When it comes to Universal Audio's UAFX's trio of 'emulator' pedals based on classic guitar amps, it's the Dream 65 that we're particularly taken with for it's potential as a platform on your pedalboard for other effects. But it's actually versatile in its own right – like the 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb it's closely modelled on. And we wanted to explore that in a a video demo.
The Dream '65 allows the two footswitches to be assigned in different ways. You can have a 'live' amp tone, and also a preset amp tone with different levels of gain, EQ and even speaker cabs. You can also assign the other footswitch to kick in a boost, reverb or vibrato setting via the UAFX Control app. The choice is yours.
We put that to the test, along with its direct recording performance, in three scenarios in the video above. The first focusses on the Dream '65's onboard vibrato alongside some generous spring reverb for some moody spy soundtrack thrills and here we're kicking in preset with more drive, as well as a different level of foot-switchable vibrato.
The settings you're seeing on the pedal in our video are for the 'live' modes rather than the saved preset we've dialled in for each example. We recorded the pedal directly into a UA Arrow USB interface and no other effects were used in the signal chain.
The second example focusses on the drive stacking flexibility the pedal offers via three different boost modes – two being popular mods for the Fender Deluxe you can read more about in our UAFX Dream '65 review. After strumming with a jangly clean tone (the pedal actually breaks up quicker than some might think on that volume control) we activate a cleanish boost, then a higher gain setting on the amp for a lead break.
Finally for our second example we activate the DTEX boost mode on our second gainy amp channel for our Neil Youngish example. This is a based on late amp tech César Díaz's mod to SRV's Fender Deluxe amps that boosts the lower end but just like the real amp mod, you can't use tremolo with it.
Our third scenario is more subtle; using a switchable increased level of spring reverb for a more expansive lead sound without us piling on excessive gain and retaining the chime and cut that we love about the Fender Deluxe.
- Find out more about the UAFX Dream '65 and the other pedals in the range in our review and at Universal Audio.
