🌈 Jackson Audio Prism

Why the rainbow you ask? Because that is what comes out when light shines through a prism! And that is exactly what the creators of the Jackson Audio Prism drew inspiration from. Likewise, the clean guitar tone becomes super colourful after passing through this pedal!!!

So I was playing for the Chinese service at Grace @ Tanglin yesterday and accidentally stepped on my EHX Soul Food during the quiet part and it made a loud click. That "click" sound drew so much attention to me and I instantly knew at that moment that it's time to kick the Soul Food off for real and move to v5.6! Cheap pedal only produces cheap quality switches...

All this time I was waiting for a Timmy Overdrive to pop up on Carousell because that is the most transparent overdrive I know that can replace the Soul Food. But I was wrong. So wrong. I saw this black Prism on sale for $240 and I took my chance with it. And wow, I take my words about the Timmy back.

The Prism is not only better in sound, but have better jack locations. The top mounted jacks made it possible for me to rearrange my v5.5 board and have the most natural drive order. The new signal starts with the compressor before the volume pedal, the Prism being my 1st stage drive after the volume pedal, followed by Scarlett Love as my 2nd stage and OCD as 3rd stage. Even had space for a 2nd pick holder!!!

The Prism is crazy subtle and mad flexible. I wanted to only use it as my 1st stage gain but after trying out the clean boost, well, now I'm spoilt for choice. The tone and body knobs are super subtle and I doubt I can hear the difference in a full band. The boost knob however, works miracles. Coupled with the gain options, the Prism can go from sparkly clean to straight up crunchy! 

At this point in time in version 5.6, I treasure it as much as my Fulltone OCD-Ge, which is saying something considering how dearly I treat my OCD. The Scarlett Love is the only pedal I can swap for future pedals, but really though, what other pedal can beat the Scarlett Love for what it can do?

In other news, let's talk about five days. It was only five days with the Boss Katana 50 MK2. This is the shortest time I've ever owned any piece of gear. The amplifier came in on Sunday and went out on Friday. After playing for a few days, I just can't seem to get the tone I hear on my headphones to ring out into my room.

I used the Power Amp In at the back of the amplifier, but the tone still sounds lacking. Google wasn't very helpful either because apparently, this method sucks for all Helix users too. Oh well.. I, however, love this amp a lot when plugging my guitar directly into it without my Stompboard.

Like really, this amp is the most organic and clear amp I've ever heard in my life. Absolute wonder of it's own. If I started off with this amp, I'd probably never enter the world of digital pedals. Unfortunately, I gave my heart to the Helix family and all other gear have to suit that need.

With that, I officially sold the Boss Katana on Friday night for $250. And with this deal I even earned $25 after buying it for $225. Not bad at all. From Sunday to Sunday, I bought and sold an amplifier and got my hands on a world-class boutique guitar pedal! This is crazy awesome!!!

I even made new friends on Carousell after spending so much time on it this past week!!! All are church guitarists too!!! Wow!!!

Edwin Ang

Tags: PBv5.60

*As of 29th December 2021, the Jackson Audio Prism pedal has been sold for $200.