In Praise of the PCB Mod Board
Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 5:32 pm
I've always had a love/hate relationship with my older Direct Drive. It's a cool sounding OD, but always sounded too mushy and compressed for my tastes. I picked up a newer version of the Direct Drive with a mod board and now I absolutely LOVE the pedal. I turn the note shape almost completely counter-clockwise and set it to Asymmetry 2, the lowest compression mode. I play with the gain below 9:00, the volume at about 2:00 for a lead boost. It crunches, it sustains and it screams, while fitting perfectly into the space my bands leave for me.
I also have a LTD-SR with a mod board that I use again with the gain very low and a volume boost. I've got the mod board set to Asymmetry 1, the higher compression mode. It's great for a little more clean-ish volume with more sustain. It's also really great before the Direct Drive and DDLG as an extra boost and to push those pedals into infinite sustain and controlled feedback. Both of those pedals are great, but the extra tweaks in the mod boards make it so that I can't imagine better sounding OD pedals.
I play into amps that are on the edge of overdriving with a 2db boost from a B-Buff amp cooker or a Launch Pad.
I also have a LTD-SR with a mod board that I use again with the gain very low and a volume boost. I've got the mod board set to Asymmetry 1, the higher compression mode. It's great for a little more clean-ish volume with more sustain. It's also really great before the Direct Drive and DDLG as an extra boost and to push those pedals into infinite sustain and controlled feedback. Both of those pedals are great, but the extra tweaks in the mod boards make it so that I can't imagine better sounding OD pedals.
I play into amps that are on the edge of overdriving with a 2db boost from a B-Buff amp cooker or a Launch Pad.