suggested settings. I will use it as a boost. 

1: Bass boost od, very cool. 

2: Clean boost

3: Treble boost od. This is the one I got it for. Treble @3 o'clock, bass at @7, volume and gain @10 are the suggested settings. He's playing through a different setup, so I'll have make adjustments when I get it. It's also possible I will use the clean and/or the bass. 

It will go after my Lizard Queen and before my DS-1W, or after the DS-1W.

[Caevan O’Shite]

6 hours ago, surfergirl said:

There are 6 different sound bites on the EHX website, plus a video of each with some suggested settings. I will use it as a boost. 

1: Bass boost od, very cool. 

2: Clean boost

3: Treble boost od. This is the one I got it for. Treble @3 o'clock, bass at @7, volume and gain @10 are the suggested settings. He's playing through a different setup, so I'll have make adjustments when I get it. It's also possible I will use the clean and/or the bass. 

It will go after my Lizard Queen and before my DS-1W, or after the DS-1W.

Have fun!

[Dannyalcatraz]

Nice score!

 

I don’t have one (yet) but I know those are pretty nice.  Enjoy it!

[Caevan O’Shite]

I didn't know much about the EHX Crayon; now that I've looked into it a bit more, I can see that it's a pretty versatile variation on overdrive pedals. It aughtta be a pretty useful tool to have on hand!

[KuruPrionz]

8 minutes ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

I didn't know much about the EHX Crayon; now that I've looked into it a bit more, I can see that it's a pretty versatile variation on overdrive pedals. It aughtta be a pretty useful tool to have on hand!

I'm not dissing it but take a look at the Tech 21 Double Drive 3X pedal. The knobs are similar to the Crayon, but there are a pair of gain knobs, one Class A and the other Class AB plus a  Mid knob and 3 programmable footswitches. Counting the all switches off position, you have 4 sounds. You can go from cleanish with minor grit to creamy singing tones and all points in between. You can vary the types of distortion using the two different gain knobs.

 

The Crayon is a versatile pedal, the Double Drive is an extremely versatile pedal. I got one used but excellent condition in the box for $90. Can be run on 9v battery or a power supply also. 

[Caevan O’Shite]

6 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

I'm not dissing it but take a look at the Tech 21 Double Drive 3X pedal. The knobs are similar to the Crayon, but there are a pair of gain knobs, one Class A and the other Class AB plus a  Mid knob and 3 programmable footswitches. Counting the all switches off position, you have 4 sounds. You can go from cleanish with minor grit to creamy singing tones and all points in between. You can vary the types of distortion using the two different gain knobs.

 

The Crayon is a versatile pedal, the Double Drive is an extremely versatile pedal. I got one used but excellent condition in the box for $90. Can be run on 9v battery or a power supply also. 

I wouldn't have taken that as your "dissing" the EHX Crayon pedal, not at all! Just kickin' the ball around, speaking and  making recommendations from experience!

That Tech 21 Double Drive 3X does sound very versatile! And you scored a great deal om that one! A bit of a 'sleeper' among such pedals, huh?

There's also the JHS Crayon, so named as being a smaller, simplified relative of the JHS Color Box.

These two EHX and JHS pedals seem a bit similar in concept and topology in some ways; I think that the EHX Crayon sounds and acts more like a clean-boost and/or out-and-out overdrive pedal, while the JHS Crayon sounds and acts more like a mic-pre channel-strip circuit from a recording-console that can be overdriven and get fuzzy. Similar enough ideas and uses, different  sonic personalities.

All three- the Tech 21 Double Drive 3X, EHX Crayon, and JHS Crayon- seem to be excellent, useful, versatile pedals; which one would best suit a given player would depend entirely on their given wants, needs, and tastes! All three seem like they'd be great on their own, or for stacking before or after other pedals, too.

[KuruPrionz]

3 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

I wouldn't have taken that as your "dissing" the EHX Crayon pedal, not at all! Just kickin' the ball around, speaking and  making recommendations from experience!

That Tech 21 Double Drive 3X does sound very versatile! And you scored a great deal om that one! A bit of a 'sleeper' among such pedals, huh?

There's also the JHS Crayon, so named as being a smaller, simplified relative of the JHS Color Box.

These two EHX and JHS pedals seem a bit similar in concept and topology in some ways; I think that the EHX Crayon sounds and acts more like a clean-boost and/or out-and-out overdrive pedal, while the JHS Crayon sounds and acts more like a mic-pre channel-strip circuit from a recording-console that can be overdriven and get fuzzy. Similar enough ideas and uses, different  sonic personalities.

All three- the Tech 21 Double Drive 3X, EHX Crayon, and JHS Crayon- seem to be excellent, useful, versatile pedals; which one would best suit a given player would depend entirely on their given wants, needs, and tastes! All three seem like they'd be great on their own, or for stacking before or after other pedals, too.

Not sure if I still have it or sold it but the Tech 21 Tri-AC which is all Class AB and minus the Class A knob is also very good. They each have 3 foot switches and presets but they are about 2 pedals in size and need 4 fewer cables/2 fewer power supplies than the 3 pedals they would replace, a value added feature in my book. 

[surfergirl]

No doubt the Tech 21 Double Drive 3x would be an excellent choice. There's also the Fulltone Fulldrive 2 or 3. They would have cost over $200 when I figured in shipping. Shipping on the crayon was $10.40, because I choose priority mail. The Crayon was the one I wanted, but there are certainly a lot of other good choices. 

[surfergirl]

The Crayon arrived today. I'll probably play around with later tonight. Now we're going to try to get in an hour of surfing before dark.

 

[surfergirl]

As I suspected may happen, the bass boost works best with my Boss Street Cube ll. Gives it almost a tube like feel.

[o0Ampy0o]

It is nice to get something you have always wanted.

 

Those EHX Crayon demos are "classic" tones. The last one nails Ritchie Blackmore. So much of this depends on the amp and the guitar/pick ups. But with modeling amps and pedals you might be able to get all coil variations out of your gear, IDK.

 

On a different forum years ago a manufacturer had a list you could sign up for. They shipped a guitar around between members. Maybe it was just the wired up pickguard. I think it was a special noiseless single coil design. That was a rare opportunity to try something in the space of your own environment and existing gear.

 

It would be nice if you could rent everything long enough to make a decision trying it with the gear you own or to design something totally new to you.

 

I once loved some form of Boss pedal in the store. I later discovered it was a specific amp that was responsible for the characteristic I liked so much. I thought it was the pedal.

 

Forums, Youtube and all of the archival media to pull up is beneficial to learning and understanding what makes things tick.

 

It took me posting a few video examples of the tone I was trying to define to discover what the ingredients were. Earlier in my life I did not have to words and it was too easy to find A-holes trying to look cool working in a guitar store who did not know anything and certainly were not even wanting let alone capable of being helpful.

 

On the renting idea, I think there could be less number of sales overall. I wonder how much money is spent on account of making a bad decision because you are in a noisy guitar store and using other gear while demoing something? Without the opportunity to try something there are plenty of blind purchases based on online demos. At home there would be less pressure to buy or there could be more desire to own. It could go either way.

 

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

2 hours ago, o0Ampy0o said:

...with modeling amps and pedals you might be able to get all coil variations out of your gear, IDK.

I've certainly enjoyed a number of classic pedal and amp combinations with my Strymon Iridium standing in for vintage Marshall and Vox voiced amps. And the pedal-settings that work well with the Iridium, also work well with my tube-amps while requiring very little or even no adjustments of the controls on the pedals. I love that!
 

 

2 hours ago, o0Ampy0o said:

It would be nice if you could rent everything long enough to make a decision trying it with the gear you own or to design something totally new to you.

You can kinda sorta do that with Pedal Genie. It's not an inexpensive proposition, and an 'in for a penny, in for a pound' commitment. A bit much for me, but I'm sure it's a lot of fun!
 

 

2 hours ago, o0Ampy0o said:

I once loved some form of Boss pedal in the store. I later discovered it was a specific amp that was responsible for the characteristic I liked so much. I thought it was the pedal.

So it was partly or mostly the amp that you were trying the pedal through? What pedal, what amp?
 

 

2 hours ago, o0Ampy0o said:

Forums, Youtube and all of the archival media to pull up is beneficial to learning and understanding what makes things tick.

It sure is! I've gotten pretty good at figuring out what to expect, what will suit me well and what will not, based on all that; I've come to know what to listen and watch for that will relate to my playing, guitars, pickups, amps, other pedals... I'm rarely disappointed once I make such a purchase. But I've belabored the matter a Hell of a lot by the time I pop for it!

[o0Ampy0o]

5 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

So it was partly or mostly the amp that you were trying the pedal through? What pedal, what amp?

 

I don't remember which pedal.

 

It was a Gallien-Krueger amp. I don't know a lot about the amp. I had a couple of friends with GK's. I don't know whether they have made both tube and solid state amps but I thought at least one friend's was solid state. I played with them years apart. The amps were very different from one another. One friend had a Gibson SG with P90's that sounded naturally mean with a lot of bite. There was no effort at getting a dark hard character out of it. Sometimes P90's can sound like single coils (Gilmour Another Brick In The Wall) but not this guitar. The other friend sounded more like a Scorpions/Schenker. In the store I was never touching single coil guitars in those days but the sound I liked was what I have come to associate with single coils. So somehow what I played with that day sounded like a single coil. The guitar was a Les Paul with humbuckers. I went back and tried to get that sound again but never could. I did not know what I was doing and what the gear was doing. It might not have been the same GK model. I don't remember when I figured out it was not the pedal but at the time I thought the amp made that pedal sound better rather than recognizing it was the amp alone. I figure if it sounded like single coils and I was playing a humbucking Les Paul it had to be amp sourced. I guess there is a remote chance the Les Paul had P90's though. I could have played a Les Paul with p90's and not realized it.

[KuruPrionz]

7 minutes ago, o0Ampy0o said:

 

I don't remember which pedal.

 

It was a Gallien-Krueger amp. I don't know a lot about the amp. I had a couple of friends with GK's. I don't know whether they have made both tube and solid state amps but I thought at least one friend's was solid state. I played with them years apart. The amps were very different from one another. One friend had a Gibson SG with P90's that sounded naturally mean with a lot of bite. There was no effort at getting a dark hard character out of it. Sometimes P90's can sound like single coils (Gilmour Another Brick In The Wall) but not this guitar. The other friend sounded more like a Scorpions/Schenker. In the store I was never touching single coil guitars in those days but the sound I liked was what I have come to associate with single coils. So somehow what I played with that day sounded like a single coil. The guitar was a Les Paul with humbuckers. I went back and tried to get that sound again but never could. I did not know what I was doing and what the gear was doing. It might not have been the same GK model. I don't remember when I figured out it was not the pedal but at the time I thought the amp made that pedal sound better rather than recognizing it was the amp alone. 

Which is why I've learned to test guitars, amps and pedals separately so I know what each can do on it's own. The amp? I try 2 or 3 different guitars with it and see how it reacts. If I can get a good tone with all 3 guitars then that is a great amp. Yes, the amp may need to be adjusted but that's OK if it delivers. Guitars are another topic, I will record with guitars straight into my DAW using a MOTU M6 interface, which is clean as a whistle, full frequency with no notable tonal deviance. Once I know the guitar, I can add a pedal and see what happens. If I can dial a good tone out of a pedal and the noise level is not high then I consider it to be a good pedal. All that said, there are some combinations that are better to my ears than the individual components. I have a couple of good sounding basses but running them through a Tech 21 Q-Strip with the low mid set to 200 hz and turned down magically allows a bass part to have a solid low end and fit right in the mix without clutter. 

[o0Ampy0o]

That would be Doctorate level compared to my third grader knowledge at the time. Jethro graduated from school at the third grade but I thought I was at least junior high level or I wanted to and didn't want anyone to think less. So that can get you into situations where you are blind as a bat. I thought things did things and didn't know things did things. Nothing like a kid who thinks they know more than they do.

 

Jamming with friends who are older it has seemed more important to be "cool" than any good at playing. You can suck and they will invite you back. If someone doesn't like you that's it. Jamming can be a sort of sacred social ritual. Never turn down anything offered to you especially by people you don't know.  I was invited to a jam session by a friend at his friend's house. I was shy and nervous and kept to myself. I turned down homemade deviled eggs offered by the host. He said, "Come on don't be such a... pause ...nice guy." When it came time to play he pointed to me and said "nope sorry not you." I've been traumatized ever since :-))