Swedish Meatball Tourbox Reviews - Fettos and OIM

[Skychurch]

This is my review for the Swedish Meatball Tourbox ~ Second Helping ~ Round One ...

Here is my setup:

Guitar: Suhr Classic (Fender Strat copy)
Amp: Speedster Deluxe 25W (Fender vibe)

Fetto:
The Fetto is a very solidly built pedal. It has DIP switches and trim pots inside but I didn't change any of the settings since the pedal doesn't belong to me.

In my rig, it reminded me of an 808 type pedal but with a little more grunt. The Fetto sounded good but it wouldn't be the best choice for my particular guitar and amp. I am guessing that the Fetto would be better suited to a Marshall type amp. I wish I had a Marshall to test it with I don't think I could give the Fetto a fair review since I couldn't find a setting that worked well with my rig and I didn't want to mess with the internal trim pots.

Fetto Deluxe:
The Fetto Deluxe is also a very solidly built pedal and larger than the Fetto. Out of the lot, this was my favorite pedal. With all the extra options for tweakability on the outside of the box, I was able to dial in a number of sounds that worked great with my guitar and amp.

Two of my favorite "extras" that the Fetto Deluxe has are the Drive and Lowdrive pots. With these, I could dial in exactly how much regular drive and low end drive I needed. Having a relatively clean, bright amp, I found that if I added some of the low drive, it really began to sound huge and full (which what was missing with the Fetto). The Fetto Deluxe also has a switch that adds or subtracts mids. Both settings sounded good. Each mid setting is different enough that combined with all the other knobs, it was like having two pedals in one.

It's possible that the regular Fetto also offers some of these "extra" tweakable settings but since they were inside the pedal, I didn't experiment with them.

OIM Boost & Drive:
The OIM Booster is a very nice, relatively clean booster. It offers a volume (boost) knob and a Tone (EQ) knob. For me, the tone knob was great as it allowed me to dial in exactly the amount of high end I needed.

One of my problems with finding pedals that work well with my guitar and amp is that most pedals are too bright and harsh sounding for me and the tone knob on the OIM Boost let me dial in the exact amount that I needed. I found it worked best for me when the tone (EQ) was at about 12:00.

The OIM Drive pedal is outstanding and the only pedal I have tried in a long time that I liked "almost" as much as my BJF pedals. It has a nice low-mid vibe going on that my rig seems to love. I would consider the OIM Drive a medium gain overdrive ... for me, just about the right amount.

Both the OIM Boost and Drive are nice pedals but when I ran the Boost INTO the Drive, freaken WOW! This combination is awesome to say the least. I was thinking that a OIM Deluxe that has both the Boost and Drive in one pedal would be one outstanding pedal.

Thanks a million for allowing me to participate in the Swedish Meatball tour.

[DocRock]

And thank YOU for the thoughtful reviews!!!

Yes, the OIM pedals are very nice indeed. I am a big fan, especially of the EQ function on the boost.

Cheers,

Doc

[OIM]

Thank you for the responce! I've started to build a bigger box with both the overdrive and booster. I think about five are ready next week or so.
If someone want to buy one, let me know. I have to check out if I have to pay taxes here in Sweden, but I don't think so. Without taxes I think the price is gonna be around 350$.

Ola

[TheWarmth]

I hope I can give some insight with my review. Skychurch's was very thorough. Here's the rig I used to test all four pedals, which is my standard rehearsing and gigging rig:

Guitar: mid-80's '62 reissue MIJ Fender Tele w/high-output Fralins
Amp: Matchless HC-30
Cab: Matchless 2x12
Cables: all Canare from Lava Cable (for those of you REALLY interested in details)

Fetto: This is an awesome pedal. Cuts through the mix extremely well but isn't harsh. I dialed in a very sweet tone within seconds. My rig is pretty bright, so sometimes it's difficult to get nice overdrive/distortion tones, but I had no problems with this pedal. I dug the simplicity of it. I liken it to the Lovepedal PPP, for those of you familiar with that pedal, but this one is about $80 less.

Fetto Deluxe: I had issues with this one. Maybe I just didn't spend enough time with it, but I just couldn't get as nice of a tone out of it as I did the Fetto. I'm sure it's possible to get the exact same tones as the Fetto with the FD, but I didn't manage to get there. The "more" footswitch in particular was frustrating. It seemed to only add mud, but I think that's because the internal trimmers weren't set right for me. I opened up the pedal and noticed that they didn't match the default settings in the manual. The trimmers require a very, very small screwdriver to adjust and I didn't have one, so I left them alone. Unfortunately, this meant I couldn't utilize the "more" footswitch. The manual does indicate that it takes time to get used to the controls. I think that, having more time with the pedal, I very well may have changed my opinion. However, if I were to purchase either of the Fettos based on my experience, I'd go with the regular Fetto. Keep in mind that this isn't coming from someone who shys away from complex pedals. I have a Toneczar Openhaus on my board that I love. I just couldn't manage to gel with the FD.

OIM Overdrive (green finish): Loved it. It reminded me a bit of the Honeybee, but not quite as distinctive (sorry I can't be more specific). I could see using this on my board in place of my Honeybee. The tone knob is subtle, but effective. Again, I play a pretty bright rig, but didn't have any issues getting a nice tone out of this unit. One of the reasons I really dug it was because it sounded amazing stacked with the ...

OIM Boost (orange flame finish): Wow, like Skychurch said, these two make a tremendous couple. I actually preferred the boost after the overdrive. From what Ola has said, the two-in-one pedal he is working on will be switchable so you can select what order you want the effects in, which I think will be a priceless feature. Back to the pedal, this is a simple boost with a volume and tone knob. I didn't really notice a coloration of my tone with the pedal on, but you can dial in less or more treble with the tone knob. Normally, I use an SHO, so I found the tone knob a pretty neat feature. Again, loved the OIM OD > OIM Boost stack.

I put my name on the list for Ola's two-in-one pedal, if that's any indication of my true feelings on these.

If anyone has any further questions for me, please let me know. Sometimes I find it difficult to articulate within the language of sound and tone.

Thanks to Donner, OIM and Himmelstruz for allowing me to be involved in this tourbox. I look forward to the next one!

[TheWarmth]

Here is a photo in case anyone is interested.

[Donner]

Excellent review Warmth good to hear how they work on a matchless - glad you got on the OIM list too........

[Rollo Timbre]

Yummy, yummy, yummy?I certainly enjoyed sampling the Swedish Meatball Tourbox. To audition the pedals, I took turns with a Fender Tele and Gibson LP, played through both a TopHat Emplexador, for those Marshall flavors, and a Victoria 35-210 for the Fender Tweed flavors. The amps I run loud yet clean. Anyway, here are some first impressions?

First off, the OIM Magic Boost:
The Magic Boost works especially well, to add a bit of focus to the guitar?s direct into the amp sound. The pedal adds some heightened mids to help the guitar cut through. I compared it to some other pedals which can be dialed down to a boost mode. The Tim pedal is flatter and a touch more compressed. The Landgraff DO, in center toggle, has more mids. Eq wise, the Magic Boost reminds me of the Big Box Gainster, although the MB is a hair thicker. Feel wise, there are similarities to the Klon, but the Klon has more complexities happening in the low and high end. Overall, I?d have to say the MB has just the right spread of timbre, with just enough thickening agent to give a little oomph.

Next I tried the OIM Boogie Drive:
This pedal seems to be all about subtleties. Although the controls don?t seem to do much on their own, together they perform magic. The pedal seems to give the note?s attack a little tube rectifier type sag, which is a relief to the hardness of LED clipping in some overdrives, and doesn?t exhibit the mushy thickness of others. Frankly, I found this pedal is best experienced with my Gibson?s humbuckers. There is far more dynamics than with a typical tubescreamer type pedal, and I feel this pedal?s gifts are lost with a low output guitar. While I didn?t have a Honey Bee to directly compare with the Boogie Drive, there might be some similarity in feel. But with the Gibson into the OIM, it?s more like plugging into 100 watts. Some pedals work better for single coils, and some better with humbuckers. To me, this pedal is Les Paul overdrive Deluxe. It is super responsive to pick attack, and I am finding it even more gratifying than a Zen Drive.

I?ve had my eye on a Fetto for sometime, and it didn?t disappoint:
Some distortion pedals and Rat variants tend to get rather mushy and muffled when turned up. I?ve always liked my old silver screw DS-1, as it tends to retain some degree of natural transients in the sounds. But the DS-1 has always lacked a bit of midrange to really cut. The Fetto keeps things tight like the DS-1, plus adds the needed mids and refines the overall sound a bit. This pedal is excellent with both single coils and humbuckers, but responds really well to the extra meatiness of the humbuckers.

Finally, the Fetto Deluxe:
Interestingly enough, this pedal has a mids toggle. In the up position, it scoops the mids, taking the FD into DS-1 tonalities. But with the FD, the lows are tons tighter than the DS-1.
Starting with the Core and Lowdrive at 12:00, I thought the other Fetto had a tighter sound. But when I increased the Core to about 2:30, and the Lowdrive to 1:00, with the Tone and Drive set about the same on both pedals, I thought both pedals then sounded and felt about the same.
Stepping on the More switch, makes the pedal sound huge and very amp-like dynamically. The boost sounds post-drive, and comes with an internal trim pot to set the level. With single coils it might be nice to have the boost pre-drive, to get a little more grind out of the pedal, but damn?with humbuckers, it?s worth the price of admission right there.

I?m very impressed with all four of these pedals. They have got seriously thinking of building a board, just for use with the Gibson. I would definitely have to have the Fetto Deluxe and OIM Boogie Drive on board.

Thanks to all involved, as I totally enjoyed this Tourbox.

[Donner]

another excellent review Rollo !...

and just to state the obvious the New OIM dual pedal that Ola is making some of now is both the Boogie Drive and the Magic boost in one

[JKoeth]

Hey Guys,

I'm sorry this review is coming so late. It's been crazy around my house!

Anyway, here goes.

I really liked all of these pedals.

The Ola boost was my favorite of the bunch. What a beautiful clean, 3D shimmering tone. It stacked really well but I preferred it on it's own. It is very different than the BJF RRB that I have which is a full range boost with added sparkle. The Ola has a very different voicing. It really has a magic tone to it and easily hangs with the best boosters I've tried. There is a texture in the upper mids that is hard to describe but is addicting. Hmmmm. Very tempting!

The Green Ola is a beautifully voiced OD in the TS camp. I don't typically care for pedals like this but I really liked it. It could sing and cut. Not too much mids or mush like others. It is also voiced very well. Ola has a very good ear.

The Fettos were alot of fun. I had a difficult time dialing in the right tones for my bright rig. I have a Tele and a Tophat Club Royale which falls into the AC30 style of amp. The Fettos were very bright to me but would cut extremely well with darker rigs. The Deluxe obviosly has more options but I actually preferred the original Fetto becasue it was easier for me to dial in. By the way, I reset the pedals to the factory settings. Lots of options with both for sure. I'm not really a Marshall type of guy but if I were, I'd go Fetto!

Thanks for lettling me be a part of this one too. This is a great forum.

[Donner]

This box is on hiatus for awhile - I sent the two Ola pedals back and they will be replaced by the new combined ODdBoost pedal...... and at some point Ill send the OIM and the Fetto Deluxe back out on tourbox duty --- thanks to all who wrote reviews and congrats to those that bought the pedals.....