Streamline your stage or studio rig and increase your tone options at the same time with one of these speaker-simulation pedals.
Torpedo C.A.B. M+
Designed to be the missing link between a guitarist’s rig and the PA or audio interface, this pedal is loaded with 32 Two Notes cabinets, eight power amps, eight mics, and eight rooms to choose from.
Red Box 5
This handy DI and speaker simulator offers powerful control over your sound, including cabinet size and cab tightness, and a means to avoid miking up your rig onstage.
OmniCabSim Deluxe
Designed for guitarists who want to create their own cabinet response settings, rather than rely on presets, this pedal allows players to define their sound and get an accurate reproduction of it when gigging or recording.
Iridium
This pedal has mathematically modeled every aspect of three iconic tube amps, and includes nine of Iridium’s IR cabinets with 24-bit 96 kHz resolution for the entire 500 milliseconds of its impulse responses.
CabClone IR
Featuring two banks of eight Mesa cab presets for 16 proprietary IRs and the ability to upload third-party IRs, this pedal also functions as a tone-rich, silent practice tool with a set of headphones.
Element
With five cabinet simulations, a multi-channel USB-C audio interface, and Bluetooth tech to listen to backing tracks, this pedal was designed with practicality in mind, to empower modern musicians.
Radar
With 30 cab models to choose from and microphone and power-amp simulation ideal for recording or silent practice, this mini can help transform a pedalboard into a complete guitar rig.
Cabzeus
This two-channel cabinet/speaker/miking simulator uses advanced DSP processing techniques coupled with clean and robust circuit designs for minimal noise and optimal headroom.
CabDriVR
Featuring 14 guitar- and bass-cabinet impulse responses and dual inputs and outputs, this emulator also has separate level controls so players can balance each cab’s volume in the mix.
Omni IR
This compact pedal houses 40 legendary guitar and bass cabinet IRs, a 4-band EQ with 12 dB boost/cut, and a hi-res OLED screen for easy operation in any recording or live scenario.
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By splitting your signal into low- and high-frequency bands, and feeding them to separate effects loops, the XO lends a new, expansive vocabulary to the effects you already have.
Smart, intuitive controls. Exponentially widens the tone potential of just a few effects. High quality construction
Players with limited use for such effects will consider it expensive.
$279
Great Eastern FX
greateasternfx.com
Though some musicians consider it a chore, I relish the creative possibilities associated with mixing a song or record. Working with the Great Eastern FX XO Variable Crossover feels a lot like the process of experimental mixing using EQ and outboard effects. The concept is simple: The XO splits the low and high frequencies from your input into two separate bands, which are routed via corresponding send and return jacks to different effects or series of them.
Depending on how you set the crossover frequency, the return balance, dry blend, and phase, you can fluidly shape, blend, and move between sounds that are subtly different or radically deconstructed. On the surface, it might look and sound like a cumbersome process. In reality, it’s intuitive, fun, and full of surprises
Fear Not the Frequency Shift
The XO’s control set will probably look alien to most guitarists. The largest knob controls the crossover frequency, which determines the point at which the full frequency band is divided and sent to the low and high send and return. The range button just to its right selects two frequency ranges: 50 to 600 Hz, or 300 Hz to 3.4 kHz. The first is recommended for use with bass, the second for guitar, but you can experiment with either setting for any instrument. The return balance knob sets the relative levels of the two effects returns and the dry blend knob performs its namesake task. The phase button can be used to either correct phase issues when the two bands are out of phase or applied creatively to fashion out-of-phase variations on a sound. A very useful send button, meanwhile, switches the high and low sends, enabling instantaneous selection of mirror-image frequency and effects mixes.
Mutating Tone Tangles
My first experiments with the XO were simple: sending the low band to a delay with long repeats and the high band to another delay with fast repeats, lurking just at the brink of oscillation. The ways I could blend these divided and reconstituted tone composites were often unexpected, surprising, and totally inspiring. I could set up signals that found trebly repeats hovering at the edge of feedback, while low and low-mid frequencies (which can overwhelm a self-oscillating signal) provided a fat foundation for the resonant, ringing top end—a totally cool sound that responded in really interesting ways to picking dynamics and different rhythmic patterns. In a modification of that formula, I routed an intensely throbbing Vox Repeat Percussion clone, slow-sweeping phaser, and long-repeat delay to the low band and assigned a clean, heavily compressed, slapback to the high frequencies. In this configuration, simple folk-rock chords and melodic lead lines took on complex, alien alter egos, sometimes sounding like two players—one handling a bubbling bass synth, and a guitarist carrying the tune via the clear detailed high end. When the pulsing low end got tiresome, it was easy to dial in more dry signal via the dry-blend knob or dial in a mix favoring the tighter, chiming high band.
“Simple folk-rock chords and melodic lead lines took on complex, alien alter egos, sometimes sounding like two players.”
The spins you can put on these recipes are endless. Situating an octave-down pedal amid the tremolo and phaser made the two bands even more distinctive and heightened the illusion of a guitarist and synth player working together. You can mix fuzzy, thumping low end with ringing and heavily chorused top-end output. Or you can blend two similar but distinct effects to create oddly chorused and powerful widescreen tonalities.
The cool part of all this potential is that it can be realized with a single amp and just a few pedals. Some of my most radical sounds came via just four or five pedals including the XO, which adds up to a very modest and portable array, all things considered. Players that work with pedalboards that count stomps in the double digits could disappear in labyrinths of sound that are as immersive as those afforded by synthesis. And while XO is, after some practice, easy to control, the new, chaotic molecular reactions provoked by unorthodox stimulation of your pedals all but guarantees unique results. You will definitely find new sounds and new ways to play and compose here.
The Verdict
The XO Variable Crossover is more likely to see service as a studio tool than become a staple of live setups, though plenty of courageous musicians will find it practical in that environment. Although the mechanics and principles behind its workings can seem complex at first, it can be used effectively and dramatically with just a few stompboxes. The sounds and voices it can extract from, say, a phaser and a delay are exponentially greater in number than what you’d get by simply using two such effects in series, even if some of them are subtle. And the ability to manipulate and warp these sounds on the fly with the XO’s elegant, simple control interface could bring out your inner Lee “Scratch” Perry or DJ Shadow—creating new moods, scenes, and tapestries that can turn a simple song or riff into a moving, mutable, and flowing tone story.
Electro-Harmonix's POG3 Polyphonic Octave Generator Pedal offers six separate voices, 100 user presets, extensive I/O, and expression control.
Released in 2005, the original POG revolutionized the world of octave pedals and became a favorite of the likes of Joe Satriani and Jack White. The POG2 followed with updates like programmable presets and an attack filter that helped the POG garner even more popularity among guitarists all over the world. With the biggest feature update to date, the POG3 becomes the most powerful polyphonic octave generator ever.
Electro-Harmonix POG3 Polyphonic Octave Generator Pedal (EHX Demo by BILL RUPPERT)
Building on the foundation laid by the original almost two decades ago, the POG3 offers updates that include a +5th voice, 100 user presets, extensive I/O, enhanced effects section with individual dry effect routing, and expression control over almost every parameter of the pedal.
Features
- Six separate voices: DRY, -2 OCT, -1 OCT, +5TH, +1 OCT, +2OCT
- 100 presets
- Three separate 1/4" outputs – LEFT, RIGHT, DIRECT OUT
- Individual pan controls to separate voices between the LEFT and RIGHT output jacks
- Classic POG and POG2 ATTACK, FILTER, and DETUNE controls with enhancements
- INPUT GAIN control
- MASTER VOLUME control
- FOCUS control for +1 OCT and +2 OCT
- Multimode Filter with Q and Envelope sweep
- All controls can be saved to presets and controlled via expression and/or MIDI
- Illuminated slide pots and buttons
- 128x32 graphic OLED display
- Selectable “home” views to allow for personalized user experiences
- Easy-to-navigate menu system
- New NavCoder knob allows rotary and directional navigation through menus
- EXPRESSION / CV input offers multiple modes of expression
- USB-C port to connect to Windows or Mac and interface with EHXport™ app
The Electro-Harmonix POG3 is available now, comes equipped with a high current EHX 9 Volt power supply and features a U.S. Street Price of $645.00.
For more information, please visit ehx.com.
Cardinal Black's guitar slinger explains the bond he's formed with the overlooked goldtop.
The T-style Big Mamie has a teak body, roasted-flame-maple neck, and ebony fretboard.
Built with wood from a World War II battleship, this reader’s guitar holds a lot of history.
I love it when guitars and history come together.
My newest guitar, “Big Mamie,” was built with original teak from the deck of the USS Massachusetts (BB-59). This wood saw action in World War II, during multiple campaigns in the 1940s.
I was checking Facebook one day and I saw a post from Battleship Cove (located in Fall River, Massachusetts) where they were auctioning off this Telecaster-style body crafted by Rhode Island luthier Vincent Goulart. The proceeds of the auction would go to helping restore the battleship.
I knew I had to have it. Not only was this a piece of United States and Massachusetts history, but it held a special place in my memories. When I was a kid, my grandparents would take us to Battleship Cove where we’d explore the ships, the submarine, and the historical displays. Later, when I had my own kids, we’d visit and do overnight sleepovers with Scouts. We slept on “Big Mamie” and walked the decks from where this wood was taken.
Daniel had Big Mamie’s neckplate custom laser-engraved with a silhouette of the USS Massachusetts (BB-59), and the dates that can be seen on the battleship’s plaque.
After winning the auction, I was connected to Vincent and he told me the story of how he came to build this body for the restoration fundraiser. He’s a talented luthier, but each of his guitars has to have a unique history/story. This was right up his alley!
We spoke a few times, discussing what I liked to play, and how I’d like the finished guitar to look and sound. In the end, I decided on some standard Fender chrome components for tuners, neck plate, ferrules, etc. For the pickups, I went with Lindy Fralin Blues Specials. The controls are also from Fralin; I decided on the flipped-control orientation with the push-pull mods for the volume engage/disengage and tone caps (.02 MFD and 0.047 MFD, film and oil, respectively).
The vintage/modern roasted-flame-maple neck, with an ebony fretboard, was custom ordered from Warmoth. The neck had an adventure all of its own after initially being lost in shipment. It finally showed up about a week or two after being written off as lost (and after a new order was placed).
“Now I have a piece of history here in my room that I can pass down to my family.”
For the neck plate, I had it custom laser-engraved with a silhouette of the battleship and dates from an onboard plaque. The strap, from Well-Hung Guitar Straps in Canada, fits the patriotic theme. I’m also using oversized strap buttons from Well-Hung.
Over a couple visits to Vincent’s place, he helped me put together all the components and bring “Big Mamie” to life. Now I have a piece of history here in my room that I can pass down to my family. It also gives me a reason to work on my admittedly novice guitar skills.