Better Guitar

review

Guyatone Micro Effects

Review by Mark Starlin

Guyatone recently released five new affordable Micro Effects and has graciously allowed me to give all five a try. I'll start with what they all have in common and then move on to the individual pedals.

Micro Size

The name fits. These pedals are very small. They all come in a stamped metal case that measures approximately 3" by 4" by 1.5 " high. You could easily squeeze any (or several) of these pedals on your pedalboard. In fact, I had no problem fitting one in the accessory compartment of a guitar case. Although they are quite small, I had no trouble turning the control knobs, with the exception of a truly micro “pre-gain” knob/wheel on the MO-3 Micro Octaver, which I'll discuss during its review.

Construction

The Micro effects cases are made out of stamped metal with metal foot switches. The control knobs and switches, as well as the input and output jacks are plastic. The bottom of the pedal is a metal plate which is held in place with a flexible, grooved rubber band. The rubber band also serves to keep the pedal from sliding around. To replace the battery, you have to pull the rubber band off the pedal and bottom plate, change the battery, then fit the pedal case and bottom plate back into the groove on the rubber band. It takes a bit of effort to get it back together properly. I also wonder about the long term durability of this design. When used on a pedalboard with an adapter, these little effects should survive quite well. If used with batteries and thrown in a gig bag after every gig, I am not as confident of their endurance.

Sound Design

These models were all designed by Toshi Torii, a respected designer of the HAO line of boutique pedals. After playing through these pedals it is obvious that quality tones were an important consideration. Let's look at each one individually.

CB-3 COOL BOOSTER

The Cool Booster works as both a booster for solos and as a means to overdrive tube amps. As a solo boost, it does what you expect, providing more volume when you want your solos to be heard over the band. In addition, if you are using a tube amp, it can push the tubes into breaking up. To test the Cool Booster's tube driving ability I used my Traynor Custom Valve 20 tube amp. On the clean channel I could go from clean to a nice crunch by simply switching on the Cool Booster. With the proper level control setting, I got both clean and crunch at the same volume. It was like adding a second channel to the amp — very nice. On the crunch channel, adding the Cool Booster pushed the tubes into high gain territory suitable for leads. The Cool Booster also has a tone control to roll off highs for a smoother high-gain tone. This pedal would be a great companion for any single channel tube amp, essentially giving you a second channel. It also works great as a solo boost for any amp.

HD-3 HOT DRIVE

I thought the Hot Drive was going to be just another “metal” pedal, but I was mistaken. It does do high gain, but I don't think metal is its real strength. A more appropriate description would be a “soaring lead tone in a very small box” pedal. The Hot Drive serves up smooth, soaring high gain tone with excellent note clarity. No fuzziness or mud here. That's the good news. The bad news is you only get one gain setting. You can't control the amount of gain. What you get is a switch with three settings that each emphasize a different frequency. The first is smoother, the second has more treble, and the third is the darkest tone of the three. You also get a tone knob to further tweak the tone. A level knob lets you also use the pedal as a boost so your solos will be heard. The pedal adds a fair amount of noise to the signal when the effect is switched on, but the noise won't be heard unless you stop playing. Switch the unit off and it is dead quiet (as all pedals in the off position should be.) The Hot Drive is a bit of one trick pony, but it does the soaring lead guitar trick extremely well.

MO-3 MICRO OCTAVER

The Micro Octaver was my only disappointment of the five pedals. I was expecting a common octave effect, but the MO-3 doesn't do common. In fact, the manual says "If you are looking for pristine octave tracking with super clean tone, we suggest you look elsewhere." I agree. I would describe the Micro Octaver as a octave/noise/filter effect. I tried a Les Paul, a Strat, and an Epiphone Sheraton, and had similar results with each. I had to turn the pre-gain button all the way down to get anything other than noise or buzzing. The button itself is very small and requires you to push down on it with the tip of your finger and then turn. Not a convenient design.

The Micro Octaver provides two octave knobs. One controls the first octave down and the other controls the second octave down. Using the Octave 2 knob alone I was able to get a reasonable octave effect, although if I held a note, it would start to jump back and forth between octaves — sort of like a synth arpeggiator effect, but not consistent. Using both Octaves knobs together usually resulted in more noise than octaves. I was able to pull a straight “synth” type tone out of the unit with a bit of persistence. This may be just the thing for those who like unpredictable, noisy effects or experimental stuff, but to my ears I didn't find it very musical.

SS-3 SONIC SHAPER

The Sonic Shaper is a clean booster and harmonic emphasizer. To my ears it is a booster pedal that also acts like the “presence” knob on an amplifier. You can use it a standard boost pedal for solos or to drive your tubes a bit harder. There is no overall level control so if you use it to push your tube amp you will get extra volume also. However, the cool feature in my opinion is the harmonic emphasizer which allows your guitar to cut through a mix or sound less muddy. I discovered that using the pedal with a fairly muddy (mid-rangy) sounding solid state practice amp really brought the amp to life. If you have a muddy sounding amp that gets buried in the mix, you may want to leave this pedal running all the time. The manual says you can use it as an acoustic guitar simulator, and it does a fair job of this, but I have yet to hear a pedal that does a convincing job of making an electric sound acoustic.

OD-2+ OVERDRIVE+

The Overdrive+ is based on the ever popular Tube Screamer but actually offers much more. In fact it is more like three distortion pedals in one thanks to a three position switch that provides three different tones. The first switch setting (S) emphasizes the bass and is dark and crunchy. The second switch setting (M) emphasizes the midrange and has more bite than the S setting. The third setting (D) emphasizes the treble and acts more like a top boost amp giving the illusion of increased volume. The D setting is a little nasally when used with a clean amp, but when used with an overdriven amp it allows you to cut through the mix and is great for soloing. Think Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The Overdrive+ is a crunch pedal that provides a fairly tube-like tone, although it is not overly dynamic. Used with a clean amp you easily get the classic 1970's style rock tone. You won't get high gain tones out of it unless you are running it into an amp that is already overdriven. In which case you can expect some very rocking lead tones. Well done Guyatone.

Final Thoughts

The Micro Pedals are small wonders that pack big punches. I liked all the new pedals except the MO-3 Micro Octaver, which simply wasn't my cup of tea. As for the rest, it was a bit surprising to hear such good tone coming out of such small pedals. I don't care for the rubber band/plate design which I found a bit of a hassle to put back together. Of course if you use an adapter, this won't be an issue. Overall, the Micro Pedals are compact, affordable, and sound great. Well worth a try.

Reader Comments

Better Guitar encourages your input. Agree with this review? Think I’m crazy? If you have used one of the new Guyatone Micro Effects reviewed above, email me your comments and I’ll post them below. The more opinions we have available, the better our buying decisions will be.