Hands on with the Free The Tone Matt Schofield SOV Special
New signature pedal for the British blues player
Free The Tone Matt Schofield SOV Special
Free The Tone Matt Schofield SOV Special
Matt Schofield has been using the Free The Tone Custom SOV-2 for many years, both live and in the studio. For 2013, FTT's pedal designer and CEO, Yuki Hayashi and Matt have joined forces to create a new pedal slightly more tailored to his playing requirements.
The result is the MS SOV SPECIAL (MS-1V) that combines the custom SOV-2 Matt has previously been using with a newly developed input circuit, called the HTS (Holistic Tonal Solution) circuit.
As in the FTT SOV-2, the power is increased internally to +/-15Vdc to provide a wide and dynamic range that prevents guitar signal degradation when bypassed by implementing the HTS circuit. It also has a very low S/N ratio to provide a thicker and smoother overdrive tone.
To our ears, the MS-1V's tone is slightly clearer when compared to the FTT SOV2; there's a sense that the second harmonics generated from fundamental notes are more prominent. In other words, the difference is similar to a small 1dB boost around 2kHz if you were comparing the pedals via a mixing desk playback. It's the smooth tone and new switching system that makes the MS-1V a joy to use, especially when soloing higher up the fretboard.
Here's what Matt says about the pedal: "The pedal is great! I used it, and loved it, for the whole of my last tour. Best version of the SOV ever for me."
The Matt signature model, MS SOV SPECIAL (MS-1V) is a limited edition and will go on sale February 2013 through to the end of 2013.
Specifications
- Input Impedance: 1MΩ
- Output Impedance: less than 200Ω
- Controls: LEVEL, TONE, DRIVE
- Connectors: 1/4-inch phone jack x 2 (INPUT and OUTPUT) DC9V input jack (AC adaptor jack)
- Power Supply: 9V battery or AC adaptor
- Power Consumption: DC9V, 90mA (maximum)
- Dimensions: 115 (D) x 72 (H) x 50 (H) mm
- Weight: 250g approx. (Not including battery)
Note; The power consumption of the MS SOV SPECIAL pedal is 90mA (DC9V) so an Alkaline battery will last around 2 hours. Because of this an AC adaptor is recommended.
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Audio demo
This short piece demonstrates the MS-1V with a Yamaha Pacifica using only it's Seymour Duncan singlecoil settings. The lead guitar features (in order of appearance); neck pickup, neck and middle pickups and for the outro, bridge pickup. The MS-1V was set either at 12 o'clock or 3 o'clock gain with the tone always set to 12 o'clock. It was plugged into Guitar Rig 5 with the Fender Tweed amp (set clean) and 2 x12 speaker settings. Reverb was added on mixdown in Presonus's Studio One v2.
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