Wiring DIY: in-phase, out-of-phase and hum-cancelling concepts

Introduction

While dealing with just a single pickup or coil, it makes no sense to be worried about things as "out-of-phase" or "hum-cancelling" but, as soon as you combine together a couple of coils or pickups, those concepts have big impact on resulting sound.

If you are interested on pickups and on moding your guitar wiring to achieve alternative sounds to those few that came stock then, the wording "in-phase", "out-of-phase" and "hum-cancelling" would be part of your language but, what at the does it mean and, how do we know if we get one or the other when trying to combine one or the other coil of a humbucker with a true single coil pickup?.

Along this blog entry, I will try to let you understand what is behind this concepts and how to achieve your wanted results and, how to avoid the wrong ones.


How coils are wound, phase and polarity stuff

Usually, coils are made of a continous thin (42 to 44 AWG) isolated (formvar, etc) copper wire wound around  a frame to form a coil. Since engines rotate usually clockwise (CW from now), the CW winding direction is the usual way as EVERY coil is being wound.

The starting side of that single wire that forms the coil, after so much turns stays in the inner part of the coil while the finish of that single wire stays in the outer part of the coil (since it belongs to the last turn).
Usually, that start "wire" is connected to ground, while the finish "wire" is connected to hot (to the signal path).

That means that we assign positive electrical polarity to the finish wire and, negative electrical polarity to the starting wire but, for this to be true, the magnetic field should have South polarity.

So, most of COILS are of type CW-S (wound ClockWise with South Magnetic Polarity).
The typical Fender Strato coils are CW-S and, most of strato direct replacement pickups are, also.

In the case of humbucker pickups, both coils were wound in the same direction (once again, CW) but, since they are being placed over two different poles of the same magnetic bar, one has a North magnetic polarity and, the other South magnetic polarity.
Usually, the screw coil (adjustable) has North polarity (CW-N), while the slug coil (not adjustable) has South polarity (CW-S).

To get rid of hum in notch positions, Fender started to produce RW/RP (Reverse Wound / Reverse Polarity) middle pickups, to achieve hum cancellation in positions  2 and 4 of a typical strato.
But, take also into account that some models of Fender were historically mounted with flipped magnet rods, which created pickups of type CW-N (instead of CW-S).

A RW/RP pickup has a reverse wound and reverse polarity RESPECT OF THEIR model pickups.
That means that if for a certain model or group of models, the standard coil is CW-S, the corresponding middle RW/RP will be of type CCW-N (Counter ClockWise, North polarity) but, if the original set had pickups of type CW-N (ClockWise, North), the respective RW/RP will be of type CCW-S (Counter ClockWise, South).

Most of Fender Strato pickups are of type CW-S and, their middle RW/RP is CCW-N but, certain models, as the Texas Hot are of type CW-N and their respective RW/RP is of type CCW-S.

Following picture (click for full size), shows the different scenarios we can find when combining the 4 different types of coils described above.

You can see that for each two coils combination, we have two different columns in this table.
First one (in-phase) will have a YES if both pickups are electrically in-phase or NOT if they are electrically out of phase.
Second one (hum-cancel) will have a YES if the combination is good for hum-cancelling or NOT, if not the case.
Best scenario (in-phase / hum-cancelling) is shown in green, worst scenario (out-of-phase / not hum-cancelling) is shown in red and the in-between scenario (in-phase / not hum-cancelling) is shown in yellow.

When two coils are in-phase, they produce full sound, they just sound good.
When two coils are out-of-phase, the sound becomes thin, weak, hollow, nasal and sharp, do to the fact that most of the signal originated by the movement of the strings and caught by each coil have oposite sign and they are being cancelled.
When two coils are arranged in a hum-cancelling configuration, most of the noise (not signal) caught by both coils has oposite sign and therefore is being cancelled while the signal remains intact, in-phase.

But you should take into account that the signal produced by two different coils isn't exactly the same, never and, neither the hum or noise present.
For two coils to generate the exact same signal and noise, those should be exact clones one of the other and, stay in the exact same physical place.
As you can easilly understand, this is practically impossible, in real terms. So, even two twin coils of a humbucker will get the signal and noise slightly different and, therefore, the resulting signal will be slightly different to the signal we would get from one or the other coil alone and, also because of this, not all the hum will be completely cancelled.

The more equal that two coils will be and the more close they can be physically, the purest the signal and the lowest the hum.
The same coil placed in different spots along the guitar strings will produce different signals and noise levels.
You should have noticed that the neck (or front) pickup is always rich in harmonics and generates a strong signal, while the bridge (or rear) pickup sounds weaker, thinner and brighter.

If pickups makers didn't changed the number of turns or wire type or magnet strength in the differently placed pickups (bridge, middle, neck) we wouldn't be able to balance their output levels.

To reverse the phase (electrical polarity, in fact) of a pickup, swapping which wire goes to hot and which wire goes to ground has same effect as to reverse winding the coil.
So, if you have a CW-S coil and you solder to hot the start (natural negative) and to ground the finish (natural positive), you pickup is now acting as a CCW-S pickup. The oposite is also true.
Just understand that you are not able to change the magnetic polarity that way, just the electrical polarity.

To reverse the magnetic polarity, you need to flip 180º the magnet bar (humbuckers) or the magnet rods (single coils) and, this is always harder and very specially with single coil pickups.

So, if you have two CW-S coils, swaping the hot and ground wires in one, will leave you in a CW-S / CCW-S scenario, which (take a look to the table) is a very bad one!.

To achieve an in-phase / hum-cancelling scenario, you need two coils with reverse phase (electrical polarity) and reverse polarity (magnetic polarity).

We said that both coils of same humbucker pickup were wound in the same direction (CW) but, one is placed over the North side of the magnet bar, while the other is over the South side of the magnet bar.
So, in a humbucker we have a CW-N coil and a CW-S coil. But search that case in the table above!. That's a bad case!.

If we link the start of each coil to negative and the finish to positive, we have exactly that case CW-N / CW-S but, if you remember, by swaping the two wires in a coil we are achieving the same as winding such a coil reverse so, if we just swap the wires of the North coil, we achieve a CCW-N coil and, now our scenario is CCW-N / CW-S. Take a look to the table. Yes, in-phase / hum-cancelling !!!.

This little trick allows the makers to achieve in-phase / hum-cancelling configurations even using coils wound in the same direction (CW). And that's why the typical arrangement of wires in a humbucker is as follows:

south start -> to ground
south finish - north finish (linked together, coils in series)
North start -> to hot

or you can swap ground and hot in south and north starts.

Which start goes to ground depends on each pickup maker, because for braided single conductor pickups (old school humbuckers), the start wire that is ground, is ground together with plate ground wire.

As we explained in other articles, a covered pickup creates some kind of Faraday's cage, which will get the noise in cage's walls and that noise will be thrown to the trashcan if that cage is being soldered to ground.
In braided single conductor pickups, the cage is in contact (soldered to) with the "humbucker ground wire" and, therefore, if we try the trick of swapping both coil wires we will positivize the cage, achieving an antenna that will catch lots of noise that will be thrown to the signal, instead of to ground!!!.

That's why some special mods make no sense with such a kind of pickups. You have braided single conductor examples in humbuckers, mini-humbuckers and P-90 single coils, by example.
But some Fender' single coils have a metallic plate on its bottom that is usually connected to the start (negative) of the pickup.
Once more, swapping the two conductors, we are positivizing such a plate with unwanted side effects.
That's why Telecaster mods that use out-of-phase or that need both pickups in series use a neck pickup with three wires (start, finish and plate ground).

This is not an issue with a humbucker having 4 conductors (start and finish of each coil) and an extra bare wire (for plate / cover ground).


Typical scenarios

Now that we have the background info of the previous version, it will be really easy to understand typicall scenarios and what to do in each case.

Let' start with Strato single coils.
In positions 1, 3 and 5, nothing of what was discussed here has any relevance, since each coil is being selected alone.
In positions 2 and 4 we are combining the middle pickup with either the neck or the bridge pickup.

As we explained above, most of coils are wound in CW direction and, they way as Fender mounts their magnet rods, give to that coils South polarity. So, each pickup is a CW-S case.
The black wire is the start wire and should be grounded.
The clear wire (white, yellow or alike) is the finish wire and should be linked to the hot path (pickup's output).

For those notch positions, in a standard Strato, we have an scenario CW-S / CW-S and, if you look that table above, that means that those positions are in-phase but not hum-cancelling. The sound, in this case has a nice bite and quack but, it's noisy.

Standard Strato coils, with a RW/RP middle pickup, will correspond to the scenario CW-S (neck or bridge) / CCW-N (middle) and, if you look to that table above. This is an in-phase and hum-cancelling scenario.
Since both pickups aren't exact clones and, since they are distant one from the other, some of the original signal will be cancelled and not all the hum would be removed.
The resulting sound has less presence than in the standard case, the quack isn't so pronounced but, the noise is clearly reduced.

So, sometimes, to achieve hum-cancelling positions can make slightly duller the tone of two coils combined together.

In the way the coils of any regular humbucker are being arranged, with the two finish wires soldered together and used to split the to one or the other coil (grounding the linked wires or, linking them to hot), there is the risk of splitting to the coil that, combined with that Strato single will lead to a wrong scenario. So, to understand what are we doing at every time is key for success.

When combining two humbuckers of the SAME maker (and I would say, model also), when splitting to North coils or South coils in both humbuckers, we will get in-phase but not-hum cancelling scenarios and, when splitting one to North coil and the other to South coil, we will achieve an in-phase and hum-cancelling scenario.

As explained in the case of Strato singles, which one to choose will depend on the wanted effect. If you can stand the noise and get a punchier sound, go to split same coils in both pickups. If you cannot stand the noise, go to split oposite coils in each pickup.

So, let say that we have a bridge humbucker with following color wires (Seymour Duncan's example):

You can see that the North wires were swapped (start wire goes to hot, instead of finish), to achieve that CCW-N type, while the South wires are standard (start to ground, finish as positive) so, we have a coil type CW-S.

Now, if we have to split that bridge pickup in position 4 (middle + bridge), in a Strato-alike guitar then ...

If we have a standard Strato pickup in the middle position, that would be of type CW-S.
If we wanted to achieve a typical position 4 (with the quack and the noise), we need to get a CW-S / CW-S scenario (by example, not the only possible). Since the South coil is just that, a CW-S, splitting the humbucker to South will give us that typical standard 4 position.
But, if we wanted to get a hum-cancelling position, we need to get a CW-S / CCW-N scenario and, that corresponds to split to the North pickup.

But if we are in the case of a standard RW/RP middle pickup, we have a coil type CCW-N.
If we wanted to achieve the typical positon 4, this time we need to select a CCW-N coil in our humbucker, that is, the North coil.
And, if we wanted a hum-cancelling position with that middle, we need a CCW-N / CW-S scenario and, therefore, we need to split to the South coil, this time.

Which color was used to identify which wire (north and south coils starts and finishes), widely changes from pickups maker to maker but, once you are clear about the scenarios described in the table above and the tricks we already discussed here, you will be able to always get what you wanted to achieve, while designing your wiring project.

Taking as example the above color wiring, if we put black to hot and white linked to red, the North pickup is type CCW-N and the South of type CW-S.
If we put white to hot and black linked to red, instead, we have North of type CW-N and South of type CW-S and, what we get is a  humbucker with their own coils out-of-phase. This will result in a weak signal with a nasal, hollow, thin, and sharp characteristic sound. But, maybe this is what we wanted to achieve!.

If we leave the North pickup linked as in the picture but, we swap red and green, we are having a CCW-N / CCW-S scenario and, once more, we get that characteristic out-of-phase sound.

To get a scenario with coils in-phase but not hum-cancelling isn't possible inside a humbucker. Look at the table above and, you will see that for that, you need two pickups with the same phase and polarity and, this is not possible since each coil has a different magnetic polarity.
So that kind of scenario takes place just when combining one coil of a humbucker with other coil of another humbucker or single coil pickup.

So, at the end, we can achieve following distinctive sounds out of a humbucker:

North coil alone (split to North coil)
South coil alone (split to South coil)
Coils in series and in-phase (regular humbucker sound, strong and warm, also hum-cancelling)
Coils in series but out-of-phase (weaker than previous one, thin, nasal, hollow and sharp)
Coils in parallel and in-phase (slightly weaker than a coil alone, open, clear, defined, bright and hum-cancelling)
Coils in parallel but out-of-phase (the weaker of all, thin, nasal, hollow and sharp)

Same is posible if we talk about two coils of two different pickups (being those another humbucker or just a single-coil pickup).

While for most of people the out-of-phase sound is unusable, Peter Green's typical tone was achieved with two out-of-phase humbuckers, in the middle position of the pickup selector switch (rythm + treble).
I personally like the OOP sound mainly under high distortion, when you need a razor-sharp screaming sound. I don't like so much for clean stuff, to be honest.

When dealing with Reverse Polarity Fender pickups (as the Texas Hot, among other models), which are CW-N, you will often need to swap the south and north start wires to get the wanted combinations with the trick to solder to ground or hot the link between both humbucker coils to achieve one or the other coil split.

Pedals: Jetter Gear Jetdrive - First contact

Introduction

After trying pedals like Weehbo's ones, it's difficult to get a pedal that can excite you enough. Weehbo pedals are, to me, one of the best preserving your tone and dynamics, while providing you a tone shaping tool to mime other aftersought amp sounds.
But, at least with my Fender Stratocaster, I don't feel them as having the right amount of gain I am needing.

I've bought a Suhr Shiba, a Suhr Riot and a Xotic SL, trying to cover all my gain needs.
Well, those pedals are "cooked pies" and, they work awesome but, to me, they lack the great dynamics of Weehbo effects and, they have a "cooked tone".
The three sound awesome, don't be fooled but, they are not what I really need, for how I like to play and combine pedals.

I don't know how, really!, but accidentally saw some youtube video demoing a Jetter Gear pedal and, I was interested from second one.

Taking into account that those three pedals mentioned above, where covering "cooked sounds", I wanted this time some kind of tube-like clean overdrive, able to get the harmonics from my amp, while playing in the clean channel and quiet volumes.

After reviewing Jetter Gear stuff, I thougth his Jetdrive could be the right pedal to complement my pedalboard.

Today, the Jetdrive came and, I had a short one-hour session testing it.
And, that's all about this blog entry, my impressions after my first contact.


Jetter Gear Jetdrive

Presentation

As usual in Boutique Pedals, this pedal comes in a sad blank cardboard box, with one sticker on the upper side, with pedal name and serial number.
Inside, just the pedal and a single sheet with a few information.

I am lacking technical specificactions. There is nothing about how much current it draws and, which are the voltage ranges supported, etc. This information is key to plan your pedalboard.
Also, some sample settings would be welcome.

The pedal includes a battery and, to remove it, you need to unscrew the four short screws that stand the back plate.

To be fair with the other overdrives in my pedalboard, I plugged the DC input of the Jetdrive into a 12V output of the Voodooo Lab Power Pedal 2 unit.

This pedal weights considerablely and it seems to be built of a high quality components. Its size is even smaller than I thought. Same width than Weehbo's but, slightly longer.

Operation

It has two different overdrive channels that can be selected alone or stacked.
Each channel has its own Drive, Volume and Tone knobs (even if they are being called in other way).
Easy to tweak and, always useful tones.

No cryptic controls, highly dependent that can lead you to an infinite search of the right sound.

Sound

Awesome!.
Did I said awesome?.
Yes, awesome!

This pedal shines out-of-the-box, whith controls at any position.
From subtle gain ranges to medium gain ranges, covering all drive needs, except for high gain stuff.

The Green channel sounds to me with some bump in mid-lows frequencies. Not a clear roll off of low end or high end but, as if it had some bump in mid-lows frequencies.
It seems to generate even harmonics, which gives it a silky and warm voice but, fully respecting your guitar and amp tone. It's just like driving your tubes to their sweet spot.
All notes are clearly audible and distinguishable but, just with that rich harmonical content.
I am finding this channel as the main overdrive channel for most of songs, even that for certain songs, I prefer the definition of the blue channel.

The Blue channel sounds to me with a plain EQ and a crispier tone, slightly more crunchy while transparenter. It's like if it was generating odd harmonics, that create a more defined sound, with an slight crunch that I wouldn't define as Marsallish.

Both channel stacked complement really good and allow you for liquid solos, while preserving all your guitar and amp nuances and QUIET enough.

Stacked with other pedals

I have to go to more in-deep tests but, I honestly didn't like how this pedal interactuates with my Area 51 Wah pedal. Probably, because the buffer of the Area 51 is on (I have to switch off that buffer !!!!).

I still have to check it with my other pedals but, had no time enough.
This will come in a new entry in this blog.

Stay tuned!.
I am planning some demo video, once I am more done to this pedal but, after testing it, I DIG FOR A DHARMA TO DEAD!!!!!


UPDATE 13/12/2013

I had the oportunity to check in depth the pedal and relationships with the rest of my pedalboard.
The first thing I've noticed is that the Jetdrive DOESN'T LIKES ANY BUFFER BEFORE.
It sound way better without its input being buffered.
I had to un-buffer my Area 51 Wah, move the Wampler Decibel+ to the end of the chain, and switch off the buffer in the Vibe Machine.

Second thing is that, compared similar settings between the Jetdrive and the Suhr Shiba, Suhr Riot and Xotic SL, the Jetdrive gets same overall feeling but stays more defined and dynamic so, I've ended romemoving those three pedals and, now, my pedalboard is of a very small size.

I would probably go for some pedal with that Hellium from Jetter Gear and a nice hi-gain distortion, to complete the picture.

I can unload the Wampler Decibel+ since, it's doing no good and, at the end, I am planning to substitute the Vibe Machine with a Strymon Mobius (for all the modulation stuff) and that Wampler EGO with some good and no-brain compressor. I found Wampler's as thinning a tad my tone.

This is the picture on how my pedalboard was reduced, to cover a lot of ground:

Just the minimum!
And the decibel+ can disapear, I have it switched off all the time.

Pedals: Suhr Shiva Drive, Suhr Riot and Xotic SL Drive - First contact

Introduction

Here we are again, testing new drive pedals. I think I will never end!.
Well, Weehbo effects are absolutely top notch pedals but, I've found them difficult to drive with my needed amount of gain, without compromising their tone or having clear feedback.

To be honest, I was thinking on to get again a Mad Professor Little Green Wonder (which I sold to a friend) for that bluesy sound and, some clearer overdrive for opener and sparkly sound.
For Hi-Gain, I wasn't satisfied with the sound of the Bastard. It's eq'd in some way that sounds veiled to my hearing and, I am not able to dial a cutting EQ without going harsh.

Maybe, all that is my fault or, just because of my gear but, it clearly didn't worked for me so, I went back to the market looking for something else.

For clean overdrive, I've choosed the Jetter Gear Jetdrive, because in my book it seems that will fill that hole. For hi-gain, I wanted to check again the Suhr Riot, even that I remembered that the sound was a tad too much for what I was looking for and, for bluesy overdrive  I was angry to get again the Little Green Wonder, after selling it.

I was surprised seen that Suhr enhanced their Shiba and Riot pedals, this time renamed Reloaded. I've carefully heard some videos and was interested on to try those (so, I could forget the LGW, by now).

In other side, one of the sounds that I love more is the sound of a Marshall 1959 SLP.
The Weehbo JCM Drive goes really close but, once again, it hasn't the amount of gain I need and, as per other users comments, the JVM Drive is not the remedy.
Being familiar with Xotic effects, I saw they were delivering that new SL Drive and, after looking some videos, I thought it worths the try.

Today, those three came and, I had my first contact with them so, that's what I would like to share with you in this article.

I am still pending on receiving the Jetter Jetdrive, which I expect also for this week and, will do a review of such a pedal very soon, also.


Presentation

Well, I know the picture doesn't makes justice to the nice look of this pedals but, my mobile's cam has serius issues trying to focus a pedal with some shinning metallic logo or part (as the SL) so, sorry.

Those Suhr pedals have the best presentation I've ever seen in a pedal maker. And, I am not talking about the appealing cardboard box, I am talking about how well protected the pedal remains inse the box.
The box has a preformed foam that completely envolves the pedal. Even the box' tap has a preformed foam pad.
Very good job, Suhr !!!.

When you remove the pedal, on the bottom there is a 9V battery, ready to use.
Pedals seem well made and with parts of quality.
No user's manual inside so, you have to go to Suhr' site and download the manual.

The Xotic SL comes in a very unpersonal white carboard box, with just an sticker on one side, identifying brand and pedal. Inside, the pedal is wrapped with paper (do you see the difference?). and, you can find the typical single-sheet user's manual and some advertisings.

While the two Shur pedals are light as helium, the Xotic is heavy as an output transformer.
After removing the battery from inside, the pedal still weights considerablely so, don't be fooled with its size because it's built like a tank.
I always wonder how that Xotic people is able to put so much tone in so little boxes.
While Lovepedal does the same, no Lovepedal of such a size works with a baterry, since they have no room but, Xotic always have room for a battery.


Controls

The three have three controls and, the same three: Volume, Drive and Tone.

Volume controls the overall output of the effect and, I've found them as working really nice. I was able to easily get the unitary volume level for each one so, it was easier to stack all them together.

Drive controls the gain or amount of distortion of the effect. All them have a nice range of gain, from subtle to beefy gain. Nice.

While the Tone control has a broad range, I find that in the three cases, the tone is reasonable between 10:00 and 2:00, before or after the tone goes or so muddy or so harsh. But, this will always depend on amp and guitar, at the end.

The two Suhr have a mini-toggle switch to choose between three different voices, that affect to EQ but, also to compression or clipping (more notable in the Shiba).

The SL has 4 internal dip switches to change the content in low, mid-low, mid-high and high frequencies.
I've tested it stock, with factory setting.

The two Shur have an input jack to switch the pedal on and off remotely, depending on the position of the 3-way micro slide switch, beside the DC input jack.


Sound

Suhr Shiba Drive Reloaded

I find the Shiba Drive in the ballpark of enhanced Tube Screamers. It goes very close to the best settings of the Wampler Paisley and, even being less versatile than the Little Green Wonder or the Rihno, it sounds plainly awesome.

Not tweakable but, the sound is really good from the beginning and really easy to achieve. There is no need to move highly dependent controls to one and the other side (as in the case of the Wampler). Just a sound, but a good one!.

Weehbo has nothing in the line of TS but, the left voice of the Shiba Drive remembers me the sound of Dumbleish pedals, as the Dumbledore, Zendrive and Euphoria (smooth voice). This position has a clear roll out of highs and a hard compression that tames your attack.

The other two positions are more dynamic and, very specially the middle one (which is the one I am using).

It was very easy to get my wanted sound, while other cryptic pedals drove me crazy during days.

The voice is a tad boxy, as if you were running your amp in a closed back cab but, not muddy.
The sound is rich in harmonics and, goes apparently undefined, because of this but, if you hear the sound carefully, you see that definition note to tone is there, even in open or disonant chords.

While I had issues trying to make the Paisley or the Dumbledore to cut the mix, this pedal cuts it with attitude, from second one.

Stacks really nice with the other two and helps them to go just a spot higher in their gain dial, liquifying solos and increasing the sustain. Pushes other drives really nice.


Suhr Riot Reloaded

To be honest, since most of the videos I see related to this pedal are made shredding or doing metal with drop-d tunings and alike, I thought that probably wouldn't work for me.
But, man, it does!.

Once again, the voice switch allows you to choose one of the three different EQs and clipping levels. To me, the middle position worked the best.

As the Shiba, the foundational voice of this pedal is boxy, as if you were running your amp in a closed back cab but, surprisingly it cuts the mix without issues.

It's very easy to dial liquid sounds and, easy to get pinch harmonics. Overall, the sound is well bodied and, solos are a pleasure.

I had no issues stacking the Shiba or the SL before. Each one gave a different nuance to Riot' sound and, both worked really good, pushing the Riot into a very controlled and musical feedback.
The SL into the Riot sounds more like a Marshall driven  hard, while with the Shiba before the sound is less classy but, incredible good also.


Xotic SL Drive

Well, does it sounds like a Super-Lead?.
Really close, yes and, even if not... who cares?.
Sounds really good, this little monster!

The closer pedal I personally know is the Weehbo JCM Drive but, while I had serious problems trying to dial a nice gain with the JCM Drive, in the Xotic was ridiculous easy.
It sounds awesome alone and with some pedal stacked before or after. No issues.

If I have to find something not so exciting in those pedals, this would be that they don't clean really good.
I needed to roll out the guitar volume practically to mute levels to be able to clean the sound and, even cleaining it, there was always some kind of extra harmonics or clipping.

The SL Drive, with the guitar volume at maximum sounds a tad compressed (over-beefed), compared to the sound that you can get just slightly rolling out the volume one or two numbers on the dial.

Comparatively, Weehbo pedals clean way better. Most of Wampler's also.

Overall, I would say that the sound is less refinated than in Weehbo or Wampler pedals but, I think results are easier to achieve and the three sound very musical and cut the mix so...


Video

Since there are a lot of videos demoing the sound of those pedals and how their controls give you this or the other sound, I've just focused on how these pedals work in my pedalboard.
I've just set up each one with the sound I liked more and, unitary volume level.

The video starts with a couple of free downloadable mp3 tracks, based in a couple of songs of Eric Clapton (Cocaine and Old Love). Specially, the second song has a lot of dynamics and, allows me to try a broader range of picking strengths.

After those couple of backing tracks. I am just testing each pedal, first separately and then one stacked into the other.