cris_mas
Member
- Build Rating
After a lot of thinking on what kind of gear i should use in a compact pedalboard (controlled by a Boss MS3) I've decided to pair Shushi Box's/C2C Particle Accelerator with a hot rod/pissed off MIAB, and so my search ended (or not) with the Dirty Sanchez.
First tests were done in a tube pre similar to Vox ac30ish tones and i wasn't very convinced at that point. Then Particle Accelerator took clean channel duties and oh boy, all changed for good! It has this meaty, raunchy sound that has oomph like no other MIAB's I've tried before.
Another thing that surprised me a lot was that i was able to take the gain knob all the way up and still i was able to have usable tones. BUT, that's possible when using with 18volts, with 9 it's ok, but not outstanding. Clipping behaves different to other similar pedals I've done before. For instance the Angry Andy was too fat and somehow the clipping was too aggressive so the sound was "cut", bringing a final unpleasant note that was sticking specially when palm muting or picked the strings too hard. I'm not sure if this was a mistake i made with that build in particular but I've ended up wanting to replace that pedal because of that.
Previous to this, i had a Bogner Ecstasy blue mini that i loved, but had to sell, and this one although it doesn't sound "the same" it gets pretty close and i like it a lot. It was put together as the BOM suggests, so no fancy parts were used. I'm spoiling my builds with box film capacitors tho, because they look cute and in my ears i feel it sounds better than normal poly caps (insert placebo effect).
Another thing i really like about this one is that it's actually quite versatile, low gain, mid gain and mid high all sound great, but i feel this is when we check 2 boxes:
-a really good clean platform, digital or analog, tube preferably (for me at least)
-plugging it at 18 volts as i've stated above. It really opens and gets "enhanced", you can actually feel more headroom and better toans in general.
Is it the ultimate MIAB? I dunno, but i've tried a few and so far it has blown them away for sure.
Will blow all other drive pedals i wanted? Not so fast! I wasn't expecting much on pedals like this, used to avoid IC based drive pedals being afraid of sound too compressed or generic and i wasn't pleased with Marshall/Friedman tones in general. This has changed with trial and error tests and finally i can say i could be happy with this elusive (to me) great sound with bite but not eardrum obliterating high end sonic print (aka British Toan).
Conclusion: I like it, i respect more british sounding pedals, but i now want to build the Complex OD. I'm more kinda a plexy guy but never found a good souped up sounding one. And i'm an obsessive tone searcher, tonenaut, whatever you call people who's never happy with the sound
BTW is called Nebula drive because i wanted to experiment with glitter paint and purple-ish knobs, it's a bit fugly but i've imagined a very shinny dressed woman by the name of the original pedal, so I've twisted and multiversed the idea to something shinny and universe/star look a like. I didn't filled the purpose but i bet there aren't many pedals that look like this...hopefully
Pics and sounds:
PPCB Dirty Sanchez test/noodling
First tests were done in a tube pre similar to Vox ac30ish tones and i wasn't very convinced at that point. Then Particle Accelerator took clean channel duties and oh boy, all changed for good! It has this meaty, raunchy sound that has oomph like no other MIAB's I've tried before.
Another thing that surprised me a lot was that i was able to take the gain knob all the way up and still i was able to have usable tones. BUT, that's possible when using with 18volts, with 9 it's ok, but not outstanding. Clipping behaves different to other similar pedals I've done before. For instance the Angry Andy was too fat and somehow the clipping was too aggressive so the sound was "cut", bringing a final unpleasant note that was sticking specially when palm muting or picked the strings too hard. I'm not sure if this was a mistake i made with that build in particular but I've ended up wanting to replace that pedal because of that.
Previous to this, i had a Bogner Ecstasy blue mini that i loved, but had to sell, and this one although it doesn't sound "the same" it gets pretty close and i like it a lot. It was put together as the BOM suggests, so no fancy parts were used. I'm spoiling my builds with box film capacitors tho, because they look cute and in my ears i feel it sounds better than normal poly caps (insert placebo effect).
Another thing i really like about this one is that it's actually quite versatile, low gain, mid gain and mid high all sound great, but i feel this is when we check 2 boxes:
-a really good clean platform, digital or analog, tube preferably (for me at least)
-plugging it at 18 volts as i've stated above. It really opens and gets "enhanced", you can actually feel more headroom and better toans in general.
Is it the ultimate MIAB? I dunno, but i've tried a few and so far it has blown them away for sure.
Will blow all other drive pedals i wanted? Not so fast! I wasn't expecting much on pedals like this, used to avoid IC based drive pedals being afraid of sound too compressed or generic and i wasn't pleased with Marshall/Friedman tones in general. This has changed with trial and error tests and finally i can say i could be happy with this elusive (to me) great sound with bite but not eardrum obliterating high end sonic print (aka British Toan).
Conclusion: I like it, i respect more british sounding pedals, but i now want to build the Complex OD. I'm more kinda a plexy guy but never found a good souped up sounding one. And i'm an obsessive tone searcher, tonenaut, whatever you call people who's never happy with the sound
BTW is called Nebula drive because i wanted to experiment with glitter paint and purple-ish knobs, it's a bit fugly but i've imagined a very shinny dressed woman by the name of the original pedal, so I've twisted and multiversed the idea to something shinny and universe/star look a like. I didn't filled the purpose but i bet there aren't many pedals that look like this...hopefully
Pics and sounds:
PPCB Dirty Sanchez test/noodling
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