It's here! It's here! OMG! NPD! MHP!

[studio1087]

This was how I looked when I opened the box. (it's a happy look....I'm just ugly).



Made for each other (trust me).....



Dramatic close up.....



There's a warm range of slight crisp edge to chunky chug. I had all the knobs at 12 o'clock and I was grabbing an A chord fingerstyle....gently plucking an A when I tuned the pedal on. At first the overdrive seemed very mild until I dug in with my fingertips and popped the A chord a little harder. The crispy edge just jumped out at me.

The pedal responds unusually well to playing dynamics.

You can play with your fingers and it almost sounds clean and then dig in with your fingertips and rock the thing. The crunch comes to life in a very warm way.

It's hard to describe a sound (it's hard for me to describe a sound) but I would say that you hear the range of overdrive so much better with the 72 Degree than you do with the average overdrive. You hear more tones going on as you dial up the gain on the 72. Every little tweak of the dial interacts with your fingers in a way that you don't hear with a plain old TS9....(and I like old TS9's).

It's easy to dial a sweet spot and their are many sweet spots depending on what you want to do.

It's easy. It's easy like a good old Fender amp. In moments you have a great tone without tweaking - tweaking - tweaking - tweaking. I like that....three knobs & a ton of great tone & it's simple to get to the great tone.

I like my Timmy and I like my Gristle King but I spend a silly amount of time flipping switches and tweaking and tweaking.......this could be a "me" problem.

The inside and outside look like the work of a perfectionist. Very cool. I would never have the patience to finish a pedal so well. I would hurry and it would look like I hurried. People who build complicated things are usually far more patient than I'll ever be.

Thanks Mr. 11 Gauge. It's a beauty. Can't wait to play it with my local guitar friends.

John

[tele salivas]

that sounds like something I could use...plus it looks cool as hell. Nice that it doesn't look to eat up a bunch of your board's real estate either! hmmm, may have to inquire....

[revelator]

Aaaaahhhhh!!!! You're not helping my gas for one of these at all!!! The 72 will be the next pedal I buy!

[JohnnyCrash]

OMG! NPD! MHP! Aaagh too many acronyms!!!! HAHA

Dude, where do you live? Do you own that property? It looks like a cool place to setup an outdoor shooting range :)

[markothefish]

Good review ! Now I want one .

[studio1087]

Originally Posted by JohnnyCrash

Dude, where do you live? Do you own that property? It looks like a cool place to setup an outdoor shooting range :)

I have 40 acres just west of Milwaukee in a town called Rubicon.

Rubicon is the brother of Megatron and he was the one of the most evil Decepticons....... Not sure why they named the town after him.

We have a 20 acre back field that is great for shooting and we have a guest room. Call if life ever takes you to Milwaukee. It's perfectly legal to shoot out back. I grew up in a tiny town in central WI and everyone hunted. I've got about 20 guns locked up downstairs. I have a Ruger P89 pistol and the Companion PK9 9mm rifle. They share clips. Neat system. Fun for punching paper.

[11 Gauge]

Originally Posted by studio1087

At first the overdrive seemed very mild until I dug in with my fingertips and popped the A chord a little harder. The crispy edge just jumped out at me.

The pedal responds unusually well to playing dynamics.

You can play with your fingers and it almost sounds clean and then dig in with your fingertips and rock the thing. The crunch comes to life in a very warm way.

Very illustrative, John. I'm lost for words when it comes to a description like that!

Unusually well...I'll have to remember that phrase especially.

Originally Posted by studio1087

Every little tweak of the dial interacts with your fingers in a way that you don't hear with a plain old TS9....(and I like old TS9's).

Most people have a hard time describing the difference (myself included). Again, excellent choice of words!

Originally Posted by studio1087

I like that....three knobs & a ton of great tone & it's simple to get to the great tone.

I like my Timmy and I like my Gristle King but I spend a silly amount of time flipping switches and tweaking and tweaking.......this could be a "me" problem.

I think it's an "us" problem. I have a harder time dialing in the "4 knob and higher" pedal formats, too.

Originally Posted by studio1087

Thanks Mr. 11 Gauge.

You are quite welcome!

[soultosoul13]

Originally Posted by studio1087

I have 40 acres just west of Milwaukee in a town called Rubicon.

Rubicon is the brother of Megatron and he was the one of the most evil Decepticons....... Not sure why they named the town after him.

We have a 20 acre back field that is great for shooting and we have a guest room. Call if life ever takes you to Milwaukee. It's perfectly legal to shoot out back. I grew up in a tiny town in central WI and everyone hunted. I've got about 20 guns locked up downstairs. I have a Ruger P89 pistol and the Companion PK9 9mm rifle. They share clips. Neat system. Fun for punching paper.

yup, this sounds pretty much ideal.....

[justin.ray]

The 72 deg. has been the next pedal on my list for quite a while. I'm going to fix that problem right now.

[chrisgblues]

John, since you're so good at descriptions...what are your thoughts on the tone control for this pedal...specifically as it interactw with bass, mid, treble? The tone control on some pedals will increase bass as they decrease treble, and vice versa, also some will affect mids and some will not. It would be interesting to hear your take on that.

BTW I am totally gassing over the 72 degree, but I'm just too broke right now to buy ANYTHING otherwise I would pull the trigger on one myself. DOH!

[studio1087]

what are your thoughts on the tone control for this pedal...specifically as it interactw with bass, mid, treble?

It's one knob so you can't really increase the highs and lows at the same time (I'm being the master of the obvious - sorry).

It does not sound muddy when you dial the tone pot back to 10 o'clock.....it just sounds warmer....a bit mellow. From 1 o'clock to 3 o'clock you get a gentle increase in the sparkle that you hear way up on top. You can bring out the sparkle without getting a cheesy treble yell. At three o'clock and beyond it gets very bright without sounding "in your face".

It's a tone pot like many tone pots but the sweep of brightness is more delicate. It's got more sweet spots that say a BBE Green Screamer (I love Green Screamers....heck I have two of them) but I usually find one or two sweet spots that I like on the BBE tone pot and I never touch it after that. The MHP sounds really nice just about anywhere as you dial the pot. The MHP makes the tone pot function on a Green Screamer or TS9 feel kind of cheap.

The biggest initial thrill for me was when I was grabbing a chord fingerstyle the way one might go into simple chiken picken plucking kind of playing. I strummed with my fingers and it didn't sound like much was happening and then I popped/plucked a chord and the crispy chime just jumped out of nowhere. I was popping and plucking and changing the dynamics with my right hand and I was having an absolute blast.

I tried to shoot a Flip video last night and I was having a terrible time keeping my Tele Custom and my Les Paul Jr. in tune. The temperature in Milwaukee has dropped 35 degrees in the last 6 days and the air is getting really dry. Time to humidify all the acoustics. I'll try again tonight. I just didn't want to post a crappy video. I had my pedal tuner and the MHP plugged into a DRRI and the tuning was driving me insane.

A buddy asked me about the price of the MHP and I told him that I sold a Boss Pedal and a POD Version 2 to pay for it. The MHP costs about what 2 mainstream pedals would cost. Is it worth it?? Absolutley. It's probably a great value at twice the price of a common Boss box. I'm sold. Love it. Glad I finally took the plunge.

[JohnnyCrash]

Originally Posted by studio1087

I have 40 acres just west of Milwaukee in a town called Rubicon.

Rubicon is the brother of Megatron and he was the one of the most evil Decepticons....... Not sure why they named the town after him.

We have a 20 acre back field that is great for shooting and we have a guest room. Call if life ever takes you to Milwaukee. It's perfectly legal to shoot out back. I grew up in a tiny town in central WI and everyone hunted. I've got about 20 guns locked up downstairs. I have a Ruger P89 pistol and the Companion PK9 9mm rifle. They share clips. Neat system. Fun for punching paper.

Megatron HAHA

If I ever make my way down to Milwaukee I'll definitely call you!

I'm picking up a SIG Sauer P226R at the end of the week (Cali has a 10 day wait period) and my gal would bring her 9mm...

It'd be fun to swiss-cheese some paper, play some guitars, and have a few beers... plus I'd be able to hear your new pedal :)

[czech-one-2]

Originally Posted by JohnnyCrash

Megatron HAHA

If I ever make my way down to Milwaukee I'll definitely call you!

I'm picking up a SIG Sauer P226R at the end of the week (Cali has a 10 day wait period) and my gal would bring her 9mm...

It'd be fun to swiss-cheese some paper, play some guitars, and have a few beers... plus I'd be able to hear your new pedal :)

Down to Milwaukee? Where are you,the great white north? lol

Right now the only pedal I'm thinking of replacing is my bad monkey,but nothing can beat it yet! To me it just sounds smoother than a ts9,sd-1,bd-2 and several others.Can you a/b your bad monkey and the 72 degree and give me your initial thoughts? Just curious.

[Dr.TeleD]

MHP may owe you a pedal. Great review.

[Telingme]

Welcome to Club 72. We've been waiting for you.

[studio1087]

Originally Posted by Dr.TeleD

Great review.

This is a good review.

This was the video that made me take a step back and say......whooooooo.





Listen to this. That's special. There's no TS9 knock off anywhere that sounds that good.

I have to say that I like the bright school bus yellow paint on mine. I've seen lots of pictures with the darker gold and when I opened the box and saw the bright yellow I just smiled. It's silly to talk about the color of something that changes sound but I like the happy color. I'm a goof.

[11 Gauge]

Originally Posted by studio1087

I have to say that I like the bright school bus yellow paint on mine. I've seen lots of pictures with the darker gold and when I opened the box and saw the bright yellow I just smiled. It's silly to talk about the color of something that changes sound but I like the happy color. I'm a goof.

You're not a goof! The gold was originally chosen because something "warm" was wanted (my wife named the pedal ). To compound the "warm color" problem, pedals like the BJFE Honey Bee were rising to popularity, so that meant NO sort of "transparent butterscotch" or anything like that. Really, anything with ANY connotation to honey was being avoided.

I'm big on tough finishes, so I get powdercoat for industrial applications as opposed to the pretty candycoats and such, anyways. The first gold had a greenish tint that I didn't care for. The second gold had a more copper-ish tint to it, and that was better.

Still, an opaque color was desired. It was a PITA to find something that was industrial strength, and not too "pumpkin" or "pale yellow." You can search for colors by the RAL designation, but it doesn't mean that you'll find a supplier with it! Even places that carry stuff for industrial uses prefer colors with names like John Deere green, Ford blue, etc.

While 95% of folks could probably care less about the color, if I'm going to go through the trouble to powdercoat each box, I prefer to have something that I like applying. It is silly, I admit.

[E5RSY]

Oh, man...is the army green box no longer available??? I always thought the olive drab was quite cool and also intended...as in "an OD in OD." Bummer.

Scott

[ll144tele]

How well will this pedal work in front of an old ts9?

[czech-one-2]

Originally Posted by studio1087

This is a good review.

This was the video that made me take a step back and say......whooooooo.





Listen to this. That's special. There's no TS9 knock off anywhere that sounds that good..

I must admit that sounds awesome.Much more chord clarity than a ts.I remember you being fond of the bad monkey,green screamer etc. Can you describe how it differs from these? ie) more clarity/less mid hump etc.