March 1996

GUYATONE MICRO EFFECTS

By Dominic Hilton

(NOTE: some of the pedals mentioned in this article are not yet available in the US. Contact Godlyke Inc. for details)

There was a time when guitarists had to rely on their humble fingers to provide any effects. With the advent of electrification, manipulation of the guitar's controls provided cool swells and embryonic wah sounds. Speakers were slashed with razor blades by angry young upstarts hungry for distortion and various Heath Robinson devices altered tuning or spun speakers around in unwieldy boxes. These methods of altering tone are all still available today, along with everything that has happened in between; B-benders and vintage pedals to digital racks and delicate software. But when these 14 little fellows spilled from their packaging like cuboid Smarties, my mood was lightened because, for me, pedals rule.

Guyatone have a line of compact and affordable effects to tempt the core of users who prefer the simplicity of pedals to the flexibility of racks. The range covers most of the main ingredients of tonal cuisine with a few unusual additions.

LAYOUT

All 14 pedals share the same structure: Bath-shaped metal case, plastic knobs, chunky metal footswitch, LED indicator, plastic sockets, 9-volt adapter socket and a rubber band. This is one aspect of the construction that I am not sure about. The base of these units is a flat metal plate that sits on the out-turned lip of the case bottom. The rubber band has a U-shaped cross-section that stretches around the perimeter of the base and sandwiches the plate to the case presumably doubling as a stage-gripping surface. As well as being a fumblesome way of accessing and covering the battery compartment, I would also question its life expectancy. Still, it does work and if you are using a mains adapter these gripes will pass you by.

Internal components are neatly soldered to a PCB; some, like the reverb, have two stacked on top of each other to fit all of the electronics into the dinky box. The PCB's are protected from shorting against the base plate by a flexible piece of insulating material and the battery sits next to them, rattle-free.

In general they are well made, robust units and the colorful, funky styling is more fun than most of the sober competition.

IN USE

The accompanying instruction guide covers the whole range of pedals and means you only get a couple of lean paragraphs of info on your purchase. But they are such simple creatures that a few minutes with each on is enough to tell you all about it. For my part, I will look at the six distortion-type effects first, using the Hard Rocker as the starting point (this seems to be the closest to a 'standard' distortion pedal) and then compared the other five. After a paracetamol and a quick lie down I'll weather the sonic gymnastics of the remaining eight units and report my findings. Deep breath…

HARD ROCKER (HR-2)

As with the other distortion units there is only a Level and Gain control, nothing to color the sound, so using this to dirty up a clean tone will require a compromise between the EQ of each. The HR-2 provides a large amount of boost and the distortion is a classic example of a solid state pedal. The gain works between positions 2 and 8 and at lower settings produces unspectacular crunch tones. Raised to 5 and above the distortion takes on an authority and delivers crisp, heavy tones. This sort of tone is comparable to similar units and as such is fairly bright and metallic, which may not be to everyone's taste. The startling amount of boost available would make this a suitable candidate for increasing the volume of your dirty channel when it came to solo time

OVERDRIVE (OD-2)

This orange pedal has a lot less boost but a much warmer, looser sound. Where the HR-2 was loud and crisp this is a subtle and softer distortion and, as the name would suggest, similar to the overdrive found on older amps. To match the level of the effect with that of the bypass sound required the level control to be up to about two thirds, which is true for most of these units, so there is little offered in terms of a volume boost. The Drive control works smoothly, adding distortion from virtually clean to creamy overdrive. Ear friendly, but not enough for the metal dudes.

HARMONIC DISTORTION (HD-2)

Resplendent in salmon pink, the HD-2 was a pleasant encounter. Again less boost than the HR-2 but with an equivalent amount of gain. However the tone was much thicker and punchier, and certainly less grating. Using it for lead there was enough gain for pinched harmonics and all the usual malarkey, with a roundness and complex harmonic structure that produced a satisfying tone. A lively little box.

SUSTAINER D (SD-2)

This is in fact another distortion unit and not a compressor, as the name may suggest. It has a similar tonal texture to the HR-2; less output and punch than the latter but with loads more sustain. Generally this would be well suited for lead work, or filling out a crunch channel as the urge took you. For standard chord work the sound is a little woolly, although not unusable, but the real strength of the SD-2 is for wailing out "Parisienne Walkways."

METAL MASTER (MM-2)

Ouch! I should have guessed this pedal would be painful, with its black and red crackle finish and a name like that. The MM-2 has easily as much boost as the HR-2 but sounds even harder and brighter. This unit differs from the others as it has a certain amount of tone control in the form of a 3-position switch offering different EQ curves. The first is for a boosted midrange, the second is flat and the third for a cut (or scooped) midrange. The first position warms things up but there is no escaping this is brutal stuff; position 2 is a little nondescript, but more equally balanced for lead and chord work; the final position gives that full-on thrash tone and if you are going to buy a pedal like this then you might as well use it to its fullest, nastiest extreme. Be warned, the unapologetically fierce tone gives the impression of playing under water when you bypass to your clean sound!

THE FUZZ (TZ-2)

This is Guyatone's stab at the kazoo tones of the old fuzz box. A horribly spongy bottom end and ultra fizzy highs are the perfect recipe for recreating those dodgy old sounds of hippydom. The Depth control governs the amount of fuzz and can be quite subtle, but in the upper limits adds a creaminess that sounds most authentic. By no means the most aggressive of fuzz units - which is a bonus considering the lack of a tone control - the TZ-2 does a fine job of producing the sitaristic drone of the 60's - and, unlike a Fuzzface, it will easily fit in your kaftan pocket!

PHASE SHIFTER (PS-2)

This is a fab little box. The controls are workable to their limits - no phasers set to stun here - and it has that juicy, watery quality that makes the vintage phasers so desirable. Depth, which adjusts the amplitude of the phase shift and Speed, which controls the speed of the modulation, are capable of producing gentle pulses or Atomic Punk swooshings. It works equally well with clean or dirty sounds and, with some fiddling, can touch on the textures of chorus, wah or flanger.

VINTAGE TREMOLO (VT-2)

This type of effect has reappeared with a vengeance over recent years, probably as tremolo was a feature on many sought after vintage amps - or REM's 'Monster.' The VT-2 is a gentle contender amongst the competition, not offering the square on-off-on stutter. It concentrates instead on the spectrum of softer cyclical swells. The Depth control travels from the imperceivable below position 3 to a dramatic pulse at 10. Rate spans lazy tremolo to the frantic warble of a Stylophone. Authentic and simple.

MICRO CHORUS (MC-2)

A bit of a misnomer as the chorus effect from the MC-2 is as big as most of its larger floormates. The Rate and Depth controls offer a sensible range of modulations with an impression of warmth and depth. Big processing sounds from this little blue bump.

EXCITER (EX-2)

This effect is intended to "create a perception of increased energy of the mid to high frequency signals without actually increasing the volume." Well it does give the impression of being louder but then the Level control enables you to actually make it louder and then how do you know if the effect is just making it seem louder or it is in fact louder? Duh. The Exciter control adds the amount of sonic arousal to the signal and seems to work much like a Presence control. Therefore it would be useful if you wanted to add a touch more sparkle to one of your stock sounds if your EQ system was inflexible. While I wasn't that excited about the Exciter it does have a viable application.

NOISE DEFENDER (ND-2)

This effect is a noise gate, intended to be in use permanently in a less than silent setup. For this reason it has no footswitch and is blessed with just one control. This governs the threshold at which the ND-2 kicks in and cuts off the noise after the played note is decayed. This depends entirely on your rig and is best adjusted by ear. I gave it hell with a single coil, hollow bodied guitar played feet away from a high gain combo. It coped remarkably well; after a few tweaks I could hold a note until it naturally faded then the impending hum and buzz was swallowed by a graveyard silence. One area that the ND-2 was unable to deal with was jumping in quickly after playing single, stabbed chords - it was simply too slow. Then again it is no a 3-unit rack system and performs well for its extreme simplicity - useful for singer/guitarists who only play in the chorus and don't want to worry about turning their guitar up and down because they're too busy scoping the beautiful people.

MICRO DIGITAL DELAY (MD-2)

There are three knobs and a mode switch crammed onto the top of this pedal which offer: Delay Time (how quick the repeat happens), Effect Level (wet/dry mix), Feedback (how many times the note repeats), and the Mode switch offering the choice of a 30-200 mS or 120-800 mS range of delay. These functions they perform admirably, from Rockabilly slapback to cascading multitudes of repeats worthy of Senor Gilmour. This unit certainly holds its own with the big boys of the stompbox world.

MICRO REVERB (MR-2)

The MR2 offers a good range of reverb settings via a somewhat eccentric system of switches. There is a control marked Contrast with an associated switch with positions Both and Reverb. This allows the tone of the unit to be adjusted and in the "Both" setting the Contrast adds upper frequencies to both the dry and wet signals; in the Reverb setting the EQ is only added to the wet signal. The actual reverb part of the unit is offered in four ranges. Select either Short or Long mode from the S/L switch and then the depth of the reverb is controlled by, not suprisingly, the Reverb knob. If Long mode is selected then there is a further choice of three settings on another switch; Live House (short mode is described as House), Hall and Stadium. These switches are very small and virtually impossible to adjust on a dark stage, so you would have to set the length of the reverb first and rely on adjusting the depth for mid gig tweaks.

The quality of sound is excellent, even on the very long settings, and the fiddly design is a fair compromise considering the unit's size. The processing is quiet and silky; a perfect addition to an amp that lacks a reverb function.

WAH ROCKER (WR-2)

This is an auto wah and allows you to set the sensitivity to your playing dynamics using the Threshold control. This means that at a low threshold the wah will only trigger with a hard pluck or strum and at a high setting it will trigger with the slightest touch. The Decay control affects the speed of the wah from slow to fast. It is worth taking the time to find a balance between the two so it is easy to control the point at which the effect triggers - too sensitive and you have to wait around until the note comes back to earth. This is a great effect and not just for cheesy disco tones; set with a low sensitivity for lead playing the wah pops out when you dig in, adding an exciting texture. It can also add atmospheric burblings to slow distorted chord work - a very versatile and expressive unit.

CONCLUSION

Due to the number of pedals in this review and the available space I have only been able to outline their functions and briefly describe their sound. In general, I was very impressed by the quality of sonic manipulation from this compact range; they would certainly warrant a test drive if you were looking for some simple signal processing to add to a dry or basic setup. The distortion units are open to the damning ear of taste but the range covers most styles and some unusual tones. I think the omission of any EQ control may curb the appeal of these units as they are mostly voiced on the bright side, like most distortion pedals, and the EQ structure is so important in distorted tones. The other pedals range from the functional to the inspirational: The Phaser, Reverb and Wah Rocker all produced approving chin strokes around the office.

Prices range from 45 PS for the Noise Defender through 65 PS for the Harmonic Distortion up to a rather painful 179 PS for the Micro Reverb. These pedals cannot compete with programmable floor/rack units for providing cheap flexible multi effects --it wouldn't make financial or practical sense to string 10 of these together - but they are cool candidates for a select choice of robust and usable sounds.