Grateful Dead Music Forum

Scored a used Bogner Blue Drive locally on CL. Thought I'd give it a try after reading the reviews.
This is a cool pedal. Very transparent and amp like. It responds to subtle changes in volume - cleaning right up, like have the pedal at your fingertips. It also is highly responsive to the guitar's tone controls. And it has some chime and sparkle to it. - even when played with humbuckers

It was a bitch to dial in but once I did I'm pretty happy with the tones I'm getting.

I've been using a boss OD-1 and an OD-2 for years - but have been burning out on them. The cool thing about the Bogner Blue is that it the clarity and acoustic like tones that the Waldo buffer creates without the OD on are now audible with the OD activated. I found with the boss OD's that those unique sonic qualities were lost once the pedal was engaged.

In reaserching this I came across reviews on the Tim pedal - looks like another highly transparent OD - although they say it is better suited for a Marshal amp that the fender clean. That's a pedal that would also be on my wish list. Does anyone have any experience with that one? and in looking outside the usual Garcia OD box I also came a few classics such as the Klon and the Rangemaster (Clapton Blues Breaker tone) - anyone have experience with those as well? Not that I'd be needing any more OD's myself.

Here's a demo. No other effects on except for the blue drive.



Peace,

James

Sounds great man - thanks for posting. I've been on the hunt this week (driving myself kind of nuts researching all the options) for low to medium gain OD pedals. The Ecstacy sounds really good! Came close to picking up the Earth Drive - but I have a Bearfoot Honey Bee coming and I'm looking forward to checking it out. Also picked up a cheapy Caline Pure Sky that I think will match well with it. We'll see...the tone hunt continues...

I'm ODing on ODs right now. I've been experimenting with an Electro-Harmonix Soul Food, which is a Klon Klone, out in front, though I haven't really incorporated it into the board yet. I have a Danelectro TOD in the effects loop of my Qtron+, which can only be engaged when the autowah is on. In the traditional OD spot I have an OCD, which replaced a newish distortion+, except that I had to put the dist+ back on the board because when I took it off the overall sound went blah. I probably needed a pedal with a buffer in the mix, as my chain had gotten pretty long, and the dist+ helped out that way. I have it set a little higher in distortion than the rest, though I rarely actually engage it.

I'm ODing on ODs right now.

- I hera ya, I've also got a MXR/ CAE MC402 Boost/Overdrive. I need to find room for this baby on my rack. It's got a super sweet buffer when the boost is engaged (even quite noticeable with my guitars that have UGB's on board), and folks say the OD is very reminiscent of an MXR Distortion script logo, which I can hear a bit as well (but not having a vintage MXR to compare with) also with lots of chime and sparkle. Definitely a different vibe to the OD-1 or OD-2. More touch sensitive and less colour in the mix. It's super affordable - best value I've found in an OD/ Boost pedal. I read the boost side is modelled after an MXR Micro Amp. Not sure if that's true. I'll do a demo of this one some day - it gets a great early 78 Garcia tone with the OD dialled way back and the boost on at 2 or so.

I've got a Kingsley Page coming in the mail. It's a tube driven boost mild OD. I think. It was less than the earth drive (used CL buy) - and eh, made here in Vancouver. New it's pricey, but folks who own one swear by them. The designer/ builder has a very seductive demo on youtube. He's also a great jazz player.

Peace,

James

The Earth Drive is my only OD pedal.
Love it.

I was using a Monty Allums OD 308 but it wasn't compatible with the OBEL on 2 of my guitars due to an impedance mismatch. I thought about going with a Sarno Earthdrive but after playing a Simble by the Mad Professor I may go with that instead. I just bought a Mu Fx octave divider so I'll have to wait a bit before ordering a new overdrive.

http://www.simbletone.com

Earth Drive and an Analogman-modded Maxon OD-9. Those two into the Ross clone and I'm into Trey territory.

Earth Drive and Whirlwind Gold Box. I'd probably go for two Earth Drives if I didn't already have the Whirlwind, but the Whirlwind is an awesome pedal in its own right.

Earth Drive is awesome

This is what I'm using now but changes may be a-comin' depending on upcoming NAMM Show developments/releases.

Line 6 M13 Proco Rat model:



Line 6 M13 digital Tube Screamer model:

I've been all over the road with this over the years... Currently it's a Boss OS2, an Ibanez TS808HW and a Boss Blues Driver. I like to have 2 pedals to be able to switch between 2 different types of distortion - one sort of clean and smooth and one kind of dark and gritty. Sometimes I engage them both if I want to get really filthy. The Blues Driver I only dial in a tiny bit to be able to get a little more hair on clean tones.

The Ibanez TS808HW is really amazing - it's a re-issue of the original TS808 circuit with selected components with a pretty tight tolerance - and it's a hand wired point to point circuit (Thus the HW designation). It's super smooth and creamy but definitely pricey - they only produce 50 month. I'm not sure if they even still make them.

Do you get a lot of sonic differentiation between the tube screamer and boss OD? I had the same thing going on my board with the OD-2 (for light OD) and the OD-1 for heavy stuff like the solo in Loser. They OD-1 is actually grittier. It must have one of the later circuits. I know there is a lot of variation in the OD-1 depending if it's a silver screw, long dash and so on.... I went with a later version. Didn't feel like forking out big $ for a silver screw on ebay. I'm digging the extra grit these days. I think I must have bought the OD-2 new. I'm dating myself.

Sweet set up BTW. Those Blues Drivers get a good review, and I've never heard of a HW reissue tube screamer. Cool!

Peace,

James

Anyone know about the Way Huge Pork-Loin? Looks very interesting.
I sure don't need another pedal, but I'm thinkin about trying one of these for fun.
http://www.jimdunlop.com/product/Pork-Loin

I'm currently using a Fulltone Fat Boost (FB-3) which I love...a very nice, transparent, amp-like boost pedal that I pretty much leave on all the time. It really fattens up single coils nicely and you can dial in some really nice organic grit with it. I don't think this will ever leave my board.

I also have a Boss Blues Driver which I like but don't love. I modded it with a kit that turns it into a "Keeley modded" blues driver. The mod makes it smoother and allows a bit more bass to come through. I use this when I want to head into overdrive/distortion territory but am seriously thinking of replacing it with an Earth Drive as this sounds like it could be the OD for me.

Joe