Barber Direct Drive

[Bobster]

Hey guys!

I've noticed a recent hype on barber pedals so i thought i should try one. Due to my inclinations towards tubescreamers, i bought the direct drive and heres my review after 30 minutes of playing.

Drive Range: 8/10
The drive sort of kicks in at about 12 with the vintage tubescreamer od and at maximum clockwise, it gives a crunch feel to it. I personally didnt really dig the crunch sound as it lacked the edge that other crunch pedals presented. The drive needed abit more and the tone needed to hit a tat higher. I'll elaborate more on the tubescreamer sound in the tone section.

Tone: 8/10 (Higher cos of push-pull knob)
The tone gives an in-between of a hot vox sound and a tubescreamer when the push-pull is not activated. However, i found the tones sweet spot to be at full clockwise with the drive at full clockwise as well to achieve the best crunch sound one can get out of the pedal. As mentioned above, i felt that this pedal lacked the treble range to really give the edgier feel to the crunch. The tubescreamer wise, push-pull the knob and set it at 3, it gives a good imitation of the vintage tubescreamer sound. About the tubescreamer sound, i felt it was certainly compressed (although not as much as an LDO) and if you pushed hard enough with the volume, you could achieve a creamy sound as well(not as creamy as the boss od-1). The push-pull knob once activated gives a boost in the mid range and still maintains the highs and lows imo.

Verdict: Personally, i felt that a lack of headroom and clarity at certain positions of the pedal defines this 'tubescreamer clone'. Moreover, a considerable amount of time is needed to tweak this pedal to your liking. At this price, the direct comparison will definitely be the reissued ts808 (used) and imo, the direct drive is a tat more versatile than it. However if you're purely going for the vintage tubescreamer sound, the ts808 would be your preferred choice.

This is what i came up with after 30 minutes of playing. Please feel free to comment and feedback on what you would like to see in a review! For direct drive users, if you'd like more settings, feel free to pm me!

Bob

 

[dudelove]

hahaha bob, i find a direct drive more marshall like rather than tubescreamer-ish. but i can understand where u're coming from. the direct drive does have a tad mid hump just like the tubescreamer.

u do know the direct drive also uses a jrc4558 opamp right.

 

[Bobster]

hey johnathan! yes i do know that it uses the common jrc4558! Unfortunately, in contrast to you, I really couldn't get any plexi-tones from this and i usually picture my "marshall tones" as plexi-tones.

 

[dudelove]

really? the first thing when i plugged in a direct drive was very british, very marshall like. i too, associate marshall tones with the plexi, and jcm800

u're the first person i know who doesnt feel its marshall like.

 

[Bobster]

haha i'm sorry to hear that. Well i just felt that it did not have enough edge nor drive to fill up those very much sought after plexi tones, i had to push the volume quite a far bit from my original true bypass to acheive the max i could with it. Still, probably the headroom accounts for this as well. Just my opinion..

 

[jdawg]

I honestly don't understand why people would associate the Direct Drive as a Marshall-sounding pedal. The midrange content, maybe. But it's just too smooth and polite to sound like convincingly Marshall-ish.

 

[Bobster]

Yes jdawg,

That its precisely the case that i've brought across!

 

[superpotato_30]

The Direct Drive going into a clean fender amp thats on that "verge of breakup" level will definitely get a nice Marshall Plexi tone and even a decent JCM 800 (the gain is there, but may be slightly smoother and more compressed than the real deal amp).

I just send my for modding. Adding extended treble + deep bass + presence mod.

Will let you folks know abt the diffs soon.

 

[superpotato_30]

The new Barber Custom Super Sport compared to the normal DD can definitely sound more 'Marshally'..

" One nice feature on the new B-Custom Super Sport is the internal harmonics trimmer.. Sounds more aggressive and adds some crunch. Turning up the bass and presence trimmers at the same time also helps. "

 

[taypeng81]

I had the barber drive on my pedalboard for quite awhile i can come close to a marshall sound with the gain knob on full but i think its closer to a tubescreamer because of the slight mid-hump.

overall a very good pedal. i like the uncompressed grit it churns out.

 

[superpotato_30]

Ahh.. the modded barber DD is really an eye opener.

I had no regrets when purchasing the stock one, after modding it to add treble + Bass + presence the tone just blew me away.

1) Had to lower down the volume. The pedal seemed louder and was much more responsive to harmonic effects..

2) Drive wise had to reduce it too. The mod really brings out the marshall like characteristic even with the drive knob reduced to as low as 9 o clk the crunchiness is enhanced as compared to the standard stock one..

3)Tone wise the extended treble made the pedal sound less compressed. The mod made the increase in treble pretty obvious and this pedal has just, in my opinion scaled to greater heights but still remaining the characteristic tinge of a creamy background due to the jrc4558 chip.

Overall this pedal i have to say has been the most bang for buck pedal ive ever purchased.

The mods + other alternatives :
http://barberelectronics.com/Tweaks%20page.htm