The Holy Blog of Tone

The hallowed Tim pedal. Used to be the shangri-la of unobtainable tone, and is now bordering dangerously on the precipice of too many people having it on their boards. And of course, if too many people have it on their boards, the tone automatically dies. It’s a weird phenomenon…probably something to do with having too many of the same circuit in too close proximity to each other…and the tone of the pedal in question literally gets worse.

But the Tim pedal, handbuilt to order by gear genius Paul Cochrane. Or at least the first pedal to put it into practice this well. It’s a low to mid gain overdrive pedal, but it’s unique in that it pushes each amp into its own natural overdrive. It sounds like your amp. It sounds like your guitar. It’s your clean tone, just overdriven. The circuit is such that it integrates with your tone. You turn it on, and it overdrives the clean tone of your guitar and your amp that you’ve worked so hard on. And it pushes your amp into its own gain, almost like you turned up the gain knob. Not quite, and it is still an overdrive pedal which lends its own flavor. There’s no getting away from that. But for the most part, it sounds like your amp’s overdrive, and sounds quite different on each individual amp.

First created in 1994, the Real McCoy Custom 3FL (RMC3FL) is the world’s first (and only) fully tunable self-contained wah. Front-Loaded Vari-Tune circuit controls include:

LOW-Controls the amount of low frequencies present in the wah’s sweep.

MID-Controls the mid-range depth of the sweep. This control affects the vocal-like quality of the wah, as the human voice falls mostly into this range.

Q Harmonic-Controls the position of the sweet spot within the sweep range.

VOLUME-Allows you to adjust the output strength of the wah.

SWEEP-This bank of 9 DIP switches allows you to select your desired sweep within a 9 octave range. The switches may be used in any combination to create familiar wah sweeps as well as some never before available. The voicing parameters go from higher than the old SCHALLER Bow-wow/Yoy-yoy pedal to deeper than any bass wah.

FINE TUNE-These 2 trimmers work in conjunction with the SWEEP DIP switches to allow you access to values “in-between” switch settings. The effect of these trimmers is slight and might not be audible to every player. For those that can hear the difference, they are available.

The RMC3FL is developed and built by Geoffrey Teese and includes licensed fuzz-friendly technology, EMI resistant Karmaflux inductor, heavy-duty Italian true-bypass on/off switch, exclusive RMC ROC-POT potentiometer, Switchcraft jacks, easily adjustable rocker tension, and AC adapter jack, and is covered by our limited one year warranty. The RMC3FL also features the under-the-rocker toggle switch to change sweep speed and low end resonance. The RMC3FL is housed in our new extended wah shell with a silk-screened bottom plate, classic grey hammertone finish, and topped with a black footpad.

Specifications subject to change without notice.

Model number: RMC3FL
Inductor: Custom manufacture Karmaflux
RFI Filtering: Yes
EMI Filtering: Yes
Current draw: <10 mA
If an AC adapter is used, the adapter requires a 5.5/2.1mm coax plug with a negative center post, 9VDC AC regulated Class II, 20mA to 200mA max current output.

The WIZARD WAH sounds like nothing else, with extended sweep range, rich, yet tight lows, smooth mids, a natural sounding top end, and a slight overall boost. Unlike the RMC1, the WIZARD WAH is designed to work with most any pickup configuration and any amp gain structure.

Just like all RMC wahs, the WIZARD WAH is developed and built by Geoffrey Teese and includes licensed fuzz-friendly technology (as of October 2006), true-bypass, easily adjustable rocker tension (as of October 2006), and AC adapter jack, and is covered by our limited one year warranty. The RMC5/Wizard Wah also features the under-the-rocker toggle switch to change sweep speed and low end resonance.

This preamp/direct box is so strong and powerful it could only be called the “Tone Hammer”! Based on the respected OBP-3 preamp, the Tone Hammer® features fully sweepable midrange frequencies in addition to bass and treble controls. With the Tone Hammer’s pristine D.I. you are set for the studio or the stage.

To give this tone shaping unit the ultimate flexibility we are introducing our proprietary Adaptive Gain Shaping circuitry (AGS). AGS allows the player to kick in an additional gain structure and EQ with the “stomp” of a button. You can now go from modern slap sounds to vintage or overdriven. 18 volt operation gives the Tone Hammer® plenty of headroom to reproduce the most dynamic playing style. Separate Gain and Master controls allow you to dial in just the right gain structure for any instrument.

The Tone Hammer® is the essential preamp/direct box for every bassist’s tool box.

The Filter Twin® uses two identical filters sweeping in opposite directions – one up in frequency, one down in frequency – to give classic 70′s-inspired funk sounds or completely new and original filter tones. Two filters sweeping at the same time give you a more organic, vocal quality and allow you to get expressive new sounds that you can’t get from other pedals.

The Filter Twin® offers unique filter effects via an intuitive four-knob layout. The blend control allows you to adjust the mix between the filters. The threshold control determines how sensitive the unit is to different playing styles. The velocity controls determine the speed of each filter.

Features:

Separate velocity controls for the ‘up’ and ‘down’ filters
Blend control adjusts mix between the filters
Gig-saver bypass (signal passes even if your battery dies)
Power: Nine-volt battery or optional universal power supply
Heavy Duty steel construction

Specifications:

Inputs: One 1/4″ jack
Outputs: One 1/4″ jack
Controls: Engage switch
Warranty: Three year limited
Optional: 9 volt power supply