$10 Overdrive vs $200 Overdrive

I've had a small credit sitting around at a music store. I honestly had no idea what I was going to use it for. I'm fairly well off on picks and strings and all that, so it has been sitting their. I noticed they had marked a Behringer Tube Overdrive right in my price range. I purchased the pedal with zero money down. Armed with a new pedal. I took it home and wondered what I was going to do with. I hadn't even tried it out at the store. It hit me. I'll put it out against my vintage Ibanez TS-9. Similar pedals sell for $200+. I thought it would make for a great "David vs Goliath" (kinda like how the Anderton's YouTube channel does) show down.

Long story short, There was a noticeable difference. The difference was present, but surprisingly small. the pedals made similar sounds. The Behringer was directly related to the Tube Screamer if not directly cloned. The biggest difference in the sounds was the amount of bass. The Vintage TS-9 was just a lot fuller sounding. The low end got left out for the most part when the Behringer overdrive was on. Also, the buffer in the Behringer sucked a little top end off. Putting the Behringer in a bypass loop, I was able to hear a little high end loss when it was kicked on. (This was confirmed in a bind sound-test) 2/3 I was able to tel when the pedal was in the loop. I blame the single time I was able to do so to the fact that my tone controls were tuned down accidentally.

The biggest shock of the whole test was the fact that the 30 year pedal was actually more reliable than the brand new one. Turn the Behringer was a hit or miss affair usually taking a few attempts. The Ibanez had no such problem. I have had to replace the switch in the Vintage pedal, but there really isn't any reason to have to repair a brand new effect.

Conclusion:

Did the more expensive pedal sound better? Yes. It also worked better in general. Did it perform 20 times better? No, but there are many pedal that do an excellent job of sounding like an iconic Tube Screamer and performing reliably.

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Ugly Truth: Vintage TS-9 Tube Screamer

Some time ago I was going through the bargain bin at the local music store and found a Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer. I already had a TS-9DX and wasn't all that impressed by it, but I figured that I would compare the two and see if there were any major advantages with one or the other. On a lark I traded bit of gear for a $0 transaction. One home I played the two Tube Screamers side by side. The TS-9 did seem to have a little more high-end on tap, but the two were very close. Weeks past and I wanted a project, so I decided to do some mods to the TS-9. The bottom plate was covered in Velcro covering the bottom. I peeled the Velcro off to access the screws and the bottom label came off. Usually I don't care about such things, but I stopped and peeled the label away from the Velcro. To my surprise it was not a contemporary label. To the internet I went to find out when this pedal was made. It could be vintage. So using the label, battery door, and some of the actually PCB components, I was able to determine that this pedal was made in 1983. It was one of the earliest TS-9s ever made. I was holding a $200-300 pedal. I was excited by the find, and I also decided that I would mod it, obviously. The picture isn't always pretty though.

Pedals Don't Get Better With Time

There is a big to-do about vintage pedals, but the reason that vintage pedal are popular isn't really based on fact. We owe most of our desire to vintage effects to two things: discontinued effects (the real reason) and vintage instruments. For as long as I can remember, people have said that violins better with age. The oldest and finest violin was Stradivarius. Fast forward a few hundred years and people still clamor over Pre-CBS Fenders. So people apply a subjective thought about violins to modern instruments and that spills over into other gear. There are some reason that some people go up in value. The Boss Slow gear is a pedal that has gone out of production and are hard to come by. They can be seen as high as $500. But people who care still rave about replacing passive components with vintage counterparts, spending time and money to replace something with objectively no difference. The truth is that many of components worsen over time. Metal rusts, Pots get scratchy, years of exposure cause degradation.

Much Of The Difference Is In Our Heads

I did a shootout with several Tube Screamer and Tube Screamer like pedals. After A/B-ing each combination with each pedal in its own loop, I was only able to discern slight differences between the pedals. They ranged from a $40 Bad Monkey to EHX's East River Drive to my vintage TS-9. I'm not saying that I could replace one for another and there be no difference, but the difference there was made little impact to the overall sound. No one casually listening would be able to tell the difference from the cheapest to the most expensive. Just knowing which pedal I was playing probably accounted for most the difference that I "heard".

The Coolest Thing About Owning A Vintage Pedal Is Owning A Vintage Pedal

The only time that people know that my TS-9 is vintage is when I tell them, and every I do, I feel like that guy. There is nearly no reason to own vintage gear than to brag about it. I wouldn't have picked up this pedal if the seller actually knew it was vintage. I do run a TS pedal on my board, but it's not the vintage one. I run an East River Drive because it sounds good and it has True Bypass and a brighter LED (and the pots aren't scratchy(and yes, I've tried contact cleaner)). I've considered sell a number of times. It would be nearly all profit, but I've decided that having a somewhat rare pedal around isn't a bad thing. Its more like a neat collectible than a pedal that I use. On the one hand, it's a good working pedal that deserves to be used, on the other hand, it is a semi-rare and valuable piece of gear.

Conclusion

The thing I like most about the pedal is the story that I get to tell of how I acquired it. I also like to see people reaction to the value of the pedal. Yes, I brag a little bit, but mostly I just think it's cool.

The Ugly Truth About Outlaw Effect's Dead Man's Hand

A little while ago, I wrote a post about Outlaw Effects. Turns out I got some of the details wrong. This led the guys over at Outlaw to politely respond. Turns out they are from Canada and not France, so I guess these guys are more into hockey and beer than... French... stuff. These guys are more likely to say "aye" than "ooh la la" than I previously thought. When the guys were setting me straight I figured I'd slip in a request to try out some of their pedals, which goes to show you what can happen if you just ask because they actually said yes. Let's take a look at the Dead Man's Hand from Outlaw Effects.

Standard micro pedal setup. I've already spent a good deal of time describing the physical pedals here, so now we will mostly look at the sounds this makes. I spent a lot of time with this pedal. I used it as my primary OD on my pedalboard for a set I played a few days ago. It kicked my East River Drive by EHX. I played my 72 reissue Telecaster through my board and into a Fender tube 1x12 amplifier. I found it to be very usable. Most sounds that the ERD made the Dead Man's Hand can follow while taking less than half the real estate. If space and weight are an issue, and when is it not, then the Dead Man's Hand is a great pick. Also consider that the Outlaw's OD is less expensive than the EHX's pedal and you have a real competitive product. In practice, the Dead Man's Hand was able to serve just as well as my main Tube Screamer clone. But how does in stack up against other Tube Screamers head-to-head?

TS Shootout:

Above is a picture of the competitors. From left to right: Digitech Bad Monkey, Outlaw's Dead Man's Hand, a 1985 vintage Ibanez TS-9, and Electro Harmonics' East River Drive.

Round 1: DMH vs ERD

On paper, these two stack up quite well. Both have true bypass, bright LED, heavy duty switches, nice sturdy metal cases, and comparable prices. When played they are very similar as well. They are both chock full of the classic tube screamer type sound. Warm, gritty, tube-like break up at home with lead and rhythm roles. Both pedals matched each others' sounds. This is until I flipped the switch. My assumption was that the switch was there to flatten the mid-hump. It does a lot more. It acts almost like a frequency boost for the highs and lows. There is a big difference in the output when put into the "Aces" mode. The level is boosted as well as the lows. In fact, the biggest notable difference was with the bass. The lows were much more prominent. The ERD left the bottom end behind when the tone knob was cranked. When in "Eights" mode, so does the DMH. But when put into the "Aces" mode, this pedal reaches a territory that the ERD couldn't follow.

Round 2: DMH vs Bad Monkey

The Bad Money is a pedal that many hold in high regard, and yet others dismiss at a cheap copy of a tube screamer that doesn't stack up. I would mostly be in the second camp. This is actually one of the first pedals that I ever bought. It was inexpensive enough for me to afford, and sounded like something I could use. Love it or hate it, this pedal actually stacks up with the other in this list. The biggest noticeable difference with the Bad Monkey is that instead of a tone knob, it has adjustable highs and lows. Set at 12 o'clock the DMH is much more transparent, but with adjustment (lows at 2 o'clock and highs nearly pegged) the Bad Monkey was brought close enough that I had to try hard to hear the difference between the two. Needless to say that there was a lot of territory that the Bad Monkey couldn't explore like the DMH.

Round 3: DMH vs Vintage TS-9

So, it's time to bring out the big guns. Many collectors and modders hold the vintage pedals as a bench mark, something to shoot for. That's why no test is complete without putting the real deal beside the up and comer. Again, both pedals went blow for blow, producing very similar sounds at nearly the same settings. With everything dimed, the TS-9 had a little more high end and transparency. But the same problem was present with the lows. The bottom end just wasn't there anymore. It's the same story with the DMH until you hit the toggle.

The Conclusion

The Dead Man's Hand is a great pedal from Outlaw Effects. I have stated some of my dislikes about how the pedal is put together, but for the sound this pedal is an amazing value. Great Tube Screamer like tone at a fraction of the cost and space, plus the added benefit of a useful boost feature. Don't dismiss this pedal for its affordable price, it easily stacks up to anything in its class.

The Case for Another Tube Screamer (EHX East River Drive)

So if you haven't heard, EHX has been cooking up some new dirt. There has been some backlash since a few of their "ideas" haven't been quite original. I posted my hands on review of their Mosfet (OCD) overdrive. This, if you couldn't tell be the extreme use of green or the title of this blog, is a tube screamer close. Cloning the TS-9 and it's derivatives have been copied so many times and ways that it is hard to keep track. Why on earth would anyone put another of the same thing into the world. Ibanez has cornered the market on their green box. They have the TS-9(the old stand-by $100), TS-7,  TS-5(all plastic), TS-9DX(TS with an extra knob), and the TS-808(an expensive all metal TS with a couple different resisters). They all share the same circuit. So it makes it hard to stand out in the middle of such a crowd. What makes The ERD different? It has a sexy boutique-style case, true bypass, mechanical switch, and a slick decal.

What about the sound? Those who follow the world of pedals know the name aNoLoG.MaN. I name synonymous with quality tone. He is the one who made the DS-1 into something so sought after that he was once backordered for a year. EHX bought the MaN himself in on the design of this pedal. He himself admits that it is explicitly an 808 clone. He consulted on the design of the circuit and the parts used in the build. Hopefully some of his Mojo rubbed off in the process. Everything I've read from EHX fails to mention the pedal guru by name, so kudos I guess for not name dropping. I would have been skeptical if I had not read the forum that he actually participates in.

So it looks like the ERD is a TS-9 with all the popular mods installed in it already in a pretty little boutique package designed by the "King of Tone" himself. Oh yeah, it's $58 and made in the USA. So there's that.

Boss BD-2 Blues Drive Mod

So I've been talking a lot about Boss pedal mods lately... there is a reason. Its because I've done a lot of them recently. I really enjoy messing around inside those little boxes and seeing what I can get out of them. It really is a lot of.... fun? Anyhow, Moute Allum has gotten me in a lot of trouble lately. He is putting out a lot of great stuff that I just have to have. I've posted a lot about OD pedals, like here and here, so you know I like a good dirt box. So when I finally got around to actually buy a Boss Blues Driver it was only a matter of deciding what I was going to do to it. I went with Moute again. I chose the H20 mod because it seems to offer what I would like in my little blue box. I took my time with the mod. I thought that this was going to really wow me like the GE-7 I had done before this one. Here is where the pattern breaks. I was able to side-by-side test this pedal with an unmodded twin and the differences were so slight that at times I was unable to identify which was the modded pedal. Now this was far from scientific. I ran both pedal in series so they had to pass through each others buffers, but as far as the great difference/improvements I have had in the past, there was no one thing I could point to and say was much better. Maybe some further testing is in order...

Here is what Mounte has to say:

Boss BD-H20 DIY Pedal Mod Kits - When searching for a name to call this mod I chose H2O because it's the symbol for water. Water can be clear or transparent and it can be light or heavy. This mod transforms the BD-2 into an almost completely transparent pedal letting the true character of your guitar, pickups and amp shine through. Not only is it almost completely transparent, it's also extremely Dynamic. As you turn the Gain knob up on the pedal you can control the amount of gain using the volume control on your guitar. The BD-H2O will react exactly like a tube driven amp. The shriek highs and splaty gain of the stock BD-2 are completely removed. Compared to our regular BD-2 mod this mod has a much flatter EQ.

My regular BD-2 Mod has a slight mid boost and a little less gain than the BD-H2O Mod. Both mods remove the shriek highs and splaty gain of the stock BD-2. The splaty gain of the stock BD-2 is a common gripe I hear about others that offer mods for this pedal. We have removed this issue with this pedal. We also include a Super Bright 3mm White Clear LED. We also modify a resistor to increase the brightness of the LED X3. You can use the LED as a flashlight on stage after the mod, it is that bright, almost blinding. I will boldly state that this is undoubtedly the best mod on the planet for a BD-2. And the really cool part is we won't break the bank with the price of our mods. We offer top quality parts and expert craftsmanship at very reasonable prices.

Bad Monkey Mod

As far as I can tell the only modding that is really done to this pedal is switching out some capacitors for higher or lower value to effect the tone. I'm totally new at the whole modding ball game but this is what I've found out so far.

If you remove the Capacitor at C5 and replace it with one rated at .1uf then you can flatten the EQ of the pedal. Cutting the mid will give the pedal a transparent sound. If you want to cut the mids even more you can use a Cap with a rating of .15uf.

I pointed out the C5 Cap. It was a little of a wheres waldo. It is right between the knobs and the input jack.

Her are the solder points for C5. Not that hard to find, but its worth pointing out. Just under the knobs there.

There is also a mod for more bass. I'm not sure that this one is as popular as the mid-cut but I'll show it anyways in case you may want to add some bass to you Bad Monkey. Basicly you just follow the same routine. In this case you are changing the Cap at C11 with (again) a .1uf (or .15uf if you like) Cap and then you have bass boost. So Much Bass...

Pictures!

This one is much easier to find. Its basic the lowest thing on the right side.

Flip it over and there you go. The solder points. Pretty easy to find this time.

I haven't actually done this yet, but this is a common mod. You see this mod in the Humphrey Audio "badder monkey" on ebay for 100+ dollars. I bought mine a number of years ago for 40 From Musicians Friend. I't been kicked off the Pedal board because I don't need another "green" style OD when I have my Visual Sound Rout 66. But I may do the mod and use it for a boost or just as another color OD.

Like mods? Try one of these: Boss GE-7, Boss BD-2, Boss TR-2