Decisions Decisions

MagicPigDetective

I’ve sold some stuff and raised a GAS fund. I’m umming and aahing between a Walrus Audio Julia chorus and a Strymon Flint. Youtube demos for both sound glorious. Which would you go for and why? 

Perhaps someone with one of these pedals can tell me more? 

JDE

What else is on your board and what style of music do you play, Pig?

MagicPigDetective

Good questions @JDE ;;; I have a Dod Looking Glass, Little Big Muff, Digitech Ventura Vibe,  Source Audio Gemini Chorus (for sale), Dod Rubberneck and EQD Dispatch Master. I play alternative/post rock/showgaze type stuff also some blues/rock/metal, which the katana 100 covers well. 

JDE

In that case, I would go for Boss RV3 and a mod of your choosing sub-£100. You could pick up and RV3 and a Boss PS3 for less than a used Flint regularly goes for and have shoegaze for daze. But that’s just me.
To answer your specific question I would go for the Flint.

Fuengi

What amp do you use?

MagicPigDetective

Fuengi said:

What amp do you use?

Katana 100. I’m not that impressed with it’s onboard modulations, so using pedals in the fx loop. 

Fuengi

Personal experience: went from lots of pedals to five, including the Strymon Flint. Reducing the number of pedals has really helped my amp retain its tone. Really helped. 

So, the Flint in front of a lovely sounding amp (that you can hear) sounds amazing. 

I also had a DOD Looking Glass, thought it was ok but having changed it for a Peacekeeper about a year ago the Thorpy pedal is miles and miles and miles better. Miles. Just better quality. 

The Rubberneck sounds fun, never tried one. 

MagicPigDetective

Fuengi said:

Personal experience: went from lots of pedals to five, including the Strymon Flint. Reducing the number of pedals has really helped my amp retain its tone. Really helped. 

So, the Flint in front of a lovely sounding amp (that you can hear) sounds amazing. 

I also had a DOD Looking Glass, thought it was ok but having changed it for a Peacekeeper about a year ago the Thorpy pedal is miles and miles and miles better. Miles. Just better quality. 

The Rubberneck sounds fun, never tried one. 

What amp do you have? I would like to eventually get something like a princeton 68 but for now have the Katana. I’ll look into the peacekeeper. Which 5 pedals did you end up with?

The Rubberneck is fun, I messed around with the oscillating repeats yesterday and got what sounded like a banging dirty techno tune, crazily good. 

Fuengi

MagicPigDetective said:

Fuengi said:

Personal experience: went from lots of pedals to five, including the Strymon Flint. Reducing the number of pedals has really helped my amp retain its tone. Really helped. 

So, the Flint in front of a lovely sounding amp (that you can hear) sounds amazing. 

I also had a DOD Looking Glass, thought it was ok but having changed it for a Peacekeeper about a year ago the Thorpy pedal is miles and miles and miles better. Miles. Just better quality. 

The Rubberneck sounds fun, never tried one. 

What amp do you have? I would like to eventually get something like a princeton 68 but for now have the Katana. I’ll look into the peacekeeper. Which 5 pedals did you end up with?

The Rubberneck is fun, I messed around with the oscillating repeats yesterday and got what sounded like a banging dirty techno tune, crazily good. 

I went for the Yerasov GTA 15 in black. Lovely little amp, simple, well built, sweet valve tones. Had it for a couple of years now and it does everything I need it to do. 

Tried numerous delays and reverbs but ended up with Peacekeeper - M.E. Black Moon - El Capistan - Dig - Flint. 

The Strymon pedals are just brilliant at retaining your signal cleanly, it's a joy just playing a simple reverb and tremolo through the amp. 

EricTheWeary

I had five minutes on the stand with the Walrus pedals yesterday at the guitar show. For shoe-gaze/ wackiness  their Fathom reverb with the Sustain feature was the one that leaped out ( I think the nice German man said their best selling pedal). 
As far as I could tell the Julia didn’t have the high end grating of some digital chorus pedals but it is another chorus pedal and there are a lot of much cheaper ones around. 

soma1975

Had a Flint and only sold it to raise some funds a while back. Would definitely own it again. Beautiful sounding pedal. Might get a Source Audio True Spring because it is even smaller than a Flint and also has tremolo built in. 

squidtastic

I'd go for the Flint.

The demos of the Julia do sound great, but I also have a Gemini and GASsed for the Julia for weeks. I got a limited edition Julia shipped over from the US (I really don't like the standard graphics). Waited ages for it to arrive and plugged it in fully expecting to love it. Played around with it for 20 min and although it sounded good, the Source Audio could do that type of chorus as well if not better than the Julia, and has so many other great sounds besides. The only thing it can't do as well is vibrato, nevertheless the Julia went on Reverb and sold within 10 minutes.

MagicPigDetective

@squidtastic interesting about your experience with the Julia, that’s really suprising! As good as it is I’m selling the gemini as I don’t use it to it’s full potential and just want a change. Will think more on what chorus to get. Want a phaser as well. I might have a chance to try some out when I’m in London next week. Must say the ventura vibe modern/vibrato setting has a very nice chorusy sound at a low rate. 

My current favourite tone is War on Drugs; I see that Adam G uses a Strymon Flint. I also want that classic fender amp tremolo/reverb sound. Been looking at the strymon pedals for three years, it’s time to get one. 

@fuengi that Yerasov amp looks great for that price. How is it at house volume? 

Fuengi

MagicPigDetective said:

@squidtastic interesting about your experience with the Julia, that’s really suprising! As good as it is I’m selling the gemini as I don’t use it to it’s full potential and just want a change. Will think more on what chorus to get. Want a phaser as well. I might have a chance to try some out when I’m in London next week. Must say the ventura vibe modern/vibrato setting has a very nice chorusy sound at a low rate. 

My current favourite tone is War on Drugs; I see that Adam G uses a Strymon Flint. I also want that classic fender amp tremolo/reverb sound. Been looking at the strymon pedals for three years, it’s time to get one. 

@fuengi that Yerasov amp looks great for that price. How is it at house volume? 

I've got it in my garden office / music room. The volume is fine be up to around 4 / 5 then it's probably going to be pushing it for a shared wall. But it sounds great at low volume with the Peacekeeper to drive it. If you are ever near near Horndean, Hants you are welcome to try it out and the Flint. 

The guy who sells the Yerasov amps new is brilliant to deal with, I think his name is Paul. 

Big fan of The War on Drugs myself! 

squidtastic

MagicPigDetective said:

@squidtastic interesting about your experience with the Julia, that’s really suprising! As good as it is I’m selling the gemini as I don’t use it to it’s full potential and just want a change. Will think more on what chorus to get. Want a phaser as well. I might have a chance to try some out when I’m in London next week. Must say the ventura vibe modern/vibrato setting has a very nice chorusy sound at a low rate. 

My current favourite tone is War on Drugs; I see that Adam G uses a Strymon Flint. I also want that classic fender amp tremolo/reverb sound. Been looking at the strymon pedals for three years, it’s time to get one. 

@fuengi that Yerasov amp looks great for that price. How is it at house volume? 

If I hadn't just decided to stick with the Gemini, I'd be very tempted by the Moog MF chorus that's on Ebay. I don't think you'd lose anything if you decided you didn't like it and flipped it.

MagicPigDetective

Fuengi said:

MagicPigDetective said:

@squidtastic interesting about your experience with the Julia, that’s really suprising! As good as it is I’m selling the gemini as I don’t use it to it’s full potential and just want a change. Will think more on what chorus to get. Want a phaser as well. I might have a chance to try some out when I’m in London next week. Must say the ventura vibe modern/vibrato setting has a very nice chorusy sound at a low rate. 

My current favourite tone is War on Drugs; I see that Adam G uses a Strymon Flint. I also want that classic fender amp tremolo/reverb sound. Been looking at the strymon pedals for three years, it’s time to get one. 

@fuengi that Yerasov amp looks great for that price. How is it at house volume? 

I've got it in my garden office / music room. The volume is fine be up to around 4 / 5 then it's probably going to be pushing it for a shared wall. But it sounds great at low volume with the Peacekeeper to drive it. If you are ever near near Horndean, Hants you are welcome to try it out and the Flint. 

The guy who sells the Yerasov amps new is brilliant to deal with, I think his name is Paul. 

Big fan of The War on Drugs myself! 

Thanks for the offer, if I wasn’t 280 miles away I’d be over.

I’m getting a lot out of this thread. I’d never heard of magnetic effects, after seeing your mention of the black moon I checked them out, the white atom fuzz sounds so good. More GAS! 

MagicPigDetective

Well I've bit the bullet and ordered a Strymon Flint, plus a Magnetic Effects White Atom from @northernstomps The Chorus can wait. Thanks for sharing your knowledge all.

BintyTwanger77

Glad you went for the Flint, I got one recently (having had one a couple of years ago) and delighted that I went back to it, it covers so much ground. All 3 reverbs and all 3 trems (especially the harmonic mode) sound stunning.

NorthernStomps

MagicPigDetective said:

Well I've bit the bullet and ordered a Strymon Flint, plus a Magnetic Effects White Atom from @northernstomps The Chorus can wait. Thanks for sharing your knowledge all.

Wooo! Nice. It’s in tomorrow’s post, you’re gonna love it!

As a side note, the Black Moon is fantastic also. Got one on my personal board and currently using it exclusively for all my dirt needs 

MagicPigDetective

BintyTwanger77 said:

Glad you went for the Flint, I got one recently (having had one a couple of years ago) and delighted that I went back to it, it covers so much ground. All 3 reverbs and all 3 trems (especially the harmonic mode) sound stunning.

I’ve spent the last 3 years thinking about which Strymon pedal to get! The Flint seems to cover a lot of sounds I like and the reverbs seem to be not far of the blue sky.  Their delays sound incredible but it would be OTT for me, I’m happy with simple delay settings. 

Grunfeld

BintyTwanger77 said:

Glad you went for the Flint, I got one recently (having had one a couple of years ago) and delighted that I went back to it, it covers so much ground. All 3 reverbs and all 3 trems (especially the harmonic mode) sound stunning.

I've still got your old one.  It was on my board for ages and ages, only took a rest last year because it wouldn't fit due to some other changes.  But I miss it and I'm trying to work out a way of getting it back on. 

I've got a Boss FDR-1 on there now which does the best spring sound I've heard but it's a one-trick pony and the Flint's spring is pretty good anyway.  The plate is beautiful.