Gain pedal(mostly) comparison and how little different they can be

Petepassion

As there's often talk of gain pedals good and bad and how similar or different they are, I thought I'd do a quick demo.
There's a few more I had to hand when I done this, and all very similar results, be it the Hotcake, Page, Lovepedal Amp11 and many more.
   I set each pedal to my taste, not specifically trying to make them all sound the same.
I could've tweaked the BOR to sound a lot closer to the low gain pedals if I wanted to, but love it set as it is.

   Recorded with my old Sony AZ1 action cam, so not the best quality, then factor in the reverb and slapback, some pedals start to sound very similar, if not the same.
   So once in a mix, live with a band, Joe public would notice no difference...until we start hitting the heavier stuff of course.
   Having said this, I love the BluesBreaker, it makes me play differently, it's not as clear, but has something that connects with me, I guess it has that Older amp type sound, a bit 'smoky'. And if those subtle nuances are only noticed by the player and makes you play better then job done.
   I also love the little Joyo space pedal, tiny, cheap, control knob cover and sounds great.
   The Broadcast is a very recent addition and I absolutely love its filth when both sides are kicked in, but unfortunately doesn't cut through as well as the Kingtone mini fuzz.
Just a bit of fun...
https://youtu.be/II1zXFAy0sk?si=TPxR4QakDsmDfo-j

Supportact

It's true, I've been going through a few od pedals recently as well trying them out. No one in the band has noticed any difference. Most of it very low gain so it's not that surprising. I've enjoyed trying them out though. 

To be honest no one in the band noticed the week when I showed up with my red Aria 335 copy instead of the yellow telecaster I usually use, so I'm not sure what I would have to do. Maybe send someone else along and see if they notice it's not me? 

Petepassion

Same here, I can turn up with a different guitar, different amp and still no one notices. I guess whatever we use, we dial in our own sound, then played in our style.

LionAquaLooper

I agree though there are exceptions (mid hump vs flat as we all know already).  But for me personally in a live situation only I would know I'm using a different pedal from the previous gig.  It's why I love the Boss OD3.  It just sounds and feels different.

It's even worse for me when it comes to saturated distortion.  Maybe my ears aren't as trained on heavy stuff as someone like Ola Englund or Rabea but they all sound the same or if not, can be easily made to sound the same.    

Me shopping for dirt pedals is more about what extra functions does one offer over the other (separate bass mid treble knobs being the most appealing).  Other switches I've seen like the HP/LP on OCDs are just gimmicky to me.  

I equate this whole thing to the time I was shopping for TVs.  Loads of TVs on the shop wall, some slightly sharper, some slightly more colour saturated but I only noticed because they were side by side.  Pretty sure one can be tweaked to display the same quality as the other one.  But when one is in your living room by itself, you wouldn't really know what you're missing.

pt22

I’m just a guy playing at home at low gain, so take this all in that context. 

I have one drive pedal. The Dane. It has a single tone control. I’ve tried plenty of others, some boutique and expensive, some much loved and popular, but none were so appreciatively different  that it made me want to keep them or replace The Dane. Some had more useful eqs, or more drive available, but none were “better”. So I simplified. I make adjustments on the amp, or I can engage my HX One as an eq if necessary. 

I’m not saying every drive pedal is the same, but for my needs & style, there just wasn’t enough in it.

 This realisation has saved me a ton of money recently as I’m jonesing to try a Lightspeed, but to what end? I’ll primarily just turn it around anyhow. 

I’m glad the world has 8 bazillion drive pedals in it, but I don’t need all of them. 

Petepassion

Having said that, playing at home is where you’re most likely to notice the subtler nuances. I would say that in isolation the Lightspeed does have a different feel/sound to it. But whether it’s enough for you to want one is purely a personal thing.

slacker

I've got 14 gain pedals and last rehearsal didn't use any. I like collecting pedals but If you have a decent amp on the edge of distortion just about any overdrive will work.

Case in point in 2004 I organised a hc fx forum show and tell. There were a lot of overdrives. One of the amps was an actual plexi halfstack. It didn't matter what drive hit it, instant awesomeness.

Get a good amp choose some pedals, play guitar.

Petepassion

I agree, I spent a few years using a half cranked superlead through a powerbrake into my 4x12 and sounded awesome, any drive I put in front of it just added saturation. 

   But later when I wanted the option of a volume lift for solos I started using a clean base and pedals for drive. Then the nuances show up more, but only to me of course, and none of the band members noticed

Grumpyrocker

I bought a Joyo Uzi this week for £40. Supposedly a BE-OD clone. But it sounds very very close to my £200+ EVH 5150 OD. 

Keefy

I’m a That Pedal Show subscriber but the videos of theirs that interest me least are the drive pedal comparisons - because they all sound much the same.

stickyfiddle

I recall very similar discussions at multiple forum meets of yore. I recall a very similar exercise with @Timmyo and @Sporky among others with a similar conclusion; a huge majority of drive pedals can be set in a way that they sound very similar. 

But I firmly believe that different pedals respond differently to pick attack, and so feel different to the player, which in turn lets you do different things with them. Then obviously there's the UI differences and the ability to control different parameters in different ways. The Timmy, Lightspeed and Jan Ray is a great example - when boiled down they're basically the same circuit with a few component value changes, but the Jan Ray definitely feels a bit different to the extent that I don't Timmys/Lightspeeds but the Jan Ray is one of my all-time favourite pedals (and I say that having absolutely expected to hate it when I tried it)

Petepassion

stickyfiddle said:

I recall very similar discussions at multiple forum meets of yore. I recall a very similar exercise with @Timmyo and @Sporky among others with a similar conclusion; a huge majority of drive pedals can be set in a way that they sound very similar. 

But I firmly believe that different pedals respond differently to pick attack, and so feel different to the player, which in turn lets you do different things with them. Then obviously there's the UI differences and the ability to control different parameters in different ways. The Timmy, Lightspeed and Jan Ray is a great example - when boiled down they're basically the same circuit with a few component value changes, but the Jan Ray definitely feels a bit different to the extent that I don't Timmys/Lightspeeds but the Jan Ray is one of my all-time favourite pedals (and I say that having absolutely expected to hate it when I tried it)

Absolutely.
Oddly, with the Timmy and the lightspeed side by side I find them quite different. I have both, the Timmy is used as per the vid, it's a great solo boost pedal when at the end of the drive chain. The Lightspeed feels slightly different to the others as a low gain pedal, but I really like it.
   Yes definitely one of those things where no one else notices apart from you, but that's what influences how you play and can then have a knock on effect.
   Let's face it, two rehearsals, both with the exact same gear and room, but can be completely different just because you or one of the other band members are in a bad mood. I think what's going on in our head can often affect the sound more than a different pedal.

LionAquaLooper

stickyfiddle said:

I recall very similar discussions at multiple forum meets of yore. I recall a very similar exercise with @Timmyo and @Sporky among others with a similar conclusion; a huge majority of drive pedals can be set in a way that they sound very similar. 

But I firmly believe that different pedals respond differently to pick attack, and so feel different to the player, which in turn lets you do different things with them. Then obviously there's the UI differences and the ability to control different parameters in different ways. The Timmy, Lightspeed and Jan Ray is a great example - when boiled down they're basically the same circuit with a few component value changes, but the Jan Ray definitely feels a bit different to the extent that I don't Timmys/Lightspeeds but the Jan Ray is one of my all-time favourite pedals (and I say that having absolutely expected to hate it when I tried it)

Agree with this.  While most times I can't tell the difference sonically when A/Bing some dirt pedals, I can definitely tell there's a difference in feel.  Might be subtle but it's enough to make me go "ooh hello".  

steer

This might be an emperors new clothes thing for some people - cheap pedals can be made to sound very similar to expensive pedals by nothing more than playing around and dialling them in.

This is why there was that crazy few weeks last year when many people were buying up Bad Monkey's at inflated prices - someone posted a video showing that it can be made to sound the same / similar as a more expensive pedal.  

monquixote

steer said:

This might be an emperors new clothes thing for some people - cheap pedals can be made to sound very similar to expensive pedals by nothing more than playing around and dialling them in.

This is why there was that crazy few weeks last year when many people were buying up Bad Monkey's at inflated prices - someone posted a video showing that it can be made to sound the same / similar as a more expensive pedal.  

It's sad that the take away lesson when someone says "I can make this £20 Bad Monkey sound like a £1,000 Klon" is to flip out and start paying £1000 for Bad Monkeys on ebay rather than realising that it could also have been some other random cheap pedal.