OLD Gear Reviews
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thor666
New member
Zoom Power Drive PD-01
Purchased: 2nd hand, $70
Samson has always been known for their digital effects, particularly the Zoom 505 models which are cheap and compact. What's less known is that a few years back, Samson actually made four Zoom analog pedals: the Hyper Lead (HL-01), Tri-metal (TM-01), Ultra Fuzz (UF-01) and the Power Drive (PD-01). These Japanese-made pedals became the topic of interest by many players, but sadly only after they were discontinued.
I got the Power Drive pedal off the luther clasified ads. Met up with the person at Marsiling, who was pretty helpful in telling me the positive and negative aspects of the pedal.
Brought the pedal home and tried it. (Using a Fender Am Std Strat and a Trace Elliot 15W Brat amp)
For those in a hurry, here's my summary of the pedal: exactly what the harmony central reviews say - transparent, sterile, mid-hump, responsive. Most people adore it and some hate it to the core.
Reason? The Power Drive is a highly complex pedal with many sonic differences at different settings. Upon opening up the pedal, I can see *7* integrated circuits on the PCB. As the PCB was fixed to the input/output jacks, I was not willing to dismantle the pedal to look at the opposite side of the PCB board.
To begin with, (and imo the best part of the pedal) the clean boost effect is amazing. With the GAIN set to 0, it felt like a transparent equalizer which boosts certain frequencies and making your playing more dynamic and responsive. It definitely outshines my 2000-made GE-7, which obviously colors the tone (even when off).
Turning up the GAIN to the 9o'clock position gives a mild overdrive which is usable for slighly overdriven solos while retaining the distinct sound of my guitar.
The bad parts come after 9 o'clock. From 10 o'clock all the way to 3 o'clock, a second stage overdrive is triggered. This is apparently obvious as the distinct sound of the guitar becomes more processed, and sterile. Well, at least on my solidstate. Some reviews have mentioned the PD-01 to work better with tube amps, and I suspect so. Will update this review when I manage to try it with a tube amp.
Switching the GAIN towards its maximum triggers the third stage of overdrive, and this is the part i find unbearing - it's too noisy. Probably it's due to the fact that my Strat PUs are all singlecoil; the other part of me feels that Zoom made this to cater for more hard rock/metal players. It doesn't suffice for me though; my Boss SD-1 easily does the trick.
The other three controls, LOW, HIGH and LEVEL did not really affect the tonal qualities other than what they were supposed to do, so I would not mention them.
My verdict for this pedal? Absolutely worth every cent of it, just by the clean boost alone. Like i had mentioned, I did have a GE-7 before that, and it felt to me like the GE-7 was taking up space in my setup (although it was useful) as it colors my guitar tone. The PD-01 does color my guitar tone as well; but it does it in a particularly good way - keeping the "timbre" qualities of my guitar, boosting the eq a little (some find this midhump irriating) and making it stand out. I love this pedal, even though it was not what I was looking for - a better overdrive pedal.
Purchased: 2nd hand, $70
Samson has always been known for their digital effects, particularly the Zoom 505 models which are cheap and compact. What's less known is that a few years back, Samson actually made four Zoom analog pedals: the Hyper Lead (HL-01), Tri-metal (TM-01), Ultra Fuzz (UF-01) and the Power Drive (PD-01). These Japanese-made pedals became the topic of interest by many players, but sadly only after they were discontinued.
I got the Power Drive pedal off the luther clasified ads. Met up with the person at Marsiling, who was pretty helpful in telling me the positive and negative aspects of the pedal.
Brought the pedal home and tried it. (Using a Fender Am Std Strat and a Trace Elliot 15W Brat amp)
For those in a hurry, here's my summary of the pedal: exactly what the harmony central reviews say - transparent, sterile, mid-hump, responsive. Most people adore it and some hate it to the core.
Reason? The Power Drive is a highly complex pedal with many sonic differences at different settings. Upon opening up the pedal, I can see *7* integrated circuits on the PCB. As the PCB was fixed to the input/output jacks, I was not willing to dismantle the pedal to look at the opposite side of the PCB board.
To begin with, (and imo the best part of the pedal) the clean boost effect is amazing. With the GAIN set to 0, it felt like a transparent equalizer which boosts certain frequencies and making your playing more dynamic and responsive. It definitely outshines my 2000-made GE-7, which obviously colors the tone (even when off).
Turning up the GAIN to the 9o'clock position gives a mild overdrive which is usable for slighly overdriven solos while retaining the distinct sound of my guitar.
The bad parts come after 9 o'clock. From 10 o'clock all the way to 3 o'clock, a second stage overdrive is triggered. This is apparently obvious as the distinct sound of the guitar becomes more processed, and sterile. Well, at least on my solidstate. Some reviews have mentioned the PD-01 to work better with tube amps, and I suspect so. Will update this review when I manage to try it with a tube amp.
Switching the GAIN towards its maximum triggers the third stage of overdrive, and this is the part i find unbearing - it's too noisy. Probably it's due to the fact that my Strat PUs are all singlecoil; the other part of me feels that Zoom made this to cater for more hard rock/metal players. It doesn't suffice for me though; my Boss SD-1 easily does the trick.
The other three controls, LOW, HIGH and LEVEL did not really affect the tonal qualities other than what they were supposed to do, so I would not mention them.
My verdict for this pedal? Absolutely worth every cent of it, just by the clean boost alone. Like i had mentioned, I did have a GE-7 before that, and it felt to me like the GE-7 was taking up space in my setup (although it was useful) as it colors my guitar tone. The PD-01 does color my guitar tone as well; but it does it in a particularly good way - keeping the "timbre" qualities of my guitar, boosting the eq a little (some find this midhump irriating) and making it stand out. I love this pedal, even though it was not what I was looking for - a better overdrive pedal.
CyanideJunkie
New member
Samick Interceptor
The Interceptor is a discontinued model i think coz the site didn't have its details any more... instead they now have am interceptor 2... but i distinctly recall davis till having abt 2 left in stock...
Anyway the interceptor was my very first guitar... it was trans blue in colour... i learnt all my basics on that guitar... from chords to palm muting to changing strings etc... its has a 24 fret maple neck fitted with dot inlays plus an alder(i think) double-cutaway body equipped with a S-S-H pickup combination, 5-way pickup selector with 3 controls: 1 volume 2 tone, plus a tremolo bridge...
I bought it from a friend for $120... Despite being second-hand it was a very good guitar... the single-coils were very resonant and the humbucker did its job perfectly(when i got better at playing i raised it a little to get a better sound) i never got to know how it sounded like with whammy coz after the first few days, i lost it
... but the bridge itself worked fine... no intonation problems... the angled headstock also proved to be useful in handling the string tension... although this guitar never made it to any gigs i'm sure that it would have held out fine... it was one sturdy little bastard alright... in the end it ended up as a backup after i bought my bc rich... 1 month after that i switched the interceptor with another friend for a squier bullet special... but i will never forget it 
...
This is a VERY good guitar for begginers... even kelvin at guitar connection commended it... imho it's more worth it compared to the squier range... i was actually surprised when i found out that not many people knew about samick guitars even though paul stanley from kiss had 2 siganture designs from them...
Overall samick makes very good guitars... if ur a jazz or blues fan u can try the royale... or if ur a metalhead u can try the cobra... either way, it's all good 8)
The Interceptor is a discontinued model i think coz the site didn't have its details any more... instead they now have am interceptor 2... but i distinctly recall davis till having abt 2 left in stock...
Anyway the interceptor was my very first guitar... it was trans blue in colour... i learnt all my basics on that guitar... from chords to palm muting to changing strings etc... its has a 24 fret maple neck fitted with dot inlays plus an alder(i think) double-cutaway body equipped with a S-S-H pickup combination, 5-way pickup selector with 3 controls: 1 volume 2 tone, plus a tremolo bridge...
I bought it from a friend for $120... Despite being second-hand it was a very good guitar... the single-coils were very resonant and the humbucker did its job perfectly(when i got better at playing i raised it a little to get a better sound) i never got to know how it sounded like with whammy coz after the first few days, i lost it
... but the bridge itself worked fine... no intonation problems... the angled headstock also proved to be useful in handling the string tension... although this guitar never made it to any gigs i'm sure that it would have held out fine... it was one sturdy little bastard alright... in the end it ended up as a backup after i bought my bc rich... 1 month after that i switched the interceptor with another friend for a squier bullet special... but i will never forget it ...This is a VERY good guitar for begginers... even kelvin at guitar connection commended it... imho it's more worth it compared to the squier range... i was actually surprised when i found out that not many people knew about samick guitars even though paul stanley from kiss had 2 siganture designs from them...
Overall samick makes very good guitars... if ur a jazz or blues fan u can try the royale... or if ur a metalhead u can try the cobra... either way, it's all good 8)
