They say buses come in threes. After a quiet couple of months, I’ve had three new (to me) tweed-tone preamps all arrive within 48 hours of each other.
Sadly, I won’t be keeping them all …
Electro-Harmonix (EHX) OD Glove Overdrive Pedal
Whenever I’m visiting new places, I always try to swing by any nearby guitar stores to see what’s there. At the start of the month, that was Hereford, where Kristi and I had a great chat with the owner of Nilam Music. He’s got quite an eclectic (in a good way) collection of pedals in stock, and this was amongst them. (I’m definitely going back there later in the year to pick up another pedal or two!)
EHX’s OD Glove is one of those pedals that is constantly cited as a Fulltone OCD clone or alternative. That’s a topic I’ve written about before, so I’m curious to put that to the test.
I’m still working on the First Impressions post (with a couple of surprise guests). My early opinion is that, like the Warm Audio ODD Box, it’ll get you into the ballpark, but it doesn’t do the thing that only the original OCD pedal seems to do.
That said, I think the OD Glove is a great pedal in its own right, and might just suit my rig more than the OCD does.
Callaham Tele Saddles, Enhanced Vintage Compensated, Brass
Jessie (my 52 Reissue Telecaster) … it’s the poster child for Telecasters that do not intonate. Whereas the two gokarts (my two Squier Esquires) intonate just fine, because I’ve put Callaham’s compensated saddles on them. So why not upgrade Jessie too, and get it playing as good as it can?
After trying the Callaham saddles on Jessie, I decided to go back to the original saddles.
Turns out, these original saddles are also dulling the guitar’s top-end. The Callaham saddles fix that. Normally, that’s highly desirable, and one reason why many players upgrade to Callaham saddles. That extra top-end … it just didn’t work with my tweed amps and pedals. And they’re the reason I play Jessie.
Sometimes, you’ve got to try things to find out, eh?
Tone King Imperial MKII Preamp Module For Synergy Amps
This preamp module for Synergy’s modular preamp system is a happy surprise. It’s been over 7 years since Synergy last released a tweed-tone amp module. And it was actually available to buy over here on the day it was launched!!!
There’s no point waiting for a second-hand example. Either Synergy isn’t big in the UK, or (like me) buyers like their modules so much they keep them. So I bought one, and paid the launch pricing for it (ouch).
It only arrived yesterday, and so far I’m deeply impressed by the tones I’m getting from it. I’m working on a First Impressions post as quickly as I can. There’s a lot to cover, so I’m going to split it up into a few posts, so that I can get the first one out in the next few days.
Tubesteader Eggnog Preamp Pedal
The Eggnog is another Tweed Deluxe preamp pedal, but with a twist: it uses a real 12ax7 valve. When I finally saw one on the second-hand market, I decided to get it for my tweed-tone pedal collection.
Unfortunately, valves are fragile, and this pedal arrived with the valve smashed. The smashed valve was also at an odd angle; that made me question whether the valve socket inside the pedal was damaged or not.
I sent some photos over to the seller, and he immediately suggested that I return the pedal. At the time of writing, I’ve kicked off the returns process on eBay. Hopefully, that’ll all go smoothly.
Origin Effects Deluxe55 Preamp Pedal
What, you didn’t think I’d wait a day longer than I had to for one of these, did you? 😁
Second-hand Origin Effects’ drive pedals are almost as rare as the Eggnog over here. This isn’t the first one I’ve seen turn up for sale, but it’s the first one I’ve seen that wasn’t asking practically full retail price.
It arrived earlier this afternoon – and all of my attention is on the Synergy module that arrived yesterday – so I haven’t done much more than plug it in and make sure that it works.
I’ll be doing a full First Impressions post on this as soon as I can.