I’ve been on a streamlining kick lately. Where stompboxes are concerned, that trend has manifested itself in all kinds of odd exercises, like forcing myself to use no more pedals than will fit in a lunchbox, or on a roof shingle. It’s hard to say what these exercises reveal about my mental state. But I’ve realized one thing: I don’t think I can shrink my pedal rig to much less than a boost, a vibrato, and a delay.
So, the Eventide Riptide is, in some ways, the pedal of my downsizing dreams. It consolidates excellent digital approximations of the optical-circuit-based Shin-Ei Uni-Vibe and variations on that theme, with two digital overdrives. The two effects can be used independently or together, and you can flip the routing of both. The Riptide also allows the player to dig deep into the possibilities of these sounds, offering stereo output, five onboard presets, and expression pedal functionality that enables you to change any parameter, in any direction, with a single expression pedal sweep. There are certainly cool possibilities here that a dedicated overdrive and Uni-Vibe or phaser effect cannot easily cover.
Born of the Mothership
Like the TriceraChorus stomp that Eventide released in 2021, the Riptide has origins in algorithms from the capable and expansive H90—in this case the Weedwacker Tube Screamer-style overdrive and the Even-Vibe Uni-Vibe model, which, together, make up the H90’s Hendrix-inspired Indigo Fog preset. The Riptide features two variations on those algorithms in the form of a less midrange-y red overdrive (selected via the small button above the drive footswitch) and a red Uni-Vibe setting, which is a more phase-forward take on the green Uni-Vibe sound.
On the Uni-Vibe side of the effect, the controls essentially correspond to that of a real Uni-Vibe, with the partial exception of the vibe knob, which at some counterclockwise settings effectively doubles as an effects-level control. At its furthest clockwise position, the vibe knob removes the unaffected signal, taking the place of the vibrato setting on a Uni-Vibe rocker switch and producing pure pitch-vibrato. At noon, the control approximates the sounds of a Uni-Vibe in its more famous chorus mode (which actually functions more like a phaser, but that is a story for another time). This configuration of the vibe control means you can create blends of the vibrato and chorus effect or, on the counterclockwise side of noon, use high intensity modulations at low mix levels. This extends the utility and musical flexibility of the vibe effect significantly. The three knobs assigned to the drive side of the pedal—drive, tone, and level—are the same as the Tube Screamer and other drive pedals.
Watch for Wobbly Drivers
No Uni-Vibe worth its salt is subtle, but the Riptide is extroverted in its own way. It’s unmistakably a Uni-Vibe sound, and a nice one at that, with plenty of chewy, vocal elasticity in the modulations. But compared to real Uni-Vibes I’ve met (memories of which are less than fresh) and the modern optical vibe effect I used for reference, the Even-Vibe section has a slight high-mid and treble emphasis that, to my ear, makes some intense modulations a little less rubbery and vowel-y. There are advantages to this kind of tone profile. Humbuckers sound a lot less muddy with heavy modulations, for one thing, and if you use Fender-style single-coils it’s unlikely you’ll go missing in a mix.
“No Uni-Vibe worth its salt is subtle, but the Riptide is extroverted in its own way.”
The toppier profile also has advantages in many of the blended chorus and vibrato settings, and when the modulations are backgrounded in the mix. In the former, the extra high-end seems to accent some pitch wobble effects, lending complexity and cool whistling overtones to combined chorus/vibrato voices. In the latter application, it contributes a little extra cut to low effect mixes that lends a ghostly presence. The phasier “red” voice, by the way, does strike a cool balance between Uni-Vibe and Phase 90-style tones. But it also offers sounds that exist outside the Uni-Vibe canon that will give more experimentally minded players lots to work with.
The Verdict
There are few modulation textures as liquid or capable of shifting the mood of a song as a Uni-Vibe. The Riptide has the same power to compel and push a song or a player’s approach in soulful, manic, and explosive ways. It has its own tone signature, and for many players that high-mid-forward emphasis will be preferable—particularly, I would guess, for Hendrix and Gilmour fans trying to coax Fuzz Face and Marshall qualities from, say, a Les Paul and a Fender Deluxe. You could argue that $299 is steep for such a specialized effect. But you’ll pay at least that much for an overdrive and a decent Uni-Vibe clone with many fewer routing and customization capabilities. If you’ve never messed with a Uni-Vibe clone before, a world of weird and wobbly awaits. But purists, too, will find plenty of thrills in this smart, compact combination of effects.
Eventide H90 App & Riptide Pedal Demo | NAMM 2024
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There are plenty of mighty American rock bands, but relatively few have had as profound an impact on the international musical landscape as X. Along with other select members of punk’s original Class of 1977, including Patti Smith, Richard Hell, and Talking Heads, the Los Angeles-based outfit proved that rock ’n’ roll could be stripped to its bones and still be as literate and allusive as the best work of the songwriters who emerged during the previous decade and were swept up in the corporate-rock tidal wave that punk rebelled against. X’s first three albums–Los Angles, Wild Gift, and Under the Big Black Sun-were a beautiful and provocative foundation, and rocked like Mt. Rushmore.
Last year, X released a new album, Smoke & Fiction, and, after declaring it would be their last, embarked on what was billed as a goodbye tour, seemingly putting a bow on 47 years of their creative journey. But when PG caught up with X at Memphis’s Minglewood Hall in late fall, vocalist and bassist John Doe let us in on a secret: They are going to continue playing select dates and the occasional mini-tour, and will be part of the Sick New World festival in Las Vegas in April 12.
Not-so-secret is that they still rock like Mt. Rushmore, and that the work of all four of the founders–bassist, singer, and songwriter Doe, vocalist and songwriter Exene Cervenka, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer D.J. Bonebreak–remains inspired.
Onstage at Minglewood Hall, Doe talked a bit about his lead role in the film-festival-award-winning 2022 remake of the film noir classic D.O.A. But most important, he and Zoom let us in on their minimalist sonic secrets.Brought to you by D’Addario.
Gretsch A Sketch
Since X’s earliest days, Billy Zoom has played Gretsches. In the beginning, it was a Silver Jet, but in recent years he’s preferred the hollowbody G6122T-59 Vintage Select Chet Atkins Country Gentleman. This example roars a little more thanks to the Kent Armstrong P-90 in the neck and a Seymour Duncan DeArmond-style pickup in the bridge. Zoom, who is an electronics wiz, also did some custom wiring and has locking tuners on the guitar.
More DeArmond
Zoom’s sole effect is this vintage DeArmond 602 volume pedal. It helps him reign in the feedback that occasionally comes soaring in, since he stations himself right in front of his amp during shows.
It's a Zoom!
Zoom’s experience with electronics began as a kid, when he began building items from the famed Heath Kit series and made his own CB radio. And since he’s a guitarist, building amps seemed inevitable. This 1x12 was crafted at the request of G&L Guitars, but never came to market. It is switchable between 10 and 30 watts and sports a single Celestion Vintage 30.
Tube Time!
The tube array includes two EL84, 12AX7s in the preamp stage, and a single 12AT7. The rightmost input is for a reverb/tremolo footswitch.
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Big Black Sun
Besides 3-band EQ, reverb, and tremolo, Zoom’s custom wiring allows for a mid-boost that pumps up to 14 dB. Not content with 11, it starts there and goes to 20.
Baby Blue
This amp is also a Zoom creation, with just a tone and volume control (the latter with a low boost). It also relies on 12AX7s and EL84s.
Big Bottom
Here is John Doe’s rig in full: Ampeg and Fender basses, with his simple stack between them. The red head atop his cabs is a rare bird: an Amber Light Walter Woods from the 1970s. These amps are legendary among bass players for their full tone, and especially good for upright bass and eccentric instruments like Doe’s scroll-head Ampeg. “I think they were the first small, solid-state bass amps ever,” Doe offers. They have channels designated for electric and upright basses (Doe says he uses the upright channel, for a mid-dier tone), plus volume, treble, bass, and master volume controls. One of the switches puts the signal out of phase, but he’s not sure what the others do. Then, there’s a Genzler cab with two 12" speakers and four horns, and an Ampeg 4x10.
Scared Scroll
Here’s the headstock of that Ampeg scroll bass, an artifact of the ’60s with a microphone pickup. Doe seems to have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this instrument, which has open tuners and through-body f-style holes on its right and left sides. “The interesting thing,” he says, “is that you cannot have any treble on the pickup. If you do, it sounds like shit. With a pick, you can sort of get away with it.” So he mostly rolls off all the treble to shake the earth.
Jazz Bass II
This is the second Fender Jazz Bass that Doe has owned. He bought his first from a friend in Baltimore for $150, and used it to write and record most of X’s early albums. That one no longer leaves home. But this touring instrument came from the Guitar Castle in Salem, Oregon, and was painted to recreate the vintage vibe of Doe’s historic bass.
Tinkering with theSDE-3 Dual Digital Delay suggested a similar, possibly enduring appeal. As an evolution of the Roland SDE-3000rack unit from the 1980s, it’s a texture machine, bubbling with subtle-to-odd triangle LFO modulations and enhanced dual-delay patterns that make tone mazes from dopey-simple melodies. And with the capacity to use it with two amps in stereo or in panning capacity, it can be much more dimensional. But while the SDE-3 will become indispensable to some for its most complex echo textures, its basic voice possesses warmth that lends personality in pedestrian applications too.
Tapping Into the Source
Some interest in the original SDE-3000 is in its association with Eddie Van Halen, who ran two of them in a wet-dry-wet configuration, using different delay rates and modulation to thicken and lend dimension to solos. But while EVH’s de facto endorsement prompted reissues of the effect as far back as the ’90s, part of the appeal was down to the 3000’s intrinsic elegance and simplicity.
In fact, the original rack unit’s features don’t differ much from what you would find on modern, inexpensive stompbox echoes. But the SDE-3000’s simplicity and reliable predictability made it conducive to fast workflow in the studio. Critically, it also avoided the lo-fi and sterility shortcomings that plagued some lesser rivals—an attribute designer Yoshi Ikegami chalks up to analog components elsewhere in the circuit and a fortuitous clock imprecision that lends organic essence to the repeats.
Evolved Echo Animal
Though the SDE-3 traces a line back to the SDE-3000 in sound and function, it is a very evolved riff on a theme. I don’t have an original SDE-3000 on hand for comparison, but it’s easy to hear how the SDE-3 bridges a gap between analog haze and more clinical, surgical digital sounds in the way that made the original famous. Thanks to the hi-cut control, the SDE-3’s voice can be shaped to enhance the angular aspect of the echoes, or blunt sharp edges. There’s also a lot of leeway to toy with varied EQ settings without sacrificing the ample definition in the repeats. That also means you can take advantage of the polyrhythmic effects that are arguably its greatest asset.
“There’s a lot of leeway to toy with varied EQ settings without sacrificing the ample definition in the repeats.”
The SDE-3’s offset control, which generates these polyrhythmic echoes, is its heart. The most practical and familiar echos, like quarter, eighth, and dotted-eighth patterns, are easy to access in the second half of the offset knobs range. In the first half of the knob’s throw, however, the offset delays often clang about at less-regular intervals, producing complex polyrhythms that are also cool multipliers of the modulation and EQ effects. For example, when emphasizing top end in repeats, using aggressive effects mixes and pitch-wobble modulation generates eerie ghost notes that swim through and around patterns, adding rhythmic interest and texture without derailing the drive behind a groove. Even at modest settings, these are great alternatives to more staid, regular subdivision patterns. Many of the coolest sounds tend toward the foggy reverb spectrum. Removing high end, piling on feedback, and adding the woozy, drunken drift from modulation creates fascinating backdrops for slow, sparse chord melodies. Faster modulations throb and swirl like old BBC Radiophonic Workshop sci-fi sound designs.
By themselves, the modulations have their own broad appeal. Chorus tones are rarely the archetypal Roland Jazz Chorus or CE type—tending to be a bit darker and mistier. But they do a nice job suggesting that texture without lapsing into caricature. There are also really cool rotary-speaker-like textures and vibrato sounds that offer alternatives to go-to industry standards.
The Verdict
The SDE-3’s many available sounds and textures would be appealing at $219—even without the stereo and panning connectivity options, a useful hold function, and expression pedal control that opens up additional options. The panning capabilities, in particular, sparked all kinds of thoughts about studio applications. Mastering the SDE-3 takes just a little study—certain polyrhythms can be dramatically reshaped by the interactivity of other controls and you need to take care to achieve identical results twice. But this is a pedal that, by virtue of its relative simplicity and richness and breadth of sounds, exceeds the utility of some similarly priced rivals, all while opening up possibilities well outside the simple echo realm
Reader: T. Moody
Hometown: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Guitar: The Green Snake
Reader T. Moody turned this Yamaha Pacifica body into a reptilian rocker.
I have always loved the reverse headstock, simply because nothing says 1987 (the best year in the history of the world) like a reverse headstock. The pickups are both Seymour Duncan—an SH-1N in the neck position and TB-4 in the bridge, both in a very cool lime green color. Right when these pickups got listed, the Buy It Now button once again lit up like the Fourth of July. I am a loyal disciple of Sperzel locking tuners and think Bob Sperzel was a pure genius, so I knew those were going on this project even before I started on it. I also knew that I wanted a Vega-Trem; those units are absolutely amazing.
When the body arrived, I thought it would be cool to do some kind of burst around the yellow so I went with a neon green. It turned out better than I imagined. Next up was the shaping and cutting of the pickguard. I had this crocodile-type, faux-leather material that I glued on the pickguard and then shaped to my liking. I wanted just a single volume control and no tone knob, because, like King Edward (Van Halen) once said, “Your volume is your tone.”
T. Moody
I then shaped and glued the faux-leather material in the cavity. The tuning knobs, volume knob, pickguard, screws, and selector switch were also painted in the lemon-lime paint scheme. I put everything together, installed the pickups, strung it up, set it up, plugged it in, and I was blown away. I think this is the best-playing and -sounding guitar I have ever tried.
The only thing missing was the center piece and strap. The latter was easy because DiMarzio makes their ClipLock in neon green. The center piece was more difficult because originally, I was thinking that some kind of gator-style decoration would be cool. In the end, I went with a green snake, because crocodiles ain’t too flexible—and they’re way too big to fit in a pickup cavity!
The Green Snake’s back is just as striking as the front.
