This is by Ovid, someone whom I've respect a lot and is an encyclopedia of knowledge.
He was the founder of the now defunct Singapore Music Forum at Delphi forums in the 90's and had a nice studio at his basement when he was still in Singapore.
I'm really happy that he likes the pedal and that means a lot to me.
On to the review....
"I like the audio processing in this device, it fills a gap which most distortion devices fail to address - the region from clean to breakup, without too much tonal difference from 'clean' status. I used to use a RAT for this, and you can modify a RAT to give you more bass, which if you set at low distortion settings, gives you that Fender twang breakup. This device does it much better, sounds very natural and does the VOX low gain distortion tone very well. It will work to drive a front end of a valve (tube) preamp a bit. Admittedly, the gain does not go that high to have that singing sustain, but I suspect this was not the design ambit of this device.
Tonally, this is quite idiot proof, and you cannot get a bad sound out of any of its settings. Some distortion devices will give you mosquito buzzing at extremes but this device has most of it under control. The 'pregain' feature is a misleading description as gain is gain anyway but in the age when musos use terms like 'outro' and 'pre chorus' this fits squarely in the lingo of the generation. Audibly, it sets up a nice low drive at it highhest extreme, and with the tone knob set low, and the gain set completely counterclockwise, you'd get that Beatles Abbey road tone in "I want You (She's so heavy)".
This would be a top notch device for old school sounds, and blues. It is probably not what you want for metal, though I'd say if you set this up before another higher gain device you'd get singing tones for sweep picking or for Santana sustain. I tried it alone,& tried in series with a TS808 (analogman), and a stock RAT II. This device justifies my sale of my triaxis and JMP 1. I used to use these in a 12 U rack and got tired of it all, so I stripped it apart and get most of the preamplifeid distortion tones I need from a few select pedals. This one will be the first in the chain. If you have never heard power amp distortion from a clean preamp then you really don't know distortion tone. This device adds colour to that process in a useful way by making the guitar sound slightly broken up without tonal alteration. A higher gain preamp distortion device is pretty much useless if you want to get controllable or recordable tones - so this device is perfect for that.
The unit is well made except for the following comments: The lettering is obscured by the chicken head knobs, so after first usage you'd need to know which knob does what...The chassis is good and is nicely coloured and cleanly drilled. The PCB is well made, soldering clean and tidy, components top notch and high grade. The chip is a Philips NE 5532 which typically has better noise specs. It is used in Soundcraft's Ghost mixing console. I like this chip and use it a lot for preamps I make. The footswitch is a 9 pin job and servicing would be a doddle as the pots can be clipped off. The battery sits a bit loosely on a bit of foam rubbber but with the bottom plate on, there is no issue. It is nicer to have a dedicated clip though. The wiring for the battery is looped through the PCB so that any strain is minimised.
All in, sonically one of the best pedals I have tried and I have gone through a lot of gear .
The test rig: Trace Elliot V type preamp, based on Fender dual showman circuit preamp, Marshall valve power amp, stereo 1 X 12 Marshall Cabs. Studio: Trace V type into DBX 234 crossover as speaker simulator straight to board, Bryston power amp driving NS10s. Lefty Guitars: Mid 80s FujiGen Gakki made Ibanez roadstar, 1982 AS200, late 80s USA strat with Kinman Hank Marvin set, Rickenbacker 360/12 v64, 62 tele custom with kinman broadcasters"
