New Non-BOSS Pedals

[zentropa]

A couple of new toys:

Soldano SLO.jpg (87.2 KiB) Viewed 4581 times

The SLO has become one of my favorite dirt pedals of all time. More gain than most people would need, but I genuinely enjoy it.

Wampler Dracarys.jpg (109.47 KiB) Viewed 4581 times

The Dracarys is my second one. I had tried one earlier when I was doing a different board project but it lost its shootout with another pedal in its gain range so I sold it. I reconsidered it for the current board project and one popped up well below market value so I scooped it up as a place-holder while I wait for a decent deal on the pedal I plan to have in its place, but this may take months. I find it's very amp dependent... with some amps I think it sounds awful, with others it's pretty fun.

[chromandre]

A couple of new toys:

Soldano SLO.jpg

The SLO has become one of my favorite dirt pedals of all time. More gain than most people would need, but I genuinely enjoy it.

I was hoping to hear good things about this pedal! SLO tends to be one of the best settings on digital amp modelers but I've never played a real soldano amp

[zentropa]

I was hoping to hear good things about this pedal! SLO tends to be one of the best settings on digital amp modelers but I've never played a real soldano amp

I haven't played an SLO in 20+ years, but they were probably my favorite amp circa 2000 (I also played a few others like the Hot Rod, Hot Rod+, Astroverb, etc.). I was going to get an SLO but I opted for a Silver Jubilee combo because I didn't want to lug around a cabinet at the time. A few years later they spiked in price when Soldano made the lifetime warranty transferrable and also started doing mods for people that wouldn't void the warranty. Like... they were $1300-1400 used and $2800 new and they jumped to $2300-2500 used after that and have only gotten more expensive as time has gone on, so I missed my window.

With that in mind, I don't remember enough about how the SLO felt to play to compare it to the pedal. However, the Peavey 5150 was based on the SLO and I would say the SLO pedal feels a lot like a 5150 going into the high sensitivity input, everything down to the slightly metallic "plink" on the pick attack. Overall, I'm a big fan of dirt pedals that play like amps.

[zentropa]

GF surprised me with this for my bday. I haven't been able to test it yet.

Green Russian.jpg (88.06 KiB) Viewed 4537 times

Having played a number of EHX Big Muffs and clones, Stomp Under Foot is my favorite Big Muff clone company. Single-man operation, everything is hand built by him with NOS through-hole components. Jacks/pots/switches are all done "the good way", where none of them are board-mounted. While they are more expensive than the budget boutique builders who only sell direct, they are equal to or less than a lot of the companies selling boutique big muffs and have a superior build quality to most of them. They also have a lot of versions with a midrange control to help cutting through live (e.g. Violet Menace vs. Violet Ram's Head, Civil Unrest vs. Civil War, etc.).

This is my 3rd SUF Big Muff. I have a violet Ram's Head and Pumpkin Pi (Op Amp Big muff) as well.

For some reason they fly under the radar compared to companies like Wren & Cuff.

Edit: Got to play it and I like it a lot. Something I also seem to prefer about big muff clones to EHX big muffs is that they are far less likely to glitch. This Green Russian can handle 6-string chords, and intervals like 3rds on the low E and A without flubbing out, unlike the original ones (I sold my original to Laurie around 2008-09 before they exploded in value)

[The_Doc]

The Nobels ODR-1 Natural Overdrive has been one of my favourite drives for a very long time. Of course, I couldn’t resist a gold 30th Anniversary version of it with a bass cut control ! I dug out all of the Nobels collection and I thought you might like to see them all together.

Nobels 2023.jpeg (118.41 KiB) Viewed 3504 times

[Pepe]

I already saw it at Instagram. Excellent picture!

[The_Doc]

I already saw it at Instagram. Excellent picture!

Thanks Pepe

[BearBoy]

Wow. Nice looking collection.

Until the (relatively) recent hype about the ODR-1, I had never heard of Nobels and, until seeing your picture, didn't know they'd made so many pedals.

I think they only make ODR-1 variants these days, don't they?

[The_Doc]

Wow. Nice looking collection.

Until the (relatively) recent hype about the ODR-1, I had never heard of Nobels and, until seeing your picture, didn't know they'd made so many pedals.

I think they only make ODR-1 variants these days, don't they?

Thanks

Yes it’s just the ODR-1 now, which is a shame as some of the others are very good. The PRE-1 Preamp / Booster is excellent and I gigged with that one for a while - never let me down and pushed my Peavey Delta Blues amp into some great tones.

[fernieite]

The Nobels ODR-1 Natural Overdrive has been one of my favourite drives for a very long time. Of course, I couldn’t resist a gold 30th Anniversary version of it with a bass cut control ! I dug out all of the Nobels collection and I thought you might like to see them all together.


Nobels 2023.jpeg

Nice colorful picture, Doc! I've got two old Nobels, a silver ODR-1, like yours above, and the A/B switcher pedal. No boxes, I'm afraid.