Dialing in multi-effects units and amp simulation algorithms on digital amps to save each setting for recall and balancing the volume between each is a slow and tedious process. I also find that all the time invested seldom gets me exactly the sound I am looking for. On the flip side, having an amp-whether one or more channel dialed in with a usable base tone and putting a few pedals in front of it works great for me. There's just a few knobs to tweak and I can quickly dial my tone in effortlessly.
I'm a "vintage" sound kind of guy. I'm not a purist, or a gear snob because my budget doesn't allow me the luxury. For my Strats and Teles I like the clean sound of an American (Class A/B) tube amp-specifically the mid sixties era "Blackface" amps and their various clones. For blues and blues-rock there is nothing better. The recipe is simple-dial in the clean amp with reverb to taste and use a handful of pedals to get the various sounds you are looking for. For dirty sounds I prefer the British (Class A) amps.
I've been hearing for some time about the Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive. This is a boutique pedal with a $300 price tag that can also be picked up used on sites such as www.reverb.com.This is a low to medium gain overdrive that was billed as offering killer sounds for blues, jazz and country. It seemed as though it would be very useful on my pedalboard. Alas, paying $300 for a hand wired boutique pedal was not in my future. There is also a PCB version-but $150 wasn't happening any time soon either.
I went looking for a clone at www.cheaperpedals.com which is my go to site for bargain effects pedals. Sure enough, JOYO offers a SHO clone called the Sweet Baby Overdrive for a mere $39.00! Before I could order it, fate intervened in the form of a "for sale" listing on the Chattanooga, Cleveland and North Georgia Gear Trader Facebook page. A local musician was offering a slightly used Sweet Baby OD for sale for $10! Needless to say, I jumped on the opportunity!
Upon arriving home, I removed the four screws from the bottom, popped in a fresh 9 volt battery, buttoned it all back up and began to put the pedal through its paces with my vintage style Strat. The controls are very simple. "Volume" and "Drive" are self explanatory. The third knob labeled "Focus" is what sets this pedal apart-and where the real magic happens.
When the "Focus" knob is turned completely counterclockwise, the overdrive is extremely sensitive to your touch. Picking harder results in more overdriven tone. The overall tone is also "softer" with that tube "sag." This couldn't be more perfect for blues and jazz. You can literally "set and forget" this pedal and use your guitar volume knob and pick attack for various levels of overdriven tone the way it used to be done!
As you turn the "Focus" knob clockwise the sound becomes "tighter" and the overdrive effect occurs more readily with less pick attack needed. The tone is noticably "sharper" and and I could see this being very usable for mildly overdriven twangy country sounds. The "Focus" knob also impacts the EQ slightly with a noticeable increase in treble response as the knob is rotated clockwise.
The real beauty of this pedal for me is its transparency. It literally sounds good in front of every kind of amp. There is a bit of a midrange "bump" when the pedal is engaged, but not enough to require readjusting the amp settings. I tweaked the knobs every conceivable way-but I literally could not adjust this pedal to sound bad no matter how hard I tried! I ended up finding lots of usable tones for all sorts of styles.
The bottom line with this one is that you absolutely can't go wrong at $39 for such a versatile pedal! Buy it and love it. If you're worried about the build quality and durability....buy two!
Great review! I will probably pick one of these up for my jcm900!
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