Dvm Od2

[marnold]

Here's that gain test. Same setup as before. All knobs at noon except for the gain. Switches set on "Normal" and "TS". I play the same lick as above first without the pedal, next with the pedal with the gain turned all the way down, finally with the gain turned all the way up.

Lick gain test

By the by, I realize that these clips are relatively low volume. I didn't want to tweak them too much in Audacity, for fear of adding unwanted gain or otherwise coloring the tone.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Really nice review and set of clips. That looks like a very useful OD swiss army knife! Thanks for taking the time to record and post your clips. :AOK: :AOK:

 

[duhvoodooman]

Good job demoing the various features of the pedal, Rev!

My personal favorite settings on the overdrive side:

• MOSFET clipping mode
• "Full" EQ toggle setting
• Tone and OD Gain both set around 1 - 2 o'clock
• Level set as high as possible without the wife getting mad....

You covered the modifications pretty thoroughly. The pedal will do higher gain, but at some point with a TS-type pedal, too much gain turns it into something it really wasn't mean to be. It is, after all, an overdrive, not a high-gain distro-box. (I have some other pedals available for that use though!) The 2x max. gain setting seems just about right to me--plenty of crunch without getting too raspy and loose sounding.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

DVM, I was thinking about that with the gain after Marnold mentioned how it was higher than the TS 808 gain settings. I like to use my OD in combination with my other distro box (of course the Rodent), and I would think I might keep the gain down a bit if I did so, to keep it more in the TS area, and use the Rodent for more gain. I did that originally with my DS-1 and Bad Monkey, and do so now with my Rodent and Bad Monkey. On these recordings, I was enjoying the TS mode and Lift mode the best. I also notice that Robert had his clipping set low in his ZYS demo he just posted, and I really enjoyed that sound. But there sure seem to be a lot of good sounds in that thang!

 

[duhvoodooman]

Keep in mind that though the maximum gain available on Rev's pedal is twice that of a stock TS808 or TS9, all those lower gain settings are still there on the gain knob--they just come up a bit farther to the left side.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Ok, I get it. So setting the internal trim pots to allow for more gain just gives you more if you want it, but does not overall make the pedal "gainier", just the settings are not in the same place as on a TS 808 or TS 9 tube screamer.

 

[duhvoodooman]

Ok, I get it. So setting the internal trim pots to allow for more gain just gives you more if you want it, but does not overall make the pedal "gainier", just the settings are not in the same place as on a TS 808 or TS 9 tube screamer.

Exactly. The way a TS circuit works, the resistors that determine the minimum and maximum gain and the capacitor(s) that determines where the bass response rolls off are interactive. So when I dial up the MAX trimpot to double the available gain, I also adjust the MIN trimpot to keep the minimum gain the same as a stock TS pedal. I also change the values of the 3 switchable caps that the EQ toggle switch controls, so that the overall bass response of the pedal stays essentially unchanged. Otherwise, as you dial up the max gain, you'd be scrubbing off bottom end response, too. It's all related to how a resistor and capacitor pair function as an AC frequency filter.

 

[marnold]

I noticed something interesting when I was trying to record something with the UK70s model and my OD2. I had it in TS mode. The gain was turned all the way down. Tone was at 2:00 and the level was at about 1:00. If I was reading the output of Audacity correctly, the volume didn't actually increase when I kicked in the pedal. What it did do is compress the signal. The audible effect was cool. What I saw in Audacity surprised me though.

I noticed that there's not a ton of headroom on the hi-gain models on my AD30VT. You can only push it so much. I suppose that would be no different with a tube amph. If you've got the preamp on 11, hitting it with more signal won't increase the volume at all. The amount of headroom seems to be inversely proportional to where the Gain knob is set.

This pedal does take a bit of getting used to, not that it's hard or that there are bad settings. If you're used to a typical Tubescreamer, you need to unlearn what you have learned. Setting the knobs in the same place and letting her rip won't give you the results you'd anticipate. The time you spend with it is definitely worth it. I don't think I could go back to my old TO800 now as much as I liked it.

My advice would be that if you want an overdrive pedal, spend a little more than you would for a TS-9 (and a lot less than you would for a TS-808) and get something with more flexibility.

 

[marnold]

Just to bump my own thread, I was inspired by another thread on here to try this pedal with my Spector bass and Acoustic B20. It seemed to work rather nicely! The pedal is brighter than a typical Screamer, so the bass doesn't turn into mud. It gets a little farty on the low E, but nothing that I'd lose sleep over. The boost works as advertised too.