Tone Report Weekly Issue 132 | Page 67

my ears) in the low mids. The upper mids and treble frequencies are rounded off and softened ever-so-slightly. stacks like a pile of Sunday hymnals and delivers at the front or rear of the signal chain. I personally loved running it into a germanium The Gain control starts with Fuzz Face, where switching just a smidge of dirt and it to true-bypass maintained works its way up to classic rock levels of crunch. It never the sweetness of the fuzz gets to ‘80s, ‘90s or beyond and then stepping on the Bishop sent things spiraling levels of saturation, but this into fuzz insanity. of course is a positive in my book. This also means one As a follower, the Bishop can make subtle adjustments didn’t encounter any to the Gain knob without pedals it didn’t love being causing big changes in slammed with. My favorite the tone—it’s perfect for combination in this realm fine tuning the sound. The was to hit the Bishop with Bishop can be powered the full wallop of a Red with anything between Llama. The subdued high nine and 18 volts. As one end of the Bishop helped would expect, lower-voltage to mellow the (sometimes) operation brings the grit on piercing highs of the Llama, faster and creates greater but the low-end tightened compression. Higher-voltage up for heavy riffs. tones are cleaner and less The volume knob compressed. I preferred interactivity of the Bishop the 9–12 volt range, but it’s is more about texture than great to have the flexibility sparkle. It doesn’t clean up to experiment. as well as some pedals do. It For added bonus, the Bishop features a switchable internal buffer. This is especially handy since the Bishop is happy to lead the congregation or follow the flock. In other words, it Bishop is voiced on the warmer side. Even with the Treble knob cranked, the Bishop is never screechy. And there are useable— dare I say fantastic—timbres throughout the range of the Treble control. One of my favorite uses for the Bishop was actually sweetening up solid state and digital amps. I fell in love using it in front of my audio interface for home recording. With the Gain set low, it was perfect for warming up the sometimes cold and plain amp simulators in GarageBand and elsewhere. WHAT WE LIKE never gets sparkly clean, but it does lighten up and allow for complex chords to ring through without any weird intermodulation distortion. The Bishop is a fantastic and multi-faceted dirt pedal from a relative new kid on the block. And one I clearly need to start paying closer attention to. Another thing worth noting is the noise floor on the Bishop; even with the Gain cranked, there is no added noise in your signal. The pedal looks great and feels well made. The clear knobs are a great touch. Most importantly, like its sibling the Caveman, the None. CONCERNS ToneReport.com 67