So you wanna get revenge on your neighbors for playing their Lionel Ritchie records way too loud and at 45rpms at 8 in the morning? Wanna give grannie the fright of her life as you vibrate her false teeth the whole way across the mosh pit? Think you can achieve world peace as you bring down CNN with some ballistic six-string action?
Well the Sobbat DB-1 Drive Breaker effects pedal just might be the monster to make your dreams come true. This pedal rocks - especially for single coil pickups, and its’ four knobs make it as easy as something really easy to deal out a range of sounds as wide as Britney Spears. We really love the way this pedal splits out control of the bass and treble frequencies. It sounds better than my dogs dinner!
I wrote a bit about Sobbat in the last post. If you can’t be bothered reading that, Sobbat is a little company based in Kyoto, Japan who have been making spanking effects pedals since 1995. They rock. If you want to hear some sound samples of the Sobbat DB-1 Drive Breaker in action check out the DB-1 page at the Sobbat website. Or, I found this video of the DR-1 in action on youtube: Sobbat Drive Breaker DB-1 Test.
We have one up for sale on ebay if you are interested. The current price is US$129 and the page is here: Sobbat DB-1 Drive Breaker Stomp Box. Enjoy!
The Pearl Distortion Effects Pedal DS-06 is a very rare distortion pedal. Pearl are more famous for their drums but in this pedal they combined a strong distortion sound with a 6 mode Parametric EQ to make an intriguing and useful little number.
We had one of these for sale a while back, and it took a lot longer to sell than we expected. Was the price too high? Or is it because most people don’t know about these pedals? They have a really warm 80’s style distortion sound which is great for alternative rock. It is quite quiet, so it is best early in your chain, but the eq makes this pedal really stand out.
From the Pearl brochure about the DS-06 Distortion Pedal:
The Distortion creates heavy distorted sound. Pearl DS-06 has our original “Spectrum Control” which can create the heavy-metallic sounds and provides better sound projection by adding higher sound spectrum (over-tones) to fundamental distortion tones.
Controls:
Spectrum Mode: used to select the spectrum to be added. This control is also effective for modifying tone color.
Spectrum Level: adjusts the level of spectrum to be added on.
Out Level: adjusts the output level of the effected signal when effect is on.
Distortion: adjusts the amount of distortion.
Here is another DS-06 up for auction at Yahoo auctions: Pearl Distortion Effects Pedal DS-06 auction.
With 2 days to go, the buy it now price is 8925 yen - about $90. Although with the American dollar doing its best cover of the AC/DC classic Hell or High Water, and the Japanese Yen correspondingly playing Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven (if you get what I mean, the dollar is going down, the yen up), these pedals are going to get more expensive for our friends across the Pacific.
Wow! Now this is a strange effects pedal. The Boss XT-2 Xtortion pedal was manufactured between August 1996 and December 1998 and may go down in history is being the biggest marketing muck-up in the history of effects pedals. Originally marketed as the perfect distortion pedal for all those black jean wearing basketball booted types out there it is has since become better known as the effect pedal used for anything but that stereotype! Actually this pedal turns out to be something between distortion and fuzz.
These come up on ebay quite often. Here is one on Yahoo auction Japan: Boss XT-2 Xtortion auction. The price at the moment is 15,750 yen or about US$150, but it looks to be in pretty good nick, so maybe it justifies the price. Maybe.
Arion is a Japanese effects pedal manufacturer who once upon a time had a reputation for making some really high quality stomp boxes that were also really cheap. Those models are made in Japan and have a grey label. The Arion Distortion effect pedal pictured above is not one of these, it is one of the current line of pedals Arion have made in Sri Lanka. I don’t want to sound bad because Sri Lanka is a lovely country, but these pedals are something of a conundrum.
In terms of sound, as a distortion pedal, they do the job but are nothing flash. Still at $30 US they are extremely cheap and if you are looking for something to experiment with, then at that price they have some merit.
The Cranetortoise Double Distortion DD-1 effects pedal is a contemporary stomp box made in Japan by Albit. They have been making pedals since 1980, and the DD-1 is one of their most impressive.
They retail for 24.675 yen including tax here in Japan, but I found one for auction here: Cranetortoise Double Distortion DD-1auction. The current price is about half the retail price so it is a great deal!
Here is a video we put together of the Aria MP-5 Metal Pedal. This stomp box is a great vintage Japanese pedal with a really nice crunchy sound. This was one of the earlier videos we put together, while we were still getting recording sorted out. Still not perfect but we are getting better. Anyway here is the vid:
Aria MP-5 Metal Pedal from Aquaeffector.com. Played by Kojiro on a Yamaha Les Paul AES920 through a Roland Bolt 30 amp.
Super Metal! Maxon produced these pedals in the 1980’s here in Japan, and they have a really great warm distortion sound.
The Maxon Super Metal SM-01 effects pedal pictured above is up for auction at Yahoo Japan’s auction site. You can check out the page here (in Japanese). The auction is scheduled to end July 29th.
