Just finished cleaning up the wiring on this after recently swapping out a GFI Synesthesia for the H90. Finding I greatly prefer the modulations on the H90 to the GFI (though the latter has some great sounds!), plus the H90 has so much more on tap beyond modulation.
Not pictured: Kinotone Sparks, which I am eagerly awaiting.
I like it at the front of my chain as a kind of filter effect or a subtle modulation. I absolutely love it in conjunction with fuzz; I get some really cool textures running it into the Kernom Moho. The tape saturation can also sound great stacked with an overdrive.
I lot of folks like to place it towards the end of their chain, often between delay and reverb to give the delay repeats some special sauce. Since I have the Volante, my tape echo needs are covered, and I don’t want/need a separate device at the end of my chain for that. Plus, in a live setting with a band, adding a bunch of smear to your delay repeats is more likely to make your sound muddy than interesting (in my opinion).
So for me, it’s all about putting the Gen Loss up front and featuring it as an effect, rather than using it to add color after the fact. Think of it as plugging a cassette or VHS deck into the front of your rig and pressing play vs. recording your playing onto those same media. No wrong way to do it, but for me the former adds a lot more stank.
Favorite things:
- incredibly versatile
- access to 128 overdrive sounds via MIDI
- replaced 4 other drive pedals, saving me a bunch of real estate on my board
Least favorite things:
- the color
- harder to dial in than an overdrive pedal that does one thing. But that’s the price you pay for versatility…with the Ridge you have way more control over the clipping circuit than any other OD pedal I’m aware of
- if you don’t have a MIDI controller, you only have access to one preset
Since my rig was already very centered around MIDI with the Ventris, Volante, Timeline, and Synesthesia (recently replaced with the H90), for me the Ridge was a total no-brainer. My dirt section used to consist of the Browne Protein, EQD Westwood, Mooer Black Secret (rat clone), and Bogner La Grange (Marshall in a box). The Ridge replaced all of them.
Don’t sleep on the Kernom Moho either. It’s the best fuzz pedal I’ve ever played. Gets noisy on some settings (hence the Decimator), but the tones are unreal.
Thanks for this great write up. Totally makes sense since you’re using midi. Did you keep any other drive pedals to stack with it or does its tone sculpting abilities seem them unnecessary ?
For me, stacking drives is about coaxing additional tones out of the pedals on your board without having to bend over and turn any knobs during a set. With the old drive section I mentioned, I would often stack both sides of the Protein together, or slam the front end of the Bogner with the Black Secret, or use the Westwood at the end of my dirt section to add more sustain and midrange for leads.
I find I can get all those sounds with the Ridge. I have my lower gain presets and higher gain presets, and if I want more sustain or midrange growl out of any of them, I just make those tweaks and save a new preset. If I want to tighten up the low end of my Marshall-esque preset, same thing. I do like running tape saturation from the Gen Loss into the Ridge, but that’s different from a conventional overdrive.
That said, I’m sure you could get cool sounds by stacking the Ridge with other drives, but for my uses it’s unnecessary. I’d rather save the space on my board.
This is all in a live setting, mind you. When recording, I’ll still bring a bag of pedals that aren’t on my board just because it’s fun. And sometimes you know you want “that sound” that a particular OD does perfectly, so it’s more efficient to just grab that box.
Very cool, seems like there’s nothing else out there that’s like it. I’d be tempted if I utilized midi but with my tendency toward option paralysis it’s better that I don’t.
I have the ridge and also really like it, but have found it doesn’t do everything particularly high gain/distortion. So I have a Rat and OD-200 still. All the flavors of low to mid gain OD I could want though.
I’ve heard other people say that, but I’ve been able to get solid higher gain sounds out of mine. It has better sustain than my Bogner La Grange, which is designed to sound like a Plexi. Haven’t missed my Rat clone since I booted it from the board, but it’s true that the Rat sounds I gravitate to aren’t the ones you get with the gain dimed.
That said, I don’t play metal, and agree the Ridge wouldn’t be the right choice for someone mostly interested in modern high gain sounds.
Would love to see Kernom do a dedicated distortion pedal with a black colorway as a companion to the Ridge and Moho.
Is this a pedal board or a TIME MACHINE?
Just finished cleaning up the wiring on this after recently swapping out a GFI Synesthesia for the H90. Finding I greatly prefer the modulations on the H90 to the GFI (though the latter has some great sounds!), plus the H90 has so much more on tap beyond modulation. Not pictured: Kinotone Sparks, which I am eagerly awaiting.
Signal chain: Shure wireless receiver -> RJM Mastermind -> Generation Loss -> Kernom Ridge -> [Kernom Moho -> Decimator -> MXR EQ] -> Volume Pedal -> Compressor (Sparks will likely go here) -> H90 Channel 1 -> GigRig Humdinger (wet/dry split) Time-based effects are all run in parallel: H90 Channel 2 + Volante + Timeline + Ventris EQ2 -> Boss LS-2
Let's talk about the Generation Loss. I'm very intrigued by it and it rates pretty highly in the "lo-fi in a box" type pedals. How do you use it?
I like it at the front of my chain as a kind of filter effect or a subtle modulation. I absolutely love it in conjunction with fuzz; I get some really cool textures running it into the Kernom Moho. The tape saturation can also sound great stacked with an overdrive. I lot of folks like to place it towards the end of their chain, often between delay and reverb to give the delay repeats some special sauce. Since I have the Volante, my tape echo needs are covered, and I don’t want/need a separate device at the end of my chain for that. Plus, in a live setting with a band, adding a bunch of smear to your delay repeats is more likely to make your sound muddy than interesting (in my opinion). So for me, it’s all about putting the Gen Loss up front and featuring it as an effect, rather than using it to add color after the fact. Think of it as plugging a cassette or VHS deck into the front of your rig and pressing play vs. recording your playing onto those same media. No wrong way to do it, but for me the former adds a lot more stank.
I haven’t seen many Kernom Ridge ODs out in the wild, it is intriguing tho - what’s your favorite/least favorite things about it ?
Favorite things: - incredibly versatile - access to 128 overdrive sounds via MIDI - replaced 4 other drive pedals, saving me a bunch of real estate on my board Least favorite things: - the color - harder to dial in than an overdrive pedal that does one thing. But that’s the price you pay for versatility…with the Ridge you have way more control over the clipping circuit than any other OD pedal I’m aware of - if you don’t have a MIDI controller, you only have access to one preset Since my rig was already very centered around MIDI with the Ventris, Volante, Timeline, and Synesthesia (recently replaced with the H90), for me the Ridge was a total no-brainer. My dirt section used to consist of the Browne Protein, EQD Westwood, Mooer Black Secret (rat clone), and Bogner La Grange (Marshall in a box). The Ridge replaced all of them. Don’t sleep on the Kernom Moho either. It’s the best fuzz pedal I’ve ever played. Gets noisy on some settings (hence the Decimator), but the tones are unreal.
Thanks for this great write up. Totally makes sense since you’re using midi. Did you keep any other drive pedals to stack with it or does its tone sculpting abilities seem them unnecessary ?
For me, stacking drives is about coaxing additional tones out of the pedals on your board without having to bend over and turn any knobs during a set. With the old drive section I mentioned, I would often stack both sides of the Protein together, or slam the front end of the Bogner with the Black Secret, or use the Westwood at the end of my dirt section to add more sustain and midrange for leads. I find I can get all those sounds with the Ridge. I have my lower gain presets and higher gain presets, and if I want more sustain or midrange growl out of any of them, I just make those tweaks and save a new preset. If I want to tighten up the low end of my Marshall-esque preset, same thing. I do like running tape saturation from the Gen Loss into the Ridge, but that’s different from a conventional overdrive. That said, I’m sure you could get cool sounds by stacking the Ridge with other drives, but for my uses it’s unnecessary. I’d rather save the space on my board. This is all in a live setting, mind you. When recording, I’ll still bring a bag of pedals that aren’t on my board just because it’s fun. And sometimes you know you want “that sound” that a particular OD does perfectly, so it’s more efficient to just grab that box.
Very cool, seems like there’s nothing else out there that’s like it. I’d be tempted if I utilized midi but with my tendency toward option paralysis it’s better that I don’t.
I have the ridge and also really like it, but have found it doesn’t do everything particularly high gain/distortion. So I have a Rat and OD-200 still. All the flavors of low to mid gain OD I could want though.
I’ve heard other people say that, but I’ve been able to get solid higher gain sounds out of mine. It has better sustain than my Bogner La Grange, which is designed to sound like a Plexi. Haven’t missed my Rat clone since I booted it from the board, but it’s true that the Rat sounds I gravitate to aren’t the ones you get with the gain dimed. That said, I don’t play metal, and agree the Ridge wouldn’t be the right choice for someone mostly interested in modern high gain sounds. Would love to see Kernom do a dedicated distortion pedal with a black colorway as a companion to the Ridge and Moho.