THE TONE GOD
ACUTE MODESTSCREAM
BY JORDAN WAGNER
Ask any gearhead guitarist what kind of pedal that they’ve gone through the
most, and a majority of them will say overdrive pedals. Overdrive tone is almost as
personal to us as our favorite guitar. There’s
no feeling quite like playing through an
overdriven tone that has the perfect blend
of range, tone, response and feel—it can
make us feel more in-tune with our instrument, ultimately making us better players.
to hear audio clips of the pedal at
premierguitar.com/apr2012
CLICKHere…
Internal true bypass switch
Touch Interface
But tastes change, and all too often
we dump an otherwise great-sounding
piece of gear for another one, continuing
the cycle of searching for that one overdrive that never fails. Andrew “The Tone
God” addressed this issue for fuzz-heads
with his NerFuzz programmable fuzz.
Now he’s tackling overdrive with the new
ModestScream, which has enough tweak-abilitiy to satisfy the most fickle guitarist.
A Modest Proposal
The analog-based ModestScream is capable
of dishing out the type of classic tones that
make the TS-9 and TS-808 a legend, but
also includes four popular circuit board
modifications that enable different types of
diode clipping (18 in all), blending with
the dry tone, changing opamps (choose
between an RC4558D, TL072, TLC2272
or a NE5532), and even altering the ranges
of the frequency responses themselves.
In a seemingly endless sea of light
to medium overdrive pedals, the
ModestScream’s interface sets it apart from
the pack almost immediately. You’ll notice
that there aren’t any knobs to twist or
conventional switches to stomp. Tones are
dialed up from the pedal’s innovative touch
interface, which has three contact points that
respond to skin contact only, and it serves as
a way to extend the life of the pedal, as there
are no parts that can easily snap off. It’s also
impossible to accidentally change a parameter from a careless swipe of the foot, and
the parts will never need replacement from
accumulating dirt and grime. The only part
that moves is an internal true bypass switch,
but it’s covered by a large metal control plate
that engages the switch.
There are seven parameters that
you can change from the from panel.
These include diode type and combination (silicon, Schottky, LED, MOSFET,
MOSFET body, and no diode at all),
cutoff frequency, opamp chip, clean
blend, amount of overdrive, treble level,
and overall output volume. Tapping the
center contact lets you cycle through each
parameter, and a large LED screen tells
you the amount or selection that’s being
used. While it’s easy to change any of the
