Re: Hungry Robot Pedals - Stargazer v2 (Dual Reverb)
Re: Hungry Robot Pedals - Stargazer v2 (Dual Reverb)
My favorite OD tones are from tubes, the programmable Triaxis in my rack. Still have a solid state half-rack Boss ROD-10 in there from years ago - used to run it as a boost/EQ for vintage singlecoils - but I don't really use it anymore.
I keep a rehearsal/jam board using pedals to approximate a handful of favorite sounds. The drives I've liked best have been a Mythical OD, the Bumblebee, a Zendrive (or Mosferatu sometimes), and a Pale Horse (my favorite TS variant). I recently got a Marvel Drive too, very Marshall-esque. It does a good job subbing for the half-rack H&K Cream Machine I use as a feedback-on-demand box.
I haven't sampled a host of drive pedals. There are so many of 'em nowadays, and more coming out every month. Kind of mindblowing to a dinosaur like me. Plenty of players have gone through dozens before they found what they wanted, given the popularity of running amps clean and using pedals as the primary tone engine. That definitely has advantages, but I'm old school (went pro in '75) and still rely on amps for my core sound. For me drive pedals are a flavor component rather than the crucial main ingredient. They're used to push a lightly overdriven tube amp; I can get clean enough by rolling back the volume at the guitar.
If I didn't know what amp would be available and could only bring one pedal to cover all the bases, I'd reach for the Bumblebee without hesitation. It's great sounding & super versatile; the two OD stages (one creamy, one a little hairier) stack to get you into distortion/fuzz territory. Would be cool if it had separate footswitches for the two drive stages, rather than toggles. That'd be great, though it might've required a second master volume.
I haven't tried their newer combined low gain/high gain pedal with two footswitches. But I bet it's great.
