ludwik_jahn's Metal Pedalboard

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?

You don't come across many Crowther Hot Cake clones, even though that pedal is arguably as mythical as the Klon Centaur. I've been looking for one for quite some time. After all, it's the drive pedal of some of my favorite guitarists, including Jeff Parker and Nels Cline.

This affordable clone from the French-Canadian builders at GupTech was exactly what I needed to understand what all the fuss is about. What I like most about this pedal is how huge it sounds while still preserving much of the clarity and character of the guitar's clean signal. The dynamics is impressive - you can go from barely dirty to almost fuzzy and gnarly simply by changing your pick attack.

Legend has it that the original was conceived with Vox amps in mind. I've used this clone with Marshall and Fender amps as well, and it absolutely kills. Highly recommended.

Sometimes you pay the big bucks for a pedal because it has tons of features, and sometimes because it has one sound that is unmistakably its own. The Boss VB-2 definitely falls into the second category. Along with the CE-2, it’s the reason Boss owned the '80s. A lot of sounds you would identify as "chorus" are actually coming from this thing—think Prince, Cocteau Twins, etc. It basically does two things: a "rotary" effect, which is perfect for modern jazz, or a "warped vinyl" sound. I prefer the second use, which I achieve by keeping the depth and rate quite low and the rise time in the middle. The effect is even more pronounced in "Custom" mode, which I also like very much. No wonder it was so sought after. Thank you, Boss, for reissuing it!

At first, you may think "who would want to buy a one-knob reverb in which almost everything is set for you so that you can only control the dry/wet blend?" and also "who would want to use that ridiculous flerb setting?". Answer to question 2 is "no one" and answer to question 1 is "well, pretty much everyone" because it's on all of your favorite artists' pedalboard. And for good reasons. "Spring" and "hall" are so perfect that you put the blend in between 10 and 1 o'clock depending on your taste and then prettty much forget about it. There are better and more complicated reverbs out there but none that are as simple and dependable as this one.

It's the perfect mini-board. You can fit 5 or 6 pedals there. There's everything you need to make it work. I like the ability to extend the feet of the board, as to place a power supply down there, something which you can't do with similar Pedaltrain boards that are more expensive. I know it does not work for everybody but it definitely works for me: clean, practical, professional ... and cheap!