NPD x2!

[Gringo13]

So yesterday I got two new pedals...two very fine new pedals, indeed:

Dano Cool Cat Transparent OD

Visual Sound Open Road

First off, let me say that I love these pedals so far! The Dano pedal is extremely versatile and exactly what I was looking for in regards to adding a touch of hair to my clean sound. It's also very transparent and adds some great punch to the guitar's natural sound. By far, the most usable pedal I have.

The Open Road is a very "open" sounding OD without the mid-range bump... just as advertised! I love the way it complements my Green Screamer. I was playing the Open Road at a lower-gain setting and using the Screamer as a harder-drive and I loved the combination! The Open Road is a very versatile, doesn't suck tone, AND it is completely silent... even the switch.

Needless to say, I am very happy with my new pedals and can't wait to dig into them again today!

[chrisgblues]

How does the Open Road compare to the TOD in a shootout? As far as attack, midrange, clarity, bass, compression, etc. Just curious.

Congratulations on your new toys!

[Gringo13]

Chris... my ears can't hear a ghostfart or anything, but they can identify what I like. With that said, based on my limited uses with these pedals, I have found that the TOD is more transparent, but even with the drive dimed, it is still clear... just adds hair and maintains the clarity of the guitar-amp tones. I love that tone on a bridge pup! Again, this is based on my limited experience with it, but I thought the TOD added a nice touch of compression.... I didn't find the need to use the Dynacomp and the sound was very even. The pedal responds very well to the guitar's tone and volume knobs and it seems like a perfect go-between for a guitar and tube amp (if that makes sense). Also,this pedal has the options for different clippings, but I didn't mess with those too much. I'm just talking "straight outta the box" tone.

The Open Road... when the gain is set at three or under it has some similarities to the TOD. It breaks up the tubes, but you don't lose the clarity. The glaring difference, however, comes when the Open Road's gain is between 3-5. For me, this is the sweet spot because it's driving the amp tone to break pretty hard, but it's still clear enough for the open chords to stay firm and not go to complete mush.

Note: I didn't do much with the gain higher than the volume on the Open Road because I wanted to keep the amp-ish type of sound as natural as possible, but I did dime the gain on the TOD with the volume turned down. The Open Road has much more gain, but loses a bit of the clarity if you play it at a high gain setting.

As stated, both of these pedals are great with your guitar-amp settings and they don't have so many knobs that you get lost. They're both pretty easy to dial in to whatever tone each song will need and they play very well together and with the 808 type of drive I use.

So far, my impression of these pedals is that they are great and different. Not fair to do a complete shoot-out for a "better" one. They are both very quiet and they will both stay on my pedalboard, as either could work for rock n roll or alt. country. I found that when both are engaged, that my amp spit out some amazing tones that I hadn't really heard it do before. Also, they both sound great with the Green Screamer. The TOD is true-bypass and the OR is buffered, but I lost ZERO tone though them. VERY nice pedals!

Keep in mind that I only did a shoot-out for a few minutes. My settings were for the volume to be the same with the engaged pedals and the clean amp, so I haven't compared them side by side as a "lead boost" yet.

Sorry for the rambling nature of this post. I was just typing as the different aspects of each popped into my head. I can update you later on my newest findings! : )

[Chiogtr4x]

Big fan of the Dano TOD-its very versatile in that at low Drive settings and higher Level (on the pedal) you can really goose your amp with a powerful clean boost that does not change your tone; At medium Drive, I love it for swing blues rhythm and lead playing on a Strat neck or middle pickup; at higher Drive settings and say with a bridge pickup with the guitar's tone cut back a little, you can get a nice, Jeff Beck kind of snarl too.

This pedal is a godsend for those of use that want to leave our basic tone alone for roots rock, blues, country etc., want a good overdrive, without too much of distortion IMO. I find it easy to just leave this guy ON all the time and tweak as needed...

[electrablue]

+1 I really like my Dano Cool Cat Transparent OD. My main OD of choice.

[Gringo13]

Originally Posted by Chiogtr4x

This pedal is a godsend for those of use that want to leave our basic tone alone for roots rock, blues, country etc., want a good overdrive, without too much of distortion IMO. I find it easy to just leave this guy ON all the time and tweak as needed...

After playing the pedals for a couple of hours and using them for various tones, I realized that my first comparison of them was a bit off... this quote simply tells it like it is and is dead on about the Dano pedal, however! I have a major crush on the TOD... never played a Timmy, but if they're a lot alike, then I completely see what all the Timmy praising is all about.

After using Dano pedal with it's various settings, I realized that a person could easily justify having 2-3 of these pedals on his board. When doing a shootout between the Green Screamer, Open Road, and TOD, I found that when it comes to a boost overdrive for a some hair, the TOD was the best, followed by the Open Road. When doing some standard rock n roll riffs with the appropriate planned settings for each pedal, they all sounded great, but the TOD could easily hang with the others and was more transparent. Basically, it's a bad mamma-jamma.

The Open Road really made the modded humbucker in my '72 Custom RI sing and I think it's one of the best amp-esque rock n roll pedals for the money. The TOD was better for the alt. country/honky-tonk stuff I was doing on the Nashville. But then again, this is all based on maybe 3.5 hours of playing them.... still learning.

Finally, they both sound amazing with Tele bridge pups. The OV '52 bridge pup in my Nashville was a snarling beast through the TOD and it was perfectly balanced with Open Road.

[Gringo13]

I will add this as well...The Open Road is a quieter pedal... at least through my amp it is. I played at more of a gigging volume today and the Open Road was completely silent. The TOD is pretty dang quiet, but I could hear just a bit of noise. The tone responses on each are pretty sensitive, much like an amp sensitive. The TOD is easier to dial in because of the treble/bass knob. The Open Road will let the Tele bridge pup sing because it's not a complete mid-hump, so you can easily get a very even, bright tone (if you want).

[chrisgblues]

Thanks for the info. Does the Open Road have any loss of bass?