RMA TOURBOX : First Review On Page 4

[Chankgeez]

The tourbox has moved on--just completed a Philly special to rickenbastard. Write-up and video snippet to follow. All the others waiting on this to arrive--you are in for a hella good time

[Chankgeez]

This thread's been awfully quiet lately.

[crochambeau]

This thread's been awfully quiet lately.

I directed a short pause to avoid xmas shipping woes, though that concern is now past.

We're coming out of the crazy time of year, since I somewhat shut down over the latter half of December I sort of expect everyone else to as well. Looking forward to seeing more action as well, thanks for the nudge!

[lordgalvar]

Tour box arrived on Sunday which was a nice surprise. Didn't get a chance to plug in, but everything is safe.

That is one cool box though and one heck of a lid.

[Chankgeez]

[Dandolin]

OK--many apologies Curtis.

I have no excuses other than my (mostly mental) deficiency. I am extremely grateful to have been included on the tourbox , and I did take fairly copious notes and, thanks to Chank, have one wayward, noodly vidya of the amazing Mudlark in action, which I link forthwith. I'm going to come back and supplement this post as I finish some thoughts, so chack back if'n yore innerested....



OK--some general comments first. I am definitely familiar with the RMA approach and aesthetic. I guess I haven't been very vocal about it, but RMA has been one of my favoritest thangs in pedaldom since I first lucked into getting on the Dirty Doper pre-order. Aesthetically, absolutely my number one, so I was marvelin' at all the copious eye candy on display in the tourbox, and the tourbox itself--phantasmagorically excellent vision and execution! As a longtime Tetris addict, I definitely enjoyed putting it back together after each session

As I said, I am pretty familiar with the RMA thang, proudly owning an DD, Crustacean and Tetanus Booster, and having had the good fortune to have logged extensive time on lordgalvar's Mudlark and Chankgeez's Monobius.

I keep coming back to RMA devices because of their sonic signature--raw, open, beefy (no emasculated bass frequencies here ) bipolar in the best way--capable of more "polite" usage, but ready to spurt firenados at my whim (also bi-functional for me because I get great use for both my pkinky guit/mando-ings and bass thumpasaurusizing).

I concur with Chank on the Mudlark: 'tis, to put it plainly, great. My clip above only captures a small fraction of all the tones available. Chank grabbed my phone and started lensing less than a minute into my re-acquaintance wrangle, so to my ears there's a palpable sense of actually wrasslin' the oscillation; re-familiarizing myself withe the truth-in-labelling of the 'song' knob, which produces different arpeggi and counter-melodies depending on where it's set and on how you set the guitar's volume (and to a lesser degree) tone knobs. So if you have the patience you'll gradually hear me hone in on the bliss state where the pedal does more noodling than i do The first section is me getting lost in wank punctuated by volume knob tweakage to shift the low dronetone down a half-step or so and back. Maybe someone else can capture that feature better.

What is not captured at all are the wide range of more straight-forward, singing and synthy fuzz tones on tap, especially with a compressor or the Tetanus Boost set up in front of the Mudlark.

Another aspect of the Mudlark that Chankgeez pointed out definitely hit home with me--it was really easy to get lost (in a good way) exploring with it. That first four-plus minute wank (believe me, I didn't stop for a good while after the phonecam was shut down) felt like 30 seconds....

Which is not to say it's like some fuzz with oscillating capabilities where you end up not using it live because you spend more time tweaking than playing and/or can never re-find your favorite settings. The effective use of switches to define "modes" saves you from that frustration.

I'd also concur with Chankgeez's (and lordgalvar's) observations regarding the loudererness and mo' brightitude of the tourbox Mudlark compared to lordgalvar's earlier incarnation. l'd add that there seems to be just a touch more range overall in the variety of tones and "songs" on tap

Finally, as I mentioned before, the thing is, like the other RMAs I've experienced, rad on bass, bring ratty cut to your attack at more sedate settings without hacking your low-end to oblivion, but also delivering tonnes of synthy goodness (amazing tones with a Tonefactor take on the auld DOD 440 envelope filter), and plenty of plain old FWOAR.

ok so that went on for a while... I think I'll break up the text wall by posting (hopefully shorter) write-ups about the other tourbox denizens....

[Chankgeez]

I'm expectin' some nice videos from rickenbastard as well.

[crochambeau]

OK--many apologies Curtis.

NO WORRIES!

My mental processes go into hibernation over December AND I'm the last fucking person to prod someone over taking the time it needs to see something through. I love the video, thanks!

[Dandolin]

OK--many apologies Curtis.

NO WORRIES!

My mental processes go into hibernation over December AND I'm the last fucking person to prod someone over taking the time it needs to see something through. I love the video, thanks!

Chack back on that post for moar--I'll be posting even moarer below.

[crochambeau]

Frequency Fucker

I love it!

If I ever make it into the right territory of effect I might borrow that or some permutation of the name..

Thank you for your thoughts on the Mudlark, puts a little wind in my sails to complete the small pile I have sitting to the side of my bench.

[Dandolin]

Ugh, my brains are muck right now. Sadly, Frequency Fucker is taken (belongs to Tom D. --his rare and wonderful frequency tripler circuit), I was just mixing up my alliterative dream pedals.


Headed back to fix my errant FF post to DD.

[lordgalvar]

Good write-up Dandolin!

I've found the mudlark to.be among the most elusive things to record. Nothing really sounds like it live and it almost has too many good spots to document.

I found a new one in the new mudlark that is a swell fuzz. Delayed attack!

[Chankgeez]

Yeah, Mudlark rules! This's what I meant when I wrote this before:

Mudlark is great. I could get lost playing for hours days with one of these.

So many different sounds in that fuzz.

I started recording that vid that Dandolin posted because it sounded so fantastic when he was playing.

[lordgalvar]

Glad you did! Sounds great! Love it.

[rickenbastard]

Sorry for my general silence on this. I’m glad the box made it to CA in holiday season with no issues! I had a lot of fun with these. I unfortunately didn’t get to try any of these at a band practice because everyone was too busy with holidays but I would’ve liked to hear how they fit in my band mix. I’ve only gotten to edit one of my clips so far. Stone Splitter bass demo:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YmiB6a8Bas4