I love Aguilar stuff. I’ll be the first to admit it boarders on the unhealthy. This is one of the few companies that I literally want EVERYTHING that they make. Even if I obviously have no use for half of it at anyone time (doom rig anyone?). There is something about their approach to bass gear that just grabs me. Maybe it is the super clean lines, or their commitment to quality, but I love their stuff and I want to try it all. The Tone Hammer was my first introduction to Aguilar’s product line, even though it is oddly enough a pedal, not the high end bass amplification that Aguilar is known for.
From Aguilar:
This preamp/direct box is so strong and powerful it could only be called the "Tone Hammer"! Based on the respected OBP-3 preamp, the Tone Hammer features fully sweepable midrange frequencies in addition to bass and treble controls. With the Tone Hammer's pristine D.I. you are set for the studio or the stage.
CONSTRUCTION:
This pedal is housed in a heavy duty steel enclosure that is near bullet proof. The knobs are solid and the switching is true bypass. Having said that, you must keep in mind that this was Aguilar’s first foray into the world of effects, and like all first steps, they aren’t always perfect. Dave Boonshoft (president of Aguilar) caught some heavy flak from pedal heads for the design of this pedal. As you can see, in the photo below the enclosure of the pedal sticks out over the edge of the input and output jacks, seemingly in an effort to protect them (maybe?).
The problem is that if the pedal is lying flat on a normal pedal board, you are only able to use straight 1/4” jacks or cables to plug in and out of the Tone Hammer, robbing you of valuable pedal board space if you don’t have a slotted pedal board like the pedaltrain pedal boards. Once solution I have seen is to use a dremmel drill or similar minute grinding tool to cut away part of the steel enclosure to allow access to the input and output jacks by right-angled plugs.
Another design quirk that comes along with this pedal is that the knob that holds the battery drawer (neat, BTW) in place is located on the bottom of the pedal, which makes mounting the Tone Hammer onto pedal boards without the (huge) rubber feet nigh on impossible. Two solutions: either use a pedaltrain style board with slats or put a rubber pad on either side of the battery knob to help raise the pedal up off the ground. Luckily for us, I believe that Aguilar started sending pads such as these to help with pedal board mounting.
Lastly, some of these pedals left the production line with a slight grounding problem that introduces a hum into the signal chain that is similar to a 60-cycle hum or a ground loop hum that can’t really be avoided (even with the use of the ground / lift switch, because it is not a DI problem). Good thing that Aguilar’s customer service is TOP NOTCH and they will take care of you in a hear beat if you send the pedal back to them.
CONTROLZ:
The controls are pretty self-explanatory. There are six knobs and two switches. The left foot switch, labeled “Engage” is the master bypass switch for the pedal. The second switch, labeled “AGS” toggles the “Adaptive Gain Shaping” circuitry on and off (more on that later). The Tone Hammer features a three band EQ with Treble (+/- 18 dB @ 4 kHz), Bass (+/- 18 dB @ 40 Hz) and Mid controls, as well as a Mid frequency sweep from 180 Hz to 1 kHz.
There are also two mini switches next to the balanced XLR DI output that include a Gound / Lift switch and a Pre / Post EQ switch, which will toggle between sending your signal to the DI before or after the EQ circuitry.
TONE(z):
Let’s dive right in. This pedal sounds terrific. Really versatile and POWERFUL equalization; be ready for that. You can really get some terrific sounding tones out of this box and there are few (if any) dead spots in the circuit that produce less-than-desirable tones.
Just like the OBP-3 preamp for which it was based on, the bass knob on this pedal is very powerful and will give you a ton of low end if you aren’t careful. In some ways I think that the boosted low end has more of a useful musicality to it than the OBP-3. A more useful range if that makes any sense. I actually liked this pedal so much that I got an OBP-3 installed in my SR506. It was always on anyway, so why not? P.S. It makes my bass sound KILLER.
I really like the way that you can shape your sound into almost any tone when going direct or with an additional preamp. Slap, finger funk, clean solid-state clarity, it is all in there.
Then there is the dirt. The AGS side of the pedal is something that I think is fairly unique to this design. It isn’t necessarily like having two pedals in one box. Even though you have access to both “pedals” in the Tone Hammer, you aren’t able to switch from one to the other on the fly as easy as you’d think.
The reason behind this has to do with the way that the AGS circuitry effects your signal and brings in the dirt. The AGS circuitry is actually an integral part of the original equalization circuitry and isn’t really like “another pedal” at all. It based on the settings of the gain knob, the AGS boosts or cuts specific EQ curves that change as the knob is increased (if I remember correctly).
Right. So what does that mean? Basically the idea behind this pedal is to be more of a tone shaping machine in the studio. It’s not that it can’t be used live, but the feature set of this pedal I feel is more for use as a preamp in the studio, and not as an on/off part of your pedal board.
Anyways, the overdrive sounds coming out of the AGS are particularly warm, and are very touch sensitive, meaning that the signal breaks up more the harder you play. You can get some snarl out of this pedal with the right EQ settings, but it won’t get as much of a snarl as Aguilar’s AGRO pedal or rack overdrive (reviews coming soon!). This pedal provides a really awesome, warm and thick overdrive sound that sits well in the mix.
All in all this is a fantastic pedal. Even with some of it's quirks in the design, I think that it is an amazing piece of equipment. Unfortunately I traded mine for an AGRO, but luckily for all of us, Aguilar recently did the unthinkable. They took the idea behind the Tone Hammer and put a 500 watt power section behind it, creating the Tone Hammer 500, a 4 pound 500 watt monster. They put all of the Tone Hammer into this single channel unit and gave it a DRIVE knob to help control the idea behind the AGS circuit. DO WANT.
Be sure to check out the Tone Hammer on Aguilar's website
And don't forget about CLIPS!
-Colin (mothertonegear@gmail.com)
P.S. I just found this sweet look into Aguilar's production and history:
http://www.aguilaramp.com/pdf/news_reviews_aguilartour_bp022004.pdf
P.S. I just found this sweet look into Aguilar's production and history:
http://www.aguilaramp.com/pdf/news_reviews_aguilartour_bp022004.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment