OD Shootout by Harry Jacobson

[SteveB]

Maybe some of you have seen this, but if not, check it out.

http://harryj.net/OD_Shootout2.htm

Steve

[Auke Haarsma]

nice site!

[Mark Hammer]

I listened to about 40% of the samples, and no disprespect to anyone, but honest to goodness, I couldn't hear a single difference that meant anything to me.  Maybe it was the domineering qualities of the way in which the samples were generated, but if I had to make a purchase choice based on the posted samples, I'd just buy whatever was cheapest.

Still, thanks for posting the link, and thanks to Harry for doing the legwork.

[Doug_H]

There were a couple overdrive shootouts at the gear page a few months ago. After about 10 minutes I was wondering about the difference between hearing another tube screamer variation or just throwing myself off a building. I honestly don't know how these people detect all these fine hair differences between this stuff, or make it through a half-hour or more of noodling. Maybe I just have a short attention span. If so, I'm guilty as charged...

[MartyMart]

Well I CAN hear the differences, but you know ... it's all down to the gtr/amp and most
important ..... your talent ( or lack of it ) in your fingers !!
Of the OD's I rather liked the Analogman TS-9 / Zen drive and the OCD !!
.... got all that covered though 

MM

[petemoore]

  Kind of a cool intro to different pedal makes for me.
 Lots of legwork indeed. The goal seemed to have a specific target sound, through amp on'verge', suited to playing style...cool. All the pedals and the playing I sampled sounded good.
  My observation is that it is the long way around a breadboard or a little bit of engineering, suggesting that some engineering understanding would go a long way shortly toward getting many of these SB's to do the intended task with less 'bad?': 'fizz', for example, is something that has been and can be compensated for in all these pedals, to one degree or another, and is also completely dependant on 'X' factors outside the pedal.
 Someone w/breadboard and limited E knowledge would say...I just multiplied 'fizz' factor cap by about 17% too much [through this amp/speaker w/this guitar set full].
 ...it's like;
 My amp is like a bent board with a notch in it.
 When I held a straight board to it, there was a gap.
 The second board was bent but still didn't match the 'amp board'.
 I tried 20 more boards I had in the garage and like 'this one because, and that one also cause...
 so on and so forth, But not 'using a planer' or 'sanding by hand' to produce a better match...
 For <the price of the pedals one could probably get an "E type" to go through the entire chain and hookup a tight sound...or take a trip to a Real big music store and get the premade rig units that do that...maybe even get them interested in documenting the tonequest...
   
 

[SteveB]

Right, there are a lot of similarities, but it's nice to hear stuff that you read a lot of hype about along with other things. I hear about 2 or 3 that I really like for different reasons, but even those that sound "not so hot" to me could sound great with another amp/guitar/player.

Some of the subtle differences won't come through as well in a soundclip compared to playing the thing in real life. You know the drill....trying to describe how it "feels" to play an all tube amp vs. a solid state amp.

I have to commend the guy for taking on such a task, & also his miking & recording techniques were really good, not to mention the playing.

Steve

[Seljer]

I listened to about 40% of the samples, and no disprespect to anyone, but honest to goodness, I couldn't hear a single difference that meant anything to me.  Maybe it was the domineering qualities of the way in which the samples were generated, but if I had to make a purchase choice based on the posted samples, I'd just buy whatever was cheapest.

For some reason, thats what everybody thinks about my setup of distortion pedals 

[Dragonfly]

Well I CAN hear the differences, but you know ... it's all down to the gtr/amp and most
important ..... your talent ( or lack of it ) in your fingers !!
Of the OD's I rather liked the Analogman TS-9 / Zen drive and the OCD !!
.... got all that covered though 

MM

i dug the zendrive and the eternity....one i also liked, and is "dirt cheap" to buy, is the DOD juice box...dunno why, but i've always been able to pull really great sounds out of it....

[Ben N]

I listened to about 40% of the samples, and no disprespect to anyone, but honest to goodness, I couldn't hear a single difference that meant anything to me.  Maybe it was the domineering qualities of the way in which the samples were generated, but if I had to make a purchase choice based on the posted samples, I'd just buy whatever was cheapest.

Maybe the choice of a Princeton wasn't a great one to highlight differences, since it overdrives if you breathe on it.  Although, to be fair, some ODs should be heard with an overdriven amp, for a shootout the baseline ought to be a clean amp, I think.
Ben