Pretty Years

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

everyone here has good advice. can you maybe email me a little clip of the sound and i can let you know if it's abnormal?
sometimes too if it's a little ringy you can unplug and plug back in your power. it did happen a few times randomly (not very often mind you) where there was a weird oscillation that just went away when re-plugged - it wouldn't come back again when left plugged in and turned on/off, rather it was simply on the initial power up.

[augur44]

Hi Brian !
I tried several times to unplug and plug pedal but it's still the same.
Off course this "little ringy" is only when pedal is on (as it's true bypass).
Let me try it more this weekend and send you a short clip.
Thanks for your help. I appreciate.

[MrNovember]

Pretty sure I've experienced something similar augur. Mine usually goes away by power cycling. If that fails, turning down bias, volume, and/or treble seems to make it less pronounced.

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

Pretty sure I've experienced something similar augur. Mine usually goes away by power cycling. If that fails, turning down bias, volume, and/or treble seems to make it less pronounced.

yes slightly lower bias can help clean up ringing as well!

[Ev_O)))]

It happens when I switch stuff around but goes away so fast it's not an issue.

Yep me too no stress

[kboman]

Not sure I can fully express how happy I am to own one of these pedals. It inspires me so much!



Guitar into Amplifire which has a vibrato first, CT5 in fx loop (the reverse delay), back into Amplifire for some more delay, out to the Pretty Years, DI'd to Live. Headphones late at night. Contemplative sunday mood.

<3

[brndnwilliams]

Hey folks! Whats the sitch w the FM knob and switch? the switch either sends the output back in in phase or out of phase? the knob sets the amount fed? I'd love a thorough explanation if anyones down to do it. I'm just basing this off of what Brian said in the bass demo video on youtube and what I read in the manual. I don't totally get whats happening and would love to understand better. Thanks!!

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

Not sure I can fully express how happy I am to own one of these pedals. It inspires me so much!

Guitar into Amplifire which has a vibrato first, CT5 in fx loop (the reverse delay), back into Amplifire for some more delay, out to the Pretty Years, DI'd to Live. Headphones late at night. Contemplative sunday mood.

<3

sounds great direct!

Hey folks! Whats the sitch w the FM knob and switch? the switch either sends the output back in in phase or out of phase? the knob sets the amount fed? I'd love a thorough explanation if anyones down to do it. I'm just basing this off of what Brian said in the bass demo video on youtube and what I read in the manual. I don't totally get whats happening and would love to understand better. Thanks!!

first off - all of this will be useless when the filter is off (except for a slight volume drop).
center is off, up is inverted, down is non-inverted. once the switch is up or down, the knob becomes active. this sends the output of the filter into the CV input (controls the FREQUENCY knob). the FM knob controls how much signal is fed back (think of it as a feedback knob). basically it acts sort of like a fucked up, glitchy envelope control which will be somewhat controlled by your gain and clip settings. i think that should clear it up a little but let me know if you need me to try and explain further.

this may not work *exactly* the same on your pedal since your rig is no doubt different than mine but here's some fun test settings (using a j mascis jazzmaster with stock P90s) to try and understand the interactions: (all number settings are shown in X o'clock. 3 = 3 o'clock)
resonance - 3 or just a bit below self-oscillation.
HP mode.
bias around 3
frequency between 10-11
toggles - UP, CENTER, UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, DOWN, CENTER
both gains at minimum, bass cranked, treble around 11, FM at minimum

be careful with some of these FM settings as they put out some insanely serious LOWS and you can fuck up your speakers! (turn down BASS if necessary)

play a little. dig in. sounds like a super nasal wah-type drone when you strum. there should be a little movement to the filter.
now flip the FM switch UP. there should now be like a garbled mess. play the lowest string. it's cool.
now crank gain II all the way up. it should now kinda sound like an auto-wah on one string that decays into a weird mess. turn up the FM knob. shit gets weirder and after 1 it becomes a hot pile of doo.
now leave it at 3 and turn down the gain. it's almost like a glitchy octave down.
now turn up gain II, turn FREQ to around 9 and pray your speakers don't break.
now turn down gain II and crank gain III. you get the same glitchy octave but now it ends in a wet fart.

now.

turn back freq to 10-11ish, gain II minimum, FM minimum and center the FM toggle.
now flip FM toggle down. dig in. sounds kinda like FM up huh. yeah.
now crank gain II. play your lowest string. woah. play a chord. what the fuck is with that crazy fade in?
turning up FM now just gets fucking weirder.
forget that though. turn FM to minimum, turn up gain III and now play that low string for weird high treble shit. compare to FM up. night and day.
FM down again, gain III still cranked. turn up FM. HOLY FUCK ALL THE WHITE NOISE. go all the way to 3.
now turn freq to around 9. it should sound like a weird helicopter. turn resonance very slowly and the rate should change. I CAN'T HEAR THE GUITAR ANY MORE.
now turn up that gain II. somewhere around 3 you should hear a little guitar. go all the way and AHHHHH SPEAKERS LOW END.
now turn down gain II again and bring back the helicopter.
now turn down bias to around noon and the helicopter should fly off. now play. you get a weird white noise blast with every hit. turn down FM for less of that.
ok i think that's enough. repeat for every single mode now. oh and also try incorporating some of the controls i didn't even change...
that should keep you busy for at least half the day.

[brndnwilliams]

Dude, thanks so much for that. It's exactly what type of response I was hoping for. I'm going to try these all out today. I appreciate the detailed response

[baremountain]

Damn Brian! The FM is the sole feature I haven't really dedicated a lot of time to, so this will be a great way to dive in

[Jwar]

Got one coming back to me!!! Finally!! I'm so excited! I never got to properly run it through my main amp, so I'm very anxious to hear it there. Plus it will sound great with my current setup.

[Inconuucl]

I kinda feel bad for keeping one on my board, I always want to play more with it than I do with my guitar.

I might move it to a tabletop setup once I have a microgranny.

[drmaxell]

I agree vidret moo I have about 20 dirt pedals and probably my Civil War Big Muff with the Pretty Years covers everything

[rustywire]

POTY 2016 by a landslide.
Also likely the fastest-selling pedal on reverb, yet omitted from their list as only a few have surfaced there. They all sold within 3hrs IIRC.

Note that with this list, I've omitted pedals where only a small handful sold in 2016 to try to keep the sample size meaningful.

[waltdogg]

reverb articles are incompletely researched and usually utter dribble.