Pearly Gator
02-14-2005, 05:05 PM
Over the Christmas holiday, I went to the local Guitar Center to test the new Digitech distortion pedals. The Bad Monkey was my first purchase. I went back a week later to get the Screamin' Blues. I finally used it for live worship and was really impressed! The Screamin' Blues lets a lot of the guitar's natural tone come through, just like the Bad Monkey. It is voiced different, though. It is what I would call a Texas Blues pedal.
With my humbucker guitars, it gives a great ZZ Top tone. Very squawky with lots of second harmonics, crunchy with power chords and full triads are real clear. Something that is not attainable on a heavy distort-o-box like a Boss DS-1. So, that puts the Screamin' Blues smack dab in the middle between an Overdrive and a Distortion pedal. Having a high and low tone control gives a lot of tone options. My settings: Level - 9 o'clock, Low - 2 o'clock, High - 10 o'clock, Gain - 2 o'clock.
This weekend, my setup was AS73 with Golden Age alnico hummers > Bad Monkey > Screamin' Blues > Chorus > Delay and Amp. I ended up not using the the Bad Monkey at all. I controlled overdrive level from the guitar's volume controls. Using the front pickup and playing above the tenth fret, single notes really sang. Crunchy stuff with the bridge pickup was squawky and pinched harmonics were a breeze.
Though it costs $10 more than the Bad Monkey, I highly recommend this little box.
Blessings!
The Gator
With my humbucker guitars, it gives a great ZZ Top tone. Very squawky with lots of second harmonics, crunchy with power chords and full triads are real clear. Something that is not attainable on a heavy distort-o-box like a Boss DS-1. So, that puts the Screamin' Blues smack dab in the middle between an Overdrive and a Distortion pedal. Having a high and low tone control gives a lot of tone options. My settings: Level - 9 o'clock, Low - 2 o'clock, High - 10 o'clock, Gain - 2 o'clock.
This weekend, my setup was AS73 with Golden Age alnico hummers > Bad Monkey > Screamin' Blues > Chorus > Delay and Amp. I ended up not using the the Bad Monkey at all. I controlled overdrive level from the guitar's volume controls. Using the front pickup and playing above the tenth fret, single notes really sang. Crunchy stuff with the bridge pickup was squawky and pinched harmonics were a breeze.
Though it costs $10 more than the Bad Monkey, I highly recommend this little box.
Blessings!
The Gator