SolidGoldFX Counter Current

From SolidGoldFX:

You’ve dipped your toes in the water with our Surf Rider, now it’s time to get swept away in the Counter Current—our do-it-all immersive lo-fi reverb unit that gives you just the type of degraded reverb madness that you need to create crumbling walls of verb, 8-track garage rock ambience, and swells of bit-starved echo.

The heart of the Counter Current is three interconnected and highly interactive controls and one footswitch: F.Back (Feedback), Decay, Drive and the Momentary Feedback switch. By using these controls together and with generosity, all kinds of reverb sounds open right up.

Let’s start with the Decay control: This knob affects the end result of all your careful knob placement, by extending the, well, decay time of the virtual reverb tank. Dialing it in nice and high keeps the trails ringing out longer and really lets you flood the front end of your amp with the heart of the Counter Current.

In keeping with lo-fi reverb tradition, the Drive control overloads the virtual reverb tank transducers, saturating the front end with a touch of extra gain that excites your tone in the best way. Dialing this control back gives you a characterfully clean  reverb sound that still sounds an absolute treat, but go ahead—tweak that thang. We won’t judge.

The Counter Current’s Feedback control recycles the post-’verb signal into the front end for a chaotically rich reverb tone, increasing the resonance and augmenting the Drive control. Turning the control fully counterclockwise shuts the back door and keeps the feedback out of the input, retaining sparkle and clarity.

Of course, the Tone knob does wet-signal tone knob things, lightening or darkening the reverb signal, and the Level control adds wet signal to the mix. After you set those, it’s time to examine the Momentary Feedback switch. Buckle up.

The Counter Current’s secret weapon, the Momentary Feedback switch ramps up the feedback for some oscillating blasts of reverb just when you want them. Not only is it a killer tone, but it’s a rock ‘n’ roll set ender. This switch’s function, as you might expect, is extremely dependent on where the “core three” knobs are set, giving you everything from crunchy spring drip to bottomless wells of soft scuzzy  ambience and everything in between. Step inside the Counter Current. It’ll treat you well.

Knobs:

• Tone: This knob adjusts the frequencies of the reverb signal only, giving you ‘verb tones from dark and intimate to bright and present.
• F. Back: This adjusts the intensity of the momentary feedback footswitch function and works in conjunction with the drive and tone controls. Increasing this control will create a faster and more intense feedback.
• Decay: Increases the size of the reverb space and the intensity of the signal.
• Drive: This control lets you saturate the virtual transducers on the reverb unit, giving you additional grit, grime and drive before the ‘verb kicks in.
• Level: Controls the volume of the reverb (wet) signal.

Auxiliary:

• Input: Instrument or other pedal goes here.
• Output: Amplifier or other pedal goes here.
• Expression jack: Connecting an expression pedal here gives you hands-free control over the Drive.
• True bypass footswitch: Turns the effect on and off.
• Momentary feedback footswitch: Hitting this switch will cause the reverb to feed back into itself creating sounds ranging from a mild oscillation to a screeching howl depending on where the f.back and drive controls are set.

Power: The Counter Current requires a center-negative 9VDC power adapter with at least 53mA of current (not included). Almost all power supplies meet this requirement, but check yours beforehand.

Dimensions: 4.67″ x 3.68″ x 1.18″ (119mm x 94mm x 30mm)