Harmonic Generator
I’d been thinking lately after listening to alot of Americana and Folk that I might pick up a halfway decent lefty acoustic; I spotted one in the window of my local pawn shop and thought it would be just the ticket for my fledgling troubadour needs. However, after further inspection it was the wooden equivalent of a chocolate teapot. On the way out the door though this little carton of orange caught my eye.
The pedal above is a mid 80’s Boss Super Feedbacker & Distortion, and if you couldn’t tell from that mouthful of a name, it was aimed squarely at the Hair Metal brigade with their pointy BC Rich axes, Spandex clad legs and ozone-depleting hair-dos. Naff intentions and questionable decade aside, this buzz box rocks. It is essentially an original Boss DS-1 Distortion circuit, not the most inspiring pedal, but considering Boss have sold literally hundreds of thousands of DS-1’s it does enkindle some confidence. The trump card this unit has is its ability, when held down, to produce never-ending ‘feedback.’ This in turn gives the sonic illusion of infinite sustain. This is a synthesized feedback and is quite closely in tune with the note played prior to engaing the ‘feedback’ function. In other words, to an ear used to natural feedback qualities it begins to sound more and more digital, hammed up and fake. While this isn’t going to allow you to imitate the late, great Gary Moore’s soulful sustain on ‘Parisienne Walkways’ it will allow you to create superb textures and drones. Additionally, full playing can be resumed over the top of this drone to harmonise (or not) with yourself.
I love imitation, it’s the highest form of flattery, I almost picked up one of Behringer’s thinly veiled modern clones of this pedal dirt chip a few months ago. Currently, Behringer in my humble opinion are making some sonically sensational pedals but as the adage goes: if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Fair point, as their flimsy plastic construction leaves alot to be desired as far as product lifespan is concerned. A vintage Boss at new Behringer prices brings a greedy grin to my chops. Boss themselves are no doubt aware of this unit’s cult status and have responded this year with the FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster. But who really wants one of those when you can have a vintage DS-1 circuit drone machine at (if your lucky) much less. Feedback is always welcome.
