Directly from the banks of the Arno, from the land of Dante Alighieri and the beating heart of the Italian Renaissance, Dolphin's Sound is a company with a year and a half of life that has launched its line of about twelve pedals, including experiments, leading productions, customizations and signature has come to a regular production, and today we will talk about one of the pedals of their line called “Dante's Trilogy”, the Overdrive Purgatorio.
Aesthetic Considerations
Unlike the series of the three naked men dedicated to the statues of Piazza della Signoria, the aesthetic part of the Dante series is on another level, oven painting and captivating graphics are the presentation ticket of this pedal, the transparent knobs of classic shape are gaudy at first sight.
Il ice below which is formed by an internal bulb that illuminates a base in plexiglass matching the ice of switching on the pedal, it may seem simple, useless or if you prefer, but it is still something more to see, so be it.
Small mention to the signature and the serialization of the pedal on the internal base below, it is always good to know that your product has a number and a construction date, it really does "Custom".
Technical Considerations
Particularly light oven-painted aluminum chassis, at first tactile approach it seems to handle a toy rather than a pedal.
Obviously this must be seen in a bidirectional way since today the weight variable is much more important than it was 20 or 30 years ago, ergo a pedal with good performance and very low weight is an excellent weapon for the traveling guitarist but also for the musician with back problems.
When the pedal is removed, the PCB industrial signed Dolphin's Sound, no millefori or cheap trinkets, the board section is neat, clean and reliable, which obviously suggests that the pedal, even if subjected to physical stress, does not yield very easily.
The board is separated from the plexiglass bar via a clear plastic separator, which confirms my above deduction, the pedal will not be subjected to senseless movements.
The only drawback goes to the battery housing, both for the wire a little narrow perhaps and for the fact that there is too much space and the battery tends to bang a little around the chassis, which can be solved with a thickness of rubber or sponge , even if many of us are used to using power supplies the problem could very well go into the background without any effort, but for those who use it perhaps they could have to say.
The potentiometers do not let you think of some idle stroke, you actually feel the weight of the component as you turn the knob, which confirms the use of good all-metal potentiometers and not chinoiserie with plastic shafts or baseplates in who knows what material of doubt geographical origin.
The components are housed without bending or errors of any kind, a precise modino construction, as expected from a Boutique pedal.
We conclude with the TrueByPass mechanical, it is objectively the best system as well as the most used in this field to allow the sound to remain intelligible in all its parts and without putting other electrical circuits in the middle.
Sound Considerations
It's not a overdrive Hi Gain, its sound spectrum allows it to cover a certain range of genres that hardly tend to flow into the extreme, its particularly dynamic timbre makes it useful for those who do rock but it doesn't have an extreme amount of gain, it stays in the pure overdrive realm.
The test took place using two guitars, one Vigier Bumblefoot has always been Fender Lonestar Stratocaster linked to one Hughes and Kettner 25th Anniversary , all wired with cables lymph audio OFC N6 copper, low resistance, low capacitance and 100% real shielding, for the best possible performance and the minimum noise.
Considerations with single coil guitar
With the Fender Lonestar the overdrive behavior responds well to the single coils, the pasta remains precise and the dynamics are respected based on the touch of the player.
According to the different gain levels, the response changes progressively, equivalently in this way:
- Gains 1-3 - The harmonic thickening makes the sound appear to have slightly more body and more thickness under the string, the dynamic response of the amplifier is better and allows for a much more dynamic and present timbre but only slightly dirty.
- Gains 4-7 - Here the distortion begins to be present, obviously in a very composed form, although the single coil does not tend to be particularly mixed, especially in the case of agreements taken in first position, the stamp vintage rock that you create allows you to switch between a clean sound but full of harmonics up to a good one crunch only with the use of plectrum.
- Gains 7-10 - Here they begin to think in the language ofhard rocker, we are at the possible limit of the sonic excursion and begins to hear the compression and the pedal push, the sound is full of body and slightly ringing and full of twang.
Considerations with Humbucker Guitar
With Vigier Bumblefoot the behavior was distinctly different, very different worse e full-bodied but always very manageable.
As before, according to the different gain levels, the answer is different:
- Gains 1-3 - With the use of the Humbucker the gain threshold becomes very different, already at the first levels you can notice that the sound is slightly dirty, easily reaching the threshold between the clean saturated and lite crunch, this also means that the sound acquires much more body and substance, and with the tone potentiometer the bell of the medium high.
- Gains 4-7 - Here the situation becomes bad, we pass into the land of pushed rock , the closest reference would be that of Led Zeppelin, the best application would even be that of boost for an already distorted channel, the result is that the sound is inflated over its entire spectrum and acquires a good attack has always been very light compression, you have a lot of fun with this use, even the sounds in style Cream they are well rendered by the sound paste of the pedal.
- Gains 7-10 - We arrive at the threshold of the hardest rock, we manage to 'get up to the sounds of AC/DC and Deep Purple, almost coming to the sonorities heavy metal of Iron Maiden , but not beyond that, it doesn't have enough gain to lead to something more extreme.
In view of the various tests carried out, both with the Fender and with the Vigier, we trace the salient points of the timbre of this pedal:
- Good Attack
- Particularly bright sound
- Non-invasive tone control
A separate mention should be made for the tone control, unlike the various tone controls found on the factory pedals it works in a more composed way, largely avoiding making the pedal become a chainsaw if put at maximum excursion, the same must be said when the potentiometer reaches the maximum left excursion, the sound is not excessively dark, obviously the yields must be managed from guitar to guitar, on the Stratocaster a setting al value four, while on the Vigier the control was set in flat.
The volume potentiometer on the other hand has no particular mentions whatsoever, at low volumes there are no unwanted frequency losses or compressions, it does its job very well.
The use that made the most of the rest of the tests was when the Purgatory boasted the crunch channel of the combo used for rehearsals by giving it much more push but without kneading or making the sound excessively dirty.
Economic Considerations
Together with the trilogy of naked men, Purgatory puts itself in a market position that I personally consider the most interesting for the end user.
I call this slice the “Still Better Than. . . ", Which perfectly expresses the idea that buying a local product can sometimes be much cheaper than you think, let's see why:
The very famous Ibanez TS9 has a street price around 150 euros, the same as in Purgatory.
Purgatory is TrueByPass, Tubescreamer is not.
The Tubescreamer is industrially produced, the Purgatory is built by hand.
The Tubescreamer to make it sound worthy in many perform the changes Keeley, with Purgatory this thing can probably be avoided.
If you really want to spend 150 euros for the new Tubescreamer and add another 50 or maybe more to make it modify and make it a truly professional overdrive of course you can, but you can also ask Dolphin's to modify the Purgatory if you really want, but in my opinion, the base of Purgatory is much further ahead than that of Ibanez.
The only differences in favor of the Tubescreamer are obviously the amount of gain that the Ibanez pedal and many more mids and highs but making it much more acid compared to Purgatory.
Final considerations
PRO
- Selling price below average
- The underlying LED allows you to have an extra lighting in the pedal board
AGAINST
- A second EQ control would have made it perfect.
- A clipping control to give more gain if needed would perhaps be useful
USEFUL INFORMATION:
- Producer:Dolphin's Sound
- Model:Purgatory
- Price: 150,00 VAT included
