Stanley FX Bluesman

AdjiAdji Frets: 142
in FX Reviews tFB Trader
I used to run a website / blog / magazine type thing and did pedal reviews demos etc. I was feeling pretty nostalgic today so decided to use way back machine to go and capture some of the good reviews from the site.

I always get a little excited when I find another UK based builder, even more so when they are about twenty miles from me! Stanley FX are based in the North East of England and currently have several drive pedals in their range. Today I’m taking a look at the BluesMan pedal, having previously checked out the Classic Overdrive.

Features
The BluesMan is a simple affair (as are most of the best overdrives) with Gain, Volume and Tone dials.  The BluesMan also comes with True Bypass switching and the obligatory 9vDC jack for supplying the juice as well as being made of high quality, reliable components.

The three dials all work as expected so there isn’t much need to go into those in any great detail other than to mention that there is quite a pleasant amount of volume boost available. The finish is a simple, but hard-wearing, shiny blue affair.

Sounds
Upon striking the first chord through the BluesMan it is apparent that there is something a little different about this pedal, something that a lot of other pedals lack, touch responsiveness. I have reviewed or played several pedals that all claim to have unparalleled levels of touch sensitivity, and in fairness some do, but the BluesMan really excels at this. It reminds me of the Bearfoot / BJFe Honey Bee OD in this regard but the sound is very different.

The BluesMan is very much a low to medium gain pedal with the sweet spot somewhere in between. With the gain set low the pedal is nice and crunchy and as you raise the gain it starts to smooth out and compress more transforming the sound into something more akin to the Hermida ZenDrive or Valvette Custom Drive. The sound, regardless of knob settings, is always quite amp like and the secret to this lies in how the circuit is designed. Stanley FX builder Mick tells us a little more: ‘The BluesMan is an original design using FET transistors in an SRPP(Shunt, Resist, Push, Pull) configuration, which is basically how valve amplifiers are built.’ So Mick has essentially replaced valves with FET transistors, a common, but very effective, trick for making pedals respond a lot more like amps.

The BluesMan is a very usable pedal on its own but many users might find its just a little too tame for any real singing lead tones. There are a couple of things you can do to make it work for you however. The first is to turn your amp up, seriously! A loud, clean amp responds very differently to a quiet one and the extra power amp volume and saturation may well bring to life that tone, emphasising harmonics and compressing the tone slightly more.

The second is to use the BluesMan as a boost into a crunchy amp (or another pedal) where it works exceptionally well. One of the really great things about the BluesMan into a crunchy amp is that it really smoothens and softens the transients without hiding your pick attack, something that is very challenging to achieve and only two pedals that I have come across, the BluesMan and Valvette Custom Drive, can really achieve this.

Last but not least is the Tone knob. By Mick’s own confessions the tone knob has a much narrower bandwidth than many overdrive pedals but this was done to make the whole range of the knob usable. More often than not the top end of a tone pot is nearly always too trebly; sharp to the point where it becomes unusable. I have found this to be true, the tone knob really is usable. As usual I preferred the tone knob in its lower settings fir adding depth and richness to my tone but I also found myself quite enjoying the tone knob up high. The tone doesn’t become too glassy like on many pedals but instead provides just enough bite and grind to really make your tone stand out in the mix.

Overall
The BluesMan manages to be an original sounding pedal in the vast sea of similarity. It’s clever FET transistor based design really adds a unique touch sensitivity, which the ‘feel’ players will really approve of, and its capable of crunchy low gain sounds as well as more medium gain, smooth, singing lead tones. On top of the BluesMan being a well built, great sounding pedal it is also available at the unreal price of £99 direct from Mick at Stanley FX.
If you are looking for something with a bit of grit AND a bit of smoothness, then its well worth looking at the Stanley FX BluesMan. 



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