This Week's Script (yes, you heard me)

So here it is. It'll be a lot more interesting in the video itself but tell me what you think. Too many jokes? Not enough? Other issues? Let me know!

Hello! Hello! How d- ....heyyyyy

Welcome to Shady Reviews! This is the first (and maybe last idk) video in a series where I get some music gear, give you an honest review, and end it off with a song to show how it works!

On today's....action-packed episode, we're looking at the Donner "Black Devil" digital mini preamp with a cab sim. 

This thing is a lot smaller than I thought. Looks like a small cake...or maybe my insatiable lust for sweets is finally making me hallucinate.

Donner was kind enough to send this to me for a review and they are some of the kindest people I've had the pleasure of talking to, so thanks again, guys! 

Alright so before I start showing it off, I just wanna mention something here because it's a common mistake that can be made. You need a 9 volt adapter to run the pedal. It doesn't come with one. You can get one pretty easily and if you're planning on buying more pedals in the future, you'll definitely want it.

Alright, so what's on this thing? We got some knobs for...knobbin. You got your standard lows mids and highs and if you're anything like me, you'll be spending hours on that alone. 

You got your level for volume.

Here you have....a pretty good reverb effect actually. You can turn it up a little to be...a cool as ice rock star, or you can turn it up all the way to simulate being that lonely guitar dude at a party who plays the same thing over and over. Either way, it's good stuff!

[Video of you playing all cool]

[Video of you in a corner playing smoke on the water or something]

You have your gain knob here. It can go anywhere from cool punchy rhythms, to that fellow at a middle school talent show who turns every knob to 10.

[Video of a random rhythm riff]

[Video of a random awful sounding rhythm riff]

It sounds so good (fake tears out of eyes)

....so good (ketchup blood tears) [hold ketchup bottle in shot]

And last but not least, we have what I consider the most important feature on here, the cab sim. It simulates cabs, who would've thought? The green light is the crunch channel and it's meant to emulate the rhythm tone of a Peavy 6505. The red light is the lead channel and it emulates the lead tone of a peavey 6505. 

Now, I prefer this pedal with the cab sim on by far. I know that people are going to have different preferences for sound, but personally when I tried this thing without the cab sim....well it'd be easier to show you the difference here.

[You] - Play cab sim off

[Vs the guy she tells you not to worry about] - Play cab sim on

Big difference.

Alright so let's hear what this little guy has to offer. None of these recordings have any effects on them. It's just the pedal. We're gonna start off with the rhythm tone which I found better for lighter stuff and cleans.

[Video with light crunch distortion]

[Video with a clean riff]

Next, we have the lead tone which has a lot more kick to it. For my personal style I prefer to play rhythm on this one as well.

[Video with a rhythm riff]

[Video with a lead/reverb]

So that's kind of the basic gist of what you're getting with this little... brick for a toddler's house. 

Now some of you might be wondering about the functionality and how easy it is to use both live and at home. 

There's basically two modes on this thing. 

Mode 1 is how it comes out of the box. Pushing the big boy button turns it off and on and you can hold the cab sim button to change tones. Pretty good for home or if you want to stick with one tone live, but it can be a little tough if you want to start switching around.

[Video of you playing a solo, but bending down and back up trying to switch the tone while playing]

Lucky for you, there's a SECRET CHEAT CODE to unlock mode 2 and LUIGI IN SUPER MARIO 64. 

All you have to do is hold down the stomp button...wait a bit, and now you just click it to change tones. Obviously you're sacrificing the on and off function for this. 

The last little cool feature is that this thing remembers the settings on each tone. So if you move around the knobs on the rhythm tone and then switch to lead, it'll still have whatever the lead tone was set to and vice versa. 

Perfect for when you little 4 year old CHAD of a cousin or something walks in and goes "what does this d-TOO LATE" *start turning knobs*

So to sum it up before the song sample, the Donner Black Devil is certainly a little......demon. There's a lot of power in this thing, it doesn't feel cheap, and I honestly find the portability to be really convenient, especially when the bar gives you like 2 seconds to set up.

[Video of you frantically pulling the pedal out of your pocket, putting it down, and then taking the cord out from your belt loops (cause you wore them as a belt idk)]

As for sound, this one is tough because everyone has a different preference when it comes to what they want in their music. 

If you like what you heard and you end up liking the song at the end, then definitely check it out and consider grabbing one. Donner has a pretty good variety and all of the pedals look pretty cool. Plus they all emulate different amp brands, so if this isn't your sound, check them out anyway.

Personally for my style, I prefer something a little smoother as opposed to the crunch from this pedal. I guess I like my tones like I like my peanut butter. 

There's nothing inherently wrong with the tone and there might even be some genres I'll try in the future that can incorporate this perfectly, but it's not something that completely fits with what I do now.

And remember that this thing a pre-amp pedal. If the distortion doesn't do it for you, you could probably hook this up to your other gear and use it as an extra EQ of sorts.

But that's the review. I honestly think that this pedal is worth the price if you like the way it sounds, and it's clear that a lot of love went into this thing. So let's give it a test drive with a song, shall we?