Love the Seymour Duncan 805 Overdrive pedal

[Revelation Sound]

The 805 is a high quality, well made and great sounding tube screamer. Seymour Duncan road map for the unit was the the Ibanez version.

Ibanez has 3 popular tube screamer. The TL9 version has a little more brittle high end compares to the 805. I clearly like the cleaner more detailed sound of the 805 over this unit.

The IBanez TS808 is an improvement in sound over the TL9. It has a (warmer/not as detailed) sound as the 805 which can be a good thing or not depending on your needs. The 805 on/off button is easier to push, is less expensive than than the TS808, and the 3 band EQ it provides is more flexible. The other big plus is the true bypass button on the 805.

You need to buy the hard wired Ibanez tube screamer which is a lot more to get a true bypass. That unit sounds a tad better than the TS808 and is wonderful analog character. The 805 sounds like a little more modern and you would need to reduce the high end a little to get a similar sound.

So let's say you have a Fender Twin Reverb 65 RI and you have the TS808 connected on your pedals system. The sound of your amp will not be able to be obtained with this pedal due to the lack of a true bypass switch which is a negative thing for me. Others won't care but as I would use the pedal also in my studio, getting the sound of the amp is important to me.

I personally decided on 805 pedal as I love the sound and savings over the Ibanez hard wired pedal. With the savings I can use the money towards a Seymour Duncan Catalina Chorus pedal next.

[Mincer]

Re: Love the Seymour Duncan 805 Overdrive pedal

I agree. The EQ is the key here. It is like a more refined TS. I've been using mine since it came out. Beautiful, rich, dynamic sound.

[PFDarkside]

Re: Love the Seymour Duncan 805 Overdrive pedal

Interesting to me, the 805 and Wampler Clarksdale came out at nearly the same time. Both are Tube Screamers with 3-band EQ. I'd like to compare the 805 to the Clarksdale (which I bought when it was released) my understanding is that the bass and mid controls are implemented nearly identically, but the treble is a little different. (Different frequency center and location in the circuit, based on Brian Wampler's comments). Does the 805 have multiple clipping options as well?

[Mincer]

Re: Love the Seymour Duncan 805 Overdrive pedal

No, the 805 has 'you get what you get' clipping. Good thing it sounds so good.

[Revelation Sound]

Re: Love the Seymour Duncan 805 Overdrive pedal

The more I am using this pedal the more I appreciate what it has to offer. With the drive setting around 10:00 o'clock ( with either my Les Paul or Strat into my 65 Fender Twin RI) it provides a clean but punchy sound. It does not alter the tone of your guitar much at the lower setting but brings out a slight agressive tone. So let's say your playing a clean blues like a BB King type of sound. This pedal will get you that sound at this setting. It's a clean tone but it adds some grit to it. It sounds great with any type of guitar I used and also sounds great through my Boogie Express as well. I generally have the bass control at 2:00 o'clock the mids in the center and high around 1:00 o'clock.

Put the drive around 1:00 o'clock and you obtain a great punchy rth guitar sound. Through a Tele you can get a Rolling Stone sound. If you have another pedal that provides distortion, the 805 sounds better in front of the other pedal. I have a Boogie Flux Drive pedal. When I get a good setting for rthy guitar with it and then turn on the 805 for a lead solo the magic begins. It sounds a little compressed and smooth in a wondeful way. I highly recommend trying this pedal if your looking for a tube screamer. It's that good, and is their Vapor Trail analog delay by the way.