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Z-Vex Super Hard On Reviews
Z-Vex Super Hard On
This had been on my wish list for over a year so when we got a bonus payment this year I bought one. I have a vintage Strat and have tried a couple of compressors to boost the output but nothing has had an effect like the SHO! It does exactly what the description says it will and in fact my Strat sounds brand new even to the point where you get that funny resonance on the bottom E which I had forgotten about since the the early 80\'s (Must find out what causes that). Anyway, I use it generally with the crackle ok knob at about a third of the way up played through the clean channel of my PV VK212 and it it\'s just the sound I was searching for, crisp and sensitive and also a lot louder! If you turn it up even more I can get quite a thick rock sound but with still with a clean top end. The lead channel of my PV is now redundant because the sound produced with the SHO is so much better. It also works really well with my Danelectro 12 string and my Vintage Westbury which has split coil De-Marzio\'s. Added to all this the pedal is really well made and chunky, no cheap stuff and each one is unique and hand signed with the date of manufacture, the builder, and of course Z-Vex\'s signature, mine\'s a December baby. Overall an excellent piece of engineering which is also an original work of art, something to pass down to your kids along with the vintage guitars.
WATCH OUT
This pedal is beyond B.A. The tone that comes from this is amazing. Check out the official zvex youtube videos for a taste. This makes your guitar sound so full its unbelievable. I personally use it for solos, or when its my guitar by itself. THICK THICK THICK. If its at about 70 percent, it doesn\'t cut the mix very well though. Just too much beef. At 70 percent by yourself, it sounds like you are playing the guitar of 1000 guitars.
It gets less than perfect stars for only one tiny little reason. On two amps I have had a problem. Sovtek Mig100U and a Matamp 120. I love this pedal so much, I sometimes don\'t turn it off which results in what I believe to be a \"frying\" of my tubes. Its sounding great but then if I switch it off and then back on again its like there is no gain and very little volume. So the amp needs to be turned off, cooled down, and all is well again. This is when it is used for about a half hour straight at high volume. No problems with my triple rectifier though.
Maybe the pedal cant handle it, or maybe something is just getting to over-worked on the amp, but as it is named, it can be SUPER HARD ON your amp!!
Bloody Hell!
After using many booster pedals and multi-effects units I decided to give this pedal a try. I am happy to say have used this pedal a few times on stage with a fender tele and it screams.
The manufacturers description is bob on with the sound that you get YES it is unique to each pedal and NO it's not for piling on distortion, but what you do get is a clear sound that can cut through extremely well when you are switching from rhythm to lead.
Because of the "Crackle Ok" control you can vary the amount of output you get, higher volumes are loud and perfect for overdriving a tube amp, although the pedal adds a slight overdrive to the sound in it's own right. The pedals own distortion is smooth and light, but you really want this pedal to boost the signal.
Battery life is brilliant, I have had no problems with it cutting out randomly at gigs and have changed the battery only once!
I use this before an Ibanez Tubescreamer to really make lead solo lines shout out at a crowd.
