Posts Tagged Stompbox
Pedal Profile: Tanabe Dumkudo
Posted by Jed in Gear, Pedal Profile on January 29th, 2010
BACKGROUND: This pedal is handbuilt in Japan by Toshihiko Tanabe. The flagship pedal is the Zenkudo meant for humbucker style guitars. The spawn of this pedal is the Dumkudo, a higher gain version of the Zenkudo, meant for single-coil bolt-on style guitars. Some of us make a big deal about blue LED lights in pedals. If it is blue it must sound better (color and tone are inexplicably linked). With the Dumkudo, not only do you get a blue LED, but you also get a little switch on the side that can change this light from blue to red and then to green. Yes. Green. That’s amazing.
Better yet, these color changes are not just aesthetic, rather they signify changes in tones and modes.
Red: This is a Marshall-like tone. It is the most punchy out of the three modes.
Blue: This is more of a Dumble tone, softer sounding then the Red mode and has a Zendrive flavor.
Green: This mode is supposed to be more of a Dumble/Tanabe tone. The most noticeable difference is that it has a much higher output than the other two modes.
GUITARS: Gibson Les Paul Silverburst, Fender Eric Johnson Signature Strat, ’86 Fender Telecaster ’62 Reissue
AMPS: ’85 Mesa Boogie Mark III, ’97 Rivera R-55, 65 London Combo
FIRST IMPRESSION: When my friend Q said he was looking into this pedal, I had to admit that I had no idea what it was. When I first looked at Tanabe’s website, the first thing I noticed was his return policy. When that’s is before the actual product itself that tells me that Tanabe is pursuing this “hobby” with an eccentric zeal. When I first saw it, it was surprisingly light and very pretty with its black case and mother-of-pear-like top, definitely a solid pedal with solid tone.
PROS: This pedal sounds amazing, which is probably the most important feature of a pedal. In fact, it sounds better the more I play it. It sounds as much like a real amp as any pedal I have ever heard. There seems to be more low end than the Zendrive yet it never feels muddy or murky, always clear even with a Les Paul.
While every mode sounds great, the Red Marshall mode is my favorite through the Mesa and the 65, and the Blue mode sounds great through the Rivera. All of the guitars sound great through this cool customer.
CONS: This is a short list. This pedal has a surprising lack of sustain at full saturation. I’m a little hesitant to say this is a short-coming. The green mode has such a high output that it is almost unusable if you are switching between the pedal and the clean channel on your amp unless you use a clean boost when the Dumkudo is turned off. This does make for an extra box to stomp on when switching channels. It should be said that the higher the pedal’s volume is turned up the better sounding it gets.
FINAL THOUGHTS: No matter how I turned the knobs or what amp or guitar I used, this pedal sounded amp-like, articulate, and just plain good. And it looks pretty. This pedal is a great core tone for any worship, church-oriented pedal board.
Keep Sharp,
-Jed
Pedal Profile: Hermida Zendrive
BACKGROUND: This pedal is built by Alfonso Hermida, a gear head who wanted nothing more than to work for Electro Harmonix. Tragedy struck and Electro-Harmonix went out of business so Hermida settled for second best: NASA. Retiring from NASA, Hermida set out to create a Robben Ford-tone-in-a-box. His creation: the Mosferatu. As rumor has it, Hermida sent the pedal to Robben Ford and his reaction was “It’s great but it has too much gain.” So Hermida created the Zendrive, which has earned a huge following.
THE AMPS: 1985 Mesa Boogie Mark III and a 65 London.
THE GUITARS: Gibson Custom Classic Les Paul (Silverburst; the color is important because, as everyone knows, silver Les Pauls have more sustain than black Les Pauls) Fender Eric Johnson Sig Strat.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: I love that it is silver. I love silver gear, so this pedal has it good with me right away. At first though, it didn’t sit well with me at all. It sounded sterile and lacked character. I felt like I was just putting a blanket on my tone. I think that was because I had only used a tube-driven pedal, I wasn’t used to using a pedal based on circuits and transistors. Once I started getting used to how the pedal worked, I started to become a huge fan.
PROS: This pedal can be hard to make muddy and since I am primarily a Les Paul player this is a strong plus. The Les Paul sounds clear and smooth. The high frequencies are articulate without getting harsh. The low frequencies are tight and perfect for blues and worship players. Metal players, don’t even bother with this one. The EQ is very well rounded; although it leans more on the bright side, no frequency dominates another. It has a beautiful and unique sound “color.” It is no wonder it has such a loyal fan base.
CONS: The voice knob is one very noisy piece of plastic. The more I turned it clockwise the more hum and hiss I got. I didn’t start to really like the pedal until I started to turn the Voice knob all the way down. I have since turned it to 10 o’clock and appear to be finding a sweet spot that way. My thought is that the voice knob should be used sparingly.
Gain is designed to be low on this pedal. At first I felt this pedal had too little gain and thought I would be more happy with the Hermida Distortion or the Mosferatu, but I wanted an overdriven flavor. I then experimented with stacking the Zendrive with a tube screamer. It gave it more saturation without losing it’s original identity which is great for solos or whenever you need to go to eleven.
FINAL IMPRESSION: Quality little pedal with a Dumble flavor (I should confess that I have never actually played a Dumble or heard one live, so perhaps I am completely wrong). It is currently the core of my tone right now. For a Dumble-in-a-box type sound this pedal delivers and deserves the hype.
Keep sharp,
-Jed
P.S. I’m working on a post for Monday called “Does Tone Really Come From The Hands?” It promises to be an interesting read. Keep on the look out for it.