First just let me say I am sorry, but this isn’t the shipment with the Carpe Diems, that one will hopefully be here in the next day or two. What this one is, is a batch of ding and dent pedals that I requested so I could review them for you guys so you could see some of the other wonderful pedals available from Fire Custon Shop.
Reviews of each pedal will go up in the next couple of days so check back for more. But until then, here are some shots of the unboxing.
When I first pulled The Dude out of the box I was immediately hit by the weight and solidity of it. I’m not sure what they have in there (a block of lead maybe?) but this little pedal is heavy. The controls are a bit different then what you may used to be seeing, they are Treble, Deep, Level and Ratio. Treble and level are pretty self explanatory, though you may be a bit surprised by how much volume this pedal puts out so you may need to run the level a bit lower than you’re used to. The appropriately named deep control is a very low bass boost cut that is excellent for adding some thickness to thinner sounding single coil pickups such as those on a stratocaster. Last but not least is the ratio control which mixes the distorted signal in with a clean direct through signal, giving you great articulation and attack transient even at the higher settings.
The Dude is J Rockett’s take on a Dumble-esque pedal that can go from clean boost all the way through high gain, but with a very smooth thick character that is reminiscent of a boosted Overdrive Special. As hinted to above, this pedal really excels at giving single coils some girth, and I especially like it at lower gain settings where it gives some creamy grind to the sound but lets the clean signal ring loud and clear, preserving my much beloved guitar straight to amp sound.
The Dude by J Rockett Audio Designs is an awesome pedal full of great tone for all guitars and amps in a reassuringly well built attractive enclosure. There’s a lot to like, and nothing to dislike, even the price is completely reasonable at $199 new on the street so I highly recommend you give The Dude a try.
Probably like you, I saw this incredible pedal on the YouTube show That Pedal Show and I knew I had to have one. I spent a lot of time looking around the web trying to find one for sale but had no luck so I took the next step and had my Brazilian friend help me contact the company directly. After some time and a lot of communication, I am proud to say that I am now working with them and have my first order of pedals coming near the end of the month (Sept ’16). In the order are a variety of pedals, include the awesome Bobber Wah used by Richie Kotzen, but primarily a good stock of Carpe Diems.
I am opening up a pre-order for 10 of the Carpe Diems at 10% off, 5 here direct from my site (sold through my online store System 1:10) and 5 on Reverb.com. Delivery on these pedals will be the day after I receive the stock of pedals, due near the end of the month or beginning of October.
Check back here for updates on delivery time and additional pedals for sale.
UPDATE: Pedals are all sold out and no more will be coming in. Thanks to all of you who ordered a pedal.
A definitive “Marshall-in-a-box” pedal from JHS that faithfully recreates the sounds of the JCM800, the Angry Charlie has been a staple in the high gain arena for a while now. In its latest incarnation JHS has added a full Marshall tone stack with Bass, Mid and Treble controls that both cut and boost. Turn down the mids and bask in the joy that is 80’s scooped metal, boost it up and enjoy more classic rock sounds full of mid driven sustain. All of the controls here are powerful enough to get a good variety of tones, as well as voiced in just the right sweet spots so that just about any setting sounds good.
There’s not much else to say about the latest JHS Angry Charlie, it cleans up well but is all about the high gain. Plug it in, turn it up and enjoy.
The JHS Morning Glory is a low to medium gain pedal based on the Marshall Bluesbreaker, giving it a clear, smooth style that works great for both rhythm and lead playing. Version 4 has some reworked controls as well as the additional port to connect a Red Switch allowing you to switch between the gain settings using your foot during a live set. The difference in gain is not huge, so this isn’t going to give you the big step up an additional pedal or boost would provide, but more of a compressed thicker sound that is just enough to smooth out your tone when you don’t need the clarity and attack of the lower gain setting.
As you turn the gain up the Morning Glory provides a thick, smooth gain layer that retains a lot of your guitars original character. Meant to be a “transparent” overdrive, it accomplishes that character retention quite well up into the higher levels of compression.
All in all a great contender in the field of “transparent” overdrive pedals and with the newly added Red Switch functionality, a very nice tool to have on your board. JHS continue to put out some good products that capture some of the magic of the various vintage pedals they are based on, but with modern technological and function improvements that players demand these days. Gone are the days of diming the volume pot on a Mk1 Bluesbreaker pedal just to reach unity gain, as the JHS Morning Glory in it’s latest incarnation gives you all the sweetness with much more volume to spare.
I’ll be honest, I never really got along with Vox amplifiers, too often they sounded thin and boring. Sure there were some vintage AC30s that sounded mint when you dimed them and their well broken in speakers were barely staying together. But all the lower, more reasonable wattage version, and even the new AC30s just sounded terrible. Honestly I’d rather have a rack effects unit running an AC30 simulation than the real thing!
And then on a whim I clicked on some YouTube demo videos Vox put out, just over a minute each in length with a Custom Shop red sparkle Stratocaster going through the newer Custom series AC10. There were all the Vox tones I had heard, loved and was never able to find.
The new Custom version is master volume with a gain knob, so you can crank the gain to get the sweet singing overdrive of a dimed Vox without the bleeding ears. The EQ on the new amp consists of a Treble and Bass knob with a perfectly sweet fixed mid. Both knobs at noon give you the chime and sweetness, while dropping both to the 9 0’clock position gives you a gorgeous pushed mid that breaks up beautifully as you turn up the gain. the on board reverb is a digital “studio quality” unit that sounds good enough and has enough range to give you more than enough. A foot switch to be able to turn it off remotely would be nice but not expected at this price range.
Gone is the vibrato channel of the vintage model, but the gain and eq that replaced it is a more usable and enjoyable alternate. Plus who uses a Vox for vibrato? Looks 
have been brought up to date and are beyond the price point, in fact I’ve had a few mentions of how nice it looks, even as it sits nestled between my Mark III Boogie and Two Rock Studio Pro. Go figure.
All in all this is a killer amp that begs for a simple setup. It is not an amp that loves all pedals equally like the Two Rock, but prefers simple pedals like treble boosters, fuzzes and echo. All the things that bring back the thoughts of the simpler years where it’s the guitar and the amp with very little in the middle. Plug in, use that guitar volume knob, and kick on a germanium boost when you need a bit more, and bask in the lush vintage gain.
Analogman has faithfully recreated the 1960s British Dallas Rangemaster in the Beano Boost, a germanium based treble boost. Typically when you think of an electric guitar tone, the last thing you’d want to boost is the treble frequencies. At least, that is what you would likely be thinking if you haven’t tried out one of these little gems. The original Rangemasters were used to boost the darker British amps of the 60s into lovely singing sustain, helping them cut through the mix and sit in the right frequency range. Today they still do that very thing in spades, but the tone genius that is Analog Mike has realized that today’s guitarists have a lot more choice in the amps they use and all the treble may not be what they always want. In his unrelenting tweaking he has added a frequency switch to allow you to focus the boost more to the mid or low range of the guitar in case you already are running a bright Tele into a Vox amp, for example.
Now before you go and switch off the default treble setting, I implore you to give it a shot first as there is some method to the madness that is a treble booster. When the treble frequencies are boosted into an already cranked and compressing amplifier, something special and perhaps unexpected happens. The treble compresses even more, making it creamy smooth, while the rest of the frequencies get a boost as well bringing them up closer to the treble volume in the mix. The final results being a creamy over-driven amp that is perceived to have less treble. Go figure.
If you amp isn’t to the point of compression (hello Silverface Twin Reverb), then switch the tone to either the mid or low settings (based on your guitar) and you get a huge range of volume boost with some of that almost fuzz like compression and gain boost. Alternative run this pedal into the front of another low-medium gain pedal and hold on to the smooth, thick almost fuzzy goodness.
A final note, this pedal is germanium based and as such does best when your guitar is the only thing in front of it. Crank it up and you get that beautiful volume sensitivity that lets you turn down the gain from your guitar without affecting the overall volume of the signal much. Of course, there are no rules, so try it out anywhere in your rig that you want; throw it behind your other pedals as a final volume boost with some thickness and it will still do just fine.
Here it is, the Stratocaster that I often refer to as “the first”, “the original”or if I’m channeling my inner Stevie, my “Number One”
because it is the first American made Stratocaster (and guitar) that I’ve owned. It was a birthday present from my wife, though I did spend many hours picking it out from all of the strats at the local guitar super store. It’s an ash bodied American Standard with a Sienna Burst paint job and Custom Shop Fat 50s in all 3 positions. The maple neck is well finished with the edges rolled nicely and the fret ends filed smooth. It has a beautiful, subtle wave like grain with a birthmark on the third fret and consistently impresses me in that it feels more like a nicely worn in neck then some Custom Shop necks I’ve tried in the past.
It really exemplifies a guitar who’s tone rings out loud and long. Recently when hammering in a nail into my recently finished basement wall, the same wall where my guitars were hanging, I could hear exactly how different my guitars were acoustically. My recently acquired John Mayer Signature Strat rang out significantly longer then my Black American Standard and my Gold Strat Copy, but my Sienna Strat rang out for what seemed like double the length and volume of even the John Mayer. The neck and body of this guitar are just matched perfectly and the setup from the store was perfect, so much so that I use those measurements to setup the rest of my strats.
Pickups are great all around pickups for The Strat Sound. Bold and punchy but undeniably single coil with sweet tones in the 2 and 4 positions (standard 5-way switch). The bridge pickup is a little shrill at full blast, but thankfully the second tone pot is wired so that you can roll back some of the harshness to get some great rock tones. I run the bridge decked with 5 springs holding it down (no block) so I can’t comment on the tuning stability when using the whammy bar, but I have no reason to doubt it would be fine for normal use.
All in all I am often seduced into playing one of my other, more interesting strats, but every time I plug this beauty in I am reminded why I chose her in the first place. Tone for days and a comfort in playing that makes you want to forget about pedals and just lay back on a comfy couch and play out the rest of your days, and that is exactly how long I intend to keep her.