Since 2015 NEW PEDALS EVERY DAY! Over 3300 REVIEWS!
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Straight off ...it has a great sound!!!
A company from Brazil with many gourmet pedals. Hand made with a very high quality of build.
Standard treble.bass, volume and gain but a sweepable mid range. All OD's should have one!!!
The Brazilian site isn't in English but Potugese
so click the translate!! They do sell from it.
Unreal sound for the price
As the name suggests this is a massive undertaking of nailing every detail of the 'coming of age' guitar dirt tones of the 1980's
There are no less than '7' gain stages ...so getting enough of the 'good stuff' is a given!!!!
The pedal is about as tube amp sounding as it gets.
The unit is a stunning achievement and it is as well mde as it gets! As you can see by the controls it is virtually a 2 channel preamp layout with both a crunch and a lead layout.
It even has an effects loop. The damn thing is built like a tank and a lot of thought was put into the style of it. It is unique and different without being ostentatious or gimmicky.
The whole deal is a masterful achievement.
But the question is ...can you do as well or better by buying two or more other OD's?
It appears that you must buy it from Red Stuff.
Not only that there isn't any price listed????
It would appear that you must phone Red Stuff to find out?????
Nothing new about the concept. Two pedals in one box. Jetter are best known for their low to medium gain pedals that give you a noticeable amount of variation in their voicing.
You can zero in on a sound rather the just find that one sweet spot and go with that.
You can use them separately or stack them. There is even the shift switch which toggles between to different sources for the pedals voicings.
In short the pedal unlike nearly all others does not have a single fixed sound.
Makers find that a really good singular sound sells pedal ...because it is predominant and
the pedal's sound can not be ruined by the buyer. In other words you can get many, many great sounds on the Gold Jetter but you
can just as easily dial up a total sh@t sound too.
A lot of session players use them or independent sidemen that need a small fly rig that they can find whatever they need from pedals like their 'Gold'.
If scratch making your own voicings is your thing then check out Dr. Scientist ...The Elements v.7 It takes this whole concept pasts earths gravity and beyond.
With Metal it is good to have a very fast 'hard gate' feature. A hard gate instantly clips your total signal clean off. It is stunning for 'STOPS'. The Metal buzz word for rests in the music. So even if you feel you do not need one for noise the 'hard gate' affect is hard to resist.
The NS-2 has been around for 10 years and has been the go to pedal for most Metal players.
Many owners also claim it does not affect your tone. After many listens
I think it does. It fattens it up. :-)
I already have 2 TC Electronic Sentry's 2 OD loops coming from my Boss Switcher. One for low and medium gain OD's and another for high gain OD's They are bit harder to set up but have a lot of fineness.
A better choice if you are more into low or medium gain pedals and you want to sanitize a lot of hiss and a bit of noise.
I use the Boss for my Fuzz and Metal pedals and works beautifully.
I had a single end Decimator but it was really hard to get a sweet spot.
Different pedals needed the gate changed and it caused embarrassing delays between songs at gigs getting it set right.
The price is quite reasonable if you are going 'new' but
they can go as cheap as $35.00 USD for a beat up job used.
I bought mine used in excellent condition for $62.00 USD.
I feel it was the best compromise as a beat up jobbie may have electrical problems.
Tetsuro Horino is a underground legend in 'Pedal Land'
$315.00 USD
the detail in the tone of his pedals is without question.
I have his Cholate Drive (read the Post) and I love it.
He seems happy enough working away at his pedals
in Japan selling them online with the sole aim to
sell to his Japanese fans.
The site is in Japanese as are the prices. Finding his pedals anywhere else is NOT easy.
The thing I do not like about his pedals is quite simply they
are NOT FAT!!! The sound borders on thin compared with other makers.
The Cholate Drive is a medium gain pedal with such a detailed and lush tone it doesn't mater because I use it where the tone
needs that detail. I love it because it has a strong Brit flavour yet fits where one of the various Dumble style pedals would normally show up. I find the Dumble pedals just a bit pretentious ...a kind of I am really a Jazz player but I know
that straight Jazz is a little over your head attitude.
So Metal is meant to be in your face and this pedal is not
If I were into Metal exclusively this would be a great second pedal where bringing down the onslaught in a set with a more laid back tune would be an enjoyable break for both me and the audience.
In Europe and Brit everyone sells them.
They are still proudly shown on the Blackstar site.
Stateside not even Best Buy have them?
So on this side of the pond they are going cheap!
Lots used under $100.00 USD
A simple set up with boost to medium gain on on higher gains on the other. It has a very American dirt sound even though the 'ISF knob is meant to sweep from a U.S. sound to a Brit sound. It is hardly surprising that it would lean towards the Metal side to mimic their amps. It can deliver some heavy lows but you can tighten it up too. With so much gain ...that can be more then useful.
I must admit after reviewing 300 plus OD's I am amazed at how often someone
reinvents the 'wheel' convincingly. In short an increasing long list of really great OD's.
all just distinctly different enough to make me want another. I already have 20 of the very, very best.
I also have another on order and yet another on my short list.
$290.00 USD
Ignore the slots on it. It is for a mounting device :-) See vid.
A simple set up with a switchable boost. It all gets down to the sound. The sound!
Gutsy, Raw in your face. Very late 60's thru 70's classic vibe to the tone.
The secret is using 'soft clipping' on the gain to give you an authentic Marshall type sound that is just before breakup. You can then push it into crunch. Add the boost and you bring some hard clipping in.
There are a lot of small PU makers out there that make superb hand wound PU's made of the very best parts. One thing they all have in common is the price. F. ing expensive as in BIG time.
So right out of the gate Q moves to the front of the pack because they are priced in the average Dimarzio, Duncan range.
I got a 64-65 Strat neck PU for my Silvertone reissue. WOW!!! HENDRIX nailed!!!
Every PU is made by Tihomur Pavlinovic' in Croatia. Not only a master builder Tiho is a great guy to deal with. If you are thinking about upgrading PU's you should get on board before the world figures this all out!!!
the pedal was design to push the even order harmonics.
They are those that are musicially related
like the second which is virtual a harmonic of the note
you are playing. In contrast when it comes to odd
order harmonics just think 'fuzz'
The dynamics from your touch is superb. The mids are even across the whole range. This I find makes accounts for it's wall of sound effect. It stacks unusually well both before or after any other OD.
It is not the first time they and others have borrowed from Billy Gibbons favorite Fuzz.
The Bionix Epandra ...(he used 6 all set with a different setting lol,
Used as his only dirt pedal on the first few ZZ Top records.
The Expandra was itself a beefed up Pro Co Rat.
It was famous for it's massive low end and the crazy noises it made if you overloaded the gain stages into each other. The Cannonball has kept the best of the Expandra but smoothed out the kinks.
To be honest I like them equally.
A Japanese into an oldies market has bought the name and has reproduced the original.
The title says it all. You can alter the bias with a switch to move the 'snarl' in the sound to low or high and you can dial in the resonance point to around that point to nail a sweet spot. It is a key feature of more then one pedal.
As far back as the famous 60's Tonebender where there were over time v1 thru to v3 it was deciding on where to leave the bias. It is much better to allow the user to decide.
The boost itself has 35dB of boost. 12 is considered healthy. Much of what it does is a 'feel'
thing and is more audible and effective at performance levels.
It is a take on Nobles OC-1 which was yet another take on the
good ol' Tube Screamer. The cool thing is the 'sweep' knob that lets you hit the sweet spot in the upper mids for your particular rig.
Like all things that start life as a take on a 'ts' putting in some way to punch up the bass makes a lot of sense. So they put in a truck load.
So whats the big deal. To be honest not a lot'
BUT if you have a Tele life with this pedal is whole different thing.
You get a nice thick chunky sound.
The Moller has been around a long time this is the new v.2 and it has been improved. Well improved if you want even 'more' :-)
It is a favourite with players looking for the premium blues drive.
It is not cheap but typically blues players are just looking that one perfect sound and tend to often use very few pedals.
In short having just a single OD is OK but it has to be excellent!
Well as the colour hints at the Tube Screamer is a good start. The boost is a big part of the sound and being able to mix the two on this pedal is where all the magic happens.
It has grit and balz to spare. The only bitch is it has a weak low end. But the lows are dead tight. In a band
situation it would be irrelevant. NICE!!!
From Brazil we have Stomp Audio Labs. Originally a collection of university engineering students from many countries with a mission to start their own company.
This is their take on the classic Brit pedal.
A high gain monster!!!
The controls are no mystery with Tone, Drive and Level with a mystery knob labeled Bite ...but it is really just a nice presence control.
The level has a lot of volume enough to use it as a booster to drive your amp into distortion.
The gain can go from a classic crunch sound to a high gain solo sound.
The pedal is full heavy and with lots of bite on the highs and grunt in the low.
This thing has balz plus!!!
It should not be labelled crunch ...I think crush is more appropriate.
Hard not to like and the price gives another reason to bring this one home!
Hard not to like?
Impossible even. LOL
It's no coincidence with the color of this pedal
this is Barber's take on a Brit pedal.
It is medium gain pedal that is more on the mellow side
then what we would expect from a Marshall.
This is because Barber decided to emulate a really early
Marshall Combo with KT66 tubes.
Barber has always leaned to the sounds and pedals that fusion players prefer. So perhaps it could be expected that they would
choose an amp that they could marry their usual rich sweet type of sound to.
This is the new series built in a MXR type 'b' box. Everything
about it is very Barber. It's all about the tone even if it dampens
the spirit of the enthusiasm that a little growl or edge other makers
are more prone to add. Very reasonably priced too.
Nicely done as it sets them apart and it gives us a real choice.
Well good or bad this is NEW!
The controls say it all bass/mid/treble 3 drives and 3 volumes.
First shown at the SNAMM 18 it is only 2 weeks old!
Seafoam are a small handmade, best of parts company
at SBS they go to the head of the class.
It appears to be a low gain pedal. It is as laid back as it gets. It seems to be free of any artifacts which is heaven for a low gain pedal. I'd love to have it for my 12 string things.
There are a lot of low gain pedals out there of a similar nature
but I have not heard one better. Period!!!
This is not your Rock low gain pedal ...for that the Heartbreaker reins supreme! But for a lot of music a lighter touch is a necessity and I have heard nothing that comes close to this. Well done Seafoam!
This goes straight to my short list!! I love it!
This pedal has the sweetest most natural warm low gain OD I have ever heard in a pedal.
Full stop!!!! This is 'IT'
****** This is the only pedal in a year that will be in an up coming WORLDS BEST post coming soon ....that I have not had to think twice over!!!!
If you have shades of deja vu don't distress this Post is a total rewrite of a POST I have already done???
I stumbled onto a video of this pedal and was taken back by what I was convinced was a straight forward simple Metal pedal. I felt it was exceptional sounding and obviously well made. The clincher was it was only $125.00 USD
The pedal was out of production so I convinced owner builder Grant Macmillan of Sine pedals to bring it back. I told him that many players reading my blog would want one.
This is true ... there are 98,000 of you guys and when I say something is hot ...a hundred of you will often order one ...so the guy gets swamped with orders.
So I just got mine. I was expecting as I said a Heavy Metal pedal. With your average pedal if everything is set on about noon and you turn it on it sounds more or less like the video's.
Well it did not!!! AT ALL!!!
I latter learnt if you turn up the volume, which has enough level that it is louder than then the loudest booster pedal I have ever heard ...then it drives the preamp in your amp into high gain. LOL
(Note: if you leave the pedal at unity gain and stack it in front of even a cheap Fuzz it will do a passable copy of what you hear on the video's)
So what did I get buying this pedal. Anything?
What I got was a...
BUILD It is a very high quality hand made pedal made of quality parts and built like a tank. The box it's built in is much smaller then it looks. I am familiar with it as it one of the Hammond style boxes. I know of no other maker who uses it. It looks dead cool too! BOOSTER
If you buy this pedal you will have a boost that is easily creates double the level of all it's competitors. It blows the Xotic EP and the Wampler dB+ out of the water. I have owned both. Compared to this they are junk.
COMPRESSOR
The pedal has an even smooth sustain with zero artifacts. ALL comps have some artifacts. In... short it sustains as good as the best compressor sustainer ...and sounds better too. TRANSPARENT OD
The best of these have very little sustain. The overdrive tone is clouded by all kinds of fizz or the harmonics and overtones are nasty and jagged or dropping out or worse still ...fading in and out. The attack of all of them is so muddy that the makers blend in some clean sound with the effect. The worst of these is the Tube Screamer.
With the Distorphoria headroom and transient response on the attack is awesome!!! The Disphoria has an attack and sustain to die for!!!
IT MAKES A STRAT SOUND MORE LIKE A STRAT TURNED ON THEN OFF!!! IT BLEW MY MIND ON MY TELE ...It turned my Ricky PU into monster!!! If you own a Fender guitar it is an absolutely MUST HAVE pedal!!!
If you stack it in front of any OD it will add balz and punch and make even a $30.00 chinese 'special' sound like it belongs in the big league!
And yes it sounds great on a hummie too!
THIS IS THE BEST OF THE BEST TRANSPARENT OD I HAVE EVER HEARD OR PLAYED!!!
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO'S
I WOULD NEVER HAVE THOUGHT FROM THEM WHAT THIS PEDAL CAN DO!!!
I give this 10 out of 10 for an any low, mid or otherwise gain transparent OD. For the guy with a Fender I give it 100 out of 10 and if I were Fender I would buy out Sine Electronics! NO SH@T IT IS THAT GOOD!!!
My Silvertone(Dano) is in the shop having a 64 Strat PU (Hendrix jobbie) put in it. I can't wait to get it back and team it up with the Disphoria!!!! I consider this a minor masterpiece!!!! Well done Grant Macmillan ...take a bow! You have given us one of the best OD's on the planet!!!
The FLUX Drive is the Mesa Boogie Mark amps OD sound in a box.
The first Bogie amp started life as a Fender. Boogie did mods on Fender amps until one day they realized they had ripped out and changed more of the Fender amp then they left. LOL
So it sounds like what it is.
A beefed up Fender Twin or Deluxe etc.
The sound is more about a good crunch then a solo voice.
Being Fender it lacks serious lower mids and bass.
A lot of blues players love it
I once worked in a store where I sold a lot of Boogie amps.
At the time I played a Plexi.
I still do. lol
The problem I find with it is whatever you loose turning a little transistor box into an amp sound in one area you can make up for it in another.
But if you are an amp company you can not put something into
sound that is not in the amp. So you get right what you can and live with what you can not do.
CALINE MARK 4 OD
The last video is the Caline MK4 pedal. Put it on 7:30 then put the 'San System vid on 3.
The Boogie is cleaner and richer in detailed overtones then the Caline. The Caline does not however seem out of place. The tone is much rougher but it makes a more than passable substitute. It's only $35.00 USD too.
The low end could not be fixed on either so Caline just added a course one in. They had no need to get sound that accurate. They just went for an approximation of the sound with the artistic addition of some low end grit.
With a real preamp tube switching the on the pedals classic Vox Top boost ...treble boost with the gain backed off is very impressive With shades of an AC30 sound is worth the price of admission.
Higher gain sounds are disappointing. The pedal is harsh and a bit thin. It could really use some good active EQ especially the mids. Of course using it to push a good tube amp could make a world of difference. It could also add some real tube character stacked into a good FET OD.
I do love it's low gain settings though. Great looking too.
The pedal has just recently been discontinued so look for
blowout pricing. Expect $100.00 USD or better.
From Bulgaria comes the new kid on the block
N- Audio with their first OD.
The pedal has the standard layout but the switch triggers a 3 stage gain. Boost, Classic and Fat
You can choose either a light, medium or higher gain stage by a switch.
Or switch between to mid boosts that can be set by Dip switches on the inside to tailor the mids to boost where you like them. Lower for a Plexi like sound or higher for JTM 45/Bassman like sounds.
You can run the pedal either buffered or true bypass. One dead cool idea is a small knob on the side that can give you up to a 12 dB boost on your clean sound. Great for getting the full signal of your whole board to your amp and even pushing
your clean sound to the just before breakup sound of a Plexi set to clean. This fattens your clean sound.
The overall tone is tight and aggressive. So if that's your thing you get a lot of pedal with the Firesound!
So I bought the new Keeley Compressor +. I love it. I am selling my much praised Wampler. It is supposed to be artifact free almost invisible etc. It is. BUT ...it has an annoying lack of clarity. This is weird because if anything Wamplers pedals all have a glass like sound. I am actually using a 2 mini relatively cheap jobbies a Pigtronix Philosopher's Tone with another compressor the Mooer Yellow comp pushing it. The pair together actually sound great ...a really great sound and tons of sustain. Both compressors are 'optic'. The Mooer is a Diamond rip off. The Diamond is even yellow lol. It is a stellar ripoff ...it is easily the best pedal Mooer make. They know it too as it has been around for years and they still will not rebrand it. Adrian Below uses the full size Philosopher ...it has been around since the 80's. It sounds the same. Pigtronix did a stellar job on the small one. His has been his always on pedal all that time. So I am finally happy with my comps (I have 4 ...one for each loop) I use the other most toted jobbie the Xotic SP on my Fuzz/Metal pedal loop. They all do something different really well. But doing the double up thing with the 2 mini optic jobies blows my mind. They sound exceptional used together!!!
VIEN-TAP DARK TRIAD OD & DISTORTION Basically the famous Marshall Guv'nor with a tweak or
specifically ...two.
Hard not to love with such a bullet proof heritage for a sound they nailed quite well! The sound and sustain at its mid gain
is impressive for both the tone and a really long sustain.
When pushed ...take note that the tone glazes over and looses the
very nice detail of the mid setting. I would get for that which is the sweet sounding FET side and enjoy the nice 3 way EQ to tweak too my rig.
The Metal tones though are not bad and quite usable.The clipping diode thing is just right ...not so much as to get fuzz like of fizzy.
. PRICE $140.00 USD
The price is a 'SALE' price so if you like it you better
get your butt rockin' LOL
So what have we got here. A excellent work horse mid gain sound to find endless use for and an 80's type classic distortion. A great price for two serious sounds with excellent tone that easily rival a lot of pedals in the $225.00 USD price range. The value for money hear is a clear NO BRAINER!!!
Not much to say. Easy set up with a 2 gain stages. medium gain and a boost side.
What's the big deal then???
IT HAS PROBABLY THE MOST NATURAL TUBE SOUND I HAVE EVER HEARD.
Note not a serious lead sound. It relys on you having a respectable tube amp and it has very little sustain.
BUT for a balzy punchy, punchy sound that can back a vocal ...never crowd the singing but still great sounding it is hard not to consider.
It impressed me over the big deal King Of Tone ...I agree with Mike Tito on that for sure.
Some guys will play the whole night with a medium or low gain distortion left on. This is a damn easy sound to live with for the hours and hours you will be hearing it. Worth thinking about. Yes???
Rothwells main gig is making high tech for industrial purposes
they only use high end best of parts.They quite literally make pedals for fun using the pedals to fill out short periods of down time.
Buying for their prioritys allows them volume purchases
for cheaper prices. They also have state of the art equipment
and facility's. In short they can make the very best pedals for
cheap prices.They are under the radar because it suits their
prime products that are NOT pedals.
They have several OD's all are extremely impressive.
The switchblade is a Brit type pedal that goes from medium gain to high gain. The sound is tight but heavy and as thick and dense as
solid steel.
DRAWNER PRINCE ELECTRONICS BONAR MULTI-HEAD DRUM ECHO
$350.00 USD
The Italian made Binsin Echorec was a multi tap drum echo unit made in the 60's. They used a metal drum instead of a loop of recording tape like the American EchoPlex.The sound was shot back on 4 playback heads.
The result was a brighter even reverb like quality to the sound.
Several makers have made pedals to imitate the sound but none are quite so impressive as the Bonar.
It was Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour who put it on the map as a must have.
The key to much of it's magic is that wear over time would cause the drum to modulate.
Boonars cuircut creates a virtual magnetic drum. The original tube preamp was reproduced but uses FETs.
Geat care was given to recrete a convincing recreation of both the sound and the operation of the original.
Check it out the first video for the Floyd tempter ...then let Brett take you thru all the options and tricks of the unit on the second video.
Huge aggressive wall of sound. A straight forward basic control setup and switchable boost.
The V1 has been around for years selling by word of mouth. Nothing overkilled. A really natural sounding pedal. NICE!!!
It is the kind of sound that made me pick up a guitar in the first place.
Well it is very much in the Brit camp. It is fat and warm and is rich in harmonics. I would not call it tight but it is free of fizz and harmonic clutter. WHATS NOT TO LIKE?
If you come to SBS on a regular basis you know I do not
cover hundreds of the ambiance pedals. Why? Simple
they are often too gimmicky ...they become the music itself
Once they show up as the 'fingerprint' on some hit record
you can feel stupid using them in your own original tunes.
Worst of all you usually have to write a part for them because
if you write a nice tune without the pedal on they trash half your chord changes.
So this pedal like a classic chorus or flanger can be added like seasoning to a tune.
Very usable!!! Not a gimmick just some excellent textures and colours.
The select gives 11 clipping diodes to choose from.
The texture allows you to change the boost of the harmonic content like push for some sparkle or back off any fizz.
Depth lets you tighten or boost the lows.
on the back you can control the voltage which effects the
compression to add more or create extra headroom.
It greatly affects the tightness of the sound.
The overall voicing is unusual when cranked it is aggressive and cuts like a knife all with nasty, nasty edge.
If you pull back it cleans up like a low gain pedal and you
get glass like crystal clarity. The controls though are very sensitive. Small movements can create little miracles or totally trash your sound.
The build is excellent and the price is dirt cheap for such
a sophisticated pedal.
Both heaven and hell for the knob twiddler!!!
There are no less than '7' gain stages ...so getting enough of the 'good stuff' is a given!!!!
SPACEMAN APHELION HARMONIC OD 
The title says it all. You can alter the bias with a switch to move the 'snarl' in the sound to low or high and you can dial in the resonance point to around that point to nail a sweet spot. It is a key feature of more then one pedal.
Basically the famous Marshall Guv'nor with a tweak or
Some great classic reverb sounds and a few modern ambiance.
