Bought a pedal the other day on a whim. Had seen it come across my Amazon feed a couple of times lately. Guess it's true that if you see something enough times you'll eventually click. Saw that it was $50 or something, but haven't been super impressed by the Nux pedals I've bought in the past, so I figured I would let this one go. Then it popped up on my " you might be interested" feed on Reverb.

I went ahead and clicked on that one. Guy was selling it for $30 + shipping. Shipping was half of what most folks were advertising. Less than most of the others with cheaper shipping. I made the guy my usual offer of the list price minus the price of shipping so that it would come out to his asking price of $30. That's not to say that the price wasn't fair already. He countered, and we met half way. Not a bad deal for either of us. It actually surprised me that he accepted because the pedal had only been posted a few hours.

It came in a day earlier than I was expecting, so I've gotten to play around with it for a couple of days now. Here are my initial thoughts and impressions.

I haven't researched this pedal more than a cursory google (to find prices more than anything). I believe that it's supposed to be an amp in a box along the lines of the Dumble Steel String Singer. I'm not positive of that, but I think it's right. If that is correct, then it's an amp in a box of a very expensive amp that is the stuff of legends.

I had a Vertex Steel String Clean Drive back a few years ago. I think I bought it in 2017. I never meshed with that pedal. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a similar amp in a box or not. I just know I had other drive pedals that I liked better. So in the great gear purge of 2020, it went the way of the gear that left the casa. That pedal and this one have a similar look, but I don't know if they are the copies of the same thing so any comparisons between them may be unfair. I'll just say that, since they look so similar, my mind immediately went to the Vertex that I used to have and didn't really like, so my expectations were really low.

Pulled it out of the box, plugged a battery in, and started playing with it. In fairness, it has been exclusively through my Gibson ES-339 into my Spark amp's Dumble Over Drive Special model. That's the amp model I always use with that amp, so it's the one I used. Admittedly, I have not tried it through my Blackheart amps or using single coils yet. So this isn't an exhaustive review by any stretch.

Stuck all the knobs on the pedal at noon and the 339 on the neck pickup, hit a chord, and it sounded truly awful. It was so dark that it was bordering on being just muddy. That's a probably I've never had with the Gibson before. Checked the guitar to be sure that the tone wasn't still on 2 (where I've been using it on some jazz-ish stuff) and then cranked the tone (Filter) knob on the pedal all the way to the right. It lost the mud, but it was still dark enough that it's not something I would use. Fiddled around with the Vol and Gain knobs, and it didn't help. Well ok. My thought then was that I'd probably just turn around and sell it. Got a good price on it, so I should at least break even on it.

Switched to the middle position on the 339 and hit a chord. You know what, it doesn't sound half bad there. That bridge pickup pulls in enough high end that it balances the darkness on the neck pickup. Dialed the treble back on that Filter knob, played with the Vol and Gain some more, and it's not actually sounding too bad.

So I switched to the bridge pickup. Dialed the Vol to about 2 o'clock and the Gain back to about 9 or 10 o'clock and set the Filter on about 11 o'clock. Dude!! This pedal is sounding super good now. I sat and ran through jam track after jam track for about an hour just playing along with those settings, and was totally digging it!

So now I'm kind torn. My initial first impression what that I was going to flip it pretty quickly. It doesn't really work on the neck. But it sounds so good on the bridge that the thought actually crossed my mind that I should put it on my board to use for some lead tones. It also makes me really wonder what it's going to sound like with single coils. Since they're usually a little treblier than humbuckers (at least mine always seem to be), it makes me think it's going to be really good for those. I need to pull a Strat or Tele out of the closet to try them out with it.

So what's my verdict? I'm honestly not sure. I think in the right setting with the right guitar and amp it's going to sound really nice. However, from my experience with the neck pickup, if you don't have the right gear, it's going to sound pretty crappy. For the moment, I play that 339 almost exclusively. I'm not sure I want a pedal on the board that will only work on the bridge pickup, but it sounds so good there, I might give it a test run anyways.

Regardless, it sounds good enough on that bridge that I think I'm going to hang onto it for a while. I've got some recording ideas brewing where I think it might come in handy for some lead tones. After all, at $32 shipped, it's not like it's going to keep me from buying the next piece of gear if I keep it.

Does it sound like a Dumble? No idea. I don't have a Dumble that I can use to A/B it. On the bridge pickup of my 339 into an amp model of a Dumble ODS does it sound good? Absolutely with no question. Should you buy one? At $50 new, if you're curious and the money's burning a hole in your pocket, you can always get most of your money back if you don't like it. If you can catch a deal on one used on Reverb, it might be worth an afternoon's entertainment and you might actually like it.

Now I'm off to pull a Tele out of the closet and see how it sounds through that.

I've been buying pedals lately. Not that I need another pedal of any variety. It's just fun. Truth is, I'm about at that point that I need to put some up for sale or go trade them in or something because I'm running out of space. But maybe I'll sell some later. First I need to rant about a couple of things.

First. Reverb sellers I'm looking at you. If you're firm in your price, then say that in the listing, and turn the Make an Offer button off. I try not to lowball anyone. It irritates me when folks do that to me, and, if I wish folks wouldn't do it to me, then I shouldn't do it to them. It's the whole "do unto others" thing. If the Make an Offer button is there, I will typically click it and offer anywhere from 5% to 15% less than they're asking. Or, if they're charging shipping, I might go as high as offering  whatever the price is minus the shipping. And most folks are cool. They may not be interested in taking my offer, but they'll counter and throw me a bone, and give me a few bucks off. In my mind, that's how the game is played.

Lately, however, I've had several items that I've been interested in. The Make an Offer button is there and available, so I'll do my usual offering a little less. If you make an offer, Reverb gives 24 hours for you to reply before it expires.

Quick note: when I make an offer, I always make sure to check the box that, if they'll accept my offer, I'll buy the item.

So, back to the 24 hour expiration time frame. My experience has been that most folks that I've bought from have responded within just a few minutes. In each of the instances recently, the quickest response was one from last night that took 13 hours for me to get a response. And when I get the responses lately, it has been something along the lines of "my price is fair and firm. The price is $XX." 

Fair enough. You're not interested in dealing. I've sold stuff like that, but, when I did, I turned off the dang Offer button. And, in each of the instances recently, it took long enough for the seller to respond that I found what I think was a better deal. So, as soon as I got the Declined notice, I pulled the trigger on the other. Also, had the seller countered and just given me a few bucks off, I would've bought it from them despite finding the better deal. Also, also, it's been kind of vindicating to watching these recent items that I made the offers to the "fair and firm" sellers and got shot down. Every one of them is still for sale on Reverb. If they'd been cool and knocked even a couple bucks off the price and they would've sold their item. Instead, they're still waiting to sell them. Some of these could've sold last night and some could've sold a couple of months ago. And that's their prerogative. So if they're happy about it, then so am I.

Second thing is this. At least make an attempt to be objectively honest about the condition of what you're selling. I know that you think what you're selling is A+ condition and should command top dollar, but that may not actually be the case.

For instance, there is a pedal that I was looking at recently that said it was in Very Good condition. According to Reverb's grading verbiage says "Very Good items may show a few slight marks or scratches but are fully functional and in overall great shape." For your frame of reference, this pedal was a Boss pedal. You know what a Boss pedal looks like. Now here is my realistic description of this "very good" pedal.

The bottom of this pedal was missing the sticker. That's ok, but, in it's place was all this sticky looking white residue that looked like somebody had put duct tape on the bottom, let it sit for a year or two, and then pulled it off. The top of the pedal wasn't much better. The face plate was scratched in several places, and it had been stomped enough that you could mostly make out the Boss logo on the pedal. Then there were the sides. Oh the sides. Somebody had decided to write on the pedal. By scratching into the paint. So the pedal had their credo down the side of it in such a way that the only way to repair it would be to sandblast the case and repaint it. And they were calling this thing in Very Good condition.

I'm sure the pedal worked fine. Truth is, one of the reasons I saw it was because it was from a store that I have bought from in the past. Did I mention that it wasn't an individual selling this pedal? It was a flippin' store! That's one reason I don't buy used from GC online. My experience has been that you can buy something online from them that is listed as Excellent condition, and it is anything but excellent. Reverb is turning into the same kind of free for all it seems. The difference in Reverb and GC is that Reverb will generally have multiple pics that you can look at and judge a more accurate condition of it. GC you're lucky to get one out of focus pic where you're left to the mercies and judgement of whatever disinterested employee posted the listing. 

So to recap, if you sell used gear, here are two thing that will make you more successful in life. If you're not interested in entertaining offers, turn that button off. If you don't, don't be so condescending when you let someone know that you think your gear is worth what you're asking. Truth is, it probably is, but that means there are almost always better deals out there. Second, at least make an attempt at being objective about your gear. I know you've used it and think it should really be prices like an original Klon, but it's still used gear. If it's beat to heck, it's not in mint condition.

That is all. Go forth and buy some gear.