Off Topic Hardwire Pedals Anyone?

[whitestrat]

So chuffed with these, can't resist spreading the word.

I think Digitech really hit the pay dirt with these guys. They're well built, sound killer, and best of all? the ENTIRE range seems to be quite good from the online reviews I get.

http://www.digitech.com/hardwire.php

I recently got the Valve Distortion, Reverb and Delay/Looper. My thoughts so far:

I'm damn impressed. The Valve Distortion gives a very impressive heavy modern sound, without being Metal. A few more tweaks, and my Fender tube amp becomes a Marshall JCM800. If i use it to boost a Keeley DS-1, I get one killer lead tone. Searing, soaring and bright. On it's own, it's a little darker than I'd like, but the gain is very usable, and that "saturated" mode is something good to use for chugga chugga rhythms. But one thing, this pedal LOVES high output pups. It significantly sounds better with 500k pots and a good output humbucker. With singles, it's nice, but not as searing.

The DL8 is good and warm. It's got every thing built in, with an 8 sec delay, and a 20 sec looper that can be overlayed twice, giving 2 different guitar backing bits simultaneously. Not too experienced with delays, but I do know that this one has everything built in, and it sounds good. So I probably won't look at another delay unless it's got something this one doesn't have.

The REALLY impressive one is the RV7 Reverb. I ABed it against one of the most DEMANDING reverbs of all time. My Fender Long Spring Tank Reverb. Believe it or not, the RV7 was able to REPLICATE the organic tone of the analog spring reverb. It nailed it so close, I wouldn't be able to tell in a blindfold test. I think keeping the dry signal true bypass even when it's ON has something to do with this. This pedal uses Lexicon licensed reverb tones. That's something major in the efx industry. If it can generate a true lexicon type reverb, then I'm impressed.

And I am.

Can't wait to try the chorus, the overdrive and the metal distortion.

 

[fbecir]

Today, I was in a guitar shop in Paris and I was really tempted by the Valve Distortion ...
Now that I have read your post, I will have to buy one !

What kind of Fender tube amp are you using ? Perhaps you can do some sound clips because the ones on Digitech site are not very long and interesting.

Thanks for your quick review

 

[threeminutesboy]

François should we go together to get a better price

 

[Lou]

I'm still impressed by the Bad Monkey I have. Great pedal too. Thanks for the review.

 

[Jonny Dubai]

Yes mate. I got the tube overdrive CM 2. It is just the best pedal I have ever got. Tone up the wazoo!!!! I use it as a solo boost and it ticks all the boxes for me. Got a great review in gitarist mag too. I tried it next to t ts9 and a zack wylde od and it blew them all away IMO. Its not leaving my rig.

J

 

[TNT]

I compared the Digitech "Hardwire" Series Reverb pedal with other pedals, than compared it to my tube driven reverb in my Marshall head.

It now occupy's the reverb slot on my pedal board!!

 

[whitestrat]

What kind of Fender tube amp are you using ? Perhaps you can do some sound clips because the ones on Digitech site are not very long and interesting.

I'm using a Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue. 15w, 6v6, full tube. The Jensen Speaker doesn't seem to like distortions very much, as a Keeley Metal Zone sounds like crap on it. Hahahahaha... Might think of shoe horning a Vintage 30 or Greenback in there.

I can't do clips that way because I don't have the means of recording from amp. BUT, maybe I could use my PODXTLive to demo it? Lemme go try.

 

[jbert]

I'm very happy with the RV-7 reverb also - especially the plate and modulated settings.

Jbert

 

[whitestrat]

Yes mate. I got the tube overdrive CM 2. It is just the best pedal I have ever got. Tone up the wazoo!!!! I use it as a solo boost and it ticks all the boxes for me. Got a great review in gitarist mag too. I tried it next to t ts9 and a zack wylde od and it blew them all away IMO. Its not leaving my rig.

J

Ok... The Digitech Hardwire Tube Overdrive. I just got this.

I honestly think the name is stupid, because there's no point letting people think that there's a tube hidden inside. They should have called it simply Overdrive. Or better still, Overdrive Distortion. (maybe there's trademark issues with this though?)

But that's where the stupidity for this pedal ends.

This is one serious MOFO we're dealing with. It's transparent, powerful, versatile, and guess what? It's a fantastic booster whichever way you want to set it up.

On it's own, I tried to see if this thing could dispose of my fav TS9 stock pedal. It threw out the TS9 and more. You CAN replicate TS9 dynamics tone and character with it. But that's where the similarity ends. This thing kicks off my pedal board not only the TS9, but the much vaunted chrome bodied MI Audio Tubezone Overdrive that costs so much. Now, don't get me wrong, the TZOD is not a bad pedal. In fact, it's damn good. But I prefered a little less colouring, and a bit less characteristic. The TZOD is good for people who want a completely different tone for their leads and rhythm work, but the TZOD can get a little overpowering by itself.

The CM2 is interesting because of one simple fact: the mode switch. On Classic, it's a nice TS9/OD9/SD1 kind of pedal. But when you flick it to modified, you get a DS-1 kind of character. Not as much drive, but sometimes you want a little more grunt and grit with the TS9. This pedal is it. It's basically 2 tones in one pedal, and again, like many "boutique" pedals out there, I wish they made the 2 modes foot switchable.

When it's used as a volume booster, it can add quite a bit of colour to your original tone, OR simply match the EQ of the boost with your rhythm tone, and you get a clean boost, or a dirtier boost. I used my Valve Distortion as a gain booster, and it works like a charm.

But here's where the pedal REALLY shines. We tried this with a Seymour Duncan tube OD pedal, and used the CM2 as a gain booster. The CM2 simply saturated the SD tubes to the max, and gave that tube pedal a "Metal"-like lead tone. Powerful, searing, but FAT. REALLY big sounding. And the louder you play it, the better it sounds. And this was on a solid state amp.

The funny thing is, I also used it to push a TS9. Non tube right? How to push? The results were damn interesting. High gain overdrive/distortion tone. The TS9 was completely puffed up, and somehow, the highs from the CM2 came through as well, and the overall tone was seriously big and cut through. I tried this combo with a Fender tube amp. The sound was still remarkably vintage, but with a more hi-fi sort of twist.

Another scary pedal from the Hardwire line. this one was REALLY damn impressive. Works wonderfully with humbuckers, but really shines with single coils. Pair this with the valve distortion which works better with humbuckers, and you get a fantastic combo.

Can't wait to see how this works with a crunchbox.

 

[robelinda2]

I'm still impressed by the Bad Monkey I have. Great pedal too. Thanks for the review.

Agree! If they make a new overdrive pedal as versatile as the Bad Monkey i'll buy it.

 

[whitestrat]

Agree! If they make a new overdrive pedal as versatile as the Bad Monkey i'll buy it.

Trust me... go try the CM2. play with it for a while in the store.

 

[robelinda2]

No stores have em here yet, that ive seen.

 

[DrGonzo5150]

No stores have em here yet, that ive seen.

None over my side either...

 

[robelinda2]

Even if I did see them here it would be a few years before you saw them in Perth.......

 

[RocketRalf]

Ok... The Digitech Hardwire Tube Overdrive. I just got this.

I honestly think the name is stupid, because there's no point letting people think that there's a tube hidden inside. They should have called it simply Overdrive. Or better still, Overdrive Distortion. (maybe there's trademark issues with this though?)

I think it's called like that because it's similar to a TUBE Screamer

 

[whitestrat]

I've just gotten the Metal Distortion.

All you metalheads... This is ONE pedal you want to go and try...

This pedal please 2 crowds. The old school metal chugga chugga people, and the nu metal chugga chugga people. You want that old Metallica Kill Em All tone? it's here. you want that new Alterbridge Blackbird tone? it's here. It's brutal, it's big, it's bassy, and it's BRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

There was a problem with the Keeley MT2. It was a killer metal pedal. Opened up by Robert Keeley with all his mods. I actually think he magically managed to open up the freq response of the pedal very well. But somehow, Like most, it's hard to get a really low growl that's heavy not in terms of loudness and grind, but in low freq rumble too. The only way you'd get that from the Keeley MT2, is to use it with a good amp, and a 4x10 cab. On a 1x10, it's still open, heavy, but compared to the TL2, it sounds wimpy. So, the amp itself was instrumental to this big open wall of sound that people wanted. (or at least, me.)

But like the MT2, the TL2 has the SAME kind of controls. Level, Bass, Highs, Mids, Mid Freq, and Gain. That's probably as close to each other as they get. Next to the TL2, the MT2 still sounded like a, injured mosquito. While the Metal Muff was nice and tight at the top, it had that bass openness problem too. I felt that it still could have been more open and loose. Audibly, to me a good metal pedal should sound through an amp like what had already been engineered on those recordings. They should be able to make a good small tube amp sound like it's full open potential (and not box it in). The MM was not as controllable as I'd have liked it to be. It was not as tweakable as the MT2. What the MM had which I loved was a boost function, which unfortunately, not even the TL2 has.

The TL2, somehow, sounds fantastic on a small amp. It sounds amazingly powerful, wide, chuggy on BOTH my vintage voiced Fender PRRI and the Laney VC15. Both have been known to some extent to suck tone from modern sounding pedals (at least, the Jensen speakers are probably the culprit), though the Fender works better in this sense than the Laney. The TL2 on these 2 amps sounds like the MT2 did on that Dual Rectifier with 4x10 cab I loved to jam with. That's some feat right there.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzgxc62ZWSk]YouTube - Digitech Hardwire Metal Distortion[/ame]

What you're NOT hearing from that sound clip is the low rumble I love so much on the loose setting. Imagine being surrounded by wall to wall Marshall amps. That scary low rumble that makes your spine shiver. that's what the TL2 somehow manages to provide.

The tight setting, is not really my fav. Because I don't like sharp shrill metal tones. Like what Megadeth and Metallica used to have. Or like what Trivium currently uses. I like the Evanescence and Alterbridge styled chugs. but having said that, this tight setting is definately usable, because it's heavy, tight, but does not buzz like the old MT2 (mozzy) quality. It's more like a super high gained DS1. The loose setting has more gain, more bass, more growl.

Something metal pedals lacked in the past, was the ability to deliver good tones for BOTH rhythms and leads. An oft cut thru rhythm tone meant a weak, puny, shrill lead tone. You'd usually need a booster to beef up the tone before you go solo. Not for the TL2. This is where I say it truely shines as a SINGLE pedal. A nice chugga tone, with enough highs to get that definition, but totally transforms on single notes to a warm fat tone that lets you shine as a player. The best example? Think of Michael Romeo's tone on "Seprent's Kiss" in "Paradise Lost". that's what you CAN get with this ONE pedal.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO-cpWpzxVA]YouTube - Symphony X "Serpent's Kiss"[/ame]

The TL2 has also one more thing the MT2 lacked. Lead tone dynamics. I'm surprised that this pedal, sounds nice even at low gain, where the MT2 used to choke. And even at high gain, the TL2 is surprisingly transparent enough to allow the string dynamics to come through on a neck pup. That's odd... and like the previous hardwire pedals, the louder you play it, the better it sounds. The tone controls seem to have a wider reach than those on the MT2.

All in all, the TL2 has shown itself to be a dynamic and versatile pedal, which gives tons of good tones. Like all complex pedals, it need a bit of tweaking to get tones you want.

 

[RocketRalf]

From what I can tell by that video, it sounds better than the Metal Zone, but not still has good as my Solid Metal IMHO it's still great for the price though.