The Lo-Fi Loop Junky remains among the most unique pedals in Zachary Vex’s pedal line, which is saying a lot. It didn’t fill many common needs when it debuted, even by the adventurous standards of loopers. But it produced one of the most distinctive ranges of tones you could ever use for looping—a mixture of compression and vibrato-warble that gave loops the character of warped records, warbling tape, and other very lo-fidelity treats. And while its merits weren’t as obvious to straight-ahead players, looping players that wanted to add a little more character—well, in this case a lot more character—to their loops without tap dancing around three other pedals fell in love with the Lo-Fi Loop Junky.
With the Instant Lo-Fi Junky, Z.Vex adapts the effects that make the Loop Junky’s loops so, well, junky and puts them in a stomp box without the looper. The result is a tone-tweaking tool that very happily strays from the ordinary.
Instant Gratification
Engineer Joel Korte designed the Instant Lo-Fi Junky by reverse-engineering Vex’s original Lo-Fi Loop Junky circuit. But the Instant Junky isn’t just the Lo-Fi Looper’s circuit minus the looper. Instead, the Instant Lo-Fi Junky uses a different set of components with a combination of compression and vibrato effects to replicate the tones you get using the original Loop Junky’s recorded tone.
While the effects can be radical, the pedal is among the simplest to operate in the Z.Vex product line—with a set of knobs for Volume, Tone, Vibrato Speed, Vibrato Depth, and a Mix control for moving between full-compression and full-vibrato. There’s also a tiny, 3-way switch at the top of the pedal’s face that changes the vibrato shape from sine to triangle or square waves. Either a 9V battery or a standard Boss-style power supply, drawing less than a miniscule 20 mA of power, powers the analog, true-bypass circuit.
Clean Up This Junk!
For all intents and purposes, the Instant Lo-Fi Junky houses some of the wackiest tones in the entire Z.Vex line. But there are also very usable and more conventional sounds within. Rest assured, the Loop Junky’s strange, vibrato-laden murk is perfectly preserved here, along with the option of mixing in some out-of-this-world compression.
Before I delved into the lo-fi emulation aspects of the pedal, I plugged it in between a Fender Blacktop Telecaster and Fender ’65 Twin Reverb reissue, and turned the Comp/ Lo-Fi knob all the way to the left. Playing the opening passage to “The Wind Cries Mary” had me twitching in my seat—the compression is staggeringly good—reminiscent of Z.Vex’s brightly-voiced Super Hard-On booster, but with an unbelievable amount of sustain and smoother response. It’s nearly worth the price of admission alone.
Moving the Comp/Lo-Fi control clockwise brings the pedal’s lo-fi processing into play. With the mix full-on, the tone is just as gloomy and warbly as the Z.Vex’s looper, with the added bonus of being able to drastically change the waveform from smooth rises and falls to sudden, immediate pitch-changes. Pulling the Mix control back gave me a warm, heavenly chorus that was reminiscent of a beloved vintage Boss CE-1 that I once owned, but with more clarity and a wider scope. Chorus may be one of the more conventional and familiar effects out there, but Z.Vex managed to put their own stamp on it in this case.
The Verdict
Those aching to apply the Lo-Fi Loop Junky’s granular tonal-qualities to their direct guitar sounds will be extremely satisfied with the Instant Lo-Fi Junky. The Instant Lo-Fi Junky’s tone sounds much like its looper counterpart, and has an incredible compression tone for cleaner playing to boot, in addition to some of the coolest chorus tones available on the market. A lo-fi star to be sure, but one you can use in proper company too.
Buy if...
you’re looking to experiment with new textures in your guitar tone.
Skip if...
you’re perfectly happy with keeping your tone’s high fidelity.
Rating...
Street $Street $219 (Vexter version); $349 (handpainted version) - Z. Vex Effects - zvex.com |
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A mix of futuristic concepts and DeArmond single-coil pickups, the Musicraft Messenger’s neck was tuned to resonate at 440 Hz.
Until its untimely end, Musicraft made roughly 250 Messengers in various configurations: the mono-output Messenger and the flagship Messenger Stereophonic, both of which could come with the “Tone Messer” upgrade, a built-in distortion/fuzz circuit. The company’s first catalog also featured a Messenger Bass, a wireless transmitter/receiver, and various models of its Messenger Envoy amplifier, very few of which have survived, if many were ever made at all.
“To this day, even fans will sometimes call the decision to use DeArmonds the Messenger’s ‘Achilles’ heel.’”
Upon its release, the Messenger was a mix of futuristic concepts and DeArmond single-coil pickups that were more likely to be found on budget instruments than pricier guitars such as these. The Messengers often featured soapbar-style DeArmonds, though some sported a diamond grille. (To this day, even fans will sometimes call the decision to use DeArmonds the Messenger’s “Achilles’ heel.”) The Stereophonic model, like the one featured in this edition of Vintage Vault, could be plugged into a single amplifier as normal, or you could split the bridge and neck pickup outputs to two separate amps.
One of the beloved hallmarks of the guitars are their magnesium-aluminum alloy necks, which continue as a center block straight through the tailpiece, making the guitars relatively lightweight and virtually immune to neck warping, while enhancing their playability. Thanks to the strength of that metal-neck design, there’s no need for a thick heel where it meets the body, granting unprecedented access to the higher end of the fretboard.
This Stereophonic model could be plugged into a single amplifier as normal, or you could split the bridge and neck pickup outputs to two separate amps.
The neck was apparently also tuned to have a resonant frequency of 440 Hz, which, in all honesty, may be some of that 1967 “whoa, man” marketing continuing on through our modern-day guitar discourse, where this fact is still widely repeated on forums and in YouTube videos. (As one guitar aficionado to the next, what does this even mean in practice? Would an inaudible vibration at that frequency have any effect at all on the tone of the guitar?)
In any event, the combination of that metal center block—resonant frequency or not—the apple-shaped hollow wooden body of the guitar, and the cat’s-eye-style “f-holes” did make it prone to gnarly fits of feedback, especially if you engaged the Tone Messer fuzz and blasted it all through the high-gain amp stacks favored by the era’s hard rockers.
The most famous devotee of the Messenger was Grand Funk Railroad’s Mark Farner, who used the guitar—and its Tone Messer circuitry—extensively on the group’s string of best-selling records and in their defining live shows, like the Atlanta Pop Festival 1970 and their sold-out run at New York’s Shea Stadium in 1971. But even Farner had some misgivings.
The Messengers often featured soapbar-style DeArmonds, though some sported a diamond grille.
In a 2009 interview, he talked about his first test-run of the guitar: “After I stuffed it full of foam and put masking tape over the f-holes to stop that squeal, I said, ‘I like it.’” He bought it for $200, on a $25-per-pop installment plan, a steal even at the time. (He also made it over with a psychedelic paint job, befitting the era, and experimented with different pickups over the years.)
When these guitars were new in 1967, the Messenger Stereophonic in morning sunburst, midnight sunburst, or mojo red would have run you $340. By 1968, new stereo models started at $469.50. Recent years have seen prices for vintage models steadily increase, as the joy of this rarity continues to thrill players and collectors. Ten years ago, you could still get them for about $1,500, but now prices range from $3,000 to $6,000, depending on condition.
Our Vintage Vault pick today is listed on Reverb by Chicago’s own SS Vintage. Given that it’s the stereo model, in very good condition, and includes the Tone Messer upgrade, its asking price of $5,495 is near the top-end for these guitars today, but within the usual range. To those readers who appreciate the vintage vibe but don’t want the vintage price tag, Eastwood Guitars offers modern reissues, and eagle-eyed buyers can also find some very rare but less expensive vintage MIJ clones made in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
Sources: Reverb listing from SS Vintage, Reverb Price Guide sales data, Musicraft July 1, 1967 Price Schedule, 1968 Musicraft Catalog, Chicago Music Exchange’s “Uncovering The Secret Sounds of the 1967 Musicraft Messenger Guitar,” MusicPickups.com article on the Messenger.In continued support of their 3x GRAMMY-nominated album Dark Matter, Pearl Jam will be touring select U.S. cities in April and May 2025.
Pearl Jam’s live dates will start in Hollywood, FL on April 24 and 26 and wrap with performances in Pittsburgh, PA on May 16 and 18. Full tour dates are listed below.
Support acts for these dates will be announced in the coming weeks.
Tickets for these concerts will be available two ways:
- A Ten Club members-only presale for all dates begins today. Only paid Ten Club members active as of 11:59 PM PT on December 4, 2024 are eligible to participate in this presale. More info at pearljam.com.
- Public tickets will be available through an Artist Presale hosted by Ticketmaster. Fans can sign up for presale access for up to five concert dates now through Tuesday, December 10 at 10 AM PT. The presale starts Friday, December 13 at 10 AM local time.
earl Jam strives to protect access to fairly priced tickets by providing the majority of tickets to Ten Club members, making tickets non-transferable as permitted, and selling approximately 10% of tickets through PJ Premium to offset increased costs. Pearl Jam continues to use all-in pricing and the ticket price shown includes service fees. Any applicable taxes will be added at checkout.
For fans unable to use their purchased tickets, Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster will offer a Fan-to-Fan Face Value Ticket Exchange for every city, starting at a later date. To sell tickets through this exchange, you must have a valid bank account or debit card in the United States. Tickets listed above face value on secondary marketplaces will be canceled. To help protect the Exchange, Pearl Jam has also chosen to make tickets for this tour mobile only and restricted from transfer. For more information about the policy issues in ticketing, visit fairticketing.com.
For more information, please visit pearljam.com.