Visual Sound dealer in Edmonton

[cbrown0019]

Just wondering, is Mothers the only visual sound dealer in edmonton?

[Greenbacker]

DO you have a Long & McQuade there? They carry VS stuff here. I'm sure they could get stuff in. What pedal are you looking for? I've got a J&H for sale if that's what you are looking for...

[Greenbacker]

That's too bad. The downtown location here hass all sorts of stock. It really seems they are trying to get into the more boutique market these days. I see all sorts of things that surprise me. Keeley, Diamond, Victoria Amps. Good to see. But also bad to see because you know this will drive the little guys out of town. Anyway, I digress...

[cbrown0019]

I called L&M and they weren't that helpful. Which is somewhat expected. The guy said they might be able to order them, but it would take 4-8 weeks to get it in. Greenbacker...how do you like the J&H, i was going to look at a few of there od pedals...route 66, J&H, and the double trouble. To my understanding, they're all the same od, but with comp, distortion, and a 2nd od, respectively. Correct me if im wrong.:p

[co-intelpro]

I called L&M and they weren't that helpful. Which is somewhat expected. The guy said they might be able to order them, but it would take 4-8 weeks to get it in. Greenbacker...how do you like the J&H, i was going to look at a few of there od pedals...route 66, J&H, and the double trouble. To my understanding, they're all the same od, but with comp, distortion, and a 2nd od, respectively. Correct me if im wrong.:p

L&M can order stuff from other L&M stores, so that 4-8 week wait is bogus. Try to find someone who is helpful, and not some sullen guy who wished he had been a rock star.

[Greenbacker]

L&M can order stuff from other L&M stores, so that 4-8 week wait is bogus. Try to find someone who is helpful, and not some sullen guy who wished he had been a rock star.

ha ha ha. So true dude. So true. I walked by there last night. You should've seen the long, stringy, greasy hair on this washed up dude behind the counter. I know, I know... It'll be me in a few years but for now, I get to chuckle.

Contrary to the fact that I just sold of my J&H last night, (to fund another purchase, getting away from OD pedals a bit) I loved my J&H. The one side is based on the 808 but it sounds great. It has typical TS compression and a bit of that top end, fixed-frequency fizz which I don't like so much, but the bass boost switch is really helpful. It really warms things up! I used to leave it on all the time. The distortion side is really great too if distortion is your thing. It has two knobs, a sort of mid sweep and an eq as well as a "sharp/blunt" switch. This channel is handy for a more open and aggressive tone. I had it dialed in like a very angry blues driver. You know, not so mid heavy, compressed or saturated as a TS but with lots of bite. I could never get a taste for running both channels at the same time though. I would be running the 808 and click the distortion on expecting basically 'more' of what I had but maybe a little more driven. Maybe it was the way I had it dialed in, but the scooped mids (from the distortion side) took away from the lead sound of the 808 (which follows the distortion in the chain) Maybe there's a proper way to dial this in if you are an 'OD on all the time guy' but hat's not how I used it...

The good (and bad) thing about this pedal is how close together the two switched are so you can step on them both at once. If I already had the OD on and wanted something more, I would step on both switches, engaging the dist and disengaging the 808 side.

I really liked the 808 side and wished I could find a nice standalone 808 that has true bypass (I've been told the VS pedals aren't. Can anybody confirm that?) and has that same bass switch option! I'm so surprised that you don't see that more option since the common complaint of the stock TS is that it loses bottom end. I've tried a TON of TS pedals, including the expensive ones, and this is one of the best, for what I wanted.

[Greenbacker]

...The reason those guys at long and McQuade hate answering the phone is because everytime they pick it up, their hoping it's Universal calling.

[co-intelpro]

I rented the J&H for a month. Before trying the J&H, I was running a Marshall Shredmaster in my setup, but was disappointed about the lack of highs the Shredmaster has. So, hearing that the distortion side (Hyde) of the J&H is based on the Shredmaster, I gave it a shot.

At first I thought it solved all my problems. It had a TS type boost, plus the Shredmaster clone. I thought it was great, but shortly after that I started to dislike it.

First of all, the "home plate" shape was annoying. I have very little space on my board as-is, and its shape was awkward and presented problems fitting in with my other pedals. Plus, the shape seemed to not serve any purpose other than style...lame.

Second, the "Shredmaster clone" side is either too sharp or too blunt; it's too fizzy, and sterile sounding. I could tell right away that my ears would easily fatigue quickly after listening to this sound for too long. Although it comes close to the Shredmaster, it doesn't get the sweet spot.

Third, the TS (Jekyll) side was OK, but was WAY LOUDER than the Hyde side. This presented problems when you wanted to use all three options of J, J+H, H. I'm a bit biased though...I've never really found a TS type pedal I liked, other than perhaps my old Boss OD-1, and the tone of it seems to change every time it meets a different amp.

In the end, I brought it back to L&M, and never looked back. To me, its design needs some tweaks to make it better/more usefull. And, yes, I got it from L&M...

Now, I just run a modded Boss PQ-4 Parametric EQ after the Shredmaster, and it seems to boost the frequencies I need...

[cbrown0019]

I ventured out into the cold down to mothers today, tried out the 3 that i was looking at and ended up getting the J&H, and at $160! Didn't ask any questions why it was cheaper, just kept my mouth shut and walked out :P. I love the Jekyll side, and the bass boost works wonders. Also what they did with the adjustable bass control and noise reduction controls for the distortion channel. That, plus the million knobs and switches on this thing gives you a pretty wide variety of sounds.
What i didnt really like too much...as stated before, was the fizzy-ness of the dist. side, but rolling back the gain a bit, and using it on the blunt side eased it up a bit.

[Greenbacker]

Cool man. Good to hear you like it. I really like that 808 side too!