Fender Jazzmaster and Fender Vibro Champ
Various chorus, reverb and volume adjusted in real time.
At a glance, the JHS VCR (that’s volume, chorus, and reverb, if your decoder ring is on the fritz) looks pretty specialized. And the fact that it’s a signature pedal designed with Ryan Adams certainly suggests that it caters to a very particular and individual set of needs.
But a stompbox with a muscular clean-to-dirty boost, a Boss CE-2-inspired chorus, and a splashy digital reverb simulation could also be the equivalent of what many practical players would call a smart, streamlined pedalboard. With a tweak here and there, the VCR can deliver everything from variations on SRV’s Vibratone plus TS-9 tones to Johnny Marr’s swirling, punchy jangle. So while it might look like a vanity project, the VCR is, in fact, a colorful chameleon and a fine tool for coping with random backlines or making small amps sound big in the studio.
enormous in a studio.
Ups, Downs, and Straight-Aheads
The VCR control scheme is streamlined. There’s a bypass footswitch, a dedicated toggle to turn each effect on or off, and a single knob to alter the intensity of each effect. The chorus knob serves two functions: In the counterclockwise direction, it increases depth while reducing speed. In the opposite direction, modulations get faster with less waveform intensity. There’s also a small slider switch on top of the pedal that works like a bass-cut filter.
The three-knobs-and-toggles setup means you’ll have to commit to your sound for the duration of a song, bend down to toggle an effect on the fly, or nudge a switch or knob with your foot. It’s limiting in some respects, but as we’ll find out, many settings on the JHS are excellent set-and-forget configurations.
Ratings
Pros:
Mellow-to-immersive ’80s colors and more in a single, streamlined stompbox. Effective clean boost. Nice reverb.
Cons:
Control layout is limiting if you want to switch effects on the fly. Expensive.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$269
JHS VCR
jhspedals.com
Wide-Open Spaces and Wiggly Ways
Though it’s hard to resist slathering chorus all over everything right out of the gate, the simple combo of boost and reverb reveals much about the pedal’s utility. The reverb is ostensibly a hall reverb simulation, but has some of the clanging, almost metallic overtones of spring reverb. This reverb’s tone profile is a great match for the boost, which stays clean through much of its range, adding volume and low-mid body until it begins to growl right around the 2 o’clock setting (depending on your amp). The two effects together make little amps sound enormous in a studio—or on a stage, with ample sound reinforcement. There’s a lot of extra push in this boost, and a lot of headroom as well.
The boost and reverb are a great match for bigger amps, too. The boost/reverb combination added purring, low-gain overdrive tone to an otherwise clean silverface Bassman. And the low gain thrust and low-mid body is an almost mellowing companion to spiky Brit-style amps.
The chorus is inspired in part by the Boss CE-2—a unit respected for its subtle-to-surreal modulation colors. And though you lose some tone-shaping control with the single-knob configuration, the opposing curves of rate and waveform intensity are plotted nicely. The most recognizably classic CE-2-style tones happen in the middle third of the chorus control’s range. And when mated to reverb and boost settings in the same regions, the pedal serves up the ’80s-informed sounds hinted at in the name and graphics. Whether you love or hate these tones, the VCR offers a very rich and immersive take on the recipe.
The VCR can get muddy if you advance any two controls into their highest reaches. And it’s here that the bass-cut slider switch can be an effective ally. In general though, the best fix for these muddier tones is to ease back on the reverb and boost until they match your pickups and amp.
The Verdict
There’s an appealing practicality to the VCR—especially when you imagine it as the one and only pedal you bring to a gig. Difficulty in switching between effects mid-song is the principal shortcoming. There’s also the issue of the $269 price, which isn’t bad if you consider the cost of three quality pedals purchased independently, but less appealing if you consider that the VCR lacks the switching flexibility of three independent pedals. But if you’re a set-and-forget player that uses these three effects with regularity, Ryan Adam’s VCR could be the smartest money you drop all year.
Reverend Vernon Reid Totem Series Electric Guitar - Shaman
Silos features six presets, tap tempo, one full second of delay time, and three voices—two of which are styled after bucket-brigade and tape-delay sounds. In the $150 price category, it’s not unusual for a digital delay to leave some number of those functions out. And spending the same money on a true-analog alternative usually means warm, enveloping sounds but limited functionality and delay time. Silos, improbably perhaps, offers a very elegant solution to this can’t-have-it-all dilemma in a U.S.-made effect.
A More Complete Cobbling Together
Silos’ utility is bolstered by a very unintimidating control set, which is streamlined and approachable. Three of those controls are dedicated to the same mix, time, and repeats controls you see on any delay. But saving a preset to one of the six spots on the rotary preset dial is as easy as holding the green/red illuminated button just below the mix and preset knobs. And you certainly won’t get lost in the weeds if you move to the 3-position toggle, which switches between a clear “digital” voice, darker “analog” voice, and a “tape” voice which is darker still.
“The three voices offer discernibly different response to gain devices.”
One might suspect that a tone control for the repeats offers similar functionality as the voice toggle switch. But while it’s true that the most obvious audible differences between digital, BBD, and tape delays are apparent in the relative fidelity and darkness of their echoes, the Silos’ three voices behave differently in ways that are more complex than lighter or duskier tonality. For instance, the digital voice will never exhibit runaway oscillation, even at maximum mix and repeat settings. Instead, repeats fade out after about six seconds (at the fastest time settings) or create sleepy layers of slow-decaying repeats that enhance detail in complex, sprawling, loop-like melodic phrases. The analog voice and tape voice, on the other hand, will happily feed back to psychotic extremes. Both also offer satisfying sensitivity to real-time, on-the-fly adjustments. For example, I was tickled with how I could generate Apocalypse Now helicopter-chop effects and fade them in and out of prominence as if they were approaching or receding in proximity—an effect made easier still if you assign an expression pedal to the mix control. This kind of interactivity is what makes analog machines like the Echoplex, Space Echo, and Memory Man transcend mere delay status, and the sensitivity and just-right resistance make the process of manipulating repeats endlessly engaging.
Doesn't Flinch at Filth
EarthQuaker makes a point of highlighting the Silos’ affinity for dirty and distorted sounds. I did not notice that it behaved light-years better than other delays in this regard. But the three voices most definitely offer discernibly different responses to gain devices. The super-clear first repeat in the digital mode lends clarity and melodic focus, even to hectic, unpredictable, fractured fuzzes. The analog voice, which EQD says is inspired by the tone makeup of a 1980s-vintage, Japan-made KMD bucket brigade echo, handles fuzz forgivingly inasmuch as its repeats fade warmly and evenly, but the strong midrange also keeps many overtones present as the echoes fade. The tape voice, which uses aMaestro Echoplex as its sonic inspiration, is distinctly dirtier and creates more nebulous undercurrents in the repeats. If you want to retain clarity in more melodic settings, it will create a warm glow around repeats at conservative levels. Push it, and it will summon thick, sometimes droning haze that makes a great backdrop for slower, simpler, and hooky psychedelic riffs.
In clean applications, this decay and tone profile lend the tape setting a spooky, foggy aura that suggests the cold vastness of outer space. The analog voice often displays an authentic BBD clickiness in clean repeats that’s sweet for underscoring rhythmic patterns, while the digital voice’s pronounced regularity adds a clockwork quality that supports more up-tempo, driving, electronic rhythms.
The Verdict
Silos’ combination of features seems like a very obvious and appealing one. But bringing it all together at just less than 150 bucks represents a smart, adept threading of the cost/feature needle.
EarthQuaker Devices Silos Multi-generational Time Reflection Delay Pedal
