| Solid Gold Sound Labs : Guitar Effects
Pedals |
| Once again I've enlisted our own
Mike McAvan's help in introducing yet another line of boutique guitar pedals.
On Mike's suggestion, we've decided to concentrate more on handmade
effects that are a bit less mainstream. Here's another installment
of Mr. McAvan's inimitable prose that features the handmade Solid Gold
Sound Labs pedals! |
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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.
‘Nuff Said,
Mike “Metal” McAvan
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| Solid Gold Sound Labs : Superdrive |
| Think DOD 250, MXR Distortion +, Ross distortion,
Dan Armstrong blue clipper meets a classic ProCo Rat pedal, stir in some
anabolic steroids and chill to serve. Have you ever plugged in a new ProCo
Rat pedal and thought “Hmmm… nice but it doesn’t really sound like the
description that everyone on Harmony Central gives it”, then you’ll really
be jones-ing on this uber, herculean pedal. The true bypass keeps this
one transparent and clean but when you engage this hooligan, stand back
and get ready to have your hair blown dry. The sound here is a full bodied
crunch that allows a player to go from mild bluesy tones all the way to
fire and brimstone approved hard rock tone. The most difficult thing to
achieve when designing a pedal like this is allowing for a player to use
his or her volume knob to clean up the tone without “fudging” up the sound.
Not the case here. It seems Greg has really put a lot of thought into this
very important and very finicky detail in his pedals. Two of my top ten
desert island cd’s are Helmet’s Betty and Kyuss’s Sky Valley cd. This pedal
achieves those very thick and juicy tones. Good on you bro!!! |
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| Solid Gold Sound Labs : SuperDuperDrive |
| The Superduper Drive picks up where the Superdrive
left off. You get all the dirty, mayhem inducing drive with the added versatility
of an NOB booster (see next description for details). The true bypass on
both functions works like a charm and the added “danger factor” of the
second gain stage allows a player to achieve some diverse and complex tones.
The two functions can be used together or independently to boost, colour,
infect and/or destroy…you pick your poison and this little concoction delivers.
Smooth, deadly and addictive, it’s a tweakers dream come true. |
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| Solid Gold Sound Labs : High Octane |
| The High Octane pedal is great pedal for someone
looking for a classic tweed like crunch with an extra complex edge. The
simple design of this pedal is the secret to its appeal. The dirt characteristic
is rich but never over the top fuzzy. It cleans up amazingly well with
volume knob manipulations and actually feels like an amp. Many pedals just
suck the “air” out of a signal chain and sound …er… well … like a pedal.
There nothing more defeating than plugging in a pedal and turning up the
“suck factor” That isn’t the case here. The true bypass design keeps your
sound clean and true while the overdrive tones allow one to achieve sought
after tones like the classic Led Zep, Faces, Rolling Stones and Black Crows
raunch . High Octane indeed, suckah!!! |
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| Solid Gold Sound Labs : Mr. Clean |
| This little, uber cool boost pedal is designed around
dual levels of gain and provides a clean boost. Unlike most booster pedals,
the Mr. Clean provides a clean boost while keeping fidelity, tone and transparency
… no tweazy, sleazy compression here!!! The true bypass provides a clean,
unfettered on/off switching in and out of your signal chain. The internal
bias control allows you to tweak to your hearts content and works great
for matching this pedal up in your signal chain. It works great in front
of a tube amp to clip out the pre-amp or in front of a distortion pedal
to boost for solos. My own VHT Pitbull amp just ate up the boosting quality
and begged for more! |
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Solid Gold Sound Labs : N.O.B. Pedal
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| The NOB booster pedal was the first pedal that
got my attention. The graphic echoed one of my fave albums…Black Sabbath’s
Master of Reality. I learned to play guitar with that album so you can
see why I was drawn to this one. This pedal is a straight up booster and
is a welcome addition to any pedal board. Whether you’re playing country
or Norwegian Black Metal, this pedal has something for everyone. It is
the perfect, transparent booster with a two way tone switch to add to it’s
versatility. The NOB pedal works great with other pedals for signal boosting
or for adding dirt to a crunchy tube amp. The version II of this bad boy
is like a treble booster without the screechy high end. The new circuit
delivers a more tube like response, faster saturation and distortion, and
well…MORE!!! A lot of Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi’s tone was built
around a classic Rangemaster Treble Booster and some of the uber cool Tycobrahe
pedals. The NOB versionII pays homage to that classic treble booster with
true bypass trasnparency! |
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| Solid Gold Sound Labs : Minmo |
| The Minmo is a dirtier “black sheep cousin” to
the Mr Clean pedal. It is perfect for achieving an el84 style spank on
a large tube amp without having to invest in a hearing aid in the future.
It also works great for getting more “juice” and “dirt” out of distortion
pedals and amps. I plugged this nasty savage into my trusty Marshall JCM
800 model 2203 (modded by Uncle Buzzy) and was able to dial up some modern
snarl ala Zakk Wylde, Slayer and Slash or Guns & Roses. Simple, effective,
yet nasty and snarling are words to describe this pedal. My dear wife Heather
describes this one as my new “confidence booster pedal”. Thanks dear… |
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| Solid Gold Sound Labs : Formula 76 |
| The Formula 76 is a modern take on a mid 70’s
Octave Up style Fuzz. It screams Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck fuzz. We have
actually come to name this little nasty as “The Godzilla Fuzz Pedal”. It’s
over-the-top, nasty, thicker than sludge, and just plain evil. When I was
a DJ for York University’s radio station, one of my fave cd’s was Fudge
Tunnel’s "Creep Diets". That ungodly tone is captured in a box and will
no doubt be capable of single handedly summoning some form of evil. Greg
really went to town on this one. Not for the faint of heart, this pedal
can be a welcome addition to a pedal board that’s looking for the “musical
chaos” box! |
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| Solid Gold Sound Labs : Agent 13 |
| The Agent 13 pedal is loosely based on
our fave Formula 69 pedal. This evil little number will go from thick early
Tony Iommi-like tones to some seriously whacked out, self oscillating musical
chaos. Simply put, I love this pedal. Anyone who is a fan of early Black
Sabbath MUST own this pedal!!! I have so many fond memories of lifting
Black Sabbath songs off of my old record player and playing a lot of that
material in my first bands in high school. This pedal, simply put, makes
me want to put a Black Sabbath cover band together that concentrates on
the first five CD’s with Ozzy Osbourne on vocals. I had a blast running
through all the classic riffs. From Black Sabbath to War Pigs and all the
way the Symptom Of The Universe, this one is guaranteed to put a smile
on any Black Sabbath fan’s face! |
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| Solid Gold Sound Labs : Formula 69 |
| The Formula 69 fuzz pedal is unlike any fuzz
pedal that I’ve tried. Many early fuzz pedals used costly and hard-to-find
germanium transistors and proved to be unreliable due to temperature fluctuations
and the amount of juice operating in the circuit. The fuzz pedals that
used silicon based transistors proved to produce spitty and grainy fuzz
tones with no body. Greg ups the ante by designing the ultimate fuzz box.
He employs low gain silicon transistors to achieve sweet, transparent and
defined fuzz tones with tons of body and increased reliability. The Fuzz,
Volume and Bias controls are dynamic and allow for a ton of flexibility
while the two way tone switch allows for bass attenuation for more cutting
power. The Formula 69 has quickly become a fave amongst the guys on our
sales floor! |
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| Greg at Solid Gold
got together with our own Mike McAvan and dreamed up some very cool mods
to existing Boss pedals. I'll be featuring some of these mods (exclusive
to the Twelfth Fret no less!) over the coming weeks! |
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| Solid Gold Triple Six MT-2 |
| It seems with the resurgence of Death Metal
and the rise of Black Metal to the mainstream, more and more people are
trying to replicate the purely devilish tone of bands like Entombed, Carcass,
Morbid Angel, Celtic Frost and more recent bands like Arch Enemy, Pantera,
Zyklon and Shadows Fall. The MT-2 has always been a great pedal. It single-handedly
revolutionized the Heavy Metal pedal market with its mega sweepable EQ
options and insane gain levels. The pedal has always been weak in the volume/headroom
department. The transparency has also been a little lacking. With this
mod, Greg and I referenced the Celtic Frost “Monotheist”/Entombed “Clandestine”
era tones and brought forth a thicker, dare I say, more menacing gain while
maintaining clarity. Entombed’s guitar tones have always been legendary
in the Heavy Metal circles. I encourage anyone who hasn’t heard Entombed’s
Clandestine CD to run out and purchase it if anything for reference for
it’s sheer brutal yet crystal clear, natural sound. This mod is perhaps
our most dramatic mod out of the bunch and it brought back so many memories
of listening to Celtic Frost and Entombed at Friday night table hockey
games and discovering this truly killer and classic guitar sound. Horns
up on this one. |
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| Solid Gold Mr. Ed DS-1 Mod |
| The Boss DS-1 is the pedal that started
a revolution of high gain distortion pedals. This pedal has been the heart
of classic sounds like Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain on the Nevermind CD and Metallica’s
Kirk Hammett on their debut CD Kill ‘Em All. Traditionally, the pedal has
been said to not have much headroom and the gain has always been labeled
as wiry and spitty. We set out to push the envelope with this one. So many
people ask about the elusive brown sound that Eddie Van Halen gets. We
decided to concentrate on the more organic early tones like on the VH,
VH2, and Fair Warning CDs. The overall tone is less compressed and more
chunky. The overall gain is pulled back a touch to allow for more headroom
and “air”. It goes from a cranked Plexi to a juiced out JCM 800. The tone
control is more reactive. I had a blast running through my fave Van Halen
riffs with this one! |
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| Solid Gold Super Ed DS-2 Mod |
I have to be honest…I’ve never like this pedal,
period. Not one bit. I’ve often used mine as a door stop on windy summer
days when my windows are open at home. Greg not only transforms this pedal,
but he also performs alchemy on it. Gone are the brittle, cheesy and lifeless
distortion tones. This mod transforms this “ugly duckling” into a swan
. The gain is backed off to allow the pedal to breathe more and let more
tone flow through your signal chain. The EQ now actually attenuates the
mid frequencies much better. Dialing it down to about 10 O’clock, the faint
tones of early Van Halen could be heard. The best part is the boost mode.
Before, this boost mode had the same effect as sneezing in an elevator
with a killer case of the flu. With the mod, it’s transformed into a volume
boost with a subtle hint of gain and mid boost. Best of all it can be controlled
via a remote switch from the pedal. How cool is that?!!
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| Solid Gold Boss Saphire Blue SD-1 |
| The Boss SD-1 has been a cornerstone of the Boss pedal
line everyone from Andy Summers to Zakk Wylde has used one at some point
or another. I’ve always used one as a gain booster to “weaze” out the gain
channel one my Marshall JCM 800 and my VHT Pitbull. Historically, the bypass
has always been lacking and the tone when cranked a little brittle and
lifeless. Greg over at Solid Gold Soundlabs and I wanted to come up with
a tone that pushed up the headroom and made the overdrive sound more dynamic.
After the mod, the pedal has tons more usable volume and a tube-like dynamic.
It even has a little more crunch and bass response. The tones can vary
from a mild silky, smooth overdrive to a Rolling Stones/Black Crowes approved
crunch. |
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