Any Frantone Brooklyn OD Users Out There?

[timmers]

Hey Folks -

Just a quick Q, looking for owners/users of the Brooklyn OD from Frantone. I've heard great things about this pedal, & it's used by some of my fave players, but I've also heard a few sound clips online that are a little suspect.

Can anyone out there equate/compare its tone to a few other known quantities for me (Fulldrive, Sparkle Drive, TS-808, etc.)? Any advice, adjectives, additions would be helpful, & most appreciated.

Thanks all!

T

PS - if anyone's got any, or knows of any accurate-ish sound clips out there on the Interweb, please feel free to include a URL - thanks!!!

[jgyn]

I like mine.
It's definitely not a tube screamer type. It's crunchy with a bold midrange- a British type sound. Kinda like a slightly smoother, more saturated Colorsound Overdriver type sound. I like it best with my Marshalls and Hiwatt.

[trisonic]

I met Fran at the first NYC AmpShow earlier this year. I told her I would go back and check them out properly but I didn't. Sorry, Fran!

Frankly, Fran, it's nice to have a company that does not fit in with usual crowd of makers.

Best, Pete.

[guitgator]

I think the British type sound is probably a good description. I had one for about a year and sold it as I continued my search. I used it for crunchy rhythm stuff. My only real complaint was the grittiness as chords died away....it sounded sorta unnatural to my ear. I used it leading into my TS-9 but came across the Shannon OD and I liked that much better and use it still today. Unfortunately Eric Shannon no longer makes pedals...bummer.

[John Phillips]

It's great, but you must not think of it as a TS-like 'overdrive'. It isn't, in any way. I would describe it as more of a milder fuzz-boost than an overdrive - I agree with jgyn about it being similar to an old Colorsound or something like that. It's crunchy, grainy and spitty and can sound both too bassy and too harsh into a clean amp at low volume - to the point I didn't like it all when I first tried it, and nearly sold it - it's difficult to get a good sound like that. But into a very slightly dirty amp at high volume, it's absolutely outstanding. All mud and harshness disappears and it becomes extremely dynamic and powerful.

It does have one slight similarity to the Sparkle Drive in that into a clean amp, the distortion seems separate from the clean sound, which you can still hear clearly underneath, but that just makes it more natural and less compressed-sounding into a dirty amp. It doesn't have any kind of blend between the two, it just is that way.

I really like all the Frantone dirt pedals - they have a unique voicing that's somewhere between fuzz and distortion, in varying amounts... clearly it's a type of sound Fran has in her head that's quite different from most other makers (or possibly players - they're very much a love/hate thing, from many things I've read about them). As far as I can tell, the circuits are completely unlike any other pedal, apart from The Sweet which is a Big Muff derivative (but better, IMO).

Currently I'm using the Brooklyn on my small 'normal' board, the Cream Puff on my large 'full-on' board and The Sweet for bass.


BTW, the clips on the Frantone website are horrible, and don't do any of their pedals justice or really illustrate what they do best - with the dirt pedals particularly they show the worst side of them, IMO.

[John Phillips]

Ok, here's another 'suspect' clip I just threw together...

http://www.theangelconversations.com/misc/Brooklyn.mp3

PRS Standard 22 with Duncan '59/Custom Custom into Mesa Trem-o-verb with V30s, recorded with a Rode NT-1A set about 18" from the grill and slightly off-axis (parallel with the edge of the amp cabinet, aimed at the center of the nearer speaker). Not at high volume - loud-ish house practice level.

Pedal settings were: Drive 1:00, Tone 11:00, Volume 9:30.

There are four sections: split neck pickup into clean channel, bridge humbucker into clean channel, split neck into dirty channel (Blues mode), humbucker into dirty channel. Each part starts with the pedal off so you can hear the base tone, then after a few seconds I click the pedal on (you should be able to tell where ). All recorded without changing anything except the pickup and channel switches. No EQ or anything else done to the recording apart from clipping out a couple of unnecessary seconds of silence.

Apologies for the random playing .

[timmers]

Wow. Some GREAT posts here, & truly helpful information. Proof again that TGP is *the* place to go for quick, professional and downright friendly know-how with regards to gear. Special thanks to John P for the soundclips - above and beyond, man. So cool (and helpful)!

[John Phillips]

No trouble, I'd been meaning to record something before, but never got around to it .

I should say that the purpose there was to get an accurate representation of what the pedal sounds like, not necessarily the 'best' tone (I would probably have used an SM57 for that, but the Rodent is more honest . That's very close to how it sounded in the room.

The amp was also nowhere near loud enough to get the nice compression-softening of the pedal that happens at band levels - it still sounds a bit gritty even through the dirty channel.

That tone is very much my kind of preference too - I know a lot of people would find it too grainy and bassy, in which case the Brooklyn is probably not for them; in fact, if you decide after hearing it that you don't like it, that's no bad thing... no pedal works for everyone, and some of my favorite players use gear which sounds great when they use it, but I can't get on with at all .

I just happen to like the Frantone sound... but I don't know any famous users of them. I can't even remember how I came across them... accidentally, somehow.

[dbx]

I was told sometime back by Mia that the Brooklyn is an offshoot of the HepCat. As I remember she said if the tone on the Brooklyn is all the way up it acts like the HepCat, I'll see if I can find the info on that. The sucka is LOUD...Fran makes good stuff, always interested to see what she's cooking up in the lab...

[yellowecho]

Originally Posted by John Phillips

I just happen to like the Frantone sound... but I don't know any famous users of them. I can't even remember how I came across them... accidentally, somehow.

I'm not sure if they're "famous", but Mellowdrone used to use the Peach Fuzz for quite awhile. I'm not sure if they still do, though.

[John Phillips]

Originally Posted by dbx

I was told sometime back by Mia that the Brooklyn is an offshoot of the HepCat. As I remember she said if the tone on the Brooklyn is all the way up it acts like the HepCat, I'll see if I can find the info on that. The sucka is LOUD...Fran makes good stuff, always interested to see what she's cooking up in the lab...

I've heard that too - and that the Brooklyn has a bit more gain as well - but if so the Hep Cat must be one BRIGHT pedal .

[dbx]

Originally Posted by John Phillips

...the Hep Cat must be one BRIGHT pedal .

That was one comment I've read on the HepCat, because it doesn't have a tone control some found it difficult to dial out with certain guitar/amp combos....

[jgyn]

Originally Posted by dbx

I was told sometime back by Mia that the Brooklyn is an offshoot of the HepCat. As I remember she said if the tone on the Brooklyn is all the way up it acts like the HepCat, I'll see if I can find the info on that. The sucka is LOUD...Fran makes good stuff, always interested to see what she's cooking up in the lab...

I have both. The Brooklyn does sound like a Hepcat with extra gain and a tone control, but when set to sound just like a Hepcat, it's still a little more middy. The Hepcat's bright and clear, and sounds best goosing an overdriven amp OR another low gain pedal, like the Zvex Box Of Rock.
-jan

[HBob]

I have an older Hep Cat and the Brooklyn OD is supposed to be a Hep Cat with a tone pot ( and maybe some more gain ). That being said, the Hep Cat is very open sounding and not compressed. It's got a good gritty texture and is also pretty bright. It has a sharp attack. Not mushy at all. Stacks well with pedals before and after it. I can imagine the addition of a tone pot would make this an even better pedal with a pretty unique voice.

[gulliver]

I have one ... I don't like it on it's own as it's too bright and harsh for me. I stack it after fatter and more dynamic pedals and it adds a unique grit and hi-fi type quality that is awesome.