I just did a 20 minute test with the new Cephalopod Mk. 2 and the Cog Dis Mk. 4. Cog Dis is apparently a re-creation of the Cog Dis Mk. 3, I’m gonna get all the Cog Dis pedals out soon and compare them (though it appears that the first 2 are Mayonaise clones, and thus the last two are not).
For the moment though the Cephalopod is the more interesting to me, I kept going back to it. For starters, yes my ears are ringing again just like with the first Cephalopod. These are just mean, evil guitar pedals, that’s just what it is. All kinds of cool sounds in there though. I haven’t gotten my old Cephalopod out in a while, but I don’t remember it being this gated. You need to be firm when playing it, soft touches will disappear in a wash of gurgles and blurps and bum/stray notes sound even *more* like @ss than normal. But once you take charge, this thing sings! Also, I got some great one-note-at-a-time riffs out of it based mostly on the low strings, almost playing it like a bass guitar part.
It took to volume knob adjustments pretty well – it is NOT EVER going to “Clean Up”, but the intensity of the gain backed off and the tone actually changed, kind of mellower like a Big Muff would do but different (I think Marc said there’s a Big Muff input section, so that makes sense). Pickup adjustments made very big tonal changes too, the pedal reacts differently to everything – muted strings, pickups, tone knobs. So, I’m not sure how practical this thing will be in a live setup, because its WILD. But there are tons of awesome sounds and grooves in this box, and home recordings could probably benefit in many ways. I got some QOTSA sounds, definitely sounds like a pedal that guy would own, but I can imagine guys layering parts underneath a main part with this pedal. Its nasty, and its not “musical” in a “wow what a nice melody you’re playing” way. Its the opposite of that. Its a fun pedal for sure.
Like, I started playing “Purple Haze” and it was just too much once I got to the chords/verse part, just noise lol. But grab a single note, buddy, and you’d better hang on!
-Grubgoat