 | Download Example 1 Penetrating Clean Vibrato (Epiphone Sheraton) |
| Download Example 2 Pulsing Rock (Hamer Korina Special) |
| Download Example 3 Psychedelic Reverse Tremolo (Strat |
| All clips recorded with a Chandler LTD1 mic pre into an Apogee Symphony I/O to Pro Tools HD9. SM57 off axis to Evil Robot. Slight addition of Lexicon room reverb in mix. | |
Look at This
Housed in a white powder-coated stomp box with blue accents The Looker is a study in economy of space. Two outputs and two inputs are found on the top back of the pedal as well as a 9vDC input for Boss PSA adapter. There are three knobs on top that control Time, Depth and Shape. One mini toggles enables you to double the rate of the tremolo signal and another serves as Pan/Sync switch that modifies the stereo operation of the effect. On the bottom left of the Looker is a Tap stomp with accompanying red LED that blinks in time with the tap rate and a (true) Bypass stomp switch with a green LED indicator. Inside the pedal you’ll find two trim pots to adjust the gain of each output for matched operation with two or one amps.
The Looker has a wide tremolo rate range from 50ms to 2000ms, which is controlled via the Time knob. The Shape control offers four types of waveforms; Square, Ramp, Inverse Ramp, and Sine modulations. The Depth control modifies the intensity of the effect. The Tap tempo is an effective way to sync with a band or song and with the 1x/2x mode engaged the sound can easily be doubled in time with music (2x) and returned to the original tap (1x). By running the effect into two amps you can achieve a really expansive sound where the effect dodges back and forth or takes on a more subtle wash.
Sounds Like A Looker
For the majority of my testing I used an Epiphone Sheraton through a Fretted Americana Evil Robot. And almost regardless of setting, the Looker is lush, deep, detailed and warm. Operation is virtually silent and signals don’t noticeably degrade in bypass or effected mode. The pedal can push the front end of the amp depending on how you set the trim pot inside the pedal too.
Eager to check out the Tap Tempo mode, I set up drum track through my rig and locked in with the groove. Setting the Depth just below noon and the Shape in the CCW position I got a nice, familiar square wave tremolo. Kicking up the Depth lends individual pulses strong definition and a cool and musical signal-cut effect. The fun really begins with the Shape knob, which I set up in the Inverse Ramp setting. It’s a truly psychedelic effect with an almost reverse-tape effect mixing with the tremolo that was super addictive and stretched my playing into pretty cosmic realms.
Even radical settings for the Depth and Shape settings sounded expressive, tuneful, and useful. I came to prefer a little less aggressive effect with the Sheraton and Evil Robot just because of the more aggressive basic tone of that rig. But subtler settings still had a pronounced shimmer and depth.
To check out the stereo operation I connected the two outputs into the dual inputs of my Axe-FX Ultra. And it’s here that the Looker really shows off its incredible range. At first I had two amp models panned hard left and right, which displayed an ultra-wide ping-pong effect. The Pan/Sync switch determines if the modulation between channels One and Two are in or out of phase, which can produce some equally radical effects or a pleasant warble when set up to be a little more tame.
The Verdict
There are so many combinations of sounds within that The Looker often feels like something beyond just a simple tremolo. The longer I experimented with it the more I found myself coming up with new grooves and rhythms that had a natural but perfectly synced swing to them. And these days, with everything being processed inside of computers, it was refreshing to feel a discernible organic cooperation between amps and the pulsing, modern/vintage goodness of the Looker.
While tremolo is not the type of effect you will use on every song there is enough range and subtlety to the Looker that you can easily have it running most of the time at subtler settings for added depth. It can take you to the stratosphere and back and wow and impress with its extremes or inspire new rhythmic ideas. Operation is simple yet intuitive and the Tap tempo was ultra smooth and transitioned nicely from tempo to tempo with just a few taps. And given the quality workmanship and a friendly price tag, The Looker is hard to beat if you’re looking for vintage tremolo sounds that can go way beyond.
Buy if...
you move from adventurous to subtle tremolo effects and have the means to explore stereo effects.
Skip if...
modulation isn’t your thing
Rating...
Street $175 - Young Pedals - youngpedals.com |
LR Baggs HiFi Duet High-fidelity Pickup and Microphone Mixing System
"When a guitar is “the one,” you know it. It feels right in your hands and delivers the sounds you hear in your head. It becomes your faithful companion, musical soulmate, and muse. It helps you express your artistic vision. We designed the Les Paul Studio to be precisely the type of guitar: the perfect musical companion, the guitar you won’t be able to put down. The one guitar you’ll be able to rely on every time and will find yourself reaching for again and again. For years, the Les Paul Studio has been the choice of countless guitarists who appreciate the combination of the essential Les Paul features–humbucking pickups, a glued-in, set neck, and a mahogany body with a maple cap–at an accessible price and without some of the flashier and more costly cosmetic features of higher-end Les Paul models."
Now, the Les Paul Studio has been reimagined. It features an Ultra-Modern weight-relieved mahogany body, making it lighter and more comfortable to play, no matter how long the gig or jam session runs. The carved, plain maple cap adds brightness and definition to the overall tone and combines perfectly with the warmth and midrange punch from the mahogany body for that legendary Les Paul sound that has been featured on countless hit recordings and on concert stages worldwide. The glued-in mahogany neck provides rock-solid coupling between the neck and body for increased resonance and sustain. The neck features a traditional heel and a fast-playing SlimTaper profile, and it is capped with an abound rosewood fretboard that is equipped with acrylic trapezoid inlays and 22 medium jumbo frets. The 12” fretboard radius makes both rhythm chording and lead string bending equally effortless, andyou’re going to love how this instrument feels in your hands. The Vintage Deluxe tuners with Keystone buttons add to the guitar’s classic visual appeal, and together with the fully adjustable aluminum Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge, lightweight aluminum Stop Bar tailpiece, andGraph Tech® nut, help to keep the tuning stability nice and solid so you can spend more time playing and less time tuning. The Gibson Les Paul Studio is offered in an Ebony, BlueberryBurst, Wine Red, and CherrySunburst gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finishes and arrives with an included soft-shell guitar case.
It packs a pair of Gibson’s Burstbucker Pro pickups and a three-way pickup selector switch that allows you to use either pickup individually or run them together. Each of the two pickups is wired to its own volume control, so you can blend the sound from the pickups together in any amount you choose. Each volume control is equipped with a push/pull switch for coil tapping, giving you two different sounds from each pickup, and each pickup also has its own individual tone control for even more sonic options. The endless tonal possibilities, exceptional sustain, resonance, and comfortable playability make the Les Paul Studio the one guitar you can rely on for any musical genre or scenario.
For more information, please visit gibson.com.
Introducing the Reimagined Gibson Les Paul Studio - YouTube
Phat Machine
The Phat Machine
The Phat Machine is designed to deliver the tone and responsiveness of a vintage germanium fuzz with improved temperature stability with no weird powering issues. Loaded with both a germanium and a silicon transistor, the Phat Machine offers the warmth and cleanup of a germanium fuzz but with the bite of a silicon pedal. It utilizes classic Volume and Fuzz control knobs, as well as a four-position Thickness control to dial-in any guitar and amp combo. Also included is a Bias trim pot and a Kill switch that allows battery lovers to shut off the battery without pulling the input cord.
Silk Worm Deluxe Overdrive
The Silk Worm Deluxe -- along with its standard Volume/Gain/Tone controls -- has a Bottom trim pot to dial in "just the right amount of thud with no mud at all: it’s felt more than heard." It also offers a Studio/Stage diode switch that allows you to select three levels of compression.
Both pedals offer the following features:
- 9-volt operation via standard DC external supply or internal battery compartment
- True bypass switching with LED indicator
- Pedalboard-friendly top mount jacks
- Rugged, tour-ready construction and super durable powder coated finish
- Made in the USA
Static Effectors’ Street Series pedals carry a street price of $149 each. They are available at select retailers and can also be purchased directly from the Static Effectors online store at www.staticeffectors.com.
This outing of Dipped In Tone kicks off with an exciting update from Zach Broyles’ camp: He’s opening a brick-and-mortar guitar shop in Nashville, called High Voltage Guitars. Opening on October 8, the store will carry gear from Two-Rock, Divided By 13, Dr. Z, Castedosa, Fano, Novo, and of course Mythos Pedals. Zach hints that there might be some handwired JHS pedals from Josh Scott himself, too, and Rhett reveals that he plans to consign some of his guitars at the shop.
The business side of Zach’s new venture brings them to a key piece of today’s episode: Rhett and Zach aren’t running charities. They do what they do to make money; guitars, gear, podcasting, and content creation are their literal jobs. And they’re not as glamorous and breezy as most armchair commentators might guess.
Want to do what Rhett and Zach do? Welcome to the club. The guitar-influencer field is what one might call “oversaturated” at the moment, and it’s difficult to break out—but not impossible. As our hosts explain, it requires putting in 60-hour work weeks, a diverse skillset, a knack for catching people’s attention, and a certain level of genuineness. Rhett knows this path well, and he has hard-earned advice for staying true to oneself while building a following in the gear world.
Tune in to learn why Rhett thinks Fretboard Summit, a three-day guitar festival organized by Fretboard Journal, blows NAMM out of the water and builds legitimate connections between guitarists, and catch the duo dipping a Dick Dale-inspired, all-Fender rig.
