BJFE Tourbox 10/08 (SYOD/CAF/CH/EGDM/MH/SWF)

[NewarkWilder]

awesome review!!

[Donner]

excellent lefte !!!

as t he EGDM was too bright for your rig - there is an internal trimpot just for this reason .... take the back off, its near the edge of the circuit pouch .....

[lefte118]

the tour box is moving again... i shipped everything to thiscall this morning.

[thiscalltoarms]

Received the box today- here's my schedule to try it out:

Thursday (tonight)- Practice with my normal band and writing a new tune.
Sunday Morning- Church service (I'll put a few of them on stage in front of my board)
Sunday Night- Practice with my band for Gordon College's Chapel Services
Monday Night- Practice with my normal band and finishing tonight's tune (hopefully)
Tuesday Night- Gordon College Chapel gig- should be between 900-1400 people to try them out for

And then I'll send them out around this time next week. So I'd say I'll be giving them a good run. Wish I could try them at FULL STAGE volume, but next really huge show isn't for a few weeks- its just little stuff, but alot of medium volume/practice volume should give a good indication.

Might be in the studio some next week as well, if we make it in, I'll try to post samples, but thats kinda dependent on our work schedules.

I'll try to get my first reviews up tomorrow...

[Donner]

very cool and it will great to hear how they travel between situations....thanks !!

[thiscalltoarms]

my preliminary reviews after using them at practice along with my regular board tonight. tonight's board went:
G&L ASAT & (occasionally) a Gibson SG-> CAF/SWF/CH/Model H/Budwah/FGC/PitchBlack/EGDM/Eternity/Zendrive/MRD/HBOD/Timmy/SYOD/SBEQ into amp
in the loop: EB Volume/CE2/TC Elec Nova Delay /Echo Park/DD5/DL4/CarbonCopy/DE7 into Budda SDII18watt 1x12 combo.

Cliff Hanger- First one I plugged in and cranked WIDE OPEN. Its got tons of volume on tap and the taper of the tone to distortion is pretty good- I would have liked more bass at times, but it’s a pretty solid taper. More bass at the higher settings would probably make me more interested- and that through a fairly dark amp. I expected a lot more gain than it had on tap which was a bit disappointing to me at first, but it grew on me a bit- it does sound very anger because its not ever SUPER compressed- its still jagged at the extreme. Sounds good, but I think I prefer the gain on my Budda Superdrive II. Could be better in some other applications though.

Model H- smooth, good sustain, not particularly bright, more rounded. I have to admit I’ve never cranked a hiwatt- but I have enjoyed hiwatt cleans- I didn’t find low gain tones that particularly interesting. I honestly didn’t find myself using it too much, but I play in an ambient / experimental post-rock band. I found myself using it in a similar way to my Zendrive, and found it better than my Zendrive with my Tele. Didn’t try it with my SG though. Uses in my normal band- not really sure, maybe just for smooth mid gain lead tones- same way I use my Zendrive typically. It will take more time to see how this one would fit with my playing.

CAF- Mean, evil, twisted, but oh so good. Sounds sweet with my SG but kinda meh with my ASAT- the lower octave becomes more pronounced at with a humbucker input? It actually wasn’t as mean as I wanted it to be with my ASAT. Uses in my normal band- with the Octave tones I could use it for solo’s in more experimental tunes- but probably only once or twice per set. Could be more useful in my band for my College Chapel’s (even more experimental- we play 300 year old hymns using ultra delayed post-rock guitar and two synth players- super layered and ambient stuff).

Snow White Fuzz- this baby is mine and I still love it. A balanced tone machine with balls but also a superb ability to articulate leads and melodies. I use it mostly for radiohead style speed picked leads in between verses with my bands, but I’ve used it in cover bands for many types of vintage fuzz sounds. Completely usable, everything you need, nothing you don’t. I never turn the tone below 10oclock though. My amp is really to dark for it to go below noon on the tone knob. Sounds great though…

EGDM- sounds awesome for chords- nice and full and great for distortion and powerchords- I think I prefer this over the Cliff Hanger for powerchords even. My Budda is pretty dark, it probably needs a tweaking on the internal trimmer, and the compression on this baby made me more interested in using it for chords. I’m interested to know what the trimmer does, but I don’t want to mess with it, since its not mine Anyways, I wish it was a bit lighter on the compression and I don’t need as much gain in general, basically what I have been looking for is a…

SYOD- this is what I am always trying to dial my Timmy in for- crisp clear and bright enough to breathe life into my Budda. I have the tone between noon to full the whole time, gorgeous tones. I cranked the gain for a while with great results that didn’t fatigue my ear and sounds extremely clear but not brittle like my Timmy can be at times. But my ideal tone was actually dialing the gain back to around 1:30oclock and using it as a “Sparkle drive” to help me cut through over my rhythm guitarist’s vox. AWESOME TONES, exactly what I am looking for. Oh man, I can’t even get over it… high light of my night for sure. I used it a ton.

We’ll see how all these do with my SG, I mostly used my ASAT tonight, but I will use my SG next Monday/Tuesday and my Orange next week (Wednesday/thursday) when I am prepping for recording or recording. I’ll try to write another after each gig/practice I try them in... enjoy

[seans]

Another great review, thank you.

[Donner]

great reviews!!!

yeah the SYOD and CAF have good clear topends that are refreshing into a dark amp...

the Trimmer on the EGDM is for just that - and you probably would want to turn it up - its a treble trimmer.... the controls are non standard as in the drive control also effects t he compression level and the 'tone' knob adjusts more than the treble....
think of what happens to a Vox amp as it is turned up - this is what is emulated in those two controls start with both to the left and its clean and bright and as you turn them up it adds distortion and compression and treble rolloff and bass 'flub' ~ so you will likely want to keep those two in about the same position to start and then adjust for your rig........... I think thats why this pedal is often misunderstood as the controls are a bit 'unique' and also since there are a number of them popping on the used market at good prices you might want to check that one out a bit more and tweek the trimmer......


try the CAF in its octave spot and then roll off the fuzz control and run that into an overdrive or even before/after your SWF.... lotsa fun sounds to be had with a little experimentation

[Bobby D]

this is SUCH a cool effects community.

after reading most of the entire site over a few days, i am really blown away by the level and type of interaction that Bjorn and Donner have with the community.

many pedalmakers I know just make them and ship them, and don't really care all that much what happens to the pedals afterwards.

the traveling pedal box is a GREAT idea!

i am going to make some donner-style vid clips with my pedals soon, and post them on youtube and here as well.

and i am drooling at the thought of my very own Dyna Red...i think that might be my ultimate high-gain box on my board.

and from all i have heard and read about the CAF -- i think that will have a home as well.

hopefully i can contribute my own input to the forum soon. carry on!

[Bobby D]

Could be more useful in my band for my College Chapel’s (even more experimental- we play 300 year old hymns using ultra delayed post-rock guitar and two synth players- super layered and ambient stuff).

THIS is one of the coolest projects I have heard spoken of in quite a while. Got any soundclips of that????

go bravely into the unknown, man......I love it!!!