PRODUCT REVIEW
Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion
SouRCE auDio
By GARy C. GUzMAN
With so many distortion pedals on
the market today, how can you possibly pick one to call your own? How can
you find that one distortion pedal to rule
them all? Even narrowing down your choices to
a select few can be a time-consuming and costly
process. It can also be frustrating when you go
to your favorite guitar store to try out a bunch
of distortion pedals, only to be out-volumed by
that kid playing the entire Metallica catalog.
But choosing that one distortion pedal is crucial. It can be your identity and your voice, the
key to expressing yourself. Later you might discover that the pedal isn’t as great as you initially
thought, and that can negatively affect your
playing (as well as your wallet)—and you may
even play less because you don’t like your tone.
If you play blues one night and hard rock the
next—if you need a variety of distortion, from
mild overdrive to high gain—it gets more
complicated. Chances are, you’ll need a variety of pedals, everything from that vintage
fuzz to the latest high gain distortion, to create that diverse sound palette.
a five-year listening study, this compact, easy-to-use pedal offers distorted tones that are
based on (but not exact copies of) more than
40 classic pedals. It features the company’s
56-bit proprietary SA601 digital signal processor and crystal-clear 24-bit converters, which
serve up four tube-amp and eight fuzz-box/
overdrive tones, a Clean Boost mode, six user
presets, a seven-band graphic EQ, and a MIDI
input. It also features an active analog bypass,
which is fully routed around the DSP.
features a 9-volt DC power
jack, mono ¼" in and out jacks,
an Expression Input for morphing
between presets, a MIDI input for auto-
mation and parameter control, a Sensor In
jack for the most fun and innovative feature
of Source Audio Soundblox pedals—the Hot
Hand—and a Sensor Out jack for daisy-chain-
ing Hot Hand-enabled pedals.
If you’re not familiar with the Hot Hand motion
sensor, you wear it on your picking hand and
use it to control effects with, well, your hand
motions. With the Classic Distortion pedal, the
Hot Hand controls the amount of Drive, so you
can experiment and control effects such as
tremolo, volume swells, and other wild effects
just by waving your hand around.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have just one distortion pedal with a wide variety of modern
and vintage sounds? The people at Source
Audio think so. That’s why they created the
Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion. The result of
Taking a Closer Look
The Pro Classic Distortion’s controls are simple
and straightforward. The Effect knob selects
between 11 types of distortion and a Clean
Boost/EQ setting. Three other knobs—two
Drives, Midrange, and Output—and the sev-
en-band EQ deliver extreme versatility when
programming custom sounds. You can save
six of those as presets and recall them later
via the three footswitches. The back panel
The various distortion settings are very simi-
lar to many popular distortion pedals of the
past. Source Audio captures the spirit of each
distorted sound instead of copying it exactly.
The Tube Drive setting is similar to a Marshall
sound, offering a nice, overdriven tube-amp
effect. Smooth Tube is based on Mesa/Boogie
preamp distortion. Power Stage is inspired by
the Fulltone Distortion Pro pedal. Crunch Tube
is Source Audio’s own aggressive tube-style
www.premierguitar.com
PREMIER GUITAR JUNE 2010 169
