A pedal buddy has lent me his Tim for a brief period of time. I had a chance yesterday to give it a quick whirl. So far very cool, but it does take some time to get used to the function of the knobs. I'm not too sure I like the extra controls, although they are all very funtional. I like to keep my pedals simple, so I'm thinkin Timmy might be a nice investment. I'm a bit partial to the boost channel, but on the other hand the normal channel has a nice neutral feel to it...almost Klon like. And the clean up factor (with volume knob) is very cool!

Oh PAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLL

Better get one - don't be left out Lefty!

Get the big version if your going to get one, you won't be sorry. The boost function is usable. The loop is great for an external comp or EQ, and it loves to see 18 volts (if you have a decent power supply, which I don't, yet)
At first I thought a small single MXR version might be OK, but am happy with this pedal.

Hey Lefty

Do you still have your KOT? How does it compare to TIM?

quote:

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Originally posted by mapleneck:
Hey Lefty

Do you still have your KOT? How does it compare to TIM?

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...Hey Lefty, thats what I was going to ask, How does it compare with the KOT?...

I'm not Lefty, but I'll throw in. At its lowest gain setting on the yellow (clean) channel, the KOT still has a bit of hair around the tone, whereas the Tim is cleaner & more neutral at minimum & lower gain. While not overly compressed, the KOT at its max gain seems to give a bit & merge with amp dirt a bit more to my liking, than Tim at similar gain settings (difference to me seems to be a bit more mid emphasis with KOT, as opposed to more of a high end accentuation on the Tim - even though you can tailor EQ more on the Tim... still, circuits have inherent qualities when interacting with other circuits, which become more apparent as gain is increased... anyway, it sounds that way to me.). The formats are obviously different - stacked gain boost, therefore more available gain, on the Tim; two discrete & slightly differently voiced channels on the KOT, no stacked gain boost or cascading of channels. Both have tons of output & clarity, both are great sounding & practical tools. In other words, I'm splitting hairs.

Thanks Corleone! Didn't mean to hijack a thread about the TIM, but I have been sort of jonesing for the KOT and a Sunface. It is hard to ignore the TIM though with all the raving going on around it lately. I also wonder how the KOT or the TIM compares to my Blackstone and whether there would be substantial overlap in purpose. Anyone?

Slightly different subject. We need more people who make sound clips around here. Especially for these hair splitting discussions. I tried to make some clips last night, and I know how difficult it is to get really good ones. Me and a friend who has a pretty high quality DAW setup made a short clip of every pedal on my board last night. I haven't gotten the MP3 from him yet, but just from the couple playbacks I heard none of the clips were as cool as what I heard standing by the amp. Here is the effect I am waiting for...a robotic mic placement device. You just play, it finds the optimum mic locations so that you automatically get the best possible tone on the recording. You mad scientists get busy on that would ya! I am so frustrated with hearing one thing, and recording another!!

I'll post my findings later this weekend, after my ears stop ringing

Maple - put a condenser at your ear level when you find "the spot" or stick your head right in the speaker when tweaking.

The producer for the Wallflowers, Brian Jones or something, did this - put a mic right at the guys ears. The guy then said "I've been looking for that sound my whole life"

John_M

That is exactly what we did last night. Had a condenser about ear level looking straight at the amp (which was tilted back), and an SM-57 about a foot away from the speaker give or take. Got good representations of the sound from both mics, the SM-57 being darker and dryer, but combined into a mono mix they still had phase problems. Panned into stereo it wasn't terrible. When I get the MP3 from the guy I'll maybe post some of it, assuming it sounds good enough.

Lefty

Since you have had the KOT for a while, I can't wait for your review comparing to the TIM (if they even are comparable - apples to oranges??)!

Because of the Treble and Bass controls and the diode switch you wil have a much easier time making the Tim sound like the KOT than vice versa

But The Kot will do clean and dirty ,,,

You could set Tim at clean just below dirty and boost it over that threshhold....


And yes Ear micing is the best way Ive found to mic acoustics especially and anything really BUT only if its the only instrument playing.......you have to have realy good Isolation to earmic while playing with something else...

Hey Mapleneck,

I have a TIM and a Blackstone. As does TD I believe.

Here's my breakdown.

Tim-more looser fuzzy OD timbre
Blackstone- more crunchy and closed back sounding

Tim-more open/ less compression
Blackstone- more leveled out/more compression

Tim- works better with other pedals, has okay volume knob roll-back ability

Blackstone- works almost as good with other pedals, but works best first in line. Has better volume knob roll-back ability

Tim- can be set to be very transparent, except for some subby lows that may or may not effect your amp's speakers performance. Some users prefer it with dirty/slightly over-driven amps.

Blackstone- not as transparent, but works well with clean amps.

Tim- 2nd channel is dependent on how you set up the first channel. Donner tipped me on getting a very very nice 2nd channel set-up by tweaking the gain of the first channel. However, this somewhat compromised my 1st channel setting, as I had to set the gain a bit higher then I would have liked ideally.

Blackstone- 2nd channel is too mid focused for me... so I don't use it that often.

To be honest with you.... there are things I like and dislike about both. Initially I thought I'd be forever happy with each of them when I first started using them, but after the honeymoon was over, I started having some personal issues with both of them.

Right now, my feelings on the Tim is that it is too subby for my use, which causes it to sometimes get's lost in the mix. But I think this is due just to my particular amp/speaker set-up (Twin/JBL D-120's) as the subs are allowed through, and not rolled off like most guitar amps. I also have some issues with the OD timbre being a bit too fuzzy for my tastes.

The Blackstone also gets lost sometimes, and this is due to my playing style. I like to hit my guitar really hard, so the leveling/compression aspects don't work for me so well in live use. However on Tape it works great.

Both are great great guitar performance tools... it just breaks down to what your style is, and the gear you are using it with.

One last thing... I think the Tim is probably more versatile with different guitar/pick-ups then the Blackstone. I'm not real crazy about either of them with my Gretch/filtertrons though.

I think that over-all you could use either and be happy, as you can set-up both to cover the bases of the other for the most part. If I had to choose, I'd say TIM for live use, and Blackstone for recording.

Good luck to you,

Alex

Duende

Thanks!! Man that is a good comparison. I agree with everything you mentioned on the Blackstone, so we must be hearing things pretty much the same way. I have had the Blackstone since version 2 came out in 2000. I have had version 3 for about a year. I learned to can some of the mid focus on both channels by pulling the internal gain trimmer all the way down. The Blackstone gets a lot of "aaahhhhhh" in its tone when that is turned up. I lost a little total gain potential, but got back a much more useable and level tone. Still not at all transparent, but that isn't even an issue with me. I still hear some of the mids in the Blackstone thoug, and would like a different voicing but with the same non-fizzy clipping that I love about it. It is still over all the most pleasant little pedal I have used. I can't get past how cool that clipping sans fizz is to my ear. But, the honeymoon is partially over. That is why I started looking at TIM and KOT. My run ins with Analogman have left me thinking he is top flight all the way. I am saving up for a SunFace as we speak. Maybe that, teamed up with the KOT (or a TIM, or both, aghhhhh!!), would give the old board an exciting new voice. Anyway thanks for the info.

Maple...
I turn down the internal trimmer myself. I even modded mine, so that the red channel is a close as possible to the Brown channel.

Glad I could be of help.

Alex

duende, have you tried the Mosferatu with the Filtertrons ?? and then into the Honey Bee is a beautiful thing with Filtertrons ??? The MOS has a different honk freq than the others Ive tried...

Duende, thanks much for your brilliant and thoughtful comparison of TIM/Blackstone! As you described the Blackstone sound so well (I also have one) I think I finally have a good grasp of how TIM would work in my setup.

Hey Donner!

No I haven't tried the MOS or the Honey Bee. But thanks now for making me want too! Ha!

The next OD I'm going to try is the Pro Analog Dual Drive. So wish me luck! Is the high end on the Honey Bee better than on the Baby Blue??? As the BB was a bit crispy sounding through my amp.

Hey Shaman! Your most welcome!! One thing I should add after playing my Blackstone again tonight is that the TIM is more accurate in the highs. The Blackstone has a slight roll off that you can boost via the internal trimmers, but in my case, only by favoring the highs over the the bass level somewhat.

I guess it's a trade off... more transparent, or more focused. I find myself kind of wanting some kind of combination of the two. The flatter highs of the TIM, but with the OD timbre of the Blackstone. Of course take into consideration that my JBL's are extremely critical when it comes to high-end content from pedals.

Really though... both are great pedals, I'm surpized that the Blackstone doesn't get as much hype as the TIM. It's more particular about amp/guitar set-ups. But it's a genius device in it's own right!

duende

i've been using a PPF into a Honey Bee into a Timmy for the past couple of weeks and find the combination perfect for the stuff i'm doing. the Timmy is great on it's own, and for kicking other pedals up a notch. i used to use my Bad Bob for this purpose, but the Timmy sounds so much better and gives me the ability to have both clean'ish and gritty tones, although i still have the Bad Bob on my board (this will probably get swapped out for either a RC Booster or a BJF SBEQ).

i have not found the Honey Bee to be a bright pedal. at least not in the typical sense. as you roll the nature knob clockwise you move from "low-end" grind and "pump" to a more open and thinner sound, but it's never "bright." at least not in my setup, which is similar in some respect to yours speaker-wise. i'm using either Altec 417's, EVM 12s or Harry Joyce speakers in a 2x12 config, and like the JBL's, these speakers can take on a harsh edge with the high end content of certain pedals i've tried.

i'm now living in the SF area, so if you want to check out the Honey Bee let me know.

jonc

jc@nonstopsound.com

Duende

I am with you. Blackstone definately doesn't get its due here. There is no perfect pedal, but on my board it goes toe to toe with some of the best and it does what it does better than any of them. Fizzless light to medium overdrive with a very authoratative voice that never gets thin in a mix.