STOMP BOX SEARCH- looking for the very best...the Dummies guide of how to do it. lol

SEARCHING FOR THE VERY BEST!!!

Well my first way of doing this was to scour YOU TUBE and find all the good reviewers... even the infomercial reviewers were helpful.

-I soon learned that infomercials had lots of facts and detail ....they also had mind boggling post Production!!! They can make a Snails Fart sound good!

-The better vids were balanced but you had to read between the lines. "this is going straight on my board" means BUY IT!!!

-Amateur vids can be so bad you can miss a great pedal.
for example the Greer BURNING GOAT set to a low gain ...with the tone set very low (which on any other OD would sound bass heavy) gives you a near clean sound that sounds like you are actually switch to your clean channel but without ANY OD.
It is an instant $6000.00 USD ....DUMBLE amp CLEAN sound. But there are vids with it set with the knobs pushed to positions only fit for a Fuzz.
The result is the sound is so frighteningly terrible that my $22.00 USD  Ammoon nano pedal would blow it out the water!!! WHAT IS REALLY SCARY...I AM NOT EXAGGERATING!!!

 BUT the best amateur videos can give you the sound of what it will sound like when you hear it for the first time in your home or at practice.... Plus all the good ...and the bad news of how it works for them within their band at the club or the studio.

SO AS MANY OF EACH I CAN HEAR IS THE ONLY WAY TO KNOW!

If it passes all the smell tests . I buy one!

-I went from Oh my god ...NO  ...NO ...NO!

-to... great but zero dynamics...but OK
        I guess...
        I wonder what they are going for
        used on Reverb? I have to dump this turkey.

-to... just OH MY GOD!!!! YES!!!!!! FINALLY!!!

Fortunately I learnt how to play the game with the China cheapies.
Since they gave you a clone at least the basic sound was proven.
After going thru about 300 'made in China pedals...I ran out. I had caught up.
If a pedal is half decent and sells well it will made to infinity. lol
So only a pedal or 2 would come along each month.
Especially since the Chinese makers are only interested in
making the most popular pedals from the west.

Ah I thought..why not find the best...?

Readers will not buy these but it could be fun to compare them against our cheap loot!!!
Besides who wouldn't want to kick the tires on the Ferrari and Lamborghini pedals.

BUT THEN I GOT HOOKED ON THE BEST.
FIRST ON A WAMPLER AT HALF PRICE...(oddly as it turns out I just sold it yesterday  LOL 6/2/2017) BEFORE LONG IT BECAME PEDALS OVER $300.00 USD..and never less then...
$200.00 USD
THEN...EVEN $400.00 USD mistakes!!! and a diet of 2 pedals a month.
...would I end up sleeping on a park bench panhandling for 9v battery money ...since I would no longer have access to a wall socket???

OK...back to the basics..

Once I got a lot of the specific pedals to further research.  I also then had the Brands names that I could then go to their sites and check out a vid on every product.

Online sellers often stock at least a few obscure brands. That is the way they got into business.
A great way to find hidden gems.

There are easily 200 brands of pedals maybe even a lot more. A lot of very high end and very low end are one guy...who designs ...builds and sells the pedals. A few like Paul Cochrane only makes one pedal ...the TIMMY.

Then there is the issue of county's beside the American and some European that you may know about.

THE INTERNATIONAL TREASURE HUNT

There are two well known makers in Canada Empress and Diamond.
But there are some serious other makers too
like Radial Engineering,  Dr. Scientist, Solid Gold and Fairfield.
Tone Hungry make point to point hand made
duplicate's of classic pedals with new old stock...
they even sell it for low prices. About half of what is demanded by some European equivalents.
Retro Sonic , Toe Tag and Dingo Tone are
others worth checking out.
6 Degress FX take classic pedals and not just improve them they virtually reinvent them. One fuzz they did offers not only the original transistors used in a pedal but also 2 other types. For most brands this would constitute making 3 different pedals ...because the difference is anything but subtle. This requires  3 separate circuits with a pair of transistors in each circuit.
Alex K Production make state of the art pedals with military spec parts...and 'only' after they design with a tone that is second to none.

There are two South America makers...In Chile it is and PedalPalFX  in Venezuela there is the Fire Custom Shop. Both make world class pedals. Both use high end parts
,
In Europe the French, Greek, Italian, Belgium, Denmark, Turkey and Spanish makers are not well known.

One of the outstanding makers is in the Ukraine.  Piod a one man show making analog state of the art Overdrives that can be used alone or thru a computer. Doing the PC thing is one challenge in itself ...but doing the analog OD thing and getting that dead on right is another,,, and the pedal's sound is a total mind blower,

WHY ARE SOME INTERNATIONAL PEDALS PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF WHAT'S POSSIBLE

They quite simply have a different mind set.

The perfect example is the U.S. mind set vs. the British

An American player traditionally works hard on an arsenal of hot licks.

When he joins a band he uses these licks as ornamentation in the tunes.

A Brit joins a band...and he will compose a specific hot lick to put in a tune that he will not ever use but in that tune and in the spot it was written for.

To over simplify listen to Stevie Ray Vaughn then listen to Brian May. 

Stevie might change his parts nightly ...Brian will always play that specific lick in a tune in the same spot every night.

Both produce great results.. but the thinking is quite different.

HOW TO FIND THEM???

It is not well known to most that many countries have their own tailor made version of GOOGLE...and ebay I am not just talking about language.... they are set up to only easily access X amount of content with Google USA. Some of this will seem obvious..if you type in WAMPLER...in France you may not see anywhere on the screen that is not related to Wampler France etc.
Most of the country's in Europe speak some English. So you can for example from the U.S.Google type in ...Google Germany then from there google ebay and up pops the German version of ebay...then ferret around finding maker after maker. True many pedals you find no matter what country they reside in are the average fuzz...just 2 resister shy of being a Big Muff or the 10,000th version of a Tube Screamer.

So ...try this google GOOGLE UK then type in ebay...or even just type in guitar pedals. Or British guitar pedals etc.It is a lot of fun.

There are small exceptional makers too. Guys that are both engineers,  players and geniuses. but you can not count out some little guys who may be amateurs or TV repair guys who play
guitar etc. With a little knowledge but a good imagination they sometimes come up with something special.
Crazy Tube Circuits in Greece...their Ziggy is just such a pedal.They did not start out to make the closest pedal to a Vox AC 30...Top Boost as possible. But nothing that set out to sound Vox like is closer.
Lots of these cool accidents happen all over the world.
Right now I am exploring the pedal makers of the southern USA the middle states not the coasts.
My latest discovery is....Greer Amps.

A year ago if someone told me perhaps one of the best OD's ever is made by a maker from Turkey
I would have laughed.
I STOPPED LAUGHING!!!
ONE IS.

A Tale of 2 Compressors

Greer Amps Fish Press 

....a simple yet exceptional compressor ...a very nice repro of the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer Compressor




Dan's very basic little preset box brought out with several others in the 60's








I will let Mark give you a demo. Mark is not a bad player and he will ...do his best on his T style guitar. No not a Strat...he couldn't afford one when he recorded this. Hell what could he ask for! He had a nice little 4 track studio to record in. Why I recorded there myself.       (I actually did. The studio was terible.  LOL)

 Anyhow ...Greer does a nice job of letting you add or subtract a little bit of sustain.
Otherwise it was a case of
...if it is not broken don't fix it


T-REX Tone Bug Sustainer   

...Denmark

A nice cheap enough  ($100.00 USD ) comp.
BUT...as in all comps when you push up the sustain you also have to turn up the level. Oh my ...no level???

So this is an overview of the process 

 from searching to finding to presenting or rejecting.

So which pedal made it onto SDS?    and which one would waste your time?  

WHAT MAKES A GREAT PEDAL

Many things! but the most important is detail in the sound!!!
overtones  ...harmonics ...light and shade 
...and in dirt pedals...dynamic ...sensitivity to your touch.

BUT ALL THAT IS ANOTHER POST!

OVERDRIVE- BOSS DS-1 ....it still hangs on after 30 years

BOSS DS-1 DISTORTION

This was a break through pedal when it came out in 1978. 

The first pedal with serious amp like tone. Everyone else was
still only offering their Fuzz boxes.

So many players used them that we often have made the mistake of
judging a Marshall sound with this pedal included in that sound.
But we did not know that when we heard those records.
For example listen to the PAL 800 JCM 800 box. It sounds nothing like
any other JCM800...because the vast majority of other makers added a DS-1 into the sound! Do not get me wrong ...those pedals can sound amazing. But
it is good to have the real deal like the PAL800.

Surprisingly the DS-1 still  sounds impressive. At $50.00 USD

what can you get that is better????

After 30 plus years there are a hundreds of used ones, Some as cheap
as $20.00 USD.

The new Ltd. Ed.
30th anniversary model.

The Boss DS-1 started life as a near Metal type box. So ...it is fascinating to find a Timmy with the rep as a 'the' transparent pedal being based off of a the same 4558 opamp chip.

I confess I quite like the Boss when used as a medium gain pedal.
Just keep the gain at around 9 o'clock and you get a nicely voiced really contemporary  medium gain OD.

OVERDRIVE- Greer Amps Burning Goat...best low gain OD I've heard?

Greer Amps Burning Goat

If this OD was turned on and being played when I entered a room

you would be looking for an old beat up Fender Twin or similar. The pedal can come dangerously close to clone this clean sound.

Well the Burning Goat OD gives you this in a box so you can have it even at a low volume.

Very impressive.

Greer seem to specialize in this almost clean sound as they make 3 other pedals that go for a very similar type of sound.

The Light Speed, Relic and Tone Smuggler are voiced different ...and are progressively a bit dirtier but essentially they are the same idea. All are low gain to medium gain OD's.

I feel that Burning Goat which  has the second highest gain is the best of the lot. It is noticeably richer sounding even when the gain is close to off.

Light Speed is bit light weight. The Relic and the Tone smuggler are just a bit too dirty.

The sound based off of the 4558 opamp chip which is the guts of a Boss DS-1 Distortion. Obviously the gain is set much lighter then the Boss.
Greer likes to point out that this is not a Tube Screamer. The stores that sell it say it is. This is either a reasonable assumption or an easy way to communicate it's use.

Yes Greer is right it is not a Tube Screamer...but it is
dangerously close to the Paul Cochran Timmy.

Yes the colors have been an option..
At one point they represented a circuit change.
But now all Timmy's have the original design.

The Timmy has been a success with both the critics and the players when the Timmy arrived in the '90's.

Just about all the well known Pedal makers make a Timmy clone ...EH, Danelectro, Roc Box, Dod, Jan Ray, and  Love Pedal are just a few.  Yes ...there are a few China  jobbies too. lol

Just released is the Walrus Warhorse ...yet another Timmy!

Greer did not design the 'Goat' and they already had the Light Speed that I would think is there Timmy clone.They also had two other low gain OD's

So what's up?

The guy who designed the Burning Goat had a deal fall thru with another maker so Greer got offered the pedal.
Why did he buy it then? They design their own pedals.
What's more why are the parts encased in epoxy.
I think they could hear the critical difference. Remember the original Klon also had it's parts in epoxy. Alas no mater how close the various Klon style pedals are ...you can hear the difference. Subtle but ...Hey !!!

I look at this pedal as the first iPhone.... a Blackberry copy but very much improved. LOL
Hardly objective I know.

I have been looking for a pedal like this for a long time. At very low volumes a clean sound of any kind can sound scratchy and feeble. All other low gain Drives have a some smooth jazz like tone or they are fuzzy, fizzy or thin. The distortion in the 'Goat' starts with a defined attack of the note that gives the chords and notes a solid and brisk definition. At the same time there is great blanket of warmth around that inner sound. After many listening it occurred to me the warmth is very similar to the kind you get with a semi acoustic ...like a Gibson 335 or one of many Gretsch guitars.

As for my personal settings I leave volume at 10 o'clock (unity gain)
the gain on 11 o'clock and the tone at 9 o'clock.

Very subtle but very impressive.

CODA

So...after trying every other option...the Tube Screamers.. the Klon's then I tried the low gain part of the King of tone ....and next to the original Timmy.
Finally I have at least found 'one' low gain OD that I like.

There are many tunes I wrote that need a pedal like this... and so far it has been a frustration to play those tunes.

Fortunately I know the distributor . So I got my 'Goat' pedal in a day. lol

Scott Hager of Axe & You Will Receive ...his store is a gold mine of amazing hard to find pedals
the guy  knows more then all other online dealers put together no other store is so ahead of the curve then Scott's. In fact world wide and I mean world wide ...those that pride themselves in buying for sound over hype and popularity shop here. So check out the store!
I asked Scott to play my pedal before shipping it (even the best pedals can have a fault). When I took it out it was already set to 'the' sweet spot. How cool is that?

SO IS IT THE BEST TRANSPARENT OD ON THE PLANET???

Well maybe but it has some issues... It likes to work best with just a bit more gain then how
I want to use it.
It is a thing onto itself ..it definitely has it's own personality. A very identifiable sound.
Highly listenable.

I just ordered a Alek K Production Sunbeam Magic Drive. It is a wait and see. But on vid it definitely can give you that tube amp clean sound with just a hint of distortion. It has a Marshall JTM45 sound.
Or if you like a Bluesbreaker sound. So it is just a bit metallic...but definitely not strident ...like a fresh set of strings. The Exotic BB preamp OD comes to mind...but the Xotic is not even close to the rich harmonic sound of the Sunbeam. Yes I tried the Blues Breaker Xotic route too...but it had no warmth.

So check out the Sunbeam before you leave today. The two sounds are quite different. The Sunbeam is very, very amp like where as the Goat has synthetic approach...a real tube amp would not make this sound. After all people pay hundreds to get a real Klon ...and there is quite definitely no amp in the world with that sound. Do not get me wrong if a pedal sounds great I buy it ...after all I did buy the Goat.
Perhaps it is like a nice leather jacket on a hanger...that says BUY ME...but I found the cut and style did not fit ...after I tried it on.
So why not try on the Sunbeam before you leave.
Either pedal is great ...but one that fits you may not fit me. 

..

OVERDRIVE- Machine Head Pedals ...MHP Evelyn Mk.2...K.I.S.S.

Machine Head Pedals MHP Evelyn Mk.2

A simple concept was initiated with this OD...to keep everything simple.

Even the name. 

The idea was to create a full warm tone...with only the simplest of controls ...and not name the pedal with a name that might make you project in your mind any presumptions.

So in the spirit of the creator of this pedal ...I will say no more then

if this 'brush' appeals to you...buy it and paint your own picture.

___THE LUCKY 7 BEST OD'S ON THE PLANET!!! ...no bull !!! these are it !!!___

 THE LUCKY 7 BEST OVERDRIVES ON THE PLANET 

Followers will know that I have bought what I deemed to be the best OD's money can buy ...price no object. I have kept some for merely weeks and then sold them.

A great OD must have more then just a great overall sound.

It must follow the dynamics of your touch...

There must be great detail in it's sound and have movement within the overtones and harmonics...

The notes must be prone to swell...

Quality parts must be used wherever possible (exceptions for new old stock for tone is acceptable)

The casing should be robust...

The voicing should be accurate to the original amplifier that the maker is claiming it simulates.

Finally the pedal should have 'a little Mojo' ...quite simply some character in the voicing.
There are pedals I could add but I found them soulless.
.
THERE IS A FULL POST OF ALL THESE PEDALS....so I was not going to go into all the fine details or re-Post all the vids. I certainly recommend that you check them all out!!!

  One final note.   
The smallest thing in the deign of many of these pedals has made a big difference.
With analog parts there is a limit to what parts and what order they can be put in.
Often it is simply parts with identical spec in for example a transistor made be several manufacturers that make a difference ...because for one thing they were never made to create an audio sound ...they could just as easily end up in a garage door opener circuit or factory floor machine to make widgets.
.
With a small country like Venezuela having 1000 pedal makers...world wide the number has be at least 1000 plus.

SO EXPECT SOME GUY BEAVERING AWAY IN HIS APARTMENT IN SOME SMALL OBSCURE TOWN IN SOME SMALL OBSCURE COUNTRY TO MAKE THE NEXT MIND BLOWING OD NEXT YEAR!!!!

________________________________________________________________

MASTERBUILT AMPLIFICATION Stone Groove Tube Overdrive

Yes the REAL deal. It does everything from a steel clean at
the edge of breakup to high gain.I only got it to keep it at the lowest
gain for what I use for my clean sound. For serious medium and higher gains I use my pedals.
Any trace of a transistor vanishes nicely by the tube.
An 'Always On pedal' this sweetheart never get's turned off.
I love the 'Deco Streamline' look right out of a...
1930's Flash Gordon serial.

Lawrence Petross Design LPD SIXTY 8 Drive

It ticks ALL the boxes.

It is a medium gain 68 Plexi. But it has a second sweet spot so a great low gain is possible.

Add to that if you stack any other OD into it ...the sum is greater then the whole. The sound of the pedal going into it has incredibly improved  and the 68 seems to have disappeared ?
The 68 becomes your instant studio post production tool!
I actually stacked 3 OD together...they sounded really interesting.
The problem was they had a lot of artifacts that needed to be tweaked out.
You guessed it. Clicked on the 68...and they disappeared.
MY JAW DROPPED!!

It has more 'Mojo' then a Klon
and the Klon comment is not some off hand hyped comment.
I for one will not be surprised if it sells by word of mouth over the
next few years until there is waiting list that is over a year!!!
IN SHORT IT IS SO GOOD THAT
ANYTHING MORE SAID ABOUT IT WILL SOUND LIKE BULL.
JUST BUY ONE!!!
One final word ...bulletproof!






The Deluxe has everything switchable and more headroom. It was made completely because of a demand by users!!!!
YES! Users that love the pedal so much they sold all their other OD's and wanted to cover all the bases often found in a single tune.
DEAD COOL!!!

Friedman BE-OD

In spite of the excessive hype it really is a great pedal.
It is based off of the voicing of their gourmet amp.
Although the amp started life as a Marshall JTM 45 the overall sound sounds more like a JCM 800 on steroids. Beefed up with a extra 12ax7 tube custom fitted into the 800.
There are two main reasons it is loved.
Endless sustain.
And...much more important all the notes swell even at very low bedroom amp volumes.
The pedal always feels on the verge of feedback!
The good kind...even order harmonics are just dying to sing out.
KILLER!

Aleks K Production Red Scorpion Distortion

It strikes all the boxes as well!!!
First the company does not claim it is any particular amp ...but
it has gourmet Plexi written all over it.
It has the highest possible gain you could give to an OD ...
and still not destroy it's amp like roots.
It has more breadth to the sound then any OD I have ever heard
The sound is rich ...very, very full and sumptuous.
It isn't just fat it is obese.

Last but not least the pedals parts are military spec.
and you could throw the thing thru a wall and it is the wall
 that would be damaged.
Finally even the finish ranks as the best
...better then that on any of my 50 plus other pedals
The down side to this reviewer is I could not find even any lint to pick!
If you love a high gain....IT IS A MUST BUY!!!
If I were voting for the best OD on the planet
...this would be it
#1

Custom Tones Ethos TWE-1 Train Wreck

From the second you hit the strings until the sound hits your
ears on that big stack we call a Marshall the sound going thru the
circuit does a hundred things. This creates not only the sound but the feel of playing thru it. This pedal thru astonishing engineering emulates them ALL!!! 

No matter how good your fav OD sounds ...and it may sound to your ears better then this this. I will give you zero argument.
If an OD was judged on response right now the winner could easily be Friedman's BE-OD. It is the biggest selling pedal on the planet I feel it because of it's physical response 
Compared to the TWE-1 ...THE FRIEDMAN IS JUNK!!!



We are left with a pedal that has a perfect sonic response.
Like all pedals it has a basic sound of it's own. If you like that
then buy one. You will never find anything better!!! Anywhere!!! EVER!



PedalPalFX Pal 800 JCM Emulator

So Luis sat down at his bench one day and thought
"What if I took a Marshall JCM 800 schematic and replaced the tubes with transistors and put it in a box?"
Ok ...over simplified BUT!!!
I for one would not want to bet my life I could tell this pedal from the real amp.
My last amp was a gourmet jobbie based on an 800...so I
have had some experience with this sound.
It is in effect a medium gain pedal that borders on the edge of a high gain.
Indispensable if you play a Strat. Without it I avoided my Strat and played the Gibson. Now I love playing it.
It maintains the single coil sound and it  does not make your Strat sound like it is a guitar with cheap sounding hummies.

It always takes me a few weeks to really 'hear' any pedal
often the smallest tweaks on a really good pedal make
an off the self sound become a tailor fit.
The thing I noticed after working the pedal into
a few tunes was the exquisite detail in the sound.
I could not be more pleased.

It gets the astounding achievement award !!!
6 out 5 Stars!

I have been using this a lot lately. I can't stop ...LOL
The thing just sounds so real!!!
You click it on and want to turn around and see if some
practical joker plugged your cable in a different amp!!!!

8/19/2017
THE 'PAL' HAS SLOWLY BECOME MY FAVOURITE OD.
IT JUST SOUNDS SO "REAL"!!! 
It has a limited sustain and is not great for a solo. But for riffing on an intro or for a riff type bridges etc. nothing can touch it!
Think of it like a guy who loves a sports car and has a Porsche... he inherits a custom 1954 F150 pickup truck. He hardly drives it but can not get the smile off his face when he does!

KHDK Dark Blood Distortion

A straight up Heavy Metal pedal. The perfect Metal pedal for those who want the highest gain pedal that they can get that will not jar with their music because it

sounds too adolescently like a METAL PEDAL. LOL

My god the thing has tone!!!!

It does not sound like a 'Fuzz Wanna Be.'

It was designed for Kirk Hammett of Metallica. He wanted it consciously or not to have his classic old Metal Marshall sound with a good dash of the Modern Metal sound thrown into the mix.

He wanted to have his cake and eat it too. LOL

But damn it!! That is exactly what he got!!!!!

It really is a very well made and a rich sounding pedal. 

Fat with lots of aggression but it has tone, tone tone.

I bought and sold many high end Metal Pedals but none worked out.

If you are into serious Modern Metal get the GOOSONIQUEWORX KULT....an 8 megaton  sound!!!
With this pedal your high E is as fat as a dropped D on the Friedman. lol

BUT ...for every one else the KHDK is 'It'.
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
 NOT TO BE MISSED!!! 

The following are I suppose the runner ups.Which means instead of a 10 out of 10 they are a 9.75. lol
I would hate to be without them because each one does something exceptional that other pedals do not.
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JHS Angry Charlie & AT 
They  have a gutsy raw Marshall JTM sound. The JTM being based off of the Fender Bassman.

So it has a cross between an American & Brit sound. The Charlie gives you active EQ and is based off of a JTM 45w.
The AT gives you a selection of a 25w/45w or 100w model's sound and has passive EQ. A new @ + is exactly the same
but you get a boost and a second foot switch to kick it in.

The sound is full with a mild scoop and a biting attack.
You can solo or use it behind the vocal equally well.
                                  It will cut thru without having to kick up the volume.
If you were to buy this as your number one pedal I for one 'get it'. I just prefer a Plexi. Those that prefer a JTM have lots to argue about in their favour.
Oddly enough my Silvertone that is modded with a '64 Fender Strat PU going
thru it gives me the exact tone Hendrix got on Purple Haze. He used his first Strat which had the same PU on that tune.

BJF DESIGN BEAR FOOT Model G

A breath of fresh air not a Fender or a Marshall but a nice little 50's 

Gibson amp. At lower gain it is almost clean but crank it and you get

a really nice crunch but  every note and chord well defined.

In fact the gain is usable over its entire range.

The dynamics and respond to your touch is second to none.

It cleans up big time when you back off on your picking but gets really gritty when you come down hard on the strings. I use it for a tune I wrote for my Martin ...and it worked out even better 'electric' thanks to the Model G.

A total gem!!!

CMAT Mods Brownie

Brownie? Very subjective. It has a fat lower mid and lots of dirty bass. 
The EVH Brown sound captured by many pedals is based off of several early 'PRO' engineered albums. His live sound was also
majorly manipulated by the guy on the sound reinforcement board.

An amateur recording of Van Halen playing a high school
shortly before going big time shows that the sound Eddie heard live standing in front of his amp is damn close to this 'Brownie'

I love it's untamed sound. Not a modern tight pedal' 

It is a screaming Wall of Sound

with a raspy low end  This pedal takes no prisoners. 

It sounds very open and very natural.

Based loosely like a lot of pedals on the M.I. Audio Crunch Box

just like the JCM Angry Charlie.

The Charlie has tamed it and the Brownie has released it back into the jungle.
In spite of this it lies down beautifully behind a vocal.
On some tunes I love switching from the @ for instrumental parts but back to The Brownie when the singing comes in.

Supro 1305 Drive

The popular impression for years has been that nothing sounds better then a 59 Les Paul  

playing thru a Marshall Plexi stack.

The LP is to a Marshall
as...
The Tele is to a Supro.

NO BULL!!!

The first three Zep albums were just such a combination. So if you have a Tele

JUST BUY IT!!!

warning-it sounds lame with humbuckers

The Tele sounds so good thru this I could never be without a Tele ...or at least a Tele bridge PU in one of my guitars.
I bought a Fender Duo Sonic and got a hand wound Duncan 55 Tele bridge PU put in it before I even play it once ...that is how good this pedal is.

Xvive Thomas Blug's  Golden Brownie

Designed by Thomas Blug a stunning guitarist who has engineered  guitar amps of every kind ...solid state, digital and even all tube.
He has designed countless pedals for name brand companies.
This is a gourmet amp style take
...on the infamous 'Brown sound'!!!
capturing the EVH overproduced recorded tone. LOL

Second to none in design,  parts or casing, even the finish.

I got mine for $45.00 USD and brand new!
Yes you read that right LOL.

Even to leave one in your gig bag for emergencies makes sense!

In fact buy two ...one for your board as well.

Menatone The King

Brian Mena has for years decades been making OD's

Most have been Marshalls. Not long ago he decided to put the Marshall's all in one little box.

The idea was to give it so much flexibility you could zero in on any Marshall model from any year and clone it.

I think he did just that!!!

You can even go inside the box and sweep thru the years with a dial!

What blows my mind is you can literally create anything from a vintage Plexi to a Gourmet metal pedal!!!

Because of this it has become my Swiss army Knife pedal.

When I can not find the right sound. I know where I can get one.
It wouldn't be as much fun but if you bought 3 of these and set them to a low, medium and high gain you could cover any situation with what would be 3 original sounds.
Using your amp clean with 3 The King pedals would give you a 4 channel amp.
THIS PEDAL RANKS AS A 9.9 OUT OF 10!!!


CKK Destruction Drive
My god ...this thing is a real winner. A flat out no holds barred
 modern Metal pedal that can compete with the best!!!!
In 2016 it won 'BEST OF' in Europe.


This is a straight up slammer! It has the best attack of any Metal pedal.
It slices down like a meat cleaver but with the punch of a sledgehammer. It ain't no 80's type pedal and unlike it's best rivals
does not even try to be. Zero versatility!
BIG BUT!!!
At $100.00 USD ...GET ONE!!!
If you want an 80's sound too...do what I did ...I bought the KHDK too.
Hell the CKK is half the price of it's rivals!!!!


MR.BLACKS JDS-50 Overdrive
This pedals was designed to capture Angus young's
of AC/DC's Marshall Super Lead 100watt Plexi sound.
Angus never even rehearses with less the 3 stacks. LOL
Before you jump to conclusions ....the amps have every knob on them set to'4'
.
So loud ...yes! Distorted ...No!
The pedal just nails that tone! The really cool thing to me is the sound is
the same as Jimi Hendrix's clean sound!!!






MYTHOS Erlking

It is based off of the JRC-4558 chip used in Tube Screamers

This includes the Noble ODR-1 that inspired this pedal.

The comparison ends there.

It has a rich sumptuous beautiful and airy sound that borders on the ethereal.
It is ideal for vocal accompaniment that will not fight

the vocals for attention. .

Unique and highly useful.

FRIEDMAN Dirty Shirley 

YES! Friedman has done it again.

A medium gain OD that is perfect for backing a vocalist. Thick and chunky with Balz big time.

It is borderline for Best on the Planet a 9.9 out of 10.
Actually I have both and prefer it over the BE-OD.
I left the BE-OD where it is in my choices because objectivly
most of you either want one already and I do not regret buying it.

                                         
     

FREE THE TONE Quad Arrow

This pedal was designed to have the most head room and the lowest
 noise floor of any high gain dirt box.
Basically voiced to be a Marshall but with more than enough power to reshape it's voice to be a reasonable double of any Marshall voice.
So why is not at the top of the page?

It is like a picture of a beautiful women touched up with too many hours on 'Photo Shop'
until it ceases to become a picture of a beautiful human being ...
but the picture of an 'ideal'.

...this pedal is flawlessly flawed.


SO WHAT WOULD I DO IF I LOST ALL MY OD'S TOMORROW!!!

I would beg borrow and steal but with these two I could get by.

Aleks K Production Red Scorpion Distortion

Back it off and you have a mid gain sound. A bit overly aggressive on some tunes ...but usable.This pedal will sit in for anything high gain right up to Metal or even a Fuzz without spoiling your tune.         

Mr. Black JDS 50

It covers all the bases from a clean sound thru to a medium gain OD. In short it is incredibly versatile.

ARE THESE THE BEST 2 OD's ON THE PLANET ???

NO>>> they are simply the best two tools to get you by. Or perhaps to start a collection.

OVERDRIVE- Beetronics OVERHIVE OD ....a weird gimmick or a creative sound that simply breaks the mold???

 Beetronics 

$230.00 USD

  OVERHIVE    Overdrive 

So what have we here? a Plexi ...maybe it's a JCM800 ...no not that. Ah....I see now. It is one of the very rare and hard to find .... Whatchamacallits.
All though my bass player things it just might be a 'Thingy'

In the early days of the OD...pedal manufacturers made
Fuzz boxes. A Fuzz...was...well...it was a Fuzz...so when the first OD's came along the same applied. Although the use of the new FET transistors could make a distortion that resembled tubes no one thought more then to tinker with the parts and to simply come up with what they thought sounded cool.
They hoped others did too. So what could be more appropriate for a company that makes Fuzz boxes...weird and wonderful Fuzz boxes then to try their hand at an OD.

Handmade ...no 2 pedals are exactly alike. sold direct.

So if nothing else it is unique. Not so weird as to just be a novelty. But in creative hands some good things could be written for it.

OVERDRIVE- Lawrence Petross Design LPD SIXTY 8 DRIVE ...perhaps the very best OD every made????

Lawrence Petross Design

LPD SIXTY 8 DRIVE

Deja Vue?

No you are not imagining that you read this before.

I just felt that I had not done justice to this pedal. Secondly and maybe more important there was not a video that did it justice.

The pedal is a 68 Plexi. A rather accurate rendition as well. But what is so different is every touch of your pick can change the tone the dynamism and the way the harmonics present themselves. In short it sounds like a very,very high end real tube amp.

What every one who has one soon finds is that there is something unexplained...much like the original Klon pedal that has a spell binding tone to it.

$250.00 USD either size

Yes I know this sounds like bull ...or hype.. but damn it. This thing is magic!!! It really is that
good!!!

The Miracle Worker

I have a Vox AC30 style pedal with the gain on 10 o'clock and stacked onto the 68...it sounds more like a Vox then the pedal on it's own.When I find the time I will list several other little miracles it has performed on other combinations. Perhaps you have a fav Chinese cheapo that though hardly gourmet you love.
I need not tell you how you can buy this pedal and end up with in effect 2 gourmet pedals for the price of one!!!!

So you get a great low to medium gain pedal. You get a build quality second to none. Every part is the best of the best!
Then add to that...you can stack anything into it and it and the sum is far greater then the whole.    

In fact you can get some amazing sounds and no matter how hard you listen you can not find the part that the SIXTY 8 is playing in the sound. But you then turn it off...and the pedal you pushed into it sounds like a big 'nothing.'

 I have created mind blowing sounds cascading up to 3 other pedals into it. The results are startling...But the second I turn it off...the other 3 pedals sound as I would expect ...they sound like like a muddy mess.
Why this happens is beyond me!

I rely more on this pedal then my amp to get
to get 'My Sound'.

I use this OD more then any of my OD's. If not stacked then on it's own. Lets remember we spend the biggest part of our playing backing vocals. For that alone this pedal is a killer.

IS THIS MY FAVORITE OD ?

NO!...like all guitarist I like a great high gain "look at me!!!!" pedal.

I tell you what it is though

       TRULY BELIEVE IT IS THE BEST OD EVER MADE!!!  

But if you don't own one ...you will not 'GET IT'...AND IF YOU DON'T GET IT YOU WILL NEVER KNOW.

THERE IS AN OLD ADAGE....

...IT SEPARATES THE MEN FROM THE BOYS!!!

This is why in the end I have to admit...I have never heard a better OD in my life.

If there is a slow building underground swell of it's sales....remember you seen it here first

.

THIS CAN EASILY BECOME THE NEXT KLON...

And I am seious about this Klon thing.

....so do not kick yourself when one day they hit Reverb going used for some seriously stupid money.

Get one now while you still can!!!

Don't be the guy who walked into his local music store in 1959....he went right pass a Les Paul Std. in cherry sunburst with a beautiful tiger striped flamed maple top and paid out the same money for a different guitar !!!!   <<<<  This actually happened!!!

              LPD SIXTY 8 Deluxe                                                                                       

HEAVEN JUST GOT BIGGER!!!

$280.00 USD

Ok folks Lawrence is only one guy and the orders are getting silly.
Guys are tossing their other high end OD's because once they have the 68
the old ones soon never get used. 
So 2 things. The most popular is the bigger one. Secondly letters keep pouring in owners want a Deluxe version with the boost on a foot switch and a lot more bells and whistles.
So the Mini will be discontinued and a Deluxe is on the way.
Soooooo if you want a Mini you better get your act together ...now!
I expect a last LTD. ED. run in the near future but Then that's it!


This vid gives you a good idea. but playing this pedal takes the sound to a whole new level!!!

MULTI FX Processor or separate FX...which is better

MULTI FX vs. the single STOMP BOX

I am not going to go thru all the multi effects boxes. Great ones tend to be well past the $300.00USD mark. You can now spend over $1000.00 US.
Go to the Post

MULTI FX Processor 

I cover a cheapo one that squeaks by and mid price jobbies that are sonically more then enough.
In short over $500.00USD gets you MORE not better sounds.

Well you can now buy the odd $35.00 USD or cheaper modulation pedal that is rubbing shoulders with a great multi. You can just recently get a great mini pedal that covers the real estate issue that would pass in a blindfold test as a high end patch from a digital wonder-machine.

$100.00 USD

The problem with the Multi's is with some units..every sound they cover ...there now  is a cheap analog pedal that sounds as good or better. You only need 3 pedals to do the basics. I found 3 mini pedals that will do the job without any compromise in tone.

$24.00 USD

The TC Electronic Corona chorus out score pedals at twice the size and 3 times the price in the sound dept. The MXR phase 95 is a repro of the Script Phase 90...the sound is not exotic but it is bullet proof...just give Eddie another listen. lol
Finally a Mooer clone of a Electric Mistress...then re-branded as a Rowin LE-612 ....completes the picture ...& the Rowin is only $24.00 USD with free shipping. ( I have seen it  from Mooer at double the price)
This thing is a gem!

.
If later you feel something new is better ...you only need to buy one new pedal at a time...because 3 pedals being better at once is majorly improbable.

$100.00 USD

$450.00 USD

With Digital Delay and Reverb you will still need to go to digital. But as long as the sonic quality is there it does not have to have a hundred choices. It can be small ...simple to use and reasonably priced.

There are many good delay units. But only three 5 Star players. Strymon, Eventide and Empress.



The nice thing about the Empress is ...it is MUCH easier to use.
The sound is just as transparent as the others but it has a near analog warmth.
The Tape Delay patch is so good it was this unit that started the recent fad. Now everyone does a faux Tape delay. This pic is of the recent 'v.2 white' unit which has tweaked the sonic a notch or two.
The improvement is not so you would notice if you had the 'v.1 black' unit. I am sure wisdom dictated if it is not broke don't fix it.
It has given the Tape Delay a bit more function due to the competitors knocking at it's door. Bending over to tweak it live is a big asset. The other 2 make that idea improbable.Trust me on that!
                                             

$215.00 USD

Throw in a EH Micro Pog...and for me I have it covered for both the stage and the studio!

These are all passive FX.
Things like wah's and feedbackers etc.are not.
those are virtually all stand alone items as you have to stand on them to operate them. Those are not the issue here,

Most of us could find a use for every effect I have mentioned.
Other things are more personal and to each his own.

CODA

MY Strymon Mobius is now on Reverb. Guess what I will buy with the money??

Really! How did you know that???

.

REVERB- NEUNABER IMMERSE REVERBERATOR...borrowed ideas?

NEUNABER IMMERSE REVERBERATOR

Neunaber Have never been short on original ideas. They have been the sweetheart of the unconventional. The cult of players who make soundscapes not tunes. The abstract and the surreal weigh supreme. That is not to say their new reverb can not supply their
biggest fans with many ways to twist, bend and pulverize a sound
into ethereal sonic soundwaves.

Strymon have cornered the market with the Big Sky for sounds that
compliment the guitar but in reality do not exist in nature. The first to recognize their  potential were that respected and admired group of modern fusion players who produce music that evoke a surreal world of dreamscapes that float you weightlessly through space.

All reverbs for guitar tend to have Hall, Plate and Spring as they
work well on guitar and have become the basic standard
guitar reverb sounds. Finding these on any pedal even with a very short list of choices is a given.
Now Strymon may not have invented 'wet', 'shimmer' and 'echo reverb' but they have turned them into the 'new normal'.

So what do you get with the Immerse??
Well the first is easy to see. A good quality of build and parts.
You get first and foremost a sound quality the compares to the very best. You do not get the usual monster pedal that takes half the space of your board. Although most players can not take advantage of a stereo sound they have not omitted it.
On the other hand you do not get the endless variations of control that are in Strymon pedals nor do you get a set of basic presets that the majority of cheaper pedals have.

You do get a sound that easily compares with the best. You get the "Big Sound' but for the small bucks.

A pedal that can fit your wallet and your board.

CODA

For me it's a no brainer.
I have to have a quality sound or I will be haunted until I have it.
I only have the room for a B size pedal.
I have always been price conscious because of years where I only lived off my money from gigs.
I expect in about a month.. maybe sooner I will be back here with a 'hands on 'review.