Carlsbro

I started hunting for the Carlsbro Minifex Series effects for no other reason than their absolute weirdness. These boxes are rediculously big so one can wonder where that name came from. Half of the box is empty and is just added weight and space. Footswitch is at a strange position form that size perspective as well. These guys are in most cases mains powered (240 volts AC) and therefore have a power and a effect status LED. Both LED's are facetted. What I do like about these boxes is that they're virtually indestructable. Furthermore they're great fun from an electronics point of view containing capacitor brands which are almost only seen in European equipment.

ADT
Echo
Graphic EQ 10
Chorus
Phase 1

ADT

Carlsbro ADT

One of my favourites. As far as I learned ADT is Automatic Double Tracking and should add a small delay to the signal. This baby gives more of a chorus suggestion. The cool thing is that this chorus can be set to sound great while there's barely any movement in the sound as in contrary to a normal chorus which is, with exceptions, usually driven by a LFO giving a rotary type modulation. All this suggests that the "dry" signal is delayed as well and then mixed with the modulated signal, enabling pretty minimal time alterations and therefore a very spacy effect. Before owning a Boss CE-1 this one would have been my choice to get that Steve Rothery Marillion sound. The Chorus setting itself is less convincing and the vibrato is too wierd and out of control to suit my taste.

Tech details: Based on 2 SAD1024 BBD lines.

Echo

Echo

An analog delay based on a Reticon R5101 delay chip. It's got two trimmers for the BBD (Bias and output) but so far I haven't managed to get rid of all distortion.

graphic EQ 10

Graphic EQ 10

A 10 band graphic EQ. What more to say than that it definitely adds some distortion to the sound and colours the sound with some added treble as well.

Chorus

Chorus

The Chorus in the series. Again AC (220 volts) powered. Without having checked I suspect this one to be roughly the same as the ADT without the ADT function implemented since they share the same board but this case some components aren't in place. The ADT uses two SAD1024 BBD chips. The chorus only one. Nice pedal although, as is the case with the other ones, it's way too heavy and chunky again.

Interesting thing is to consider that this chorus is build, at least based om the date codes, in 1978. Therefore it's a clear example of other manufacturers following the Boss example with the CE-1. Considering how "British" Carlsbro is, even up to today, one can expect that the development of this thing must have been fueled by the succes of the Police someway.

Phase 1

Difficult one, this one. It's a 2 stage phaser. Other than that I cannot say the thing ever really attracted me for it's sound. Add that up to the size and it's clear why I haven't ever carried it to a gig.