Menatone Red Snapper

I'm gonna make this a simple review. I usually fill all this out in great detail, but for once I've only got one thing to say! But, briefly, it is easy to use, but deceptive!

This thing gives you way too much bite than most guitar players will ever need. Do not be tempted to use this pedal with everything cranked!

More on this in the next category

This is the section I really want to write about.

Beautiful analog sound. In fact, I do not use this pedal for anything more than just a tad of break-up, which it does very well.

My primary use for this thing is that it just makes your sound come alive like an enhancer pedal. I rarely turn up the "gain" or "bite" knobs more than nine or ten o'clock. It's just that this thing, by being on, makes everything else crystal clear in a warm way. Turn it on, and the value of your system about doubles. If I want more overdrive or a little more scream, I kick on another pedal. The Red Snapper will take anything (guitar included) and make it sound oh so much better!

There are other pedals that do this for your system as well. Another one that I have is the Ibanez Classic Phase (not a typical phaser at all) which also does this on minimal settings. Of course, the Boss EH-2 Enhancer does this as well, enhancement being its job. However, it seems to steal some frequencies in favor of others. (However, it's still great; the reviews do not lie!) The Red Snapper enhances pretty well across the board, at least all the guitar frequencies.

Others have said it's too bright. I agree. But used on its lower-end settings, it makes a great enhancer/light overdrive pedal.

Good to go after a few years.

?

See above.

very easy to use... i've changed mine to the original gainster schematic... after all that's where this pedal's origin lies... it's SO NOT a TS pedal as some have advertised!

i use various strats w/ my 2 rock emerald, bad cat a/b50, 68PR, and my mesa BA. the pedal is not noisy. it has a brittle top end, however that i just couldn't take anymore. so, i lowered the gain a tad and just basically made it a gainster... WAY more musical and smooth! i'll rate this pedal as though it were still a snapper...

built very well... not an issue..

never dealt w/ the guy...

i really wanted to like the pedal as it was, but it just was too brittle for my tastes. change about 5 resistors and your op-amp and she really shines through!!! oh yes, or just buy a gainster...

Piece of cake to use, 4 knob version - low to medium gain, the cut knob and bite knob let you tailor the important high end for smooth riffs ... you can really dial in the perfect top end.

This is the best low gain overdrive made today,nothing touches it. If you want ot push your cleans inot lead territory and leave the tone intact, this is the pedal for you. The high ends of most ODs get sloppy because of the gain added ... but the Snapper lets you set the high end that gets driven, and it smooths out the tone just enough, yet leaves a crisp attack ... great stuff.

Don'tknow yet, looks great inside ... clean ...

No xperience with customer support, and that is a good thing.

Really, this is not an exaggerated review, I have been through 50-60 overdrives, custom and otherwise, and this is the low-medium gain winner if you like a transparent overdrive that allows you to tailor you high end to the sweet spot. You can hear all the notes in a chord even with the gain cranked. Great deal. A blues players dream, but also great for any Fende amp to drive it into grit and grind.

4 button version is quite simple to figure out. Cut knob is a great addition as you can get a nice thick tone very easily. Bite knob really allows for grit and growl. Gain is really dynamic, adding as much or as little as you need. Manual is tiny but is quite unnecessary. Really, if you can't get a good sound out of this pedal, instructions won't help.

Fantastic sounding pedal, with tones ranging from SRV to Clapton and beyond. OD is as thick or thin as you want it. It's amazingly simple to get singing lead tones or very transparent crunch. I use this with my Blues Jr. and my MIM Standard Strat and it's a tone beast. It's not fair to compare this to a tube screamer because the Snapper makes the TS seem like a child's toy. To make it even better, I put a boost pedal with it and all the Blues/Rock OD tones you could ever want is at your control.

Seems well built, and I would gig without a backup for sure.

Haven't dealt with them yet

I can't say enough about this pedal. I've had a Fulldrive II Mosfet and I returned it to purchase the snapper, and for all the praise that the Fulldrive gets, it's not even in the same league as the RS (neither is the tube screamer). The pedal just growls and sings no matter how I set it. Since I've gotten it, I've been playing even more than normal because the tone is that good, almost, addictive. If it was stolen/lost, I would immediately buy another one, as this pedal is with me for the long haul.

Relatively easy to use, although the bottom two knobs are a little counterintuitive. Anyway, the manual explains everything, so no big deal.

I'm going to break with the pack for this review. I ended up sending the pedal back. It is very transparent, I'll give you that. But I think the problem is you can't have your cake and eat it too. Very transparent means the pedal is bright and clear. Problem is, in my opinion, overdrive sounds better when there is a little less treble, and a little more midrange. To my ear, this pedal sounded a little harsh and brittle. I had the same problem with the Fulldrive. You can adjust it to make the overdrive smoother, but then it doesn't sound as transparent. So that's why I think you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Pedal seems well made. The new one has a pcb board, but who cares. Most pedals are built that way.

I haven't tried the customer support.

Ultimately the only thing that really sounds like the overdrive you get from a good tube amp is a the overdrive you get from a good tube amp. Boosters are a decent solution, but they don't work at low volume (i.e. they are best to use for solos). For my money, the Sparkle Drive is the best compromise for a transparent overdrive, although I wish it were made a little better. The reason is because of the "mix" control, which lets you mix a smoother overdrive with transparent clean tone. There is no perfect solution, but that's what works for me....

Very easy to set the gain and volume levels, but the 2 middle controls seem to work interactively, and seem to do ALMOST the same thing to the tone. I can't remember if it came with a manual, but I wish I had one! The gain is extremely usable over the entire spectrum, which is very unique in overdrive pedals!

The controls are (the 4 knob version) Volume, Cut, Bite, Gain.

My current rig:
2 strats - sunburst w/ maple neck and Custom Shop 54's
- black w/ tortoise guard, rosewood neck and DiMarzio Class
of 55 in neck, DiMarzio Virtual Vintage (I think) in the
middle and DiMarzio Red Velvet in the bridge
Amps - Tone King Comet 40b (2x12) w/ matching 2x12 cab
- Fender Hot Rod Deluxe
Effects - (in order) Budda Wah
- Menatone Red Snapper
- Barber Direct Drive
- Apex Tuner
- Line 6 DL-4 Delay
- cheap Digitech multi-pedal (chorus, phaser, compression)

First and foremost, this pedal has tremendous bass response! For anyone who has fought with an od pedal because the bass dropped out when you turned it on, look no further. This should be pretty much anyone who has tried a tubescreamer/od based on the tubescreamer. On its own the gain on this pedal may sound a little buzzy, but that complelely disappears when used with a band. It cuts through the mix perfectly, and sounds so natural. Also you'll find the gain sounds great at any level; at 12 o'clock you get smoothly overdriven sounds, where you can hear a maj7 chord clearly. With the gain at 9 o'clock you get an almost clean boost. There is very little compression with this pedal. Works great with other pedals too, and has true bypass. Each strat maintains its own character through this pedal, and picking dynamics come through exactly as they were played.

*** Note, the lack of compression means you need to play accurately!! No slop!!

No problems yet, I've had since November 2004.

Never tried the customer support.

There honestly is no better light overdrive pedal out there, and I've tried a ton (Vox Valvetone, TS-9, TS-808, Boss Blues Driver, Fulltone Full Drive, etc...). If lost or stolen, I would definitely buy another. Without a doubt. And at under $200, it's a fantastic value.

This pedal has turned out to be such a favorite over the last year and change that I had to write a review.

The Red Snapper is a very nice pedal, very transparent.

I hear many people refer to this pedal in a/b comparisons. And it just about always wins.

BUT...... There is competition for this pedal that I never saw in these reviews. These companies live under the radar.

1.
The first pedal is made by Smartpeoplefactory.com It's called the Greenline and it's a superb pedal. Similar to the Red Snapper but with more flexability and character. Think Peter Green playing
'OH WELL'. Note definition is excellent. You can play a maj7th chord and it chimes distortedly but musically. It has 'vintage' and 'modern' modes with or without 'mud'. Vintage no mud is my fave.
This would be a great pedal to go down Freddie King Way. If you play out of a Fender like amp this pedal will yield great SRV tones. But I really hear Peter Green. And that is one great tone
No mid hump, extreemly transparent. And amazingly QUIET maxed with my hands off.
A great blues pedal. A bit hard to find.

2.
The next pedal is like the finest wine ever served. It's made by Hermida Technology and called the Zendrive. The smoothest overdrive I've ever heard.
You can't buy this pedal in a store and there's a backorder wait of up to four months. Worth every bit of the wait.
Robben Ford has always impressed me with his Dumble tone. This pedal is that tone. As close as I've ever heard. And totally musical. Only $150.00 Check out the sound clips at hermidaaudio.com it WILL blow your mind.

These pedals are at the top of the pedal game. I prefer both the Greenline and the Zendrive over the Red Snapper and the Red Snapper over an Ibanez Tube Screamer. All these pedals are like the next generation of the Tube Screamer.


Well folks, thats it.

It's your tone makin.

Own all of these pedals. That's what I say.

Questa e un'aggiunta alla precedente recensione.

Il pedale, a mio avviso, va visto come uno strumento da solista. Sulle ritmiche non e particolarmente indicato, a meno di non suonare riff o ritmiche crunchy.

In questio giorni ho sperimentato qualcosa di interessante. Con il ts9 settato con drive al minimo e prima del Red Snapper, aumentando il drive di quest'ultimo, il pedale diventa anche molto interessante per le ritmiche.


An addition to my previous review:

the pedal must be considered as a solo-working instrument. For the lead, even as a booster or as an overdrive/crunch, it's perfect, but for the rhythm it's a bit lacky. It's more interesting with riff-based or for crunchy rhythm.
But with a good overdrive in front, setted at low gain (as I did with my ts9), this pedal can be really interesting even in harder rhythm sections.
Every day I discover a better quality of Red Snapper!

Niente di particolarmente diverso rispetto ad un normale overdrive: quattro controlli, uno switch. Da considerare la sola difficolta di capirne la filosofia: il volume e un vero boost, non e un bene esagerare (il fatboost e questo pedale hanno piu o meno lo stesso guadagno in db!!!) e il controllo "bite", che ha la funzione di rendere piu aggressivo e pieno di armonici l'attacco, soprattutto sulle corde mute.

Nothing really difficult: it's an overdrive. The volume knob is designed to give a gorgeous amount of boost, for me it's like my fatboost! The "bite" knob it's the trick: it adds harmonics and make your attacks more aggressive, especially on mute note.

La cosa piu bella che abbia mai provato. Trasparente come nient'altro. Non aspettatevi suoni alla ts9, niente aumento di medi, niente perdite sui bassi: il pedale da una bella pacca alle vostre valvole ed il vostro ampli semplicemente suona meglio, la vostra chitarra suonera come e stata costruita per suonare.
E' praticamente perfetto come gain leggero per gli assoli su un brano lento o sui puliti (e IL pedale per i soli sugli slow blues), usato come boost su un buon distorsore/overdrive gli da una personalita ed una caratteristica che non t'aspetteresti.
Quando gli ho aggiunto per la prima volta il suono del vecchio expandora (settato come overdrive a gain/volume/tono medio) ho pianto: il suono che cercavo, il mio Graal. Il prossimo acquisto sara il Fish Factory e sto cercandone un secondo.

Simply perfect. Your guitar still sounds as you guitar and your amp sounds as your amp: simply better. It works perfect used alone for crunchy solos on slow songs, perfect for blues (but dont' expect SRV sounds). It's marvelous added to another overdrive/distortion: when I put together with an expandora (the old version, d.s. setted on od, mid gain, mid vol, mid tone) I cried. The sound is amazing (what it can do with an ocd after!!!). My holy grail.
I want to buy another and/or the fish factory.

Non potrei vivere senza, semplicemente.

Simply: It's a must for my pedalboard. I cannot live without it.

I dunno.

Suono rock, blues e qualche country. Vado dai suoni british (grazie OCD!) a rock/blues texano stile ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Little Feat, Tishamingo, Drive By Tuckers, per tornare a vecchi amori come Clapton. OGNI singolo assolo di QUALUNQUE genere prevede l'uso del Red Snapper.


I play EVERY SINGLE SOLO with the Red Snapper ON!


La mia strumentazione e:
Stratocaster Jimmy Vaughan
Tele Nashville
Godin LGX 3 voice
Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

pedali non OD:
Vox 847
CoolCat
Fatboost
Dyna-Comp
Ernie Ball Volume 6166

Od:
Expandora (2 a catena, uno settato OD e l'altro Distorsione)
Fulltone OCD
Ts9 modded 808
Carl Martin Hot Drive'n'Boost

La selezione l'ho fatta scartando pedali come:
Sparkle Drive
Route 66
Barber LTD
Boss Sd1
Tube Factor
e altri (i primi due consigliatissimi comunque!)


Lo uso con questi settaggi:
Volume 9/10
Tone 2
Bite 3
Gain 11/02 depends on song

non esagerate con Bite al massimo

do not exagerate with Bite knob

This is an update to the "Customer Service" section of my earlier review. All other comments and ratings apply from my earlier review.

I received a phone call at home from Menatone about my earlier review. While I didn't care for the timbre of the call, before I finally hung up on the caller I did hear him make a one good point. I would like to update this section accordingly.

My initial email back from Menatone was phrased "Call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx after 11am PST to discuss" so I presumed he meant the next day. I tried two reach him by phone and mail over the next couple of days, and when I didn't hear back I presumed I was being blown off.

As the caller from Menatone explained, he'd taken a couple of days off to celebrate the holidays. (Duh.)

Now sure, this misunderstanding could have been prevented if Menatone had simply added "call me...after the holidays" to the original email reply to me, or by changing the company voice mail greeting to say they were on company vacation. Or, I confess, I really could have looked at the calendar and put two and two together on my own. (I always seem to work through the holidays, and barely notice them.)

I jumped the gun my original Customer Service rating. According to email from Menatone after my review was submitted, they would have examined my Red Snapper and repaired it (if a repair actually turned out to be necessary; that isn't certain) for a very modest charge for shipping. This support, obviously, warrants a 10--heck, I'd bought the unit used, so Menatone wasn't under any obligation to support it at all. I will deduct two points for what was in my opinion the completely unprofessional direction the phone call was going, and we wind up with an 8.

I'm not sure how this update changes my future plans regarding Menatone products. From the tone of the call I received, I don't get the feeling they'd want my business anyway. But in retrospect, they seem like a classy company run by a stand-up guy who takes much pride in his work, and if I hear back from them positively then I suppose I'd put any Menatone product on a short list of effects I'd consider. I had a problem once with another boutique effects builder in Southern California, and I've since bought effects from that company and thought they were great.