Two Stunning Sequels

T-REX MUDHONEY II

Controls (Both Channels)

• Level: Controls overall output
• Gain: Sets grit/crunch/distortion amount
• Tone: Controls high-end roll-off
• Normal/Boost Switch: Switch from moderate to high gain
• Bypass Footswitch: True bypass switching

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The release of this little doozy was one that for me made absolute sense. Like the original this new pedal also works perfectly for all types of rock - from alternative, punk, and hard rock, to blues, country, and classic rock. And also like the first Mudhoney this puppy is also an awesome tool for stacking up with other dirt boxes and overdriven amps. Only with this Mudhoney T-Rex has added a second identical channel for even more tonal range on the fly. Finding suitable amps, guitars, and pickups to match this pedal up with was a piece-of-cake. I was literally able to just plug in and go without any problems,  thanks to the pedal's responsive and versatile controls. I plugged this pedal into everything from Strat's and Les Paul's, to Tele's and semi-hollow guitars, and never found I wasn't able to dial in stunning tones. 


I'll start with my 15 watt head and neck bucker Tele, which I later used with the Mudhoney II on a small gig and ended up being the perfect little tone machine for knocking out all of my overdrive and distortion textures. Later I would discover this would also be quite an impressive setup for studio and recording sessions. With the amount of range that this pedal's gain and tone controls have to offer, it made it possible to dial in everything I needed. Then add in the pedal's boost function and a little meddling of your guitar's controls - and you got yourself a whole new range of tons to play with! Having the ability to set one of the pedal's channels to a light boosted grit, and the other channel to a hotter drive - really made this one of the most useful dirt pedals. Using the pedal to slam into the tubes I was able to get these traditional punchy clean/dirty AC15 tones with lots of highs and smooth mids. Then once engaging the pedal's second hotter channel I was able to push into more distorted and aggressive rock tones. All without loosing the amp's characteristics and maintaining my root tone feel. I was also easily able to control how and when the tone broke up by the dynamics of my picking and strumming. A light touch would provide a sparkling clean tone with gritty undertones, and digging in would take the amp into a howling growl. With ease I was also able to get back to the amp's clean tone by rolling back on the guitar's volume, all without any coloration or drop in tone. Next I experimented with one channel as a clean booster and the other cranked full blast. Here the pedal created an authentic rich'n'smooth golden rhythms and ruff'n'rugged leads. Most awesome was how each pick would respond. In the Tele's bridge pickup the overdrive signal was able to slice and cut with great definition and spank. Ringing out chords never sounded so beautiful! I got great note separation yet still had plenty of attitude to punch out massive sounding chord work. With the neck humbucking picking it was more of the same. I got all of the same note separation and aggression, only with even more smoothness and low bottom thump. I thought to myself "Here I am not even ankle deep into this pedal and it's already pushing out tons of awesome tones." This was something that the first Mudhoney pedals had, and why so many players love them so. Another amp/guitar combo that works nicely with this pedal was my 4x10 Deville and P90 equipped Junior copy. Here also tried the clean booster channel/fully cranked lead channel thing and it was marvelous! The throaty P90 tone cut through like a deadly samurai sword. It was obviously going to be no problem getting this pedal to adapt to whatever pickup you played it through. I was could take the sparkling Fender clean tone into just about any dirt tone I wanted. Through this amp I also got hear what the Mudhoney II sounded like through super loud levels. If you guys have ever played the Hot Rod amps you know how knarly they can get. And with mine sporting four 100watt ten inch speakers, a revamped tone circuits, and a few other tweaks - it gives it enough clean headroom to spare and makes it the perfect amp for running dirt pedals through. With the amp cranked loud enough and the Mudhoney set just right, I was also able to convert it into a Marshall-like demon. The four 10's sounded like a wall of rock god heaven. This amp is also another piece of gear I use a lot for gigs, and with the Mudhoney II it was really nice. On stage the pedal was able to give me the perfect blend of clean to distortion, and able to provide me with those blaring screeching lead tones. Using this pedal live also gave me the opportunity to stack it up with some other pedals... hehehehe. Just for kicks in the middle of a riffing good break down I decided to stomp on the Mudhoney, while already playing through a blaring smooth fuzz tone. The Mudhoney took the fuzz pedal's grimey sound and twisted it into a mothership of psychedelic harmonics and overtones. Then there was pushing this pedal though an already overdriven signal, which was probably one of my ways to use this pedal. Through both pedal overdrive and amp overdrive the Mudhoney II came through with flying colors. After playing around with the Mudhoney II for a couple days I would safely describe it as a pedal capable of a huge range of dirty tones, a pedal that plays well with other stompboxes, and a pedal that thrives when matched up with tube amps.... and just a kickass pedal PERIOD!

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T-REX ROOM-MATE

Controls

• Mix: Mixes the dry and the wet signal. Set at 12 you can hear the guitar go through
• Decay: Determines the length of the spring, that is emulated
• Hicut: Cuts the high notes on the tail of the reverb. Giving the tail a smooth sound
• Level: Controls the output volume
• Gain: Controls the level on the input signal. With this knob you can turn down the input signal, if it is too power full. The green light on top of the pedal will go red, if the input signal is too high and makes the pedal distort

Reverb Types

• Spring: Sounds like an old vintage Fender amp with the typical spring based reverb
• Room: Typical room reverb. Like a clinic in a small room
• Hall: Sounds like a big concert hall
• LFO: Reverb with chorus

(Pedal gives stereo output through the left and right output jack plugs)

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I could very easily describe this pedal in one sentence simply by writing - The end-all be-all reverb pedal for the masses. But I won't stop here. First let me say I honest to God thought there was no way T-Rex could improve on the Room-Mate... boy was I wrong. I myself never owned a first version Room-Mate but nontheless I am quite familiar with the pedal. The first Room-Mate is a pedal that many cats that I know use in their studios and gigging pedalboards. For this reason I must admit that when I first heard there was going to be a new Room-Mate hitting the streets, I got giddy with excitement. Never did I think it would end up being as amazing as it is. Features I won't go into, if you want to read up on the new Room-Mate's features look above or click here. It is all about how this pedal works with you and your tone, and how versatile of a reverb box it is. 


I'll start with some honest to goodness classic spring reverb tones. For this I plugged into my Super Lead and Telecaster. The big booming sound of the 100 watt Marshall in fact ended up being the perfect canvas for the new Room-Mate's awesome tones. To achieve a vintage voiced spring verb sound was indeed very very easy. I simply set the mode switch to spring, dialed in it's controls to my liking, and that was that. Right there swimming out from my amp was a lush sparkling classic reverb tone that had my guitar sounding pretty damn hip. I had the perfect blend of British attitude and classic American verb, which made for one very cool tone. I slowly went from a clean tone to pushing the amp into a light grit. With the pedal's decay and mix controls I could dial-in just the right amount of effect and feel. It was nice having the ability to have a big decayed reverb only mixed in lightly. This created this strange reverb that sat intensely behind the amp's root tone. Lots and lots of fun. When I first demo'd this pedal I had done it through a Twin Reverb (the king of all reverb amps if you ask me). This would later lead to comparing both of the reverb types. A/B-ing the amp and pedal's reverb tones I must say was quite tuff, and I will have to honest here - I did choose the pedal more times than I did the amp. Later when getting deeper into this pedal I knew exactly why this was - It is the Room-Mate's tone quality. Even at low almost undetectable rverb settings the pedal gives your root tone a little bit of sweetness. This is one of those pedals that holds all of the mojo that makes a great vintage tone great, yet takes this tone into higher grounds. This let me pull surfy psychedelic 60's verb tones and light fluffy whispers, with plenty of warm and definition. All literally a breeze for this pedal. With the pedal's wide range of controls I could pull a bunch of variations on each reverb tone I dialed in. This automatically makes this a killer gigging reverb. Anyone without a on-board reverb would do themselves proper by snatching up one of these pedal's.  Then there was using this pedal as a studio tool (which is where the fun really began). Not everyone can afford expensive rackmount reverb tools or has room for big bulky reverb tank units. This pedal is a perfect alternative to all of this. I'm the type of cat that when recording uses the best tool for the job. Not always what might work best for one application work for another. Sometimes I like to use something flashy, sometimes I use a plug-in, and sometimes I use pedals. With the new Room-Mate I was able to get all types of uses out of it. One of my favorite was using it's room reverb effect in recording sessions and live gigs. With drums and vocals this especially worked best. I was able to give my drum tracks a big, sweet, forgiving room sound that added size and muscle to the overall sound. I recorded these hi-hat/kick/snare tracks with a stereo overhead and mic in the kick, that in the end sounded pretty damn impressive (thanks to my micing techniques and skills, hehehehe). Later when adding the Room-Mate's room reverb things got even sweeter. I was able to hear and feel all of the room's characteristics and sweet acoustics. This possible with both hall and room settings. Adding the pedal's hall reverb also sounded great with fuzz pedals and high gain distortions. I myself really enjoy using an exaggerated hall verb with fuzz for adding spooky and psychedelic layers to tunes. It's a great way to create background noise and make your fuzz notes trail on forever. Then last came the super cool super hip LFO reverb mode. Oh mama! I've heard and played many different takes on this type of reverb before, and thought either they were too much or just not interesting at all. With this pedal it is not like so. The LFO mode really takes your tone and turns it into something wild and special. I was able to get these beautifully aquatic-like reverb/chorus hybrids, then take her all the way up to trippy warbling madness. Again, having the amount of control that that this pedal offers made it a cinch to get tons of different variations. From one end of the reverb spectrum to the other - I was able to cover just about every sound you could imagine. This is one of those pedals that really needs no help in speaking for itself - a pedal that will for sure become a collector's in years to come. 

Top Finds of 2009 / BMF Effects

Los Angeles as far back as I can remember has always been quite generous when it comes to supplying us with great guitar shops. It doesn't matter if you live down by the beach or up towards hollywood or downtown, LA has got it covered. It was in one of these shops that I first came across the BMF Effects line. Right there in my favorite shop's display case was a handful of simple looking guitar pedals I had never seen before. I looked over at the cat behind the counter as if to ask "How are these?" He gave me a nod as if to say "Oh yeah, very very nice." I pulled out the first BMF pedal, then the next, and so on and so fourth. One after the other they all blew me away. Then the shop clerk says "You ain't seen nothing yet, check out this prototype that BMF just sent us..." I took the pedal, grabbed a Custom Les Paul off the wall, plugged into a kickass amp, and let her rip. The most lovely rock distortion I could have ever dreamed of flew out from the amp and punctured my soul. I went home that day and emailed BMF Effects letting them know just how impressed I was with their gear. Later that night Scott Kiraly (builder/owner of BMF Effects) introduced himself and thanked me for my kind words. A few weeks later there's a package at my door, and what do you think that package was? That's right, the same magical distortion box that had knocked me on my ass back at the shop. Only now it was no longer a prototype, now that pedal had a name.

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BMF Effects

Hermosa Beach, CA

Builder: Scott Kiraly

Years in the Game: 6

The Great Wide Open

Distortion

This simple little stompbox is by far one of the most exciting effect pedals I have come across not just in the last year, but in my entire life. Looking at The Great Wide Open you wouldn't think there'd be much to it, or that it'd be capable of much at all. This is exactly what makes this guitar pedal so freakin' cool. The tones possible from this pedal will not only stun you, but turn your amplifier into a rich, harmonically charged raging box of grit and distortion. I don't know what kind of wizardry Scott Kiraly pulled to put together such a great sounding pedal, but whatever combination of components he did use they most cfertainly are the right ones. The Great Wide Open consists of a solo Volume knob, a true bypass footswitch, LED, and a heavy-duty enclosure sporting a killer looking yellow finish. "So how does this pedal work? ", you must be wondering. The Great Wide Open's single knob works by adding a beautifully balanced, thick'n'gritty rock distortion to your amp's root tone, all without eating away any it's natural character or feel. The eq projection all the way across the tone spectrum perfectly meshes together to create a full, even, and lush distortion sound. This eliminates the need for any bass, mids, or treble controls on this pedal which leaves all the tone shaping in your amp and guitar. The level of distortion that the Great Wide Open produces is fairly strong, living somewhere between a high overdrive and mid sized distortion tone. The pedal's sound can be used for both rhythm guitar or lead work, and can easily be manipulated by your guitar or other booster/dirt pedals. My favorite way to work this pedal was on it's own and using the guitar's volume to bring things down or blow them back up. All in all not one application we threw at this pedal sounded bad. It dug every pickup combo we played it through, and sounded swell with high, mid, and low watt amplifiers.

I happened to be doing some tone hunting for my band's next recording session when the Great Wide Open first arrived on our doorstep. If you only knew the mess of stompboxes, cables, and mic techniques that I was tangled in, it was like looking down on a sonic labyrinth. The gear created a maze made up of different colored dirt pedals, different styles and lengths of guitar cables, and every guitar we had. Everything leading to an amp in just about every room I thought would give me a good sound. If you've ever worked in the recording studio environment you know how much of a pain in the ass working out guitar tones can be. My partner says "Why don't we take a break and play around with this new pedal. It might even help us out with our little project here." I tell you, it was like one of those moments in rock & roll history that you hear about, where some killer piece of gear magically appears and saves the day. I took the Great Wide Open out of it's box and plugged it into the only amp still in the room, a '65 Deluxe Reverb reissue that was on loan to us from a good buddy. The first guitar to put the Great Wide Open through it's paces was a great sounding stock Les Paul Studio. The only thing besides the Great Wide Open, guitar, and Deluxe Reverb were a pair of coily Bullet Cables from Core One. I started with the guitar's rhythm pickup, plugged into the amp's Normal channel with everything set at 7, and dialed the Great Wide Open straight up the middle. I smashed down on a handful of huge sounding rock chords, and next thing you know an epic distortion sound came tumbling out of the speakers. I wanted to cry, literally wanted to weep like a little baby. The dirt tone had power, character, and most importantly a wonderful feel. The sound was spot-on exactly what I was looking for and hearing in my crazy head. The Les Paul and Deluxe Reverb alone already sounded pretty damn good. Without the pedal engaged I could easily get some naturally pushed thick/rich tube grit. Stepping down on the pedal in conjunction with the Les Paul and it's pickups was an entirely new beast though. The lows bellowed like ghosts, mids rang out like engines, and highs sliced through the air to let the distortion cut through clearly and evenly. It's as if Scott took a great sounding tube amp, dialed it in to the hottest sounding dirt tone he could think of, and somehow took it and shoved it into a little yellow box. Everything about the pedal's sound played and felt right, just like a overdriven vacuum tube. It doesn't end there though, there's more to the Great Wide Open than just a great sounding tone. The pedal has a character all it's own which separates it from other stompboxes. This is called a signature sound, something not easily achieved. This is a distortion pedal strictly for the tone purist, tone hunter, and tone hound. The more I played the better the sound got. I think it's safe to say this pedal works beautifully with humbuckers, I couldn't have gotten a bad sound if I tried. Another guitar that got to taste the Great Wide Open's fury was a Strat we had put together ourselves. For this we switched into the amplifier's other channel to have the option of using some reverb and vibrato. I dialed in a cleaner a tone, shaved off some treble, bumped up the bass, and flipped the reverb up to 3/4. I had the perfect signature blackface clean tone, a perfect starting point for a great sounding dirt box. Just like expected the sound of the Great Wide Open through the single coils was equally as exciting. All of the richness, chime, and bounce of the amp's natural sound, mixed in and blended with the pedal's distortion to create an explosion of rock and roll heaven. I was getting tones perfect for cutting through any mix, tones that bloomed with animation, and tones that made blues licks shake your spine and tickle your bones. The distortion had the same amount of grit'n'grime through the single coil as they did through humbuckers, only with an entirely different feel. I was able to play with the same intensity and attitude, only with a much more stinging and biting sound. I was getting this almost cocked wah color to the tone when playing up at the higher frets, maybe it's just the natural touch of my playing but I definitely heard it loud and clear. Even when playing softly and picking lightly the Great Wide Open delivers a strong amount grit. I was getting the same clarity I would have gotten from a clean tone only with a nice dose of overdrive and distortion. In the hour or so that had passed since I plugged in the Great Wide Open, I had more distortion tones than I needed to get started with our recording session. I mean it was all too easy, all I needed to do to get a good sound out of the pedal was turn it up. There was one sound in particular that really got my blood pumping, a sound that has become one of my main guitar tones. It wasn't a sound played through humbuckers or Strat single coils though... P90's was the starting point for this tone. It was by pure mistake that I came across this sound too, I had left certain things on when I went to step on the Great Wide Open. I had a A/B box that was switching In & Out two different amps. One amp being a Super Lead and the other being a dingy little Silvertone 1482 amp that we like to use in small closets and isolation cabs. The Silvertone has two channels, one labeled Microphone, the other Instruments. The amp's secret weapon and what gives it it's unique sound is it's cool sounding tremolo circuit. I went to step on the Great Wide Open when I heard what sounded like the most insane Robin Trower sound. At first I couldn't figure out what the hell was doing what, you have to remember I had a sea of gear laid out on the floor. The pedal's distortion along with the crushed sound of the little amp being in a iso-cab created this enormous sound. The tremolo from the amp pumped the Great Wide Open's furious sound in and out, making this monstrous breathing effects that sat perfectly through our monitors. I had the sound I wanted, and all it took was this one-knob little wonder. I can't imagine anyone not digging this pedal, not pros, bedroom rockers, or working players. It's just one of those pedals that creates a sound for everyone and every type of music. BMF Effects has landed way up on my favorite pedal companies of all time and it's all because of this little yellow box. Analog War Cry has more from this awesome company coming in the next few weeks so I suggest you keep an eye out and check out what we have coming up. Scott also has a new pedal in the works, a low to med gain overdriver called "El Jefe". We will make sure to try and bring some more news on this pedal and anything else BMF has in store. For now the name of the game is called the Great Wide Open, and oh what a tasty game it is.

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For more info on BMF Effects go to www.bmfeffects.com There is a bunch of info on where you guys can find their pedals and audio/video demos as well. Analog War Cry does have a some more killer sounding features from this stunning pedal company in the near future so please stay tuned.