wow thanks gang, this is really helpful. I typically use a 69 twin for anything meaningful, but after doing a cross country commute for session work, haul in, load out, drive forever, I just had to do something for my back, that was not fun. So far SMS has sounded pretty great to me. Ive tried every tube or ss preamp pedal on the market, and likely due to my love for 69-70 era twins, sounds better than all of them (pedals that is). anyway, Ill tinker with that rear pot cranked to 95% and see whats up.
another related note: the option destination overdrive 2 could be the best distortion pedal I've ever used, I toured a bunch for about 5 1/2 years, and it came up in a backline rental rig in NYC at random; I've modded TS9's a bunch of different ways, wielded a Klon centaur original for a couple years, played with vintage MXR's, pile of boss types, danelectro, random custom stuffs found used at GC, tried a couple of those new builders pedals (CMAT, drumble, xotic, etc), for some reason O52 has less noise, and more flexibility than any other one. You get low, mid, treble eq pots, along with a very wide range gain / level knobs. It can get so bright it'll shatter glass, or smooth like freshly churned butter. Most recent one I picked up off reverb was about 110 bucks, all hand wired by the builder, this one was an special fundraiser for namm edition. anyway, if anybody wants a compliment to the ED, or just looking to try something new, I really can't recommend that product enough. I bought most all his other pedals at one time or another, and did not really dig them lol. That one is rad though. Hence my concerned thread - when this thing sounded like my TS9 i knew something was up!
a not so distortion related mention: another set of very usable pedals Ive discovered recently: the digitech hardwire series stuff. They are well discontinued now, a grammy winning engineer/producer in told me about them first, and have since seen them on some serious players boards. They are setup similar to a boss pedal, but actually have a silent style true bypass in that old boss type housing. They are all stereo! Caught Kimock using the reverb and I literally ordered one while talking to him lol (he likes this one and the supernatural because they are the same pedal painted in different colors). Its a lexicon pantheon in a box. Sex machine. I also use their Phaser and Tremolo units all wired in stereo into stereo delays (if I'm going non obel). You can get some really subtle or over the top studio quality stuff to happen. They also have a neat rubber gasket to cover knobs if you have a rig set for stage work, or session levels etc. Same deal on the phaser pedals as distortion, tried a shit load, this one nails a couple classic tones without the sticker shock, noise, bypass woes etc. Definitely does the Jerry orange box tone to a T. Tremolo can nail some Bob Weir / Scofield chorus stuff on the high speed rotary settings, can also get close to Black Cat tremolo chop. They all also have tap tempo built in, which I never have used as its all by manipulating the single switch (mini phrase looper style bullshit), but leads me to believe external tap tempo could be modded on if desired.
---- thanks again for the time and thoughts
