When I looked at how Marshall’s The Guv’nor sounded next to Warm Audio’s ODD Box v1, I came away with some questions. One of them was this: is the ODD Box closer to the Shredmaster than the Guv’nor in sound?
This is just a quick blog post to find out.
Table of Contents
- What Are You Comparing?
- Why Are You Comparing Them?
- My Rig Today
- How Do They Sound?
- How Do They Compare?
- Which One Do You Prefer?
- Final Thoughts
What Are You Comparing?
Today, I’m comparing two drive pedals.
- Marshall’s Shredmaster drive pedal, and
- Warm Audio’s ODD Box v1 drive pedal
Marshall’s Shredmaster is a classic pedal (I’m not sure if it’s truly a legendary pedal) which chases the sound of a JCM 900 amp stack. The JCM 900 is arguably the amp that ushered in the modern rock sound. My pedal is one of the Vintage Reissue series from earlier in 2023.
The ODD Box v1 is based on another legendary pedal, the Fulltone OCD v1.4. The OCD isn’t marketed as chasing the sound of any particular amp stack, but to my ears at least it delivers cranked Marshall-like tones.
Why Are You Comparing Them?
I recently picked up a Warm Audio ODD Box v1, and I’m trying to figure out where it sits amongst other pedals.
My Rig Today
Today, I’m playing:
- my Les Paul
- into the Axe-FX 3 (mostly for the tuner)
- out to my pedalboard
- back into the Axe-FX 3 (for amp, cab, delay and reverb)
- and out to my DAW
On the pedalboard, I’ve got each pedal in a separate loop of my Gigrig G2. This allows me to take unused pedals completely out of the signal chain, so that they cannot colour the tone in any way.
How Do They Sound?
Marshall’s Shredmaster
Here’s how the Shredmaster sounds with my Les Paul. I’m on the bridge pickup.
Before I talk about what I’m hearing from the Shredmaster, let’s listen to the ODD Box first.
Warm Audio’s ODD Box v1
Here’s how the ODD Box v1 sounds with my Les Paul. Once again, I’m on the bridge pickup. I’ve got the toggle switch on the ODD Box in the up position.
How Do They Compare?
Wow. Listening back, they sound quite close to my ears. Definitely not the same, but a lot closer than I thought they were during the recording.
As with The Guv’nor, to my ears the Shredmaster has more low-mids and more upper-mids too, compared to the ODD Box. I think that’s easiest to hear during the first section of the demo, where I’m playing more single notes.
The ODD Box sounds colder and slightly more aggressive than the Shredmaster to me. I think that’s easiest to hear in the palm-muting section towards the end. Those palm mutes chug along very nicely.
Which One Do You Prefer?
I think the ODD Box has the edge here. Quite literally: those palm mutes at the end have a cut and a crispness that I couldn’t get out of the Shredmaster.
That said, if I sat down and tweaked the amp for each pedal too, I’m confident that I could get more bite out of the Shredmaster. I also know that the Shredmaster has more than one tone in it. I’m not sure if the ODD Box really does.
I didn’t find it easy to get this tone of the Shredmaster, whereas this tone is what the ODD Box does. That’s another reason to prefer the ODD Box.
And finally, there’s price to consider. At full retail price, the ODD Box is normally £50 cheaper than the Shredmaster Vintage Reissue. However, it seems that guitar stores are having a bit of a hard time shifting stock of the Shredmaster. I’ve seen it heavily discounted throughout the year, and at the time of writing, it’s available for just £10 more than the ODD Box.
Final Thoughts
I think that I’ve answered my question. The ODD Box v1 is a lot closer to the Shredmaster than it is to The Guv’nor pedal.
I don’t really play or this kind of hard rock any more. That’s plainly obvious from those demo tracks! If I did, I think the ODD Box and the Shredmaster would make for a nice pair of options to double-track with.