NPD! VFE Standout. holy crap boost.

[DeathbyButterslax]

For tight rhythm these guys and the Savage drive are the best boosts you can get. Did you get one with the charge pump? I’m considering one to see if it stays cleaner at higher boost levels

I wouldn’t say cleaner really, I would say headroom, BUT the charge pump is about 20 when fed 9, the non charge pump can take 18. 2v is negligible. I prefer 18 for all situations unless I want dynamic compression from the pedal. Then 12 mostly, occasionally 9.

Now to play devils advocate I wish I had a charge pump version to feed it 12 volts which is 27 or so to see what that is like, might need a third one.

Ya I just tried my 18v and I can get it to 2oclock now
Sounds great with the Fortin Meshuggah for 6 string stuff

 

[mchn13]

Got the standout last night. Played it for an hour, put it back in the box and got return authorization. I would have liked it more if it added “less” drive to the sound. It almost has that cocked wah sound. I much prefer the Timmy pedal with the bass turned down. The Timmy is more musical sounding.

As standout adds almost no discernible THD the overdriven response is solely up to how hard you hit the front end. It is nothing more than a high pass filter and a low pass filter in series. An EQ pedal of sorts.

Did you set for unity gain or below?

As for the cocked wah sound, standout easily dials to ts808 or much fatter, full lows even. similar filter slopes. Pretty much any sound available as long as you use the 6db setting.

A far as i am concerned its the best front end for high gain amps available at this time, odd you disliked it so much to me.

I didn't return it yet, give me some settings . Also, where do you have the internal trim pot at?

Admittedly I have never touched the trimpots in my pair so Id say stock.

I only use the 6db filter setting/up.

Ok I set the blend to fully EQ, no blend/ fully clockwise.

For an 808ish eq curve

I set the HPF dial to between the 6db print mark and center of the filter switch. (Around 750k, dial a bit to taste)

The LPF I set around “9pm”/fully horizontal or pointed at the “430” label. (Around 750hz) for leads.

Sometimes I set this to the 1.2k mark for brighter rythyms.

As for output use the bypass switch to set the pedal for unity gain (same volume on/off and dial from there.) easier to discern volumes on clean channel IMO.

Now these are guideline, youll want to make small/tiny adjustment from these starting points to find the sweet spots for your rig.

Remember that even the cuts alone will change your distortion amounts some, just use the mypass to find unity, mine is about 9pm for my settings.

I think you just saved this pedal. the matching unity is key. I just figured half on the level was unity, but it was adding gain.....

The pedal has a HUGE ouput available. Easy to boost amp into surplus distortion and add noise if set too high. A boost is ok but noon Is far more than Ive ever used. Typically between 9-10 o clock.

Yep; 9-10:00 was way better. I dont even use my tubescreamer with the output at full. Only amps i liked adding gain was my old marshalls.

 

[glip22]

I've owned mine for some time now. Mine was a hand painted by one of his students. He's a teacher and does some cool things with younger artists painting his pedals.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

I realized I swapped my opamps to opa2134 and never mentioned it for guys who may have the 4680 or whatever. Worth mentioning.

 

[psychodave]

I realized I swapped my opamps to opa2134 and never mentioned it for guys who may have the 4680 or whatever. Worth mentioning.

I believe the opa2134 is clearer?

 

[psychodave]

Due to my confusion, I reached out to VFE for clarity on the pedal. The response is really good.

Dave - The EQ controls on the Standout are different than standard boost/cut EQs. They don't have a fixed corner frequency, and they only cut - no boost.

The HPF cuts low frequencies & passes high frequencies. While it isn't a high frequency control, it is a low cut...so you can use to make the tone brighter. Same thing goes for the LPF - you can use it to boost bass by cutting highs.

The internal makeup gain trimpot just sets the amount of boost in the EQ side of the pedal. If you are using more extreme cuts and find that the clockwise side of the BLEND knob is too quiet, you can add makeup gain to help.

If you use lighter EQ cuts and find that the clockwise side of the BLEND knob is much louder than the clean/dry side, you can lower the volume of the EQ side by cutting makeup gain.

In short, it helps adjust the pedal to be better balanced & easier to use for various users.

Peter

 

[K-Roll]

So wouldn't that kill any overtones produced by your guitar? If i imagine setting the filter to comb off anything above a certain FQ, i think it might limit your guitar tone.
Almost sounds like a para EQ would do a better trick if you need to fine tune the way your guitar sounds before it hits a boost.

 

[stephen sawall]

Peter lives near me. I meet him years ago. He is a very nice person. Quality of his work is excellent.

I've used the Dragon and Standout and if you want you can easy get these pedals very bright or pretty dark. They work good with various amps and guitars because you choose the frequency. Turn up the HPF and you can get any amp tight.
Yes it has some similarities to EQ pedals.... That's becomes in a way it is a EQ pedal and boost voiced to work with guitar.

Only issue I had with these pedals is the HPF and LPF have so much range it can be difficult to get the same sound twice....but not really a issue. Gets close enough.

It doesn't cut off completely at the frequency. It has a 6 or 12 dB per a octave cut. The switch decides 6 or 12 dB. It can be soft or strong EQ depending on how you set it up.
You can take my word for it.... You can easy adjust it to get all the harmonics out of your guitar.

 

[LunatiBSW]

Thanks fellas for the gassss, just ordered the pink metal flake one.
Figured I’d go wild on the finish.

 

[mchn13]

yeah brought it to practice last night to try some tricks from this thread, and it stayed with the amp. very smart pedal. just wasn't intuitive at first.

 

[psychodave]

yeah brought it to practice last night to try some tricks from this thread, and it stayed with the amp. very smart pedal. just wasn't intuitive at first.

Agreed...there is a slight learning curve.

I really wanted a pedal to tighten up the tone and give me that new metal sound. I jumped on the bandwagon and tried Fortin's Grind and 33 and was extremely disappointed. The VFE Standout allows you to set the tone you like on your amp and the pedal caters to it and in my opinion, is way better then Fortin's pedals.... and at $144.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

So wouldn't that kill any overtones produced by your guitar? If i imagine setting the filter to comb off anything above a certain FQ, i think it might limit your guitar tone.
Almost sounds like a para EQ would do a better trick if you need to fine tune the way your guitar sounds before it hits a boost.

This is the best way to limit bandwidth up front. Pedal is perfect. Parametrics are far more difficult to dial up front and will seriously change your tone. The point IS to limit control harmonics/overtones in the distortion spectrum while leaving the center bands untouched and clean.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

I realized I swapped my opamps to opa2134 and never mentioned it for guys who may have the 4680 or whatever. Worth mentioning.

I believe the opa2134 is clearer?

Hmmm, not sure clearer is the word but I have always like opa2134 where I cannot use lm4562. The behringer chip it ships with reminds me of the cheap behringer pedals in tone.

It MAY actually be noisier than the stock as per peter, I am fine with it and use mine at 18volts.

 

[DeathbyButterslax]

So wouldn't that kill any overtones produced by your guitar? If i imagine setting the filter to comb off anything above a certain FQ, i think it might limit your guitar tone.
Almost sounds like a para EQ would do a better trick if you need to fine tune the way your guitar sounds before it hits a boost.

This is the best way to limit bandwidth up front. Pedal is perfect. Parametrics are far more difficult to dial up front and will seriously change your tone. The point IS to limit control harmonics/overtones in the distortion spectrum while leaving the center bands untouched and clean.

Agreed about this vs the Parametric. I had a empress para-eq and the VFE won for transparency, would try every way to dial it in but it never worked out

 

[stephen sawall]

It's all about the HPF and control over the frequency. I've seen it called Attack on some other pedals.

You could just put a passive HPF on your guitar and it gets the same tight / fast attack effect.

If you look at the Dragon and Standout block diagram it gives the basic layout of all these type pedals.

Probably be easy to build a similar EQ that works with any boost or overdrive.

The VFE Klein Bottle looks interesting. Peter showed me a early prototype years ago.

 

[psychodave]

I realized I swapped my opamps to opa2134 and never mentioned it for guys who may have the 4680 or whatever. Worth mentioning.

I believe the opa2134 is clearer?

Hmmm, not sure clearer is the word but I have always like opa2134 where I cannot use lm4562. The behringer chip it ships with reminds me of the cheap behringer pedals in tone.

It MAY actually be noisier than the stock as per peter, I am fine with it and use mine at 18volts.

Welp, I just checked my stock of opamps and I actually have a BB OPA2134PA. If my memory serves me, I think you told me to buy some many years ago. The Standout has 2 opamps. Did you change them both? I changed out the one by the makeup gain pot. I like the stock opamp better. FYI... the stock opamp in mine is 4580DD.

I also have NE5532P, LM1458M

 

[V2a]

I'm in. Just purchased one on Reverb. VFE is going out of business, so get 'em while they are available!

 

[moltenmetalburn]

I realized I swapped my opamps to opa2134 and never mentioned it for guys who may have the 4680 or whatever. Worth mentioning.

I believe the opa2134 is clearer?

Hmmm, not sure clearer is the word but I have always like opa2134 where I cannot use lm4562. The behringer chip it ships with reminds me of the cheap behringer pedals in tone.

It MAY actually be noisier than the stock as per peter, I am fine with it and use mine at 18volts.

Welp, I just checked my stock of opamps and I actually have a BB OPA2134PA. If my memory serves me, I think you told me to buy some many years ago. The Standout has 2 opamps. Did you change them both? I changed out the one by the makeup gain pot. I like the stock opamp better. FYI... the stock opamp in mine is 4580DD.

I also have NE5532P, LM1458M

haha, i did I remember that, you were swapping in your mos valve.

yes swapped them both, I expected a small volume drop but the pedal has plenty of output.

I far prefer the op2134 to the stock, as always a subjective choice. choose what you like.

my fave don't work in the circuit as is but I've been dreaming up modding or building a new one to spec for lm4562, they "lock up" /distort in current form unfortunately.

i may try minimizing the makeup gain trimpot to lower total output volume as I use the EQ side exclusively.

as someone said the tone pot in your guitar can be wired to cut bass etc.

10 years ago I use a way overqualified ashley rack mount EQ for this. love this pedal, sounds great far clearer than focus also.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

I'm in. Just purchased one on Reverb. VFE is going out of business, so get 'em while they are available!

oh yeah, I have a pair for this reason. I want a third charge pump model as well.

I use one for leads and one for rhythms set differently atm.

 

[psychodave]

I realized I swapped my opamps to opa2134 and never mentioned it for guys who may have the 4680 or whatever. Worth mentioning.

I believe the opa2134 is clearer?

Hmmm, not sure clearer is the word but I have always like opa2134 where I cannot use lm4562. The behringer chip it ships with reminds me of the cheap behringer pedals in tone.

It MAY actually be noisier than the stock as per peter, I am fine with it and use mine at 18volts.

Welp, I just checked my stock of opamps and I actually have a BB OPA2134PA. If my memory serves me, I think you told me to buy some many years ago. The Standout has 2 opamps. Did you change them both? I changed out the one by the makeup gain pot. I like the stock opamp better. FYI... the stock opamp in mine is 4580DD.

I also have NE5532P, LM1458M

haha, i did I remember that, you were swapping in your mos valve.

yes swapped them both, I expected a small volume drop but the pedal has plenty of output.

I far prefer the op2134 to the stock, as always a subjective choice. choose what you like.

my fave don't work in the circuit as is but I've been dreaming up modding or building a new one to spec for lm4562, they "lock up" /distort in current form unfortunately.

i may try minimizing the makeup gain trimpot to lower total output volume as I use the EQ side exclusively.

as someone said the tone pot in your guitar can be wired to cut bass etc.

10 years ago I use a way overqualified ashley rack mount EQ for this. love this pedal, sounds great far clearer than focus also.

I like it so much I bought the Dragon.

I am curious about the charge pump version, but I mainly use 18v now, I wonder if the higher voltage will be that audible?