Helping You Get There

Vyagra Boost

Tone Shaping / Booster

CONTROLS

• Right Footswitch: True Bypass Operation
• Left Footswitch: Kicks in Parametric EQ
• Gain: 25db of  Clean Boost
• Frequency: Parametric EQ / 220Hz-1kHz
• Cut/Boost: Cut or Boost Frequency Signal

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Anytime I get a chance to try anything from the Crazy Tube Circuits pedal line, I just know I'm going to be in absolute treat. For those of you hardcore pedal addicted stompbox junkies, these pedals are the ultimate fix. It didn't take me long to become a loyal and dedicated fan once getting a hold of these boxes. Everything from the artwork on these boxes to the dynamite sound that they project is highly attractive. Chris Ntaifotis (mastermind behind CTC) has been able to design his pedals with the perfect balance between vintage vibe and traditionally smooth boutique sound. In all of the CTC pedals I have ever tried I've been able to find spot-on classic tones, as well as characteristics that make them all their own beasts. And speaking of tone beast, this is exactly the perfect way to describe the fury of the Crazy Tube Circuits Vyagra Boost. 

The Vyagra Boost's purpose is unlike any other booster you will ever come across. This simple yet extremely effective pedal will most certainly boost your signal into some of the most beautiful and powerful overdriven tones your ears will ever hear. But it is the Vyarga Boost's capability of taking your tone into wild and new horizons that sets it apart from many others. How it does this exactly? We will get to that shortly. This pedal is housed in a heavy duty small footprint enclosure, which makes it great for saving on pedalboard space, and built with only the highest of components. The Vyagra's gain control is capable of a whopping 25db of boost, enough for slamming the front-end of any amp. The freq control works as a parametric eq which lets you dial in a number of different tone characteristics. The cut/boost works inconjunction with the freq control for dialing the eq signal in & out. Last the pedal sports two LED indicators, and two high quality footswitches for true bypass and the for switching in the eq circuit.

Because of the Vyagra Boost's eq section I was able to run it up against every type of pickup and amp imaginable. The sweep of the parametric eq made it possible to fine tune both my clean and dirty tones, and let me convert certain pickup types into completely different animals. The pedal's eq section also made it possible to convert other pedal's into different beast and gave pedals such as modulation and compressors really cool flavors. I started with a duel humbucker equipped semi-hollow guitar and 15 watt tube amp. I set the amp as clean as I could with it's tone control at noon, no verb, and nothing but a pair of high quality cables going to amplifier and guitar. The root tone itself was thick and full of lots of meaty clean harmonics. The Vyagra Boost I set with it's gain control at about 15% power and left the eq circuit out for now. I engaged the pedal and hear the amp go up into an even thicker meatier sound. With the guitar's humbucking pickups I was able to easily get a bit of grit from the signal simply by digging in and striking down on the strings. Chords rang out rich and clear which made the amp sound much more poweful than it actually was. Single notes also had plenty of definition and strength which sounded great with riffs and licks of all sorts. I added in another 10% of the pedal's gain and switched to the neck humbucker. Here the root signal became much thicker and even more grittier depending how I struck the strings. I really liked how transparent the Vyagra's signal was, and how much mileage I could get from it's sound in each gain setting. I switched the pedal in & out to listen for changes in my tone, but there was none. The character of the naked amp was still present, only much more in-your-face. I then dialed the pedal's gain control to give me a medium overdriven signal, something perfect for blues and classic rock. I was actually able to get these great southern rock tones by pushing my amp and using the semi-hollow guitar. All good good stuff. I then took the amp's volume control as loud as it could go, which gave me an organic crunchy tone, and shot it's tone up a bit higher for more sparkle. I then pumped the pedal's gain up to about 50% which pushed the amp into delivering a stunning bedroom/studio level rock tone. The overall sound handed me plenty of everything! Rich harmonics, great overtones, lots of smooth'n'creamy grit, and sweet sweet mojo. Next I took the pedal's gain to full gain, and cranked out an army of different chords. My oh my what a sound that little was able to kick out. I was actually quite taken by how much power the Vyagra had to give. Here is where I began playing with it's eq section. I began by finding the neutral eq frequency, and left the cut/boost control at noon. From here I experimented with shifting from cut to boost. This is where I realized just how many sounds were going to be possible with this pedal. I was able to add weight to my sound or thin it out with just a turn of the cut/boost control. This also let me fine tune my amplifier, which is perfect for those of you who have trouble finding your amp's sweet spot. By cranking the pedal's gain control to the desired spot and setting the eq section just where I wanted it - I was able to get exactly the sounds I was hearing in my head. Next I began playing around with different freq control settings. Very very quickly did things become interesting. To get the sound I wanted form my pickups all I had to do was strum down on a chord and turn the freq control until I found the tone I wanted. Then with the cut or boost I was able to dial in as much or as little of that sound as I wanted. I was able to get cocked wah sounds, treble boost tones, midrange heavy tones, tones that sliced through the air, and just about everything in between all of these. Using this pedal for lead guitar tones was something I found was exceptionally fun. I then plugged the Vyagra Boost into a 100 watt Super Lead and let it fly. I set the amp really loud so it would overdrive into a big natural crunch. Then I stacked the pedal's boost section into it and got an even bigger sound. The Vyagra didn't change the feel of the tone but instead gave it more of what made it sound great. The more of the pedal's gain I pushed into the amp, the more of the amp's mojo I was able to get. Tossing in some of the pedal's parametric eq was also quite delightful. The huge sound of the amp and frequency range of the eq gave me just about every sound I wanted. I could go about playing my amp's natural clean or overdriven tone, then with the Vyagra Boost boost that signal and have the eq pre-switched for a maniacal sound that made everything sound wild and crazy. Then there was mixing in different dirt pedals, such as overdrivers, distortions, and fuzz boxes. The Vyagra Boost worked as an external eq control which could convert every one of the dirt pedals into whatever sound I wanted them to be. Overall the Vyagra Booster worked great with other pedals and many many different amps and guitars. This was only a scratching of the surface of what kinds of sounds one can get from this pedal. It you're a tone perfectionist or just love tone weapons with lots of range - this pedal is for you. 

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For more info on Crazy Tube Circuits go to www.crazytubecircuits.com or click the direct links in our sidebar. Make sure to check back in with us for more awesome CTC features coming very soon! Also make sure to check out our review of the CTC Ziggy overdrive pedal. Just type out Ziggy Overdrive in our search engine.

Crazy Tube Circuits... What else is there to be said?

By now there must be a thousand and one boutique pedal companies doing their thing, with a thousand and one well on the way, and a thousand and one long and gone. As a player and true tone hound finding and separating the "gems" from the "so-so's" has not been easy. It takes a keen ear and heated passion to really know what can take your tone to the next level. When you take a technology as simple as analog pedal building sometimes hitting new ground can be tuff. This is not to say we don't see new and exciting tone tools, new ways to use our gear, and different spin-offs of old time favorites. This is why coming across something with some magic and mojo is always really special. The latest diamond find for me comes all the way from Athens, Greece. Introducing itself to the world as Crazy Tube Circuits, and bringing players everywhere something to be proud about. The man behind the plan here is none other than the talented Chris Ntaifotis. When I was first turned on to Chris's pedal line one thing came to mind... "Cool!". Even before plugging into these pedals I was taken by their hip, slick, and mysterious looks. But style isn't all these little boxes have to offer. Crazy Tube Circuits pedals sound insanely good, are built with top notch gear, and work in many different applications. During the next couple months we will be looking at some of Crazy Tube Circuits slickest designs. Analog War Cry will be plugging into these little beauties to see what makes them tick, and sharing it with you guys to make your tone glands water.

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Ziggy

overdrive

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I will tell you, the one pedal I am the most tuff on is definitely the overdrive pedal. My reason for this being my long time love for tube amp grit and grime. There are many many things pedals can do that amplifiers cannot do, but when it comes to overdrive this is something I have found amps do best. That being said there are also a handful of amazing dirt pedals out there that can create that tube amp grit thing beautifully, and for you clean tone junkies who rely on your stompboxes for your dirt (me) there can be no better pedal. Many of these stunning overdrive pedals seem to have popped up in the last decade or so, either following the blueprints of timeless classics or having something special of their own. The Ziggy overdrive sits somewhere in between these two classes, having a familiar tone structure that is easy to work with, while able to hand you fresh new flavors you can mold into your own. The Ziggy's controls consists of the magic 3-knob layout, being Volume/Gain/and Tone. It sports a true bypass switch, in & out jacks, an LED indicator, 9VDC power jack, really cool art, and an enclosure stuffed with high quality components. The Ziggy works great on it's own, with other pedals, and for many different types of music. You'll find getting an array of warm'n'silky vintage tones, modern tones, and everything in between.

I gotta say, finding a guitar and pickup that didn't sound good with this pedal with damn near impossible! Humbuckers sounded big'n'beefy, Strat single coils screamed with blues soul, P90's rang out like lovely banshees, and Tele pickups swung, sang, and banged! The first setup I plugged the Ziggy into was my modified Hot Rod Deville, and 60's build Strat. I set the amp straight up the middle getting a loud and spanking clean tone, and dialed it's reverb to about 2-3. I began with some mellow, warm, and subtle pedal settings. The Zigggy's volume I matched to the amp's, it's tone I rolled back to about 9'o'clock, and the gain I set to about 15%. This first pedal settings was lovely! I was able to maintain all of my amp's big beautiful clean tone with the ability to hammer in some super mild yet grunty grit when I wanted it to. How the Ziggy reacted to my picking dynamics so well was beyond me! I was able to get the same type of response my tube amps deliver, and able to get these breathy subtle dirt tones at lower volumes too. All I had to do to make the overall sound bite a bit harder was roll up the tone a bot more, and feed the amp a little more of the pedal's volume. From here I took the Ziggy's gain up to about 30%, rolled the tone to noon, and again matched the volume to the amp's. This dirty tone was equally as appealing only in a completely different light. Think SRV's stinging Texas blues tone. The dirt's character was tight, focused, and extremely tamable. It was one of those dirt tones you're able to control and shape with the movement of your fingers. The perfect sound for players who don't rely on many colors or effects, and who let their fingers do all the talking. Next I took the Gain up just passed noon, let the tone bite a bit harder by setting to 3'o'clock, and tapped in a bit more volume to help cook the amp's tubes a bit hotter. Now this tone was interesting. Depending on where I had my guitar's tone knob set took the tone into many different genres. I was still able to get a mean and aggressive blues tone, yet also able to get these great indie rock, alt rock, and awesome classic rock rhythm tones. While flying on some licks I heard something (a tone) that one doesn't come across too often. I rolled off the Deville's verb all the way, let it rip, and got one of the most lovely open and close blues tones I had ever heard. If you've ever heard Buddy Guy's frantic yet awesome and speedy guitar playing you know what kind of sound I'm talking about. Before switching amps and guitars I had to take the Ziggy's gain to 100%. I did this along with setting the tone back all the way, and pushing the volume up almost all the way. I got a knarly loud sound but wow what a epic thing it was. It was nice to finds the pedal's tone was still usable even with it rolled off to zero. Something else I noticed while taking the gain higher and higher was that I was still able to mold and control the dirt with my pick attack. Just like a big bad tube amp! My next session with the Ziggy consisted of an AC15 clone, a 1x12 cab, 2x10 cab, a semi-hollow body with buckers, and a P90 equipped Junior copy. First up to bat was the 1x12 cab and semi-hollow body with buckers. The root tone I set with this amp was completely different from the Deville's. With this amp I was able to set an already somewhat dirty tone, which when blended with the pedal created an entirely new flavor of grit. Now, some pedals are meant to do the dirt thing through a nice big clean tone. Some pedals work great through an already gritty amp sound. This pedal? I'll just say this; the combination of the amp's dirt and pedal's grit was spectacular! The Ziggy complimented the amp's natural grit to make things better all around. I got more undertones, overtones, harmonic richness, thick saturation, and gobs of controllable feedback. Working the guitar's volume in and out, and rolling off the tone control took the pedal's character into some pretty interesting places, almost like switching amps all together. Next I rolled up the amp as dirty as I could get it, with the amp's tone set very high, guitar's tone rolled and set in the neck pickup. The Ziggy's gain I also cranked, only leaving the volume and tone at noon. Trying to pin down and name tag this tone was not going to happen. This was one of those tones that was a thing all it's own. The pedal made my amp bite, scream, and strike at the walls. And this wasn't it, there was still more drive to be had. I was able to use the Ziggy's volume to further push the amp's tubes, add more grit, attitude, and able to set the sound's overall mood with the pedal's tone knob. Then I threw the Junior with it's single Lollar P90 into the mix and went even further into dirt tone heaven. It was like every pickup I threw at the pedal it handled with ease. If you've never pushed a great sounding P90 through a great sounding low watt tube amp you are missing out. If you have you know that sound and know how awesome it is. With the Ziggy thrown into the mix I was able to not only take this tone further, but able to produce more of what made it special. Slapping down on my guitar neck never sounded so good! Depending on how I picked I was able to get semi-clean tones, mellow grit, smooth overdrive, epic roars, and stinging leads. It was going to be impossible to get this pedal to sound bad. Crazy Tube Circuits has not only proven themselves with this one pedal but they have also firmly places themselves as one of the timeless classics to surely come. I these pedal gaining cult status and becoming one of those pedal companies we all drool over. When someone has they just have it and Crazy Tube Circuits has it! Anyone looking for a high quality sounding overdrive pedal will do themselves right by adding a Ziggy to their arsenal. I tell you one thing... never have I been so excited to put a pedal line through it's paces as I am now. Stay tunes for more, you'll be glad you did.

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For more info on Crazy Tube Circuits go to www.crazytubecircuits.com or click on the direct link in our sidebar. We will be keeping a close eye and bringing you more from this kickass company so please keep your eyes peeled. More to come soon!