Blackstone Mosfet Overdrive

TimmyO

Finally had a chance to plug it in and have a play. At first I thought it was disappointingly lacking in treble, then saw in the manual that there is a treble trim pot inside - I didn't have one of those little jewellers screwdrivers but managed to get the end of an oversized crosshead screwdriver in there and tweak it up a bit and all was well on that front. 

The EQ control (the middle one) is flat when fully clockwise and that's how it sounds nicest to me right now. 

The Brown 'channel' is the lower gain of the 2 and is a really nice full-range sound - no honk or wild emphasis anywhere (gets a little more mids as the gain goes up but nothing TS-like or anything like that) 

The Red mode has a control that works from a minimum gain setting (still a nice amount) at noon then increases gain as you turn it away from noon - to clockwise it's a regular gain control, but anti-clockwise it has a kind of resonance effect that's pretty cool. 

Imagine a kind of "cocked wah effect with its mix turned down to about 30%" - it's like that - it's not like a straight filter effect, it kind of makes your ear go 'eh, wassat?' - I suspect it'd make a gainy sound stand out a bit in a live setting - never come across anything like it, but it's still fairly subtle (at home volume anyway) 

It's really responsive to the volume knob, which I like.

I wonder if I can get it on vertically instead of the Timmy? (should have tried that earlier) 
 

downbytheriver

Sounds like you are enjoying it - good stuff

stickyfiddle

Yeah, cracking pedal. I actually didn't realise it has a trimpot inside - I bought one off here and liked it as-is so that's how it stayed. I agree it's best with the centre knob fully up. They also say it works best with the guitar connected directly to the input as well, but ymmv

TimmyO

There's a gain trim and a treble trim - I faffed with the gain trim but need to do that again as no idea where I ended leaving it lol 

Yep I'd read about it going first so it is (and if I did put it on the board I'd put it after the true-bypass tuner probably) 

TimmyO

I don’t know what was going on on with my ears the other day but I’ve ended up with that treble trimmer up way too far - and now I can’t find my tiny screwdriver! 

bbill335

that experience is why i sold mine on. great sounding overdrive but was constantly fettling to get it sounding right. would love something similar in a 3-knob vol/tone/gain format.

slacker

bbill335 said:

that experience is why i sold mine on. great sounding overdrive but was constantly fettling to get it sounding right. would love something similar in a 3-knob vol/tone/gain format.

It's designed as set and forget. I too kept adjusting mine and eventually sold it. If you can set it and be happy it's great and no knobs to move in transit. 

stickyfiddle

I find it to be one of my least-tempting pedals to tweak endlessly. I didn't even know it had internal trimmers and now I know I still don't really want to change them

TimmyO

I don’t have any concerns - everything was sounding a bit flat to me the other day - I think I’d just been playing for too long - I’d ended up taking it to the max treble setting so hardly surprising it now seems overly bright to fresh ears. I’ll set it back to half way and have a fiddle later

Winny_Pooh

It's incredibly good as smoothing transients and fattening, I suspect loads of players use it as a marshall channel into a bright Fender amp. I've owned mine for 15 years now, does a great red channel lead tone and the brown channel sounds fab with a treble boost into it.

bbill335

slacker said:

It's designed as set and forget. 

which would be fine if you only use one kind of amp/guitar! 

TimmyO

bbill335 said:

slacker said:

It's designed as set and forget. 

which would be fine if you only use one kind of amp/guitar! 

imho the reason to use more than one amp and guitar is *because* they will sound different, not to tweak stuff so they sound more similar 

bbill335

yeah but the right settings on the balckstone for one setup can sound bad with another. what's good for the goose ain't always good for the gander!

PhilKing

In mine you can change some of the capacitors too, they have sockets on the board if you take the back off.  It is detailed in the manual what you can change them to.

TimmyO

PhilKing said:

In mine you can change some of the capacitors too, they have sockets on the board if you take the back off.  It is detailed in the manual what you can change them to.

aye - that's a rabbit hole down which I have zero intention of going  

TimmyO

Dug this out again yesterday - by jove it’s good.

To the comment above about not being flexible to use with different guitars - to be clear the tiny external controls are really easy to change as with any pedal  (with your vertical fingertip, or plectrum inserted), just hard to *accidentally* change, and the internal ones don’t really need faffing with. 

Greatape

Had one years ago and didn't get on with it, probably due to pilot error. Would like to try again but gosh, expensive to get now