Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
Tom Kramm I believe is his name.
Solar "Chug" Pedal - Available Now!
- Thread starter lewis
- Start date
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JimF
Contributor
Can anyone with the knowledge, time & inclination please talk me through what you're seeing here and its affects?
Genuinely curious what you see, and what that means. Cheers!
complex-barb.0t
SS.org Regular
- Joined
- May 10, 2022
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- 606
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- 642
I got a chance to play for a few minutes and so far I think it's pretty solid. I was worried that it would be more of a "modern metal" pedal, but that is not the case. No problem getting 80's metal sounds from it. Seems pretty versatile so far. Does not seem like it needs a boost pedal out in front at all. Ola's demo recording were fair and the pedal will mostly sound as advertised. Maybe a knock against it is that some would call this tone a bit "generic"? But if you are not a tone hipster it will be something you are familiar with right away. To avoid using terms like "tube like," I will instead say this does not sound like a can of bees or a cheesy cash-in distortion pedal. Definitions will vary of what a "pre-amp" is, but I think it sounds pretty complete going into an IR/cab sim.
At the moment I am using it ran into my HX Stomp XL with one of the new 3.50 cab sims. It's certainly a pedal you don't have to mess with a lot to make sound good. The gate seems to do the job as well. I am using a very hot pickup (X2N) and didn't notice any lag with the gate opening or stutter-y open/closing.
Anybody else ever wish these pedals in bypass mode could also function as a (basic) noise gate? That would make such a great 2 in 1.
At the moment I am using it ran into my HX Stomp XL with one of the new 3.50 cab sims. It's certainly a pedal you don't have to mess with a lot to make sound good. The gate seems to do the job as well. I am using a very hot pickup (X2N) and didn't notice any lag with the gate opening or stutter-y open/closing.
Anybody else ever wish these pedals in bypass mode could also function as a (basic) noise gate? That would make such a great 2 in 1.
EdgeCrusher
Well-Known Member
Sounds like a MetalZone to me. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as those work pretty well as a preamp pedal in a pinch. I don't really see the appeal though.
complex-barb.0t
SS.org Regular
- Joined
- May 10, 2022
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Interesting, is this from trying both in person or just looking at youtube videos? I have a MZ-W and the CHUG and they do not sound the same to me. I am sure you could EQ both to sound rather similar, but that applies to all high gain pedals. The biggest thing is the MZ-W has some good sounds in it, but the sweep in the knobs is so huge it's hard to hit the sweet spot and you can spend a tun of time trying to dial in a good sound. The CHUG just sorta sounds good with everything at noonish.
ATRguitar91
Well-Known Member
Since it seems like there's a lot of confusion regarding this, my understanding/experience has been that a preamp has both more output and more high/low end on tap.
Not a major distinction and it leaves lots of room for marketing hijinx, but many distortion pedals don't have nearly enough high end content especially to sound passable straight into a poweramp. I find it's usually pretty obvious when I play a pedal what can actually function as a proper preamp.
This Chug pedal has a presence and depth control which put it more in line with the preamp side of things. And going by Ola's demo, he had to turn the treble down a lot when running it in front of a clean channel. So it seems like the preamp designation is fair.
Not a major distinction and it leaves lots of room for marketing hijinx, but many distortion pedals don't have nearly enough high end content especially to sound passable straight into a poweramp. I find it's usually pretty obvious when I play a pedal what can actually function as a proper preamp.
This Chug pedal has a presence and depth control which put it more in line with the preamp side of things. And going by Ola's demo, he had to turn the treble down a lot when running it in front of a clean channel. So it seems like the preamp designation is fair.
lewis
Well-Known Member
I'm biased anyway on this subject because to me, every single pedal like this, on every demo Ive ever heard, sounds better in the loop.
ATRguitar91
Well-Known Member
I agree, but I think that's more so due to the fact that distortion pedals into a clean amp is an imperfect solution, so of course they'll sound better into a clean poweramp.
RevDrucifer
Well-Known Member
That’s correct. A little shameless promotion here, but a few buds and I started another gear forum after being a bit…sick of TGP. Tom has been doing a rolling AMA there for the last few weeks (we’ve also got Eric from Line 6, Justin from York Audio and Santiago formerly of Marshall doing them as well) Link is in my sig.
It’s basically 250 or so goofball guitarists taking the piss out of everything, we’ve got a great group of people there and the vibe is very relaxed and comedic all around.
Tom also owns Spiral Electric FX, which is what he started doing after Digitech/DOD went bye bye temporarily. He’s now doing both. Killer guitarist, too! Any fans of the Freqout, as well as many other Digitech pedals, all owe Tom a beer!
Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
You don't have a sig. Lol
Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
Mobile doesn't show them. Duh. Fucking hell, I must be slow today.
Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
The Kramm Sparkly is apparently a proper Gray Spec. Steve Mavronis (I believe that's his name) so it was on YouTube. Steve did the spreadsheet highlighting the differences between various eras of the 250.
Anyways, I need to buy one some day. It's SMD, so cry in your beer if that matters to you.
RevDrucifer
Well-Known Member
owlexifry
Well-Known Member
the revv G3 uses LED clipping and costs about the same.
LED clipping doesn’t inherently make a circuit cheap or inferior.
- uses a few TL072 opamps as gain stages. probably uses a diode clipping arrangement somewhere, as does just about every distortion pedal ever made.
- there might be a charge pump to boost supply voltage (9V to probably 12V or maybe 15V), but can’t read all the numbers/letters clearly.
That is something no one can deny. The man is doing all the guitarist dream jobs at once
Minus the groupies. Those spoils go to Steel Panther.
HeHasTheJazzHands
Well-Known Member
I said it earlier in the thread but props to Ola for releasing an actual fucking preamp pedal.
Not a distortion pedal that claims to be a preamp.I hope it's successful enough to do a fully-featured two-channel one.
Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
Signed up. Fuck TGP; they banned me over posting a goddamn music video. LmfaoTheGearForum.com
DestroyMankind
Well-Known Member
Was it forced gender reassignment or something?
youngthrasher9
Ur Mom Is Too Much Gain
With a 120w tube power amp, it’s pretty fuckin loud. It’s not something I’d do on purpose.
HeHasTheJazzHands
Well-Known Member
Also depends on the power amp. Some power amps can be controlled by the master volume, and some don't. I wouldn't risk it, in case you have those kinds of power amps that dont.
Even though a guitar signal is still pretty quiet... A 120w+ guitar amp at full blast isn't.
Also guitar > power amp sounds like dull ass anyway.
Also also, I've been checking out videos from other youtubers and uh... the pedal sounds pretty fucking rad.
If they ever do the 2-channel version I previously mentioned, I'd def check it out.
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