SYOD Research Review Repository

[Donner]

nice Marty ! really nice range of tones !! which ones do you find most pleasing over time ?

[thiscalltoarms]

While I've never had the opportunity of comparing the V1 to the V2, I figure its worth it to throw in that the V1 has been a staple of my pedalboard since I received it from AnalogHog (I think?) last fall. I've been threw a never ending supply of overdrives, and I've never even contemplated taking HBOD, SBEQ, or SYOD v1 off my board no matter what other fuzz, distortions, od's or eq's have made their way into my possession. Those three pedals are the foundation of my tone, with some kind of a TS thrown in for VERY specific scenarios. 96% of my overdrive tones are from those two ODs though at this point. They've been recorded, gigged, toured across the USA, and they have held up and produced night after night and NEVER once left me wanting. The SYOD is PERFECT through my typically dark choice of clean tones (Budda SD18 & Bogner Shiva currently, but I played Orange and Dr Z amps for a while too) to brighten my overall tone and cut through. Its hard for me to even come up with any criticisms of the SYOD (v1) because it has perfectly filled the void that I was trying to fill for about 3-4 years.

That said, I don't like it as much by itself with my tele then by itself with humbuckers, but I can compensate with the SBEQ and the HBOD nature knob. It also sounds absolutely killer in my rig, and not always great through brighter fender or vox rigs, although it works nicely with brighter marshall rigs. It really shines for me by injecting a vox bright sparkle for semi clean rhythm tones, or imparts a killer lead rip with the hbod stacked in. its note worthy that I think my guitar sounds LAME without the SBEQ, so I haven't really experienced the SYOD much without the SBEQ, which is always on. always.

[melodichaotic]

nice Marty ! really nice range of tones !! which ones do you find most pleasing over time ?

Thanks a lot Bill and Donner! Ha! Yeah, I could have honked on that demo better, but I had fun and the vibe was right. Now that I've got the bugs figured out, I'll be able to bang out more, more often.

Yeah, the range of tones--thanks(again)..you know, obviously it's all about dynamics, and the responsiveness, and when I listen back, I hear exactly what I was feeling when I was recording, and for me THAT'S the ticket.
With the twins(and BJF's in general) it's there in spades..consistently(now going on a year and a half) and it hasn't wavered a bit for me...no more honeymooning, just gratification.

For the SYOD's, the ones I find most pleasing over time is the FULL ON( )settings, AND, what I hear with these in particular (because of the EQ profile), what I call the "cracked ice" just starting to break up overdrive where you have the most dynamic swing potential between mellow and just starting to get angry.

I do love the stages approach that I tried to highlight in the demo going from "getting a little edgy" to "hair and some fangs", to "pissed off and proud"

It's like you can get stage one with V2, stage two with V1 and stage three(x2) with a booster to either.

V1>V2 is VERY good sounding, really close to the Cliff Hanger II to my ears because it has that searing, focused, open quality to it.

I think IMO, a four-knob(non-Deluxe) version(like the Aqua Marine WM) where you would have a circuit merge of:

The gain, attitude, and openness of V1 and the treble control voicing of the earlier "gold-top" issue which is wonderfully voiced and very use-able throughout the range(Vol/Drive/Treble) with the fourth knob controlling the lower mids to add flexibility for increasing the bottom a bit for brighter amps, and backing it off for darker ones.

Of course a special order two-stomp Deluxe version would be amazing with the aforementioned, plus a fifth knob for boost level--like the trim-pot on the Deluxe Bee only on the top...turn ANY clean amp into a two channel BLAZER

[hawaii121]

Go on wit yo bad self, Marty! Great demo!

[Donner]

Ok now that everyone has had these for a bit and lived with them .....

If you could sum up your findings and thoughts into a digestable (1 or 2 paragraphs) form it would be much appreciated ......

(and yes you are now welcome to move them on if you so desire and are done with your own research )

[cajone5]

OK I'll start...

My "reserach" was performed with a strat with lollar tweed pickups (low output single coils) into a Carmen Ghia 1x12 with AlNiCo Celestion Blue


SYODv1
This pedal rock and roll through and through. It has a biting top end and a full low end. The drive knob takes it from nearly clean to light distortion which is great. The treble knob is really only useful below 12 o'clock as the treble becomes to much of an "ice pick in the ear" beyond there. I really like this for power chords and rhythm and it works pretty well for leads (although I think the MHv2 is better in that application). Given the chance to only have one of these I think the v1 has more of "that" something special for me so I'd have to go with it.

Favorite Setting: Volume: 9:00
Drive: Maxed
Tone: 10:00


SYODv2
This pedal makes me think more of a mid gain OD for bluesy tones. It is much smoother than the v1 and seems to have more mids. The drive knob takes it from nearly clean to light a pretty crunchy OD but not into the distortion territory. The treble knob is useful below throughout most of its sweep and I prefer it above noon. I really like this transparent lower/mid gain OD for blues and rhythm work. It's a really great OD but seems to lack that "special something" on its own. That said, I think this thing REALLY shines when stacked with other drives. I have tried using this to push the front end of the SYODv1, MHv2, MHv1, and HBOD and each application has been awesome. This pedal really brings out a fullness in these drives that makes them much richer and fatter. I can't say enough how excellent this is for stacking. What I can say is I've never heard anything retain all the clarity with the added fatness when pushing other OD's. This is where the SYODv2 really shines.

Favorite Setting: Volume: 9:15
Drive: 1:30
Tone: 1:30


Now all this leads me to my overall thoughts and comments on the research experiment...


Sparkling Yellow Uber-Drive (SYODv2 > SYODv1)
As I've stated in my potential FS thread, these two pedals sound really great on their own as OD's but stacking the two (SYODv2 into SYODv1) creates the fullest thickest rock distortion tones I've ever heard while still maintaining much clarity . It's hard to describe but power chords just jump off the fret board and the drive is very tight and crisp. If I were to give a recommendation on the future of this line I would say these two should be worked into a cascading circuit to form the most incredible distortion in the BJFe line (IMO of course ). I think the two pedals' EQ's compliment each other perfectly and really give this thing a thick full tone. Having tried the DRD, EGDM, MHv1, MHv2 and both SYOD's I have to say that none of them alone come close to touching the power, tightness and fullness of the SYOD's together. If there is any remote chance of this being a possibility (including if Bjorn would rebox my two into a slightly larger enclosure) I would be the first on board. I envision the following controls...

Volume knob: Controls the total output
Gain Stage 1 knob: SYODv2 Gain
Gain Stage 2 knob: SYODv1 Gain
Tone knob: SYODv1 Tone (with modified sweep to cut off some of the extreme top end)
Internal Trim Tone: SYODv2 tone.


That would (for me) really be the be all end all Distortion pedal.


Oh, and if you're interested in settings for the stack, the individual "favorite" settings listed above stacked v2 into v1 should get you pretty close and then just roll back the treble on v1 if it gets too harsh.

Thanks again Donner and Bjorn for sharing these with us. I know that I have learned a lot from this experience and hopefully my "reviews" will help this progress. And seriously if there's any possibility of the Sparkling Yellow Uber-Drive coming to fruitition I'm in.