A good thing about the OBEL for me is consistency. I find the tone I want with my effects and then the tone is not surprising or maladjusted if you pull your vol a little off left or right. I can see what you mean about the vol pot being a good variety maker, you can put things in and out of your obel as you want. I agree for a lot of players its just not all that needed.
It offers a wider tonal situation due to the fact you can have these two tones on your guitar to switch between, plus the tone knob and vol knob does change the amps/preamps response, ie clipping. when you start the song you know what you're getting and when you flick the switch you know whats on the other side, which is a standard guitar hookup like your talking about. With the run I make in my rig a buffer is needed to keep a crisp twang. I keep a LPB1 in the main line sometimes to help add some dynamic color. The OBEL does add more to the fail list but it is an easy mod that isn't too delicate. a buffer, the batteries can cause problems for sure. I use a buffer in my line from the GCX and that works fine, I am only running 15' of cord unbuffered, no biggie. When I turn off the obel, I bypass the buffer and its like an old fashioned set up. You get it both. An OD pedal can be added in that line if desired and It is true that differently made buffers give you different tones too, just like different caps and such in OD pedals. I made an on board buffer I removed due to it conflicting with the tone and pedals negatively. The GCX works fine for now. All in all I think, depending on how you use it and how much gear is too much
, you get far more tones out of an OBEL.
It offers a wider tonal situation due to the fact you can have these two tones on your guitar to switch between, plus the tone knob and vol knob does change the amps/preamps response, ie clipping. when you start the song you know what you're getting and when you flick the switch you know whats on the other side, which is a standard guitar hookup like your talking about. With the run I make in my rig a buffer is needed to keep a crisp twang. I keep a LPB1 in the main line sometimes to help add some dynamic color. The OBEL does add more to the fail list but it is an easy mod that isn't too delicate. a buffer, the batteries can cause problems for sure. I use a buffer in my line from the GCX and that works fine, I am only running 15' of cord unbuffered, no biggie. When I turn off the obel, I bypass the buffer and its like an old fashioned set up. You get it both. An OD pedal can be added in that line if desired and It is true that differently made buffers give you different tones too, just like different caps and such in OD pedals. I made an on board buffer I removed due to it conflicting with the tone and pedals negatively. The GCX works fine for now. All in all I think, depending on how you use it and how much gear is too much
, you get far more tones out of an OBEL.http://otislotus.net/ Finally finished our new site...
