WORK IT…
Jumping into the ‘Mod 1’ section of the pedal you can flick between Tremolo, Harmonic Tremolo, Fliter/Wah, Phaser, ADT (Automatic Double Tracker), Rotary, Digital Delay and Analog Delay. ‘Mod 2’ comes packed with another eight effects including Harmonic Tremolo, Phaser, Analog Chorus/ Vibrato, Flanger, Leslie Rotary Speaker, Digital Delay, Hall Reverb and Plate Reverb. All packed into a compact footprint, the Mod Workstation features top mounted jacks (which are typically pedalboard friendly) with additional inputs for Tap Tempo and Expression pedals. ‘Mod 1’ effects can utilise Tap Tempo whilst ‘Mod 2’ can have Expression control if you so desire.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
So, you can have one effect on (from either bank) or obviously two effects on (one from each bank), which means you can get some pretty serious combinations. As a starting point all the effect types seem to be pretty damn good. I love the chewiness of the phaser, the sparkly chorus and the warmth of the verbs as an intro. And all of these would be great by themselves, but then think of having a verb setting (for non verb amps) as an always on and then being able to drop in a nice rotary or trem if needed. It isn’t quite earth shattering in its concept, but it is great in its application, working like multiple pedals in one unit and more importantly – sounding good!
CENTRAL STATION
With plenty of choices you may be a little overwhelmed at first. For me, the thinking is you’ve got a huge palette to choose from, but you don’t have to always go all out with every sound. The beauty of Modulation effects is often the subtleties – a hint of trem on an arpeggiated part in the bridge, or a slightly bigger verb on a sustained chord at the end of a chorus.
I like the concept of the Workstations mainly focusing on a one type of effect, but then combining the ‘Workstation’ aspect with other effects to make it the kind of pedal you could solely take to a gig and be covered for a fair range of tones. I now also like the ‘Super Mod’ idea to give you a little more scope – be it at home or on a gig.