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Pitch shifting is not without limitations, however. Many pitch shifters are monophonic pedals and can only handle two notes simultaneously if they’re played in perfect intervals like octaves, fourths or fifths. Once a third or seventh gets thrown into the mix—or for that matter a simple barre chord—things get garbled up fast. Morpheus’ Bomber, however, is a digital polyphonic pitch shifter and super dive-bomber pedal that has a range of five octaves that blasts through those limitations.
Back From the Future
Housed in a lightweight metal enclosure and finished in a metallic sparkle, the Bomber looks industrial-strength cool. Circular rubber grips mark the expression pedal and two stomp switches bypass the effect and select the various pitch parameters. A clearly marked set of intervals are visible on the top left of the pedal and an LED indicates which one is active. The interval settings include a Dive Bomb setting (three octaves), two octaves down, one octave down, a fifth down, a fourth down, a second down, second up, fifth up, octave up, and two octaves up. On the front of the pedal are 1/4" ins and outs as well as an adjustable trim level (with an associated input level display on the front panel), USB connector and 12VDC adapter input for the included power supply.
Bombing Run
I commenced testing with a Stratocaster and Les Paul and dove straight into, well, Dive Bomb mode. It took a little time to get used to the sensitivity of the pedal. And because the range of travel extends over a three octave range you definitely need to spend some time working on accurately mimicking the sound of a tremolo—if that’s the effect you’re after. With a little bit of practice you can open up a whole world that goes well beyond what you could accomplish with any tremolo system.
I found that the most realistic and natural—or whammy bar-like—sounds came from the second interval, in part because they are so close to the original. As it moved up to a fifth there was a noticeable change to the harmonic structure of notes that suggested some undesirable digital artifacts. Moving up to an octave above the Bomber still had no problem detecting all of the notes in a complex chord but there was some fairly obvious change going on in the sound. If you’re going for a totally organic whammy effect, you might find the secondary tones annoying. I happened to think it was a very cool effect. Once you get two octaves up you’re beyond any tremolo system’s capacity for pitch shift. And if you’re open minded to unusual tones and effects, you’ll understand just how expressive this one can be.
The drop tuning function can be similarly radical. And I found that cleaner amp settings helped keep notes clear and I got some massive and muscular sounds from the drop tuning function that shook the walls.
Switching to the Les Paul, I backed off the pedal’s trim slightly to match the higher output humbuckers. The thickness of the Les Paul through a Mojave Dirty Boy amp was astounding and worked well with the Morpheus. I was able to pull of gargantuan riffs that sounded at once otherworldly and completely intelligible. The sound was not unlike the enormous tones I got out of my ’70s-vintage Mutron Octave Divider. With the Mutron I could never play more than a single note, but with the Bomber I could riff on full chords all the way down to two octaves—a mighty sound that is hard to describe in words.
The Verdict
The Bomber essentially gives you the power of a five-octave guitar with the most advanced tremolo system in the world—which last I checked, isn’t hanging on every Guitar Center wall. This pedal can transform your guitar into an entirely new instrument. And with excellent polyphonic recognition and lightning-fast tracking it feels practical and musical in its most radical settings. There’s no way to avoid some audible artifacts in more extreme settings but depending on your perspective, that aspect of the Bomber’s performance adds a lot of interesting textures. Morpheus demonstrates a great sense of musical adventure, innovation, and forward thinking in the shape of the Bomber, and there’s no shortage of cool ways to create with it. It’s only a matter of time before some probing player uses this thing on a record. It’s just that cool.
Buy if...
you’re a creative player looking to extend your guitar’s range and get a polyphonic tremolo system all in one.
Skip if...
six strings and an overdrive is about as out there as you get.
Rating...
Street $280 - Morpheus Extreme Processors - morpheusefx.com |
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Diamond Pedals Dark Cloud
True to the Diamond design ethos of our dBBD’s hybrid analog architecture, Dark Cloud unlocks a new frontier in delay technology which was once deemed unobtainable by standard BBD circuit.
Powered by an embedded system, the Dark Cloud seamlessly blends input and output signals, crafting Tape, Harmonic, and Reverse delays with the organic warmth of analog companding and the meticulous precision of digital control.
Where analog warmth meets digital precision, the Dark Cloud redefines delay effects to create a pedal like no other
But by gosh, if delay—and its sister effect, reverb—haven’t always been perfect for the music I like to write and play. Which brings us to the Fishman EchoBack Mini Delay. The EchoBack, along with the standard delay controls of level, time, and repeats—as well as a tap tempo—has a toggle to alternate between analog, tape, and digital-delay voices.
I hooked up my Washburn Bella Tono Elegante to my Blues Junior to give the EchoBack a test run. We love a medium delay—my usual preference for delay settings is to have both level and repeats at 1 o’clock, and time at 11 o’clock. With the analog voice switched on, I heard some pillowy warmth in the processed signal, as well as a familiar degradation with each repeat—until their wake gave way to a gentle, distant, crinkly ticking. Staying on analog and adjusting delay time down to 8 o’clock and repeats to about 11:30, some cozy slapback enveloped my rendition of Johnny Marr’s part to “Back to the Old House,” conjuring up thoughts of Elvis trapped in a small chamber, but in a good way. It sounded indubitably authentic. The one drawback of analog delay for me, generally, is that its roundness can feel a bit under water at times.
Switching over to tape, that pillowy warmth evaporated, and in its place came a very clear replication of my tone—but with just a bit of the highs shaved off the top. With the settings at the medium-length mode listed above, I could see the empty, glass hall the pedal sent my sound bouncing down. I heard several pronounced pings of repeats before the signal fully faded out. On slapback settings (time at 8 o’clock, repeats at 11:30), rather than Elvis, I heard something more along the lines of a honky-tonk mic in a glass bottle. Still relatively crystalline, which actually was not my favorite. I like a bit more crinkle—so maybe analog is my bag....“That pillowy warmth evaporated, and in its place came a very clear, pristine replication of my tone—but with just a bit of the highs shaved off the top.”
Next up, digital. Here we have the brightest voice, and as expected, the most faithful repeats. They ping just a few times before shifting to a smooth, single undulating wave. When putting its slapback hat on, I found that the effect was a bit less alluring than I’d observed for the analog and tape voices. This is where the digital delay felt a little too sterile, with the cleanly preserved signal feeling a bit unnatural.
All in all, I dig the EchoBack for its replications of analog and tape voices, and ultimately, lean towards tape. While it’s nice having the digital delay there as an option, it feels a bit too clean when meddling with time of any given length. Nonetheless, this is surely a handy stomp for any acoustic player looking to venture into the land of live effects, or for those who are already there.
