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backalleybluesParticipant
I sent this to the braintrust at EHX yesterday, I’ll post it here too…
1) Add a compressor to the front end-I had suggested this idea in the Telecaster Discussion page forum (this thread- http://www.tdpri.com/forum/stomp-box/492047-electro-harmonix-b9-organ-machine-so-cool.html ) and several people have reported back that a compressor does indeed improve the tracking. Make it a simple, 1 knob style like you see on Yamaha mixers, but tuned for the B9 engine.
2) Add a volume pedal on the output. For organ swells, naturally!
3) A Fast/Slow switch for the MOD (chorus) knob. They can be preset to match the speed of a real Leslie, and would allow us to play more like an organist does (changing speeds for solo/background/chord changes, etc).
4) More tones! I know you can only fit so many settings on a rotary knob, and you guys did great in the choices-but it would be nice to have a few more available voices, too! Probably would have to go digital to accomplish this, which leads to…
5) Switchable presets/memory! Accessible via either a pair of switches (up/down) or some electronic means, I would doubt we would need more than 100 presets, but it sure would be nice to not have to reach down and tweak the pedal on the fly!
6) USB/MIDI access-kill several birds with one “small stone” (pun intended!)-either attach an external switch via USB, MIDI control via USB (lots of keyboards already have this), and deeper editing of patches using a computer attached via USB…
Methinks this would make a fine B9 Deluxe pedal…
backalleybluesParticipantOk now the gig report…
Yep, this pedal is a winner!!! I snuck it in past my drummer and bassist last night, and called off Back At The Chicken Shack for the opening tune… 1,2,3 ORGAN!!! Totally caught the guys off guard AND the audience, and every one dug it immensely! Tracked the same as it did at home, though the high notes tracked better on the gig. Probably used it more than I should have on the first set, but boy was it fun! One thing stood out though-when I switched to guitar afterwards, it was amazing how sparse the sound got-gotta work that part out…
Second set, and a buddy of ours sat in with us… He stuck to guitar while I played “organ”… Since my style of rhythm tends to use a lot of sliding partial chords and swapping inversions, I was able to get somewhat close to what a decent organ player would play, and it worked beautifully… Also played a number of solos where I phrased like an organist, and again, it came off really well!
My bassist came up to me afterwards and told me just how much he dug the B9, and this is from a guy who hates pedals!
Finally, how does it sound on the gig? No, it’s not the real deal, obviously… But it’s far closer than it has a right to be! I said it before and I’ll say it again… This is the best pedal to come out in YEARS!!!
backalleybluesParticipantGot mine from Sweetwater on Tuesday, and yeah, it’s a blast!!!
Couple things I have found with this pedal-
1) it tracks MUCH better on the bridge pickup-since I have only used it with a 100% organ mix, the guitar sound for me doesn’t really matter too much with the pedal on.
2) It likes a compressor in front of it, to help even out the picking technique. Frankly, this pedal is kicking me in the behind to get my picking technique cleaner, so it’s already done me a world of good!
3) It likes to be early in an effects chain-again, it likes to see a nice clean signal, so the less you have in front of the B9, the better (compressor excluded, of course!)
4) Watch your chord voicings! I’ve found that some chords (Maj7ths, in particular) just don’t process cleanly-playing smaller chords helps immensely, as do playing different inversions of chords to sound more “organy”. Thinking like and listening to organ players will also go a long ways in getting the most out of this pedal.
5) I haven’t really tried it out in a band context yet (tonight is the acid test!) but I have noticed at home that you don’t need a whole lot of distortion to make a “driven” sound-maybe a Tubescreamer type, with the drive fairly low, would be about all you would need…
More on this later this weekend, after tonight’s gig (3 pc blues band)…
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