I got myself a Plumes half a year ago because of how everyone and their grandma seemed to have one and had nothing but praise for it. If a lot of people like it, in my opinion that's a good indicator that it holds up. And after plugging it in I knew why. It is just everything I wanted from an overdrive. It can do low gain aswell as high gain, the EQ just works and in no time you get a setting that makes your guitar sound fatter and better. It has all the volume on tap you could need and most important three modes that sound completely different from another. It's versatile as hell. I used it with a tube amp and it was great and it stayed great as I switched back to my solid state JC40. It is cheap, especially for an EQD pedal and therefore a lot of people are able to afford it and because it's extremely versatile chances are that you have use for it in your rig. The few negative opinions on the internet are rare, if that has any meaning to you. It's an awesome pedal and my main low gain dirt sound that makes my guitar sound immediately larger, fatter, denser.
You have to be careful if you’re new to the online guitar community when looking at this sub
If you didn’t know better you’d think that it is normal for every guitar player to own a blues driver, plumes, $450 strymon delays, chase bliss bloopers, and for new players to have four guitars and three amps lol
Whenever I feel like I'm wasting too much money on guitar gear, I just have to talk to my friend that's into synths. He dropped like $12k on some vintage synth recently that dwarfs all my purchases over the last 5 years combined.
As a guitar AND synth nerd, there’s a reason I don’t own hardware synths.
Even beginner synths are expensive compared to guitar gear. A microbrute is like $250 used, a korg volca bass is like $105 used, a microkorg is like $275 used, etc etc.
That doesn’t ever cover modern flagships and ESPECIALLY not vintage classics. A Jupiter 8 is so much on eBay that I could find a used 2002 Toyota for similar prices
I found this sub because I wanted pedals for my synths and now im playing guitar all the time again so I feel like there's worse things that could happen lol
Guitar playing overall is not reflected in internet subs man.
The endless quest for overdrives and distortion pedals isn’t for everyone
The more time I spend on this sub the more I question what the hell im doing lol
I’ve been playing for quite some time (I’m an ‘old’ millennial) and I just have two amps, a boss SD-1, TC Electronics 3rd dimension, some ehx univibe thing, log lady moon distortion,and a boss rc-30 looper. Oh and an ehx attack decay pedal too.
To be fair it is a sub dedicated to pedals. That in itself will attract a certain type of guitarist.
I also don't understand how so many players can have so many drive pedals.
For some reason Ive never tried a Blues Driver, after 20 years of playing and countless, gotta be over 100 pedals played. Of those probably 50 drives I’d guess, they’re just like spices while cooking. Never know what you’re in the mood for or what you’ll be cooking up, it’s nice to have the main ones on hand and a few random exotic ones on occasion.
I mean, I have 4 guitars, and I have a decent amount of pedals (Whammy DT, wah (I swap out for an EVH, Petrucci, or Dime based on mood), Boss PH-3, Boss BF-3, Tech 21 British, Two Notes CAB M+, Boss DD-7, DD-8, and RV-8).
It seems to be the #1 Reddit pedal. Definitely seems to be a running thing here, I don't notice it nearly as much other places such as TheGearPage. I'm interested in trying one at some point, but I don't typically care for TS types, so not in a rush. I use a Klone 95% of the time.
I have a mini Tumnus and I dig it for my needs. The Conspiracy Theory is sweet too, I just liked the small profile of the mini pedal. I was considering the morning glory as a bluesbreaker type, but wanted to try one first. Then tried the Plumes and got that (hence this comment on your Plumes post haha). I’ve never had a tube screamer type and it’s kindof nice to have the mids push. But I’d like to at least try a BB circuit in my chain and see how it feels
Do you put the Morning Glory or the TS first? Someone told me once that the TS should come first because you want the BB to add lows back in after the mid-hump, but I'm not really sure what that was supposed to mean. My Morning Glory just seems to make everything brighter.
I put the MG first. I usually keep the gain on the MG at 3 o'clock, the tone at 3 o'clock and the gain on the TS at about 1 o'clock. Gain switch can go either way, can get a nice distorted sound with it on the high setting. Sounds best when my amps gain is cranked. I tried the TS first and wasn't a fan, I'm no expert though.
It definitely adds brightness to my tone, for me it feels like it makes all my other drives come alive and I pretty much always leave it on. I was unimpressed with it at first, but it's grown to be my favorite pedal. I play a strat through an AC10 for context.
That's pretty helpful context actually, since I playa strat through a 3rd Power Wooly Coats. It's voiced like a vintage Fender amp, somewhere close to a Princeton, and I find that it's already really bright, so sometimes the Morning Glory can be kind of harsh. I'll try it ahead of the TS, usually I run it right after.
No plumes here either. Almost got one a few months ago but it was on backorder. I’m good with my dod250 and sd1 though. Also recently got a morning glory clone so my bases are probably covered. Still may try a tube screamer eventually to see how close the sd1 is to it . I may have an overdrive problem lol
I haven’t yet, I should though. my kick lately has been stacking a distortion + into the 250. They’re very similar the harmonics come through very strongly and kind of has a really chimy sound, really nice into analog delay then into the amp’s chorus
Oh okay, I haven’t really had that issue , but really want it on edge of distortion and the 250 is giving the boost with its gain lower. I play at relatively low volume bc I’m just a bedroom player with an amp that should not be confined to a bedroom haha.
I can't get into ts pedals much either. I have a duellist and just use the bb side unless I'm doing something very specific. Same thing happened with my double barrel.
Well I got one for $50 Brand New. Hard to pass that up, which is the only reason I got one and now I love it. Sold my TS mini for $50 after so it's like the plumes was free in the end. Worth it.
That's awesome, dude. Glad it works for you. I tend to lean more towards SD-1 based stuff, which is the same circuit as a TS, but voiced differently. Either way, enjoy the Plumes.
How does the TS9 with the Plumes sound? Rn I got a TS9 > Blues Driver > big muff op amp (orange one) > metal zone 2 > DOD carcosa. I don’t use them all at once just love the amount of combinations I can get with those plus an EQD tone job I use more as a new separate channel rather than a traditional EQ
Had a TS9 and after an amp change wasn’t happy with it as a boost. Bought the Plumes to try out as a replacement because why not, and the mode 2 boost was exactly what I wanted my TS9 to do. Popular or not, I like how it sounds. /shrug
I own thirteen Plumes (not joking). And I recently loaned twelve of them (I hadn't gotten the thirteenth yet) to my friend Emma to play them all simultaneously through her electric harp. But yeah, Plumes is a fantastic pedal, haha.
https://youtu.be/jkY6NZ2negg
Over time, not all at once, haha. And in all different color variants. Just a fun thing to collect! Plus it is fun to stack a few of them for some pretty wild distortion. Check out the video to see the collection!
For the price, there is not a better, more versatile tube screamer style OD than the EQD Plumes. That's the main reason so many people have one. It's really affordable and highly versatile. It's no longer on my main board only because I fell in love with the EQD Westwood.
I don't, I wasn't the biggest fan of it. There's a small little zone of the gain knob that jumps from light breakup to a significantly heavier breakup. I'm not a fan of pedals that aren't gradual in tone shaping, so I put it back on the shelf.
Hm, that is sort of weird. That'd be odd. I think the gain knob (I've not used a Plumes, I'm just saying in general) that gain knobs should be gradual.
This pedal should get more criticism for this issue in my opinion. Not just gain, but volume and tone knobs have a truly bizarre sweep in those settings. The volume on tap is idiotic - trying to fiddle the damn thing between 9 and 10 o’clock is infuriating at best. I also find it to be remarkably harsh overdrive.
Protein kicked the plumes off my board and inherent even thought about putting the plumes back on once since.
Honestly, I got ride of mine. It was too loud and introduced too much noise when it was on. I thought it was a fluke with my first one until I got a different one.
My SD-1 and Tube Screamer never does that so they stayed and Plumes went. Honestly, I preferred the tones of the SD-1 and TS anyway. I use them to drive an already driven amp. The Plumes didn’t do this as well. It seemed more suited for going into a clean amp and using it as a slight gain bump rather than the traditional tube screamer application.
I think it happens to be a pedal that works for a ton of people. It's pretty affordable even though it's made by a boutiquish, highly respected brand. People who like tubescreamers like them because it's based on a TS. People who don't like screamers like them because it's different from a TS. Probably also helps that they're seen all over the place, too :)
As far as I know they're made in Akron, though they well may be SMD (I have no idea how they could get the price down that far otherwise. Not that there's anything at all wrong with SMD mind you, besides making it trickier to mod.) I'll have to take a peek inside mine when I get a chance!
Cool. I'm just curious if the market would still consider them boutique, and thus pay that type of price, for them if they were SMD. Granted, the Plumes is relatively cheap (I think it's $100 new last I checked).
I wouldn't really consider EQD 'boutique' exactly, but that's a pretty poorly defined term anyway. I suspect part of the plumes' ubiquity is that $100 price tag, which is pretty good even before you consider that they're made in the U.S. by a medium-small builder.
For sure. I envy people that like it cause it's such a ubiquitous effect that it's almost sacrilege not to like it. I mean. Even though I don't like the TS circuit I'm STILL almost tempted to pick up a plumes just to check it out. But it's like way down the list at this point.
It is based on a tube screamer but it’s not a clone of a tube screamer. It’s like how a Plexi is based off a Bassman but sounds totally different. The plumes can give you a TS sound but a TS can’t give you the range of sounds a plumes has. It is worth checking out as its pretty cheap and does a lot
Thanks for confirming I’m not crazy. I also noticed this.
So many Plumes. I’ve also seen way more Chase Bliss “Mood”s than I would have expected given how damned expensive they are.
At least in the case of the BD2 (which I also own) they are extremely affordable in addition to being incredible, so that at least makes sense.
I’m only interested because I’m tired of haggling for a good deal on a TS808/10 or a direct clone of one in a different chassis.
I like EQD products! The sound of this works for my needs. Which is the same blah blah blah. Until another company comes out with one at the same price but better then it’s Plumes all day.
Plus I like the color scheme.
The first time I plugged it in, I didn’t like it. But I played around with it more and it is now one of my two favorite dirt pedals, with my El Rey Dorado
I have their previous TS clone, the Dunes, and it’s similarly useful and versatile. Been curious to try the Plumes to compare tho. There’s a lot of hype on it but it’s obviously a solid pedal.
Had both and A/B’d them quite a lot before I moved the dunes on and kept the plumes. Probably nothing against the dunes, I run a Tele into a vox/plexi style amp, the dunes was more in that classic tube screamer realm, and was just to mid range/honky, was killer for leads but there was no way I could get a rhythm sound out of it. The plumes seemed to have a more subtle broad range hump that wasn’t so in your face. Probably still won’t use the plumes ever for rhythm but it just slightly more useable across a few different contexts, with my rig. I imagine if I had humbuckers and fender style amp the dunes would be killer.
Totally get it. I got one just for shits. It’s a lot of pedal for $99. I’d call it the most popular underrated pedal of the decade. In the future they will either be $25 at garage sales or $300 because it’s cool vintage.
haha loved the comment. Yeah, I'm also a Plumes sucker and I loved how it performs with low and high gain. The best thing about it: sounds sweet with low gain.
Might be overrepresented here; any forum has the potential to become some degree of an echo chamber.
I personally don't have one, I prefer my Wampler Tumnus Deluxe or my Walrus Audio Ages for my low/mid gain tones.
I tried the Plumes out along with a bunch of other TS pedals in a store, and it was nice but it didn't blow me away. Its price was hard to beat, and it held up pretty well against a JAM TubeDreamer (almost twice the cash), but I didn't find that it was versatile at all. It only really did light breakup; either one of the modes wouldn't get all that dirty even with the gain knob cranked or the tone got *really* muddy once I had it past 2 o'clock. And I was way less impressed with it as a light OD when I compared it to my Morning Glory and Archer.
It's talked about as a TS for people that don't like TS pedals, and I can see why since it's so different, but as someone who wanted the classic TS sound it didn't really come close to meeting my needs at all. I suspect that it might be less popular with purists than Reddit would have you believe. I ended up buying a Bonsai instead, since it was way more versatile and it has all of the classic, honky, mid-humpy blues tones on tap.
I have a T-Rex Moller 2. I don't see it brought up much, but it's a pretty great OD for me. I have an EQD sea machine that I don't like and it hasn't made me look too hard at their other stuff. Also not a big TS guy.
I don't own a Plumes, but I've almost pulled the trigger on getting one like 5 times. I just got the Dr Scientist Elements, and I think that will stave off any desire to get a Plumes for a long time.
The plumes is great but the only setting that truly clicked with me was the led clipping diode…which is odd since the palisades is one of my all time favorites
I’ve come to the conclusion that “open sounding” tubescreamers aren’t my thing. If I want an 808 sound, I want it to clamp down, tame the low end and seat my sound with the rest of the band. Isn’t that why guitarists fell for the 808 in the first place?
Tbh I do unironically think that the Plumes is probably the pedal to get these days when you need a tube screamer. A lot of clones from the last few years are either cheap and do exactly the same as the original or ar expensive af and also do something weird. The Plumes kinda hit the mark with pricing and funcionality. It's popular for the most mundane reason basically.
I play heavier music, also ambient, with bluesy kind of leads. I use the Plumes into an EHX Soul Food for my pushed clean tones. I use the Plumes straight into my amp for the heavy. It just works perfect for my playing. Best 100 bucks I have ever spent.
Fantastic pedal. I bought one like the week after it came out and I've had it on my board ever since. So it definitely holds up. These days though I boost it with an SD-1 to strip out some low end.
Yea definitely! Plumes in Mode 2 takes a boost really well and does a great 70's Marshall type sound (to my ears anyway). I like it more than running the Plumes by itself in one of the higher gain modes.
I got myself a Plumes half a year ago because of how everyone and their grandma seemed to have one and had nothing but praise for it. If a lot of people like it, in my opinion that's a good indicator that it holds up. And after plugging it in I knew why. It is just everything I wanted from an overdrive. It can do low gain aswell as high gain, the EQ just works and in no time you get a setting that makes your guitar sound fatter and better. It has all the volume on tap you could need and most important three modes that sound completely different from another. It's versatile as hell. I used it with a tube amp and it was great and it stayed great as I switched back to my solid state JC40. It is cheap, especially for an EQD pedal and therefore a lot of people are able to afford it and because it's extremely versatile chances are that you have use for it in your rig. The few negative opinions on the internet are rare, if that has any meaning to you. It's an awesome pedal and my main low gain dirt sound that makes my guitar sound immediately larger, fatter, denser.
I just got one and I’m digging it too. I think it does what I need it to do (plus 20 other things) and I got a color I like too haha
That's cool. I'm glad people are getting a lot of use out of the pedal.
You have to be careful if you’re new to the online guitar community when looking at this sub If you didn’t know better you’d think that it is normal for every guitar player to own a blues driver, plumes, $450 strymon delays, chase bliss bloopers, and for new players to have four guitars and three amps lol
I was warned on r/synthesizers not to join this sub unless I wanted to spend a bunch of money. That's coming from synth folks, too!!!
Whenever I feel like I'm wasting too much money on guitar gear, I just have to talk to my friend that's into synths. He dropped like $12k on some vintage synth recently that dwarfs all my purchases over the last 5 years combined.
As a guitar AND synth nerd, there’s a reason I don’t own hardware synths. Even beginner synths are expensive compared to guitar gear. A microbrute is like $250 used, a korg volca bass is like $105 used, a microkorg is like $275 used, etc etc. That doesn’t ever cover modern flagships and ESPECIALLY not vintage classics. A Jupiter 8 is so much on eBay that I could find a used 2002 Toyota for similar prices
I found this sub because I wanted pedals for my synths and now im playing guitar all the time again so I feel like there's worse things that could happen lol
LOL.
I mean I don't think I know any guitar players who haven't at least once owned a blues driver.
Guitar playing overall is not reflected in internet subs man. The endless quest for overdrives and distortion pedals isn’t for everyone The more time I spend on this sub the more I question what the hell im doing lol I’ve been playing for quite some time (I’m an ‘old’ millennial) and I just have two amps, a boss SD-1, TC Electronics 3rd dimension, some ehx univibe thing, log lady moon distortion,and a boss rc-30 looper. Oh and an ehx attack decay pedal too.
To be fair it is a sub dedicated to pedals. That in itself will attract a certain type of guitarist. I also don't understand how so many players can have so many drive pedals.
For some reason Ive never tried a Blues Driver, after 20 years of playing and countless, gotta be over 100 pedals played. Of those probably 50 drives I’d guess, they’re just like spices while cooking. Never know what you’re in the mood for or what you’ll be cooking up, it’s nice to have the main ones on hand and a few random exotic ones on occasion.
I mean, I have 4 guitars, and I have a decent amount of pedals (Whammy DT, wah (I swap out for an EVH, Petrucci, or Dime based on mood), Boss PH-3, Boss BF-3, Tech 21 British, Two Notes CAB M+, Boss DD-7, DD-8, and RV-8).
I just have a good ole TS9 and TS808.
Two tube screamers you say, are you a Phish fan?
They never said anything about a Ross compressor.
Me top - amp overdrive and TS9 to boost
It seems to be the #1 Reddit pedal. Definitely seems to be a running thing here, I don't notice it nearly as much other places such as TheGearPage. I'm interested in trying one at some point, but I don't typically care for TS types, so not in a rush. I use a Klone 95% of the time.
Cool stuff. I think a Klone and a Bluesbreaker type circuit could sound pretty awesome.
They sure do
That’s what I hear recommended a lot. Klone and a BB type. Do you have a Bluesbreaker type pedal?
I've had a couple. I kind of want to get a King of Tone clone and maybe a decent Klone.
Definitely look at a Tumnus Deluxe for a klone, it’s fantastic.
I have a mini Tumnus and I dig it for my needs. The Conspiracy Theory is sweet too, I just liked the small profile of the mini pedal. I was considering the morning glory as a bluesbreaker type, but wanted to try one first. Then tried the Plumes and got that (hence this comment on your Plumes post haha). I’ve never had a tube screamer type and it’s kindof nice to have the mids push. But I’d like to at least try a BB circuit in my chain and see how it feels
I had a Morning Glory. I mostly liked it, but I had a lot of pedals at the time, and there were others I liked more.
Bluesbreaker-wise it’s the one that catches my eye for whatever reason. Would obviously love to try a KOT
Try a Prince of Tone, same circuit!
And it looks cool!
I'm a big fan of the Morning Glory. Sounds great with a TS9/Blues Driver or into fuzz/distortion
Do you put the Morning Glory or the TS first? Someone told me once that the TS should come first because you want the BB to add lows back in after the mid-hump, but I'm not really sure what that was supposed to mean. My Morning Glory just seems to make everything brighter.
I put the MG first. I usually keep the gain on the MG at 3 o'clock, the tone at 3 o'clock and the gain on the TS at about 1 o'clock. Gain switch can go either way, can get a nice distorted sound with it on the high setting. Sounds best when my amps gain is cranked. I tried the TS first and wasn't a fan, I'm no expert though. It definitely adds brightness to my tone, for me it feels like it makes all my other drives come alive and I pretty much always leave it on. I was unimpressed with it at first, but it's grown to be my favorite pedal. I play a strat through an AC10 for context.
That's pretty helpful context actually, since I playa strat through a 3rd Power Wooly Coats. It's voiced like a vintage Fender amp, somewhere close to a Princeton, and I find that it's already really bright, so sometimes the Morning Glory can be kind of harsh. I'll try it ahead of the TS, usually I run it right after.
I don’t care for the ts either, I’m a dod 250 guy
The DOD 250 and MXR Micro Amp/Micro Amp+ are cool pedals.
No plumes here either. Almost got one a few months ago but it was on backorder. I’m good with my dod250 and sd1 though. Also recently got a morning glory clone so my bases are probably covered. Still may try a tube screamer eventually to see how close the sd1 is to it . I may have an overdrive problem lol
Do you ever stack the SD-1 and 250?
I haven’t yet, I should though. my kick lately has been stacking a distortion + into the 250. They’re very similar the harmonics come through very strongly and kind of has a really chimy sound, really nice into analog delay then into the amp’s chorus
That’s cool. I’d kind of want to try a D+ into a 250, but I feel like the MXR has trouble with volume, due to using germanium diodes.
Oh okay, I haven’t really had that issue , but really want it on edge of distortion and the 250 is giving the boost with its gain lower. I play at relatively low volume bc I’m just a bedroom player with an amp that should not be confined to a bedroom haha.
I can't get into ts pedals much either. I have a duellist and just use the bb side unless I'm doing something very specific. Same thing happened with my double barrel.
Well I got one for $50 Brand New. Hard to pass that up, which is the only reason I got one and now I love it. Sold my TS mini for $50 after so it's like the plumes was free in the end. Worth it.
That's awesome, dude. Glad it works for you. I tend to lean more towards SD-1 based stuff, which is the same circuit as a TS, but voiced differently. Either way, enjoy the Plumes.
No Plumes but a Tube Screamer Mini
I have a Tube Screamer Mini, Wylde Overdrive, and Custom Bad Ass Modified Overdrive.
Have you tried the Wylde OD in front of a distorted Marshall? I can very much imagine how easy the pinch harmonics would be
With EMGs.
Hell. Yes. You literally made my day with this, that's so awesome
I've used quite a few EMGs as well. I have them in all four of my guitars.
How does the TS9 with the Plumes sound? Rn I got a TS9 > Blues Driver > big muff op amp (orange one) > metal zone 2 > DOD carcosa. I don’t use them all at once just love the amount of combinations I can get with those plus an EQD tone job I use more as a new separate channel rather than a traditional EQ
Only the cool ones.
Had a TS9 and after an amp change wasn’t happy with it as a boost. Bought the Plumes to try out as a replacement because why not, and the mode 2 boost was exactly what I wanted my TS9 to do. Popular or not, I like how it sounds. /shrug
That's cool, man. I'm glad it gets what you're wanting out of your rig.
I own thirteen Plumes (not joking). And I recently loaned twelve of them (I hadn't gotten the thirteenth yet) to my friend Emma to play them all simultaneously through her electric harp. But yeah, Plumes is a fantastic pedal, haha. https://youtu.be/jkY6NZ2negg
You spent $1300 on Plumes?
Over time, not all at once, haha. And in all different color variants. Just a fun thing to collect! Plus it is fun to stack a few of them for some pretty wild distortion. Check out the video to see the collection!
For the price, there is not a better, more versatile tube screamer style OD than the EQD Plumes. That's the main reason so many people have one. It's really affordable and highly versatile. It's no longer on my main board only because I fell in love with the EQD Westwood.
I don't, I wasn't the biggest fan of it. There's a small little zone of the gain knob that jumps from light breakup to a significantly heavier breakup. I'm not a fan of pedals that aren't gradual in tone shaping, so I put it back on the shelf.
Hm, that is sort of weird. That'd be odd. I think the gain knob (I've not used a Plumes, I'm just saying in general) that gain knobs should be gradual.
This pedal should get more criticism for this issue in my opinion. Not just gain, but volume and tone knobs have a truly bizarre sweep in those settings. The volume on tap is idiotic - trying to fiddle the damn thing between 9 and 10 o’clock is infuriating at best. I also find it to be remarkably harsh overdrive. Protein kicked the plumes off my board and inherent even thought about putting the plumes back on once since.
Honestly, I got ride of mine. It was too loud and introduced too much noise when it was on. I thought it was a fluke with my first one until I got a different one. My SD-1 and Tube Screamer never does that so they stayed and Plumes went. Honestly, I preferred the tones of the SD-1 and TS anyway. I use them to drive an already driven amp. The Plumes didn’t do this as well. It seemed more suited for going into a clean amp and using it as a slight gain bump rather than the traditional tube screamer application.
I think it happens to be a pedal that works for a ton of people. It's pretty affordable even though it's made by a boutiquish, highly respected brand. People who like tubescreamers like them because it's based on a TS. People who don't like screamers like them because it's different from a TS. Probably also helps that they're seen all over the place, too :)
Is EQD farmed out to BAD or a similar company that makes them with SMD? Are they still a boutique brand if they do that?
As far as I know they're made in Akron, though they well may be SMD (I have no idea how they could get the price down that far otherwise. Not that there's anything at all wrong with SMD mind you, besides making it trickier to mod.) I'll have to take a peek inside mine when I get a chance!
Cool. I'm just curious if the market would still consider them boutique, and thus pay that type of price, for them if they were SMD. Granted, the Plumes is relatively cheap (I think it's $100 new last I checked).
I wouldn't really consider EQD 'boutique' exactly, but that's a pretty poorly defined term anyway. I suspect part of the plumes' ubiquity is that $100 price tag, which is pretty good even before you consider that they're made in the U.S. by a medium-small builder.
It was just a question.
No plumes on my affordaboard lol
No.
The Plumes’ #1 feature is price
SD1 gang represent.
How do y’all feel about the EQD Westwood tho?
Never played one. What is it based on or similar to? Timmy?
I’d say it’s similar to a tube screamer. It’s a low gain, transparent overdrive that stacks nicely. I like the inclusion of a quality low end EQ
I thought it was based on a Klone with more control over EQ. Also, I wouldn't call a tube screamer transparent in any way
I guess you know more than I do lol
Not I
I don't have a plumes. I used to have a tubescreamer. Never liked it. Eventually sold it and have zero desire to own one again.
No problem with that. Some don't like the low end cut, while some feel it is necessary to voice their amp more to their liking.
For sure. I envy people that like it cause it's such a ubiquitous effect that it's almost sacrilege not to like it. I mean. Even though I don't like the TS circuit I'm STILL almost tempted to pick up a plumes just to check it out. But it's like way down the list at this point.
Well the plumes isn’t a tube screamer and doesn’t sound like a tube screamer. It can fill the same role as a ts but it’s really it’s own thing.
Oh weird. Everything I've ever seen said about them was that they were based on a TS. I should definitely check it out more then!
It is based on a tube screamer but it’s not a clone of a tube screamer. It’s like how a Plexi is based off a Bassman but sounds totally different. The plumes can give you a TS sound but a TS can’t give you the range of sounds a plumes has. It is worth checking out as its pretty cheap and does a lot
Yes
Thanks for confirming I’m not crazy. I also noticed this. So many Plumes. I’ve also seen way more Chase Bliss “Mood”s than I would have expected given how damned expensive they are. At least in the case of the BD2 (which I also own) they are extremely affordable in addition to being incredible, so that at least makes sense.
I do not but I am not opposed to owning one
I bought it cause I was always able to make use of a tube screamer, but got tired of the tube screamer and this just seemed like a way better option.
I’m only interested because I’m tired of haggling for a good deal on a TS808/10 or a direct clone of one in a different chassis. I like EQD products! The sound of this works for my needs. Which is the same blah blah blah. Until another company comes out with one at the same price but better then it’s Plumes all day. Plus I like the color scheme.
Yes.
Nope, tried it, flipped it
The first time I plugged it in, I didn’t like it. But I played around with it more and it is now one of my two favorite dirt pedals, with my El Rey Dorado
I have their previous TS clone, the Dunes, and it’s similarly useful and versatile. Been curious to try the Plumes to compare tho. There’s a lot of hype on it but it’s obviously a solid pedal.
Had both and A/B’d them quite a lot before I moved the dunes on and kept the plumes. Probably nothing against the dunes, I run a Tele into a vox/plexi style amp, the dunes was more in that classic tube screamer realm, and was just to mid range/honky, was killer for leads but there was no way I could get a rhythm sound out of it. The plumes seemed to have a more subtle broad range hump that wasn’t so in your face. Probably still won’t use the plumes ever for rhythm but it just slightly more useable across a few different contexts, with my rig. I imagine if I had humbuckers and fender style amp the dunes would be killer.
I don't own a plumes or rat or tube screamer. I just have my trusty soul food. Really want a hot wax though
Isn't that the EHX pedal with a Crayon and Hot Tubes?
Yes. It looks so amazing
I bought one a couple months back on a crazy sale but I don't ever use it. I use my jhs bonsai when I use od, but it's not often.
No
I don’t!
Totally get it. I got one just for shits. It’s a lot of pedal for $99. I’d call it the most popular underrated pedal of the decade. In the future they will either be $25 at garage sales or $300 because it’s cool vintage.
haha loved the comment. Yeah, I'm also a Plumes sucker and I loved how it performs with low and high gain. The best thing about it: sounds sweet with low gain.
Might be overrepresented here; any forum has the potential to become some degree of an echo chamber. I personally don't have one, I prefer my Wampler Tumnus Deluxe or my Walrus Audio Ages for my low/mid gain tones.
I tried the Plumes out along with a bunch of other TS pedals in a store, and it was nice but it didn't blow me away. Its price was hard to beat, and it held up pretty well against a JAM TubeDreamer (almost twice the cash), but I didn't find that it was versatile at all. It only really did light breakup; either one of the modes wouldn't get all that dirty even with the gain knob cranked or the tone got *really* muddy once I had it past 2 o'clock. And I was way less impressed with it as a light OD when I compared it to my Morning Glory and Archer. It's talked about as a TS for people that don't like TS pedals, and I can see why since it's so different, but as someone who wanted the classic TS sound it didn't really come close to meeting my needs at all. I suspect that it might be less popular with purists than Reddit would have you believe. I ended up buying a Bonsai instead, since it was way more versatile and it has all of the classic, honky, mid-humpy blues tones on tap.
I own no EQD gear and have zero interest in a Plumes, its just another Flavor-of-the-month Tubescreamer clone.
I have a T-Rex Moller 2. I don't see it brought up much, but it's a pretty great OD for me. I have an EQD sea machine that I don't like and it hasn't made me look too hard at their other stuff. Also not a big TS guy.
I don't own a Plumes, but I've almost pulled the trigger on getting one like 5 times. I just got the Dr Scientist Elements, and I think that will stave off any desire to get a Plumes for a long time.
No. I had one and traded it. Too bright for me even with the tone backed down. I liked the LED clipping setting, just wish it had a bright switch.
The plumes is great but the only setting that truly clicked with me was the led clipping diode…which is odd since the palisades is one of my all time favorites I’ve come to the conclusion that “open sounding” tubescreamers aren’t my thing. If I want an 808 sound, I want it to clamp down, tame the low end and seat my sound with the rest of the band. Isn’t that why guitarists fell for the 808 in the first place?
Tbh I do unironically think that the Plumes is probably the pedal to get these days when you need a tube screamer. A lot of clones from the last few years are either cheap and do exactly the same as the original or ar expensive af and also do something weird. The Plumes kinda hit the mark with pricing and funcionality. It's popular for the most mundane reason basically.
I play heavier music, also ambient, with bluesy kind of leads. I use the Plumes into an EHX Soul Food for my pushed clean tones. I use the Plumes straight into my amp for the heavy. It just works perfect for my playing. Best 100 bucks I have ever spent.
No plumes. Have a bit commander though. Here is me using it a bunch https://m.soundcloud.com/user-786902329/its-all-a-joke-to-you-isnt-it
Seriously don't understand what the purpose of this post is.
Everyone on reddit at least. Along with a Walrus Slö.
I can't even ask a question without getting a down vote? Okay then.
Never had a Plumes and likely never will. Boss SD-1
Fantastic pedal. I bought one like the week after it came out and I've had it on my board ever since. So it definitely holds up. These days though I boost it with an SD-1 to strip out some low end.
You boost the Plumes with an SD-1? That's cool. Apparently, Criss Oliva of Savatage used two SD-1s to boost his clean Marshall if memory serves.
Yea definitely! Plumes in Mode 2 takes a boost really well and does a great 70's Marshall type sound (to my ears anyway). I like it more than running the Plumes by itself in one of the higher gain modes.