What's That Dude Play? » Diamond Pedals

Diamond takes a Quantum Leap

Blake — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:59:51 +0000

While still being coy on exactly what it is, the fine folks at Diamond Pedals teased a ready-to-roll pedal enclosure on their facebook page recently, giving the world its first glance at the new Quantum Leap. This modulation monster is said to have flange-y, swirly, chorus-y goodness baked in, but the company promises it can do more. The pedal sports knob controls for Speed, Width, Regen and Mix. It also will have a Mode toggle and a footswitch for tap tempo control. According to the facebook thread, the Quantum Leap was designed to be a more ‘out there’ effect than the company’s Memory Lane Jr, while sharing a similar hybrid analog/digital design. Diamond adds that they have set up the knob and footswitch controls to allow ‘on-the-fly’ interactions. Stay tuned!

NAMM: Diamond offers Cornerstone sneak peek

Blake — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:12:46 +0000

We happened by the Diamond Pedals booth at NAMM last week to see what was new… beyond the Marquis boost and Memory Lane Jr. It seemed we remembered the crew was working on a new dirt pedal a while back, and they were calling the Cornerstone. A glance down at the pedalboard at the show and there it was… in all its prototyped glory! The Cornerstone is outfitted with cascaded gain stages and a bright switch toggle (which will move to the pedal face in production). With the two gain controls, the Cornerstone has a wide range of tones on tap… from clean-ish to serious crunch. A Mid control will allow for additional coloration and character. Stay tuned!

Diamond shows off Marquis boost

Blake — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:35:36 +0000

The fine folks at Diamond Pedals showed off a couple of possible paint jobs for their new Marquis germanium/hybrid boost pedal. But wait, didn’t we already say that this pedal was going to be called the Mercury? …and even showed off some early art that called it the Mercury?! Um, yes. Yes we did. It turns out there are a few other pedals that boast the Mercury moniker, including at least one boost – the Spaceman Effects Mercury III. So as to not create confusion Diamond changed names. The Marquis itself remains the same rework of the old J-Drive RT that the company released in limited numbers several years back… and is coming soon!

Diamond shows off Mercury art

Blake — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:03:04 +0000

Remember back in January when we brought you news of a little, unmarked gold box sitting on the floor in the Diamond Pedals booth at Winter NAMM? It was described to us as a germanium/clean boost – basically a rework of the old J-Drive RT that the company released in limited numbers several years back. Well, now that pedal has a name – Mercury. Earlier this week, the Diamond crew showed off the planned artwork for the pedal sporting a single knob to work the levels and a mini-toggle to switch between germanium and ‘hybrid’ boost functions.

NAMM: Diamond reworks old J-Drive RT

Blake — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:10:31 +0000

The fine folks at Diamond Pedals gave us a good look at a prototype pedal that will be hitting the market in the coming weeks – a germanium/clean boost stomp. The pedal is based on the old J-Drive RT, which the company released in a limited edition (about 100) several years ago. The proto pedal boasts two knob controls and a mini-toggle to switch between the germanium boost and clean boost functions. The official release will likely only have one knob to work the levels. According to Diamond, the pedal will beat the Memory Lane Jr. to market. The ML Jr. is still a few months away as design work remains in process.

Can you say Memory Lane Jr.?

Blake — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:41:55 +0000

Yeah… we thought you could! We’ll be sure to get the complete low-down on this new Diamond Pedals offering at the NAMM show later this week, but we wanted to pass along the photo tease posted by Aimish and crew on the builder’s facebook page. The Memory Lane Jr. sports four knob controls – Delay, Modulation, Feedback and Mix as well as an extra stomp switch for tap tempo. It looks like a winner… and given the pedigree… we’re betting on it. What we don’t know are the spec particulars, street date and the all-important price! We’ll have that info for you very, very soon! Check out a close up of the in-progress pedal after the jump!

A bit of pyrotechnics from the Diamond Fireburst

Blake — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:11:19 +0000

Nova Scotia-based Diamond Pedals has quite a throng of loyalists that swear by the makers unique ability to make some of the best sounding effects boxes on the market. One such fan recently contacted WTDP? and asked if we could devote one of our YMMV reviews to one of the company’s lesser known stomps – the Fireburst. Matteo… this one’s for you! The Diamond Fireburst is intriguing enough as a straight fuzz with the extra tone sculpting of Bass and Treble controls, but the real draw of the pedal is the addition of a Mids boost that allows the player to jump from thick fuzz tones to tasty distortion at the press of a button.

Taking a look at the Diamond Fireburst, the pedal features two switches, one True Bypass on/off switch and one mid-boost switch. Without the mid-boost engaged the Fireburst is a thick, saturated fuzz that puts out an incredible amount of low-end. The bass response on this thing will set off seismographs in neighboring states, according to the builder. Kick in the mid-boost switch and the Fireburst morphs into a punchy rock distortion. Each switch has its own corresponding LED. Active Baxandall Treble and Bass controls offer further options for additional tone shaping.

With the Strat first, bridge pick-up, we dial in a middle of the road fuzz tone. Gain set at noon, Bass at 3 o’clock, Treble at noon and Volume around 11 o’clock. Listen to the following riff… you’ll hear clean tones first, then the fuzz tone… mid-way through, we engage the mid-boost, taking the fuzzy, low-end into overdrive territory.

Both the fuzz and distortion tones in that setting are aptly meaty and infinitely useable. I especially like the way the Fireburst retains its low-end presence even after the mid-boost is engaged. It gives the distortion signal at the end of the clip more weight without thinning or brittling out the sound.

Next to the Les Paul, we crank the fuzz to hear the full power of the Fireburst when given humbuckers to feed. With the Gain dimed, Bass at 10 o’clock, Treble and Volume both at noon, here is another modern rock riff with a bit of muted chugga. Again, you’ll hear the clean tone, the fuzz tone, then the fuzz tone with the mid-boost engaged. Here we go…

The humbuckers thicken up the Fireburst and make the tone pretty dark, even with the Bass control turned down, but I still dig the tone. It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t have all the mud I half expected from the settings. With the mid-boost engaged, the riff took on a much more modern metal tone and really brightened up the muted parts… almost too much for my taste as I felt it was bordering on ice-pickiness, specifically during the muted parts.

Lastly, we go back to the Strat, neck pick-up this time, and conjure an old Smithereens riff. For grins, I’ve kept the Gain dimed, Bass is at 3 o’clock, Treble is at 9 o’clock and Volume at 10 o’clock. Clean, fuzz, mid-boost… you know the drill. It’s the Blues Before and After!

The appeal of the Diamond Fireburst is its ability to maintain wonderful low-end weight as both a true fuzz and a mids-influenced distortion pedal. Unlike most dual role stomps, this is not a true two channel in the strict since of the word, but a single channel fuzz that reacts to a boosted mid-range to create another, completely unique voice. The Fireburst would be a great tool onstage if a player need to move from thick fuzz to rock distortion with minimal effort. As a studio tool, the Fireburst can stand up against most fuzzes in its price range and, due to the addition of the mid-boost feature, has a trick up its sleeve not many fuzzes can duplicate. That’s my opinion anyway… your mileage may vary!

PLEASE NOTE: All YMMV Review clips are played through a Reverend Hellhound 40/60 combo amp with 1×12 extension cab. No reverb or other effects were added to the clips. Guitars used in this review include a 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom and a 1998 Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster.

Revised Diamond Vibrato stomp ships

Blake — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:56:25 +0000

Nova Scotia-based Diamond Pedals have shipped their new Diamond Vibrato stomp – a dedicated pitch vibrato design using bucket brigade analog delay technology for true pitch modulating vibrato. The pedal also offers analog chorusing via the Chorus control to blend a variable amount of dry signal with the effected signal. The stomp sports two mini-toggle switches. The ‘Jazz’ switch darkens the tone of the effect offering a more vintage flavor, while the ‘High’ toggle switches to a higher depth range for more extreme pitch bent sounds. The true bypass pedal also offers expression control of depth and speed for on-the-fly adjustment and special effects.