Stone Deaf Effects’ Trashy Blonde Overdrive proves the power of a good parametric EQ. While that statement may provoke a collective “duh” from the studio engineers and bassists who regularly rely on parametric EQ, many guitarists have never experimented with—let alone understood—the effect. Sure, many stompboxes have tone controls, and some allow you to choose the target frequencies. But true parametric EQ also lets you specify the <em>width</em> of the affected band, dialing in anything from a wide swath to a narrow slice. It’s a useful tool for bringing out the liveliest frequencies in a tone or mix, or cutting frequencies that muddy the sound. Combining that degree of tone control with righteous and responsive Marshall-style overdrive circuit makes the Trashy Blonde a powerful and versatile tone shaper.
Goldfinger
If King Midas had been a gear hound, he’d have owned a Trashy Blonde. The pedal’s bold gold finish and large enclosure make it hard to miss. Weighty construction and substantial knobs and switches make it feel like a quality product. A side-mounted 9V battery drawer enables quick battery changes.
The Trashy Blonde’s controls may seem unfamiliar at first, thought they’re simple once you get the hang of them. There’s a knob for dialing in frequencies between 20 Hz and 6 kHz, representing the full range of most electric guitars and basses and then some. Meanwhile, a 5-way rotary switch sets the bandwidth. (The narrower the setting, the more intense and focused the result.) The Cut/Boost knob adjusts frequencies by a whooping ±20dB. And the trash control sets the intensity of the pedal’s British-flavored distortion.
There are additional wrinkles: You can bypass the pedal’s overdrive circuit via footswitching, applying EQ to your clean tones. Also, you can connect Stone Deaf’s optional expression pedal for real-time frequency changes—and some seriously wacky-sounding phasing and wah effects. There’s a mix knob to blend the relative amounts of dry and effected signal, because why shouldn’t bassists also be able to get in on the fun? (Guitarists may also find this option useful.)
All That Glitters
Even with the overdrive bypassed, the Trashy Blonde is useful for shaping clean tones. With my trusty Fender Telecaster and Twin Reverb, the Blonde pinpointed frequencies with surgical precision and remained remarkably transparent. It’s easy to mimic a two-amp setup by dialing in a 4 dB upper-mid boost via the bandwidth and freq controls. The contrasting tones were similar to running an old, clean plexi in tandem with the Fender, adding depth to the Twin’s already beautiful tone.
The frequency and bandwidth controls can also mimic different pickups. Playing a Les Paul Custom, I dialed out some low frequencies with a thin bandwidth setting, yielding convincing Strat-like tones for funky rhythm work. Conversely, I made my Telecaster’s bridge pickup mimic a humbucker by setting the freq control to around 10:30 and boosting by five or ten decibels.
Ratings
Pros:
Buttery British overdrive. Precision processing for clean and overdriven tones. Solid construction. Cool phasing and wah effects with optional expression pedal.
Cons:
Care required when applying bandwidth and frequency adjustments.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$299 (Trashy Blonde), $159 (EP-1 Expression Pedal)
Stone Deaf FX Trashy Blonde
stonedeaffx.com
Total Trash
Kicking in the distortion mode—colorfully dubbed “Trash”—introduces velvety-rich overdrive that draws inspiration the late ’60s Marshall Super Lead. The Trashy Blonde does a superb job imitating the original’s famous roar, and also responds beautifully to volume knob and pickup selector changes. I was stunned by how naturally the overdrive cleaned up when I rolled down the volumes on my ’78 Greco EG-700. It didn’t just lower the drive—it also removed edginess without thinning the tone.
If you’re into all things high-gain, Trash mode won’t make you ditch your Dual Rectifier. Maxing the gain brings you to about late ’70s Angus Young territory—a tone the pedal does exceptionally well when coupled with low-output humbuckers. It’s easy to get nice, woody British overdrive, though it’s equally easy to unleash truly nasty tones if you’re not careful. I tended to keep the bandwidth control at 6 o’clock or higher in this mode to avoid excessively reedy and nasal-sounding tones, though those tones may be exactly right for adding a lo-fi edge or mimicking the sound of plugging directly into a mixing console, à la the Beatles’ “Revolution.”
Speaking of unique tones, I recommend that anybody considering the Trashy Blonde try it with Stone Deaf’s optional EP-1, one of the most rugged expression pedal’s I’ve seen. Simply plug into the expression pedal jack and set the controllers freq knob to the desired range. I had a blast getting everything from synth-like wah to manually controlled phasing. The Trashy Blonde instantly banished two other pedals from my board.
The Verdict
The Trashy Blonde is almost worth its price for its powerful and flexible EQ section alone. Pairing the EQ with buttery British-flavored overdrive makes the Trashy Blonde feel like more than just a pedal: It’s a dual-channel tone processor. Some might find the three-bills price is a bit hefty, but the Trashy Blonde’s great tone and infinitely useful EQ make a convincing counter-argument.
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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.
