PRODUCT REVIEW
CM- 2 tube overdrive, Dl- 8 Delay/looper and SC- 2 Valve Distortion HaRDWiRE By oSCAR JoRDAN
DigiTech has a long history of coming up
with nifty treats for guitar players, and its
Hard Wire pedals—which are now marketed
under their own name—continue the tradition. These stompboxes are designed for
guitarists who want quality, heavy-duty construction and guitar-centric features. Each of
these pedals is built like a Cylon Centurion
and features precision-machined, high-grade
components and true-bypass circuitry to
keep your tones intact.
The CM- 2 Tube Overdrive, DL- 8 Delay/Looper,
and SC- 2 Valve Distortion are built for sturdiness and have gig-friendly features and add-ons, including Velcro bottom pads, glow-in-the-dark labels (for night vision!), and a trademarked StompLock cap, that prevents you
from accidentally changing settings with your
foot. In addition, the footswitch cover on top
of each unit can easily be opened for quick
access to the battery—no screwdriver needed.
Another cool feature is constant-voltage
operation: each pedal has circuitry that boosts
the voltage supplied by its 9-volt battery to a
higher operating voltage ( 15 volts). This adds
more volume, gives you mucho headroom,
prevents unwanted distortion, and results in
tones that sound cleaner in your effects loop.
Constant high voltage keeps your sound from
degrading when your battery runs dry and
avoids that boxy sound you sometimes hear in
other pedals. All the pedals are set up for use
with an AC optional adapter as well.
For this test, I got down to business with my
trusty Performance Custom Strat, a Yamaha
’ 78 SG2000, a ’ 65 Fender Deluxe Reverb,
a Blackheart Little Giant half stack, and a
Peavey JSX 2x12 combo.
The CM- 2 Tube Overdrive is designed to give
you that much-sought-after natural breakup
you hear in overdriven amps. It’s perfect for
blues, blues rock, classic rock, or guys who
just want to add a little girth to their tone. It
has four intuitive knobs: Level, Low, High, and
Gain. The knobs are metal and very solid, and
they stay put without wiggling around. You
also get two voicing modes to choose from.
Classic gives you a smooth-but-dirty overdrive
sound, and Modified adds more gain and
beef. The Modified mode was my favorite,
and with the help of the EQ I was able to dial
in some hefty blues-rock tonal extrapolations
somewhere between Stevie Ray Vaughan and
Robin Trower.
What’s cool is that I didn’t hear a lot of compression in the Classic mode. It reminded me
of a cranked Bassman about to explode, but
without the volume. It’s very organic yet lacks
the midrange bump you sometimes hear in
other overdrives. I ran the EQs at around 12
o’clock most of the time, and it sounded very
rich and robust. Single notes sounded twice
as thick, and chords got exponentially chunkier. It also cleaned up very well when I rolled
back the guitar’s volume. The Modified mode
takes you to heavy blues-rock soloing land.
I couldn’t help but play Hendrix’s “Voodoo
Chile” (Not Slight Return). That added smidgen of compression, gain, and low end really
makes this pedal an enabler for long-term
pentatonic wanking. It’s smooth, articulate,
very thick—and best of all, quiet. I like this
pedal a lot. When you back off your guitar’s
volume, you can get your sound to return to
the Classic mode without bending down to
flick the switch. Nice.
Rating:
you like warm, versatile
overdrive pedals.
Buy If...
Skip If...
you like lots of midrange.
hardwire
Street $99
hardwirepedals.com
CLICKHere…
or use a mobile
device to read
this QR code to
hear sound samples of the CM- 2
in action at
premierguitar.com/jun2010
DL- 8 Delay/Looper
The DL- 8 Delay/Looper combines a very
basic looper function with lots of super-cool
delay settings. The four rock-solid adjustable
knobs give you the ability to control the Level,
Repeats, delay Time, and six delay modes:
Reverse, Modulated, Analog, Slapback, LoFi,
and Tape. You also get four digital settings, a
Looper setting, and a Tails on/off switch feature. You can have all these sounds in mono or
stereo. The tap tempo is easy to use when you
need to get in time with the music, and you can
get delay times ranging from 10 milliseconds
to 8 seconds. Overall, the layout is very easy to
use, and you’ll have fun making up wacky delay
