My recent OD search has ended...

[Nick Beach]

So I've mentioned quite a few times that I'm redoing my pedal board from the ground up. I'm probably carrying 2 or 3 pedals over from the last version of my board (V1 if you will) to the new version (V2). So the first step for me was to get a fuzz, in which case I got an Earth Quaker Devices Hoof Fuzz sometime this past december, then I got a BYOC tremolo that I'm done with and I'll post pics of it when I stop being lazy. After I got those pedals I decided to move onto OverDrive. The pedal I stomped on most on my previous board was my ZW OD, and although I really enjoyed the pedal it was just not giving me the sounds I was wanting. I pretty much quit playing metal all together and the ZW OD just has too much that magical man power that all ZW's sig products seem to have. So after deciding that I need a new OD I also decided I need two OD's. Then I went on a search for a great OD, but there was just no place anywhere near me that stocked any of the pedals I wanted to try. With no other option I ended up ordering about 7 OD's including the four below that I decided to keep plus a Barber LTD, Fulltone OCD, and a CAE Boost overdrive. Those three I decided not to keep were all good pedals and definitely had their place, they just weren't right for me.

 

Now onto the four that I chose to keep. Here they are, from left to right they are a CMatMods Signa Drive, Paul Cochrane Timmy, GearMannDude Luther Drive, and Wampler Brad Paisley. I'm going to talk about each one individually and then post a link to a GMD demo of each pedal, because his demos are far better than anything I'd be able to post up.

 

 

First for the Signa Drive. This is my second favorite of all the Od's. It has a very warm sound and, if you set it the way I do, not too much bite. But that little switch changes the gain structure, I like it pointed all the way up, that gives you a little more gain but still lets you get your level to unity. If you put the switch in the middle position you get a very large volume boost, if you need an OD to kick on for a solo to really get you heard, this will get you there no problem. All the way down is what I would call the 'normal' setting. This is the way I think the pedal would sound if it didn't have that switch. It is the lowest gain setting out of the three but if you turn the gain knob up you will have no issue getting some dirt out of it. If you want a transparent OD, then this isn't the one for you. It changes your tone a little when you kick it on, but I really like what it does for the tone so I'm keeping it around. My main use for this pedal is dirty rhythm work, where I want to be dirty but not too dirty.

 

[Nick Beach]

 

Now for the Timmy. I got this pedal because of all the good things people have to say about it online. I searched all over and could not find a single bad review of this pedal. So I went out and put myself on a waiting list and after a few months it got delivered to my school. I was really excited to try it out, but upon first listen I was very bummed out on the sound I was getting. I just thought this thing sounded bad. Then I played around with it a little and I got it set to less of an overdrive more of a clean boost sound and this is where I think this pedal shines. I had planned 100% to buy an Analog Man Beano boost, but after discovering the clean boost capabilities of this pedal I decided to keep this and save my money. This thing really does make for a great clean boost, and don't get me wrong this things has quite a lot of gain on tap, but in my opinion it is not usable gain. Anther thing to know about this pedal is that the Bass and Treble knobs are 'cut' style knobs so having the knob at zero is the unity setting and when you turn the knob up you take away more and more of whatever frequency your playing with. Also this pedal is by far the most transparent of the group, if you have crappy tone and then turn this thing on your still going to have crappy tone. But if you've got your amp going and everything is great, once you click this on everything is still going to be great, just louder and maybe a hair fuller sounding. Last thing of note on this pedal is that the switch on this thing is VERY subtle. It is three position switch, and I can tell the difference between the up and down positions, but to my ears the middle position sounds exactly like the up position. But either way it is supposed to change the gain structure.

 

 

 

 

Next up is my favorite of the group, the GearMannDude Luther Drive. According to his website the pedal,

 

"Started life as a vintage Ibanez TS808 Tubescreamer circuit...I made a few modifications to give it a tighter bottom end, as well as alot more clarity and tonal character. The Tone knob really reacts all the way from 1 to 10. I use all high quality components, and hand build each one from start to finish. It's not a big gain monster, but a sweet-n-subtle overdrive."

 

Now I can believe what he says about it starting as a tubescreamer circuit. The pedal has quite a few similarities with a TS, but what ever he did to my ears makes the pedal less harsh than a TS, and it also has less gain than a TS, to my ears anyway. The bottom end sounds very similar to the bottom end of the TS that I had here for a little while, so I'm not sure if this pedal has a tighter bottom end or not, but if it does it's not all that much tighter. The tone knob really does do a lot. Every little turn of the knob changes the tone, thats one thing I really love about this pedal, I tend to turn the tone knob down to get a little bit of a darker tone on all my OD's and with this tone knob you can really dial it a great tone. By far the most tonal versatility of any 1 knob tone control I've tried. This pedal does't have a ton of volume boost, but I think he offers a mod called the loud mod where he puts a switch on the pedal to take it from normal to loud, but I like this pedal just the way it is.

 

Also I really need to take time to talk about GMD as a guy. I subscribe to his vid's and watch his pedal reviews so I've known of his pedal for a while. I came across a video where he says that he's doing limited edition pinup girl pedals and I just fell in love with the way they looked so I had to order one. I emailed him in January and asked if he was still making them and he was so I asked for a white pedal with a blonde pinup (love me some blondies) He said it would be no problem, he didn't try to get me to change my mind or offer me one of the pinups he already had done, he just let me get what I wanted. So I paypal'ed him and started waiting on my pedal, he said it would take two to three weeks to get it done. So a few weeks into the pedal build he emailed me and said that he was having problems getting the pedal enclosures from his normal supplier and asked me if I had any problem waiting a little longer than expected, I told him no since I'm in school anyway I don't have a lot of time for playing so I can wait. A few weeks later he emailed me letting me know that he still hadn't gotten any enclosures in and at that point he said he wasn't a hundred percent sure when he would get any, so he offered me my money back or gave me the option to get a pinup that he had already completed and set me a few pics of the pedals and also gave me the option to get a regular Luther and he'd refund me the difference in the pinup vs. the standard luther. But I told him I'd just wait, because I really wanted a pinup and the ones he had done weren't blonde enough. (Still lovin me some blondies :lol: ) So some time went buy and I got the pedal in the mail about a week and a half ago and I'm VERY pleased with it. So to make a long story short, GMD had some issues but was a very stand up guy giving me lots of options and making sure I was taken care of the whole way through. Next time he does a limited edition Luther that I like the looks of I'm for sure buying it for a backup and because GMD has been great to work with.

[Nick Beach]

[Nick Beach]

 

 

And finally we come to the Wampler Brad Paisley pedal. When you take this thing out of the box, and then the little bag that Wampler puts their pedals in, the first thing you notice is the crazy sparkle on this thing. I tried to take a good pic of it but trust me it sparkles wayyy more in person. You may be thinking with this pedal that it is going to give you a great modern country sound, but I really had to work with this pedal to make it give me a country sound with my SG, now once I got home for spring break I plugged my tele into it and the country tone came a little easier, but overall this pedal is very versatile so don't lump it into a country category. First thing of note with this pedal is that it has a ton of gain, it has the most out of any of the overdrives I tried. Second thing of note, is that when compared to other OD's you don't get quite as much volume boost as you do with most others. Now there is still plenty of boost for me, but if you normally run your OD with the volume on 10 than this pedal might not have quite enough push for you. Third item worth noting are the two switches. The presence switch has two positions, up and down, one position gives when I like to think of as 'normal' unaffected tone and the other position is like a little treble boost. Also this pedal has my favorite feature out of any of the pedals and that is the mid range switch. Most pedals don't have mid controls at all but I tend to turn the mid knob on my amp more than any other so I really like being able to adjust the mids on this pedal. The switch is a three way switch with mid cut, 'normal', and mid boost, I tend to run the mid boost. Overall this is a great pedal, so if your looking for an incredibly versatile OD with a freakishly large amount of gain on tap, let me introduce you to the Wampler Brad Paisley OD.

 

 

Now if you actually read all of that then congratulations to you. You are just as dedicated of a gear nerd as I am.

[damian]

Thank you for a truly awsome OD gear thread..............

 

I also am currently collecting many OD pedals.................

 

Thanks again..................... [thumbup] ......................

[LHW]

I don't have a single pedal, and don't see myself getting any since there are a lot of effects built into my Vypyr, but I enjoyed all of your reviews, Nick.

 

Thanks for doing such detailed reviews! :)

[dem00n]

Great reviews! I gotta check out the Signa drive.

You see this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6-u-VmKBnM&feature=g-all-u&context=G2dde368FAAAAAAAAKAA

[EVOL!]

Yeah, great post. I have two ODs on my board, Maxon OD808 and Small Sound/Big Sound <F word> Overdrive, so this was right up my alley. It's also making me geek out and want a Ge boost or overdrive pedal. When I was looking for a second OD I wanted to try a Beano Boost badly, but couldn't find one. Did not matter because after playing the SS/BS OD it was all over. That beauty was going home with me.

 

Your Luther Drive with the pinup girl is sweeeet! I'm not much into blonds since I have a black hair fetish, so I would have gone with a different graphic ;) . As Sly Stone sang, "different strokes for different folks."

[kaleb]

Yeah, great post. I have two ODs on my board, Maxon OD808 and Small Sound/Big Sound <F word> Overdrive, so this was right up my alley. It's also making me geek out and want a Ge boost or overdrive pedal. When I was looking for a second OD I wanted to try a Beano Boost badly, but couldn't find one. Did not matter because after playing the SS/BS OD it was all over. That beauty was going home with me.

 

Your Luther Drive with the pinup girl is sweeeet! I'm not much into blonds since I have a black hair fetish, so I would have gone with a different graphic ;) . As Sly Stone sang, "different strokes for different folks."

 

EVOL, I like brunettes too! I bet a Beano Boost or anything related to a Rangemaster (look up HBE Germania) would work great with your rig. Not for me though. I stick to the tried and true TS style pedal (although the old DOD 250s are a favorite!), as I use my amps for my dirt and use the pedal to boost the leads. My idea is: good Les Paul, good Marshall style amp, good Tube Screamer style box to boost, and a little bit of delay to enhance the sound.

[damian]

Brought back for Wahkeen to view, review..........