very sweet pedal George, i remember testing one of these way back in the day (maybe a tourbox) but i only messed with it for a little while, mr swain was on the tour and i met up with him, ive been sitting down with this and my ZD next to it, its even a nice combo stacked, nice fusion sound, the ZD is alot creamier, as the CC really presents a bit more versatality in tone but i like them both its a shame this pedal is for swain tho im about to have to meet up with him and make the pedal a new home, sweet pedal tho, and i love the blue color too. maybe if me and swain meet up soon we'll do some demos with it or something.

The Cactus Crunch is a great pedal. You haven't mentioned what a sweet semi clean boost. Semi clean in that it has it's own color on the tone, not strictly neutral but sounds very nice. I have a Klon and the CC gets real close as a clean boost and is better as a Overdrive. It's is it's own thing though. Best pedal Pedalworx makes probably. Well, maybe the Silas.

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ok you two go to your rooms! your freakin me out.

its got a nice clarity crunch, i kind of like it (with extra preamp from the marshall) for Jeff Beck tones some cool possibilitys. well for those who know my amp sickness(i play throug ha jcm900), i took my zendrive to GC yesterday and spent about 3 hours playing it through a deluxe, a twin, and even a vox ac30...the zd was not made for a marshall, i couldn't believe what i was getting, people were coming up to me drueling over the zendrive, especially with the deluxe. i should have taken the CC too.

I'd like to get one of those Cactus crunches too. Along with the other 25 pedals on my list.

So Rob,

Will I be getting a CC or a ZD? LOL

Sounds like you like the CC better, with the Marshall?

Which do you stack first in the chain from the guitar? The CC or ZD? I have a ZD too.

i had the ZD the closest to the amp, i did not try it the other way around, i might try stacking it with a 808 or a couple of other ods i have,

and Jeff ill keep on my word ill bring you the cc, im considering the possibilitys of selling my marshall and my cab and getting a twin reverb to go along with my zd...for a fender ive never felt such a rich tone, these both have to be two of my favorite ods right now, id like to get into the higher gain stuff a little, play with an ocd, jetter ect.

WOO-HOO!!!!

The Cactus Crunch is sooooooo sweet!

I immediately put it after my BYOC Chorus, to see if I would still think that the combination was so great. Yeah, it is. I can't wait to lay that sound on everyone, at the next Thursday Jam. The CC really takes the THICK tones of that Chorus, and helps to really "define" it, and bring out so much more detail.
I didn't even try it as much of an OD, for the whole first day. It was sounding so good goosing the Chorus and the Timmy , that I didn't even think of moving it. But, I did try it alone, into the "Deluxe" amp, set with it's Vol. @ 3:00, Master @ 5:00 (WFO). I did all of my playing so far, with the 2 HB Soloist. I look forward to trying it out with my Strat. This was another one of those "oh yeah!" moments.

With the CC's Bass @ 4:00, Treble @ 2:00, Drive @ 9:00, and Level @ 3:00, It really added a nice sort of rudeness to the sound.
Rolling the Gain up to 2:00, I really like the way it has such an even sweep of dynamics, depending on which Pickup(s) you've selected. Switching to the Bridge PU, it would take sustained notes into a smooth transition to that singing feedback I love. Really made the amp into a new beast. And that's so nice! The CC as 2nd. Channel.

I will really need some time to explore everything this pedal can give me. That guy at Pedalwerx is a pretty talented guy!

Now, where did I put that Princeton?

Thx for the report Swain.
I'd like to hear what the guys at your jam say about it too.

Yup, one of the best things about the Cactus is that you can use it as a gain pedal
(as it does crunch up rather nicely)
or equally as an EQ/tone shaping pedal
with varying amounts of gain (or no gain at all).

It's got a lot of range.

Try it out with the gtr. volume in different positions. Awesome clean-up.

Yeah, it does react really well to my Guitar's Volume and Tone knob manipulations.

I plan on really trying to give this thing a workout. Different places in the chain, different settings, etc.

This is one pedal that I just cannot live without. George arrived with this pedal.

Shane

Man, I let my friend try the CC out. Now, he's GASSING hard!

HAHAHAHAHAHA, Spreading the disease!