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THE THORPYFX TOURBOX Commences - Team Medic & Warthog Thoughts & Reviews
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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Ian, thats a great write up with accompanying photos - thank you !
I like the way you’ve compared the pedals you use, and described how they work with your amp and geetar. Superb mate - thank you !
https://i.imgur.com/K9iczwM.jpg
Looking forward to your thoughts
Sorry, better late than never... here's my review. Annoyingly the delay is because I took some great (arty) photos through a neat filter app on my ipad but the app and photos have disappeared :-(
I've got some backups that i'll upload shortly
By the way, you may want to drink a can of red bull or 3 to get through this!
Anyways here goes...
https://i.imgur.com/Iyhyn85.jpg
Day minus 1
A bit of background about me and my rig and playing style.
Whilst I learned my trade by playing the blues (a la Peter Green, Robbie Krieger) my past 10-15 years from a writing, live and playing perspective has been along the dark indie, atmospheric, post-rock quiet-loud-louder genre. Very pedal and effect reliant, centred around a clean, clear amp sound and single coil Fender guitars. Shoegaze tastic.
From a gain perspective (seeing as though the Tourbox is all about the gain) I've nailed my colours to the mast on this site many a times by championing my holy trinity of drive pedals, namely a Klon (variant), a Rat and an EP Booster – in that order. Though, recently ive embarked on a journey of appreciation for the sublime sounding and very underated Wampler Ecstacy/Euphoria, a pedal which I believe is the closest i've come to getting a tube amp sound from an ampless modeller based rig which seems the norm these days.
Rather than dime my drives, I've always kept them always tamed back, barely on even, to allow my strum and pick attack to create the noise and grit. None more so than the Rat – my desert island drive pedal. Whilst its gnarly filthy goodness is a permanent fixture on many a pedal board across the stratosphere, I probably use it a little differently to most. A hint of gain, enough to get a cocked fist of just-past-play-fight-nastiness (rather than a full on bar room brawl), and enough to get a bit of controlled tactical feedback, via the age old stoop in front of the amp, when and exactly where I want it. The downside, and why i've always had issues with Rats, is that because I have it set low gain, it relies and reacts heavily upon the volume of my tube amp to achieve the sound and purpose within my gain stage set up that I want. I've found, at gigs, that when the sound engineer wants my amp at 0.000001 on the volume knob, it seriously affects the character and behaviour of the Rat and requires much on-the-fly mid song toe-ing, usually to complete distaster proportions.
Ultimately, i've always stacked as follows >> Klon >> Rat >> EP booster. The best success i've had in terms of the klon has been via a EHX Soul Food. Its not necessarily an exciting pedal, there are no doubt better variants, but it just works for me. Its very treble-y, which suits me, and it has a weird buffer thing going on that also works. The rat has been sandwiched in the middle as a klon “plus one” (I.e. more hair), and the EP booster is there to just give a heavenly lift pre delays and modulations.
I'm kinda rambling now, but hey it sets the scene for the anticipation I had for the Warthog, hoping it does the rat sound I want (it was recommended to me as a viable Rat alternative on these very forums) but better and more reliable even.
The Team Medic (before testing I didnt know it had a boost at the time!) – I was non fussed really. I knew it as an EQ pedal and i've never really found them to be essential to my rig – my amp and a few selective pedals take care of that. Yes, it would be a nice addition that I could use now and again, but not one i'd sacrifice pedalboard real estate and power supply slots for if they were scarce (they always are).
Day 0
I get the PM saying the tourbox is on its way. I'm in the middle of recording my band's album – only been 15 years in the making like! I've got a rig set up consisting of a JHS Prestige buffer/boost, a Wampler Ecstasy (i'll take it off when the thorpy's land), a Helix HX FX with a Whammy DT in the loop, running into a Radial JDX Direct Drive on bright combo setting, into a Boss BR80 (used as an interface) into my PC DAW. Man, the Wampler, a recent trade, is a corker. Who needs a tube amp eh!
I could do with unassembling the board for a bit so I can try the Thorpys through my Laney VC30 amp, but what the hell, I'll try it on my recording rig and put a few tracks down.
https://i.imgur.com/VlzyId9.jpg
Day 1 proper
So, they've arrived. The first time i've had a thorpy piece in my home. I have tried (I recall) the Gunshot in a store so I know they're well built.
Now they're in my hands I can really appreciate the care and thought that goes into building these. I know of Adrian's military munitions background (its a great story) so I would expect nothing less that a first class build, but even so, they are just stunning. They are not ornaments, they are professional tools of the trade, first and foremost they are built to last and last and last, but beyond that the actual signature design is ergonomically brilliant, and visually extremely pleasing. I'd put them in the Boss pedal category – which seems a little weird for a comparison – and by that I mean they have a design that works, looks great and is solid. You know they're gonna work and not fail when you least expect it. Iconic.
I've driven myself to madness with GAS acquisitions, trades and trials over the last few years. I've seen the build quality of high end (and low end) and higher priced (some ridiculously overpriced) so called Boutique pedals. Fair enough, generally you get what you pay for, but certainly not always. And there have been boutique pedals that you just dont trust to last the distance, and you usually find out when your high on adrenaline, thrashing about on a dimly lit stage, half pissed, in doc martens, tap dancing your way around your huge, flashing, pedaltrain novo 32 with enough delicate electronics to power a small city. That grim sunken stomach and arse twitch when something in that mile and a half of cabling thats gone kaput and your getting nothing but that horrible noisy cable hum (the guitar equivalent of the blue screen of death). Or even worse (or better some might say with some of my bands 7 minute doomy dirges) silence.
But yeah, Thorpy pedals. You press the switch, you feel it and know it works, you put a cable in the sockets, it invites it in and when its in, its in and won't come out. The components are all there and they're probably the best in class. Nothing at all to improve on that score. A definite 10/10.
Now, Brian Wampler makes some great pedals. But I have the perfect anecdote to describe swapping out the Ecstasy for the warthog. It goes thus... in 2002 my and the future wife had some sun, sea, sangria and erm... possibly some other stuff, in the holiday haven and hanky on the head, socks in flip flops hotspot that is that there Fuengirola. Anyways, I felt rather chuffed when a local looky looky (or is lucky lucky, I can't remember) man sold me a blingtastic Rolex (a klone!) for the measly sum of £25 euros (possibly still pesetas at the time but you get the idea). I came back, belly full of paella, torso bronzed to perfection, and sauntered into work the week after feeling like top dog with the fake flashy timepiece on my wrist. I showed Greek Mick, the foreman, (who works every hour god sends, drives a BMW M5, and owns more property than the House of Windsor despite having between 0 and 1 O Levels) and he sneered at my contraband clock, before peeling off his genuine Rolex Daytona chronograph and telling me to 'try that on for size son'. The thing weighed a ton and a standard Stanley claw hammer would bounce off it even with a fair, pro carpenter stength swing from height. Well, a Thorpy is Greek Mick's Rolex. Everything else is the flimsy Fuengirola effort, which lasted about 3 and a half weeks before I chucked away the bits that were still attached.
Day 2
https://i.imgur.com/9RdQSMJ.jpg
Righteo, I’m unsure what the best way is to stack these beasts. Whether to go Warthog into TM, or vice versa. I’ve settled for Warthog into TM. These are holding up a recording rig consisting of Fender Mexican Standard Strat (stock PUPs) > Thorpys > HX FX > Whammy > Radial Direct Drive > DAW.
Just noticed that the Team Medic is a boost too. I didn’t know that. Ace!
First thing I notice is how bloody quiet these are when you’re not playing. It’s like having the perfect noise gate. I’m using a strat which is a noisy bugger even when you’re not playing. But its super quiet. Very handy as I’m recording and going through headphones so I can hear the full audio spectrum.
After a quick fumble I’ve got the Warthog to do my RAT sound. It’s effing brilliant. As I say, these pedals are quiet so I’m not getting that need to tame it before it starts becoming a bit uncontrollable. I can roll a bit more gain in even.
In isolation, I’m not actually that sure how best to describe the Warthog. It’s not really what I was expecting – not in a bad way by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t think it necessarily has a unique character of its own. Instead it does a very wide range of sounds – and by wide range I mean it pretty much does whatever you want it to. It’s got plenty of gain on tap if needed but actually, its not a wild as I was expecting. For me and my style though, its utterly perfect.
I’m settled on the gain at about 15%, volume full, tone 75%, calibre around 40%. It’s a beautiful sound. Sweet, a little compression, a nice bit of fizz, I can hear every note individually too. Its so rich.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of recording over the last few weeks and the Wampler Ecstasy has been brilliant in terms of getting a useable, amp like and dynamic gain sound. That said, it lacks a real mid hump. And my guitar sounds are sounding the same on multi layers of tracks and getting a bit lost in the mix.
The Warthog is cutting through much more.
Now onto the Team Medic. One word… wow.
On its own it’s a mighty OD pedal of its own merit. The boost goes from a clean lift, right through to filth. The eq is superb. Not too OTT where it becomes unusable. It’s perfectly set to go through the ideal range for any guitar. I’ve always found EQ in pedals (whether as a standalone, or within an OD circuit) generally have a small sweet spot, and 80% unusable space. The Team Medic is a bit more subtle on that score so you get 80% of very usuable range.
So yeah, it doesn’t take long to discover that the perfect way to get these pedals achieving their peak performance is by setting the Warthog to the tone you want, back off the gain a little more than you usually would, and then set the TM eq to round it off and thicken it up, and use the TM boost switch to get that bit (or lot) extra for solo’s.
I’m going to mention the noise thing again. These pedals are practically silent. Even switching is seamlessly silent which isn’t the case with a lot of dirt boxes.
This is the ultimate sign of professional tools of the trade made from the best parts available and painstakingly assembled by a master craftsman in his prime. Hats (and berets) off.
Day 3
I have no interest really in playing around too much with the dials on these things. I’ve got them singing the tune that I want and they’re doing it perfectly.
So much so that I’m humbly learning and rewriting my own staunch rules of gain staging. I’m going back to basics a bit too and realising what we use pedals for. They aren’t toys. They are an integral circuit to the chain that starts with the tips of your fingers and finishes with the vibration of your ear drums. And they need to do what YOU want them to.
I don’t think I can better what I’m experiencing with these boxes at the moment. The two pedals in unison offer 100% the 3 tone layers I want. The eq is thick enough to allow a clean strat to sound warm with a bell like ring. That’s the base tone. The warthog, dialled back ever so slightly, sounds clean, rich and harmonic but digs and fizzes in when you increase the pick attack. The TM boost switch takes it into howling banshee territory.
For a serial, and rehab worthy, GAS-addict like me (with a touch of bi-polar thrown in) I’ll probably always think this is a better sound out there, somewhere (hence why great boards have been ripped up, sold and started again). But honestly, where do I go from here?
Day 4
https://i.imgur.com/usLEXGq.jpg
I’ve torn up the recording rig and got my amp out for some real time noodling. My amp is a huge, heavy, cumbersome but sonically beautiful Laney VC30 2x12. Its been playing up recently so a pal has leant me his Marshall Original 20 head as a backup (it’s shit by the way). As it happens the Laney has chosen to work fine today!
I’m running the pedals front end into the clean channel. I run the amp with Bass at 3 o clock, mids at zero, treble at 9 o clock, reverb at half way. Bright switch is on. Volume is barely on but it fills my living room like the albert hall.
I keep mentioning how silent these pedals run. It’s amazing.
The warthog (same settings as above) on its own is just pushing the tubes into OD territory. Very nicely. The laney by default, is quite neutral and sterile (so a perfect platform for pedals) but it spreads the sound brilliantly.
It’s weird. I’m getting the type of sounds and sonic tension that a good compressor pedal (set to lift and boost as opposed to squash) yields. The pedals are enhancing the ‘feel’.
TM boost on now. Wowza, it’s a bit more powerful than you think. Need to roll it back a touch. Time for a solo. Bit of Hotel California anyone?
I’ve got the telecaster out now (it’s a fender mex again but with US pickups). Dennernennnernennerenner (that’s the riff to the Quo’s Caroline by the way – when in rome etc). Wow. Again, its got plenty of oomph there but it doesn’t run away with you. It’s so controlled (that magical invisible noise gate is there again!)
After 10 mins (and the onset of RSI), I’ve taken the warthog out and put in the Wampler Ecstasy to see how it intergrates with the TM.
It’s chiming like a throaty blues deluxe now with a sprinkling of dumble now. I’ve now morphed into Keith Richards but with better skin and less money. It’s singing so nice. Rich and harmonic and dynamic.
The Les Paul is out now. Its only an Epiphone but then again I’m not a big humbucker fan. Its sounds nice. I keep the LP tuned full step down in D for that rootsy Creedence/The La’s sound. Hey I need to play this beauty more often. Bridge PUP is normally a bit weedy but the TM EQ is making it more than tolerable. Neck pick up is great. Sounds Strat like even! This is weird. This cheap battered old thing actually sounds great. Like it has had a sonic ‘service’ or rewire.
After a few hours of enjoyable house to myself fretwankery its fair to say I’m hooked.
It’s sadly time to put these beautiful mechanical creatures back in their boxes and send to the next lucky tester.
Day 5
Box packed, sealed, signed and delivered onwards.
I’ve put my old rig back together and it just sounds so shit and there is a massive bandwith vacuum. It’s weak, digital and Insipid and noisy (that bloody 60 cycle hum has mysteriously returned with a vengeance).
I need to build a new pedal board rig and I think I know where to start.