February/March 1999

GUYATONE MICRO EFFECTS

By Marc Wayner

Guyatone products have been a staple of the Japanese market since the late 1960's. Godlyke Inc. is the distributor of the product line in the US and Canada. They have begun to distribute five of the effects in the Micro Effects series and were kind enough to send us some for review.

The Guyatone Micro Effects series are truly big things in small packages. Each pedal measures a mere 2.75" wide by 3.875" long and 1.5" high. They are made of heavy duty stamped steel. Each effect runs on a 9-volt battery that is included. The battery included is a standard battery, not alkaline, so it may be of limited use to a person who uses the effect on an all-night gig, but it is a nice touch. Each effect has the requisite knobs to control the effect and an Led indicator to show the status of the effect. The switch features true bypass switching, so when you turn the pedal off, it is completely out of your effects chain and thus doesn't suck your signal down and compromise your tone like some pedals. All models also feature a 3-year warranty, longer than you see with many effects.

The look of these pedals is definitely cool. They have an almost retro look about them. Part of this is from the colors they come in. You have hot pink, dark blue, light blue, orange, and purple. Since people are always wondering the order to connect pedals in, it would be neat if these were arranged in that "ROY G BIV" order of the colors of the rainbow, so that we would know the recommended order.

Currently the line consists of the TZ-2 Fuzz, HD-2 Harmonic Distortion, MC-3 Micro Chorus, MD-2 Digital Delay, and WR-2 Wah Rocker. The full line contains 16 pedals and as time goes by Godlyke will be introducing more. They have a micro Reverb unit in the same small package that we are hoping they send us for review when it becomes available, since it looks really cool. Guyatone also makes a series of tube effects that we may also see imported and distributed in the future - this line currently has 8 models in it.

The TZ-2 Fuzz ($89.95 list) is based on the vintage Univox Superfuzz and it has that 60's vibe all through it. It's a raw, buzzy, "Satisfaction" sounding box. The emphasis is on the treble end of the spectrum with lots of high-mid distortion. The sound will cut through a full tilt band with no problem. The effect has controls for Volume and Depth. The volume control, like on most boxes, controls the level when the effect is engaged, and the Depth controls the amount of distortion. The level starts out fairly strong (there was not a lot of subtlety in those 60's fuzzes) and goes up to really intense.

The HD-2 ($79.95 list) is another 60's sounding fuzz box. While the TZ-2 has a lot of harmonic distortion to it, the HD-2 is all harmonic distortion. It's distortion is higher in frequency than the TZ-2 with lots of high-end harmonics. You can find the fundamental lurking below the distortion in the TZ-2. In the HD-2 you've got full-bore rich harmonics. There may be a hint of fundamental in there, but it is hard to find. The HD-2 also has a Level control and a Distortion control that work like those on the TZ-2.

The TZ-2 and the HD-2 are definitely transistor distortions, no overdriven tube amp sounds here. If you are looking for a cutting distortion sound to mimic the sounds of early 60's recordings, or the more cutting sounds of today, give these a look. The Micro Effects line has four other distortion devices in the line for future import and distribution, so if you are looking for other distortion sounds they may be available in the future.

The WR-2 ($95.00 list) is an envelope filter that can produce a variety of auto-wah sounds. Personally I have always found that wah sounds good on one or two songs a night with anything more becoming overbearing. Further, I have never been able to adequately control the wah effect in these envelope filters. If I'm going to use a wah sound, I prefer the foot rocker wah effects, because I can control how they function, rather than the pedal doing the controlling. Those things aside, the WR-2 will do the job as an auto-wah. The effect has controls for Threshold and Decay. Good wah wah players know you have to "tune" your pedal. This is usually done by adjusting the pot inside the pedal, so that you are using it in the frequency range you like for your sound. Some people like their effect to start out bright and go to ear-splitting treble. The controls on the WR-2 allow you to "tune" the effect. The Threshold knob controls how hard you have to hit a string to trigger the wah effect. At it's lowest setting you have to give the strings a good hit to trigger the effect. As you increase the control, it takes progressively less and less attack to get the effect to function. The Decay control gives you some selection of whether you have the before mentioned lower or higher sweep of the wah. Even in the lowest settings the wah remains fairly bright, so if you want a subtle low-end effect, this may not be for you. If you like your wah bright and piercing the WR-2 may be for you. At it's highest settings, the Decay control can give you a sound that does a fairly good approximation of a talk box. Both controls are interactive so you have to play with them awhile to get what you want.

My favorites of the five boxes are the next two. While the previous three boxes are a good value for the money, these are superb. The MC-3 and MD-2 are what are generally referred to as time-delay effects and here is where I think these Guyatone pedals shine. They have more time effects crammed into this little package than you would think possible.

The MC-3 ($99.95 list) is a chorus and what a chorus it is - the sound is lush and full. As with most choruses, there is a Depth and Rate control. The Depth control has an amazing range of sweep to it. The chorus starts out full at the lowest setting and just keeps getting fuller and more lush as you turn it up. The Rate control will give you just a subtle filling out of your tone at the lowest setting. As you turn it up, you get a great approximation of a 12-string sound. At the end of the sweep, you are approaching a sound that is on the edge of Leslie and heading into that underwater territory. The MC-3 will outperform choruses literally twice its size (how could I resist that one?).

Packing a great chorus into this small package is impressive, but putting an entire digital delay in it is awesome. The MD-2 ($135.00 list) is a digital delay that has delay times ranging from 30-800 milliseconds. There are four controls on this box. A slide switch that in one position allows you to get delays from 30 to 200 milliseconds and in the other position gives you a range of 120-800 milliseconds. There is a knob to control the Delay Time within these ranges. The effect Level knob controls the mix of the dry and wet signal. At zero you get only your dry signal. As you turn clockwise you get more and more of the delayed signal, until at full clockwise the wet and dry signals are equal. The last control is for Feedback and it governs how much of the processed signal goes back in for re-processing.

The range of control on this little pedal is phenomenal. You can get a slight delay to fatten up your signal. You can increase the delay time to get a nice sounding doubling sound to simulate two guitars playing in unison. There is a slapback to get a great Rockabilly sound and then there are the longer delay times. There is plenty of delay time in the longer settings to do layering effects, so you can literally play along with yourself. I had a ball using some of these longer settings.

The feedback effect allows you to get multiple repeats out of the initial signal. If you do it right, in conjunction with the right delays, you can have your guitar continue to play while you just stand there. In its extreme settings, the pedal can be made to run off on its own, into an increasingly fast delay until it just explodes! Once a night at the end of a tune this will impress the audience.

I can only find two possible problems with these boxes. One is related to their size. If you are careful when you kick your pedals in, to make sure and just hit the switch, you will have no problems. However, if you are one of those people who stomps down on the entire pedal to kick it in, you may find yourself stomping on the control knobs, either changing their settings or worse, breaking them off, if you are used to bigger pedals with more room for error.

If you are looking for some good transistor distortion sounds or some great chorus and delay effects, give these Guyatone Micro Effects a look. They are good sounding, compact (you could put all five in the pedal space of two or three other brands), competitively priced, cool looking boxes.