DocRock wrote:Realfi wrote:DocRock wrote:Fair enough, Realfi. Thank you for your honest impressions. As has been said before, one of the purposes of the Customshop stuff is research and development for future BJF models. Honest feedback (good and not-so-good) is essential to this end. I, for one, appreciate your level of detail. Useful feedback always has context, as opposed to "I liked it" or "it sucked," etc. WHY is what is so important. Thanks for your input.
Doc
No worries Doc.
I would hate anyone to read my comments as being negative about the SYOD-It's all about use and matching with styles/amps.
The SYOD is a very good overdrive with BJ's typical touch reponse, individual character and ampish tone. The SYOD actually
does develop good bass with the gain upped (but I'm a low gain guy) and that sparkle and presence would work really well for certain amps.
I think the SYOD would be really good for someone who needs a sparkley drive with nice cut and a pretty solid amount of gain without a lot of compression.
Oh yeah, right on...I wasn't saying that your comments were negative--I was just speaking in general. I do agree that these various models can't and shouldn't be all things to all people...that's why BJ offers so many choices.
But I do think it's useful to discuss how it could work well with one particular set-up, but then maybe not as much so with another. Again, context being the whole key here. How well does the gear / system as a whole measure up when compared to the sound that first existed in the head of the player using it, etc.
No, I didn't think you were being negative at all. It's actually nice to hear WHY something would work (or perhaps not work as well) in a given setting...instead of a lot of the blanket "pedal worship" that you see on so many forums. When everything is always great all the time, without context, then that's just not reality...and that type of sentiment provides no useful R & D feedback IMO.
The Model R is a perfect example of a great pedal with the right set-up; wrong set-up, not-so-good. Though I do believe the SYOD would do better in more situations than the R, as it's not as picky...but you get my point.
Anyway, carry on, gents....
Doc
Good thoughts here Doc! Your post got me thinking. I am probably guilty of blanket BJF love and will try to provide more useful feedback. In all honesty, I don't have a bad thing to say about any of the custom shop stuff, I'll just have to work on providing more "why I like it" info.
Anyway, the topic got me thinking though, and I think there are some things that inherently bias this research effort, such as:
- We're all BJF loyalists/lovers who are already positively biased toward liking BJ's work. We'd likely here much different feedback from people who never heard of BJF, or at least weren't so passionately supportive of BJ's pedals.
- Having the opportunity to review a pedal is a special, celebrated event...we have a drawing...if you're like me, you check the forum 18 times an hr to see who won, etc.
- We invest heavily ($444 per pedal), so that also brings some bias into the picture...nobody wants to detract from something they spent significant cash on ---- either from a "I want to feel good about my purchase" aspect or from a "I want to sell this pedal so I can't say too many negative things" aspect
- The comments are public.....the first few comments tend to serve as an anchor/reference point...in addition, some people may not want to publically disagree with another poster or struggle with how to do so tactfully so avoidance sets in o---- for any number of reasons....if things were private or even anonymous, we'd likely get a less biased take on things
- The pedals are very visually appealing --- if we wanted unbiased feedback about how the pedal sounds, it might be better to send out plain gray boxes....how the pedal is named, painted, and the overall concept influences people's reactions (otherwise how could so many tubescreamers be out there)
Anyway, I know there are a whole host of benefits to doing it the current way, so short of changing the items mentioned above we may be able to improve the process by providing some sort of evaluation template that forces us to get beyond the initial "I love it" reaction.
Here's a example:
I.
Your gear - here's where you tell what you played through
II.
Your circumstances - here's where you tell where you played it, under what conditions, and for how long
III.
General thoughts - Here's where you can tell us you loved it/hated it, etc....whatever random thoughts you want to provide (i.e. your opinion)
IV.
Evaluation of functionality - Here's where you provide feedback about each aspect of the pedal --- for instance, the drive, the nature, the volume....feedback about range, interactivity, dynamics, etc
V
Stacking - Did you stack it? With what? How'd it go?
VI
Comparisons to other BJF pedals / other popular pedals (how does it fit in with the rest of the line...is it different enough, etc)
VII
What situations / kind of music can you see using the pedal for?
VII
Suggested improvements
VIII
Bottom line --- rate the pedal on a scale of 1 to 10...is it a keeper? What does it knock off your board?
Just some ideas.
In anycase, this is fun stuff and I'm glad to be part of the community with you guys!
