Finally.. an Elements!

[Ryan]

Makes sense.. the Elements is very tight.............. tight butthole. (You watch Workaholics in Austria? I hope so, otherwise I sound really weird there.)

So did you find a suitable plexi replacement yet? Anybody reading this ever get a plexi sound of the Elements? I'm embarrassed to say I'm not really sure what that kind of sound sounds like or even really refers to.

[Atrox]

Workawhat? Tight butthole? Do I really deserve this crazy talk for selling my Elements?

I had some good low gain settings, but as you said, the pedal is very tight.Maybe I should have tried an EQ after the Elements. Best thing I have right now is a custom made whiteface RAT by Sunmachine Effects. It has some pretty good low gain sounds and boosted with a Bad Monkey it can get some nice EVH tones. I have a Rockett Animal incoming, my last hope for that sound in my head. If that won't do it, I'll come back to you, Ryan

[Ryan]

EVH tones is what you were hoping for? I feel like you can nail that sound bigtime with the Elements.. in one of Burg's demos he gets that tone really well.

[Atrox]

Yeah it was almost there. When the Animal can't cut it, I'm back with the Elements...

[Ryan]

Right on, keep me posted.. sounds like we're cooking up an Elements challenge too! *smile*

[Atrox]

Send me an Elements and I'll let it fight the Animal on my youtube channel! Animal vs the Elements vs Frazz Dazzler... from outer space! Might be a killer title for a mockbuster

[Ryan]

I like the way you think!

[Atrox]

Well the last couple of days I came to the conclusion, that my guitar might have been the problem for the uber tightness. The pickup in my LP has tons of output and I think it might be too hot for most pedals. I got another LP with P90s for testing and video shoot and those pickups sound so much more open and richer. Ryan can a pickup be too hot for pedals?

[Atrox]

ok, got the Rockett Animal today. Sounded really good, when I first played it, and sounded strangly familiar. Quite some gain on tap and keeps its character, bit something was missing. I stepped on my Bad Monkey and right away I knew what was missing - the midhump! The Animal sounds like a glorified TS with less mids and more gain. You can hear the "plexi"-character, but it's not worth the money (to me) and the difference to my Bad Monkey is not that big. Set to similar gain, the Monkey is a bit fuller and more present. Dynamics are very good on both pedals. So it's going back...

[Ryan]

The pickups in my LP have tons of output that most pedals can't handle too! I don't really love that sound either, the super hot pickup sound.. unless it's super distorted, then it sounds awesome. I don't like it for clean sounds though.. I like single coils for that... and for super high gain! I'm a single coil kinda guy, they're never too hot, they always sound sweet, and I love the bright and clear sound with distortion/fuzz.

I gotta get a Bad Monkey for the collection...

[Atrox]

I'm diggin more and more low output pickups. Sound better all the time. The P90s in the other LP sound super cool and even in high gain they are tight and focused. I'll switch to some vintage pafs or something similar.

The Bad Monkey is an amazing pedal, search for it on youtube it can even sound like a Klon ^^

[goroth]

I thought the Bad Monkey was a TS clone?

[Atrox]

It is, but it is much more tweakable. It can even do some Dumble style sounds.

[Atrox]

So, after playing the shit out of my new Elements and the Frazz Dazzler for a week now, I have to summarize my experiences:

1) HOLY FUCK!!!!

2) HOLY COW!!!!

3) No, seriously, I knew that the Elements is awesome, but the Frazz is amazing! I wasn't sure about fuzz in the first place, had a few, never liked them. But the Frazz ist just so much fun. I started out in the non-gated mode, with low gain, did the Thin Lizzy fuzzy OD really good. I have to admit that I was a bit afraid of the gated high gain sounds, had no idea what to do with it. But i Played and tried and tweaked and now I play this thing with almost max gain and gated and it gives me wonderful leadtones with my Aqua Puss and monstrous heavy sounds on the low strings. Thank you Ryan for bringing the fuzz!

4) Everybody needs a Frazz Dazzler. Seriously, get one now!

5) The buffer of my Bad Monkey doesn't play well with the Elements. The Elements gets really shrill and looses all its life after the Bad Monkey. So it had to go. I found this quite interesting, and made me thinking if previous pedal purchases would have had a better ending without the Bad Monkey...

6) My GAS for dirt is cured. Got my Akhuketana for ZZ Top/Thin Lizzy/old school sounds, the Frazz for leads and over the top riffs, and the Elements for the metal and evh. I don't need and (more importantly) I don't want anything else^^


Well, so much for my awesome Dr. S pedals. Now send Ryan your money for a Frazz.

[Ryan]

Reading this just makes my day, Thomas, thank you! I love when somebody clicks with the Frazz, that's very special to me. Love to hear what you do with it too, like your killer Elements demo...