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MAY 2022 TOTAL GUITAR

THE TG TEST

f there’s any pedal that can bene t from Gibson’s avowed

two-pedals-in-one approach for the new Maestro series its

the humble overdrive. Do we want a transparent low to mid

gain overdrive or do we want something a bit gainier and

amp-like? The Ranger sorts this by sort of giving you both,

although it’s not just that one option has higher gain than the other.

The Lo position of the toggle switch is where you’ll  nd the lower

gain overdrive but there’s more to it than just that, as this setting

also has a bit of your clean sound mixed in with it. There’s not

much action until the Gain knob’s at 9-o’clock, (unity gain with the

Output level at max), so it’s beyond that where you’ll start to hear

any e ect on your sound and can explore all the beyond-clean and

just breaking up sounds through to a decent amount of raunch, all

nicely retaining a touch of clarity with that clean element mixed in.

The tone knob operating as a low pass  lter will adjust the top end,

maybe building in some brightness or rolling it back a touch to best

match your amp sound. Get the dirt you want on the Gain knob and

set the output level where you need it; once your Gain knob is

beyond 9-0’clock you can use

the Level knob to build in

a boost for when the pedal is

kicked in or to drive your amp’s

front end. The Hi setting gets

gainier, although not vastly

so, but it does lose the clean

element so the whole sound is

driven. Nicely responsive to

dynamics and guitar volume,

this pedal’s two natural-

sounding voices make it

a versatile asset to have

in front of your amp.

e were hoping that Gibson might delve into their past

and give us a new stompbox with PS-1 phaser sounds

but the sole modulation pedal in the  rst issue of new

pedals is the Comet Chorus. Following the standard

paradigm of any chorus pedal, this has knobs to

control the modulation’s Depth and Rate (Speed) but also has

a feature that’s becoming more common in this type of pedal

– a Mix knob that sets the dry/wet blend of the e ect, allowing

nuanced setting up of the sound so you get a full range from adding

an ear-candy whisper of e ected sound to your dry signal for subtle

interest right through to a full-on e ect. The two toggle-switched

options here are ‘Earth’ which is a standard chorus e ect, swirly,

ﬂ oaty and rich, that sounds instantly familiar and ‘Orbit’ which is

a little more intense. Switching to Orbit appears to add a tremolo

e ect to the chorus to create something that sounds more like a

rotary speaker. That tremolo aspect is most apparent with the depth

turned up full where the on/o sharpness of the e ect can really be

felt. The amount of the tremolo can be adjusted by an internal trim

pot which you can turn clockwise to increase the e ect or counter-

clockwise to decrease it, but straight out of the box our pedal was

turned up full which we liked.

Between those two e ects

types and the juxtaposition of

Depth and Speed knobs there’s

plenty that you can call up but

it’s by using the Mix knob

that you unlock the pedals

ﬂ exibility: The blend between

dry and e ect really does make

a di erence and will reward

experimentation with it; we

found a sweet spot at around

11-0’clock where there’s

a washed out ﬂ ange-like e ect.

MAESTRO RANGER

OVERDRIVE

One pedal – two drives

MAESTRO COMET CHORUS

Earth or Orbit?

AT A GLANCE AT A GLANCE

FEATURES: True bypass, two gain

modes

CONTROLS: Gain, Level, Tone, Hi/Lo

switch, Bypass footswitch

CONNECTIONS: Standard input,

standard output

POWER: 9V battery or 9-12V

DC adaptor

DIMENSIONS: 84mm (w) x 126mm (d)

x 60 mm (h)

FEATURES: True bypass

CONTROLS: Depth, Speed, Mix,

Earth/Orbit switch, Bypass

footswitch, internal trim pot

for rotary speaker effect