A punk-metal monster—and sophisticated tone-seeker.
Along with his self-built guitar, this white Nik Huber Krautster was one of the main guitars Scott Middleton used on the Cancer Bats new album, Searching for Zero. Photo by Igor Vidyashev / Atlas Icons
Cancer Bats are a hardcore thrash-metal band from Toronto. The focal point of their all-out aural assault is the riff-heavy, pick-squealing, low-tuned playing of sole guitarist Scott Middleton. But for all the Cancer Bats’ unrestrained energy and audience mayhem, Middleton is no guitar-smashing punk. He travels the world with an arsenal of high-end gear and a seemingly endless supply of boutique effects. And his tone is righteous.
Middleton started playing guitar at 11. “I bought Metallica’s Black Album and just loved every song,” he recalls. “I decided, ‘I need to buy a guitar.’” He convinced his father to get him a cheap SG knockoff a neighbor was selling. “The guy threw in a Rolling Stones songbook, and that was the clincher,” says Middleton. “My dad is a Stones fan.”
Middleton and lead singer Liam Cormier started Cancer Bats in 2004. They toured North America nonstop and settled on their current lineup (with Mike Peters on drums and Jaye Schwarzer on bass) after recording their second album, Hail Destroyer, in 2008. It was a watershed album, earning top reviews in the metal press, millions of YouTube views, and a 2009 Juno nomination for New Group of the Year. (The Junos are Canada’s Grammys.)
But Cancer Bats don’t rest on their laurels. After recording four albums with the production team of Kenny Luong and Eric Ratz, last summer they tried something new and hired legendary nü metal producer Ross Robinson (Korn, Limp Bizkit) to record their fifth album, Searching for Zero. The album continues in the heavy tradition, but breaks new ground, thanks in part to the influence of the band’s alter-ego: Bat Sabbath, a Black Sabbath cover band. “We did a double headlining tour playing an hour of Cancer Bats and then an hour of Black Sabbath covers,” says Middleton. “We co-headlined with ourselves.”
Middleton is also a gear fiend. He loves to tinker with new equipment and spends days in the studio sculpting sounds and nerding out with gear. He has close relationships with various guitar, amp, and stompbox manufacturers. Just don’t ask him to play a 7-string. “Guitars have six strings,” he states. “Anything more than six strings is a harp as far as I’m concerned.”
PG caught up with Middleton to discuss working with Ross Robinson, the quest for the ultimate guitar, studying lutherie in Spain, and Middleton’s globe-trotting search for cool boutique gear.
Middleton calls his latest Nik Huber guitar the Das Grüne Omen—the Green Omen. It’s based on Huber’s Twangmeister model and has a T-style body, carved top, and rosewood neck and fretboard.
Did you tour like crazy in the early days?
Pretty much our whole career. We come from the hardcore punk scene and that whole DIY ethic. We weren’t thinking about big labels or tour support or any of that stuff. It was just natural for us to start bands, record our own demos, make our own merchandize, tour in a van, and just go and go and go. When things started happening and we got all these opportunities, we said yes to every single one of them. We made sure that we didn’t have time to work jobs. We made the band our life and toured 200 to 300 days a year. Once we broke into Europe we were playing even more, and that opened up this whole world for us. When you’re an independent band starting out, you have to get out to people. That’s how you push yourselves on new audiences. And it’s how you make your living, too.
You have great tone. How do you achieve it, and what do you do to distinguish your sounds between songs?
For our first four albums the one constant was my Diezel Herbert amp. I also used, starting with Hail Destroyer, [Canadian-made] Morris Amps. Glen Morris is a great guy, a local builder who’s been repairing and modding my amps since I was quite a bit younger. He does all his stuff point-to-point, and he can sit with me and customize the sound coming out of the amp. He made something that complemented my Diezel perfectly. We would record both amps together and occasionally add a third amp on top for a little sprinkling of special sauce, or whatever.To differentiate tones, we audition many guitars. I would have five or six guitars with me in the studio, and we’d do a pass of the main riff with each one. Then we would blindly listen and see which one felt best in the track.
That must take a lot of time when you’re recording.
Yeah, that’s how we did the first four albums. Our new album with Ross Robinson was a bit different, though we still tried different guitars. I have a guitar collection now, and each guitar makes me want to write a different kind of song. I play differently on certain guitars. Now I know what the go-to guitar should be about half the time.
Middleton and the rest of the Cancer Bats in the studio with producer Ross Robinson. Photo by Vince Edwards.
What was it like working with Ross?
We didn’t know what to expect because we’d heard all these stories about him going crazy on bands in the studio and making people freak out and cry. Some of our friends were warning us: “I don’t know if you guys will be able to handle this. You’re all such nice dudes. Maybe he’ll break you guys up.” But our managers were really into the idea, and we were positive about it, too. Ross has worked with so many cool bands. He also worked with bands we don’t like, but we could step back and recognize that Ross probably made their best records. Once we spoke to him on the phone, got a vibe, and sent him demos, we knew he was the guy. Now he’s one of our closest friends.
I’ve never met a guy so instantly inspired by any music that he hears. He hears something and says, “That’s so cool—why don’t we try it like this?” He fires ideas so quickly, and so many of them are good. Everything is so spontaneous. He’s also into making music that means something. We were in this tiny room recording drums, and he’d say, “Okay, Liam, before we record drums, tell us what the song is about.” If Liam said something that was kind of vague, he would call bullshit and ask, “No, what’s it really about?” He really gets into the psychology side of things. He’d ask me, “Okay, Scott, what does this mean to you? How does this make you feel? Why are you playing this song?” He would go through every band member, and everybody had a powerful story. Ross’ whole idea is that it's not just the singer singing the song—everybody sings the song with their instruments. If you’re only concentrating on playing and not putting your feelings into it, it’s just sterile bullshit.
Scott Middleton's Gear
Guitars
Nik Huber Twangmeister (“Das Grüne Omen”)
Nik Huber white Krautster
Nik Huber Green “Arsenal” Orca
Nik Huber Hollowbody Orca
The guitar Middleton hand-built at the Formentera Guitar School
Pickups
Fastback Unshaven Beard Combers
EMG 57/66
EMG 81s
Häussel Tozz B XL
Häussel P90 Vintage
Amps
Diezel Herbert
Diezel Lil’ Fokker
Morris XSIII
Diezel 4x12 cabinet
Krych 4x12 cabinet
Celestion Vintage 30 speakers
Effects
Rocktron Guitar Silencer
ISP Decimator G-String
Providence PEC-2
Cusack Pedal Board Tamer
Planet Waves Chromatic Strobe Tuner
Morley Bad Horsie Wah
Electro-Harmonix POG2
EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master
Strymon TimeLine
TC Electronic Flashback Delay
Empress Nebulus
Empress Heavy
Empress Compressor
Empress Multidrive
Providence Velvet Comp
Providence Chrono Delay
Tym Effects Fuzz Munchkin
Klon KTR
Cusack Screamer Fuzz (scruzz version)
Neunaber Wet Stereo Reverb
Valco The Stooge
Jam Pedals Multi-Pedal
Cioks DC10
Strings and Picks
GHS Low-Tuned Boomers .011–.053, tuned to dropped C (C–G–C–F–A–D). Middleton sometimes uses a .056 for the 6th string.
Purple Planet Waves Duralin picks (1.2 mm)
ChickenPicks (2.6 mm)
Schaller strap locks
Schaller locking tuners
GHS Fast Fret
Planet Waves straps
Providence, Planet Waves, and American Stage cables
Do you use your live rig in the studio?
Yeah, though on this record I used a prototype Diezel head, the Lil’ Fokker, because I couldn’t bring my rig down to Venice Beach where we recorded. Also, Ross has an old AC30 that we ran pedals into. The pedal that was on most was the new Klon KTR. Those things together just had a great sound. And the way Ross works, we would find the tone we were looking for, and then he would say, “Give me a take—let’s go!” I’m still deciding if I like the sound, but Ross is already 100 percent sure it’s the sound. I’m thinking we should do it again, but he’s like, “No, you played badass, man.” He’ll let me try it again, but when I play it one more time, he starts throwing shit at me. He grabbed a spindle of CDs and threw CDs. I’m thinking, “What are you doing, man? I’m fucking up.” But he’s like, “It’s awesome!” Because for Ross, mistakes are cool. He wants you to fuck up, because after you make a mistake, the next thing you play is going to be naturally inspired. You’ll play something weird. That’s how you catch something special.
So he kept you on your toes?
He’d say, “Okay, cool—we got the rippin’ metal heavy stuff. Now let’s see what the song sounds like when you play a Rickenbacker clean.” There was a vintage Rickenbacker lying around the studio that belonged to [Limp Bizkit’s] Wes Borland. Ross said, “Normally you play downstrokes on this part, right? Now make the equivalent chord, but only use the high strings and play it all upstrokes, like you’re in a reggae band.” We put that in a straight-up thrash-metal song called “All Hail”—a tribute to Dave Brockie from Gwar, who just passed away.
It sounds like you’re playing weird harmonics. Is that the Rickenbacker?
Yes. Ross was screaming, “Hit it fucking harder! Hit it harder!” I don’t know how we’re going to do that live, but it sounds super rad on the album.
You have many fuzz boxes. Do you get distortion mostly from the amp or from effects?
In the studio, 90 percent of the time it’s the amp. All the effects are just for color. When I used the Klon, it gives me the extra juice I need to play metal on an AC30.
Do you use a noise gate?
I use two, actually. In the effects loop of my amp I use the ISP Decimator G-String pedal. In front of my pedalboard I use the Rocktron Guitar Silencer. I could get by with just one, but the two totally kill hiss and hum.
You don’t solo much. Is that a conscious thing? It’s obvious you have chops.
For me, playing riffs is just as awesome as soloing. There can be just as much virtuosity in rhythm playing. I love listening to guys who can take solos to places I can’t, but I don’t think every song requires a solo. Not everybody listening to your band is a guitar player, and maybe they don’t like the indulgent guitar wanking. [Laughs.] And as the one guitar player in the band, if I do a solo, I want to be able to pull it off live, where I don’t have a rhythm guitar track underneath it.
“To start with blocks of wood and then build an instrument that you write songs with is such a cool feeling,” says Scott Middleton about this guitar he built at Formentera Guitar School.
Do you play the same solos every time or do you improvise?
Of course, you’re going to ad lib stuff live. A lot of solos are recorded in a spontaneous way. But I’m spending more time mapping out solos. I’m becoming more prepared.
You’ve had a lot of guitars over the years. Have you found the one yet?
I’ve been playing Nik Huber guitars. About four years ago when we were doing Dead Set on Living, I was looking for a new guitar. Every time we make a new record, I want to get a new guitar. A new instrument inspires me. When I have writer’s block, I put a new instrument in my hands, and it’s like magic—songs just want to come out of it. I ended up buying one of Nik’s guitars, one called the Krautster. It looks almost like a Les Paul Jr., with a single humbucker. That guitar made Dead Set on Living. It’s a classically styled guitar but with modern features, really well built, really good wood and attention to detail. It feels like somebody made it, as opposed to it just coming off a factory line. Since then I’ve become good friends with Nik and his crew. They’ve made me two guitars. I have a green one called the Orca. We were playing the main stage at the Reading Festival in England for the first time [in 2012], and they gave it to me as a gift. I played it that day. They knew what I liked, and Nik was already building my favorite guitar.
That led to a discussion at the Montreal Guitar show. Nik was part of the expo, and I drove up to hang out and talk about guitars. He got into being a luthier after taking a course on Formentera, a tiny island off the coast of Spain. He hooked me up with a contact, and Clemens Huber, Nik’s right-hand man (they aren’t related) and I booked a trip. We went there last summer and took the guitar-building course together. So I made my own guitar. I have a B.B. King Lucille that I love, but it’s not great for playing live. I wanted to build a guitar that could have that style, but also nail the heavy, tight stuff. I spent a month in Spain building that guitar, and the guitar ended up writing half the songs on the new album.
Is that your main ax now?
It’s one of them. My flight case can’t fit the guitar I made, so I just bring Nik’s guitars to Europe.
Did you make everything on your guitar?
I didn’t build the hardware, but I wound the pickups. When I save up some money to buy tools, I want to set up a shop and start building and selling guitars, because I had such a great time doing it. I was expecting to make a guitar that I would hate, but when I plugged it in, I thought, “This is crazy—it sounds so good, and I love it.” To start with blocks of wood and then build an instrument that you write songs with is such a cool feeling.
Do you have a name for your future company?
Scoebcity Shred Sticks! [Laughs]. We’ll see if that sticks. My guitar was one of the main guitars on the album—that and my white Nik Huber Krautster. Just before the album was recorded, Ryan “Fluff” Bruce sent me his signature pickup, the Beard Comber, made by a company called Fastback Guitars. I put it in my Krautster because I just wanted something different—three of my Huber guitars have the same pickup. Ross heard that guitar and was like, “Holy shit—that’s the best sound ever!” Nik just built me a new guitar based on his Twangmeister model, with a Tele-style body and a carved top. The whole neck is rosewood. The fingerboard is rosewood, too, and the body is solid mahogany. I plugged it in and I was just grinning huge. I think this is going to be the one. We call it Das Grüne Omen—the Green Omen.
YouTube It
Hear Scott Middleton’s blistering riffs in “Satellites” from Cancer Bats latest album,
Searching for Zero.
There are a ridiculous number of metal sub-genres. What is Cancer Bats?
It’s so funny with our band. We play for some people, and they say, “You’re my favorite punk band.” And we’re like, “We’re a punk band?” Then we tour with a punk band, and it’s, “You are the coolest metal band I’ve heard in a long time.” That’s awesome—we’ll take that! I don’t really care. We have this ridiculous name, Cancer Bats, because when Liam suggested we start a band called Cancer Bats I thought, “I don’t care about the meaning behind that—it just sounds like a badass heavy rock band.” You know it’s not going to be something wimpy.
Middleton's North American pedalboard.
Pedals Galore
“One thing I love about touring around the world,” says Scott Middleton, “is going to the cool local guitar shops and finding pedals made by the local guy.”
During an Australian tour, for example, Middleton got friendly enough with Tim Brennan of Brisbane’s Tym Guitars to acquire the rare and coveted J Mascis signature Fuzz Munchkin. After a show in Greece, he discovered Jam Pedals in Athens and bought their hand-painted, vintage-style Multi-Pedal. Canadian-based Empress Effects had him beta test their Heavy distortion. The list goes on.
Middleton's European pedalboard.
Middleton has two pedalboards: one in North America and one in Europe. Both boards start with programmable switching systems. In North America he has a Providence PEC-2, and in Europe he uses a Cusack Pedal Board Tamer. He prefers the Planet Waves Chromatic Strobe Tuner, and his wah of choice is Morley’s Steve Vai-signature Bad Horsie. He uses the Electro-Harmonix POG2, EarthQuaker Devices’ Dispatch Master, a Strymon TimeLine, and a Rocktron Guitar Silencer. He powers it with a Cioks DC10, and mounts it on a Pedaltrain Pro. He is checking out the TC Electronic Flashback Delay and is enjoying the Empress Nebulus and the Neunaber Wet Stereo Reverb.
And then there’s fuzz. Besides the Tym Effects Fuzz Munchkin, Middleton has an Empress Effects Multidrive, a Klon KTR, and Cusack Screamer Fuzz—and he loves them all. “I’ve got millions of pedals,” he says.
Improved tracking and richness in tones. Stereo panning potential. 100 presets.
Can be hard to use intuitively. Expensive!
$645
Electro-Harmonic POG III
It’s been a very rainy, moody couple of weeks, which is to say, perfect weather for getting lost in the labyrinthine depths of the new Electro-Harmonix POG III polyphonic octave generator. The POG III is yet another evolution (mutation?) within EHX’s now rather expansive stable of octave effects. But to those who know the POG through its original incarnation, or one of several simpler subsequent variants, the POG III represents a pretty dramatic leap forward.
There’s a few things you should know about the POG III straight away. First, it’s very expensive. At $645, it’s 245 clams more than its predecessor, the POG 2, (which was already a considerable investment) and more than twice the price of the simplest POG pedals like the Micro and Pico. Cold hard cash isn’t all you’re likely to trade away, either. Extracting the most value and utility from the POG III takes time and effort—even if you’re experienced with other pedals in the POG family. But for the guitarist and musician whose creations and pleasures transcend traditional playing styles and song forms, or for whom sound design is a primary pursuit, the POG III is a potential studio fixture and portal to musical parts undiscovered.
Copious Control
This is no cop out: The POG III has many more features and combinations thereof than can be mentioned in the space of this review—even if we merely listed them. The manual that EHX included (and is a must-read) is 23 pages long. It’s digestible, certainly. But there is much to learn.
“The Organ Swell reveals much about how rich and organic octave tones can sound in the POG III.”
Even so, the POG III’s 10 factory presets (you can create up to 100 of them) are great jumping-off points for crafting your own sounds and understanding the pedal’s basic dynamics, functionality, and interactivity among the controls. The organ swell preset is a great place to start. Players and bands that use keyboard and synth pads behind their guitar phrases were among POG’s early adopters. POG III’s organ sounds are pretty impressive. And while few will be fooled into thinking you have the pipe organ from St. Stephen’s Cathedral at your fingertips, the Organ Swell reveals much about how rich and organic octave tones can sound in the POG III. With precise timing and fretting, crafty chord phrasing and spacing, the right attack setting, and less aggressive guitar volume and tone settings, you can fashion a pretty convincing Bach organ arpeggio—particularly if you add a suitably expansive reverb or delay.
Cooking Up Wider, Weirder Images
A very cool new feature on the POG III is the panning knobs that accompany individual bands. Panning each band as part of a stereo image adds dimensionality. But it can also lend a more organic “live” flavor to a tone composite by situating fundamental sounds front and center, while sounds that serve as harmonic support can be mixed lower and reoriented spatially to offer more or less emphasis. These relationships can be enhanced and manipulated further by using the stereo spread control and the detune slider to create pitch modulation effects that range from mellow chorus to an almost rotary-speaker-like movement. This stereo mixing process is among the most fun and engaging parts of using the POG III.
Unusual filtering effects are here in abundance for exploring, too. Like so many modes on the POG III, the possible permutations feel endless, but here are some interesting examples.
• High-mid filter emphasis, matched to a quacky, fast envelope trigger, a sprinkle of perfect 5th, an even healthier scoop of +1 and +1 octave, and a strong foundation of -2 octave, all driven by a melodic pattern of staccato 16th notes—the result is a strange percolating pattern of carnival organ sounds against an anchor of low-resonant cello tones.
• Shifting the filter emphasis to the low end with similar envelope sensitivity, bumping the -2 octave and fifths, and subjecting the dry signal to the same filtering effects yields tectonic sub-rumbles and swells that a film- or game-sound designer could use to suggest the propulsion unit for a city-sized alien mothership. Even leaning my guitar against my amplifier and bouncing a racquet ball against the guitar body sounds amazing here. (And yes! You should really try this!)
Granted, many of these sounds fall as much into the category of sound effects and design as much as music in the songs-and-riffs sense. But I think strength in one category can reinforce the other, and in the case of the POG III, there is enough range in both directions to intrigue players everywhere along the spectrum. It still excels at funky bass textures, twisted faux 12-string, and at providing ghostly, backgrounded high-harmony lines for leads. But these time-tested POG applications merely scratch the surface.
The Verdict
The POG has come a long way since its old bent-metal, big box days. The tracking is excellent, and there’s a lot less fighting against artificial, cheesy sounds once you grasp the finer points of crafting a sound and your dynamic approach. The POG III’s complexity makes the going a little harder on fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants intuitive tinkerers, and musicians with experience in synthesis will probably navigate the unit’s features much more readily than some. As expensive as it is, it’s probably best to be sure you can find a place for it in your work before you take the leap. But if you can afford $645 to take a chance, the POG III may illuminate whole directions you might not have considered with a less expansive effect.
Vox’s Valvenergy Tone Sculptor
Two new pedals from the Valvenergy series use a Nutube valve to generate unique dynamics and tone ranges that can be used to radical ends.
When tracking in a studio or DAW, you’re likely to use compression and EQ on most things. Many enduringly amazing and powerful records were made using little else. And though many musicians regard both effects as a bit unglamorous and utilitarian, EQs and comps are as capable of radical sounds as more overtly “weird” effects—particularly when they are used in tandem.
I spent a day workshopping ideas in my studio using just the Vox Valvenergy Smooth Impact compressor and Tone Sculptor EQ, and a dash of amp tremolo and reverb to taste. In the process, I produced more arresting sounds than I had heard from my guitars in many days. There were radical direct-to-desk-style Jimmy Page/Beatles distortion tones, sun-sized, cosmic electric 12-string, Bakersfield twang that could burn through crude, and many other sweet and nasty colors. Most decent EQ and compressor combinations can achieve variations on all those themes. But the Smooth Impact and Tone Sculptor also reveal interesting personalities in unexpected places.
The individuality and energy in the Vox Valvenergy pedals is attributable, in part, to the Nutube vacuum tube used in the circuit. Though it looks little like a vacuum tube as most guitarists know them, the thin, wafer-like Nutube is, in fact, a real vacuum tube like those used in fluorescent displays. Fluorescent display tubes have limitations. A maximum operating voltage of around 40 volts means they aren’t useful for bigger power tube applications like a 6L6, which has an operating voltage of about 400 volts. But it can work quite well as a preamp tube in concert with an op amp power section, which is how the Nutube is used in the new Valvenergy pedals, as well as older Vox products like the Vox MV50 and Superbeetle amps.
Valvenergy Tone Sculptor
When you think about “cinematic” effects, you likely imagine big reverb or modulation sounds that create a vivid picture and feeling of space or motion. But narrow, hyper-focused EQ profiles can evoke very different and equally powerful images. Radical EQ settings can add aggression, claustrophobic intimacy, and stark, explosive dark-and-light contrasts more evocative of Hitchcock’s Psycho than Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.
Any of these moods can be summoned from the Valvenergy Tone Sculptor. Six sliders cut or boost 10 dB frequency bands spanning 100 Hz to 5.6 kHz. A seventh slider cuts or boosts the master output by 12 dB. This platter of options might not sound like much. But you can use these seven controls together to very specific ends.
“Radical EQ settings can add aggression, near-claustrophobic intimacy, and stark, explosive dark-and-light contrasts.”
For example, bumping the high-midrange and the master output produces narrow cocked-wah-like filter sounds with enough push to produce extra amp overdrive—effectively turning the Tone Sculptor into a buzzy, almost fuzz-like filter effect. But unlike a wah, you can carefully scoop high end or add a spoonful of bass to blunt harsh frequencies or give the tone a bit more weight. You can also broaden the palette of an amp/guitar pairing. I matched a particularly trebly Jazzmaster bridge pickup with a very hot and toppy Vox AC15-flavored amp for this test—a recipe that can be spiky on the best days. But with the Tone Sculptor in the line, I could utilize the same sharp, fuzzy, and filtered Mick Ronson wah tones while shaving some of the most piercing frequencies.
EQ pedals exist on many points along the cost spectrum. And at $219, the Tone Sculptor lives on the high side of the affordable range. Does it offer something less expensive models can’t deliver? Well, for one thing, I found it relatively quiet, which is nice whether you’re shaping toppy high-contrast effects or performing more surgical adjustments. And the sliders feel nuanced and nicely tapered rather than like a dull axe with a few basic frequency notches. But in many situations I also liked the color imparted by the circuit—generated, presumably, by the Nutube. “Color,” in audio terms, is a broad and subjective thing, and one should not necessarily expect the warm, tube-y glow of a vintage tube Pultec. Still, the Tone Sculptor has many forgiving, flattering qualities—typical of studio EQs—that enable fine tuning and experimentation with more radical and creative applications of the effect.
Valvenergy Smooth Impact
As with the Tone Sculptor, the Smooth Impact’s use of Nutube engenders certain expectations. It’s easy to surmise that because Smooth Impact has a vacuum tube in the circuit that it will behave like a little Teletronix LA-2A leveling amplifier. That’s a big ask for a $219 stompbox. On the other hand, the Smooth Impact exhibits some appealing characteristics of studio tube compression. At lower compression levels, it works well as a thickening agent—adding mass without much additional noise. And at higher compression levels it can sound snappy, crisp, and tight without feeling like you’ve bled every trace of overtone from your signal.
The Smooth Impact’s controls aren’t totally atypical. But because it lacks some familiar features like variable attack and release, yet is more complicated than a 1-knob DynaComp, you have to trust your ear to navigate interactions among the controls. The most unfamiliar of these is the 3-way vintage/natural/sag toggle. The first two are defined by preset attack and release settings: Vintage is slow attack and long release, and natural is the opposite. The sag mode’s compression is more like what you get from tube saturation, and it’s useful for adding thickness and complexity to a thin amp tone at modest compression levels.
Though the vintage and natural modes certainly have a different feel, they don’t always sound worlds apart. And like the sag mode, the thing they have in common is the way they enrich lifeless amp output at low to medium compression, with a bit of grind from the tube gain and a little extra makeup gain from the output. At the most aggressive settings, the tube gain can get a little crispy. And really crushing the compression can flatline your tone without adding much in the way of extra sustain. These are limitations common to many compressors with similar features. But unless I was chasing very ultra-snappy Prince and Nile Rodgers fast-funk caricatures, I enjoyed the Smooth Impact most in its in-between ranges, where mass, mild, harmonious drive, and low noise showcase the pedal’s sometimes studio-like personality.
Significantly smaller and lighter than original TAE. Easy to configure and operate. Great value. Streamlined control set.
Air Feel Level control takes the place of more surgical and realistic resonance controls. Seventy watts less power in onboard power amp. No Bluetooth connectivity with desktop app.
$699
Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander Core
Boss streamlines the size, features, and price of the already excellent Waza Tube Expander with little sacrifice in functionality.
Many of our younger selves would struggle to understand the urge—indeed, the need—to play quieter. My first real confrontation with this ever-more-present reality arrived when Covid came to town. For many months, I could only sneak into my studio space late at night to jam or review anything loud. Ultimately, the thing that made it possible to create and do my job in my little apartment was a reactive load box (in this case, a Universal Audio OX). I set up a Bassman head next to my desk and, with the help of the OX, did the work of a gear editor as well as recorded several very cathartic heavy jams, with the Bassman up to 10, that left my neighbors none the wiser.
Boss’ firstWaza Tube Amp Expander, built with an integrated power amp that enables boosted signal as well as attenuated sounds, was and remains the OX’s main competition. Both products have copious merits but, at $1,299 (Boss) and $1,499 (Universal Audio), each is expensive. And while both units are relatively compact, they aren’t gear most folks casually toss in a backpack on the way out the door. The new Waza Tube Expander Core, however, just might be. And though it sacrifices some refinements for smaller size, its much-more accessible price and strong, streamlined fundamental capabilities make it a load-box alternative that could sway skeptics.
Micro Manager
The TAE Core is around 7 1/2" wide, just over 7 " long, and fewer than 4 " tall, including the rubber feet. That’s about half the width of an original TAE or OX. The practical upside of this size reduction is obvious and will probably compel a lot of players to use the unit in situations in which they’d leave a full-size TAE at home. The streamlined design is another source of comfort. With just five knobs on its face, the TAE Core has fewer controls and is easier to use than many stompboxes. In fact, the most complicated part of integrating the TAE Core to your rig might be downloading the necessary drivers and related apps.
Connectivity is straightforward, though there are some limitations. You can use TAE Core wirelessly with an iOS or Windows tablet or smartphone, as long as you have the BT-DUAL adaptor (which is not included and sets you back around 40 bucks). However, while desktop computers recognize the TAE Core as a Bluetooth-enabled device, you cannot use the unit wirelessly with those machines. Instead, you have to connect the TAE Core via USB. In a perfectly ordered world, that’s not a big problem. But if you use the TAE Core in a small studio—where one less cable is one less headache—or you prefer to interface with the TAE Core app on a desktop where you can toggle fast and easily between large, multi-track sessions and the app, the inability to work wirelessly on a desktop can be a distraction. The upside is that the TAE Core app itself is, functionally and visually, almost identical in mobile and desktop versions, enabling you to select and drag and drop virtual microphones into position, add delay, reverb, compression, and EQ effects, choose various cabinets with different speaker configurations and sizes, and introduce new rigs and impulse responses to a tone recipe in a flash. And though the TAE Core app lacks some of the photorealistic panache and configuration options in the OX app, the TAE Core’s app is just as intuitive.Less Is More
One nice thing about the TAE Core’s more approachable $699 price is that you don’t have to feel too bad on nights that you “underutilize” the unit and employ it as an attenuator alone. In this role, the TAE Core excels. Even significantly attenuated sounds retain the color and essence of the source tone. Like any attenuator-type device, you will sacrifice touch sensitivity and dynamics at a certain volume level, yielding a sense of disconnection between fingers, gut, guitar, and amp. But if you’re tracking “big” sounds in a small space, you can generate massive-sounding ones without interfacing with an amp modeler and flat-response monitors, which is a joy in my book. And again, there’s the TAE Core’s ability to “expand” as well as attenuate, which means you can use the TAE Core’s 30-watt onboard power amp to amplify the signal from, say, a 5-watt Fender Champion 600 with a 6" speaker, route it to a 2x12, 4x12, or virtual equivalent in the app, and leave your bandmate with the Twin Reverb and bad attitude utterly perplexed.
The Verdict
Opting for the simpler, thriftier TAE Core requires a few sacrifices. Power users that grew accustomed to the original TAE’s super-tunable “resonance-Z” and “presence-Z” controls, which aped signal-chain impedance relationships with sharp precision, will have to make do with the simpler but still very effective stack and combo options and the “air feel level” spatial ambience control.The DC power jack is less robust. It features only MIDI-in rather than MIDI-in/-through/-out jacks, and, significantly, 70 watts less power in the onboard power amp. But from my perspective, the Core is no less “professional” in terms of what it can achieve on a stage or in a studio of any size. Its more modest feature set and dimensions are, in my estimation, utility enhancements as much as limitations. If greater power and MIDI connectivity are essentials, then the extra 600 bones for the original TAE will be worth the price. For many of us, though, the mix of value, operational efficiencies, and the less-encumbered path to sound creation built into the TAE Core will represent a welcome sweet spot that makes dabbling in this very useful technology an appealing, practical proposition.
Darkglass Electronics unveils ANAGRAM, a flagship bass platform designed to redefine tone, flexibility, and performance. The pedal’s extraordinarily deep feature set includes multiple effects and modeling, an on-board looper and tuner.
Best of all, ANAGRAM brings together these creative tools in a streamlined, rugged format that’s designed for ease of use. Onstage and in the studio, bassists can quickly access and fine-tune their sound via the ANAGRAM interface:
- 7-inch high-brightness touchscreen for clear and intuitive control.
- Three footswitches for live performance control.
- Six high-resolution endless rotary knobs for precise parameter adjustments.
- Flexible input and output configuration.
With ultra-low latency, extensive customization, and seamless integration into the Darkglass ecosystem, it supports both studio precision and stage performance. Combining 15 years of innovation with cutting-edge processing power, ANAGRAM offers a purpose-built solution for bassists seeking unparalleled sound-shaping capabilities.
Anagram
Powered by a state-of-the-art hexacore processor and 32-bit/48kHz audio processing,ANAGRAM delivers ultra-low latency, pristine clarity, and studio-grade sound. Its intuitive blocks-based architecture lets players create signal chains in series (12 blocks) or parallel (24blocks) using a high-resolution touch display. ANAGRAM features three control modes—Preset,Scene, and Stomp—for instant switching, parameter adjustments, and traditional pedalboard-style operation. With a curated collection of distinct preamps, 50+ customizable effects, a looper, tuner, and user-generated IR support, ANAGRAM delivers unmatched creative flexibility.Seamless integration with the Darkglass Suite allows for expanded control and functionality. Additionally, Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) integration provides access to thousands
of high-quality amp and effect models, expanding tonal possibilities from analog warmth to futuristic textures.
"Anagram represents the culmination of years of research and development," says Marcos Barilatti, Managing Director of Darkglass Electronics. "We set out to create a product that not only pushes the boundaries of bass tone but also inspires musicians to explore new sonic territories."
Housed in a rugged anodized aluminum chassis, ANAGRAM is road-ready, compact, and powered via 9V or USB-C (PD). With flagship features at a compelling price, ANAGRAM represents the new standard for bassists seeking a modern platform for their performance.
Street $1199.99 USD