NPD The Carcosa is in...

[Absent Ocean]

...and it's AWESOME.

You definitely could use it as a tamer overdrive/distortion but so far I'm really loving it with the Before around 2-3:00 and the After around there up to full on. It's just such a wild sound, seriously some amp melting/exploding stuff. Lead tones with these settings are really interesting on the neck pickup, a strange dichotomy of smooth and sputtering that's hard to describe but absolutely lovely.

Anyway, I'm loving it and I think it's going to be a great alternative to the Muff tones I'm used to. Believe the hype.

 

[fabulusfab777]

Nice! and congrats! I should be receiving mine tomorrow! I really watched every possible YT clips on it, very nice design indeed!

 

[Pedal Dan]

It is very versitle.

And easily the best spend to fun ratio of 2016!

 

[Fatherflot]

Great to hear. Still awaiting delivery to the dealer on the one my wife bought for my Dec 16th birthday!

 

[Blix]

Congrats, mine should be in tomorrow.

 

[Absent Ocean]

It is very versitle.

And easily the best spend to fun ratio of 2016!

Oh absolutely. I definitely wore myself out jamming with it! To the others: I think you'll dig it. I really feel like there's something for everyone here.

A couple of things that surprised me:
-It is certainly not a "high gain" fuzz, especially compared to something like a Muff, when you have the After control all the way down. It's a good drive with a little squish to it but the texture starts to get a lot more fuzzy as more After is engaged.
-The After control has a wider range on more mid-gain settings. It seems more stable when you crank the Before.

 

[108]

I hear comments here and there saying this thing can do mild fuzz. How does it sound to an amp that's a little broken up rather than clean?

 

[DonaldDemon]

I hear comments here and there saying this thing can do mild fuzz. How does it sound to an amp that's a little broken up rather than clean?

I'm using mine into a pretty dirty amp and it's awesome. I'm using the Hali mode, before around noon, after at 9:00 and output/high cut to taste. It does the low to mid gain as well as high gain.

 

[Fatherflot]

Yay, the Carcosa finally arrived today. Just getting to play with it, but yeah, I love it. Voicing is perfect -- none of that flab that keeps my from the Muff world, and the versatility is insane.

I'll say this: Before at 9 o'clock, After at 10, Output at 10, switch down, high cut at 1, tele volume knob half way into a Mooer Yellow Comp with quarter squish and then clean amp --- this is the best tweed simulation pedal I've ever tried. And I've had a couple. The breakup is just beautiful, like the exact kind of "grain" I want in my dirt. Neil Young all the way. So I've found my first real keeper setting, but it's clear that there are many, many more on here to discover.

 

[DonaldDemon]

Yay, the Carcosa finally arrived today. Just getting to play with it, but yeah, I love it. Voicing is perfect -- none of that flab that keeps my from the Muff world, and the versatility is insane.

I'll say this: Before at 9 o'clock, After at 10, Output at 10, switch down, high cut at 1, tele volume knob half way into a Mooer Yellow Comp with quarter squish and then clean amp --- this is the best tweed simulation pedal I've ever tried. And I've had a couple. The breakup is just beautiful, like the exact kind of "grain" I want in my dirt. Neil Young all the way. So I've found my first real keeper setting, but it's clear that there are many, many more on here to discover.

Funny you say that, I was jamming out NY songs last night with a similar setting into my Express 5:25 set to a little break up. Who would have known it could do that?

 

[weyllandin]

Had mine for a few weeks now. I must say, I was a little disappointed. It sure is a great pedal, but I'm not sure if it lives up to the expectations raised by all the hype. That being said, I lack a band environment to take the Carcosa for a ride at the moment.

I find the Carcosa a bit too bright for my taste, however this might well be the amps I am using. I have to dig a little deeper there. Don't get me wrong, I love my Carcosa, but I only see usable tones in one mode at the moment (don't remember if it's Demhe or Hali), the other mode sounds thin and icy. Same is true for the High Cut pot (which's label confuses me): I always roll off the highs completely on the pedal, otherwise I get immediate ice pick mode with all my guitars (mainly a Jaguar and a splittable Duncan Humbucker loaded Framus).

I can get awesome overdrive/open tones with the after-knob set to pre-noon, and ripping velcro (and more madness) post-noon. I love the 'gated' kind of thing, where you get absolute silence between the notes; the Carcosa does that really well. Still, I think the BAT Pharaoh I have next to it does all the sounds from the 'pre-noon tonal universe' with a lot more definition, punch and pressure.

The Carcosa has an extremely wide range and it's a great, versatile fuzz pedal, but I don't think it's the holy grail of anything (which is what I expected). Kinda sad, having such a great pedal diminished by high expectations and hype. Still, it's one of the best value stompboxes I ever bought, and it's 99 Euros well spent.

 

[Fatherflot]

My only negative so far with the Carcosa is that with my current setup it does seem noisier than my other dirt pedals (Barber GC and Basic Audio Shore Bird). That's an issue that's less relevant at stage volume, but noticable for the home player at fairly low volume. But pretty much all fuzz pedals are like that, so I don't single out the Carcosa. Still I'm running multiple pedals without an isolated power supply and I'm hoping that a TrueTone 1Spot Pro will help somewhat with that.

 

[Tom Von Kramm]

I find the Carcosa a bit too bright for my taste, however this might well be the amps I am using. I have to dig a little deeper there. Don't get me wrong, I love my Carcosa, but I only see usable tones in one mode at the moment (don't remember if it's Demhe or Hali), the other mode sounds thin and icy. Same is true for the High Cut pot (which's label confuses me): I always roll off the highs completely on the pedal, otherwise I get immediate ice pick mode with all my guitars (mainly a Jaguar and a splittable Duncan Humbucker loaded Framus).

The extra range in the Hi-Cut is for the low gain and low AFTER settings, those tend to be darker and need some detail. In the manual I have a diagram that shows that the normal operating range for the Hi-Cut is in the lower left quadrant of the range. I personally have my Carcosa Hi-Cut set to 8:00-9:00 almost 100% of the time.

 

[Turnipfarmer]

The extra range in the Hi-Cut is for the low gain and low AFTER settings, those tend to be darker and need some detail. In the manual I have a diagram that shows that the normal operating range for the Hi-Cut is in the lower left quadrant of the range. I personally have my Carcosa Hi-Cut set to 8:00-9:00 almost 100% of the time.

Was the Carcosa supposed to come with a manual? Mine didn't and I have a really hard time remembering what the heli switch does and which knob is the bias and which is the fuzz amount.

 

[Tom Von Kramm]

Was the Carcosa supposed to come with a manual? Mine didn't and I have a really hard time remembering what the heli switch does and which knob is the bias and which is the fuzz amount.

No, we've gone to 100% online manuals. Here's the link (it's a .pdf), if you download it to your phone you have the manual with you at all times:

http://rdn.harmanpro.com/product_documents/documents/3886_1466607329/CarcosaManual_original.pdf

 

[Fatherflot]

Update: The Carcosa is no noisier than other dirt pedals so long as you keep the output knob at 9 o'clock or under. You can get an amazing array of sounds keeping the output parked there and working the Before and After knobs.

Right now, I'm really digging the Marshally mid-gainer love at: Before at 1 o'clock, Output at 9, After at 8, switch down, hi cut at 2.

 

[Super Locrian]

NPD for me too! I am very impressed so far, seems like an incredibly well thought out and executed design. I really like the low gain tones I'm getting, both from the pedal settings and by lowering my guitar's volume. Very easy to dial in a lot of nice tones, and it is very responsive to picking dynamics. I can absolutely envision this as my main dirt pedal, let's see how I like it after the honeymoon period.

 

[DonaldDemon]

No, we've gone to 100% online manuals. Here's the link (it's a .pdf), if you download it to your phone you have the manual with you at all times:

http://rdn.harmanpro.com/product_documents/documents/3886_1466607329/CarcosaManual_original.pdf

Where is typical unity gain on the Output knob? Or does that change depending on the other knobs?

 

[Tom Von Kramm]

Where is typical unity gain on the Output knob? Or does that change depending on the other knobs?

Unity is roughly 10:30-11:00. It does vary a bit depending on where you have the Before and After set though.

The Carcosa has a ton of output because I run my amp pretty dirty and my favorite setting is to have the Carcosa hitting the amp input pretty hard for more overdrive, and then I dial in the After control to make it feel and sound more fuzzy.

ETA: That reminds me; someone earlier commented that the Hali mode was thin-sounding, that is on purpose. Again, since I (and a lot of other guitarists) run dirty most of the time I need a fuzz with the option to cut lows, otherwise it gets too woofy. If you are running on a clean channel, then that is what Demhe mode is for.

 

[DonaldDemon]

Unity is roughly 10:30-11:00. It does vary a bit depending on where you have the Before and After set though.

The Carcosa has a ton of output because I run my amp pretty dirty and my favorite setting is to have the Carcosa hitting the amp input pretty hard for more overdrive, and then I dial in the After control to make it feel and sound more fuzzy.

ETA: That reminds me; someone earlier commented that the Hali mode was thin-sounding, that is on purpose. Again, since I (and a lot of other guitarists) run dirty most of the time I need a fuzz with the option to cut lows, otherwise it gets too woofy. If you are running on a clean channel, then that is what Demhe mode is for.

Ok, that's about what I figured. I have been running Hali mode into my dirty amp w/ Output around 12-1:00 and I'm getting some feedback but we play in a small room. I may need to keep the output more around unity. Before is 12:00, After is 9:00, and Hi-Cut is around 10:00. I'm so glad you guys made the Hali mode to be run in front of dirty amps, great decision! A lot of fuzzes don't consider that and seem to be tailored to running into clean amps.