Too bad nobody can contact Dana. I bet someone could talk her into selling the rights to a couple pedz. Driving Notion, STEP, Second Voice, and maybe like the 141g. There was also supposed to be a flanger coming out.
Anyways, back to percs. Although the DN is an honorary percolator in my mind
I finally fired up the X23 Creme Brulee that arrived last Wednesday. Controls include the usual output level and pregain controls along with clipping and Albini/normal switches. The vero-board-based internal construction looks okay, and there is no battery clip.
The builder did a decent job on the paint and general aesthetics. I'm not sure what transistors were chosen. Its germanium clipping mode is significantly quieter than the silicon and no diode options and just barely achieves unity gain when the output is dimed.
Albini mode sounds like a standard percolator, while the normal position seems to misbias the circuit in a very gated and unevenly sustaining/blooming manner. Regardless of bias settings, it sounds much fatter and more compressed than most of the other percs in my current collection. Chimey tones are still possible at lower input gain settings.
There is also more hiss overall compared to other units. I originally thought one of the Zander Cafetieres would be displaced by the X23, but I'll probably end up flipping the Creme Brulee instead.
This pedal is insanely awesome. I've demoed it on my YouTube channel. I just demoed an HP-2 which will be posted next couple days too. First time ever trying one and I loved it
May have to thin the perc variant herd soon, though all somehow fit in the designated drawer. The Jim Jones Cult of Tone 1913 seems like a winner thus far. It provides the desired amount of touch sensitivity and stank with moderate hiss. I plan to directly compare all pedals on the attached board at some point with focus on how the 1913 fares against its counterparts (prior shootouts are noted earlier in this thread).
Last edited by ck3 on Sat May 25, 2019 10:34 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Dandolin wrote:Cool! Which one is b/w the Divvy and Porkolator?
That's an X23 Creme Brulee (mini review in previous post), which actually seems to behave differently earier in the chain in terms of gating, sustain, thickness, etc. and may end up being another keeper.