So far I have used this pedal (for a week or so) with my two DOD delays, my flanger, and my crybaby - in my opinion this pedal works best with humbuckers as opposed to single coils, and just straight into a solid state amp, delivering the added warmth you would need.
I have, as I said, used it in all sorts of configurations, and I've found it to be very warm, pleasant, full of lower end gutteral voicing, and almost on parr with the more boutiquey sounding Rat.
The only difference (other than about $50) is that - as with all DOD boosts - when you crank it it turns to a bit more noise - which isn't necessarily a problem, more I haven't really found a purpose for it yet:)
Great sustain - again, like a poor man's Rat - but not broke poor, just a little poorer than a full price Sustortion pedal.
Reliability/Durability:
Okay: this feller was shipped to me in a bubble mailer envellope. It withstood the journey - intact - and straight out of the flimsy paper bag it satred to scream, soar and all sorts of other great things.
I know - as with all DOD pedals - that there's a chance the switch might go; and the battery compartment is a pile of something unfortunate; but I find the DOD switch to be really one of the better switches ever devised, and I use my DOD multi-power supply for as many pedals as possible, so there's never any hassles with the battery door. (also, there's a guy on eBay who sells the covers for $3us including shipping!)
Ease of Use:
Okay, at twelve o'clock on all three knobs, you're basically good to go - right? Yes. From there it's all a mattter of taste and experimentation... i don't think this pedal was meant for juct one sound - it is after all a classic TUBE pedal, and so it's kind of like having a little tube amplifier sitting there on the floor under your feet:) and you wouldn't just leave a good classic rocker amp at a single setting - would you?
Customer Support:
these guys are starting to get under my skin, not replying to my emails - but these are not the same people anymore - DOD is no longer a solely American company, nor has it existed in any major form for much of the last five years - they probably should have gone even smaller than they were back in the later eighties rather than sell out to larger Japanese manufacturer (maybe moving their works to canada and only pumping out 100 or so of each pedal every year...)
these are mute points. regardless: if your pedal dies, you should be able to replace it for as much as you paid for the first - and these pedals were not very numerous, nor have I ever seen one cracked out.
Overall Rating:
I play support, I play singer-songwriter, I play rock and roll. I play a lot of instruments - I gotta tell ya: this pedal was made for guitar!!!
Probably one of the better, finer, more accurate mass produced overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals out there. If it were to be modded I'd say smooth out the higher boost end, maybe with a longer, wider taper on the pot or something - just more room to play before getting to the rough and the raw.
