Premier Guitar | 10 years ago
Read the review: http://bit.ly/TRexQuint
While octave effects have been around since the late ’60s (see: “Purple Haze”), they seem to be enjoying a resurgence, often with the promise of faux-organ and 12-string simulations. One recent option is the Quint Machine from Denmark’s T-Rex, which provides not only octave-up and octave-down transpositions, but harmonized fifths as well, enabling crunch power chords via a single finger on the fretboard.
T-Rex’s Quint Machine resides in a compact enclosure decorated in purple-on-purple Cheshire Cat stripes. There are separate level knobs for the three available transpositions, plus a global wet/dry mix control. Just one concern about the enclosure: Opening it requires a star wrench, which T-Rex provides in the package. You’d better remember to take it to the gig in case you need a fresh battery mid-show. The input and output jacks are top-mounted.
I auditioned the Quint Machine with a full band, playing a Fender Stratocaster through an Orange OR50. I found usable settings with just a few knob-twists, notably a nice faux-12-string sound with the -1 octave knob at 10 o’clock and +1 octave and mix around noon. Using the Strat’s bridge position heightened the effect.
With help from an upstream distortion pedal, the Quint Machine does the White Stripes thing fairly well. I happened to have a NYC Big Muff around, and combining its chunky crunch with the right Quint setting (-1 octave at noon, +1 octave maxed, and mix around 3 o’clock) conjured the sound of J. White’s “Blue Orchid” riffage. Listening to the Quint alongside another pitch-shift effect (an original EHX POG) I found the T-Rex pedal markedly quieter and brighter.
To continue reading the review, visit: http://bit.ly/TRexQuint
