Thanks Swain for your lucid thoughts & impressions and for taking part in the tourbox!
Dustin has the tourbox now, looking fwd. to what he has to say.
Train kept a-rollin'...

Man, what a great bunch of pedals!

My Wife saw me in the back room, playing through the Retro-Sonic pedals. She just looks at me and says; "Oh no.......... there's THAT look".
Me; "What look?"
Her; "The, "I just GOTTA have this!" look". LOL

Pedals arrived safely. I haven't had a chance to try them yet, but the wife leaves town tomorrow and I have nothing but time on my hands then. Thanks for letting me participate!

D

Sorry guys, I should have posted something here (we've been doing everything in PM). Guitartman was out of town for the holidays, so he and Paul told me to hold the box until they were over. The box will be back in the mail on the second.

D

How did you like the pedals?

Just like the last tourbox, this one was full of surprises for me. I expected that I wouldn't really like the 808 or the mod pedals, but that I would fall in love with the comp and delay. All of the pedals were great, but I didn't find what I expected.

Retro-Sonic Compressor:

I wasn't interested in comps for the longest time, but about 18 months ago I decided I needed one. I hated all the controls on most of them as they required too much work to set up, and then you couldn't really tweek them on the fly. I bought the Barber Tone Press, and it was a perfect match for me. The RS comp is equally good about maintaining the integrity of the sound IMO. Obviously the contols aren't nearly as complicated as most, but I still prefer the simplicity of the Barber. It sounds good, but I'm just too used to the Tone Press I think to really appreciate this one. All in all, a good compressor, but it won't replace anything for me.

Analog Delay:

I thought this pedal would be the big winner for me. On the level of sound quality, it was in that it was a step ahead of my Line 6 DL4. The tone was more organic, deep, and complex. It was noticeably better without A/Bing the two. The problem I had with it (which will not be an issue for most) was the funcionality of the unit. The DL4 has spoiled me to having 3 distinctly different presets and a tap tempo (two of the presets I have to use frequently are impossibly hard to set up on the fly). The quality of the delay alone is enough for me to live without the three presets, but the lack of the tap is something that I couldn't get around for live use which is really all I do these days. If I didn't need a tap tempo, this delay would be on the short list of delays I would consider without a doubt.

808:

I didn't think I would have a use for this pedal since I have a Keeley TS9dx, but it was a pleasant surprise. Although they are similar TS pedals with a healthy mid-hump, there were more than enough differences to consider. I thought the Keeley was the end all TS for me, but this one questioned that assumption. The RS is thicker and grittier. It has considerably more bottom end than the Keeley. I couldn't decide if I preferred the smoothness of the Keeley or the grit of the RS, but I was leaning towards the RS for the bottom end alone.

Phaser:

I've always hated modulation effects, but these changed my mind. I can't recall a single time that I've wanted a phaser in a song. I grudgingly plugged this pedal in because I'd agreed to review them all. Within a few minutes, all my thoughts about modulation pedals had changed. I had a lot of fun playing with this thing clean, and when I started playing rhythm stuff with the phaser after the Direct Drive I couldn't wipe the grin off my face. It adds a little dirt, but I like that as the squeaky clean modulation sounds don't do anything for me.

Chorus:

A huge surprise and my hands-down favorite! I loved this pedal for it's barely there effects all the way to the in-your-face leslie sounds. I found a use for nearly every way that I set the dials, and that is something I can't say for very many pedals. I was looking forward to trying these pedals for the experience, but I wasn't looking for anything to buy. This pedal changed that, and I think I'll be buying one in the next few months after I get my dirt needs taken care of.

Thanks to everyone for making this happen and letting me in!


D

Nice reviews dk_ace. It looks like the 808 is a big hit; maybe you can't have too many TS variants after all! The internal trim for bass content is a great feature...

I want the phaser, the analog delay, and I can't waiiiiiitttttt til the boost comes out!!!

If I buy all three at one time.....can I get a discount?

quote:

Originally posted by Ry-guy:
I can't waiiiiiitttttt til the boost comes out!!!

If I buy all three at one time.....can I get a discount?

Here's a sneak peek.....
http://www.retro-sonic.com/index.php?option=com_content...view&id=21&Itemid=35

The tour box has landed in San Diego. The pedals sure are purdy. Reviews to follow when I get a chance to plug them in. Gotta go take my son to basketball practice.
Bob

quote:

Originally posted by Retro-Sonic:

quote:

Originally posted by Ry-guy:
I can't waiiiiiitttttt til the boost comes out!!!

If I buy all three at one time.....can I get a discount?

Here's a sneak peek.....
http://www.retro-sonic.com/index.php?option=com_content...view&id=21&Itemid=35

Holy G.A.S Batman! Oh, just when I thought my pedal buying was going to taper off a bit...those all look like great (i.e. useful) features to incorporate into a boost.

Holy G.A.S Batman! Oh, just when I thought my pedal buying was going to taper off a bit...those all look like great (i.e. useful) features to incorporate into a boost.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Ray,
It ended up being a pretty nice package, treble and bass controls really add to range of sounds available, and the clipping lets you have a clean boost or a "dirty" boost. They should be shipping by month end.

Tim

Dang!
Too bad that one missed the Tourbox.



I've never tired the legendary Boss FA-1, but always wanted to. I bet you yours is an improvement Tim, just like all the other pedals in the tour.

quote:

Originally posted by cubba:
Dang!
Too bad that one missed the Tourbox.



I've never tired the legendary Boss FA-1, but always wanted to. I bet you yours is an improvement Tim, just like all the other pedals in the tour.

Follows the same philosphy as the rest of the line, don't change what's good about the original, made a couple of adjustments, use hi quality components and add some feature functionality. Maybe we can add this one to the tour...

Tim

As of January 24, 22:13 UTC, the Retro-Sonic tour box has landed safely in Fresneaux, CA.

The pedals have been in my possession for less than 17 minutes and I am already in love with the Vibrato mode of the Chorus Ensemble!! It was difficult to tear myself away from the unit in order to briefly update everyone on the status and whereabouts of Tim's effects boxes.

For the first time, after having gone through many boutique pedals, I have *finally* 'nailed' the John McGeogh sound from "Israel" by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Absofreakinglutely, to a tee. Teddy, watch out for my purchase!

With the Analog Delay, I now sound like Paul Leary live in concert, 1985, at Traxx in Detroit for the end of P.S.Y. Maybe the moon is UFO afterall. There were also some great "haunted house" sounds that caused every dog in my neighborhood to bark. Perfect.

What wood is Throcky spankin'? Amp??

Suhr Surf Green Strat Classic, Vintage 'C' neck, single coil pickups.

1-5/8" liquid nitrogen pressurized, Andrews Heliax cable with 'LC' connectors. j/k

An amp that was once the Chrysler 'K' car of small combos, of dubious manufacture. It used to have so much ripple ... Otis, the Petaluma town drunk, had to go back into rehab.

It's a heavily Throcky-modified Mxxx-LOOGie F-50 outfitted with (3) JJ ECC83-S GOLDs, (1) JJ ECC-82S-GOLD to tame the grossly excessive sizzlin' bacon Cratesque gain before it slams a pair of Mxxx 6L6 STR-437s.

STR-437s, ... my ass!!

They're Sovtek 5881WXT+s. They don't suck. The stock preamp tubes in the LOOGie sure did!

Some day, Throcky shall own a Rivera. I mean, if a dude is gonna put his own daughter's name on the amp -- it's most likely gonna sound awesome, and be a work of great pride.

Okay, I'll give a more thorough rundown on these Retro-Sonic effects as soon as I have a spare moment. Tonight's schedule is filled with teaching: a gaggle of hot, single, soccer moms that all wanna learn 'Dust In the Wind'.

Throcky

quote:

An amp that was once the Chrysler 'K' car of small combos, of dubious manufacture. It used to have so much ripple ... Otis, the Petaluma town drunk, had to go back into rehab.

LOL! Look forward to you thoughts on the rest of the R-S lineup!

How come I don't have any hot soccer mom students?

Way to go Throck! That was a great post.
Looking fwd. to your next one.
I felt the same way about the vibrato side of the chorus pedal. So sublimely addictive.

Tho' a room full of eager soccer-moms stirs up another whole set of feelings...

Pedal Review - Part Deux

As mentioned on the previous page, I am absolutely enamored with the Chorus box. In fact, I am planning to purchase it very soon.

An addendum to my prior notes regarding the Analog Delay: in addition to the novelty sounds, e.g. - UFO landing, haunted house - there is great practical utility with this animal. It is super easy to get a great dub or reggae kind of slapback. For a moment, I almost thought that I had joined Tackhead, and was playing alongside Doug Wimbish.

Phaser

Mang, I was totally psychedlicized by Tim's four stage Script ... and absolutely no chemicals were involved! It sounded very lush and organic. I enjoyed arpeggiating sus4, add9, and 'weirdo' chords through it. I dig the flock out of this pedal!! It totally slays most other phaser pedals.

Compressor

Throcky switched from his Suhr Classic Strat to a Gadow Classic Set Neck with Lollar P-90s. With the out-of-phase toggle engaged, the Compressor acted as an instant "Brad Paisley Transmorgrifier". If anyone were to swipe this effect from my board, I'd have to spit some Beechnut in that dude's eye and force him to listen to my old Hasil Adkins '45'!

Eight-Oh-Eight Overdrive

This pedal surprised me (in a good way). I had the "green meanie" with the very Japan Radio Corporation op-amp that Tim's effect uses. No comparison. Retro-Sonic totally pwns the green meanie. Infinitely better signal-to-noise ratio, transparency, and so forth, and so on.

In summary, the Retro-Sonic 'Vintage Vibes' are all very inspiring to play and perform with. I could have kept playing the Chorus, Analog Delay, and Phaser for hours and hours.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Years Playing: I have scars older than you!

Genres: Biker Music From Sri Lanka

Effects: Toadworks 'Phantasm' and 'MadDog', AshBass 'FuzzBrite', Audible Disease 'Rupture RP-1'

I once had a "nice rack": Triaxis, Stereo 2:90, Digitech TSR-12, etc.

Has the Tourbox ended?

quote:

Originally posted by E-D Ray Swain:
Has the Tourbox ended?

Nope, LFB is next...