What is it? Danelectro CTO-1 Transparent overdrive from Cool Cat series. Made in china, late 00’s. It seems that CO-1 and CTO-1 from the series are becoming rare. There was a time one could snatch one of either one for peanuts through auction sites. I believe these two were manufactured in very limited numbers and…
Author: mirosol
Carlsbro Minifex Flanger
What is it? Carlsbro Minifex Flanger. Made for Carlsbro by Cliff Electronic Components. I’m still not certain about the location where these came from, but the series of 6 pedals was released in 1982 and i suspect the manufacturing span wasn’t more than a year or two, tops. Carlsbro effects have been around for a…
Danelectro CM-1 Metal
What is it? Danelectro CM-1 Metal from Danelectro Cool Cat series. Made in china late 00’s. Another metal distortion. While Dano’s Cool Cat series has pleasing and personal enclosure, most designs seem to be simple rip offs with very little original in them designwise. Currently i’m not sure what this particular unit based on, but…
Ibanez BB9 Bottom Booster
What is it? Ibanez BB9 Bottom Booster, from modern 9-series. Made in china around 2010 or so. There are only a few Ibanez designs that are more like meh. This is definitely not one of those. I had interest for this for some time, before i spotted one for reasonable price tag on one auction…
Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter
One more Boss before moving on… What is it? Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter from compact series. Made in taiwan, april 2008. PH-3 marks a very first digital phaser in the Boss catalog. All the previous ones, released before the year 2000, were more like all standard phasers from any other manufacturer – BBD based analog…
Boss OD-2 Turbo Overdrive
What is it? Boss OD-2 Turbo Overdrive from Boss Compact series. Made in japan, march 1986. The OD-2 was apparent attempt to create a follower for the classic OD-1 which already had a vast user base with lots of hype going for it. In all its simplicity, the OD-1 was pretty much Boss’ venture to…
Boss OC-2 Octave
What is it? Boss OC-2 Octave from compact series. Made in taiwan, april 2001. Another classic from the Boss compact catalog. The OC-2s were originally housed in much lighter brown enclosure with the label “Octaver” on them. The name changed to “Octave” in 1984, meaning that the original ones were manufactured in japan from 1982…
Boss ML-2 Metal Core
What is it? Boss ML-2 Metal Core from compact series. Made in taiwan in january 2009. Sure, i was interested in this due to its reputation. This is supposedly the meanest metal distortion there is and i’ve heard good things about it from people who i share a lot of opinions on sounds. So i…
Boss RV-3 Digital Reverb/Delay
What is it? Boss RV-3 Digital Reverb/Delay from compact series, made in taiwan. Serial number on grey label points to june 1991. But since the units were apparently manufactured from 1994 to 2002 and the label was changed from pink to grey in early 1999, i think it’s safe to assume this follows similar error…
Colorless writings, part 14 – Overcoming the shortcomings
So what shortcomings are we talking about this time? Shortcomings of a classic fuzz circuits. Sure i could rave on about hundreds and hundreds of boosters, overdrives and distortions that simply can’t overcome the unity level of your guitar. In my books that’s a shortcoming. But maybe i’ll reserve those for another part of my…