New Tim Pedal Day

[mad dog]

Mr. B: In person, the TIM is not bright at all. The EQ knobs are reductive, so that is within your control. It does not add treble. Just my opinion, but I would not dismiss this one on the basis of youtube clips.

 

As far as other boost choices, the one that stayed longest for me was the Wampler Ecstasy. Quite versatile, can go from clean boost to medium gain levels. As with the TIM, it's the effective EQ options and overall voicing of the pedal that makes it so appealing in live settings.

MD

[MrB]

To confuse things even more...

 

I just found the Kingsley Minstrel.

Sweeeet, warm, no cold digital sound.

On the two lower 'modes' it really sounds like a slightly and moderately overdriven tube amp.

(and for once, a video demo where the person can actually play, really demonstrates the pedal,

doesn't just show off his gnarley thrashing)

It doesn't have that 'one sound fit's all' tone that the Zendrive seems to have.

From sound clips on the web, it's the best I've heard.

But: veeery pricey.

 

Mr B

[SouthpawGuy]

I've been looking for an overdrive pedal. Something to give me the sound of a tube amp just starting to clip. Those nice warm overtones and a bit of sustain. No distortion/fuzz wanted.

The video demos of the Tim & Timmy (Timmmyyy!) sound a bit bright to me. Two others I've been looking at are the Hermida Zendrive 2 and the Wampler Euphoria. Has anyone tried these, done any comparisons?

 

Thanks,

Mr B

 

Bear in mind that I haven't used any pedals in a few months ....

 

I have the Tim and both the Zendrive 1 and 2. Of the three I prefer the original Zendrive, it has it's own character sound, whereas the Tim is very transparent, almost like it's not on at times, which is both good and bad, it's a subtle pedal, doesn't jump right out at you the moment it's switched on.

 

The Zendrive always sounds good, although it took a while to figure it out. The ZD2 to my ears sounds grittier than the original, or is capable of higher gain tones. One thing to note about the ZD2 is that it's mains power only, it will not run on a battery, the Tim and ZD1 run for months on one battery.

 

Having said that my go to pedals for fatter almost clean tones whilst remaining true to the original guitar sound is a tubescreamer type pedal with the gain set to minimum or very low and the level set to suit. I use a BBE Green Screamer, it's a low gain TS type pedal which helps it to produce an almost clean boost sound. It's not squeaky clean, play soft and it's fat, dig in and it produces the grit. Another pedal I've found to be very good for this approach is the Joyo US Dream, supposedly a clone of the Suhr Riot. With the gain set very low, to just above minimum, it really fattens up the tone without adding much grit, and there's plenty of volume output to adjust it to suit. Both the BBE and Joyo are cheap pedals but I found myself using them a lot more than either of the "boutique" Zendrives or Tim.

 

Edit to add.... The Tim is a great always on pedal, great for rhythm, the ZDs to my ear are better for lead than rhythm. Also boosting with a TS type pedal works better with single coils than humbuckers.