Agileguy_101
Master of his Domain
As anyone who frequents Amplifier Central knows, I buy a lot of pedals. In the last two years, I've acquired at least 50 different pedals and spent many thousands of dollars trying new effects. And despite how many pedals I have bought in the past, it's not often that I acquire one so mind-bogglingly awesome that I feel obligated to do a full write up.
Enter the Rawkworks Light OD.
This pedal is purported to be a clone of the now practically unobtanium Klon Centaur. Anyone that's spent a small amount of time on The Gear Page or other boards that cater to the boutique market is probably aware of how much hype surrounds the Klon, the circuit in general, and pretty much the whole Klone market. I can't say that I bought into the hype in buying this pedal, it just happened to fulfill the three aspects I was looking in an overdrive:
1) It is buffered instead of true bypass, which is great for me as I put it as close to the start of my board (but after my fuzzes, they really don't like a low impedance signal) to keep my tone clear, especially considering I use 18' and 21' cables.
2) Top jacks and a small enclosure. I can't stress this one enough, as most Klones take up a lot of space. With all of the other pedals I have on my board, I couldn't even fit a Phase 90 where the Light OD currently sits.
3) It looks awesome. I love the LED motif and the powder coating on the pedal is fantastic.
I opened up the pedal and the build quality on the pedal appears to be top notch. On the circuit board are two DIP switches to allow selection of two different sets of clipping diodes. I haven't messed with that but I intend to at some point. There's also a LED brightness trimpot - a feature that everyone should use. It's incredibly handy.
Now on to the tone. It really is an absolutely fantastic sounding pedal. Whatever you have going on with the pedal off, the Light OD just gives you more. Klon(e)s are most commonly used as a clean boost, and I can see why. I've heard of people saying that other Klones trim the low end, but I haven't noticed any of that. What I do notice is an added sparkle in the top end. It's not brighter per se, just a little more present. It's hard to explain but pretty noticeable.
So far, my favorite setting is with the gain under 9 o clock, the tone at noon, and the volume around 3 o clock. This gives plenty of boost to my clean tone and depending on how loud my amp is will either just enhance the clean tone or push it into breakup territory. If the amp is distorting already, the Light OD pushes it over the edge and somehow makes my amp even more touch responsive than it is on its own.
I did use it at a jam on Friday for a few hours and I tried out a few different settings. I believe the highest the gain got was just under noon. When it was up that high, it produced perhaps the most musical and dynamic overdrive I've ever heard out of my amp. I was one with my volume knob - it allowed me to express exactly how much gain I was feeling at any given moment.
Perhaps my favorite use of the Light OD, and indeed one of the main reasons I bought it, was to boost my Weehbo JMP Drive. For those unaware of this pedal, it is a Marshall in a box type pedal. I've been using it for the last year or so and I love it. However, in my cover band, I find myself wishing I could go from a great low-mid gain tone to a more saturated lead tone without having to go down and turn up the gain. In this respect, the Light OD absolutely delivers. It just gives me more of the fantastic tone that the Weehbo produces. I was using this combo earlier today for some early Van Halen and it absolutely killed. Harmonics practically jump out of the amp. It's not at all grainy or gritty or any of the other typical negative adjectives one would use to describe a lesser overdrive pedal. It melds seamlessly with your existing gear.
I would recommend this pedal to anyone with a guitar and ears. They're not even that expensive as far as boutique pedals go, and (barring the new EH Soul Food) one of the cheapest I've seen, especially considering the awesome appearance and compact enclosure with top jacks. It sells new for $175, but I found a site that sells it and has a 10% off coupon. PM me if you're interested where I got it.
tl;dr: Go get this pedal now if you enjoy tone.
Enter the Rawkworks Light OD.
This pedal is purported to be a clone of the now practically unobtanium Klon Centaur. Anyone that's spent a small amount of time on The Gear Page or other boards that cater to the boutique market is probably aware of how much hype surrounds the Klon, the circuit in general, and pretty much the whole Klone market. I can't say that I bought into the hype in buying this pedal, it just happened to fulfill the three aspects I was looking in an overdrive:
1) It is buffered instead of true bypass, which is great for me as I put it as close to the start of my board (but after my fuzzes, they really don't like a low impedance signal) to keep my tone clear, especially considering I use 18' and 21' cables.
2) Top jacks and a small enclosure. I can't stress this one enough, as most Klones take up a lot of space. With all of the other pedals I have on my board, I couldn't even fit a Phase 90 where the Light OD currently sits.
3) It looks awesome. I love the LED motif and the powder coating on the pedal is fantastic.
I opened up the pedal and the build quality on the pedal appears to be top notch. On the circuit board are two DIP switches to allow selection of two different sets of clipping diodes. I haven't messed with that but I intend to at some point. There's also a LED brightness trimpot - a feature that everyone should use. It's incredibly handy.
Now on to the tone. It really is an absolutely fantastic sounding pedal. Whatever you have going on with the pedal off, the Light OD just gives you more. Klon(e)s are most commonly used as a clean boost, and I can see why. I've heard of people saying that other Klones trim the low end, but I haven't noticed any of that. What I do notice is an added sparkle in the top end. It's not brighter per se, just a little more present. It's hard to explain but pretty noticeable.
So far, my favorite setting is with the gain under 9 o clock, the tone at noon, and the volume around 3 o clock. This gives plenty of boost to my clean tone and depending on how loud my amp is will either just enhance the clean tone or push it into breakup territory. If the amp is distorting already, the Light OD pushes it over the edge and somehow makes my amp even more touch responsive than it is on its own.
I did use it at a jam on Friday for a few hours and I tried out a few different settings. I believe the highest the gain got was just under noon. When it was up that high, it produced perhaps the most musical and dynamic overdrive I've ever heard out of my amp. I was one with my volume knob - it allowed me to express exactly how much gain I was feeling at any given moment.
Perhaps my favorite use of the Light OD, and indeed one of the main reasons I bought it, was to boost my Weehbo JMP Drive. For those unaware of this pedal, it is a Marshall in a box type pedal. I've been using it for the last year or so and I love it. However, in my cover band, I find myself wishing I could go from a great low-mid gain tone to a more saturated lead tone without having to go down and turn up the gain. In this respect, the Light OD absolutely delivers. It just gives me more of the fantastic tone that the Weehbo produces. I was using this combo earlier today for some early Van Halen and it absolutely killed. Harmonics practically jump out of the amp. It's not at all grainy or gritty or any of the other typical negative adjectives one would use to describe a lesser overdrive pedal. It melds seamlessly with your existing gear.
I would recommend this pedal to anyone with a guitar and ears. They're not even that expensive as far as boutique pedals go, and (barring the new EH Soul Food) one of the cheapest I've seen, especially considering the awesome appearance and compact enclosure with top jacks. It sells new for $175, but I found a site that sells it and has a 10% off coupon. PM me if you're interested where I got it.
tl;dr: Go get this pedal now if you enjoy tone.
