Menatone Kar Krash

The reason I give this an eight in this category is because I have found it take a while to learn the diversity of the pedal. The controls are somewhat interactive and the "cut" control a bit unconventional. There is a definite learning curve to get the best out of this little jem.

This is by far the best overdrive device I have ever had the pleasure to own and I have owned a lot. As a matter of fact I liked it so much that after owning for about a year I decided to get a second one for my pedalboard. One for the "crash" setting (lower gain and looser) one for the "wrecked" setting (higher gain and more focused). The only negative I can say about this pedal is that it can be a tad noisy if you are in a studio environment but live this baby really shines! Being that it is kind of an amp in a box type unit it works well with just about anything you run it into. That being said when used with a great amp the results are just that much better. I am using this primarily with a Strat and D13 EDT amp. Phenomenal pedal!

Very well built as all of Brian Mena's pedals seem to be.

Support is a bit spotty. I have emailed and received prompt response sometimes and no response other times.

Again, I have had so many boutique pedals and amps over the years that I don't want to try and rack my brain to list. Suffice it to say that this ranks as clearly "The Best" of "The Best" IMHO. I have and do play a variety of styles from Blues, Rock, Jazz, Fusion, Funk, Country (No Metal) and have been for over 40 years now. I gave the pedal a 10 even though the price is steep since I have spent more on other boutique pedals that ended up staying on my board less than a week and I now have two of these.

Nothing out of the ordinary here.

I thought I would write a review on the new 2008 Kar Krash. My previous review was for the 7-knob version which I loved dearly and I would have kept it but I needed cash eventually. I'm happy to say that everything I loved about the older version is still in there and with a new feature to boot: the Wrecked mode! The grad/fast is now on a stomp switch and the knobs are all the same as before. I can not stress enough how juicy and beautiful this stompbox is! Maybe Brian Mena made a pact with the devil, I don't know, but this does not sound like a pedal! Sure I bet it doesn't sound like a real Trainwreck or Komet, but it's THE best-sounding overdrive I have ever heard, so that's good enough for me.

Basically I owned the Fulltone GT-500 before getting this one (there was a run of 20-30 Kar Krashes with the "all-over" paint job shortly after NAMM and now the aluminum one with vintage Menatone style knobs which came out more recently). The GT-500 found a spot because it is extremely responsive/touch-sensitive, much like the OCD. Now I did not like all of the sounds in the GT-500 (it replaced my beloved SIB Varidrive because of space/weight and versatility) but when I found a good deal on the new 2008 KK I knew the GT wouldn't stand a chance. There's no comparison in fact. The Kar Krash has soul. Really there is not a bad sound to be had in this thing. It is an amp in a box and only adds to a good tube amp sound. It benefits from cranking the volume knob as much as possible to get bigger tone.

You bet -Menatones are not point-to-point anymore but they're super solid. And Brian stands behind his products.

Brian has usually answered my emails.

Every guitarist should own one of these. Too bad they go for $349 new, it's pretty steep. I was lucky to find one for $100 less. But honestly in the world of overpriced boutique stompoxes, this one is truly as worth its sticker price as you can get. I don't want anything else, period. This will be my sound -I am that blown away!

You absolutely have to sit down with it for awhile. See how it responds to your playing dynamics, how it interacts with your amp and pedals.
When I first sat down with it, I found a REALLY great sound and never bothered to explore it's potential. I was greatly surprised when I figured out that it has MULTIPLE incredibly great sounds.

Each knob twist is subtle (except Vol and Gain). What I have found helpful was working on the mid, presence, and cut.

This is an incredible overdrive. I tried a lot (Klon, Timmy, Red Snapper, Fish Factory, Howie etc) and I was just so moved by this pedal. It claims to be a Trainwreck in a box. I feel like its a Plexi in box, but that's just me. The variety of tones is great. Also, chord definition is outstanding. Plenty of gain and volume on tap. For some reason, I get a weird hum sometimes when it's on that you can only hear when you aren't playing. Maybe it's just me over-analyzing it.

Sounds great on single coils, humbuckers, P-90s, neck, bridge, and everywhere in between.

Anywhoo, here's my signal chain:

ES-335 ->Big Muff (modded to Swollen Pickle specs) ->ZVex Fuzz Factory -> Kar Krash -> Zvex Super Duper -> Ernie Ball Volume Pedal -> Blackbox Quicksilver -> Various Ampeg VT series combos.

This pedal sounds great anywhere in the chain. It's interaction with other pedals is o.k., but really, it is best on it's own.

This pedal seems pretty reliable. Whoever put the board together looks like he is some sort of circuit board prodigy. Great, clean work. The only minor thing is that the paint will probably wear off, but that's fine with me. I

Never had to, hope I never have to. Great work.

This is an incredible, dynamic, and inspiring pedal. It sounds great with all sorts of amps (twins, plexis, ampegs, orange, hiwatt). Never use it with a solid state amp, it will never do the pedal justice. I have ended the search for the ultimate overdrive pedal. If someone steals it, that would be a major bummer because there's a limited run of these, so buy now. The money will always return, but the Kar Krash probably won't.

It didn't take too long to find a good vibe, but there are a number of knobs and switches that dramatically alter the feel of this pedal . . mostly in a predicatable/good way. I found that I didn't care much for many settings with the Grad/Fast switch set to Grad . . . once I found my sweetspot, it was lots of fun to tweak around.

Setup: PRS CE22 -> Sparkle Drive -> KK -> Zvex Nano Amp w/ Mesa 2 x12 cab.

Fantastic. Pure, transparent, silent. It has a great 'stickiness' to single note runs that I really like for many situations. They just seem to lock into a perfect tone as your finger settles into the note . . hard to explain, but maybe you know what I mean. Chords are juicy.

As an aside, this pedal may seem a bit 'polite' for some, and sometimes I like to kick in thick, heavy gain . . . I happened to stick my (previously sidelined) Sparkle Drive in front of this and holy cow . . . they sounded GREAT and HEAVY together. A very different sound than either one produces on their own. This combo is highly recommended to those with both pedals.

So far so good (and at this price . . . ).

I use the Fish Factory on my main rig and it's been a champ.

Have not had to contact.

Since it's pretty pricey, I wouldn't rate it a 'fantastic value' . . it's a terrific boutique pedal for those fortunate enough to afford it (or find it used). It would probably not be my one-and-only 'desert island' gain pedal, but I do love it and would certainly recommend a listen.

Very easy but you need to play with it to find your favorite sounds -has lots of knobs.

Great pedal! I really enjoyed the Menatone KOB (6 knob) and I figured this one was worth a try. There's not many reviews so I thought to include my 2 cents. It has a TON of sounds in it. I find it to be one of the most versatile OD's I have ever played through. Now you don't get a Fender sound and a Marshall sound, but rather a great variation of what it does from very clean to quite high gain. I can't say if it really sounds like a Komet or Trainwreck because I never heard those, but I dig it alot through my 2x12 Allen Tonesavor (80 watt with KT66's). I have played a pile of great OD's inluding the Klon and Tim/Timmy. This bumped the Timmy off my board as I find the KK sounds much like the OCD mixed in with the Timmy. Of course that's not such a great argument when you consider the price of this thing, but the variation in eq is far greater than both of those pedals together. My other OD is the SIB Varidrive, and together, the sounds are nearly infinite and of absolute highest quality. The KK is brilliant. Sustaining and gritty when you dig into the strings; very musical and not too aggressive (it's not a Marshall sound). I enjoy a presence knob on at least one pedal and that's what I liked about the Dirty Blonde but the KK is tighter, more refined and has more sounds in it. The cleaner sounds are just beautiful and you can pretty much use the KK as a boost or eq, varying the tones, adding hair, presence, beef, darken it up for a bright amp, etc. The high gain tones (especially set on "fast") are reminiscient of the OCD and Xotic BB preamp in terms of how much gain you get. Very touch responsive! I thought the OCD is the most touch responsive of any solid-state pedal I have ever heard, but the Kar Krash is about neck-and-neck. Since the KK has WAY more tone shaping ability it gets my vote. The OCD also had somewhat annoying characteristics that didn't sound good to me (some say it doesn't sound its best through blackface amps but that's all I own). There's so much to like about the KK hat I wanted to write a review and encourage anyone who's nervous about the pricetag. I think that if you like what it does, you'll REALLY like it and it will last for many years. You'll be enjoying the sounds long enough to forget how much it cost you, but if you don't care for it with your rig, you can make most of your money back by selling it.

Looks very solid inside!

Brian's a good guy but I haven't had any problems with his stuff. It's agood thing he got a website up last year.

I play a variety of music, mostly blues-based jazz, rock and pop (most of us guitarists do). I don't want to go off list ALL of my gear but I have been working on my pedalboard for about 2 years and I finally feel I have all the tones I will ever need/want. There's nothing I wish it had, I would buy it again for sure, been playing 10 years (non professionally) and that's all I'd like to share. If it were a little less expensive, it would be more accessible to more people but it's like the cream of the Menatone crop, and I consider it to be like a masterpiece, so it's not a ridiculous price to pay in the boutique pedal market.

This is the Follow up posting.

Ok, the "Great Pedal Shoot Out of 2005" is over. Some of the pedal that were at the meet included a "Gold" Klon, Clay Jones OD, Burriss Boostier, Bennett Boost-e-a....
The amp was a Komet, but not just any Komet, this one is named "Snow White", so if you are really into Komets, you may have heard of her.
Guitars used were Strats, Zemaitis, and a Korean PRS with P-90's.

And the result: The Kar Krash is a great sounding pedal, none of the pedals really sounded the same, so why even try and compare. At lower volumes (and I am not talking bedroom level) the Kar Krash made the Komet sound like it was cranked, the notes had violin type sustain. With the amp turned up, and a little tweaking on the pedal, we got sustain for days. As for the tone, nice and fat sounding, really filled the room up. IF you want, you can even adjust the gain and get a more "Fuzz" distortion. Personally, I like the amp pushed to the edge sound, so I am very happy with the pedal.

As a side note, the owner of the Komet is going to get this pedal also. I ordered mine through Tone Merchants, and they were A-1 to work with.
Now, I know everyones ears hear different, but the guys who I have let try this pedal all agree it is a good one, and in the market of high end pedals, well woth the money. So that should be a clue that this is a great pedal.

See earlier review

See earlier review

Great pedal, recomended.
Read other user reviews on the other pedals. And if possible try them together and see what sounds work for you.

It to a bit of playing with to get a good sound. This is not a pull it out of the box and set the knobs to your "standard" settings, like you would a Boss overdrive pedal. The Kar Krash takes some tweeaking, the controls are very reactive. the pedal reacts differently with different guitars and amps, and your pick attack. So be ready to have to sit down and work on getting a great sound, and you will get a great sound.
There is no manual, I understand that this is true of all Menatone products.

This pedal likes to be used on an amp that can "breath". In other words, its not for playing in your bedroom with, or thru a small practice amp. I tried it on a small 5 watt tube amp with a little 6 inch speaker, and it almost had the bumble bee buzz going on. Then tried it on a Tech 21 amp, the larger speaker made a big difference, but still, nothing to go wild over.
Then I took it to practice, used my 18 watt Budda Twinmaster, and a Korean made PRS with P-90's. Whoa, what a difference. I had the amp set to my usual settings, the Kar Krash already was set to what I would call my "base" settting, a starting point. Took a few mins. to get a sounds I was happy with. We started to play, and it to a few songs of "Tweaking" the pedal, but it was well worth it. got a great sound. Sounded like a big amp turned up. Plus back off on the volume of the guitar cleaned up the sound before decreasing volume. I recomend keeping the gain knob low, this pedal has tons of gain, too much and you will lose definition.
Now, from what I understand, this pedal is designed to sound like either a Trainwreck or the Komet amp that were designed by Ken Fisher. I am not sure about this. But I am in the unique position to be able to try the pedal out next to the amps, so I will post a follow up after we have the "shoot out", my fried is bringing his amps, plus a Klon and a few other pedals so we can kompare.

As far as I can tell, this pedal is built like a tank. The paint job on the bottom was a little rough, but who is going to see that after you mount it to your pedal board. The foot switch maybe the only weak point, but only time will tell on this, its the weak point of most pedals.
I just left it on and used the volume control to get a clean sound. At this price, don't think I can afford a back up, but its not like I'll need it. From what I have read, Menatone makes a long lasting product. The point to point wiring is clean, no "goop" to hide the circut, so if it were to need repair, it should be no problem for Mentone to take care of.

I have been reading reviews here of Menatone pedals. And the few "bad" reviews that I have read, were followed up by Brian Mena offering to take care of the problem. So it seems that he is interested in what the "common" man thinks of his products.
So for now, I have no opinion on this category.

I am a Blues/Rock guitar player, Rory Gallagher, Ronnie Wood, and Paul Kossoff are a few of my Favorites. So I am not into "over the top" distortion and this pedals is cable of getting that, but you do lose definition. But if you like a nice overdriven sound with the notes singing and some nice sustain, check this pedal out.
I don't know if this pedal is a a permanent addition to the Menatone line or a limited edtion, its not on the Menatone web site yet, so please don't steal it from me, I'd really miss it, and don't know if I could replace it.
So, stay tuned, as I will post more after the "great Pedal and Amp Shootout of 2005"