As a solo performer with backing tracks, this is something I've always wanted to give it something more when you get to the bangers. The blend control is what sold me. Ever since I heard the drive that Bryan Adams had on his acoustic on the bare bones record, I've always wanted an acoustic with a sick drive with no feedback and this is what it gave me.
I’ve been using a Pigtronix Philosopher’s Tone (full size version) to do this for years. It’s a compressor with a grit knob that you can dial in so you get the compression and distortion in one. Plus it has a blend control so it can sound like you’re running two amps or two guitars. Works well and sounds better than the Fender pedal.
Ibanez TS8/9 works... it has the benefit that it doesn't colour the guitar tone with its own 'sound' like many pedals do, just boosts it. It has a tone control also if your acoustic is a bit thin like a Taylor or a Martin (compared to say a Gibson J45 which has a fuller, warm tone)
I actually didn't mind the Smolder. I agree with some of the other comments about the blend control. I think that's what makes it work in general, but I also think the voicing of the Smolder is a better fit than the other ODs that were tried.
Damn, I dig that! Definitely does a good job dealing with the nastiness factor from using normal distortion on acoustic. With regard to Mike Dawes, btw, the pedal he uses is a Joyo American Sound, because it's got cab simulation in to tame that nastiness (so it's more like acoustic into an angry amp, which can sound pretty good, than acoustic into distortion into a PA/acoustic amp, which rarely does).
Boss LS-2 + Any color of distortion you like. Also works for splitting into modulating, delay, etc, and keep whatever percent you want as dry. One of the pedals of all time. Completely underated. Thank me later
Listen to Billy String or Greensky Bluegrass for overdriven acoustic guitar tones. They run a split to a tube amp with a pedal in front of it and blend it in with a volume pedal.
Piazzo is Italian for square, like a town square with a pub and a pizzeria. I would like a good pizza on a nice Italian Piazzo. I'll have a nice beer to go with it. But Cap'n Lee means to say Piezo. Piezo is derived from the Greek Piezein, which means to squeeze or press. A piezo pickup generates an electric signal from the pressure waves it expierences. Basicly it reacts to vibration, which a guitar will do when properly agitated. They usually stick the piezo pickups right underneath the bridge, because it's usually located in the middle of the guitar's sound board, where the amplitude of the vibration is the highest.
Just tried this with my Martin and TS9. The blend between the mic and the piazzo makes all the difference. Sounded pretty great I thought. Didn't think about trying it though until now.
The difference is not just the guitar and the pickup. OD pedals are designed with an electric amp with a guitar speaker in mind. Thats why they are so harsh into an acoustic amp. As an alternative you can also try to use an electric amp. To have the blend you need a signal splitter. John Butler also puts a volume pedal to the electric side of the chain.
The purpose of the phase switch is to cancel out the feedback mentioned at 8:15. The pickup compensation works to suppress it, also, by reducing the resonant peak (cutting some particular mid-range). The phase switch is actually one of the features that makes this most useful for acoustic.
With the blend control that pedal looks like it is pretty similar to effects for bass guitar. Using bass effects on acoustic could be an interesting video subject. Also Lee's note on interference with the acoustic sound of the guitar when setting up the pedal is a good reason for using in-ear monitoring from the mixing desk.
I have a guitar that I modded with an extra soundholepickup = piezo separate out , Soundhole humbucker separate out. I knew it could be cool, and now with a Helix the door opened. Since I have separate volumes and 2 inputs on the Helix, and snapshots, this system rocks! I've would go for the Sire guitar if I needed it for this ;-)
The Rattler sounds ace with anything, but I don’t want my Ovation sounding like my Strat. The Smoulder did a pretty good job of fattening up the piezo signal, which is what most of us have on our electro-acoustics, and the pickup compensation knob really gave you total control over your feedback. Personally, though, I’d want to go the eq/compression rather than the overdrive route; in which case, the LR Baggs Align Series “Session” pedal blows this out of the park!
I dig it, but it really requires a good context. Doesn't sound like it's easily usable, like regular overdrive pedals (with electric guitars, or course). But yeah, I can think of a couple ways I'd use this... Cheers, guys.
This is a great entry from Fender. I have a magnetic pickup added to my piezo acoustic and run two outputs: piezo to acoustic amp and magnetic through my effects board into a tube amp. The blend on this pedal could help get close to that with a much simpler setup
@@TheTurdEye hey, sure. My piezo is what came in my Takamine G series, the magnetic is just some unbranded one from eBay for about £25. Having the magnetic through pedals and my tube amp enables me to get a big lift for choruses etc
Steve Bennett runs a split signal wet/dry blend adds a sawtooth wave back via the return on channel two whilst pumping a size 10 tan brogue against the cone for a real earthy timbre
I'd prefer seperate outs to route the acoustic and distorted tones to different channels on the P.A. so they can be panned L&R. Going to try that with a AB box and distortion pedal to see if it works before splashing out on the smolder.
I play acoustic guitar through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and I think it sounds great on the drive channel. I use 6- and 12-strings. Never used an OD pedal though. That’s how I get drive sounds, if I want OD on an acoustic.😊 The Fender pedal sounds better than the other OD pedals, but I can’t imagine I’d need one anytime soon.🤷🏻♂️ But then again, I’m playing through an electric amp...😂
IMO, that Fender gizmo is a totally different animal from the electric guitar ODs. Not that there is no place for "electric" OD on an acoustic. But I do think that Smolder does a good job at fattening-up an acoustic sound, particularly if you have a sound hole pickup. It might be interesting to try something like a nice Martin or Gibson (talk about apples and oranges!) with a high-end pickup system.
Great comparison with the 3 'electric guitar' type ODs. Smolder seems to really accommodate the sonic spectrum of the acoustic in comparison rather than just that mid rage thump and love the blend knob! Sweet playing too from Mr Guitar ;) Great video.
We use a TS9 without the overdrive (just the tone and level) in a live situation to give a Taylor a little more body. The TS9 can boost without imposing a different character on the guitar and works well (we have the TS9 DX). There is the dedicated Boss AD-2 which (they) suggest returns the full bodied tone of an acoustic that the stock pickup (like a Fishman / LR Baggs) tends to lose from their position under the saddle*: www.boss.info/global/products/ad-2/ - this is a dedicated acoustic pedal and if your amp is a little thin on features the Boss will supplement with feedback notch control and variable reverb. A half decent 2 channel acoustic PA like a Marshall AS50D will have these built in although if your amp doesn't, you will defiantly benefit in a live situation... reverb adds a little ambiance and warms up the sharp tone of an acoustic. Notch is a pre-requisite as you start to up the volume if you are stood / sat in the vicinity - the amp will react with feedback to the guitar pickup / microphone. * which is why if recording acoustic you are best with a microphone to the sound hole rather than the pickup output to your DAW.
I used to do this live all the time, used to use a Super Overdrive for a bit and then started using a Big Muff. I used a lot of Noise elements in my set so having a guitar that could easily feedback was super ideal for that.
I play mostly acoustic and it is clear to me this meant to be a tool for acoustic players to enrich the sound of your guitar maybe in the bridge or chorus of a song, like another guitar coming in. This is not just an overdrive, and yes, of course the blend control makes all the difference.
Only have acoustics with piezos, and my fav so far for acoustic distortion is the Mojo Hand FX Sacred Cow. Let’s you dial in pleasingly biting or more grungy sound with just as much or as little grit as you like, also thanks to the „Fatty“ and „Lean“ toggle switch. And it doesn’t color my pristine signal path when off. Also tried my original 80s Ibanez TS and an 80s Rat and an 80s Big Muff (Russian tank), but didn’t care for how they sounded with a piezo. A TC Electronic MojoMojo also didn’t pan out for me. The Fender looks/sounds like a great alternative to my Sacred Cow.
Callum Giles a buddy of mine has this pedal for his acoustic. He has run a tele through this pedal with the blend all the way up and it sounded great. The thing with this pedal is that it also has a model of a fender deluxe that the overdrive circuit runs into, which with an electric sounds great. The issue is that if you were to use this into an amp and try to blend the sounds, the amp model running into an amp can sound a little weird, conversely if you were to run it into a full range speaker of pa, the effected signal would sound great, but the dry sound would be an electric guitar direct to the pa. So a little tricky to use with an electric. There are other overdrive pedals that have a blend control though.
@@jakeerbst4073 I know it's been years since your comment, but do you maybe know what was the solution with the pickup compensation knob? Does it have to be all the way down or?
I use a Boss Blues Driver with a fishman rare earth humbucker. When you set the sweet spot just right then by laying back a little you get a pure crystal clear acoustic tone. Increase pick pressure and she roars. Not here to push my stuff but I've got a you tube video of me doing Stones song Bitch. Leas break at end over loop track is the Boss Blues Driver really pushing it. It gives a nice sustain as well. Only downside is it does cut my bass it bit which I've not figured out yet how to change. However all the videos I've heard so far of the Fender Smoulder so far the bass bottom end to me just sounds horrible and muddy with no detail or attack.
Use a Helix with parallel paths so you can blend an acoustic clean, with as many OD & fuzz as you like. That would be my option. The Fender pedal sounds great though, really like it.
Great review! I've got a Yamaha LLTA I'm curious if the Yamaha pickup is good or if it needs the sound hole pickup too. Cause piezo is sooo thin! Love the vintage Rock sound. From a DI perspective, not in the room, all distortions sound great, but I think that this pedal lets the acousticness shine through a bit, acoustic goodness is all about a nice full bodied low end for me! Getting a good distortion while keeping the low end would be great! Like maybe if you split your frequencies, kept the low end clean, and distorted the rest, I think it might sound something like this pedal!
I play a Taylor K14ce, and use a phlim soul overdrive...sounds fantastic... I got the phlim soul idea from watching your vidio's originally for my electric board... one day I pluged the accustic into the electric guitar board and the phlim soul was on.... what a great sound...
I can see it be useful for sounding like there's an electric guitar doubling you while you're playing acoustic. Get the blend right and it sounds like that to me.
Does the electric guitar version of that pedal have a "blend" control? It seems that all other pedals are full-bore whenever they're on, that acoustic OD seems to dial in really nice and smooth or turned up for some decent bite without being too much.
What amp were you using and how was it set? AER Compact 60? Fishman Loudbox Artist? Fender Acoustisonic? I use a Rivera Sedona 55 and it has both a clean and gain channel. From my Cordoba Fusion to my Lester Pablo it does the job, but then I leave the metal to the grandkids.
Did you get one? How is it with elecric? I play acoustic with mine, but want to get electric guitar soon and want to know if it would be good as overdrive for it as well.
It sounded way better than I expected, nothing wrong with it at all. It's just that if I was going into that territory I'd be using a Tele. All the same, for versatility with 1 guitar....cool.
Who would have thought going in that the prototypical overdrive pedal of the new metal and grunge eras would be the best alternative overdrive for acoustic guitars?
There is another live situation where it is handy too - if you use a loop pedal / board to build up a song (like the little ginger fella) you can then kick an OD pedal in and play a lead rif over your acoustic rhythm / bass / percussion parts. All from one guitar and amp.
Somehow I didn't hear the drive on Street Fighting Man. It sounder cleaner to my ears than the original. I like your points Lee. I'm a fan of the concept for the pedal, but not of what I heard. That said, I looked at your pricing for it and I would take a chance on it. It's affordable, but not a must-have for me. On a side note, I don't understand why people spend $80 on a Tumnus Wampler when they can get a slightly better pedal in the Mosky Audio Golden Horse for $18? The MAGH was put up against a KLON and two other pedals and was the closest match to the KLON. - ChrisG
Keith Richards and Pete Townsend in those days used to do lots of songs with electric guitar on rhythm work with an acoustic double tracking it. So it literally is a bit of both.
Nailed it. Im a busker. Got a birthday coming up,and i need this in my life for some beatles tunes and framton etc all the stuff that acoustic players arent expected to do
@@stephenlennartz3466 no yet but income tax. I dont see anything bad about it though. Ill prolly want to buy the expensive 9 volt batteries for it once i pick one up.
Cool pedal demo, but I don't have a need/want for it. By the way, Ben, you are great addition to the team from a playing and collaboration perspective. Keep up the good work!
I think this pedal sounds cool, but I can only see it being used for a fuzzy solo. Like on Island In The Sun by Weezer, the solo is very fuzzy with a clean rhythm guitar under it. This pedal would be cool for a performance like that.
Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive has the"blend function" to add in some clean under the dirt (or vice versa), but I didn't like the voicing for acoustic. Sounds like maybe this pedal does it better?
That sounded way better than I’d have expected. Although as I only play acoustics acoustically, not for me. Ben turning into a great addition to the team and an easy winner of ‘World’s Smiliest Man’ competition.
It's a really nice addition to the acoustic guitar, something a lot of players could definitely find a use for! Ben has been a great addition to our team! We can't stop him smiling, even off-camera... ;)
So there's some kind of high-cut filter or cab-sim built in ? Or should this be plugged in an electric guitar amp instead of in a full range acoustic amp ? If any, is that filter analog or digital ? :)
Bought. Was very disappointed. Get you a magnetic pick up and use the neunaber sim cab neuron. The key thing is the cab simulator. Neuron adds a little distortion and it sounds EPIC!
It depends on what you're trying to achieve. Rat for soundhole pup, tube screamer for piezoelectric pup, but the fender can give a bit of that old bluesy thing, though very unconvincing with the piezo. Tubescreamer and klon clone get that prize.
good video man i recently got one of those i put a 9v battery in it because the adapter makes a lot of noise it was hard for me to put the battery in and now i can't get it out, any advice?
Hi! I got the same Vortech pic-up as you but a very cheap 15 W Behringer amp. I find it very hard to find the right settings, and the sound is terrible. I never get near the same sound as you, and there's a lot of feed back. Bonus info! I'm a totally amateur...
Hey Captain, being in your line of work and constantly being surrounded by world class players does the magic ever fade? Like does anyone ever blow your socks off anymore?