My Current Pedal Board

If I’m writing a blog on guitar effects pedals, I should really show my own pedal board. I’d like to add a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 unit to power everything, but otherwise I am really happy with my current line up, which I have had for about 6 months now:

In The FX Loop

• Analogman Chorus – Very versatile chorus pedal that covers all the bases. Thick and lush or light and airy with a passable rotating Leslie simulation. $150 used from The Gear Page. ($250 new).
• Voodoo Lab Tremolo – Perfect reproduction of Fender amp trems from the ‘60s. $80 on eBay. ($129 new).

In Front of the Amp

• Area 51 Wah – Italian Drop in Kit retrofitted into an old Dunlop Wah casing. Killer boutique wah. $199 new.
• Tone Factor/Mojo Hand Analogue Filter – Auto wah/envelope filter that’s ideal for funk. $85 from The Gear Page ($150 new)
• Barber Tone Press – One of the best compressors you can buy and useful for increasing sustain on single coils. $95 from The Gear Page. ($150 new)
• Electro-Harmonix Small Stone Phaser [with Analogman Mods] – Version 2 from 1977 in great shape. One of the definitive phasers from the ‘70s. $80 on eBay + $100 of mods.
• KR Products Mega Vibe – As used by Frank Marino and Steve Stevens. Probably the best recreation of a Hendrix vibe; I don’t think these are being made any more. $295 new.
• Paul Cochrane’s Timmy – One of the most transparent overdrive pedals made, great for mild, tube-like distortion. Hand made and a long waiting list for these. $160 on The Gear Page. ($129 new but 3-6 months waiting list)
• Mojo Hand Huckleberry Fuzz – Very versatile fuzz/distortion box. $55 on eBay. ($150 new) 
• MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay – Recent reissue that sounds great with plenty of tonal options from short slap back to spacey echo to self-oscillation madness.

All pedals are connected using a Bill Lawrence Wilde Cable Kit.

Product Review – Tone Factor-Mojo Hand Analogue Filter 442

I have been playing a lot of funk lines lately and using my wah pedal to add some color. However, after a few minutes of this my foot gets tired and there is not much variation in the wah sound. That got me thinking (again) about those envelope filters that were so commonplace in the ‘70s for funkin’ it up.

As some of you may have read in my previous post
http://tonewarrior.blogspot.com/2009/06/product-review-boss-ft-2-dynamic-filter.html I tried this route before with the Boss Dynamic Filter. That pedal just did not do it for me so I went in search of other stronger sounding pedals.

At the high end of the market I considered the Emma Discombobulator, but at over $250 that was too much for my budget considering this is an effect I will only use now and again. I looked at some vintage units like the MXR and the DOD 440, but the pricing and potential reliability problems made me nervous. At the low end of the market I considered the DOD FX25 (two knob version) and the newer DOD FX25B (three knob version as favored by Buckethead). These are not true bypass pedals and I was concerned about tone coloration because my board is getting fairly large these days.

I was quite tempted by the Electro-Harmonix Nano Dr Q, but after a lot of research and auditioning I picked up a used Tone Factor Analogue Filter 442 (now rebranded under the Mojo Hand name). These retail for $149 new and I am really happy with my choice. The pedal is modeled after the DOD 440, which is one of the classic envelope filters. It is quite small and that is a big plus because I don’t have much real estate left on my board and it runs off of a standard Boss type power supply. It is also true bypass and has a handy on/off LED which some of the vintage units don’t have so it is a good compromise – vintage sound, but with an upgraded and modern feature set. So how does it sound?

The answer: pretty funkin’ good! It is very quacky and funky, plus it tracks what you are playing extremely well. There are controls for Level and Range and both give you many options from the subtle to the intense. I’ve found the sweet spot to be around noon for both controls, but this is a fairly sensitive filter so even changing pickups will change the effect – sometimes significantly. It responds well to your picking dynamics producing different wah sounds and the harder you pick the more the envelope opens so the more “wah” you get. I am having a lot of fun with my Boss RC2 Loop Station in combination with this pedal. Typically, I lay down some funky guitar lines over a drum pattern, loop it, and then add some gain to practice my soloing.

Here is a short video from Jack Zucker (he always seems to audition the best pedals!) that gives you a taste of the Mojo Hand Analogue Filter in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8_6dDP43u4&feature=related

The bottom line: This is one groovy pedal. Just be sure to place it very early in your signal chain and before a compressor.