ACTIVE EQ - AMPTWEAKER Depth Finder ...this has to be heard to be believed ....killer effect !!! This ain't your grandads EQ

 AMPTWEAKER DEPTH FINDER 

$90.00 USD

This is not an EQ as such but it is a basic tone shaper. Some of you have read my Post AMPLIFIERS & GAIN in it I explain what is going  on with a tube amp and how it affects the tone.
Speaker damping and its affect on the signal being blocked trying to get into the speaker and how it 'chokes' the transformer causing a sag then a boost when the transformer recovers. It adds an almost gasping sound. Add to that when you crank a Marshall tone stack at high volumes the cabinet resonates and creates a great thump.
All this contributes to form a big bass resonance that is very fat and punchy!
Some OD makers are aware of this and will add a bit of extra bass but the problem
is that this should be treated as a separate thing because some players want none of it
and some like me cannot get enough!!!

Jame Brown poses with some
guitar player who likes his designs

Actually audiophiles would be in horror if they heard it. LOL
Fender and Vox use a circuit to try and minimize the dampening. Marshall did nothing to stop it in their PLEXI and it has become part of an iconic sound. Then add to the fact that one is expected when designing a cabinet to have a soft absorbent material on its sides to eliminate the resonance.
The famous Marshall 1960a 4x12 cabinet has none.  LOL

Often an OD can sound better by pulling back the highs
but too often you have to compromise your setting or your tone gets muddy.
The presence adds back clarity and definition so you can cut the highs down to where you want.
The pedal does not add an irritating fake treble boost. No it is more about upper mids and definition.
I like to feature the upper mids with just a touch of highs but I need some sparkle and
I can not get that unless I push up the highest frequencies which brings up the level of the highs so much that it is in essence louder then those upper mids and buries them. Soooo this boost is perfect.
It just cleans up the top end and leaves it sounding natural.

CONCLUSION
I use a Speaker simulator to make my single 12" open back cab sound like a 4x12 Marshall tone stack. It helps fatten the sound and add some faux speaker resonance but like you ...I want moooore!!!

So only 4 days from putting in my order I have my pedal.

The first thing is that I was surprised to find it is just a conventional mini pedal
casing. I have no problem with this as I love saving space on my board but I would have preferred it was designed to lie upright instead of horizontal. A lot of guys would like a foot switch or even a mini toggle would have been nice. You can get a single pedal loop switcher for less then $20.00 USD so there is cheap solution.
Not having an LED is not a big deal until you have to troubleshoot issues when you are not getting an output signal. A lot of guys are at or nearing as much as 20 pedals on their board. I am just shy of 70 on 2 linked boards myself.

Well these are only quibbles lets get on with the sound.
It does exactly what it is meant to do the result is that it fattens the sound big time!!!!
The sound is in many ways invisible ...unless you turn it off.
In a way it is almost like the difference between the sound of a combo amp and that same amp pushing a 4x12 cab with a closed back. If you have tried this it gives you some idea.
I say some idea but it is what it is ...and unless you have played a tone stack at tinnitus levels you will not have experienced the sound.

BOTTOM LINE
I am glad I have it. It may work out as an always on pedal because except for my faux 12 string stuff I always have an OD on ...some are very low gain to play things that would even transfer to my Martin but leaving it always on may work. If it doesn't I already own a few single loop pedals.
So in any case even if you just bought to put behind your OD for shredding it is well worth having. It sounds great dimed ...many pedals do not. Having tried using real EQ's this both different and better at getting the extra balz you wished you had in your rig.
In short a great pedal worth the price!!!


LATER THE SAME DAY
So I am writing this on a break at band rehearsal. My GOD it works so damn good I can only get the Bass boost up to 9 o'clock and the presence to 11 0'clock. I had the knobs dimed on my practise amp
.
HALF WAY THRU REHEARSAL
I have 26 OD's and 4 Fuzz boxes and on every tune I had to knock off some lows and and add a touch more highs just to get on with the next tune. 

I will have to re-set every knob on every dirt box to get each box the best it can be ...but the benefit is big time!

NOV. 18/20
I got the Wampler EQuator parametric EQ pedal. It did such a great job of cleaning up, fattening and brightening my tone that I could pull 2 pedals off my board. BUT IT DOES NOT REPLACE THE DEPTH FINDER ...I am glad I bought it first or I may have not ...thinking it was just a lesser Para EQ.

SO ...JUST BUY ONE !!!  tell James that Paul sent you.


IF YOU ARE CRAZY FOR A HEAVY BALZY SOUND TRY THIS!

I added an 
ADA GUITAR CABINET SIMULATOR GS-2

I set it up to a Marshall 4x12 cab setting and it is always on. It makes any combo sound like it is going thru a stack. Add the Amptweaker Depth Finder and

you have a sound to die for even at bedroom levels!!!

I have spent a small fortune buying then 
having to sell speaker simulators. For recording some are OK but for live playing they all suck! Except for this one
I think it is because the ADA is all analog
so I should not be surprised.

It is easy to use ....first ignore all the bells and whistles on the back panel and just use the 1/4 inch input and output like any pedal. Click on the the Vintage switch and the 12 inch switch and the sealed switch.
Finally put the mic knob an at 10 o'clock. You can tweak it a bit but somewhere around 10 will give you that classic sound. Place the pedal last in the chain on your board.
Stick the Depth Finder in front of it. Turn on your OD and ....BINGO! 
You have a killer OD sound!!! so go ahead ...blow out the back wall!!!

OVERDRIVE- COOLMUSIC INSANE DISTORTION ...unexpectedly good ...very good!!! and at $21.00 USD very,very good!

 COOLMUSIC INSANE DISTORTION 

$21.00 USD

I will tell you right away some settings have a bit of nasty low fizz
but you can dial it out and still get get some absolutely great tones.

After some careful observance of setting changes made thru the course of the demo I noted the noise in question is the result of running the level too high. It could even be from overloading the amp and not the pedal at all. With the level at near 2 o'clock it is bad.
At 10 o'clock it is gone.

It is as you might expect a high gain distortion pedal.
It does however have a very glassy sweet tone.
The low boost gives a nice fat low end and the
fat boost fattens the mids to a juicy fullness.

The pedal even looks cool!!!

You can get one on AliExpress it includes free shipping.

OVERDRIVE- FULLTONE OCD .... $35.00 USD ......yes you read that right

 FULLTONE OCD OD ...counterfeit !!!  

Yes you read that right. Mogoo pedals made a counterfeit
OCD a few years back and Fulltone went chasing after them.
So everytime they get a that nasty letter from the lawyers they lay low.
Every few months a few pedals suddenly appear then they
disappear back into hiding. So for the next couple of days you can get one for $35.00 USD with free shipping on AliExpress. May1/18 is too late!!!
How do they sound?

                       

                        The one on the left is the $35.00 USD fake. 

I do not know but the company has the reputation of making good clones. Who is going to make us a video of an illegal pedal?

I do not know the connection but Mosky and Mogoo are often selling the same pedals. I think Mogoo
pulls the strings. Mosky are their public face. There have over time been other names put on the Mogoo pedals too but always for a short time. I do know from 3 years back that Mogoo have a couple of good in house designers.

Mogoo does another one that shows up. The Maxon Graphic EQ. What is weird about that one is it comes in the same casing as the real OCD on this page when it should be in the casing that you see on their fake OCD.

I ordered one. If it is only a collectors item it will be fun to have.
I will be back with a  ...HANDS ON ...once I get it. I am expecting fairly accurate OCD sound.


So I got one and I finally found the time to check it out

HANDS ON

I bought the Joyo JF-02 Ultimate Drive  a few years ago having heard several convincing comparisons that convinced me it is the real deal ....I simply put my new Mogoo OCD up against it. 
I could easily match the two. Depending on your slant the OCD is a bit warmer or the Joyo has a bit more bite.

Keep in mind there are 8 different versions of the 'real' OCD over 12 years. The Joyo came out in 2012 so it was voiced by what ever versions were available then. Even the Mogoo has been out a couple of years. To me the Mogoo sounds like a 1.6 ( the 6th model) the lows are the heaviest but I do not have all 8 pedals to try ...just video comparisons.

To make matters tougher the second and the newest sound alike even though the new one is a totally new pedal. The others were all a variation on the first circuit , board and casing.

AUG.2020
I have been able since to compare the Mogoo with a few real OCD pedals.I am sure if you had to pick it out of the 8 versions as the fake you just couldn't do it. lol
So i love it ...and I use on every gig.

Time to Digress
So I have outgrown my pedal board. Because of weight and bulk when gigging I am currently making 2 new boards I call the Twins. They will be  linked together as one with 2 small Art patchbays. They will hold 40 pedals on each. Yes I said 40 and yes that makes 80...lol.  (I own a lot more than that!!!) I have already chosen 70 to start. I have my eye on a few more new ones. I have a Fuzz and Bogner OD on the way and a custom made high gain OD made by Dereck Tabata who does custom OD pedals for the heavy hitters in California. He makes pedals like Dumble makes amps. Everyone different to suite not just the sound but the response from your touch. He has some basic models he works from. I picked 'Eddie' lol To say it sounds killer is an understatement! But I am have the sustain taken from insane made longer. lol
The way I use them is wire them up as 5 separate small boards. Each has it's own Compressor, Gate, Delay and Reverb. All have several OD's covering low gain, medium gain, high gain and Metal. Some have modulation pedals, a Fuzz and the odd this or that. I use a 5 way switcher. Instead of hitting a switch and bring on just one pedal I in effect switch on a whole board. I turn on the pedals needed for a tune in each of the 5. 
When I play a tune I can have one for the verse another for the chorus another for the middle eight etc.THis allows me quite literally to create the kind of sound you only otherwise hear on a post produced recording.
I have a power trio we play 21 songs that I have written. It is not unusual for us to play for an audience that for the most part never heard us. 
So I do not think what I do is overkill ...because >>> I only get one chance to make a first impression! 

FUZZ- ANANASHEAD Meteorite ...the classic 60's American Fuzz

 ANANASHEAD METEORITE FUZZ 

$115.00 USD

         UPDATE Dec27/18
Priemer Guitar just awarded this the best Fuzz of 2018.
If there was a little more justice someone should have awarded the... 
Ananashead DS 308 Fuzz too!!! 

I had to smile when I head this because every Hollywood matinee movie in the 60's used this sound for their soundtracks.

If you walked thru suburban America the sound of every Garage band had someone banging out cords with this sound.

I find all the Ananashead dirt pedals stack really well. I use the Super Fuzz stacked thru the EH Pog then thru an Ibanez mini Chorus and finally thru an analog delay set to a slap back
I get a powerful Fuzz sound surrounded by a giant gothic cathedral organ.
This sound can take down walls. LOL

As usual the build quality and authenticity of tone
is stellar. I have no idea how Annanashed does this and still gives us a great price.
A totally pro hand made pedal for only $115.00 USD is just nuts. But trust me you do get
the real deal pedal. The big names would want about $225.00 USD if they made it to this spec!!!
Do yourself a favour and keep tabs on the Ananashead site
you get great pedals at a great price!!!

I have written a few tunes using the Ananashead BYRD SONG (Vox treble booster) and have been asked a hundred times how I got that 'SOUND' I can tell you right now I would be 'toast' if I did not have the pedal!!!

CONCLUSION

This says it all >>>>

OVERDRIVE/PREAMP- JACKSON AUDIO Prism ...a buffer, boost, preamp, EQ & OD ...the fix or improve anything pedal!!!

$260.00 USD

 JACKSON AUDIO PRISM 
This a total tool box full of tone tools. So let's just go thru what they do and how they interact.

TONE
-basically your highs where you can cut or boost them 15 db

PRE GAIN SWITCH

HIGH
-high gain sounds for leads
MEDIUM
- medium gain for chord work
LOW
- a basic clean sound with a lot of headroom.

BODY
- this covers your low end with a 15db cut or boost

BOOST
-it is tied into the Pre Gain to work in tandem with your choice of gain to keeps it's range working within that choice.

CIRCUIT SELECT

COLOR
- a silicon treble booster ...your basic Brian May sound

AMP
- a MOFET boost ...instant tube amp sound

TRANS
- a J-FET boost ...dead clean with lots of headroom

The idea behind the pedal is not bad but I find  the Dry Bell Unit 67

although it starts with being a compressor first works better

both ideas are outside the box but the Prism is an engineers solution

and the Unit 67 could only be thought of by a player.

OVERDRIVE- WAMPLER Pantheon .... vs. King of Tone ???

$200.00 USD

 WAMPLER PANTHEON OD 

A King of Tone without a waiting list. LOL
Wampler says it is an updated version of the old Marshall Blues Breaker
pedal.
Maybe even the KOT started life as one too ...but with a near 2 year waiting list it is not hard to see ol' Brian wanting a few of those sales.
The bottom line is that you can get a pretty close copy of the KOT,

It does however like all Wampler pedals have his that Wampler gloss to the tone. I have a love/hate relationship with that Wampler 'Gloss' it gives you a nice sparkle but takes away from a 'real' amp sound.
Like all Wampler pedals it is well made and the controls have some serious range to them. This has killer bass.

It is a serious choice for those looking at getting a Tube Screamer as it
has some serious bass and nicer mids yet it keeps that transparency,

OVERDRIVE-BUFFALO Power Booster... very, very impressive

 BUFFALO POWER BOOSTER OD 

When the Colorsound Power Booster was introduced
they did not know what to call it. The only thing that was
similar that anyone could buy was a Fuzz. They had in
effect created the first medium gain OD. Yes you can boost the
by simply pushing the level past unity but this pedal is not a clean boost. The pedal took off instantly ...it became a 'gotta have' overnight. Dave Gilmour was one of the first. Jeff Beck had one.
The list is endless. On a survey of Gilmour fans the Gilmour sound
using the Colorsound was voted his best.



Colorsound saw the pedal as there way of breaking into the U.S. market
It was but the American's did not like the orange color or the name.
Mark Bolan also a big Colorsound addict suggested they call it Overdriver.
The rest as they say is history!

BUFFALO POWER BOOSTER

$300.00 USD

The Buffalo Power Booster is a faithful repro right down to using NOS
The tone is rich, full and all but transparent.
If you have ever heard an interview with Gilmour about gear he is a total gear nut!!! He still tries out new stuff.
Check it out but be warned you might get hooked.


MACARIS
Macaris now makes a copy of the original. It is subcontracted to Stu Castledine who had been making
his own and had the most knowledge about them. He also does the Overdrive. Like many early pedals they vary even over a year so Stu made a hybrid of a few. There isn't a video of the Overdriver.
They go for $400.00 USD and there is a long waiting list.

I feel putting them in the original casing accounts for some of that extra price but considering how cool it is I can't blame someone from treating themselves.
I have included a video from Stu.

To be fair check out the WILSON FX BC109 Post. 
They do one ...an excellent version 
and with NOS as well.

CONCLUSION
Wow ...they are all really hard not to like!!!

OVERDRIVE- ONE CONTROL Jubilee Red A.I.A.B. ...a Marshall Silver Jubilee in a box...

$145.00 USD

 ONE CONTROL JUBILEE RED A.I.A.B .

Designer Bjorn Juhl's gives us another another choice for a Marshall Silver Jubilee in a box. Bjorn has designed pedals for Bearfoot FX and Mad Professor so he has nailed a few OD's I love the Bearfoot Model G which is a take off of a small 50's Gibson amp.

$190.00 USD

Alexander Pedal has the Jubilee Silver. This has been available for a few years now ...it is a very good sounding OD. It is very tight and dead easy to control. I often recommend it as a first OD to someone buying their first as it does not need a lot of control dampening any open strings when using it. The Alexander is also very raw and nasty. In the nicest way ...of course. lol

The 'Red'does not have that tight sound it is more open and a lot less in your face. Having heard the real amp I think the Alexander pedal sounds more like it. On the other hand the 'Red' is a great sounding Brit pedal regardless. The 'Red' is very warm fat creamy and rich.

     Check them both out and see what I mean.

CONCLUSION

Well they are quite simply different pedals ...both sound very good.

I would give them both a pass for the Dawner Prince Red Rox Distortion. More versatile, fatter and a lot more balz!!! 

FUZZ/OVERDRIVE- PIGTRONIX Disnortion Micro...the full size version has been selling well for years & years!!!

 PIGTRONIX DISNORTION MICRO FUZZ/OVERDRIVE 

$130.00 USD

Old is new again.
The Disnortion has been around for years but like many such pedals
it started life long before it became common to use multiple pedals and have pedalboards, So Pigtronix decided to update to a space saving mini pedal box. A lot of trouble was taken to keep the original pedals sound. Features that were unnecessary extras are gone. The sound is the same and the features players actually used are all there!
The Fuzz shape knob still gives you the 6 original filters.
The frequency doubling Octava, Bass, Scoop, Treble. Smooth. F.A.T. and full range.

PIGTRONIX have for years survived on word of mouth to sell. It has worked well. They do not bring out trial and error in superfluous upgrades to get free press or to have 'NEW Product' to show off at trade shows,
It is not unusual for them to take years to nail down a new product.
Their stuff does not show up used very often. Players either hold onto them or find it easy to sell to friends and associates.

Well what do you get. A quality built pedal from a very reliable company. A truly versatile set of usable tones. Tones that have served many pro and served thousands of semi pro weekend warriors for years!!!

The original is still available but with 3 footswitches
it is half the size of a lot of guys pedal boards

CONCLUSION
A very nice little cheap Swiss Army Knife dirt pedal. A pedal that can be tucked into the corner of your board and be endlessly put into service because it has that 'just right' sound for even just a part of a tune.
After all it has 7 distinct tones to press into service.
It is likely going to be on your board long after other pedals have come and gone as fashion dictates.
It has slipped onto my short list even though with some odd 30 dirt pedals ....WHY???

OVERDRIVE- AIRIS Merciless Distortion ....a new take on a classic Boss pedal

 AIRIS MERCILESS DISTORTION 

$179.00USD

A lot of us started pedal life with a Boss pedal and at Airis they
got talking about the HM2 and what fun it was when they got one
back when they were learning to play.
It was decided to bring it back but make it a modern contemporary pedal.
In other words bring it back but make it better

The lows are tightened up and the mids are fatter!!! The whole signal is noticeably cleaner with more detail in the sound. The general noise floor has dropped.

The Boss HM 2 has become a collectors item so prices start around $250.00USD used and go up to over $1300.00 USD so the price is quite reasonable.

REVERB- WALRUS AUDIO Fathom Multi Function R.... damned practical ...unlike a lot of reverbs it works on tunes you already play right out of the box!!!!

$200.00 USD

 WALRUS AUDIO FATHOM MULTI FUNCTION REVERB 

It has just 4 algorithms but what you get is a very high quality pedal.
BEST OF ALL they all can work on tunes you are already playing.
There has been a trend to make effects in the last couple of years that
are a total experience on just playing one note. BUT... totally useless
 to play a tune on.
Yes great for the very creative artist who write their own
tunes and does an ambiance thing with some depth.
BUT I believe they are all aimed at the hobbyist with limited traditional
 skills to have fun with. In short no one is going to EVER make a living
with this music. Trust me I ONLY play original music. I know the
limits. I am not some old fart doing bad covers!

BOTTOM LINE

At $145.00 USD the E-H OCEANS 11 with 11 Algorithms

is bit of a problem for all the makers out there.

The quality is not the issue.... it gets down to just listening and choosing????

I for one am looking to have a reverb for each of my 4 dirt pedal channels

I have 2 reverbs already so 2 more would do it. lol

I think I should wait for the January NAMM. Some makers will have new product

and others will be scrambling to either make one, lower their price or the

favourite ...repackage and rename products they have and pass them off as new.

COMPRESSOR/BOOSTER- DRY BELL Unit 67....what if you took the best of a Urei 1176 and just put in what really works!!!

 DRYBELL Unit67 COMPRESSOR BOOSTER 

$290.00 USD

The cool thing is everything you could want to not only give you great compression but make your basic amp's voice polished to perfection is in this pedal.
Sure a UREI 1176 Compressor is amazing but once it it is set up to zero in on a great guitar sound then why not 'just' give you what you 'need' not the rest of UREI unit with all it's endless extras that do nothing for your guitar.  So they did!!!








 Dry Bell did not stop there they added some excellent EQ but better still they put in the word famous Dallas Arbiter Rangemaster into it too.
In the 60's everyone was using the Marshall PLEXI which was heavy in the lower mids  ...this made it sound massive but to make it sing. Everyone teamed it with the Rangemaster Treble Booster. Oddly enough it boosted the highs ...yes ...but it pushed the upper mids higher then the moon!!! Iommi, Page you name it...they all had one.

The best thing about the this compressor is nothing is superfluous... everything you can add is useful and it takes a second to add just the right amount of it.
So what do we get???
...take the very best designs from the past ...cherry pick only that which works for the guitar ...then pull it all together with the best parts  Assemble it with ...attention to detail  and make it user friendly!!!
And finally ...a compressor that can be an 'always on' pedal for anyone.

THE SOUND OF A WELL RECORDED GUITAR WITH SUPERB POST PRODUCTION IN A  BOX!!!


       Everything about it screams guitar player  :-)  
 ...nothing about it says engineers  :-(

CONCLUSION
This pedal is not only going to be a success it is going to be a BIG DEAL!!!!
I predict one day you will be sick of hearing about it. LOL










MARCH 15, 2020
So 2 years later and although the unit has been a big earner for Dry Bell the pedal has not taken over the market by storm as I predicted but perhaps I was too hasty in deciding I got it wrong.
This site just got a thousand hits over night because of this video.

OVERDRIVE- MOSKY Golden Horse & Silver Horse ...Klon Klones ...dead cheap!!!

$18.00 USD

MOSKY GOLD & SILVER Klon Clones

 MOSKY GOLDEN HORSE 
 MOSKY SILVER HORSE   

Yes more Klon clones.
The Silver one has a switch to change the voicing
...between normal and bright ???
...although what this is all about is not explained on
the Mosky site???
Only the new KTR ....Klon replacement has a switch
and it is to turn the buffer on or off.

AliExpress have both.
The Silver is so new that they are asking $26.00 USD.

$26.00 USD

Where as the Gold is less than $18.00 USD.
Both have free shipping.
_____________________________________________________

KLON FACTS
In a review by the inventor Bill Finnigan the real Gold Klon has noticeably warmer lower mids the Silver seems to make the upper mids more predominant so perhaps the lower mids are not so much less warm but have been pushed back because the Silver in affect has a bit if a mid scoop.

All components are variable by as much as 20% in ANY pedal made by anyone. So no 2 pedals of any kind can sound technically the same!!! 
Wampler does a video pulling parts out of bins and putting a meter on them and proves no 2 identical parts read the same.

There were no Silver Klons until 2000 but after that they came out
randomly in either gold or silver. Neither colour had a different
circuit. 
The ONLY tone change was in 1995 when a 15k R11 resistor 
was added for just a touch more lows.

IF YOU WANT THE WHOLE STORY READ THE POST
 May 22/17   OVERDRIVE- KLON CENTAUR OVERDRIVE...is it really that good ?
 ________________________________________________                    

I ordered the Gold one. My Tone City Bad Horse has a NFG
LED :-)
I only use it for a mid range booster for my Super 6 SRV pedal
so I thought at the price why not give it a shot???

HANDS ON
So I just pulled it out of the box and wired it into my practice amp.
You can definitely get some Klon like tones out of it. What impressed me
was no mater where i left the knobs that the tone I got was usable. The sound
is very clean and clear even if you dime it. With full gain and full treble you get
a very passable Brian May sound.
Leave the tone around noon and the gain around 2 o'clock and with a tweak or two you can get some half decent Klon sounds.

There are several pricey clones that get a 9 out of 10 for how close they sound. They can not get the dead perfect 'smoothness' of the original.
I would give the Mosky an 8 out of 10 for how close it sounds.  Not bad ...especially for the price.
BUT the real killer is... the damn thing has that 'smoothness' that those others could not get!!!!

The best way to describe the Klon tone is that it has a wide mid boost that has just a trace of the kind of honk of a fixed wah. The biggest selling Klon pedal is actually the Wampler Tumnus. I believe it is because they deliberately exaggerated the 'honk'. I have one of those too. lol
The exaggeration is addictive.

At this point I am glad I bought one. It is not a thrilling pedal like a shredder ...
but I can not get a bad sound out of it. I have had several 'me too' Tube Screamers and they all sucked
.
There are many ways to use it. You can use just as a boost pedal, or dime it for a light medium gain dirt pedal or use to stack with another OD.
This definitely is a keeper.

FUZZ- TOM CAT Bender Fuzz... a late 60's hot rodded Coloursound Tone Bender with totally unreal sustain!!!

$195.00 USD

 TOM CAT BENDER FUZZ 

There are many Fuzz pedals from the late 60's all either made by  or borrowing heavily from the Tonebenders.
In this case it is primarily the MKII Coloursound.
A fav of Dave Gilmour at that time until he switched to their booster.

The Tonebender was licenced by many and were virtually IT.  They were the only serious choice at the time.

Tom Cat had the good sense not to just copy one. There is no 'single' one that everyone agrees is the very best.

Tom Cat have managed to capture both the sound and feel of a whole era of gems!!!

OVERDRIVE- PRO TONE PEDALS Dead Horse OD ...this company specializes in modern metal...

$220.00 USD

 PROTONE DEAD HORSE OD 

These guys have been around a long time
 and were the first to really specialize in
modern metal.

So it is definitely worth checking them out.
The dead Horse is their biggest seller.

My only beef is it lacks any serious low
end. BUT ...I am not a guy who plays
modern metal!!!

$230.00 USD

The new King of the block the REVV GT owes a lot to these guys.
They have made Modern Metal practically a mainstream music 
choice and brought of new players into the fold!

OVERDRIVE- XAct Tone Solutions XTS Atomic OD ...very,very amp like Brit sound !!!

 XTS ATOMIC OVDERDRIVE 

$250.00 USD

Oh yes another one. A Marshall in a box! LOL

It's charm is not it's larger than life sound but how natural it
sounds. It has really nailed the 'tube amp' sound.
It has been around long enough to fall under the radar but good enough by word of mouth to just keep selling.

Good ol' Pete Thorn gives you his blow by blow
description.

As usual concise and right to the 'stuff' we all look for!

OVERDRIVE- MIDNIGHT 30 MUSIC Anthem OD ...a fat Rat that is magically transparent!!

 MIDNIGHT 30 MUSIC ANTHEM OVERDRIVE 

Joshua Weiler of South Glen Falls NY has been around since

$175.00 USD

2013 ....tinkering away making hand made pedals.
Self taught he is free from any of restrictions of what you
can't or should not do. Yes there is a lot of trial and error
but guys like him that are ALL passion often come up with
some real gems. The KLON is a perfect example!!!

So I was not totally surprised to find Josh has one.
He took the old Rat circuit and found some way to make it transpaent
BUT!  If you want you can boost it into supreme Dirtland.

It is the big mid range boost with the transparent sound that grabbed me. Check out the nice chunky chord rhythm at 1:50 on the video.
No other pedal is quite like it!!!

All the money from Josh's pedals goes to his charity work.
It is all on his site where you can buy direct.

PAD- MOSKY Volume Attenuator ...a $20 Swiss Army knife for audio...

$20.00 USD

 MOSKY VOLUME ATTENUATOR 

Damn handy. You can set your level up for the vocals etc.
then switch it off for a lead.
Sometimes a dirt box sounds better with the level on it turned up for a better more aggressive sound but then it is just too loud ...once again it comes to the rescue.
You could put it in your amp loop for a cheap 2 channel substitute.
Sometimes I start a tune only to be drowned out so I can shut it off in a heartbeat.
You can put the level on zero and use it for a kill switch.

At this price it's a no brainer ....a swiss army knife for audio!!!

I have 4 of them. One for each of my dirt pedal loops.

OVERDRIVE- YERASOV FETUBE British Citrus ...for a start it has 12 knobs on it!!!

 YERASOV FETUBE BRITISH CITRUS 

$245.00 USD

Woah!!! what the ....
Well Yerasov as the name implies are a Russian based gourmet tube amp company. They in fact make a dozen models.
They have many pedals. The series of the Fetube models are voiced to clone different amps. They also do a line of MXR sized pedals and some other larger ones.
In short they have a lot of pedals.

The Fetube are all modeled sounds. So on one hand you get an impressive realism ...but if you
have ever played modeled sounds there is a disconnect ...because even though the delay between your pick on the string and the sound coming out is a microsecond or two you feel like your mimining to a recording when you play. Unlike analog the dynamics of your touch are not translated very well. In short everything 'FEELS' artificial.

Since recordings kill the dynamic range...especially downloads from iTunes etc. Then the same loss from modeling is not as noticable. This pedal no doubt will give you great recordings relatively painlessly. On the other hand to play thru they are as exciting as a trip to the dentist and more painful.

So yes I am a analog pedal thru a tube amp diehard.
It is theoretically possible to make digital amps and pedals that easily could replace the real deal.
BUT ...it will take a sh@t load of memory and NASA grade hardware or better!
So it WILL happen. BUT not for the present future :-)

So what do all the knobs do????
It's digital ...it has some memory. One row of the usual for crunch ...one for shred!