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You asked, we listened! Please note that User Reviews are back! The Home page has returned to an editorial focus, with an emphasis on Articles and Industry News. The drop down menus are gone and simpler navigation has been implemented, and the forum landing page structure is going back to a more familiar layout. This transition is being performed "live", so some things may be moving around temporarily as we complete the process. Thanks for your patience as we implement these changes that our Community Members have asked for.


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Shakkal's Reviews
Option 5 Destination Overdrive Destination Overdrive
Destination Overdrive

‎09-04-2002 12:00 AM

Overall Rating: How it would compare to a Tonebone or other of the best high gain pedals out there beats me, but it is a very good sounding pedal. It is certainly miles ahead of the Rat and it has a more convincing amp-like distortion than the FB2. I...
Overall Rating: How it would compare to a Tonebone or other of the best high gain pedals out there beats me, but it is a very good sounding pedal. It is certainly miles ahead of the Rat and it has a more convincing amp-like distortion than the FB2. I will still use my Fulldrive for lower gain applications, although the O5 can get very convincing low gain tones. I bought the O5 for higher gain so that's how I'm using it. I have it set for a medium/high gain Marshally sound. When I need something over the top I just push the O5's front end with the Fulldrive.

I got this pedal because the soundclips at their website impressed me more than others I had heard before, and I'm glad I did. If it were stolen or lost I would probably get another, although I would love to try a Menatone KOB or one of the Tonebones. Those pedals would have to really blow my socks off for me to pay the extra USD 80 and get them instead of the O5. I do wish it were a two channel pedal, and I would probably pay the extra whatever $$$ for it.
Sound Quality: I've been playing guitar for 12 years. The guitars I currently own are: Fender Strat Plus with Bill Lawrence pickups, Heritage 150cm and Brian Moore i9. I play through a Fender Blues Jr amp, in which I put a Weber Blue Dog speaker. I usually play bluesy stuff and classic rock for which I have a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 (pre FM), a P.E. Facelift, Fulltone 70, and a Fulltone Soulbender as my gain-type pedals. I got the O5 to get the type of higher gain Marshally sounds which I couldn't get from the Jacques Fuseblower 2 and Rat 2 which I still own.

The sound and operation of the O5 is very amp-like, the saturation is very gradual and is extremely responsive to picking dynamics, more so than the FB2 and the Rat. This may be due to it running at higher voltage than most pedals ... my Fulldrive seems more amplike too since I began to run it at 18VDC.

The overall tone is transparent, and it doesn't automatically have the midrange boost that for instance my Fulldrive has, although you can dial in enough mids if you want to. If I had to compare the basic tone of the O5 it would be something like the Fulldrive 2 in non-comp mode, with MUCH more gain available, and with a 3 band EQ.

Tones available can go from very clean bluesy to classic Marshall (woman/woody/brown all of them) to higher gain and scooped metal sounds. Of course I'm talking ballpark, not absolutely nailing the tones. As I said before, the sample settings are a good reference point. The Growl control can help dial all the way from looser 70's crunch to tighter more modern metal sounds, and can help fine tune your blues tone if you choose low gain settings. It interacts well with other pedals including Wah.

Drivewise there is a lot of usable range, it can get distorted but not so over the top to the point of mush. The Rat2 has about the same gain on tap but it gets fuzzy ... the O5 doesn't and is less noisy. It is not totally quiet especially at higher drive settings, just like any high gain device. It's plenty loud too.

Think of it as another channel of your amp. I have even run it at low drive (using it to simulate my cranked amp) and hitting my fuzzes before it to get a Hendrix type tone at home practice volumes and got good results.
Reliability/Durability: Very solidly built. About the size of a Voodoo Labs pedal, but twice as tall. I've had it only for a couple of months but no probs so far and don't really forsee anything going wrong. Out of curiousity I opened it up and the main board is attached to the bottom of the unit with cables running to the pots on the main body. Even if something simple went wrong, like breaking a switch (which I have replaced a few times on other pedals), I would have to take it to a tech to prevent ruining the pedal ... no big deal if you ask me.
Ease of Use: I got this pedal about three months ago, when it forst came out. It has: Growl, Bass, Mids, Highs, Drive, and Level controls. Nothing too complicated but the controls are very interactive and very sensitive to your amps settings, especially the bass response. The Growl control makes the sound looser or tighter and also takes a bit to get the hang of it. Comes with a sample setting sheet which is very useful to get starting points for different sounds.
Runs on 24VDC, no batteries, so you have to use it with the supplied wallwart or run it at the non optimum power of 18VDC that some power supplies provide.
Customer Support: Top notch. They have responded to my e-mails in no time and in a very helpful and friendly manner, and solved a minor problem (replaced a bad wallwart that came with the new unit) almost immediately.
Price: $150.00 USD
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‎01-11-2013 03:04 AM
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Date Registered ‎06-04-2001 12:00 AM
Date Last Visited ‎01-11-2013 03:04 AM
Total Messages Posted 128
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