Egnater Silversmith Review – Unique 2 Pedals in 1 Design!

Hey there, and welcome again to yet one more guitar pedal evaluation! As you’ll have observed, I’ve been publishing a number of guitar pedal articles and demos as I began buying guitar pedals, largely overdrives, distortions, and boosts, to check with tube amps and reactive hundreds in a direct recording setup.

I needed to attempt as many pedals as doable and doc my expertise right here. So, this time, we are going to have a look at one of many rarest distortion pedals: the Egnater Silversmith distortion pedal! I acquired this again in Türkiye and was actually pumped up about this because it was very tough to seek out this on the web.

Like I all the time do, I’ll do my greatest to supply as many particulars as doable in regards to the Egnater firm and the Egnater Silversmith distortion pedal and a quick demo video on this Egnater Silversmith evaluation.

TL;DR

There are some guitar pedals which stand out with their function set and construct high quality on the market, but it surely’s a rarity! Egnater Silvermith was one among them at first sight! Proper after I acquired mine, I used to be very impressed!

Egnater Silversmith is among the guitar filth packing containers that belong to firm’s long-released and long-discontinued pedal line up. It’s a distortion pedal with a separate enhance operate.

Mainly, you get two pedals in a single enclosure. Distortion and Enhance part may be ordered as you want utilizing the mini switches on the pedal and it additionally lets you add different guitar pedals in between these two impartial circuits utilizing the patch jacks!

The pedal is constructed like a tank and one of many heaviest pedals I’ve ever seen! The Distortion and the Enhance part options the identical traits. You’ll be able to take it as a two channel amp with a number of tweaking out there!

The enhance part was my favorite and actually labored nice with any setup whether or not it’s a clear, an overdriven or a full blown distortion channel on my amps. The distortion part wasn’t my cup of tea because it wants a clear channel to function at its greatest in my view.

I’d undoubtedly purchase the enhance part in the event that they bought it individually! Nevertheless, I don’t suppose I might use the distortion as I depend on amp distortion many of the instances and personally love so as to add overdrives/enhance on high.

cigilovic.com can’t blindly recommend you go and get one for your self. As a substitute, I’d recommend you must actually research your wants and solely get this pedal if you wish to construct your rig round a clear amp with Silversmith distortion traits in addition to some further drive which you also needs to take a look at together with Silversmith.

By utilizing the patch enter and output options on this pedal, you may actually customized construct your rig however it can require some money and time to experiment with completely different flavours of drives which will work nicely with Silversmith.

About Egnater

Bruce Egnater based Egnater Custom Amplification in 1980. Egnater began out like many amp builders: he was searching for a sure tone out of a guitar amp, and no product existed available in the market, so he got down to create his personal.

Within the Nineteen Seventies, true tube saturation was solely achieved by working a Marshall amp huge open. Egnater took a small Gibson amp ebook and changed the speaker with a resistor, and inserted the output from the Gibson amp into the enter of a Marshall 200-Watt head that allowed the guitarist so as to add distortion with out turning up quantity.

Egnater later got here up with a channel switching amp that might produce each clear and overdrive tones from the identical unit. Egnater obtained a patent for his modular musical amplification system, the place the pre-amp sections of an amp are modular and may be modified out of an amp.

Within the late 2000s, Egnater launched a full line of normal tube amplifiers. They at the moment produce customized modular amplifier combos, heads, pre-amps and speaker cupboards.

Despite the fact that Egnater is greatest recognized for its boutique-style tube amps, the corporate additionally manufactured varied guitar pedals again within the day. I attempted to collect data on the corporate, nonetheless, it seems that the Egnater Amps will not be actively manufacturing merchandise anymore. I usually come throughout posts by Bruce Egnater on Fb in regards to the builds he’s been engaged on and releasing.

Based mostly on my fast analysis, I additionally came upon that the Egnater firm may need been acquired by Boutique Amp Distribution. Nevertheless, there’s solely a hyperlink to the official Egnater web site (egnateramps.com), and the web site is down! Aside from that, I can’t discover any particular data on the present Egnater product line wherever!

One final be aware relating to Egnater Amps is that there are a lot of Egnater Amps listed on Reverb for very inexpensive worth tags. I’d anticipate loopy costs as the corporate is a US one, and these merchandise are usually not straightforward to supply wherever. However weirdly, you may even get their flagship amps round 1000€ within the EU.

Egnater Silversmith Distortion

The Egnater Silversmith is a flexible, all-analogue dual-function pedal that mixes high-gain distortion and a versatile enhance in a single unit. Designed by amplifier guru Bruce Egnater, it affords a variety of tonal choices appropriate for varied musical kinds.

Mainly, it’s two pedals in a single! A lift and a distortion circuit in the identical enclosure, which you’ll mix whereas permitting you to insert completely different pedals in between!

Enhance

The Enhance part affords not solely a clear, tone-enhancing clear enhance, but in addition a variety of semi-clean/crunch tones with whole management over the Tightness, Brightness and Achieve parameters.

There are Drive, Color, Tight and Stage controls on the enhance part. With the Drive management, you may set the quantity of “Grit“. For decrease settings, you may utilise this as a clear enhance, or you may improve the quantity of grit and get into the rock’n roll crunch territory.

The Color adjusts tone from clean and mellow to a glassy excessive finish with out ever getting ice-picky.

The Tight management permits getting a extra centered low finish (with Tight on + place). Within the – place which is the conventional place, you get a fuller and fatter tone.

Distortion

The Distortion part affords a powerful vary of medium to very high-gain tones. The parameters are just about the identical, however there are some further parameters at your disposal. You have got your typical Achieve, Tone, Tight, Quantity controls in addition to the Contour parameter right here.

The Achieve management generates the quantity of distortion from traditional crunch to over-the-top high-gain, whereas the Tone management permits adjusting the high-end from mellow to glassy.

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There may be additionally an similar Tight swap on the distortion part, as talked about. When Tight is on the + place, you’ve got a pointy low finish, whereas on the – place, a looser really feel. It’s advisable that the Tight swap be enabled when utilizing a whole lot of achieve within the distortion part for a greater punch and readability.

Final however not least, there’s additionally the Contour management, which is mainly a mid management. You’ll be able to reduce the mid frequencies beneath midday or enhance them after midday positions. There’s additionally one other swap to additional management this Contour pot. This swap lets you select one among two completely different frequencies.

D<B Setting

There’s additionally a really distinctive function that stands out, contemplating this pedal was lengthy discontinued (launched in round 2014). You will notice one other mini swap between two sections. This D<B swap lets you configure the person Enhance and Distortion pedals to be within the order of your selection. With the Path set to D<B place, Enhance is earlier than the Distortion within the sign path.

Think about you’ve got two separate pedals, with the Enhance being the primary. When the Distortion is on and the Enhance is off, the Distortion pedal features independently.

Identical with Enhance. Turning on the Enhance earlier than the Distortion leads to the Distortion pedal changing into much more overdriven and compressed. So, not solely is there extra achieve on faucet, however you may as well have an effect on the general tone of the Distortion by adjusting the controls on the Enhance.

As an example, you might set a reasonably brilliant considerably decrease achieve Distortion sound and use the Enhance to push the achieve and use the Color knob to impart a smoother solo tone. Notice that, with the Enhance earlier than Distortion, there will not be a considerable quantity improve since you are coaxing extra achieve and distortion, not quantity out of the Distortion.

Setting the swap to O>D reverses the order of the 2 locations and locations the Enhance in line after the Distortion. This creates a very completely different impact. The Enhance can now operate as a quantity/solo enhance for the Distortion pedal.

You may be taking part in by the Distortion alone, and switching within the Enhance will permit you to have a preset solo quantity and tweak the solo tone, additionally. The probabilities are limitless!

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As anticipated, when combining the Distortion and Enhance pedals, there’s a restrict to how a lot achieve you may realistically use earlier than noise and suggestions grow to be problematic.

Patch Jacks

Along with the conventional guitar enter and output jacks, there are additionally a pair of jacks labelled IN-PATCH-OUT. These jacks supply a technique by which you’ll separate the Enhance and the Distortion into two separate pedals.

This offers you numerous doable methods to configure your pedal rig. As an example, you might plug your guitar into the Silversmith Enter, come out of the PATCH-OUT into your different pedals. Then take the output out of your final pedal, plug it into the PATCH-IN and join the Silversmith Output to your amp.

You have got now organized your setup in order that the primary pedal in your chain is the Silversmith Enhance.

Your sign then passes by all of your different pedals, and the Silvesmith Distortion is final in line. Once you use all 4 jacks on the Silversmith, it successfully separates itself into two particular person pedals that you would be able to insert wherever in your pedal chain. Simply reverse the hookup described to place the Distortion first in your sign chain and the Enhance final!

Earlier than we leap to the evaluation part, let’s first take a look on the tech specs briefly.

Egnater Silversmith Tech Specs

As you may see, it’s one of the crucial distinctive twin pedals, and it was undoubtedly forward of its time! I don’t know any pedals that offer you this many routing choices in a single pedal. Contemplating that this pedal was launched round 2014, I believe Mr Egnater proved that he was the innovator!

Egnater Silversmith Overview & Sound Demo (no speaking)

For the demo, I used the loops that I had already recorded in my Boss RC-5 looper pedal, as I simply needed to do a fast demo. In these loops, I used my FGN Boundary Odyssey, Cort M600, Fender American Standard Strat, Ibanez AR300 and Epiphone SG Custom Ebony guitars.

Other than the guitars, I used my normal setup that includes my Marshall JVM410HJS, Two Notes Torpedo Captor X SE, RME Babyface PRO FS and Genelec DP8020 DPM.

For the consequences, I solely used Wave Alchemy Magic7 as my reverb plugin. I additionally experimented with completely different channels on my JVM 410HJS to point out you what this feels like on a clear channel, in addition to crunch and overdrive channels as a lift.

Egnater Silversmith Overview

As I discussed, I had the prospect to amass this pedal once I was in Türkiye for my trip. I used to be actually fortunate as a result of I discovered this pedal listed by somebody I knew on-line, and the pedal was in actually good situation. I obtained the unique field and the field content material together with the pedal, a fortunate discover! 🙂

Silversmith is available in a fairly fancy field with all these figures proven above. I believe they used this field for the collection of pedals on this product line. There’s solely labelling on the facet that helps determine the pedals.

As you may see beneath, mine has the serial quantity #SLVERSMITH-08141042. I believe this means the month/yr, however I’m uncertain; I’m simply taking a guess right here.

Contained in the field, the pedal is surrounded by foam on every floor. There’s additionally one other piece of froth for the highest floor as nicely which isn’t proven right here.

The field content material is fairly easy, nothing fancy right here. There’s a small handbook and 3M pads for the underside chassis. The handbook talks about all of the options that I discussed above.

As you may see from the entrance web page, there are two extra pedal names talked about. Egnater had additionally launched Goldsmith overdrive and Black Metallic distortion pedals, together with Silversmith distortion.

The handbook talks in regards to the Silversmith distortion naturally, but it surely additionally consists of frequent options, that are acknowledged above, such because the D<B operate and Patching options.

On the underside chassis, you’ve got your set of screws and the battery compartment. Sure, it really works with a 9V battery!

There’s additionally one other small LED indicator for low battery on the highest left entrance panel. That is to point low battery, but it surely additionally blinks while you join it to a 9V DC adapter after which take away the connection.

Egnater Silversmith might be the heaviest guitar pedal I’ve ever owned! I’m not speaking in regards to the sounds right here. It’s extra like a brick and is constructed like a tank. It’s the one pedal that doesn’t transfer on my pedalboard, simply sits on the board and dominates! 🙂 No surprise why I nonetheless obtained the 3M pads model new with a pedal which is 10+ years previous!

Silversmith is fairly intimidating at first look as there are a lot of knobs (large and small) and in addition many switches in addition to 4 jacks on high. Though it appears to be like difficult, when you consider the options on their very own first, after which attempt to mix them, it begins making much more sense.

As I discussed on this collection of articles which I function completely different distortion and overdrive pedals, my important aim was to attempt completely different pedals so as to add flavour to my rig whether or not to a tube preamp or a tube amp.

The Enhance part is ideal! I can confidently say it’s among the finest boosters I’ve ever tried, and it really works with any guitar that I personal and any channels on my preamps and amps. You have got tons of choices to regulate the character of the boos,t and it provides candy flavours to your already overdriven sounds.

I might say the enhance part, when pushed versus the distortion part, sounds very related within the sense that Mr Egnater designed a pedal that has a personality. These sections sound very related, similar to the channels on a nicely constructed amp going from clear to crunch and distortion sounds.

You’ll be able to mainly use the enhance as a clear enhance and even drive it additional with the drive management on the enhance part. I may confidently say that I’d purchase the enhance part as a separate pedal and not using a single doubt!

However the distortion part wasn’t actually my cup of tea. I believe it has a really distinctive texture, and because it’s a distortion, it’s not straightforward so as to add it to your already overdriven sounds. I believe it will make a whole lot of sense to simply use a clear amp for this part.

As you may hear from the video, once I use the distortion part, the sounds I used to be getting grow to be extra dense and squeezed. On high of that, think about you may mix these collectively. That didn’t work in my case. I believe it’s overkill!

Sound-wise and character-wise, I might say Egnater Silversmith is a really unique-sounding guitar pedal. I couldn’t discover a time period to share with you, corresponding to “It feels like a Marshall” or “It feels like a Fender!”. It has a really distinctive, silky excessive with out piercing one’s ears. And even with tight switches engaged, it’s not that tight.

I can usually work most filth packing containers with crunch and distortion channels on my Marshall amps, however Silversmith wasn’t straightforward to regulate on already overdriven channels. There’s a little bit room for adjustment on the distortion part when used on such channels. However enhance part was fairly straightforward to adapt to any sound and I actually dig the outcomes!

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As talked about, there are tons of choices to alter the order of the enhance and distortion, in addition to with the ability to inject different pedals into the sign chain utilizing patch enter & output jacks. These options are fairly distinctive, and I’ve by no means seen something like this. However are these wanted for many gamers? I’m unsure about that. I believe Silversmith is designed for skilled, touring musicians, contemplating these glorious and gig-friendly options. For bed room gamers, these options are undoubtedly overkill.

General, Egnater Silvermith is among the best-built guitar pedals with tons of distinctive and progressive options I’ve ever seen! The construct high quality is out of this world, and the function set is forward of its time!

Nevertheless, I might not blindly suggest this to anybody with out actually understanding your wants in a pedal rig. The distortion facet is fairly candy, however I believe it requires a clear channel quite than a crunch or overdriven channel. So, if you wish to base your rig round a clear amp and just like the distortion texture of this pedal, it could be an excellent choice to get this and add a few completely different drive pedals, even by utilizing the patch enter and output to have a customized drive/enhance rig.

The place to Egnater Silversmith?

As talked about, Egnater Silversmith was launched round 2014 and is lengthy discontinued. It’s not even clear whether or not even Egnater Amps firm continues to be energetic. It looks like Bruce Egnater is energetic on Fb, promoting a few of his work in addition to arranging tube amp workshops, however I don’t see an energetic webpage with a wholesome distribution community of Egnater merchandise anymore.

So, discovering Egnater merchandise and the Silversmith is fairly powerful as of late! Your greatest wager is to take a look at Reverb commonly, as there are a number of Egnater pedals listed there.

Take a look at Egnater Silversmith on Reverb right here

You may also take a look at my used gear on the market part, as I’ve listed my Egnater Silvermith right here in addition to on Reverb (solely delivery throughout the EU zone)

Take a look at my used gear page right here

Thanks for visiting my weblog and supporting me thus far! I’ll hopefully see you within the subsequent evaluation right here!

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