Jazz Rock
New member
Nice to be back! And I got great news.
A few weeks ago, I pulled the trigger on the Demeter FOD. A bit on the pricey side of things but I was blown away by the sound. I was looking for fat sounding late Billy Gibbons style stuff and I got it on a plate...for the same price as my amp (doubling the amplification budget... :eyecrazy
. Anyway, it was actually the cheaper step on my quest for the Holy Tone I am after... God knows when I'll be able to afford an am Tele.
So I will try myself at the art of reviewing, which I am usually not really prolific at. I feel inspired though.
So FOD stand for Fat OverDriveulator. And that is exactly what it does. You have two footswitches, one for the clean boost, which already add some fatness, the second is for the overdrive, which adds quite a tad more fat.
4 knobs on the box: First one controles the clean boost, the others shape the sound of the overdrive with a gain, a volume and a tone. On the left side you have tight/loose switch, on the other side there is a hole with a recessed pot labelled boost, which I would guess you could adjust with a small screwdriver.
Here is for the practical aspect.
Pluging into the amp (LC15R), I set the amp on a break up sound with the EQ flat on 5. I am starting now to play a bit with the amp EQ and it is really opening up possibilities.
Starting with the clean boost, the broke up sound turn into slight overdrive offering sweet lead parts and dynamic chords. I mostly played with the '59 loaded Epi so far and playing with the split coil is bliss. I particularly like the fatness the FOD brings to single coils with the fat knob around 5. I was until now fancying more my neck pick up in both mode, but it obviously was because the bridge was lacking some fullness. The bridge '59 sound great with the FOD. I tend to roll back the tone between 2 and 5 to tame the high end.
Obviously, the clean boost is ideal to enter into a solo after a dry spell of rhythm. My preferred option though is to have the clean boost on all time and play the rhythm with the SC bridge, then soloing with the full neck. For the sound think early classic rock, perfect for some Cream stuff.
Step on the overdrive switch and you enter into Led Zep, ZZtop and Aerosmith territory (with a wee play with the gain amount). I am so far in loose mode only. The clean boost and the overdrive work really well together. The drive on its own feels a bit dry to me but I guess it could suit some situations. I thnk what I lke the most in the overdrive, is the tone knob. Even though it is ranging fairly widely, there are no settings entering dodgy territory like so many tone knobs on pedals do.
Now I guess the only down side is that with both leds on in bucker mode, the low end can get mushy fairly easily. It works fine for hard rock, but getting into heavier stuff, like Alice in Chains seems a bit out of reach. Palm mutes falls flat and lack of substance.
It is funny though, as when I play my own stuff, I don't feel limited at all. For my playing as a "musician" playing its own stuff, the pedal is ideal for me.
But then every now and then you need to go back to your roots, your inspirations, and play the music of your favourite guitar hero... And that's where I thought the FOD was letting me down. Some Guns and Alice in chains stuff sounded really crap.
So I thought: Ok, let's play with the amp around a bit, and switch to the tight mode on the FOD (think of more modern sounding). I am not there yet, but it seems that there are possibilities with further refinements in the settings. I'll probably never get a proper song to play the like of Grind (AIC), but I should be able to get something decent enough.
Then I will have to upgrade the pups on my Gibby, as the change of magnets in the stock pups gave me a neck pup sounding more or less in the ball park of the '59n A4, and the bridge pup not getting very inspiring. So I guess with a beefier, not on the bright side pup in the bridge I should manage to revive my heavier inspirations.
To conclude, it is funny as finally thinking about it, it is just an overdrive pedal with a clean boost. You can find plenty of these on the market nowadays, and I tried a few of them. But they didn't do anything for me. This one though, I don't know what they put in this wee red box, but boy, it is dynamite. I say the satisfaction in playing this thing offer is well worth the £230 price tag. If you are in classic rock and need to thicken your sound: Go for it!
A few weeks ago, I pulled the trigger on the Demeter FOD. A bit on the pricey side of things but I was blown away by the sound. I was looking for fat sounding late Billy Gibbons style stuff and I got it on a plate...for the same price as my amp (doubling the amplification budget... :eyecrazy
. Anyway, it was actually the cheaper step on my quest for the Holy Tone I am after... God knows when I'll be able to afford an am Tele.So I will try myself at the art of reviewing, which I am usually not really prolific at. I feel inspired though.
So FOD stand for Fat OverDriveulator. And that is exactly what it does. You have two footswitches, one for the clean boost, which already add some fatness, the second is for the overdrive, which adds quite a tad more fat.
4 knobs on the box: First one controles the clean boost, the others shape the sound of the overdrive with a gain, a volume and a tone. On the left side you have tight/loose switch, on the other side there is a hole with a recessed pot labelled boost, which I would guess you could adjust with a small screwdriver.
Here is for the practical aspect.
Pluging into the amp (LC15R), I set the amp on a break up sound with the EQ flat on 5. I am starting now to play a bit with the amp EQ and it is really opening up possibilities.
Starting with the clean boost, the broke up sound turn into slight overdrive offering sweet lead parts and dynamic chords. I mostly played with the '59 loaded Epi so far and playing with the split coil is bliss. I particularly like the fatness the FOD brings to single coils with the fat knob around 5. I was until now fancying more my neck pick up in both mode, but it obviously was because the bridge was lacking some fullness. The bridge '59 sound great with the FOD. I tend to roll back the tone between 2 and 5 to tame the high end.
Obviously, the clean boost is ideal to enter into a solo after a dry spell of rhythm. My preferred option though is to have the clean boost on all time and play the rhythm with the SC bridge, then soloing with the full neck. For the sound think early classic rock, perfect for some Cream stuff.
Step on the overdrive switch and you enter into Led Zep, ZZtop and Aerosmith territory (with a wee play with the gain amount). I am so far in loose mode only. The clean boost and the overdrive work really well together. The drive on its own feels a bit dry to me but I guess it could suit some situations. I thnk what I lke the most in the overdrive, is the tone knob. Even though it is ranging fairly widely, there are no settings entering dodgy territory like so many tone knobs on pedals do.
Now I guess the only down side is that with both leds on in bucker mode, the low end can get mushy fairly easily. It works fine for hard rock, but getting into heavier stuff, like Alice in Chains seems a bit out of reach. Palm mutes falls flat and lack of substance.
It is funny though, as when I play my own stuff, I don't feel limited at all. For my playing as a "musician" playing its own stuff, the pedal is ideal for me.
But then every now and then you need to go back to your roots, your inspirations, and play the music of your favourite guitar hero... And that's where I thought the FOD was letting me down. Some Guns and Alice in chains stuff sounded really crap.
So I thought: Ok, let's play with the amp around a bit, and switch to the tight mode on the FOD (think of more modern sounding). I am not there yet, but it seems that there are possibilities with further refinements in the settings. I'll probably never get a proper song to play the like of Grind (AIC), but I should be able to get something decent enough.
Then I will have to upgrade the pups on my Gibby, as the change of magnets in the stock pups gave me a neck pup sounding more or less in the ball park of the '59n A4, and the bridge pup not getting very inspiring. So I guess with a beefier, not on the bright side pup in the bridge I should manage to revive my heavier inspirations.
To conclude, it is funny as finally thinking about it, it is just an overdrive pedal with a clean boost. You can find plenty of these on the market nowadays, and I tried a few of them. But they didn't do anything for me. This one though, I don't know what they put in this wee red box, but boy, it is dynamite. I say the satisfaction in playing this thing offer is well worth the £230 price tag. If you are in classic rock and need to thicken your sound: Go for it!
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