ratherdashing
Kablamminator
Anywhere other than a guitar forum, that subject line would probably seem extremely strange.
I tried a pile of drive pedals yesterday. The ones I didn't find that impressive were:
- Fulltone Robin Trower Overdrive: pretty standard TS-808 clone.
- Maxon OD808: see above.
- Visual Sound Route 66: see above + a decent compressor.
I can't even express how bored I am of TS clones. Ironic considering the pedal I built falls into that category, I know, but I have yet to find a TS derivative that sounds as lively and useful as the FTL Drive/Raptor. I'm not trying to brag - it's an honest fact.
The two that I did really like were a ZVex Box of Rock and the lowly Digitech Bad Monkey. The key with both pedals was finding the sweet spot where they really shine.
The Box of Rock has easily the best crunch tone I've ever heard from a pedal. The drive and tone controls had a ton of range in them, and it cleaned up nicely with the guitar's volume knob or light pick attack. It also has a clean boost which is completely useless to me unfortunately, but it does the job it's supposed to.
On the whole, awesome pedal, and worthy of the hype. I think I'm going to pick up a Distortron, which is the BoR minus the boost and with a couple of switches to reduce low end sludge (good idea in a band setting) and increase gain (not really interested in that, but ok).
The Monkey has a pretty stellar reputation considering the price, so I figured I owed it a shot. Right off the bat, I noticed the bypass tone was not the best for dynamics. I guess expecting a nice buffer in a cheap pedal was a bit unrealistic. When I dialed everything in about 50%, I was disappointed. It sounded boxy and lifeless. I turned the Low and High controls all the way up, and that's when it really opened up. Suddenly my tone was fat and powerful without being compressed or buzzy.
I got the best tone out of this pedal with the low and high all the way up and the gain at around 10:00. Depending on how hard I dug in, I got anywhere from fat clean to growling tweed tone at that setting. Through a high gain amp, it fattened up my power chords and actually added definition to tight riffing. I was really impressed.
Here's the thing: as soon as I deviated from the "ideal" settings, the Bad Monkey immediately sounded like a cheap overdrive pedal. The good news is that the one workable setting I found works really, really well, and accomplishes exactly what I want from a low gain overdrive.
I think the Distortron and the Bad Monkey (running inside a good bypass box) would make a great combo for my pedal board.
I tried a pile of drive pedals yesterday. The ones I didn't find that impressive were:
- Fulltone Robin Trower Overdrive: pretty standard TS-808 clone.
- Maxon OD808: see above.
- Visual Sound Route 66: see above + a decent compressor.
I can't even express how bored I am of TS clones. Ironic considering the pedal I built falls into that category, I know, but I have yet to find a TS derivative that sounds as lively and useful as the FTL Drive/Raptor. I'm not trying to brag - it's an honest fact.
The two that I did really like were a ZVex Box of Rock and the lowly Digitech Bad Monkey. The key with both pedals was finding the sweet spot where they really shine.
The Box of Rock has easily the best crunch tone I've ever heard from a pedal. The drive and tone controls had a ton of range in them, and it cleaned up nicely with the guitar's volume knob or light pick attack. It also has a clean boost which is completely useless to me unfortunately, but it does the job it's supposed to.
On the whole, awesome pedal, and worthy of the hype. I think I'm going to pick up a Distortron, which is the BoR minus the boost and with a couple of switches to reduce low end sludge (good idea in a band setting) and increase gain (not really interested in that, but ok).
The Monkey has a pretty stellar reputation considering the price, so I figured I owed it a shot. Right off the bat, I noticed the bypass tone was not the best for dynamics. I guess expecting a nice buffer in a cheap pedal was a bit unrealistic. When I dialed everything in about 50%, I was disappointed. It sounded boxy and lifeless. I turned the Low and High controls all the way up, and that's when it really opened up. Suddenly my tone was fat and powerful without being compressed or buzzy.
I got the best tone out of this pedal with the low and high all the way up and the gain at around 10:00. Depending on how hard I dug in, I got anywhere from fat clean to growling tweed tone at that setting. Through a high gain amp, it fattened up my power chords and actually added definition to tight riffing. I was really impressed.
Here's the thing: as soon as I deviated from the "ideal" settings, the Bad Monkey immediately sounded like a cheap overdrive pedal. The good news is that the one workable setting I found works really, really well, and accomplishes exactly what I want from a low gain overdrive.
I think the Distortron and the Bad Monkey (running inside a good bypass box) would make a great combo for my pedal board.
