hey jp30!

yes I haven't forgotten about you...I will have you custom jobbie done for you this week....we just got a bunch of orders and pat is really busy with some other art endeavors lately so things are taking just a tad more time than normal. Be rest assured you'll like what we have for you...it looks awesome! a one-of-a-kind pedal for sure! Enjoy!

YAY !!
I am really excited now...
Thank you for the update and please take your time... (I still got my Black rabbit with me..)

I took my Black rabbit to my friend place last weekend. I had it going thourgh a chorus pedal and the space echo... had great time with it..!!

Just piping in to say a bit!

I'm not on the Freakshow tourbox list, and I don't need to be. I've ordered a Digilog, a #9 ("8 of 9") and now a Brown Rabbit from Musictoyz. The first two were fantastic, and I have no doubt that the Brown Rabbit will be right up there with them.

In any event, I'll be sure to chime in with my review of the Brown Rabbit when it arrives.

Great stuff being done up in Maine, that's for sure.

quote:

Originally posted by Blind Joe Death:
Just piping in to say a bit!

I'm not on the Freakshow tourbox list, and I don't need to be. I've ordered a Digilog, a #9 ("8 of 9") and now a Brown Rabbit from Musictoyz. The first two were fantastic, and I have no doubt that the Brown Rabbit will be right up there with them.

In any event, I'll be sure to chime in with my review of the Brown Rabbit when it arrives.

Great stuff being done up in Maine, that's for sure.

Wow Dave, I didn't know you were such a fan!
I always think of you and your fingerpick'd Folk stylings
(love those Myspace tunes! ),
so it's interesting to hear you digging these pedals.

quote:

Originally posted by cubba:

quote:

Originally posted by Blind Joe Death:
Just piping in to say a bit!

I'm not on the Freakshow tourbox list, and I don't need to be. I've ordered a Digilog, a #9 ("8 of 9") and now a Brown Rabbit from Musictoyz. The first two were fantastic, and I have no doubt that the Brown Rabbit will be right up there with them.

In any event, I'll be sure to chime in with my review of the Brown Rabbit when it arrives.

Great stuff being done up in Maine, that's for sure.

Wow Dave, I didn't know you were such a fan!
I always think of you and your fingerpick'd Folk stylings
(love those Myspace tunes! ),
so it's interesting to hear you digging these pedals.

Heh! That's definitely what I'm doing most of the time. But I do like to plug in an electric every once in a while. When I do, I like playing through some Freakshow boxes.

What can I say? I like supporting the little man. I really respect the operation going on up in Maine. It helps that they make great boxes, too!

Thanks for the kind words, by the way! I listen to those things and cringe, though! I'll be sure to upload some more recent stuff shortly.

I've had a few days and probably five hours with the Freakshow tourbox and here are my reviews.

Unfortunately, I'm not in a band right now, so I didn't get to play any of these boxes in a "real life" situation.

I used an SG Classic w/stock P-90's and an SG Standard with stock 490r and 490t pickups. The 490 pickups are just slightly hotter than a vintage PAF, but not much. from there it went Brown Rabbit> Maharishi> Digilog> #9 Boost> Supro Sahara 25.
I powered all the pedals with a Visual Sound PowerAll and a daisy chain.

My favorite overdrives in no particular order are vintage big box & pre-LED Rats, Maxon Distortion Master, Blackstone 2SV2, T-Rex Mudhoney and most recently a T-Rex Dr. Swamp. I don't want to throw any bad vibes around, but some of the overdrive/distortion pedals I did not like are the Blackstone 2SV3, OCD, DP-1, Howie, WMB, Klon (I know I'm probably a dope for not digging the Klon, but I just didn't get the hype at all, I don't really dig low drive pedals). I have only listed my likes and dislikes to give a reference point of the tones I'm into.
I'm into Zepplin, Zappa, Stones, Replacements and Ronson-era Bowie as far as fav guitar tones. I'm not into Metal.

I'll start with the Brown Rabbit:

The BR sounds very close to the best Rat pedals I have heard with the toggle in the left position (1). It seems to have a more open sound throughout the distortion range with a bit less mids and a more pleasant, musical high end. The filter knob works like most distortions (CW=treble CCW=treble rolloff), which is the opposite of a Rat. It a good idea, more intuitive. I liked the filter roughly around noon depending on which guitar I used.

With the toggle in the middle position (2), there is much more output and less fuzziness. Definitely useful for passages that need guts, but also definition. It's less compressed than the left position, more open sounding. With humbuckers, I was getting a slight sag on low notes. This was my least favorite position. I set the filter knob around noon in this position for a neutral tone.

With the toggle in the right position (3), the dual LED's kick in (I'm assuming these replace the clipping diodes, but I'm not an expert electric engineer). This was by far my favorite position, and where I would generally live if I owned this box. It sounds HUGE! This position has more bass and amplike tones than positions 1 & 2. It cleans up well with a volume knob tweak also. The added bass will not sludge out either, I just moved the filter knob to around 3 O'Clock for a little more treble.

The T-Rex Dr. Swamp has been my gold standard overdrive for some time and the BR will definitely give it a run for it's money. They both have a great range of very usable tones with the BR having a slight edge. The BR is the next drive box I will buy.

One of the most important features I need in a drive box is the ability to dial in enough distortion for a heavy rhythm, but still be able to discern individual notes when arpeggiating an open chord up the neck. The BR truly excels at this in all toggle positions. In positions 1&3, with the drive knob maxed, you get incredible lead sounds with beautiful overtones and excellent sustain. I also put the #9 Boost in front of the BR to kick it into lead territory at middle drive settings. It worked exceptionally well for this and added a bit of girth and more distortion.
Again, I loved this pedal, it's one of the best-sounding, most versatile dirt boxes I have ever tried.

Maharishi:
This pedal sounded absolutely horrible in front of the BR, but when placed after the BR with a median drive setting, it went right into fuzzland. It was like the swiss army knife of usable octave-up tones. I love Hendrix, but I'm not into copping his tones or style at all, so I don't know if this would please Hendrix Purists. I've owned the Full UOF & Octavia, HB UFO, Ampeg Scrambler clones, and Green Ringer clones. I have always had a problem with octave-up pedals in a band setting, because there seems to be a fine line between "lost in the mix" and "icepick in the forehead" for me. That is why I seldom have an Octavia style pedal on my ever-changing board. Conversly, some of the coolest lead sounds I have recorded were with octavia-type pedals. I did find many very cool tones in the Maharishi. It goes from a subtle to sizzling. It does take some experimentation, but I got some very cool tones with the rhythm pickup and the guitar's tone control at "0". With maxed out guitar settings, I really found lots of great, usable sounds.
The Maharishi on it's own can do some weird things, like the sitar, faux ring mod and some self oscillation sounds with some tweaking that might work great for strange intros, outros and breaks, but it really sounded great when driven by the BR. It's something I would definitely buy for recording.

Digilog:
I'm into the volume swell thing, and the digilog does not work perfect for that, but I never met an analog or analog voiced delay that does. I've owned the AD99, AD999, Toadworks Redux, all Boss delays, most Ibanez delays, and tons of others. Right now, I'm using a Tech21 Boost DLA. If you're not familiar with it it's a very good sounding delay pedal that is a jack of all trades, but not a lot of mojo. I love it because it works great for swells. It has a tone knob and a warble knob, so it does good analog and tape delay tones.
The Digilog is the polar opposite of the Boost DLY, it has more mojo than really anything I have heard. To my ears, it's more musical than any delay I've ever heard. It rolls of the treble successively on repeats and maybe it's my imagination, but it seems to have a very subtle, very pleasant graininess to the repeats. I'm not talking about digital distortion, or anything like that, it sounds absolutely natural (see organic...oops, I'm sorry, I'm not supposed to use the "O" word). It works great for adding delay to a clean signal, but sounds absolutely incredible for way distorted leads.
The mix needs to be set fairly high for the feedback feature to work. For this reason, I don't love the feature. I think it would be cool for recording special effects, but for me, little more. I think it would be a good idea for FS to have a Digilog Jr., without the feedback feature, and knock the price down a few bucks, but that's just my $.02. I like a centrally located, single footswitch for my size 13 wides.
Bottom line for the Digilog-The best sounding delay, analog or digital I have heard for lead playing with lots of distortion or fuzz.

#9 Boost
As far as tone goes, this is a very good boost pedal. It adds a bit of bass, but not too much. My favorite boost pedal is the Greer Sonic Boom, which has a slight graininess and a low-mid boost. The #9 has no grit at all, it is very much a Clean Boost. I'd take it over a Katana or Fat Boost as far as tone goes. I really preferred it in front of the BR, rather than last in the chain. It's diminutive size makes it perfect for tight pedalboards.

I have always thought that Z Vex had the coolest artwork on their pedals, but to me, these Freakshow boxes are the best looking boxes I've seen. I love the creepy, folk art look.

The only changes I would make to the BR, Maharishi, and Digilog is top-mounted jacks and switches closer to the front edge of the boxes. This might not be possible from an engineering standpoint, but especially the Digilog's side-mounted jacks give it a fairly large footprint.

Bottom Line - Very usable, but unique pedals with great artwork, a deadly combination for anyone with terminal GAS.

P.S. Huge thanks to Freakshow for loaning us these mucho cool pedals.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mr. Creosote,

I believe I'll be shipping the tourbox to Clif. I need his info. PM or email me.

Mr. Creosote, thanks SO much for the thoughtful and detailed reviews.
We have similar musical tastes and you were really speaking my language from start to finish.



Just PM'd you Clif's address.

Thanks Cubba! This was a great tourbox to get in on. I'll ship to Clif tomorrow via USPS Priority, insured for $500.

Just got the box last night. Band practice is tonight. I love it when gear comes right before a gig or a practice. Reviews to follow.

I'd been wondering where the Box was.


It's getting closer..........

First off, I try not to get too excited about pedal art and try not to calculate it too much into the value of a pedal, but these things are beautiful.
Words cannot describe how cool I felt cracking open this suitcase at band practice. It was like I was sponsored by some bizarre pedal company from "the old, weird America" of Dylan's Basement Tapes.
I know everybody says these things are great looking, but they really are worth noting for their appearance. There is no clearcoat, so the paint may take more of a beating, but that might make for a cool patina.

Equipment used: 2 different Strats with humbuckers in the neck. One is maple-necked and brighter. The amp is a Ceriatone Trainwreck Express clone. Not a very pedal-friendly amp, frankly.

Maharishi: Used alone, at home, this thing lacks merit IMO, and seems like a less musical version of the Foxx Tone Machine.
Fortunately, I was not at home. I was at our echo-hell practice space, and I stepped on this thing for a solo just to take it for a spin. It cut through that band-sludge like nobody's business. A tube screamer is like picking the lock. This thing is like cutting through the vault with an acetyline blowtorch.
It made me reflect on the whole Tone Machine/octave thing and how Hendrix used that to come squealin' through the mix. I always thought of these sounds as tasteless/useless/dated, but you can really cut with this baby and it doesn't sound ludicrous. It sounds aggressive and psychotic, like Hendrix.
I just took a bunch of solos with it and dug it. It's not going to be useful on every song, but I don't think it's meant to be.

9: I feel like taking this thing out of the box and just throwing some cash in there. It will be mine.
I thought that these mosfet (if this is one) boosters really are all kind of the same, so I got a HBE Uno Mos cause it seemed like a pretty good example of this type of pedal. I've tried a bunch of these in the past 8 months.
This thing was way quieter, with way less hiss than the Uno Mos. It seemed to give more detail, with plenty of balls, not too much low or high end. I don't think of a straight clean boost having "mojo", but this thing, IMO, has mojo, albeit subtle.
If you're on that never ending quest for a "MORE" pedal,I would check this thing out.
Plus you've got a tiny package to save space, competitive price, and the dude throws in a dang glowing skull. What's not to like?

I'll be back with the next 2 reviews in a little bit.

Can somebody send me the next address? I think it's dk ace in Austin.

Cubba, thanks for the tourbox OP!!. When I saw that Freakshow was the touring effects I got very excited. I had heard that the Marharishi did some Octavia tricks and then some (more later.) Awesome Tourbox presentation!! The !940's tweed suitcase custom painted with the same claever artistry as the pedals themselves--beautiful.

OK, the pedals: as I said earlier the Marharishi sounded like an interesting Octavia inspired tool. I needed a paedal that "sitared" a bit and was hopeful. Very cool pedal, lots of settings---not the over the top sitarish bit that I was looking for. Very clear and articulate, just not the ticket for me.

On to the "9" perfect little package. Great sized OD pedal. I don't use an OD most of the time, however, nice full boost with just enough color to give it's own "thing." Pleasant surprize!

The Digi-log delay has got a bt of the warmth that the "classic" analog delays 'bbg' are famous for but, the self-oscillating feature is it's strong suit. Very usable and easily controlled. I kind of like the out of control variety---nice to have this in the arsenal.

All right, I forgot to mention the obvious: these pedal are dressed with an amazing artistry and detail!! Very clever and unique! You get the character of the pedal by it's hand painted artwork.Which rings me to the biggest surprize. The Brown Bunny, which is I believe a take on the Proco Rat! I wasn't anticipating it to have as much individuality and option as it does. It does the Rat thing with ease and maybe more 'tonal' variety as ell as for the lack of a better term--Mufflike. I have had my share of Rats over the years and this is a special lttle fellow indeed!! Good work and beautiful to look at. Can't wait to see what Freakshow comes up with next!!

I just got off the phone with Toyz (super nice lady) and ordered a 9. Got one with flames that wasn't pictured on the site. I'm puttin' my money where my mouth is.

Final 2 reviews:

Digilog:
I am kind of a newbie when it comes to delay. Honestly, I'm still figuring out how delay fits into my style. Right now I'm mostly using longer delays on leads to go for a drugged out Mick Ronson-playing-with-Bowie sound.
Basically I just a/b'd it against the MXR Carbon Copy with the modulation on and just listened to some long delays. Carbon copy has darker repeats that pitch-shift sooner. Digilog had clearer more faithful repeats that did some cool, more pronounced pitch shift on later repeats. Totally agree with Mr. Creosote about the "graininess", which I thought was very nice.
To me, tonally, the darker vs. clearer repeats is just a matter of taste. I don't know if these qualities are issues of digital vs. analog or just a matter of voicing. The clearer repeats would probably cut through a band mix better and don't sound "digital" in a bad way. I'm still not sure how much I want my repeats to cut through (it's okay to have some 'veiled' stuff going on).
The Digilog, again, is an awesome value because you get the oscillation switch and a dang ghost lookin' in the mirror for a few bucks more than an analog delay.

Brown Rabbit:
I have to pretty much disqualify myself from reviewing this pedal because this circuit sounds horrible with my amp. The only part that works with my amp is the boost/middle section of the switch, which is a pretty good cutting boost and is clearer, less compressed, brighter, more breathing than the other two clipping options. Not as ballsy of a boost as the 9 though.
I have tried 2 other pedals in this vein: the BYOC Mighty Mouse and the Lovekraft Chupacabra, and I can assure they all sound equally bad with my amp, but they are great for Rat lovers and sound good with most other amps. My amp is bitchy.
Again, value-wise, with the Rabbit, you get a professionally built pedal and a picture of a rabbit, and you get to watch your dang LED's clip. Lovekraft just gives you a box painted purple.

I was a little skeptical about these, thinking the art was going to overshadow the tone, but Freakshow is giving us some superior art, good value, and their line is a nice mix of the old school (Rat), something pretty original (the Digilog), something useful (9), and something weird (Maharishi).

Thanks for including me!

porkchop

You bought, in my opinion, the nicest painted artwork "9" we made in the original run of 9. The flame one, if it's the one I'M thinking of, was awesome! It's the only one Pat painted that was like that too which makes it even cooler. Lucky You! Thanks! Enjoy!!!

J

Awesome dude!

I think it is the one you're thinking of because she said it was the only one that looked like that.

Yeah, I'm stoked. I'm using more amp dirt and guitar volume control instead of dirt pedals, so this little dude is the perfect accoutrement to my rig at this point. It's got the most rock n' roll per cubic inch.

Thanx for A/B-ing it against the carbon copy porkchop!...I tried out one last week and kinda liked it...the differences sound like they adress my very concerns...I'm gonna try to hold out ordering a digilog till the box gets to me so I can be objective though...you've got me more excited about trying out the #9 too...cool...keep it rollin guys!

Not to derail (OK, to derail), but how have you guys been using the feedback footswitch? I've ha my beloved Digilog for about a year, but could never warm up to the footswitch because the volume gets out of control when engaged.

Nice to see this tourbox up 'n rollin' again felluhs!
Great reviews all around, so nice to hear different opinions and our collective likes/dislikes.

Aaron ... you're next buddy.

Jensen5... Reg'd the feedback switch, I think it's relevant to the delay time & feedback settings. At longer delays maybe it's not as easy to oscillate (?)... but I did get it to oscillate for me wherever I set it. Like I said, the knob is sensitive to where the other knob settings are. I like that it gets pretty detailed like that and you can get some cool shades in-between.

I'm glad you all have been enjoying the pedals, both for the sweet tones and elegant graphics.

Once again, thx to ("duchesshimself") Clif Taylor, creator of the wonderful film:
"FUZZ, The Sound That Revolutionized the World" for giving the pedals a go.
Too bad he didn't try these first, maybe the Brown Rabbit would have made the cut!

First of all I dig the old suitcase. It would be perfect for setting out on a street corner to catch nickels and dimes from passerbies while old Blind Boy Rollo T. lays down some crusty old blues and sea chanteys.

I imagine Rollo would catch the attention of the Hookah crowd when he’d plug in the Freakshow Maharishi into his battery powered Pignose amp. The Maharishi is a pretty fun device. One thing I noticed, though, was that it was a little hard to overcome the pedal’s gate with the low output pups in my Suhr. I had a similar problem with the Lovetone Cheese Source, but that had an internal trimmer to allow for different input levels. But running a little boost before the Maharishi caused it to run as smooth as the velvet curtains inside the local Hare Krishna temple. Running the right knob near min, I was able to glean some subtle octave effects. A small clockwise movement and I was venturing into the not so subtle zones of octave and ring modulation effects. Currently I’m running a Penny Pedals Fingerprint for its unobtrusive octave effect. It has just a small area of travel on the octave control where it gets into the wild zone. The Maharishi is just the opposite: It has a large area of travel in the wild wilderness. All-in-all, I think the Maharishi would be a fun pedal with which to explore new tonal frontiers. It can be as soothing as sitting around chanting Om, or it can be the cause or aural nightmares. संधि

The #9 Boost proved to be very useful. Not only does it boost, but it can also be used as a master volume. There was a point where I didn’t want to make too much noise what with all the noisemakers on the board, so with the 9 after the effects I could use it to turn down the overall volume. It performs well as a boost too. It has a slight focusing effect over the dynamics which helps to tighten up an amp. I’d also say it favors the lows very slightly. I generally don’t use a dedicated boost pedal, with the exception of the Boost channel of the BoR, but the 9 seems like a boost of comparable quality. And, especially given its unobtrusive size, could be the perfect complement on most any board.

I’ve been experimenting with some different delay pedals. My main delay is the DLS Echotap which I utilize for its stereo outs. It seems to add a wee bit of high end and presence which at times has to be taken into account for the overall scheme of things. I’ve been messing around running a second delay on board and the Digilog seems like it would be a perfect addition. It sounds great. It doesn’t suffer from the sterility of some digital delays or the muddiness of some analogs. It has the dimensional feel reminiscent of a tape delay. It’s very easy and intuitive to set the controls and it’s a breeze to get everything from very subtle to extreme delay effects. I wasn’t able to cop the runaway effects with the right footswitch so perhaps I didn’t