War, Peace and an Appetite for Destruction

hubobulous

Before my wonderful wine-soaked holiday in France, @ThorpyFX and I came to an agreement for my AFD amp which involved some cash and 3 of his fine pedals.

This weekend I was able to book the local village brass band hut, (at £4 per hour, it's the best value rehearsal space I've come across), to allow all the cool kit involved to be tested at volume!!

I played the Gunshot prototype a while back and have heard a couple of his pedals through other people's rigs, but thus far have never owned one myself.

Anyway, the amp was a semi reluctant sale. It sounds stunning, the master volume is great and truly delivers on the AFD tone. I found I just wasn't playing through it and it was therefore just taking up space.

I wanted to try all four pedals, though already knew I'd probably take two Peacekeepers. I also felt that the Fallout Cloud wouldn't really fit into my needs and since I tend to stack boost+OD rather than using distortion, the wise money was on me taking the Gunshot and passing on the Warthog.

Guitar-wise, I bought three along to provide different pickup outputs - Aldrichs in a Swamp Ash Suhr Tele, Bonamassa ES335 and Suhr Classic S with V60LPs.

I plugged the AFD into my V30 loaded Suhr 1x12 and we got a base tone dialled in. Then I played and Thorpy tweaked away on a Peacekeeper. It didn't take long for me to decide that two of these was a good decision. They offer so much in terms of gain level and that surprised me. Simply low level gain these are not. It became very clear quite quickly that these pedals also require time to really become familiar with how they work. 

They are are so versatile that I think some people may not understand what they can offer - me included. The beauty of this session however was that I could explain what I was looking for and Thorpy's knowledge provided the answers. 

Next up, the Fallout Cloud. As I mentioned above, I'm pretty sorted for Fuzz so whilst it was cool to give this a spin, it was more for the sake of fun than to convince me that it should be my third pedal.

So then it was Warthog vs Gunshot. I asked Thorpy where the two pedals sat in terms of the sonic spectrum since I'd essentially interpreted them as Distortion and OD respectively.

The only way to know these things is to use the ears, so that's what we did. First up, the Warthog and oh my God!! Sometimes I read people's reviews and perhaps cynically infer some over-enthusiasm masking the descriptions. I hope you'll be more charitable to me when I say that this pedal gives A very good JTM impression, then with a tweak, an OD with more gain, then good 80s distortion, then finally a mucky fuzz. Simply incredible from one pedal, but seems implausible. Thorpy mentioned that it's the pedal in his range that's most difficult to describe and I can see why. It's a bit bonkers really.

We then added a Gunshot to the mix and it's as all prior reviews have described. A killer OD, but the Warthog had won me over. Deal done.

But there was one more piece of excellence coming our way. I wanted to try the Peacekeeper both into the Warthog and after it so we set up the signal chain as PK-WH-PK and got the WH into the JTM style setting. We then turned on the PK going into the WH and set it for a healthy boost. This sounded lovely.

BUT......

We then configured the PK after the WH to have exactly the same settings as the one in front and sweet Jesus of all high quality carpentry, this literally bought a grin to my face. Ask Thorpy, it was a natural spontaneous reaction. What a sound. Totally unexpected and stunning. 

Anyway, suffice to say that we are both very happy with our sides of the deal and whilst you know what the pedals look like, I'll get some pics, settings and sound clips sorted once I have purchased a new PC.

Dont overlook the Warthog is my advice. And try a low level gain after some of your fave pedals if you've not done so already. You may find a grin on your face!

smudge_lad

I have a warthog coming my way this week, which completes my Thorpy collection actually. I'm really looking forward to trying it!

Can you advise on how you had the WH and PK set up that gave the glorious tone you have so eloquently described, lol? 

DefaultM

I've got all 4 on my board but I've only really used the Peacekeeper and Gunshot extensively as I've had no gigs lined up, and I felt those 2 were the most useable at low volume.
I wasn't getting on with the Muffroom Cloud at all at home, but I managed to use it for one solo at a gig and it's amazing. I'm going to try the Warthog at my next one.

How do you set it for a JTM style tone?

hubobulous

I'm hoping that the settings that we used on Saturday are still 'intact' from when we put them back in the boxes. I should be able to tell roughly by checking both Peacekeepers since they should be the same. I'll take a look tonight and if they are, I'll snap a photo of both the Warthog and Peacekeeper and post it up here.

maidenfan

Good stuff, I would be very interested to know what a peacekeeper either before or after a gunshot sounded like?

Winny_Pooh

No pics

hubobulous

Pics are coming later today :-)

ThorpyFX

maidenfan said:

Good stuff, I would be very interested to know what a peacekeeper either before or after a gunshot sounded like?

before it, turns the gunshot into a raging gain monster like a modded JCM800. Afterwards it really thickens the tone of the gunshot due to the ability to affect the EQ in a more powerful manner.

hubobulous

I've taken a look and given that the two Peacekeepers are at the same settings in their boxes, I'd assume this is what they were set to. I'm also applying the same logic to the Warthog. Bear in mind that to get my perceived JTM tone, these were going into the AFD amp set clean, with a pretty even EQ across the board, (certainly wasn't scooped), and not really breaking up.

smudge_lad

Awesome, cheers for this! Will give it a go when my Warthog arrives. I've got a JVM so hopefully it won't be a million miles away from what you managed to achieve

smudge_lad

I can confirm......those settings on the pedals, with WH into PK Is stunning! Wow!

Also, stick the Muffroom Cloud in front of the PK with those settings. In fact, the Gunshot into the PK with those settings is also outstanding!! I'll just need to put all 4 on my board I reckon!

hubobulous

Hey @smudge_lad. Glad they work for you too. These will definitely be added to a board soon for me.