JF Grail Tone in-depth review! (Hint: It's freakin awesome!)

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mikegyver

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Alright boys, this is the mod I've been waiting for.....and it was worth the wait!

For starters, when trying this module, I suggest putting sweat pants or shorts on because you will want to jump and do splits and kicks in the air!

Testing equipment = Egnater MOD50 head, Tung-Sol EL34b tubes, Kramer Baretta II Pro Guitar with GFS Fat Pat Humbucker (Alnico V), Kramer Baretta with EMG-81s, Marshall 1960a 4x12

General tone = Early Van Halen in spades! Definitely a mix of all of them here, not just VHII as was originally commissioned. I heard everything from VHI to Fair Warning to 1984 depending on how the EQ was set (more on that later). Very vintage sounding and NOT modern/JCM800 sounding which I?m very glad for. That 80?s-Modern Marshall is all over the place and this is definitely more vintage plexi. Very warm and chewy (be careful with really warm pickups, it might be too much for clarity). Adding reverb and or phase 90/flanger puts the icing on the cake, it simply nails those tones.

Feel = Chewy and spongy is the best way to describe it. When you dig into the strings you get that whine and squeak and harmonic content (think out of love again). When you play open chords they are rich and blooming with layers of mid-detail. The top end sparkles and tapping notes fly off the fingerboard with that eruption 3D sorta sound without much effort. Harmonics are easy and single notes sustain very well.

Gain = High gain, but not super over the top compressed high gain. This is the perfect level of EVH gain where you can get squeals, harmonics, sustain and tapping notes without losing any tone. Absolutely perfect for this music! Rolling the volume knob back and you get ?hot for teacher? clean easily

EQ = Very awesome for dialing in specifics, but not overly powerful (more subtle in my experience). It seems this module was designed for the VH type EQ and allows some adjustment without having a huge effect on tone. Changing the EQ does have an effect on volume though, so having the mids on 0 drastically lowers volume. The presence knob is perfect and allows the sparkle and spank which is more on VHI, so I leave it almost cranked to get highs that usually come from a phase 90 pedal. Overall this is a very warm module, VERY warm at times. Like plexis, it has a thick bottom end. So much that it didn?t agree with one of my guitars (too warm, where playing the low E string with the bridge pickup sounded like I had it on the neck pickup). This was my guitar?s fault because of the very mid/bottom-heavy PAF style pickup (GFS FAT PAT pickup). Using my EMG-81 guitar fixed the bottom end, but lost mid-warmth and detail. I?m installing my old Seymour Duncan JB which I think will cure this.

Loudness 1 & 2 (gain knobs) = A really sweet feature! Like Rob said, Loudness 1 is treble side and Loudness 2 is normal (warmer sounding). I usually keep both cranked, but this allows you to dial in the correct amount of gain/warmness or treble to get whatever album tone you are after.

Eruption switch = Sounds like more of a volume boost and adds a little high end. I leave it on all the time and you probably will too.

Variac switch = a cool feature that lowers voltage, a subtle effect and useful, but I?ll probably never turn it off so it could be a built in feature. Though, by not having the feature labeled with a switch, how would you impress your friends??

Comparison to other modules I?ve tried = 1000x Waaaaaay better than stock Plexi. Warmer and chewier and better than the JMP side of the 1959RR Plat (IMO anyway). About the same level of gain, but warmer and more vintage than the SL2X I?ve had (though not a fair comparison perhaps).

Conclusion (pros and cons): A perfect early EVH module!! It has it all (the good and not so good IMO). What I mean by ?not so good? is that this mod makes it clear when playing along to VH songs that sometimes his tone was harsh, brittle, squeaky and slightly raspy at times. What I mean by this is the the tone on ?mean street?, it?s very rich and awesome but also contains some of these qualities that pop out when playing by yourself (out of the band mix). Don?t get me wrong, this module is freaking awesome and a perfect for EVH in every way and I love it. I just wanted to point out the fact that Rob NAILED it here and you will get that tone and everything that can come with it. This is it, this is vintage EVH without actually traveling back in time to 1978.

To sum it up: Bravo Rob! Bravo!!!!!
 
Thanks for the great review!
It sounds like many of us are going to have to try this one!
I think Rob will have so many orders for this one that he'll get sick of making them! :lol:
 
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