September has been another quiet month for new arrivals – but not quite as quiet as August was! A couple of interesting (to me) pieces came available at prices that suited me.
What did I get? Read on to find out …
Mad Professor Super Black Preamp and Overdrive Pedal
Mad Professor are my favourite pedal brand, thanks to their early collaboration with Bjorn Juhl of BJFe fame. Designed to be stackable, ultra-low noise floors (even when stacked), and the makers of arguably the world’s best-selling tweed-tone pedal line, the Sweet Honey Overdrive (SHOD for short).
Since the collaboration with Bjorn came to an end, they’ve been releasing new designs that are catering for the amp-in-a-box (AIB for short) crowd. The Super Black is one of these: a pedal aimed at recreating the much sought-after Fender blackface / Deluxe Reverb sound. That puts it in direct competition with a pedal I got last Christmas: the NABLA Custom Black Tweed.
How well does the Super Black fare? I’ve gone into this in a lot more detail in two separate First Impressions posts – the Super Black into the front of my amp, and the Super Black into the fx return of my amp.
LR Baggs Align Series Reverb Pedal
We’re months away from gigging again. Heck, I’m not even sure we’ll be starting in-person rehearsals until we’re through this winter, and have a clearer idea of how things are pandemic-wise. But I do believe we will be back gigging again at some point, and so I’m slowly acquiring the pieces I need for a new gigging pedal board.
I play acoustic guitar live, and that means finding pedals that work with acoustic guitar. LR Baggs are well-known and respected for their acoustic guitar pickups and preamps, and a few years ago they released the Align Series of pedals.
I’m not yet sure about this reverb pedal.
We’ve got one song in the set that really benefits from lush, deep reverb – and so far, I haven’t been able to find that sound in this pedal. Hopefully I just need to spend a lot more time with it? I’ll report back when I have.