Today’s guest review comes to us from Andrew L. – find him on Instagram (@andrew.s.lingrell) and say Hi!
Pedalboards can get full quickly. And real estate on a pedal board is valuable. Sometimes however you’ll find yourself wanting many different sounds but you only have limited empty space on your board. What to do, what to do…BUY A SLATE.
The Slate is a stereo ‘blank slate’ pedal by Neunaber. Stay with me! Neunaber has been doing amazing things in the pedal game since 2009. It was founded by Brian Neunaber who really knows what he is doing. Their WET Reverb changed my mind about reverb (I used to hate it and never use it, now I rarely play without it).
Although the WET changed the game for me, Neunaber’s “Expanse Collection“, including the Slate, can house ALL of the Neunaber effects. The Slate Is almost all black, and it is made with a material that allows you to actually write or draw anything you want on it a metallic sharpie. Labeling of the knobs changes with whatever effect you load in with the Expanse Software (previously called Pedal Customizer). With Wet you would label the knobs ‘mix’ ‘tone’ and ‘depth’ but with another effect loaded, lets say the Echelon Echo, you could label the knobs ‘mix’ ‘repeats’ and ‘time’. You can load any effect designed by Neunaber into the slate with the Expanse software. And you can even expand on the slate with the EXP controller, essentially loading FOUR effects and two presets each into one Slate (or other stereo Neunaber pedal) but the review of the EXP is for another time!
So even if you don’t have a lot of room on your pedalboard, you can have a plethora of effects at your disposal with the Neunaber Slate!
Specs:
Stereo or mono input and output
Expression inputs for both right and left knobs (1/4″-to-3.5mm adapter sold separately)
Buffered bypass (true bypass available for an extra $30 and a 7-10 wait period)
Very high input impedance: no “tone suck”
Analog dry signal for low noise and zero latency
Small footprint
Made in Orange County, California USA
USB cable and silver metallic Sharpie included
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July 8, 2016
Just a quick correction, looks like the specs listed are from the v1 Stereo Pedals. Here are the specs for the Expanse-series (formerely v2 Stereo) Pedals:
Features
Stereo or mono input and output
Three controls, function depending on effect
Access 4 programmable effects with 2 presets each via the ExP Controller (sold separately)
Mix knob goes to 100% effect
Buffered trails bypass (optional true bypass available) with soft-switching
Selectable footswitch behavior, independent of effect (see User Guide)
Very high input impedance: no “tone suck”
Analog dry signal for low noise and zero latency
Small footprint
Requires standard 9V or 12V pedal power supply (not included)
Made in Orange County, California USA
July 8, 2016
Thanks for the update, Brian!
July 9, 2016
Thanks for the review!
Just a follow up to Brian Bray’s comment… I should clarify that the Expanse-series Slate does not have 3.5mm expression inputs as implied under “Specs” (the expansion port eliminates the need for these), and the Sharpie is NOT included. Also, the wait for the true bypass version is usually more like 0-3 days.
July 9, 2016
Thanks so much, Brian, can’t wait to collaborate with you guys again soon on some more reviews!