1086 vs. The Grail?

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Chak_wylde

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I'm tied up between these 2 mods. I'm after a Strapping young lad/Devin townsend mesa tone and a testament (Gathering) tone. I've herd great things about these mods. I've already got a Ultra XL for leads so it will be for rhythm. I'm edging towards a Grail and front end boosting it to give it that extra gain. What do you guys think? I've herd changing the tubes in the mods will improve them further.
 
From what I've read, the 1086 is best served in the Marshall position, as it's scooped Mesa tone is not widely liked. The Grail should deliver your Mesa chainsaw....but no hands on experience on my end- just seems like it depends if you're in the Marshall vs Mesa camp
 
I have them both and the 1086 is better imho. grail is nice for one tone but has less distortion. the 86 is really nice in both positions if you tune it right. the "mesa" position to the left is good when you put the treble down to like 5 or 6 and suck the mids down to 2 or 3 and bass to 10 :) it sounds real chunky and great.
 
the grail boosted is killer but be careful with the mids they can get barky. the 1086 is killer too but is very different on the marshall side which imo is better than the mesa side. the mesa side seems flat and very dark but isn't too bad. the grail does this better but the marshall side is very nice although i don't really hear marshall in it it seems to be quite original sounding to my ears , its very deep and has some chainsaw to it as well, boosted look out it is very aggressive :twisted: and quiet as well
 
goldwing68nv said:
+1 on the GRAIL...but,with an o/d pedal "boost"!!!


When boosting the grail what do you set the grail gain to? I love the tone Im getting from a boosted brahma with the cusack screamer but I cant seem to dial in a tone i like with it in front of the grail.
 
qbclub13 said:
goldwing68nv said:
+1 on the GRAIL...but,with an o/d pedal "boost"!!!


When boosting the grail what do you set the grail gain to? I love the tone Im getting from a boosted brahma with the cusack screamer but I cant seem to dial in a tone i like with it in front of the grail.


with an o/d pedal boosting the GRAIL module,i have the "gain" level,on the module,set between 12 and 1 o'clock max(no more or the "tone" gets tooo tight & thinned out).you also may have to cut the "treble" knob,on the module,back just a notch.as far as the o/d pedal "settings" go,i use a BBE Green Screamer with the control knobs "set" at: LEVEL=all the way up ...TONE=halfway(or neutral) ...GAIN=all the way down ...i use this pedal "setting" for both the GRAIL and my BRAHMA module,with great results.these two mts modules dont really come to life until their "boosted",but then when they are...watch out!!! btw,keep in mind that different guitars,pickups and cab speakers will vary the "tone",quite a bit...good luck!
 
goldwing68nv said:
qbclub13 said:
goldwing68nv said:
+1 on the GRAIL...but,with an o/d pedal "boost"!!!


When boosting the grail what do you set the grail gain to? I love the tone Im getting from a boosted brahma with the cusack screamer but I cant seem to dial in a tone i like with it in front of the grail.


with an o/d pedal boosting the GRAIL module,i have the "gain" level,on the module,set between 12 and 1 o'clock max(no more or the "tone" gets tooo tight & thinned out).you also may have to cut the "treble" knob,on the module,back just a notch.as far as the o/d pedal "settings" go,i use a BBE Green Screamer with the control knobs "set" at: LEVEL=all the way up ...TONE=halfway(or neutral) ...GAIN=all the way down ...i use this pedal "setting" for both the GRAIL and my BRAHMA module,with great results.these two mts modules dont really come to life until their "boosted",but then when they are...watch out!!! btw,keep in mind that different guitars,pickups and cab speakers will vary the "tone",quite a bit...good luck!

+1

Also, I put my module volume at noon and my master at noon for gig's. Maximus told me to try module volume at 9oclock and master at 3 o'clock...totally changed my tone. So you have to ad that in account for tone variables.
 
So when boosting the grail for more gain, would you recomend a clean boost like a BBE Boosta Grande or a dirty boost like a Boss SD-1 ?
 
Chak_wylde said:
So when boosting the grail for more gain, would you recomend a clean boost like a BBE Boosta Grande or a dirty boost like a Boss SD-1 ?

Bodenhamer-electronics.com The bloody murder is a custom pedal for $120. Best thing you will ever buy to boost your module. I'm not kidding. I've had every pedal to boost my amp and this is the only true passive/non-tone sucking pedal.
 
Cheers. I've herd nothing but good things about Bodenhamer-electronics.com. The bloody murder is a popular choice it seems for boosting mesa's. I've seen they do a modded maxon od808 pedal. Would you still recommend the bloody murder over the modded 808?
 
Chak_wylde said:
Cheers. I've herd nothing but good things about Bodenhamer-electronics.com. The bloody murder is a popular choice it seems for boosting mesa's. I've seen they do a modded maxon od808 pedal. Would you still recommend the bloody murder over the modded 808?

Message him and he will steer you in the right direction.
 
Chak_wylde said:
So when boosting the grail for more gain, would you recomend a clean boost like a BBE Boosta Grande or a dirty boost like a Boss SD-1 ?


no,actually i've tried the BBE Boosta Grande and didnt care for it much.it,more or less,just acts like a volume "boost",imo.i ended up buying the BBE Green Screamer,and,man...that's a great o/d pedal! it's pretty transparent,still has a good deal of "low-end",and has a "true" bypass on-off switch...only $99 bucks AND they include a A/C adaptor...not bad!!! btw,a Boss SD-1 is fine,too..any descent o/d pedal with the LEVEL cranked all the way up & the GAIN,set very low,should "do the job".
 
goldwing68nv said:
..any descent o/d pedal with the LEVEL cranked all the way up & the GAIN,set very low,should "do the job".

Great point there, definitely do not crank the gain on these pedals, let the modules do the gain!
 
yep,that's right,tung! we dont want to "color" the module's natural tone,just "push" the signal a bit hotter & make the module really "come to life"!!!
 
i' ve been boosting on and off with a maxon od808 on my grail, 1086 and kh-3 and both ultras as well as various treadplate/recto's and moderns for quite some time now, basically i've found that at low volumes it sounds cool and definetly makes the modules hotter for sure .seems to give them more of a liquid type gain that wasn't there before. but it also adds some midrange that can't be dialed out because of the freq range that the pedal allows through, this doesn't really bother me , overall i'd say at low volumes the boosting sound good , but at high volumes it seems the pedal does something to the signal chain making the module not quite sound like it does when the pedal is out of the chain and when the boost is on the module get ratty sounding i think, seems like they already had enough gain with out the boost almost like they just need more volume to push the amp into working properly, hence a 100 watt tube amp sounds best at loud volumes. i will say the grail could use a lot more gain in the module . a real recto has way more than the randall module. but for me boosting just creates more noise and changes the tone of the module and f's up the signal. seems i'm more of a guitar-cable-amp guy and i like that, but not to say that boosting isn't good just not for me at least at gig volume :wink: the maxon works best with the grails and rectos but not so good with everything else high gain but if you have never tried boosting its definetly worth 50 bucks or so on a pedal to try it out you never know it could be the tone you been looking for :twisted:
 
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