XOTIC SL
Highly recommend this pedal. Very British sounding. I can almost nail my amp's tone (Mesa Stiletto) with this pedal. The tone and drive knobs are very responding and allow you to dial in different tones. The SL is close/same realm as the Catalinbread Dirty Lil Secret and Fulltone OCD. Having fewer controls than the two aforementioned, I feel that the SL+ is slightly more versatile and stands apart in the mix better.
Uses: It has the capability to be a stand alone drive or a great 2nd option (lead or alternate gain stage). I run all my pedals thru the joyo into the front of the amp. Banks 2-3 are SL with various combinations of efx pedals. The SL sounds great with delays (better than my amp, I don't like the delays in the loop with this amp).
Price, Quality, Build, Versatility and Size (I own a metro 24 which is why the SL has a place on it and the OCD/DLS do not) make this a viable option.
MXR Sugar Drive
Picked this up yesterday. So far I'm really glad I did. I've been searching for a true lower gain option. This pedal is what the EHX Soul Food wanted to be. Very transparent, organic and responsive. Price is reasonable. Being that it's new, probably won't be able to find much on used market. I'm not going say it sounds like a mythical creature or sniff some corks, but this pedal is very usable and has a lot of uses. Granted limited supply (pedal is selling out) and higher price point, I would recommend checking this one out prior to looking at EHX Soul Food, Boss Blues, Tube Screamer, etc.
USES: This works really well as a clean boost or a standalone secondary gain channel (it can go from an edge of break up sound to AC/DC crunch).
Quality, Build, Versatility and Size for the win.
TC Polytune Mini Noir
Does what a Polytune (favorite tuners on the market) is supposed to do in a compact size.
Neunaber
As you can tell I'm a huge fan of this company. Great products, great customer service, great community aspect, USA made, rackmount tone in a pedal. I know they don't get as much talk on the boards as other companies (Eventide, Strymon, etc) but they're right up there with em. If anyone's looking into them, hit me up (PM) and I'll give ya an unbiased (as much as I Can) review of what pedal you're interested in.
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