Ok I’ll admit my head has been turned by the likes of the Lightspeed Broadcast, Duellist, Dane etc but apart from hand-made build process/labour and higher quality components are these drives really any better than what I currently use namely Boss SD-2, OD-1? Just wanted to see what your thoughts were on this. Have been down the boutique path but then sold everything and reverted to Boss and have been really happy. Personally I found the boutique stuff to be really finicky and fussy with my setup and amp (but that may have just been me)
On a different note I saw a recent picture of Robert Smith’s board from their recent tour and it was all Boss in a Boss carry case.
Comments
i think more interesting is to seek out pedals that give you new sounds and add and compliment what you have.
chasing tone is just a path of unfulfillment
I think more importantly (for me anyway) that if you can have a good 'always on' compressor before and a good clean booster after, you can stick ANY drive pedal in that sandwich and get a premier tone out of it.
On the subject of Boss OD's I was playing around with my £45 OD-2, it may have been subtle but I preferred the sound and feel of the OD-2 to my OD-1 and SD-2 but these are still incredible drives. A bit sad I know but the other reasons for reverting to Boss are that a lot of my guitar heroes used them Mark Linkous, Ronald Jones, Robert Smith, Kevin Shields, James Dean Bradfield, Neil Halstead amongst others.
Their enclosures are the most practical and functional.
They don't go in for that true bypass nonsense.
They might not look as fancy but who looks at your pedalboard apart from geeky guitar players?
its probably a better reason than capacitor x is better than y
You'll only know if you try.
Buy and try a Thorpy gunshot. If that doesn't open up things for you then your BOSS drives will be just fine.
Feedback can be found here http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/908933#Comment_908933
That said, i’ve never found a drive pedal I like as much as the SD-2, despite trying some highly regarded pedals (Hudson, Barber etc).
No other drives have managed to replace it.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The Mesa V-Twin does, actually - although no better, which is why I sold it.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I concluded last night that i am mildly f$#ked in the head and should flog 3 of them for something new. Which i can then try and make sound like something else i like.
I loathe myself.
https://i.imgur.com/nRabHRR.jpg
The one I have on my board now is the OD-3 because it doesn't cut the bass like the SD-1. If I played live it might well be the other way round. The OD-1 is something else though, and has been modded so that its frequency response at unity gain and with drive at zero is more like the OD-3 than the SD-1. I've owned it for 37 years so I can't imagine not having it now!