to keep the Bass low. As I
cranked the gain, the extra
bass helped to offset the
added snarl in the highs
and mids.
extremely amp like. The
pedal responds well to
picking dynamics, volume
knob adjustments, and the
varied outputs of different
pickup types. It also plays
Unity volume varies,
based—not surprisingly—on nicely with other pedals.
I really enjoyed stacking
where the Gain knob is set.
With the Gain all of the way a Fuzz Face into the .45.
You don’t always expect
off, the Loud control needs
“Marshall in a Box” pedals
to be at about 3 o’clock
to sound good going into
to hit unity. You might be
asking why someone would other pedals, but I was
set the Gain on an overdrive able to get some very cool
tones with the .45 running
pedal all of the way down.
into a Black Cat Pedals D&S
That’s because as I alluded
Fuzz (a Muff variant). The
to earlier, the .45 can revoice the amp. Running the .45 helped to tighten the
bass and add a little upper
.45 into a Fender Princeton
mid presence. Without
Reverb, I set the controls
overwhelming the fuzz or
like this: Loud at 5 o’clock,
adding to the noise floor.
Gain at 7 o’clock, Treble
Speaking of which, the .45
at 11 o’clock, and Bass at
is amazingly low noise, even
10 o’clock. With the pedal
with the gain cranked.
off, my Princeton sounded
scooped and spanky—the
sound one might expect.
When I engaged the .45,
my Princeton lit up with
the upper mid bark of a
Marshall. It’s not exactly
like having two amps, but
it certainly opens up your
options.
WHAT WE LIKE
Great tones in a small sized
box with top-mounted
jacks—there’s a shocking
amount of tones in a tiny
little package.
CONCERNS
With all of the control
dimed, I got a little bit of
a squealing noise. Dialing
the Treble control back
by a fraction immediately
silenced it.
The dirty tones of the
.45 are full-bodied and
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