Help me with OD changes

NorthernStomps

jdderbys said:

Is it wrong that I actually prefer the sound of my soul food and Boss blues driver over my king of tone? Going through a blackstar soloist 60 though so a long way off a fender style

No it’s not wrong. Some corksniffers on other sites might have an aneurysm, but always go with what your ears tell you 

ICBM

Not wrong at all. I almost exclusively prefer cheaper overdrive/distortion pedals, and not because they're cheap or as a form of reverse snobbery - I find most more expensive pedals too 'refined' or something... hard to put a finger on exactly, but I get the impression that the sort of people who generally buy expensive drive pedals are after a smoother, more polished sound than I like, or alternatively a 'transparent' sound which I have no interest in either - I want a dirt pedal to sound like it's doing something.

polotska

I like the Blues Driver better than almost all other dirt pedals I’ve tried, too, including the King of Tone, and I think it would be a great choice for someone looking for a bright overdrive—though it can sound great with the Tone knob turned down, too, and does a fantastic fuzz sound with the Gain cranked.

I settled on the BD-2W after comparing it side-by-side with a regular BD-2, and the BD-2W in Standard mode did sound slightly better to me than the BD-2—and the BD-2W’s Custom mode sounds a bit better than that.

idiotwindow

Lazy J cruiser.

steer

jdderbys said:

Is it wrong that I actually prefer the sound of my soul food and Boss blues driver over my king of tone? Going through a blackstar soloist 60 though so a long way off a fender style

Pedals are nothing more than a collection of electronic components soldered together. An overhyped pedal handcrafted by unicorns will not necessarily sound better than a well made unit from Boss or EHX etc. 

Nothing wrong with a Soul Food - I really liked mine. Only sold it because I had too many similar OD pedals on my board. 

lincolnblue

Thanks for all your suggestions. I certainly don't have the budget for anything too expensive so will end up used. Will do some video demo searching of the options you've given and see what I think will suit. 

Sassafras

Joyo or Mooer do a version of the Xotic RC Booster.

ICBM

steer said:

... a well made unit from ... EHX ...

Oxymoron alert .

lincolnblue

ICBM said:

steer said:

... a well made unit from ... EHX ...

Oxymoron alert .

I've not had many but I've never actually had a bad EHX pedal

soma1975

The older I get and the more pedals I try/buy/sell the more I realise posher/more boutique isn't better - it's just different. 

Especially with OD, there's quite often a perfect tool for people's needs amongst the production models of the big manufacturers. Boss make some of the best and most popular pedals in the world. Absolutely nothing wrong with them. Except their shit buffers. 

ICBM

soma1975 said:

Boss make some of the best and most popular pedals in the world. Absolutely nothing wrong with them. Except their shit buffers. 

Nothing wrong with those either, individually... the problem is when you put half a dozen of them in series. It's frustrating that they've never addressed that.

noisepolluter

ICBM said:

soma1975 said:

Boss make some of the best and most popular pedals in the world. Absolutely nothing wrong with them. Except their shit buffers. 

Nothing wrong with those either, individually... the problem is when you put half a dozen of them in series. It's frustrating that they've never addressed that.

@ICBM Would you say that’s still a potential issue with an all-Boss board that’s got a mix of Waza, ‘standard’ and ‘X’ pedals? 

Currently got a board which goes TU-2–>Keeley 2 knob comp—>OD-3–>CE-2W —>DM-2W and am considering replacing the Keeley with a CP-1X 

It doesn’t *have* to be an all-Boss board, it’s largely a shits-n-giggles idea, just thought it would be fun to do.

soma1975

ICBM said:

soma1975 said:

Boss make some of the best and most popular pedals in the world. Absolutely nothing wrong with them. Except their shit buffers. 

Nothing wrong with those either, individually... the problem is when you put half a dozen of them in series. It's frustrating that they've never addressed that.

My Boss DD-200 (old one and new one) drastically drops the signal when in the chain. Absurd really. 

In fact it was you that told me I wasn't going mad and that they are poop. 

ICBM

noisepolluter said:

@ICBM Would you say that’s still a potential issue with an all-Boss board that’s got a mix of Waza, ‘standard’ and ‘X’ pedals? 

Currently got a board which goes TU-2–>Keeley 2 knob comp—>OD-3–>CE-2W —>DM-2W and am considering replacing the Keeley with a CP-1X 

It doesn’t *have* to be an all-Boss board, it’s largely a shits-n-giggles idea, just thought it would be fun to do.

Five buffers... might be.

However, the actual problem is purely a loss of signal volume, so as long as you *don't directly A/B the straight-in sound to the sound through the pedals*, all you have to do is turn up the amp's gain slightly and you'll have the same sound.

It's an illustration of the known psycho-acoustic effect where a small change in volume is perceived as a change in tone and not a change in volume. Equalising the volume fixes it.

That's what's so frustrating... by adding a single extra transistor gain stage to maintain unity volume - completely transparent at audio frequencies - they could solve the problem once and for all. Or alternatively, use an IC-based switching system with unity-gain buffers - there's more than one way to do it, which studio equipment manufacturers have been using for decades.

noisepolluter

ICBM said:

noisepolluter said:

@ICBM Would you say that’s still a potential issue with an all-Boss board that’s got a mix of Waza, ‘standard’ and ‘X’ pedals? 

Currently got a board which goes TU-2–>Keeley 2 knob comp—>OD-3–>CE-2W —>DM-2W and am considering replacing the Keeley with a CP-1X 

It doesn’t *have* to be an all-Boss board, it’s largely a shits-n-giggles idea, just thought it would be fun to do.

Five buffers... might be.

However, the actual problem is purely a loss of signal volume, so as long as you *don't directly A/B the straight-in sound to the sound through the pedals*, all you have to do is turn up the amp's gain slightly and you'll have the same sound.

It's an illustration of the known psycho-acoustic effect where a small change in volume is perceived as a change in tone and not a change in volume. Equalising the volume fixes it.

That's what's so frustrating... by adding a single extra transistor gain stage to maintain unity volume - completely transparent at audio frequencies - they could solve the problem once and for all. Or alternatively, use an IC-based switching system with unity-gain buffers - there's more than one way to do it, which studio equipment manufacturers have been using for decades.

Thanks @ICBM , given how much it bugged me when I had an MXR Analog Chorus which sounded great when switched on but noticeably dropped the volume when bypassed, I think I’ll shelve the all-Boss idea just in case. I’m perfectly happy with the Keeley comp, and half the time I swap in a couple of MXR pedals to turn it from a new wave board into a Rawk board.