The new V1.5 Edition of Bispell Audio's superior Saxon JTM45 + Super Lead Plexi MIAB enhances its Gain Range and refines the Tone Stack
When you first glimpse this revised model - the only outwardly physical sign of change is that the marker dot on the Mids control has moved from the 5 o’c / Max position to the 12 o’c / noon one - indicating a significant change in the EQ calibration.
And if you compare the outputs of the original and newer edition you will find that overall the pedal has been significantly tweaked and re-calibrated - with a more even and better balanced Tone Stack, and a little more in the gain department.
This means that you can now properly replicate the core Van Halen sound with all the EQ controls and Gain knobs maxed out. I actually prefer this pedal with Bass at 3 o’c, Mids fully dialled back, and everything else on Max, also the Bright Boost engaged - that gives me a really rich, beefy, and punchy pure hot-rodded Marshall Plexi style output texture which sounds glorious.
I was already a fan of the 1st edition of this pedal - but the new pedal is significantly better - albeit in some ways rather subtly so - I surely feel it’s worth the upgrade - for the joy of being able to get properly into Van Halen territory - which the original didn’t quite reach.
Readers will know that I like to swap out the knobs for more shiny anodised aluminium varieties - which is what the second visual is about. I simply transplanted those across from my much used V1 Saxon pedal.
I don’t really have any niggles with the pedal while I would have preferred just a touch more output volume - I really like pedals that go to 11![DSC]
Controls - Bass, Middle, Treble, Volume, Presence, Gain, Bass Boost Switch (Up for JTM45, Down for Super Lead), Bright Boost Switch (Up for JTM45, Down for Super Lead).
What's great about all of Thomas Woods' Bispell Audio pedals is how granular they are in approach - and the extended range variety of tones and textures on board. Those Boost switches / impacts are really cleverly calibrated - which is particularly noticeable on the newer version of Gleam that I reviewed recently.
Thomas has dialled in some really cool tones and provided presets guides for 5 of those - per the following two visuals - which take you from JTM45 flavours, into Super Lead, Hendrix Clean, and of course the beautiful saturation of Van Halen - there's a setting which even takes you into Fender Super Reverb territory.
The Saxon also has two handy internal dis switches - one labelled Fender (Up) | Marshall (Down), and the other has DI (Up) | Amp (Down). Thomas recommends you experiment with these to get the best match to your rig. The pedal comes default set to Marshall + Amp. I've not felt the need to adjust those - as the pedal sounds great with the default setting already. Those switches mostly impact the frequency profile of the output - where the DI in particular gives you a flatter response.
In any case if you're looking for the perfect MIAB candidate that beautifully replicates those richly textured Marshally tones - then the Saxon is a fantastic super versatile, and actually really well priced candidate - one of my favourites for sure. Available right now for £169.99 (c.$207) - from the Bispell Audio Webstore.
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