OVERDRIVE- PETTYJOHN Chime MKII ..it may be the best transparent drive ever ?? ...or ?

PETTYJOHN CHIME MKII OD

$300.00 USD
  (0uch!)

This is all about really usable low to medium gain OD's. 

The trouble I find with all I've tried is they sound like your clean sound blended with the dirt. The lower the gain the more 'fake' they sound. Others have a problem with lower gain sounds that are not smooth. The dirt sounds broken up so much that it sounds like it is controlled like a modulation pedal creating a distracting rhythm.

If a real amp has kind of a zzzzzz to the dirt sound, the current low gain drives sounds like 

z z z z. Or worse still Z Z Z Z. OK for a Fuzz ...but crap for a simulated amp mild crunch tone.

The Chime is definitely a contender.

You get a level and gain with a germanium diode side for warmth and an LED diode for a higher smoother gain. A knob lets you blend the two. Another knob is a high pass filter to tighten bass and low gain frequencies that can bury detail in the mid to high end harmonics The biggest victim is the chime in a Strat.

Hendrix's famous near clean sound was a Germanium Fuzz with his Strat volume backed off. The Marshall's at the time only pushed out a light Crunch. The increase in resonance was from the shear volume being pushed 

back through the pickups. 

The germanium blended with a LED and the very high head room of the pedal 

is on paper an obvious approach to letting you just click on the pedal and 'poof' 

there you are with the same Hendrix thing.

Well maybe? My first impression is you get at the very least a powerful substitute.

CONCLUSION

I'm intrigued. I am looking for something between Hendrix and Mark Knopfler. I seem to be hearing videos when a Strat is demoed performing  low gain or cranked, but not that blend. 

Pedals I have tried, and there have been countless both cheap and beyond stupid have not impressed me once on my board. This pedal just may be the closest. I am impressed by the academics to the approach that no one else has seemed to addressed before for a low gain OD.

The price has jumped $50 since just a short time ago. They claim the price of parts has jumped because of shortages and increased shipping charges. I find with all but the 'CHIME' there are credible other choices to PettyJohn.