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Continuing In This Vein RE: Cheap Chinese Copies Of Things..
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Author:  chris_d [ Sun Jan 18, 2015 3:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Continuing In This Vein RE: Cheap Chinese Copies Of Things..

Picked these up recently for giggles/shits.

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The tuner is just a Boss TU-2 clone (i have never owned a pedal tuner, actually. thought it would just be something useful to have around in a general sense when i don't want to turn my computer on or keep batteries around for my normal cheapo non-pedal tuners.

The AC Tone is a copy of the Tech21 Liverpool, and does a decently convincing job of a Vox-voiced breakup sound. Lots of interaction between the knobs so it can cover a surprising amount of ground from sloppy bassy flubfuzz to a tight near-metal middsy thing. Also does the expected Vox-like light breakup jangle. And when set correctly, will give a decently heavy vox-ish distortion that cleans up pretty well with the volume. Not exactly the same linearity curve of a real amp the way it transitions from clean to dirt with the guitar volume knob when used this way, but much much better than most supposed amp circuit emulation pedals. Unlike a real vox which i find i can have trouble tuning out the explosive low end to tighten the distortion, this is capable of shaping the sound towards something a bit more like the amp i built, so i get along with it pretty well.

Pocket Metal is a copy of the Electro Harmonix Pocket Metal Muff(which sort of fittingly is itself a stripped down copy of a Boss Metal Zone(with some of the parametric EQ controls set to fixed values). Sounded useful in one of the demos i heard of it(and somewhat wretched in all the others) so i decided to give it a shot. In person with my setup, it is pretty good actually, but on the downside definitely exhibits a bit more of that MT-2 nasal upper mids focus than i generally care for. I find the trusty olde DOD FX-86 still winds up doing the job better for how i run things. I might cut this Joyo open a bit and see about altering the eq focus some.

Of the three, the Ac Tone will definitely be the most useful for my porpoises. I am just getting into how all of the knobs really interact, but i already think it might wind up being a permanent fixture in what few pedals i actually use. Which is saying a lot because aside from the occasional use of the metal pedals, the only pedal that i have been using with any consistency whatsoever over all of these years is the Timmy. Nothing else seems to work quite right for me. AC Tone seems like it might though. I want to find my schematic of it though, curious about the treble control. Might want to alter it slightly to focus a bit higher than it does currently.

Author:  Snaxocaster [ Sun Jan 18, 2015 10:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Continuing In This Vein RE: Cheap Chinese Copies Of Thin

Pedal tuners make a handy mute switch and splitter box. :nods:

Does the AC Tone have the speaker sim of the Tech 21, or is it a straight-up premap/dirtbox? Is there any particular fiddling that needs to be done or wonkiness running into the front end of an amp?

Author:  chris_d [ Mon Jan 19, 2015 4:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Continuing In This Vein RE: Cheap Chinese Copies Of Thin

Word on the street is that it has the cab sim innit. I would like to put it on a switch so it could be bypassed tho. Without the ability to turn it off at this point i couldn't say whether i would like it better in or out of the circuit.

There is actually a pretty good chance that this is why i was wanting to mess with the treble control circuit earlier though. The one problem i have had would be that it is somewhat difficult to get enough treble dialed in without getting too much of it in there. Feels like the treble control is altering the wrong frequency to me

I was initially thinking that this was just a factor of the control itself being focused a bit lower than i would prefer. But at the moment i am suspecting that it may be a side effect of the cab sim clamping down on the top end and making the upper mids a bit prone to stridency if care is not taken to adjust it finely. I wonder if it would be simpler to balance without the cab sim.

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