In the first part of this tour, I had the opportunity to check out the new MP Pedals, the DBD & LGW. Those reviews can be found in the "pedal profiles" section of this BJF website.
For this part of the tour, I got to demo the Fetto from Himmelstrutz, a booster from Ola Insulander, and an OD from Insulander.
All pedals were demoed using a David Thomas McNaught Vintage Singlecut with Rio Grande Texas BBQ Humbuckers (Les Paul-style). Amp is my Guytron GT100, using Channel A set for a mild break-up. Speaker is a THD 2x12. Did not get a chance to take these to band practice, so this was only done at home. I did, however, try them out both at "bedroom" volume and at "live" volume.
Himmelstrutz FETTO: The Fetto is an impressive design. It has DIP switches and trim pots inside for further tweaking, but I didn't touch any of them. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get it right back to "stock," and it's not my pedal to fiddle with...so I did not use any of the internal controls. The Fetto has three knobs, Volume, Tone, and Drive. I was astonished at how much gain this thing has on tap for something that I thought was going to be more of an OD than a Distortion.
I thought the Fetto sounded really good, but perhaps not best in my rig. While I did get some cool sounds from it, I feel like, when combined with the Guytron's inherent compression characteristics, it was a bit too much. I think it was one of those tones that would likely get lost in the mix onstage ... at least in my rig. The Fetto seems to be better suited for cleaner amps where the player is relying on the pedal for all or at least most of the OD tones. Since the Guytron does so much break-up on its own, it felt like the sound got a little too compressed, buzzy, and grainy. Backing off the drive and raising the volume did help alleviate some of this. I almost feel like I can't review this pedal fairly, as I don't believe it was designed for use with amps that already OD on their own. Unfortunately, the Guytron is my only amp, so I couldn't check it with anything cleaner or higher in headroom. Guytrons are notoriously pedal-fussy anyway. I've found very view OD's that sound really good with this amp.
The Fetto could likely benefit players who crave a big rock & roll tone, but are playing big amps with big headroom. The sound quality of the pedal is really good, and it is capable of creating that "stack / wall of sound" feeling many of us (like myself) absolutely crave. I think this pedal would smoke with a Fender or a Plexi-type amp for sure.
Ola Insulander Boost: This was one of the better clean boosts I've used. I really liked it because it had enough gain on tap to slam the front end of the Guytron into submission. I got very convincing, old school, nasty gain tones when I had this thing dimed. It has two knobs, one for gain, the other for an EQ of some sort. One thing about a lot of the clean boosts I've used is that if you are using it to take an amp on the edge right over the top (as I was), the wound strings on the neck pickup could get a bit farty-sounding. This EQ knob on the Insulander boost was like a "fart squelch," LOL. But seriously, I could dial it in to get just the right amount of brightness from the bridge pickup while decreasing fart on the neck pickup. Definite sweet spot. I believe many clean boosts out there could benefit from having this second knob. I really liked this pedal. Never heard of Ola Insulander before Donner started this Swedish Meatball Tourbox, but I'm glad I got to try some of his offerings. This was just a really nice pedal.
Ola Insulander Overdrive: This teal-colored vintage Donnerbox was the last part of the Meatball. This OD pedal had this lower-midrange thing happening that was just marvelous. Not as in-your-face as the LGW, but still plenty of gain and overall sound-shaping on tap. Three knobs, Volume, Tone, and Drive ... although nothing is actually labelled. The tone control was pretty subtle, but effective. Not too overbearing in the treble, not farty in the bass ... just right, I thought. The Guytron really liked this pedal a lot. I suspect, as with many of BJ's pedals, this one would do well either with a driven amp or with a clean amp. Due to the nature of the Guytron, I did find that I liked the sounds better with the volume set higher than the drive. I'd likely find the reverse to be true if I had a very clean or high-headroom amp. This is a very classic-sounding pedal. Touch sensitive and intense-sounding. It didn't get grainy in my rig like the Fetto did, either. I suspect this pedal would be a versatile option, and that players of many styles and amp choices could likely find regular use for it.
I don't know if Ola Insulander makes pedals any more. I don't know how old these ones are. I don't know if you can even get these. I don't really know anything about the builder, either, as his website is all in Swedish.
But I do know that his two pedals are some of the nicer ones I've gotten to try over the years. Very good stuff overall, IMO.
Bottom line is there is some really nice stuff in general coming out of Sweden these days. It's a great time to be a guitarist!!!
Well, that's it. Thanks again to Donner for allowing me to participate. I will be very interested to hear what other reviewers to come will have to say.
Humbly,
DocRock
