Scott Ian Black-13 Review

Now Scott?s teamed up with DigiTech to unleash Black-13, a stompbox that lets guitarists dial up his signature sounds, giving Anthrax and metal fans all the blistering tone they can handle. Plug into the Black-13 pedal, select a tone, and shred. Your playing goes in, Scott Ian?s tones come out. Redo your favorite Anthrax song, or write a new one. It?s your pedal. It?s your guitar. And now it?s Scott Ian?s historic metal tones. The tones that built a legend.

Ease of Use:	8.7
Sound:	9
Reliability:	9
Impression:	9.3
Overall rating:	9
Users rating:	6.4
Comments:	8

overall: 9.3

Featured review by: shugo449, on october 09, 2006

Purchased from: Guitar Center

Ease of Use: The Black 13, the new signature pedal from Scott Ian, is an amazing pedal. It is extremely easy to use, even a knew player that's only been playing guitar for a couple weeks could operate and get an awesome tone from it. The manual is great, if you couldn't figure out how to operate by just knowledge of how a pedal works the manual will definitly help you out. it's still help for to look in there if you know how to use it allready. As well as that, the packet gives you presets for the sound of the recordings (each setting mimicks a previous Scott Ian tone) but you can also edit it to your preferances. // 9

Sound: The sound for this is amazing, perfect for any Anthrax cover but setting 6 inparticular is very good for covers of early Avenged Sevenfold and tones on Trivium's "Ascendancy". When I use it, I play with a Jay Turser standard and a Peavey 112 Bandit. I know I don't have the best gear, but the Black 13 fixes that, it makes my guitar wail with amazing distortion. On settings 1 and 2 though it gives a lot of feedback if you have the "level" setting high enough, but otherwise, no interfearences. Bedides distortion, it has a setting called "Finalle" (setting seven, the last setting) in which there is a delay with a pitch shift. You can adjust how fast the delay is and if the pitch shift goes up 12 semitones, down 12, or anything in between. The down side to that is, you can't take of the pitch shifting effect. // 10

Reliability & Durability: The Black 13 is very reliable. From now one whenever I play a gig with my band that's what I'm using. I can completly depend on it for all my distortion needs. The pedal is really easy to tap with your foot too, so that makes it even easier to use on stage. I can also depend on it not to squel when there's a pause, I just don't use setting 1 or 2. As for durability, it's still in good shape, but I've only had it for two weeks. // 8

Impression: My overall impression of the Black 13 is that this is a decently affordable pedal with good distortion and a cool unadvertised effect. I mainly play metal like Avenged Sevenfold Or Trivium, as I stated before. I also play hardcore stuff like Rise Against. This pedal is amazing for both. If I lost it or it broke I'd kill someone to get back done to Guitar Center and replace it. If you want to play amazing metal or hardcore get this pedal. What are you still sitting there reading this for? Go buy this pedal allready! And remember, if you and your band are doing a cover of Trivium's "A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation" and your in the middle of the solo, makes sure you don't step on it and turn of the distortion, trust, it's not fun! // 10

overall: 8.3

Reviewed by: seanie!, on march 31, 2007

Purchased from: Guitar Center

Ease of Use: First off this pedal is extremely easy to use. It's set up like just about any other stompbox. It has level, bass, treble, and effect seetings, 1 input and 2 outputs (1 amp out, 1 mixer out). The 6 of the 7 effects are straight distortion, while the 7th is distortion, pitch shift, and delay. Came with a power adapter which is nice, a Scott Ian signature pick, and a traveling case so it doesn't get knocked around when traveling I guess. I just wish there was a mid tone control, but it's not bad since Scott scoops all his mids anyway. // 8

Sound: This pedal is excellent. 6 different types of distortion, but I was surprised to find all of them were pretty unique. I am a big Anthrax/Scott Ian fan and that was a big factor in buying this pedal. I use this for the most part through my Crate Powerblock though a Crate GT412 cabinet, and I've never been let down by the tone of it. One great attribute is that it's much quiter than my Boss MT-2 Metal Zone while I'm not playing, literally almost silent. It's even got a mixer out for easy recording. This thing will cover any kind of metal you can think of, from old school thrash to the new school of Trivium, Bullet for My valentine, etc. My only gripe about this pedal is they could've really done without the "Finale" tone. It's pretty much useless as just a delay, and you can't change the pitch like with a wah pedal or Whammy while playing. Other than that it's atleast fun to make cool noises with from time to time. // 8

Reliability & Durability: This pedal is a pretty solid all metal construction. It's just as sturdy as any Boss pedal. I've already dropped it a couple times and it's been stomped on and kicked around quite a bit and still holding up strong. All the jacks are sturdy and it's got the no slip rubberized bottom and stomp pad. Also, one cool sode note, the LED is super bright, and since the pedal is chromed/faux chromed, the thing practically lights up like a christmas tree, so you can very easy tell when it's on in a dark club. // 9

Impression: I use this to mostly play heavy metal/trash with my band. It hasn't quite taken over as my main pedal, but I do use it on about half of our set. It's not super versitile in the means of being able to play blues or classic rock with it, seeing as how the tones are all modeled from Anthrax/SOD songs. It's made and advertised for the metal players, and it does it's job very well. If it broke I'd buy a new one in a heartbeat. // 8

overall: 9.5

Reviewed by: Slaytanic1986, on september 09, 2006

Price paid: $ 162.87

Ease of Use: I love this pedal, it's really simple to use, the 7 preset tones (of classic Scott Ian songs) are changable by one knob, and then 2 other knobs are used for changing bass or treble ammounts on those pre-set tones. It couldn't be easier. It came with a manual that explains how to work everything, which to be fair you don't even need. // 9

Sound: I'm using an Ibanez GAX75 with a 50 watt Laney Hardcore amp, and I have it on a completely clean tone, the pedal does everything. There are 7 set tones, which you can manipulate as you choose, with 12:00 on the treble and bass knobs being the tone that Scott himself uses. It's really simple to sound exactly like Anthrax. I feel that having 7 effects is slightly pointless, as most of them sound very similar, so I tend to stick to the "I Am The Law" and the "Madhouse" effects. The 'Finale' effect is good, but you cannot make the delay just stay at the same tone, it always either goes up or down as it fades, which is a little annoying, and you can't switch out of the effect to another mid playing as it is changeable by knobs, so I ust turn it off and use my Tubescreamer when I want a different effect mid song. There is an output specifically for Mixers, so you can use this pedal in the studio and get the exact tone you desire and not a slightly reduced quality that you may get otherwise. The pedal is silent when it is turned on and you are not playing, which is a big change from my old DOD Death Metal pedal which was just as noisy when you werent playing as when you were. I'm rating this as 9 as I feel that although the tone is perfect, you really don't need to have 7 settings of effects. // 9

Reliability & Durability: The pedal is new so I don't know yet if it is durable, but it seems reliable enough, it came with a electric plug so you don't need to use batteries for it. The casing is all metal and it looks solid. I can see that I will be able to gig without a backup for it. // 10

Impression: I play all metal and this effect is perfect. Of the other metal distorion pedal I have tried this is by far the best. I got it on sale on www.gak.co.uk and it was £30 off. I also play with Ibanez TS9 Tubescreamer and it really complements the tone I get on this pedal. When this arrived I loved how DigiTech had given you extra things in the box to go with the pedal, including the power pack, a small case to put the pedal in so it doesnt't get damaged, and a scott Ian Pick (I already had one from seeing Anthrax live that I caught, but I can actually play with this one). As well as that, the battery is not placed in an exterior place as with most effects, it is infact underneath the footswitch, and is easily accessable by putting the end of your jack on a button type thing on the side of the pedal, it sounds odd, but I really like it. I chose this as Scott Ian is a very influential musician and I love playing thrashy metal, so this seemed ideal. I just love this pedal. // 10

Comments

[seek_&_destroy]

can this pedal handle tones other than scott ians? like megadeth's or testament's tones?

[Slaytanic1986]

yeah, just find a tone that is similar on the pre-set sounds, then adjust the bass and treble accordingly, you should get pretty close for anything you want

[Slaytanic1986]

also.. i dont know what hapened, but i paid 89 pounds for this.. not 162!

[shugo449]

payed 120, idk wut happened

[TeddyRamone]

damn... 162, 120, 89 pounds... its gonna be 3 times the price here in Singapore... damn that sucks...

[GMPX]

I got a used one of these off Ebay, it's a killer distortion pedal and I love it, but the 'Finale' effect is useless, they should have allowed the delay and pitch shift to be shut off. the other annoying thing is the output level between effects is not consistant, so some appear louder than others as you switch.
But otherwsie the tones are spot on to the Scott's sounds, esp the S.O.D tone, wow!

[defiant1]

i got one for 299 australian , roughly 115 pound. worth it

[Josola]

Dude you paid 89 pounds for this but cos UG is an American website it converted it to dollars