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Lovepedal Masters -- Calling Gainster, Arjae, et al


endo23

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Anyone know the difference b/w the Balance and the COT50?

 

Recently traded my COT to utterhack for his Balance, just to compare-- and to my ears, the Balance works better with my rig (less treble, more of a natural gain that doesn't impart "Plexi"-ness)-- but the difference is so subtle as to suggest I might, in fact, be losing my mind.

 

Just looking for confirmation either way. Thanks! :thu:

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You're not the first to wonder!

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=144395

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=142625 (note that CliffC's description is a little off - there's a distinct volume boost with the Balance, but the knob controls gain more than volume)

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=125019

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=138186

Here's what one fatbackribs had to say:

"The COT50 and Balance are beautiful pedals that each do their own unique thing. I should mention that I use them at very low settings into a tube o.d. which is probably not how most folks will use them.

The Cot50 has a slight upper mid peak and very dynamic grit that can really add presence under gain. The Balance seem to push the highs and the lows in a more linear fashion. Because they aren't pumping the same frequencies, they don't get in each others way and stack very well. Together they can create a very rich, dynamic fuzz/boost that can turn a flat crunch tone into a nice juicy lead tone, especially with single coils.

At their higher settings, the Balance does have substantialy more boost and gain than the COT50."

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Your prob hearing more of your amp than the unit..

The BAL is like a 200lb COT
Less compressed, more headroom, not so much presence..

They are similar but different ..
The COT breaks up quicker with more avail saturation at the top..

BONG... :cool:

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Sean's description is about at direct as it gets. Up until 12:00 or so, Balance is more of a clean boost, though not a transparent one - it adds a touch of warmth and sweetness and more than a touch of loud. I tend to run it around 11:00.

COT distorts more quickly, and its distortion is less expansive/fuzzy more of a classic frequency-up/amplitude-constant distortion (note that this description has everything to do with how I "see" teh dirt, and probably zero correlation with what's actually going on. But I think it makes sense.) Also, it has a beautiful, hypnotic blue LED.

More discussion, clips, and corksniffing here. Thanks fatback!

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=139065




Hi Balance :wave:

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Hi COT :wave:

Thanks for chiming in, Sean. It may indeed be my amp settings (which I adjusted after trading the COT away), but I agree with other players that the Balance doesn't seem to add as much "presence" (which I call "treble") to the signal.

Since I am an avowed enemy of Treble in all its icepicky forms, this makes me prefer the Balance to the COT...




so...

uh...

Hack, you may never see your Balance again, is my point.

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Just to clarify my old quoted post, I am using the Balance and COT50 mainly in the lower half of their available gain ranges. Both of these pedals really mutate, (in a good way,) as the knob moves past 12:00.

Get 'em both. you'll be happy you did!

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afaik, all production Balances are battery-only. couldn't tell ya 'bout tone variations, since I've only used the one. sounds like the version DestroyAllGuitars is selling may be tuned slightly differently...

upon further review:
- Balance for adding sweet, sweet fatness to clean tones, with bonus fuzz capability
- COT50 for very natural sounding, and maybe more importantly, natural feeling distorted (not fuzzy) tones.

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I've got a Balance on the way now and an E that will be on the way sometime in the not-to-distant future. I'll try the Balance and the E and then determine if I'll need a COT. From all reports, the Balance and the E are a nice combo.

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