Mantic wrote:Hey all! I just created an account to join in on this fun.
It's really no secret that the vitriol is a derivative of some Jason Lamb (RIP) era distortions put out by DOD (Grunge/Corrosion/MetalX/DeathMetal + many others) that we've uniquely voiced (with Jason's blessing and approval) to our taste. We also omitted the buffered switching part of the circuit.
The main distortion part of the circuit in all of these is very common in the industry and has been for awhile so it's no surprise that you can dial in close to or matching tones on certain settings. That being said, the circuits are different and the Vitriol is definitely not a Metal Zone clone.
I'm curious what settings the 2 pedals were set to as I've yet to hear a distortion with quite as much simultaneous low end and harmonic clarity as the Vitriol. Guess I'll need to pick up a Metal zone and see for myself.
As for the quote about the Vitriol being "overhyped", seemingly made by a guy who liked it so much he spent a week or more reverse engineering it, I don't know what to say... we're flattered? I don't really know what he meant by that seeing as we've only sold about a couple hundred of them in the 3 years we've been making it and the price has never gone up. In fact, the price actually went down at the end of 2015. To me, that hardly fits the profile of a product that has much hype at all.
From the wording of his initial post, it does kind of give an impression that OP has some sort of chip on his shoulder or something. Not sure why he would. We're far from elitists. We're just a couple guys squeaking by, building pedals that we love and believe contribute to the market out of a garage. We try really hard to keep our prices reasonable and accessible while still keeping the lights on and feeding ourselves.
Anyways, hope this satisfied some curiosities. Thanks for the interest.
Cool, thanks for your input. Well, I was the OP, and I find it hard to take from the line "now don't get me wrong, I love my Vitriol and thought it had a very unique sound" to mean that I have a chip on my shoulder, but hey, I can't control your impressions.
REgarding the quote by some other dude I found, I only used that quote to show that some people out there have equated the Vitriol with the MT-2 and that my impressions weren't too off the wall in that regard. No other motives were implied or stated.
Anyhow, this thread wasn't meant to malign the Vitriol. Just to compare it to a much cheaper pedal. Hardly something I feel people should get all twisted up about, but to be fair, there is some negative history I have on another forum with some people, and those people were really the ones who stirred up the pot in this thread, not me. So the chip on the shoulder comment I believe should be on them, not me.
For the recrod, the settings I used are the ones in the picture on soundcloud. Basically bass all the way up, treble to match and I tried to get the mid response as close to the vitriol as I possible could, but had trouble matching them exactly. I think to anybody's fair judgement the two pedals sound almost identical and your revelation of the history of the pedal shows that it does make sense there is a similarity. I never called the Vitriol a clone by the way. The thing that actually made me make my first Vitriol comparison was the "feel" of the pedals, and not even the sound. It wasn't until I pulled the Vitriol out of the drawer and set them up side by side that I found out how close they are.
Anyhow, I love the Vitriol. I also own a Proverb as well. I bought both new so I have been a supporter of your company. I think the build quality and sound are excellent and I would never rag on your pedal in any way. Making a comparison between a $200 pedal and a $22 dollar pedal is however, in my opinion, a valid thing to do if they sound so close.