MXR Resonator pedal
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Frank Parish
- Posts: 3062
- Joined: 15 Sep 1999 12:01 am
- Location: Nashville,Tn. USA
MXR Resonator pedal
Tom Bradshaw sent me one of his resonator pedals to see what I thought. I found it sounded very real and has very good volume as well. If you're in the market for a good resonator pedal I'd recommend the MXR. You will really like this pedal!
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Bo Borland
- Posts: 3947
- Joined: 20 Dec 1999 1:01 am
- Location: South Jersey -
- Contact:
Too long....cut to the summary at bottom:
I'll add my $.02 rather than start yet another thread. Tom got this unit to me so fast that I was able to stick it on my board Sat. morning for my first gig in quite a while that night.
I had a Goodrich Matchbro that I thought was pretty great but after a lot of years I wasn't using it much at all. I saw people paying good prices for these so I cashed it in. But I've missed it occasionally. I had a backup unit but it is not sounding good at all....some components have drifted, is my guess. I'll probably be selling it cheap to someone who thinks they want to try to fix it.
I don't think much of the graphic eq stompbox way of getting there. And sound clips I've heard of Bobros (ie the graphic eq stompbox way of getting there) have never impressed me.
Side note: Because I have one, I tried steel thru a Fishman Aura Jerry Douglas -- it was on my board anyway for use with my resonator guitar This actually sounded good enough to turn heads. Not great. Pretty good. But I don't take the guitar out to gigs, much and it eats a chunk of space on the board. I would NOT buy one for this pedal steel purpose but if you have one, check it out. I'm surprised I've not seen much mention of this.
So in my experience the Goodrich is the gold standard.
Tom Bradshaw's MXR: this is the best I've heard. The sound is less peaky and more refined than the Goodrich. It barks less. I may have thought that the bark is an essential part of the sound of simulating an amplified dobro (which in my experience IS barky, something that even the properly used Aura sort of exaggerates because this is what we expect to hear from a dobro through a sound system on stage)
The MXR is smoother. It is not 100% unreasonable to feel that the honk is part of what you want to hear. I have not spent time messing with the MXR yet -- maybe you can make it bark. But that is usually what I was trying to dial out on the Goodrich.
Additional note -- I used this without the dedicated bar. I've got one but this is what I usually did with the Goodrich. I am not shooting for maximum deception/emulation. I am interested in a new color on my palette. The bar is on standby if I decide that I want that last few % of tone I can squeeze out of the effect.
The MXR is wonderfully small, too, so if you are pedalboard real estate challenged, it is a little smaller than a Boss GE-7.
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Summary: I like this better than the Goodrich Matchbro which had been my favorite. It is possible that I will find that I don't have enough use for this color to justify keeping it on my board. But it's the one I'll recommend right now to anyone who is interested in this direction.
btw -- the toggle option is the sort of thing that you're not going to ask a general guitar-based company to consider.....it takes a steel-centric person like Tom to understand why one might want this. Great!
everything stated above is my experience, my opinion. To have different opinions or experiences is natural. To choose to argue with mine is, frankly, embarrassing, although it IS the SGF way.
I'll add my $.02 rather than start yet another thread. Tom got this unit to me so fast that I was able to stick it on my board Sat. morning for my first gig in quite a while that night.
I had a Goodrich Matchbro that I thought was pretty great but after a lot of years I wasn't using it much at all. I saw people paying good prices for these so I cashed it in. But I've missed it occasionally. I had a backup unit but it is not sounding good at all....some components have drifted, is my guess. I'll probably be selling it cheap to someone who thinks they want to try to fix it.
I don't think much of the graphic eq stompbox way of getting there. And sound clips I've heard of Bobros (ie the graphic eq stompbox way of getting there) have never impressed me.
Side note: Because I have one, I tried steel thru a Fishman Aura Jerry Douglas -- it was on my board anyway for use with my resonator guitar This actually sounded good enough to turn heads. Not great. Pretty good. But I don't take the guitar out to gigs, much and it eats a chunk of space on the board. I would NOT buy one for this pedal steel purpose but if you have one, check it out. I'm surprised I've not seen much mention of this.
So in my experience the Goodrich is the gold standard.
Tom Bradshaw's MXR: this is the best I've heard. The sound is less peaky and more refined than the Goodrich. It barks less. I may have thought that the bark is an essential part of the sound of simulating an amplified dobro (which in my experience IS barky, something that even the properly used Aura sort of exaggerates because this is what we expect to hear from a dobro through a sound system on stage)
The MXR is smoother. It is not 100% unreasonable to feel that the honk is part of what you want to hear. I have not spent time messing with the MXR yet -- maybe you can make it bark. But that is usually what I was trying to dial out on the Goodrich.
Additional note -- I used this without the dedicated bar. I've got one but this is what I usually did with the Goodrich. I am not shooting for maximum deception/emulation. I am interested in a new color on my palette. The bar is on standby if I decide that I want that last few % of tone I can squeeze out of the effect.
The MXR is wonderfully small, too, so if you are pedalboard real estate challenged, it is a little smaller than a Boss GE-7.
.............................................................................................................................
Summary: I like this better than the Goodrich Matchbro which had been my favorite. It is possible that I will find that I don't have enough use for this color to justify keeping it on my board. But it's the one I'll recommend right now to anyone who is interested in this direction.
btw -- the toggle option is the sort of thing that you're not going to ask a general guitar-based company to consider.....it takes a steel-centric person like Tom to understand why one might want this. Great!
everything stated above is my experience, my opinion. To have different opinions or experiences is natural. To choose to argue with mine is, frankly, embarrassing, although it IS the SGF way.
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Bo Borland
- Posts: 3947
- Joined: 20 Dec 1999 1:01 am
- Location: South Jersey -
- Contact:
