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Showing posts from December, 2019

Review | Donner 2-in-1 Viper Mini

Buy this pedal. It's as simple as that. I'm fully impressed with this little rocker pedal. Like most people, I've only used it as a volume pedal, but I plan on doing a fully video review later on when I try it with some delay to see how the expression side works. The instructions on how to use the expression function are a bit lacking; you need to connect it directly to your controlled pedal using a stereo cable. The circuit reads it as expression function automatically. So, for the details... Line in, line out...no surprises there. The shell is plastic, but it's a very high quality impact plastic. It runs passively, so no power source is necessary; it's a simple volume pot on a rocker switch. Yes, it's tiny, but it has a great traction pad on the top and bottom so it doesn't slide around like you think it might. And it's perfectly comfortable to control. As a volume pedal I've used it both in-line and through the FX loop, and it's aweso

Review | Donner "Giant Metal" Distortion Pedal

Insane sound from a mini pedal After years of scaling back to just my amp tone, I've started getting back into guitar pedals. 20 years ago, if you couldn't afford the Boss or DOD pedals, you were forced to go with the only budget brand out there: Rocktek. Those things were awful, but affordable. These days, the budget brands are king, in my opinion, and the compact size of the circuitry makes it possible to grab anything you want and try it out for less than fifty bucks. I wanted to start out with a good distortion, and after playing around with online reviews I decided to take the leap to the Donner Giant Metal. This little powerhouse lives up to its name! Super solid aluminum construction, easy to use controls, a fairly wide gain profile, and surprisingly flexible tonal control. It just has the one tone control, and the switch boosts highs or lows (top or bottom), or runs right down the middle. I won't say that this can replace a high-end Boss distortion, but if y