Grateful Dead Music Forum

jmfranc wrote:What is the clone? Who makes it?

By clone I mean most any envelope filter that is not an original MutronIII, although there is an actual DIY MuIII clone website out there ('don't have the link handy at the moment).

jmfranc wrote:Speaking of distortion - can you give a short list of songs with the distortion used a lot?

I can't think of any. That's why I'd choose an envelope filter as my "one pedal". If it couldn't be a MuIII I'd go with the Emma Discumbobulator because I've used them before with good result, but there are a few others out there that I haven't tried.

I have been trying to dial in my new speaker cab I just built and I was messing with the Qtron+ and finally gave the effects loop that is built into the pedal a try. WOW! If anyone has had problems with distortion, delay, octave dividing with your envelope filter that loop solves all problems. I'm not sure what it does or how it does it, no matter what you run through the loop comes through magically perfect. I had yet to use it, and now I am glad I tried it out!! It really gives clarity with fuzz and overdrive too.... They must have created this to overcome the multiple pedal compatibility issues we have all encountered and battled.....

Check it out, Hogan had a yard sale and sold me his old qtron for 60 bucks. I paypaled him the loot within a few minutes of receiving his contact info, and the qtron was hanging in a plastic bag on my mailbox two days later. Im having alot of fun learning these new licks like the fire on the mountain stuff and scarlet begonias. This is now the second pedal that I own, the other being a boss loop pedal, which by the way you can run your ipod, computer, tv or anything with an aux jack into the looper pedal and tap it just like you would when ur playing an instrument into it and record sound bytes from songs that repeat over and over for transposing and practicing. Oh, were you hitting rewind each time you wanted to hear it again? lol
my two cents..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8-NOxIImF4

also, i have no idea what peak, gain, range, ect.. are, so you could probably dial it in better than me. I like 1s and 0s not sinusoidal waves.

adam deckard

Pete B. wrote:'Just me but... I can't agree with Distortion being number 1 in effect importance (although I do agree it is the #1 effect used as a "talent" knob in general ).
imho, Anything played with Distortion can be played more effectively/impressively (to me at least) "perfectly clean and pristine".
I can't say that about the effect of the MuIII (or clone there of). This effect defines it's own Jerry signiture.
Given the choice of distortion or clean, I'll take clean, Dist or MuIII I'd take the Mu (no talent knob in my rig Bay-bee!... ).

I didn't mean distortion as in Van Halen or Angus Young . Adding a clipping tone is by far more important to me than other pedals I have, at least its the most used. If I only used a clean tone without coloring it can sound a bit dull imo. I can't push my amps and JBL's like Jerry did, so I have used some common classic distortions to simulate this, some are no good at it, some are OK. I prefer an OD pedal, but a common distortion is as close to an OD as a Qtron is to a mutron, or at least some are. I would never use a METAL pedal. I think with my OD on simulating a sight clipping usually barely on, could be called a "Clean" tone also. It adds harmonic depth and body , much like stressed tubes, pushed speakers, clipped transistors, or a mixture of all.