Medium gain pedal

[tjk3052]

I'm looking to replace a certain pedal of mine that will remain unnamed (but that some people are "obsessive" about;) with a Barber pedal of roughly the same gain...How would a Small Fry compare, in terms of gain only? Does that have the roughly that same gain as a Direct Drive? I recently fell in love with an LTD SR and am looking to replace some of my other pedals with Barbers!
Thanks,
Tim.

[Joe]

I'm assuming you're talking about the OCD?

Probably a little less than the OCD, but most people find that pedal's gain unusable in the higher ranges; it gets fizzy.

The Small Fry has less gain than the DD, and has less 'thump' and mids. I like it for lead sounds though, it can roll back from an almost fuzzy sound when pushed, to nice break up. If you want a more british sound, go for the Direct Drive, I have personally found myself preferring the Small Fry.

The Small Fry works great for me as a step up from the LTD in terms of gain. And if you do get one, don't be shy with the internal mids knob, even maxed out, it has less mids than a DD. As a single coil guy, I needed them three fourth's up, and it sounds great.

It's funny you bring this up right now though, I FINALLY got the fry dialed in how I like. I'd incidentally had the bass up really high, it was making the pedal sound kind of.... tame? I don't know, but bringing the bass down to reasonable levels really brought out the pedal's responsiveness for some reason, I was beginning to get frustrated.

[tjk3052]

Ya, OCD, lol...It DOES get fizzy past about 2/3 gain and overall just sounds kind of flat to me. And the tone control is pretty useless except for a small range.
Anyway, I think I'd really like the SF's dynamics control. How would it stack with an LTD to get a little more gain out of it?
Thanks for the reply,
Tim.

[benlevy]

No Small Fry here, but I have an OCD and a Burn Unit EQ. I just could never bond with the OCD. Two things I hate the most: No harmonic content, and hard to get pinch harmonics. Also, no feedback. Lots of sustain, but it never melts into feedback, like the BUEQ and many others. I hear some people say it's great for low gain, but I don't agree. It just doesn't "feel" good to me when I play it. One thing's for sure, there are a LOT of folks who love it. Maybe they'll buy mine...

So, replacing it with a Barber will depend on your application. The OCD does have a lot of low end, not sure if you'll get the same lows from a Small Fry. If you're playing metal or something, the Small Fry may not have enough gain. You should find the Small Fry to be pleasingly articulate after using the OCD. If you're in the classic rock or less gain territory, you'll probably love the SF. I have a bad habit of pouring on more gain than needed, and being pleasantly surprised when backing off a little. I use the Burn Unit for low gain, bluesy stuff, rock stuff. It covers ZZ Top real well if that's any indication. I've always wanted a Small Fry for the extra tweakability, but the two channels of the BUEQ win out for me.

Not sure where you buy your stuff, but one place I've had no problems with is pedalgeek.com. They have the SF for $149 right now with free shipping. You have seven days to return no questions (generally, check policies). So, if you get it and hate it, return it and you're only out shipping in one direction. Not bad...

[benlevy]

I used the OCD at practice today. You will not regret a Small Fry. Just do it...

[fatteletom]

In terms of stacking, I can't comment on how the SF sounds with a LTD in front of it, because I don't have an LTD (yet!).

But the SF works great being pushed by either my Direct Drive SS (with the gain set very low), a Boss Blues Driver set for a mostly clean boost, or my BBE Freq Boost treble booster.

I usually run the SF with the Burn set at about 12:00, and the Dynamics at about 10:30. With the DD SS in front of it (with gain almost all the way down, volume just about unity), I get a nice fattening of the tone. With single coils, that gives me something like Eric Johnson's fat lead tone.

With either the Freq Boost or the Blues Driver (with gain very low, volume set for a significant boost, tone knob between 11:00 and 1:00, which adds a good bit of treble) I get, well, a great treble boosted overdrive. Gobs of sustain, and more crunch, but without getting muddy thanks to the treble boost effect. I can get something like a Brian May tone this way.