So I recently picked up a GH Middleman Boost pedal. I have never done a review before, but I think this pedal is worth mentioning.
I found out about them from the fearedse youtube channel. Basically it is a boost pedal that has a Mid knob at 500hz instead of a standard tone knob. It has a sweep of 15db more midrange or 15db less midrange. The gain knob adds up to 35db of gain, and the volume knob is a "master volume."
You can read more about the pedal here:
http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new_shop.cgi?config=&uid=QvlEtQAA1306626416&command=link--ghmm
A little background:
I currently own the Fulltone OCD and Maxon OD808 and use them as boosters.
My amp is a stock Road King II, my guitar is a Schecter C-1 Limited (only 50 made) with EMGs and a 1992 Gibson Les Paul Standard with stock pickups.
My cabinetry consists of one Mills 412B (2x V30 and 2x G12K-100) and one Mesa 4x12 (4x V30) Recto standard.
Initial impressions:
Excellent build quality, extremely well put together and very sturdy. Sweet graphics. I thought the input and output being on top of the pedal was a little strange, but no biggie.
VS the Maxon OD808:
I have had a love/hate relationship with my OD808. The build quality seems pretty shady - the tone knob fell off randomly and I had to reattach it, I've had to fix the connection on the footswitch, the pots are mounted directly on the circuit board, and it feels fragile in general. The sound is great - a typical tubescreamer sound, but sometimes it seemed to suck some bottom end girth.
The Middleman blows the OD808 out of the water for rhythm and lead. The mid knob allows you to get a typical OD808 aggressiveness and tightness without losing girth or gaining 'honk' - the best rhythm tone I have ever heard. Of course, if you want honk, you can still obtain it by turning the mid knob up more. For lead and rhythm, the OD808 seemed to take away some expressiveness in the notes - a problem the Middleman does not have at all.
With the volume at around 2:00 or so, the mid knob at around 1:30 or 2:00, and the gain off, the Middleman gets you classic boosted recto tones. The real kicker is that you can tailor exactly how much midrange you want to add - just a little bit for some tightness, or a bunch for more aggression.
VS the Fulltone OCD:
This was a much tougher call than the OD808. The OCD is an extremely well built and great sounding pedal. I have found a lot of great lead, rhythm, and edge of clean tones by using the OCD as a boost. It gels extremely well with all four channels, and doesn't take anything away from the amp - just adds balls where you need it.
My only gripe with the OCD was that it is a very warm pedal - when looking for modern rhythm tones, I have found myself adding a decent amount of highs from the tone knob, and it never was just right. It would be either too much high end to where it would sound fuzzy, or not enough to where it sounded dull or even a little boomy.
For rhythm, the Middleman wins hands down. It can add just a slight bit of aggression and tightness without adding high end - a capability the OCD lacks. For lead, both pedals were capable of doing different but sweet tones - I couldn't decide on a winner here.
Aftermath:
While I did these comparisons, I had left the gain knob completely off. I was playing on the clean channel with the gain knob to hear what this would sound like as an overdrive pedal and realized this isn't a typical gain knob. It adds volume and dirties up a little bit as you crank it. On a whim I set the gain to about 9:00 with the volume and mid knobs at around 2:00 and switched to modern and heard the meanest, most menacing chugs my amp has ever spit out.
Conclusion:
My OD808 and OCD are up for sale on Craigslist. With both the Middleman and the OCD, I like different pedal settings for different modes. I am probably going to keep my OCD so I can optimize the Middleman for rhythm and lead and the OCD for the Brit mode and/or clean modes.
I hope this helped somebody.. or at least gave them GAS.
I found out about them from the fearedse youtube channel. Basically it is a boost pedal that has a Mid knob at 500hz instead of a standard tone knob. It has a sweep of 15db more midrange or 15db less midrange. The gain knob adds up to 35db of gain, and the volume knob is a "master volume."
You can read more about the pedal here:
http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new_shop.cgi?config=&uid=QvlEtQAA1306626416&command=link--ghmm
A little background:
I currently own the Fulltone OCD and Maxon OD808 and use them as boosters.
My amp is a stock Road King II, my guitar is a Schecter C-1 Limited (only 50 made) with EMGs and a 1992 Gibson Les Paul Standard with stock pickups.
My cabinetry consists of one Mills 412B (2x V30 and 2x G12K-100) and one Mesa 4x12 (4x V30) Recto standard.
Initial impressions:
Excellent build quality, extremely well put together and very sturdy. Sweet graphics. I thought the input and output being on top of the pedal was a little strange, but no biggie.
VS the Maxon OD808:
I have had a love/hate relationship with my OD808. The build quality seems pretty shady - the tone knob fell off randomly and I had to reattach it, I've had to fix the connection on the footswitch, the pots are mounted directly on the circuit board, and it feels fragile in general. The sound is great - a typical tubescreamer sound, but sometimes it seemed to suck some bottom end girth.
The Middleman blows the OD808 out of the water for rhythm and lead. The mid knob allows you to get a typical OD808 aggressiveness and tightness without losing girth or gaining 'honk' - the best rhythm tone I have ever heard. Of course, if you want honk, you can still obtain it by turning the mid knob up more. For lead and rhythm, the OD808 seemed to take away some expressiveness in the notes - a problem the Middleman does not have at all.
With the volume at around 2:00 or so, the mid knob at around 1:30 or 2:00, and the gain off, the Middleman gets you classic boosted recto tones. The real kicker is that you can tailor exactly how much midrange you want to add - just a little bit for some tightness, or a bunch for more aggression.
VS the Fulltone OCD:
This was a much tougher call than the OD808. The OCD is an extremely well built and great sounding pedal. I have found a lot of great lead, rhythm, and edge of clean tones by using the OCD as a boost. It gels extremely well with all four channels, and doesn't take anything away from the amp - just adds balls where you need it.
My only gripe with the OCD was that it is a very warm pedal - when looking for modern rhythm tones, I have found myself adding a decent amount of highs from the tone knob, and it never was just right. It would be either too much high end to where it would sound fuzzy, or not enough to where it sounded dull or even a little boomy.
For rhythm, the Middleman wins hands down. It can add just a slight bit of aggression and tightness without adding high end - a capability the OCD lacks. For lead, both pedals were capable of doing different but sweet tones - I couldn't decide on a winner here.
Aftermath:
While I did these comparisons, I had left the gain knob completely off. I was playing on the clean channel with the gain knob to hear what this would sound like as an overdrive pedal and realized this isn't a typical gain knob. It adds volume and dirties up a little bit as you crank it. On a whim I set the gain to about 9:00 with the volume and mid knobs at around 2:00 and switched to modern and heard the meanest, most menacing chugs my amp has ever spit out.
Conclusion:
My OD808 and OCD are up for sale on Craigslist. With both the Middleman and the OCD, I like different pedal settings for different modes. I am probably going to keep my OCD so I can optimize the Middleman for rhythm and lead and the OCD for the Brit mode and/or clean modes.
I hope this helped somebody.. or at least gave them GAS.
