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Drunk Beaver, one of Europe's best boutique pedal builders, is launching its budget-friendly XR pedal series with this TS-9-inspired overdrive. More specifically, the XR series aims to revive the spirit of the old Exar pedal line. Exar was well known in Poland for producing affordable pedals at a time when brands like Boss, DOD, and MXR were difficult to find in Eastern Europe. The OD-1 is essentially a Tube Screamer, but like the Boss SD-1 it uses asymmetrical clipping instead of the original green pedal's symmetrical clipping. The other key difference is the tone control. Turning it clockwise adds bass, resulting in a fuller sound than a traditional Tube Screamer, which can sometimes feel a little thin. That said, fuller isn't always better when you're trying to cut through a band mix. For that reason, I think it's best to keep the tone control fairly low when using the OD-1 as a boost, which, in my opinion, is exactly what this pedal excels at. It may not be the greatest standalone overdrive, but I don't think it was designed with that purpose in mind. It's meant to push an already overdriven amp or pedal, and that's how I've been using it. It pairs particularly well with my GupTech Donut, a Crowther Hot Cake clone, adding a pleasing extra layer of grit without overwhelming the core tone. It's also dirt cheap and built like a tank. I love the knobs, which are fairly original, as well as the fact that it has top-mounted jacks, making it more pedalboard friendly than Ibanez and Boss pedals. Also, it comes with an additional circuit (if you want to try to do it yourself) and with a barefoot button. What more could you ask for?

Is it the best drive in the world? No, however, you can pick these up for as little at £20, so really you can’t complain for that. It’s nothing to go crazy for but it is a decent pedal. I have a soft spot for pedals that aren’t a one trick pony. The crazy cacti has a bunch of tonal options to suit different, players, music and rigs. I particularly liked how it had the addition of the boost circuit. Wish we could see more of that on other drive pedals. For me the boost meant that when money was tight I only needed the one overdrive pedal, which saved time, weight, money, and space.

For many years I desired this connecting link from guitar & bass.

In the short few months of having this, I have used it on several client jobs as well as it sparking sundry ideas!

These are notorious for coming with horrible setups, bridges and just ok pickups though for the price, it is great and you can find a decent luthier or tech or friend to get you sorted unless you are adept at this art.

I paid about $400 for mine and am glad I held out for so long as this one is magical.

Pros: - super cheap licenses ($60 for personal $225 for commercial which is only necessary if you make 20k+ yearly off of the music you produce with Reaper) - super customizable and compatible with Windows, Apple, AND Linux. - has all the industry standard features that any producer would need, just doesn't come with all the pretty plugins that other DAWs come with. - can look a lot better than it does stock if you're willing to spend 5-15 minutes installing a theme (check out ReaperTips) - super low CPU useage, barely takes up any storage on your hard drive, and has very low latency, so it can run on older computers just fine.

Cons: - does not come with actual instrument plugins - can be difficult to learn because of how much customization is possible