Low Gain OD: I'm a changed man

[ohsojayadeva]

I've never been much for "Low Gain" style overdrives. I have built a few tube screamers, both of which I ended up modding for more gain, as well as a red llama. Those are about as low as I've ever gotten; my preference has always been for distortion and fuzz.

I had a pickup gig this week with a friend and his stuff was definitely of a lighter fare than what I'm used to. At first I was just using one of my distortion pedals and turning the gain down, but since I had a birthday coming up anyway, I decided to take the plunge and try something new, something that was dedicated to doing that kind of sound instead of taking one of my current pedals and adapting it. I needed two channels, so I decided to either try the ZVex Box of Rock or the Barber Half Gainer, which is a two channel version of their pedal the LTD. Since the hand made Box of Rock was way more expensive, I decided to go with the Barber.



The gig was Tuesday night, and needless to say I was totally floored, and I can totally see why so many players keep these types of pedals in their arsenal. I set up the first channel to be lower gain and the second medium gain. With the first channel on, using a tele and a Vox AC15, it just sounds like the amp but bigger. When I dig in, it gets dirty, with lots of really cool and musical overtones and a surprising amount of musical feedback; I had always associated feedback with gobs of gain, but that's not the case here. When I flip to my tele's neck pickup, it goes right back to being totally clean, but with a thicker low-midrange that helps the tele's usually slim sounding neck pickup cut through. Because of the variety of tones, based on how hard I played and whether I was using the neck, bridge, or both pickups, I actually spent most of the night on this first channel! Some songs required a bit more grind, in which case I'd kick over to the second channel. I could still go back to a cleaner tone via switching pickups or lowering my guitar's volume, never losing a bit of the awesome tone.

Needless to say, I'm going to be incorporating this pedal into a lot more of my regular band's material. I feel like I've got a whole world of new sounds at my fingertips that I never even considered before; I liken it to being underwater, and then breaking through and seeing the sun for the first time.

Any of you guys have a similar experience? Don't stick to strictly OD pedals, either: what's a good effect that you had misconceptions about that totally rocked your world?

[Gunner Recall]

Right on...I had a similar experience with the Tim (your amp but louder/bigger). Prior to that I was a MOAR GAIN IS NEVER ENOUGH kinda guy, but I really dig what the Tim does for me.

I've always dug Barber's business style, keeping things affordable and making himself available to the various communities (even the diy ones)...almost always comes off as a reasonable/smart guy.

[ohsojayadeva]

That rocks. I've heard a lot of really great things about the Tim/Timmy. It would have been on my short list were it not for the wait time.

This is my second Barber pedal. My first was the Burn Unit EQ, which is definitely a higher gain overdrive. I actually changed the opamp from a 4559 to a TL072 to give it even more gain. It's my go-to for hi-gain-but-not-fuzz sounds. With the second channel of the Half-Gainer set for higher gain, it can get *almost* to the lower-gain level of the Burn Unit EQ, so I am thinking about setting up the Half-Gainer and Burn Unit in an A/B loop so that I can have 4 channels of Barber gain with relatively few pedal taps.

I can't say enough good things about Barber and his business. Specifically, when he's in the middle of filling orders or low on parts, he doesn't create a wait-list, but removes the pedal from production until he is caught up or has the parts to build it again. This may seem counter-intuitive, but I think it makes a lot of sense: no wait-list means no hype, and no exaggerated inflation based on availability.

[Officer Bukowski]

I can totally relate to that. The only low gain od I had before was a cheap tube screamer type thing and I hated it and I thought low gain ods were really lame for a while. Then I got my fuck overdrive and that totally changed my opinion of od.

It sounds so good, especially with my band. Like you described it's just got a nice responsive and dynamic sound without being over the top or anything and it sits really well in the mix.

I think my amp sounds the way it's supposed to with my fuck od haha.

Btw the Hyperion rocks thanks man.

[ohsojayadeva]

Btw the Hyperion rocks thanks man.

Fuck yeah! I kept meaning to write to see how you liked it, but shit got crazy, and then i went on vacation, and... you know how that goes!

[devnulljp]

[Gunner Recall]

Oh snap.
We got told

[ohsojayadeva]

HEY GUIZ WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THE 556TH BIG MUFF I JUST BOUGHT?

j/k, i loves you devnull.

[Holy Schnikes]

I actually have ODs capable of high gain awesomeness (Fuck and Monarch) but I find myself going with low gain settings most often or using them to boost/punish fuzz for them thick, gain-filled tones.

Took me a VERY LONG while to come around regarding OD. Glad I finally did! I definitely he SS/BS and the Fuck OD to thank for this change of heart. Good god that's one FAT sounding, badass OD!

[D.o.S.]

That's fantastic.

[O Drones]

Honestly, the Fuck OD changed everything for me.

[shardy]

Hope the Multidrive thats on the way will kill all of my od/drive GAS.

[lizardville]

IM with you man...

TIM is the way to go.

" no solo de fuzz vive el hombre"

[ohsojayadeva]

Honestly, the Fuck OD changed everything for me.

I def have to hit that.

[DarkAxel]

i love low/medium gain ODs for just a tad of sparkle or for interactions with fuzz my solo sound has been OD+Fuzz for what seems to be ages to me now