small sound/Big Sound Team Awesome! Fuzz Machine

Awesome indeed! Finally got to plug this bad boy in tonight and hear what all the hype has been about. Let's just say in the short run that IT TOTALLY DOES LIVE UP TO THE HYPE! I like this pedal alot.

Construction: Super solid, no scratchy pots, the Grygryx (Author/Geek: Bassfuzz.com) "shake test" proves positive. No concerns about this pedal lasting for the next decade (or two). As I said above, I like the fact that the knobs were not super duper loose. One thing that I have noticed about my Pickle Pie B is that the knobs like to turn if I am not careful with my feet.

Customer Service: Brian is a super cool guy, great with communication (via emails, IME) and always willing to help out if and when something goes wrong (from what I've heard).
Graphics: Minus the blips that are really minor in my opinion, I love the newish incarnation of the graphics on the TAFM. I like them way better than the older (1st generation) graphics. Way to go.

TONEZ: Alright, so I don't have the means (yet ) to record sound clips, but I feel like TheMutt's sound clips really do this pedal some justice. The setting in the picture above is probably my favorite setting, a grindy fuzz that has some balls a-la clean blend grind.

Ok, I'm a stickler for a clean blend and I really liked the way that the clean blend sounded on this pedal, not crystal clear exactly-the-way-my-tone-is-thankyouverymuch, but with some grit and grind (or more depending on the settings). Balls. That's the only word for it.

Compared to my Pickle Pie B, which I have set for DOOM, there are some noticeable differences. I could definitely get some of the same doom-y tonez out of the TAFM, but they were much less like a big Muff IMO. There were some great muff tonez to be had in the TAFM, but I felt its forte was better suited elsewhere. It was harder to make the PPB get the grindy, ballsy fuzz tonez that I liked out of the TAFM without putting my GeminiDrive in front of it. That pedal's clean blend is definitely just that - a clean blend.

All that said, I really liked the TAFM, and I really like the fact that it won't run on batteries....which are evil.

Another plus was that I was able to cop a similar grindy ballsy tone (like the one pictured) on my Gnomeratron VTF (review / shootout to come) which was a pleasant surprise.

Here it is on my (old) pedal board:

Xotic AC Booster (guitar)

First review on the guitar side for MotherTone is the Xotic AC Booster.  If you're not familiar with any of the offerings from Xotic, you need to find your closest dealer and try them out as soon as possible.  They make EXCELLENT stuff.

The Xotic AC or "Almost Clean" booster is a true bypass boost pedal with on-board active EQ.  There's four knobs - Gain, Volume, Treble and Bass.  You can add or cut bass, as well as treble, which allows the pedal to mate with many different guitar and amp combinations.  When the treble or bass knob is at 12 o'clock they're at neutral.  Turning them counter clockwise cuts treble or bass frequencies while turning them past 12 o'clock adds the frequencies.   

The Beauty of the Xotic AC Booster is its ability to fatten up your signal while retaining the character of your guitar and amp.  It very slightly bumps the low mids which is extremely pleasing to the ear.  Its quite similar to a tube screamer or boss SD-1, but where the Xotic outshines those pedals is in the EQ department.  Some pedals like the tube screamer will suck your low end out just by nature of their circuit.  Its not something you can dial out or compensate for with the amp.  The Xotic AC not only remains transparent but allows you tweak the EQ if you want to enhance the lower or upper frequencies of your guitar.  The result is some serious tone.  It makes your tube amp richer, bigger, and more dynamic.  Personally I use it with my Strat through a Fender Twin Reverb or Marshall Super Lead Plexi to make the Strat sound like a semi hollowbody guitar with humbuckers.  It makes the Strat sound twice as big, and allows it to do a good impersonation of a gibson es-335.  I should note I have actually tried this pedal with an es-335 and I didn't care for it.  It was almost too much signal and made the notes clip a little too much for my preference.  It truly shines with lower output pickups like in a Strat when you need to thicken them up. It will seriously doctor up your clean tone, or when used in conjunction with a distortion pedal it will push the signal over the top for endless sustain.

Fit and finish on the pedal is top notch.  The knob feel is smooth, the switch is heavy duty, and the input jacks have a solid click when you put the cables in.  The LED lights up red and is easily seen.  If you're looking for a pedal that will fatten your signal to make your guitar sound larger, especially for strat players, this pedal does the job excellently.  It should be noted that prior to owning the AC, I had Xotic's RC or "Really Clean" booster.  This version was the same layout but super transparent; it made whatever sound you were getting just louder.  I wanted something that would enhance and almost color the tone very slightly, yet retain the true character of my amps and guitar.  I stepped up to the AC and it did the job.  Currently its one of those "always on" pedals for me.  I feel slightly naked without it - yes its THAT good.  For those of you that want a heavier crunch look into Xotic's BB pedal.    Try them all kids! Excellent products.

-Rob

First DOUBLE review!!

First off I just want to say that I really dug the level of customer service and attainability that Matt over at W&C provides. Both pedals came with W&C pics and nice letters from Matt.

Wren and Cuff Pickle Pie B #157

Construction:
-->Definitely top notch. I'm not a pedal expert or anything, but you can tell that the box is strong stuff. Everything is neatly soldered an well organized inside the box. 

Sound:
-->Starting with the blend knob in the full "wet" position (as the manual suggests) you get a thick layer of awesome-ness over your sound. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it is definitely a beefy fuzz. The shape knob will take the character of the fuzz from muffled "traditional" fuzz tones to snarling raspy fuzz. This is really interactive with the blend knob. Using the two knobs together will give you the ability to bring in the right amount of low end bite to the higher shape knob settings. I left it around the 9 o'clock position. Killer. Exactly what I've been looking for. 

One more thing. This is described in the manual, but I think that it'd be useful to post it here too. The blend and volume knobs are very interactive. As you bring the blend knob from wet to dry the sound of the fuzz tone will decrease proportionately to the amount that your clean signal is increasing. Got that? Think of it more like a clean volume control. When you bring in more clean signal, you can use the "volume" knob to bring back the fuzz .

This pedal sound great in all saturation settings. Just like the demo videos on you-tube show. And if you think that he is lying when he says that most fuzzes with a clean blend sound like the fuzz tone is sitting "on top" of the clean tone, you will hear the difference right away when you hear this pedal.

Graphics:
-->I like the new graphics better than the older, darker green graphics. Not that that really matters, but the paint job on my PPB was superb.



Wren & Cuff Phat Phuk #005

Construction:
-->Same as the PPB. Sturdy, and ready to take years of abuse 

Sound:
-->Definitely not a transparent "my-tone-but-louder" boost. Dynamically responsive, this thing is super rad. I found unity volume to be around the 11-11:30 mark with my set up. My favorite setting was between 1 and 2 o'clock. At this setting, there was a nice amount of ballsy break up (a.k.a. distortion ) when I dug in hard. Even when playing softly at the higher knob positions will yield a certain amount of hair. Dialing back your playing dynamics and/or using a volume pedal before this pedal will make a big difference on the outcome of your sound.

I used this pedal in front of my Electronix GeminiDrive v.2 and the Phat Phuk pushed it even harder for some killer tones.......no.....seriously.....killer.

I can't really describe this pedal more than that, but I definitely liked what I heard.

Graphics:
-->Matt from W&C sent me a letter along with my two pedals that said there had been a slight problem with the company that does the paint jobs (or whatever) for the Phat Phuk. There were some blemishes in the white paint on the top of the pedal that you can barely see in the pictures. The letter said that they sent the bulk of the enclosures back to the company, but he figured that I would probably rather get my pedal than to wait for the pristine enclosures to arrive. Needless to say he was right ! I don't really care about blems like that (the pedal gets stepped on remember?), but for fair warning, this might happen. He said that if the blemishes bothered me then I could send the pedal back to him and he would send me another as soon as the new enclosures get here. I'm keeping mine!


-Colin

Welcome!

Hello there and Welcome!

Have you ever found yourself lusting after gear but have no where to turn to find decent reviews?  Well look no further!

This site is run, updated and edited by Rob Basile (resident guitar nerd) and Colin Watts (resident bass junkie).  Feel free to send any question / comment / concern to either Rob or Colin to mothertonegear@gmail.com!

P.S. if you haven't already figured it out, we LOVE gear....have something lying around and want to share it with the world?  Feel free to send it to us and we will sonically abuse it and return it safely....maybe....unless it's rad.

-Colin