Yup. Great, great pedal, Scott. I had to use it with the Emery Sound Superbaby. Works like a charm.
It was designed to help with the Boogie Mark I.
That is an excellent analogy.
You'll find that I'm really not that smart about all this stuff but I know what works for me and can figure out how to do these things with the AFX. That pedal opened up a whole world to me, I am primarily a humbucker guy and using it allowed me to harness a lot of different amps over the years and get them to really work well. My first 'real' tube amp was the Rivera TBR-2SL and it was a magnificent beast but balancing the Marshall SL side of it with the Fender side was a lesson in what Rivera called the "P-Comp". That taught me the value of this; the Smooth & Slim made it so I could do that with any number of other amps. That pedal as aimed at the Mesa stuff but it make Fender's and Marshalls work better for me (I am not a Mesa guy). In the Fractal toolbox, the PEQ is more sophisticated and a very good 'stand in' for that. I was doing this same sort of thing back with the Standard and Ultra too. Remember Cliff had a filter block suggestion for metal guys that did this interactively based on dynamics too; same basic premise.
My thought is that if you can "P-Comp" (Preamp compensate) the EQ *into* the amp, you can then use the bass EQ in the amp block as a useful tool and not be stuck with compromising (as much) between your preamp gain and the Bass EQ setting. I have found that you have to often strike a compromise in amps a lot of times between the level of the preamp gain and bass EQ setting. I use humbuckers and that was especially true when I used Matchless amps (I have owned Clubman, DC-30 and HC-30 Matchless amps). What's great about using a dedicated PEQ block is that it removes the 'per amp' thing and makes this much more universal - again, in my world using humbuckers and being a monster hamfisted luddite.
It just works. That's all that matters to me. I can play in a busy 6 piece band with another guitarist and a keyboardist and NOT have to crank up my volume levels to be heard or get sustain. It also allows for me to create a lot of subtle stuff via my touch on the amp at volume. Going from chords to single notes all blends perfectly without dropping volume because the sustain and gain is in the right frequency range. It's a 'clean' way to 'heavy' distortion that is totally dependant on your guitar's volume knob and touch on the strings. I value that *very* highly.
I have a car with a manual shift 6-speed and to me, that's *driving*. Automatic transmissions make me feel separated and more like I am just 'aiming' the car. That's not driving. I like to "drive the guitar". Same idea.
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