Mojo Hand FX Tourbox II: The New Breed

The tour box is now full. Thanks everyone for your interest. Watch this thread for incoming reviews, clips, etc. as the tour box makes its rounds.


Tourbox Schedule (username in bold currently has the pedals):

cajone5
JayRue
Mmolteratx
stratguy23
succor
s360guitarist
pdodge77
Guitar Josh
Lolaviola
cpricecpa
orogeny

What's All This About:

Brad at Mojo Hand has once again agreed to let me to organize a tour box of some of their newest pedals. This time, the tour box includes Mojo Hand's new Recoil Delay, Nebula IV Phaser, and Rook Overdrive (recently awarded pedal of the year by What's That Dude Play).

As with most tour boxes, the purpose here is to get feedback! Reviews are very much appreciated. Please post your findings, thoughts, etc. in this thread after you've had your time with the pedals. Of course, videos and audio clips would be really great, too!

Standard Disclaimer: I don't work for Mojo Hand and am not associated with them in any way. I've still only talked to Brad on the phone all of twice and have still never even met him in person.

How it works:

It's going to work pretty much like the first version did:

1. There will be 3 pedals sent out, the Recoil, the Nebula IV, and the Rook.

2. Only new participants this time. If you participated in round 1, please let others have a chance at it this time. We might be able to fit some 2nd timers in at the end, but we'll have to wait and see.

3. Members can sign up by sending me a PM (must have at least 250 posts on TGP or be a supporting member). Please include your name and shipping address in the PM.

4. Each person will get the tour box for a maximum of 1 week (7 days) before contacting and shipping to the next member. Pedals must be shipped with tracking info and delivery confirmation (which is to be sent to both me and the next person on the list).

5. If there is something wrong with a pedal (or one is missing) it is important to contact me immediately so we can track down the issue.

Here's what's coming:

Rook Overdrive:
Thanks to its Baxandall Tone Stack, The Rook can be as bright or dark as you like. It's Gain and Level knobs are your helping hands in navigating through the countless shades of drive offered by it's 3 way toggle. Toggle UP for Classic Overdrive tones filled with rich "harmonicy" goodness, and even with the Gain dimed, The Rook maintains astonishing note articulation and chord clarity (think a highly tweakable Tube Scre@mer). Toggle DOWN to add extra gain stages for a raw and edgy, almost distortion type drive. And last but not least, the MIDDLE position removes diodes for a louder and cleaner sound. This position also causes the EQ controls to be more pronounced, and excels as a boost.


Recoil Delay:
Featuring 550ms of sweet analog voiced digital delay. Along with traditional controls for Mix, Repeat, and Delay Time, the Recoil also features a full range tone knob that ranges from clean and clear to warm and dark.


Nebula IV Phaser:
The Nebula IV Analog Phaser is 4 stages of swirly, analog goodness that will instantly transport you back to 1974! In addition to the standard "Rate" control of classic 4 stage phasers we've incorporated a "Depth" control and a "Level" knob. No need to worry about a volume drop or boost. The Nebula IV can be adjusted to taste.

 

Tourbox schedule now posted! We'll start off here in Texas and then make our way clockwise around the country. I should get the pedals this week (can't wait to check them out) and after I've had my fill, I'll pass them along to cajone5.

 

They're here! Can't wait for this day to be over so I can check these things out!

 

Made the hand off to cajone5 this morning. The tour is moving full steam ahead!

 

Here's my mini review of the three pedals. I used an LP and a pine tele into both a Sewell Texaverb (BF-style) and a Fargen Mini Plex MkII.

Recoil Delay:
This was like coming home again. I am a huge fan of delay pedals that can get out of the way and yet still produce a big ambient effect. I think the DBD is great at this, and I used my two ThunderTweak delays for years to achieve this effect. The Recoil does this in spades and is a big advance over those two in having the tone knob. The tone knob can be subtle, but it's just what's needed in my setup to move from slightly darker to slightly brighter.

In addition, delays like the DBD, ThunderTweak and other PT2399 delays can have some white noise on the repeats when the time is maxed out. Having a tone control lets you dial out any noise in the repeats, which is a huge plus for me. I really like the repeats on this pedal a lot. With longer repeats you could almost swear there's some subtle modulation going on. Sounded great in front of the amp or in the loop.

Rook OD:
These days, I use only amp gain and fuzz to get my dirt. I have no straight up ODs or distortion pedals in house at all. For years, though, I used a Timmy for this purpose and for years before that I used TS style pedals. I never fully got along with TS-style pedals (cut too much bass, added too much in the mids, sounded too unnatural, etc., etc.) but the Rook has renewed my faith in that style of pedal. Though, to be fair it goes way beyond any other TS pedal I've ever owned in features and tweakability.

By tweaking the toggle, this worked just as well with my Sewell set dead clean or with the Fargen set quite dirty. Great as a boost in diode-lift mode and wonderful as a smooth drive with just the right amount of compression into a clean amp with the switch up. And with the baxandall tone stack you can perfectly match the pedal to whatever amp you're running into. I'm a believer, and if I ever decide again that fuzz can't give me everything I want, this will be the dirt pedal I grab.

Nebula IV Phaser:
Last but not least, and my favorite of the bunch, is the Nebula IV phaser. I love this thing. I've had numerous phasers over the year, from 90s to 45s (including the old Mojo Hand Nebula) and this is hands down my favorite. Having a level control and especially a depth control is such a great feature.

All of the excellent phasey sounds you'd expect from a 4-stage phaser are there, but the real surprise for me was that the depth control lets you get some damn cool vibe sounds, which I usually associate with 2-stage phasers (like the 45 and the old Nebula). That's what I thought I would miss most with the new version, but those vibe sounds are definitely in there (close enough for me at any rate). This is a pedal that I'll be buying in the not too distant future. Love it.

 

Looking like this right now. There's a Trombetta, a Basic Audio, and a Monsterpiece on the way, but there's always something on the way. There would be more on the way, but plumbing disasters have prevented it.