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
‘It is no measure of good health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society’
Comments
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?
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.