red snapper opinions?

[marvelboy_04]

well i saw a youtube vid of this pedal, and it seems to be one of the only low gainers i havent tried. hows it compare to say a tim?

[Ben C.]

Compared to a Timmy (have not owned a Tim), the grit of the gain is a bit smoother, the notes decay a bit more cleanly, and it's a touch brighter. I preferred it overall as a standalone OD over the Timmy.

[Cornbread]

i agree with Ben C...i'm on my 2nd and this one isn't going anywhere
(i sold my TIM which is also a fantastic pedal...i just preferred the RS)

edit: in my sig it says white snapper b/c i have a white version of the RS
edit2: whether i indicate it or not i tend to agree with a lot of what Ben C posts

:dude

[Ben C.]

i agree with Ben C...i'm on my 2nd and this one isn't going anywhere
(i sold my TIM which is also a fantastic pedal...i just preferred the RS)

edit: in my sig it says white snapper b/c i have a white version of the RS
edit2: whether i indicate it or not i tend to agree with a lot of what Ben C posts
I like 'edit2' :rotflmao

And I had a white snapper as well... still miss it! Although I have to say, my fave was a red, 4 knob, large box PTP Red Snapper. A touch more open than the white for some reason. And I mean a 'touch'... I was lucky enough to A/B them at the time!

[slopeshoulder]

I went through many low gainers and this had the smoothest, non-fizzy-fuzzy-ragged transition to overdrive of all. No mid hump, totally transparent. And the 4 knob allows to you dial in a wide range, from smokey dirty jazz to spanking coutry to alt country aggresive chime and indy rock mid gain.
The Tim(my) is more grainy and suited to marshalls and voxes. The red snapper works with all but shines wirh fender style amps.

[pappafox]

I have an '03, three knobber that I use after a Rat as a lead boost. It really cuts through. It also reveals if you haven't practiced your chops! My rig is a Strat and a 1987x. I also prefer it to the Timmy.

[mangoman]

I currently have the Timmy and the snapper. Snapper is awesome. Not going anywhere. With the blue collar it's sublime. Timmy is rather dusty but I never could quite dial it in.

Not so with the snapper. Plenty of boost or gritbor drive. Your choice bsimply awesome pedal.

[Grady]

Yeah I love my white one.
The difference in the white and red. The red was PTP, and the white was CB.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o12/henbomb/P1010448.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o12/henbomb/P1010447.jpg

[jads57]

Had the 4 knob red PCB version, nice pedal.

[Grady]

Had the 4 knob red PCB version, nice pedal.
Was it the big box, like my white one? If so, I thought all the red ones were PTP.

[jacobhf]

The current 4-knobber is really great. It was my main dirt when I was using a Bad Cat.

[Trotter]

Its a good tube screamer, but the Timmy worked much better for me!

[Realfi]

I went through many low gainers and this had the smoothest, non-fizzy-fuzzy-ragged transition to overdrive of all. No mid hump, totally transparent. And the 4 knob allows to you dial in a wide range, from smokey dirty jazz to spanking coutry to alt country aggresive chime and indy rock mid gain.
The Tim(my) is more grainy and suited to marshalls and voxes. The red snapper works with all but shines wirh fender style amps.

Pretty much how I heard it.

I stuck with my Timmy as I find it's a little more open in the mids and thus suits my Vox and Vox style amps a fraction better but if I was using amps with a little less pronounced mid-range content I might go the other way. Truth is if I'd never heard a TIM/Timmy pedal I could easily be happy with a Snapper.

[duende]

Good descriptions here. Although, i dont know if i'd call it brighter than the tim. As the main sound of the tim is that its highs are cranked. Many guitar amps probably dont reveal this but that's what's going on

The Bite of the RS is more within the freq range of typical guitar amps... So thst is what people here are hearing.

[rabbit]

Oh, "White Snapper" love fest, I join in! :)
Bought mine new in 2005/06 and it´s been on my board since back then, pretty much all the time. I experienced the event of the Timmy and the continuous hype throughout the years and always stuck to the RS. Then earlier this year I ordered a Timmy just to finally be able to compare the two and the Timmy is on my board right now, lack of real estate being the main reason.
Both are going to go nowhere anytime soon but yeah, my Fender style Groove Tubes Soul-o-45 just LOVES the RS but the Timmy works well with it also.
The tonal differences are as described above. I think I like the bass response in the Timmy better, the gain character can be kind of "one day you love it, one day you hate it" so to say. Then again the Timmy is clearer/a bit more transparent sounding, maybe due to the different treatment in the mids. Both are fantastic pedals and I finally have a great low gain od for both of my boards. :)

[tochiro]

I bought one a year ago for my AC15 and I will never sell it. It's very versatile and sounds really good.

[fieldsroyal]

I have an old 3 knobber with a skinnier looking fish! (#12 I think) - my favourite plug in and play overdrive - and stacks better than all my other drives too.

[Cruz Azul]

Yep, dig the snapper. Have stacked it with an rc booster a little recently too!

[marvelboy_04]

hmm which do you think would be better for my current maz 18? it runs el84s but i think it has more of a fender front end.

[Ben C.]

It's all down to personal preference, but I ran a couple different Snappers in front of my Fender Two-Tone at the time (dual El84) and they paired with that amp incredibly well. Folks say that Brian (Mena) develops his pedals with the idea of them going through a clean Fender, so that makes sense. And I believe the Tim was developed as a dirty booster for a Marshall.

[rcboals]

THIS IS A POST FROM ANOTHER MEMBER OVER AT TDPRI. It is pretty much the same experience I have had with the search for the tone. I think it has finally ended for me with the Red Snapper, it works well with all my guitars and amps. I have owned now for over a year and have not looked back. I am 99.90% sure it is the one and a genuine keeper.
Thought you might like this guys review.


Originally Posted by iim7v7im7 http://cdn.tdpri.com/forum/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/stomp-box/193556-review-menatone-red-snapper.html#post2234963)
Hi,

I wanted to take a few minutes to let you guys know my impressions of Brian Mena’s Menatone Red Snapper Overdrive.

Pedal

I purchased a 4-knob version about 2 weeks ago. It is a standard size pedal with 4 controls: volume, gain, cut and bite, PTP wiring and true bypass. It runs on either a 9v battery (need to remove bottom housing) or on a 9v Boss style plug on the top side of the pedal. This is an “old” design that was originally released by Brian back in 1996 but has evolved in construction, size and controls over the years. The pedal I am evaluated was made in the fall of 2009. The opamp inside is a TI MC 1458P.

Evaluation:

I was able to try it out with two types of guitars: Fender CS Nocaster NOS (single-coils) and a Heritage H535 (humbuckers). I was also able to try it with two different 6V6 based amps: Allen Accomplice (BF style AB763 circuit) and an L’il Dawg D-Lux (Tweed style 5E3 circuit). Both amplifiers were set fairly loud (appropriate for band playing) and NOT at bedroom levels. The amps are set just below where they begin to give-it-up when you dig in (e.g. volume at 4 on the Accomplice and at 3 on the D-Lux). These are good examples of mid-scooped and mid-rich amplifiers.

Goal

Like many blues players, I mainly look for an overdrive to push the pre-amp like a clean boost but also to impart a pleasing sonic signature (EQ) that adds to the overall sound and will punch through the mix. I also look for the overdrive pedal to able to play cleanly if I back off on my pick attack or roll my instrument volume back a bit. I tend to like smoother types of overdrive tones with a little nastiness and harmonic complexity available for when you really dig in.

Caveat

I need to caveat my statements in that everybody looks for different things in an overdrive and there are many multiple types of amplifiers that interact differently. Some folks are also looking for an OD that makes their amp sound great at bedroom level volumes. THis review did not evaluate that.

Review

The Red Snapper is the most natural sounding (by most natural, I am referring how it changes the amp and melds with its natural attributes) overdrive that I ever played. It does everything that I described in the above paragraph in spades. This preference includes a long line of boutique ODs that I have tried: Analogman KOTv4 & OD-9 Silver, Barber B-Custom Cool, BJFe Honeybee, Ibanez TS-808 HW, Jettergear GSR, and a Paul C Audio Tim. These are all fine pedals, but none bond with my amp's (to my ears) as well as the Menatone Red Snapper. It kind falls between the Tim (transparency and lack of compression) and the GSR (smoothness) sonically and has descent touch sensitivity. It works well with both styles of amps and both types of pick-ups.

I know that this pedal has been around for years, but it’s new to me. I wanted to share this review with TGP. We sometimes overlook pedals that have been around for years. I suggest you consider this one if you have amps and goals similar to mine.

J

[niner]

I have an old 3 knobber with a skinnier looking fish! (#12 I think) - my favourite plug in and play overdrive - and stacks better than all my other drives too.

I just got an old 3 knobber with the fatter fish...do the skinny fish ones actually sound different than 3 knob "fat fish" version?

[fieldsroyal]

I don't think so - just a cosmetic change - Brian seems to change graphics a fair bit - I love that 3 knob snapper.

[slopeshoulder]

Compared to a Timmy (have not owned a Tim), the grit of the gain is a bit smoother, the notes decay a bit more cleanly, and it's a touch brighter. I preferred it overall as a standalone OD over the Timmy.

This.