Jemini Vs Satchurator

[Wolfram]

I now have both the Jemini and the Satchurator pedals so I though that I would provide some comments on the two. In short and for those that don‘t wish to read my dribble - for my style of play and desired sound I prefer the Jemini.

The pedals were tested with both a Jem 7V and an RG 520 with Dimarzio FRED and PAF Pro pick ups through a JCM 900 head and quad.

Jemini

The Jemini is a head turner of a pedal. It looks like the coolest thing on the planet if your an eighties geek, or hyper colour vomit soaked crap if you're a Generation Y fashonista, although those LED dials may be just the technical sexiness that you will love. Even though the pedal constructed from metal die cast, for some reason the pedal just does not feel durable. The battery opening catch on the front of the pedal is a pain in the backside and I can it potentially causing issues as the pedals ages, especially in live situations.

The functionality of the Jemini is quite straight forward even for the non technical heads, as most stomp boxes are. The bright switch is an interesting feature which, interestingly, also increases the brightness of the LEDs along with the tone of the pedal.

The sound is definitely based on the Ibanez TS9 and the Boss DS1. The left (green) side of the pedal provides a great bluesy tone whilst the right (red) side of the pedal sends off a smooth and compressed overdriven distortion sound. Manipulation of the Level, Tone and Drive knobs allow for the creation of a sophisticated range of sounds for a range of tastes - just don’t expect to get that insane, heavy Pantera type distortion using the pedal alone.

The Satchurator

The Satchurator looks cool in the bright Ferrari red enamel paint and feels like you could drop it each day for the next month and it will still be ready to throw out Satrianiesque licks until the next door neighbour tells you to give up trying to Surf with the Alien. However, the battery cover looks as though it won’t last so make sure you run it on AC power. I believe that the overall robust feel of the pedal is in part because of the metal on off switches which incidentally don’t give off a ’click’ feel similar to a Marshall amp footswitch or MXR pedal.

Functionality is again straight forward and the ‘More’ switch definitely gives the sound a boost which is especially noticeable at lower gain levels - as to be expected. The Volume, Gain and Tone knobs are the standard fair and are easily manipulated with the funky, user friendly knobs.

The sound was disappointing. I had heard a lot of people talking up this pedal. I don’t feel as though the pedal provided as wide a dynamic range as I was expecting. The sound for me, at higher gain settings was not overly complex and sounded cheap. Lower levels of gain coupled with high volume settings gave a sexy useable blues tone that got me moving like I wished I could do with the ladies on the dance floor after no beer.

So What

These comments are based on my opinion after listening to both pedals side by side (and you will note from the picture, in comparison to the DS1 and TS9). Try them both out and see what you think either pedal may work better for you. Overall it’s the Jemini for me.

- Wolfram

[GLG421]

What kind of gain settings were you using on the amp?

[Lefty Robb]

Originally Posted by Wolfram

The bright switch is an interesting feature which, interestingly, also increases the brightness of the LEDs along with the tone of the pedal.

All the bright switch does is turn the lights bright or dim to save batteries/see better on stage, has nothing to do with the tone at all.

[Wolfram]

Sorry double post

[Wolfram]

Originally Posted by GLG421

What kind of gain settings were you using on the amp?

12 o'clock for all.

[Wolfram]

Originally Posted by Lefty Robb

All the bright switch does is turn the lights bright or dim to save batteries/see better on stage, has nothing to do with the tone at all.

So it seems. I must have a 'special' edition........

[GLG421]

is that 12 o'clock on a clean channel? I found the Satchurator to suck as any type of OD. It really needs to be played on a clean channel. Maybe, just maybe, a slight bit of gain.

I really dig my satchurator, but I'm not 100% on my tone (like any of us are), and Vai has caught me by surprise on his stuff before. Walked in for a Jackson, walked out with a Jem (thank you Guitar gods). Walked in for a Zakk Wylde Wah, walked out with a Bad Horsie. Also own a little alligator.


So with a DS-1 and a TS-09 already in your chain, were you trying to replace, or add to the tone you had? Seems like the Jemini would only be an updated version of what you had.

Don't take me the wrong way. I'm not disagreeing with your conclusions. I'm very interested in more details.

[chlamy]

I personally think the satchurator is the most musical distortion pedal out there. It does clena up extremely well with the voulme knob on the guitar, has loads of dynamics (in my hand), very nice harmonics, and the knobs are ultra responsive : turn any one of them just a little and you have really different sounds. I do not turn the 'tone' knob past 12 o'clock as it gets shrill after that. The EQ on the mids and high I do on the amp and using the tone knob of my guitars. It also actually is a 'dual' distortion : I usually set the gain around 2 pm, which gives very cool crunch tones with the volume pot turned slightly down on the guitar, even clean tone with the volume more down. Volume full is allready a very decent and nice distortion for rythm. Hit the 'more' button, you get full blown lead sound with loads of muscial distrotion and harmonics, so used like this, it is basically two pedals in one.

I 'only' use it through the clean channel of my amps and haven't used the amp's distorted channels, since I have the satchurator. It is not, IMHO, meant to be used on a driven channel, sound gets muddy and messy pretty fast if you have a distortion going on on the amp allready.

Works perfectly with the Bad Horsie 2 whah, and I didn't notice any hum or interference, and the bypass is really great. With the pedal off I do get my amp's nice clean sound.

It is sturdy and looks durable, and personnaly I don't see anything wrong with the battery compartment, and I do run it on battery for now (might get an adapeter though, as I am using it fulltime now).

The only thing, which is obvious, you wont get 'mean' pantera or death metal distortion out of it, but it wasn't designed for that. For anyhtong else from crunch, to blues, to rock, to Satch or Vai leads, it's perfect.

In France at a littl more than half the price of the jemini, it was my choice and I don't regret it for a second, it actually gave a second life to my amp's sound.

I couldn't suggest more, people that are interested in a well-priced ultra musical distrotion to give it a try !

[GLG421]

chlamy, how were you getting your distortion before?




Geoff

[chlamy]

Originally Posted by GLG421

chlamy, how were you getting your distortion before?

Either the distortion chanels on a variety of cheap practice amps (I live in a small appartment), ie Line 6 Spider III, Crate 15 Watt, VOX ADT 30VT (the best of the bunch) or on a JCM900 and soemtimes Mesa Dual Rectfifier when I play with my friends (those aren't my amps though).

Also used Boss DS1 and MT2 pedals with all of the above. Liked the DS1, couldn't get a decent sound without hiss and feedback out of the MT2.

I do reckon, I don't have high $$$ amps, so your mileage may vary if you have an extremely nice and expensive amp, you might not be that extatic about the satchurator as I am !

[Wolfram]

Originally Posted by GLG421

a. Is that 12 o'clock on a clean channel? I found the Satchurator to suck as any type of OD. It really needs to be played on a clean channel. Maybe, just maybe, a slight bit of gain.

b. So with a DS-1 and a TS-09 already in your chain, were you trying to replace, or add to the tone you had? Seems like the Jemini would only be an updated version of what you had.

c. Don't take me the wrong way. I'm not disagreeing with your conclusions. I'm very interested in more details.

Answers

a. Yep, 12 oclock on the clean channel. I did try it as an overdrive pedal with a slight bit of gain but found the sound became muddy. There are some useable sounds there - just not to my taste.

b. I was just after an all in one pedal and something a bit different. I have a Line 6 Pod XT Pro rack unit that I use and it too has some useable sounds but I wanted to have '1' pedal to put in to my board to use live. I also prefer stomp boxes over pedal boards for simplicity.

c. I don't mind at all, there was so much more I wanted to put in to the comparison however I also wanted to keep it brief.

- Wolfram

[Wolfram]

Originally Posted by chlamy

I personally think the satchurator is the most musical distortion pedal out there. It does clena up extremely well with the voulme knob on the guitar, has loads of dynamics (in my hand), very nice harmonics, and the knobs are ultra responsive : turn any one of them just a little and you have really different sounds. I do not turn the 'tone' knob past 12 o'clock as it gets shrill after that. The EQ on the mids and high I do on the amp and using the tone knob of my guitars. It also actually is a 'dual' distortion : I usually set the gain around 2 pm, which gives very cool crunch tones with the volume pot turned slightly down on the guitar, even clean tone with the volume more down. Volume full is allready a very decent and nice distortion for rythm. Hit the 'more' button, you get full blown lead sound with loads of muscial distrotion and harmonics, so used like this, it is basically two pedals in one.

Works perfectly with the Bad Horsie 2 whah, and I didn't notice any hum or interference, and the bypass is really great. With the pedal off I do get my amp's nice clean sound.

It is sturdy and looks durable, and personnaly I don't see anything wrong with the battery compartment, and I do run it on battery for now (might get an adapeter though, as I am using it fulltime now).

In France at a littl more than half the price of the jemini, it was my choice and I don't regret it for a second, it actually gave a second life to my amp's sound.

I must admit that I never really played around with the volume and tone knob on my guitar. I was trying to keep it very basic. I would be reasonably confident that if you played around with 'most' set ups that you could eventually get a sound close to what you are after. I really like the nice subtle compression in the Jemini it tightens the sound up nicely.

I found similiar results with the tone knob in that it really starts to 'shrill' after the 12 oclock position and below that it starts to get too muddy, The Jemini has great variation - i have found.

I think an improvement for the battery compartment would be a cover similiar what is used on the Morley Wahs. Only time will tell with my comments in regards to this.

- Wolfram

[Lefty Robb]

Originally Posted by Wolfram

So it seems. I must have a 'special' edition........

its the placebo affect. I guarantee you 100% this switch does nothing for the tone. I owned one, It did nothing, its not mentioned anywhere in the manual, in Steve Vai's vid or on Ibanez.com that this switch does nothing more than make the lights brighter.

[Wolfram]

Originally Posted by Lefty Robb

its the placebo affect. I guarantee you 100% this switch does nothing for the tone. I owned one, It did nothing, its not mentioned anywhere in the manual, in Steve Vai's vid or on Ibanez.com that this switch does nothing more than make the lights brighter.

Yep it is mentioned in the manual - I checked after you beat me up please don't make me go and find it, lol.

-Wolfram

[Lefty Robb]

"Each side includes drive, tone and level controls with LED indicators around each control and a LED bright/save control switch for daytime use or saving the battery"

Even Vai called it the Battery save switch...