Well this doesn't happen every day - I won a guitar pedal in a gear giveaway! I've won a Visual Sound Route 66 V2. This is all courtesy of Vicky Beeching and I am really looking forward to it arriving. I'll update this page when it comes with the low down on what I think, but I am really excited as it sounds like the sort of thing I might really like. My current, early thinking, is that it'll complement my Line6 M13 nicely - or maybe even force my hand to replace the M13 with the M9 and build a proper pedal board with some other stuff too. I'm sure my wife will be thrilled about that! ;-)
I like the idea of a pedal that deals with both compression and overdrive together. Provided I like the sound of both halves of the pedal of course... That all remains to be seen. More later.
Back from holiday - and my prize pedal had arrived! Here was a snap I took on my phone:
First impressions are really good. My set up at the moment is a Line6 M13, with a single expression pedal, running into either a Vox AC4TV or Laney TT20. I run the amps pretty clean (Laney cleaner than Vox), perhaps a hint of crunch, and rely on the M13 to provide extra crunch / overdrive. I have the first strip on the M13 set up provide increasing levels of distortion... in the first slot I have a compressor setting, designed to compress, but also boost the signal, which, in turn, makes the amp crunch a bit more. It's quite subtle though. Then I have a tube screamer patch that is nice and crunchy and a distortion at the top which I rarely use, but is obviously even more distorted for (very) occasional lead lines.
So, what seems amazing about this Route 66 pedal is that it could potentially replace my whole first strip on the M13. The overdrive sound is based on a TS808, i.e. my crunchy sound, and the other side is a really versatile compressor. I've initially not had it routed through the M13, but just plugged straight into the amp I can produce a lovely set of crunchy and compressed tones / sounds immediately that are just the sort of sound I want to produce and currently have from my existing set up. This will potentially free up slots on my M13 for extra sounds. I've just started using my expression pedal for Wah sounds through the M13, so I now have a slot to put a Wah model on my board. I'm playing this Sunday in church, so I'll probably run the Route 66 in the FX loop of the M13 and have it between the first and second slots on the M13, so Wah will come before overdrive / compression, then back into Modulations, Delays and Reverb.
I'll post more observations, probably as a new post, after the weekend, when I've used it in anger as a proper part of my set up. However... first impressions:
I LOVE IT!
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