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It’s been a while since we’ve done a pedal feature
in a big way. I know that there are a few of you out in our customer base
who really enjoy my anecdotes, enthusiasm and humor when describing the
pedals that we feature. Many of you have approached me in regards to new
installments of “Mike’s Excellent Pedal to the Metal” adventure. So here
you go…this for all the pedal pushers out there who have been patiently
waiting for a fix of Mike “Metal” McAvan’s guitar effect anecdotes.
As you all know, we are currently having a pedal clear-out
sale where we are wanting to clear out the generic brands that the bigger
stores carry and bring in some more boutique and hand made pedals. It’s
not that we feel that they are “junk” or unusable…it’s in fact the opposite.
There are some great bargains to be had for some amazing pedals. With the
success of Keeley Electronics, Carl Martin and Diamond pedals, we feel
we ought to concentrate more hand built custom pedals that everyone hears
or reads about but can never find. The Twelfth Fret has always stood for
innovation and evolution. As a younger player, I remember coming to the
Twelfth Fret to see and hear the latest and coolest products…it’s how I
discovered THD amps and my beloved Demeter Fat Boost control in my ESP
Custom Strat. Today, it’s my pleasure to carry on this tradition and bring
the customer the coolest, hippest and most sought after pedals out there.
I hope that you all enjoy these write ups as much as I enjoyed sampling
the goodies and disturbing my pesky neighbors with gargantuan guitar tones.
So many pedals…so little time!!!
‘Nuff Said,
Mike “Metal” McAvan
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| The AC Booster achieves a warm
and pleasant sound with it’s transparent but never harsh circuit. The super
wide range gain control allows for enough gain for it to work as a distorion
pedal when turned all the way up. The result is a harmonically rich Class
A Matchless/ Bad Cat style overdrive meets a vintage Marshall JTM 45 tone.
The AC Booster also work well as a warm boost to kick an amp in the behind
for solo boosting. The active EQ allows for limitless tweaking of tone
and doesn’t interfere or hinder the operation of the pedal by “cheesing”
out your tone like on your run of the mill pedals. The true bypass and
quality parts, workmanship and execution of this pedal make it a welcome
addition to our growing list of fave pedals. |
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| The Xotic BB Preamp offers
awide variety of sounds. It's not only capable of a 30dB+ clean boost with
an adjustable ±15dB two band active EQ which adds a wide range of
harmonic content to your ideal sound, but it also works well as a killer
distortion pedal.
The BB also utilizes a pre-gain stage which allows
the Pedal to go from a very pristine clean to a very smooth, compressed,
high gain overdriven sound. Don’t let the high gain badge fool you… this
pedal can coax some of the more subtle tones needed in a pro guitarist’s
sonic palette. The true bypass keeps it transparent and quiet while preserving
all of the tone and “juice” in your signal chain.
Upon first playing with it the BB Pre Amp, I was
able to pull out some incredibly singing tones without fizzing out with
too much gain. Fans of Eric Johnson and Allan Holdsworth take note…this
pedal gets you pretty close to those holy grail/benchmark tone that those
two guitar monster get at a fraction of the price of duplicating their
rigs. It sassy, brassy and even can get nasty. The BB pre amp is definitely
my fave of the three single pedals. Come on…30 db+ of clean boost? I’m
all over that like stink on a monkey! |
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| The Xotic RC Booster is
a versatile boost pedal armed with active Treble, Bass ,Gain and Volume
controls allow for limitless tone shaping. With the active EQ, this pedal
provides more sweep from frequency to frequency. In it’s primary purpose,
the RC Booster offers a super transparent 20db+ clean boost and a +- 15db
2 band active EQ without ever compromising the integrity of the original
tone. No tone sucking here!!!
It works great as a killer solo boost or gain
boost to add that bit more “hair” to your overdriven sounds. I was amazed
when I plugged this bad boy into my holy grail Marshall JCM 800 2203 model.
I was able to get that boosted high gain tone that seems to elude a lot
of players trying to dupe the amazing sound that Zakk Wylde got on Ozzy
Osbourne’s “No More Tears” CD. The title track seems to have become a bench
mark for heavy tone.
Being that it is very quiet and has tons of headroom,
it also works great as a line driver/signal buffer for all of you running
long lengths of cable or needing to boost a weak signal. The true bypass
eliminates any signal interference and degradation when the RC Booster
is switched off. |
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| This was the first of the dual pedals to arrive
and already has been creating a buzz with our staff. This is without a
doubt the most versatile design ever brought forth in a dual channel pedal.
The AC Plus is equipped with a gain and boost stage
which is switch-able in its order. For example, you can control whether
you want your boost before or after your overdrive sound by altering the
order of channel A and B. The comprehensive active EQ allows for
limitless tone shaping while the on-board compressor allows the player
to adjust for hard or soft clipping for smoothing out boosting and saturating
overdrive tones. The result is a versatile pedal able to coax anything
from classic rock tones to blues to even approximating a very convincing
Van Halen and AC/DC tone!
Keep in mind there is a feeding frenzy right now with
the dual pedals. I’ve been informed by Xotics that these bad boys will
be on a back-order basis until the production is stepped up with addition
production lines. Get them while you can because if you hesitate, it will
disappear faster than you can say “Killer Tone”. |
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| There has been so much hype (and phone calls!!!) over
this BB Plus pedal. Due to parts supply issues and
delays in manufacture, the wait was almost excrutiating…but it was worth
every second of anticipation. The BB Plus picks up where the AC Plus left
off in term of gain characteristics. Anyone who’s looking for a high gain
british style distortion pedal need to run, not walk, too the shop to grab
one of these. I ran it through the usual Van Halen standards and shred
lines. This pedal is one of the few out there that sounds, feels and reacts
like an amp. Beyond versatile, this pedal packs a lot of fire power and
options in a dual sized Hammond styled chassis. It features the same order
placement for the two gain stages as the AC Plus, the only difference here
is that the ”snarl factor” goes up ten fold. There is a quiet and discreet
compression feature on both channels and well as a three band graphic EQ
on one side while a tone/contour knob rounds out the EQ on the “gain booster”
side. It’s no secret that I was completely blindsided by the Kaden Brown
Creeper and Subdecay Black Star distortion, this pedal will for sure find
a welcome home in my collection. It is deceptively easy to use but the
plethora of sounds that one can summon with it is nothing short of awe
inspiring! |
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