Sleepers, favorite unknown gear?

[Rodgre]

Re: Hot Foot - There was talk that Heath at Boston Guitar Works in Brockton, MA was planning on making reissues of this, but that was five years ago and no one has seen them. Someone NEEDS to make a RI of this. How hard can it be? Some bike brake cable and a wah pedal case.... someone must be able to machine the parts to make one.

Re: Fender Lead 2  -  I've collected Lead series guitars for years. It was my first "real" guitar and I love them. I love the Lead 1's humbucker as well.

My faves are the Ibanez Delay Champ, the Vox Valve Tone, the Korg SDD-2000 delay, the Univox Fazer, the Kay Tremolo, the Kay Fuzz, the Airwindows Royal Blue overdrive, the DOD 670 Flanger, the E-H Attack Decay and the Roland RE-501 chorus echo.

Roger

[B Tremblay]

I've heard it thru the grapevine that the Arion Phaser...

Is it the Arion Stereo Phaser?  Musician's Friend has them for 17.99!

[RickL]

I tried several years ago to build a Hotfoot clone without much success. I used a volume pedal and a short speedometer cable as the basic building blocks but ran into three main problems: 1 - the volume pedal won't turn even it's own pot through a complete rotation; 2 - the hysteresis in the cable (you need to tighten the cable up each direction before it starts to actually turn the pot), and; 3 - connecting the cable to both the volume pedal pot and the pot of the pedal I wanted to control. I ended up using plastic tubing that I force fit over the cable ends and the shafts of the pots but I had hysteresis problems with that too.

I did get it working to some extent, but the most rotation I was able to get out of the pot was about 1/3 of a turn, not real useful. I also had the problem that Mark mentioned at one time of needing to secure the controlled pedal really well or the action of the Hotfoot would move the whole pedal instead of just the pot.

If anyone gets one working with better results I'd definately be interested. Mine's still sitting on a shelf waiting for improvements.

[Exactopposite]

I've heard it thru the grapevine that the Arion Phaser...

Is it the Arion Stereo Phaser?  Musician's Friend has them for 17.99!

why yes, yes it is. those things sound great. the only downside is the plastic casing, but it cna always be put into another case.

[Jason D]

Aron, the model number of the Korg Delay is the 301dl Dynamic Echo.
Yes, it is a very cool delay, a lot of variety.

I am going to put one up for sale this week on eBay if anyone is interested. I want to build my own Rebote 2 dealy.

-Jason D

Woah, someone pick this up. It's a really fun delay, but it can be serious too. If I had to pick, I would use my Memory Man, but the Korg made me go out and buy it!

I had a great time with it and an old Blackface Fender + 1X12 Celestion cab.

Just put the Korg Dynamic Echo up for sell on EBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3705276003

Also you can see my homemade pedals in the background, everything else I have is homemade, except for the Korg. Check it out.

[B Tremblay]

why yes, yes it is. those things sound great.

Great!  I just ordered one.

[Exactopposite]

why yes, yes it is. those things sound great.

Great!  I just ordered one.

yeah i'm ordering one on friday. i have a friend who has had one of those things for years, and i had been trying to get it from him because it was the only one i had seen. i recentlly saw it in musicians friend (how had i not seen it all this time) and saw the price  :shock:  i had to call him to make sure it was the same thing. it is.

[Ge_Whiz]

Ah've said it before, but... Burns guitars (especially the 'Marquee') and HH amplifiers.

Also, buy a Kramer Focus VT111 from MusicYo for $70 and heavily customise it. Take a saw to it and change the body and head shape. Stick a humbucker at the bridge. Wire it up with the Dan Armstrong 'superstrat' switching scheme. Then plug it into your HH amp and have all your impoverished Fender-groupie friends drop their jaws and ask, "How much did you pay for that? Where can I get one?"  

[aron]

Couple of known gems in there:

Arion Chorus - YEP, studio guys know about this.

Vox valve tone - YES! What a great sounding tube screamer.

As usual, with the Arion chorus - supposedly only the ones from Japan are good etc.. etc...

[sfr]

Wow.  Had no clue about the Hotfoot until reading this thread.  Still not entirely clear on how it works, at least from a mechanical aspect, but I understand what it does.  tell you what though, if somebody started re-issuing these, I'd buy, like, four of them.  Hella easier than modding my factory pedals for expression input, and one less thing to worry about when building a DIY box that yr not certain you want the extra ability.

[brett]

Not really a sleeper, and heresy to some folk, but I think the Marshall BluesBreaker is the best OD pedal out there (best I've tried, anyway).  In my opinion, they are susbstantially in front of the Tubescreamers.

For a fuzz, I haven't found anything commercial or homemade that gets near my Miss Piggy.

[Tony Forestiere]

Gibson's answer to the Edsel!
Bought one in '77 from a Gibson dealer when I was young. Parted with $360 of Busboy tips and hourly wages. Shipped from Memphis stock Rock Maple finish! After settting truss rod, intonation, replacing the "Deluxe" pegs with Schallers, and stringing with .009 Markley's, this beast has been my "keeper" for almost 30 years... The finish has grown to a honey patina, frets are worn to my bending habits, and the neck finish is "soft to the touch" in all of my "favorite spots".

GOTTA be a Sleeper!

Regards,
Tony

[tonepoet]

Aron, the model number of the Korg Delay is the 301dl Dynamic Echo.
Yes, it is a very cool delay, a lot of variety.

I am going to put one up for sale this week on eBay if anyone is interested. I want to build my own Rebote 2 dealy.

-Jason D

I've used on of these for about 3 years on my pedal board and no problems. Great unit although some people complain about excessive noise. Mine has no problems.

Beside that effects, I like the Ibanez DML10, which is a 10 series modulation/delay. I don't care for the modulation part of it (too freaky), the delay part of the pedal is great!

[Exactopposite]

why yes, yes it is. those things sound great.

Great!  I just ordered one.

has it arrived yet? if so what do u think of it?

i just ordered one myself.

[B Tremblay]

has it arrived yet? if so what do u think of it?

It's scheduled to be delivered today - I should have it within a couple hours.

[Doug H]

Couple of known gems in there:

Arion Chorus - YEP, studio guys know about this.

As usual, with the Arion chorus - supposedly only the ones from Japan are good etc.. etc...

I've got one of those in my junk box. I always thought it was kind of noisy, maybe it's not the "real deal". I'll give it a try again.


(later edit):

Okay, now I'm curious. Read a lot of glowing reviews, esp about the excellent hi-freq response. That is one thing I remember about it, it had a real nice hi-freq response. But I was getting burned out on chorus back when it was given to me... (Burned out on my noisy DOD 565 mainly...)But lots of reviews claim it does an excellent leslie sim, so I'm excited to try it again. Not sure if I have the SCH-Z or SCH-1, I got it about 12-15 yrs ago. Some claim the "1" is the "one" to have, others claim there is no difference- go figure...

This is fun- maybe I've had a gem all along and didn't realize it!;-)

Doug

[B Tremblay]

what do u think of it?

First off, I like the top loading battery.  The downside is that the door could pop off and be lost.

When engaged, there is a volume boost.  The Rate control has a nice range, from long sweep to stutter.  At minimum Depth, the effect seems to be cancelled.  At higher Resonance settings, the volume is boosted a bit further, almost distorting.  I think that with careful placement of the Depth and Resonance, this won't be a problem.

I haven't tried the Stereo output yet.

Overall, I'm happy with it and it seems to be a good value for less than $20 (US).

[petemoore]

Partially because they are inexpensive and I misnomered that with Cheep.
 I tried them at music shops a few times [you know how that dosn't tell you much sometimes], and at jamms with really cheep equipment like stereo speakers replacing the Gorilla combo's 8' speaker.'.
 Ppl might have heard me may they're junk.
 Could be they get a bad rap like that, BEcause they're inexpensive, and end up in setups that are less than impressive...hence the possible influence on their reputation as being 'junk'.
 Not many Ppl get to sample a one company's full line of effects against another company's full line...most of the time it could be a random comparison say an Arion  TS Vs Dist + type...which leads to 'this one doesn't distort as hard [sounds weak in comparison] so I like this other one better" reviews.
 I think price and Image fairly often get mixed up with pure function in pedal reviews. Pure A/b testing, I think I could now do better analysis than I could 'before' of Arion pedals. Pure Blind A/bing I think would produce similar results...it would be an interesting test between A/B testing and then Blind A/B Testing...of course we're all coniaseurres here so they would be the same...lol...
 If I ever get a chance I'd like to try that to see just how much of a 'coniassuer' I really am.
 I CAN Always tell the difference Blindfolded between Pepsi Cola  and Coca Cola...I think they still sell those great tasting 6 oz. Bolltes of Coke...

[Doug H]

Well I checked in my junk box and I do have the Arion chorus, SCH-1 model (supposedly the "good one"). I plugged it in and tried it out and it is indeed nice. It is -very- quiet, esp when compared to my DOD 565. I got burned out on chorus a long time ago but this has a pleasant sound I think I can use. First, it reminds me a little of a flanger, maybe it's the analog nature of it or something. Second, the tone control makes it totally compatible with other pedals and different amp setups. That is a real nice feature. Third, it really does a nice fast rate leslie sound. I read a review where someone mentioned they A/B'ed it with a Fender Vibrotone and couldn't tell the difference. Hmmm... I don't know about *that*, but I was able to easily nail a lot of those SRV vibro-sounds with it, moreso than my other chorus or flanger ever could. I plugged through my Hwy89 into it and by turning my guitar down I got really nice clean chimey wispy low-rate tones, and with the rate cranked up it was SRV-land. Turning up the guitar gave me smooth distortion which the chorus really expanded and added to. My other chorus sounded slightly freakish used like this, but the Arion handles distortion tones well without sounding "plastic". The depth control works real well for helping it with that. With distortion, cranking the depth a little gives more of a "bridge of sighs" vibe tone, like my other chorus does.

Anyway, not bad for plastic hunk-o-junk someone gave me 15 yrs ago.;-)

This is definitely a "sleeper".

Doug

[Exactopposite]

Well I checked in my junk box and I do have the Arion chorus, SCH-1 model (supposedly the "good one"). I plugged it in and tried it out and it is indeed nice. It is -very- quiet, esp when compared to my DOD 565. I got burned out on chorus a long time ago but this has a pleasant sound I think I can use. First, it reminds me a little of a flanger, maybe it's the analog nature of it or something. Second, the tone control makes it totally compatible with other pedals and different amp setups. That is a real nice feature. Third, it really does a nice fast rate leslie sound. I read a review where someone mentioned they A/B'ed it with a Fender Vibrotone and couldn't tell the difference. Hmmm... I don't know about *that*, but I was able to easily nail a lot of those SRV vibro-sounds with it, moreso than my other chorus or flanger ever could. I plugged through my Hwy89 into it and by turning my guitar down I got really nice clean chimey wispy low-rate tones, and with the rate cranked up it was SRV-land. Turning up the guitar gave me smooth distortion which the chorus really expanded and added to. My other chorus sounded slightly freakish used like this, but the Arion handles distortion tones well without sounding "plastic". The depth control works real well for helping it with that. With distortion, cranking the depth a little gives more of a "bridge of sighs" vibe tone, like my other chorus does.

Anyway, not bad for plastic hunk-o-junk someone gave me 15 yrs ago.;-)

This is definitely a "sleeper".

Doug

thanx for the review. i think i'll be getting one of those too. i have never used one of their chorus pedals. for $20 it's worth a try. i can't find them locally to try them out.